The Rapture Explained By Golda Chimere-Dan The Rapture is a publication of The Rapture Force of Gauteng, South
Africa. The editor is Ms Golda Chimere-
Dan. Her husband, Prof. D. Chimere-
Dan, heads up the Chimere-Dan
Ministries. The following are excerpts
from the first edition of The Rapture magazine (various Scriptures have
been quoted from The Living Bible): Certainty of the rapture The rapture is the event in which the
Lord Jesus Christ will appear in the
cloud at the voice of the archangel
and the last trumpet sound to take all
Bible believing, born again Christians
away from the surface of this earth before the Almighty God unleashes
his anger on a sinful, unrepentant
and Christ-rejecting world. The rapture is an event that will take
place very soon and very suddenly. It
will be the most astonishing event in
the history of the world which will
turn the entire planet on its head. The
Bible teaches this very clearly and it is the hope of every believer in the
Lordship of Jesus Christ to be among
those who experience the rapture. The rapture of the Church of Jesus
Christ will be the first in a series of
events on God's calendar which will
signal the end of time as we know it
and will climax into the Second
Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to establish his Kingdom on earth. After
the rapture it will, by any stretch of
the imagination, no longer be
'business as usual' on the face of this
planet for those left behind. A major event of such magnitude
deserves the attention of everyone: · The rapture is going to strike without warning. · The rapture will happen suddenly. · The rapture will be one of the most startling events to ever occur
in the history of man. Are you ready to be raptured? Confusion about the rapture Are you confused about the rapture?
Don't be, Satan is not. In fact, Satan
and his demons know very well that
the rapture is a sure event that will
take place soon. He is not arguing it.
He knows what the rapture implies for his reign of terror on humanity. So
he has been busy intensifying the
operation of his Ministry of
Misinformation. He is going about
setting up his lying machines like
never before, producing and circulating counterfeit information
about the truth and the messengers
of the Lord Jesus Christ who preach
and teach the truth. All the enemy's efforts are designed
for no other reason but to confuse
you about the truth of the rapture.
Satan doesn't care what you believe
about the rapture as long as what
you believe is not the truth. Anything he does to keep you from eagerly
expecting the Lord Jesus Christ in the
rapture is a success for him. If he can
stop you from knowing the truth
about it, be careful that he does not
also stop you from going in the rapture. If he can stop you from
allowing the thought about the
rapture to influence the way you live
your life today, watch out lest he also
stops you from being among those
raptured.

What is the rapture? If you are not familiar with the word
or the idea, you must be wondering
what on earth we mean by Rapture.
Rapture is a word used to describe
that sudden moment, one of these
days, when the Lord Jesus Christ returns in mid air (the atmosphere
just above our planet earth) and
takes His followers away from the
face of this earth to heaven where he
lives. According to John 14:1-3 in the
Bible, the Lord Jesus said to His followers: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye
believe in God, believe also in me. In
my Father's house are many
mansions: if it were not so, I would
have told you. I go to prepare a place
for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and
receive you unto myself; that where I
am, there ye may be also." Did you notice the words "receive you
unto myself?" This is really what the
rapture is all about. The Lord Jesus
Himself will come to receive His own
people unto Himself. These people
received the Lord into their hearts as their Saviour while it was an
unpopular thing to do here on earth.
They believed in His name and were
washed in His blood and received the
authority or the right to be the
children of God (John 1:12). They lived their lives in obedience to His
word – some even doing so while
facing mockery, torture and death. The Bible tells us that one day, the
Lord Jesus will appear in the clouds
above us and snatch these people
away from the earth to take them to
heaven where He has prepared
mansions for them so that from then on, they will be with Him wherever he
is, beholding the glory which His
Father has given Him (John 17:24).
This is the rapture. The act of
'snatching away' is the rapture. The
expression "caught up" is found in the first letter of Paul to the
Thessalonian Christians (1Thess
4:13-18). Look at what he says there: "Brothers, we do not want you to be
ignorant about those who fall asleep,
or to grieve like the rest of men, who
have no hope. 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.
According to the Lord's own word,
we tell you that we who are still alive,
who are left till the coming of the
Lord, will certainly not precede those
who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven,
with a loud command ("Come up
hither" in Revelations 4:1), 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 shall we ever be with the Lord.
Therefore encourage (or comfort)
each other with these words." The word rapture comes from the
root word for "caught up". The root
word for "caught up" in the Greek
language is harpazo, which means "to snatch away" or to take away
suddenly. In the Latin Vulgate Bible,
the words "caught up" are translated
as rapturo. Christians have since chosen to describe this soon-coming
event of the Lord suddenly snatching
away His true followers from the earth
as the rapture. The reality of the rapture, the
knowledge that this is an event that
will certainly take place, has a
comforting effect on the believer. It is
a source of encouragement to him. It
is the hope of every believer (Colossians 1:27; 1 Corinthians
15:19). The thought of the rapture
and the expectation of it purifies the
believer in the Lord Jesus Christ
(1John 3:3). The enemy and his
agents will ridicule it, make it appear irrelevant to your daily living and
seek to prevent you from thinking
about, thereby, denying you its
present comfort and its future bliss.
Don't let him. The rapture is the event that answers
the prayer of our Lord Jesus which he
prayed in John 17:24, "Father, I want
those You have given Me to be with
Me where I am, and to see My glory,
the glory You have given Me because You loved Me before the creation of
the world." But to the unbeliever, this knowledge
can only provoke fear and horror.
And he can respond by either
deciding to give up his resistance to
inviting the Lord Jesus into his life, or
by postponing this decision or even completely discarding the whole
message and the prompting of the
Holy Spirit to yield to God, as a non-
issue that would disappear from his
mind after a while. Whichever, make
sure you are not one of those trapped in non-response to the plea to make
peace with God after you have heard
the message of the rapture. "Therefore, you also must be ready
because the Son of Man will come at
an hour when you do not expect
Him" (Matthew 24:44).

