A pile of clothes and some memories are all that remain.

There have been many opinions offered over the years as to what the rapture would look like and the effect it would have on the world.  Most of us are familiar with the standard narrative of believers disappearing, leaving behind a pile of clothes and a confused world.  Furthermore, the imagery of airplanes suddenly becoming “pilot-less” and cars without drivers have filled the minds and materials of believers trying to reach a lost world with the Gospel of Christ.  There have been a number of interpretations over the years of a similar stripe and most of us have simply accepted them as they made the best sense given the subject.

However, in the last few years a steadily darkening picture has begun to emerge on the rapture.  With each new revelation it seems the Lord has begun to remove the blinders to the reality of the rapture and what it will bring.

Understand that this does not cast doubt on any believer that still sees the more “traditional” view of the rapture as it has only been of late that the Lord has moved to reveal this final piece of the prophetic puzzle.  Indeed, even the more traditional picture of believers simply disappearing provides a frightening post rapture picture as planes fall from the sky, cars crash into each other, ships run aground, nuclear reactors sit unattended and an entire litany of other impending disasters that result.

With that said, what must be remembered is that the rapture is no different than any other area of end times prophecy.  It too is to be subject to the outpouring and increase of understanding spoken of in Daniel:

Daniel 12:4, 9-10 – But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.

Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.

Indeed, as goes the “revived Roman Empire” goes the understanding of the rapture.  Prior interpretations were not wrong – they were incomplete.  With good reason the Lord has withheld the final understanding of certain things until the very end as to protect the body of believers and the mission of spreading the Gospel.

How different would Islam have developed if it was understood that the beast kingdom was an actual Islamic Babylonian Empire?  How much greater would the persecution of believers in those nations be if it had been understood that Islam becomes the greatest enemy to humanity ever known – born directly of Satan himself?  Indeed, if John the Revelator had actually written the words “Rome” in Revelation chapter 17 what are the chances that the Roman officials would have ever permitted the scrolls to leave the island of Patmos?

So it is with the understanding of the rapture as well.  It is only now, at the times of the end that we must understand the full weight of the devastation to come with the rapture.  Now, as this day approaches there must be a renewed understanding, not just for a world in need of salvation before the rapture comes – but rather, a confirmation for those that are left and survive.  They must have an accurate telling of what is to occur so that they can know the truth and find confirmation.  There will be narratives going forward that serve to hide the truth and trap what remains of a fearful world – a world fearful not from the sudden disappearance of multiplied millions of believers.

A world fearful from the aftermath of a rapture that looked nothing like the imagery imagined for several thousand years of church history.  A world fearful from the aftermath of a rapture that will appear as the very end of the world where believers are gone, but so are many unbelievers as millions more perish from the effects of what we are now coming to understand in the pages of the Bible.

I must give credit where it is due.  To my knowledge, Perry Stone is the first to receive the revelation of the lightning rapture.  There may have been others since, but near as I can tell Perry was the first.  Perry certainly would not be the last as the Lord never reveals such things to just one believer.  There is always a first revelation, but it will be followed by additional revelations as evidenced even by this very writing.

It was a Perry Stone message on this topic where the Lord began to deliver my revelatory contribution on the rapture.  First, we need to establish an understanding.  Biblical scholarship is the same as any other area of academic study and pursuit.  As the Bible is the inspired word of God it covers every facet of life on earth.  This said, it is not uncommon to see revelations arise and subjects emerge that delve into others areas of scientific research and understanding.  After all, engineers and scientists are notoriously one sided to their particular area and doctrines of study.  That is why so few from these fields double as Bible scholars.

Over the years it has been a common practice for Biblical scholars to seek information and opinions from experts in the areas that emerge from their particular study of the scriptures.  It has also become a practice of late for the Lord to bring an expert in various scientific fields into Biblical scholarship.  They will be called to refute the deceptions of the world through the twisting of science.  Creation science and global warming are two such fields where the Lord has raised up believers to counter Satan.  Today, more and more in the scientific community have renounced what they have come to recognize as corrupt and improbably religious doctrines disguised as science in evolution and global warming.  As more and more evidence – not just in contradiction to these two fields, but in direct support of Biblical accounts – arises it becomes clear to a greater daily degree that the Bible is indeed inspired of the one, true living God.

Perry spoke of this concerning the rapture and the revelations he received.  He took his concerns to scientific experts that indeed confirmed that what he was seeing was possible.  Here is the thing – as I was listening to that first message on the lightning revelation of the rapture an interesting dynamic presented itself.  You see, it just so happened that this time I was one of the individuals I would ask the questions of.

On an interesting side note, I have since heard Perry teach on this subject several more times.  This would include the revelation that the Lord gave to him as to what the rapture will look like.  It is amazing how the Lord works.  With the Lord as my witness, the revelations that Perry received literally interlock with those that the Lord delivered to me.  The Lord does this more than most people realize.  I have found examples elsewhere were the Lord will give two or three different visions or revelations to complete strangers.  The visions will be related and very similar.

