if you would, tonight, 1 Corinthians chapter number 15. 1 Corinthians chapter number 15. If you'll find your place there in the pages of God's Word, 1 Corinthians chapter number 15. I don't know about you, but I'm glad I have a Bible tonight, aren't you? Half the world doesn't have a Bible. I'm glad that God has allowed us to have one. We're working so that every person and every culture and every language has a Bible in their native tongue. And we're working to see that happen. So thank you, church, for your faithful and giving to world evangelism. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 51. Notice the Bible says, Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. Here's what he's saying. Not every Christian is going to die. There's going to be a generation of Christians that will escape death. Now while not all Christians will die, sleep being a picture of death for the Christian, always used of the body, never of the soul. It's never taught in the Bible that the soul sleeps in the ground. No, the soul goes back to the Lord. A saved person goes to heaven. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. So he says, we're not all going to die, but we shall all be changed. He tells us why back up in verse 50 that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. This body that you now have is not suited for a heavenly environment. God's going to give you a heavenly body that's suited for a heavenly environment. Look at verse 52. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised." Now the living is going to be changed. The dead shall be raised incorruptible. They're going to have a new body. It's an incorruptible body. And we shall be changed. You see, here the Bible teaches me that there is a day in the future of our world when literally hundreds of millions of Christians will suddenly and without warning vanish off of the earth. We call it the rapture. It's the next event on God's prophetic calendar. You see, there's one event, there's one momentous occasion to which all of creation is moving. Somebody says, preacher, where's our world going? Where are we headed? Friend, can I tell you, we are headed to the second coming of Jesus Christ. The two greatest happenings in the history of our world was when Jesus came the first time And then when He comes a second time, we understand that the second coming of Christ is in two phases. First of all, we learned there was the rapture where Jesus comes in the air for His saints. We go up to meet Him. Then the second phase is His return. His return to this earth. When Jesus literally and visibly and bodily leaves heaven and comes back to this earth, you see, in the rapture He comes for His saints, but at His return, we come back with Him. He comes with His saints. Now these two phases of the second coming are separated by at least seven years. Now, I'll explain that in future messages. But we know at least seven years because in this intervening period is a seven year period of time that the Bible calls the tribulation period. Jesus said there's never been a time like it and there'll never be a time like it again after it occurs. It'll be one of the most horrific events on this earth when the very wrath of God is poured out on an unbelieving people. God will once again be dealing with His earthly people, the Jews. But tonight we're going to talk about the rapture. Matter of fact, you're going to find there are three key passages as it relates to the rapture. There's John 14 verses 1 through 3. It's there that the Lord Jesus introduces introduces the rapture, and before He goes back to heaven, He tells His disciples He's going away, He's going to the Father's house, but He will come again and receive them unto Himself, that where He is there, they shall be also. Then here in 1 Corinthians 15, he reveals it as a mystery. This is Paul that Jesus introduces it. Paul begins to expand it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He tells the Corinthian believers this is a mystery. Now a mystery is not something eerie. It's not something spooky. It's not something unsolvable. It's not something that's unknowable. No, what it simply is, is something that is being revealed for the very first time. Here's what he's saying. Nobody's ever heard this before. This has never been revealed before. I'm getting ready to give you truth that no one has ever received up to this point. So it is a New Testament truth that was unrevealed in the Old Testament. that God would come for His saints. But then you're going to see the third key passage in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 13 through 18, and that is the most definitive explanation of the rapture found anywhere in the Bible. Now, your notes may be a little backwards from mine because I didn't edit mine as well as I edited yours, and so I may be ahead of you just a little bit, okay? But we'll get all that pulled in. The rapture is not only a turning point for the saints, It's a turning point for the world. The world will never be the same after the rapture takes place, says Arthur Bloomfield. As a matter of fact, the question on many minds of the saints of God is this. It's not if, but when. When will we be leaving? When is it, preacher, that Jesus will come and take us to be with Him. When's that going to happen? Now listen, we've said that there are two dangers, alright? I'm still giving you some introductory thoughts. We learned this in the first messages. Two dangers when it relates to the second coming of Jesus. The first one is sensationalism. That's date setting. Somebody that