“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.” 1 Thess 4:13-18

Comfort one another with these words. How often are we comforted with the words of the rapture in our fellowship? The resurrection, whether of the dead or living, is the hope of the Church. It is the reward of our labor of faith and without a living faith for the rapture, without the constant nour­ishment it provides for our souls, we will suffer from spiritual malnutrition. The resurrec­tion is the glorious mo­ment in the battle of our salvation. If the goal – if the end of our discipline and trials – be­comes vague and ob­scure, then our whole walk can be­come muddled.

Ignorance in these last hours of the Church Age can and will make us a lazy, sleeping, carnal body of mis­di­rected believers. Histori­cally, the Church has been so busy buil­ding a kingdom here on earth, or meddling in the politics of the nations that it has had little interest in the “vague and dis­tant fables” about the rap­ture. But a new day has dawned in the Church. The Holy Ghost has re­newed a spirit of faith about the resur­rection of the liv­ing and given her faith for God’s promise that He will lift all faith­ful be­lievers out of im­pending world tribu­la­tion. The Church has been in­formed by the Spirit that the time for the rap­ture looms closer and closer with each tick of the clock.

The revival of the ’60’s and 70’s opened every denomin­ation’s eyes to the signs of the time. Now, one ful­filled pro­phecy is following fast on the heels of another. Pro­phetic schol­ars all agree; the signs of the end-time are appearing and flashing like huge neon signs on the horizon of time, cha­ng­ing color and graphics as each prop­he­cy is newly fulfilled.

Signs of Christ’s Return
Jesus told His disciples to behold the fig tree, and all the trees, that when they be­gin to bud it would be time to look up, for our redemption would be drawing near. The fig tree represents Israel, the other trees represent the nations of the world. It is not a coin­cidence that just after Israel, once again, budded into a nation in 1948 after more than 2,000 years of lying dormant, that many of the an­cient bibli­cal powers also returned as forc­es on the world scene. Egypt, Iraq (Baby­lon), Iran (Persia), Syria, Libya and Ethio­pia have all, for various rea­sons, re­claimed important posi­tions in the affairs of the nations of the world, and all within the last two decades. These countries which were all but laughed at in elementa­ry ge­ography books a generation ago, are now forces to be reckoned with, and it is a miracle.

Another beacon blinking on and off almost every day is the warning given by Jesus on the Mount of Ol­ives. Jesus promised that the end would be preceded by wars and ru­mors of wars and earthquakes in diverse places. Hardly a news day goes by when one of those things cannot be reported. On the day of this writing war was being ru­mored in Bosnia, and two violent earth­quakes, killing hundreds of peo­ple, hit along the Pacific rim. Post-colonial Africa has been the scene of millions of murders and deaths with constant tumults and unceasing commotions, rebellions, coupes and genocides.

Along with these signs shine the brilliantly bright prophecies of Dani­el serving as a tremendous warning of the near­ness of the rapture. Daniel was told that the meaning of his proph­ecies would be hidden away until the time of the end when travel and knowl­edge would be vastly increased. To­day we can under­stand Daniel’s pro­phecies in the light of history and current events. Our understand­ing of Daniel is partly due to the fact that we live in a world that has in­creased its knowl­edge a million-fold in this cen­tury alone. We live in a “global village” shrunken to miniature size by TV, computers, jets, satellites and auto­mobiles. The Book of Dan­iel is, in and of itself, a sign of the end-times and the impend­ing rap­ture. Every Christian who reads and understands the book of Dan­iel will be bless­ed by having their faith for Christ’s re­turn bolstered.

The New Testament’s forewarning of the believer about the spiritual condition of people in the last days is yet an­other sign. Ask your­self if the follow­ing pas­sage of Scripture does not describe an all too familiar world.

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
   For men shall be lovers of their own selv­es, covetous, boasters, proud, blas­phem­ers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
   without natural affection, truce breakers, false accus­ers, inconti­nent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
   traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God;
   Having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” 2 Tim 3:1-5

A good and accurate description of the workplace and society in gen­er­al, don’t you think? Other signs of the end include the formation of the Euro­pean Community (which is headed toward a powerful and uni­fied Eu­rope), the rise of ecumenism in reli­gion, the taking of Jerusalem by the Jews in 1967, and the out­pouring of the Holy Spirit in accor­dance with the prophecy of Joel con­cerning the former and lat­ter day rain.

Exact Hour of Rapture Not Known
It is clear; Christ is getting ready to receive his bride. The exact hour of the rapture is a secret known only to the Father Himself, but the words of Jesus tell us that we can know the general time and season by discern­ing the signs of the day. He gave us signs to look for and warned us to be ready and watch­ing, lest that day come on us like a thief.

Ask yourself this. If we could not know the time why else would Christ have scolded the religious lead­ers of Israel for know­ing how to read the signs in the skies so they could deter­mine the coming we­ather while they ignored the spiritual signs of their day that foretold of Jesus’ first coming?

He said, “When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.
   And in the morning, It will be foul weather today the sky is red and lowri­ng. O ye hypocrites, ye can dis­cern the face of the sky; but can ye not dis­cern the signs of the times?
   A wicked and adulterous gener­a­tion seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them and departed.” Matt 16:2-4

The sign of Jonah referred to is, of course, the sign of the resurrec­tion. As Jonas had been in the belly of the whale for three days, so Jesus was in the belly of Hell three days before he rose aga­in. The sign of the second coming will also be the resur­rection, this time it will be the first-­fruits rap­ture of the Church, those who are dead in Christ and those who remain alive (and have been faith­ful­ly watching for and listen­ing for Christ’s calling) will be taken out of the “belly” of a coming “Hell­”. Jesus refused to put on a super­nat­ural circus for the faithless lead­ers of that day and our day will be no differ­ent. Jesus will not send lights flashing in the skies, or com­ets racing through space spelling out his name to herald the coming of the rapture. The signs of the rapture will be, and have been, prophe­cy being ful­filled. The sign of His second coming with ten thousands of His saints will be the rapture. The warn­ing is al­ready giv­en. The rapture (itself a sign of the end) will come in a twin­kling of an eye and it will proclaim the soon return of Jesus to earth with his faithful saints.

Christ’s beloved bride will be faith­ful while she awaits His call. She will be a spiritual vir­gin keeping herself clean from idolatry and forni­cation while making herself pure with the hope of His calling. She is striv­ing for what the apostle Paul called “the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”; Phil 3:14 a calling so great he counted ev­erything else as dung.

Get ready then, and as Jesus advised, pray that you be ac­counted worthy that you escape all the evils that are coming on the world so you can be found standing before the Son of Man in glory.