On Monday I posed a simple question: What is the point and purpose of the resurrection of Jesus Christ if believers go immediately to heaven when they die?
Now let’s ask a similar question which also deserves a logical, biblical answer: What is the purpose of the so-called “Rapture” if believers who have died are already in heaven shouting, “Hallelujah!”, flying around playing harps, and dancing on streets of gold with previously deceased loved ones?
If your answer is that the soul has to be reunited with the physical body, then I would love to see the plain, definitive scriptural basis for that theory. Plain and definitive proof texts, not theological and logical contortions invented to make the Bible say what you want it to say.
I don’t believe the Bible teaches a strict dispensational framework as some, a minority, in the modern Church era teach.
Just a reminder: John Nelson Darby was not an author of Scripture, and Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth (1970) and Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind series are not books of Scripture.
I think the Bible clearly teaches that the return of Jesus Christ is a singular event—not a Second Coming where the Church is scooped up and taken away for three and a half or seven years, followed by a third coming.
That doesn’t preclude our gathering together unto Him to meet Him in the air at His return, or the Millennial Kingdom that immediately follows. It also doesn’t mean that the people of God aren’t going to suffer great tribulation—they have, they are, and they will until the restoration of all things.
The date of Sept. 23, 2025, appears to have originated from Joshua Mhlakela of South Africa. Though news reports have widely described him as a pastor, he said in a YouTube video from June: “I’m just a simple person, no title. I’m not an apostle, I’m not a pastor, I’m not a bishop. I’m just a believer.”
In the video, he says that Jesus came to him in a dream in 2018 and told him, “On the 23rd and the 24th of September, 2025, I will come to take my church.”
I don’t believe that the scripture teaches a Left Behind style Rapture event, where Christians are scooped up and taken away for awhile while the Anti-Christ brings about hell on earth. That idea seems to have taken root in some evangelical circles mostly because of popular fictional novels and movies.
I do believe that there will come a day certain when Jesus Christ will return to gather his people and set things right – but we can be sure that day will not be on a date predicted by someone in South Africa, or anywhere else, because:
Matthew 24:36 – But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only .(KJV)
Just a reminder – John Nelson Darby was not an author of scripture, and Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth (1970) and Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind series are not books of scripture.
The doctrine of the Rapture—the belief that Christians will be suddenly “caught up” to meet Christ in the air before a time of tribulation on earth—has a complex history. Its origins are more recent than many assume. Here’s the breakdown:
Biblical Roots (1st Century)
The idea comes mainly from 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17, where Paul says believers will be “caught up” (harpazō in Greek, later translated in Latin as rapiemur, “we shall be snatched up”).
Early Christians saw this as part of the Second Coming of Christ, not as a separate secret event. The expectation was one climactic return of Christ, not two stages.
Early Church & Medieval Period
Church Fathers like Irenaeus, Augustine, and Chrysostom interpreted these passages within the framework of a general resurrection and final judgment, not a pre-tribulation rapture.
The dominant view for centuries (Catholic, Orthodox, and later Protestant Reformers) was amillennial (symbolic millennium) or postmillennial (Christ returns after a golden age), with no idea of a sudden, secret removal of believers.
Rise of Premillennialism (17th–18th Century)
In the wake of wars, plagues, and upheavals, some Protestant groups revisited literal interpretations of Revelation and Daniel.
Joseph Mede (1627) was influential in reviving premillennialism in England, but still didn’t propose a two-phase coming.
Some fringe sects speculated about believers escaping tribulation, but it wasn’t mainstream.
John Nelson Darby & Dispensationalism (1830s)
The modern Rapture doctrine, especially the pre-tribulation Rapture, is most closely tied to John Nelson Darby (1800–1882), leader of the Plymouth Brethren movement in Britain.
Darby developed dispensationalism, which divided biblical history into ages (dispensations). He taught that the church would be secretly taken before the Great Tribulation, leaving Israel and the world to face judgment.
His views spread widely in Britain and North America.
Popularization in America (Late 19th–20th Century)
The Scofield Reference Bible (1909) systematized Darby’s dispensational teaching, embedding the Rapture into evangelical theology in the U.S.
Bible conferences, prophecy seminars, and later mass media (books, radio, film) spread the idea.
The Cold War era (1940s–80s) fueled Rapture expectations amid fears of nuclear war and global unrest.
Modern Influence
Best-selling books like Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth (1970) and Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind series (1995–2007) brought the Rapture into popular culture.
Today, it remains central in many evangelical and Pentecostal traditions, though Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and Reformed traditions largely reject it as unbiblical or a modern innovation.
In summary: The concept of believers being “caught up” comes from Paul’s letters, but the specific doctrine of a pre-tribulation Rapture as a distinct, secret coming of Christ originates with John Nelson Darby in the 1830s. It spread through dispensationalism, the Scofield Bible, and American evangelical culture.
