by Dave Brown
Many use biblical words (such as fellowship, church and Christian) in ways that they are never used in the bible. While not sinful in and of itself, when done to infer biblical authority for worldly practices this is dishonest.
What about the other side of the coin—the use of a term that is totally foreign to the bible as though the Holy Spirit inspired it? Such is the case with the popular religious term “the rapture.” (Check any complete concordance.)
I was attracted to the John Ankerberg program (1/15/95) by the promise that they were going to give “biblical evidence for the rapture.” Perhaps I had missed something
The first two speakers spent considerable time elaborating on John 14 and 1 Corinthians 15: 51-57, which describe heaven and the end of time. The definition of rapture is “very great joy,” and no one disputes that there will be very great joy (rapture, if you will) in heaven. But these teachers were not even beginning to address the various doctrines of “the rapture.”
A third speaker used 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. When he quoted verse 17 he said “... caught up or raptured ...” This has a shred of validity. New Webster’s Dictionary indicates that the word rapture is derived from the Latin “rapere, raptum to seize and carry away.”
The speaker indicated that the word rapture meant to be “caught up, snatched.” However, this is the meaning of the Latin root, not the English word. Several other English words, including the word rape, are also derived from these Latin words, but that does not change their English meanings.
So to accurately use the word rapture (“very great joy”) to describe the events of 1 Thessalonians 4:17, we must find a Greek word with that meaning in the passage. Using various Greek sources, we see that the Greek words chara, agalliasis, or euphrosune indicate joy. Properly qualified, one of them would come close to the meaning of our English word rapture.
But the word used in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 is harpazo, which means, “to snatch or catch away.” This has the meaning of physically moving with no reference to emotions whatsoever. So in no way should the term “rapture” be used to describe the events of this passage.
This passage is simply describing what will happen at Christ’s second coming. Why can’t we be satisfied with using the same words that the Holy Spirit used? Our attempts to “help” God in this regard inevitably mislead and deceive.