Youversion App Theme: Rapture(Harpazo)

1 Corinthians 15:50

“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.”

• Our bodies as they are now are fallible and cannot live forever: the kingdom of God is eternal, so our bodies cannot remain as they currently are when we are taken up to heaven.
• Our bodies are corrupted by fleshly desires which cannot enter the holy, eternal purity of the kingdom. They must be cleansed and made anew for them to enter.
• We are in a battle of powers and principalities, not of flesh and blood. Our battle is in our spirit, not our bodies. This goes to show that much that happens in the physical realm has a deeper meaning than just daily actions. Our fall to temptation, what we say, and how we behave can have an effect on us on a spiritual level.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52

“Behold, I shew 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 trump: for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”

• After the dead in Christ are raised, we will be raised harpazo into the clouds with them.
• Our bodies will be transformed into an incorruptible form in the twinkling of an eye. Like butterflies, we will go through a metamorphosis into our new, heavenly bodies!
• We will no longer be under the influence of our flesh’s sinful desire. We are innately born with it but we will be reborn without it to be made anew in the kingdom of heaven.

1 Thessalonians 4:16

“For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and 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:”

• Jesus will return with a massive expression of God’s glory to end all sin and darkness on earth. There will be no more death, pain, and grief, only joy in the Lord and love for the rest of eternity!
• He will raise up all the dead in Christ first to join Him in the clouds. They remained before us and have been asleep in waiting for His promised return so they get to go home first.
• Next, all those living in Christ will be caught up with them and we will all be family in the kingdom with Him. It is admirable that our God is so loving that He would accept people who were once sinners into His heavenly family. Perfect, in fact, that He allowed Jesus to be the mediator on our behalf so that this could be!

I have heard some people say that we will no longer be alive when the rapture happens, but… the Bible says nothing about us being dead. In fact, it states that it is a transformative virtual metamorphosis from sinful nature into godly nature. We will no longer yearn for sin, which the wages for sin is death. We will be people of light rather than people of darkness.

Philippians 3:20

“For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.”

• Through His sacrifice we are reconciled to Himself; through Him, we are cleansed of our sins and made right with God. He saved us from our inevitable fate even though He didn’t have to. He did it out of voluntary sacrificial love.
• We are impure and our sin is repugnant within the bounds of heaven. We do not see our sin as vile because we live in it with humanity’s own subjective moral standard. We are like pigs rolling in a pigsty: perfectly content with rolling in our filth and not seeing any problem with it.
• Our sin makes us vile in God’s eyes, but because He loves us, He made a way to save us!

2 Peter 3:10

“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.”

• Many people will be unaware before the rapture comes. Some people with hardened hearts will be rendered blind from God and His messages and will not know of His soon return until it is much too late. That does not mean all hope is lost for all of them. They will still have at least one more opportunity to attain faith and His grace, but for now, they will not be able to see the truth.
• Many believers may know during the season of His return, but only the Father knows the day and the hour. He will give the world signs to encourage us and remind us that the time is near (I believe He has been giving us signs and the huge earthquake in Syria and Turkey in February 2023 was one of them. But that’s just my opinion.).
• After the tribulation, all things will be transformed and cleansed of all darkness, the old heaven and earth will pass into the new and we will join Him in the new world.

Thanks for reading this Bible Study! If you have any critiques, ideas, or study requests, go ahead and pop it in the comments! Have a wonderful day, and God bless you all in Jesus Christ’s name!