I preached recently on a now infamous passage from First Thessalonians. It’s about the dead rising at a trumpet blast and the living being caught up into the air and joining with them to meet Jesus in the clouds.
Rapture stuff.
I usually avoid it, mostly because there’s a lot of hype about it and not all that much reliable help. In fact, there’s no help at all in the Hebrew scriptures and the gospel writers never mention it.
There’s not much help to be found among the famous theologians in history, either. Luther never said a thing about the rapture.
That’s because none of those people knew about it. The rapture, it turns out, wasn’t invented until 1830. That’s when Scottish teenager Margaret MacDonald had a vision of Jesus returning to earth in two stages. An English evangelist named John Nelson Darby picked up on her vision and expanded it.
In 1909, Cyrus Scofield’s Bible notes and headings related to Darby’s theology were published alongside and embedded in scripture, and the Scottish teenager’s vision gained the same authority as scripture itself. The Scofield Bible sold millions and become the lens through which Americans began to view “the end.”
Subsequently, Chicago’s Moody Bible Institute began radio broadcasts based on the Scofield Bible and in 1924, the Dallas Theological Seminary was founded.
“Viola!” we have the rapture taught by clergy and held as truth by millions.
My personal problem is, the rapture doesn’t point us to the God who spun the planets, partners with us in ministry and redemption, and cares about everything and everyone in creation. It just doesn’t convey God’s grace and it's inconsistent with scripture.
First Thessalonians isn’t about “the rapture” at all. Well then, if Paul isn’t talking about that, what is he talking about?
Back when St. Paul wrote, the world was a rather dangerous place. People didn’t leave the protection of the city area all that often, because travel was physically challenging and the roads were the notorious stomping grounds of thieves and brigands. Some reasons people left the city? To procure supplies, fight battles, or deliver messages. Chances were slim that they would ever return.
People in the city also kept watch over the roads, mostly to warn inhabitants of impending attack, or to announce the arrival of messengers, merchants, and travelers. When the lookout saw a traveler returning home, the whole city would begin to celebrate. They would run out of the city, meet the traveler on the road, and party the person all the way home, grateful for the traveler's safe return.
Jesus’ disciples saw him ascend. How were they going to meet him on the road when he returned? The only way is for the lookout to alert everyone (trumpet blast) and for everyone who loves Jesus (living and dead) to somehow gain the ability to travel out on that road (the sky) and party him home.
First Thessalonians is not about God snatching people from the earth so it can destroyed without harm to the faithful, but about Jesus’ return to earth. According to Paul, we’re all gonna party here. God really does love this place. And all of us.
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