Confessions of a Recovering Dispensationalist, Pt. 3: The Bible and the Rapture

Confessions of a Recovering Dispensationalist: Intro

Confessions of a Recovering Disensationalist, Pt. 2: The Historical Record

A recent commenter left a few verses of Scripture in an attempt to prove the premillennial, pretribulational rapture of dispensationalism. I think it is important to note the overall tenor of the comment–the gist is that those I accuse of “inventing” the dispensational system, he sees as only discovering what the Apostles, as well as our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, taught all along. I say this, not to taunt Jonah, but simply to show what it is that we all do. This is why it was important to answer a few historical questions, and why we need to see our received tradition as best we can before we come to the text of Scripture.

The main problem in the debate over how to relate the covenants is that there is no verse that says, “Here is the proper way to deal with the Old and New Testaments.” If there was such an exhortation in Scripture, there would be no debate. So we’ll start with the verses often cited by dispensationalists, such as the aforementioned Jonah, and work from there. Since the most predominant theme in dispensational theology is that of the end times, all of the references in this post will deal with that issue.

The whole “rapture” terminology comes from 1 Thessalonians 4:17. The Greek word harpazo is translated “caught up” in most English translations, but it was translated rapare in Latin. So when someone talks about the “rapture,” this is what they are referring to. In many ways, this becomes the key to unlocking the rest of the Scriptures. This idea of being raptured, being “caught up” by God, is what makes sense of the book of Revelation. This is what makes sense of the other verses Jonah provided–those speaking of things like two men walking and one vanishes, or what have you.

The problem is, all of these verses require reading a “rapture” into them. Stop and read 1 Thessalonians 4. There is no way to get the chronology of dispensationalism (church age to rapture to tribulation to resurrection to millennial age) from 1 Thessalonians 4. The Scriptures in Matthew 24 and Luke 17, as well as 1 Corinthians 15, speak only of imminence in relation to Christ’s return. In fact, I don’t know that I’ve been confronted with any other pro-rapture scriptures that speak of anything more than simply imminence. Anyone who sees a “rapture” in these passages is taking a preconceived notion of the dispensational rapture and reading that into the text.

The Scriptures in Matthew 24 and 25 have been some of the most eye-opening verses I’ve ever read. I would encourage anyone reading this to stop and read all of those two chapters in one sitting. Don’t pick a verse or two out and try to prove anything, but read it in its entirety and let it speak for itself.

I was a devout dispensationalist until I really just sat down and read the Bible here. I had read the proof texts of dispensational theologians quoting the verses about two men walking up a hill and one being taken away. But when you read the entire passage, you get a different view.

Jesus said there will be wars and rumors of wars, but these will be birth pains. Then his followers will be delivered up to tribulation. Many will be put to death. There will be false Christs and false teachers. There will be increased lawlessness. Then there will be a tribulation like never before seen. In verse 29 it says “immediately after the tribulation of those days” the Son of Man will come to gather his elect. Then, Jesus goes on to talk about how only the Father knows the time of which he speaks, and that all should be ready–this is where the pictures of imminence come in to play. There is, for those who are familiar, a dispute as to whether this is referring to the destruction of Jerusalem in Rome in 70 AD (and this may be the case) or a prophecy about the end times. If it is the former, then the dispensationalist case is null and void anyway in reference to this passage. If it is the latter, then the text is clear–Christ’s followers will endure the tribulation. This fits with every eschatological scheme except dispensational, pretrib, premil theology.

The other main issue on this subject is the oft touted 70th week of Daniel. The 70 weeks were part of Daniel’s prophecy about things to come, and it included the dominance of the Greeks, the Romans, and the coming of Christ’s kingdom. The problem with the “70th” week is that none of the given systems do a really good job explaining exactly how it works, though they all claim to have the best explanation. But the problem with dispensationalist thinking is the idea that the rapture is the kick off for this 70th weeks. On the one hand, this seems to be a decent solution. On the other hand, there is no mention of “rapture” in Daniel, and I’ve yet to find a dispensationalist who can explain the 2000 year gap between the 69th and 70th week. While I think all the other systems have us in the 70th week right now, at least they put the weeks back to back, instead of supposing a 2000 year gap between weeks that seem to be consecutive.

I think the conclusion to all this is simply that there is no really positive evidence for the “rapture,” as defined by those proponents of dispensationalism. All the supposed rapture verses require us to have a preconceived idea of a rapture and then put that into the Bible. Am I missing anything?