The Rapture: A Mistaken Belief

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(This is an expanded version of a sermon, “The Rapture: Rescue of the Saints or Return of the King?” preached at Friendship Community CRC, April 18, 2010. This sermon has also been preached as “What’s Wrong with the Rapture?” on numerous times.)

You may have heard of the rapture. The rapture is part of a very popular theology about the End Times, especially popular in North America. It’s popularized by the Christian media, like famous TV & Radio evangelists, the Left Behind series of books and movies, and all sorts of Christian books, such as Are You Rapture Ready? and the Scofield Study Bible, which probably popularized this theology back in the 19^th century. There’s even a website called raptureready.com.

So, what exactly is the rapture? And what difference does it make if we believe it or not? What’s the big deal? In this post, I want to take a look at this popular teaching about the rapture and look at some of the negative implications of this belief. And then I want to show from Bible passages how this understanding of the rapture is actually mistaken, and what is the more likely scenario that the Bible is pointing to.