PRETRIB HARPAZO QUAKE: Seismic Truth That Shatters False Shepherds Who Deny the Catching Up

 


Revelation 12:5

“And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.”


1 Thessalonians 4:17

“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.”

King James Version (KJV)


2 Corinthians 12:2

“I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.”


1 Corinthians 15:51-53 KJV


 51Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52in 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. 53For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.


Context is not optional. The wolf in John 10 is not the Lord in 1 Thessalonians 4. Two in the field is not the catching up of the PreTribulation Rapture.


 Revelation 12:5, 2 Corinthians 12:2-4, and 1 Thessalonians 4:17 use the same Greek verb harpazo for vertical, heavenly removal. 1 Corinthians 15 supplies the “mystery” language Paul says was previously hidden.


HARPZO EARTHQUAKE: Seismic Truth That Shatters False Shepherds Who Deny the Catching Up

This study separates Matthew 24’s paralambano (taken in judgment, Noah/Lot pattern) from Paul’s harpazo (sudden, gracious snatching of the church - VERTICAL into the 3rd Heaven as compared to the Horizontal of Philip in Acts 8:39 KJV), treats the rapture as a newly revealed mystery, and warns teachers who flatten every occurrence of harpazo into the wolf-snatching sense of John 10. The title matches that force—seismic, exposing, and aimed squarely at those who teach the rapture is false.

Nepal Floods On Camera, Last 3 minutes...

https://youtu.be/0bkCtUstxK8?si=ouGytth9-9bNAkrj


People were eating, working, standing in the street. Then the water took them. That is how sudden judgment looks. Matthew 24 uses that same flood pattern. 


SEE MY WARNING to the SCOFFERS:


https://youtu.be/ZsVsry-te2E



https://www.thethirdheaventraveler.com/2026/08/case-study-of-scoffer-tired-and-waiting.html



Essential Background Study Links:


https://www.thethirdheaventraveler.com/2023/03/woe-to-you-that-desire-day-of-lord-why.html


https://youtu.be/FOA1xnN3IK4?si=ooY1IaC6vDDX9ecl



https://www.thethirdheaventraveler.com/2025/08/essential-mystery-lesson-this-is.html



https://www.thethirdheaventraveler.com/2025/06/abc-bridesmaids-parable-of-10-virgins.htm


https://www.thethirdheaventraveler.com/2025/01/let-us-examine-ourselves-gospel-kjv.html



https://www.thethirdheaventraveler.com/2024/09/to-deny-pauls-gospel-is-to-deny-jesus.html



https://www.thethirdheaventraveler.com/2023/09/understanding-revelation-12-sign.html


Rapture Scriptures (KJV)


Harpazo means to seize, snatch, catch away, catch up. In 1 Thessalonians 4:17 the King James renders it caught up. In 2 Corinthians 12 it is caught up to the third heaven and caught up into paradise. In Revelation 12:5 the man child is caught up unto God and to His throne. The verb is sudden. The motion is removal. 

The destination in those three texts is the heavenly realm. 

Greek (1 Thessalonians 4:17)

The verb is ἁρπαγησόμεθα (harpagēsometha), future passive of ἁρπάζω (harpazo, Strong’s G726).

Sense: we shall be snatched / seized / caught away / caught up.

Those that have a problem with the word “rapture” while accepting “caught up” is to attack the English noun and bless the English verb for the same Greek action. 

That is not scholarship. That is word-policing. Worse, it becomes a pharisical exercise of straining a gnat and swallowing a camel.  Matthew 23:24 KJV.  See my study of the person who rebuked the word "demon".

(note: IF you personally can not use the word, please do not use it, but do not place your burden upon my liberty to use the word.)


{In the same spirit of grace and liberty:

I cannot judge your conscience where doctrine is untouched—

“Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth” (Romans 14:4 KJV).

Paul was clear: “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not” (1 Corinthians 10:23 KJV). 

He refused to force his liberty if it caused offense (1 Corinthians 8:13).

The Holy Ghost alone will “guide you into all truth” (John 16:13 KJV). “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind” (Romans 14:5 KJV).

I write this to you in the Liberty I have regarding this subject. I pray you take this in the Charity i submit it.}


The same people who say “you cannot say rapture because the letters R-A-P-T-U-R-E are not printed in the KJV” still say   Bible. 

The word BIBLE does not exist in the KJV Bible. 

