How To Understand the Pre-Tribulation Rapture

Do you want to understand the rapture?

Rapture is a subject that is being ignored by modern day preachers as attention is being shifted to the prosperity message of the Gospel. People are more interested in what they can get from God today than what will happen to their souls for the whole of eternity. The lack of interest in the subject is also due to the difficulties involved in understanding it. Scriptures that deal will the topic employ imagery that is a bit remote to the rational culture of our day. In addition to that, certain events of Biblical history such as the destruction of the Jewish temple around AD 70, which are guides or vague reflections of what is to come, lead people to believe that the rapture has already occurred. But the point of this article is help you understand certain pertinent issues that makes you believe that the rapture could be on the way.

Rapture simply is the second coming of Jesus “like a thief in the night” to take away those who believe in him and that will give room for the final assault of Satan and his host on the earth. This will be under the leadership of a powerful world leader referred to in the Bible as the Antichrist. This topic is of utmost importance to all Christians living because it will determine their salvation if Jesus should come any moment from now. Here are a few guidelines to the understanding of this all-important topic.

1. The first step you must take towards the understanding of rapture is be filled by the Holy Spirit. The whole subject calls for a divine understanding and wisdom. Without the Holy Spirit you cannot understand the deep things of God. Rev 13:18 says: this calls for wisdom. Whoever is intelligent can figure out the meaning of the number of the beast, because the number stands for the name of someone. Its number is 666. The wisdom here is divine and not human.
2. Read all the Biblical books and chapters that talk plainly about rapture, from the Old Testament to the New Testament. In fact you must read the entire Bible because there are little bits of information in each book which help to clarify the topic. However, you must read Daniel, Matthew 24, Luke 21, 2 Thessalonians and Revelations.
3. Look at the origins of the issue. The issue of the rapture is closely related to the resurrection of the dead. This has been one of the dividing lines in Jewish religion, a major difference between the Pharisees and the Sadducees; the former believed that the dead will be raised and the latter denied it. This controversy continued even among the early Christians as we see it in 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul lays bare the facts of the rapture. According to him, if there is no resurrection, (i.e. the rapture), then there is no Christian faith. This argument continues today as people look at the time that has elapsed ever since the death of Christ. But we must understand what Peter says in 2 Peter 3: 1-10. That indicates how certain the rapture is.
4. Know the main events of the rapture. On that day, first the dead in the Lord will be raised, and then the believers (Christians) will be changed into heavenly beings and taken out of the world in an instant – they will vanish. One can imagine what will happen when a moving bus driver is taken away, leaving the bus abandoned on the road, or an airplane whose pilot similarly vanishes. It will be a day of disaster incomparable in history. The world systems will be greatly disturbed, provoking the establishment of new systems. The enforcement of these new systems will lead to what is termed the Great Tribulation.
5. Finally, we must understand what the Great Tribulation is. This will be the final assault of Satan on the earth. It will be a period of great distress and difficulty unequalled in history, after the rapture, for those who will not subscribe to the rigorous systems based on personal identification (the mark of the beast) that will be put in place by the rulers of the world. People will be forced through all kinds of torture – physical, psychological, mental, etc., to subscribe to these systems. It will become virtually impossible to live unless you connect to the system. And once you do that you are doomed because those who receive the mark of the beast will not enter the kingdom of God.

   Understanding rapture also means that you must know that there is a way of escaping the great tribulation – accepting Jesus Christ now and living for him, in readiness for the day of his coming. However, rapture must not be confused with the final judgment. The final judgment will come after the great tribulation while the rapture comes before.

When you understand all these ideas, you will get to know how relevant the topic of rapture is at this moment of world history. Remember though that you must proceed prayerfully. Without prayer the door to the knowledge of the things of God remains shut. Pray to God to open your mind and to let you see the scriptures through His eyes and mind. There are many things in the word of God that we ignore – such as the rapture. With the right attitude, He will make us open to them.