The Novel
What if it happened tonight?
The Bride Is Taken imagines July 4, 2034: millions vanish in a single flash of light, and a terrified world is told we are not alone. Atomos, Book One, by Paul T. Barham.
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What the word means, what the Bible says, what Christians disagree about, and the one question that matters most.
The word rapture is not in most English Bibles, but the idea is. In 1 Thessalonians 4:17, Paul says believers will be “caught up” to meet the Lord. The Greek word is harpazō: to seize, to snatch away suddenly. When the New Testament was translated into Latin, it became rapiemur, and from that Latin root we get the English word “rapture.”
Paul also says it will happen en atomō, “in a moment” (1 Corinthians 15:52): an instant too small to divide.
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.”
1 Thessalonians 4:16–17“Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”
1 Corinthians 15:51–52“In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”
John 14:2–3“For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Thessalonians 5:9Scripture quotations from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), © The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. lockman.org
Christians who believe the Bible agree that Jesus is coming back. They differ on when the catching up happens in relation to the seven years of tribulation described in Daniel and Revelation:
Before the tribulation (pre-tribulation), in the middle of it (mid-tribulation or pre-wrath), or at the end, together with Christ’s visible return (post-tribulation). Many others read these passages differently still.
This site holds the pre-tribulation view, and so does the novel The Bride Is Taken. Faithful believers hold the others, and the point of this page is not to win that argument. It is the question below.
No one knows the day or the hour (Matthew 24:36). The question is not when. It is whether you know Him.
“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Romans 10:9If you are not sure where you stand with God, you do not have to wait for the sky to go dark to find out. Start here: salvation101.com.
The Bride Is Taken imagines July 4, 2034: millions vanish in a single flash of light, and a terrified world is told we are not alone. Atomos, Book One, by Paul T. Barham.
Read about the book