Gloryland's New Christian Series Bible course may be copied freely, but must not be sold except to recover the cost of copying or printing. We only ask that proper credit be given and that you notify us if you are copying or distributing the course or making links to it on the Internet. Please let us know if you translate the course into another language, or if you wish to have it translated into another language. © Copyright 1994 Linton M. Smith Jr.

This is a study of The Rapture of the Church, Lesson #8 in the New Christian Series. The primary references for this study are I Corinthians 15:51-55; I Thessalonians 4:14-18; Revelation 4:1-4; John 11:25-26; Song of Solomon 2:6-10; and Job 37:1-4.

The rapture of the church is a subject of great interest to all true believers earnestly awaiting the coming of "the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords" (I Timothy 6:15), who will soon return to take us out of this world. However, there are many who lack even the most basic knowledge of this glorious event. While this study is hardly exhaustive, the author hopes that it will give a clear understanding of this glorious doctrine, the rapture.

As His children we should be ready to meet Him with the confidence that everything we have committed unto Him is secure forever (II Timothy 1:12). Furthermore, as His stewards we should be ready to stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ to give a good account of those things He has committed unto us (I Peter 4:10; I Corinthians 4:1,2). We do not want to be ashamed of our lives and works when we stand before the Lord face to face, nor do we want Him to be ashamed of us.

In Lesson 6, we learned about the resurrection body that will clothe every believer at the Lord’s return. At that time, the Lord Jesus Christ will change our vile, sinful bodies of flesh into perfect, sinless, glorified bodies like His own. Then we will leave this earth, rise to meet Jesus in the air, and go to Heaven to receive our eternal reward.

However, we are presently living in a period commonly referred to as the Church Age. During this Church Age, God has been forming a spiritual body made up of all born again believers (not to be confused with any so-called universal ecumenical church on the earth). When God saves a man, the Holy Spirit makes him a part of this spiritual body, and establishes his home in Heaven (John 14:1-3; Ephesians 2:6). In this spiritual body there is no respect of persons.

In contrast, the physical body of Christ upon the earth consists of saved Jews and saved Gentiles. This was a great mystery until it was revealed to Paul (the apostle to the Gentiles). He speaks about it in his letter to the Ephesians.

Paul also speaks of the formation of this spiritual body in his letter to the Corinthian church.

• Of course, this body of Christ is the church.

The Church Age began nearly 2000 years ago when the Holy Ghost was sent down by the Lord Jesus Christ on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1) in fulfillment of the promise He made in Acts 1.

It was then that the Holy Spirit began baptizing believers into "the church, which is his body" (the supernatural body of Christ, now made up of all born again believers in Heaven and on earth).

Believers are to be His "witnesses" to the lost everywhere. When this supernatural body is completed, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come back and take us out of this world. This event is commonly called the rapture.

When believers die, their souls go to Heaven, but their bodies go to the grave, where they rot and turn to dust. In the incarnation, Christ partook of a natural human body so that through death He might take away from Satan the power of death. If Christ had not conquered death at Calvary and taken away the keys to death and Hell, the Devil would still have the power to keep our bodies in the grave. Before Calvary, Satan had power over death, but after Calvary, Satan was stripped of that power.

One day Christ will return and take our bodies out of the grave by His power, as we are caught up together with Him and carried away to Heaven. Perhaps the scene will be similar to that recorded by Jude.

When Moses died (Deuteronomy 32:5,6) it was the Lord Himself who buried Moses. From Jude, we learn that the Lord later resurrected Moses’ body. In fact, we see Moses appearing with Christ and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17:1-5. The Lord resurrected the body of Moses for this appearance. When He did this, Michael the Archangel had to contend with the devil about bringing his body up, because he was being resurrected before Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. Since the devil still held the power of death at that time, he contended that he had the right to keep Moses’ body. (The Lord had not yet died on the cross to pay the price of the redemption of that body.) Of course, the Lord simply rebuked the devil and brought up Moses’ body anyway. Since Christ paid the price for our redemption with His own blood, He can now raise the bodies of ALL believers from the grave without contention. Therefore, at His command, they will literally come out of the grave by the power of His word. That resurrection body will be a new, glorified body like His own.

