Midtribulationism

The rapture is an eschatological position held by some Christians, particularly those of American evangelicalism, consisting of an end-time event when all Christian believers who are alive, along with resurrected believers, will rise "in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." The origin of the term extends from Paul the Apostle's First Epistle to the Thessalonians in the Bible, in which he uses the Greek word ( grc, ἁρπάζω), meaning "to snatch away" or "to seize," and explains that believers in Jesus Christ would be snatched away from earth into the air.

The idea of a rapture as it is currently defined is not found in historic Christianity, and is a relatively recent doctrine. The term is used frequently among fundamentalist theologians in the United States. ''Rapture'' has also been used for a mystical union with God or for eternal life in Heaven.

This view of eschatology is referred to as premillennial dispensationalism, which is a form of futurism.

Differing viewpoints exist about the exact timing of the rapture and whether Christ's return would occur in one event or two. Pretribulationism distinguishes the rapture from the second coming of Jesus Christ mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew, 2 Thessalonians, and Revelation. This view holds that the rapture would precede the seven-year Tribulation, which would culminate in Christ's second coming and be followed by a thousand-year Messianic Kingdom. This theory grew out of the translations of the Bible that John Nelson Darby analyzed in 1833. Pretribulationism is the most widely held view among Christians believing in the rapture today, although this view is disputed within evangelicalism. Some assert a post-tribulational rapture.

Most Christian denominations do not subscribe to rapture theology and have a different interpretation of the aerial gathering described in 1 Thessalonians 4. Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Lutherans, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, the United Church of Christ, most Methodist and Reformed Christians, Unity Church, Latter-day Saints, etc. do not generally use ''rapture'' as a specific theological term, nor do they generally subscribe to the premillennial dispensational views associated with its use. Instead these groups typically interpret ''rapture'' in the sense of the elect gathering with Christ in Heaven after his second coming and reject the idea that a large segment of humanity will be left behind on earth for an extended tribulation period after the events of 1 Thessalonians 4:17.

Etymology

''Rapture'' is derived from Middle French , via the Medieval Latin ("seizure, kidnapping"), which derives from the Latin ("a carrying off").

Greek

The Koine Greek of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 uses the verb form (), which means "we shall be caught up" or "we shall be taken away". The dictionary form of this Greek verb is (). This use is also seen in such texts as Acts 8:39, 2 Corinthians 12:2–4, and Revelation 12:5. Linguist, Dr. Douglas Hamp, notes that Greek scholar Spiros Zodhiates lists as the first-person plural future passive indicative of the Greek stem, ''harpagē'' (har-pag-ay), “the act of plundering, plunder, spoil.” The future passive indicative of ''harpázō'' (although not used by Paul in 1 Thess. 4:17) can be viewed at verbix.com: αρπασθησόμεθα (''harpasthesometha''). GS724 ''harpagē'' means'':'' 1. the act of plundering, robbery; 2. plunder, spoil. When the rapture and the "restoration of all things" (Acts 3:20-21) are viewed as simultaneous events (according to Romans 8:19-21) then it makes sense why Paul would use "shall be plundered" to match the verbiage of the distortion of the Earth described in Isaiah 24:3, "The land shall be entirely emptied and utterly plundered...".

Latin

The Latin Vulgate translates the Greek as meaning "we are caught up" or "we are taken away" from the Latin verb meaning "to catch up" or "take away".

English Bible translations

English versions of the Bible have expressed the concept of the Latin term in various ways:
* The Wycliffe Bible (1395), translated from the Latin Vulgate, uses "rushed".
* The Tyndale New Testament (1525), the Bishop's Bible (1568), the Geneva Bible (1587) and the King James Version (1611) use "caught up". This is carried over to the American Standard Version (1901) and the Revised Standard Version (1946, 1952).
* The online NET Bible (1995–2005) translates the Greek of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 using the phrase "suddenly caught up" with the footnote: "Or 'snatched up.' The Greek verb implies that the action is quick or forceful, so the translation supplied the adverb 'suddenly' to make this implicit notion clear."

Doctrinal position

The Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Churches, the Anglican Communion, and Reformed denominations have no tradition of a preliminary return of Christ. The Eastern Orthodox Church, for example, favors amillennial or postmillennial interpretation of prophetic Scriptures and thus rejects a preliminary, premillennial return. Most Methodists do not adhere to the dispensationalist view of the rapture.

