Read literally, I Cor. 15:51 and I Thess. 4:13-17 suggest that the saints alive at Christ’s return would be changed, and wondrously translated to heaven in a manner similar to Enoch or Elijah.  We feel this is mistaken, and that the better view is that the only “rapture” taught by scriptures occurs at the believer’s death.   

Change and Rapture - Not Same Events 

The eschatological “change” of I Cor. 15:51 and the “catching-up” of I Thess. 4:17 are generally supposed to describe the same event in different language; viz., those caught-up would be simultaneously changed from a material to an immaterial body, and so borne away to heaven.  In fact, because “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven” (I Cor. 15:50), the idea of a literal change is essential to the idea the saints would be translated at Christ’s return as they could not be carried away to heaven otherwise.  However, in our view these passages do not describe the same event.  The approach taken here is that the “change” was legal and covenantal, but the “catching-up” actual and spatial; the former accrued to the benefit of the church at the eschaton, the latter is experienced by believers one-by-one as they die.

Notion of Literal Rapture Present Among Early Church 

Belief in a literal rapture is not new, but was present among first century believers.  Jesus indicated that John would live until his return (Jn. 21:23).  This prompted members of the early church to conclude John would not die, but would be translated to heaven with other believers at Christ’s return.  However, John dispels this notion entirely, completely disallowing that this was Jesus’ meaning: 

What about the veil of silence that fell in the decades following A.D. 70?  Where did Timothy, Titus, Luke, and others go?  The silence of history regarding these men has led some to suppose an actual rapture o fsome sort occurred.  But is there really a veil of silence following A.D. 70?  No, there is not.  We do not know what happened to each character named in the New Testament, but some information has come down to us.  It is true that there is not as much information as we might hope or expect, but this can be explained by the almost universal martyrdom of the early church in the persecution under Nero.  The imagery of Daniel and Revelation makes very clear that Nero’s persecution was world-wide and would witness the death of multitudes of believers.  Those that did not suffer martyrdom were driven underground, perhaps literally in the catacombs, where they remained in hiding until the storm of persecution had passed. By the time of Domitian toward the end of the first century, Christians reemerged from hiding and history records their presence again.  Indeed, history is not silent about the fate of the apostles and other Biblical characters at all.  The church fathers record the tradition that Mark went to Alexandria, Thomas to India, Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom, and John went to Ephesus where he lived until the days of Trajan.  Moreover, sacred tradition records that Clement and members of the holy family survived A.D. 70 and came together after the capture of the city to decide who should succeed James as head of the church, unanimously deciding upon Simon, the son of Clopas.[1]  Hence, there is nothing to the idea that these men simply disappeared, and we need not resort to notions about a literal rapture to explain the perceived absence of Christians from history following A.D. 70.  Indeed, the fact that John reportedly lived until the time of Trajan is a full refutation of the literal rapture view. 

The Mystery of Marriage and the Eschatological Change 

If there was not a literal rapture or translation of believers to heaven at Christ’s coming, what does that say about a literal change?  Plainly, if the one did not occur, neither did the other, for there could be no translation without there also being a change, and no metaphysical change without a translation.  Therefore, proof that one did not occur ipso facto will disprove the other.  But if there was no metaphysical change, what was there?  Clearly, Paul said something was to happen. What, then, was it?   

Paul said, “Behold I show you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed” (I Cor. 15:51).  A “mystery” is something hidden, something wonderful and almost incomprehensible.  In saying that the eschatological change was a “mystery,” Paul indicates that spiritual discernment is required to attain a proper understanding.  Certainly, there is no mystery in a literal reading, and it requires no spiritual discernment to understand the “change” that way.  Hence, if we would understand this mystery, we must think in different terms. 

All imagery in the New Testament involving the marriage symbol portrays the bridegroom coming to earth, not descending to Hades to raise the dead.  Indeed, Rev. 21:2, 9, 10 shows the bride’s dwelling - the new Jerusalem, the covenantal habitation of the saints - coming down out of heaven to earth, not ascending from earth or Hades to heaven.  Plainly, rapture and resurrection were not the meaning of the marriage.  

