The Rapture is the belief amongst many Christians that there is a worldwide event coming soon, that will occur with the rise of the Antichrist and just before the worldwide apocalypse.
They believe that they will be taken out of the world or ‘snatched up’ to meet Jesus in the clouds, thereby avoiding all the upcoming wars, famines, plagues, torture, torment, and fear that will form the basis of the apocalypse.
The world will undergo tremendous suffering for seven years but they, the ‘Raptured People’ will be safe in heaven during this time. Then after these seven years, they will return to the earth to be with Jesus where they will help him rule and reign for a thousand years.
Now that sounds like a pretty good deal, after all, who wants to go through suffering if they can avoid it? But is the concept of ‘The Rapture’ a correct one? Well, one way to be sure is to analyze the claims made by those people who support this belief. The first place to review this is to see what God has to say by examining the bible and discerning if the Rapture is a biblical concept.
What does the bible say?
Let’s start by looking at what Jesus had to say on the subject. Now it’s interesting to note what Jesus didn’t say to his disciples.
“In this world, you will have troubles. In fact, at some point, it’s going to get mega, mega bad! Apocalyptically destructive, wars, famine, the whole works! But don’t worry, because just before that happens, I’ll come down and pick you all up and take you to heaven until it’s all over. Then when all the ‘bad stuff’ is finished, I’ll bring you back to Earth”.
Now Jesus didn’t say that, instead, he told his disciples that they had to stay here on the earth and go through the troubles and tribulations. The Gospel of John tells how Jesus was praying and said to God,
“I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one“. (John 17:15).
He also said
“In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33).
Well, I think that clearly shows what Jesus’s views of the rapture were.
So, what other parts of the bible might mention this idea of ‘an escape’? Let’s look at Paul’s writings. Acts 9 details how Paul (who still had the name Saul) saw a bright light on the road to Damascus and he heard a voice which asked him “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? “The voice identified itself as belonging to Jesus. From that moment on Paul became a believer, a fervent evangelist and a mighty man of God.
Now initially it was considered that Paul wrote about 50% of the New Testament, however, a more modern view is that it might have been as low as 25%. Regardless of this, Paul was a mighty man of faith. He knew all the principles of faith. He talked about it a lot and wrote about it a lot! He was a great evangelist. So presumably while he was doing amazing works and proclaiming the gospel of Jesus, one would think that such a mighty man of God, who was doing such an important job would be protected, maybe by angels and thus be immune to any trouble.
This was not the case. He was imprisoned several times and chained up. He was beaten. He was shipwrecked, bitten by a deadly snake and the crowds tried to stone him and throw him off a cliff. It’s interesting to note that during these times Paul didn’t hear Jesus say,
“Oh, by the way, when things get tough, I will just put you aside for the moment. I’ll put a hedge around you. I’ll send some angels to protect you and keep you safe and free from trouble.”
That didn’t happen, as none of the disciples nor Paul were ‘raptured’ away when troubles occurred. Paul states in 2 Tim. 3:12
“All those who desire to live godly lives will be persecuted”.
What does history say?
What about other times in the past when Christians were persecuted? How many were ‘raptured’ to safety? During the times of the early church, Christians received a massive amount of persecution from the Roman rulers. For example, Nero was ‘notoriously famous’ for persecuting Christians and crucifying them. He had a nasty habit of holding big parties at his large mansions where he would line his driveway with crucified Christians. At night he would get his men to pour pitch or oil over these poor souls and set them alight so that there were lights on the driveway.
Other Roman rulers such as Decius and Diocletian also conducted empire-wide persecution of Christians.
I guess these Christians would have been praying fervently for some sort of release, some miracle to escape the pain and torment. There are no historical records of crucified people suddenly disappearing into the sky, so I guess those people suffered until they received eternal peace when they went to be with the Lord.
Throughout the Roman times when there was persecution of Christians, there was no ‘escape’, they had to go through it as we would have all seen in the movies where Christians were thrown into arenas and killed by wild animals and gladiators.
Jesus did warn the Jewish believers that they
‘should run to the hills when they saw Jerusalem surrounded’ (Luke 21:20)
which occurred just before the destruction of the temple in 70AD. This was when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, the temple and killed most of the city’s occupants. Josephus, the Jewish historian who witnessed the siege and then the following destruction of Jerusalem estimated that about 1 million people were killed and approximately 97,000 were taken into slavery. (When the Roman armies invaded Israel, most of the Jewish population fled to Jerusalem to seek protection behind its walls.)
Perhaps this ‘escape’ could be considered a form of ‘rapture’, in that those Christians who heeded Jesus’s warning and physically fled the city, escaped the ‘apocalypse’ that engulfed Jerusalem. However, there was no escape into the clouds.
So, generally speaking, history shows that Christians have been persecuted since the time of Jesus to the present day. The latest statistics from ‘Open Doors 2024 World Watch List’ state that in 2023
- 4,998 Christians were murdered
- 14,766 Churches and Christian properties were attacked
- 4,125 Christians were imprisoned.
So, if you look back at all the persecution Christians have suffered, throughout the past 2000 years, we see that there is no biblical record or any other evidence of God’s people being ‘raptured’ out of their troubles.
If we use the Bible as our guide, we see that Jesus said he wants his people to stay on the earth. Jesus also said that his people would have persecution, tribulations, and trials, but they were not to worry or be fearful, as he had a way through for us. Now whether he meant that we’ll go through them and then be in heaven with him (i.e. we will have died), or that our faith will see us through our circumstances. Well, he possibly meant both.
God said
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you.” (Isaiah 43:2).
So obviously we are meant to go through trials in our lives but we have the comfort of knowing we don’t walk through this life alone.
Having read all of the above material, one can see that the generally believed view of the rapture as a means of escape for Christians has no basis in the bible or in history. Now I will put a caveat here: This doesn’t mean that throughout history God hasn’t ‘helped’ his people out of trouble or allowed ways out of persecution. On an individual basis, this is quite probable. However, as a general statement, there is no evidence for a ‘church-wide Rapture.
One wonders how a group of Evangelical, Pentecostal Charismatic Christians especially in America and other Western countries, can preach and teach that the rapture is imminent. They say
“Look at the health of the planet, the state of the world, there’s all these famines, there are so many wars, there’s a huge number of problems and persecution in many parts of the world’.
They claim these are all the signs that Jesus spoke about 2000 years ago and therefore the end must be very near and so the Rapture must be soon. If you were to discuss with them the information that I have highlighted here, they don’t have a clear answer for them. Unfortunately, those signs that Jesus spoke about have been happening on the earth since the time he was on the earth.
“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet” (Matt 24:6).
History is littered with wars, earthquakes, other natural disasters, plagues, famines, and oppression. The list goes on and on, unfortunately.
I’m sure that throughout history Christians and non-Christians have found themselves in circumstances that they wanted to escape from. They probably prayed “Father in heaven can you get me/us out of here? Regardless of what we’ve done, we don’t want to be here in these horrible circumstances.” How many Christians have cried that out? Well, it appears they didn’t get raptured so there is no evidence or likelihood that people today will be treated any differently from the way Christians have been treated in the past. We are here for the duration.
Some Comfort
However, as a believer we can take comfort from the knowledge that God loves and cares for us.
For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.
In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone. Ps 91:11
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff,
they comfort me. Ps 23:4
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight Prov 3:5
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