by Jared Hardin

November 17, 2023

I recently saw a commercial for a new book describing the event in Scripture commonly called “the rapture.” It showed computer-generated video clips where people were disappearing in thin air, suddenly and without warning. Hundreds vanish in the middle of a church service. People disappear on the street and in the grocery store—supposedly “caught up” in the air in a biblical rapture event.

I also heard the story recently of a young mother who was burdened that her children may be “left behind” if the church is raptured. She was asking how she might store food rations and leave instructions for her children to find and survive the events of the tribulation without their Christian parents there to care for them.

These two examples from real life have burdened my heart because I see so many people anxious about things that the Bible simply never describes. The kind of rapture these people are referring to cannot be found in the pages of Scripture. I do believe that a rapture as described in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 will take place in the future. But I do not believe that this is a mass-vanishing that we should distinguish from the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus. The popular view in America today is a simple misunderstanding of Scripture.

Let’s look to the Bible.

This is what Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18[1]:

¹³ Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. ¹⁴ For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. ¹⁵ According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ 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. ¹⁷ 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. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Many preachers of the past one hundred years have interpreted this passage to mean that Christians will be removed from the earth in a dramatic disappearance before a seven-year tribulation and later return of Jesus. I have four thoughts to offer countering this view.

1. We need to understand what belief Paul is correcting.

Many in the church at Thessalonica believed that the Lord was coming very soon and that their brothers and sisters who had died would miss out on Jesus’ Second Coming since they were already in the grave. Paul says this is not the case. When Jesus returns, he says, “the dead in Christ will rise first” (v. 16). This event is the resurrection of the body for Christians who have died. This fact should comfort the church: that dead Christians will not miss the Second Coming and Jesus’ reign on earth. They will be raised from the grave to participate in it.

2. The rapture will not be a secret, mysterious event.

No one will be left wondering, “What just happened?” There will be a “loud command,” the “voice of the archangel,” and “the trumpet call of God.” Furthermore, dead Christians will rise from their earthly graves. That doesn’t sound like a secret to me! It will be undeniable to everyone on earth what is happening: the King has returned. Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil. 2:10-11).

3. To be “caught up” and “meet the Lord in the air” does not mean we will suddenly disappear to heaven.

If you were coming to stay at my house as a guest, you might call me ahead of time and tell me you’re on your way. I would respond, “Great! See you soon! I’ll meet you at the door.” When I say, “I’ll meet you…” that does not mean you’ll pick me up and take me away with you! Similarly, when the church “meets the Lord in the air,” that in no way means Christ is taking us away from earth. Rather, it means he’s coming to earth! Jesus Christ is coming in power to reign over his creation, and every single Christian – dead or alive – will be caught up into that powerful coming as we welcome him and reign alongside him as his people (2 Tim. 2:11-13, Rev. 20:4).

4. Matthew 24:36-41 is not about a rapture.

Here’s what Jesus tells his disciples (emphasis added):

³⁶ “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³⁷ As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸ For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; ³⁹ and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰ Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

Some interpret this passage as a clear reference to the rapture. They point to the fact that some people are “taken” and others are left. If we read carefully, we will see that this is not at all about the rapture.

Look again at v. 39 (emphasis added):

³⁹ and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

Jesus says that his future coming will be like the Flood of Noah’s day. God’s judgment will come and “take” people “away”. This means that if we read the passage in proper context, of the men in the field and the women at the handmill, the ones who are “taken” are not the righteous believers. They are the wicked unbelievers. The ones “left” on earth with Jesus are the righteous, while the wicked are “taken” and cast into eternal judgment. As Jesus says in the next chapter, “Then they [the wicked] will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life” (Matt. 25:46). To read this text as a reference to the rapture is to turn it on its head and misunderstand it completely.

Conclusion

So, will there be a rapture? Yes, but not the way it's popularly explained. For many Americans today, “the rapture” has come to refer to something that the Bible never describes. And it's come to refer to something that Christians for 1,800 years of church history had never heard of until the past couple of centuries. These popular misinterpretations have caused a lot of unnecessary anxiety, like the young mother I described earlier. Understood rightly, we see that 1 Thessalonians 4 describes the single, future, glorious return of Jesus to be with his people forever. That should comfort us, and the Bible says so.

“He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20).