says that through charts and maps and this and that they figured out maybe through the Feast of Israel, maybe numerology, all kinds of different ways that people try to approach it and they come up with and they say, we believe Jesus is going to come on that particular day. Well, I can promise you this, that is not true. Now, if He did come on that day, it would be sheer coincidence, alright? Here's the reality, Jesus said that no one knows the day nor the hour but my Father which is in heaven." Christian, you can be certain He's coming for you, but we're uncertain as to when that day's going to be. Amen? The second danger is scoffing. Scoffing. People that scoff at the second coming of Jesus. Peter wrote of them that would say, where is the promise of His coming? We've been hearing this and hearing this and hearing... Where is it? If He's going to come, why hasn't He come? Well, here's the reality. Here's the reality. Friend, can I tell you, Jesus is long-suffering. God said that God is not slack, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish. Friend, can I tell you, Jesus isn't delaying His coming. He will come at the appointed time of the Father, but God is giving people time to get right with Him. Aren't you glad that God's long-suffering tonight? Church, there's coming a time when Jesus is going to come for His own and we need to be rapture ready. Amen? Ready. Let's pray together. Lord, we sure thank You for Your truth tonight. We thank You for the truth of prophetic Scripture. Lord, that we know what's next. Lord, You've let us in on it. Father, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as You moved holy men of God, as they pinned down Your very Word without error. Lord, infallible truth. Lord, You said heaven and earth would pass away, but Your Word would not pass away. And Lord, tonight we're going to be looking into the prophetic Scriptures. We're going to be learning truth. And I pray God You'd give us understanding tonight. But yet, Lord, don't just fill our heads, but challenge our hearts. And we'll thank You for it. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Well, there's some lessons this week and in the next message I want to talk to you about as we're going to do a definitive study of this event called the rapture of the church or the rapturing of God's saints. First of all, I want you to understand it is a sure event. It is a sure event. You remember what Jesus said, and there's probably where your three key passages are at, because I didn't edit my notes, but I edited yours, and I moved it, alright? But didn't delete it off of my notes, and so that's my fault, not yours. And Jesus said that He would come again. We call it the rapture. People object to the doctrine of the rapture. They claim that that word's just not found in the Bible. They don't believe the teaching is there because the word is not used there. Well, let me help you understand something. The word trinity is not found in the Bible either. Alright? But the truth of it is, you study the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, you'll not one time find the word Trinity, but time and time and time again, you will find the truth of the triune nature of our God, that God eternally exists as Father, Son, and Spirit, three persons, one God, who exist together eternally. They are co-existent, co-eternal, and co-equal, that one's not greater than another. We call it the doctrine or the truth of the Trinity. You say, preacher, explain that. Friend, that's beyond our comprehension. There are certain things in the Bible, certain truths in the Bible we can't explain. We just accept them because God says this is what is true about Himself. And God says that He exists as Father, Son, and Spirit. So while the word Trinity is not found in the Bible, the concept, the truth of it is. Well, look with me if you would, I Thessalonians chapter 4. Would you turn there with me? Because here's where we derive the word rapture. I told you it would be a definitive study. I'm not preaching sort of an evangelistic message, although it'll have an evangelistic overtone. It'll have a challenging overtone to us as believers. But yet we're doing a doctrinal study of end time events. And we're going to see where we derive this word rapture. Look, if you would, in verse number 17. Would you look there? Here's the defendant, verse 13, he begins talking about the event called the rapture all the way to verse 18. Look at verse 17, after the dead in Christ rise first, verse 16, 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. We'll never part from Him again. I want you to underline two words in your Bible. It's the words caught up. Caught up. It comes from the Greek word, and I don't normally do this, but the Greek word harpazo. It's used about 13-14 times in the New Testament. Here's what the word means, because you don't see it in your English Bible, and that's fine. I'm not doing anything you can't do with the Strong's Concordance. But it means to seize by force. It means to take suddenly. To snatch away. Here in our English Bible, it means caught up. Did you see that? And so we find that the rapture is derived from actually a Latin word, not the Greek word, but a Latin word. The Bible is translated into Latin, alright? And the Latin word rapio or rapteus is transliterated into English as rapture. Rapture. Alright? To catch away. To snatch away. And while the word rapture may not be found in our Bible, the words caught up are found in our Bible. The concept and the truth of it is, and friend, just because a theological or