The Rapture is it real?

NT Wright says the rapture is a colourful misunderstood metaphor written by Paul.

The rapture is an eschatological event in which Christians purportedly will rise into the sky to join Christ as he returns to earth.

The word “rapture” is derived from the Latin translation of 1 Thessalonians 4:17. English translations translate the keyword in that verse with “caught up” or “snatched up.” There are several views among Christians about the exact nature and timing of this rapture, this “snatching up,” primarily due to its relationship to other eschatological events in Scripture.

The rapture doctrine is employed perhaps the most sophisticatedly in premillennialism. For premillennialists, the rapture occurs in conjunction with the “great tribulation” (Dan 9:24–27; Matt 24:21, 29; Rev 7:14). Premillennialists agree that the rapture is connected to the resurrection of believers before the millennial (thousand-year) reign of Christ. 

Premillennialists differ, however, on when the rapture will occur within that timeline—before the tribulation, in the middle of the tribulation, or afterwards. The premillennial reading is the most literal reading of these events, assuming a basic chronological timeline between the second coming, the resurrection of the righteous, the rapture, and the millennial reign.

Key Passages

Mt 24 Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will…

1 Th 4:17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

Re 19–20 After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted…

Amillennialism. Amillennialists believe in a different kind of millennium. There are two different kinds of amillennialists. Some believe that those reigning with Christ in Rev. 20 are believers in this present life who experience the intimacy of Christ’s presence, as described in texts such as Rev. 3:20: “I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” Other amillennialists believe that this thousand-year period of reigning with Christ specifically involves departed believers who are currently reigning with Christ in the intermediate state between death and Christ’s return. Here, the millennium is not the golden age of the premillennialist, nor is it the silver age of the postmillennialist; it is spiritual life in the present.

 

THE RAPTURE expanded

The definition of the term “Second Coming” is broad, and used in at least two different ways. Sometimes this term is used for the total end-time drama, encompassing both the rapture of the Church and the revelation of Christ in triumphant glory (2 Thess 1:7), when He will stand on the Mount of Olives (Zech 14:4). Sometimes the term is used specifically of the revelation of Christ, in distinction to the Rapture, which precedes it. 

The first phase of the Second Coming, then, used in this broader sense, refers to the rapture of the Church. Abruptly and without warning, Jesus will catch away those who are prepared for His coming, but He will not descend to the earth itself at that time (1 Thess 4:16–18; 2 Thess 2:1). 

Those “in Christ,” both those resurrected and those still alive, will together be “caught up” (Gk. harpagēsometha), “snatched away powerfully”5 in the clouds (possibly clouds of glory) for a meeting with Him in the air—above the earth.

Because Matthew 24:30–31 mentions the angels gathering the elect after it mentions all nations mourning when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory, some take this to mean that the Church will not be caught away until after Jesus comes to destroy the armies of the Antichrist at the end of the Tribulation. 

But Matthew 24 does not give events in the order of their occurrence. Jesus had no intention of revealing the day or the hour (Matt 24:36). The words “At that time” (“then,” KJV) in Matthew 24:30 translate a very general Greek word (tote), meaning that these events will all occur in the same general period, but not necessarily in the order given.

Jesus further emphasizes that when the Rapture takes place, everything in the world will still be going on as usual. In New Testament times, the economy was agricultural and men went daily into the fields. Since there were no tight containers to keep insects out of flour, a daily task of women was to clean the grain and grind fresh flour in the small stone hand mills for their daily bread. 

So when Jesus says, “Two men will be in the field; one will be taken [taken along to be with Jesus] and the other left [abandoned, left behind to suffer the judgments about to come on the earth], two women will be grinding with a hand mill, one will be taken and the other left” (Matt 24:40–41), He means people will be going about their daily tasks when He comes again. 

Everything will seem to be “business as usual.” Then, without any special warning, one shall be snatched away to meet the Lord in the air, while the person by his or her side will be left to suffer the wrath of God that is about to be poured out on the earth.6 

There is no indication of the world being dominated by the Antichrist at this time or of the armies of the Antichrist being gathered for the battle of Armageddon. It seems obvious, therefore, that the Church will be caught away before the great judgments of the Tribulation period, so vividly pictured in the Book of Revelation.7

Paul is very emphatic here that the dead in Christ will be united with the living who remain and both groups will be caught up together in one body to meet the Lord and to be with Him forever. Some today teach multiple raptures. 

They use the parables of Jesus to split the Church into various groups, such as the bride, the friends of the bridegroom, the virgins, the guests, and the servants. But this is pressing the analogy too far. 

We must be careful that we do not become like Nicodemus when he pressed the analogy of birth too far by asking how we could go back into our mothers’ wombs and be born again (John 3:4).

If we examine the parables of the wedding, we see that all of them centre around Christ. When the bride is mentioned, other groups are not, and vice versa. We see also that both Jews and Gentiles are referred to as guests. The twelve apostles are referred to as friends, or guests, of the bridegroom (“children of the bridechamber,” KJV, Matt 9:15). 

Jesus was actually using different aspects of the wedding feast to express different aspects of our relation to Him. The “Bride” is one of those aspects and represents the whole of the true Church in a close relation to Jesus that will find its complete fulfilment at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev 19:7–8).

Another common teaching is that the Rapture will be limited to a special group of “overcomers,” and that the main body of the Church will be left behind to go through the Tribulation or to go up in later raptures. 

If we examine what the Bible has to say about overcomers, however, we see that only those who overcome will eat from the Tree of life, they will not be hurt by the second death or the lake of fire, and will not have their names blotted out of the Book of Life (Rev 2:7, 11; 3:5). 

To overcome means to conquer, to win. If we do not win, we lose. These verses in the Book of Revelation indicate that those who do not overcome lose out forever. Who then are the overcomers? First John 5:4 tells us, “This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” 

All the born-again believer has to do to overcome is to believe (be an obedient believer and keep on believing) that Jesus is the Son of God. Then God gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15:57). He makes us winners.8

5 The Gk. is a future passive tense of harpazō, a word used to describe robbers snatching up their plunder, eagles snatching up their prey, and, in the New Testament, Paul being caught up with great power into the third heaven (2 Cor 12:2). The Latin translated this word raptus, which is the root of our English word rapture. Thus, “be caught away” could be translated “be raptured” and our word “rapture” becomes a legitimate term for designating this event the Bible has prophesied. See Stanley M. Horton, It’s Getting Late (Springfield, Mo.: Gospel Publishing House, 1975), 49.

KJV King James Version

6 See Stanley M. Horton, “One Is Taken; One Is Left,” Pentecostal Evangel, 15 September 1973, 6.

7 See Stanley M. Horton, “I Believe in the Pre-Tribulation Rapture,” Pentecostal Evangel, 2 July 1989, 8–9; Stanley M. Horton, “Counted Worthy to Escape,” Pentecostal Evangel, 15 August 1976, 6–7.

KJV King James Version

8 Much of the above material is adapted from Horton, Getting Late, 50–54.

Menzies, W. W. (1993). Bible Doctrines: A Pentecostal Perspective (S. M. Horton, Ed.; pp. 216–219). Logion Press.