Published November 21, 2015

Author, John V Saputo
Ordained into the Christian Ministry in 1976
Graduate of Cornerstone University [GRSBM] 1970-1973
Director of Hebrew Christian Fellowship, Beth Chai, 1974-1976
Director of Operations in Tehran, Iran 1977-1979
Financial Services Rep for Major Investment Firms from 1980-2009
Currently Retired and working on Biblical Research Projects
 

The True Message of the Rapture is NOT being left behind but TRANSFORMATION!

Often unbelievers, skeptics and even traditional Christians will say fundamental Bible believers teaching about the Rapture describes a frightening apocalyptic nightmare that they do not want to hear.  The truth can sometimes be hidden in dramatic hypothetical speculation and unclear doctrine taking center stage rather than the core teaching which is concise, heavenly, positive and absolutely sure.
No where in the Bible does it talk explicitly about families being left behind watching the evening news as planes are falling from the sky while cars and trucks are careening off the road into houses and off bridges.  That makes good for fictional movies but it is all guessing about unknown effects of the rapture but in fact the Bible is silent.  [I am not against fictional movies that illustrate possible eschatological outcomes of future events but is that true Scriptural exegesis?]

I only wish that the primary source from what people learn about the rapture was from what the Word of God reveals not movies.  Although producers are sincere they often emphasis dramatic appeal over Scriptural truth.  The Bible is the most reliable source that will teach God’s children with certainty the core value of this awesome event.  When that day comes and God calls all of His children home it describes a supernatural highly wonderful experience of transformation that only the Creator and Redeemer can do.  Let’s look as just a few Scriptures.  This is the main one everybody talks about.

¹³ Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. ¹⁴ For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. ¹⁵ According by the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ 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. ¹⁷ 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. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.  I Thessalonians chapter 4

Everything in these verses is talking to Christians with “no true believer left behind”, this should remove any fear Christians would have about the rapture and should tell us the message is for believers not unbelievers. But for those who have not trusted in Christ to their Savior the message should communicate serious concern over what they will miss remaining in a state of sin having rejected Christ’s gracious pardon.  I wonder if more people would come to Christ out desire to experience God’s loving plan rather than thru fear.  The emphasis in these verses is on all that is good, all that God wants us to anticipate with joy, not fear.  It is important to debate and talk about the Rapture not so much about its timing but why it is relevant at all!  It is like saying an ugly caterpillar that is transformed into a butterfly is not worth our awe and wonder!

1. The Apostle Paul wants Christians to be informed about the death of their loved ones

2. God wants us to know why our blessed hope will keep us from excessive grief

3. We will see our born again loves ones with JESUS because they will come with HIM

4. We believers who are alive at the time of His coming will never have to die

5. The Lord Himself will come down from Heaven to get us

6. There will be a loud command, the voice of an Archangel and a trumpet call

7. The dead will precede living saints and we will be caught up to meet together in the air

8. This great reunion begins our eternal life and destiny

9. The teaching is given to us to comfort and encourage us over death & the judgment day

10. There is nothing in these verses that say anything about being left behind [what happens to those who have not accepted Christ as Savior is in God’s hands but they will be left on Earth]

Whatever happens on earth is not described in these verses but others books [the Revelation of Jesus Christ given to John the Apostle and the major and minor prophets do point to events on Earth to follow but what I am saying is that this main verse that everyone talks about is ALL positive and hopeful. It should comfort real believers.  It speaks about our hope of meeting the Lord, our immediate bodily transformation and our reunion with our spiritual family in preparation for our predesigned eternal destiny with God.  Let’s look at a few more verses that are linked to this subject.  
How long will this take?  What will happen to our bodies?  What will happen when we see JESUS in all of His glory for the first time?  What will He do with us when we all meet Him together?

The next verse will give us some insights and clues.  This verse is the second most popular verse that describes this exciting event and how we will see our “Divine Fiancée”, the Lord Jesus [Yahushua Adonai].  Keep in mind these verses are part of the authoritative WORD of God not speculation!

  ⁵⁰ I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. ⁵¹ Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— ⁵² in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. ⁵⁴ When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”^[h]

⁵⁵ “Where, O death, is your victory?
    Where, O death, is your sting?”^[i]

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Again the Apostle Paul was given this insight from the Lord Himself and he reveals to us:

1. At that time not of all us will be dead [asleep]. He comes while we are alive and living

2. Again he mentions a trumpet blast from above the Earth.

3. He proclaims our immediate transformation into a heavenly body because our Earthly body could never take the dynamics of Heaven and seeing God in our sinful bodies.

