Is there a Biblical doctrine of the Rapture, even though the Bible does not use the word? The idea of rapture comes from the Latin word to be taken, thus Christ taking his people to be with Him. In the sense that the Bible does teach that Christ shall come for us, we may say that there is a Biblical doctrine of Rapture.

The text under consideration is 1 Thess. 4:13-18: “ But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

We can take great encouragement in the fact that Christ shall come again, that all those who died in Christ shall come forth to join those who are alive at the time of His coming, and we shall be caught up, taken up, or raptured, to meet Christ in the air, and we shall always be with Him, forever and ever. It all ends well. That is all we really need to know. Those who die in Christ shall not be overlooked but rather shall rise first. God’s redemptive purposes will reach their ultimate consummation in our final glorification (See Rom. 8:28-30).

One of the first things I remember hearing from my mother when I was a small child was that Jesus is coming again. He came once to die for our sins, and He shall come again to take us home to glory to be with Him forevermore. That, my brothers and sisters, is a real basis of encouragement!