h2 style=text-align: cen­terIs the Rap­ture Scriptural?/h2
p style=text-align: cen­teremIt has been told that the word rap­ture like trin­ity, is man-concocted and a word on which a false con­cept is founded, since these two words are not found between the cov­ers of the King James Bible. The valid­ity of this state­ment has left many chris­tians won­der­ing if the Rap­ture is even biblical./em/p
Funk and Wag­nalls New Prac­ti­cal Stan­dard Dic­tio­nary defines the word rap­ture as fol­lows:
ol
liThe state of being rapt or trans­ported; ecsta­tic joy; ecstasy./li
liThe act of trans­fer­ring a per­son from one place to another; as Eli­jahs emrap­ture /emto heaven./li
liAn act or expres­sion of exces­sive delight./li
li(Obs.) A snatch­ing away; vio­lent seizure./li
/ol
Web­sters dic­tio­nary adds that the word comes from the Latin words emrap­ere /emand emrap­tum /emwhich mean to snatch away.

It is cer­tainly true that the word rap­ture does not appear in the King James Ver­sion. It is equally true that this word accu­rately describes both the expe­ri­ence of those who are caught up when the heav­enly Bride­groom comes for His bride and the event itself, which is described in I Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 4:16–17:
p style=text-align: cen­terem­For the Lord him­self shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Crhist shall rise first: then we wich are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the cloud, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord./em/p
em/emCaught up in verse 17 is from the Greek word emharpazo, /emwhich the emLex­i­con to the New Tes­ta­ment /emby Zod­hi­ates states is espe­cially used of rap­ture (Acts 8:39; II Corinthi­ans 12:2, 4; I Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 4:17; Rev­e­la­tion 12:5). It is obvi­ous that rap­ture beau­ti­fully and truly expresses the scrip­tural teach­ing that the church will be caught up when Jesus comes. We can there­fore say that the church will be rap­tured, for that is the mean­ing of the word.

Romans 8:11 gives us a promise that the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will raise us up when Jesus comes. We must be care­ful not to let any­one rob us of this blessed assur­ance. Our hope of the Rap­ture is our anchor by which we grip the blessed Rock of Ages in heaven itself (Hebrews 6:19).

Taken from emQues­tions Pen­te­costals Ask/em by David F. Gray, 1987. Word Aflame Press: Hazel­wood, MO.