Rapture: Scriptural or Not…?

August 23rd 2024

All of those who were resurrected in the first resurrection were blessed and it began in AD33 with Jesus Christ and those who were resurrected after Him in Matthew 27:51-53. The first resurrection ended in AD66. Those who saints who were disembodied souls waiting in Hades were resurrected. Those who were saints who were alive at the coming of the Lord in AD66 were changed into their Spiritual body that God had reserved for them in Heaven and then raptured off the Earth into Heaven.

After that the resurrection of the just and the unjust occurred for the dead from the Whole Creation going back to the beginning of creation at the Great White Throne Judgement that occurred in AD70 in the unseen Spiritual realm after the Jerusalem and the Temple was destroyed.

Revelation 20:5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.

Matthew 27:51 And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.

Josephus “Moreover at that feast which we call Pentecost [June 66 AD], as the priests were going by night into the inner [court of the] temple, as their custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that, in the first place, they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound as of a great multitude, saying, ‘Let us remove hence.’”[Wars 6.299 (6.5.3)]

Enoch Foreshadowed the Rapture:

Enoch was raptured which was a type, for what would happen as the antitype to the first century saints according to what Jesus said.

Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God.

Matthew 16:28 “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”

Matthew 6:29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!

2 Corinthians 5:2 For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, 3 inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. 4 For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.

The Mystery of Resurrection

1 Corinthians 15:50 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

1 Corinthians 15:44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.

Quotes About the Rapture from Ed Stevens:

“Note that Josephus gives us the exact day and hour when this event occurred (on the day of Pentecost at the hour of the evening sacrifices), where it occurred (in the Jerusalem Temple), and who witnessed it (the officiating priests). The Jewish priests testified about what they felt and heard in the Temple at night on Pentecost in the year AD 66, at the very time when the Zealot war with Rome was about to begin.

“This transfer of a large multitude from one place to another in the unseen realm seems to have been the resurrection of the dead and the change of the living saints, when they were caught up to be with Christ. This event occurred at Pentecost, fifty days after Passover. Notice also that it occurred at night, not during the daytime. That explains why no one noticed the snatching away of the living saints.” — page 221, “Final Decade”, Ed Stevens

“Let us Remove”, Ed Stevens, p. 10-11, 16, Fulfilled Magazine, Winter 2012 (free pdf.)

“End Quote”

Edward E. Stevens “Quote” from Gary DeMar’s Facebook page on August 22 2024

A lot of Bible believing folks don’t realize that the Latin Vulgate version of 1Thess. 4:17 has the word “rapiemur” which comes from the root word “rapio.” When rapio or rapiemur is translated into English, it is rendered as “rapture.” The Latin word rapio means the same thing as the Greek word “harpazo” – to snatch away or to be caught up. The Italian versions (CEI 2008 and 1974, and Nuova Riveduta 1994) all have “rapiti” which is also translated “rapture.” So, if you use the Latin Bible, the word “rapture” IS IN THE BIBLE. And if you use the Greek, it is “harpazo.” Both Latin and Greek words can be translated as “snatch away” or “caught up” (or raptured) in 1Thess 4:17.

Here is a list of all the verses which use the Greek word “harpazo” – Matt. 11:12; 12:29; 13:19; John 6:15; 10:12, 28-29; Acts 8:39; 23:10; 2 Cor. 12:2, 4; 1 Th. 4:17; Jude 1:23; Rev. 12:5. Notice the following verses especially (note the words in ALL CAPS):

Acts 8:39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord SNATCHED Philip AWAY; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing.

2 Cor. 12:2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago — whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows — such a man was CAUGHT UP to the third heaven.

2 Cor. 12:4 was CAUGHT UP into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.

1Th. 4:17 Then we who are alive and remain will be CAUGHT UP together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

Rev. 12:5 And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was CAUGHT UP to God and to His throne.

“End Quote”

Conclusion:

Jesus did not have to die a second time physically after He was resurrected before His Ascension. He was raptured into Heaven which we call His Ascension. He had a bodily change from physical to a Life-giving Spirit before He enter into Heaven where flesh and blood cannot enter. Just like those who were alive at His second coming who did not have to taste death but were changed into their Spiritual body in AD66.

The Gospel probably continued to spread by other people who were not believers at the time of the rapture who had heard the Gospel and responded to the calling later on and became believers. There was a mystical silence for many decades after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and the power of the people shattered.

Here is what happens to everyone post AD70 resurrection. We neither get resurrected or raptured. We receive a Spiritual body and go to Heaven to sit at the Judgment seat of Christ. Then all of those in Christ put on immortality and the rest stay mortal and go to the Lake of Fire.

Edward E. Stevens “Quote” Facebook Sept. 01 2024

How Did the Rapture Happen Without Anyone Noticing It and Reporting It?

