I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. – Revelation 21:2

Today's Scripture Reading (June 17, 2021): Revelation 21

The Rapture is imagined as a moment when all of the believers in Jesus are removed from the earth. Depending on your theological bent, this event happens either before the beginning of the Great Tribulation, a time of terrible tragedy that occurs at the end of all things, someplace in the middle of the Tribulation, or at the end of all things. And armchair theologians argue back and forth over when this Tribulation will occur, and sometimes it seems with as many theories as there are people willing to take up the question.

Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins turned the idea of the Rapture into a franchise with the "Left Behind" novels, a series of stories that tells a fictional account of what happens at the end of the earth, and the stories begin with the Rapture. If you are a product of the Christian Church, you probably grew up believing that the eventual removal of all the Christians was a foregone conclusion. I remember standing in the office of my cousin decades ago, and we were laughing about the tough days. And during the conversation, my cousin opened up his wallet and jokingly said into it, "Okay, God, beam me up," a strange crossover between a Star Trek reference and a religious comment indicating, "let the Rapture begin." But most of us have been waiting for the moment when God decides to take his own home to heaven.

One of the key passages for the existence of the  Rapture is found in Matthew.

For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left (Matthew 24:38-41).

But there is one thing that we seem to miss. Matthew doesn't say that the good will be taken while those without God will be left to fight their way through the rest of the Great Tribulation. He makes no moral observations at all between those who are taken and those who are left behind. Just that some will be taken, and some will be left behind.

This brings up those who think that we have the Rapture all wrong. And their argument is highlighted by John's comment in Revelation 21:2; "I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband." The idea, for some, is that while the Rapture exists just as Jesus describes in Matthew, it actually works in reverse. The critical question for those who believe that the Rapture works in reverse is, "why would God remove all of the God-fearers from the earth, and then remake the earth and bring the New Jerusalem out of heaven? Why wouldn't he leave the believers on the earth so that they could enjoy the new creation?" And the answer that they arrive at is that he wouldn't. Maybe, instead, he removes the evil from the earth, leaving the good ready to welcome the New Jerusalem, and the new heaven and the new earth. The story highlights how tricky prophecy can be. But we can rely on the vision of John, and we know that, someday, this earth will be recreated, and a New Jerusalem will be brought down to the planet, taking the place of the corrupt one that exists here now, and everything will indeed be made new (Revelation 21:5)!

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Revelation 22