Will There Be a Rapture?

by Sebastian R Fama

Will there be a Rapture? Certainly not in the manner envisioned by some of our Protestant friends. The Bible is clear as it rules out such an occurrence. While there are several different theories as to how events would unfold none of them can be supported by the Word of God.

One thing they all have in common is the idea that Jesus will come back and all true believers will meet him in the sky and then be whisked off to heaven. Non-believers will be left on the earth. Here is why they are wrong:

Jesus will be coming back to earth one more time not two. The Rapture requires a second coming, (the Rapture) and a third coming (the end of the world). Some try to get past this by claiming that the Rapture is not the Second Coming because we meet Jesus in the air and not on the earth. But the verses used to support the Rapture such as 1 Thessalonians 4:15 speak of it as “the coming”, which indicates that it is a coming and a singular event.1 Thessalonians 4:15: “For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.”

Jesus must stay in heaven until that time. (That leaves no time for the Rapture before the end of the world)Acts 3:19-21: “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from old.”

When He comes, He will be coming all the way down to the earth. (Not hovering in the air)Acts 1:9-11: “Two men stood by them in white robes, and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go…”

When He comes, He will be coming to judge the living and the dead. (That would leave no one on earth)Matthew 25:31-46: “When the Son of man comes in His glory, and all the angels with him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and He will place the sheep at His right hand, but the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at His right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you’…Then He will say to those at His left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’…And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”