The Rapture

     Last month I wrote about “Who is Israel”.  I did that because of the war between Israel and Hamas.  The misunderstanding of who Israel is, is now promoted because of the war.  Also, because of the war there is much talk about the signs of the End Times.  So now I write on the “Rapture”.   

    As the darker days of living in North Dakota have come, I tend to watch more TV in the evenings.  Along with that comes hearing and seeing more commercials.  There are a couple of commercials that have brought great concern to me.  They deal with what is called the “Rapture”.  The message of the commercials dealing with the “Rapture” is akin to the false theology of the Roman Catholic Church on “purgatory”.  The teaching of purgatory is that there will be suffering for the sins not covered by Jesus’ death and resurrection for the payment of all sins before entering into eternal life.  The teaching of the “rapture” is much the same.  In the teaching of the rapture, Christians will be raptured into heaven and the unbelievers that are left behind will go through much suffering, which is another chance to be saved for eternal life.  Both false teachings deal on the law of God (on what you must do) rather than on the Gospel (on what God has done for you through Jesus Christ).  Both the teaching of purgatory and the rapture try to scare you out of hell rather than simply bringing you to heaven through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

     The “rapture” theory hasn’t been around all that long.  A traveling preacher by the name of John Nelson Darby, from England, brought this to America in 1862.  Prior to that, over 1800 years, Christians truthfully understood the “rapture” as an event that would happen of the believers and unbelievers at the same time as the final resurrection and the end of time here on earth.  This truthful believe comes from 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18: “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven, with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, 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, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.  Therefore, encourage one another with these words.”  Notice that this will not be a secret coming of the Lord on the Last Day when suddenly some will be gone, and some are left behind.  For, by the “cry of command”, “the voice of the archangel”, and “the sound of the trumpet of God” all will know that this is happening.  There is no sudden and secret return of the Lord when some will suddenly realize that some are missing from this earth.  This is the rapture of all, either as believers to eternal life or the rapture of unbelievers to eternal death.  In other words, not only Christians will experience this day and there will be no second chance for repentance.

     Also, take note that prior to this rapture teaching we have the witness of the Apostles and Nicene Creeds.  These statements of faith do not teach a two-stage coming of Christ but rather a final end-time event sending the sheep (believers) to His right and the goats (unbelievers) to His left (Matthew 25:31-46).  

     Also involved with this false teaching on the end times is the 1,000-year reign of Christ.  This false theology comes from a misunderstanding of half of one chapter of the Book of Revelation (chapter 20).  The 1,000 years of this half chapter is symbolic for the full time of Christ’s reign on earth through the church.  In other words, according to Scripture we believe that we are in the 1,000-year reign of Christ (for over 2,000 years) since His resurrection from the dead.  The church has always understood herself as awaiting the return of her Lord that “will come as a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2). 

     Do not be mislead by these false prophets of the last times.  These false prophets give you the sense that since you may not be raptured with the timing and thinking of their theology, you have a second chance.  There are no second chances.  At the only rapture, the Last Day, the Lord will come, and all will be judged at that time.  The dead will rise to be reunited with their bodies, unbelievers to eternal death and believers to eternal life and the same for us who are alive.  

     For further study on this teaching on the “rapture” please go to a document by the Commission on Theology and Church Relations of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, “A Lutheran Response to the Left Behind” Series”, April 2004.  Your pastor will be able to assist you in receiving this document. 

     Clearly, from God’s Word, Christ’s second coming is the future hope of the church, the bodily return of Jesus Christ.  This will be the end of the earth as we know it. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!  Amen.