Why I Don’t Believe in the Rapture

Catholics do not believe in the Rapture. It’s not part of our eschatology, and it violates historic tradition on this matter. For that matter, the Eastern Orthodox don’t believe in the Rapture either, nor do the Coptic Christians, nor do non-Evangelical Protestants. In fact, the majority of Christians, throughout the world, do not believe in the Rapture. The doctrine is almost 100% exclusive to Evangelical Christianity, which is dominant in North America, and most of the English-speaking world. Before I go any further, I probably ought to clarify what I mean by the term “Rapture.”

Basically, the Rapture is a concept that’s very popular in Evangelical Protestantism (Evangelicalism). It’s derived from the teachings of John Nelson Darby, an Anglican minister who went rogue in the early 1800s and became one of the founders of an Evangelical sect called the Plymouth Brethren. The earliest recordings of the Rapture doctrine come from him. Prior to Darby, nobody had ever heard of the Rapture doctrine, and it was completely foreign to the writings of Christians prior to the nineteenth century. One of his disciples, in his later years, was a young lawyer by the name of Cyrus I Scofield, who later published the Scofield Reference Bible in the early twentieth century. Scofield included Darby’s Rapture notes in the margins of this publication. This Bible became extremely popular in Evangelical seminaries all over North America, mainly for its copious cross-references and notes. That is how the Rapture doctrine went from the obscure teachings of a British minister, to the prevailing eschatology of Evangelical Christianity in North America and around the world.

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Why I Don’t Believe in the Rapture – Complete Christianity

Brian Mcnamee said:

Hi why is this posted in the Catholic section? You take up half the board with many your posts and hide them all in the Catholic only room which prevents dialogue on your posts with from those with different opinions. This should be moved to the eschatology section.

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It’s a Catholic pov. I posted it in the Catholic forum.

Fenwick said:

I won't speak for @Michie but maybe she, like most of us, aren't interested in "dialogue" because it always turns into hostile and erroneous potshots taken at the Church.

That's why I left the Eschatology and General Theology sub-forums almost a decade ago, and I wasn't even Catholic yet.

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I couldn’t of said it better.

Based on a faulty interpretation of Scripture, this belief system has misled countless believers.

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What is the “Rapture”? - Get Fed™

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Question:
Do Catholics believe in the Rapture?

Answer:
The word Rapture is connected to the Latin word rapiemur, which appears in Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians in the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible. It means to be raised up or caught up:

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. (1 Thess. 4:16–17)

Therefore, Catholics believe that those Christians who are still living at the Second Coming of Christ will be gathered together with those who have died in Christ to be forever with the Lord. Catholics do not generally use the term Rapture, nor do they believe in a Rapture that will take place some time before the Second Coming, as do many Evangelicals.

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Do Catholics believe in the Rapture?

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My Catholic friends often ask me where this 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. (One can only imagine the numbers not just of cars but of 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 theperspicuity 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, of course, 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

Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?”

I can’t tell you, when I was an Evangelical, how many sermons I heard (and preached!) on the Rapture that used this language of “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.”

Notice again the “trumpet of God”? This doesn’t sound like a “secret rapture,” either. And neither does it sound like some preliminary coming of the Lord. Just as with the prior passage, in this text Paul is describing the end of the world.

Notice in particular, “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?” In other words, at this point death shall be no more—and yet, according to Rapture theorists, death will be just beginning! They believe there will be millions if not billions killed during the tribulation and that death will continue even through the thousand-year reign of Christ on Earth. This contradicts the text, because the text actually describes the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time.

Matthew 24:40-42

Then two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one is taken and one is left. Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

This is the text (along with the parallel texts in the other synoptic Gospels) where the famous Left Behind series of books by Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins got their names. It is taken to mean that one day believers will be secretly “raptured” away and the rest will be “left behind.”

What’s the problem here, you ask?

First, if we read the three verses leading up to this text, we find this:

As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they did not know until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of man.