 Rapture is the same kind of word: a precise English name for the sudden catching up of living saints with the raised dead to meet the Lord in the air.C

Regarding the CONTEXT of Harpazo (Rapture).  Context decides meaning. A wolf harpazo-snatches sheep in John 10. God harpazo-catches His own in 1 Thessalonians 4. 

Only a careless teacher flattens those two uses into one hostile sense and then announces that the church cannot be caught up because a wolf also snatches. 

THE REASON I AM POSTING THIS is  because there is a FALSE TEACHING out there that is gaining traction and this needs to be nipped in the bud NOW.

That is the couch error: same letters, different act.   

HOMEWORK:  Go and study the word "COUCH" and then look at the vastly different meaning regarding context and part of speech. 

The English word rapture does not mean “a wolf tore the flock.”

 It means being carried away suddenly — and in this doctrine, carried away by the Lord Himself, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God, to meet Him in the air, and so to ever be with the Lord.


Context is not optional. The wolf in John 10 is not the Lord in 1 Thessalonians 4. 

Regarding Matthew 24 Two in the field and Two at the mill.  This is not the catching up.

Open your KJV Bible to Matthew Chapter 24. FOCUS Carefully on verse 39:


Matthew 24:39

“And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”

King James Version (KJV)

Using the guidelines of my "How to Study the King James Bible"


https://www.thethirdheaventraveler.com/2022/04/understand-bible-from-workman-approved.html


We must immediately begin with CONTEXT:

The immediate audience in Matthew twenty four is Jewish disciples asking about the destruction of the temple and the sign of his coming, and Jesus's answer is soaked in Old Testament covenant language: abomination of desolation, flight into Judea, the great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world. That's Daniel's language, that's Jacob's trouble language, not Pauline mystery language.

The one taken, one left picture is vastly different from a pretribulation rapture reading if you look closely, because the ones taken in that passage are taken in judgment, like the flood took away the wicked while Noah was left behind safe.

Matthew 24:40

“Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.”

King James Version (KJV)


Matthew 24:41

“Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.”

King James Version (KJV)

Disclaimer: Yes, I understand that there is a type and shadow here of how in the PreTribulation Rapture one will be CAUGHT UP - REMOVED and one left behind, but it stops here. I also understand there are those who strongly believe the one taken is the Tribulation Saint and the one left is the lost.

First we must realize that in the DISPENSATION OF THE KINGDOM Jesus Christ in the GOSPELs had not revealed the Mystery of the Church given to Paul.

Repeat: THE MYSTERY HAD NOT BEEN REVEALED IN THE KINGDOM GOSPEL...   

If you read my study on the MYSTERY given to Paul from Jesus Christ in the essential study links you will understand the  MYSTERY is 3 parts:  THE GOSPEL of Salvation by FAITH and NOT of Works,  The PreTribulation Rapture, and The Church is GRAFTED into the missing branch of the OLIVE TREE. 

In the MYSTERY given to Paul, the church is the one that gets caught up to escape wrath, so the direction of who is preserved and who is removed runs opposite from what happens in Matthew 24.

REMEMBER: MATTHEW 24 IS ALL ABOUT THE TRIBULATION, AKA TIME OF JACOB'S TROUBLE, AKA THE DAY OF THE LORD AKA THE DAY OF THE LORD...

The Noah analogy Jesus gives just two verses earlier, in Matthew twenty four verses thirty seven through thirty nine, sets the pattern deliberately. The flood came and took away, using the same kind of removal language, and it was the unbelieving who were taken away in judgment, while Noah and his family were preserved, meaning saved.

DURING THE TRIBULATION the TRIBULATION SAINTS WILL BE SAVED - those who are NOT taken away by the flood.

Note: If you do not understand the difference between the Church and the Tribulation Saints please read essential study links above about the PreTribulation Rapture Doctrine.

So when Jesus immediately follows that with two in the field, one taken, one left, the grammar and the flow strongly suggest he is carrying that same pattern forward, meaning taken equals removed in judgment, left equals preserved through to the kingdom.

So it is not that the one taken is destined for damnation as a settled fate independent of the passage, it is that within this specific illustration, being taken mirrors the fate of those swept away by the flood, and being left mirrors Noah's preservation. That is precisely why so many dispensational teachers insist this cannot be the rapture itself, since in the rapture the direction is reversed, the believer is the one taken up and preserved from wrath, not left behind for it.

In Matthew twenty four the Greek is

paralambanō

, which just means to take alongside or receive to oneself, it is a very generic verb used all over the New Testament for perfectly mundane things, like Joseph taking Mary as his wife, or Jesus taking Peter, James, and John up the mountain.

