Rapture


The Rapture is an eschatological concept held by some Christians, particularly those of American evangelicalism, consisting of an event when all dead Christian believers will be resurrected and, joined with Christians who are still alive, together will rise "in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air."
Many different timelines have been asserted which tie to ideas of a seven-year Great Tribulation and to a thousand year age of Messianic rule .
The origin of the term extends from the First Epistle to the Thessalonians in the Bible, which uses the Greek word , meaning "to snatch away" or "to seize". The idea of a rapture as it is defined in dispensational premillennialism is not found in historic Christianity and is a relatively recent doctrine originating from the 1830s.
Most Christian denominations, and the numerically largest, do not subscribe to rapture theology and have a different interpretation of the aerial gathering described in 1 Thessalonians 4. They do not use rapture as a specific theological term, nor do they generally subscribe to the dispensational theology associated with its use. Instead they typically interpret rapture in the sense of the elect gathering with Christ in Heaven directly after the Second Coming and reject outright the idea that a large portion of humanity will be left behind on earth for an extended tribulation period after the events of 1 Thessalonians 4:17.

Etymology

Rapture is derived from Middle French rapture, via the Medieval Latin raptura, which derives from the Latin raptus.

Greek

The Koine Greek of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 uses the verb form ἁρπαγησόμεθα, which means "we shall be caught up" or "we shall be taken away". The dictionary form of this Greek verb is . This use is also seen in such texts as Acts 8:39, 2 Corinthians 12:2–4, and Revelation 12:5. Linguist, Dr. Douglas Hamp, notes that Greek scholar Spiros Zodhiates lists as the first-person plural future passive indicative of the Greek stem, harpagē, “the act of plundering, plunder, spoil.” The future passive indicative of harpázō can be viewed at verbix.com: ἁρπασθησόμεθα. GS724 harpagē means: 1. the act of plundering, robbery; 2. plunder, spoil. When the rapture and the "restoration of all things" are viewed as simultaneous events then it makes sense why Paul would use "shall be plundered" to match the verbiage of the distortion of the Earth described in Isaiah 24:3, "The land shall be entirely emptied and utterly plundered...".

Latin

The Latin Vulgate translates the Greek ἁρπαγησόμεθα as wikt:rapiemur meaning "we will be caught up" or "we will be taken away" from the Latin verb rapio meaning "to catch up" or "take away".

English

English translations of the Bible have translated 1 Thessalonians 4:17 in various ways:
A pretribulational rapture view is most commonly found among American Fundamentalist Baptists, Bible churches, Brethren churches, certain Methodist denominations, Pentecostals, non-denominational evangelicals, and various other evangelical groups.
The Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Churches, the Anglican Communion, and Reformed denominations have no tradition of a preliminary return of Christ. The Eastern Orthodox Church, for example, favors the amillennial interpretation of prophetic Scriptures and thus rejects a preliminary, premillennial return. Most Methodists do not adhere to the dispensationalist view of the rapture.

Aquinas and Augustine of Hippo

In his Compendium Theologiae, Thomas Aquinas quotes another Doctor of the Church, St Augustine, to explain that no one is spared death and the separation of the soul from the body. The rapture of the Church, on the other hand, concerns the death of the faithful and their immediate resurrection of the flesh immediately after death:

Views

One or two events

Most premillennialists distinguish the Rapture and the Second Coming as separate events. Some dispensational premillennialists hold the return of Christ to be two distinct events. According to this view, 1 Thessalonians 4:15–17 is a description of a preliminary event to the return described in Matthew 24:29–31. Although both describe a coming of Jesus, these are seen to be different events. The first event is a coming where the saved are to be 'caught up,' whence the term "rapture" is taken. The second event is described as the second coming. The majority of dispensationalists hold that the first event precedes the period of tribulation, even if not immediately. Dispensationalists distinguish these events as a result of their own literal understanding of Paul's words.
Amillennialists deny the interpretation of a literal thousand-year earthly rule of Christ. There is considerable overlap in the beliefs of amillennialists, postmillennialists, and historic premillennialists with those who hold that the return of Christ will be a single, public event.
Some proponents believe the doctrine of amillennialism originated with Alexandrian scholars such as Clement and Origen and later became Catholic dogma through Augustine.

Destination

Dispensationalists see the immediate destination of the raptured Christians as being Heaven. Catholic commentators, such as , identify the destination of the 1 Thessalonians 4:17 gathering as Heaven.
While Anglicans have many views, some Anglican commentators, such as N. T. Wright, identify the destination as a specific place on Earth. This interpretation may sometimes be connected to Christian environmentalist concerns.