Fundamentalist Baptists, Bible churches, Brethren churches, certain Methodist denominations, Pentecostals, non-denominational evangelicals, and various other evangelical groups typically adhere to the pretribulational Rapture. As dispensationalism began to rise in America during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, pretribulationism became common among many Episcopalians, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians. Today, Episcopalians, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians rarely hold to pretribulationism.

Views

Tenets

# Those who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede those who are dead (1 Thessalonians 4:15)
# The dead in Christ will resurrect first (1 Thessalonians 4:16).
# The living and the resurrected dead will be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
# It occurs in the parousia: "those who are alive and remain unto the () of the Lord, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thessalonians 4:15–17, KJV).
# The meeting with the Lord will be permanent: "And so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:17, KJV).

One or two events

Most premillennialists distinguish the Rapture and the Second Coming as separate events. Some dispensational premillennialists (including many evangelicals) hold the return of Christ to be two distinct events (i.e., Christ's second coming in two stages). According to this view, 1 Thessalonians 4:15–17 is a description of a preliminary event to the return described in Matthew 24:29–31. Although both describe a coming of Jesus, these are seen to be different events. The first event is a coming where the saved are to be 'caught up,' whence the term "rapture" is taken. The second event is described as the second coming. The majority of dispensationalists hold that the first event precedes the period of tribulation, even if not immediately (see chart for additional dispensationalist timing views). Dispensationalists distinguish these events as a result of own literal understanding of Paul's words.

Amillennialists deny the interpretation of a literal thousand-year earthly rule of Christ. There is considerable overlap in the beliefs of amillennialists (including most Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, and Lutherans), postmillennialists (including Presbyterians), and historic premillennialists (including some Calvinistic Baptists) with those who hold that the return of Christ will be a single, public event.

Some proponents believe the doctrine of amillennialism originated with Alexandrian scholars such as Clement and Origen and later became Catholic dogma through Augustine.

Destination

Dispensationalists see the immediate destination of the raptured Christians as being Heaven. Catholic commentators, such as Walter Drum (1912), identify the destination of the 1 Thessalonians 4:17 gathering as Heaven.

While Anglicans have many views, some Anglican commentators, such as N. T. Wright, identify the destination as a specific place on Earth. This interpretation may sometimes be connected to Christian environmentalist concerns.

Views of eschatological timing

There are numerous views regarding the timing of the Rapture. Some maintain that Matthew 24:37–40 refers to the Rapture, pointing out similarities between the two texts, indicating that the Rapture would occur at the ''parousia'' of the Lord. Others point out that neither ''church'' nor ''rapture'' occur in Matthew 24 and there are significant differences between Matthew 24:37–40 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18. As a result, these two texts receive the overwhelming focus within discussions about the Rapture's timing. The two texts are as follows:

In the amillennial and postmillennial views there are no distinctions in the timing of the Rapture. These views regard that the Rapture, as it is described in 1 Thessalonians 4:15–17, would be identical to the Second Coming of Jesus as described in Matthew 24:29–31 after the spiritual/symbolic millennium.

In the premillennial view, the Rapture would be before a literal, earthly millennium. Within premillennialism, the pretribulation position distinguishes between the Rapture and the Second Coming as two different events. There are also other positions within premillennialism that differ with regard to the timing of the Rapture.

Premillennialist views

In the earliest days of the church, chiliastic teaching (i.e., early premillennialism) was the dominant view. Eusebius wrote, "To these ritten accountsbelong his nowiki/>Papias of Hierapolis">Papias_of_Hierapolis.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Papias of Hierapolis">nowiki/>Papias of Hierapolisstatement that there will be a period of some thousand years after the resurrection of the dead, and that the kingdom of Christ will be set up in the material form on this very earth. [...] But it was due to him that so many of the Church Fathers after him adopted a like opinion, urging in their own support the antiquity of the man; as for instance Irenaeus and anyone else that may have proclaimed similar views."

Schaff further confirms this by stating, "The most striking point in the eschatology of the ante-Nicene age is the prominent chiliasm, or millennarianism, that is the belief of a visible reign of Christ in glory on earth with the risen saints for a thousand years, before the general resurrection and judgment."

Over time, however, a clash surfaced between two schools of interpretation, the Antiochene and Alexandrian schools. The Alexandrian school's roots can be traced back to the influence of Philo, a Hellenized Jew who sought to reconcile God's veracity with what he thought were errors in the Tanakh