Is Belief in the Rapture Just Deluded Escapism?

Tom: You’re listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a program in which we encourage everyone who desires to know God’s truth to look to God’s word for all that is essential for salvation and living one’s life in a way that is pleasing to him.

Our main topic for our program today is the doctrine of the Rapture of the church, which teaches that Jesus will return from heaven for all true believers in him. They will be caught up to him in the clouds and he will take them to heaven. Historically, or right up to today, it has been and is a controversial teaching which many argue is not only not biblical, but it’s too fantastic or outlandish to be believed.

Now, Dave, before we get into the specific question on this subject, let’s go over some basics about the Rapture. First of all, I can’t find the term in the Bible. Now, wouldn’t that tell us something about its supposed legitimacy?

Dave: Well, you don’t find the word “Trinity” in the Bible either.

Tom: That’s true, and I believe in the Trinity. It’s there.

Dave: Right, so it is taught in the Scripture. But, in fact, in the Latin Bible you find raptos, rapere. In 1 Thessalonians 4 the Latin terms means “an ecstatic catching up, catching away.”

Tom: The Greek term is harpazo. And again, as you said, in 1 Thessalonians:4:17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
See All... it refers to being caught up, that Jesus is going to catch us up to Himself.

Dave: Well, in John 14 he said, “I’m going to go away and prepare a place for you. I am going to my Father’s house of many mansions. And if I go away, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there you may be also.” So obviously, He was taken up, in Acts 1, into heaven to His Father’s house, and He said he would take us there. I think that’s pretty clear. We’re not going in airplanes, we’re not some kind of an escalator, or a giant ladder. Christ will catch us up and take us there. This is what Paul is talking about in 1 Thessalonians 4.

Tom: This isn’t the Second Coming?

Dave: No, not the Second Coming, this is the Rapture of the church. The Rapture is—[there are] many differences between the Rapture and the Second Coming.

The Rapture, we talked about it last week, I think, but at the Rapture He catches His bride, His church, away to heaven.

At the Second Coming, He comes back again with the saints, it says in Zechariah:14:6And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
See All.... It says when his feet touch the Mount of Olives, He brings all the saints from heaven with Him. Well, then He must have taken them up to heaven. They didn’t get there by themselves. And at that time, it says…now, the saints that He brings from heaven with Him are in their resurrected, glorified bodies. These are part of the armies of heaven you read of in Revelation 19.

At the Rapture, He brings the spirits and souls of the saints who have been—their bodies have been sleeping in the grave. He brings them with Him. It says, “Those who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” Their bodies will be transformed, resurrected, transformed, and reunited with their soul and spirit.

Tom: Dave, just on that, there are a lot of people who have maybe heard this for the first time—wait a minute, I thought your bodies decomposed in the ground. There are people whose bodies have been burnt up, or you know, whatever. What about that?

Dave: It could have been deliberately done in cremation, or accidentally or unfortunately done in a fire or an accident. Well, Tom, first of all, God is able to miraculously restore us. I don’t think he’s going to restore us—you know, I’m 76 years old. I’m deteriorating rapidly. I used to run 6 miles every other day and just love it. Now I’ve got two artificial hips and I can’t run at all. Doctors tell me it’s too much impact. So, you can’t escape it—old age comes. Wow! I get a little bit uptight about it, but there is nothing you can do about it. We don’t have a fountain of youth around. Anyway, but I don’t think he’s going to restore me…

Say someone hides in a hospital bed in really bad shape—I don’t think He is going to restore us to that body.

Furthermore, the atoms of oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and so forth, of which our bodies are composed, are continually being changed. We change the atoms in our brains, in our bodies, in our cells. They are continually taking in new and giving off old in the waste and so forth. So, it’s not like there are certain atoms that have our initials on them, and God has to somehow find them somewhere in the universe, or some critter ate them or whatever. But he will reconstitute us.

