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How will we know when Jesus has come again? Some people want to know if they have missed the rapture or not. There are key things to watch for to see whether or not you have missed the rapture. The first thing to watch for is faithful saints will be taken to heaven just as 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 says.
1 Corinthians 15:51-52 NKJ
51. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed
52. in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
If there are missing faithful saints around the world, then it is possible that Christ has come again taking His faithful saints to heaven to escape from the Tribulation Period.
The word rapture is not actually found in the Bible, but the two words “caught up” is, which is where the word rapture is derived. The phrase “caught up” is found in the Bible, and printed for you below, in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. The rapture is further explained in 1
Thessalonians 4:15-17.
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 NKJ
15. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
16. 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.
17. 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.
These two passages of Scriptures I just shared with you describe the rapture of faithful saints into heaven when Jesus comes the second time. Jesus will not set foot on the earth at His second coming, but He will 7 years later after the Tribulation Period when He comes to earth with His saints and angels to bring to earth His kingdom.
But, how will we know when Jesus comes again called His second coming? When Jesus comes the second time, the events beginning in Revelation chapter 4 verse 1 will take place. The rapture of the faithful saints is seen in the person of John himself. John represents the Church being raptured to heaven in Revelation 4:1. So, faithful saints will be gone from the earth, taken to heaven in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Your eye twinkles in 1/60th of a second.
After the rapture, unfaithful Christians and the ungodly will have to endure on the earth a 7-year Tribulation Period which are the events of Revelation chapter 6 through chapter 19.
Major events will take place on the earth. Revelation chapter 6 will begin to take place. The Antichrist will begin conquering and peace will be totally taken from the earth so that people will begin killing each other. Not long after Jesus comes again, 1/4 of the earth’s population will be killed by war (the sword), death, hunger and by wild beasts. My book Earth’s Darkest Hour – Man’s Darkest Hour goes into much more detail on these events.
More thoughts on how to know if Jesus has come or not...
There are one of two scenarios that will take place at the time of rapture:
1. Many people’s bodies will disappear or will be seen lifted up into heaven.
2. Many people will die suddenly and their bodies will be left on the earth, Jesus having taken faithful saint’s soul and spirit only into heaven.
Most people believe that when the rapture takes place, their earthly physical body will be taken to heaven. There are some verses of Scripture that can be interpreted that indicates it is possible that when the rapture takes place, that Christian’s bodies will be left behind, indicating that only the soul and spirit of Christians will be taken to heaven.
So lets look at both scenarios so that when the rapture takes place, and if you haven’t gone, you will recognize the sign that Jesus did come to take His faithful saints to heaven.
If you aren’t sure you are going up in the rapture when Jesus comes, become a Christian as I’ve outlined on this web site and begin obeying what Jesus tells us to do. How to Become a Christian. This will give you the peace that you will go up in the rapture if it takes place in your life-time.
Matthew 24:27-28:
27. ““For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
28. "For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.”
Some translations say vultures instead of eagle, which really doesn’t change the meaning. The idea here could be stated for either position that the body, at Christ’s coming, is where the eagles fly and are gathered or it could mean that when Christ comes there will be bodies left behind and vultures (possibly a reference to evil men) will gather around the bodies to investigate the matter.
Look at 1 Corinthians 15.
1 Corinthians 15:50-53:
50. “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.
51. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed
52. in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
Most people only quote verses 51 and 52 when referring to these verses, but looking at the verses before and after these, I can still see these verses meaning either way; that our earthly body will or will not be taken to heaven at the time of the rapture.
Here is why I can see this either way. If you take verses 51 and 52 alone, you see that at the moment of rapture that our bodies will change in the twinkling of an eye. This alone does not say our mortal bodies will rise into heaven. Most people interpret this verse as meaning our earthly body will rise into heaven at the time of rapture.
But, what does changed mean? It could mean that our earthly body will be made into our new heavenly body and both will go into heaven in it’s newly changed form, thus leaving no body behind at the time of rapture.
It could also mean what Paul refers to in verses 50 and 53. We must put on immortality and flesh and blood cannot enter heaven. This could mean that at the moment of the rapture our earthly body will be left behind because we must shed our earthly body to gain the heavenly body.
Look further at Paul’s writing in 2 Corinthians 5:1-8.
2 Corinthians 5:1-8:
1. For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,
3. if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.
4. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.
5. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.
