So who hasn’t thought about the rapture in the last few weeks?  The rapture mystery has always been a struggle for me as a lifelong skeptic of the supernatural.  Like Thomas, (“I need to see the nail prints”) anything that is outside of the ability to see, taste, or touch is difficult to understand and in my case accept.  The idea of physical human beings just disappearing seems too far fetched.  There must be another natural explanation.

However, I am a very strong believer in the Shroud of Turin.  There is no scientific explanation for the image on a cloth of a man that was clearly crucified.  The Shroud a physical world piece of cloth falls outside my skepticism of the supernatural and bolsters my faith in the Jesus of Nazareth. 

Is there a connection between the Shroud and the rapture?  

Take a look at I Corinthians 15:51: “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye (in a blink) at the last trumpet…I Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first (in a blink). Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up (in a blink) together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the are, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

In a blink.  Those three words didn’t seem possible to my skeptical mind until I was looking at the Image on the Shroud one day I have having in my office.  Scientists say that the image on the Shroud was created by an incredible energy of light instantaneously (in a blink).  Where did the man go?  Well, hundreds reported seeing him after they knew he had been buried. ( I Corinthians 15:6 )He came and went in their presence. ( In a blink…Acts 1) He appeared (in a blink) to two men and they didn’t recognize him until he reminded them of all his teaching and in a blink, they recognized him, and in a blink he vanished.  Later in the same chapter  his followers were gathered trying to grasp what had happened the last few days. In a blink it says he was standing with them from out of nowhere and they gave him something to eat. (Luke: 36)

The man who in a blink passed through a burial cloth was now breathing and eating with his friends and came and went in a blink.  See it?  is not a mystery for me.  The dead will rise first, (in a blink) then we who are alive will be caught up (in a blink) with the man that went through the shroud…in a blink. (I Corinthian 15:51)

In this moment in time the warnings Jesus and apostles warned of in the Scriptures certainly seem to be approaching.  The signs are all around us.  Imagine being the group that never experiences early death.  Either way we will meet Him…in a blink.