Is the rapture real? When does it happen?

The rapture is real, and it happens before the tribulation. Jesus comes for His church and takes us out before God pours out His wrath on the world. Ashley Hays laid out the case in “The Rapture of the Church Part 1”.

“The word rapture isn’t in the Bible”

Neither is the word “Trinity”, and we still believe it. The New Testament was written in Greek. In 1 Thessalonians 4:17, “caught up” is the Greek harpazo (G726), which means to seize or snatch away. The Latin Bible translates it rapiemur, and that’s where our word “rapture” comes from.

Ashley also says don’t expect one single verse that spells out the whole timeline. You get it by putting the Scriptures together.

What happens

“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” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).

“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” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).

Believers who already died get their bodies back, raised and changed. Believers who are alive get changed in the twinkling of an eye and are gone. We meet Him in the air. At the rapture He doesn’t touch down on earth. That happens at His second coming. The rapture is a private event between the bride and the bridegroom. Jesus promised it: “I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:3).

Why before the tribulation: we’re not appointed to wrath

The church doesn’t go through God’s wrath, because Jesus already took it for us.

• “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

• “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:9).

• Jesus “delivered us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10).

• God “reserveth wrath for his enemies” (Nahum 1:2).

And the tribulation is God’s wrath from the start. At the sixth seal, early on, before the trumpets and bowls, people cry out to hide “from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come” (Revelation 6:16-17). The last plagues finish it: “in them is filled up the wrath of God” (Revelation 15:1). Ashley’s point: there is no part of the tribulation that is not God’s wrath.

Kept from the hour, not kept safe in it

“I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world” (Revelation 3:10). The word “from” is the Greek ek (G1537), meaning “out of.” He keeps us out of the hour itself, not safe while we go through it.

Jesus said the same: “pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things” (Luke 21:36). Escape, not endure.

Comfort one another

Paul ends the rapture passage with “comfort one another with these words.” Ashley asks how that would comfort anyone if it meant going through the tribulation and getting beheaded by the Antichrist. Being caught up before the wrath comes is comfort. That’s why Paul calls it “that blessed hope” (Titus 2:13).

No believer gets left behind

A lot of rapture videos are built on fear: live wrong and you’ll miss it. Louis Scott answers that in “What is the rapture exactly?”: no born-again believer will miss the rapture. You’re ready the moment you believe the gospel.

The reason is the Holy Spirit. You’re “sealed unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30), and that day is the resurrection. “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Romans 8:11). Louis puts it simply: Christ won’t leave a part of His body behind, the same way you don’t leave your leg on the bed when you go to the store. “Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26).

So we don’t wait in fear. John says to abide in Him “that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming” (1 John 2:28). This is the same thing Do I have to do good works, or do I get to? calls the rapture as a performance review, and it’s the same mistake.

“One shall be taken, and the other left”

People quote this to scare believers: “Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left” (Matthew 24:40). Louis points out the verse right before it: in Noah’s day the people “knew not until the flood came, and took them all away” (Matthew 24:39). The ones taken were taken by the flood, in judgment. Noah was the one left, safe in the ark. So this passage is about judgment at His second coming. It isn’t about believers missing the rapture.

The judgment seat is for rewards

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body” (2 Corinthians 5:10). That’s where believers get rewarded, not punished. What was built on Christ stands. The rest burns, “but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire” (1 Corinthians 3:15).

And at the second coming, the church comes back with Him: “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints” (Jude 14). The rapture is a blessing. The second coming is a judgment.

One commenter wrote that the scary rapture videos actually pulled her out of atheism, “but I’m no longer afraid!” Another: “It is refreshing to see a solid teacher of the pre-tribulation rapture who incorporates the eternal security of the believer because of being sealed by the Holy Spirit.”

From the comments

One commenter pushed back with John 17:15, where Jesus prays, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” That prayer is about living in this world now and being kept from the evil one. Revelation 3:10 is about a specific hour “which shall come upon all the world,” and the promise is to be kept out of that hour.

Another commenter, who said they weren’t young, put the tone right: believers who see it differently “will just get the surprise of their life! This is not a salvation issue, so no need to be ugly or rude about it.” And plenty just wrote the church’s oldest prayer: Maranatha, come, Lord.

Say it like this

“The rapture’s in the Bible. ‘Caught up’ in 1 Thessalonians 4 is the Greek word harpazo, snatched away. Jesus comes for His church, the dead in Christ rise, we get changed in the twinkling of an eye, and we meet Him in the air. And it happens before the tribulation, because God ‘hath not appointed us to wrath,’ and the whole tribulation is His wrath. He promised to keep us ‘from the hour,’ out of it. That’s our blessed hope.”

Keep reading: Isn’t the world falling apart? · Do I have to do good works, or do I get to? · What about aliens and UFOs?