Tag: #Bible

Is the rapture clearly taught in Scripture?

Yes. Although the word rapture does not appear in most English Bibles, the event is clearly described. Paul explains that believers will be “caught up” to meet the Lord in the air.
1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 and 1 Corinthians 15:51–52 provide the clearest rapture scripture describing this moment.

Common Questions About the Signs of the Rapture 1. What are the signs of the rapture according to the Bible?

The Bible points to several conditions that signal Christ’s return is drawing near. Jesus described deception, wars, global turmoil, geological upheaval and spiritual decline as “birth pains” that precede the end of the age.
Matthew 24:4–8, Luke 21:28, and 2 Timothy 3:1–5 describe these growing signs of the rapture and call believers to remain watchful.

The 7 Key Rapture Scriptures Every Believer Should Understand

The following passages represent the clearest rapture scripture in the Bible and reveal the unfolding signs of the rapture pointing to Christ’s return.

1. Caught Up In the Rapture: Foreshadowing the Pretribulation Promise
Genesis 5 | 2 Kings 2 | Acts 8
Explore powerful rapture scripture where Enoch, Elijah, and Philip are suddenly taken by God. These passages offer a prophetic preview of believers being caught up. These remarkable passages reveal early signs of the rapture woven into Scripture long before the event is fully explained.

Rapture Bible Verses

What does the Bible say about Rapture? – Scriptures on the End Times

The Rapture – the raising of the Church into heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:17)—is the next event on the prophetic calendar. The Rapture is when Christ comes back and takes every Christian that is still on this earth and resurrects all of those who have died and takes them to heaven with Him. In 1 Thessalonians 5:1-8, Paul expresses that the Lord’s return will be like a thief in the night. No one knows the date or time. However, there are several signs of the End Times that we can all be aware of. Events such as earthquakes and diseases, war and dispute among nations, and persecution against Christians are all signs leading to the Rapture.

EDITOR’S NOTE: These additional resources can help you as you study the rapture and end times. We hope it can direct you toward scriptural truths about the study of Revelations and the end times.

Understanding the Second Coming of Jesus
What is the Rapture and is it Biblical?
What Is the Apocalypse? 10 Things Christians Should Know
Who Is the Antichrist and What Will His Rise Look Like?
What Is the Mark of the Beast in the Bible?
Who Are the Four Horsemen in Revelation? Their Meaning and Significance During Apocalypse

Wondering about the timing of the rapture can cause confusion and anxiety for a lot of people. For ages, people have tried to figure out the exact and time that the prophecy of Jesus’s return will happen. The best place to turn for answers about the rapture is Scripture! We have compiled Bible verses about the rapture for you to read and study. God tells us everything we need to know in the Bible. There are some things that God has left a mystery for us. Let us be confident in what He has revealed and live a life of joy knowing we will spend eternity in heaven!

For a deeper study, you can download these Rapture Scriptures and share them with others.

Confessing Sins Helps to Avoid Shipwrecking Our Faith

Isolation and self-dependency will bring great ruin in a believer’s life. The tending of shame and guilt will result in storms of chaos if we don’t do something about it. But we’re afraid. Afraid of what people will think if we admit we fell prey to that sin—the sin we never thought we’d be capable of.

In 1 Corinthians 10:12–13, Paul warns us of this, though: “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

Our pride gets in the way of confessing seeds of sin in our hearts. We’re upstanding church members, Bible study leaders, and parents. How could we possibly have given in to that thought or secret habit? So we nod and smile in small group prayer times, asking for more patience and wisdom while skirting around the things we don’t want to admit.

But the more we convince ourselves that such a sin isn’t possible for us, the more we quietly give in to it, convincing ourselves it’s not that bad. And unfortunately, before too long, that sin will break forth into the open, causing scandal and more hurt than we could have dreamed of.

If we had only been honest with someone at the beginning, we could have sought help to fight that sin in its cloudy stages. We could have found counsel and not felt like we were drowning in a sea of darkness.

The Messiah Factors and Daniel 9

This background concerning shaba and seven brings me to Messiah Factors and Daniel 9. Remember Daniel 9 is the only prophecy in the Bible which provides a specific and datable timeline for the coming of the Messiah. It is my belief that these numbers, these prophetic messianic symbols are the means by which Yahweh intended the prophecy of 70 sevens to be calculated. What better way to ensure that His people (the Jewish People) understood that Yeshua is the Messiah of the Scriptures than connect the fulfillment of the prophecy of 70 Sevens with symbolism of Yahweh’s redemptive plan as found in the Torah of Moses?