Harpazō

, the word Paul uses in First Thessalonians four seventeen for the catching away, is a completely different verb, and it carries real force to it, meaning to seize, to snatch away suddenly, sometimes even violently or by force, it is the same root used for a wolf snatching sheep, or Paul himself being caught up to the third heaven.

These two words share no root and no real semantic overlap, one is a neutral term for taking someone somewhere, the other is a dramatic term for forcible, sudden removal.

So while paralambanō itself is a mild, flexible verb, the immediate context in Matthew twenty four is anything but mild, it is sandwiched directly between the flood judgment illustration and, in Luke's parallel account in chapter seventeen, explicit references to Lot and Sodom, fire and brimstone destroying everyone who did not escape. So even though the verb itself doesn't inherently mean forcible seizure the way

Harpazō

does, the narrative frame around it is unmistakably about sudden, catastrophic, judicial removal, people going about ordinary life, eating, drinking, marrying, grinding at the mill, and then abruptly swept away without warning.


As I point out in my MYSTERY Blogs - The word mystery in Greek, mysterion, in Paul's usage doesn't mean something hard to figure out, it means something that was completely hidden in prior ages and has now been disclosed for the first time.

Paul uses that exact word in First Corinthians fifteen when he introduces the resurrection and transformation of living believers, saying behold, I show you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

That phrasing matters enormously, because if this had already been revealed clearly in the Old Testament or even in the Gospels, Paul couldn't credibly call it a mystery, previously hidden.

Then in First Thessalonians 4:17 KJV written to a church already taught this doctrine, he lays out the mechanics, the Lord himself descending, the dead in Christ rising first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them, that's your Harpazo, in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.

Nowhere in the Old Testament, nowhere in the Gospels, including Matthew twenty four, is there a clear prior statement of living believers being bodily snatched up before a period of wrath.

That silence is not incidental, Paul explicitly frames it as new revelation given to him. Which means Matthew 24 written and spoken before this mystery was revealed, cannot be the place Jesus is describing that event, at best it's foreshadowing a different removal, the judgment removal we already covered, not the preservation removal Paul describes.

The King James text based on the Textus Receptus gives thirteen occurrences in thirteen verses.

Other Harpazo scriptures include: Matthew 11:12, where the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. Matthew 12:29, a strong man's house being plundered,

Matthew 13 the wicked one catching away the seed sown in the heart, John 6:15 the crowd wanting to take Jesus by force to make him king, John 10:12 the wolf catching the sheep. John 10:28,29 no one plucking the sheep out of the Father's hand. Acts 8:39 with Philip, exactly as I've stated above. Acts 23:10, soldiers ordered to take Paul by force away from the mob. Second Corinthians 12:2,4: Paul caught up to the third heaven. First Thessalonians 4:17 RAPTURE and Jude verse 23: pulling others out of the fire.

Most occurrences are actually pretty violent or forceful in a literal sense, seizing, plundering, snatching by force, which really underscores the point of RAPTURE - like a Raptor snatching prey, this is a dramatically stronger word than the plain paralambanō in Matthew 24...


My full case is this all lines up with:

Revelation 12:5, 2 Corinthians 12 and 1 Thessalonians 4:17 ALL THE SCRIPTURES I OPEN THIS STUDY WITH.

WE SAINTS THE BRIDE OF CHRIST we shall be caught up together in the clouds, those three carry that specific caught up translation in the King James, describing upward, vertical removal into heaven's realm.

The other ten occurrences all cluster around seizing, plundering, snatching, or taking by force in a more horizontal or predatory sense, wolves and sheep, robbers and houses, a mob and Paul, and so on.



Full Study Notes in Outline for your homework:

Suggested subtitle:

Context is not optional. The wolf in John 10 is not the Lord in 1 Thessalonians 4. Two in the field is not the catching up.

