Rapture debate
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[edit] Overview
The rapture is an increasingly popular, yet highly controversial topic of Biblical prophecy. Christians are called in the Bible to search out truth, and to refute error, or false prophecy. Is the rapture a false prophecy, or is it true prophecy?
[edit] Timing
The most commonly discussed theme with regard to the rapture is one of its timing in relation to the tribulation. Does the rapture happen before, in the middle, or after, the seven year tribulation? See major views on the timing of the rapture
[edit] Common Ground
According to the Gospels, Jesus stated that just before his return, there will be a Great Tribulation instigated by the anti-Christ, far worse than that suffered at any other time in history, and that those who are wise will be prepared to live through this, while those who are foolish will assume that they can magically escape on account of their self-righteousness.
Nearly all of the different viewpoints on the timing of the rapture say that the rapture happens before the "Day of the Lord". Those who place the rapture mid way, late, or after the tribulation therefore, generally place the "Day of the Lord" later in the tribulation, or after it.
[edit] Criticisms
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[edit] New Doctrine?
- Many Christians who do not agree that there will be a pre-tribulation rapture of the Church point out that it is a relatively new doctrine, first popularized in the 1800s and elaborated on subsequently[citation needed]. There are whole denominations that reject it for this reason. The Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox do not accept it either, as such a thing as "rapture" was never taught by any of their bishops, from the beginning. Instead of "being taken up into Heaven", these churches follow the scriptures (such as Isaiah) clearly describing a physical Kingdom of Heaven that will be on a renewed Earth, following the Great Tribulation, the Resurrection of the Dead, and Judgment Day. For all practical purposes no Christians held to the pre-tribulation rapture theory before Darby in the 1820s[citation needed].
- Most Roman Catholics and many Protestants do not accept the concept of a pre-Tribulation rapture in which some are "taken up into Heaven" before the end of the world, because, as mentioned, it is claimed that this idea did not exist in the teachings of any Christians until the 1800s, so it cannot be said to belong to Apostolic Tradition. Instead, most Catholics and many Protestants interpret 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 literally, and assert that the rapture will immediately follow the general resurrection on Judgment Day, when the living and the newly resurrected dead will rise up to meet Christ as he descends from heaven to judge the world (known as the Parousia)[citation needed]. This is analogous to the common custom in which the people would go outside the gates of a kingdom to meet their returning king. Catholics and post-tribulation Protestants consider the rapture to be merely a minor detail in the Biblical description of the Second Coming of Christ. The key to understanding this text is the phrase "to meet the Lord"[citation needed]. Paul uses images from the Roman Empire to make points in his letters. For example he uses the idea of Roman citizenship at Ephesians 2:19 and Philippians 3:20[citation needed]. He uses an image from the Roman Empire here[citation needed].
The key is the word "meet", which is an English translation of the Greek word apantesis. When a Roman emperor approached a city, the leading citizens went out to welcome him and had the honor of processing into the city with him[citation needed]. This whole event was described as the apantesis.
For the Christians of Paul’s time the coming of the emperor was a fearsome event. They refused to worship the emperor as "Lord" as he demanded. They would be judged and punished when he arrived. In the event Paul describes here, the meaning of the whole visitation of the emperor is turned on its head[citation needed]. Paul is saying that the true lord is Christ, not the emperor; that not the pagan politicians, but the persecuted Christians that will be honored by going out and escorting him to the city; that the emperor will not judge them, but instead the true Lord will judge their pagan persecutors in the city.
St Chrysostom, who like Paul lived during the Roman empire, explains the passage just this way: "If he [Christ] is about to descend, on what account shall we be caught up? For the sake of honor. For when a king drives into a city, those who are in honor go out to meet him; but the condemned await the judge within.[citation needed][citation needed]" Since Christ is coming down, Christians must go up to meet him so that they can join his triumphal procession[citation needed]. Acts 28:15 uses the word "meet" (apantesis) in a similar way. It describes an event that occurred as Paul is approaching Rome. It reads as follows:
- "The believers from there, when they heard of us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage."
The Christians in Rome came out of the city to meet Paul to honor him and usher him into Rome. In sum, in this text the Christians are caught up into the clouds to meet Christ so that they can share in the true Lord’s glorious return to earth. There is a rapture (taking up of Christians), but its purpose is not to take Christians away from earth, but to enable them to join his triumphal return.
