If anyone has studied the tradition of the Jewish wedding..it will bring light to a lot of scriptures concerning the rapture...The Jewish marriage system of the first century involved several stages, and all of these stages were "foreshadowings" of the marriage of Christ and the Church: In the first century, the father of the groom made all of the arrangements for the marriage, and there was a bride-price that had to be paid. After the covenant of marriage was made, the man and woman were considered to be "set apart" for each other, and they were regarded as husband and wife. For example, Matthew 1:18-19 says that Mary was pledged (but not yet married) to Joseph, and Joseph considered divorcing her when he learned that she was pregnant. The book, Manners and Customs in the Bible (Victor H. Matthews, p.72-73), describes the Jewish custom of paying a bride-price. This book explains that David had to slay Goliath (1 Samuel 17:25) and present 100 Philistine foreskins to King Saul (1 Samuel 18:25) as the bride-price for Saul's daughter. David paid the bride-price in the form of blood and death. God the Father has made all of the arrangements for His Son's wedding, and Jesus paid the bride-price with His own blood. This is the background for the statement which the apostle Paul made to the church at Ephesus: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy" (Ephesians 5:25-26) The first step in the marriage ceremony of Christ and the Church was completed at the cross after Jesus came to His bride's "house" (the earth) and established this "new covenant." Another step in an ancient Jewish marriage was the "fetching of the bride." Here's how it worked: "After the marriage covenant was established, the groom left his bride at her home and returned to his father's house, where he remained separated from his bride for approximately 12 months. This afforded the bride time to gather her trousseau and prepare for married life. During this period of separation, the groom prepared a dwelling place in his father's house to which he could bring his bride later. At the end of the period of separation, the groom came usually at night to take his bride to live with him. The groom, best man, and other male escorts left the groom's father's house and conducted a torch-light procession to the home of the bride. Although the bride was expecting her groom to come for her, she did not know the time of his coming. As a result, the groom's arrival was preceded by a shout, which forewarned the bride to be prepared for his coming." (Maranatha Our Lord, Come! , Dr. Renald E. Showers, p.165) Just as a first-century Jewish bride and groom were separated for a period of time before the wedding, Jesus and His bride have been separated for a period of time. Just as a first-century Jewish bride was "set apart" for her husband and had no idea when he would return to "fetch" her, the New Testament says that the Church is "set apart" for Christ, and we don't know when Jesus will return to "fetch" us. Concerning the "fetching of the bride" in a first-century Jewish marriage, notice how this sheds new light on a well-known passage of Scripture: "In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:2-3) Jesus is preparing the new home for His bride, and in the above passage He promised to return to "fetch" us and take us back to His house with Him. Notice in the above passage that the Lord's bride (the Church) is so important to Him that He will come to "fetch" her Himself. He will not send anyone else (such as His angels) to get us, He will come for us personally. The Greek word which is translated as "take" in the above passage is the same word which is used in Matthew 1:20 and 1:24 when Joseph "took" Mary home as his wife. Notice that when Jesus comes to "fetch" us, He is not coming to be where we are (the earth), but instead He will "take" us so that we may be where He is (heaven, where He has prepared a place for us). Therefore, this is a "coming" of the Lord in which He will not actually be coming to the earth, so it is not the Second Coming of Christ. This "fetching of the bride" is what we call "the Rapture": "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18) This passage says that the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, and then we will meet Him in the air and be with Him forever. Notice that Jesus will not simply drop us off in heaven and then return to the earth, because the above passage says that we will be with Him forever. The above passage describes the Rapture, and it exactly fits with what Jesus promised us in John 14:2-3 (above). Christ will come unexpectedly to "fetch" His bride, and we will be "caught up" to meet our bridegroom in the air, and then He will take us back into heaven to the place which He has prepared for us. So the pre-trib Rapture will be the fulfillment of this step in the marriage ceremony of Christ and the Church.