Despite the book of Genesis’ emphatic portrayal of man’s purpose being to take the earth, a particular line in the Scriptures dramatically points believers the other way – to heaven. One aspect of this line depicts the rapture of the believers to escape death and judgment.
Luke 21:36 Beseeching if by any means you may prevail to escape all these things which are about to happen and to stand before the Son of Man.
1 Thess 4:16-17 Because the Lord Himself, with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are living, who are left remaining, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we will be always with the Lord.
Rev 12:5, 7, 11 And she brought forth a son, a man-child, who is to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne…And there was war in heaven…And the great dragon was cast down…And I heard a loud voice saying Now has come salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God…
Gen 5:21, 24 And Enoch lived sixty-five years and begot Methuselah…And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
Jude 14-15 And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied also of these, saying, Behold, The Lord came with myriads of His saints, to execute judgment against all and to convict all the ungodly concerning all their ungodly works which they have done in ungodliness and concerning all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
Rev 14:4, 14-16 These were purchased from among men as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb…And I saw, and behold, there was a white cloud, and on the cloud One like the Son of Man sitting, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, Send forth Your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come because the harvest of the earth is ripe. And He who sat on the cloud thrust His sickle upon the earth, and the earth was reaped.
As Enoch was taken by God after walking with God for 300 years, the believers today must grow and be dried out of the earthly waters to be ripened wheat.
Ark and Architecture 
Great little survey of verses. I especially liked, “The story of Enoch links the rapture with radical reaction to believing in the coming judgment.” This morning someone pointed out that Enoch saw not only that judgment was coming, but that the Lord was coming. Jude 14 records that, “Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied also of these, saying, Behold, the Lord came with myriads of His saints.”
Thanks Kyle.
Enoch had the right focus – he walked with God. His focus was not the rapture nor the judgment. Lord, draw us to focus on living with You every day.
Thank you for that helpful insight, Don. May we love the Lord and enjoy the walk with Him, being constrained by His love.
Do you know what, “Beseeching if by any means you may prevail..” means? (Making reference to your first verse of your article) Here is plain English…”Pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape…” NKJV
How is that going for you? “Beseeching”, or “praying always”? What are you “praying always” for? If you think its to be raptured as you make mention? Then why didn’t your first prayer for salvation work to begin with so you could be raptured when the time came? Why would we be told to continue to be praying in this manor. And why would anyone be commanded to continue to “beseech” or “pray always” in the matter of salvation so that you don’t miss the rapture? And what does “Prevailing” or “worthiness” or “works” have to do with your salvation ticket out of here? We are not saved by works, or worthiness, or by prevailing, but by grace.
The very context of the verse disproves a pre-trib doctrine.
If, however, you understand that there is a lot of evil coming upon the earth, it is easy to understand the need to “pray always” to be counted worthy to escape it all. As Psalm 91 also teaches. There is a contingency to escape it all and it is addressed here. Just like the church of Philidelphia in Rev. 3:10 fulfilled the contingency so they too could escape the hour of temptation.
If opinion is what you are after, the pretrib doctrine is right for you. If, however, truth is what you want it is not found in the pretrib doctrine. It is possible to study eschatology without opinion, assumption, and conjecture. However, these three are the foundation of the pretrib doctrine. All can be disproved by the truth of the Word for those willing to seek the truth. If however you do not love the truth, God sends a great deception upon those who do not. The pretrib doctrine is one of these tools of deception.