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Highlands Today

Rapture Is Biblical

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Jerry R. McCauley

Published: March 6, 2009

First, let me state emphatically that the 66 books of the Bible are the only authority for faith and practice. All of these books are in the sacred canon of Scripture! Mr. Gillis in his letter "Christianity vs. Rapturism" wrote of some believers in the Rapture reading The Secrets of Enoch and treating it as Scripture. The fact is the Rapture truth comes from the Word of God! So the Rapture did not just come into our vocabulary after 1950, as stated by Mr. Gillis, but it is a Biblical doctrine hundreds of years old.

To be sure, the word "Rapture" is not in the Bible, but the concept of Rapture is clearly taught in the Bible. The Rapture of the church is the event in which God removes all believers from the earth in order to make way for His righteous judgment to be poured out on the earth during the Tribulation period described in Revelation 4:1-19:21. The Rapture, a term given by theologians to a Biblical event, is described primarily in I Thessalonians 4:13-18 and I Corinthians 15:50-54.

To correctly understand the Second Coming of Christ, one must realize that there are two phases to it; namely Rapture and Revelation. The Rapture takes place in the air; "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 left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will be with the Lord forever."

Then, after seven years of Tribulation on earth when the Anti-christ is in control, the Revelation of Christ will take place as Jesus comes to conquer evil at the battle of Armageddon and being His glorious 1,000 year reign on earth as Lord of Lords and King of Kings; Revelation 19 and 20. As we view world conditions it seems the Rapture could be very near! Hallelujah!

Jerry R. McCauley
Lake Placid

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