It seems from the text that the folks who are being “taken away” are being “taken away” to judgment rather than to heaven. He says, “as in those days before the flood . . . they did not know until the flood came and swept them away.”

Secondly, and along these same lines, if we go to a parallel text, Luke 17:34-37, we find this:

I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together; one will be taken and the other left. And they said to him, “Where, Lord?”

If you asked any dispensationalist the question, “Where are those who are ‘taken away’ going?” They would respond, immediately with one word: “Heaven!” But what did Jesus say to the apostles when they asked him where these were going to be taken?

Where the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.

The word translated “eagles” is the Greek aetoi, also translated “vultures” and signifying birds who feed on carrion.

That doesn’t sound like heaven, does it?

How to Read the ‘Rapture’ Verses

The Catechism teaches that the Church “must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers,” and such a persecution will “unveil the ‘mystery of iniquity’ in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth.” This religious deception will be “that of the Antichrist” (675).

But some Protestants believe that the Bible teaches otherwise: that Christians will not experience the persecution of the Antichrist but will be snatched up by the Lord prior to it. This is a doctrine known as the pre-tribulation rapture.

The passage they often appeal to is 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.

Protestants who adhere to this view argue that Paul can’t be talking about the Second Coming because Jesus only comes part-way down and then goes back up. Moreover, because no judgment of the nations is mentioned, like we see in Matthew 25:31-46 and Revelation 20, this must be referring to a “rapture.”

What are to make of this challenge? Let’s take a look.

First, the challenge misreads the text as only a partial coming and return back to heaven. Verse 15 reads that the Lord will “descend from heaven with a cry of command.” But nowhere does Paul say that Jesus returns to heaven. If Jesus’s descent is definitive, it’s not a partial coming as the pre-tribulation view requires it to be.

But what are we to make of Paul’s description that the saints who are alive will be “caught up…to meet the Lord in the air”? A possible interpretation is that Paul is describing how Christians will meet the Lord in the air to escort him in a way that is analogous to the ancient custom of citizens ushering in important visitors.

It was common for citizens to meet an illustrious person (such as a dignitary or victorious military leader) and his entourage outside the walls of their city and accompany them back in. This was a way for people to honor the visitor and take part in the celebration of the visitor’s coming.

We see an example of this in Acts 28:14-15, where the brethren at Rome went out of the city to meet Paul as he approached: “And so we came to Rome. And the brethren there, when they heard of us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us.”’

Such a practice is no different from how people gather to welcome a celebrity at an airport. It’s this ancient custom that explains why the crowds go out to meet Jesus on Palm Sunday and usher him into Jerusalem (see Matt. 21:1-17).

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Answering the Rapture Challenge

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Are you Pre, Mid, or Post? If you don’t know how to answer that question, you’re probably a Catholic. Most Fundamentalists and Evangelicals know that these words are shorthand for pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, and post-tribulation. The terms all refer to when the “rapture” is supposed to occur.

The Millennium
In Revelation 20:1–3, 7–8, we read, “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were ended. After that he must be loosed for a little while. . . . And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be loosed from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the earth.”

The period of a thousand years, the writer tells us, is the reign of Christ, and the thousand-year period is popularly called the millennium. The millennium is a harbinger of the end of the world, and Revelation 20 is interpreted in three ways by conservative Protestants. The three schools of thought are called postmillennialism, amillennialism, and premillennialism. Let’s take a look at them.

Postmillennialism
According to Loraine Boettner in his book The Millennium, postmillennialism is “that view of last things which holds that the kingdom of God is now being extended in the world through the preaching of the gospel and the saving work of the Holy Spirit, that the world eventually is to be Christianized, and that the return of Christ will occur at the close of a long period of righteousness and peace, commonly called the millennium.”

This view was popular with nineteenth-century Protestants, when progress was expected even in religion and before twentieth-century horrors were tasted. Today few hold to it, except such groups as Christian Reconstructionists, an outgrowth of the conservative Presbyterian movement.

