Introduction

This is a study of The Rapture of the Church, Lesson #8 in the New Christian Series. The primary references for this study are I Corinthians 15:51-55; I Thessalonians 4:14-18; Revelation 4:1-4; John 11:25-26; Song of Solomon 2:6-10; and Job 37:1-4.

The rapture of the church is a subject of great interest to all true believers earnestly awaiting the coming of "the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords" (I Timothy 6:15), who will soon return to take us out of this world. However, there are many who lack even the most basic knowledge of this glorious event. While this study is hardly exhaustive, the author hopes that it will give a clear understanding of this glorious doctrine, the rapture.

John the apostle instructs us:

"And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming."    I John 2:28

As His children we should be ready to meet Him with the confidence that everything we have committed unto Him is secure forever (II Timothy 1:12). Furthermore, as His stewards we should be ready to stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ to give a good account of those things He has committed unto us (I Peter 4:10; I Corinthians 4:1,2). We do not want to be ashamed of our lives and works when we stand before the Lord face to face, nor do we want Him to be ashamed of us.

Consider this admonition from the Lord:

"Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."     Mark 8:38

THE BODY OF CHRIST

In Lesson 6, we learned about the resurrection body that will clothe every believer at the Lords return. At that time, the Lord Jesus Christ will change our vile, sinful bodies of flesh into perfect, sinless, glorified bodies like His own. Then we will leave this earth, rise to meet Jesus in the air, and go to Heaven to receive our eternal reward.

However, we are presently living in a period commonly referred to as the Church Age. During this Church Age, God has been forming a spiritual body made up of all born again believers (not to be confused with any so-called universal ecumenical church on the earth). When God saves a man, the Holy Spirit makes him a part of this spiritual body, and establishes his home in Heaven (John 14:1-3; Ephesians 2:6). In this spiritual body there is no respect of persons.

Paul said,

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."     Galatians 3:28

In contrast, the physical body of Christ upon the earth consists of saved Jews and saved Gentiles. This was a great mystery until it was revealed to Paul (the apostle to the Gentiles). He speaks about it in his letter to the Ephesians.

            "For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,

If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to youward:

How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,

Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)

Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;

That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power."            Ephesians 3:1-8

Paul also speaks of the formation of this spiritual body in his letter to the Corinthian church.

Paul writes:

"For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

For the body is not one member, but many."              I Corinthians 12:12-14

• Of course, this body of Christ is the church.

And Paul tells us that God,

" ath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,

Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all."    Ephesians 1:22,23

The Church Age began nearly 2000 years ago when the Holy Ghost was sent down by the Lord Jesus Christ on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1) in fulfillment of the promise He made in Acts 1.

Luke wrote in the book of Acts:

"For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."     Acts 1:5

It was then that the Holy Spirit began baptizing believers into "the church, which is his body" (the supernatural body of Christ, now made up of all born again believers in Heaven and on earth).

We read in Acts:

"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."     Acts 1:8

Believers are to be His "witnesses" to the lost everywhere. When this supernatural body is completed, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come back and take us out of this world. This event is commonly called the rapture.

The Power Of Death

When believers die, their souls go to Heaven, but their bodies go to the grave, where they rot and turn to dust. In the incarnation, Christ partook of a natural human body so that through death He might take away from Satan the power of death. If Christ had not conquered death at Calvary and taken away the keys to death and Hell, the Devil would still have the power to keep our bodies in the grave. Before Calvary, Satan had power over death, but after Calvary, Satan was stripped of that power.

We read in the Bible:

"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;"     Hebrews 2:14

"I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."         Revelation 1:18

One day Christ will return and take our bodies out of the grave by His power, as we are caught up together with Him and carried away to Heaven. Perhaps the scene will be similar to that recorded by Jude.

"Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee."    Jude 9

When Moses died (Deuteronomy 32:5,6) it was the Lord Himself who buried Moses. From Jude, we learn that the Lord later resurrected Moses’ body. In fact, we see Moses appearing with Christ and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17:1-5. The Lord resurrected the body of Moses for this appearance. When He did this, Michael the Archangel had to contend with the devil about bringing his body up, because he was being resurrected before Jesus Christ death on the cross. Since the devil still held the power of death at that time, he contended that he had the right to keep Moses’ body. (The Lord had not yet died on the cross to pay the price of the redemption of that body.) Of course, the Lord simply rebuked the devil and brought up Moses’ body anyway. Since Christ paid the price for our redemption with His own blood, He can now raise the bodies of ALL believers from the grave without contention. Therefore, at His command, they will literally come out of the grave by the power of His word. That resurrection body will be a new, glorified body like His own.

