AS WEIRD AS RAIN

In the Genesis account, we understand that the world was irrigated by a mist that arose from the ground, creating a very heavy dew, and thus, plant life flourished. Rain was something unheard of in the experience of early mankind, according to the Bible.

GEN 2:6
But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
When the pronouncement of the flood came, and Noah preached the destruction of the world by water, I'm sure he was met with jeers and exclamations of dire unbelief! No one had ever SEEN water falling out of the sky before, and yet despite their mockery and unbelief, the rains came (the flood was not created merely by rainfall, but also the water channels beneath the surface of the earth erupted like geysers (GEN 7:11).

God's judgment arrived on schedule and despite the preaching of Noah, lasting well over a century (remember people in those days lived a very looong time!), no one repented of their sins and sought sanctuary aboard the ark. I realize that there are many who scoff at the existence of an ark, and of the reality of the Flood account, and I will not address this issue at this time, but perhaps in an installment forthcoming I will.

Of all the billions of people (some estimate that the antediluvian world held anywhere from 2 to 6 billion inhabitants), only eight people were saved in the flood; one person was actually saved FROM the time of the flood, and that was Enoch, who was translated (taken up) by God and never seen again!

Now you and I today take rain for granted; when we see it falling, we aren't alarmed, or surprised, or think that it's some bizarre phenomena. We accept it as a normal experience of our every day lives.
And yet the Word of God declares of another event which will herald the destruction of the present world, and this event is scoffed at, ridiculed and mocked with just as much passion as the people of Noah's day did with the idea of rain.

This notion is called the rapture of the church.

I realize that there are many today who don't believe in a rapture of the church; they say such a thing is unbiblical, and you can't take such a thing seriously, as even the very word 'rapture' doesn't so much as appear in scripture!

Well, it does appear in scripture, but you have to be reading the appropriate version in order to see it. In the KJV, the word "caught up" (found in 1 THESS 4:16) is expressed in the Latin Vulgate as "rapiere" which is of course Latin for "rapture".

These people are also more often than not post-tribulationists; I myself believe in a pre-'Daniel's 70th week' rapture; that is, I believe the church will be raptured before that last 7 year period of Daniels prophecy as recorded in DAN 9:22-27. This doesn't mean however that I believe the church (esp. here in America) will have smooth sailing until the rapture! I firmly believe that its quite probable that the church will undergo some extremely difficult times prior to the coming of the Lord as a means of purifying and preparing the body of Christ for the Bridegrooms Return!

Post-tribulationists like to say that the notion of the rapture isn't biblical, nor was it taught by the church fathers, and was an unknown concept until the days of J. Darby of the 19th century.

The notion of the LORD's return to earth, to dispossess the world of its evil rulers was not a very popular idea during the days of the Roman Empire in 300 AD, and beyond. Christianity had become legal during the days of Constantine, and two Emperors later, it actually became the state religion! Yet corruption soon set in, and as a result, the eschatological views of the Coming Christ who will rule and reign had to be revised.

The Roman Catholic church held an amillenial view, that is, that Christ wasn't literally coming and setting up His rule on the earth, but that we the church (representing Christ) will rule over all mankind. For the better part of 1.5 millennia the Roman Catholic church has held this view and this popular perspective dominated the people for the greater part of her history.

During the Protestant Reformation, they cry went out, "sola fide!" that is, salvation by faith alone in the finished work of Christ whose atonement was sufficient for the souls of mankind, an atonement made by the shed blood of the Lamb of God. And yet when it came to eschatology (the study of last things, that is, of last days prophecies), they carried on the same amillennial views of the Roman Church. 
So you can see that for 75% of the churches history, the amillenial view was held preeminently. This does not however mean that this view is biblical.

Remember how I stated earlier that there were 8 people who were saved in the Flood? One was saved FROM the time of the flood - Noah and his family had to endure the Flood, but were saved in the midst of it. The same cannot be said of Enoch however: he was taken out before the flood even began. Indeed, he was saved from the time of the flood!

There are many phrases that are used to describe the time of the tribulation period: its called Daniel's 70th week, the time of Jacob's Trouble, and the Wrath of the Lamb, among many others.

In Romans, Paul the apostle used the word "wrath" in referring to this time:

ROMANS 5:9
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

Note that is doesn't say saved "in, during, through, in the midst of, etc" but "saved FROM wrath" which means we, like Enoch, won't be here when once this judgment begins.

Another point to be made regarding the rapture: most post-tribulationists like to refer to such passages that speak of this supposed 'rapture' as being the resurrection. There is a problem that they never seem to address: in order to be resurrected, you have to be dead first. 

No one was resurrected by Christ who hadn't died first! One might say, yes but these were merely raised from the dead, they weren't truly resurrected, because eventually they died again, still possessing their natural bodies. In the resurrection of the church, we will be given new bodies that will never know corruption! 

Ok, granted: what then about Christ Himself, the "first fruits of them that slept"? 

1 CORINTHIANS 15:20 
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

His is indeed a glorified, resurrected body, that shall never die for death has no more dominion over Him! Yet the Lord Jesus was surely dead before He was resurrected. The point remains clear, in order to have a resurrection, the prerequisite is that one must first be dead.

In both passages that describe the rapture, there are those elements of the church that are indeed dead, and resurrected; yet in these passages there are also those who are yet alive, that are not asleep (the biblical term for saints of Christ who have died, is that they "sleep in Christ" for truly they are not dead in the same sense as the wicked; for one day [as with anyone in the natural who sleeps] they shall be awakened at the trump of God).

The two passages that I refer to are 1 THESS 4:16-17 and 1 COR 15:51-54

1 THESSALONIANS 4:16-17
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 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.

1 CORINTHIANS 15:51-54
Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal [must] put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

Note the underlined portions of the verses above: in both cases it speaks of those of us who are yet alive, of those who are not sleeping (dead). This transformation thus must involve something like, but not exactly the resurrection: the end result is the same, yes: our glorious transformation and the redemption of our bodies. Yet the starting point is different: the ones who are dead are resurrected, the ones who are yet alive are raptured, never seeing death, just like Enoch (and Elijah)!

There is a Greek word used in the Bible, and it's "maranatha" and it means "til the LORD comes". Its a word of hope and joy for those of us who are saved, but its a word of dread and judgment for those who are lost (see 1 COR 16:22).

It's an interesting point of fact that any time one nation declares war on another, one of the first political moves that it makes is the removal of their ambassadors from that foreign land with which they will soon be at war with. The Bible speaks of us Christians as God's ambassadors in 2 COR 5:21, and thus at the rapture, God's ambassadors will be removed, taken up from out of the earth. And after that, the time of the Wrath of the Lamb will occur in that horrific period of seven years.

Judgment is coming on this earth, this is a certainty; and with the same degree of certainty, millions of Christians world wide, both living and dead, will one day vanish without a trace from this planet: this will be a singular sign of the judgment that will immediately follow.

It surely will be a weird event; as weird as rain!