Because the word "rapture" isn’t actually found in the Bible, some object to its frequent use in referring to this event. However, their objections are foolish because other commonly used words like "Millennium" and "Trinity" are not in the Bible either. Nonetheless, we continue to use them because they describe these doctrines so well.

The previous lesson on The Resurrection Body is very closely related to this lesson on The Rapture. At the moment the believer’s body is caught up from the grave, it will be changed. In that new resurrection body, we will be taken up to the third Heaven to stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ (cf. I Corinthians 15:42-52).

One of the seven mysteries mentioned in the New Testament is the formation of the body of Christ (in the Church Age). It was never before understood until revealed to the apostle Paul (Romans 16:25; Ephesians 3:1-7).

Another "mystery" revealed to Paul is the rapture of the saints, in which "this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality" (I Corinthians 15:53).

As we have already seen in our lesson on The Resurrection Body, the Bible indicates that our new body will have no blood. Can you imagine what it will be like for an unsaved man to be in a church service when the rapture takes place? At one moment, he is in a room filled with people— then the trumpet sounds. Suddenly, "in the twinkling of an eye" (I Corinthians 15:52), all the saved people disappear before his very eyes. Left behind will be nothing but their clothing, and hundreds of gallons of blood all over the floor! Why, the man would probably lose his mind! It will be a terrible time for the lost, but a glorious occasion for believers caught up to be with the Lord. Only then will life for us truly begin, for troubles and trials will be no more.

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Old Testament prophets wrote about this marvelous event, but none understood it until God revealed it to Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. (That they did not understand the things they themselves wrote confirms the divine inspiration of scripture.) The Bible says "All scripture is given by inspiration of God" (II Timothy 3:16), and that "holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (II Peter 1:21). Peter verifies that these Old Testament prophets often wrote about things they didn’t understand themselves.

The Old Testament prophets knew nothing about the Church Age and the rapture of the church because it was not revealed to them.

Paul means we shall not all die. That is what he means by the word "sleep" in verse 51. This can be seen more clearly in John 11:11-14, where Jesus told the mourners, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." They did not understand what He was talking about, so He told them plainly that he was dead. In writing to the Corinthians about the believers’ future resurrection, Paul instructed them, "We shall not all sleep." All the saints will not have died when Jesus Christ comes back. If our blessed Lord returned in our lifetime, we would be among those covered in the last part of this verse: "but we shall all be changed." When the rapture takes place, some believers will be raised from the dead and some will be caught up alive, but all will be changed. Our mortal bodies will become immortal, glorified bodies just like Christ’s body (cf. I John 3:1-3 and Philippians 3:20-21). All these things will take place faster than the blink of an eye.

"The twinkling of an eye" is not the actual blink of an eye. Rather, it is the motion of an eye when it’s just starting to blink. Because it is so fast, its speed can only be estimated (about 1/1000 of a second). We cannot imagine how fast that is, but that is how quickly the rapture will take place. Just think, if some unsaved person were sitting across the table from you and the trumpet sounded they would not even see you go if they blinked their eyes.

The word trump in verse 52 seems to be a difficulty for many Bible teachers. Rather than discover the meaning of the word by examining the context, they follow the new Bible perversions and change the word to trumpet— but that is incorrect. The King James Bible is God’s word, and the words in the King James Bible are the inspired words of God. "The last trump" is correct. The "trump" is simply the sounding of the trumpet. Now, there are some who teach that the church will go through the tribulation. They say that the trumpet mentioned in I Corinthians 15:52 is the last trumpet sounded in Revelation 11:15, which blows after the tribulation is over. But the King James Bible is careful to say last trump, distinguishing it from the last trumpet. Paul does not say this is the sound of the last trumpet, but rather the last trump (or sound) of this particular trumpet that will sound at the time of the rapture. Because all the new perversions of the Bible say last trumpet here, they are contributing to the heretical teaching that the church will go through the terrible time of the future Great Tribulation. However, the scriptures clearly teach that the church will not go through that time of tribulation.

The Lord will not descend when the last trumpet sounds, but upon the last trump of this particular trumpet.

Since He says "the last trump," it would seem that the trumpet is sounded more than once. It appears that there is one blast that signals the dead in Christ to rise, and then a second blast that signals the living to be changed and go up.