Because the word "rapture" isn’t actually found in the Bible, some object to its frequent use in referring to this event. However, their objections are foolish because other commonly used words like "Millennium" and "Trinity" are not in the Bible either. Nonetheless, we continue to use them because they describe these doctrines so well.

 OUR IMMORTAL BODIES

The previous lesson on The Resurrection Body is very closely related to this lesson on The Rapture. At the moment the believer’s body is caught up from the grave, it will be changed. In that new resurrection body, we will be taken up to the third Heaven to stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ (cf. I Corinthians 15:42-52).

The Mystery Revealed to Paul

One of the seven mysteries mentioned in the New Testament is the formation of the body of Christ (in the Church Age). It was never before understood until revealed to the apostle Paul (Romans 16:25; Ephesians 3:1-7).

Another "mystery" revealed to Paul is the rapture of the saints, in which "this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality" (I Corinthians 15:53).

In I Corinthians, Paul says:

"Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,"     I Corinthians 15:51

As we have already seen in our lesson on The Resurrection Body, the Bible indicates that our new body will have no blood. Can you imagine what it will be like for an unsaved man to be in a church service when the rapture takes place? At one moment, he is in a room filled with people?then the trumpet sounds. Suddenly, "in the twinkling of an eye" (I Corinthians 15:52), all the saved people disappear before his very eyes. Left behind will be nothing but their clothing, and hundreds of gallons of blood all over the floor! Why, the man would probably lose his mind! It will be a terrible time for the lost, but a glorious occasion for believers caught up to be with the Lord. Only then will life for us truly begin, for troubles and trials will be no more.

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Old Testament prophets wrote about this marvelous event, but none understood it until God revealed it to Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. (That they did not understand the things they themselves wrote confirms the divine inspiration of scripture.) The Bible says "All scripture is given by inspiration of God" (II Timothy 3:16), and that "holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (II Peter 1:21). Peter verifies that these Old Testament prophets often wrote about things they didn’t understand themselves.

"Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.

Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into."     I Peter 1:11,12

The Old Testament prophets knew nothing about the Church Age and the rapture of the church because it was not revealed to them.

Therefore, Paul instructs us:

"Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,"     I Corinthians 15:51

Paul means we shall not all die . That is what he means by the word "sleep" in verse 51. This can be seen more clearly in John 11:11-14, where Jesus told the mourners, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." They did not understand what He was talking about, so He told them plainly that he was dead. In writing to the Corinthians about the believers’ future resurrection, Paul instructed them, "We shall not all sleep." All the saints will not have died when Jesus Christ comes back. If our blessed Lord returned in our lifetime, we would be among those covered in the last part of this verse: "but we shall all be changed." When the rapture takes place, some believers will be raised from the dead and some will be caught up alive, but all will be changed. Our mortal bodies will become immortal, glorified bodies just like Christ body (cf. I John 3:1-3 and Philippians 3:20-21). All these things will take place faster than the blink of an eye.

"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."    I Corinthians 15:52

"The twinkling of an eye" is not the actual blink of an eye. Rather, it is the motion of an eye when it’s just starting to blink. Because it is so fast, its speed can only be estimated (about 1/1000 of a second). We cannot imagine how fast that is, but that is how quickly the rapture will take place. Just think, if some unsaved person were sitting across the table from you and the trumpet sounded they would not even see you go if they blinked their eyes.

The Trump of God

The word trump in verse 52 seems to be a difficulty for many Bible teachers. Rather than discover the meaning of the word by examining the context, they follow the new Bible perversions and change the word to trumpet but that is incorrect. The King James Bible is God word, and the words in the King James Bible are the inspired words of God. "The last trump" is correct. The "trump" is simply the sounding of the trumpet. Now, there are some who teach that the church will go through the tribulation. They say that the trumpet mentioned in I Corinthians 15:52 is the last trumpet sounded in Revelation 11:15, which blows after the tribulation is over. But the King James Bible is careful to say last trump, distinguishing it from the last trumpet. Paul does not say this is the sound of the last trumpet, but rather the last trump (or sound) of this particular trumpet that will sound at the time of the rapture. Because all the new perversions of the Bible say last trumpet here, they are contributing to the heretical teaching that the church will go through the terrible time of the future Great Tribulation. However, the scriptures clearly teach that the church will not go through that time of tribulation.

