We submit this open letter to the students of our website in answer to questions most often raised in regards the Rapture. While the Rapture has gotten more than just a little play in Hollywood and Christian and secular fiction, as well as on TLC and other television channels, as well as gobs of Christian literature, wild and crazy ideas have added to the general ignorance rather than dispelled it. This glut of fabulous and sensational misinformation is nothing less than a transport full of useless baggage which exacts a great hidden price from those who might be inclined travelers along the way to Brideship. The cost of this bogus baggage is too high a price to pay. The weight of it has dragged the message and purpose of the Rapture to the ground and through the mud of ignorance so that the very word rapture is nothing but a worn out and meaningless cliché, an interesting fiction or fairy tale, like Jack in the Bean stalk, More’s Utopia, Stoker’s Dracula or whatever the latest outer space or alien craze might be.  For the bulk of people the word Rapture conjures up a quagmire of rumor, a quicksand of gossip, just another chapter in the fiction of apocalyptic mumbo-jumbo for Hollywood to cash in on. This hurricane of info constantly swirls about this great mystery of the Christian faith and generally flat-lines its living reality in the minds of otherwise and normally objective people. Even Christians have accepted all the stolid notions and have been thoroughly anesthetized having lost all vision of the great promise that is The Rapture. False spirits of man and demon demean those who hope for deliverance as cowards seeking escape from trouble even as deserters in the face of the enemy. If they are ‘kind’ they chalk it up as hope for being raptured as the burden of weaklings who just want to get out of dealing with hard times. They’re branded, however kindly, as weaklings and cowards, essentially. But these half-baked ideas just prove the cliché, ‘A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing’.

There are a profuse number of people who also acquire just a bit of information here and a bit there, never really studying it, who end up with their heads spinning around so that they give up on the whole promise of promises. Or, they become beleaguered after waiting a measly handful of days, never mind years or decades, or a lifetime as the apostles and early saints, and thousands of other faithful Christians down through the centuries, all have done. Today’s evangelicals are hardly better off. They have been cast into a hypnotic spell by presumptive ignorance and indoctrinated by years of repetitive teaching to believe that Christians, regardless of their life of faith, automatically deserve to be raptured because they know Jesus Christ – period! End of story, their ‘saved’ as far as they are concerned. They like to believe that how they live and what they do is essentially irrelevant. But here we shall try to give people (though they may only have just a smattering of mish-mosh knowledge) a good foundation for starting their study of the Rapture by answering the classic question of the honest news reporter: who, what, when, where and why of the Rapture. In the interest of the ABC’s of good reporting- accuracy, brevity and clarity –  we seek to supply the student with an outline of basic knowledge in which they can launch themselves into a full study of the all-important promise of the Bible. After cruising through this introductory report on the Rapture, the reader should be able to find a rather complete understanding of the subject in the various articles, testimonies, gifts of the Spirit and teachings published throughout Elisha’s Outcast Eagles website. We begin with the question, what is the Rapture?

WHAT IS THE RAPTURE?

However, it must be said from the outset that the word Rapture does not appear in the Bible. It is the common name used by Christians to sum up an incredible promise of mercy made by God to His Church. The promise is that He will “catch up” faithful believers in the clouds to be with His Son Jesus forever. That is, in fact, what the word Rapture means, “To catch up”. This Scripture from the epistle of 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 expresses the promise more perfectly than any other place in the Bible. Let’s start at the beginning. The Bible is the one and only authoritative source for understanding the Rapture. The movies, The Learning Channel, professors from Princeton University or Books from The Church of the Latter Day Saints will not give you the real dope. The Rapture is one of only a few subjects on earth that even non-believers have to agree is the exclusive property of the Bible. Hindus, Buddhists, Confucians, Zoroastrians, or Maharishi Hamburg-Yogurt have never had knowledge, let alone ownership of this great mystery.  People who ask for Biblical understanding of this event are very much on the right track. Again, the Scriptures are the one and only source that proclaims the promise of the Rapture.

“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the corning of the Lord shall not prevent (Old English for, “go ahead of”) 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.”

(The Scripture 1 Corinthians 15:50-55 also adds to the overall picture. Both of the passages cited above should be read in context.) And that – in a nutshell – is the Rapture. The catching up of Christians, both those that sleep and those which remain alive at the time of Jesus’ calling, to meet Him in the air to be with Him for evermore. But this only tells us what it is, not, who, why, or when. To understand the Rapture we must answer those questions as well.

WHEN Is It Coming?