"[A]nd the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (I Corinthians 15:52). There are two classes of people mentioned in this text— the dead saints and the living saints. This agrees with Jesus’ conversation with Martha about Lazarus.

• The first class of believers who "shall be changed" when Jesus Christ returns are those who "were dead, yet shall… live."
• The second class of believers— those who "shall never die," are those who will still be alive when the Lord returns.

Notice in I Corinthians 15:52, that Paul is careful to say, "WE shall be changed," including himself. (Paul earnestly expected the rapture to take place in his lifetime.) Every believer should live in earnest expectation and hope that the Lord will return to take us to Heaven before we see death. Paul’s deep longing for the Lord’s return earned him a crown of righteousness, which we can win also.

Again, we see two classes of people that will be raptured. The first class, "this corruptible," refers to those believers who are now deceased— those whose bodies are in the grave. But when Christ returns, these will put on "incorruption." The new body that comes out of the grave won’t be the same corruptible body that went into the grave, but a new incorruptible body that will never again get old, never sorrow, never suffer, and never die.

The rest of the verse ("And this mortal must put on immortality") refers to the second class— living Christians. The word "mortal" means "subject to death" (pertaining to our fleshly bodies). We are all mere mortals temporarily dwelling in bodies that are subject to death. But if Christ returns in our lifetime, we will be changed and will "put on immortality." Our new bodies will not be subject to death. Jesus said, "Neither can they die any more" (Luke 20:36).

When the Lord returns, death will be swallowed up in victory, and we will be able to sing the song Victory in Jesus in a way we have never sung it before. Jesus won the victory over death, and that victory is ours in Him.

There will be no sting of death for believers who are still alive at Christ’s return, because they will not have to die. Furthermore, the grave will have no victory over those already dead in Christ, because the grave will not be able to hold them. He will raise their bodies up out of the grave by the power of His word.

We know that "the strength of sin is the law," and that "sin is the transgression of the law" (I John 3:4). The Law was given so we would know what sin is, and that all are guilty of sin. (Also see Romans 4:15; 5:13 and 7:7.)

At the rapture, we will get our new bodies. Our victory will be complete then— we will have victory over the flesh forever. As a reminder of this, every believer should memorize the following verse.

We turn now to I Thessalonians 4, where we find more about this marvelous and wonderful event, the rapture of the Church.

Paul admonishes believers to "sorrow not," for there is no need to grieve over saved loved ones who have departed to be with the Lord. We need not fear if we know they are gone on to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. They are far happier over there, with their blessed Saviour in glory, than they ever were in this life. It is a great tragedy then, when the lost die and leave their loved ones brokenhearted and grief-stricken. They do not have the comfort the believer has, for without God, they have no hope.

• Without hope and without God, the unsaved have nothing to look forward to but eternal punishment in the Lake of Fire.

How different is the hope in the heart of the Christian! At death, he goes to Heaven where there is prepared for him indescribable riches in glory. He has that sure hope and certain expectation, in Christ.

• According to Webster’s Dictionary hope can mean, "To feel that something desired may happen as in: ‘We hope for an early spring.’"

But hope, as used in the Bible (regarding our eternal destiny) never means simply a possibility that a certain thing may occur. The Bible definition of the word "hope," is found in the Random House Thesaurus,⁶ "confidence, assurance, or expectation."

We have far more than the mere desire that our salvation might be in Christ, or that Jesus may come again. We know that we are saved now, and look forward to His coming with confidence and anticipation because of its certainty. The so-called Church of Christ, Roman Catholic Church, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and other false religions teach that salvation is by faith and works. They take the word hope to mean "maybe" or "possibly" we are going to Heaven. But the Bible never uses this word in that sense. The Bible believing Christian can KNOW he is saved (I John 5:12-13). The basis of his confidence is nothing less than God’s Holy Word.

The Christian’s hope is Christ Himself. Because He lives, we know that one day He will return to give us our new, sinless, glorified bodies like that of the Lord Jesus. Then we will be rid of the our old sinful, worn out, temporal bodies in which we now dwell. Believers still strive daily against temptation, and seek after holiness. They all have a longing for that new, sinless, perfect body that will no longer be subject to sin. Then they can serve the Lord perfectly. That is our hope: knowing that one day He will come back and give us that body. It is a sure thing. There is no doubt about it— He will do it.

