The Rapture: Is It A Biblically Sound Concept?

For some reason, people seem upset about the theology of the Rapture & its connection to the Feast of Trumpets . In Exodus 19, the trumpet sounds.  Moses walked up Sinai, received the Decalogue & and early civil code, then in Exodus 24, the elders accompanied him up the mountain where they all met with the LORD, then they all returned. 

In Genesis 5: Enoch represents an entire generation that walks with God & was no more because God took him/them away.   The text doesn’t say he died. 

Genesis 15 indicates that in addition to witnessing a theophany, he may have been removed, retained, & returned. 

In Exodus 24, Moses & the elders of Israel process up Sinai & meet with the LORD.   The text speaks of glassy pavement - an image we don’t see again until Revelation 4 & 15.  This glassy sea/pavement is in heaven.  Ergo, Exodus is depicting Moses & the elders as men who were removed, retained, & returned after meeting the LORD. 

In Deuteronomy, Moses ascended a mountain to die.  Jude speaks of a dispute over his remains that either took place on an earthly mountain or in heaven.  

In 2 Kings 2, Elijah ascended to heaven in a fiery chariot.   

Zechariah is the source of the two trees imagery in Revelation.  Ergo, Zechariah is depicted as having been removed, retained & returned. 

Christ ascended to heaven after his resurrection.   He has yet to return. 

Revelation depicts John in the Spirit on Patmos on the Lord’s Day & then finding himself having been removed & retained, after which he received what he inscripturated then returned. 

Every covenant administration includes at least one such event. Enoch stands @ the intersection of the covenant with Adam & the one with Noah.  Abraham’s experience occurs in his own era.   The same is true of Moses.   In the Davidic Covenant, Elijah & Zechariah are removed & retained, & the Ark of the Covenant just disappears like Enoch.  In the Johannine (“New” Covenant) Era Christ is removed & retained like Enoch.   John is removed, retained, & returned like Zechariah & possibly Isaiah, Jeremiah, & Ezekiel who record their callings as theophanic experiences that are probably events that would require their removal, retention, & return.  

At the barest minimum, God’s covenantal pattern has included a removal event every time, so there is no reason to think that the overall concept of the rapture lacks biblical support.    What doesn’t have biblical support is the Left Behind version of events in which people are removed & retained corporeally for 7 years during which they are not on the Earth.   Rather, the Bible indicates a precious few if any would ever just disappear that way.    Instead the majority or everyone in a society as connected as our own would be removed & retained then gone for however long & then returned to Earth a point in time a moment or two after they were removed & then history continues with barely a feather ruffled until Christ Himseif returns at the end. 

O LORD, Hear our prayer(s)! 


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