The Rapture of the Church is the coming of the Lord for believers in Messiah Yeshua. The word  “Rapture” is a Christian term used to denote the ascension of believers when Messiah’s Yeshua meets believers in the clouds.  This meeting precedes Messiah Yeshua’s second coming to Earth (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, and Revelation 19). The Holy Scriptures reveal the Rapture doctrine in John 14:2-3, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3, 1 Corinthians 15:51-55, and Revelation 4:1.

In John 14:2-3, Messiah Yeshua says “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” In 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, Paul says “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.” In 1 Corinthians 15:51-54, Paul says “Behold, I tell 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 trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will 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 has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

In 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3, Paul reveals the timing of the Rapture event when he wrote “Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.  Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.”  The Greek words for falling away should have been correctly translated DEPARTURE AWAY.  Interestingly, the seven English translations before the King James Version (KJV) did not use the word “APOSTACY” or its equivalent of “FALLING AWAY.” They simply used the word “DEPARTURE”, because that is what the root word actually means in Greek, which is physically going away. This reveals that the correct translation of this passage should have been “Let no one deceive you by any means for that Day (the Tribulation) will not come unless THE DEPARTURE comes first.” The Departure” is clearly referring to the Rapture, which will happen before the seven year Tribulation (Matthew 24, Luke 21, Mark 13, and Revelation Chapters 6 to 19). Therefore, this passage positively affirms the pre-Tribulation Rapture of God’s Church.

In Revelation 4:1, John reveals his vision of the pre-tribulation rapture when he wrote “After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And

the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.” In Revelation chapters 4 and 5, God transports John to paradise where he sees Messiah Yeshua and the 24 elders representing the Church and the 12 tribes of Israel. In Revelation chapter 6, the Tribulation begins with the four horsemen of the Apocalypse before concluding with Messiah Yeshua’s return to Earth with the Church (Revelation 19).

PRIMARY SOURCES: What is the rapture of the Church? by Zolah Levitt. Pre-Tribulation Rapture by Barry Setterfield