Some other examples of this use of the word "hope" are found in the following scriptures. While some use these verses to teach salvation by works, we will see that they do not teach a hope-so salvation. Rather, they teach us to have confidence and expectation in a future event.

Some use the phrase "saved by hope" to try to prove that we can only hope we are saved (not yet knowing). But reading verses 23 and 24 together, we see the truth. While believers’ souls are saved right now, we are still "waiting for the redemption of our body." The redemption of our bodies will not take place until the rapture when the Lord Jesus Christ will give us glorified bodies like His own. So when Paul says, "we are saved by hope," he is talking about our future resurrection body.

Verse 2 tells of our new glorified body. When Jesus comes back, we are going to be made like him. That is our hope; confidence and assurance in a future event with the certain expectation of obtaining it.

That "blessed hope" we are looking for is the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ when we will receive our new bodies.

The "hope of eternal life" is the "blessed hope" we are looking for— when we will receive our new resurrection bodies that will never die. Our souls have eternal life right now (present tense), but our bodies do not. Our hope of eternal life lies in the Lord’s promise to return and give us a body that will never die. That will happen, because He "promised," and "he is faithful that promised" (Hebrews 10:23).

What are we hoping for— "Maybe we will make it and maybe we won’t?" No! We "hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." That "grace" includes the new bodies we’re hoping to the end for.

That hope we are looking for is already laid up for us in Heaven, but the only way we will ever get it is for the Lord Jesus Christ to return and bring it to us. We are not in a "maybe we will make it and maybe we won’t" situation— our hope is laid up for us in Heaven now, just waiting for us. The question is not, "Will we get it?" but "When will we get it?" In I Corinthians, Paul speculates about the way things would have been if the Lord Jesus Christ had not risen from the dead. In that case, we would have no hope, and we would all be heading for Hell. We would be going nowhere but to a grave if He had not risen. But He did come up, so we do have that blessed hope.

Thank God, Christ is risen! Paul is only speculating about what the consequences would have been if He had not risen. If Jesus Christ had not risen from the grave, Christians now departed have no hope: they are "perished" (verse 18). And because our only hope would be based on an event that never took place, we would have no hope either, and would be more miserable than anyone. Surely we must give praise to God that the Lord Jesus Christ has risen from the grave (verse 20)!

Although the believer’s soul is saved now, his body is still waiting to be saved at the rapture.

The gospel, as set forth by Paul in I Corinthians 15:1-4, is that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day. Surely Paul had the gospel in mind when writing to the Thessalonians. Paul says, "them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." This refers to believers whose souls the Lord will bring back with Him upon His return— bringing back all believers who have ever died.

When a believer dies, his soul leaves his body. Stepping out into the spirit world, that soul goes up to the third Heaven to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. It will remain there until Christ returns and clothes it with a new resurrection body.

Now let’s look at Genesis 35 for another example of the soul departing from the body at death.

Paul would not have said, "to die is gain" if his only expectation was to go to the grave. No, Paul means that at death he would gain his eternal home where he would be with Christ forever. These verses teach that when a Christian dies, he goes to be with Christ, but his corruptible body does not go to be with Christ. That dead body goes to the grave, but the soul and spirit leave that body and go to be with Christ.

When we die, our souls will leave our bodies, and will immediately be present with the Lord. This means that those who teach that Hell is the grave, and that the soul remains in an unconscious state until Christ’s return, are teaching a lie (i.e. Charles Russell’s cult, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Herbert Armstrong’s cult, the Worldwide Church of God [with its magazine The Plain Truth]). In reference to the fate of the believer’s soul at the time of death, two things are very clear:

1. At death, the Christian’s soul goes to be with Christ— not to Hell.

2. Hell is not the grave.

Paul said, "we which are alive," because he was expecting the Lord to return in his lifetime. He says, "[W]e...shall not prevent them which are asleep." The old English word "prevent" means "to go before" (pre— before, vent— to go out). So Christians still alive at His coming will not go up before the dead, for "the dead in Christ" will rise first.