Here, Wright addresses the image of believers being suctioned up into the air and taken away to heaven at the return of Christ, as popularized in modern novels and movies:
“…Paul conjures up images of an emperor visiting a colony or province. The citizens go out to meet him in open country and then escort him into the city. Paul’s image of the people “meeting the Lord in the air” should be read with the assumption that the people will immediately turn around and lead the Lord back to the newly remade world.
Paul’s mixed metaphors of trumpets blowing and the living being snatched into heaven to meet the Lord are not to be understood as literal truth, as the Left Behind series suggests, but as a vivid and biblically allusive description of the great transformation of the present world of which he speaks elsewhere.”
Wright makes another very poignant observation about the current worldview of some Christians who believe, wrongly in my opinion, that scripture teaches that believers will be scooped up to avoid a ‘Great Tribulation’, then return seven years later with Jesus to dish out the final portion of God’s wrath on the world.
“Paul’s misunderstood metaphors present a challenge for us: How can we reuse biblical imagery, including Paul’s, so as to clarify the truth, not distort it? And how can we do so, as he did, in such a way as to subvert the political imagery of the dominant and dehumanizing empires of our world? We might begin by asking, What view of the world is sustained, even legitimized, by the Left Behind ideology? How might it be confronted and subverted by genuinely biblical thinking? For a start, is not the Left Behind mentality in thrall to a dualistic view of reality that allows people to pollute God’s world on the grounds that it’s all going to be destroyed soon? Wouldn’t this be overturned if we recaptured Paul’s wholistic vision of God’s whole creation?“
Let’s allow the whole Word of God to speak to us and teach us rather than magnifying pet verses out of context and being seduced by pop theology – like Left Behind.
R.T. France’s interpretation of the “Son of Man coming in clouds”
R.T. France, who passed away in 2012, was a respected New Testament scholar and commentator who interpreted Mark 13:26 and Mark 14:62 as references not to a future, visible second coming of Jesus, but to His heavenly vindication and enthronement, drawing heavily on Daniel 7:13 and the literary/theological context of Jewish apocalyptic imagery.
Following is a summary, enhanced by Mr. AI, of France’s view.
Mark 13:26 – “Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.”
France’s View: This is not a literal, visible return of Jesus to earth.
He argues that Jesus is drawing on Daniel 7:13, where the Son of Man comes on the clouds to God (the Ancient of Days)—not to earth.
Therefore, this “coming” is not about return, but about the transfer of authority and the vindication of Jesus after His suffering and death.
“They will see” should be understood figuratively, meaning people (particularly those who rejected Jesus) will recognize the consequences of His vindicated status, especially through:
The destruction of the temple (A.D. 70),
The spread of the gospel,
And the judgment upon Jerusalem.
🔹 “The ‘coming’ of the Son of Man in clouds is an enthronement scene, not a return-to-earth scene.” — R.T. France, The Gospel of Mark, NICNT (2002)
Mark 14:62 – “…you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”
France sees this as a prophetic declaration of vindication, spoken directly to the high priest and the Sanhedrin.
The phrase “seated at the right hand of Power” implies divine authority, referring to Psalm 110:1.
“Coming with the clouds” again echoes Daniel 7:13, but not in the sense of descending from heaven. Instead, it describes Jesus’ ascension to divine status and authority.
The Sanhedrin would “see” this through the events that followed: Jesus’ resurrection, the birth of the church, and the judgment on Jerusalem.
🔹 “Jesus’ response is a claim not of eventual return, but of imminent exaltation… a challenge to those who are about to condemn Him.” — R.T. France, The Gospel of Mark, NICNT
Summary of France’s Key Points
Phrase
Interpretation
“Coming on the clouds”
Danielic imagery of heavenly exaltation, not return
“They will see”
Figurative: people will recognize the implications of Jesus’ divine authority
Mark 13:26
Public vindication of Jesus as the Son of Man, seen through judgment and gospel progress
Mark 14:62
A warning to the high priest: the one they condemn will soon be exalted over them
In a previous piece in this ‘Rethinking The Rapture’ series I referenced New Testament scholar N.T. Wright’s 2001 essay, Farewell to the Rapture in the context of the Left Behind books and the pop theology of a secret Rapture.
Here, I’d like to return to Wright’s essay and offer a couple of more quotes from it in order to illustrate some of the thinking behind the views held by those who reject the evangelical, Left Behind, invisible Rapture interpretation of eschatology.
“It is Paul who should be credited with creating this scenario. Jesus himself, as I have argued in various books, never predicted such an event. The gospel passages about “the Son of Man coming on the clouds” (Mark 13:26, 14:62, for example) are about Jesus’ vindication, his “coming” to heaven from earth. The parables about a returning king or master (for example, Luke 19:11-27) were originally about God returning to Jerusalem, not about Jesus returning to earth. This, Jesus seemed to believe, was an event within space-time history, not one that would end it forever.”
