1Ⅲ To be taken by the Lord, we need to be those who are watchful for His imminent coming and prepared and ready to be His bride (Matt. 24:32-44; Rev. 19:7) so that we may be raptured before the great tribulation (3:10; Luke 21:36):
2A The meaning of rapture is to be taken into the Lord’s presence; if we would be taken into the Lord’s presence, we must be in His presence today — 2 Cor. 2:10; Psa. 16:11; 27:8; 43:4; Acts 3:19-20; Exo. 33:14-16; cf. Gen. 4:16.
3B In order to be those who love the Lord’s appearing, His coming back, we must treasure His appearing, His manifestation, to us today — 2 Tim. 4:8; Acts 26:16; John 14:21.
4C The one who is taken is mature in life, and the other is not; to become mature is a lifelong matter; for the Lord’s coming, we need to prepare ourselves by loving Him to the uttermost and by growing up into Him in all things so that, at His appearing, we may be matured to be raptured — Heb. 6:1; John 21:15-17; Eph. 4:15; cf. Gen. 5:22-24.
5D Being ready to be raptured is a matter of being filled with Christ to the uttermost by praying that we may grow and mature in life — Eph. 3:16-17a; Hymns, #395.
6E The meaning of being watchful is to be careful, not careless, every day on the alert against the possibility of stumbling; those who watch must be those who do not trust in themselves and are not self-confident — Jer. 17:7-8; 2 Cor. 1:8-9; Phil. 3:3; 1 Cor. 10:12.
7F The Lord will come secretly, as a thief (Matt. 24:43-44), to those who love Him and will take them away as His treasures; Christ is the preciousness to His believers (1 Pet. 2:7), and our desire is for Him to fill us and saturate us with Himself as our supreme preciousness, our treasure (2 Cor. 4:7), so that we become men of preciousness, even preciousness itself (Dan. 9:23; 10:11, 19).
8G Especially in these last days, we need to be watchful and give heed to the prophetic word as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts (2 Pet. 1:19); in the few remaining days that we have, let us be those who love and serve the Lord, who are revived and overcoming every day, and who let the world go in order to be ready and waiting with all our heart for the Lord’s second coming.
18Further Reading: CWWL, 1990, vol. 3, “The Prophecy of the Four ‘Sevens’ in the Bible,” chs. 1, 5-6; CWWN, vol. 15, chs. 24-25; CWWN, vol. 23, “The Song of Songs,” pp. 117-119