Next, we read that "the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven." This is the personal, physical appearance of the Lord to the believer at the literal, physical, bodily resurrection from the grave. When this rapture and resurrection take place, the graves will literally burst open. We know this is true, because we read in Matthew 27 of a previous resurrection that took place when Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

As fantastic as it seems, the rapture will take place at the end of the Church Age in the same way, and the bodies of the dead in Christ will come out of their graves. That resurrection will be initiated "with a shout" (I Thessalonians 4:16), and we will doubtless hear the Lord say, "Come up hither," just as John the apostle (a type of the believer in Christ) heard when he was caught up to Heaven (Revelation 4).

That is the trumpet sounded to signal the rapture of the Church (the body of Christ). Notice that in Revelation 11, a second rapture takes place. Again a voice from heaven shouts the command, "Come up hither," and the two witnesses (Moses and Elijah) are caught up to Heaven.

I believe that when the Church is caught up to be with the Lord, we too will hear a voice calling, "Come up hither." The living saints will follow after the saints who resurrected from their graves, and together we will rise to meet our Saviour in the air. What a time it will be when the grave will no longer be able to hold back the dead, and overcoming the natural law of gravity, we will all fly away to our home in Heaven! Furthermore, because of what the Lord says in the gospel of John, I believe that at the moment He says, "Come up hither," the Lord will also call the name of each believer.

Certainly, these "sheep" picture believers, and the leading out of the sheep is the rapture. So, it seems reasonable that we will also hear His voice call our name. How precious the thought, that "he calleth his own sheep by name." Just imagine, on the day the Lord returns, John Smith will hear a voice calling, "John Smith, come up hither," and up he will go. At that moment, "we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." After receiving our glorified bodies we will be caught up into Heaven to be with the Lord forever. I do not believe the unsaved will understand the words He speaks in the same way believers will understand them. The lost will probably think that they heard thunder, like those in John 12:

It appears that those who actually heard the voice were saved people, while those who only heard a noise like thunder were lost people. If this is true, then that’s probably what will happen when the Lord says, "Come up hither." The unsaved will simply think that it thundered, not actually hearing the words, "Come up hither." If they did hear Him call, they would probably go up too, because when the Lord speaks, what He says comes to pass (Genesis 1:3; Psalm 33:9).

I Thessalonians 4:16 tells us that He will descend "with the voice of the archangel." In the Bible, Michael is the only archangel we know about. We read about him in Jude 9, where he contended with the devil over the body of Moses. The Bible doesn’t tell us what the archangel will say when the Lord descends. It may be that the devil will try to interfere with our future resurrection just as he did with the resurrection of Moses. If so, Michael will likely say, "The Lord rebuke thee," just as he did in Jude 9.

Examining these verses in their context, we see that those Pharisees were accusing Jesus Christ of having a devil or unclean spirit. The Pharisees had just seen Jesus cast a devil out of a blind and dumb man (verse 22), but they attributed the miracle to the power of the devil, accusing Jesus of doing this miracle "by Beelzebub the prince of the devils." 

Here, "the strong man" is Satan, and his "house" is the world. In II Corinthians 4, Paul says that Satan is "the god of this world." It appears therefore, that "the strong man’s goods" are people.

Paul also speaks of those caught in "the snare of the devil" (II Timothy 2:26). These verses indicate the power Satan has over men, but praise God, Christ has overcome the devil! Now all who trust in the finished work of Christ are set free from the law of sin and death by the power of His blood (cf. John 12:31 and John 16:1).

The Lord Jesus Christ conquered Satan at Calvary, and He will literally bind him when He returns to establish His kingdom on earth.

Now, however, we are not talking about the establishment of His kingdom, but about the rapture of His church when He will come as "a thief in the night."

Jesus was crucified between two thieves, and when the soldiers came to take Him away in the garden, He spoke these words:

So when He returns to rapture the church (which is His body), He will come upon the lost unexpectedly, as a thief who slips in and steals the best things in the house at the most unexpected moment. The Lord will come back as a bodysnatcher or a grave robber, and though the devil may once again try to interfere (as in Jude 9), he will be unable to keep the Lord Jesus Christ from completing His holy mission.

We have seen in I Thessalonians 4:16-17 that "the dead in Christ shall rise first." That passage of scripture seems to imply that the trumpet will sound once, and the graves of all believers will open as their new bodies come out and fly up to the clouds where the Lord is waiting. Then the trumpet will sound again ("the last trump," as in I Corinthians 15:52), as the bodies of all the living saints will be changed into new glorified bodies "in the twinkling of an eye."

