YouthTEAM Blog

Rapture – Comfort or Calamity

Published on 01/30/09

I Thessalonians 4:13-18, speaks clearly that Jesus will be coming back. Christians who have died will rise first and then those Christians who are alive will be caught up with Christ. This is called the rapture.

If you’ve read or seen or heard anything about the Left Behind series, you know that they depict a world right after the rapture happens. It’s definitely an interesting take on what events might look like when the rapture happens. Christians who were driving cars and flying airplanes are suddenly missing causing many wrecks and costing many lives.

Car Pile Up

So, we know that the Bible says that the rapture will happen, the question becomes is this a comfort to you or does it only seem like a calamity?

In I Thess. 4:18, Paul tells the Thessalonians to “comfort” one another with these words. There is only comfort for those who have a personal relationship with Christ (Rev. 3:10). All others will be put through the 7 yrs. of tribulation. So for those who are not in Christ, the rapture will only bring calamity.

What a merciful God to save us from the time of tribulation!

Our response, in knowing that the rapture will take place before the tribulation and that it could come at any moment, should be:

1. Share Christ with our unsaved friends. If you truly love them and care for them, then we would want Christ to save them from the tribulation

2. Prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord. If Christ came back right now, what would he see you doing? We need to always live in light of the fact that Jesus could come at any time.

For more info about what the Bible teaches concerning the rapture, go to the Youth TEAM Doctrine page. Scroll down to Roman numerals XVIII and following.

If you want to learn more about the rapture or other topics surrounding that, make sure that you come to the Prophecy Seminar tomorrow. Here are the times:

Session 1 @1pm – “Issues Related to the Rapture”
Session 2 @ 2pm – “The Future of the Church”
Session 3 @ 3pm – “Christian Rewards”
Break
Session 4 @ 7pm – “Salute to Israel” (A preview of the Holy Land tour)