7. For we walk by faith, not by sight.
8. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”
Here Paul seems to be indicating that we must be absent from our body to be with the Lord. This would lean towards our earthly body being left as a carcass at the moment of rapture, because it would be necessary to leave the earthly body to gain the new heavenly one.
Notice these verses from Matthew 24.
Matthew 24:38-42:
38. ““For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
39. "and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
40. "Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left.
41. "Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.
42. "Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.”
In these verses, verses 40 and 41, it seems that it could be leaning towards our physical body will be taken, but even in these verses it can go either way.
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17:
15. “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
16. 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.
17. 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.”
Here we see that “we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”
I can see both instances here as well. It could be that it is only our soul and spirit that are “caught up” to meet the Lord in the air or it could be our earthly body, soul and spirit are all three taken up to heaven to meet the Lord in the air. The verses do not specify either way.
The point is this: Whether our mortal body is left behind or taken up to heaven, there will be many people who will either die instantly or will disappear instantly. Either way, there should be a big event take place at the time of the rapture of faithful saints going to heaven at the moment of the rapture.
The World Will Cover Up The Evidence That Jesus Came In Rapture:
The World will, more than likely, cover up the fact that Jesus came again by making excuses as to why faithful Christians are not here or why our bodies are left behind.
If the body is left behind, the world leaders will come up with excuses that a terrible virus has hit the world, and they may even be smart enough to inject Christians’ bodies with some terrible virus that makes it look like, sure enough, there was a terrible virus that took us instead of the rapture.
Another thing that they might do, to cover up the fact that Jesus came, is to claim that faithful Christians (they probably won’t call us faithful Christians) committed suicide like some crazies of the past like Jim Jones or whoever. They will more than likely say that Christians were the hindrance to the new world order that needs to take place.
One thing is for sure, and you can count on this, Christians will be blamed for some catastrophic happening and Christians will immediately, soon after the rapture, be hunted down and killed, in mass, by masses of people. The world will be convinced that Christians are to blame for something bad and all Christians who will join the faith of Christ, after the rapture has taken place, will need to be killed.
Here are a few signs that will take place at the time of rapture and shortly after the rapture:
1. Many bodies will be taken to heaven or left behind, being dead, at the moment of rapture as I discussed this above.
2. Peace will be taken from the earth. The slaughter of millions of people will take place. Most people may not know what this means exactly. But realize when peace is taken from the earth that everything will lose its peace. People and animals will automatically become non-peaceful or violent. Murders will begin to take place for no reason. What used to be nice neighbors may explode in rage. Nice home pets may become extremely dangerous. I don’t know to what extent this will be and at what stage into the Tribulation Period this is, except that it is mentioned with the four horsemen of the 6th chapter of Revelation which is early into the Tribulation Period, shortly after the rapture takes place.
3. The Antichrist will probably already be known to some Christians, who then will be gone. Some who are left behind may be aware of who he is hopefully so they can tell others not to join his system. The Antichrist will immediately begin to conquer many nations, which may mean by peaceful means at first, but shortly afterwards, more than likely, he will enforce his mark on people’s hand or forehead which will be used to buy and sell goods at first. Refuse this mark at all costs. Those who take this mark will be doomed to the lake of fire forever.
4. Christians will be martyred like never before. Although many Christians will go up in the rapture, many Christians will be left behind because of their disobedience to Christ. Many people will convert to Christianity, which is great, but all Christians will die as martyrs during the 7-year period of time after the rapture. Most, if not all, Christians will die in the first 3 1/2 years into the Tribulation Period. But, this is better than the alternative of taking the mark of the Antichrist, worshipping him as god and spending an eternity in the lake of fire forever.
5. Great famines will take place all over the world.
These are just a few signs that will take place immediately after the rapture of faithful Christians into heaven.
How to make sure you are ready for the Rapture...
To be ready for Jesus’ second coming, get saved as outlined on this web site How to Become a Christian. Then obey Jesus Christ daily by reading His Word, the Holy Bible, (read mainly in the New Testament at first) and obey the things He speaks to you to do from His Word and in person. Jesus is a Person and He will speak to you, if you seek Him. It would be wise to be discipled by a mature, true believer who is living accurately the doctrines of the New Testament.
I will warn you that true disciples of Jesus Christ are hard to find in this day and time because there are so many false preachers, teachers and false prophets out there who seem real and truthful, but deceive many. Many who follow these false teachers, and the false teachers themselves, may be left behind after the rapture takes place.