Verse 16 contains one of the greatest promises found anywhere in the word of God. It speaks of the time of our spiritual family reunion in the sky. Because we know this will be the final day of separation from our unsaved loved ones, we should strive to lead them to Christ. After all, a family reunion would not be complete if the mother, father, brother, sister, aunt, or uncle was missing. We should labor in prayer and tears over our family members so that they each can have a place with the rest of us all in this glorious family reunion in the sky. Remember, we need not sorrow over those loved ones "asleep in Jesus" (I Thessalonians 4:13,14).

In verse 17, Paul says, "so shall we ever be with the Lord." He means every Christian will return to this earth with the Lord when He comes back to set up His kingdom. We know from our study of The Christian’s Inheritance that not all believers will reign with Christ. Our reign is a reward we must earn (II Timothy 2:10-13; Colossians 3:23-25; Romans 8:16-18). Eternal life is the gift of God to all who believe, but the privilege to reign with Him depends upon our works.

Because I Thessalonians 4:17 says we will "meet the Lord in the air," we know the Lord will not set foot upon the earth when He comes back for His church. He will stop somewhere in the clouds, and we will go to meet Him in the air. It will be at least seven years later before He returns with His saints. At that time, He will set foot upon the Mount of Olives, and He will then establish His glorious kingdom upon earth. This completely separate event is called the Second Advent or the Day of the Lord. As we will see in another study, the second coming of Christ (or Second Advent) will be in two parts.

• The first part is His coming for His saints— the rapture.
• The second part is His coming with His saints to establish His millennial kingdom upon the Earth.

(Some other references to the time the Lord actually sets foot upon the earth are: Zechariah 14:1-4; Revelation 11:15; 19:11-16.)

"[T]hese words" (the words he just wrote) are a source of great comfort for any believer who has lost a saved loved one. "These words" can comfort a Christian having a difficult time in this old world. "These words" can comfort saved people who are suffering and dying. Dwelling on these words will cause the believer to long for the return of the Redeemer, which in turn can earn him a crown (the crown of righteousness, II Timothy 4:8).

The Bible is the only book in the world that brings real comfort to believers when death comes. There is absolutely no comfort for us in The Book of Mormon. The Talmud (used by the Jews) can offer no consolation, nor is the Muslim Koran reassuring to us. All those books teach salvation by works, so that one could never know whether he was going to Heaven or not. A Catholic has no comfort, because he thinks he must still go through Purgatory. The Jehovah’s Witness has no comfort, because he thinks that Hell is the grave and that when he dies he will go to the grave and lie there in an unconscious state until Jesus Christ returns— that is certainly no comfort! An atheist certainly has no comfort, for in his view, his whole life will end in nothing.

Now we will look at two passages of scripture in the Old Testament that talk about the rapture. The first is found in the Song of Solomon. The Old Testament prophets who wrote about these things had no idea what they were writing about, because the church was a mystery until it was revealed to the apostle Paul hundreds of years later. The Song of Solomon is a love story typifying Christ’s relationship to His bride, the church.

"The VOICE of my beloved!" (verse 8) pictures the Lord Jesus Christ descending from Heaven with a shout (I Thessalonians 4:16).

"Behold, he cometh" (verse 8) pictures Jesus Christ coming for his bride.

"The windows" (verse 9) are a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ looking down upon us through the windows of Heaven (Genesis 7:11). "The lattice" is the crossbars of a window. The indication is that we may be able to look up and see the Lord Jesus Christ coming for us just before the rapture takes place. "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away" (verse 10) typifies the catching up of the bride (I Thessalonians 4:17).

Verses 11 and 12 indicate that the rapture will take place in the springtime or the summer. The Church Age began at the time of Pentecost in Acts 2, and will probably end during the same season: the months of April and May. "The rain is over" (verse 11) refers to the "former rain" we read about in other Old Testament passages. These passages of scripture refer to the rainfall in April and May. Now, I am not trying to date the rapture of the church, because the Bible says "ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh" (Matthew 25:13). However, it does say that we can know "the times and the seasons" (I Thessalonians 5:1,2). I believe these verses in the Song of Solomon do indicate the times and the seasons when the bride (the body of Christ) can expect her groom to come for her.

