>From time to time I will be sending out "juicy, tasty choice morsels of end time Bible prophecy".  Boy, it makes one kind of hungry, doesn't it?!  Today's tasty morsel is the Rapture in the Old Testament.  Most people who know about the Rapture know that it is found in a number of places in the New Testament, but did you know that it is also found in a number of places in the Old Testament?  First, here is the most famous passage about the Rapture in the entire Bible.

I Thess. 4:16 & 17

"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ SHALL RISE FIRST.  Then we who are alive and remain (those true believers in Christ who are alive at the time of His coming) SHALL BE CAUGHT UP TOGETHER WITH THEM IN THE CLOUDS TO MEET THE LORD IN THE AIR, and thus we shall always be with the Lord."

The Rapture is to be a comfort to the believer in Christ, as we see in the following verse.

I Thess. 4:18

"Therefore comfort one another with these words."

Now, I will give you one of a number of places that the Rapture is found in the Old Testament.

Psalm 12:1

"Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases to be, for THE FAITHFUL DISAPPEAR FROM AMONG THE SONS OF MEN."

Right after the Rapture occurs, there will be great fear among those who are left on the earth.  The vast majority of them will not accept any explanation that what had just happened was written about in the Bible, and will turn to other explanations.  I believe quite strongly that the number one false explanation that will be widely accepted for the Rapture will be that man had finally made contact with extraterrestrials, with an alien ship above the earth removing people from all over the world.  Since all the nations will be facing a "common enemy", it will be easy for the newly arrived Antichrist to deceive all the world with this lie and unite all the nations under his control.  In the U.S. the Rapture will undoubtedly result in a "state of national emergency", and indeed there will be a "state of global emergency" which the Antichrist will fully use to his advantage.  Even the "mark of the beast" (Rev. 13) will be easy to implement so that everyone can prove that he or she is a true citizen of earth.  After all, there is an extraterrestrial threat common to all!  Let me state this in a little different light.  Let's say it's 1998 and we start talking about large planes crashing into large buildings.  Intriguing (the movie, "The Towering Inferno" was made in the 1970's about people trapped at the top of a large building that was on fire) but not really important in the national and global mindset.  Yet after 9/11, large planes crashing into large buildings has taken on new meaning, has it not?  Now, over many decades past there has been an underlying "culture" in our society about UFO's, extraterrestrials, life on other planets in other solar systems, etc.  Not high up in the national and global mindset, but yet there in the "background" of our society.  Now the Rapture happens!  Just like large planes crashing into large buildings has moved to the forefront of society, so will the UFO / extraterrestrial culture move to the forefront!  This lie will be accepted by most as the explanation for what is described throughout the Bible as the Rapture.

It is interesting to note that there have been what I like to call "mini-raptures" in the past.  Enoch was taken by God without seeing death, as was Elijah.  During the coming Tribulation Period (the 7 years following the Rapture ending with the Second Coming of Christ), the two witnesses for the Lord (Rev. 11) will be put to death by the Antichrist at the middle of the Tribulation, their bodies not buried but instead laid in the street of Jerusalem, and then after 3 1/2 days resurrected.  And then they are "mini-raptured" to heaven in front of a lot of people!  Despite these "mini-raptures", for all of history there is just one Rapture, which we are now rapidly approaching.  A number of people on my e-mail list who will see this are not leaving in the Rapture.  The purpose of me sending this out is that those who are left here will remember what they have read here, and will not believe the lie that they will be fed by the media and Antichrist.  Even during the Tribulation Period it will be possible to accept Christ and have eternal life when one's life here is over, despite many Jews and Christians being killed by the Antichrist during the Great Tribulation, the final 3 1/2 years leading to the Second Coming.

Stay tuned for more juicy, tasty choice morsels of end time Bible prophecy in the near future!



Neil Lipken
A Jewish believer in the Jewish Messiah, Who is Christ