I. Why This Post Exists
  • The charge: teachers flatten harpazo in John 10 (wolf snatching sheep) onto 1 Thessalonians 4:17 and say the catching up “cannot be the Rapture or Catching Up of the Church unto God.”
  • A second, equally common perversion: they drag Matthew 24:40-41 (“two in the field… two at the mill”) into Paul’s mystery and call that the pretribulation rapture.
  • Damage: they steal the blessed hope, train scoffers, and leave saints “tired and waiting” instead of looking for His appearing (2 Timothy 4:8; 2 Peter 3:3-4).
  • Standard: James 3:1; 2 Timothy 2:15; Revelation 22:18-19.
  • Case study: https://www.thethirdheaventraveler.com/2026/08/case-study-of-scoffer-tired-and-waiting.html
II. The Four “Caught Up” Texts That Form the Doctrine (KJV)
  1. Revelation 12:5 — man child caught up unto God and to His throne.
  2. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 — dead in Christ rise first; we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds.
  3. 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 — “I shew you a mystery”; changed in a moment, at the last trump.
  4. 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 — Paul caught up to the third heaven / paradise.
  5. Point: Rev 12:5, 2 Cor 12, and 1 Thess 4:17 use harpazo for vertical heavenly removal. 1 Cor 15 supplies the mystery language previously hidden.
III. The Word Itself: Harpazo, Rapio, Rapture
  • Harpazo: seize, snatch, catch away, catch up. Sudden removal.
  • Latin use of 1 Thess 4:17: rapiemur from rapio → rapture.
  • “Rapture is not in the KJV” is word-policing. Neither are Trinity, incarnation, millennium, omniscience.
  • Destinations inside the same verb:
    • Vertical / heaven: Rev 12:5, 2 Cor 12, 1 Thess 4:17.
    • Earthly relocation: Acts 8:39 (Philip caught away to Azotus).
    • Hostile / predatory: John 10:12, Matt 13:19, etc.
  • Range is not meaning. Context decides.
IV. The Exact Harpazo Error to Call OutAny teacher who takes harpazo in John 10 — a wolf snatching sheep — and lays that predatory sense on 1 Thessalonians 4:17 to claim the rapture cannot be of God has mistaken a word’s range for its meaning in context.

Couch analogy:
Couch as a noun is furniture. Couch as a verb means to phrase carefully. Same letters. Different acts. No honest reader merges them.
  • John 10: hostile seizing.
  • 1 Thessalonians 4: God gathering His own in resurrection and meeting in the air. Deliverance, not predation.
V. Excerpt and Examination: The Two Matthew 24 Texts Most Often Confused with the RaptureA. The actual verses (KJV)Matthew 24:37-41
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Luke’s parallel (keep beside it): Luke 17:26-30, 34-36 — days of Noe, days of Lot, fire and brimstone, “one taken, and the other left.”B. Immediate context decides who is “taken”
  • Jesus does not start with the field and the mill. He starts with Noah.
  • In v.39 the flood took them all away. Who? The unbelieving world that kept eating, drinking, and marrying.
  • Noah and his house were left — preserved, not swept off.
  • “Then” in v.40 continues that same pattern. Two in the field. Two at the mill. One taken. One left.
  • Taken = removed in judgment, like the flood took the wicked.
  • Left = preserved through to the kingdom, like Noah was left. (In the context of Matthew 24 this would be the Tribulation Saints).
This is the strongest textual reason these verses are not the pretribulation rapture. In Paul the direction is reversed: the believer is the one caught up and preserved from wrath. Here the taken ones mirror those the flood carried off.C. Different Greek verb — not harpazo
  • Matthew 24:40-41 uses paralambanō — to take alongside, receive to oneself. Generic NT verb (Joseph taking Mary; Jesus taking Peter, James, and John up the mount).
  • 1 Thessalonians 4:17 uses harpazo — sudden snatch. No shared root. No real semantic overlap.
  • Paralambanō itself is mild. The terror is in the frame Jesus built around it: flood, Lot, Sodom, ordinary life interrupted by catastrophe.
D. Why teachers still call this “the rapture”
  • They see “one taken, one left,” hear “left behind,” and import a modern novel into the text.
  • They ignore vv.37-39, which already defined “took them all away.”
  • They ignore Luke 17’s Lot overlay: those taken in that picture are not rescued saints; they are the ones overtaken by fire.
  • They flatten two different verbs, two different audiences, and two different programs into one event.
E. What these verses are
  • Jewish disciples asking about the temple and the sign of His coming.
  • Covenant / Daniel / Jacob’s-trouble language: abomination, flight into Judea, tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world.
  • Sudden judicial separation at the coming of the Son of man in glory — type and shadow of judgment removal, not Paul’s newly revealed mystery of living saints changed and caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
One-sentence verdict for the blog:
Two in the field and two at the mill are Noah’s flood in miniature. They are not 1 Thessalonians 4.VI. The Load-Bearing Plank: It Was a Mystery
  • Mysterion in Paul = previously hidden, now disclosed.
  • 1 Corinthians 15:51: “Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep…”
  • If living saints snatched up before wrath had already been taught in the Gospels, Paul could not call it a mystery.
  • Matthew 24 was spoken before that revelation was given to Paul. It cannot be the event itself.
Links: VII. Do Not Desire the Day of the Lord and Call It HopeVIII. Related Misuses to Fence OffIX. Charge to Every TeacherHandling Scripture is not light. James 3:1; 2 Timothy 2:15; Revelation 22:18-19.Two errors, same root — context ignored:
  1. John 10’s wolf-harpazo forced onto 1 Thessalonians 4.
  2. Matthew 24’s flood-paralambanō forced onto the catching up.
Repentance and careful study remain open while breath remains. Idle words will be accounted for.X. Charge to Every HearerProve all things; hold fast that which is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Search the Scriptures daily as the Bereans (Acts 17:11). Test the spirits (1 John 4:1).
Truth fears no honest examination. Error cannot survive it.XI. Essential Background StudyXII. Closing CadenceThe water in Nepal did not send a committee. It came. The flood in Noah’s day did not send a committee. It took them all away. Matthew 24 uses that pattern for two in the field and two at the mill.
The Lord will not send a committee either — but 1 Thessalonians 4 is not that flood. He will descend with a shout, the dead in Christ will rise, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up.
Call it harpazo. Call it catching up. Call it rapture.
Do not call a wolf’s mouth the voice of the Lord. Do not call the flood “the blessed hope.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Featured Blogs

