The Rapture Myth

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The Rapture Myth by Charles Roberts

No part of Scripture can be interpreted in such a way as to render it in conflict with what is clearly taught elsewhere in Scripture.

Comparing this text in 1 Thessalonians to the text in Matthew 24 will help you to better understand its meaning.

Matthew 24:30-31 (KJV) And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Jesus spoke these words in the context of the destruction of Jerusalem and said that their generation would see all these things fulfilled (Matthew 24:34).

In biblical language, "clouds" are symbolic of God's wrath and judgment against the enemies of His people.

David said that the Lord delivered him from his enemies while descending on clouds in Psalm 18:3-15.

The Lord said that He would ride into Egypt on a cloud and punish them:
Turn with me to:
Isaiah 19:1 (KJV) The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.

The Lord did not literally ride on a cloud, but Egypt did receive this judgment at the hands of the Assyrians (Isaiah 20:1-6). The idea of Jesus physically coming on the clouds would have been contrary to the nature of their understanding of the Old Testament prophets.

In Matthew 24, Jesus predicted his coming to gather together the saints in that generation. 1 Thessalonians 4-5 is dealing with exactly the same coming, judgment, and gathering that Matt. 24 is.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 (NKJV) For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

Paul is talking to the Thessalonians about Christ's coming in judgment in that generation. As you look back you see that this judgment coming was accomplished in the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem in AD 70.

Now if you are a good student of the Bible, you might well be asking yourself, well, why doesn’t the Bible teach this?

Let me answer that question in two ways:

First of all, the BIBLE DOES teach it. That’s what Matthew 24, Luke 21, Mark 13, and the entire book of Revelation are all about! But secondly, you will not find ANY reference in the whole of the NT to the destruction of the Temple as a something had come and gone, as a past event.

Instead you only find predictions of it. Now what does that tell you? It tells you that the whole of the NT from Matt 1 to Rev 22 was written BEFORE the Temple’s destruction in AD 66-70.

1 Thessalonians 4:17 (NKJV) Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

This is the verse that the physical rapture theory comes from.

Let's start with the first word in the verses -the word "then." This is the Greek word epeita, and the best translation becomes "after then", "after that", or "after that time", and thereby doesn't include the idea of right after.

Let's look at some other uses of epeita to get a clearer idea of its meaning:

Galatians 1:18 (NKJV) Then (epeita) after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days.

In this case, the word "then" involved at least three years later.

Galatians 2:1 (NKJV) Then (epeita) after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me.

Now look at 1 Corinthians 15:5-8:
1 Corinthians 15:5-8 (NKJV) and that He was seen by Cephas, then (eita) by the twelve. 6 After that (epeita) He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that (epeita) He was seen by James, then (eita) by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.

The point is, that the form of the word for "then" used in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 is not the form eita, meaning: "right after", but the epeita, meaning: "after that time."

1 Thessalonians 4:17 (NKJV) Then (after that time) we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

The words "caught up" are the Greek word harpazo, it means: "to snatch away." This is where the word "rapture" comes from. When the NT was translated from Greek into Latin, the Latin word used here is "rapiemur" from which we get the English word, Rapture.

But being "caught up" means something different than a levitation of the physical body from earth up into the atmosphere of the sky. Harpazo could refer to the body being "caught up" but it could also refer to the Christian being "caught up" without the body.

If I am coming to visit you and I have to take the Interstate to get to where you are, I may well get physically “caught up” in traffic. But that doesn’t mean I go in an upward direction. By the same token, I may get so engrossed in reading a novel or watching a movie that I get so “caught up” in it that I lose all track of time. My being “caught up” in reading a novel describes a state of mind, not a physical movement.

Now I don’t believe that the Bible teaches, and I think we all know that Paul didn't mean, that living Christians would be caught up in their living, physical bodies at the judgment coming of Christ because that never happened. Christians were still around on the earth after the Fall of Jerusalem, as history plainly tells us.

1 Thessalonians 4:17 (NKJV) Then (later on, after that) we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Paul says that those who were alive at the judgment coming will later be caught up together with the dead who were raised, to meet the Lord in the air. You might ask, "What does the Bible mean when it says that we shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air?" Does this mean we'll be physically sucked up into the sky? What does the word "air" mean? Is it in our atmosphere or the air we breath? I think that Ephesians chapter 2 gives us an idea of what air means here.

Eph 2:2: "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the AIR, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience."

The word "air" is an another word for heavenly or spiritual realm. Satan was always an opponent of the scheme of redemption, as we can see throughout the Bible. He was (past tense) the prince of the power of the air.

In Rom. 16:20, Paul says that Satan would be crushed "shortly" under their feet (remember original relevance).

Jesus now has taken over that sphere and rules in the "air" with the saints. If that is the same "air" where the saints were to meet, then there is no necessity for us to believe that the rapture has reference to a physical realm.

Paul believed that the Lord would return in his lifetime. He preached strongly about the coming judgment upon that generation, and about a resurrection, but he never spoke of a physical "rapture" for living Christians. What is popular misunderstood to be The "rapture" deals with a passage to the heavenly realm. All believers are all snatched away when they die. This gathering began with the consummation of the kingdom, after the resurrection of the dead saints out of Hades, and continues throughout this age.

Now, the church confesses that there will be an end point to this. History is moving toward a final consummation and culmination of this process wherein a new heavens and new earth will finally come into being.

1 Thessalonians 4:18 (NKJV) Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Our hope is not to be snatched physically off the face of the earth prior to our death. What did our Lord Jesus himself pray concerning his Apostles?

NKJ John 17:15 "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.

NJB John 17:15 I am not asking you to remove them from the world, but to protect them from the Evil One.

Our hope is that when we do die physically, we will be "raptured" into the heavenly realm to forever dwell in the presence of the Lord. "Therefore comfort one another with these words."

(the author gratefully acknowledges his reliance upon the works of Gary DeMar and John Bray for some of the examples and illustrations in this article)

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