The Rapture of the Churchනියැදිය

Day 4: The Timing of that Moment

Today, I want to highlight for you some important details about the timing of the Rapture of the Church. In 1 Thessalonians 4:16 KJV, Paul says “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.” After saying this, He begins 1 Thessalonians 4:17 KJV with “Then,” which tells us a lot about the timing with which this catching away will happen.

“Then” is a translation of the Greek word epeita, which means precisely upon that moment, exactly at that moment, precisely then, or exactly then. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 KJV tells us that the dead in Christ will be raised first, which means that on this long-awaited, glorious day, the first event of the day — the first in order — will be the resurrection of the bodies of those who have died in faith. The Rapture of the living remnant — those still vibrant in the faith of Jesus — will come next chronologically, but Paul’s use of the word epeita tells us that it will happen without hesitation once the dead in Christ are raised, within the exact same moment.

As for the timing of this whole glorious event in the grand scheme of things, I should state that I am a firm believer in a pre-Tribulation Rapture, meaning that the Church will be caught up to meet Christ before God’s wrath is poured out onto the Earth. However, because the word harpadzo, which is used to describe the Rapture, means to snatch out of danger in the nick of time, it strongly implies that the world will be so dark before the Rapture of the Church that it might feel as if the Tribulation has already started.

There will likely be persecution, and life will be difficult for the remnant of believers, those who are like the remaining soldiers who have survived a battle. However, I want to say emphatically that experiencing hardship and persecution is nowhere near the same level as experiencing the wrath of God being aggressively poured out on the earth.

But because harpardzo to describes a rescue operation, I truly believe that it alerts us that, though the world may become very dark before the Rapture actually occurs, the Lord will descend to spectacularly snatch the Church out of the imminent danger. They who remain will not only be snatched out of a dark spiritual climate, but they will be snatched just in the nick of time before divine wrath is poured out on the evil in the earth. It will be a divine rescue operation to transport us into His glorious presence!

For Your Consideration

• The timing of the Rapture (where it occurs in the overall timeline of the End Times) is a source of major disagreement for many Christians. This study discusses a Pre-Tribulation view of the Rapture, but what do you believe? Why do you hold the view you do? Take some time today to reflect and study the scriptures so that you can decide for yourself what you believe about this subject.