Some of you may have seen Lee Brainard's video this week about Health Ranger's $5000 reward on X, offered to anyone who can find the literal word rapture in the Bible. Lee did a good job of explaining why the literal word rapture doesn't have to be in the English Bible translations we read, as the word for the catching away or rapture used in the Greek (harpazo) is translated differently to make it more understandable.

x.com/HealthRanger/status/1914545404961489297

I took a different approach. I literally took Mike Adams (the real name of Health Ranger) at his word. I went to Bible Hub, put in the word "rapture", and 3 verses popped out. Two of them contain the word "rapture" and the third one contains the word "rapturous".

Now, none of these verses are explicitly about the catching away, but nevertheless, there is rapture typology there.

The first verse in the order that it appears in the Bible, which is not the same order displayed in this Bible Hub word search (which seems to be alphabetical based on the chapter name), is Song of Solomon 2:3.

As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, So is my beloved among the sons: In his shadow have I rapture and sit down; And his fruit is sweet to my taste.

Funnily enough, the version of the Bible which contains this verse with the word rapture in it, is the Darby Bible, yes, THAT Darby, the JN Darby who the scoffers love to hate, the person who they claim invented the rapture doctrine. And yet the one verse in his entire Bible translation which contains the word "rapture" is not one of the verses typically quoted by those studying the rapture doctrine, because the word "rapture" has more than one meaning, and in this verse it's the other meaning, more of an emotional catching away in the Spirit, an excitement, and that's what it is in the other 2 verses I found as well. As you can see in this Oxford Dictionary definition displayed in a Google search, the primary meaning of the word rapture is a feeling of intense pleasure or joy.

This brings me to the reason I made this video. Think about it, the reason why believers should get excited about the rapture is that when we think about the consummation of our relationship with our bridegroom, Christ, which is our meeting with him in the clouds at the appointed time, that should fill us with exactly that, a feeling of intense pleasure or joy.

In another verse in Song of Solomon 2:10, the bridegroom calls his bride to rise up and come away - this is very much a rapture typology - and why wouldn't the bride want to do exactly that if she is deeply in love with the one to whom she is betrothed?

My beloved spake and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

The issue I see with people like Mike Adams, is that he is a cultural Christian, probably grew up in the church in America, read the Bible, and maybe is even saved, but his understanding of Christianity is exactly that - it's based on the Christian culture he grew up in, in one of the most Christian states of the most Christian country on earth. That's why he is fighting so hard to defend that state and that country from the evil influences which are coming against it in this day. But what is he going to do if the predominant culture in that country of America falls away to the extent that other western countries have, to the point that even praying silently in public is illegal, as it is in the UK? When true believers in Christ become a persecuted remnant, as they are in so many countries around the world, we have to accept that one day the time will come when Christ will have to snatch us away from the dragon who wishes to devour us, as in Revelation 12:5.

The other verse that contains the word rapture is Luke 1:67, this time in the Weymouth New Testament translation:

And Zechariah his father was filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke in a rapture of praise.

Again this is speaking of a feeling of intense pleasure or joy, which is what Zechariah feels when he talks about the birth of his son John who would become known as John the Baptist, the one who would come before Jesus to announce his coming and to declare Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, at the time that John baptised Jesus in the Jordan.

The Holy Spirit was clearly moving on Zechariah at the time he spoke in a rapture of praise, as in verse 64 it describes how he was healed from being unable to speak, a condition that fell on him on verse 20 after an angel told him that his wife Elizabeth would bear a son, but he didn't believe it, because he and his wife were both old, too old in his mind for such a thing to happen. The angel told him that he would be unable to speak until John was born - and that's exactly what happened. And don't forget this whole story is not really about Zechariah or John - the whole purpose of John's life and ministry was to give glory to his cousin Jesus who was the anointed one, the Christ or Messiah, and Saviour.