In my previous two posts (part of a small series of posts), I have been critiquing the incredibly popular but heavily flawed rapture theology of Left behind I continue that critique here. So, what follows is exactly that.
As you will remember, I have already pointed out the ways in which the Left Behind crew has twisted Matthew 24 and totally misinterpreted it. Of course, that is one of their foundational passages. There are, however, two more so-called foundational passages: 1 Thessalonians 4.16-18 and Revelation 4.1-2. What I want to do is put these passages in context for you and show you how the rapture theologians, one again, have twisted them to fit their agenda. I begin with 1 Thessalonians.
As I mentioned in my post “Meteora and Monasticism,” a few months ago my wife and I traveled to Turkey and Greece. Well, one of the other places that we visited was Thessaloniki. While there are few ancient ruins there to visit, one site stands out above all. This site is an ancient castle. Now, the castle is not from the times of Jesus or Paul, it is much later. However, when the castle was built, it was definitely built in the spirit of the earlier structures of the city that had been there. What I mean by this is that the castle was completely walled (that is, it had a wall all around the entire perimeter) and inside the walls is where the actual city was located. So, it was more than a castle; it was a walled city! So too, was the city in Paul’s day! This is important to know because when we read Thessalonians, we must keep this in mind.
Of course, the city was walled largely for protection purposes. It goes without saying that in the ancient world, entire cities were often attacked and plundered. So, Thessaloniki needed to protect itself. At one point in the wall there was located an enormous gate with towers near it that watchmen worked in. When rival armies or other important persons were approaching, such as a king or an emperor, these watchers would alert the city officials about it. In fact, there are a number of ancient documents that speak of the emperor visiting Thessaloniki. Here’s a brief picture of how that would have looked:
Imagine the watchmen sitting in the tower and all of a sudden a few delegates or forerunners approach the gate. Out of breath they say, “Hail, hail, make way, the Lord Caesar is coming.” In a frantic, the men alert the city officials and preparations for the emperor get underway. As the chariot approaches, the large entourage stirs up dust clouds and all of a sudden the watchmen toot their bugles and trumpets. Everyone inside (and outside) of the city knows what is going on. A few men strain to push the gates open and the town welcoming committee (yes, they had those) ran out and bowed down before the chariot and said something akin to, “Our Lord, we welcome you.” What happens next? They stand up and escort the emperor into the city.
Now, with the ancient context in mind, let’s read 1 Thess. 4.6-18 but as we do, take note of all the “emperor-like” language used: “For the Lord Himself will come down from Heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of an 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.”
Now, for many, when that is read, they automatically think: “rapture.” Yet, what is going on is no description of a rapture event. Instead, Paul, writing to people who lived in a walled city, is describing the return of Christ in terms of the arrival of the emperor—a scene the people could relate to! If you read closely, you will notice that a rapture-in-reverse takes place: Christ comes down (assumedly with the New Jerusalem). Now, just as the emperor’s chariot stirred up clouds of dust and the welcoming committee escorted him into the city, so will Christians go out and greet Jesus in the clouds. However, He will not take them up to the sky, instead, they will meet Him there and simply escort Him back down to earth where He will establish His throne and transform all that is in Him. You see, the chief reason Paul wrote his Thessalonian letters in the first place was to comfort believers who had actually thought they had been left behind; their friends and relatives had taken by death but they had not. Yet, Paul says that they need not worry because being left behind is not a bad, but rather a good thing; Christ will come down here and make His dwelling and in fact, you may even be one of those who get to go out and greet Him and escort Him back to the very earth that He will transform. Notice the comments in chapter 5 about not being “asleep” but instead being “awake and sober” at all times. Why? So that when Christ does come down, you will recognize Him and be able to welcome Him and give honor to Him.
So, once again, you can see how the Dispensationalists have totally ignored the context out of which Paul was writing and have instead, made up their own way of reading, understanding and interpreting such passages. Another place they do this is Revelation 4.1-2. There, John says, “After this, I looked and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’ At once, I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.”
Now, at first glance, this passage might seem like John was “raptured” but rest assured, he was not. What we have to keep in mind is that all throughout Revelation, John repeatedly tells his audience that all of what he has “seen” he has simply seen in a vision given to Him by God and God’s angel (as chapter 1 especially notes). Further, when John says, “I was in the Spirit” that is simply another way to say that the Spirit (e.g. God) is giving Him a vision (e.g. 1.10; 4.2). In short, John is not taking a literal journey into heaven; instead, He is describing what is being shown to him as God gives Him insight while he looks into the heavens, the skies. To put it differently, as some have noted, John did not get “beamed up” to heaven; instead, as he tells his audience at the beginning of his letter, while he was on the earthly island of Patmos (1.9), he received insight from a heavenly being!
My reason for writing this post, as well as the other ones before it, is to warn you against the incredibly popular but skewed teachings of Dispensationalism, especially Left Behind. While learning to read the Bible in context takes some work, in the end it is worth it because it helps us to get a truer and more Scriptural understanding of things. Sadly, those who teach and believe in a rapture come up short in this area. To arrive at such a teaching you have to not only overlook what Scripture actually says but twist it to fit your agenda. So, take this article as one of encouragement. If you are in the Christ, don’t fret about an end-time Armageddon (there will not be one, Christ has already won!), don’t worry about being left behind (you want to be—although, you don’t want to be taken) but rather learn to read the Scriptures as best you can and just live with the anticipation and excitement that, one day, you might just be one of those who gets to escort Christ and His heavenly entourage back to the earth that He will renew and transform! Praise God. Hallelujah.