I WANT TO BE READY! I WANT TO BE READY!
II Kings 2:11 As they were walking along and talking together suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.
There is another case in the Bible where it appears that someone went to be with God without dying. This was in Gen 5:24 where it says, “Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.
Today modern Christianity has called this being raptured up to heaven or to be with God. In Matt 24:40,41 it says, “Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.” And in I Thess 4:13-18 it says,
“Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep (dead), or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.
There are many different interpretations as to how all this will take place and when. For the truly impartial student, I believe that there must be kept an open mind in this. I know that there are many that are positive that they know all the answers to the rapture, but to be honest they can not say with 100% certainty that they are correct. Although we do know from what Jesus said it must certainly happen.
When will it happen? Jesus said that the angels don’t even know, so we need to be careful about setting dates or times such as pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation or post-tribulation. There are scripture verses that can point to all three. Pre-tribulation is in Rev 3:10. Mid-Tribulation is in Rev 14:14-19. And Post-Tribulation is in Rev 19:7-9. Since God seems to want to keep the time a secret I assume that he must not want people taking advantage of it, because they really don’t love Jesus. There will be some that just want to escape either death or going to hell. In Rev 10:4 & 7 the apostle John hears an angel say something, but is told that he can not write this down because it is supposed to be a mystery. Then in Rev 14:14-20 there is a great harvest that takes place by angels from earth that are both of the righteous and the unrighteous. I personally see where this could be the rapture from the standpoint that non-Christians would justify what happened as a tragedy that wasn’t from God. By doing it this way people would not try to take advantage of God. God wants only those in heaven that truly love him and want to be with him for who his is and not necessarily what he can do or to avoid punishment. We also see that in the time of the plagues in Egypt that God did not start making a distinction between the Egyptians and the Hebrews until about halfway through the plagues,and once again this is only speculation on my part. This is why I do as Jesus said in Matt 24:36-51 & Matt 25:1-13 where the wise person will be ready at a moment's notice to stand before the Lord. After all it doesn’t take the rapture to go to be with the Lord. People have been doing this since the creation of Adam and Eve, and it is called death. This takes us to the next question about the rapture. Will we die a physical death and immediately be caught up to be with Jesus, or as some believe never die and have our bodies taken up like Enoch or Elijah? Once again we really can’t say with 100% certainty.
Most people that believe in pre-tribulation are positive in their thinking that they will not leave a body behind, and it will be a bodily rapture. A problem with this is that in I Cor 15:50-54 it says, “I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep (die), but we will all be changed - in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” I Cor 15:49 also says,
“And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.” So it is indeed a mystery. To be set in a certain mindset could destroy a person’s faith and confidence in Jesus, if the rapture doesn’t happen just the way they believed.
So what was my purpose in sharing this with you? Well, it wasn’t to cause controversy or confusion! It was to share a blessed hope that all Christians could have, and this is that at any given moment we could find ourselves standing before Jesus. We need to be ready! No one is guaranteed another breath.
I guess the obvious question is for all of us us is are we ready? If not let’s not let another moment go by! If you have never asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins and to come into your heart you need to do this right now. If you have done this you need to be living in an excited expectation of being with Jesus. This should change your entire outlook on your day, and life in general as well as those around you.
Prayer: Lord, we want to be ready at any given moment to be whisked away to be with you! Please help us not to become lulled into a complacency that would leave us with regrets. We love you Jesus, and we want to be with you! We ask this in your holy name.
