Patrick O’Brien is a former Catholic Protestant anti-Catholic apologist. He has a Facebook page called The Bible in Context, with 66,000 followers. He offers many reels, or brief videos there, including one called, “Rapture is in the Bible!!!” In it he chides my old friend, Catholic apologist Steve Ray, who asked where “the Rapture” was in the Bible. Steve possibly was asking where the doctrine is in the Bible, but maybe not.
Patrick noted that the Greek word for “caught up” in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 – harpazo [har-POZ-o] – means being “snatched away” or “carried away” and is basically the same word as “rapture”. That’s fine, but it still doesn’t prove the rapture doctrine of believers being snatched away from the earth in an incident that supposedly takes place seven years before the Second Coming. This novel belief appeared only in the 1830s.
Even H. A. Ironside (1876-1951), a famous pastor and evangelist who believed in this doctrine, admitted that this idea of a rapture of believers is
scarcely to be found in a single book or sermon through the period of 1600 years! If any doubt this statement, let them search . . . the remarks of the so-called Fathers, both pre and post Nicene, the theological treaties of the scholastic divines, . . . the literature of the Reformation, the sermons and expositions of the Puritans, and the general theological works of the day. He will find the ‘mystery’ [of the rapture] conspicuous by its absence. (The Mysteries of God [New York: Loizeaux Brothers, 1908], 50)
Let’s take a look at 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18:
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (RSV) But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. [14] For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. [15] 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. [16] 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; [17] 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. [18] Therefore comfort one another with these words.
One thing we notice about this is that it appears to be primarily about the dead in Christ, as opposed to those alive when Jesus supposedly comes and snatches them away seven years before His Second Coming. The text says that “the dead in Christ will rise first” and also that when Jesus appears (whatever this is referring to), He “will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” On its face, then, it looks like these believing dead will be raised (and possibly resurrected, too) and go to be with Christ before He makes this appearance, since they come “with him.” All of this seems very odd, if the passage is about a “rapture.”
Accordingly, Baptist Greek linguist A. T. Robertson, in his Word Pictures in the New Testament for this passage commented on it [1 Thessalonians 4:13-18] as follows: “This is the outcome, to be forever with the Lord, whether with a return to earth or with an immediate departure for heaven Paul does not say.”
Thus an essential element of the Rapture doctrine – being taken to heaven with Jesus — isn’t even present in this passage, and is at best, an argument from silence. What needs to be determined is whether this is indeed the Second Coming of Christ or a second earlier appearance, as described. I submit that the text provides several clues that it is the Second Coming, as Christians had always believed, until a small group of Protestants decided to believe otherwise, a mere 190 years ago.
So, for example, Paul mentions “the archangel’s call” and “the sound of the trumpet of God.” Jesus mentions both in His Olivet discourse:
Matthew 24:30-31 then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; [31] and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Later in the same discourse, referring to the same event, Jesus clearly teaches that this is His Second Coming, since the judgment of the sheep and the goats occurs as soon as He arrives, and He sits on His throne:
Matthew 25:31-35 When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. [32] 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, [33] and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. [34] Then the King will say to those at his right hand, `Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; [35] for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
That’s the final judgment. It’s not a secret rapture. The Bible never distinguishes two different comings of Jesus from each other. It simply describes the Second Coming in many ways. Paul combines a trumpet with the general resurrection, which was implied in 1 Thessalonians, and also refers to the dead and those alive when He returns:
1 Corinthians 15:52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
And Paul connects the Second Coming with immediate judgment in the same book:
1 Corinthians 4:5 Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then every man will receive his commendation from God. (cf. 1:7; 1 Thess 3:13; 5:23; 2 Thess 1:7-9; 2 Tim 4:1; Jas 5:8-9; 2 Pet 3:10-12; 1 Jn 2:28; Rev 1:7; 22:12)
In Jude 14-15, we have the Lord appearing with saints and then judging:
It was of these also that Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with his holy myriads, [15] to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness which they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
Thus, all of these cross-references indicate that the Second Coming is being referred to in 1 Thessalonians as well. But what about this business of meeting the Lord in the air? What sense does it make for Jesus to then come down to earth? Well, as we alluded to earlier, the text doesn’t say He takes saints to heaven with Him at this time. So that leaves the text open to different interpretations. A Protestant named J. D. King has some interesting thoughts about this:
Paul isn’t talking about an otherworldly escape. Instead, he is addressing what weighed heavily on the Thessalonian believers: what would happen to those who had already died? Would they miss out on the resurrection and the joy of seeing Jesus face-to-face?
Paul made it clear that all believers—living or deceased—will share in the resurrection and be united with Christ in his glorious return. . . .
To fully appreciate what is going on, we should examine the term Paul uses for “meeting” in 1 Thessalonians 4:17—apantēsis. In Greco-Roman culture, this word carried the specific meaning of a formal reception for a visiting dignitary. It describes a moment of great honor, where prominent citizens would go out to meet a king and then accompany him back into the city in a display of triumph and solidarity. Rather than depicting believers being whisked away to heaven, it illustrates a powerful communal celebration in the atmosphere of the earth—a royal procession welcoming the victorious King as he takes his rightful place in a newly restored creation.
N. T. Wright provides a compelling explanation of this imagery, firmly rooting it in the cultural and political context of the Roman Empire. He writes:
Paul borrows imagery—from biblical and political sources—to enhance his message… Paul conjures up images of an emperor visiting a colony or province. The citizens go out to meet him in open country and then escort him into the city. Paul’s image of the people ‘meeting the Lord in the air’ should be read with the assumption that the people will immediately turn around and lead the Lord back to the newly remade world. (“Farewell to The Rapture,” Bible Review, August 2001)
Wright isn’t the only scholar who observed this. I. Howard Marshall, former professor of New Testament Exegesis at the University of Aberdeen, writes,
The Greek word used here [in 1 Thessalonians 4:17] probably carries an allusion to the way in which a visiting dignitary might be met on the way to a city by a representative group of citizens who would then escort him back to the city . . . The Lord’s people go to meet him in order to escort him back to the earth, and that is where they shall always be with the Lord. (1 and 2 Thessalonians (NCB; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), 131)
Noted Evangelical theologian Leon Morris [Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, Revised Edition (Downer’s Grove, Illinois, Intervarsity Press, 1984), 95] agrees. He says, “The expression translated to meet is kind of a technical term ‘for the official welcome of a newly arrived dignitary’…and is very suitable in this context.” (“Disentangled From the Rapture—What You Can Learn From a Closer Reading of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17”, 1-11-25)
Related Articles
The Rapture End-Times Scenario: Catholic Refutations (Links Page) [5-8-17]
Nave’s Topical Bible: “The Second Coming”
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Photo credit: ImágenesIAcristianas (2-27-24) [Pixabay / Pixabay Content License]
Summary: Biblical critique of “the rapture”: a belief originating in the 1830s from dispensationalists, holding that God will “snatch away” His elect before the “tribulation” in the end times.
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