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Have you ever wondered if the story you read in your local newspaper was actually true? Probably not, but why? If you're like me then you just assume that credible witnesses have been the ones to report the stories taken by reporters. When the Titanic sunk people read about it in the newspaper and believed it even though it was something they couldn't witness themselves. The same with headlines like "The War is Over!" and other vital news we find in print.

But have you ever considered that this is exactly what God has given mankind in the Bible?

Consider then that God's Bible is given through EYEWITNESS accounts all the way through. And how credible are these witnesses? Well consider that these "holy men of old" believed that lying was a very heinous sin that would bring judgment down upon them. And consider that these same Prophets and Apostles were men who believed what they saw and heard to be the absolute truth to such a degree that they were willing to give their very lives rather than deny it!

How many news stories do you think have that kind of credibility behind them? I doubt very many would be willing to lay down their lives for what they've been witness to! And yet people think the Bible is simply a book of fiction and fairy tales, when nothing could be further from the truth.

God gave us His word so that we could understand our lost condition as sinners and also reveal His will for mankind. He desires sinners to be saved through faith in Jesus Christ. He wants to rescue mankind from our fallen and separated condition so that we may escape the wrath of God which is coming upon the world in the future.

If you didn't think a news story was credible, you might do some investigation in order to verify the account. You can do the same with the Bible!! God has foretold many things that would come to pass and history verifies His predictions every single time!! If you want to know if what He said will happen in our future is true, then simply look at all he's predicted with 100% accuracy in the past! The same Bible that says Jesus is coming again, foretold his first coming, in order to die for our sins as a sacrifice, hundreds of years before the actual events occurred. God declares the End from the Beginning! Our faith in Jesus is not blind faith, but verifiable eyewitness accounts! I believe on Christ because of the news report faithful, honest men have given in the past to these events....they saw him die and they saw him rise again from the dead and they were willing to die for the truth they witnessed because He is the only way of salvation!!

WHEN IS THE CHURCH MEETING CHRIST IN THE AIR?

"WHEN WILL THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH OCCUR?" -- has been a much debated question among Christians for some time. The only place we need to look for the answers is the BIBLE....And I think we'll find that God has given us some good answers.

The first set of scripture verses we usually turn to on the subject of The Rapture (or Christ catching away all believers to a meeting in the air) is 1 Thess 4:13-18, where we also find the most vivid description of the event itself.

When read with the first 12 verses of chapter 5 we pick up a clearer picture of why Paul was even addressing the issue. There was a misconception being taught that The Day of the Lord had already come. But Paul clarifies that it had not occurred because the meeting in the air with Christ had not occurred. He makes it clear in these verses that it is not wrath that we believers are waiting upon, but this meeting in the air (Rapture). And Paul further tells them that they may comfort one another with that knowledge.

Now, Paul clearly refers to this meeting in the air as comforting news while we wait...on the other hand, if we were waiting upon the wrath and judgment that will come with the tribulation period, then we could not be comforted at all. You might say, well believers will be preserved from those judgments and still go through the tribulation period. But this is not a reasonable assumption, because the tribulation judgments will affect the entire world and the conditions people are able to live in. Believers during that time (becoming believers during that time) will have to endure great hardship. But consider also that the Beast of Revelation 13 will make war with the saints and overcome them through terrible persecution that will take place during this time.... How could Paul possibly tell believers to be comforted if they were really waiting upon wrath, judgments and terrible persecutions that will be found during the tribulation period? Clearly he could not.

Paul tells them also that we (believers) are not appointed to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ...this is mentioned not in context of a salvation message, but of comforting present believers. Paul admonishes them not once but several times to be comforted by the Meeting in the air, because that is what we are waiting upon. Notice that even Paul was expecting to possibly be alive when that meeting occurred, "then WE who are alive and remain shall be caught up..." Paul was himself waiting on this event not the tribulation period. Now if that doesn't speak to the Rapture occurring prior to the Tribulation period I don't know what does. Still we have other evidences, such as the order of Revelation given in chapter 1 given by Jesus himself unto John (past, present then future) presented in that order. We then find the Church absent from the Earth and present in Heaven with God (Rev 4/5) before the Antichrist ever rides forth in Revelation chapter 6.

The point is this friends...we can be comforted, as Paul admonishes us, because the next even we are waiting upon is the Shout and the Trump of God as every believer living at the time or previously deceased rises up into the atmosphere to meet our Lord Jesus Christ among the clouds....Seven years later we will come with him from Heaven to the battle of Armageddon and !VICTORY!