Who will be taken in the rapture? Kathryn Kuhlman The Rapture Part 2

And Father, just now, lay that strengthening hand on that someone who needs that added faith. Just now, make your presence real to that one who's going in the deep water. For we are not only conquerors, we are more than conquerors in all things through Christ who loved us. And not one of us needs ever to be down in defeat. Thanks. Amen. I left you yesterday. in a heart -to -heart talk about something that I felt I had to talk to you about because, as I told you at the beginning of our talk, that there's never a week but when somebody asks the same question. Is it necessary to have the baptism of the Holy Spirit to go up in the rapture? And I still contend. And I say it very boldly that the next great world event will be the rapture of the church, the great catching up, when literally this great body of believers will be caught up to meet Christ in the air. Now this is the question. Will only those who have been baptized in the Spirit, only those who have been filled with the Spirit, receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, be those who will be caught up in the air to meet the Lord? That's the question. It's just that simple. Who are going to be taken? And in that heart -to -heart talk yesterday, I gave you the work of the Holy Spirit as Jesus gave it in the Word. All I did yesterday was to quote the Word of God. And the very last thing that Jesus talked about before he went away was the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. And ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And he... answered the question as to why is one to be filled with the Spirit? What will be the result of having been filled with the Spirit? And ye shall be witnesses unto me. And the Holy Spirit is given the believer for power for service. All right? Then we went to the fourth chapter of 1 Thessalonians that talks about this great event, the rapture of the church. Again, I read to you the word of God. Read with me, if you will, please, the 16th verse, the fourth chapter of 1 Thessalonians. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. It makes it very plain. Don't add anything to this. Take it just as it is in the word of God. It does not say that the dead in Christ and those who were filled with the Holy Spirit. No. The dead in Christ. In other words, every saint of God, every man, every woman from the very first Adam who died in Christ. That means the new birth experience. They were born again. They accepted Jesus as the very son of the living God. Their sins were forgiven. They died in Christ. And every Christian listening to me knows what that means. The dead in Christ. And there are thousands who died in Christ who knew nothing. about being filled with Spirit. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord again. It says nothing. regarding the baptism with the Holy Spirit. I believe with every atom of my being, if the baptism with the Holy Spirit was required for those of us who are now living to be caught up in the air to meet the Lord, there would have been a very definite statement regarding it right here. because nothing more will be required of us to meet the Lord in the air than those who died in Christ. Say, for instance, in exactly five minutes, we'd had the great catching up, the raptures of church. Five minutes ago, A saint of God died. Now watch. That one would be in the first resurrection. She will have died in Christ. She was not filled with the Holy Spirit. The scripture plainly teaches that because she died in Christ, that when the trump of the Lord shall sound, she would be resurrected immediately. Then, five minutes later, this glorious experience, then we which are alive and remain shall be called up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Why would it be required of... One to be filled with the Spirit, to have the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the other's not. It's not consistent. Don't put things in the Scripture that are not there. Now let me give you another portion of the Word of God. It's familiar. It's very familiar to all of you. It's... Jesus talking to Martha at the time of the death of Lazarus. And the amazing thing is, he's talking about exactly the very same thing that is mentioned right here in the fourth chapter of 1 Thessalonians. Exactly the same thing. And he's talking to Martha. And this is what Jesus said himself. I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. He talked about the same thing that is spoken of here in the fourth chapter of 1 Thessalonians, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. To Martha, he says, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. That's the resurrected saints. But don't stop. And whosoever liveth is alive when I come back. whosoever liveth. Pause. Go back again to 1 Thessalonians. Then we which are alive and remain. That's us. Jesus says to Martha, and whosoever liveth is alive when I come back and believeth in me. shall never die. He didn't add any more. He didn't take anything away. In other words, the saints who died and those who are living at the time of the great catching up, there's one represent. and he that believeth in me. It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. It's the blood. It's the blood. The blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. All right, let's go a little bit deeper into this thing as to who are to be taken. There are some that claim that all, the entire church, are to pass through the tribulation. There are others that say that all, the entire church, will be caught out before the tribulation. There are those that claim that only the waiting and the watching saints shall be caught out before the tribulation and that the rest must pass through their great time of suffering. Now, I want you to see something. Please stay with the Word of God. I know. that in Hebrews, the ninth chapter, the 28th verse, says, unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Now, while this might apply to the living when he appears, it certainly does not apply to the dead, for there are tens and thousands, of saints of God who died, who never heard of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, or at least they never grasp its meaning, and who therefore never watched, never waited, never looked for His coming. But surely they are in Christ, and they died in Christ. The Bible says they will. When they have the great rapture, they will be raised again. Paul does not say here in the fourth chapter of 1 Thessalonians that it will be the dead who watched, the dead who waited, the dead who looked for, and those who are alive and watched and waited. and look for his appearing, that shall be caught out. But the dead in Christ, and we who are alive and remain. And Jesus made it very clear to Martha, and whosoever is alive liveth at that time. and believeth in me shall never die, shall never taste of death. Then remember something else. This body of Christ, oh, we need some good sound teaching on the body of Christ. It's so glorious. It's so wonderful. For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all, A -double -L, baptized into one body. If you are born again, you are born into this wonderful body of Christ and you do not separate the body of Christ. You don't. One body. All members of that one body. all baptized into one body. Sure. Therefore, to be born again makes you a part of Christ's body. And I cannot for the life of me conceive of Christ's body being divided, part of it remaining in the grave. Part of it raised in the glory. Part of it left to pass to the tribulation. Part of it changed and caught up to meet him in the air. The church, the bride of Christ. I can, after the life of me, conceive of a divided bride. Here goes the bride to meet her bridegroom. Can you... honestly now? Conceive of a divided bride? No, of course not. It isn't logical. It isn't reasonable. The bride of Christ is not divided. It is one body. And when the bride of Christ goes out to meet the bridegroom, it is not a divided bride. It's those who had been born again. For it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. It's just like that. Oh, it's so simple. It is so simple. The bride couldn't be divided. It just is impossible. Now remember again. He always speaks of his saints. He's coming for his saints. Then he returns with the saints. Not divided saints. Now, don't you think for one minute that in any way I am minimizing the baptism with the Holy Spirit. I am not. Believe me. Deals say it is in the plan of Jesus, in the will of God. It is part of your inheritance as a Christian to receive this glorious experience. Oh, how I believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I believe in that experience. I have experienced the baptism with the Holy Spirit. He is the... power in my life. He is the controlling factor. He is the power in my body. He is the secret of the fruits of this ministry. I could not witness as I do without the power of the Holy Spirit. The baptism with the Holy Spirit. There are those who say the greatest miracle of this entire ministry is Catherine Kuhlman herself. But I know from whence cometh that power. That miracle is none other than the power of the Holy Spirit. I am not minimizing this wonderful experience or the person of the Holy Spirit. What I am saying to you is that when it comes to entering into the presence of Jesus, when it comes to gaining entrance into heaven, there is just one requisite, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son. It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. God bless you.