Does the Bible ever talk about the Rapture?

Question

so i read the new testament and i never found any reference to a time where everyone would disappear. maybe i missed something, could yall give me the scripture?

Answer 1

The word "rapture" does not occur in the Bible. The concept of the Rapture, though, is clearly taught in Scripture. The Rapture of the church is the event in which God removes all believers from the earth in order to make way for His righteous judgment to be poured out on the earth during the Tribulation period. The Rapture is described primarily in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 1 Corinthians 15:50-54. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 describes the Rapture as God resurrecting all believers who have died, giving them glorified bodies, and then departing the earth with those believers who were still alive, who have also been given glorified bodies. "For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

1 Corinthians 15:50-54 focuses on the instantaneous nature of the Rapture and on the glorified bodies we will receive. "Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed - in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). The Rapture is the glorious event we should all be longing for. We will finally be free from sin. We will be in God's presence forever. There is far too much debate over the meaning and scope of the Rapture. This is not God’s intent. Rather, in regards to the Rapture, God wants us to “encourage each other with these words.”

Recommended Resource: The Rapture: Who Will Face the Tribulation by Tim LaHaye.

Answer 2

Yes, The Bible does talk about the Rapture. However, The Word Rapture is not found in Scripture. The Greek Word Harpazo is translated caught up and this Greek Word means to snatch away by force.

Paul teaches on the Rapture in the New Testament in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-58 using the Old Testament Law of the Feast of Trumpets found in Leviticus 23:24 which will be fulfilled by Christ only. See Matthew 5:17-18.

Matter of fact, The Pre Tribulation Rapture Doctrine is the Only Rapture Doctrine that has been decreed by God to be fulfilled before the Tribulation period begins. All other Rapture Doctrines have not been decreed by God and therefore fall under His Curse. See Deuteronomy 11:26-28, and John 10:37-38.

The Rapture will occur precisely as God has Decreed. See Acts 15:14, Acts 15:16, and Revelation 4:1 by the fulfillment of Romans 11:25. When the last Gentile is saved, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-58 will come to pass just as Paul taught.

While Israel goes through their testing and purging period, see Zechariah 13:8-9 (Daniel 9:27), The Christian Church will go through their testing period in Heaven. See 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 where we are judged for our works for Christ on earth during the Church Age at the Judgment Seat of Christ. See also Romans 14:10 and 2 Corinthians 5:10.

Another very important aspect of Daniel's 70th Week, see Daniel 9:27 (Revelation 6:2 through Revelation 16:21), There are two Kingdoms that come against the Nation of Israel during the times of the Gentiles. See Luke 21:24. The Times of the Gentiles runs from Genesis 43 to Revelation 16:21.

During the times of the Gentiles 8 Kingdoms come against Israel. See Revelation 17:9-11. During Daniel's 70th Week the 7th Kingdom headed by the Man of sin of 2 Thessalonians 2:3 which is the Revised Roman Empire will last 42 months. See Revelation 6:2 to Revelation 12.

At the Midpoint, The 8th Kingdom which is headed up by the antichrist, see 2 Thessalonians 2:4, comes to pass which is the Revived Grecian Empire and also lasts 42 months. This Kingdom begins in Revelation 12 and comes to an end in Revelation 16:21. See also Matthew 24:29-31 and Daniel 7:11.

The Christian Church never sees these two Kingdoms that come against Israel. The Christian Church is raptured, see Revelation 4:1, before Revelation 6:2 begins which is the beginning of Daniel's 70th Week and the 7th Kingdom which is the Revised Roman Empire.

The final point I want to make here is that the Apostle Paul contrasts the Rapture with Daniel's 70th Week in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-9 and 2 Thessalonians 2:2 using very specific terminology.

The Day of Christ, see 1 Thessalonians 5:5 and 2 Thessalonians 2:2, is a Day. The Christian Church is of the Day and not of the night.

Those who enter into Daniel's 70th Week enter into The Day of the Lord, see Amos 5:18, which is a time of darkness. See also Isaiah 61:2b and 1 Thessalonians 5:5c which is The Day of Vengeance.

God Bless You!

Answer 3

The "rapture" is pretty well soaked into post-modern pop Christianity, and the references above cover it pretty well, except the reference from the Gospel of Matthew... even Tim LaHaye disavows tying that set of verses to the rapture.

There are other approaches to eschatology (the study of end-times) and the current craze for dispensationalism (the whole Left Behind thing) has really only been popular the last 200 years or so, largely ignited in the US by the publication of the Schofield Reference Bible. Historicism was the more accepted approach, and preterism has always had some followers. Don't just read one commentary and think you've got it. The church has never agreed on this one, and those who've prognosticated to a specific century or even decade have always been proven wrong (except the preterists, since they say its already all over.)

It's a facinating area, but remember to keep first things first. The Book of Revelation wasn't written as a tool of evangelism. Try Matt 25 instead.

Grace and Peace.

