The Rapture (Part 2)

July 4, 2011 — 12 Comments
This entry is part 6 of 6 in the series The End Times

A great picture of a Rapture interpretation of 1 Thessalonians 4. We've got Jesus in the clouds and the angel with the trumpet. And of course everyone leaving Earth to get to Heaven.Last time, I began to explore the Rapture, a doctrine that says at some point Jesus will come back and take all the Christians to Heaven. I looked first at the most ‘obvious’ Rapture passage, 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17.

I argued that when Christians meet Jesus in the air, we don’t go back to Heaven, but rather back down to Earth.

This Raptured-to-Earth Rapture is very different than the Rapture most of us know. Is it consistent with other Biblical pictures of the End?

Do you want to be Left Behind?

Probably the other most influential ‘Rapture passage’ is Matthew 24:36-42. This is the passage that granted the Left Behind book series its name:

No one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.

When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away.

That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes. Two men will be working together in the field; one will be taken, the other left. Two women will be grinding flour at the mill; one will be taken, the other left. So you, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know what day your Lord is coming. — Matthew 24:36-42 (NLT)

 

The song that shaped how my teenage imagination of the Rapture

From the lips of Jesus himself comes what sounds like a clear endorsement of Rapture theology. Two people will be together and one will be taken, while one will be left behind. The imagery is powerful, and has inspired books, art and music. (Notably from my teen years, DC Talk’s remake of “I Wish We’d All Been Ready”) This single passage – and really, just a couple of verses (40-42), has birthed most of the images that make the Rapture so unpalatable and horrifying for many of us.

What does Jesus really say about the Rapture?

To read the passage, it’s hard to deny that the images are justified. Isn’t this an indisputable argument for the Rapture?

The question is, who is taken, and who is left behind?Well, no. Not really. Look closely at what Jesus is saying here. First, he’s primarily addressing the timing of the End. The disciples asked (back in v3) how they would know when he was coming back. And Jesus gave them some signs, but then concludes his list with a warning: no one knows when this is going to go down. So be careful.

And his warning draws from a Biblical story: “it will be like it was in Noah’s day.” Consider what happened in the Genesis 6-8 flood story: God warned that judgment was coming, so Noah built an ark while everyone else partied. Noah and his family got into the ark. And – as Jesus points out – the judgment came and swept away all the wicked. Noah and his family – the righteous people – got to stay on the (recreated) earth. Jesus says the same thing will happen at the End. Two people will be standing together, and one will be taken away. That’s not disputed. The question is who gets taken? And who gets left?

If the story of Noah is our guide, then the wicked are those who will be taken away. The righteous get left behind to enjoy a new, restored world. This is an anti-Rapture.

This picture has it all backwards. The angel should be taking away the wicked person to judgment. Not vice-versa.

Again, we have this story backwards. 1 Thessalonians isn’t about God taking us away from Earth, but reclaiming the Earth. And here in Matthew, Jesus promises to return, not to abandon the Earth, but finally and ultimately to save it.

So will Christians be ‘raptured’? Technically, yes. Sort of.

To be clear: according to the Scriptures, believers will be caught up into the air to meet Jesus. But we will not return to Heaven. Rather, we will join him in reclaiming the Earth, in finally saying No to injustice and evil. While the unrepentant are finally taken away, we will be left behind with God to enjoy a beautiful, restored creation (cf. Revelation 21-22’s vision of the New Jerusalem).

Does what we believe about the Rapture actually matter?

NOT what we should be excited about. Not at all.This is probably the major difference between Rapture theologies and the Biblical picture. Is the Earth something to be used up and discarded? Or is it a place God loves and plans to reclaim?

Do we just abandon non-Christians to an ever-worsening torment as the Earth is destroyed? Or do we work with every last bit of energy in us to share with them the Good News that Jesus is coming back to reclaim his Earth and they can be part of that?

God has not abandoned the Earth. God is not planning to abandon the Earth. God has made this abundantly clear in the Scriptures.

Our theology ought to reflect that, as Peter Rollins’ rapture parable cleverly teaches us. We ought to be working to bring Heaven to Earth. We ought to be living as though the Kingdom of God is already among us. We ought to be telling everyone we know the Good News that Jesus has not abandoned us, that he is in fact coming back for us. And that we have no idea when that will be, so we should be ready at all times.

YOUR TURN: Does our ‘Rapture theology’ really matter that much? Is this an important discussion? Or is it just theological and biblical hair-splitting?