But he is going to give us bodies, it says, like His glorious body. Christ’s resurrection body was a spiritual body, physical and yet seemingly not physical. He could walk through walls, and yet He ate something. He said, “Handle me and see.” They could handle Him. A spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones like you see me have, and yet this is a different kind of a body. It’s a body that has no blood, because the blood of Christ was poured out for our sins. So, he didn’t say, “Handle me and see I am a real flesh and blood person.” He said, “I have flesh and bones.”

The life of the flesh—that is, this old man, this sinful person that I am—it’s in the blood. Had they known that, they wouldn’t have drained Washington’s blood and killed him trying to get the poison out of his system. So that blood is gone, and the blood is no longer the receptacle, or it no longer contains the life of the flesh. There is no blood, but we have a new life, an endless life. So, that will occur at the Rapture, and those who are alive and remain, Paul says, will be transformed. So, our bodies will be transformed.

Tom: Dave, many of the objections to the Rapture, and you’ve written a few of your books about this doctrine, they say, “Well, it’s just made up by men.” Some would say, “Well, if it wasn’t for John Darby, we wouldn’t have it. It’s not in the scripture.”

Well, we know that’s not true, and what I would like to do—you started off with John:14:1-3 [1] Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. [2] In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. [3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
See All..., which lays the foundation. Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself.” But there are other verses that I think are basic to this teaching and I want to read a couple of them.

First Corinthians 15:51-52 says, “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”

First Thessalonians 4:13-18: “…but I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

Those are fantastic words.

Dave: It’s pretty clear if we are caught up to meet him in the air, that’s—I tell you, you’re going to be ecstatic.

Tom: Well, that’s why I like the word “rapture,” because to me, that’s what rapture—I know it’s the Latin and it’s probably from the Vulcan—but still, that’s what you ought to feel about it. It’s a rapturous moment, it’s fantastic. Again, it’s a wonderful word.

Dave: It’s going to be exciting to be caught up. I think about it often.

Tom: Pure rapture is what I think of.

Dave: Right, but we will be taken away from this earth to be caught up to meet Christ. It says, “We will meet Christ in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” Well, He is in heaven: we’re going to be taken to heaven, and this is exactly what He promised.

Tom: Dave, I just gave three passages and there are numerous others. So the point being is that what else could this be talking about? This is biblical to the max.

Dave: Yeah, I don’t know why anybody complains about it, Tom.

Tom: Well, in your book In Defense of the Faith, which we are going through as sort of a syllabus, as a resource for questions… The book is called In Defense of the Faith, and these are questions that you’ve dealt with over your many years of ministry. And the question I’m going to right now deals with this subject.

Dave, here we go with the question: “To imagine that the church will be taken to heaven before the Antichrist appears and takes power and the prophesied seven-year tribulation period begins is a delusion, in my opinion. Christ said we would suffer for His sake. The Pre-Trib Rapture teaching seems to offer an unbiblical escape from that suffering. Why should a certain segment of the church be allowed to escape its allotted suffering?”

Good question. Is this person denying the Rapture, or is he just…?

Dave: Sounds like it. As far as suffering, every Christian doesn’t have to suffer. For example, I think most of the church is already in heaven. Now, some of them have suffered terribly. The early church suffered in China and they are suffering today, and Muslim countries, they are suffering today. But there are many people—my parents for example—they are in heaven, I believe. There are many Christians who were taken by death all through the centuries who did not go through any great tribulation. They suffered in various ways, as Peter would say. They were hated by the world. Jesus said we would be. But it wasn’t this kind of suffering, and they certainly did not face Antichrist. So to suggest that we must face Antichrist is simply neither biblical nor rational, because only a small segment of the church would face Antichrist if that were the case.

