On What the Scriptures Actually Teach About "The Rapture"

      Let's talk about the teaching of the Rapture for a moment, and see what the Scriptures actually say about it. "The Rapture" has been popularized in many different books, most notably the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye, but also in different popular eschatology books, such as those by Hal Lindsey. 

     When someone says "The Rapture" in most church circles, they're talking about the teaching that all real believers in Jesus will be bodily taken up to heaven before the final apocalypse takes place, usually over a seven year period of hell on Earth. This teaching is known as the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, and first made its appearance among a fringe Pentecostal group in Scotland before being popularized by Darby in the 1800s among American non-denominational and Baptist churches and Bible Schools. Other variants include the Mid-Tribulation Rapture and the Post-Tribulation Rapture. There is no record of this teaching or eschatological understanding in Church writings prior to the 1800s. The truth is that it takes a great deal of Scripture out of context, and a great deal of theological gymnastics to support this conclusion simply because the Scriptures do not actually teach it.

     So what does the Scripture then say? There are two passages which are truly salient on this topic. These are 1 Corinthians 15:35-54 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Let’s look at these passages in order:

35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised?” and, “With what kind of body do they come?”  36 You foolish one, that which you yourself sow is not made alive unless it dies.  37 That which you sow, you don’t sow the body that will be, but a bare grain, maybe of wheat, or of some other kind.  38 But God gives it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own.  39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.  40 There are also celestial bodies, and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial differs from that of the terrestrial.  41 There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.  42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown perishable; it is raised imperishable.  43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.  44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body. 

  45  So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” *x3 The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.  46 However that which is spiritual isn’t first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual.  47 The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven.  48 As is the one made of dust, such are those who are also made of dust; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.  49 As we have borne the image of those made of dust, let’s also bear the image of the heavenly.  50 Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can’t inherit the Kingdom of God; neither does the perishable inherit imperishable. 

  51  Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,  52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.  53 For this perishable body must become imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.  54 But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” (WEB)

And,

  13  But we don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope.  14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.  15 For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left to the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep.  16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first,  17 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. So we will be with the Lord forever.  18 Therefore comfort one another with these words. (WEB)

     What is Paul talking about in the context of these passages specifically? The resurrection of the dead. Now what is clear from other places in Scripture, the book of Revelation in particular, is that the resurrection of the dead is meant to happen at the end of all things when the earth and the sea give up their dead and they are returned to life. In the passage in 1 Corinthians, Paul goes into a discussion about what the resurrection body is in comparison with the current “earthly” body we now possess. Fundamentally though, it is a transformation from the familiar material flesh to the spiritual or energetically based. And what Paul reiterates in both passages is that this transformation happens to both those dead and those living, with those who are dead being transformed first and then those living undergoing the same transformation. And in that moment, the human race as we have understood and known it ceases to be altogether in favor of something eternal, timeless, set right, and whole as the full “adoption” takes hold, we receive the entirety of our inheritance through our union with Jesus Christ as the children and heirs of God, and we become fully realized, as Jesus Christ Himself is, as physical manifestations of the God who is Love incarnate. Whereas now we see a dim or distorted image as in a highly polished bronze mirror, then there will be no barrier, no obstruction, and no distortion of vision because of the physical limitations of four dimensional flesh and blood. We will see Him, the fullness of God filling everything and surrounding everything with His love, light, and goodness clearly, “face to face.” And this is the final redemption of Adam, all of Adam, from the mistake made tens of thousands of years before. 

     God has never been interested in just rescuing a “chosen few” from the malfunction which occurred in our species in Eden. He has never been interested in just redeeming a select group of people. No. He’s infinitely bigger than that. His sights are set on rescuing and redeeming each and every descendant of Adam no matter how long it takes for them to come around. He’s the Shepherd that leaves the ninety nine to save the one that ran off. And the Scriptures are clear that all of humanity will have to suffer through the apocalyptic consequences of its own actions, because God is not mocked. What humanity has sown, humanity will reap. But at the end of it all, after Heaven has had to invade and occupy Earth to keep us from completely destroying ourselves, every single human being living or dead will be transformed because the good work which He started among us He will bring to completion.