On another FaceBook group, one critic of the rapture asked how the rapture could have occurred without any unbelievers noticing it and recording it. Here is my response:

It seems like you think that our concept of the rapture is the same as the futurist “Left Behind” idea, i.e. unchanged PHYSICAL bodies visibly floating up into the sky. It would be perfectly normal to reject that kind of a rapture, because that is obviously NOT what happened at the Parousia.

Furthermore, almost all of those who are skeptical of the rapture have misunderstood the way in which it occurred. They failed to understand the BODILY CHANGE of the living saints, and how that change from mortal to immortal instantly translated those living saints into the UNSEEN realm without having to die first.

And once they were in the unseen realm, and no longer visible on earth, they were united with the resurrected saints as one group and “caught up together with them” to meet Christ in the mid-heaven (“air”) above in the UNSEEN realm. So, the catching up (rapture) did not occur in the VISIBLE realm, nor were there any PHYSICAL bodies caught up. Their bodies were CHANGED first, before they were caught upMoreover, the reason why no unbelievers saw them vanish, and did not report it, is because of the following factors:

The Neronic persecution (AD 64-66) was happening at the time of the Parousia and Rapture. This means that the Christians were in hiding, and meeting secretly behind closed doors with no unbelievers allowed to be among them.

And unbelievers were afraid to be associated with the Christians for fear of being arrested and killed. It was like the situation in Nazi Germany during World War Two. When the Jews were arrested in the night and taken away to be killed, their non-Jewish neighbors did not run down to the local Gestapo to report them missing for fear that they might be arrested also.

Hebrews 10:25 (written in AD 63 a year before the Neronic persecution began) urged the saints to faithfully continue assembling on the first day of every week, especially as they saw the signs that His coming was drawing near. And Luke’s account of the Olivet Discourse told them that when they see the Son of Man coming in the sky to “lift up their heads because their redemption was drawing near” (Luke 21:28).

Josephus, Yosippon, and Hegesippus give us “the day and the hour” when the angelic armies were seen in the sky signaling that the Parousia had begun. It was exactly two weeks before Pentecost (AD 66), which was a first day of the week. He tells us that the angelic armies were seen “just before sunset” at the very time when the saints were on their way to their first day assemblies. Can you imagine how ecstatic and electrified they were when they got behind closed doors? This was the sign that they had been waiting for.

Josephus also gives us “the day and the hour” when the resurrection-rapture event took place. He says that the priests after dark on the evening of Pentecost (first day of the week) heard a great multitude in the unseen realm saying that they were leaving one place in the unseen realm and going to another place in the unseen realm. That was the resurrection of the dead out of Hades. It happened in the unseen realm. Nobody saw it.

Apostle Paul tells us that the BODILY CHANGE of the living saints would occur at the very same moment “in the blink of an eye” when the dead were RAISED out of Hades. And Josephus gives us the exact day and hour when that occurred (Pentecost in AD 66). After seeing the angelic armies appear in the sky two weeks before, we can only imagine how anxiously and expectantly those saints must have assembled on that first day of the week.

And while they were assembled in secret behind closed doors after dark, their bodies were changed and translated into the unseen realm where they were caught up together with the resurrected saints to meet Christ in the unseen realm above and remain with Him forever afterwards.

Thus, the non-Christians never saw the saints disappear. It happened in secret behind closed doors on the first day of the week (Pentecost in AD 66).

If anyone noticed that the Christians were gone, they would only have thought that they were arrested in the night and taken away to be killed, or that they fled in the night to escape the persecution.

That is how the rapture occurred without any non-Christians noticing it and reporting it. Hope that helps.

“End Quote”

Opponents to the rapture will use John 17:15 to defend their position on refuting the rapture. There are problems with this means of interpretation of Jesus not praying for His disciples not to be taken out of the world.

In John 17:6-19 Jesus prayed for His disciples and in verse 15 He says: I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.

Jesus had recently told His Disciples that they would have to drink from the same cup as He did. If Jesus would have prayed for them to be taken out of the world, it would have been inappropriate suggestion. That would have been like Jesus asking for them to be tortured and killed. The context to the real meaning behind John 17 was not about His Disciples being raptured, they would have been all martyred including John by the time AD66 rolled around for the rapture. The real meaning was for them to not be part of the world and to be kept free from the influence of the evil one.

Mark 10:37 They said to Him, “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.” 38 But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” 39 They said to Him, “We are able.” So Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized;

Many ask: how then did the gospel continue to spread and how could they hear except those who are sent?

Edward E. Stevens “Quote” All true Christians were raptured.

Before the rapture, the gospel had been preached to countless myriads of people, most of whom did not believe before the Parousia. But afterward, some of them saw the amazing fulfillments of Jesus’ prophecies of the destruction of Jerusalem and believed.

Also, the apostles and their traveling companions made hundreds of copies of their epistles and distributed them to all the churches scattered all over the Roman world. There are 8000+ fragments of those copies of copies of copies still in existence today. And Justin Martyr (early second century Christian writer) said that he became a believer by reading some of those NT manuscripts that were left behind.

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