Postmillennialists typically say that the millennium spoken of in Revelation 20 should be understood figuratively and that the phrase “a thousand years” refers not to a fixed period of ten centuries, but to an indefinitely long time. For example, Psalm 50:10 speaks of God’s sovereignty over all that is and tells us that God owns “the cattle on a thousand hills.” This is not meant to be taken literally.

At the millennium’s end will come the Second Coming, the general resurrection of the dead, and the last judgment.

The problem with postmillennialism is that Scripture does not depict the world as experiencing a period of complete (or relatively complete) Christianization before the Second Coming. There are numerous passages that speak of the age between the First and Second Comings as a time of great sorrow and strife for Christians. One revealing passage is the parable of the wheat and the weeds (Matt. 13:24–30, 36–43). In this parable, Christ declares that the righteous and the wicked will both be planted and grow alongside each other in God’s field (“the field is the world,” Matt. 13:38) until the end of the world, when they will be separated, judged, and either be thrown into the fire of hell or inherit God’s kingdom (Matt. 13:41–43). There is no biblical evidence that the world will eventually become totally (or even almost totally) Christian, but rather that there will always be a parallel development of the righteous and the wicked until the final judgment.

Amillennialism
The amillennial view interprets Revelation 20 symbolically and sees the millennium not as an earthly golden age in which the world will be totally Christianized, but as the present period of Christ’s rule in heaven and on the earth through his Church. This was the view of the Protestant Reformers and is still the most common view among traditional Protestants.

Amillennialists also believe in the coexistence of good and evil on earth until the end. The tension that exists on earth between the righteous and the wicked will be resolved only by Christ’s return at the end of time. The golden age of the millennium is instead the heavenly reign of Christ with the saints, in which the Church on earth participates to some degree, though not in the glorious way it will at the Second Coming.

Amillennialists point out that the thrones of the saints who reign with Christ during the millennium appear to be set in heaven (Rev. 20:4; cf. 4:4, 11:16) and that the text nowhere states that Christ is on earth during this reign with the saints.

They explain that, although the world will never be fully Christianized until the Second Coming, the millennium does have effects on earth in that Satan is bound in such a way that he cannot deceive the nations by hindering the preaching of the gospel (Rev. 20:3). The millennium is a golden age not when compared to the glories of the age to come, but in comparison to all prior ages of human history, in which the world was swallowed in pagan darkness.

Premillennialism
Third on the list is premillennialism, currently the most popular among Fundamentalists and Evangelicals. Most of the books written about the End Times, such as Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth, are written from a premillennial perspective.

Like postmillennialists, premillennialists believe that the thousand years is an earthly golden age during which the world will be thoroughly Christianized. Unlike postmillennialists, they believe that it will occur after the Second Coming rather than before, so that Christ reigns physically on earth during the millennium. They believe that the Final Judgment will occur only after the millennium is over (which many interpret to be an exactly one-thousand-year period).

But Scripture does not support the idea of a thousand year span between the Second Coming and the Final Judgment. Christ declares, “For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done” (Matt. 16:27), and “[w]hen the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. . . . And they [the goats] will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matt. 25:31–32, 46).

The Rapture
Premillennialists often give much attention to the doctrine of the “rapture.” According to this doctrine, when Christ returns, all of the elect who have died will be raised and transformed into a glorious state, along with the living elect, and then be caught up to be with Christ. The key text referring to the rapture is 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17, which states, “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.”

Premillennialists hold, as do virtually all Christians (except certain postmillennialists), that the Second Coming will be preceded by a time of great trouble and persecution of God’s people (2 Thess. 2:1–4). This period is often called the tribulation. Until the nineteenth century, all Christians agreed that the rapture—though it was not called that at the time—would occur immediately before the Second Coming, at the close of the period of persecution. This position is today called the “post-tribulational” view because it says the rapture will come after the tribulation.

