HARPAZO

 The Greek word “harpazo” is from a primitive root word “harp,’ meaning to seize, catch up, or snatch away. It is used 14 times in the New Testament in the following passages:

(All quotations are from New American Standard Bible 1995)

 

Matthew 11:12

¹² From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.

Matthew 12:29

²⁹ Or how can anyone enter the strong man’s house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.

Matthew 13:19

¹⁹ When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road.

John 6:15

¹⁵ So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.

John 10:12

¹² He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

John 10:28-29

²⁸ and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

 

Acts 8:39

³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing.

Acts 23:10

¹⁰ And as a great dissension was developing, the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them and ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force, and bring him into the barracks.

2 Corinthians 12:2-4

² I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a man was caught up to the third heaven. ³ And I know how such a man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows— ⁴ was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

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 will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

Jude 23

²³ save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.

Revelation 12:5

⁵ And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.

     The use of the word harpazo in I Thess. 4:17, in light of the other scriptures in which this word appears, certainly confirms that the church will indeed be “caught up,” “snatched away,” in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye ( I Cor. 15:52.) There is no doubt. The fact that the same word is used to describe Philip being suddenly translated to another location, Paul being “caught up” to the third heaven, and Jesus being “caught up” to God leaves no other option or explanation. Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!