I was comforted last night just before a deep sleep was beginning to take hold, and I saw, in my mind’s eye, the Lord Jesus and His angel coming for His saints; comforted, I fell asleep, secure in the knowledge that we shall ever be with the Lord! 

   And now it is the morning of the second day; I must continue my work, for darkness comes to these shores quickly.

   We are now in the 1,979 th year of our Lord in what is known in Christendom as, ‘The Church Age, and The Age of Grace,” the period of history when the church was founded in the year our Lord Jesus ascended up to heaven, on Pentecost, 33 A.D.  He sent the Holy Spirit to minister to believers.  Ever since then, as the Father calls, and the Holy Spirit convicts, myriads of people have come to believe.  And so shall it be right up to the time of the Rapture, which  could happen at any moment, for the “signs” are ripe!

   Now the doctrine of the “Rapture” is set forth by Jesus in the Gospel of John, chapter 14, verses 1-6.  They were gathered together in the Upper Room, preparing to eat the Passover bread, when Jesus dropped two verbal bombshells on His disciples, saying that one would betray Him, and another would deny Him three times before the rooster crowed!

   Then Jesus said,

   Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

   And where I go you know, and the way you know.

Thomas said unto Him, we know not where You go; and how can we know the way?

   Jesus said unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man comes unto the Father, but by Me.

   And in I Thessalonians, the doctrine of the Rapture is set forth as the most defining Rapture text in the New Testament:

I Thessalonians 4:13-18

   But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with 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: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Wherefore comfort one another with these words.        

Other comforting words:

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. – Philippians 3:20-21 

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, that you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that shall not come, except that there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; – I Thessalonians 2:1-2   

   So there you have it, beloved, as plain as could be, as clear as the day…as the Lord God intended for us to know in these troublous times. 

   May Almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit bless you always, and may you believe.  Amen.