What happens during the Rapture?
Before we can decide what happens during the rapture, we must determine what is meant by the term ‘rapture’. The term occurs nowhere in the Bible so we must look outside of the Bible to find how it is defined by its adherents.
The Secret Rapture is said to involve the sudden spiriting away of the saved to heaven at the beginning of a seven-year period of tribulation during which time antichrist will appear and reign. The second phase of the rapture is believed to occur at the close of the great tribulation when Jesus will return to earth in triumph and glory to reign for 1,000 years.
The idea of a secret rapture is not found in historic Christianity. It is a relatively new belief that has come into Christian thinking since the mid-19th Century. Christians for centuries have believed that Christ’s coming would be a literal, visible, and audible event that would follow a period of tribulation during which God’s true and faithful followers would be gloriously delivered from evil forces bent on their destruction. This was the belief of great Biblical scholars of the past and the founders of present-day Protestant denominations. These include:
John Bunyan, John Calvin, Adam Clarke, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney, Matthew Henry, John Huss, John Knox, Hugh Latimer, C.S. Lewis, Martin Luther, D.L. Moody, George Mueller, Sir Isaac Newton, John Newton, Charles Spurgeon, William Tyndale, Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, John Wesley, George Whitefield, William Wilberforce, John Wycliffe, Ulrich Zwingli, and many others.
Of course, the truth of a teaching is not dependent upon who believes it, but whether or not it is Biblical.
To answer the question of what happens during the rapture, we must turn to the Bible for answers, and not to any book or movie popularising a theory loosely based on Scripture.
One ‘proof’ text given for the rapture is found in 1 Thessalonians 4.
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we which are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we always be with the Lord”
To be raptured is to be ‘caught up’ with fellow saints ‘to meet the Lord in the air’. But to claim that this rapture is secret, silent, and sudden, denies Scripture. And to split this text in two and say that it describes two comings, one secret and silent, and the other visible and noisy, simply destroys the meaning of the text. Paul is simply telling us that the second coming of Christ will not be a secret and silent affair, but that it will be so loud and noisy that the whole world will know about it. Christ remains waiting in the sky as His angels gather His elect from one end of heaven to the other. They will rise to meet their Saviour in the air. Further we are told that every eye will see Him, that all on earth will hear Him and see Him.
Matthew 24:30-31 – “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect, from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other”.
Revelation 1:7 – “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him”.
What will this ‘not-so-secret’ rapture be like? What happens during the rapture?
The Bible tells us that after His resurrection, Jesus returned to heaven, and the disciples watched as He rose into the sky. “While they [the disciples] watched, He [Jesus] was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men [angels] stood by them in white apparel, who also said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven’” (Acts 1:9-11).
The first point to note from this passage is that the Jesus who returns to earth the second time is the very same Jesus who lived here on earth – a personal being with a body of flesh and bone. Luke describes Jesus’ meeting with His disciples after the resurrection:
“And as they (the disciples) spoke, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and said unto them, ‘Peace be unto you’. But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
“And He said unto them, ‘Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I myself. Handle Me and see; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have’.
“And when He had thus spoken, He showed them His hands and His feet.
“And while they still not believed for joy, and wondered, He said to them, ‘Have you any food here’?
“And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and a honeycomb. And he took it, and ate it in their presence” (Luke 24:36-43).
A few verses further on it says, “while He blessed them, He was parted from them and carried up into heaven.”
The second point to note is that Jesus will return to earth in much the same way as He left it. How did Jesus go to heaven following His resurrection? Did He go secretly? No. The disciples watched Him rise, literally, bodily, into the air until a cloud hid Him from their sight. These verses tell us that Jesus will return to earth the same way—not secretly, but visibly and audibly.
As Jesus rose, a cloud of angels met Him, so those raptured meet the Lord in the air when He returns. And surrounded by a cloud of angels they, together with the resurrected righteous dead of all ages, are transported to heaven.
The coming of Christ will light up the sky with indescribable glory – “For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:27). And every eye shall see Him, and every ear hear Him. The staggering brightness of His coming will stretch from horizon to horizon.
“They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30).
“Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye shall see Him” (Revelation 1:7).
“And the Lord Himself will descend with a shout and the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).
At this time “we shall all be changed . . . and the dead will be raised incorruptible. . . For His corruptible (subject to death) much put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:51-53).
For the Lord Jesus “will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to (made like) His glorious body” (Philippians 3:21).
At this time, the earth will be in a state of chaos. The righteous will be protected from the wrath of God, which is poured out upon the wicked, and will be looking eagerly towards heaven for the coming of the Lord Jesus to deliver them.
“Come, My people, enter into your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the fury has passed by.
“For behold, the LORD is coming out from His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it and will no longer cover its slain” (Isaiah 26:20-21). (ESV)
“And it will be said in that day, Lo, this is our God. We have waited for Him, and He will save us” (Isaiah 25:9).
As the righteous look anxiously towards heaven they will catch their first glimpse of the Son of Man descending on the clouds of heaven. Reverently and in awe they will exclaim: ‘This is our God, and He will save us!”
So, what will happen during the rapture? The literal, visual, and audible deliverance of the saints of God from the power of the Antichrist system which will be destroyed by the brightness of His coming.
