Rapture
“When other nights and other days will find us gone our separate ways, we will have these moments to remember.” It was a popular song back in the 1950s, as I recall. I believe the singers were called The Four Lads. I’m very grateful to God to have been alive in that wonderful, happiest decade of them all.
The comparison with today’s world and the mid-twentieth century, is stunning. There was a value system then. Ideals like goodness, truth, and honor were respected and important. Look at the way the truth is trampled on each and every day as we approach the end of another year and then just one more before 2020.
For me, just saying 2020 is scary. By then, and hopefully much sooner, I will have departed via the Lord’s promise of the RAPTURE. I want to capitalize every letter in that word. It means so much to those who love the Lord and put their trust in Him.
For all who read these words, and have accepted the Lord’s redemptive plan of salvation, the Rapture will be the most thrilling moment of your existence. Talk about A MOMENT TO REMEMBER. Wow!
Moments, a lot of them, define our lives. Think about it. At any moment, a new life begins. At any moment, another life ends. At any moment, a car accident may happen, a new song, book, story, or article may be created. At any moment, another person may accept Christ as Lord and Savior…or go their separate way.
God describes the moment of the Rapture so well: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” This great, and I believe very soon to arrive moment, will be a magnificent one. For the rest of eternity, we will always remember when we heard the Lord’s voice say the words “Come up hither.” Hither obviously means “here.” “Come up here.”
Some articles you and I both have read try to make the case that the Rapture is years away, maybe decades or longer. I respect their right to their view, but I do not agree. Look at today’s chaotic, murderous, stamp-on-the-truth, and ugly times. They are called “the end times,” and that is what they are. The falling-away period, so well described in the Bible, is running out of room to fall.
I remember the line from the hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” “What a privilege to carry… everything to God in prayer.” I often think about the countless millions of prayers to the Lord to come soon, for the great moment of the Rapture to arrive. Yet, as the Bible tells us, even the Lord Jesus did not know the day when He was here on Earth in the flesh. “Only my Father knows.”
I taught five subjects for years on the college level and as a United States Naval Instructor (five years on the John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier, which is now razor blades), and was amazed how interested my students were in debate, as part of Public Speaking classes. I think an interesting debate could be presented on whether the Rapture is very close or still at some distant time in the future.
Every night I wonder if the Rapture will happen before morning. Each new day I ask the same question. Could it be today? Then I remember the Scripture on this, and what the Lord advises: “Be ye therefore ready, for at an hour such as you think not, the Son of Man cometh.”
Every Saturday afternoon I listen to a wonderful radio program called Prophecy Today with Jimmy DeYoung. This program gives the listener a panoramic view of what is happening both in the Middle East and also around the world. Jimmy DeYoung interviews key broadcast partners, who report the latest news and events in their specialized areas.
I recommend you listen to Prophecy Today; you’ll be tremendously impressed at how God is tying together current events with the prophetic. The program will bring strong new insight into what is happening in today’s world.
I owe a real thank you to Jimmy DeYoung. He makes a final vocal statement each Saturday on the Prophecy Today radio program, ending the 90-minute program with this statement about the Rapture: “The next event on God’s calendar is the Rapture, which could happen AT ANY MOMENT.”
I have wanted to write an article about the Rapture every week after hearing Jimmy DeYoung’s statement that the Rapture could happen AT ANY MOMENT. Now I have at last written it. Thank you, Jimmy DeYoung, for the idea.
May all of us trust the Lord’s great promise that He “will come again and receive us to Himself, that where He is we may be also.” Amen…and amen. Hold the thought, dear readers, for it can and will happen AT ANY MOMENT.
- Perry Wilbur