Another Look at the Rapture - Hicks

Rapture and Resurrection
the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17
This is one of the greatest doctrinal statements ever
made by the Apostle Paul. It is the first and only statement
ever uttered through a mortal man describing exactly
what will take place to climax the Church Age. This
announcement to the Church and the world should stand
alongside all other major doctrinal statements of grace and
faith. This declaration concerning the end of this
dispensation, which will climax with the resurrection of
the dead in Christ and the Rapture of the living saints,
gives the Christian a hope that cannot be matched by any
other religion of any age.
These verses—the revelation by our Lord to the
Apostle—have carried many a disheartened and
discouraged saint through unspeakable pain, suffering,
and persecution. This is the blessed hope that—whether
dead or alive—he or she would rise to meet Jesus. What
an announcement! Not only does it give the Church a
hope of eventual and eternal resurrection of the dead in
Christ, it also reassures her—the spotless, blood-washed,
pure, sinless Bride—that before the wrath of God is
poured out on this world in the Great Tribulation, she
shall be snatched away to heaven to be forever with her
Groom, the Lord Jesus Christ.
This great revelation to the Apostle Paul of the
Rapture and Resurrection ends with this note of
encouragement: Wherefore comfort one another with these
words (1 Thess. 4:18). It would be absolutely no comfort for
the saints to be told that they should forget their departed
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