"Hear attentively the noise of his voice, and the sound that goeth out of his mouth" certainly sounds like Christ calling His saints up (as in I Thessalonians 4:16).

Where he says, "He directeth it" (Job 37:3), the word "it," refers to the sound of His voice, while "under the whole heaven" refers to the sound of His voice aimed at the people on earth.

"[A]nd his lightning unto the ends of the earth" (Job 37:3). From this passage of scripture in Job, we gather that the rapture will be accompanied by a flash of light (perhaps like lightning) that will be seen around the world.

It may be like a thunderstorm, during which positive and negative electrical charges on the ground are raised to a point under the clouds to create natural phenomenon we call lightning. Electrodes stream down making a tunnel of ionized particles capable of conducting electricity. Before the lightning comes down, something goes up through this tunnel that is formed by the ions. One day, the Lord is going to come down into the earth’s atmosphere to gather His people unto Himself. The Bible says of God, "[H]e thundereth with the voice of his excellency" (Job 37:4). When God speaks, His voice may sound like thunder to those who are not saved.

When the Lord says, "Come up hither," there will probably be a tremendous noise like thunder. The sound of His voice may set off an explosion like a cobalt bomb, with a bolt of lightning coming down with a flash so bright it will be seen around the world! We will then go up through a tunnel all the way to the third Heaven.

"[A]nd he will not stay them [believers] when his voice is heard." (Job 37:4). Here, the word "stay" means, "to restrain, or keep back." When the Lord Jesus calls His saints, nothing will keep them from flying heavenward to meet Him. His saints will not stay on earth— they will obey His voice— they will go up to meet Him in the clouds.

I pray that the thought of the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ will be firmly established in your heart and mind so that you will be like Paul— expecting Him to come in your lifetime. Try to live a clean life for the Lord Jesus Christ. Live every day as if He were coming back today and you will earn a crown of righteousness.

• We are not looking for the undertaker,
  We are looking for the uppertaker.
• We are not looking for the clods (dirt),
  We are looking for the clouds.
• We are not looking for a sign (like the Charismatics), We are listening for a sound.

The next event following the rapture of the church, will be The Judgment Seat of Christ. We should prepare now to face that judgment. The One sitting upon that throne will be the One who died for us: our Saviour and Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our next lesson will be Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth. It is a vital step toward understanding of the Bible as a whole, with the proper interpretation and application of doctrine. God gave us His written word, and preserved it without any contradictions whatsoever in the King James 1611 Authorized Version of the Bible.

The rapture of the church is not the end; this world is going to go on, and another event is coming, the period of the Great Tribulation. We will also look at other time periods still to come: the Millennium, the Judgment of the Nations, the Second Advent, the Marriage of the Lamb, the Great White Throne Judgment, and then Eternity.

Paul is saying that Christians should grow up and become rooted and grounded in the word of God. The devil has his disciples who spread false doctrine and heresy to deceive new believers. The purpose of this Bible study series is to help believers who are hungering and thirsting for the word of God to get established in the scriptures. With the instruction given herein, they will know the truth and need not fall prey to some cult or false teacher.

1. During today’s Church Age, God has been forming a ____________ body made up of all born again believers.
2. The ___________ body of Christ upon the earth consists of saved Jews and Gentiles.
3. "For by one Spirit are we all ___________ into one body."
   — I Corinthians 12:13
4. The Church is the ___________ of Christ.
5. Jesus sent the Holy Ghost on the day of _____________.
6. The _________ takes place when the Lord Jesus comes back to take believers out of the world.
7. The Devil no longer has the power to keep our ________________ in the grave.

1. The formation of the body of Christ is one of the seven ________________.
2. The ___________ of the saints is one of the mysteries mentioned in I Corinthians 15.
3. The Church Age and the rapture were not revealed to the ___________ prophets.
4. In I Corinthians 15:51 "sleep" means ______________.
5. When we are "changed" our mortal physical bodies will become immortal ___________ bodies.