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  • http://pomoxian.com Henry Imler

    Great work here, JR.  Rapture theology turned me from an childhood eco-nut to a person who didn’t care about pollution because God was abandoning the earth.  Thank you for this corrective work.

  • http://www.jrforasteros.com JR. Forasteros

    I shared the same attitudes. I have enjoyed feeling like God’s partner in restoring creation rather than a rat abandoning a sinking ship. Maybe those metaphors are too harsh…

  • Anonymous

    Awesome! Thanks for the great insights.

  • Tonya Price

    hmmm interesting…I’ll have to process this a bit but if I remember what I was taught according to Revelations God doesn’t abandon the Earth but removes Christians from it during the tribulation period before returning to re-claim it then. also I don’t remember ever thinking I could just do what I wanted with the planet because it was a gift to us and we were to be good stewards of that gift.

  • Josh

    - I understand that we need to care for creation… but the idea that we need to care for it because we’re going to have to spend eternity in it is not (in my opinion) Biblical.  I’m not sure if that’s what you’re saying though… 

    - I don’t think ancient people would have read as much environmentalism into these texts.  It’s amazing to me that as the political environment pushes environmentalism… we start to see it all over the Bible.  Just an observation.

    - I understand that environmentalism may not have been the point… but it seems to be one of the conclusions drawn.  We live in a fallen world… creation is not as God intended it to be… to think that God won’t completely restore (or renew) it before we’re stuck with it is a little goofy to me.

    - I love reading these posts, JR… of course… my study has drawn me to some different conclusions… but… keep it up :)  

  • Josh

    sorry… that’s Josh Cougle, btw… didn’t mean to leave off info.

  • Anonymous

    I think Josh makes a good point. I don’t think that the idea that we will ultimately live on a restore earth naturally leads to any more creation care than does a theology that we’ll spend eternity in heaven, precisely because it posits a restored earth where the fallen creation has been “brought to rights.” That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be good stewards of creation, which I think IS biblical. It simply means that we can’t push the idea of a new earth too far to bring about that conclusion.

  • http://www.jrforasteros.com JR. Forasteros

    This is really for both Josh and Tonya - 

    First, the Rapture doesn’t show up in the Revelation anywhere, at least not explicitly. Some try to shoehorn it into John’s call into Heaven (4:1, ala Tim LaHaye) and others look to the two witnesses’ call to Heaven in 11. But it’s just not in there explicitly, which in light of the other evidence in the Scriptures is good enough for me to dispense of it altogether.

    Second, I think our eschatology should affect our ethics now… what we do with this Earth matters. If we’re going somewhere else, this doesn’t matter very much. I remember reaching that conclusion on my own, as a result of my own (Dispensationalist) upbringing. No one taught me that explicitly – I inferred it from what my church DID teach me.
    If Genesis 1-2 are to be our model of God’s original intent for humanity, then we are to be caretakers of the Earth (2:15). That’s not to say – as you point out – that we ought just to jump on whatever environmentalist lobby is chic at the moment. In fact, I am grieved that the Church is not leading the charge to call for good stewardship of Creation. What a powerful voice we failed to utilize. 

    To that end, why wait for God to do all the work? We are called to be God’s ambassadors to the world now, to live as though the kingdom has come among us. Shouldn’t that include faithful stewardship of creation?

    I am more than ready to admit I’m only reacting against my own upbringing, but that’s all I’ve got to work with :D

    Last, Josh especially, I’d love to hear your take on some of these issues, especially since you’re elbows-deep in a Revelation study right now.

  • http://www.facebook.com/joshcougle Josh Cougle

    Okay… no beef here on your rapture discussion.  Not sure I’m sold yet… because I don’t think the evidence is there to completely dismiss it… but I do think we’ve done a disservice to it by the way we’ve Disney-fied it.  I especially think saying that that 4:1 is evidence of not only John’s rapture, but ours as well is taking what we want to see way too far into the text.

    About the above… my view does effect my ethics.  I’m as responsible as I can be with creation because:
    1- God created me with the desire work the earth and created the stuff of earth to respond to my work with food, etc.  (in a sense… though this is not really a statement on why I was created)
    2- God is filling me with his love… and I want the world I create to bless others… not curse them (this includes people alive now and in the future).
    3- God is filling me with a love of life that is echoed all throughout creation.

    Whether we spend forever here “as is”, “renewed”, or “in heaven” has no bearing on the above.  I do the above because it’s just becoming ”me”.

