The Return of Christ

What Is the Rapture?

The rapture refers to believers being caught up to meet the Lord, from Paul's words in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. Christians sincerely differ on what this means. Some, especially in certain Protestant traditions, expect a distinct rapture separated in time from the final coming. Others, including most of the historic church, understand it as one aspect of the single, glorious return of Christ. Both hold that the living and the dead in Christ will be gathered to him. The Living Bread describes the views fairly and does not declare a winner.

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.1 Thessalonians 4:17 (KJV)

Where the word comes from

The word rapture does not appear in most English Bibles, but the idea it names comes straight from Scripture. Paul was writing to grieving Christians in Thessalonica who feared that believers who had died would miss the Lord's return. To comfort them, he described what would happen when Christ comes:

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (KJV)

The Latin translation of caught up is rapturo, and from it comes the English word rapture. Paul's aim was pastoral and plain: the dead in Christ are not forgotten. When the Lord descends, they rise first, and then the living are gathered with them, and all are forever with the Lord. On that much, every Christian agrees. The living and the dead who belong to Christ will be brought together to meet him, and death will not have separated them from him or from one another.

Where sincere Christians differ

The disagreement is not about whether believers will be caught up to Christ, but about when it happens in relation to the rest of the end. Here faithful Christians genuinely and sincerely differ, and have for a long time. The Living Bread is non-denominational, so its task here is to describe the main views fairly, not to crown one.

One view, common in many evangelical and especially dispensational Protestant circles over the last two centuries, expects a distinct rapture: a moment when Christ comes for his church and catches believers up, understood as an event that can be separated in time from his final, visible coming to the earth. Within this view Christians further differ over its timing in relation to a period of tribulation, whether before it, during it, or after it. This reading has shaped a great deal of popular Christian writing and imagination.

The other and older view, held across the Catholic, Orthodox, and much of the Protestant world, understands the catching up of 1 Thessalonians 4 not as a separate event but as one aspect of the single, unified return of Christ. On this reading, the descent of the Lord, the resurrection of the dead, the gathering of the living, and the final coming are all facets of one great day. The saints go out to meet the returning King, as a city would go out to welcome an arriving ruler, and accompany him. There are not two comings of Christ beyond the first, only the one glorious appearing the creeds confess.

Reading the same texts honestly

Both sides are trying to be faithful to the same Bible. Those who expect a distinct rapture point to Jesus' words about one being taken and another left, and to Paul's language of a mystery, a sudden change in the twinkling of an eye. Those who hold to a single coming point out that Paul's own image in 1 Thessalonians 4 is full of public, unmistakable signs, a shout, the voice of an archangel, the trumpet of God, which do not sound like a secret event, and that the New Testament everywhere speaks of one appearing of Christ in glory.

It is honest to admit that the Bible does not lay out a detailed timetable, and that good and prayerful readers have landed in different places. This is one of the secondary matters over which the church has room to disagree without breaking fellowship. It is not among the things the creeds define, and it has never been a test of whether someone belongs to Christ.

It also helps to know a little history, held lightly. The expectation of a distinct rapture, separated in time from the final coming, became widespread mainly over the last two centuries, especially through certain streams of English and American evangelicalism, and it has been carried far by popular books and films. That does not make it wrong; ideas are not judged by their age. But it does mean that for most of church history the great body of Christians read the catching up of believers as part of the one return of Christ, and many still do. Knowing this keeps the conversation humble on every side. No one holding either view is departing from the historic faith, and no one is entitled to treat their reading of the timing as the boundary of true belief.

What both views hold together

Underneath the disagreement lies a large and precious agreement, and it is worth dwelling on, because it is the part that actually comforts. Every Christian view of the rapture affirms that Jesus is coming, that believers who have died are safe with him and will rise, that those alive at his coming will be gathered to him, and that the whole family of God, living and dead, will be united with the Lord forever. Paul ends his teaching not with a chart but with a command: wherefore comfort one another with these words.

That was the whole point. The Thessalonians were not asking for a sequence of end-time events; they were weeping over their dead. Paul's answer was that no one who belongs to Christ is lost to him, not even in death, and that a reunion is coming that nothing can undo. Whatever a believer concludes about the timing, that comfort is the heart of the matter, and it belongs to them in full.

Holding it in good faith

So what should a Christian do with the question of the rapture? First, hold the certainties firmly: Christ will come, the dead in Christ will rise, and all his people will be gathered to him forever. Second, hold the details humbly. If you have come to a settled view, hold it with grace toward those who see it differently, remembering that some of the most faithful Christians who ever lived have stood on the other side.

The Living Bread will not tell you that you must expect a distinct rapture, nor that you must reject it. These are matters over which sincere believers disagree, and this platform describes rather than dictates. What it will say, with the whole church, is this: be ready. The one thing every view agrees you must do is be prepared to meet the Lord, whenever and however he comes. That readiness is not about cracking a code. It is about belonging to Christ.

A note on the end times: on the questions where sincere Christians differ, chiefly the rapture, the millennium, and the timing and details of Christ's return, this platform is non-denominational and describes the main views fairly rather than declaring a winner. What all Christians share and hold as certain is this: Christ will return, the dead will be raised, there will be a judgment, and God will make all things new. We anchor on that, and hold the rest in peace.

Related: The promise of his return · The resurrection and the last judgment · The millennium explained · The Return of Christ