doctrinal word doesn't occur in the Bible, does not mean the Bible does not teach that particular truth. Like we mentioned the Trinity. Or as we're seeing here, this event in the Bible, that is described as the rapture, the snatching away, the catching away of the saints of God. See, there's coming a day when we will be caught up. That's the word rapture. We'll be taken to be with the Lord. Now here's what's interesting. You're going to find five historical raptures in the Bible. Did you know that? Five of them. Now, we're not talking about the rapture of the saints, but five historical raptures. Now, you read after different guys and they'll say six and other guys say seven. Many of you read after David Jeremiah. He claims there's five, three that are past. two that are future. I'm just going to mention six tonight, and five of them that are historical, okay? The first one, and I put it in your notes for sake of time, is the rapture of a man by the name of Anak. You go all the way back to Genesis chapter number 5, alright? This antediluvian generation, the people that lived prior to the flood. When you read Genesis chapter 5, and we won't do that tonight because the verses are in your notes, you're going to see the death bell tolling in that chapter. They'll be mentioning that this person begat that person who lived a certain number of years begat sons and daughters. And then you see this refrain over and over and over again. And he died. And he died. And he died. Over and over again. And he died. It pictures the reality that sin entered our world in Genesis 3. And death by sin. But then you come to a man by the name of Enoch. Enoch got saved at 65 years of age. For the next 300 years, Enoch will walk with God. And then you read these words. Are you ready for it? and Enoch walked with God, and he was not." What does that mean, preacher? He didn't die. How do you know that? Because the Bible says, "...for God took him." I believe we could say Enoch was the first grave robber. What about you? Now listen, there's coming a whole generation of grave robbers. I hope I'm in that group. Don't you? But Enoch was translated to heaven. He was raptured. He was caught up. One preacher put it this way, that one day Enoch was walking with God, and God said to Enoch, Enoch, you're closer to My house than yours. Why don't you just come on home to be with Me? And the Bible said they searched for him, but they did not find him because he was translated, Hebrews chapter 11. He was snatched away. He was caught up. Enoch is a type, a picture, a prototype of the rapture. You say, wait a minute, preacher. I thought you said the rapture of the saints was a mystery. It had never been revealed before. That's true. That was the rapture of Enoch, not the rapture of the saints of God. That's one man. This is a whole generation of believers. God is just showing us in picture form, in reality, what's going to take place. We're going to fast forward hundreds of years, or actually thousand years, fifteen hundred years, and we're going to come to a man by the name of Elijah. The rapture of Elijah. Listen to 2 Kings, this great prophet, chapter 2 verse 11. And it came to pass, he's at the end of his prophetic ministry, he's going to hand over the reins to his protege, Elisha. And it came to pass, as they still, he and Elisha went on and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder." That means the chariot come by and it grabbed up Elijah and left Elijah standing there. And the Bible said Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. Now listen, I don't believe God's going to send a bunch of fiery chariots down. and whisk us all to heaven. Alright? But here's what I do believe. I do believe that Jesus will say, come up hither and we're going to go up hither. Amen? That's what I do believe. And then we're going to come to the New Testament. That's two Old Testament individuals that were translated. They were snatched away. They were caught up into heaven. But I want to show you a New Testament. There are three in the New Testament. The first one is the rapture of Philip. He's an evangelist. He is preaching to a man who's an Ethiopian eunuch. He's went up worshiping in Jerusalem. He's reading the prophet Isaiah 53 as he's heading back to his homeland. Philip has went there and joined him on the road, alright? And as he's running beside of his chariot, he asks the Ethiopian eunuch, Do you understand what you're reading? He said, How can I except some man show me? About that time, Philip jumps up into the chariot with him and at the same scripture preaches unto him Jesus, showing that Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah 53. And the man was gloriously saved. Here's what he said. He said, What doth hinder me to be baptized? He said, If thou believest with thy whole heart that Jesus is the Son of God. He said, I believe. I put my faith in Jesus. He said, Hey, whoa! They stopped the chariot. There was a little oasis down there. He took him down into the body of water. He baptized him. As they were coming up out of the water, now look in your notes. Let's see what the Bible says. And when they were come up out of the water, that means he was immersed, not sprinkled, alright? You don't need a whole lot of water if you just pour it and sprinkle a little bit on somebody's head, or immersing. Listen, let me just stop and say, baptism in the Bible is always immersion. The Spirit of the Lord caught away. There's our words. Did you see them? There's our New Testament words. Caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him. It