74 years ago this month Israel became a nation after 2000 years… “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” (Matt. 24:34) “The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and WE FLY AWAY.” (Psa. 90:10) Hmm, we’ll fly away, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will RISE FIRST. Then we who are alive and remain 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.” (1 Thess. 4:16-17)
Jesus taught us, “…as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day.” (Luke 17:24) There are many lightning flashes which do not reach ground. Most of these remain within the cloud and are called intra-cloud (IC) lightning flashes. Cloud flashes sometimes have visible channels that extend out into the air around the storm (cloud-to-air or CA), but do not strike the ground. That’s what will happen when the rapture takes place, it’s all UP IN THE CLOUDS where we, “meet the Lord IN THE AIR.”
Why are we “caught up” (harpazō: to snatch out or away)? Something is about to happen on planet earth and we “ESCAPE” it! “Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless THE FALLING AWAY COMES FIRST, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, so that HE (the antichrist) SITS AS GOD in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” (2 Thess. 2:1-4)
But, before any of that can happen “…you know what is restraining (holding him back), that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only HE WHO NOW RESTRAINS will do so until HE is taken OUT OF THE WAY. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.” (2 Thess. 2:6-8)
The one who is restraining the antichrist is the Holy Spirit in the Church and HE will be taken out of the way, to the marriage supper of the Lamb (with His Church), in the rapture!!!
-Bill Stockham