For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command,
with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead
in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught
up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And so we will be with the Lord forever.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
There are three views of Christ’s Rapture/Second Coming in regards to the 1,000-year reign of Revelation 20, which we will not look at today: premillennialism (before), postmillennialism (after), and amillennialism (no literal 1,000-year reign). And the way the joke goes, there are even some who say there are panmillennial if they’re unsure, meaning it will all “pan” out in the end. Instead, we will take the next two days to look at the timing of the rapture.
There is no way I can avoid addressing this central issue in eschatology. There are extremely strong opinions on all sides about the so-called “rapture”. I addressed the root of this word in a previous devotional. In short, the word rapture is derived from the Latin version of the word, “raptus”, which is derived from the Greek word, “harpazÕ”. It refers to when both alive and dead believers are “caught up…in the air… [to] be with the Lord forever”.
There are five primary viewpoints as to when the rapture will take place in regards to the “70th Week” mentioned in Daniel. This is the literal final seven-year period of time at the End of the Age. We’ll look at this in a couple of days. The latter half of these seven years is often called “The Great Tribulation” (more on this later).
Here are the five main viewpoints on the timing of the rapture:
- Pre-tribulation: This is the belief that the church will be secretly raptured prior to the final seven years. Most also believe in the imminent return of Jesus, meaning nothing has to happen before the rapture.
- Mid-tribulation: This is the conviction that the rapture happens in the middle of the seven years, just prior to the second half, or 1,260 days, of the seven years.
- Post-tribulation: You guessed it, the rapture happens at the end of the seven years.
- Pre-wrath: This is the viewpoint that the Body of Christ is taken to heaven after judgment has come upon the world, but before God’s wrath is poured out on it (1 Thessalonians 1:10 and 5:9). There is disagreement though on when His wrath starts at the End of the Age.
- No rapture: There are Christians who believe there is no literal rapture or Great Tribulation, and everything outside of the Second Coming was fulfilled in the first century.
Tomorrow we will look at this further, and hopefully help you find a place of perspective and peace about the rapture.