I’ve written about the Biblical theology of the end times, technically known as eschatology, in the past. In fact, if you look back at my blog, you’ll find that I used to write a lot about eschatology. I was an avid reader of the “Left Behind” series in my 20s and a 1970s comic book adaptation of The Revelation before that. As I’ve become more deeply immersed in the Bible and the context of these teachings, however, I’ve come to the conclusion that we get some big things wrong.
A lot of the confusion about the Bible’s end-time teachings is due to the fact that not many people really sit down and read the Bible. There is a tendency to take the word of other people for what is in the Bible rather than seeing for ourselves.
For example, take the subject of implanted microchips. (Please!) A great many people think the Bible expressly teaches that people in the latter days will be forced to have microchips implanted in their bodies, and through this biocomputer connection, the government will control all buying and selling. The Bible does not say this.
Here’s what the Bible says, from Revelation 13:16-17:
It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
That’s all it says on the subject. It says that people will be forced to get a “mark,” not an implant. What is being referred to here could be the scar that is left after an implant is inserted, or it could be a tattoo featuring barbed wire or Chinese characters. We don’t know. We only have theories, and the idea that this passage refers to microchips is that: a theory.
It gets more absurd when some people label anything they don’t like as the “Mark of the Beast,” which is referenced in the verse immediately following the passage above. In recent years, we have seen some Christians call everything from masks to vaccines marks of the beast. I have the distinction of having been thrown out of a barber chair mid-haircut by a woman who would not accept even mild criticism of the idea that the COVID vaccine was not a precursor to the mark of the beast, but the truth is that the Bible tells us that the mark of the beast is a mark on the right hand or forehead. Vaccines and masks don’t fit the bill.
We make a similar leap of faith and logic when it comes to the rapture. The word “rapture” does not appear in the English-language New Testament. In fact, the concept of the rapture is limited to a few verses, such as 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-52. The Book of Revelation, closely associated with end-times theology, omits the rapture entirely. The paucity of passages discussing the rapture may be a clue that the event should not be central to Christian theology, although it certainly seems to be today.
The term “rapture” comes from the Greek word that is translated as “caught up” in the 1 Thessalonians passage. The Bible does teach the basic tenet of the concept that Christian believers will meet Jesus in the air when he returns, but the devil, as they say, is in the details.
There are three different theories about when the rapture takes place, although evangelical Christianity (of which I am a part) seems to have settled on one as doctrine. To make a long story short, Jesus, the prophet Daniel, and John the Apostle all talk about a period of “tribulation” that apparently lasts seven years. Various theologians take different views on whether the rapture and return of Jesus will take place at the beginning of the tribulation, after it, or somewhere in the middle.
In their 1999 book, “Are We Living in the End Times?” Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, the authors of the “Left Behind” series, took the view that the rapture would occur in two phases: the rapture of believers before the tribulation and the second coming of Jesus. The pair give several reasons for this view, which is not explicit in Scripture, but it boils down to several verses such as Revelation 3:10, 1 Thessalonians 1:10, and 1 Thessalonians 5:9, as well as their interpretation that the church is absent from chapters four through 18 of Revelation. This seems to be the standard view throughout much of the evangelical world today, even though, as the authors admit, the pre-tribulation (pre-trib) rapture theory only dates back to the 1700s.
But it is entirely possible that pre-tribulation rapture adherents are misunderstanding these verses. Their context is not discussions of the end times, and they can be easily understood as verses that promise God’s deliverance of believers from eternal damnation, not the period of tribulation. The assumption that Christians won’t endure worldly trials and tribulation is easily undercut by real life, as well as the words of Jesus in John 16:33, when he said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Similarly, there is no scripture that tells us that the rapture and the second coming will be at different times. Paul’s teaching in the verses cited earlier seems to point to a single event.
Despite this, LaHaye and Jenkins wrote, “Post-Tribs believe in a yo-yo type of rapture (snatched up to come right back down).”
When I read that decades ago, it made sense despite the very thin biblical case for a pre-tribulation rapture. But then, I learned a couple of things that changed my view.
Over the past year or so, I became acquainted with the “Holy Post” podcast, featuring Phil Vischer, creator of “Veggie Tales.” The podcast deals with politics and culture from a Christian perspective and is a breath of fresh air in a country where “Christian” often means “MAGA.” That isn’t to say that “Holy Post” is Democrat or progressive. It isn’t, but they call balls and strikes objectively for both teams. As someone once pointed out, however, kids raised on “Veggie Tales” and the Christian virtues of love and mercy are probably among the young voters who rejected MAGA.
Anyway, Skye Jethani, one of the hosts of “Holy Post,” has an interesting video about the rapture. Jethani, a Protestant pastor ordained by the Christian and Missionary Alliance, points out that other popular verses in which Jesus prophesied that some people would be “taken” and others “left” (Matthew 24:40-41, Luke 17:34-35) are not about the rapture at all. In context, it is clear that the passages refer to judgment like the “days of Noah” (Matthew 24:37-39) in which Noah and his family were left alive while others were taken to death and judgment. Jesus makes this clear in Luke 17:37 when he says those who disappear have gone to where the dead are taken.
But the really interesting part of the video is when Jethani discusses the ancient custom of parousia. This term is sometimes associated with the second coming of Christ, but in the ancient world it had a particular meaning and custom. The word “parousia” refers to a royal visit by a monarch, and it was often customary for the people of a city to meet the royal visitor outside the gates and escort him back inside. This custom would have been familiar to the original readers of New Testament books.
In this context, the “yo-yo” rapture makes sense. Christians meet Christ in the air at his return, and then escort him back to earth. Jethani adds more support for his view, and I recommend watching the whole video, but the important concept to note is that biblical context undermines support for pre-trib rapture theory.
Further, Jesus seems to explicitly state that the church will be present during the end times and not “raptured out.” In Matthew 24, Christ foretold persecution of believers (v. 9-3), and said, “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened” (v. 22).
This all might be very inside-baseball and theoretical if it weren’t for the fact that these beliefs are being trotted out as mainstream Christian doctrine when they aren’t. At least they aren’t outside the American evangelical church. Even worse, some Christians are celebrating events like the Iran War as an indication that the rapture is about to occur, which, aside from probably being bad theology, is reprehensible behavior when innocent people are suffering and dying. That definitely is not Christlike behavior.
Going further, if Christians assume that they’ll be “raptured out” before the tribulation and that turns out not to be the case, they won’t be equipped to deal with the horrors of the end times. At that point, bad theology about the rapture could become a salvation issue.
In Bible days, the ancient Israelites had a lot of misinterpretations about what to look for in a messiah. Many expected a military and political leader to liberate them from Roman oppression and restore Israel’s independence. I think that the modern Christian church is making similar mistakes by reading our own biases, assumptions, and interpretations into biblical text.
If we were meant to have all the answers about the end times, God would have included more specific verses in the Bible. As it is, speculation can be interesting (and almost unavoidable), but being dogmatic about spiritual ideas that are far from certain can be dangerous.
What Jesus told us to do was to spread the Gospel and teach people to obey his commands, the greatest of which were (“anyone, anyone?”) to love God and love your neighbors, including enemies who might or might not be your neighbor.
We really don’t know when the rapture will occur, either in a point of time or in relation to the Great Tribulation, but the best bet is to be doing what Jesus told us to when he does come back.
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