4. Our new bodies will be better than “Superman’s”, eternally imperishable.

5. This victory of eternal life over death comes to us through JESUS our Savior. God is Almighty.  He created the Heavens and the Earth and all the sophisticated life forms by the Word of His mouth.  We are instantly created into a newly “evolved life form”!  A new class of human beings in heavenly glorified bodies.  How exciting is that…

6. [No, I do not believe the Bible teaches in “macro-evolution” that says we were in a mud pond and became fish and over billions of years became humans driving in cars!  But God can do anything He pleases. He made the first man and woman on the sixth day of creation without using evolution. The book of Luke gives us a genealogy from Adam to Christ.  Genesis is not just poetic it is a divine record of what really happened and science is slowly catching up to the truth.  [Micro-evolution is about small changes within a kind that breeds many varieties or species but they do not cross the boundaries set by our Creator.  We see many types of dogs as an example but they remain dogs as it is with ever “kind”.]  Since the discovery of DNA & RNA precise codes that reproduce every living creature evolutionary theory is in more doubt than ever with unanswered questions that warrant the need for “Some-One” who had to design and write the information codes!  Time is no longer the issue, how genetic information is written within cells is!  Billions of years cannot produce the impossible.

But I do not want to digress.  We are raptured or “caught up” in a millisecond the blinking of an eye and we meet the Lord not in Heaven but in the air above the Earth before He takes us to Heaven.  Christ will invade you might say the Earth!  Who controls the atmosphere and our radio electromagnetic heavens?  The fallen angels!  Surprised?  Let’s take a look.  It tells us in book of Colossians chapter 2:

⁹ For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰ and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. ¹¹ In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh^[b] was put off when you were circumcised by^[c] Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴ having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.                 

Christ is Deity, meaning He is God in the flesh.  He is the greatest Authority in any and every realm known and unknown!  We at *spiritual baptism [the experience of the new birth] are placed into the Body of Christ occurring when we believe and have trusted in Him, in His finished work at the cross.  * Also referred to as  “Baptism of the Holy Spirit” Romans 10:9-13,  John 3

We went through a spiritual circumcision of the soul that made us born again beings though temporarily remaining in these fleshly bodies.  This careful spiritual operation was NOT done by human hands or effort!  Christ lives in the souls of these carnal bodies!  That is a true miracle.

We are identified with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection and given the eternal Holy Spirit as a deposit or guarantee that we forever belong to Him.  We are separated for God’s purpose.  See Ephesians 1:14-15

Satan was defeated at the cross, God is waiting for the right time to put into operation the complete reconciliation of mankind. Satan currently has limited control over men and nations. I Peter 5:8 & James 4: 6-7

Christ has canceled our debt as sinners.  We no longer belong to the devil and the wicked planet though we live here for now but this is NOT our home.  Lucifer, the Devil no longer can lay claim to our souls.  Something happened that was witnessed by the Angels and unseen world. 

Christ made a spectacle of Satan and crushed His ruling authority forever.  He has NO power to accuse us if we stand on the promises and follow Christ.  See Colossians 2:13-15  [We have spiritual armor too Eph 6]

Lest you think I am reading into the Scriptures something that is not there read this verse:

2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler [Satan] of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³ All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh^[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. ⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Satan rules where?  The air that surrounds the Earth…though invisible he is there doing his dirty work through men and nations.  But Christ has officially saved us and placed us in Heavenly realms.  In others words believers have front row seats in Heaven with our names on them. [Eph 1]

We are alive in Him, saved by grace not by our will or our works.  We are no longer obligated to the flesh that is our sinful nature.  We now have the power to say no to sin and yes to God via the Spirit that lives in us.  Christ will come one day as a “thief in the night” and invade Satan’s territory before the great wickedness takes over.  We will have been evacuated out of here.  This is called the, “Blessed Hope” of being taken to God alive or dead when He returns in the air BEFORE His feet stand 7+ years later on the Mt of Olives.  [see Zechariah 14:1-4]  He will go to war with men and fallen angels! [Read these amazing verses in Isaiah 24:21-23!]

⁹ The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.  II from II Peter 3  [His patience will finally run out!]

A thief comes to steal away.  In this context our LORD will invade the Devil’s domain on Earth and in the Atmospheric Heavens and snatch or steal the believers out of it when the Day of the LORD, or the seven year tribulation begins.  Why?  Because of the victory He paid [ransom price] for at the cross.  The atonement covers man’s sins and removes nature’s curse!
He is coming for His Bride, the true Church; we are not members of the world system that Lucifer covertly controls through his organizations.

There is such an enigma of hatred at this teaching because the Devil is reminded that he is a defeated foe.  It is a mystery to me why all the resistance to this clear teaching of Scripture is so maligned.
But we have some clues as to why this teaching meets so much resistance.  Let’s look at the epistle of Titus:
Titus 2:11-15 New International Version (NIV)

¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. ¹² It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, ¹³ while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

¹⁵ These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.  [The Apostle knew that people would resist this teaching of the rapture of blessed hope.] “PC police” hate this message.

The blessed hope is defined as the appearing of Christ as God our Savior

We are encouraged to teach this truth & NOT allow anyone to despise us!