During His three year ministry on earth, Jesus referred many times to this “mystery”,as it is called in 1 Corinthians 15. More than once, Jesus warned us to “watch and pray” and to be “ready” because His call, and His ‘appearance’ to believers, would happen suddenly and unannounced. He said that it would “come at a time when you think not” Matt 24:44.

The epistles and Jesus both declare that the day of the trumpet sound, when Christ will call His faithful people into the clouds, will come as a “thief in the night”. 1 Thes 5:2. His appearance will come suddenly, without warning, it will be unseen and unheard, just as a thief might come and go in the middle of the night without anyone ever knowing he had been there except for that which was missing. The image is one of total surprise and vanished goods. In a parable He said, if the good man of the house knew when a thief was coming he would be ready for him and not suffer loss, but we are to be always ready, on our toes, looking, waiting, watching, praying, and living as if His return is scheduled for that very minute, so we do not lose out on being part of the Rapture.

Jesus continues, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man, except the Father in heaven.” Matt 24:36  But why is its time withheld? Simple. God wishes to encourage Man to live rightly and expectantly day to day. To live in anticipation of the Rapture, is the true essence of taking life “one day at a time”.

But. Jesus did say we could get an idea about the general timing. We must live as if this sudden and instantaneous resurrection of believers could take place in our next breath. Jesus said, when you see the “fig tree” budding (alluding to the Scriptural symbol, Israel) then we could know that not another generation would pass away before His promised gathering of the saints and the coming judgment of the world. The state of Israel budded again in 1948 and Jerusalem became the capital of a Jewish state for the first time in nearly 2,500 years in 1967, constituting the “budding of the fig tree”. Jesus said about this, “When you see these things happening, look up for your redemption draws near.”  Matt 24:32-33

WHY A Rapture?

The Bible warns us that before Jesus’ return the world will be in a similar state of unrighteousness as it was in Noah’s life. This not only gives us insight into why God will catch up His faithful saints from the earth but it tells us something about the kind of faith people must have if they are to believe in the Rapture. The analogy speaks both of the condition of the unbelieving world and the condition of the faithful.

As in Noah’s day the world is turning reprobate. People are giving themselves over to sin, having as the Scriptures say, “Their consciences seared with a hot iron.” 1 Tim 4:2 We need only read the papers, listen to the conversations at work, or go to the movies to see and feel this unconscionable Noah like world. This reprobate condition not only assumes a lack of knowledge of good and evil but the inability to distinguish between truth and lies, even fact from fiction. For example, a completely fallacious idea from human pride is a current boast from Evangelical camps that the courageous will not desert the world but want to stay behind to punch the Antichrist right in the mouth and not run from a fight. This denies the primary purpose, the real why, of the Rapture, namely: that it is God’s mercy that some will escape the terrible, overwhelming and dreadful things that will befall the whole planet in those final days.

On the other side of the days of Noah analogy are the faithful. As Noah was faithful to believe that God would save him from the torrent of coming judgment, so today’s faithful are being required to believe that they will be saved from the flood of God’s wrath that is to come. As Noah was figuratively and literally lifted up by the waters and the people died beneath him in a flood of judgment so it will happen again. This time people of Noah-like faith will be lifted up, “caught up” and removed from the impending doom beneath and the world below will be deluged with disaster. The Rapture saves the believer from going through the judgment which is intended for the unrighteous and sinful world.

WHO Shall Be Raptured?

Here is the really all-conclusive question and the one most ignored and abused. Once we know the answers to what, why and when, then – the question, who becomes the million dollar question, the one demanded by the other three. This we know for sure from everything about the Bible – those who are offered this great deliverance must be believers and followers of Christ, they must be watching, praying, and waiting for their Lord’s return. Jesus said to His disciples, “pray that you be accounted worthy to escape all these things (judgments coming on the world) and to stand before the son of Man”. Lk 21:36