Here is the interesting part – the differences in the visions will interlock with the other visions.  They will literally fit together like a giant puzzle.  For that matter, some of the material in the section on the timing of the tribulation was revealed this way as well.  There was my particular revelatory contributions, but the Lord also brought me to the individual works of several other scholars.  When I took their separate revelations and locked them together with mine a perfect picture emerged.

As I was saying, if you have looked through other sections of this site you have seen that my professional background is electrical engineering technology.  I have worked for years in the electric utility industry and deal specifically with fault current, arc flash and distribution controls. 

It is my job to test and troubleshoot the devices that protect the distribution system from faults and arcs – or “short circuits” that damage the system and cause outages.  Likewise, I deal with all of the devices on the distribution circuits that keep the lights on, from reclosers, voltage regulators, capacitors banks, VFI’s, throwover switches, overcurrent relays and devices that promote power quality.  A large percentage of my work centers on fault current, arc flash and mitigating the damage that they cause.  For the laymen, arc flash and fault current manifest in nature as lightning.  More on this in a moment.

Understand that the Lord gives us a certain calling for a reason.  I never understood why I ended up in the electric utility industry.  I hated math and science in high school.  All I ever wanted to be was a police officer – and I was for about five years.  Then, out of the blue I was presented with an opportunity – a lower paying opportunity at the time – to get my foot in the door to a profession that I had never even considered a single day in my life.  Yet, something seemed to be calling to me.  Turns out God knew what he was doing.  Everything clicked for me.  Where I barely survived high school I was now an honor student in college.  Every mathematics class and engineering theory class just made me hungry for more.

Anyway, as I listened to Perry speak (this occurred after hearing “The Rapture Revelation” for the first time) my mind was flooded with the practical implications of what he was saying – the kind of implications that can only come from first-hand knowledge and experience with the subject matter being addressed.  Perry opened the door, but the Lord turned on the faucet.  As I listened the spirit of the Lord came upon me and began connecting the dots.  Not just with scripture mind you – but scripture side-by-side with science.  There was no mistaking what the Lord was showing me.

Here is the problem – I had a practical understanding of the revelations the Lord was giving to me.  He saw to that over the last 15 years.  I was so grieved in my spirit that I had to pray on this for the next three days.  But alas the confirmations came. 

So anyway, here we are.  This is the back story behind the lightning revelation of the rapture.  I have taken time to make this an easy to understand resource and to keep it simple.  With the blessings of the Lord you will be able to glean valuable insight from the material presented here.

 A conversation from the King James – the effects of the rapture:

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

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: 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.

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.        

For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.

And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.

And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

His countenance was like lightning, and His raiment white as snow: And for fear of Him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.

As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.

And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.

In the order of their appearing:

John 14:3, Acts 1:9-11, Revelation 4:1, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, 1 Corinthians 15:51-53, Matthew 24:27, 2 Peter 3:9-12, Revelation 11:12-13, Matthew 28:2-4, Ezekiel 1:13-14

Here are several more scriptures for good measure:

Job 37:2-4 – Hear attentively the noise of His voice, and the sound that goeth out of His mouth.

He directeth it under the whole heaven, and His lightning unto the ends of the earth.

After it a voice roareth: He thundereth with the voice of His excellency; and He will not stay them when his voice is heard.

Isaiah 14:13 –  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

Psalms 48:2 –  Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.

Ezekiel 1:4 – And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.

Psalms 8:14 – Yea, He sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and He shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.

Zechariah 9:14 – And the Lord shall be seen over them, and His arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.

Revelation 8:5 – And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.

In the scriptures presented we see a picture emerge that is present with every instance of resurrection and ascension in the Bible.  I have highlighted the more salient points to our conversation.  From these scriptures we can ascertain certain facts about the rapture emerge:

1. Lightning not only describes the speed with which the rapture occurs – it describes the manner.  Lightning will be the medium by which the saints of God are collected.

2. Lightning will behave as it is meant to behave.  It will occur according to the God given laws of nature – to the woe of the earth.

3. There shall be a changing of the saints – both living and dead – at the atomic level.  Such a conversion of energy has not happened upon the face of the earth since men have existed.

4. Given the catastrophic release and conversion of energy, as well as the law of nature concerning electricity and lightning this will be the most catastrophic event in the history of mankind.  Only the intervention of the Lord prevents the rapture from becoming an extinction level event.

The massive charge involved will render all grounding and protection systems useless as they will be overwhelmed.  Unfortunately, such protection systems will only intensify the net effect of the storm.

