Authors note:Due to my need to concentrate on other matters as I prepare for speaking at the Colorado Springs Prophecy Watchers Conference, my commentaries this week will be selections I’ve written in the recent past. This is from February20, 2023.
This Rapture Generation
My commentary title this week will likely be construed by some as audacious because it impliesthat people of Earth alive now are those who will, without doubt, be the generation of believers who go to Christ in the Rapture, doesn’t it?
Those who have named specific dates for that stupendous event have earned consternation through the years, and deservedly so. Jesus Himself declared that no one but the Father knows the day or hour when it will occur. And certainly, to date, that truth has played out exactly as He said.
Yet, at the same time, the Apostle Paul implied that he would be part of the generation that would be raptured:
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 Thessalonians 4:15–18)
Paul obviously expected to be part of those who would be living when Christ calls believers to Himself in the Rapture. The pronouns used are pretty clear, aren’t they? Yet Paul has been dead for two thousand years or so, and the Rapture is still in the future, as we are all too aware.
So is God’s Word (the “Word” who, in fact, is the Lord Jesus Christ, according to John 1:1) less than truthful through the prophecy given Paul regarding the Rapture? We know the answer to that is a resounding “no.”God cannot lie, therefore we are to think through Paul’s words with our born-again, Holy Spirit-influenced discernment to understand the statement. Paul’s declaration was as audacious as my title for this commentary, I think.
So what is this seeming contradiction all about?
The answer, I believe, is found in another familiar statement by Paul, one we use frequently in studying the Rapture.
Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. (Titus 2:13)
I believe that wrapped up in this profound statement of faith is an instruction to all believers. During thisAge of Grace(Church Age), we’re to be earnestly expecting Jesus to snatch us from this fallen sphere at any moment. This instruction—this commandment—has been in effect since the Church was born (Acts chapter 2). Every believer since that time should treat the promise of the Rapture as if it absolutely will take place while we are still living on Earth.
As a matter of fact, all who love the prospect of Christ’s appearing are promised a crown of righteousness.
With this in mind, the title, “This Rapture Generation,”is appropriate for those of us who are believers now. Jesus will come for us in the Rapture at any moment—perhaps today!
I hope to go much deeper in expressing this certainty. And we do go deeper with each and every article presented. At least that is our aim.
The signals are brilliantly projected for those with discerning spirits to understand. Our Lord is unfolding prophetic signals of such unmistakable significance that we would have to look in another direction to miss just how near we are to the Tribulation. The Rapture is thus right at the exit door of human history for believers in Jesus Christ.
Sadly, most who should be helping God’s children focus on the lateness of the hour continue to feed only baby’s milk about how to grow into Christian adulthood.
Such spiritual food isn’t bad, of course. The Scripture is necessary to spiritual growth. But there comes the time that requires us to take a deep look into just how late the hour is on God’s prophetic timeline. We are now very near that instant of Rapture.
This is almost certainly the Rapture generation, and I cannot feel sheepish in declaring it.
Tell everyone you know, using your own words, the soul-saving truth encompassed by Paul’s Holy Spirit-given formula for going in the Rapture when Christ calls:
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)
