How to Read the ‘Rapture’ Verses

Michie · Feb 28, 2024

Let's take a look at the Scripture passages that allegedly prove the Rapture.

My Catholic friends often ask me where this relatively very recent novelty among Christians—the “Rapture” and its multiple accompanying beliefs—comes from.

The theory is elaborate. It espouses a secret snatching away of all true believers in the very near future, causing chaos throughout the world. (You can only imagine the numbers of not just cars, but planes, cranes, and every other kind of heavy machinery that will crash or careen out of control.) This will be followed by a seven-year tribulation period, in which billions will die in a horrible persecution and war spearheaded by the Antichrist. Then there will be a judgment, then a thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ on Earth, followed by yet another and final judgment. Whew!

And all of this from folks who believe in the perspicuity of Scripture, mind you.

So where do these beliefs come from? Due to space limits, I won’t deal with all of the accompanying beliefs surrounding the Rapture theory, but let’s focus on the three main proof texts most popular among Rapture theorists—verses that every Catholic should be familiar with and be able to exegete properly.

1 THESSALONIANS 4:15-17

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, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord.

Right off the bat, I always ask the question: “Does this really sound like it is going to be a secret?” In defense of the Rapture theorists, I should note that in one sense, they agree that this event won’t be secret, because the whole world will have to explain (or explain away) this massive disappearance of millions. But it will be secret in the sense that Jesus himself will not reveal it to the world for what it is.

Nevertheless, I still can’t see how you get “secret” out of an event that is described as being accompanied by “a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.” The truth is, there will be nothing “secret” about the Second Coming of Christ, and this is precisely what St. Paul is describing.

Notice there is no seven-year tribulation mentioned, no millennium. Just as we Catholics would expect, Paul describes this event as the end of all things. “So shall we always be with the Lord.” The end.

1 CORINTHIANS 15:51-55

Continued below.