From Latin raptus.
The word rapture has several meanings. Let’s first see those of our Christian tradition and then we will go to the rapture according to the new doctrine that conceives the faithful flying through the air. †œThe Rapture† is the subject of numerous †œbest-sellers† and several movies. We could say that the word “rapture” has been raptured by the proponents of a new doctrine! What is it about?
“The Rapture” is the belief that there will be an imminent “secret” coming of Jesus Christ to take true believers from the world. These will be physically and suddenly snatched from this world and lifted up into the air to meet Jesus.
When and how the rapture will occur is the subject of great controversy among its adherents. There are three camps of opinion as to when the rapture will occur. Some say that before the Great Tribulation, (pre-tribulation), others that during and others that after (post-tribulation).
The Catholic faith and many Protestants on the rapture: Jesus Christ will come at the end of time. It will be a visible and glorious coming that no one will be able to ignore (Cf. Rev 1:7) It will be then that the final judgment will occur; living and dead will be taken from this world into the presence of the Lord. There will be no “secret rapture” prior to the end of the world.
The rapture is based on a wrong interpretation of several Biblical passages.
†œWe tell you this as the Word of the Lord: We who live, who remain until the Coming of the Lord, will not go ahead of those who died. The Lord himself, at the command given by the voice of an archangel and by the trumpet of God, will come down from heaven, and those who died in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds, together with them, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord† (1 Thess. 4:15-17).
This passage refers to the end of the world and not to an earlier secret coming. St. Paul shows that it is the end of time: “And so we will always be with the Lord.”
Objections against “The Rapture”
1. The belief in “the rapture” is unbiblical. The authentic interpretation of the Bible does not accept novelties and the concept of the rapture was not known in Christianity until the eighteenth century.
Origins: According to the research of Paul Thigpen, author of †œThe Rapture Trap,† the doctrine of the rapture dates back to the 18th century. A Puritan minister named Increase Mather wrote of Christians being caught up in the air before the world was consumed by the fires of divine judgment. Later others published similar ideas. A Chilean Jesuit named Manuel Lacunza, in his book The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty, published in 1812, speculates that the faithful who have frequently received communion will, towards the end of the world, be gathered by Jesus Christ to keep them safe for 45 days while the world is punished. This book was translated into English and his idea of the rapture had great influence among some groups of sectarian Christians.
2. Three comings of Jesus Christ instead of two?
According to the scheme of the rapture, there are still two comings of Christ: One to take his own in the rapture and another coming at the end of time. They would be the Second and the Third Coming (the First was in the Incarnation).
The truth is that Christ came in his First Coming and only the Second Coming is missing. This coming will mark the end of the world. That day Christ will gather everyone: those who are alive at that time and also the dead who will rise again. After that event this world will no longer exist.
3. The rapture to avoid the tribulation: False evasion of suffering. Those who believe that the rapture will be before the Great Tribulation of the Antichrist think that only the wicked will suffer that time of persecution. If this were true, then the Antichrist would have no one to persecute because all the faithful would already be with Christ out of this world!
They forget that suffering has a deep biblical meaning. The fact is that Christ suffered and his Mystical Body which is the Church has a continuous path of suffering and persecution. But there will be a final chase that will be extraordinary, before the end. Christians cannot be expecting a premature rapture but must be fortifying themselves to overcome the test.
Paul extensively recounts his own sufferings in the persecution of his time and exhorts us not to be afraid to die for Christ in the trials that will certainly come to the Church and to each believer in particular. That is why he teaches that those believers who survive the persecution of the Antichrist and are alive when Christ comes will have no advantage over those who have died in the faith. Both groups will be reunited with Christ forever (1 Thess 4:15-17).
Source: Apologetic Dictionary
Kidnapping of someone against their will and unjust deprivation of the natural right to liberty. Ordinarily the term is applied to the abduction of a woman, who is supposed to be more defenseless than a man.
In mysticism, the idea of rapture is alluded to, as a synonym for spiritual outburst or supernatural ecstasy. It is a figure that implies that God leads someone to a state or situation of singular connection with him.
Pedro Chico González, Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy, Editorial Bruño, Lima, Peru 2006
Source: Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy
see Snatch.
Source: Dictionary of Theology