Many well-meaning scholars and teachers on the other hand believe each “seven” of the 70 sevens represents either a day, a year, or even a so called “prophetic year”. The fact of this case is Daniel 9 simply does not provide a direct statement which tells us how long each of these sevens should be. Yahweh purposely withheld that information from the prophecy, or did He? Maybe be we just haven’t been paying attention.

If you’ve read my book Daniel’s 70 Weeks: Keystone of the Bible prophecy and the many articles I’ve written on the subject then you know that from Yahweh’s divine “commandment” (Hebrew – dabar) in 520 BC, using the Messiah Factors of 13 & 14 they give us the year of Yeshua birth (the coming of the Messiah) as well as the start of his ministry and the transfiguration. The astounding facts of the matter is that the Messiah Factors do in fact provide a solution which proves that Yeshua is the Messiah. They work, but the question remains, where they the intended solution?

For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess [OT- shaba] to God. (Romans 14:11 insertions mine) I Swear Indeed!

The Messiah Factors and Daniel 9
This background concerning shaba and seven brings me to Messiah Factors and Daniel 9. Remember Daniel 9 is the only prophecy in the Bible which provides a specific and datable timeline for the coming of the Messiah. It is my belief that these numbers, these prophetic messianic symbols are the means by which Yahweh intended the prophecy of 70 sevens to be calculated. What better way to ensure that His people (the Jewish People) understood that Yeshua is the Messiah of the Scriptures than connect the fulfillment of the prophecy of 70 Sevens with symbolism of Yahweh’s redemptive plan as found in the Torah of Moses?

Daniel 9 and the Oath of Sevens

Are you beginning to see the connection? Daniel’s opening words in chapter 9 are a plea for Yahweh to remember the “covenant and mercy” which we now know was an oath of sevens He the living God of the Bible made with Abraham, an oath (shabuw’ah) which foretold the coming Messiah. While Daniel was praying for this “covenant and mercy” Yahweh sends the angel Gabriel with a prophecy of 70 Sevens.

Are you beginning to see the connection? Daniel’s opening words in chapter 9 are a plea for Yahweh to remember the “covenant and mercy” which we now know was an oath of sevens He the living God of the Bible made with Abraham, an oath (shabuw’ah) which foretold the coming Messiah. While Daniel was praying for this “covenant and mercy” Yahweh sends the angel Gabriel with a prophecy of 70 Sevens.

Seven, 70, & Sevens: Daniel 9 & the Bible’s Messianic Symbolism part 4

I Swear Sevens
At the heart of Daniel 9 is the fascinating Hebrew word shaba (shaw-bah) which means to swear. Now you won’t see shaba in the English text of Daniel 9, but it is the Hebrew root word from which 7, 70, Sevens, and oath are derived. In fact, the Hebrew phonetic spelling of swear and 7 are exactly the same.

It wasn’t until the Middle Ages that the Mesorites added vowel pointings (cantillation marks) to the Hebrew text in order to help the reader distinguish between the words (based upon their interpretation of the text).

Take a look at the images to the right, I’ve provided the phonetic spelling of swear and seven without the pointings. I’ve also included the Hebrew numerical letter value for each word. As you can see they are the exact same word.

The TWOT Bible Lexicon provides us with some fascinating insights into the word shaba (shaw-bah) to swear:

It is apparent that sh¹ba± “swear” is identical in its consonantal root to the word sheba± “seven.” It is identical, of course, to the feminine form of seven-the masculine adding a fourth letter, “he”-and it is in the feminine in which the Hebrew counts his cardinal numbers! [another approach is to call shib±â the fem. from though it is used with masc. nouns, and sheba± the masc. from used with fem. nouns. R.L.H.]

Not only is the Hebrew verb “to swear” identical in the ancient unpointed text to the number seven, but also a relationship is suggested by the 2000 B.C. incident of Gen 21:22-34 . Here Abimelech desires Abraham to swear to deal uprightly, while Abraham in turn requires Abimelech to swear that the well of water belongs to him, Abraham. Abraham then seals the oath by giving exactly seven ewe lambs as a testimonial witness to Abimelech, and the well is called Beer-sheba, or Well-of-the-seven-oath! Thus BDB has defined sh¹ba± by the pithy oneline paraphrase, “to… seven one self, or bind oneself by seven things” (p. 989). Gesenius cites Herodotus iii:8 and the Iliad, xix:243, to give evidence that in the ancient world it was not uncommon to seal an agreement by the septenary number….