Who are you Amir Tsarfati? - My Brother in Christ or A Ravenous Wolf in 'Sheep's Clothing

Image
  In accordance with the Fair Use Under Title 17 U.S.C. § 107 The content provided on this website is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Any copyrighted material included herein is used under the doctrine of fair use, as outlined in Title 17 U.S. Code § 107. This includes use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. The use of such material is not intended to infringe upon the copyright holder's rights and is limited to the extent necessary for these purposes.   Who Are You Amir Tsarfati? Original post 6/4/2018 God Is Not Mocked: The Lord Rebuke Amir Tsarfati BEHOLD ISRAEL in  Derision  #doctrinematters June 2025 Look at this Mocking Proud Look and then his perverse doctrine on the FIG and OLIVE Tree.  Read your King James Bible and tell me if he is correct. https://youtu.be/IImggMhMYsU?si=jRf0kboeeRg68IQy Fun fact: in 2024 Amir paid himself over $1,000,000 in compensation from his "non...
Read more

CHRISLAM CONFIRMED: Led By Pope Francis, Leaders Of The World’s Religions

Image
https://www.nowtheendbegins.com/7th-congress-of-leaders-of-world-religions-adopt-human-fraternity-chrislam-document-pope-francis-mohamed-bin-zayed/       Now The End Begins CHRISLAM CHRISLAM CONFIRMED: Led By Pope Francis, Leaders Of The World’s Religions Formally Adopt Human Fraternity Document At 7th Congress Published   44 mins ago   on   September 17, 2022 By   Geoffrey Grider   NOW THE END BEGINS SHARE: With the adoption this week by the 7th World Religions Congress of the Human Fraternity document created by Pope Francis and Mohamed bin Zayed, Chrislam is now the official One World Religion. It’s official, Chrislam has  now been codified and ratified, with the approval at the  7th Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions , of the Human Fraternity document  created by Pope Francis  of the Vatican, and financed and promoted by  Mohamed bin Zayed  of the UAE. Question – Guess who they forgot to invite...
Read more

Rebuking Dr. Eugene Kim BBC INTERNATIONAL

Dear Dr. Eugene Kim, References: a. Dr. Gene Kim video serving God https://youtu.be/LV6j0rB0yos See his comments to Andrew Sheets b. Dr. Gene Kim Teaching video on Trinity c. Dr. Gene Kim Teaching video on 501c3 conspiracy I earnestly pray you receive this opportunity to correct your errant ways. You are a gifted and brilliant young man. Most of your teaching is rock solid. But these glaring issues addressed below must be addressed. BBC International Dear Dr. Eugene Kim, Thank you Sir for responding to my comment (reference a) It’s obvious by your response you haven’t read the blog I sent you about why Brick and Mortar Buildings called churches are not biblical. Most of what you sent me in your response by way of your video teaching is addressed in the blog. As far as using Romans 13:1-7 to defend 501C3 and your building - I address below. After careful consideration - I have to write this as a testimony as a witness submitted as Ambassador for The ...
Read more