So What is the Rapture?
In keeping with our “end times” theme for this week, what is the “rapture”?
In some Christian schemes of the end-times, there is a thing called the “rapture,” where the church (i.e., true believers) will be raptured up to heaven at the Lord’s first return. Then, after seven years of tribulation, the Lord will return again with the church, to usher in a millennial reign on earth. This is partly derived from 1 Thess 4:13-18:
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so 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 died. 15 For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. 16 For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words. (NRSVu)
I made a video with Zondervan about the rapture, arguing that the Lord’s return will not be broken up into two stages, but is a single event, so there’s no wafting up of the church out of the world to escape tribulation:
When it comes to the purpose of 1 Thess 3:13-18, I think Gene Green nails it:
This teaching was presented to comfort those in grief by connecting the confession of the creed (“Jesus died and rose again”) with the reality of the resurrection of the dead in Christ. This is not the stuff of speculative prophecy or bestsellers on the end times. The text is located at the funeral home, the memorial service, and the graveside. It is placed in the hands of each believer to comfort others in their time of greatest sorrow. The decidedly bizarre pictures of airplanes dropping out of the sky and cars careening out of control as the rapture happens detract from the hope that this passage is designed to teach. The picture presented here is of the royal coming of Jesus Christ. The church, as the official delegation, goes out to meet him, with the dead heading up the procession as those most honored. One coming is envisioned, which will unite the coming King with his subjects. What a glorious hope!
Green, G. L. (2002). The Letters to the Thessalonians (p. 229). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans Pub.; Apollos.
I'm no Greek expert, but I seem to remember that 'meet' as in Thessalonians is the word used when the city leaders went out of the town to meet an emissary from Rome, and escorted back into the city. It's interesting that the word only appears three times in Strong's, the other two being Matthew 25, when the wise virgins meet and return with the bridegroom, and Acts 28:15 where the Rome church comes out to meet Paul on his way into the city. I'd be interested in any corrections to this!!
I agree with your interpretation here. Occasionally however I hear someone, even theologians, say "there is no rapture". I know what they mean (that there is no *secret* rapture, yeah with cars crashing etc.) but according to this passage there *is* a "rapture", i.e. "caught up" in Latin (translated from the Greek) transliterated gives the created English word "rapture". So sometimes the statement above can sort of denigrate the true prophetic picture of the second coming, or at least confuse it. I think there is a lot happening at Jesus' second coming, and the catching up (rapture if you will) is part of that.