The Rapture: Fact or Fiction

Recently, someone asked me what I thought about the rapture. Since there has been a lot of conversation about the rapture lately, I felt I ought to write a sermon about the end times and specifically about the rapture. This has not been a simple sermon to write, because the Bible is not very clear about the end times. The Book of Revelation, as well as the passages we will examine today, are not easily understood. It’s difficult to know what should be taken as literal and what is literary imagery. Also, we don’t know from our perspective in history’s timeline which of these prophecies have already happened, and which are yet to be fulfilled.

Before we jump into it, I thought I should give a disclosure before we begin so you know where I am starting from. I was raised Lutheran, and so my understanding of end times was rather simple: one unknown day Jesus will return and judge the whole world, living and dead, and those who are saved will go to heaven and those who are not will go to hell. And although I was raised to be a Christian, I did not have faith in Jesus. Unlike the rest of my family, it was merely a religion to me. Then, in late high school, I was invited to a Foursquare church, and the Lord showed me that in order to be saved, I must actually have faith in Him, and so I repented and started following Him, and it was then that I learned about the rapture. This is the belief that at some unknown time Jesus will return part-way to earth, bringing with Him all the Christians who already died. Their bodies will be raised from the dead, and their bodies and all believers still living, will rise in the air to meet Him in the clouds and then go back to Heaven with Him. Then, it gets complicated depending on whether you think the rapture happens before, during or after the Tribulation, which is a global time of immense turmoil and suffering. But despite the different views on when the rapture is to take place, all three of those views state that the rapture is a separate event from the second coming of Christ.

As a new Christian, when I first heard about the rapture, it worried me that the rapture might happen and I would be left behind. I should mention, though, that I have never read nor watched any of the movies called Left Behind. Maybe it’s because of my Lutheran upbringing, but I’ve never really understood the rapture. It has always bothered me that people believe in a rapture and yet cannot agree if it is to happen before, during or after the tribulation. I was ordained in the Foursquare church, and I've been content to subscribe to their doctrinal statements about end-times for they admit that, while officially they believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, they are not dogmatic about it and we are free to believe in mid-trib or post-trib. But honestly, I no longer think there will be a rapture in the modern "Left Behind" understanding, but let’s look at the two most-cited passages about the rapture and see what Scripture tells us.

The first passage is 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (ESV), which says, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

First, like all passages of Scripture, we must look at these verses in context, for only then will we rightfully understand them. 1 Thessalonians is a letter written to believers, in order to encourage them and teach them further in their faith. It seems like they had questions about Jesus’ return and about believers who have died before them. Both 1 and 2 Thessalonians mention the return of Christ throughout the letters:

1 Thessalonians 2:19 says, “For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you?”

1 Thessalonians 3:13 says, “so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.”

1 Thessalonians 5:23 says, “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

2 Thessalonians 2:1 says, “Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers,”

2 Thessalonians 2:8 says, “And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.”

I think it’s clear that all of Thessalonians is speaking about Christ’s return. Going back to the key verse in 1 Thessalonians 4:15, it says, “For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.” According to Strong’s Concordance, that word “coming” is the Greek word parousia. It means, “presence, a coming.” It is the same word used every time Paul speaks of Jesus’ return throughout both letters. I think if we are to believe in the rapture, then we must see that the rapture is the same event as His second coming, for every time that Paul writes about Jesus’ Parousia, He’s talking about one event.

Although I don’t personally agree with it, it’s not heretical to interpret those verses about His second coming as the rapture. But to say that 1 and 2 Thessalonians are speaking about two different arrivals of Christ, I do not see support for that in those letters. Actually, I don’t see support anywhere in Scripture that Jesus comes back more than once.

Again, looking at verse 15, the words “will not precede” are important to understand. In Ellicott’s Commentary, he writes, “We here learn what was the exact nature of the Thessalonians’ anxiety concerning the dead. They were full of excited hopes of the coming of that kingdom which had formed so prominent a part of the Apostles’ preaching there (Acts 17:7); and were afraid that the highest glories in that kingdom would be engrossed by those who were alive to receive them; and that the dead, not being to rise till afterwards, would have less blessed privileges. This would make them not only sorry for their dead friends, but also reluctant to die themselves. The negative in this clause is very emphatic in the Greek, and throws all its force upon the verb: ‘We shall certainly not get the start of them that sleep;’ i.e., ‘if anything, we shall be behind them; they will rise first.’”

