July 31

On Eschatology: Rapture

“In Enoch we see a type of those of God’s people who will go home peacefully before the last closing struggle. Ere the first clash of swords at Armageddon, such Enochs will be taken from the evil to come.” (2147.301)

“Whenever the Lord lays bare his arm for war he first gathers his saints into a place of safety. He did not destroy the world by the flood till Noah and his family were safe in the ark. He would not suffer a single firedrop to fall on Sodom till Lot had escaped to Zoar. He carefully preserves his own; nor flood, nor flame, nor pestilence, nor famine shall do them ill. We read in the Revelation that the angel said, “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.” Vengeance must sheath her sword, till love has housed its darlings. When Christ cometh to destroy the earth, he will first catch away his people. Ere the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the pillars of the universe shall rock and reel beneath the weight of wrathful deity, he will have caught up his elect into the air, so that they shall ever be with the Lord.” (3377.507)