Several times I've heard a story about airline policies designed to prevent flight crews made up entirely of Christians due to fear of losing planes in the event of Rapture. I never believed the story, and Snopes says that it's a urban legend, as I expected. However, it also claims that most Christians (in America? the world?) don't believe in the Rapture at all.
While many of those of the Christian faith may be unfamiliar with concept of the faithful suddenly disappearing from the face of the Earth, this belief permeates a number of fundamentalist branches of Christianity. Known as "The Rapture," it refers to a time when Jesus will return to claim the faithful, drawing Christians (both the still living and the already dead) up into the clouds to meet Him. It is said this event will be followed by seven years of famine, plagues, pestilence, and three world wars before the Savior returns, a time often referred to as "The Tribulation." ...Those who believe in the Rapture hold as a tenet of faith the sudden celestial appearance of Christ at some future unknowable date, immediately Airplane followed by the irresistible summoning heavenward of all who follow His teachings. The faithful will be pulled towards the Christ the way iron filings are pulled towards a magnet, rendering the Earth depopulated of the godly and leaving the godless (or at least the Christ-rejecting) to battle their way through the horrors of this world's final seven years.
The Rapture interpretation of 1 Thessalonians is not shared by the majority of Christians and appears to date to 1909, when the Scofield Reference Bible (King James Version) was published. Prior to that time, this parsing of 1 Thessalonians' "caught up in the air" passage was unknown, although in the 18th century theologian J.N. Darby popularized the idea that there would be a "secret rapture" seven years before the Christ really returned, and the non-Christians who didn't disappear into the air would be left to face the anti-Christ.
I've never encountered the claim that the majority of Christians don't believe in the Rapture. Is that true?
Wouldn't surprise me. It seems to be an Evangelical/Pentacostal thing. (Which means I was richly steeped in it.) I would agree that it is most likely when it comes to the sort of "mass taking" that the Evangelicals like to think about. My reading of the book is that the number is fixed (144K) and way too small to account for the Evangelicals claims. After all, if you are going to be literal about one part, be literal about it all.
Plus, as I read it, it is just a way to get the noncombatants out of the way. After all, you need to righteous to resist the tribulations, right? If you aren't righteous, then why wouldn't you just go along with the Beast? Who would be the holdouts?
I think the author is correct that a large part, if not a majority, of Christians do not believe in "the Rapture" per se. I know that it's not included in Catholic theology, and (as a Lutheran) I know it's not part of ours. Methodists and Presbyterians I'm not sure about, but I think they do not officially subscribe to Rapture theology... that would be an interesting survey.
As a United Methodist, I've never heard it taught as an actual belief of the church. Some of the members I think believe in it, but I think that's driven more by tradition and popular media than doctrine.
Actually, having grown up Southern Baptist I never heard it mentioned there either. I don't think in my life I've ever heard the word "rapture" in a sermon, or the idea floated out that one day all the Christians will vanish and LayHaye and Jenkins will be left to rule the Earth...
None of the churches I have gone to, six denominations, believe in the rapture. I don't think Catholics believe in the rapture either which, with a few more, would make a majority.
It's not like they pulled this doctrine out of the air. It would seem they have a biblical basis for their belief. And what about America's knowledge and understanding of Scripture? How do the majority of Christians interpret the passage in Paul's letter to the Thessalonian church? "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord." 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
It's not as if they totally made it up from nothing. However, most (mainline) denominations do not subscribe to that particular interpretation of those passages.
Fascinating, I had no idea. I guess I really am a "fundamentalist"!
I would have thought that most Christians WOULD believe in the Rapture....I, for one, am looking forward to it!
Go to http://www.religioustolerance.org/millenni.htm;
I cannot vouch for the website's origins or sponsors, but the material there concurs with the "generally recognized" history of the Rapture movements, etc. Very complicated, and not a feature of the Presbyterians, Church of Christ [that is not the same as the "Yankee" United Church of Christ, a Congregationalist spin-off, IIRC] or most of the mainstream conservative Protestant Churches.