Paul was explaining to the believers that the Christians who had preceded them in death would not be missing out on receiving anything that people who were still alive when Jesus returned would receive. They were worried that if they died before Jesus returned, they would miss out on added blessings. That’s why he ends this section by telling them to be encouraged.

Looking closely at this passage, it begs the question: if this is describing the rapture, why would the dead in Christ need to be raised at this moment? They are already safe with Jesus. If Jesus was collecting the believers so they do not endure the tribulation, why would those who had already died need to come with or have their bodies raised?

The other verse we should look closely at in this first passage is verse 17, which says, “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” Some people take this verse to mean that the believers meet Jesus in the air and then Jesus turns around and takes them all to Heaven. More accurately, I think it means that the believers rise to meet Him as He makes His way down to earth. The same way that, when my children were little, they would run outside to meet their grandparents when they arrived to visit. They met them because they were so excited to see them and in order to be with them as long as possible.

N.T. Wright, in his book, Paul for Everyone, writes about this passage, and he approaches the text at yet another angle. He says, “The key is to realize what resurrection itself means: it doesn’t mean disembodied life in some mid-air ‘heaven’, but the re-embodiment of God’s people to live with and for God in the new, redeemed world that God will make. It would therefore be nonsense to imagine that the presently alive Christians are literally going to be snatched up into the sky, there to remain forever. How would they then be with the others who, having died previously, will be raised and given new bodies” (Wright, N. T. (2004). Paul for everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 125).

I agree with Wright, and I think it’s clear that this passage is detailing the singular event when Jesus returns, once and for all time.

The second passage to look at is 1 Corinthians 15:50-58 (ESV), which says, “50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’

55 ‘O death, where is your victory?

    O death, where is your sting?’

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

Although proponents of the rapture cite that text as evidence for the rapture, this verse appears to provide hard evidence against the idea of a rapture. This event sounds very final to me. It says, “at the last trumpet,” and “Death is swallowed up in victory.” It sounds like the end of all things. It seems strange that after this, then there would be tribulation and war and all that Revelation explains will happen. Again, I don’t think it’s heresy to say that this verse is detailing the moment when the “rapture” happens, but I think it is strong evidence that if a rapture takes place, at the very least, it takes place after the Tribulation.

I do want to say that what one believes or doesn’t believe about the rapture is not a make it or break it branch of theology. Many Christians do believe in the rapture and they hold out hope that Jesus will come and take them away from the end-time tribulation. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to hope for that, but at the same time, I worry what will happen to those same believers’ faith, if or when Jesus doesn’t take them away from tribulation. Believe me, I would rather believe in a pre-tribulation rapture. The alternative sounds really frightening. But I don’t want to put my faith in a doctrine that doesn’t seem substantiated in Scripture, and came about from a prophetic vision a girl named Margaret Macdonald had in the 1820s. According to Dr. Ben Witherington III, it only became accepted when, in 1830, John N. Darby, who founded the Plymouth Brethren church, popularized it.

By contrast, we have substantial evidence, historically, theologically, and all throughout Scripture, that speaks of a singular event when Jesus will return at the end of this age. Every time the Bible mentions Jesus’ returning, it only speaks of His return as a singular event. It never states that He will return and then return again. If the rapture were to happen the way that some people believe it will, then He will return for the believers and take them to Heaven, and then at a later date, He will return again to judge the world. But I don’t see verses in the Bible which indicate that happening.

Perhaps one of the greatest non-Scriptural proofs for a singular return of Christ is the Apostle’s Creed, which states, “He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.” I think if the early Church had believed in a rapture, the Apostle’s Creed would reflect that doctrine, but it does not.

But as I’ve said earlier, I don’t think it is an issue of heresy if someone believes in the rapture or not. That is not where our faith rests, or at least, not where it should rest. I know one thing beyond everything else, however Jesus returns, we who hope for His coming will not be disappointed. We will throw off all our cares and cling to our glorious Savior.

But we should not think that just because we are believers we will escape all trials and tribulation. In Revelation 7, it seems to be describing a scene in which people who have kept their faith through great tribulation and are now with Jesus in heaven. They have been given white robes and Jesus Himself wipes the tears away from their faces. If there was a rapture, and a pre-tribulation rapture at that, then these people would not have gone through tribulation. Some people refer to these people as any people who got saved during the tribulation, and that is why they were not raptured. Either way, we still see believers who are enduring tribulation. We also see in Revelation 8, when the plagues start, that believers are given a seal on their heads so they are not harmed by the plagues. All that to say, even if there is a rapture event, there are still believers on earth during those times of tribulation.

