Articles
Word Of The Week: Rapture
A very common belief among professed believers is that Jesus will come back and “rapture” the church from the earth. That means Jesus will appear, call to heaven all faithful people and then leave everyone else on the earth to pass through a phase called the tribulation.
This is all part of the doctrinal structure of premillennialism, which is heavily based on the book of Revelation.
But it may surprise people to learn that the word rapture is not even found in Scripture. The Bible does describe a future return of Jesus when all who have ever lived will be raised from the dead at one time (John 5:28), the judgment of all men will follow (John 5:29) and the eternal assignment to heaven or hell will be issued to all (Matt. 25:31-33; II Thess. 1:6-10).
When Jesus appears, it will be the end, not the beginning of other ages through which this world will pass. He is not coming back to set up a kingdom but to bring to a close His current reign (I Cor. 15:23-28).