Jesus told many parables about lazy and unrighteous servants who did whatever they wanted and ended up being caught unprepared on the day of their Lord’s return. He told a parable of 10 virgins who waited for the coming of a bridegroom. The wise virgins are destined to be Christ’s Bride for eternity. They will go wherever He goes. They will be purified by keeping their lamp (light/Jesus) ‘stocked’ with oil (obedience to the Holy Ghost). They will be perfected by keeping their lamp ‘trimmed’ (taking care of spiritual business so that the light of Jesus can shine). The bridegroom’s appearance came in the middle of the night, came upon all of them suddenly. Five were ready, had their lamps trimmed, filled with oil, and burning bright. The other half, sadly, had let their light go out and had fallen asleep. When the sleepers heard Him coming they tried to prepare. They tried to get the others to help them, to give them oil, but it was too late and they were shut out of the wedding party. The imagery is simple. Be ready at all times! Those who are raptured will have taken heed! They will have been vigilant to the signs of Jesus’ Return and have watched. They will have prayerfully sought deliverance. They will have made themselves ready by showing all preference to spiritual things, by preferring the Holy Spirit for Jesus’ sake. They will have followed the Signs of His Return like a hunter follows tracks, like a fan follows his favorite ball club. They will have been poised themselves to be part of the great fulfillment of prophecy called the ‘Firstfruits Resurrection’ by the Bible, called the Rapture by us of the present day.  

There is much more that can be expanded on concerning the Who, What, When, and Why of the Rapture. The Bible has much, much more that it can add to your faith about this great mercy of God, but we all need to escape from the wallboard halls of rumor and gossip so we can enter into the granite sanctuary of Scripture if we want to know the truth about God’s “catching up” of the Church.

If you have not accepted Christ as your personal Savior, and that means much more than simply being a member of a Church, then do it today. Only then can you begin to make preparations for His coming and be ready on that day. Only then does one begin the journey to Brideship which ends with destination Rapture.

WHERE The Rapture?

Three of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, tell us this about where the Rapture shall take place: “And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Lk 21:27 Also, when we couple these announcements with the notification in 1 Thessalonians 4:17; “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.”, it is clear that we shall be raptured into the clouds to meet Jesus in the air. In Matt. 24:31, Mk 13:27  we are informed of this: “And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together His ELECT from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” and “then shall He send angels and gather together His ELECT from the four winds from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.” Take notice that the ELECT are gathered from the uttermost parts of heaven and earth. Where shall they be found? All over the earth and from around the heavens because the Rapture includes the dead in Christ (whose spirits wait in an heavenly abode) and those who living at the time of the trumpet sound. Two places, heaven and earth. This also takes us back to 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 “the dead in Christ” (who’s spirits wait in heaven) and “we which are alive and remain (on the earth) 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.” The ELECT shall be gathered from both heaven and earth to one place with Christ in the ‘clouds’.

This is the literal physical place of our departure and the literal place of our destination. We are told where the gathering point of departure actually will be also. There are two most interesting verses that speak of a gathering of eagles. Matthew 24:28 says; “For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.” And in Luke 17:37 it is stated; “Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.” Isaiah 40:31 prophecies: “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.” The eagles represent those saints who soar by faith, who shall be “caught up to meet the Lord in the air.” Where they will gather is around the body, the carcass (dead body) which is symbolic of Christ. Where? The eagles from all over heaven and earth will be gathered around Christ. He will be the center and drawing card of all the saints who stand  and fly in the airy realms of faith for the Rapture.  

These eagles shall have their strength renewed. They will have glorified bodies as spoken of in 1 Cor 15:51-54. “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in a 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.  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.  So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is thy sting?  O grave, where is thy victory?”

We must lose our attachment to the world if we hope to be one of the ones taken. As Jesus warned, “I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.” Luke 17:34 & 36

“Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.” Luke 21:34 Matthew 24:40-41 says; ”Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken the other left.” Anyone not prepared will be left behind. ARE YOU READY?!

Are You Ready?!

Here is the primer for what, when, why, who and where of the Rapture. The Lord exhorts His people to be vigilant and prepared for His call to “come up hither.”

“Watch therefore; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come” Matt. 24:42 also in verse 44 “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” In Mark 13:23 & 37 Jesus said; “But take heed, behold, I have foretold you all things.” and, “what I say unto you I say unto all, WATCH!” 

This firm instruction for us to watch is for us today, saints! From Luke 21:36 we have one of Jesus’ most loving and important pleas to us, that we might not suffer the horrors of the seven year tribulation which are “coming on the whole world.” One of the horrors will perhaps be execution by guillotine in order to escape taking the mark of the beast. “ … and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their forehead or in their hands”. Rev. 20:4

“Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” Luke 21 As always our Lord and Savior is faithful not to leave us without promises and rewards. “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over his goods.” Matt. 24:45-47 In both Mark and Luke  21:31-32 we find this; “So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled.” Mark 13:27 I must repeat here. “And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.” God promises that He will gather His eagles, His elect, those who wait upon the Lord (Isaiah 40:31), together. They will come from heaven and earth to be “caught up in the clouds to meet Him in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. So let us ‘comfort one another with these words’. 1 Thes 4:17-18