An Outline of Orthodox Patristic Dogmatics
The Real Holy Grail: An Orthodox Response to Dan Brown's Deceptions in Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code
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Some
of our evangelical or pentecostal neighbors occasionally speak about “the
Rapture” as one of the events leading up to Christ’s Second Coming.
By this they mean the physical removal from earth of the true believers
in Christ in preparation for the “Great Tribulation,” a seven-year period
of unparalleled calamity which will herald the end. (A few advocates
say that the Rapture will follow the Tribulation. Most who believe
in it, however, contend that it precedes the Tribulation.) The Rapture’s
purpose, according to its advocates, is to safeguard the righteous during
that horrible time. Its most familiar champions are Hal Lindsey
(author of The Late, Great Planet Earth and other books), John
T. Walvoord (of Dallas Theological Seminary), and the late Cyrus Scofield
(author of The Scofield Reference Bible).
These
ideas are popular with groups who are enchanted, even obsessed, with speculation
about the Second Coming and who have convinced themselves that they see
in current events signs that His return is near. These speculations
form part of a broader ideology called “dispensationalism.” Dispensationalists
come in all shapes and sizes and what we say about one may not apply to
all. Still we can list some general characteristics which virtually
all dispensationalists share. The name comes from their division
of history into eras or “dispensations.” They believe that the Bible
outlines the whole course of mankind’s religious history. Each stage
in God’s program is a dispensation, and in each dispensation God relates
to the world and His chosen peoples in a different way. Some dispensationalist
schemes encompass all human history; others include only Christian
history since the time of Christ. Most often these systems are based
on a symbolic interpretation of the “letters to the seven churches” of
Revelation 2 and 3, with each church standing for the Christianity of
a particular period. (Since dispensationalism is Protestant in origin
its “Church history” is strictly Western. The dispensations take
into account almost nothing of Orthodox history after the period of the
early councils which we share with the West.) The dispensational
system includes the future as well as the past. Thus dispensationalism
presents a detailed program of events leading up to the Second Coming.
Two of the events in this master plan are the Rapture and the Great Tribulation.
Such
opinions seem odd to Orthodox Christians. Still, strange as they
are, we cannot turn our backs on them or their advocates. After
all, the Orthodox Church too affirms that Christ “will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead” (as we say in the Creed). The
Rapture’s advocates claim to base their notions on the same Bible that
we read, and they can sometimes be very persuasive, particularly since
too many Orthodox are woefully ignorant of what the Bible really says.
As a result, some Orthodox have been led astray by this doctrine.
The Church’s teachings about the end of time (called “eschatology” by
theologians) are important, though neglected. Referring to eschatology,
St. Athanasius wrote, “When one knows properly these points, his understanding
of the Faith is right and healthy; but if he mistakes any such points,
forthwith he falls into heresy” (Against the Arians I 12,50). We
need to examine it, sift the true from the false, and put what is true
into its proper place within the framework of the Orthodox Faith.
We must explain the true meaning of the Bible passages in question as
interpreted by the Fathers, the great Orthodox teachers of past ages.
And we must put this doctrine in perspective and accord it its true importance.
Our purpose in this article is to examine the Rapture doctrine and the
Scripture passages on which it relies to determine the proper Orthodox
approach and interpretation.
Proponents
of the doctrine of a pre-Tribulation Rapture claim that it rests on Scripture
and has always been a part of Christian teaching. The truth is that
it dates from about 1830 and was largely the creation of John Nelson Darby,
a one-time Anglican priest and founder of a sect called the Plymouth Brethren.
He contributed much to the dispensationalist scheme, and in particular
he was the first to include the Rapture among the catalogue of phenomena
of the last times. The Rapture’s recent origin is one of the things
which should make us skeptical. Neither the Apostles nor the Fathers
expounded any such teaching (nor, for that matter, did any of the notorious
heretics of the past). Even Darby’s circle, although they claimed
to find support for their teaching in the Bible, did not maintain that
they had arrived at this doctrine through study of the Scriptures, but
that they had received it through a revelation. According to its
supporters the pre-Tribulation Rapture is an extremely important part
of the Christian message. Yet it was unknown before 1830.
The
Rapture’s supporters derive their opinions ultimately from a single Scripture
verse, I Thessalonians 4:17, “Then we who are left alive will be carried
off together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and
thus we shall always be with the Lord.” Less popular but often cited
is Matthew 24:40-42, “Then there will be two in the field. One will
be taken and the other left. Two will be grinding at the mill.
