The Rapture, Are YOU Ready?
"Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." "Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an
hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." (Matthew 24:42,44)
If Christ's followers vanish, where have they gone?
Jesus made it clear when He was here on earth that he will come again. "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 unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know." (John 14:2-4)
"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." (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17)
When Christ is Coming:
At this moment, while our Lord tarrieth, He is preparing a place for those who
believe in Him. Someday soon, although no man knows when, He will come and take
His church to Heaven to be with Himself. "And he said unto them, It is not for
you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own
power." (Acts 1:7)
"But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe [Noah] were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were
before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
marriage, until the day that Noe [Noah] entered into the ark, And knew not
until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the
Son of man be. 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, and the other left." (Matthew 24:36-41)
All true Christians will soon leave this earth and go to be with the Lord. This
will happen "In a moment, in the 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." (1 Corinthians 15:51) "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall
all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in
the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 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." (Matthew 24:30-31)
If you see many people, likely millions, suddenly
vanish from the face of the earth, the rapture has likely occurred. Anyone who
doesn't believe in the rapture of the church soon will!
How does this affect you? Well, if the rapture
hasn't already happened you can become a Christian, a believer in Jesus Christ
the Son of God. This is called being saved. This acceptance of Jesus is explained at the page Salvation."
What it will be like after the Rapture:
For a while everything will be disturbed, people
will likely wonder if they too, will suddenly disappear, like did many people
at that great moment. They will not have to worry about this though, because
Christ only takes those who have followed him, and he takes them all. They have
something much worse before them, seven years of tribulation. Times will be tough, and many people will be killed. However, those who
accept Christ at this time can be saved.
Many rumors will likely be going around about
what happened. Maybe they will say that UFO's came and took us away so the
world could go on without Christians. Whatever the speculations may be, the
true understanding can be found in God's Word, the Bible.
If you do not think this will be a devastating
event, consider what happened in America on September 11, 2001. One plane crashed into the ground, three the planes hit buildings, two of the buildings fell, and one of them started
on fire. That's basically all that happened to cause such a ruckus. Don't think
I'm underestimating the value of lives, but people are wicked, and as the
Scripture saith, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9)
If those few men could make such an impact on
America and the world, could not the absence of likely millions of drivers,
pilots, air traffic controllers, police, firefighters, doctors, ambulance
drivers, power line repairers, astronauts and thousands of other people that
keep things working, clean, supplied, and much, much more! To the extreme, if a
worldwide absence of Christians came, the only thing you could do is rent a
movie! And maybe not even that!
Let us now look at the other extreme. It is
possible that there will be not a very big deal, that this world is so
unpopulated with Christians that business will go on almost as usual. However,
this is a much more unlikely result. Whatever happens down here is not of much
significance to me, though, because I will be with my Saviour, in Heaven.
How this affects you before the Rapture:
"Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour
as ye think not the Son of man cometh." (Matthew 24:44)
Our time on earth is short: if we do as He commands in His Word, we receive
rewards in Heaven. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth
and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up
for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves do not break through nor steal:" (Matthew 6:19-20)
However, if you haven't personally received Jesus
Christ as your saviour, it doesn't matter if you spend all your time doing good works, you will not get to Heaven when you die, you will
go to Hell, which is an awful place to spend Eternity, in unquenchable fire.
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