The Rapture
Spiritual Building-Stone No. 133

"...For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 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..." (I Thessalonians 4:13-18).

Listen to what the Prophet of God has said about it:

To the church, the Bride, the rapture is a revelation to her. It's revealed to her, that the revelation, the true Bride of Christ will be waiting for that revelation of the rapture. Now, it is a revelation, for the revelation is faith (Heb. 11:1).

You cannot have a revelation without it being faith. Faith is a revelation, because it's something that's revealed to you. Faith is a revelation. Faith is something that has been revealed to you like it was to Abraham, that could call anything contrary to what had been revealed to him as though it wasn't so (Rom. 4:13-21). That's what faith is, is the revelation of God. The church is built upon a revelation, the whole entire body (Mat. 16:13-19; Gal. 1:11-12).

The new birth is Christ, is a revelation. God has revealed to you this great mystery, and that's the new birth. Now, what are you going to do when you get all that group together, where the revelation is perfectly in harmony, and God expressing it through His Word by the same actions, the same things that He did, making the Word manifest? Oh, if the Church only knew its position. It will one day. Then, the rapture will go when it knows what it is.

The time is at hand. Don't wait any longer. See, how do you know the rapture's not going on all the time? First thing you know it'll be past, one disappearing here, and there. It'll be gone the first thing you know, and you'll--judgment will strike the world.

You say, "Well, I thought this..." "It's too late now." You remember, they didn't know it until the day they entered into the ark, and then it was too late (Mat. 24:37-42). The foolish virgin didn't know until she come back and found the wise virgin gone. Then she was left for the tribulation period (Mat. 25:1-13).

Well, that's the way the things of God are. After you have trusted Him, and watched Him do so many things till it becomes just like a regular routine. And that's the condition I think the Church will be in just before the coming of the Lord. So the Rapture will just go right on that way. It'll just be a regular routine of following the Scriptures and the plans of God.

We want to receive rapturing grace. We want to be able when that mysterious thunder thunders out yonder, and the Church is taken up, we want to be ready to receive it, Lord. Grant it. Try us, Lord, by Thy Word. Let us look into It, and if we see that we have failed...

And you talk about a Church for the rapturing grace, it would come to pass when we can tear down our traditions, forget all of our denominational things, and come right back on the basis of God's Word.

Seven thunders of revelation... (Rev. 10:1-4). May He show the Bride how to prepare for the great translation faith.

Now, let us find the symbols. We found out what the thunder means. That's perfectly; we know that. See? The thunder was the Voice of God when the Seal opened.

Is it time? Is the mystery all finished? Has the sounding all over? Is that really them seven thunders fixing to utter out something that the little group that He's gathered together will receive a rapturing faith to go in the rapture when He comes; for we'll be changed as quick as those Angels come: in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and shall be caught up together with those that is asleep to meet the Lord in the air (I Cor. 15:51-54).

My prayer is: God if this be so, I don't know Lord; I just telling the church. If it is so, Lord, prepare our hearts. Make us ready, Lord, for that great hour that all the history of time, all the prophets and sages has looked for that time.

And at the end of the Pentecostal age we are supposed to receive, according to the Word, as God help me tonight to show you through here, that we are to receive a messenger that will take all those loose ends out there and reveal the whole secret of God for the rapturing of the Church (Mal. 4:5-6; Rev. 10:7).

And then there's coming forth seven mysterious thunders that's not even written at all. That's right. And I believe that through those seven thunders will be revealed in the last days in order to get the Bride together for rapturing faith; because what we got right now, we wouldn't be able to do it. There's something we've got to step farther; we can't have enough faith for Divine healing hardly. We've got to have enough faith to be changed in a moment and be swept up out of this earth, and we'll find that after a while, the Lord willing, find where it's written.

And Father, so many things could be said right here; maybe the church wouldn't understand. But I pray that You'll give them such a crave for it, Lord, that they'll come and see we're at the end time, the astronaut age.
I pray, Father, that they'll realize it isn't trying to condemn what they had; it's only trying to give them more rapturing grace. For the hour will come when we'll have to have rapture power, not only to heal the body but to change it in a moment in a twinkling of an eye. Christ will be so real into their bodies, till He can change it by His great death and what He purchased. May they take this today, that Token that I spoke of last night, hold It before them and walk into this Astronaut (Grant it, Father.), where visions, powers, and worlds beyond, known, and, O God, where all the great mysteries of God is unfolded in those Seven Seals and made known to men. Grant it, Father.

And I'm looking for a time of a break forth of the Spirit of God in these last days that we're now living in, for another surge of the Holy Spirit into the Church for a rapturing faith, just before it comes. And everything is setting straight in order for that. And I believe that we're now at the time that the Word should have preeminence. I believe that the time to lay aside our creeds and our thoughts and come back to the Word...

He ordained these things to be, and He must send this. The first thing come when He starts descending from the heaven, there's a shout (I Thess. 4:13-18). What is it? It's a Message to get the people together. A Message comes forth first, the living Bread of Life bringing forth the Bride (John 6:51). Now, "Lamp trimming time. Rise and trim your lamps." (Mat. 25:1-13). What watch was that? The seventh, not the sixth, the seventh. "Behold the Bridegroom cometh. Rise and trim your lamps." And they did. Some of them found they didn't even have any oil in their lamp. See? But it's lamp trimming time. It's Malachi 4 time when you come... It's Luke 17. All those prophecies that it can--perfectly set in order for this day in the Scriptures, we see it living right there.

The first thing is a shout, and then a voice, and then a trumpet. Shout, a messenger getting the people ready... The second is a voice of the resurrection. The same voice that, a loud voice in St. John 11:38-44 that called Lazarus from the grave. Getting the Bride together, and then the resurrection of the dead, to be caught up with it. Now, watch the three things take place.