The “one flesh” relationship of man and woman is legal and covenantal.  In marriage, a legal fiction occurs whereby the two identities are merged into one under the headship of the husband.  The two are not actually “one flesh;” the death of the husband does not cause the death of the wife.  They are one flesh merely in contemplation of law.  Rather, the marriage of the Lamb is the spiritual union of Christ and his people, and points to the covenantal relationship whereby Christ washes and sanctifies the church with his own blood (Eph. 5:27).  The period from Pentecost to the consummation in A.D. 70 was the betrothal.  Paul told the Corinthians that he had betrothed them as a chaste virgin unto Christ (II Cor. 11:2).  The consummation of the marriage would occur at Jesus’ second coming (Rev. 19:7-9).  The sanctifying power of Christ’s redeeming blood – held in abeyance during the interim period of betrothal - would finally accrue to the benefit of the church at the consummation, when Christ was joined to his church in the bond of marriage under the gospel.  In the Old Testament, the marriage of God to Israel is couched the same way; it was always covenantal, never of resurrection or rapture (Jer. 2:1-3; Ezek. 16:1-16). Elsewhere in the New Testament, the basic idea behind the marriage of Christ and the church is presented other ways, including imagery of redemption, adoption, and citizenship.  (Rom. 8:23; Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:14; Phil. 3:20)  Redemption frees from the bondage of sin; adoption confers sonship leading to inheritance; citizenship gains admittance into the heavenly city.  The common factor in all these cases is the status or condition arising in law.   

If A = B and B = C, then A = C.  If the eschatological change equals the marriage of Christ and the church; and the marriage was essentially legal and covenantal; then the eschatological change was essentially legal and covenantal, and points to the church’s redemption from the bondage of sin.  This is confirmed in the verses following Paul’s announcement of the change, when he says the sting of death was sin and the strength of sin was the law (I Cor. 15:57).  Surely, Paul appends this statement here to show that the victory over Hades depended in the first instance upon victory over sin, and the victory over sin depended upon Christ’s substitutionary death triumphing over (not annulling) the law.  The debt of sin deprived man of immortality; loosing the bond of sin clothed believers with immortality as a matter of law, making them putative heirs of eternal life as the adopted sons of God.  This was the change Paul envisioned for the church. 

Better View of I Thess. 4:17 

It still remains to explain I Thess. 4:17. The view we have settled upon, as the one most cognizant with scripture, is that the dead would be raised, then those alive at Christ’s return would die one-by-one, and be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.   

“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”  I Thess. 4:15-17 

The conjunctive “then” in v. 17 shows that the catching up follows the resurrection in point of time.  How much time is not stated; it is usually assumed that the two are substantially contemporaneous, but this is not justified.  The truth is the text is silent; there is absolutely no basis for the conclusion that the catching up is contemporaneous with the resurrection; the whole notion rests upon supposition read into the text; nothing the text actually states.  In Rev. 20:12-15, we have a picture of the resurrection. No rapture is presented in the imagery there.  Just the opposite; as already noted, the city of the saints is shown coming down out of heaven to earth, not the saints going up from earth to heaven.  However, there is a rapture of sorts in Rev. 14:14-16 where Christ is depicted upon a white cloud, harvesting the souls of the saints (wheat of the earth).  The imagery idicates that it is the Lord’s second coming, and that he is gathering his saints into the eternal kingdom by death under the beast, even while he is making war against his enemies.  This is portrayed by the winepress of the wrath of God trodden without the city, probably signifying Vespasian’s Galilean campaign (vv.18-20).  This corresponds with history, for the persecution under Nero (A.D. 64-68) overlapped the Jews’ war with Rome (A.D. 66-70).  It also accounts for the simultaneous harvests portrayed in the text, one of salvation, the other of wrath.  The word used to describe the harvest of the wheat (Gk. episynagogue) has the same root that is used in II Thess. 2:1, where Paul speaks of the coming of the Lord and the saints being gathered unto him in the persecution by the “man of sin” and “son of perdition” (Nero).  It also occurs in other eschatological passages to describe the harvest of the saints into the kingdom of God (Matt. 3:12; 13:30).  These passages teach that the gathering or harvest was not by rapture, but by martyrdom under Nero and the beast.  As each saint died, Christ was there to meet him in the air.  If this was true of the martyrs, may it not also be true of every believer?  In II Cor. 5:10, Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.  Read together with I Thess. 4:17, the result is clear: as we die we are each caught up to meet the Lord in the air “and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 

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