[Note: Our guest contributor, Dr. Paul Wilkinson, has written another book that will bless anyone who loves the Lord and longs to be with Him forevermore. Like his previous book, Israel: The Inheritance of God, this new work makes the deep mystery of the Rapture clear and understandable. As the title implies, this blessed hope is beautiful and simple in its plain sense promise to Church Age followers of Christ. We recently had the opportunity to ask Paul about The Beautiful Simplicity of the Rapture.]
Come, My Bride!
People make the Rapture complicated—because Satan is trying to make it complicated for people. But the doctrine of the Rapture is our blessed hope as believers. It’s beautiful because it’s a beautiful promise from our Lord Jesus. Our Lord Jesus refers to Himself as the heavenly Bridegroom and we (the Church) are referred to as the Bride. So, our Heavenly Bridegroom is coming for His Bride.
But the Rapture is not just beautiful, it is also simple—as every truth in God’s Word is. It’s simple because the Lord does not reveal His truth to an elite group. He wants every one of His children to understand Him and His purposes and His plans—for their lives, for us as a Church, for Israel, for the world. That means that we should all be able to understand what the Rapture is and, therefore, what our Blessed Hope is. And since there are multiple layers to this beautiful doctrine, we can dig as deep as we want.
Of course, Satan is going to be all over it. He’s going to try to confuse us, put us in fear, and create division and infighting among us. He seeks to convince Christians that the Rapture is unclear or too complicated to understand.
We know that the cross—the atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus—is THE Good News. But for the believer who has already come to the foot of the cross and surrendered his or her life to Jesus, the Rapture is also good news. Jesus isn’t leaving us as we are now. He’s coming to catch us away because He loves us that much and He wants us to be with Him.
In His high priestly prayer in John 17, the Lord prayed, “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me” (John 17:24). That is our Lord, Savior, and Bridegroom longing for us and saying to the Father, “It is My desire and will that My Bride be with Me.”
Often we approach the Rapture from our perspective, but this book draws out God’s perspective—how He feels—about this glorious event.
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We would encourage you to get a copy of The Beautiful Simplicity of the Rapture. Even more, we encourage you to be excited that the Bridegroom will soon come to gather His Bride to Himself!