[edit] Apologetic
Being preached by various men prior to 1800, the doctrine is at least 200 years old. Others contend that the doctrine was taught by the earliest Church fathers, Polycarp and Clement[1]. Further, Daniel in Daniel 12:4 wrote that "knowledge shall be increased".
[edit] Not Clearly Taught?
- Many do not accept the pre-Tribulation rapture interpretation because they believe that it is not clearly expressed in the Bible, but instead relies on extrapolations and inferences made from unconnected verses[citation needed]. Many further believe that if anything this significant were intended to be a major part of Christian teaching, then surely Christ would have made a plain reference to it in his own sermons as recorded in the Gospel, and not buried such a major prophecy in a few verses of the Apostle Paul[citation needed]. Many times the New Testament describes when something will happen "before" another event. Indeed, three times the idea of "before an event" is used with reference to the coming of Christ. The first of these is Acts 2:20 where it refers to events that will happen "before" the coming of Christ—in this case his first coming. In the second, 1 Corinthians 4:5, Paul warns his readers against pronouncing judgments "before" the Lord returns. The third is in the heart of the primary passage that is used to support the idea of a pre-tribulation rapture. At 1 Thessalonians 4:15 it says that those who are living will not precede or go "before" those who have died at the coming of the Lord. And as noted in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 it says that the Antichrist will occur before the coming of Christ.
The New Testament even discusses the tribulation’s chronological relationship to other events related to the second coming using the concept of "before". At Matthew 24:29 it says, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days". But it never says that "before the tribulation" Christians will be taken away as Darby asserts[citation needed].
Thus if the New Testament writers desire to connect two events in terms of time — even in relation to Christ’s coming or the tribulation — it has the language and grammar to do it. But no passage in the New Testament directly describes any coming of Christ as happening "before the tribulation"[citation needed].
[edit] Apologetic
When asked why he taught in confusing and hard to understand parables, Jesus said in Matthew 13:11 that he taught in parables to hide the "mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven" from those who were not his followers[citation needed].
[edit] Regarding Luke 17
- The other text upon which a pre-tribulation rapture is based is[citation needed] Luke 17:34-35 (parallel Matt. 24:40-41). In English we often express the direction of a verb by adding a preposition to it. Thus we say "take in", "take up", "take down", "take away", etc. In Greek the directional aspect of a verb instead is often expressed as a prefix to the verb. For example, in verse 40 the word "take" is the Greek word paralambano whose primary meaning is "take to oneself". If the writer had wished to express the direction "up" he would have placed the prefix ana- in front of -lambano. He did not. He added the prefix para-. And that is because this verse is actually describing the sheep and goat judgment that takes place after the Second Coming.
The author could also have used another Greek word to express the idea of "lifting up". Epairo means "to lift up". The verb epairo is used to describe God taking Jesus up to heaven in Acts 1:9. Luke wrote both the gospel and the book of Acts. If Luke in Luke 17:34 had wanted to say that we are going to be taken up into heaven would he not have used the same word that he did to describe Jesus being "taken up" in Acts?[citation needed] Why would the same writer not use the same word to express the same idea? This is also because this verse is describing the sheep and goat judgment that takes place after the Second Coming.[citation needed]
Luke 17:34 means that the person in the field is to be received unto Christ at the judgment.[citation needed]
[edit] Apologetic
The word for "taken" is paralambano, which is the same word used in John 14:2-3, a primary rapture passage, where Jesus says he will take us to be with him. Paralambano is a word that is also used to describe being taken, as in being arrested, as it is the word used to describe Jesus' arrest in Matthew 27:27. However, the word translated as "caught up" from which we get the whole concept of rapture, harpazo, from 1 Thessalonians 4:17 is also used to describe Paul's arrest in Acts 23:10. So the world paralambano is very similar to harpazo or "rapture", both words meaning "taken", both words used to describe an arrest, and both words used to describe the rapture.
[edit] Other Criticisms
- Barbara R. Rossing, a Lutheran minister, challenges the idea of the rapture in her 2004 book The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation. In it, she discusses the history of dispensationalism, arguing that the Biblical verses cited in support of the rapture are grossly taken out of context and misinterpreted.
- There are also a number of other objections to the rapture theory. Those scriptures offered in support of the rapture do not require a rapture for their fulfillment.