We have the authority from Christ Himself to teach, rebuke and shun accusations.  [from those in the “Church and outside the Church”]

The Appearing again refers to Christ coming for us in the air at
“the rapture”

Another clear verse that can’t be dismissed is:
Philippians 3:20-21New International Version (NIV)

²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Our home turf is in Heaven-a living generation will experience this event!  Christ in all of His power and glory will come from Heaven to the atmosphere of Earth He will immediately catch us away and transform our bodies to be like HIS!!!  Notice what it does not say, we are NOT waiting for the anti-Christ.

Do you see anything depressing about this teaching?  Is it clear?  If you believe it you should have joy and peace in a God who cannot lie [Titus 1:2!] and because of the INTEGRITY of HIS NAME He will do all that He has promised us and no one will be ashamed who has trusted in HIM!  God has not appointed us to wrath but to salvation.  Another word that is use for the rapture is rescued!

⁶ if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; ⁷ and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless ⁸ (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— ⁹ if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.  II Peter 2

God called out Lot BEFORE the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah!  It says He rescued him from the day of wrath.
[there are many example in the Bible like this one]
The context is talking about the Day of the LORD or the tribulation period.

God knows how to rescue believers [the Body of Christ] from this great trial.
We often get weary of all the wars, violence and misery in the sin sick world.  When that appointed time comes God will remove the Body of Christ off stage and restart His program for the Jews and Israel will be on front and CENTER stage as His witnesses!  Then He will restore Israel for HIS Name sake and show the nations who He is.  Ezekiel 36-39! [They are the real “Jehovah Witnesses”!]

The purpose of this research paper is NOT to prove a time for the Rapture or Tribulation period.  The Truth is that there is a Blessed sure hope for every believer in any denomination.  God will keep His promise.  When the time of glorification [Romans 8] comes we will all meet the LORD in the air!   When we see HIM we will be instantly transformed:

3 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears,^[a] we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ³ All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. I John 3:2-3

And did you know that those of us who long for our Lord to appear at the Rapture win a crown for our hope and patience!  Look at what St Paul said:

“Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”  II Timothy 4:8

So what is the value of believing in the Blessed Hope at Christ’s sudden return?  The most important thing to understand is that the rapture, the rescue, the gathering unto him, the blessed hope of His soon appearing, and our consequential transformation and glorification into our new eternal bodies are all tied together!  Aren’t you looking for a new body?  How many Christians and Jews do you know that suffer from injuries and diseases but still hope and trust in God’s purpose?  All of our suffering down on this earth God is using for good to mold our character and prepare us for eternity!  The Appearing of Christ in the [AIR] Heavens is the first event in a long string of events that will turn our planet upside down and inside out into a paradise that is beyond our imagination.  Read Romans chapter eight carefully and slowly because it has everything to do with Christ’s appearing and what will follow!  Now you know!  We are to encourage and comfort one another with these words in EVERY generation!  [Even when the “date setters” get it wrong…at least they are looking up and love His appearing!]

Lately there have been some who make “light” of the Apostle Paul’s teachings.  They imply that his Epistles “may” not be as authoritative as the Gospels.  In other words they wonder if his writings were mere speculation about things to come?  This idea is almost “demonic” because it’s casting doubt on the Word of God as Lucifer did in the Garden of Eden telling Eve, “Has God said…?”  Peter the Apostle, who was perhaps the main leader of the Apostolic Church, and Catholics see him as the first Pope, addressed this issue and warned the Church NOT to doubt the authority of the Apostle Paul, who in fact was
the last Apostle directly picked by Christ.  He said:

¹⁵ Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. ¹⁶ He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.  II Peter 3 

Beware of those who tell you that only the Gospels can be trusted for even Peter says Paul’s wisdom {and revelations} came from God Himself!  We are to compare Scripture with Scripture in all of the Biblical writings in order to “rightly divide the Word of Truth”.  See II Timothy 2:15
I leave you with one last admonition from the Apostle Paul that speaks volumes to us in these last days. [We could very well be the generation to experience the RAPTURE!]
¹² Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. ¹³ In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession,
I charge you ¹⁴ to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ 
which God will bring about in his own time—
God, the blessed
and only Ruler,
the King of kings
and Lord of lords, ¹⁶ 
who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see.
To him be honor and might forever. Amen.  I Timothy Chapter 6

“The True Message of the Rapture”

Authored & Compilation of Scripture by John V Saputo

Please do not quote selected portions for critical comments without the author’s permission unless the message is quoted in its entirety.  Distribution of the entire message is permissible without the consent of the author.
 Published November 21, 2015

It’s my prayer this teaching will bless you and clear up some of the confusion out there.  Most of all we need to stop the accusation that we are trying to scare people with this “Rapture” teaching.  No!  It is in the Bible and one of the most sacred revelations in all of Scripture meant to comfort and encourage all Christians and Messianic Jews in all nations.  Until He come…Praise Him and love one another deeply from the heart.