Why The Rapture WILL Happen in the Twinkling of An Eye
The rapture is our blessed hope. This event is what we live for every day, the moment we hear the trumpet sound, and we hear the cry, “Come up here.”
I believe there is a case to be made that this event will happen so suddenly that no one will know what just took place. They will know something has happened because millions of people will have just disappeared off the face of the planet. Of course, there will be a handful of people who will know that the rapture has taken place because family and friends would have witnessed to them; maybe they just blew it off, or they were part of a religion that did not teach the rapture, and they were not ready and were left behind. The rest of the world, however, will believe a great lie. God will send them a strong delusion, as stated in 2 Thessalonians 2:11. Those remaining will believe a lie of some kind that will explain away the rapture event.
Here are the first twelve verses that will make my point about the strong delusion.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, NKJV: The Great Apostasy
“Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?
“And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.“
So why do I even bring this up? The reason is simple. The rapture has to happen very quickly. So quickly even that it would take people by surprise. Before I get to my main text for this article, I want to present a couple of scriptures that I believe back up a secret‑rapture viewpoint. This view is the only view that makes sense to explain the fact that most of the world would not believe that the rapture even took place, as they will believe “the lie.”
Here is a passage from Genesis:
Genesis 5:24, NIV
“Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.”
I actually like the way the NLT puts it because it gets more to the point: “walking in close fellowship with God. Then one day he disappeared because God took him.”
Enoch disappeared because God took him. Enoch is a type of the church being raptured. At the rapture, the church is going to disappear. Yes, it is possible to see someone disappear, sure, but think about this. In the twinkling of an eye would be so fast that you might not be able to see it. More on this in a moment. First, I want to share a couple more verses that point to a secret rapture event.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-3: The Day of the Lord, NKJV
“But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. …”
The tribulation will begin after the rapture. The Lord will come like a “thief in the night.” Thieves are crafty and sneaky. They will not reveal their plan. Just as our Lord has told us that only God the Father knows when the rapture will take place.
Here is a similar passage in Peter:
2 Peter 3:10: The Day of the Lord, NKJV
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.”
And here is one more passage:
Matthew 24:36‑44, NKJV:
“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.
“Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
Yes, eventually, it will sink in that something has happened, but it will happen when we are not expecting it. We could be working, and when no one is expecting it, the rapture takes place, and the other is still working. Those left behind will wake up the next morning and wonder what happened, as their co‑workers are missing. They turn on the TV and see the collateral damage that inevitably will take place after the rapture. This is going to happen so quickly that no one will know what just took place.
This takes us up to the main text I want to discuss, which is 1 Corinthians 15:51‑53:
1 Corinthians 15:51‑53, NKJV
“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
I want to focus on the phrase, “In the twinkling of an eye.” What does this mean?
Here is a definition:
“If something happens in the twinkling of an eye, it happens very quickly.” https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/in‑the‑twinkling‑of‑an‑eye
So it is hard to argue with scripture when it says we will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.
Here is the definition of a moment:
“a: a minute portion or point of time
b: a comparatively brief period of time” https://www.merriam‑webster.com/dictionary/moment
For consideration, here is a calculation of just how fast a twinkling of an eye actually is, taken from the Focus on The Endtimes website:
“There are numerous definitions of the ‘Twinkling/Blinking’ of an eye. If the Apostle Paul is describing the speed of the rapture as a ‘Twinkle,’ then he’s describing something so fast, it’s difficult to comprehend.
The ‘twinkling of the eye’ is the time it takes for light to enter the eye, reach the back of the eye, and be reflected back out. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second, so the Twinkle is about one billionth of a second.
The ‘Blinking’ is a bit slower but still too fast to recognize. A blink lasts somewhere between 300 and 400 milliseconds, or considerably less than half a second.
Taking both of these into consideration, the reason why the Apostle Paul used this term was to assure us of the supernatural miracle of the Rapture. There is no human effort! It assures us that no one can impede it, slow it down, drag their feet, or add anything to it.“ https://fotet.org/in‑the‑twinkling‑of‑an‑eye
So it seems clear to me that the rapture will happen in a very brief period of time. The Bible seems to imply that the blink of an eye is how quickly this event will take place as he comes to bring his bride to be with Him for eternity.
The wait is growing shorter every day, and our anticipation should be growing day by day as we await that trumpet sound.
Maranatha.