But, in fact, we talked about it last week; the church is not going to face Antichrist. Antichrist cannot even appear until the church is gone. This is the hindrance that is preventing him. We would object, we would expose this man. And, furthermore, we would not take the mark of the beast. We would not bow down and worship his image. No Christian would do that. The Bible is very clear, Revelation 13—you do that, and the wrath of God is upon you. You’re not even a Christian. Well, if you don’t do that, you would be killed, so there would be no Rapture. The Bible talks about—Titus:2:13Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
See All..., we mentioned it last week: “Looking for the blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ,” and so forth. Blessed hope? Here’s the blessed hope of the Post-Trib Rapture, those who claim they must face the Antichrist: you know you’re not going to take the mark of the beast, so you can’t buy or sell. But if you can find enough garbage pails with enough food in them, and if you don’t bow down to worship the image of the beast, you’re going to be killed. But if you can run fast enough to keep ahead of the world police, who are going to be after you, the Antichrist men to kill you, you could keep this up for several years, you know—blessed hope. You’re going to be raptured! If you don’t get killed, you will be among those few that didn’t get killed and get raptured. Oh, blessed hope for those who don’t get martyred! But most of them will. Tom, that’s not a blessed hope!

Tom: Well, it doesn’t make any sense.

Dave: No, it doesn’t.

Tom: Dave, it seems to me—I’m a simple-minded guy here. The Tribulation, I thought that has to do with Israel, with the Jews. This is a “time of Jacob’s trouble.” It doesn’t seem to be directed at the church at all, from the scriptures that we understand.

Dave: Well, but this man just quoted some scriptures. You would get it there in Acts 14—I think you were quoting from Acts 14. Paul said, “All they who will have died in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” That’s 2 Timothy, that’s not 3.

Tom: Okay, but you know this is not God’s wrath.

Dave: It’s not the Great Tribulation, “such as never was nor ever shall be,” what Jesus talks about in Matthew 24.

Tom: Well, 1 Thessalonians:5:9For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
See All... says, “For God has not appointed us to wrath.” First Thessalonians 1:10: “To wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come.” Now, that’s interesting. It looks like it’s past tense here, but future as well.

Dave: It’s God’s wrath that is going to be poured out. Now, of course, the pre-wrath theory of the Rapture says, “Yes, we don’t face God’s wrath, but we’re going to face Antichrist’s wrath, you see,” and they would make it a distinction. However, the Bible clearly indicates—there are a number of verses in the New Testament. The early church was watching, waiting, and expecting Christ at any moment. You just quoted 1 Thessalonians:1:10And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
See All..., how “you turn to God from idols to serve the living and the true God and to wait for his Son from heaven, even Jesus who delivered us from the wrath to come.”

Or you could go to Philippians:3:20For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
See All...—our conversation is in heaven. It’s our citizenship, our manner of life, “from whence also we look for our Savior the Lord Jesus, who will change our vile bodies to be fashioned like his,” and so forth.

Or, I just quoted Titus:2:13Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
See All...: “…looking for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great God our Savior.”

You could go to Hebrews:9:28So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
See All...: “Unto them that look for him shall he appear for the second time,” and so forth.

So, there are verses that indicate the early church was supposed to be watching, waiting, expecting. Jesus told them to. We quoted it last week—Luke:12:45But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken;
See All..., he said, “Let your loins be girded about, your lights burning, and you like those that expect your Lord.”

Tom: And, Dave, this brings us to the point: another objection that they have: “But this is some escapist thing. Oh, you’re just waiting, looking…” It’s like those who are the Seventh Day Adventists early on, the Jehovah Witnesses predicting the end of the world, they’re going around selling everything, waiting for…or even Heaven’s Gate. Remember that a while back, in which they were looking for something to take them out? But that’s not what the Scripture says.

Dave: Well, the Bible is promising us this, and the point I’m trying to make is that if the early church was watching, waiting, looking, expecting Christ, He must have been able to come at any moment. You could not be watching, waiting, and expecting Christ if He couldn’t come until after the Antichrist appears, or if He couldn’t come until after the seven-year tribulation. It simply makes no sense.

