Is The
Rapture Biblical?
Meeting the Lord in the Air
These days we here a
lot of talk, especially in America, about the ‘rapture.’ In some circles, the
idea of a literal rapture is so deeply entrenched in people’s minds that to
challenge the doctrine is almost tantamount to challenging the authority of
scripture. However, the exegetical grounds on which the idea rests are
incredibly slim, being taken mainly from 1 Thess. 4:15-17, where Paul wrote as
follows:
For this we say to
you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming
of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself
will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with
the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are
alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thess.
4:15-17)
The language about meeting
the Lord and the risen dead “in the air” has given rise to many far-fetched
interpretations. Many Christians visualize people literally flying up in the
air, of little piles of clothes being left behind and of driver-less cars and
planes crashing. However, this is to totally miss the point of Paul’s imagery.
If it is maintained that Paul is talking literally here, then this verse cannot
fit the rapture interpretation either. For how can the Lord and the risen dead
descend from heaven through the air unless heaven is located in the sky? Even
those who claim to take this verse literally can’t think that everyone actually
meets in the clouds. (If everyone did meet in the clouds, no one would be able
to see anyone else because of the high density of vapor.) Furthermore, since
the earth is a spherical shape, God would have to assume a curious shape in
order for this verse to come true to all the saints round the world. As for the
dead “being asleep”, the only way to understand this verse literally would be
to entertain the theory of soul sleep, yet those who espouse soul sleep will
say that the dead are only metaphorically asleep.
Suffice to say,
Paul’s language is highly symbolic. How then shall we understand it? If Paul’s
statement about being caught up together in the air is read in light of the
preceding sentence, then it becomes obvious that his imagery can only be
referring to resurrection.
“And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then [referring now to the
resurrection of those who are not already dead] we who are alive and
remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in
the air.”
“The air” is used
elsewhere in scripture as a symbol of the other dimension, as when it says that
the devil is the prince of the power of the air. When Paul says we are “caught
up” in the air, the verb translated “caught up” is harpazo, the same verb used in Revelation 12:5 when the
manchild is “caught up” to God or in 2 Corinthians 12:2 when Paul was “caught
up” to the third heaven. Harpazo
conveys the idea of force being suddenly exercised but can also refer to being
joined – in this case being joined in resurrection with those who have already
gone before. I was told of a Bible teacher who, when teaching about this verse,
asked a Jewish man to explain the meaning of harpazo.
The man walked up to the teacher and gave him a big bear hug, saying, “this is
what it means.” Resurrection will join those who are alive and remain with the
cloud of witnesses who have already been resurrected.
Throughout this
passage Paul is almost certainly drawing on Exodus 19 here, a chapter full of
resurrection symbolism. In Exodus 19:15-20, we read how on the third day
(remember that Christ’s resurrection occurred on the third day) Moses ascended
up to mount Sinai and the Lord descended down to mount Sinai, where they meet
in a thick cloud of smoke amidst the blast of a trumpet. Compare that to Paul’s
imagery of 1st Thessalonians 4, where there is the trumpet of God, the
Lord descends from heaven, the saints ascend into the air and they meet in a
cloud. The connection to the resurrection symbolism of Exodus 19 could not be
more explicit. It is also worth noting that in Paul exposition on resurrection
to the Corinthians, the sound of a trumpet is again connected with resurrection
(Cor. 15:52). In the book of Revelation, the seventh trumpet is what heralds
resurrection as Christ’s takes His seat as King of all the nations (Rev.
11:15-19).
Against this
backdrop, it makes perfect sense to interpret Paul’s imagery of 1 Thess.
4:15-17 as a reference to those on the earth being given glorified bodies. It has nothing
at all to do with the rapture ideas that have come to dominate popular
thinking.
Return to Robin Phillips HOMEPAGE
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