Welcome to Sonday Life. Recently, I did an episode entitled “Are We Living at the End of Days?” I received a lot of questions and comments about the second coming of Christ, the rapture, and the tribulation. If you missed that episode, I’ll put a link in the notes below. Because of all the questions, I decided to do this follow-up video and talk about the question I was asked the most: Is the Rapture Truth or Fiction? I’ll answer four questions about the rapture;
Where did Rapture theology originate? Did Jesus, the apostles, early church leaders, or the reformers teach a secret rapture? Does the Bible support a secret rapture? What’s the truth about the second coming of Jesus?
First, let’s start at the beginning. Where did the concept of a secret rapture originate? The term ‘rapture’ or ‘secret rapture’ isn’t in the Bible. I’ll talk more about the word rapture when we get to the passage used for promoting the secret rapture theory.
The secret rapture concept has its roots in American reform and evangelical Christian preaching, not the early church. In 1742, a Baptist preacher named Morgan Edwards gave a sermon where he proposed the idea of a future event where believers would be caught up to be with Christ before a tribulation period on earth. The tribulation was a conception of a great calamity preceding the 2nd coming of Christ. This is called the pre-tribulation rapture, which prevents believers from suffering during the tribulation. This theory was picked up years later by a British preacher named John Nelson Darby. Darby took the secret rapture and combined it with a Dispensational Theology he invented in the 1820s.
Darby had seven dispensations or ages of God interacting with humanity. These seven dispensations are Innocence (Adam & Eve), Conscience (The Fall to the Flood), Human Government (from the flood to the Tower of Babel), Promise (The promise made to Abraham and his descendants), The Law (from Sinai to Christ), Grace (the age of the church), and finally the Millennium (the 1,000-year reign of Christ).
Between the end of the dispensation of Grace, or the church age, and the dispensation of the Millennium, there would be a seven-year tribulation period when the Antichrist would bring bloodshed, death, and suffering upon the world. But before the tribulation begins, Christ would ‘Rapture’ believers out of the world so they would be spared the tribulation. This is the pre-tribulation secret rapture. That was Darby’s theology. I’m not going to get into all the errors of Darby’s dispensational theology here; I want to focus on the secret pre-tribulation rapture.
The catalyst for the growth of dispensationalism and the secret rapture was a protestant evangelist from the late 1800s named DL Moody. He was an extremely charismatic evangelist, holding revivals in America and Great Britain. The revival meetings of the late 1800s and early 1900s were about getting unbelievers to give their lives to Christ and believers to attend church, which I’m all for as long as it isn’t by manipulating the truth. Dispensationalism and the end of the Age of Grace focused on the urgency for people to make a commitment to Christ. Contemporary with Moody was a preacher named Cyrus Scofield. Scofield was deeply influenced by Darby’s ideas and interpretations of the end times and how God dealt with humanity. In 1909, Scofield published the Scofield Reference KJV Bible, which included extensive footnotes, commentary, and references promoting dispensationalism and the secret pre-tribulation rapture. The Scofield reference Bible was a major factor in shaping the beliefs of 20th-century Evangelicals, Baptists, and Pentecostals relating to the pre-tribulation rapture.
Between Darby, Moody, and Scofield, the stage was set for the rise of end-time theology in the 20th century. With the 20th century came WWI, prohibition, the stock market crash, the Great Depression, the rise of Hitler, WWII, The Holocaust, the establishment of Israel as a nation, the Korean War, Vietnam, The fall of the Shaw of Iran, The seven day War, Desert Storm, 9/11, on-and-on. When there’s turmoil in the world, people point to the end times. Over the last 150 years, people have predicted the rapture and the second coming of Christ multiple times. It was said because Israel became a nation in 1948, that prophecy was fulfilled. It was taught that the generation that saw this happen wouldn’t pass away before the “tribulation.” They taught a biblical generation was 40 years, so the return of Christ would be around 1988, and the tribulation would begin seven years prior, in 1981. Therefore, the Rapture would happen in 1981. Hal Lindsay’s book “The Late Great Planet Earth,” which came out in the early 70s, played into people’s fears. Between 1995 and 2001, when the Left Behind series came out, we had the fear of Y2K, America was again declining, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the escalating war in the Middle East. Today, we see the continuing decline of American culture, moral decline in the West, the crisis in the church, the woke and cancel culture, a lack of respect for societal ethics, and a disrespect for human life and God.
