THE NEXT EVENT ON THE CHRISTIAN CALENDER IS THE "RAPTURE". THIS MAJOR HAPPENING IS FORETOLD IN THE BIBLE BY THE LORD JESUS IN JOHN Ch.14 WHEN HE TOLD HIS DISCIPLES THAT HE WAS GOING TO PREPARE A PLACE FOR THEM AND COMING BACK TO TAKE THEM UP TO HEAVEN. SCRIPTURE GOES ON TO DESCRIBE HOW HE WILL COME TO MEET THOSE THAT LOVE HIM IN THE AIR - 1THES. Ch.4 Ver.17. AFTER THIS WILL COME A TIME OF SEVERE TRIBULATION ON EARTH.

Why do we believe the Rapture comes next?
Adapted from an article by Dr. J. Vernon McGee

 If you are a believer today and are trusting Christ, you are next on the programme of God as far as prophecy is concerned.

Now this does not mean we know when He is coming, because that is something which the Scriptures absolutely do not reveal. We cannot know the day, the hour, or the minute, or the twinkling of an eye when this event will take place.

But our attitude should be that of looking for that blessed hope. The word 'looking for' is from a Greek word meaning 'entertaining'. It is a glorious and delightful prospect that one would look forward to in the future. I believe it is tissue-thin between where we stand today and the Rapture of the church. There are no signs, no Tribulation, no anything to be fulfilled before Jesus takes the church out of the world.

    First of all I want to define our terms. What do we mean by Rapture? We are not going to resort to the dictionary at this point. But to define the word very briefly, the Rapture is the moment when Christ takes believers - those that love and follow Him, which we shall call the church, out of the world. And that fits into a time programme that God has put down, because God moves in a very orderly manner in every direction. So we can be sure this is a very orderly procedure. We believe that next on the programme of God comes the Rapture when He takes the church out of the world.

Then after that we believe there will be a time of Great Tribulation, which is concluded with the return of Christ to the earth to set up His Kingdom. This has been labelled the Revelation and I feel accurately so, because the Book of Revelation deals with the Great Tribulation and the coming of Christ at the end of the Great Tribulation to establish His Kingdom for the real Millennium. You can see that this is a very orderly programme that God is following.

There are those today who deny the Rapture because they say it is a term that is not used in the Bible. Their argument is that the Bible does not teach the Rapture. Well, I must categorically deny that, because in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 it says, 'Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.' Now the word 'caught up' is the Greek word harpazo which means 'to lift, to snatch up, to draw up, to transport.' It has several meanings, and one meaning is 'to rapture.' So you can exchange the translation of harpazo from 'caught up' to 'rapture' 'Then we which are alive and remain shall be raptured together with them in the clouds,' and your translation would be as good as the one we have in the Authorised Version. I confess that I prefer the translation 'caught up,' but let's understand that the word rapture is in the Bible, and there is no ambiguity here. Those that deny that the Bible teaches the Rapture, they are arguing semantics and not eschatology.

There is another fallacy that is exploited by those who like to dismiss the Rapture. They maintain that when we say Christ is coming to take the church out of the world and that He will not return until the end of the Great Tribulation period, we are saying that we believe in a second and third coming of Christ. They accuse us of believing that the Rapture is the second coming and the Revelation is the third coming of Christ. Well, that type of argument is, to my judgment, not dealing with the subject at all.

At the Rapture Christ does not return to the earth. Rather, He takes His redeemed church from the earth. He does not come to it. In that sense it is not a return to earth at all. However at the Revelation Christ does come to the earth, which is the Second Coming. He is coming at that time to set up His Kingdom - the real Millennium.