Our Season of Advent gets it right!

Now here is a good question: "Do we Episcopalians and Anglicans believe in a type of "rapture" by Christ?  After all, many Christians do.  Are they wrong?  Well, the short answer is simply no, we do not believe in any secret return of Christ to rapture out of this world the faithful; which leads us to answer the second question, and that is yes, Christians who do believe in a "rapture theory" about a secret return of Christ have been led astray.

Now if you want to know why, read on.

Among Christians today you hear talk that Jesus Christ is coming back in a secret way to "rapture" us from the earth so to preserve us from the terrible tribulations prophesied in the Bible for the earth's last days.  This would happen sometime between His birth and His final coming as Judge.  We are to know when this time has arrived as we will notice how all faithful Christians are suddenly disappearing on a grand scale.  Gone before our eyes.  Does this sound a bit off?  It is and for many reasons.

Do we believe in the rapture?
So what about us?  Do we believe in a rapture theory?  As I said earlier, no, and we don't for two very important reasons:

1. It's not biblical. In spite of the fact that the Christians who hold firm to this view refer to themselves as "Bible Christians," both the Old and New Testaments know nothing about a third coming of Christ in secret to rapture the faithful.
2. The second reason is that for the first 18 centuries of Christian history, no one ever promoted such an idea of there being a "rapture" of any type someday.

Where did this rapture stuff originate?
So where on earth did it come from and why is it so popular among Christians?  The notion of a rapture belongs to 19th century Protestant movements in the United States and in Great Britain.  In the 19th century we find a man named John Nelson Darby, an Irish Protestant who was a leader of a Christian sect called the Plymouth Brethren.  Reverend Darby traveled extensively between 1859 and 1874 preaching his ideas about "the end times." He put together various verses of the Bible and joined his own theological scenario to form what he called "Biblical prophecy." His biblical hermenutics has shaped the personal beliefs of millions of Christians since the middle of the 19th century down to our present time!  Darby called his theological system Dispensationalism.  He divided history into seven "dispensations" or "progressive stages" showing a pattern in God's unfolding revelation to humanity.

It is Dispensationalism that promotes the notion of a secret rapture by Christ.  This idea gained a huge boost in 1909 with the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible.  Cyrus Ingerson Scofield was a serious convert to Darby's dispensational beliefs. He was a lawyer by education and had no formal theological training at all.  But in time, millions of people were studying Scofield's marginal notes and believing that they actually were explaining what was contained in the inspired biblical text. You will find in Scofield's notes how he breaks up history into these seven ages.

Today we have popular books like Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth (1970), and its sequels, and more recently the Left Behind Series and the many sequals and movies and variations that continue to promote Dispensationalism and continue to make great confusion among even "biblical Christians."

Our Creeds and the season of Advent

So where do we Anglicans/Episcopalians go from here?  We go to the Creeds and to the season of Advent to stay rooted to Christ and His teachings. Our Prayer Book addresses:

1. Our Lord's first coming which is His holy Nativity and includes His Incarnational life, Suffering, Death on the Cross, Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven;
2. Our Lord's second coming when He returns to usher in the "new Heaven and the new earth."

Beginning with His Incarnational life through His Ascension into Heaven Jesus spoke of and promised that He shall return one day to earth. Why is it necessary for Jesus to return some day?  He must return some day, because His mission is not yet complete.

Our Prayer Book knows nothing of a "rapture theory."

But until He returns in all His glory Jesus does not leave us "desolate."  Rather He says: "I will come to you."  (see John 14:18).  So Jesus abides now with us and will remain until He appears as merciful Judge.

St. Bernard of Clairveaux explains this abiding presence or "intermediate coming" in this way:

We know that there are three "comings" of the Lord. The third lies between the other two. It is invisible while the other two are visible.  In the first coming He was seen on earth, dwelling among men; … in the final coming "all flesh will see the salvation of our God and they will look upon Him whom they have pierced." The intermediate coming is a hidden one; in it only the baptized see the Lord within their own selves, and they are saved. In His first coming our Lord came in our flesh and our weakness; in this middle He comes in Spirit and in power; in the final coming he will be seen in glory and in majesty. Because this coming lies between the other two, it is like a road on which we travel from the first coming to the last.

The formula looks like this:

1. First Coming: The Holy Nativity through the Ascension;
2. The intermediate or sacramental presence:  At Pentecost Jesus establishes His abiding sacramental presence. Becuase of the presence of the Father and of the Son that dwells in the Church through the power of the Holy Spirit; the Church is a source of spiritual renewal and great power! (see John 14:10-14).
3. Second Coming: to judge the living and the dead and to usher in the Kingdom of God.

In John 16:16-22 Jesus addresses what St. Bernard of Clairveaux called "the intermediate coming"

A little while and you will no longer see Me, and again a little while later and you will see Me. So some of His disciples said to one another, "What does this mean that He is saying to us, 'A little while and you will not see Me, and again a little while and you will see Me,' and 'Because I am going to the Father'?" So they said, "What is this 'little while' (of which He speaks)? We do not know what He means." Jesus knew that they wanted to ask Him, so He said to them, "Are you discussing with one another what I said, 'A little while and you will not see Me, and again a little while and you will see Me'? Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy. When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. (John 16:16-22)

This intermediate presence is at the heart of our Lord's prayer to His heavenly Father:

I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, so that they may all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one, as We are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that You sent Me, and that You loved them even as You loved Me. Father, they are Your gift to Me. I wish that where I am they also may be with Me, that they may see My glory that You gave Me, because You loved Me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know You, but I know You, and they know that You sent Me. I made known to them Your Name and I will make it known, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them and I in them. (John 17:20-26)

Jesus is speaking about His presence with us until the end of the ages: "... and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age."  (Matt 28:20b).

Summary (yes, I'm almost done)
So, the Bible and our faith clearly explain that Christians are not raptured out of anything.  In fact it is only by going through the great tribulations that our robe (meaning our life and soul) is washed white (purified and made whole) in the Blood of the Lamb.  (see Rev 7:13-17).  The only way we get out of this world is through the gate of death.  Our faith is founded upon Easter morning and the fact that Christ has been victorious over death.  By means of His presence in the Church our Lord is able to provide (through the work of the Holy Spirit within us) grace upon grace so that we can live virtuiously and be victorious over our fallen nature and live the life God has ordained us to live in this world and in the world to come.

Let us also remember that in every day we have the love and the support of the angels in Heaven.  We can take great comfort knowing that since our Baptism our Lord Jesus Christ provided each one of us with a Guardian Angel. This angel remains with us throughout our lives, watching over us, and assisting us in many ways. The hosts of Heaven love and care for us!  Jesus the Good Shepherd is with us now through the power and witness and presence of the Holy Spirit.  This is His promise to be with us until "the end of the ages."  This presence is speaking about His sacramental presence in His Church and in her mission and ministry to the world; as well as in our devotional life as a disciple.

So, let us pray, "Come, Lord Jesus."