What Actually Triggers the Rapture?

     What actually triggers the rapture? We know there are two elements to this answer. First, the chronos aspect which is the appointed time. In His omniscience, God knows when the events will happen in the context of the 7 great prophetic Days. Second, the kairos aspect are the signs that we see that mark that appointed time. The event isn’t haphazard. It cannot be mistaken.
       When we think about the rapture when Christ returns for His Bride, the biblical shadow is that the groom will return at the appointed time, when all is prepared for His Bride to join him. In ancient times, there was no set because it depended upon when the preparations were complete.
          So what triggers Jesus’ return? It is driven by the invasion of the Antichrist’s coalition of Middle Eastern armies. God made a promise to the Jewish forefathers that Israel would not be destroyed. They would not be totally annihilated. The invasion that is one of the signs of the end of the sixth Day is the second Red Sea moment in Israel’s history. There is no escape.
         “We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask now, and see, whether a man is ever in labor with child? So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor, and all faces turned pale?  Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it” (Jeremiah 30:5-7).
       God’s people cry out in desperate prayer. “Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence—as fire burns brushwood, as fire causes water to boil—to make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the nations may tremble at Your presence” (Isaiah 64:1-2).
        The Almighty God’s answer is recorded in Ezekiel 38:18-23. God does indeed rend the heavens as Christ literally descends to Mt. Zion at the rapture. The force of His presence causes an earthquake that splits the mountain, providing a way of escape for the Jewish remnant who has finally recognized Jesus as the Messiah.
        We see this same earth-shattering timely trait over and over in prophecy concerning the Day of the Lord and Christ’s return at the dawn of the 7th Day. Revelation 16:18 is just one example. It is the 7th trumpet judgment: “And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth.”
         The Chronos Lesson: It was said of the tribe of Issachar that they had an understanding of the times and seasons so that they knew what to do in their own time. So our original question brings us to another. “Why do we need to study the Ezekiel War and see all the details?”  The answer is found in Acts 4:29-30.
         Paul and John have just been arrested by the religious Jewish leaders for causing a great disturbance. How? They were teaching about Jesus, particularly about His resurrection and His healing power.  Remarkably, they are released but threatened not to continue preaching. Verse 13 is revealing. “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.”
      Fast forward to our own time, in the midst of lawlessness, governmental disarray, and uncertainty. It’s time we recognize the power of our identity in Christ. The same Holy Spirit lives within every believer. When we understand the times and the seasons, we can pray as the disciples did, for it is the goodness of God that draws people to repentance.
         “Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they [we] may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus" (vs. 29).