What is the Rapture?

The rapture is the event in which the dead in Christ are raised incorruptible and the living believers are changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, as Paul describes: "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:52). This is not a vague or secret event but one tied to a specific trumpet, the last one, which Scripture identifies as the seventh trumpet, the one sounded by the seventh angel in Revelation, at which time "the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets" (Revelation 10:7). That mystery is Christ in His people, the hope of glory, brought to its full completion and glorification at that sounding.

Jesus Himself described this gathering of His people. He said, "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be," and spoke of two in a bed, two women grinding, two men in a field, one taken and the other left, with His disciples asking where, and He answering, "Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together" (Matthew 24:27-28; Luke 17:34-37). He then made clear when this gathering occurs: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven... and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven... And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matthew 24:29-31). This gathering of the elect is the rapture of the Church, and it comes after the tribulation, not before it.

A common but mistaken idea ties the rapture to Revelation 4:1, where John hears a voice "as it were of a trumpet" inviting him, "Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter." This is simply John's own experience of being shown future things in a vision; it is never explained anywhere in Scripture as a symbol for the whole Body of Christ being taken off the earth. The voice only sounded like a trumpet, it was not the actual last trump of God described in 1 Corinthians 15:52. If this verse meant the rapture of the entire Church, then no believer would remain on earth with the testimony of Jesus from that point forward, yet Revelation goes on to describe saints on earth being killed for their testimony, keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and being told, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth" (Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 14:12-13). This shows the Church is still present through the time of the Antichrist and the mark of the beast.

While the rapture itself is not the wrath of God, and "God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:9), the Church does pass through tribulation, the persecution and affliction meant to try the patience and faith of the saints, before being gathered to the Lord. The wrath of God, by contrast, is reserved for the seven last plagues poured out on the wicked after the tribulation, the one-world government of the Antichrist, and the days of the mark of the beast (Revelation 15:1; Revelation 13:7-10). So the rapture is the gathering of Christ's people, dead and living, changed and caught up together, occurring at the last trumpet after the tribulation, and before the wrath of God is poured out upon the earth.