A Few Words on the Rapture

This week, I preached on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. I argued in my sermon that this passage is about the final coming of Jesus immediately before the final judgement and consummation of all things. In other words, I argued that it was not about a rapture of believers before a period of tribulation that preceded Jesus’ final coming.

However, because a sermon is not necessarily the place to get into the exegetical minutia of every theological disagreement, I did not address the two other passages that proponents of the pretribulation rapture turn to. But because I know my position will be different than what many of you have heard, I want to explore it a bit further here.

With regard to the rapture, theologian Michael Vlatch lists John 14:1-3 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-58 as the other two passages which speak directly about it in his article on that subject.[1] Having already looked at 1 Thessalonians 4 on Sunday, let us turn our attention to these two passages in turn.

John 14:1-3

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. ² In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

This passage is part of Jesus’ upper-room discourse to His disciples before He is crucified. In it, He comforts them that, though He is going away, He will one day return to be with them. The pretribulational rapture view takes His statement in verse 3, “I will come again and will take you to myself” as a promise to rapture the church to be with Him in heaven.

This interpretation is plausible, but I do not think it is by any means necessary and final resurrection view also fits this text. How I understand it is that Christ is even now preparing the New Heavens and the New Earth for His people and when He comes again He resurrects them to be with Him in that renewed creation forever.

Simply put, I do not think this text is specific enough to be determinative. It says nothing concerning the timing Christ’s coming related to other events and is easily understood if the being taken to be with Jesus is simply the resurrection before the final judgement.

1 Corinthians 15:51-58

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” ⁵⁵ “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Unlike the previous passage, this one is much more specific in its language about the resurrection. It clearly teaches that all believers – dead and alive – will be glorified in a moment and raised into immortality and imperishability.

Also unlike the previous passage, Paul here tells us when this will occur, namely, when certain Old Testament prophecies are fulfilled. Or, to but it another way, when this occurs then those prophecies will be fulfilled, namely, Isaiah 25:8 and Hosea 13:14.

Of these Hosea 13:14 is not quoted anywhere else in the New Testament and only possibly alluded to in Revelation 6:8. However, Isaiah 25:8 is clearly alluded to at least twice in Revelation, in 7:17 and 21:4 (also potentially in 20:14). The full text of Isaiah 25:8 is,

He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.

Paul quotes from the first line of the verse to make the point that when the resurrection happens, death will be finally destroyed (see 1 Cor. 15:25). John alludes to the second line of the verse in Revelation 7:17 and includes the first line as well in 21:4,

Isa. 25:8b “the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces.”
Rev. 7:17 “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Rev. 21:4 “[God] will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.”

Revelation 21:4 is particularly useful, because there John is describing the New Heavens and the New Earth. He is describing the state of the church in the final consummation.

Therefore, since Paul identifies the resurrection with the fulfillment of Isaiah 25:8 (when…then), and since John interprets Isaiah 25:8 in terms of the final consummation, then we should view the resurrection of believers as happening at the beginning of the consummation of all things and not separated by a time of tribulation (or a millennium, but that is another matter!).

Revelation 3:10

One final verse, not listed by Vlatch but often used in support of a pretribulational rapture, is Revelation 3:10. In that verse, Christ promises the church in Philadelphia,

Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.

Philadelphia is one of only two faithful churches in the seven addressed in Revelation 2-3. Proponents of the pretribulation rapture interpretation see this as a promise to take away the faithful so that they will not undergo the trial that is coming upon the world, usually identified with a seven year period of tribulation.

However, three considerations lead me to a different interpretation:

First, in Revelation, tribulation is not a future reality but a present reality. John opens up his book, writing to Christians in the first century, identifying himself as a “partner in the tribulation” (Rev. 1:9).

Second, a promise to remove faithful believers before tribulation in 3:10 would be very odd considering God makes a very different sort of promise to the other faithful church, the church of Smyrna, in Revelation 2:10,

Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Why would God instruct one faithful church to endure testing and tribulation unto death, but to another he promises that they will be taken out of it?

The answer to that is in the third consideration, namely, that the langue of “kept from” should not be understood as “physically taken out of” but “spiritually protected from.” The only other time it is used in the New Testament (tēreō + ek) is in John 17:7, Jesus’ high priestly prayer for His disciples. There He prays for them,

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

Here the language of being “kept from” is explicitly not a reference to physical removal, but to spiritual protection.

Theological Triage

As I said in my sermon, I do not think a position on the “rapture” should be one which Christians divide over. It is not a first-tier issue, nor even a second-tier. One’s position on it does not undermine or change one’s doctrine of God, doctrine of Christ, doctrine of salvation, etc. So, we can disagree on this but remain united in matters of first importance.

That does not mean we should not pursue the truth and seek to understand the Bible as best we can. We all ought to plunge into God’s word as deep as we can with the abilities He has given us. But it does mean we hold our conclusions in a certain light and make one’s position on this a barrier to Christian fellowship.

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[1] “Biblical Evidences for a Pretribulational Rapture”(https://www.biblebb.com/files/rapture.htm).