was instantaneously. He was there one minute, gone the next. And he, the Ethiopian eunuch, went on his way rejoicing, But Philip was found at Azotus, and passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea." Now with Enoch and Elijah, they were translated to heaven. They were called up to heaven. Enoch was called up from one physical location to another physical location, but he was still the same idea at rapture. He was snatched away. Alright? But then there's the rapture of Paul. Alright? This is an amazing story. In 2 Corinthians chapter number 12, We read about Paul going to heaven. Look what the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 1. It is not expedient. It's not good, Paul says, for me doubtless to glory. He said, I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. He said, I knew a man. He's talking about himself in Christ about 14 years ago, whether in the body I cannot tell, whether out of the body. He said, it happened so fast I don't even know. He said, I cannot tell. God knoweth such in one Caught up. There's our words. Did you see them? Caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth, how he was caught up into paradise. He's in a place called heaven. The third heaven. The abode of God. And heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful. It's not even lawful for a man. I can't even tell you everything that I saw. By the way, I'm going to stop and meddle for a moment. Can I do that? You say, preacher, you're going to go ahead and do it anyway. So there's people that write all kinds of books and say all kinds of things. And there's a book that got very popular called Heaven Can't Wait. It was written about a family who claimed that they had a four-year-old boy that went to heaven. And he came back and told them what was in heaven. They wrote a book and they made a whole lot of money. And Christians were taken by that. Can I help you to understand something? Be careful of sensational things that are not found in the Bible. Let me just say something. If God wouldn't let Paul tell you what happened in heaven, why would He let a four-year-old do that? It was cute, it was fuzzy, and it was a lie. Because they come out after they made the money and made the movie and said, you know what folks, we really, their conscience got the best of them, we made it all up. You have to be careful about fads and things not found in the Bible. And Paul said, I went there and God wouldn't even let me tell you what I saw. He saved that for John later. There's a fifth historical rapture and that's the rapture of the Lord Jesus. His ascension back to heaven. How do you know, preacher, that it's using these words? Because if you go all the way to Revelation 12, I put it in your notes, you don't have to. Revelation 12, you can go to your Bible later and mark it. Listen to verse number 5. You have to realize when you come to Revelation 12 and you're at verse 5, Their God is relating truths as it has to do with the nation of Israel, and it gives a history, and part of it is past tense. It's something that has already happened. Alright? And it relates here to the person of Jesus and His coming into the world. And listen to Revelation 12, 5. And she brought forth, this is the nation of Israel, brought forth a man-child, we know that to be the Lord Jesus, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and her child was caught up unto God and to His throne." Jesus was snatched. He was caught up and taken to heaven. Now let me help you understand something. These first five raptures are a pattern of a future rapture of the saints of God to heaven. And there's three truths I want you to get from all of that. Are you ready? We're doing a doctrinal study tonight. Number one, every one of those five historical raptures were literal. They weren't figurative. They weren't symbolic. There's no figurative language used of it. These are literal events that involve real living individuals at that time. And they were physically and bodily snatched away. It was a literal event in their lives. Secondly, it was physical. They weren't spiritually transported from earth to heaven. Or in the case of Philip, from one earthly location to another earthly location. They were physically, not spiritually, but physically raptured or taken or snatched away from one location to another location. Now there are times, listen to me, there are times in the Bible that God transported people in spirit. You find that in the case of the prophet Ezekiel. You find that in the case of the prophet Isaiah. You find that in the case of John as he is transported into heaven. He's not physically transported. He said, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. It wasn't meaning he was having a great spiritual time. What he's saying is that the Spirit of God transported me in a spiritual sense to future and gave me future revelation. what was getting ready to take place under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Those were spiritual. These five raptures were literal, they were physical, and friend, they were sudden. You remember? The eunuch and Philip are coming out of the water and the Spirit caught him away instantaneously. Suddenly he vanished. There is a sixth rapture. on the horizon. You say, preacher, what is it? It's the rapture of the church or the rapture of the saints of God when Jesus will come for His own and we will be literally, physically, and suddenly transported, translated from earth to heaven. Christian, what I want you to understand, the rapture is a sure event. One day, one