Isn't it true that the word "rapture" is not found in the Bible?
I've always been totally amazed at how some folks write me and try use the fact that the word "rapture" does not appear in the Bible as an argument against its validity. The issue should be whether or not the concept of the rapture appears in the Bible.
With 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 giving us such a clear description of the rapture, you would have to conclude some people are just playing games with the Word of God. I could change the name of my site to "Catching-Up Ready" to satisfy these folks, but I hardly think that would improve things.
Their logic runs very thin because a huge number of words don't appear in the Bible, including the word "Bible." Because God's Word was originally written in Hebrew and Greek, one could truthfully say that no English words are found in the Bible. Let's take a look at 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 in the original Greek:
4:16 oti autos o kurios en keleusmati en fwnh arcaggelou kai en salpiggi qeou katabhsetai ap ouranou kai oi nekroi en cristw anasthsontai prwton 4:17 epeita hmeis oi zwntes oi perileipomenoi ama sun autois arpaghsomeqa en nefelais eis apanthsin tou kuriou eis aera kai outws pantote sun kuriw esomeqa 4:18 wste parakaleite allhlous en tois logois toutois
I don't see the dead in Christ rising, Jesus descending from Heaven, or us meeting Him in the air. They're right; the word "rapture" is nowhere to be found. All I see is gobbledygook.
For the record, the word "rapture" comes from the Latin word rapturo, which is a translation of the Greek verb "caught up" that's found in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. You can call it the "pre-trib rapture," the "pre-trib rapturo," or the "pre-trib caught up" - it's all the same thing.
