The Rapture

The word “rapture” is a theological term often used in evangelical churches to refer to the transformation and snatching up of Christians into the heavens at the visible and triumphant return of Jesus at the Second Coming. The English word “rapture” stems from the Latinraptus, which was used in the Latin Vulgate. It is a translation of the Greek verb harpazō, which describes the way living believers are “caught up” into the air in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 to meet Jesus when He returns. Under the influence of the nineteenth century dispensational theologian John Nelson Darby, some evangelical Christians have mistakenly concluded that the rapture would be a “secret” event that would remove Christians from the earth before the final tribulation. This brief article would outline the way in which the “rapture” is understood in the Bible.

Rapture in the Pauline Epistles. Paul points to the rapture as a twofold unifying event. First, the rapture unites believers who are alive “together with” those that have been resurrected. Thus the righteous living and the dead would be reunited with Jesus, “so we will always be with the Lord.” For this to occur, the living would be transfigured (1 Cor. 15:51), and the dead would be resurrected. When writing to the believers in Thessalonica, Paul emphasized the equalizing nature of the rapture to eliminate concerns among believers. Fears arose in the early church about what would happen to fellow believers who died before the return of Jesus. Would they be eternally lost? Paul assured the Thessalonians that God would not forget His deceased followers but would raise them from the dead. In explaining this to the believers, the apostle also counters the notion of a soul separated from the body existing in an intermediate state. He knows nothing of an immortal soul that descends from heaven to be reunited with the body and then is raptured to meet Jesus. Instead, the dormant body and soul are resurrected as a unit.

The Second Coming of Jesus and the resurrection and transfiguration culminate in the rapture uniting believers with Jesus face-to-face. Paul considers the rapture as the culmination of the Second Coming and the resolution to the church’s problems. Paul’s Christocentric view of the Second Coming culminates in the rejoining of believers with Jesus. While the Johannine writings include concepts of judgment, millennium, or a new earth (Rev. 21–22), Paul focuses on the meeting of believers with their Lord in the air as the beginning of eternity (“so we will always be with the Lord,” v. 17) and the ultimate goal of the faith journey. This conclusion is a great encouragement for the church in its present and future difficulties (v. 18).

Paul emphasizes a second point: in the rapture, believers complete their earthly journey in parallel to the final events of Jesus on earth. The disciples of Christ are called to follow their Lord, and this is exemplified in baptism (Rom. 6:1-11), the Lord’s Supper (John 13:13-17; 1 Cor. 15:24-25), and in living an ethical life. But Paul extends the parallels between Jesus and His followers to include the final moments of life as well. Jesus preceded His followers in death and resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20-23), and the rapture of the believers into the clouds mirrors the ascension of Jesus (Acts 1:9; 1 Thess. 4:17). As such, the resurrected and transfigured followers become recipients of the same experience as Jesus. The believers thus faithfully follow Jesus in the final stages of their earthly journey as they did during their life. The rapture serves as the final culmination of this faithfulness.

Rapture in the Gospels. In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus emphasizes the importance of being ready for the soon return of the Son of Man (Matt. 24:36-44; Mark 13:32-36; Luke 17:20-37). As a support for this preparedness (Matt. 24:42, 44), Jesus states that only God the Father knows the hour of the Second Coming (v. 36) and uses the imagery of a thief to indicate the suddenness of the event (v. 43). For further support, Jesus draws on the “days of Noah” as a parallel to the future speed of judgment and lack of preparation among humanity (vv. 37-39). The judgment in the flood story becomes the backdrop against which Jesus speaks of a rapture: amid mundane tasks of daily living, some men and women would be “taken away” and others “left behind” (vv. 40-41; cf. Luke 17:34-36). The imagery of the flood that “swept away” the unrepentant humanity and the use of the Greek verb paralambanō, which is used in negative circumstances (see 27:27; Jer. 6:11), indicate that those who are taken are handed over to be judged for their resistance to God’s warning and not—as has popularly been advanced—delivered. Most importantly, the passage is not concerned about the manner of the rapture but the timing; it occurs suddenly and without warning (vv. 42-46).

Timing of the Rapture. As the rapture is closely connected with the resurrection, three general views have emerged regarding the timing when the resurrection and subsequent rapture will take place: (1) Premillennialism holds that the Second Coming will precede the millennium; (2) Postmillennialism contends that the Second Coming will succeed a peaceful millennium of universal, spiritual renewal in which “all nations” will become disciples of Jesus in fulfillment of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19); (3) Amillennialism considers Revelation 20 symbolic and immaterial and thus stresses the return of Christ without reference to a literal millennium. Significantly for the understanding of the rapture, premillennialists have different opinions on the Great Tribulation (Matt. 24:6-12, 21; Mark 13:19; 1 Tim. 4:1-3; 2 Tim. 3:1-5; 2 Pet. 3:3f.; Jude 17-19; Rev. 7:14). Some hold that the church must endure a great tribulation (posttribulationism), while others argue the rapture would occur before the tribulation (pretribulationism). Proponents of the latter view read the imagery in the Olivet Discourse of men and women being “taken away” in a positive and a literal manner. This reading of Jesus’ words combined with a literal understanding of Old Testament prophecy related to the nation of Israel then produces the doctrine of a “secret rapture.” In this view, faithful Christian believers are removed from the earth in a secret ascension. After this, the nation of Israel then accepts Jesus as Christ and leads the remaining humanity to repentance during the millennium. Another group interprets the 144,000 of Revelation 7 as a literal number and believes a “secret rapture” occurred for this group in 1911. Both views of a “secret rapture” do not do justice to the gospel imagery of preparedness and judgment, nor Paul’s principles of unity and equality amongst believers.

Seventh-day Adventism recognizes the complexity of the issues but favors the premillennialist, posttribulationist position, though it differs from other adherents of this view on the interpretation of the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24-27. After a destructive end time (2 Pet. 3:7,10-13; Rev. 6:12-17), Jesus returns visibly in the clouds to all humanity to call deceased and living believers to Himself in the rapture. The resurrection and rapture of the believers would unite the church with its Lord and God and ushers in the joyous events of the consummation of the wedding feast imagery (Matt. 25:1-12; Mark 14:25) and the vindication of the believers in a heavenly judgment (Heb. 8:1; Rev. 11:15-18). But the millennium does not only contain a favorable resolution for the faithful. The heavenly court would hold judgment against the faithless leading to a final deception and uprising against God (Rev. 20:7-15). The rapture is both the final step of the believers’ earthly journey as well as the first step in the final cosmic resolution of sin. The New Jerusalem and New Earth now restore God’s rule in the cosmos (Rev. 21–22).