Home	Our Hope
Article		March 15, 2017
Where is the Rapture in Revelation?

Some people say the Rapture appears right after the messages to the seven churches.

"Come up here" (Revelation 4:1)

Their thinking is that this command to John indicates the Rapture of everyone.

There are many problems with this, such as:

• the verse continues by saying "and I shall show you whatever is granted to happen"
• it is a command to John only
• it comes before all the events of the seals, trumpets, and bowls

It makes much more sense that the rapture would be described as collecting all of the believers. Because Revelation is so symbolized we would expect it to be described symbolically.

We might also expect a description of the two raptures described in 1 Thessalonians 4:15–17, of the dead in the Messiah and of the living.

That is exactly what we find. The symbolism used is one of reaping which makes complete sense because that's how Jesus and the apostles often referred to believers, as fields of grain or individual grains.

This description comes in Revelation 14:14-20. In summary there is someone on a white cloud, who is the likeness of a man, and wears a crown of gold. The "coming in the clouds", "like a man but not", and "being a king" are in many places in the Bible as descriptions for the returning Messiah.

A command goes out from the temple to begin reaping. First the grain is reaped. The grain represents those who have lived and now await resurrection. It is Earth that is reaped so we know it is the believers who are being reaped.

A command goes out from the alter to reap the grapes. The one on the cloud now reaps the grapes. The grapes represent those who still have life (juice) in them. These are also reaped from the Earth.

Is there anything else around these verses that would lead us to think they describe the rapture? Yes, immediately before these verses we see "Blessed are the dead, from now on, who have departed in Our Lord." It's a blessing on those who have died and that blessing comes in the resurrection.

And in the verse immediately before this one we see "here is the patience of The Holy Ones", which means this is the event the holy ones have waited for in patience.

So we see there are many reasons to believe the rapture is described here.