Furthermore, in I Thessalonians we read that:

" he 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:"     I Thessalonians 4:16

The Lord will not descend when the last trumpet sounds, but upon the last trump of this particular trumpet.

" or the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."    I Corinthians 15:52

Since He says "the last trump," it would seem that the trumpet is sounded more than once. It appears that there is one blast that signals the dead in Christ to rise, and then a second blast that signals the living to be changed and go up.

This Mortal Must Put On Immortality

" nd the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (I Corinthians 15:52). There are two classes of people mentioned in this text, the dead saints and the living saints. This agrees with Jesus’ conversation with Martha about Lazarus.

"Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?"    John 11:24-26 

• The first class of believers who "shall be changed" when Jesus Christ returns are those who "were dead, yet shall live."
• The second class of believers, those who "shall never die," are those who will still be alive when the Lord returns.

 Notice in I Corinthians 15:52, that Paul is careful to say, "WE shall be changed," including himself. (Paul earnestly expected the rapture to take place in his lifetime.) Every believer should live in earnest expectation and hope that the Lord will return to take us to Heaven before we see death. Paul’s deep longing for the Lords return earned him a crown of righteousness, which we can win also.

Paul continues in I Corinthians 15:

"For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality."     I Corinthians 15:53

Again, we see two classes of people that will be raptured. The first class, "this corruptible," refers to those believers who are now deceased, those whose bodies are in the grave. But when Christ returns, these will put on "incorruption." The new body that comes out of the grave won’t be the same corruptible body that went into the grave, but a new incorruptible body that will never again get old, never sorrow, never suffer, and never die.

The rest of the verse ("And this mortal must put on immortality") refers to the second class, living Christians. The word "mortal" means "subject to death" (pertaining to our fleshly bodies). We are all mere mortals temporarily dwelling in bodies that are subject to death. But if Christ returns in our lifetime, we will be changed and will "put on immortality." Our new bodies will not be subject to death. Jesus said, "Neither can they die any more" (Luke 20:36).

"So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, [the dead in Christ] and this mortal shall have put on immortality, [those still alive at his coming] then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory."     I Corinthians 15:54

When the Lord returns, death will be swallowed up in victory, and we will be able to sing the song Victory in Jesus in a way we have never sung it before. Jesus won the victory over death, and that victory is ours in Him.

"O victory in Jesus,
My Saviour, forever,
He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him,
And all my love is due Him,
He plunged me to victory,
Beneath the cleansing flood."

So Paul writes with confidence:

"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."     I Corinthians 15:55-57

There will be no sting of death for believers who are still alive at Christ’s return, because they will not have to die. Furthermore, the grave will have no victory over those already dead in Christ, because the grave will not be able to hold them. He will raise their bodies up out of the grave by the power of His word.

We know that "the strength of sin is the law," and that "sin is the transgression of the law" (I John 3:4). The Law was given so we would know what sin is, and that all are guilty of sin. (Also see Romans 4:15; 5:13 and 7:7.)

At the rapture, we will get our new bodies. Our victory will be complete then, we will have victory over the flesh forever. As a reminder of this, every believer should memorize the following verse.

"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." I Corinthians 15:58

The Blessed Hope

We turn now to I Thessalonians 4, where we find more about this marvelous and wonderful event, the rapture of the Church.

"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.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

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. 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.

Wherefore comfort one another with these words."    I Thessalonians 4:13-18

Paul admonishes believers to "sorrow not," for there is no need to grieve over saved loved ones who have departed to be with the Lord. We need not fear if we know they are gone on to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. They are far happier over there, with their blessed Saviour in glory, than they ever were in this life. It is a great tragedy then, when the lost die and leave their loved ones brokenhearted and grief-stricken. They do not have the comfort the believer has, for without God, they have no hope.

Speaking about the lost, Paul also says:

"That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." Ephesians 2:12

• Without hope and without God, the unsaved have nothing to look forward to but eternal punishment in the Lake of Fire.