But I have to say, I’ve always figured that if the Lord wanted us to understand all the specifics of how and when He is going to return, then He would have spelled it out more clearly for us to understand. I know that if we knew what eternity was going to be like, then we’d be too distracted to do anything productive here on earth. But we don’t understand it fully and maybe we aren’t supposed to. What we do know is that God has got each one of us here, on earth, for this moment in time. I also know that every generation thinks that their generation is going to be the generation that is alive when Jesus returns. I don’t think that’s a bad thing to think. We are told to be ready and on the lookout. We are told to be prepared and to be about the Father’s business the same way that Jesus was.

You may wonder then why I would bother preaching on the topic if believing in the rapture or not isn’t that important. My reasoning on preaching on this topic is because I don’t think it’s necessarily a healthy thing if we think that this world doesn’t matter because we are going to be jettisoned out of here. I’m not saying that anyone is saying that necessarily, but I could see how the idea of a rapture could lead some people to that mentality: kind of like an “us against the world” way of thinking. Instead, we are told to take care of this world and to love our neighbors, to pray for those who persecute us. We are to be bringing God’s Kingdom to all corners of this earth, praying for His will and purposes to be done. If we think we are going to take off, why would we want to build anything lasting?

I see in Scripture that what we do here and now matters for all of eternity. Jesus says He will return and remake the heavens and earth as Revelation 21:1 (ESV) states, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.” I think my childhood understanding of eternity is just as flawed as the rapture understanding seems to be. Whether we think He returns early to take the believers away or if He returns at the end and takes the believers away, either way, He’s not returning and then spiriting us off to a heaven up in the sky. He’s bringing all of Heaven down to the earth that He is going to remake. This is the hope that we should look forward to.

But more than just being hopeful, we should be encouraged to remain faithful in our walk with God. In his book, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians, N.T. Wright points out that Paul doesn’t conclude the passage in 1 Corinthians by saying, ‘so, now let’s rejoice in this hope we look forward to’, he concludes by urging the believers to, “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” Wrights says that what we do for the Lord, “during the present time will last, will matter, will stand for all time. How God will take our prayer, our art, our love, our writing, our political action, our music, our honesty, our daily work, our pastoral care, our teaching, our whole selves- how God will take this and weave its varied strands into the glorious tapestry of his new creation, we can at present have no idea. That he will do so is part of the truth of the resurrection, and perhaps one of the most comforting parts of all” (Wright, N. T. (2003). In Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians (p. 228). Westminster John Knox Press).

I agree with N.T. Wright. I would add, too, that what we do as we face the fears and uncertainties of our present moment in history matters for all eternity, too. Do we face our future with faith and trust in Jesus? Or do we crumble under trials? I don’t want to place my hope in a rapture that will take me out of suffering. I want to place my hope in my Savior Jesus, who has conquered death and evil when He died and rose from the dead. He has promised to give resurrection life to all who place their faith in Him. That is why no matter what tribulations and trials we may face, we can find peace in what Jesus says in John 16:33. He says, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Let us be encouraged and find hope for all the trials we face. We do not hope without reason. Jesus has won the ultimate victory. Why He waits to return for His Church is because He wants that none should perish. As 2 Peter 3:8-13 (ERV) so perfectly tells us, “But don’t forget this one thing, dear friends: To the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord is not being slow in doing what he promised—the way some people understand slowness. But God is being patient with you. He doesn’t want anyone to be lost. He wants everyone to change their ways and stop sinning. But the day when the Lord comes again will surprise everyone like the coming of a thief. The sky will disappear with a loud noise. Everything in the sky will be destroyed with fire. And the earth and everything in it will be burned up. Everything will be destroyed in this way. So what kind of people should you be? Your lives should be holy and devoted to God. You should be looking forward to the day of God, wanting more than anything else for it to come soon. When it comes, the sky will be destroyed with fire, and everything in the sky will melt with heat. But God made a promise to us. And we are waiting for what he promised—a new sky and a new earth. That will be the place where goodness lives.”

Pray: Heavenly Father, we know the reason why You wait to return. You want all to hear the message of salvation. Help us to wait for You with hearts full of faith. Help us by Your Holy Spirit to have faith to endure whatever trials we may face, knowing that You use trials to mature our faith. We trust in Your great love for us. Please make us ready for Your return. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.