5. The sheer destructiveness of the rapture centers around the single point of formation for the initial charge that sparks the global cascade of the storm.  It will require an initial charge of such high potential that it cannot be produced by any means known to man.  The arc that results from the meeting of a leader stroke and return stroke that literally stretch from one side of the planet to the other will contain a heat and energy that are beyond description.

All that should be in the vicinity of a raptured saint likely will not survive the encounter.

6.  There will be a lightning strike for every saint (living and dead) that is called in the rapture.  This will result in multiplied billions of lightning strikes simultaneously across the globe.  The result will produce what can only be described as an “EMP on steroids”.

Most national electric grids will instantly fail.

Nations with the heaviest concentrations of believers will immediately descend into a pre-industrial state;

If they survive at all.

7. The force generated first by the grounding of the charge for each arc of lightning (strong enough to travel the distance of the globe) and second by the energy conversion required to raise 2,000 years worth of deceased saints (from every condition of decay and from every possible grave whether it is the ground, the sea or the air) will nearly rip the earth apart.  There will be a cascade of earthquakes that destroy city after city in whatever nation holds a significant body of believers.

That is the good news.

This same effect will be reproduced by conversion of the living saints.  Whatever energy is released by the dead saints will be dwarfed by that released from the living saints.

8. The earth and sky will burn and millions will perish.

9. The rapture will originate in the northern skies, over the northern most part of the planet.

When we think back to the many scientific discoveries that were foreshadowed in the Bible (the earth is round, it contains four corners, it hangs on nothing, the northern sky contains an emptiness of stars in space and the innumerability of the stars in heavens to name a few) it is little wonder that we should finally learn the meaning behind the scriptures detailing the rapture.  It turns out that the description of the rapture can be placed in any modern science textbook dealing with the formation of lightning:

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 – 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:

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.

Here is the nickel tour of how lightning is actually formed.

The upper atmosphere and the upper clouds are heavy with positive charges.  The ground is likewise heavy with positive charges.

Between these two regions of positive charges is the base of the clouds.  This base is heavy with negative charges.

A spark generates in the positively charged upper atmosphere and invades the negatively charged base of the clouds heading towards the earth.

The initial spark, or the stepped leader, rips the positively charged particles from the ground and calls them to the clouds.  This is the return stroke.

When the leader and the return meet in the clouds an arc is formed that we know as lightning.

Unfortunately, this is not where the “discoveries” end:

2 Peter 3:9-12 – The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

*** These verses from 2 Peter 3 are generally assumed to be the Second Coming.  However, with a careful examination of the chapter, and reading each verse one at a time we see that it is actually the rapture.  Most assume the Second Coming as the destruction of the armies of the Antichrist fits a similar mold.  However, the destruction befalling the Antichrist and his armies is not global.  What we read in 2 Peter 3 goes beyond the scope of a single battlefield. ***

Now for the rest of the science textbook:

When the lightning is formed the storm can now discharge to ground.  As the mass of electrons now flow through the air they produce a heat and light that literally burns the air and all that interferes with its path to ground.

Anything it contacts that offers resistance will literally “burn itself in the clear”.

When the arc grounds out its charge will dissipate in a fashion similar to waves in a pond.  Anybody or anything within the grounding grid of this discharge will likewise be “burned in the clear”.

Anything within a certain approach distance of the arc of lightning will risk becoming part of the path to ground.  This means any grounding and protection system found within airplanes, sky scrapers, electrical substations, power plants and even houses.

That would also include people.

There are no grounding and protection systems in existence that have the required ampacity to safely funnel the staggering amounts of current that will be generated by the rapture.  The copper grounding rods and wires will simply disintegrate and fail in what can only be described as a catastrophic fashion.

This failure will be instantaneous.  The fault current is beyond comprehension.

That is the long and short of the rapture.  I speak to this more in the revelation that the Lord gave to me on this.  It is the second page on the site.

It should be noted that Satan has been preparing the world for the rapture for the last 200 years.  With every scientific discovery that proves the validity of the Bible comes a monumental deception.  It is no surprise that the rapture would capture the lions share of his attention.  While it takes little imagination to guess the nature of the deception prepared for the rapture, it is still worth addressing.

The single point from the heavens where Christ will return lends itself the the deception of UFO’s and aliens.  A single point from which a massive attack upon the planet is launched will be the narrative that follows the rapture – at least in nations that still have an ability to present a national media presence.

Understand that there are word studies and other evidences that come into play here as well.  We can spend more time discussing the involvement of clouds in the rapture, or how the Greek word describing the changing in a twinkling of an eye is atomos, or “an atom of time”.  However, I thought it would be a good time to share some additional resources to help present the information on this page.

The Image Library on this site contains pictures, diagrams and charts that will aid in understanding the effects of lightning, grounding, protection systems and the science behind electricity.

Here are some lightning related resources and information:

Lightning flows from ground up

Upward lightning

Arc Flash incident