day, there's going to be a generation of Christians, I pray it's my generation, My grandfather, who's now in heaven, thought it would be his generation. Every generation since Paul has revealed this truth has looked and longed and loved the appearing of the Lord Jesus for His own. For in that moment when our faith will become sight and we'll be gathered unto Him, we'll see Him. Isn't that exciting? Walter longed for that. Jesus said, I will come again. Friend, listen, I'm just going to ask you a question. Are you going to believe the scoffers or are you going to believe the Lord? That's the question. I Thessalonians 4 verse 16, "...the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God." Friend, Jesus Christ is coming for His own in an event called the rapture. It is sure. I want you to notice number two. It is signless. It is signless. When you study Bible prophecy, you'll find Matthew 24 and 25, the words of the Lord Jesus Himself. He gives you the blueprint of end time events. When you master the Olivet Discourse, it gives you the key that unlocks all of the other prophetic end time scriptures. There the Lord Jesus gave us many signs pointing to His coming, His return. You remember what the disciples said? What shall be the sign of thy coming? Your physical presence here on earth. Your second coming to the earth. He began to give a list of signs, talked about great time of apostasy and deception, war, famine. Not war on a small scale. We're talking about war on a worldwide scale. Do you know we call World War I, World War II world wars, but they really weren't? They didn't involve every nation on the earth. They involved a lot of nations. They involved many nations, but not every nation. Friend, can I tell you in the tribulation period there will be no neutral nations. All the nations of the world will be engulfed in world war. you're going to find that He mentions famine and plagues and earthquakes. Nothing like the world has ever experienced before during this time called the tribulation period, the time of God's wrath. Yet none of these signs point to the rapture. Not one of them. All of them point with a finger of certainty to that second aspect of the second coming when He comes to this earth. Remember, at the rapture He comes in the air. At His return, He comes to the earth. Here's what you need to get. The rapture will occur suddenly and without warning. It is imminent. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 15. Would you do that? Look back with me, 1 Corinthians 15. Now we're going to treat the message just like loaf of bread, okay? We get to a stopping place, we'll slice them off and we'll come back to it, alright? You'll thank me for that later. Look, if you would, verse number 51. He said, Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. Now, we're talking about it signless. There's no signs. Look at this next phrase, verse 52. In a moment. From that phrase we get what we call the doctrine or the teaching of imminency. Imminency. Alright? The rapture is an imminent event. It is impending. That word imminent has the idea of something that's impending, something hanging over one's head, something ready to take place. So here's what we understand. The Lord's coming for His saints and the rapture can happen at any moment. From the moment Jesus went back to heaven, He could have come in the air for His saints. There are no signs. There are no prophecies to be fulfilled that have to be fulfilled. There are no warnings given. Nothing must take place before Jesus returns for His saints. That's why we're commanded in the New Testament to watch and be ready, to be looking for His coming. Alright? Eminence, says Arthur Pearson, A.T. Pearson, is a combination of two conditions. Now catch this. Certainty and uncertainty. And we understand by an imminent event, we mean one which is certain to occur. It's going to take place at some moment in some time, but we're uncertain as to what time. Imminency means, says Mark Hitchcock in his book The End, that the rapture could occur at any moment. Other prophetic events may take place before the rapture, but nothing must take place or precede the rapture. That's not saying that something may not be fulfilled. What he is saying is that nothing has to be fulfilled. There are no signs. It is a signless event. And imminency doesn't necessarily mean soon. We sing the song, Jesus is coming soon. It's not necessarily a Bible truth. Soon means He's coming like, oh, my wife, she'll be here. She's soon. She'll be here in about five minutes. Doesn't mean that. Doesn't mean soon. We've been waiting over 2,000 years. You following me? So what does it mean, preacher? It means it's inevitable. Not soon, but inevitable. I remember riding in a car with my grandfather and the year was 1988. He said, Kevin, things are so bad, we're heading to church. And he said, things are so bad, I can't imagine the Lord waiting another year to come. It's 2023. My grandfather has been in heaven for 13 years. I don't know when Jesus is going to come, but it's inevitable that He will come. And it could be today. The Lord could come before we finish the service. Or it could be decades from now. We're certain He's coming. We're just uncertain as to when He will come. We're at a tragic impasse right now. in this area of ministry and missions. You say, Preacher, what is that? There's a whole generation of pastors and missionaries that are on the heels of retirement and here's what they were told. Hey, don't worry about putting anything up for the future. Jesus is going to come before you