book

A book is a written or printed work on paper pages, bound together within a cover. The book in this instance, which Evan is remembering, is the Bible! The Bible is the main source of information for Christian teachings.

One teaching in Christian churches is about something they call “the rapture.” (Which is what Evan is concerned about here.) This idea of the Rapture, or the church being “taken away” or “snatched out” of the world, seems a bit far fetched to some people, but it is something many popular Christian books today, both fiction and non-fiction, make mention of.

The Rapture of the church is not just popular today, it is something that people in years past have written about too. A Jesuit priest named Emanuel Lacunza, mentioned it in his writings., John Darby founder of the Plymouth Brethren shared his ideas about it too. There was also Robert Norton who recorded the vision of a girl named Margaret MacDonald who said she had a vision that people who believed in Jesus would be taken out of the world before the great tribulation. These people don’t know the specific timing of such an occurrence, but they believed that it was something that would take place, and they lconsidered it to be immanent, meaning that it is was very close in time; or about to occur.

The Apostle Paul originally penned 1 Thessolonians 4:16-17 in about 52 AD. He told the readers of this letter, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall 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.” Simply put, Paul encouraged Christians to look forward to the return of JEsus CHrist and being caught up in the clouds to meet him and being with the Lord forever.

The Bible tells us that nothing can take us out of God’s hand, but there have been instances where people have been taken out of the world. We are told of Enoch who walked with God, and then he was not…. for God took him. (Genesis 5:4; Hebrews 11:5) And then of course, there was Elijah, who went up by a whirlwind into heaven. (2 Kings 2:11) And in Acts 1:9 Christians are told that Jesus was taken up into to heaven, and a cloud received him out of their sight.

People can and do, have lots of speculation when it comes to religious teachings, and certainly in regards to the Rapture and the return of Christ, but what Paul wrote is written down for our benefit as Christians and for our comfort and hope. Paul wrote about believers being “caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air,” and it’s in the book called the Bible.