The Trump of God (page 11)

6. The "trump" is the ______________ of a trumpet.
7. By changing the word "trump" to "trumpet" Bible perversions are contributing to the heretical teaching that the church will go through the _________________.
8. At the rapture it seems that the trumpet is sounded _______________.
9. The first trump signals the rise of the _____________ in Christ while the ________ trump signals the moment that the living will be changed and go up.

This Mortal Must Put on Immortality (pp. 12-15)

10. There are two groups of saints mentioned in I Corinthians 15:52; the saints and the saints.
11. At the rapture, the first group of saints shall be ____________ while the second group shall never _____________.
12. In I Corinthians 15:52 "this corruptible" refers to believers who are now ________ .
13. "This mortal" refers to ___________ Christians.
14. will have no victory over living Christians, and the _________ will have no victory over dead Christians.
15. At the rapture every believer will have victory over his ___________ forever.

The Blessed Hope (pp. 15-21)

16. For the Christian, heaven is a ___________ hope and a ___________expectation.
17. The Bible never uses the word ___________ as meaning "maybe" of "possibly."
18. The Christian’s hope is _________, Himself.
19. We know that he __________ come back to give us new, sinless and perfect bodies.

Choose the correct reference and put it in the blank. Some references may be used more than once.

I Thessalonians 4:13-18   Ephesians 2:12

I Corinthians 15:13-20    I John 5:12,13

Romans 8:23,24            Titus 2:11-13

Titus 1:1,2               John 3:1-3

I Peter 1:13

1. ________________ If Christ did not rise from the dead, then dead Christians have perished forever.
2. ________________ The glorious appearing of Christ is our blessed hope.
3. ________________ Christians are to fortify their minds waiting for Christ’s return.
4. ________________ Christians are not to sorrow over the death of loved ones.
5. ________________ Words were written that a Christian may KNOW that he has eternal life.
6. ________________ Christians should await the sure hope of the redemption of their bodies.
7. ________________ We are to comfort one another with the thought of the rapture.
8. ________________ Lost people have no hope.
9. ________________ We are the sons of God now, but at the rapture we will be like Christ.
10. ________________ God promised us eternal life with new bodies.
11. ________________ Christ is the firstfruits of the resurrection.
12. ________________ We should deny worldly lusts and live righteously while waiting for the rapture.

Our Parting and Reunion (pp. 21-26)

13. When a believer dies, his _____________ leaves his body and goes up to the ___________ heaven to be with the Lord Jesus Christ.
14. Paul said "to die is ___________" and to be absent from the body is "to be ___________ with the Lord."
15. The believer’s soul does/does not _____________remain in an unconscious state until the return of the Lord.
16. The rapture is a literal, personal, _________________ resurrection from the grave.
17. Twice in Revelation the Lord uses the phrase _____________ to catch the saints away.
18. John 10 says that the shepherd calls his sheep by ____________ and leadeth them out.
19. At the rapture, born again believers will probably hear their own __________, while lost people will hear a noise like ____________.

Our Adversary, the Devil (pp. 26-29)

20. What two names are given to Satan in Matthew 12:25-29? ____________________________________________________
21. What did the Pharisees accuse Jesus of having? ________________
22. What is the "house"? ___________________________________
23. What are the "goods"? __________________________________
24. I Peter 5:8 calls the devil our ______________________________
25. Where did Jesus conquer the devil? _________________________
26. What happens to Satan before Jesus establishes his earthly kingdom? ____________________________________________________
27. At the rapture of the Church the Lord will come as a __________ in the night.

Caught Up Together-Words of Comfort-Rapture Seen in the Old Testament (pp. 29-36)

If the statement is correct write "true" in the blank. If it is incorrect cross out the bold italicized word(s) and write the correct word in the blank. (Questions 1-5 only)

28. __________ Christians refer to the events of I Thessalonians 4:13-18 as the Second Advent.
29. __________ Those "asleep in Jesus" are those who have died saved.
30. __________ When Jesus comes back for his Church he will meet them at the Mount of Olives.
31. __________ The first part of his coming is to establish his earthly kingdom.
32. In what three ways can a knowledge of the rapture comfort believers?

1. What two passages of Old Testament Scripture refer to the rapture of the Church?

This Bible course has been prepared and distributed as a ministry of Gloryland Baptist Church. It and other gospel materials may be obtained from: