Rapture! Whoo Hooo!

It's an old, worn-out argument. "The word Rapture does not occur in the bible*." Well neither does the word "Bible." Or "Trinity." Yet these words have meaning for Christians.

I'm working without my notes, but the Greek word "harpazo" does occur. It means "snatched up." In Latin, this word is rendered "rapare". Hence the word "rapture." News Flash... Jesus did not speak King James English (or NIV).

Soooo... what's so bad about talking about the rapture?

Some would say it is divisive; that such discussions destroy unity in the body of Christ. So be it. The Bible is full of references to the Rapture. Jesus himself talked about it (See Matthew 24). And we are commanded to talk about it!

What? Commanded? I thought that such talk was divisive.

Read the Bible, please.

"Therefore encourage each other with these words."

in the full context:

According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 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 each other with these words.

I Thes 4:15-18

There are many reasons to support a Pre-tribulational rapture. But many Charismatics, rather than digging in the scriptures to learn about the eminent return of Christ, instead ridicule those who have the "blessed hope." I'm sorry, the "blessed hope" is in the scriptures too. Being ready for the thief-in-the-night-like return of Christ; being expectant to be "snatched away" (raptured) not only leads to right living, it is in full accord with the scriptures.

I too once bought the argument that it didn't make any difference and was divisive. Yes, the crucifixion of Christ is central to the gospel, but the early Christians were fixated on the soon return of Christ. Jesus spoke of it a lot.

The Charismatic argument takes the discussion off the table. "To bring the issue up is divisive to the body." Friend, that sort of control is the number one mark of a cult. Or to be kinder, it is "cult-like." DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!

This I'm-not-going-to-take-a theological-stand-nor-even-discuss-it viewpoint (Charismatics at one time were predominantly pre-trib) can probably traced to the influx of Catholics, with their amillenial baggage, into the Charismatic church. I'm not going to go into all the proofs, pre-trib/post-trib; there is plenty of that on the web. Here's a start.

But let me say that when you promote folks like Mike Bickle, who believes that the 5 foolish virgins who ran out of oil will be let in to heaven, you have a serious problem. The problem is made worse with inconsistent teaching, one thing one week, the other the next.

I'd love to defer to Mike Bickle, you know "God told him," but I'd rather defer to a more authoritative source: Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Hallelujah!

But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

“Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’

“But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don't know you.’

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

The door was shut.

As those in the prophetic movement like to say: "Hear the Word of the Lord."

Only this time, its for real.


Originally posted February 4, 2005

*actually the word "rapture" does occur in the Darby translation although not in this context. Let's never forget that NO ENGLISH words occurr in any of the original scriptures. Its time to leave intellectually dishonest (a.k.a. "stupid") arguments like this in the sandbox where they belong.