These days it is not unusual to hear someone say that there is no such thing as the Rapture. Such people could edify (enlighten / teach) the church by simply explaining what they mean by the term “rapture” – instead, they often seem satisfied to spread confusion. What many of them are actually talking about is the “secret, end-time, pre-tribulation, all-fly-away” rapture; a false teaching popular among American evangelicals. Even though the pre-tribulation rapture is not taught anywhere in the BIBLE, many modern christians believe that they are chosen to escape all of GOD’s coming judgments on the world. (Tribulation refers to a series of disasters outlined in the BIBLE that signal the end of the world as we know it, i.e., the apocalypse.)
What the BIBLE
does teach is the resurrection of the righteous dead at JESUS’ second coming. It
says the “dead in CHRIST shall rise up and any righteous Christians who happen
to still be alive at that time will also be caught up in the air with
them to be with JESUS. 1 Thes 4:13-17
Note that
the emphasis of the Gospel message is on eternal salvation; the promise of resurrection
after death. The rapture of the living at the second coming is just an inevitable consequence of the
general resurrection of all who are worthy to be saved.
The word “rapture”
One group that
denies the rapture does so because the word “rapture” does not appear in traditional
English BIBLE translations (KJV, etc.). This is a pointless and deceptive argument
because the apostle Paul originally wrote in Greek. He used the Greek word, “harpazo,”
which means to “seize by force, to catch up, or snatch away” to describe what happens to living Christians at the second coming.
Early Latin BIBLES translated harpazo as “rapio/raptus/rapturo” – which also means
to be taken by force. From the Latin rapturo, we get the English phrase: “caught
up,” and the word rapture which is commonly used to describe the scenario at 1 Thes 4:17.
JESUS said
that the second coming and the gathering of the elect (the saved obedient
Christians) occurs after the great tribulation. Mat 24:21-31, 1 Cor.15:51-52 The pre-tribulation rapture is not in the BIBLE
but the “catching up in the air,” the rapture of the living saints at the same time
as the resurrection, certainly is.
Other significant
groups that dismiss the rapture are preterists / dominionists / post
millennialists. Their false doctrines cause them to twist the scripture to
support their presupposition that all end-time scenarios in Bible prophesy must have happened
in the past – in or before 70 AD – when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem. They want to believe that we are currently in the “thousand-year reign,” i.e., Christ’s millennial kingdom on earth, to support their ludicrous claim that white American christians have been appointed
to take political control and rule the world for JESUS. Understand that JESUS
consistently rebuked HIS disciples for suggesting that HIS kingdom had anything
to do with seeking worldly political dominion.
Conclusions
Focusing on
the rapture as a way to escape the judgement of the world is missing the point.
We were put here to be tested and JESUS has challenged us to overcome sinfulness
in order to be saved. Rev 2:7, 17, 26 ; 3:5, 12, 21 Aside from
those who fall away when they realize that there is no pre-trib rapture, it could
be said that the timing of the rapture isn’t really that important. Why? Because
every person must still be spiritually ready to face their own personal judgement
day. Being alive at the time of the rapture is no guarantee of salvation, particularly
for those who have not produced fruit worthy of repentance; those living in sin
who have allowed themselves to be convinced that mere acceptance of JESUS has given
them the right to claim eternal salvation. (OSAS)
"…for the whole time of your faith will not profit you, if ye be not made perfect in the last time. …in the last days false prophets and corrupters shall be multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and love shall be turned into hate…" Didache (1st Century letter from the Apostles)
