Episode 75: The Rapture: Take 2
Lemuel: I am Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and along with Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, I invite you to find a place in the pew for today’s painless Sunday School lesson. Without Works.
Amity: Joshua Mhlakela, South African preacher and false prophet made a prediction during an interview in June: He claimed a vision of Christ on the throne announcing his return during Rosh Hashanah, the first of the Jewish high holy days. Mhlakela declared that on September 24-25, of 2025, the Lord Jesus Christ, would return in power and glory, taking away all the faithful. He would appear in the Eastern sky, creating a manifestation visible to everyone, everywhere in the world. A trumpet, or the sound of a trumpet, would announce his appearance.
This was his third prediction of the rapture this year.
Like the previous two, this prediction did not come to pass.
Lemuel: This was the most recent in hundreds, or possibly thousands, of predicted returns, the earliest of them dating to 500 AD. None of them have been accurate. It may be best, at this point, to clarify what the rapture, and the second coming of Christ are. They are two separate things both inspired by interpretations of New Testament prophecy.
“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, and with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
I Thessalonians 4:16-17
This seems to support the claims of dispensationalists who see a coming rapture of the faithful, followed by a final judgment. These are the words of Jesus himself, describing what has been called his Second Coming:
“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
Matthew 24: 3o-31
Jesus says these things after visiting the Temple at Jerusalem, when his disciples ask him about his comment that one day the temple will be in ruins.
“When will these things happen?” they ask.
The answer was forty years. The destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem.
Jesus implies that this end of the world he is talking about is the end of the world in his hearers ears. Their world. He describes conditions, “wars and rumors of wars,” that are constants in the world, then and now. Conflicts and famine. He warns of false prophets. He speaks of persecution. He warns people to flee to the mountains.
Amity: It is hard to conceive of how awful the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem was. Having staged a rebellion against the occupying Roman forces the Zealots fought hard to preserve their way of life, and their faith. It was ultimately fruitless. After a five month siege, one that made rivals out of former allies in the resistance, and led to starvation in the city.
The Temple was the final thing ruined by the 48,000 Roman troops led by Titus Caesar Vespanius. Seven thousand men, women and children were killed trying to defend the temple. Its violation and destruction meant the end of traditional Jewish worship. The Temple was never rebuilt.
So is it possible that Jesus' prediction of the end of the world, and his triumphant return, was something that has been misinterpreted, and continues to be misinterpreted.
Some of the early Church fathers saw this as an allegory and this point of view is taken by much of the High Church.