To begin with….What is the rapture, and what is the scriptural evidence for it?

According to an e-article in Magazine Biola:  “The rapture is the doctrine that at the return of Christ, all believers will be caught up (i.e., “raptured”) to meet the Lord in the air. The bodies of dead believers will be resurrected, and all believers, living and dead, will be glorified. It is taught explicitly in 1 Thessalonians 4:15–17 and more or less implicitly in 1 Corinthians 15:51–55 and John 14:2. Other passages, such as Matthew 24:31; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; and Revelation 14:14–16 are debated.”

“There are three main views of the timing of the rapture: pretribulation, posttribulation, and prewrath…The pretribulation view teaches that God will rapture the church before the final seven years of this age (often called the 70th week of Daniel, from Daniel 9:27, or the tribulation). According to this view, this entire time period is characterized by God’s wrath. It depends in part on making a distinction between the coming of Christ to rapture the church and the coming of Christ to return to earth to reign. Posttribulationism teaches that the church will be raptured at the very end of the age, when Christ returns to reign. The church will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and immediately return to earth with him. The prewrath view teaches that the wrath of God is poured out sometime in the final three and a half years before the end of the age, after the start of the final persecution by Antichrist. The church is raptured immediately before God’s wrath is poured out, so, like pretribulationism, a distinction is made between the coming of Christ to rapture the church and the final coming to earth, but unlike pretribulationism, the church will experience the final persecution by Antichrist.”¹

Author and pastor, Mark Hitchcock, adds two additional views of the rapture timing:  (1) the Partial Revelation Rapture View (“…only faithful, devoted believers who are watching for Christ’s return will be raptured to heaven before the Tribulation.  The rest of the believers will enter the Tribulation and be caught up during subsequent raptures throughout those dreadful days.”)²; (2) the Mid-Tribulation Rapture View (“…Christ will rapture His church at the midpoint of the Tribulation.  Believers will have to endure the first half of the seven-year Tribulation. Mid-Tribulationists maintain that the last half of the Tribulation is the time when God will pour out His wrath on the world.”)³

Hitchcock also provides further clarification on the Pre-Wrath View as follows:  “…the Rapture will occur about three-fourth (five and a half years) of the way through the Tribulation.  According to this view, the catastrophes in the first three-fourths of the Tribulation are the result of the wrath of man and the wrath of satan, not the wrath of God.”⁴

And finally, Hitchcock, in a book that was co-authored with Ed Hindson, refers to the Preterist and Minimalist views.  The Preterist view holds that “the rapture occurred in the first century.”⁵  And the Minimalists espouse the view that “…the rapture is coming but we don’t know when…Some holding this view jokingly suggest they are Pan-tribulationists or Pan-millenialists,” saying it will all pan out in the end…”⁶ 😊

So after boggling our minds with the different alternatives, is the Rapture technically feasible and has the technology come of age, i.e., could it happen…momentarily? Before we have time to finish blinking?

I have been watching movies about the rapture for years.  In one movie, the rapture scene depicted rapidly-rising computer-generated CGI sunbursts overlaid on video frames of a movie setting in which selective actors had been removed…leaving neatly folded clothes in place of the “raptured” people.  I had never really thought about it.  But maybe we won’t need our clothes when we are raptured.  Or maybe we somehow acquire white robes of righteousness en route (Is 61:10)? 😊

But we can find an entire body of Christian literature which pronounces the whole rapture concept to be flawed, if not preposterous:  “The word Rapture does not appear in the Bible. (The word was actually derived from the 4^th century Latin translation of the Greek New Testament and) the Latin word rapare which means “seize”, “snatch” or “take away.” The term Rapture is used to refer to the faithful believers being taken up to meet Christ in the air…Questions about the details and timing of the Rapture are not answered in the Bible. The lack of details has led to different theories and interpretations…There are many other New Testament passages describing the resurrection of the dead and the gathering in of the faithful when Jesus comes again (Matthew 16:27, 24:30-31, 25:31-32, 26:64, Mark 12:18-27, 13:26-27, Luke 17:26-35, John 5:21, 5:28-29, 1 Corinthians 4:5, 6:14, 15:12-32, Philippians 3:20-21, Colossians 3:4, 2 Peter 3:8-10, Revelation 1:7). These other passages use various descriptions and images to describe wondrous events that we cannot fully understand (1 Corinthians 2:6-10, 13:9-12). None of these other passages use the image of the faithful being caught up in the clouds and meeting the Lord in the air, nor did Paul use that description in his later writings. Therefore, most Christians do not place any great significance on the particular imagery Paul used in 1 Thessalonians.”⁷

Well, whether we buy into the rapture concept or not, 1 Thessalonians details something wonderfully supernatural, defying all human logic, that was foreseen and detailed by the apostle Paul.  And it was to be gloriously triggered when Jesus returned to planet earth.  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. Therefore encourage one another with these words.  1 Thessalonians 4:16-18

To me, defying the natural law of gravity, while possibly bridging space time continuums in the process, sounds like a lot of fun.  And evidently I’m not alone in this belief.  Aviation industry aside, thousands of thrill seekers search worldwide for that personal airborne sensation via the most extreme theme park ride, the most dangerous bungie jump, or the heady pursuits of hang-gliding/parasailing/ski jumping, etc.  And there are at least 2,761 people who seriously embraced the concept of leaving planet earth entirely behind:  “Mars One selected a second-round pool of astronaut candidates in 2013. Mars One received interest from over 200,000 applicants for the first round. However, as candidate Joseph Roche asserted, the number of initial applicants who completed the application process was only 2,761, which Mars One later confirmed via YouTube video.”⁸

Many commentators feel that the occurrence of the rapture is dependent on the fulfillment of a large series of precursor events on the prophetic timelines.  Others say that “rapture zero hour” is an independent variable and could occur at any time.

I think God wanted us to have the mindset that we could go at any time.  But one could argue that the whole concept of sudden death meets that criterion.  So for those, like me, who would say of the Rapture, “but what a way to go!”—how does it differ from, e.g., a bad auto accident in which a person is here one second and gone the next?  The rapture involves a multitude…and a filter.  It’s an instantaneous mass selection of Jesus followers.  When it’s done, the world will know who was following Jesus and who wasn’t.  Seems highly exclusionary.  But the world will also witness one of the most radically supernatural events of all time—and the “left-behinders” will subsequently be given a chance to follow Jesus as well.  Therefore, it’s a major evangelical event that God will stage for all of humanity.  Why?  Because He wants everyone to be saved and to have enduringly eternal fellowship with Him  (2 Peter 3:9). It’s more than a test of “are we Christians constantly living in a perpetual state of rapture readiness?”  It’s a test of “are we going to believe – that God exists, that He’s incomprehensively awesome, and that He totally has the timeless technology in hand.”   

Could it happen any second?  Sure, because the timing is totally up to God.  (Mark 13:32)

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¹Magazine Biola:  /article/12-spring/what-is-the-rapture-and-when-will-it-happen/

²Mark L. Hitchcock, Could the Rapture Happen Today? (Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah Publishers, Inc., 2005), 46.

³Ibid., 45.

⁴Ibid., 48.

⁵Mark Hitchcock and Edward Hindson, Can We Still Believe in the Rapture? (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 2018), 16.

⁶Ibid., 20.

⁷Christian Bible Reference website:  /faq_rapture.htm

⁸Wiki website:  /wiki/Mars_One