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Harpazo
In the book of Thessalonians (1 Thes 4-5) the Bible student is formerly introduced to the Rapture. The Lord informs us, through the inspired writings of Paul, that. "we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." In the Greek, the word for being 'caught up' is 'harpazo'. However it is from the Latin Vulgate version that we have grabbed the label, 'The Rapture', for in the Latin 'caught up' is translated as, 'rapiemur', or more commonly, 'rapture'. In chapter five of 1 Thes, the timing of this event is clarified and placed as being before the time when God pours out his wrath on an unbelieving world, "For God hath not appointed us to wrath".
There is an interesting parallel in the Book of Revelation that many dispensationalists have pointed to as a direct correspondent to the "Rapture" of Thessalonians. Great Bible expositors like, Jack Van Impe, Dave Breese, Tim Lahaye, and Ed Hindson have all pointed to this correlation, and not because this is some faddish interpretation. Revelation is fairly neatly divided. The first chapter being a sort of introduction. The second and third chapters being addressed to the church and the church age. Then beginning in the forth chapter God removes John from the earth to heaven and shows John how in righteous judgment He will pour out his wrath on an unbelieving, willfully blind, and idolatrous world.
Good commentators seem unanimous in reading Revelation 4 as setting the stage for future events. Albert Barnes says, "This chapter properly commences the series of visions respecting future events". JFB says of Rev 4:1, "Here begins the Revelation proper". Both Thessalonians and Revelation speak of a trumpet's sound. Paul writes in Thessalonians, "the trump of God", while John writes, "and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me..." In each case the Greek Textus Receptus records the same word, "salpigx". Paul and John heard the same type of sound calling them and pulling them up to heaven.
John writes the Greek words, 'meta tauta' denoting a sequence meaning, 'hereafter'. These words divide chapters two and three (addressed to the church) from the following chapters (addressing the wrath of God poured out on an unbelieving world). It strikes me now, as amusing, how we sometimes refer to the "hereafter". For whether we are part of that last generation that tastes not of death, or not, Paul informs us, "Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1 Thes 4:17).
For the division of church from wrath, to the sound of the 'salpigx', and the sudden catching away of Paul and John in these closely paralleled portions of scripture, there is ample reason for Bible expositors to link the opening lines of Revelation chapter four to the Rapture.
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