Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

RAPTURE

The “catching up” (from Lat. raptio) of the saints to meet the Lord in the air, mentioned by Paul in 1 Thess. 4:17. Paul’s comments in 1 Thess. 4:14-18 are prompted by the expressions of excessive grief by some in the young congregation at the loss of loved ones. He comforts them by deepening their hope of resurrection, which he assures them will not disadvantage the deceased at all, but will mark the reunion of all believers and their permanent abiding with the Lord in resurrected glory.

Clement of Alexandria curiously referred Paul’s statements to the experience of the believer at the time of death, but the association with the Parousia is evident in the text and is recognized by the great majority of interpreters. In the 18th century J. N. Darby popularized, though evidently did not originate, the notion of a “secret rapture” to come without warning or accompaniment, leaving the world bereft of Christians to face the antichrist, seven years of tribulation, and the wrath of God. All this would precede Christ’s return to earth and the ensuing millennial reign. Darby’s understanding has become a hallmark of dispensational premillennialism.

Paul, however, apparently refers to the rapture again in 2 Thess. 2:1-2 as “our being gathered together with him” (cf. Matt. 13:30; 24:31), which he links to “the coming of Christ” and “the day of the Lord.” This means the rapture too awaits, as 2 Thess. 2:3 indicates, the coming “apostasy” or rebellion and the advent of the “man of lawlessness.” The rapture of the saints then is that aspect of the return of Christ which effects the gathering of all believers, those alive at that time and those who have gone before in death, to be with the Lord forever.

Bibliography. E. Best, The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians. BNTC 13 (Peabody, 1993); E. R. Sandeen, The Roots of Fundamentalism: British and American Millenarianism, 1800-1930 (Grand Rapids, 1978); G. Vos, The Pauline Eschatology (Grand Rapids, 1961).

Charles E. Hill

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

RAPTURE

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)