(Matt. 24:3).

 

The word Coming is rendered from the Greek word Parousia, meaning, personal visible appearance.  The coming of Christ, the preceding signs of which He spoke so much about, is in two phases:

 

(i).     The Rapture (Matt. 24:3, 36-44).  Rapture, which is the personal appearance/coming of the Lord Jesus in the air (not to the earth) to take His saints, is taken from the Latin word ARaptu@ meaning Acaught away@ or Acaught up@.  As Jesus descends from heaven to the cloud, the dead in Christ will immediately rise with a new body (the celestial body).  And almost immediately after that, the living ready believers will be transfigured, as they put on the spiritual (celestial) body (1Thess. 4:15-17).  This will happen in a very short while, in a twinkling of an eye (1Cor. 15:51-53).  Both the resurrected and transfigured believers will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air (in the atmosphere between earth and heaven).  They will be visibly united with Christ and taken to the Father=s house in heaven (Jn. 14:1-3; 1Thess 4:15-17).  The rapture of the saints, which opens the chapter of the end-time events, is the very next agenda in the programme of the Lord for this age.  We will look at it in some more details in the course this series.

 

(ii).     The Second Advent (Matt. 24:3).  The coming of Christ under review, includes His second visible coming to this earth with His saints, at the end of the great tribulation (Matt. 24:29-31; Act. 1:10-11; Jude 14).   (To be treated in some details later).