Welcome to Prophecy Q & A with Jimmy DeYoung!
They claim that a Jesuit priest in the 1500s invented the Rapture.
Sir Isaac Newton was before the Jesuit priest who wrote about the Rapture of the Church, but there was one before him, the Apostle Paul, who wrote about it as well (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). They are just men who do not want to believe the literal interpretation, have a consistent hermeneutic in interpreting the Scriptures, or want to look at prophecy in light of what God’s Word tells us. They just don’t want to do that; they bring up all these straw men.
Use the Word of God to refute them. Talk about Jesus Christ who was the first one to introduce the Rapture. He didn’t use the word “Rapture.” It isn’t in the Bible at all; neither is the word “trinity” or the word “Bible” in the Bible. The concepts and what is going to happen IS in the Bible, though. Jesus talked about the Rapture in the Upper Room the night before He was crucified (John 14) when He said, “Let not your heart be troubled. Ye 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 ye may be also.” If we are received up to Jesus Christ, that is not the Second Coming. That is the Rapture. He comes back to the Mount of Olives with us, all riding white horses (Revelation 19:11, Zechariah 14:4) which is called the Second Coming. When we are received up to Jesus Christ, which is what He was referring to in John 14, the Rapture is happening.
Paul explained it (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). He also wrote the carnal church in Corinth (1 Corinthians 15:51-53), stating that we will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump. Jesus and the archangel shout, and we are caught up. Paul thought that he would be a part of the Rapture.
John the Revelator, in Revelation 4:1, says, “I heard as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.” He was translated from the earth into the heavenlies. The word “church” is used 19 times in the first three chapters of Revelation. Revelation 4:1 is the Rapture of the Church, and the word “church” or “churches” is not used again until Revelation 22:16 when Jesus is simply making a statement that He wanted to get all of this information out so John could teach the churches. From Revelation 4:2-19:11 the word “church” is not used. Learn the Word of God so you can open it up and use it to refute them.
Jimmy DeYoung was a prophecy teacher and journalist who travelled the country and the world educating the Body of Christ of the future events foretold in God’s prophetic Word. His goal was to equip Christians with the knowledge and understanding of what God’s Word says will happen someday soon, so that they can make better decisions today. Dr. DeYoung went home to be with his Savior on August 15, 2021.
