Church of the Madalene

Do Catholics—or mainstream Protestant denominations for that matter—believe in the “second” second coming as popularized by the Left Behind book series and supported by many fundamentalist churches and Christians? No way.

This popularized belief states that “true Christians” will be secretly and invisibly whisked away in order to be spared the great tribulation, as described in Revelation, prior to a literal one thousand year earthly reign of Christ. The belief in a literal one thousand year reign is referred to as millenarianism and has been soundly rejected by the Catholic Church (CCC 676). The Church has always taught that this one thousand years is the long period, but not a literal millennia, between the first and second coming of Christ when Jesus reigns imperfectly through his kingdom on earth, the Church. (See Rev 20:1-10)

This “secret rapture” is also contrary to what the bible tells us. As Paul Thigpen points out in his book The Rapture Trap, “No one who reads [Revelation] can reasonably claim that God keeps Christians from suffering the great tribulation of the last days.” He’s right. And we can go well beyond just the book of Revelation to see his point. Christians will not escape the persecution. ( See John 17:15, Matt 10:38, Matt 13:21, Acts 14:22, Rom 8:17, Rom 8:35-38, Rom 12:12, Phil 3:10, 2 Tim 1:11-12, 1 Peter 1:6, 1 Peter 4:12-13, Rev 2:10, Rev 6:9-11, Rev 7:13-14. See also 2 Thess 1:5; Heb 12:1-11; Rev 1:9.) Jesus will return after the tribulation (See Matt 24:19-30.) once and visibly (See Dan 7:13, Matt 24:27, Matt 24:30, Acts 1:11, Rev 1:7.) and, the rapture will occur at the second coming, not before. (See Matt 24:29-31; 1 Cor 15:51-52; 1 Thess 2:1,3,8.)

Even with all the evidence to the contrary, secret rapturists will still try to use the bible and other means to prove their point. Here are a few of their methods:

• They’ll claim that experts have interpreted the bible in such a way that confirms the secret rapture belief. The Nazis had experts who confirmed the belief in a master race so just because a person claims to be an expert, it doesn’t mean they are, and it doesn’t mean they’re right.
• They’ll give empirical value to numbers that are meant to be symbolic. In other words, if Revelation states that Christ will have a one thousand year earthly reign, they will claim this means that Christ will literally and physically be enthroned on earth for one thousand thousand years. This is an easy mathematical sleight of hand since our modern western culture doesn’t use numbers in symbolic fashion.
• They’ll take phrases out of context and make them absolute. They’ll take a phrase like “the end” and claim that the phrase always means the end of the age when in fact it could be referring to the end of a battle or the end of a life.
• They’ll take similar words and phrases and claim that because they are different they must be referring to different events. For example, imagine that a writer has written a book about the Grand Canyon and in this book the writer refers to the Grand Canyon as the “awesome canyon” and other times as the “huge canyon”, under the methodology applied by secret rapturists, they would claim that the author is referring to three different canyons; the Grand canyon, the awesome canyon, and the huge canyon. A particularly offensive trick is to take similar Greek words and claim they have different meanings. This is an easy lie to get away with since so few of us are versed in ancient Greek. It’s helpful to point out to the secret rapturist that under this flawed logic it could be implied that Jesus was born more than once and crucified four times.

Of course all this maneuvering is wrapped in irony since secret rapturists deny the teaching authority of the Church and claim that bible interpretation should be based on the “plain sense” of its meaning. The scriptural dance they have to perform to try to prove their flawed theology goes well beyond the “plain sense” of scripture.

The secret rapture isn’t a biblical tradition or Church tradition, it’s a human tradition—and the tradition of just a handful of humans at that. Around the year 1830 an ex-Anglican apocalyptic preacher named John Nelson Darby met fifteen year old Margaret MacDonald who claimed to have had a private revelation of a secret rapture. Not all Christians would be rescued, only certain faithful ones. From this beginning, Darby and his followers started teaching that all true believers will be rescued in a secret rapture distinct from the second coming of Christ. Although they never came right out and said it, this amounted to two second comings. By the year 1909 a self appointed biblical scholar (He was actually a Kansas lawyer.) by the name of C.I. Scofield published what quickly became the most popular study bible in America—the Scofield Reference Bible, its notes always explained the passages from the secret rapturist perspective. By the early to mid-20^th Century schools like the Moody Bible Institute, Dallas Theological Seminary, and Talbot Seminary produced new pastors and bible study materials that promoted the immanence of the secret rapture and that it was the core message of the gospels.

So why is the secret rapture so popular? Well, who wants to suffer? It’s easy to believe that the end is near just by watching the news or reading a newspaper. It makes coping with this televised turmoil easier to bear just knowing that Jesus is about to whisk away and save true believers. Many secret rapture promoters point out the gloom and doom of the modern world to legitimize themselves and their beliefs to huge arenas full of the fearful and faithful. But any cursory glance at history tells us that times have always been bad. Imagine being in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. when the Roman army razed the Jewish temple to the ground, or being in Rome at its fall in 476 A.D., an event that plunged all of Western civilization into a dark age. Our imagined fears pale in comparison to these historical realities. It’s also nice to be in-the-know, and secret rapturists can feel secure with a wink and a nudge that they know true revelation and will be spared suffering. But, again, neither the bible nor the Church has ever provided such assurances.

As Christians we need to speak out against the false teaching of the secret rapture; any teaching that takes people away from God’s true message to humanity is damaging since God is the Truth (See John 14:6) and apostasy from the Truth is apostasy from God. In particular, we need to speak out against the Left Behind book series. The books are written by avowed anti-Catholics, Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, and the books often contain anti-Catholic storylines. In one book of the series, the hero is a Pope who rejects the church’s teaching in favor of Luther’s. The Left Behind series is unashamedly anti-Catholic in its theology, storyline, and authorship.

We need to ask the secret rapturist where in the bible it states specifically and clearly, in the “plain sense” of the scripture, that there will be a “second” second coming and then be prepared to point out the passages and points listed above that will refute this false belief. Finally, don’t get discouraged, as Catholics we are not alone—mainstream Protestant denominations have never promoted, believed in, or taught of a “secret rapture” either.

If you would like to learn more, I would recommend either “Rapture: The End-Times Error That Leaves the Bible Behind” By David B. Currie or, “The Rapture Trap: A Catholic Response to ‘End Times’ Fever” by Paul Thigpen. I have found the latter to be less clinical and more charitable.