How different is the hope in the heart of the Christian! At death, he goes to Heaven where there is prepared for him indescribable riches in glory. He has that sure hope and certain expectation, in Christ.

• According to Webster’s Dictionary hope can mean, "To feel that something desired may happen as in: the hope for an early spring.?

 But hope, as used in the Bible (regarding our eternal destiny) never means simply a possibility that a certain thing may occur. The Bible definition of the word "hope," is found in the Random House Thesaurus,⁶ "confidence, assurance, or expectation."

We have far more than the mere desire that our salvation might be in Christ, or that Jesus may come again. We know that we are saved now, and look forward to His coming with confidence and anticipation because of its certainty. The so-called Church of Christ, Roman Catholic Church, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and other false religions teach that salvation is by faith and works. They take the word hope to mean "maybe" or "possibly" we are going to Heaven. But the Bible never uses this word in that sense. The Bible believing Christian can KNOW he is saved (I John 5:12-13). The basis of his confidence is nothing less than God’s Holy Word.

            "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God."    I John 5:12,13

The Christian’s hope is Christ Himself. Because He lives, we know that one day He will return to give us our new, sinless, glorified bodies like that of the Lord Jesus. Then we will be rid of the our old sinful, worn out, temporal bodies in which we now dwell. Believers still strive daily against temptation, and seek after holiness. They all have a longing for that new, sinless, perfect body that will no longer be subject to sin. Then they can serve the Lord perfectly. That is our hope: knowing that one day He will come back and give us that body. It is a sure thing. There is no doubt about it, He will do it.

Some other examples of this use of the word "hope" are found in the following scriptures. While some use these verses to teach salvation by works, we will see that they do not teach a hope-so salvation. Rather, they teach us to have confidence and expectation in a future event.

See what Paul says in Romans:

"And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?" Romans 8:23,24

Some use the phrase "saved by hope" to try to prove that we can only hope we are saved (not yet knowing). But reading verses 23 and 24 together, we see the truth. While believers’ souls are saved right now, we are still "waiting for the redemption of our body." The redemption of our bodies will not take place until the rapture when the Lord Jesus Christ will give us glorified bodies like His own. So when Paul says, "we are saved by hope," he is talking about our future resurrection body.

Just as the apostle John when he says:

"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."    John 3:1-3

Verse 2 tells of our new glorified body. When Jesus comes back, we are going to be made like him. That is our hope; confidence and assurance in a future event with the certain expectation of obtaining it.

We read in the book of Titus:

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world:

Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."     Titus 2:11-13

That "blessed hope" we are looking for is the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ when we will receive our new bodies.

            "Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God        elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness;

In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;"     Titus 1:1,2

The "hope of eternal life" is the "blessed hope" we are looking for, when we will receive our new resurrection bodies that will never die. Our souls have eternal life right now (present tense) , but our bodies do not. Our hope of eternal life lies in the Lords promise to return and give us a body that will never die. That will happen, because He "promised," and "he is faithful that promised" (Hebrews 10:23).

So Peter says:

"Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;"     I Peter 1:13

What are we hoping for, "Maybe we will make it and maybe we won’t " No! We "hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." That "grace" includes the new bodies we’re hoping to the end for.

So Paul says:

"We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,

For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;" Colossians 1:3-5

That hope we are looking for is already laid up for us in Heaven, but the only way we will ever get it is for the Lord Jesus Christ to return and bring it to us. We are not in a "maybe we will make it and maybe we won’t" situation, our hope is laid up for us in Heaven now, just waiting for us. The question is not, "Will we get it?" but "When will we get it?" In I Corinthians, Paul speculates about the way things would have been if the Lord Jesus Christ had not risen from the dead. In that case, we would have no hope, and we would all be heading for Hell. We would be going nowhere but to a grave if He had not risen. But He did come up, so we do have that blessed hope.

            "But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:

And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.

For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:

And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ [the ones that have died] are perished.

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept."    I Corinthians 15:13-20

Thank God, Christ is risen! Paul is only speculating about what the consequences would have been if He had not risen. If Jesus Christ had not risen from the grave, Christians now departed have no hope: they are "perished" (verse 1 . And because our only hope would be based on an event that never took place, we would have no hope either, and would be more miserable than anyone. Surely we must give praise to God that the Lord Jesus Christ has risen from the grave (verse 20)!

Our Parting and Reunion

Although the believer’s soul i