In this clip, Cy Kellett welcomes a caller to discuss the concept of the Rapture. The apologist clarifies what Catholics believe about this biblical event and addresses common misconceptions held by some Protestant groups.
Transcript:
Caller: Do Catholics believe in the Rapture?
Jimmy Akin: Well, it depends on what you mean. One of the things that I always try to do in my apologetics is rather than just assuming an oppositional point of view to non Catholic perspectives, I like to look for common ground and say, okay, what can we agree on here? Because there is a particular verse that people who do talk about the Rapture point to. That verse is in 1st Thessalonians 4. In particular, it’s 1 Thessalonians 4:17, where St. Paul says that at the second coming, the dead will be raised first and those of us who are alive will be caught up to be with Christ and we’re going to be with him forever. Okay? So that if you want to call that the Rapture, well, then, yeah, Catholics believe in the Rapture because we believe that 1st Thessalonians 4:17 is part of the Bible. So whatever it means, we believe it. The historic view of not just Catholics, but Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox and even all of the historic Protestants was after we get caught up to be with Jesus in heaven in the sky, then he’s going to continue to come down to earth. And that’s when the resurrection of the dead happens and he reigns forever on earth. And there’s actually, if you read biblical scholars on this, they will point out that what Paul’s talking about here is based on a custom that they had back in the Roman Empire. The custom was if you have, like, if you’re, let’s say you’re living in Rome and Caesar is coming back to Rome, let’s say he’s just gone off to conquer the Germans or something and all those uppity Germans and he’s now conquered them and he’s coming back to Rome. Well, of course you’re going to throw him a party or what they used to call a triumph. And so he’s on his way back to Rome. You’re going to have this big party, but do you want to wait until he gets all the way back to Rome or do you want to maybe go the extra mile and show him how excited you are for him by journeying out on the highway a little bit to meet him before he gets to the city? Well, that’s what the Romans did. It didn’t have to be Caesar. If there’s a visiting dignitary to show respect for him, they’d go out on the road and meet him before he arrives at the city, and then they would escort him back. We even see that happening with St. Paul himself. It’s in the last chapter of Acts, St. Paul has been on this big journey to get to Rome. And when he’s finally approaching Rome, the Christian community at Rome sends representatives to meet Paul before he gets to the city. And then they escort Paul back to the city. So this was a well known custom. And scholars will point out, well, that’s what Paul’s referring to here. Jesus is coming to earth to reign on earth not for a thousand years, but for all eternity. And as he’s coming back, we’re caught up to meet him and then escort him back. And that’s the historic Christian understanding of what this passage is referring to. And therefore, if all you mean by Rapture is the event that Paul refers to in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, well, yeah, we believe in it. Problem is, most folks who talk about the Rapture who use that term don’t just believe what’s stated in 1st Thessalonians 4:17. One of the things you’ll notice is after we get caught up to be with Christ in heaven, Paul doesn’t say what happens next. I mean, do we just, do we go back to heaven? Do we hang out in the atmosphere? Do we come back down to earth? What happens after that? He doesn’t tell us. And people who use the term Rapture a lot, they tend to assume that once we meet Christ, we’re going to go back to heaven and we’re going to hang out in heaven for a period of some years. Some people say seven, some people say less than seven. But we’re going to hang out in heaven while all hell breaks loose on earth. And then at the end of that period, we’re going to return with Christ from heaven and he’s going to slay the Antichrist and then he’s going to physically reign on earth, usually from Jerusalem, for a literal thousand years before the resurrection of the dead and thus the end of the world. So this event, on the view of the people who talk a lot about the Rapture, is not at the end of the world. It’s more than a thousand years before the end of the world. And that’s a problem because if you study the way Paul discusses the coming of Christ in 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Paul makes it real clear he’s talking about the end, the final end, with the resurrection of the dead and all that stuff. So he’s not talking about something more than a thousand years earlier. And so if you build in all this extra content into the Rapture, where it’s an event that precedes the end of the world by more than a thousand years and Jesus just like dips down into the atmosphere and goes right back to heaven. Okay, Catholics don’t believe in that because that’s not taught anywhere else in Scripture and it’s actually contradicted by the surrounding context in 1 and 2 Thessalonians. So no, Catholics don’t believe that. If that’s what you mean by the Rapture. No, Catholics don’t believe it. But if all you mean is at some point in the future we’re going to be caught up to be with Christ. Well, yeah, we believe that. The question then is still left, well, what happens after? After that? And on the historic Christian view, because this idea of the Rapture, as I’ve just articulated it, is a very new thing in Christian history.
Cy Kellett: So this idea, the popular idea of rapture, not the one that you talked of, a proper understanding, but the popular idea of the Rapture, where did this come from?
Jimmy Akin: Where it first starts to show up is in the early 1800s, like about the 1820s, there was a group, it was a prophetic movement known as the Irvingites over in the United Kingdom. And they began to talk about this. The exact beginning of it’s a little disputed, but it eventually became a view that was adopted by a man named John Nelson Darby who was associated with a group called the Plymouth Brethren. And that kind of served as the launching pad for this idea and it became popular after that. So this is something that’s basically, you know, 1820s, it’s now the 2000s. So it’s basically a 200 year old idea and you won’t find it before that.
Cy Kellett: All right, so if I may, we sometimes hear about dispensationalism. And if you could describe to me what is dispensationalism and is this also a modern invention or is this older?