Answer 4

The word rapture does not appear in the Bible however 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 talks about Jesus taking first the dead then the living.
1 Corinthians 15:50-53
Matthew 24:40-41 these verses refer to those left behind
Check out this site it has loads of others and explains how it relates to the rapture.
http://home.flash.net/~venzor/chapter3rapture.htm

Answer 5

This is a bit of a complicated question with a somewhat complicated answer. I'm going to give enough references that you can look up (via unbiased sources) all the data. But first, let me give you the outline of the issues.

First of all, the word "rapture" is not in the Bible unless added there by a modern translation. So in that sense, I suppose its not in the Bible. However, the idea of the righteous being caught up in the sky to meet Christ -- the essential idea of the rapture -- is taught in the Bible in a few places.

There are several view of when this rapture will take place. Attempting to inappropriately boil them down to two views for the sake of simplicity, let's say that one view is that this "rapture" will take place at the beginning of the tribulations of the end time while the other view is that it will happen at the end. Thus in one view God spares the believers of all end time tribulations and the other they are expected to fight their way through and endure to the end.

When people speak of the "rapture" probably 9 out of 10 times they are fundamentalist or conservative Christians and they probably mean the "pre tribulation rapture" not the "post tribulation rapture."

So is there Biblical support for the pre tribulation rapture? Well, the Bible is somewhat ambiguous on this point, so individual intrepretations will vary. However, let's just say that the support for a pre tribulation rapture is very very thin. Worse yet, there seem to be several verses that seem to contradict it.

The following link will explain the problems of all theories on the rapture and some possible ways to reconcile it:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/millenni.htm#dispre

The "post tribulation rapture" (which usually isn't called that, by the way) seems to have stronger Bibical support. On the link above they point out that the only real problem with the theory is that it seems to suggest that you can predict the coming of Christ. But this is based on a slew of additional assumptions that won't hold true, so I don't really see this as a particular problem.

Several people here have stated that the pre-trib rapture is a modern idea. This isn't precisely true. Certainly in it's full fundamentalist Christian form, it's a modern idea. However, several early Christian fathers make comments about people that believe in it. Thus the idea must have some historical roots even if it died out only to re-emerge some 1700 or so years later.

However, none of the early Christian fathers believed in the pre-trib rapture themselves. Some pre-trib fans say that they did by quoting them out of context. In context, none of them believed this. They all spoke of the saints having to face the tirbulations. Several of them did speak of God delivering the saints from tribulations, but contextually this meant being present for it and being delivered in the end. Pre-trib believers often quote such passages and remove the additional context.

Here are two articles from Wikipedia that are unbiased and cover the topics very well:

Post tribulation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_Tribulation_Rapture

Pre-trib:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture#Pre-tribulation

I think a more important question would be, "why is there a whole segement of Christianity that has made this ambiguous doctrine fundamental to their beliefs?"

Also, I think it should be noted that it's "safer" to believe in the post tribulation rapture than the pre-trib. If the post tribulation believers turn out to be wrong, they get raptured just fine. If the pre-tribs are wrong, they miss ever subsequent sign of the time because the "first" sign hasn't happened yet.

Answer 6

At best the evidence for the Rapture is shaky.

Verses like Matt. 24:40,41 - "Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two [women shall be] grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left." - are taken to make a case for the Rapture. But in these verses Jesus was talking about the unexpected suddenness of His coming. Couple of verses prior to this Jesus describes His coming in these words, "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matt. 24:27). This is not a secret event and that is the time Jesus takes the righteous to heaven and the wicked are killed by the brightness His appearance. So there is no one living that is left behind. Thus this whole rapture thing falls apart. Of course, there are other verses in the New Testament that make it entirely clear that there is no secret rapture going to take place.

Answer 7

The rapture is worshiped by some over Christ. I call them rapture worshipers. Many of them are actually elated that the dirty rotten sinners will be left behind to go through the tribulation without the Holy Spirit. The rapture is a simple way that pastors and teachers use to continue to teach the conviction of sin to the believers even though the conviction of sin is for the unbelievers. It is all about bondage, doubt and fear and will lead folks to be will worhsipers which leads to self glorification and sometimes worse self justification.

Satan came up with this doctrine a couple of hundred years ago. It is taught by a very believable subtle spirit which proves that the spirit is very strong. Never forget that the serpent is the most subtle of all of the beasts in the garden and therefore the most subtle demons are the most wicked.

Avoid this doctrine like the plague. If you dabble in it, you will feel its power when you become satisfied and happy about leaving people behind...especially those who really piss you off. Repent when this occurs and seek the Spirit of Truth.

agapefromnc

Answer 8

The word "rapture" is derived from the Latin translation of the Greek word harpazo, which means "to seize." The doctrine as it is understood by most dispensationalists is largely based on a misunderstanding of 1Th 4:17. I'm a partial-preterist, so I do not believe in a pre-trib rapture.

Answer 9

The rapture was made up 175years ago by religious leaders who thought they knew we Jesus would return. they made up the story and took parts of the bible that would make it seem like the story was solid eventhough there is no direct mention of this in the bible. This is just another example of how man has tainted god's word. I do feel although it is not my place to judge these people that god's right. It is not their fault that someone with a agenda has mislead so many.

Answer 10

It's not called rapture, in the bible. It's called snatching away. People use the word rapture as a description.