The imminence of the rapture

The Oxford dictionary defines the
word imminent as "...an event about
to happen." It is an event "likely to
happen very soon" without warning,
unexpectedly, catching people by
surprise. So, when we say that the rapture is imminent, we mean that the
return of our Lord Jesus Christ for His
Church is an event that can happen at
any moment, without any warning.
There are no warning signs or
indications of a short-term countdown. As Christians, we are required to
remain on a 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week alert. If anyone therefore tells
you not to bother about it, do not
listen to him. Paying attention to such
advice has caused many not-too- well-established believers to make a
shipwreck of their faith. The rapture
will take place very soon, very
suddenly and without warning. Jesus
will come in the air, catch up his
Church (born again Christians) from the earth, and then return to heaven
with them. Does the Bible teach the imminence of
the rapture? Listen to the Lord Himself
in Luke 21:34-35, "Watch out! Don't
let my sudden coming catch you
unawares; don't let me find you living
in careless ease, carousing and drinking, and occupied with the
problems of this life, like all the rest of
the world." The Lord makes it clear in
those words that the rapture will take
place suddenly, catching people
unawares. It will be like the surprise attack of a thief in the night. The
suddenness of his coming and the
unpredictability of its timing provides
the basis for the warning on the
immanence of His return. Timing of the rapture Although the rapture of the Church is
imminent, the Lord has chosen to
keep us from knowing the exact date
and hour when it will take place. The
Lord Jesus Himself made it absolutely
clear that: "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in
heaven, nor the Son, but only the
Father” (Matthew 24:36). Paul puts it
this way in chapter 5 of his first letter
to the Thessalonian Christians: "Now,
brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you
know very well that the day of the
Lord will come like a thief in the
night" (1Thess 5:1-2). The rapture will occur when no one is
expecting it. However, it is sufficient
for us to know that as it was in the
days of Noah, so will it be when the
rapture takes place. According to the
Lord, "The world will be at ease – banquets and parties and weddings –
just as it was in Noah's time before the
sudden coming of the flood; people
wouldn't believe what was going to
happen until the flood actually arrived
and took them all away. So shall My coming be. Two men will be working
together in the fields, and one will be
taken, the other left. Two women will
be going about their household
tasks, one will be taken, the other left.
So be prepared, for you don't know what day your Lord is
coming" (Matthew 24:37-42). "The world will be as indifferent to the
things of God as the people were in
Noah's day. They ate and drank and
married, everything just as usual right
up to the day when Noah went into
the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. And the world will
be as it was in the days of Lot: people
went about their daily business –
eating and drinking, buying and
selling, farming and building until the
morning Lot left Sodom. Then fire and brimstone rained down from heaven
and destroyed them all. Yes, it will be
'business as usual' right up to the
hour of my return" (Luke 17:26-35). People will be living as normal:
working, partying, buying and
selling, planting and building. And
just like in the days of Noah, they will
not take notice of all the cries by their
fellow men to repent and make peace with God. Then, out of nowhere and
without any warning, millions of men,
women and children will disappear,
throwing the entire world into an
unbelievable magnitude of chaos.
People’s lives will be characterised by selfishness, love and worship of the
good things of life, and a lack of
interest in anything concerning God
except where it promotes and
encourages their selfishness and
material needs. Does this look like the days we live in? I think it does. Jesus Christ said: "And since you
don't know when it will happen, stay
alert. Be on the watch out for my
return."

How should we live in times like
this?

