As is now obvious to everybody, the rapture didn’t take place on Saturday – and it was never going to. While the return of Jesus to his creation is a fully biblical theology, I don’t believe the same can be said about the ‘rapture of the saints’. From the many Tweets, Facebook updates and blogs I’ve read it seems that there is some confusion between the two but they are most definitely not the same. I want to return to the whole issue of eschatology as explained by fundamentalist Christianity in the future but let me post something about the ‘rapture’ today.

First things first, though: I am fully signed up to the belief that Jesus will return to his creation at some point. This will be a day of judgement – in the sense that he will come to put right what has gone wrong. However, this act of judgement isn’t just something we are to hope for exclusively in the future – but something that has already begun. The restoration of God’s reign over creation – that is, the coming of the Kingdom – took a major step forward in the incarnation of Jesus and then in his physical resurrection. His reign is within us and among us and all we do in, for, and through him is a part of the great work of extending the Kingdom. This work will be completed when Jesus returns.

Key to my understanding of this, however, is that when Jesus returns he will do so not to destroy his creation but to restore it. His plan is for a (re)new(ed) heaven and earth. This idea that Jesus is coming back to reclaim and restore what is his then becomes a tool with which to interpret the Bible.

The central (and possibly only) verse that some use to teach the rapture is 1 Thessalonians 4:17 – ‘Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.’ (NASB.) The interpretation offered by those who believe in the rapture is that just before the final judgement (the length of time varies depending on who you listen to) Jesus will secretly return and those followers of his who are alive will float off to meet him and will be whisked away to heaven. Those ‘left behind’ will face a terrible time (known as the tribulation) before Jesus returns once again with his church to judge the earth. While the rapture (from the Latin rapio = to catch up) forms part of the whole scenario of the second coming in this system, it is certainly not an essential part of the theology. That is, taking away the idea of rapture does not leave you without a belief in Christ’s return. Indeed, until the 19th century little if any teaching of the rapture was to be had in any church tradition. (It is to this period in church history that I want to return at some future point in this blog – because much of what conservative church teaches about eschatology was formed in that period.)

But, you may argue, isn’t 1 Thess 4:17 pretty clear? This is a picture of the rapture, isn’t it? Well if you hold this theology as your interpretive tool then I suppose it is very clear. But there is an alternative understanding and it lies in the culture of Paul’s day. If a dignitary was visiting your town, tradition would dictate that the townsmen would go out and meet him part of the way on his journey. And of course, rather than then leave with him to go back to his own residence, they would usher him into their town where he was planning to visit all along. This, apparently, was a common tradition in the period Paul was writing his letter and if we hold it in mind when we read this particular verse then the verse's meaning becomes very different. Added to this is the highly symbolic language used in all forms of apocalyptic literature both inside and outside the Bible - a fact that should make us take great care before taking such passages as literal truth.

So where does all of that leave us? Two things: take a (more biblical) theology that emphasises Jesus restoring creation rather than helping us escape it and adopt a historical-cultural hermeneutic and suddenly the ‘rapture’ ... well, just floats away.


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