retire. And now they're coming off the field and you know what they have? Absolutely nothing. and they're begging churches, please keep supporting us. We don't have anything. We don't have anything to retire off of. We thought the Lord would come. And so, we've got money tied up in wonderful people that have retired off the field to keep them from starving, literally, while there's new missionaries waiting to receive support to go and replace them on the field, and there's not enough money to go around. And every time I meet with our mission board, every time that I meet with mission agencies, every time we as pastors get together, the dilemma always comes up. What do we do? Our missions teams, when we meet, it's always a question. And we have developed a policy to help us to care for retiring missionaries while having money to support new missionaries. What I'm trying to say is don't just go ahead and quit saving and putting into your 4-OK because you think Jesus is going to come. You don't know. We save and we prepare as if He will not come in our lifetime. But we live every day as if He's going to come that day. That's imminency. That's imminency. Without any sign, without any warning, Jesus will return to rapture His saints and transport them to heaven. It could happen at any moment. Therefore, we must be ready for the Lord's coming at any time and at all times. There's never a time that we shouldn't be ready for Him to come. That's why Titus 2.13 says, looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Friend, can I tell you, it's a fact. Jesus Christ is going to come. It is sure. It is signless. Number three. It is sudden. Sudden. Notice what he says, "...in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." Look at that word, moment. It comes from a Greek scientific word when we get our English word, atom. By the way, I just want to challenge you. Did you know that splitting the atom was mentioned in the Bible 2,000 years before man ever did it? God said in II Peter that the elements, the very molecules and atoms of the universe will melt with fervent heat. It describes a nuclear chain reaction. Not man destroying this world, but God deconstructing the world that He Himself created to make ready for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. That word in a moment is the smallest divisible part of matter. It implies the shortest possible amount of time. Today we'd say in an instant. In a split second. In a flash! That's what we would say. In a flash! The Lord will come and we'll be gone. Friend, it could happen tonight. It could. I go to bed at night. Lord, tonight's a wonderful time for you to come. I wake up in the morning. I say, Lord, you didn't come last night, so today will be a good day for you to come. You see, He's going to come and we ought to be ready anytime and at all times. Notice He goes on to say in our text, "...in the twinkling of an eye." Reading this phrase, many people get the idea of a blinking of the eye or a twitching of the eye. Do you know scientists have computed that it takes about 1 50th of a second to blink? I don't know how they do all those things. Like I was talking in this morning's message, I don't know how they do all that. That's beyond me. I'm not a scientist. I'm a preacher. But anyway, they say that on average, the average person will blink about 25 times per minute. Thus, while you're on a trip, about 10-hour drive, and people are driving, let's just say 55, and nobody drives 55 anymore if you've noticed that. On a 10-hour trip, they say that a person will drive 33 miles with their eyes closed. How does that make you feel next time you get in your car? Let me help you understand something. The rapture will happen quicker than 1 50th of a second. The Bible doesn't say the blinking of an eye. It says the twinkling of an eye. It refers to the amount of time it takes for light to travel 186,000 miles per second to reflect off the retina of a person's eye. the sparkle in your wife's eye. By the way, fellas, it doesn't matter. Lori and I were married 34 years ago. I thought to myself after Bri and Brianna and Ben were married yesterday, Brother Barger, I thought about this. They've been married about an hour and we've been married 34 years on the same day. Got married at the same time of day. 34 years. So anyway, I was thinking about it. And I thought about the sparkle in my wife's eye 34 years later. It sparkles just as bright and just as precious as it did when I first met her. Isn't that a blessing? But when you're sitting there across from your sweetheart and you look into her eye and the light reflects off her eye, that's how fast the rapture takes place. It'll happen so quickly and so instantaneously that it'll be unobservable to the human eye. When Jesus comes, Christians all over the world will instantly, in less than a nanosecond... Now Paul didn't know what one of those were, okay? Be translated to glory. I don't know. They just keep making up words. Microsecond, nanosecond, next second it'll be a poposecond. I have no idea. I guess that's nano, not nanny, right? Or nana. But suddenly... Suddenly, corpses all over the world are going to be raised. They're going to be reunited with perfected spirits. And living believers will be called up to heaven and transformed body, soul, and spirit. The rapture will shock the world. It will change everything. Will you give me a couple more minutes? Not only is it sure and signless and sudden, it'll be a surprise. but it shouldn't catch you by surprise. 