What
is the rapture?
Return to Home PageTerminology for the rapture comes from 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”
The Greek: arpa-geso-metha caught up or seized – taken hold of suddenly and eagerly.
Translated into Latin is rapturo.
Jesus spoke of this mysterious event: Matthew 24:31, And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect… then a few verses later (40-41) he says by illustration, This is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
Paul gives more detail in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep [die], but we will 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.
There are different theories concerning when the rapture will take place: Pre-Tribulation, Mid-Tribulation, Pre/Mid-Tribulation, Post-Tribulation. Preterist is not a rapture theory; they believe Jesus came back around 70 AD when the temple was destroyed.
Pre-Trib. The purpose of the rapture is to take believers off the earth before it experiences God’s wrath, and they are taken at the very beginning of the Great Tribulation, so they miss all seven years. This theory comes from a sense of fairness – Earth is due a good beating, and only the most holy and worthy Christians are taken, the others are left behind.
Mid-Trib. The purpose of the rapture is to spare believers the experience of God's wrath, so Christians go through the first half of Great Tribulation, because that is a time of peace. They are then taken in the middle, after the first 3 1/2 years of peace, just before God's wrath is poured out on the earth.
Pre/Mid-Trib. This theory says that some are taken at the beginning, like the pre-trib belief, then another group is gathered up in the middle of the Great Tribulation, so they are spared God's wrath.
Post-Trib. The purpose of the rapture is for all believers, dead and alive, to personally witness the Second Coming of Jesus Christ as he returns to earth - the angels gather the living believers and transport them to Jerusalem. Based on this theory, Christians go through all of the Great Tribulation with the rapture at the very end.
All of these theories are discussed in more detail on the page - click here: Three rapture theories examined