Views of eschatological timing

There are numerous views regarding the timing of the Rapture. Some maintain that Matthew 24:37–40 refers to the Rapture, pointing out similarities between the two texts, indicating that the Rapture would occur at the parousia of the Lord. Others point out that neither church nor rapture occur in Matthew 24 and there are significant differences between Matthew 24:37–40 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18. As a result, these two texts receive the overwhelming focus within discussions about the Rapture's timing. The two texts are as follows:
1 Thessalonians 4:15–17 ASVMatthew 24:37–40 ASV
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. 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. 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.And as were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of man. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and they knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall be the coming of the Son of man. Then shall two men be in the field; one is taken, and one is left.

Image:Millennial views.svg|right|thumb|Comparison of Christian millennial interpretations, including premillennialist, postmillennialist, and amillennialist viewpoints
In the amillennial and postmillennial views there are no distinctions in the timing of the Rapture. These views regard that the Rapture, as it is described in 1 Thessalonians 4:15–17, would be identical to the Second Coming of Jesus as described in Matthew 24:29–31 after the spiritual/symbolic millennium.
In the premillennial view, the Rapture would be before a literal, earthly millennium. Within premillennialism, the pretribulation position distinguishes between the Rapture and the Second Coming as two different events. There are also other positions within premillennialism that differ with regard to the timing of the Rapture.

Premillennialist views

In the earliest days of the church, chiliastic teaching was the dominant view. Eusebius wrote, "To these belong his statement that there will be a period of some thousand years after the resurrection of the dead, and that the kingdom of Christ will be set up in the material form on this very earth. But it was due to him that so many of the Church Fathers after him adopted a like opinion, urging in their own support the antiquity of the man; as for instance Irenaeus and anyone else that may have proclaimed similar views."
The 19th-century scholar Schaff notes that, "The most striking point in the eschatology of the ante-Nicene age is the prominent chiliasm, or millennarianism, that is the belief of a visible reign of Christ in glory on earth with the risen saints for a thousand years, before the general resurrection and judgment."
Over time, however, a clash surfaced between two schools of interpretation, the Antiochene and Alexandrian schools. The Alexandrian school's roots can be traced back to the influence of Philo, a Hellenized Jew who sought to reconcile God's veracity with what he thought were errors in the Tanakh. Alexandrian theologians viewed the Millennium as a symbolic reign of Christ from Heaven. Through the influence of Origen and Augustine—students of the Alexandrian school—allegorical interpretation rose to prominence, and its eschatology became the majority view for more than a thousand years. As a reaction to the rise of allegorical interpretation the Antiochene school insisted on a literal hermeneutic. but did little to counter the Alexandrian's symbolic Millennium.
In the twelfth century futurism became prominent again when Joachim of Fiore wrote a commentary on Revelation and insisted that the end was near and taught that God would restore the earth, the Jews would be converted, and the Millennium would take place on earth. His teaching influenced much of Europe.
Though the Catholic Church does not generally regard Biblical prophecy in texts such as Daniel and Revelation as strictly future-based, in 1590 Francisco Ribera, a Catholic Jesuit, taught futurism. He also taught that a gathering-of-the-elect event would happen 45 days before the end of a 3.5-year tribulation.
The concept of the rapture, in connection with premillennialism, was expressed by the 17th-century American Puritans Increase Mather and Cotton Mather. They held to the idea that believers would be caught up in the air, followed by judgments on earth, and then the millennium.
Other 17th-century expressions of the rapture are found in the works of Robert Maton, Nathaniel Holmes, John Browne, Thomas Vincent, Henry Danvers, and William Sherwin.
The term rapture was used by Philip Doddridge and John Gill in their New Testament commentaries, with the idea that believers would be caught up prior to judgment on earth and Jesus' second coming.
An 1828 edition of Matthew Henry's An Exposition of the Old and New Testament uses the word "rapture" in explicating 1 Thessalonians 4:17.
Although not using the term "rapture", the idea was more fully developed by Edward Irving. In 1825, Irving directed his attention to the study of prophecy and eventually accepted the one-man Antichrist idea of James Henthorn Todd, Samuel Roffey Maitland, Robert Bellarmine, and Francisco Ribera, yet he went a step further. Irving began to teach the idea of a two-phase return of Christ, the first phase being a secret rapture prior to the rise of the Antichrist. Edward Miller described Irving's teaching like this: "There are three gatherings: – First, of the first-fruits of the harvest, the wise virgins who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth; next, the abundant harvest gathered afterwards by God; and lastly, the assembling of the wicked for punishment."