“3 Knowing this first
of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their
own sinful desires, 4 They will say, ‘Where is the promise of His coming?” (2 Peter 3:3-4)
There is one doctrine in
Bible prophecy that generates more excitement and division than any other—the
pre-tribulation rapture. Just to be clear, this view holds that Christ’s return
will happen in two-stages. First, He will come in the clouds to gather the church
from the earth and take her to heaven (1 Thess. 4:13-18). After that there will
be seven years of God’s terrible judgment on the earth, known as “The
Tribulation Period.” After the Tribulation, Christ will return to the earth
with the church to judge His enemies and set up His kingdom (Rev. 19).
Of course, not everyone
subscribes to Rapture theology. A 2016 survey done by Lifeway research among evangelical pastors reported that only about
one-third of pastors held to a Pre-Tribulation view of the Rapture.[1]
I have personally heard preachers malign the Rapture as “unbiblical,”
“escapist-thinking” and “too new to be true.” Today if you preach and teach the
Rapture, you are subject to all kinds of scoffing, as if you were promoting
Bigfoot or Sasquatch.
Here are some of the most
common objections to the Rapture that I have encountered and how I respond to
them.
“The Rapture is
unbiblical. Neither the word nor the idea is in the Bible.” Part of this is actually true. Indeed, the word
“rapture” isn’t in today’s modern Bible translations. In 1 Thess. 4:17 we read,
“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…” That phrase “caught up” is the
Greek word harpazo, which means “to snatch away by force.” In the Middle
Ages, when Jerome translated the Bible into Latin, he translated harpazo as
rapio, a form of the word rapture. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate was the
Bible of Christendom for over 1,000 years. So, the word “rapture” may not be in
the text, but the idea certainly is (see also, John 14:1-3; 1 Cor. 15:51-58).
By the way, there are many theological ideas which have special terms that do
not appear in the Bible—like trinity, incarnation, monotheism, and even the
word “Bible” is not in the Bible. (For more evidence of the pre-trib rapture check out my other article by clicking here)
“The Rapture is too new
to be true. None of the early church fathers believed it.” This criticism falls under the logical fallacy known
as “chronological snobbery.” How old or young an idea is does not determine its
truth value. Actually, this was the same objection that defenders of Roman
Catholicism said to Martin Luther about “justification by faith” at the Diet of
Worms in 1521. It is true that the doctrine of the Rapture was not formally
crystallized until the 1800s in the writings of Englishman John Darby. It
should be noted that many church fathers (Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, to
name a few) did teach “immanency” (the belief that Christ could return at any
moment), which is central to a pre-trib rapture view. Of course, the late
development of the Rapture should not be a surprise, because the Bible does
tell us that many prophecies will not be understood until the time of their
fulfillment (Dan. 12:9).
“You Rapture people are
nothing but escapists, who are looking for a free pass from suffering.”
I believe that the events
described in Revelation 6-19 are yet future and if you simply take the Bible at
face value, I cannot think of anyone who would want to live through that time
of woe and wrath. The return of Christ is called “the blessed hope” (Titus
2:13). If you take the position that there is no pre-trib rapture or that the
rapture and return of Christ will happen simultaneously at the end of the
tribulation, then what kind of hope is it to know that the Church will have to
live through hell on earth? Moreover, what do you do about all the promises in
Scripture to the Church saying that she will not have to endure the judgment of
God (1 Thess. 1:10; 5:9; Rev. 3:10)? I don’t look at the Rapture as “escapism,”
instead I look at it as greater motivation to be urgently winning souls to
Christ and building the Church. Because “no man knows the day or the hour” of
Christ’s return (Matt. 24:36), we ought to be living as if it could be today!
-DM
[1]
Bob Smietana, “Only One-Third of Pastors Share 'Left Behind' End Times Theology,”
Christianity Today, 26 April 2016
<https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2016/april/sorry-left-behind-pastors-end-times-rapture-antichrist.html>
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