But in the 1800s, some began to claim that the rapture would occur before the period of persecution. This position, now known as the “pre-tribulational” view, also was embraced by John Nelson Darby, an early leader of a Fundamentalist movement that became known as Dispensationalism. Darby’s pre-tribulational view of the rapture was then picked up by a man named C. I. Scofield, who taught the view in the footnotes of his Scofield Reference Bible. Many Protestants who read the Scofield Reference Bible uncritically adopted the pre-tribulational view, even though no Christian had heard of it in the previous 1800 years of Church history.

Eventually, a third position developed, known as the “mid-tribulational” view, which claims that the rapture will occur during the middle of the tribulation. Finally, a fourth view developed that claims that there will not be a single rapture where all believers are gathered to Christ, but that there will be a series of mini-raptures that occur at different times with respect to the tribulation.

The problem with all of the positions (except the historic, post-tribulational view) is that they split the Second Coming into different events. In the case of the pre-trib view, Christ is thought to have three comings—one when he was born in Bethlehem, one when he returns for the rapture at the tribulation’s beginning, and one at tribulation’s end, when he establishes the millennium. This three-comings view is foreign to Scripture.

Problems with the pre-tribulational view are highlighted by Baptist (and premillennial) theologian Dale Moody, who wrote: “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 defense 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. . . . Pre-tribulationism is biblically bankrupt and does not know it” (The Word of Truth, 556–7)....

What’s the Catholic Position?
As far as the millennium goes, we tend to agree with Augustine and, derivatively, with the amillennialists. The Catholic position has thus historically been “amillennial” (as has been the majority Christian position in general), though Catholics do not typically use this term. The Church has rejected the premillennial position, sometimes called “millenarianism” (see the Catechism of the Catholic Church 676). In the 1940s the Holy Office judged that premillennialism “cannot safely be taught,” though the Church has not dogmatically defined this issue.

With respect to the rapture, Catholics certainly believe that the event of our gathering together to be with Christ will take place, though they do not generally use the word “rapture” to refer to this event (somewhat ironically, since the term “rapture” is derived from the text of the Latin Vulgate of 1 Thess. 4:17—”we will be caught up,” [Latin: rapiemur]).

Spinning Wheels?
Many spend much time looking for signs in the heavens and in the headlines. This is especially true of premillennialists, who anxiously await the tribulation because it will inaugurate the rapture and millennium.

A more balanced perspective is given by Peter, who writes, “But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. . . . But according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace” (2 Pet. 3:8–14).

NIHIL OBSTAT: I have concluded that the materials
presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004

IMPRIMATUR: In accord with 1983 CIC 827
permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004


The Rapture

eastcoast_bsc said:

I wonder what these Christians who constantly talk about the rapture will do when the period of tribulation comes upon the church. Will they stand? I guess that can be asked about all of us. I don't ever debate the rapture with other Christians. It is not something I am interested in. I remember a protestant trying to convince me that the early church drank grape juice in an attempt to convince me that alcohol was prohibited. I Presented him a couple of scriptures and he put me on ignore. Its a waste of time.

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I think we are on the same page with this one. And I think it’s the best way to go on all honesty. I shake a lot of dust. Actions speak louder than word in most cases.

pdudgeon said:

In all fairness, this thread should be moved out of OBOB (which is a safe haven for Catholics only) to a forum in Theology, where it would be on topic, and thus could be discussed fully.

If Catholics don't believe in this doctrine, then there's no logical reason for this thread to be posted here.

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There is no reason to move this thread. Many Catholics do not know what the general position is considering end time views, etc. I post many items here for Catholics concerning our faith. This is no different. Why would I want to post something that is Catholic to another forum to be “discussed” thoroughly unless I wanted debate the Catholic position? I’m not interested in debating this topic or anything the Church teaches but educating and discussing with fellow Catholics and sincere Christians not looking to tear down our Faith. How many times have we had people here asking our position on end times? More than I can count. So It is more than logical I post it here.