1 Thes. 4:15, right at the beginning of the Rapture passage, verse 15 opens with the phrase “According to the Lord’s own word.” Here’s the whole rapture scenario from verse 15-18:
“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 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. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
Well, WHAT ‘Lord’s own word? Paul was referring to the Old Testament, because he was revealing the mystery of the rapture for the first time, and the Gospel of Matthew hadn’t been written yet, or if it had just been written was not widely disseminated yet. So Paul meant the Old Testament. It’s in Isaiah:
Isaiah 26:19-21. “But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead. Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by. See, the LORD is coming out of his dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins.”
More explanation here.
I didn’t make up the rapture doctrine. It’s “by the Lord’s own word!”
the-end-time.org 