The Rapture is popularly referred to by Bible-believing Christians as the snatching away into heaven of the Church, or Body of Christ, by the Lord Jesus Christ. This occurrence is real and has been foretold in the Word of God as one of God's prophetic end-times events. We believe that this event, translated from the Greek, Harpazo, will precede the Great Tribulation, also known as the Time of Jacob's Trouble or Daniel's Seventieth Week. The Great Tribulation is a time when God's wrath will be poured out on earth dwellers - those left behind - for judgment. It precedes Christ Jesus' return to defeat the evil wrought by the Antichrist and destroy the world systems that he (Antichrist) will have put in place, including his global totalitarian reign and false world religion.
The Second Coming of Christ is equally real. Jesus - our Yeshua Ha Mashiach - Himself testified:
"... and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven" (Mark 14:62).
There are various signs that shall precede the Rapture and Lord Yeshua's return. These signs can be found in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.
In the Book of Matthew, for instance, Yeshua gave several of these signs that we can watch for:
“See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many. You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.
“Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
“Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or 'There He is,’ do not believe him. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you in advance. So if they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them. For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.
“But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other."
Many geo-political events occurring in the world today are in fulfilment or partial fulfilment of the end-times' signs spoken of by Yeshua. Wars and rumors of war; famines and earthquakes; morality on the decline; and false prophets and antisemitic sentiments on the rise: these global political and social events represent the pieces of God's prophetic jigsaw we see falling into place. The convergence of these events exploding in the headlines every day is proof that we are living in the last days prior to the Rapture and Yeshua's Second Coming. As noted prophecy teacher and author, Chuck Missler (Strategic Trends, The Cosmic Codes), has aptly put it, we are living in the times of the (last-days) signs.
In subsequent posts we shall discuss these and other current world events further and submit them as proof of the imminence of the Rapture and return of the Messiah, Christ Jesus.