2 Thessalonians 5, 1 and 2 says this, But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. Now here's what you need to understand about a thief. All of our people in law enforcement understand this. They don't call you up and say, hey, I just want you to know, Brother Dan, that I'm coming over to your house about two o'clock in the morning and I'm going to rob you. Do you know why they don't do that to Brother Dan? Because Brother Dan will be locked and loaded and waiting on them. They don't tell you, hey, I'm coming over. No, they don't do that. They come suddenly. They come unexpectedly. A thief comes without warning. They try to catch the victim by surprise. And when Jesus comes for His own, He's going to catch an unbelieving world that doesn't believe His Word, that doesn't believe His truth, that has rejected Him. They will catch them totally by surprise. They will not even realize the rapture has taken place until it's already happened. Have you noticed that the world is going to have to have an answer when literally hundreds of millions of people vanish off the earth and they were all Christians? Where did they go? What happened to them? They'll be glad, by the way, many of them. You know that a young godly veteran was just murdered or actually he's fighting for his life in the state of Arizona where he was shot in the head for street preaching in America. He was martyred or on the verge of martyrdom. I pray that God spare him. He's a father with small children and he was there just preaching and inviting people to church. He was being cursed and spat on and somebody walked up and they shot him. This is an America church. This is where we are. People say, well, I don't think a church ought to have a safety security team. Let me just help you understand something. We may never need our security team in that way, but I sure would like to have them if that event ever taken place. Wouldn't you? We live in a dangerous world that's far different from the world that I grew up in and that many of you grew up in. And they'll be glad, but they've got to have an explanation. Don't you think the renewed interest in UFOs and aliens and all of this will become a very easy, well, you know what? They were just a bunch of pesky troublemakers and so the aliens come and got all of them. Now I can go on and on about that, but I'm not going to. We're just going to leave that where it's at. But what I want you to understand is Dr. Tim LaHaye in his book on the rapture vividly described and imagined what it might be like when the rapture suddenly happens. Give me a moment. I'm going to read it and then I'm going to close the service. He wrote, when Christ causes living saints to be with Him, millions of people will suddenly vanish from the earth. An unsaved person who happens to be in the company of a believer will know immediately that his friend has vanished. There will certainly be worldwide recognition of the fact, for when more than half of a billion people suddenly depart this earth, leaving their earthly belongings behind, pandemonium and confusion will certainly reign for a time. A million conversations will end mid-sentence. A million phones will suddenly go dead. A woman will reach for a man's hand in the dark and no one will be there. A man will turn with a laugh to slap a colleague on the back and his hand will move through empty air. A basketball player will make a length of the court pass to a teammate streaking down the floor and find there's no one there to receive it. A mother will pull back the covers in a bassinet, smelling the sweet baby smell one moment, but suddenly kissing empty space and looking into empty blankets. No doubt cars will careen off of highways. Jetliners will fall to the earth. It'll be pandemonium for a period of time. Some places in the world it'll hardly be noticed. Places like King. Places in the Bible Belt. Places in other areas of America. Places in the Philippines and Africa where it will be noticeably different because suddenly Christians are gone. Jesus put it this way, and this noted that if the good man, the owner of the house, had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and have not suffered or allowed his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also, for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not, when you least expect it to happen. I just want to ask you this question. Are you rapture ready? Because Jesus could come in a sudden moment of time and it'll all be over. It'll be it. And for any of you who don't know Jesus, you'll be left behind. Your family will go that are saved, but you'll remain to face the judgments of the tribulation period. Don't let that day catch you by surprise. Know the Lord. If you've never trusted Jesus, make tonight the night that you put your faith in Christ for salvation and you're rapture ready. Christian, are you rapture ready? You see, how you are when Jesus comes is how you're going to meet Him. Whatever's in your life, whatever's on your computer, whatever's on your television screen, whatever you're seeing on your phone, whatever place and thing you're involved in, when He comes is exactly how you will meet Him. And that's why the Bible says, And every man that hath this hope purifieth himself, even as he is pure. When we really believe that Jesus could come at any moment, it has a purifying effect on how we live our lives. It'll change you. It will change me. Folks, we are closer than we've ever been before. I don't know when He's coming, but you can be certain the Lord will come in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. Let's bow our heads in prayer.