Aunt Jane writes and says, “I’m coming for Christmas.” You don’t get out there at the airport and scan the skies and watch for her every day—you know when she is coming. And if Christ could not come, if this is biblical teaching, He could not come until the end of the Great Tribulation, and then nobody is watching, waiting, and expecting Him.

Furthermore, it says, “Unto them that look for him.” Well, but if the Antichrist had to come first, you’re looking for Antichrist. You’re not looking for Christ. You don’t expect Christmas until at least Thanksgiving. You certainly wouldn’t be expecting Christ and looking for Him until Antichrist came if that was the case.

Furthermore…it’s so simple, Tom. The Bible ends, “Even so, come Lord Jesus.” That’s the last chapter of the Bible. He says, “Behold, I come quickly.” That means “suddenly,” actually. It’s like the tachy, like you have tachycardia, you know, rapid heartbeat. It doesn’t say, “I am coming soon, necessarily, but when I come it will be sudden.” He said, “You had better be watching and waiting, and in fact, at such a time as you don’t expect me, I will come.”

Well, then the response from the bride, the Spirit, and the bride is, “Even so, come Lord Jesus.” Now, wait a minute, if He can’t come until the end of the Great Tribulation, or at least until Antichrist appears, then we are demanding of Christ to come when He can’t come and when He has told us He won’t come. And that, again, doesn’t make sense.

Tom: Dave, the complaint that people have about this is that it can be an escape theory, just as this questioner writes. But 1 John:3:3And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
See All... says, “Every man that has this hope…” What hope is he talking about? The hope of the coming of Christ, the blessed hope that you mentioned in Titus:2:13Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
See All.... It says, “In every man that hath this hope, in him purifyeth himself even as he is pure.” In other words, we are expecting, but in expecting him we want to please Him. We can’t wait, and we want our lives to be pleasing to Him in every way.

So, the motivation, because of our love for him, is to be obedient, to do the things that He has called us to do, and we have the time to do them.

Dave: It is the most purifying hope you could have. Just the idea that—well, you could die at any moment. That’s not enough. I mean, even if you get diagnosed with cancer, what are you going to do? You could switch to a high fiber diet, or you get an operation. You have some kind of control over your life. But if Christ could come at any moment, we don’t have any control. I don’t want to be found doing things that would be an embarrassment to me and it would be displeasing to Christ. So, if He can come at any moment, that is the most powerful, purifying factor in my life, and I’d better witness for Him.

Tom: Dave, as a former Roman Catholic, I had problems with this. Certainly, I didn’t have an understanding of the Scriptures, and here it is in Scriptures. But why, as a Catholic, did I have concerns about this? And I came to understand that in Catholicism, the end times—the last days, really—has to be a reflection of the passion of Christ, His death, His persecution, death, burial, and resurrection. That’s what the Catholic Church teaches. That’s why they don’t believe in the millennial reign of Christ. They don’t believe in the Rapture, although they do believe in the—they call it the “imminency of Christ’s coming,” but I don’t know how they can place that with going through the Tribulation, which the Catholic Church teaches will happen at the end.

But, again, the mentality here is suffering for sins, expiation of sins, doing works, doing all these things, suffering as Christ suffered, because that’s going to purify you for heaven. But that’s not the purification the Scriptures talk about.

Dave: Well, you know that Christ said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” But the popes with armies and navies fought and built a kingdom that is very much of this world, and that was their problem. They are trying to build a kingdom on this earth. And there are many so-called evangelicals, especially in the charismatic movement, the Kingdom Now Dominion movement, and they think that’s their job to build a kingdom on this earth, and then Christ will return and rule over that kingdom. Well, we talked about it last week—this is a delusion that causes you to look for a Christ whom you will meet when your feet are planted on planet earth instead of being caught up to meet Him in the air as the Scripture says.

Tom: So, again with regard to this person’s question here, we will go through suffering, but we won’t go through the Great Tribulation. That is not for the church.