My contention continues to be that the answer to this question can be found within one verse. It is a statement by the ascended Lord Jesus Christ to John, the disciple Jesus called “beloved.”

I believe there is a singular word to describe the reason for the Rapture. We will, I hope, get to both the Scripture passage and the word that I believe answers the question, “Why the Rapture?”

First, we need, for those not familiar with the term “Rapture,” to provide a definition.

The word “rapture” isn’t expressed as that term in the Bible, at least not in the English versions. It is given in the Latin Vulgate, however, as rapturo—translated from the Greek language in which the New Testament was mostly written. The Greek word for the great snatching away (being “caught up”) is harpazo, and it eventually became called the “Rapture” by most in the English-speaking world.

It is the “twinkling of an eye” moment the Apostle Paul prophesied will take place at some unknown time, a time only God the Father knows. Here is the Scripture passage encompassing that stupendous event:

“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: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18).

So, what is the purpose of this event Paul tells believers to “comfort” ourselves in, considering that it will take place at some unknown instant? Certainly, the great apostle spent much writing time telling of this call of Christ into the clouds of glory. Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-55, for example.

Paul himself looked for this event to happen during his time on Earth. He preached and taught, assuring the believers in Thessalonica that this event hadn’t yet occurred—because many of them feared it had happened and they had missed it somehow. Paul went to great lengths to explain the truth of the Rapture—the harpazo. (Read 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.)

So, again, why the Rapture? To be given so much ink by the most prolific writer of the New Testament and by one of God’s most prominent prophets, the Rapture must have monumental significance.

The Rapture is indeed one of the most significant events that will play out in human history. This is because it is a rescue from the most horrific time in all of human history. Jesus, the Creator of all things, said the time to come will be the worst to ever occur, even until His return at Armageddon (Revelation 19:11).

Here, again, is what the Lord said of that ultimately evil time that is about, at this very moment, to burst upon a judgment-bound world.

“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21).

God is about to pour His righteous judgment and wrath upon a world of rebels–those who have totally turned their backs on Him. Planet Earth is about to endure global warming and climate change–and, much worse, the wicked Ephesians 6:12 sorts are constantly and falsely declaring. The Lord of Heaven–Creator of all that is—is about to demonstrate who is in total charge.

He is a righteous God and cannot allow the rebellion to continue beyond the point He has determined.

But “righteous” is the key word here. God is righteous. And His righteous judgment and wrath are not for those who are righteous but for those who are unrighteous.

Now, to get to the Scripture and the word promised at the beginning of this article.

The Scripture that encapsulates the reason for the Rapture in one verse is the following:

“Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth” (Revelation 3:10).

Jesus’ words of comfort were to all believers in Him for salvation down through the ages, as well as for the church at Philadelphia. It is a promise to keep all believers of the Church Age (Age of Grace) out of the Great Tribulation He told of in Matthew 24:21.

And that brings us to the single word that encapsulates that salvation. It is the word “righteous.”

All who are righteous will be kept from the Tribulation. This is because God the Father sees all who have believed in His Son Jesus for salvation as being “in Christ.” That is, all born again are seen through God’s holy eyes as being covered by the precious, holy blood of the Savior, Jesus Christ. This means that we who accept Jesus as Savior are clothed in the righteousness of the Son of God, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, in order to bring all who will accept His sacrifice to redemption and reconciliation with God the Father.

To miss accepting this truth is to die in sin and go to the lake of fire, or to go through that horrific time called the Tribulation, if still alive when it begins. To accept God’s free grace offer of salvation is to go to the Savior, Jesus, when He calls, as the Apostle Paul has prophesied.

The Rapture is to spare you terrible anguish and separation from God forever. Here is how to make sure you go in the Rapture, and to Heaven–and not into eternal torment.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

In constantly thinking on and writing about Bible prophecy, one can lose sensitivity to the reality that people –even the saved– often view such matters as gloomy at best and terrifying at worst. Maybe “lose” is the wrong word. We who believe we are given the assignment by our Lord to write on these topics perhaps “misplace” sensitivity to the fact that things are gloomy or terrifying to people rather than “lose” that understanding. We easily forget believers need to be uplifted, not terrified. And there is a way in presenting Bible prophecy to accomplish the former rather than the latter.

In speaking not long ago to a good number of people, I was nudged in my spirit to begin by trying to make it clear that while I was there to talk about things involved in Bible prophecy, the ultimate outcome of all the end-times things we see going on only point to the glory that is to come.

Paul, the great apostle and writer of much of the New Testament, for example, wrote:

“Eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the mind the things that God has prepared for those who love Him.”

We are told that there is a “crown of righteousness” for those who love Christ’s appearing. Jesus Himself told us through the Apostle John that He –Jesus—will keep us from the time of the great trouble that is coming (Revelation 3:10). Now, all that encapsulates a glorious prospect, not gloom and doom!

I was told recently that my friend Dr. Ed Hindson, one of the greatest Bible prophecy teachers of our time, in his last moments of life, opened his eyes and exclaimed something like: “I had no idea it was so glorious!”

I can relate perhaps only slightly to Dr. Hindson’s reported last-moments vision of Heaven but certainly agree from firsthand experience. Many know of my dying clinically on Good Friday of 2011, April 22. What I saw was indeed glorious. (I don’t apologize here for overusing the term “glorious.” One can’t overuse the term because there is none more appropriate to convey Heaven’s…well…glory!) I was, it has become apparent, “sent back” to tell exactly that truth to all who will listen. I cannot help but do so. Going to that place of glory was and remains something that comes to my mind at moments, particularly when things look to be gloomy, prophetically speaking. The trip to that sphere on three occasions of my heart stopping was truly glorious, and it was instantaneous upon each heart stoppage.

My thoughts on recalling those heavenly visits always go back to Paul telling us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. There isn’t even a twinkling of an eye of time between the last heartbeat and bursting onto that glorious scene –not one fraction of a second.

Steven, the first Christian martyr, as he was being stoned, saw the Lord Jesus Christ Himself standing from the right hand of God’s throne to welcome Steven into glory. I am certain that, had God intended to keep me on that Good Friday, I would have been instantaneously in His holy presence. This will be the indescribably glorious reception each believer will experience when the final heartbeat instantaneously transfers us from this fallen sphere into the presence of the eternal magnificence our God has prepared for us.

Jesus said the following.

“Let not your heart be troubled. Behold, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again, and will receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:1-3).

The glorious dwelling place Jesus has prepared for you and me is beyond comprehension, as Paul has assured. We can get but an inkling of that stupendous vista that will burst in our super-enhanced eyesight. Being blind for more than 30 years now, I’m particularly looking forward with great expectation and anticipation to that scene, whether experiencing it through the instantaneous portal of death or the even swifter entry into that heavenly presence in the Rapture.

Like the song lyrics of “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” express: “The things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”

The Lord is not willing for anyone to perish; He wants all to come to repentance. This desire to bring the lost to Christ should be in the deepest reaches of our own spirits. That’s why we must always carry out the Lord’s Great Commission to all who are lost in sin.

“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matthew 28:18-20).

The future is glorious for all who put their trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. Here is how to become part of God’s eternal, heavenly family. Let us who are in that family point the unsaved in the direction of the heavenly gates with Scripture like the following.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).