Darby, Moody, and Scofield were Pre-Tribulation rapture theorists. Some have proposed a Mid-Tribulation rapture, which would happen halfway into the seven-year tribulation. And, of course, others have proposed a Post-Tribulation rapture with the secret rapture happening after the tribulation.
In all these theories, those left behind can only be saved by refusing to follow the antichrist and suffering death as martyrs for God. Then, after the seven-year tribulation, Jesus will return a second time (or is it a third time? You lose count), but he returns with his raptured followers to destroy the antichrist and establish his millennial kingdom. As I said, when there’s confusion and crisis in the world, people talk about the return of Jesus, the secret rapture, the antichrist, and the tribulation.
Did Jesus, the apostles, early church leaders, or the reformers teach a secret rapture? Darby, Moody, Scofield, and others point to 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 as a passage they use for the secret rapture. The word rapture means – A state or experience of being emotionally overwhelmed. Rapture isn’t a physical term. In this passage, to be ‘caught up’ or ‘taken up’ is a physical action. What Paul is portraying was common when a king was coming to a city. Trumpets would blow, and heralds would yell to announce the coming king. The people would go out of the city to meet the king and escort him to the city. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the people yelled Hosanna and greeted him with palm leaves. In this picture, the dead believers are raised, and those believers who are alive at his return are both changed into something entirely new to meet him as he descends upon the world. With all the noise preceding Him, this is no secret. Also, after all this, He isn’t making a “U-Turn” and going back to heaven. This is the second coming of Christ to establish his kingdom on earth.
The Thessalonians were concerned about believers who died. They were afraid they’d miss the second coming of Christ. But Paul explains that all believers will meet Jesus at the same time, in a metamorphic event, not a rapture. No disciple, early church elder, or reformer ever spoke about the secret rapture of believers. Don’t you think that all the theological issues they defined and argued about a secret rapture would have been a pretty big oversight on their part?
Does the Bible support a secret rapture? Dispensationalists point to Matthew 24:37-41 for a secret rapture. Jesus says people will be taken by surprise when the Day of the Lord comes. Don’t you think if millions of people disappear, the cat’s out of the bag? Noah and his family didn’t know until they were told to get in the ark. Also, if you read this passage carefully, it isn’t Noah and his family that are taken off the earth; it’s everyone else that’s taken off the earth.
So, What’s the truth about the second coming of Jesus? The truth is Jesus will return one day. That’s the truth. When he returns, those believers who have died and those who are alive will be changed instantly and receive a completely new and unique glorified body like Christ and return with him as he establishes his millennial kingdom, and so remain with him that way forever (Philippians 3:20-21).
It’s not a secret rapture we’re waiting for. Believers are already citizens of heaven. We’re waiting for the ‘metamorphosis’ of our body into a body like His, and this will happen because of His great power to change us and sustain us in heaven forever.
The secret rapture, truth or fiction, you decide. I think scripture and history is very clear. There is no ‘secret rapture’. At the second coming of Jesus, all who believe will be changed and be with Jesus forever. If there’s anything in this message that you want to comment on or ask me a question about, leave your comment or question in the YouTube comment section or on Facebook or send me an email at jim@sondaylife.com. I respond to every comment, question, or email. Until our next episode, May the Lord keep your heart and mind stayed upon the promise of eternal life, which was purchased for us by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. God Bless you and keep you in His Grace and love always!
