THE RAPTURE
REVELATION 4:1
Introduction:
There are three doors mentioned in the Revelation:
(1) The open door, Rev. 3:8, “I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.”
(2) The church door, picturing the Lord on the outside knocking and asking entrance, Rev. 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”
(3) The open door of heaven. This open door indicated the Rapture as shown in these words “come up hither.” Rev. 4:1, “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.”
I. THE RAPTURE — “COME UP HITHER.”
A. Definition: Rapture –“to transport with joy, act of seizing and carrying away; carrying away to sublime happiness.” (Webster)
B. Phrase “rapture of the church.”
1. This is not a scriptural phrase. It makes the church and the family of God identical, which they are not.
2. The Family of God is composed of all the saved from the time of Adam.
3. The Church is a New Testament institution with requirements for membership.
a. Old Testament saints were not and are not members of the church.
b. Requirements for church membership, Acts 2:41-42, “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. 42-And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”
1) Salvation and scriptural baptism.
2) Only those who are saved and have scriptural baptism are members of the Lord’s churches.
C. There are many that are saved but have never been scripturally baptized and therefore are not members of the Lord’s churches.
D. All the saved, both baptized and unbaptized are to be raptured, not just the churches.
E. The Rapture is the complete removal of all of God’s children from the earth, both bodily and spiritually, of both the living and the dead, 1 Thess. 4:13-17, “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14-For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15-For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16-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: 17-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. And the dead in Christ shall rise first, v. 16.
2. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, v. 17.
II. THE TIME OF THE RAPTURE.
A. The Exact Time.
1. Only the Father knows, Matthew 24:36, “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.”
2. Only within the power of the Father, Acts 1:7, “And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.”
B. The Seasons.
1. Paul felt that the brethren knew to expect the Lord’s coming soon, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-2, “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. 2-For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.”
2. Jesus gave us some insight about the seasons:
a. As in the days of Noah, Matthew 24:37, “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38-For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,”
b. Paul implied that it would be a time of “peace” and prosperity, 1 Thessalonians 5:3, “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.”
III. THE EVENTS OF THE RAPTURE
CONTINUED