George had gotten home from church on Sunday. Mr. Johnson had been working on the taxes. Mrs. Johnson had been cooking dinner. George’s sisters, Joanna and Judith, were playing in the back yard. George had sat down on the couch. His friend’s birthday party had run late yesterday and he hadn’t gone home until past midnight. He’d had to get up early for church that morning and had now been exhausted, beginning to dose. Now he woke up. The clock read three o’clock. He searched the house and found no one. No, could it be? Was it now the end times? Had his family been raptured but he been found unworthy? Had George been—LEFT BEHIND?
No, he had not. I have not actually read the Left Behind novels, nor do I plan to, but let us continue. If I had read them, I would probably make many references to them in this article. I set out to argue that the Rapture, both pre-tribulationalist and mid-tribulationalist, is false. What the Rapture basically refers to is the belief that before the end of time, before or during the great tribulation in the end times and the reign of the Antichrist and it is common among certain evangelicals and fundamentalists nowadays.
“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.”
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 (RSV)
Do you recall that I said the Rapture is unbiblical? Technically that is not true. There will, in fact be a rapture. It is only different from how it is generally viewed by certain evangelicals and fundamentalists. There is a Rapture after the tribulation, a post-tribulational Rapture while those who are not in a state of grace are condemned. This is talking about the very end of time. Notice that St. Paul writes: “And the dead in Christ will rise first”, that is, the Resurrection of the Dead will occur first. Now, if the Dead will rise at the end of time, and then the ones who are alive will meet him, does this really seem like a secret rapture before the tribulation? “For as in Adam all die,” says Paul in another place, “so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.”🐷 (1 Corinthians 15:22-24) This seems to say that it will be at His coming when those who belong to Christ will be raised from the dead and the other Christians still alive will also be taken at the same time. “Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to meet him, we beg you, brethren, not to be quickly shaken in mind or excited, . . . Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed . . . and then the lawless one will be revealed, and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by his appearing and his coming.”🐷 (2 Thessalonians 2:1-8) In other words, we know that Christ will come at the end of time when the Antichrist is defeated. Also, “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to meet him” seems to refer to the time when the Antichrist is struck down. It is possible to suppose that Paul is relating in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 to the ancient custom of citizens ushering important visitors to Christians’ going up to meet our Lord at his return.
“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?’”
1 Corinthians 15:51-55 (RSV)
Some would say that this refers to a private rapture. However, notice that it refers to the Rapture occurring “at the last trumpet”. Once again, the trumpet is associated with the Resurrection of the Dead at the end of time, when “the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” I grant that trumpets are used in Scripture to describe many things, but does this really sound secret? I grant that it is hardly secret that one third of humanity vanishes (I have seen Avengers: Endgame and thought that human society should have been in more disordered than it was presented to be), but such a Rapture (the eschatological one, not the Marvel one) would be secret insofar as Christ no longer would not reveal what exactly the Rapture is. Besides, whence does one find room for the words, “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?” if death is only beginning?
“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.”
Luke 17:34-35 (RSV)
First of all, in the parallel passage in Matthew 24:37-39, Christ says: “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.”🐷 It looks like those being “swept away” are swept away to judgment, not to heaven. In Luke 17:37, the disciples ask: “Where, Lord?”, to which our Lord replies: “Where the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.”🐷 The New American Standard Bible says: “Where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered.” So, what does it sound like when eagles or vultures “gather” about a body? It seems to me like it is referring to carrion birds. Does this sound like heaven.
We are called to be the salt of the Earth. How can we be the salt and the light if we are spirited away in times of persecution? Has there been any other time in history, in all the terrible persecutions which previously occurred, that God did such a thing? One might argue that our suffering is only before the end, but indeed it is not the end until Christ returns and even during the reign of the Antichrist, there will still be time to repent. Many times before, Christians have had to suffer and give their lives for our Lord. He will not spirit you away from that suffering, but He will see you through it, as He sees us through every suffering. Christ will separate the sheep from the goats when He returns, but only at the end of the tribulation when all receive just judgment according to their deeds. We cannot know, of course, the hour of His return, but certainly will we not see the signs of the times? Besides, no or very few Christians believed in the Rapture until the nineteenth century.
Bonum Certamen Certemus
I am the Catholic of Honor
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🐷RSV
Chivalric Apologetics 