RMBC HEBREWCLUB #116: Questions & Answers

Rapture" comes from the words "caught up" in I Thessalonians 4:17. In the Greek the word is harpazo - "to seize upon by force", "to snatch up." The Latin translators used the word rapturo. Some people claim that "rapture" is not a Biblical term. This is untrue, unless they want to say that "God" and "Jesus" are not Biblical Terms. Almost all words in our English Bible are translations of Greek or Hebrew expressions, and are, therefore, not in the Bible in the form we know them. "God" is a proper and meaningful translation of certain words in the original languages, and "Jesus" is a good translation for us of His name (Yeshua, "Joshua," "The Lord Saves," in Hebrew). In the same way, the English word "rapture" which means "to be caught up" is an excellent translation for the Greek harpazo.
Three Events That Happen at The Rapture

The scriptures of First Thessalonians 4 and 5 are familiar to most Christians as a description of the so-called "rapture of the church." The rapture can be thought of as a point in eternity which will protrude into our historical time frame at some fixed point on God's calendar. However, as we have seen, God has not given us the date.

Three specific events take place at the time Jesus calls his church out of the world:

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven

(a) with a cry of command,
(b) with the archangel's call,
(c) and with the sound of the trumpet of God.