If Jesus Christ called His Church home today, would we be ready?
That’s the question Pastor Jack Hibbs challenged us to confront as he laid out what he believes is the Bible’s unmistakable message about the rapture. His focus wasn’t on winning an end-times argument. It was on awakening us, the body of Christ, to live every day with the expectation that Jesus could return at any moment.
“Though I do not see Him, I long for Him and I’m looking for Him,” Hibbs said. “I’m commanded in the Bible to look for Him. It’s crystal clear.”
The Scripture That Changed His Mind
Hibbs said one passage completely transformed his understanding of the rapture.
Quoting Jesus’ promise in John 14, he read:
“Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions. And if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”
He said Christ’s promise forced him to reconsider his previous position.
“Jesus has been preparing a place in Heaven, according to His own words, to bring us there. That’s what He says.”
Then came the question he couldn’t answer.
“I never get to go up there to see the mansions. I never get to go up there to where He has been preparing. I never get to go up there to where He is. There’s no reunion up there with a post-tribulational view. Doesn’t work.”
That realization drove Hibbs back into Scripture.
“I swung back through the Scripture and study slowly,” he said, “but I swung back to the post-tribulational, premillennial, literal view of Scripture, what is also known as futurist view of prophetic interpretation.”
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A Return That Could Happen at Any Moment
Hibbs argued that Christ’s First Coming and Second Coming are both tied to specific prophetic events.
The rapture, he said, is different.
Reading from 1 Corinthians 15, Hibbs emphasized Paul’s words:
“Behold, I tell you a mystery… We shall not all sleep… We shall be changed.”
He pointed to Paul’s repeated use of the word “we.”
“He didn’t say, ‘They shall be changed,'” Hibbs said. “He said… ‘We shall be changed.'”
Hibbs said Paul fully expected Christ could return during his own lifetime.
“Some people are going to be alive when it happens, and their bodies going to be changed without death.”
Hope, Not Endless Arguments
Hibbs acknowledged that Christians have debated the timing of the rapture for generations, but he pointed back to Paul’s conclusion in 1 Thessalonians 4.
“Therefore, comfort one another with these words.”
He urged believers not to allow prophecy to become another reason for division.
“Getting big arguments about this and break fellowship with your friends and create your own denominations and beat pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, post-tribulationists up, getting a big fight about it? No.”
The purpose of the doctrine, he said, is encouragement.
Live Like Jesus Could Return Today
Hibbs said the doctrine of the rapture isn’t about fear or escaping hardship.
“The rapture is not an escape for fearful people.”
Instead, he said it changes the way we live every day.
“Though I do not see Him, I long for Him and I’m looking for Him. I’m commanded in the Bible to look for Him. It’s crystal clear.”
“And so because I love Him, I want to be ready to meet Him.”
Hibbs also challenged us to reject celebrity culture, internet personalities and human traditions whenever they compete with God’s Word.
“I don’t care what anybody says about that. What does the Bible say?”
He warned believers not to blindly follow popular teachers—including himself.
“Don’t listen to what I have to say. The moment I give you a Bible verse and then I start talking about I went to a delicatessen or an air show, your ears better get perked up and ready for discerning.”
He closed by warning against elevating tradition above Scripture.
“You have replaced the teachings of God with the traditions of men.”
Then Hibbs left believers with one final challenge.
“Back to the Word of God, back to the Bible, and back to the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
Finally, he offered a reminder every one of us should take to heart.
“Don’t let anyone steal your joy. Get ready. He could come back at any moment. Are you ready? In the meantime, let’s be busy about our Father’s business.”
James Lasher, a seasoned writer and editor at Charisma Media, combines faith and storytelling with a journalism background from Otterbein University and ministry experience in Guatemala and at the LA Dream Center. A Marine Corps and Air Force veteran, he is the author of The Revelation of Jesus: A Common Man’s Commentary and a contributor to Charisma magazine. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