There is no question that no one can
predict the timing of the rapture just
as there is no doubt about the
surprise which this event will be to
the majority of people living in the
world when it happens. Seeing that the rapture is imminent but the timing
unpredictable, how should we be
living our lives? There is a lot of
warning about how we should live
and how we should not live as we
wait for the rapture of the Church to take place. Watch out for His return: The Lord warns: "Don't let my sudden coming
catch you unawares; don't let me find
you living in careless ease, carousing
and drinking, and occupied with the
problems of this life, like all the rest of
the world. Keep a constant watch." Don't be like the rest of the world
who are asleep concerning these
matters (1Thess. 5:6). You are not in
darkness concerning it so as to allow
that day to surprise you like a thief in
the night. Instead, always be on the alert. Just as a man can prevent
trouble from thieves by keeping
watch for them, so you can avoid
trouble by always being ready for My
unannounced return, says the
Lord" (Matthew 24:43-44; Mark 13:32). Be on your guard, be on the alert: Peter warns us to always be self-
controlled and alert. The reason is
because our enemy the devil prowls
around like a roaring lion looking for
someone to tear apart (1Peter 5:.
Live your life with a sense of urgency that the Lord could come any time.
When we were growing up as
Christians, we were taught to live our
lives as though the Lord will return
today. What a timely advice. That way,
you are constantly aware of the temporary nature of your stay here
on earth. You realise you are living in
borrowed time and ought to make
the best use of your time while you
still have it. I always use the illustration of a
person who goes shopping at five
minutes to closing time. If you are
conscious of the fact that the shop
closes in five minutes time, you do not
start a long conversation with your friend whom you suddenly bumped
into at the shop, even if you had not
seen him or her for a very long time.
You know it is not time to sample all
the items displayed on the shelf. That
is also no time to start enquiring about the different product ranges on
offer. You simply and hurriedly go
through the shelves picking up the
most important things you need in
other to make it on time to the
counter before they close. Such practical response to a sense of
urgency should characterise your
approach to your every spiritual
service you are engaged in. Stay sober: Do not spend your life in wanton excesses and extravagance.
Be free from inordinate passion. Learn
to be quiet. Let everyone see that you
are unselfish and considerate in all
you do. Always be protected by the
armour of faith and love, while wearing as your helmet the happy
hope of your salvation. Do not be deceived: Don't let anyone deceive you into believing
that you should not be thinking
about the rapture or be concerned
about it. As Paul said, if we who are
abiding in Christ have hope only in
this life and that is all, then we are of all people most miserable and to be
pitied (1Corinthians 15:19). Whatever
else you do here while we wait for the
Lord to come for us, the most
important thing is to be found ready
when He comes. To be found worthy to be raptured should be the most
preferred priority in your life. The thought of the rapture purifies
the man who thinks about it. It
provokes you into action seeing that
you realise that time is short. It draws
you closer to the Lord and sharpens
your commitment to Him. Thinking about the rapture always provokes a
sense of urgency in your attitude to
His work and keeps you from being
occupied with the problems of this
life. The Lord told His disciples when they
were rejoicing that demons were
subject to them in His name, that they
should rather rejoice that their names
were written in heaven. Your
heavenly citizenship and your final arrival there should be the source of
great joy in your life and the
motivation for everything else that
you do. It is our glorious hope. "Occupy till I come." This is the attitude the Lord expects us to have
as we wait for His coming. While we
watch and wait for His coming, we are
not to stay idle. We are to do business
till He comes. We are to faithfully
discharge our responsibilities, inspired by the knowledge of His
coming. The Lord illustrated this point
in the story taken from Luke
19:12-27, "A nobleman living in a
certain province was called away to
the distant capital of the empire to be crowned king of his province. Before
he left he called together ten
assistants and gave them each $2000
to invest while he was gone". The
Lord has given us talents, gifts and
abilities which He expects us to utilise wisely to promote His kingdom on
earth till He comes. How are you
trading? "But some of his people hated him
and sent him their declaration of
independence, stating that they had
rebelled and would not acknowledge
him as their king". Does this sound
like the lifestyle of some people today? I think so. We live in a power-
crazy world today. In the mad race for
power, everyone wants to be in
control, to exercise power over
others while recognising no authority
over himself. The lust for fame, publicity, celebrity, awards and
rewards, have forced many to break
the boundary lines, remove the
ancient land marks and openly but
grotesquely declare themselves as
gods. Even in the body of Christ – the Church – a lust for self-importance
and self-recognition has resulted in
unhealthy rivalry and competition
among many leaders, to the extent
that one wonders exactly which
master they serve. How are you trading? "Upon his return he called in the men
to whom he had given the money, to
find out what they had done with it,
and what their profits were. The first
man reported a tremendous gain –
ten times as much as the original amount! 'Fine!' the king exclaimed.
'You are a good man. You have been
faithful with the little I entrusted to
you, and as your reward, you shall be
governor of ten cities'. The next man
also reported a splendid gain five times the original amount. 'All right!'
his master said. 'You can be governor
over five cities’” (Luke 19:15-19). The Lord encourages us to make an
active investment into our treasury in
heaven. By actively pursuing activities
that promote the kingdom of God in
the lives of other people here on
earth, we are doing business for and with the Lord until He returns. And if
the business of enriching our
heavenly bank accounts appeals to
us very strongly, our minds will
rightly be preoccupied with and
inspired by heaven-driven projects (Luke 12:33-34). This is what will
keep us in constant readiness for the
coming of our Lord.