Dear Padre Artical - 21st March 2010

Dear Mandy,

You’ve probably never heard of it because the word Rapture is not used in the Bible. The term comes from the old French wont rapt, which meant “abduction.” Rapture is used by Fundamentalist Christians to refer to the event described in this passage from Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians: “For the Lord himself... will come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive...wiII be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus we shall always be with the Lord” (4:16-17). Saint Paul wrote those words to conflim the Thessalonians in their faith and encourage them to continue trusting in the Lord, because he will return. The final judgment, then, can be cause for our hope.

Matthew 24:7 says this event will follow the wars, famine, and earthquakes that will begin “the labor pains.” However, verse 36 says “But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone”; similarly, verse 42 says “Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.”

The Catholic Church bases its teachings on Scripture and Tradition and doesn’t take a fundamentalist (literal) view of the Bible. The Church believes the Bible doesn’t tell us when the Lord will return, and therefore we should always be ready.