Are You Ready for the Rapture?

Are you ready for the Rapture? This question is not an assertion as to WHEN  the Rapture will occur. The Scriptures reveal that It will. It is merely a question about being ready. Yeshua (Jesus) said to watch and pray.

“Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”
Luke 21:36 (KJV)

Without question, the Rapture of the Church will be one of the most pivotal events in modern history, and there are so many signs taking place that point to the Lord’s soon return.

The Rapture of the Church

The Rapture of the Church is described very clearly in the Bible. It has been depicted in movies. It has been the subject of novels as well as books written in the defense of the pre-tribulation Rapture doctrine like the late Tim LaHaye’s Rapture [Under Attack].

But what does the Bible say about the Rapture?

One of the places where the Bible describes the Rapture is found in the book of 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4, verses 13-18.

We will focus on verses 16 through 18 below.

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

Therefore encourage one another with these words.”
~ 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18

While the Bible’s description of the event is described very clearly, some claim that the word rapture is not in the Bible. But that assertion, as you will see in a moment, is incorrect.

The word “rapturo” (from which we obtain the word “rapture”) is actually a Latin word, and it is located in the Bible. You simply need to know how and where to look for it.

The word “rapturo” does not appear in English translations of the Bible, but a form of this word it does appear in the Latin Vulgate translation. According to Bible.org, “rapturo” is translated from the Greek word harpazó, which means “caught up.”

We need to recognize how it is conjugated, and the conjugation of the word “rapturo.” What we find in the Latin Vulgate translation of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 is spelled “rapiemur,” and it means “we shall be caught up” or “we shall be carried away.”

Jerome completed the translation in A.D. 400, and his version was known as the editio vulgate (the current text of Holy Scripture), because he used the common (or vulgar) language of early medieval times.
(GotQuestions.org: What is the Latin Vulgate Bible?)

16	quoniam ipse Dominus in iussu et in voce archangeli et in tuba Dei descendet de caelo et mortui qui in Christo sunt resurgent primi For the Lord himself shall come down from heaven with commandment and with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God: and the dead who are in Christ shall rise first.
17	deinde nos qui vivimus qui relinquimur simul rapiemur cum illis in nubibus obviam Domino in aera et sic semper cum Domino erimus Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be taken up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ, into the air: and so shall we be always with the Lord.
18	itaque consolamini invicem in verbis istis Wherefore, comfort ye one another with these words.

The early Greek manuscripts of the New Testament use a conjugation of the word harpazo:

726 [e]
harpagēsometha
ἁρπαγησόμεθα
will be caught away
V-FIP-1P

Click here to see the INTERLINEAR for the entire verse (i.e., 1 Thessalonians 4:17) in Greek.

The Greek word it translates is harpazó, which means to snatch or take away. Elsewhere it is used to describe how the Spirit caught up Philip near Gaza and brought him to Caesarea (Acts 8:39) and to describe Paul’s experience of being caught up into the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:2-4). Thus there can be no doubt that the word is used in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 to indicate the actual removal of people from earth to heaven.
(Source: Bible.org – Where did the term ‘rapture’ come from?)

Original Word: ἁρπάζω
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: harpazó
Phonetic Spelling: (har-pad’-zo)
Short Definition: I seize, snatch, obtain by robbery
Definition: I seize, snatch, obtain by robbery.

Related Resources:

Latin:
Latin Vulgate: New Testament: 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 (See verse 17)

Greek:
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: Greek #726. harpazó

Additional Resources:

ChritianityToday.com:
405 Jerome Completes the Vulgate

GotQuestions.org:
What is the Latin Vulgate Bible?

Christianbook.com:
The Canon of Scripture (by F.F. Bruce)

Vulgate.org
The Latin Vulgate Bible [Online]

BibleStudyTools.com
The Latin Vulgate [VUL]