One will be taken and the other left. Therefore, be vigilant, for
you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” Other passages
are frequently quoted in connection with these (for example, I Corinthians
15:23-28), but even believers in a pre-Tribulation Rapture will admit
that the other verses can be taken to refer to that doctrine only if interpreted
in the light of the I Thessalonians passage, their principal support.
The
paragraph which contains the first verse quoted above, I Thessalonians
4:17, forms the Epistle reading for funerals in Orthodox worship.
The passage begins with 4:13. In preceding verses St. Paul has spoken
of the necessity for holiness of life and for brotherly love among Christians
(4:1-12). With verse 13 he turns to another topic, the fate of Christians
after death. Misunderstandings on this issue had apparently caused
needless distress and apprehension in the church at Thessalonika.
It seems that some people believed that Christians who died before Christ’s
return would somehow miss out on that glorious event. St. Paul seeks
to calm their fears (vs. 13). He points out that as Christ returned
from the dead at His Resurrection, so also, at the end of time, His followers
who have died in the interim will be restored through resurrection (vs.
14). At the Second Coming, the Christian dead will be raised (vs.
16). Then they and the faithful who are still alive will be caught
up into the clouds to welcome Christ as He descends (verses 15,17).
Paul then discusses other matters relating to the Second Coming, beginning
with the date it will occur.
When
we look at verse 17 in context, it is easy to see that is does not really
support the doctrine of the Rapture. There is no reference to a
Great Tribulation or to any other events preceding Christ’s Return.
The verse refers to something that will happen as part of the Lord’s Coming.
The course of events St. Paul presents is simple and straight-forward.
At the time of the Second Coming, the dead will be raised, and all the
faithful (the dead now restored and those still alive now transfigured)
will ascend to be with Him as He comes down. This is the universal
interpretation of the Fathers who see the verse as referring to the last
days.
Why does St. Paul speak of an ascension of the righteous? The Fathers
suggest at least three answers to this question. St. Gregory of
Nyssa says that the ascension is a natural consequence of the purity of
the transfigured resurrection body: “...this change which takes place...when
the resurrection trumpet sounds which awakens the dead in an instant transforms
those who are left alive to incorruptibility according to the likeness
of those who have undergone the resurrection change, so that the bulk
of the flesh is no longer heavy nor does its weight hold them down to
earth, but they rise up through the air...” (“On the Making of Man” 22,6).
St.
John Chrysostom and others say that it is to provide Christ with a proper
escort for His appearance on earth and to demonstrate His favor toward
the faithful. “If He is about to descend, why shall we be taken
up? For the sake of honor. When a king enters a city, those
who are in his favor go out to meet him, but the condemned await their
judge inside. Or, when a loving father comes, his children, and
also those worthy of being his children, are taken out in a chariot to
see and kiss him, but the servants who have offended him remain indoors.
So we are carried out upon a chariot to our Father...See how great our
honor is? As He descends we go out to meet Him, and what is more
blessed, we shall be with Him always” (Homily 8 on Thessalonians).
The
third opinion is that St. Paul’s words should be taken symbolically.
St. Ambrose and St. Jerome, for example, suggest that the verse does not
speak of a real physical ascent at all, nor does it even refer to the
Second Coming. What the Apostle means is that the righteous, even
when living in the body, are already with Christ in heaven. St.
Methodius of Olympus presents a more acceptable symbolic interpretation.
He agrees that the passage refers to the Second Coming, but he contends
that “the dead” and “the living” do not mean different types of people.
The dead, in his view, are our bodies; “those who are alive” are our souls.
These will be reunited at the resurrection and then carried up to meet
Christ.
Let
us summarize what we have found so far. St. Paul does speak of a
sort of rapture, in the sense of a carrying up into the sky of the righteous
at the time of the Second Coming. The Fathers generally agree on
that. But St. Paul and the Fathers see this as an event which accompanies
Christ’s return and immediately precedes the Judgment and the establishment
of the Kingdom. The Rapture which Darby and Scofield taught and
which Lindsey, Walvoord, and others still teach, is different from that.
They talk about it as a separate happening, part of a decades long program
of events leading up to Christ’s Coming. The dispensationalists
see the Rapture as the disappearance of the faithful from the earth before
the Great Tribulation and many years before the Judgment. This is
foreign to the Apostle and to the Tradition. St. Paul mentions no
period of affliction and persecution following the Rapture. (To
be continued)
(Fr.
Dimitri Cozby studied at Holy Cross Orthodox Theological Seminary, received
his Ph.D. from Duke University and has done a considerable amount of study
in the area of eschatology.)
From The Dawn
Publication of the Diocese of the South
Orthodox Church in America
September 1998
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