    However… we were not made for the earth… it was made for us.  I don’t mean that we are the center of the universe… I don’t mean we can trash it and take it for granted… we are to view it as a blessing… but earth people.

    My concern for the earth is as it relates to people.  I see that we spend billions on environmental organizations and zero on protecting the unborn.  I see that we erect recycle bins in places where people don’t drink from aluminum cans and won’t encourage kids to be moral in schools (of all places)… I see that we encourage child pornography at Abercrombie (and church people still shop there) in the mall and don’t lift a finger for people being sold into slavery for religious reasons… and on all of this… the church is growing louder about environmentalism and quieter on all the others… and it’s wrong.  Think about it… when’s the last time you heard a hip/modern preacher preach on abortion or purity in our sexual lives… and counter that with the times you’ve heard them speak on recycling?  I’ve heard far more of the latter and it sickens me.

    I’m sorry, but these are related to me… earth = here to help us live for God… not man = here to take care of the earth.

    Sorry for the rant… on to Revelation.

    This study is really hard… but not because of the text.  Everybody has a different take on it… even people from the same theological grain.  I’m getting through it, but finding when I find so much disagreement, I have to present 3 or 4 views.  What I end up doing is concentrating on the bigger picture of Revelation = hope for the persecuted… and relating most of the book to that.  

    I’m using a ton of sources… and really like “Answers for Chicken Little” by Dan Boon (president of Trevecca).  To be honest though… the Study Bibles have been far more helpful than the exhaustive commentaries.  I’m finding that the higher the view, the less the disagreement.

    I’ll comment more in the future I think.

  • Wordwriterone

    Jr, where did Jesus go to prepare a place for us? That we may be where he is
    John 14:1-414:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”  NIV
    Just wondering if Jesus is going to take me to this place he is preparing and he is now at the right hand of the father, would it not make sense in it would not be in a reclaimed earth, but rather in some other place, for the lack of a better word, Heaven? 
    Also, I understand seeing scripture in light of historical cultural understanding, but the word of God is alive and active for all times and all cultures, and rather than search out the esoteric meaning would not we be better off seeing the scripture in the light of its own truth and meaning for our lives? 
    I have to respectively disagree with you and wonder at the same time if you have not had some external influence to your thinking. 
    I know you are not aware that I am not one for subscribing to traditional thinking either, but I do subscribe to the truth of God.  
    Where do you think Jesus is now?
    where is the place he is preparing for us?
    if he returns to take us there, where is there? 
    I know he is not here, and therefore is not preparing here, but there
    so where is there?

  • http://www.jrforasteros.com JR. Forasteros

    I actually recently preached a sermon on John 14:1-4 (here’s the link: http://jrforasteros.com/2011/05/19/talk-fire-part-4-in-the-fathers-house/)

    To be brief: Jesus went back to the Father through the crucifixion. His death and resurrection are what prepared the place for us, and he DID return to take us there when he gave us the Holy Spirit (John 20). All who have received the Holy Spirit are already a part of Jesus’ body, which is the true Temple of God (which is what he referenced by saying “my Father’s house”). “There” is with Jesus. It’s not a physical place, it’s a different mode of existence. At least in the Gospel of John.

    Also, I’m curious to know why you refer to my readings of these texts as esoteric. If anything, a Dispensationalist reading of those texts is less plain-sense, more obscure. What external influences did you have in mind? Of course I read the Bible in a large community of scholars, pastors and believers that extends back into history. So do you. None of us reads the Scriptures in a vacuum. 

    Since you disagree with me, I would love to know what specifically in the posts you disagree with. Where do you feel I have misinterpreted? How have I distorted the meaning of what the text says? That would be a great discussion.

    A great rule of Biblical interpretation is that “the text can never mean what it never meant.” We ought to work as hard as possible to understand what the ancient author and audience would’ve understood.

    After that, we can look at what the text is saying to us today. But we want as much as is possible to interact with the text as it is, rather than what we want it to say.

  • Haydn

    I would argue as Rob Bell does that if our eschatology determines our ethics then absolutely the theology of “the rapture” is important. Because if we think that God is going to take us from this earth and we’re going to be okay then we become apathetic of social issues from a kingdom perspective. And in that don’t further the Kingdom-of-God because we believe that we don’t need this world because we’re going to Heaven(in a different place) after we die. But if we believe in a present(or potentially present) Heaven then it will matter because we are expanding the Kingdom-of-God.