The rapture is the event described in 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 in which Jesus Christ returns in the air, the dead in Christ rise first, and believers who are still alive are “caught up” in the Greek word harpazo to meet the Lord in the clouds. It is the moment God removes His church from the earth before the tribulation begins.
The word “rapture” does not appear in most English translations of the Bible, but the event it describes is taught directly in multiple passages. The doctrine rests on what Scripture says, not on a single proof text.
1 Thessalonians 4:16–18 “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” This is the most complete description of the rapture in Scripture. Believers who have died are raised first. Then living believers are caught up in harpazo in Greek to meet Christ in the air. Paul closes the passage with the instruction to “comfort one another with these words,” a detail that matters for understanding the timing of the event.
1 Corinthians 15:51–53 “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” Not every believer will die. Some will still be alive when Christ returns. In an instant faster than a blink their mortal bodies will be transformed into immortal ones.
John 14:2–3 “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” Jesus promises to come back personally and take believers to be with Him not to send them through judgment, but to receive them.
Revelation 3:10 “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.” The promise is not endurance through the trial but removal from it kept from the hour, not kept through it.
The English word “rapture” does not come from an English Bible translation. It comes from the Latin Vulgate’s rendering of the Greek word harpazo in 1 Thessalonians 4:17.
Harpazo (Greek) means to seize, snatch away, or catch up by force. It is the same word used in Acts 8:39 when the Spirit “caught up” Philip after he baptized the Ethiopian, and in 2 Corinthians 12:2 when Paul describes being “caught up to the third heaven.”
When Jerome translated the New Testament into Latin in the fourth century, he rendered harpazo as rapturo from the Latin rapio, meaning to seize or carry off. The English word “rapture” is a direct descendant of that Latin term.
Critics sometimes argue that because the word “rapture” is not in the Bible, the doctrine is not real. But the word “Trinity” is not in the Bible either, and no orthodox Christian disputes that doctrine. The question is not whether the English word appears, it is whether the event is taught. The passages above answer that clearly.
Christians who believe in the rapture disagree about its timing in relation to the seven-year tribulation described in Daniel and Revelation. There are three main positions.
The rapture occurs before the seven-year tribulation begins. The church is removed from the earth, and then God pours out His wrath on the world as described in Revelation 6–19. This is the view held by Pastor Tom Hughes, the late Tim LaHaye, John Walvoord, and most dispensational theologians. The key argument: the church is never mentioned in Revelation chapters 4 through 19 the entire tribulation section because it is no longer on earth.
The rapture occurs three and a half years into the tribulation, at the midpoint when the Antichrist breaks his covenant with Israel and sets up the “abomination of desolation” in the temple (Daniel 9:27). Believers endure the first half of the tribulation but are removed before the worst of God’s wrath, the “Great Tribulation” begins.
The rapture and the Second Coming are the same event. Believers endure the entire tribulation and are caught up to meet Christ as He descends to earth to establish His kingdom. This view sees the church present throughout Revelation and interprets “kept from the hour of trial” (Revelation 3:10) as divine protection during the tribulation rather than removal from it.
Each position is held by sincere, Bible-believing Christians. The question is which reading best fits the full weight of the passages involved and that is where Pastor Tom Hughes’s teaching brings clarity.
Pastor Tim’s weekly prophecy updates and biblical teaching
In this prophecy update hosted by Our Watch, Pastor Tom Hughes of Hope For Our Times walks through the key rapture passages verse by verse and lays out the biblical case for why the church is taken before the tribulation begins.
The church disappears from Revelation. Tom begins with Revelation 4:1, where John hears a voice saying “Come up here.” Some teachers use this verse as direct proof of the rapture, but Tom is careful: “That’s not a rapture passage, that’s John’s personal experience.” However, the significance is what happens next. “From chapter four verse one all the way through to chapter 19, you don’t see the church. The church is not mentioned.” The church is present in Revelation 1–3. It reappears in Revelation 19 at the marriage supper of the Lamb. In between during the entire tribulation it is absent from the text.
Daniel’s 70 weeks prove the tribulation is not about the church. Tom walks through Daniel 9:24–27, one of the most precise prophecies in Scripture. God told Daniel that 70 “weeks” (sevens) 490 years were determined for “your people,” the Jewish nation. Sixty-nine of those weeks (483 years) were fulfilled from the command to rebuild Jerusalem to the day Messiah was “cut off” the crucifixion. One week remains: the seven-year tribulation. “The entire 69 sevens were not about the Gentile world,” Tom explains. “It was God dealing with His people, the Jews.” If the first 69 weeks were about Israel, the 70th week is about Israel too, not the church. The church age is the gap between week 69 and week 70.
“Comfort one another with these words.” Tom returns to 1 Thessalonians 4:18 and asks a pointed question: “Why would God say ‘comfort one another with these words’ if the next thing believers faced was the worst period of suffering in human history?” If the rapture came after the tribulation, Paul’s instruction to find comfort in it makes no sense. The comfort is precisely that believers are removed before the wrath begins.
“You are not appointed to wrath.” In 1 Thessalonians 5:9, Paul writes that God has not appointed believers to wrath. Tom connects this directly to the preceding rapture passage: “The wrath that is spoken of there is in the context of him speaking about those in Christ Jesus who have been raptured versus those who have been left behind.” The tribulation is God’s wrath poured out on a Christ-rejecting world. Believers are exempt not by endurance, but by removal.
The Noah warning. Tom closes with Jesus’ comparison of the last days to the days of Noah. People were buying, selling, marrying and living as if nothing would change “until the rain started.” Noah’s neighbors thought the flood was absurd. They mocked it right up until the water rose. “The rapture will take place,” Tom says. “But you’ve got to make sure you’re ready, because the number is small.”
No. In the rapture, Christ comes in the air and takes believers up to be with Him (1 Thessalonians 4:17). In the Second Coming, Christ returns to the earth with His saints to defeat the Antichrist and establish His millennial kingdom (Revelation 19:11–16). Pre-tribulation theology holds that these are two distinct events separated by seven years.
Yes. The Greek word harpazo meaning “caught up” or “snatched away” appears in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. The Latin translation rapturo gave us the English word “rapture.” The word “Trinity” does not appear in the Bible either, but the doctrine it describes is thoroughly biblical.
No. Jesus said in Matthew 24:36, “Of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.” The rapture is described as imminent; it could happen at any moment which means no prophetic event must occur before it. Date-setting contradicts Scripture directly.
According to pre-tribulation theology, those who are not taken in the rapture will enter the seven-year tribulation described in Revelation 6–19. During that time, many will come to faith in Christ the “tribulation saints” but they will face intense persecution and the full outpouring of God’s judgment on the earth.
Most evangelical and Protestant Christians affirm the rapture based on 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15. The debate is about timing pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, or post-tribulation, not about whether the event occurs. Some traditions, including Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, do not use the term “rapture” but do affirm the bodily resurrection and gathering of believers at Christ’s return.
The rapture includes a resurrection where the dead in Christ rise first (1 Thessalonians 4:16). But the rapture adds something the Old Testament resurrection promises do not: living believers are transformed and caught up without dying. Paul calls this a “mystery” in 1 Corinthians 15:51 “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.”
The rapture is not a fringe theory or a modern invention. It is taught in the same letters Paul wrote to first-century churches the same passages read in churches today. The question is not whether it will happen, but whether you are ready when it does. As Pastor Tom Hughes puts it: the number will be small, the moment will be sudden, and the time to prepare is now.
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