The next is what? was a trumpet. A shout, a voice, a trumpet. Now, the third thing is a trumpet, which always at the Feast of Trumpets is calling the people to the feast; and that'll be the Bride's supper, the Lamb's supper with the Bride in the sky (Mat. 26:26-30).

Again: See, the first things comes forth is His Message calling the Bride together. The next thing is a resurrection of the sleeping Bride, the one that's died back in the other ages (I Cor. 15:51-58). They're caught together, and the trumpet, the feast in the heavens--in the sky. Why, that's the thing that takes place, friends.

We're right there ready now. The only thing, the church coming out has got to lay before the sun to ripen. The great combine will come by after while. The wheat will be burned, the stalks, but the grain will be gathered into it's garner (Mat. 13:24-30,36-43).

Oh, and I remember when He swept down there in that big Light, standing yonder at the bottom of the river, 1933, in June, when He said, "As John the Baptist was sent forth and forerun the first coming of Christ, I send you with a Message to the world to forerun the second coming of Christ." And around the world she's went, when revival fires had been built for fifteen years on nearly every mountain.... Divine healing across the nations, and the power, and restoration... And now, I believe she's ready to strike that final climax yonder to bring forth a faith that'll rapture the Church into glory (It's the truth.), and She's laying in the Messages. We're really at the end time. We've talked about it and everything, but the thing has moved upon us now. Hear them. Yes, sir. Here's one. That's right.

I truly believe, before the church can have the rapture, it's got to have rapturing faith. We can't even have faith for Divine healing, let alone rapturing faith. Got to have a faith that'll change and quicken this body, and be taken away. I believe there's a church on its road tonight, a power of the living God, that men will speak the Word here and there, and it'll flash like lightning. And a church is coming out, not a psychologist, not some of this put-on, make-belief; but a real, true, genuine, anointed Holy Ghost, called-out church.

Everything we have need of for the earthly journey: Divine healing, the power of God, and all these other things is in every individual in here that's received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, for you're planted in Christ. Hallelujah. The Holy Ghost baptism, yes, sir, and everything you have need of for this life's journey, even the rapture is right in you then. Don't resent that? That's the truth. The rapture is in us now. I will prove it by the Gospel. "Those who He called He justified, and those who He justified, He hath glorified." Hallelujah. Then in heaven today we're a glorified in the Presence of God right now (Rom. 8:30).

Moses had the Word. That's all he needed was the Word. That's all you need today. It's not a credential from some church. You don't need a denomination to back you up. You need the Word to take the rapture with It. You don't need some credential. You don't need some long history of some school to be healed this morning. You need to accept the Word; that does it.

But the Church of the living God, that Bride moves right on just the same. And She'll go in the rapture by the Word (That's right.); the Word and the Word will come together. If we're a part of Christ, part of It, we have to be His Word, 'cause He is the Word. That's right. Yes, sir.

Just as we know now, as a man asked me a few moments ago about the coming and the rapture. We know we've lived the time out. The time of the rapture is at hand. And we're looking for a rapturing faith that can pull the churches together and give it some supernatural strength that can change these bodies that we live in. We see a God that can raise the dead off the floor, or out in the yard, and bring him back to life again, and present him before us. When we see a God who can take a cancer that's eat a man to a shadow, and raise him up to a strong healthy man, that ought to give rapturing faith to the people. That when that Light flashes from the sky, and the trumpet sounds, the Body of Christ will be quickly gathered together, and changed in a moment, and taken into the heavens.

But it's the sin that's cutting you away these things that you ought to have. It's sin that's keeping the church from that raptured condition all the time. It's sin, not the building, not the church, but the sin that's in the church.

What does it do to our mortal bodies? It turns our opinion, changes our notions. It sets our affections on things which are above (Col. 3:1-4), and the smoking, drinking, gambling, the things that you used to do is dead. It's beneath you, and you are quickened, and this quickening power brings your body into a raptured condition already.

Aren't we happy? We haven't got a thing to worry about, not a thing. We've anchored in Christ, setting in heavenly places, caught up in rapturing grace right now, setting in His Presence in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6). Death itself can't touch us: anchored away, nothing can bother us, just simply secured and waiting for His coming. And we're grateful for this.

That's the reason I do believe that when that Bride is called out and elected and set in the Book of Life, there'll come a sound from heaven that'll take such a baptism of the Holy Spirit into that Bride that'll take Her from the earth in a rapturing grace. God promised it.

Reference:
"The Rapture", par. 65, 129-130, 141, 152-155 (pg. 14, 29, 32) / "The Absolute" (62-1230M), pg. 35 / "Painted Face Jezebel", par. E-44 / "Israel At Kadesh Barnea", par. 79 / "Show Us The Father" (53-0907A, Chicago), par. E-85-86 / "Proving His Word", par. 105-106 / "World Is Again Falling Apart" (63-1127), par. 146 / "Christ Is The Mystery Of God Revealed", pg. 37-38 / "The Easter Seal", pg. 18 / "Perseverance" (63-0113E), par. E-7 / "Choosing Of The Bride", par. 203 / "Balm In Gilead" (59-1124), par. E-6 / "Feast Of The Trumpets", par. 270

Spiritual Building-Stone No. 133 from the Revealed Word of this hour, compiled by: Gerd Rodewald, Friedenstr. 69, D-75328 Schömberg, Germany, Phone: (+49) 72 35 - 76 13, Fax: - 33 06

There's coming one with a Message that's straight on the Bible, and quick work will circle the earth. The seeds will go in newspapers, reading material, until every predestinated Seed of God has heard It.
[Bro. Branham in "Conduct-Order-Doctrine", pg. 724]