Recently while serving as a guest Sunday school instructor in a local church which continues to be highly supportive of our ministry, one of the class members, whom I know very well, asked me about the rapture. She said that once she believed the Dispensational view of pre-millenialism, but now that she does no longer, she wondered what the correct interpretation of eschatology is. In other words, is there a Biblical concept of the rapture?

As most of our readers will know, the pre-millenial view holds that Jesus will return, rapture His church (take them to be with Him), at which time there will be a “little season” in which the devil will have full reign. After that Jesus will return with his people and reign for a thousand years on the earth. The devil will then garner his forces for a show-down battle at Armageddon, which the Lord will win, and the final judgment will follow. There are, of course, many variants on this general theme. The point is that Dispensationalism or chiliasm holds to a double resurrection and double parousia (return of Christ) theo

Although interpreting the end times is perhaps the most difficult aspect of Christian theology because it necessitates assembling bits and pieces of information from various Old and New Testament sources, much of it highly symbolic (apocalyptic), eschatology is a crucially important matter, for our theology of redemption unfolds within the parameters of the beginning and the end. What God began both in creation and in redemption has a purpose, and we see that purpose realized at

Our next devotional will be devoted to an attempt to answer the lady’s question. Yes, there is a Biblical doctrine of rapture. I was blessed to hear Jonathan Gerstner (son of the late Dr. John Gerstner) explain this doctrine at a conference a few years ago. I would also refer readers to a lengthy discussion in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia on the subject of eschatology by the Dutch Reformed theologian Geerhardus Vos.