In the first place, we should not use the term "rapture." The Greek term means catching-up. The English word rapture means a lofty emotion or ecstatic feeling. It reminds one of the Catholic doctrine of the "Immaculate Conception." Such specialized terms take on a life of their own.

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is not found in the Protestant Scriptures. Neither is the rapture, as it is currently preached.

If we would employ the term catching-up we might be able to come back down to earth with this event.

The Greek word translated "caught up" is only used a few times in the New Testament, and only once when referring to the believers. You would think it was a major doctrine of the New Testament from the way it is preached. It is not a major doctrine of the New Testament.

In fact, in the "rapture" passage of First Thessalonians, the emphasis is on the return of Jesus Christ with His saints, not on the going to Heaven of the believers.

The doctrine of the "rapture" of the believers, meaning an escape to Heaven, is not found in the Scriptures. It is not typified by any of the major Old Testament types. It is not even mentioned in the "resurrection chapter" of the Bible, the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians.

The origin of the rapture doctrine indeed is suspect. Why is the origin suspect? It is suspect because the doctrine is unscriptural and destructive. It is destructive because it does away with the important doctrine of the resurrection.

The resurrection is typified in the Old Testament by the breaking of the clay vessels and the shining of the inner lamp, in the episode concerning Gideon. The story of Gideon is one of the major types of the first resurrection.

If you do not think the unscriptural stress on the rapture of the believers has done away with the scriptural doctrine of the resurrection, ask any believer in the rapture about the resurrection. You most likely will find that he or she has very little understanding of the resurrection from the dead or its relationship to the catching up of the saints into the air to meet the Lord Jesus at His return.

Ask him if our body will be raised from the dead or if this is important.

Ask her if we have to be resurrected or changed before we are caught up?

Salvation has to do with the change of the individual. Salvation has nothing to do with the movement of the person from one place to another.

The grand event of redemption is the resurrection of the body from the grave and the clothing of it with eternal life. This marks the conquest of the last enemy, physical death. This is the climax of redemption.

But don't we have to be raptured to go to Heaven?

No. We go to Heaven by dying.

But won't we be resurrected so we can go to Heaven? No. After you have been resurrected you can go wherever God puts it into your heart to go.

But will I escape Antichrist and the great tribulation?

Do you think after you have been raised from the dead and swallowed up with eternal life you could be harmed by Antichrist or the great tribulation?

To be continued.