True! That heart attack, that car crash, that your-ticket-is-punched moment is YOUR rapture!
Good day RickZ,
Am I correct from your post above that you believe that at the time of death that this is what Paul was referring to in 1 Thess.4:16, that at the time of death is when the rapture takes place?
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 and I Corinthians 15:51-53 describes the resurrection of the dead and the living being changed and caught up, both groups receiving their immortal and glorified bodies at that moment. The word "anastasis" translated as "resurrection" has to do with the spirit reentering the same physical body standing and up again, albeit immortal and glorified. In opposition, at the time of death for the believer, the spirit departs from the body and goes to be in the presence of the Lord and their bodies are buried in the earth.
In addition, the scripture clearly shows that when the event of the resurrection and the catching away (rapture) takes place, that it will be group event, with those who have died in Christ rising first and then those who are still alive being changed and caught up with them in clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Since this is the case, if you have believers being individually raptured at the time of death, it is not supported by the details of scripture and it would mean that everyone who has died in Christ has been accumulating in the air and waiting for the rest of us. Here is the scripture:
"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of
the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and
the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain
will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
* The Lord descends from heaven
* The dead in Christ are raised bodily
* The living in Christ are changed and caught up together with them in the clouds
The above definitely takes place as one event.
Regarding this, consider the following scripture:
"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. It instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live sensible, upright, and godly lives in the present age, as we await
the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ."
The blessed hope is the event of the appearing of the Lord where at which point is when the resurrection of all the dead in Christ from the beginning of the church takes place and the living believers are all changed at the same time and caught up with them. According to your belief that the rapture takes place at the time of death, there would be no need to wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of our Lord to gather His church.
Also, since the resurrection has to do with the spirit reuniting with the same body that the person died in, except now immortal, then if you have the rapture taking place at the time of each believers death, there would be no body to bury, for their bodies would immediately become immortal. According to your claim, for those who die in Christ, there would be no need to make funeral arrangements, because at the time of death they would simply remain in their bodies changed from mortal it immortal. However, that is not what scripture teaches.
To be clear, if say a believed died on a Wednesday and the Lord appeared the very next day to gather His church, the body of that believer would be gone and that because his spirit would be back in his body, immortal and glorified. The resurrection is a group event, as it will be with those still alive. The whole event will all take place in a nano second.
Jesus is our example. When He died, His body was put into the tomb, but His spirit went to Sheol/Hades. After three days His spirit reentered His body and his body came back to life (stood up again), immoral and glorified.
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Strong's Concordance
anastasis: a standing up, i.e. a resurrection, a raising up, rising
Original Word: ἀνάστασις, εως, ἡ
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: anastasis
Phonetic Spelling: (an-as'-tas-is)
Definition: a standing up, a resurrection, a raising up, rising
Usage: a rising again, resurrection.
HELPS Word-studies
386 anástasis (from
303 /aná, "up, again" and
2476 /hístēmi, "to stand") –
literally, "stand up" (or "stand again"), referring to physical resurrection (of the body).
Christ's
physical resurrection is the foundation of Christianity, which also guarantees the future resurrection of all believers (see Jn 6:39,40,44).
[
386 /anástasis ("resurrection") refers to the
physical,
bodily resurrection of Christ – and people (both of the redeemed and the unredeemed).]