You’ll need to open your Bible and put on your thinking cap for some serious, critical biblical exegesis as you consider what Wright is saying here.
And here:
“The Ascension of Jesus and the Second Coming are nevertheless vital Christian doctrines, and I don’t deny that I believe some future event will result in the personal presence of Jesus within God’s new creation. This is taught throughout the New Testament outside the Gospels. But this event won’t in any way resemble the Left Behind account. Understanding what will happen requires a far more sophisticated cosmology than the one in which “heaven” is somewhere up there in our universe, rather than in a different dimension, a different space-time, altogether.
The New Testament, building on ancient biblical prophecy, envisages that the creator God will remake heaven and earth entirely, affirming the goodness of the old Creation but overcoming its mortality and corruptibility (e.g., Romans 8:18-27; Revelation 21:1; Isaiah 65:17, 66:22). When that happens, Jesus will appear within the resulting new world (e.g., Colossians 3:4; 1 John 3:2).”
We’ll dive deeper into these ideas in coming ‘Rethinking The Rapture’ posts – for now, I hope you will take a hard look at what Wright is conveying here.
Let’s return to an earlier post in this Rethinking the Rapture series, where I raised a question concerning the words of Jesus in Matthew 24: “One will be taken and one left.”
Matthew 24:40–42 (KJV):
“Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.”
Would the disciples, to whom Jesus was speaking those words at that time and in that place, have understood Him to be referring to a future Rapture of the Church—where some people would disappear into the sky in a secret event, while their walking or working companions would be left behind on earth?
The context strongly suggests that they would not have understood His words to mean a future Rapture.
The immediately preceding verses, 37–39, compare the coming of the Son of Man to the days of Noah, when people were eating, drinking, and marrying—until the flood came and took them all away.
Plainly, the ones who were “taken” were those swept away in the flood in judgment. The ones left behind were Noah and his family, who were spared and remained on the earth to begin anew after the flood judgment.
Understanding this context should make it crystal clear who Jesus was referring to in Matthew 24:40–42 when He said, “One will be taken and one left.” The one taken is taken in judgment, not in a Rapture. And the one left remains to experience the blessings of the Kingdom—not the punishment of woe and tribulation.
Along with 1 Thessalonians 4:17, 1 Corinthians 15:52 is often uses as a ‘proof text’ for the Rapture.
1 Corinthians 15:52 – “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (KJV)
Let’s consider what this verse doesn’t say (a consideration I will continue to use often). 1 Corinthians 15:52 doesn’t say, “Believers will be instantaneously caught up into heaven in a secret Rapture which will be invisible and inexplicable to those left behind.”
The verse simply says and simply means that at Christ’s Second Coming all the dead will rise and all believers will be changed into immortal, glorified bodies in a nearly imperceptible moment of time.
There’s nothing in there about being secretly taken away for seven years and then coming back with Jesus for a Third Coming. There’s nothing in 1 Corinthians 15:52 that even remotely indicates that millions of Christians will suddenly simply disappear from the earth leaving the folks that are left behind to wonder what the hell just happened.
While the transformation of our mortal bodies to immortality will be miraculous and instantaneous, it will not be a secret event – on the contrary, it will be a glorious manifestation of Almighty God’s power and purpose for all of creation to behold.
In this post I want to wrap up our brief discussion on what the phrase “delivered from the wrath to come” in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 means.
1 Thessalonians 1:10 – “And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” (KJV)
Notice what this verse doesn’t say. It doesn’t say, “Jesus will come from heaven and pull us into the sky with him, then take us away so that we won’t have to suffer a seven-year tribulation period.”
Paul certainly had the vocabulary to say that if that is what God had wanted him to write to the Thessalonians.
Notice also that the tense of the verb “delivered” (rhuomenon) in the Greek is the present participle form which implies ongoing or continuous action: “the one who is delivering” or “who delivers.” It suggests a current, ongoing protection from wrath, not a specific future time period of seven years or some other period of time.
Believers can be, are being, and will be delivered from wrath without being taken up into heaven. In other words, God is more than able to protect and shield His people in all circumstances and places, even great tribulation on earth, through the mercy and grace provided in Jesus Christ.
My personal rule in reading the Bible is to first consider how the original readers for whom the words were written would understand the text in its broader historical, biblical, and cultural context, as well as it’s more immediate textual context.
So, do you suppose the First Century Thessalonians would have understood this verse to mean, “Hey, y’all, don’t worry about the seven years of wrath coming in the Great Tribulation period, you won’t have to go through that because Jesus will scoop us up and out of here before that happens.”?
I think that one can only come to that interpretation by reading a great deal of pre-conceived pop theology into the scripture, rather than just reading what’s plainly written.