- The question to ask is[citation needed], does the church meet Christ in the air and then ascend to heaven, or meet Christ as he returns in fulfillment of the angel's description in Acts 1:9-11:
- "When he [Jesus] had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.'"
In Acts, Jesus is standing on the ground, taken up into the sky, then hidden in a cloud. The angel said Christ would return the same way: he will appear from a cloud, descend to the ground, and place his feet on the earth. From this it would appear likely that Christ will return just as the angel foretold, and that the tribulation believers remaining alive will see him as he comes.
- The post-tribulation rapture is entirely consistent with the primary rapture text in I Thessalonians 4:17.[citation needed] The text there could just as easily be interpreted to mean that the church will rise to meet Christ, the wicked below will be swept to destruction[citation needed] (the 7 tribulation years) as it was in the days of Noah, (they will worship fallen angels: Satan and the False Prophet) and then the church will descend as part of the Lord's Army to the Earth with the Eternal King Jesus Christ.
- As the Baptist theologian Dale Moody wrote[citation needed]: "Belief in a pre-tribulational rapture [...] contradicts all three chapters in the New Testament that mention the tribulation and the rapture together (Mark 13:24–27; Matt. 24:26–31; 2 Thess. 2:1–12). [...] The theory is so Biblically bankrupt that the usual defence is made using three passages that do not even mention a tribulation (John 14:3; 1 Thess. 4:17; 1 Cor. 15:52). These are important passages, but they have not had one word to say about a pre-tribulational rapture. The score is 3 to 0, three passages for a post-tribulational rapture and three that say nothing on the subject.
* [...] Pre-tribulationism is Biblically bankrupt and does not know it." (The Word of Truth, 556–7)
- A serious objection to a pre-tribulation rapture is given[citation needed] in Zechariah 14:1-4
Zechariah 14 The LORD Comes and Reigns
1 A day of the LORD is coming when your plunder will be divided among you.
2 I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.
3 Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights in the day of battle. 4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. 5 You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake [a] in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. (NIV quoted from Bible Gateway http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=45&chapter=14&version=31)
The key verse is 4[citation needed] that states Jesus' feet will stand on the mount of Olives on the day of His return. This concurs with Acts 1. He comes back to fight and His "holy ones with him"--these would be the dead and raptured Christians mentioned in I Thes 4 and I Corinthians 15. There is no mention of an earlier, pre-tribulation visit to rapture living Christians[citation needed].
[edit] Rebuttal to criticisms
- Regarding the miracle of the rapture, forcing people to believe: The Old Testament book of Exodus records that God appeared to the Israelites in a Theophany, as a visible pillar of fire or smoke, and bestowed daily miracles, yet many of the people rebelled against God; this point and the one following (Luke 16:31), rebut the theory that all those left behind in a rapture, but previously did not believe in Christ, would necessarily be forced, by the proof of this miracle, to believe[citation needed]. Additionally, in Luke 16:31 Jesus states of unbelievers, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead." (NIV)
- Regarding that the rapture happens at the end of the tribulation, as Christ returns physically, and Christians would meet him in the air: If this were the case, then when would Christians ever ascend into heaven to be with Jesus in their heavenly mansions, as described in John 14:2-3?[citation needed]
- When comparing the end times to the Flood, the Rapture of the Church can correspond to the translation of Enoch in Genesis 5:24.[citation needed] "Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away." (NIV) Meanwhile, Noah and his family who endure the judgement and survive correspond to redeemed Israel. It is theorized that those that became believers during the tribulation and were not martyred would retain their physical bodies for Christ's 1000 year rule on Earth after the Beast was vanquished to hell. This would explain an Earth "in the days of Noah", when the righteous were left.[citation needed]
- After Revelation 4:1, we see God calling John to, "Come up here." Some believe this refers to the end of the church age[citation needed] because it follows the passages in Revelation about the churches and because John is called and taken up.
- Some believe that Jesus refers to the rapture in Matthew 24.[citation needed] These same people generally believe that Matthew 24:37 ("But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be") correlates to Genesis 5:24 ("And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him")[citation needed]. In Matthew, Jesus may be referring to a future rapture by referencing a past one.[citation needed]
- Epharaem the Syrian said, in 373 AD, "For all the saints and Elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken to the Lord lest they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins."[citation needed]
