The Rapture: Our Blessed Hope Or An Ancient Cult Doctrine?

 

For 2000 years now, Christians have been waiting on and hoping for the rapture, the event where Jesus Christ returns for his followers before the Tribulation period begins, that is if you subscribe to a Pre-Tribulation rapture viewpoint. Many people over the last 2000 years have set dates for when The End would come and the rapture event would take place. And so far, they are enjoying a 100% failure rate. 

In modern times, people like Hal Lindsey have made careers out of predicting world events as they believe they are taught in Scripture. Much more recent than Hal's books is the Left Behind series of books and movies. And so far... yep... a 100 percent failure rate. Events have not occurred as these men predicted. Back in 2011, a man named Harold Camping declared that the end of the world and the rapture event would take place in May of that year. Yep... wrong again. But let's not forget 1988 and Edgar Whisenant. This man wrote a book detailing the 88 reasons why the rapture would happen that year. Lots of Christians got very excited, and that included me. But yep... wrong again. And these days we have the benefit of the Internet, YouTube, and social media, and the rapture watching community is going strong there. I was a part of that community for about seven years, and I watched as date after date got set and date after date that was made to look so promising passed uneventfully. And the people setting the dates never apologize for being wrong. They just move on to what they think the next promising date is. Riding that roller coaster of hope and then disappointment over and over again was exhausting, and I finally had to jump off. I have seen well-meaning people spend years working on timelines trying to figure out when the rapture will happen, yet they are always wrong and they always will be. The reason for that is simple: Much of the Bible is myths, fables (stories involving talking animals), alleged "history" that is now known to be wrong, etc. The Bible is not the "word" of a god, but it is regarded as such by many sincere Christians who are blissfully unaware of the facts concerning their own holy book. 

Watching and waiting for the rapture to take place in the here and now of the 21st Century is a complete and utter waste of time and emotional energy. This is so because it is crystal clear from the New Testament writings that Jesus, the apostle Paul, and all of the other authors that they expected the rapture and the end of the world to occur during their lifetimes. Let's take a look at some of the scriptures that make this point very clear.

In Matthew 10:23, Jesus tells his disciples that they will not finish going through the cities of Israel before he returns.

“You shall not finish going through the cities of Israel, until the Son of Man comes.” (Matt. 10:23)

“There are some of those who are standing here who shall not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” (Matt. 16:28; cf. Mk. 9:1; Lk. 9:27)

Jesus tells his followers that their generation (back then, not 2000 years in the future), will not pass away until all these things happen.

“This generation will not pass away until all things take place.” (Lk. 21:32)

Paul clearly believes that the End is at hand, the rapture is about to happen, and the end of the world will take place.

“It is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand.” (Rom. 13:11-12)

“Now these things …were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” (I Cor. 10:11)

Paul clearly believed that he would be alive when the rapture event took place.

“We shall not all fall sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” (I Cor. 15:51-52)

Can "a little while" reasonably be made to mean 2000 years?

“For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay.” (Heb. 10:37)

The Day of the Lord was clearly supposed to be back then 2000 years ago, not now 2000 years later.

“The end of all things is at hand; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.” (I Peter 4:7)

Again, the apostle Paul was clearly expecting to be alive when the rapture took place and the end of the world happened.

“…we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord… We who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds… …You, brethren, are not in darkness, that the Day should overtake you like a thief.” (I Thess. 4:15,17; 5:4)

Those scriptures are just a small sample of the over 100 verses in the New Testament that make it clear that the rapture and the end of the world was supposed to happen back then 2000 years ago, not now in our current day.

The New Testament contains the writings of a failed first century apocalyptic cult. And the rapture event never happened back then as they were clearly expecting, and it's not going to happen in the here and now of the 21st Century. The rapture was the Blessed Hope of a 2000 year old failed apocalyptic cult. Just as this cult failed in its predictions of the end of the world coming back then, the rapture is a false doctrine taken from an ancient apocalyptic cult, and it is not meant for us today. It didn't happen for the Christians 2000 years ago, and it's not going to happen for Christians in the here and now of the 21st Century. I feel bad saying this because I too wasted a lot of time and emotional energy waiting and hoping for this event, and I have many Christian friends who have been disappointed time and time again when the rapture didn't happen on some particular date that someone on YouTube said looked promising. The facts are what they are. The rapture is a religious fantasy. It's a false doctrine taken from an ancient failed cult, and it's never going to happen. And my prediction is that the rapture fever happening now among some Christians will eventually die down when the rapture keeps failing to happen for long enough. I don't really expect these people to ever question the truth of their faith, but I do think and hope that the rapture fever will die down as the rapture continues to not happen.

In closing, I would like to say that I wish that the rapture was a real thing, a real event that will happen in the history of our real world. But... it's just not. And I hope that the rapture fever will die down not long from now given that the people making these YouTube rapture videos can't stretch out the "Fig Tree" generation for too much longer. But of course the generation that Jesus addressed was his own, not people living 2000 years in the future.