Objectives of taking the congregation to heaven.
The rapture is when the believers or the church are taken up to meet the Lord.
The word comes from the Bible, translated into Latin in the fourth century, meaning “to seize.”
Let us now see why Jesus does this.
1. To receive the Church for Himself, as Jesus had promised Himself.
John 14:2-3
My Father’s house has many rooms; If that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you may also be where I am.
Ephesians 5:27
That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
2. Except for the people who died without accepting Christ, for the resurrection of the dead.
Revelation 20:4-6
I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
(The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection.
Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
3. To take the saints to heaven and bless them.
1 Corinthians 5:10
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Revelation 19:7-9
Let us rejoice and be glad
and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has prepared herself.
Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to wear.”
4. For turning our bodies into imperishable bodies of glory.
1 Corinthians 15:53-54
For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
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.”
Philippians 3:21
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.
5. For God to cleanse us completely, and to protect our whole soul, soul, and body, to be blameless in the name of Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:23
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
6. To the gods, for protection and rescue from the time of great tribulation that will come and go in this world
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
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.
In the next section we will discuss the second coming of Jesus and the rapture of the church.