Here is a brief excerpt from the following article: “The beginning of something quite old” http://rapturerevelation.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/the-beginning-of-something-quite-old/
Now we make a quite large, non-conformist, leap ahead to an event of considerable division – the Rapture. The revelation of the rapture is an odd thing because the rapture isn’t in the book of Revelation – yes, that did sound like Willy Wonka. In fact, the word “rapture” doesn’t appear in the inspired word of God. The meaning is derived from the Latin word “rapturo” meaning “caught up“. The rapture of the saints is an amazing revelation intended to instill hope in believers enduring persecution. The premier verse concerning the doctrine of the rapture, 1 Thess 4:14-18, was written to a church to whom Paul said a few verses prior, “[You] received the word in much affliction (1:5)…we told you before when we were with you that we would suffer tribulation…(3:4)” The believers in Thessalonica were undergoing significant persecution at the hands of both Jew and Gentile antagonists. Paul wrote them because he had concern for their faith lest his “labor [was] in vain” (3:5). He was giving them a hope of the things to come. The doctrine of the rapture was meant to enable believers undergoing persecution to fix their eyes on their ultimate glory in Christ, not give them a false escapism mentality.
Additional notes on: “caught up”
· KJV 1 Thessalonians 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15 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. 16 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: 17 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. 18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
· 726 a`rpa,zw harpazo {har-pad’-zo}
· Meaning: 1) to seize, carry off by force 2) to seize on, claim for one’s self eagerly 3) to snatch out or away
· Origin: from a derivative of 138; TDNT – 1:472,80; v
· Usage: AV – catch up 4, take by force 3, catch away 2, pluck 2, catch 1, pull 1; 13
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St. Jerome (c. 347-419?) was a Christian scholar, a doctor of the church, who made it his life’s work to translate the bible into Latin. “His scholarly editing of Latin translations of the Bible together with some of his own translations of some portions from the Hebrew were the basis of the Vulgate. p. 489, The Columbia Viking Desk Encyclopedia, 1953.” Thus through the years making this translation instrumental in the use of the word “Rapture,” which is the English translation of “Rapturo.”