So what is the rapture?

There has been quite a bit of talk about the rapture of late. My family really got into the discussion when the Left Behind series came out. But there has always been something about this teaching that has left me wondering. If God’s plan is to remove His people from inpending doom then why have so many Christians had to live through great tribulation? When we look at history there have been many times where Christians were persicuted for their beliefs. Some were killed, some exciled, others just ridiculed. Even in more recent history many Christians in the former Soviet Union were sent to the gulog as a result of their beliefs. (Read Father Arseny, 1893-1973: Priest, Prisioner, spiritual Father). For me that was a time and place where a raputure would have been most welcome. But God didn’t rapture His people, he alowed them to live through it.

I believe that tribulation faces all of us. For most of us, this tribulation is not a physical but one of a spiritual nature. How we face and pull through these trials is what really matters. When we face trials with hope, joy, praise, and faith in God then our lives become a blessing. Also when we face trials with negativity then we are consumed, not being a reflector of God’s light but the darkness of the world. I hope that as we face the days after the latest rapture scare we will think of what rapture really means. It is being caught up, I hope we all will be caught up with God as we worship Him in spirit and truth.

Worship is the rapture we all can participate in, in all situations. When we worship we enter into the realm of God, we are no longer caught in the darkness of the world around us, but we are caught in the Light. Worship and prayer is an area of life we can enter no matter where we are, or situation we are in. When we are in a life of prayer we are caught up and with God. When we meet in His houses of worship, we again are caught in his presence. Our contempary ideas of rapture do not represent the historical ideas of rapture, but the feelings of rapture we all experience in His presence are real and present always. For me I was raptured last evening, and will be again this morning as I attend our Meeting for Worship.