Editing Christian eschatology (section)

== Rapture ==
{{Main|Rapture}}
The rapture is an eschatological term used by certain Christians, particularly within branches of North American [[evangelicalism]], referring to an [[Eschatology|end time]] event when all [[Christians|Christian]] believers—living and dead—will rise into Heaven and join [[Jesus|Christ]].<ref name="McKim2014">{{cite book |last=McKim |first=Donald K. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dEaTAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA261 |title=The Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms, Second Edition: Revised and Expanded |date=2014 |publisher=Presbyterian Publishing Corporation |isbn=978-1-61164-386-2 |pages=261– |access-date=26 December 2014}}</ref><ref name="Oldman">{{cite book|editor-last1=Chopra|editor-first1=Ramesh|title=Encyclopaedic dictionary of religion: Q–Z|date=2005|publisher=Isha Books|location=Delhi|isbn=978-81-8205-203-1|pages=638|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KakgvDxdbXwC&q=Encyclopaedic+Dictionary+of+Religion:+Q-Z|access-date=6 April 2015}}</ref> Some adherents believe this event is predicted and described in Paul's [[First Epistle to the Thessalonians]] in the [[Bible]],<ref>{{bibleref2|1 Thessalonians|4:17|NASB}}</ref> where he uses the Greek ''harpazo'' (ἁρπάζω), meaning to snatch away or seize. Though it has been used differently in the past, the term is now often used by certain believers to distinguish this particular event from the [[Second Coming]] of [[Jesus in Christianity|Jesus Christ]] to Earth mentioned in [[Second Epistle to the Thessalonians|Second Thessalonians]], [[Gospel of Matthew]], [[First Epistle to the Corinthians|First Corinthians]], and [[Book of Revelation|Revelation]], usually viewing it as preceding the Second Coming and followed by a thousand-year [[Millennialism|millennial kingdom]].<ref name="HaysDuvall2009">{{cite book|last1=Hays|first1=J. Daniel|last2=Duvall|first2=J. Scott|last3=Pate|first3=C. Marvin|title=Dictionary of Biblical Prophecy and End Times|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xvFZDcJSgdMC&pg=PT692|access-date=26 December 2014|date=2009|publisher=Zondervan|isbn=978-0-310-57104-9|pages=692–}}</ref> Adherents of this perspective are sometimes referred to as [[Premillennialism|premillennialist]] [[Dispensationalism|dispensationalists]], but amongst them there are differing viewpoints about the exact timing of the event.

The term "rapture" is especially useful in discussing or disputing the exact timing or the scope of the event, particularly when asserting the [[pretribulationism|"pre-tribulation"]] view that the rapture will occur before, not during, the Second Coming, with or without an extended [[Tribulation]] period.<ref name="MillsBullard1990">{{cite book|last1=Mills|first1=Watson E.|last2=Bullard|first2=Roger Aubrey|title=Mercer Dictionary of the Bible|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=goq0VWw9rGIC&pg=PA736|access-date=26 December 2014|year=1990|publisher=Mercer University Press|isbn=978-0-86554-373-7|pages=736–}}</ref> The term is most frequently used among [[Evangelical Christianity|evangelical]]<ref>{{cite book |last= Akenson|first= Donald H.|author-link= |date= October 2018|title= Exporting the Rapture, John Nelson Darby and the Victorian Conquest of North American Evangelicalism|url= https://www.queensu.ca/history/research/books/exporting-the-rapture-john-nelson-darby-and-the-victorian-conquest-of-north-american-evangelicalism
|location= |publisher= McGill-Queen's University Press|page= |isbn=978-0-7735-5367-5}}
</ref> and [[Fundamentalist Christianity|fundamentalist]] Christians in the [[United States]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2014-04-04 |title=Raptured or Not? A Catholic Understanding – Catholic Update October 2005 |url=http://www.americancatholic.org/Newsletters/CU/ac1005.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140404105238/http://www.americancatholic.org/Newsletters/CU/ac1005.asp |archive-date=2014-04-04 |access-date=2023-10-19}}</ref> Other, older uses of "rapture" were simply as a term for any mystical union with God or for eternal life in [[Heaven]] with God.<ref name=":0" />

There are differing views among Christians regarding the timing of Christ's return, such as whether it will occur in one event or two, and the meaning of the aerial gathering described in 1 Thessalonians 4. Outside of American Evangelical Protestantism, almost all Christians do not subscribe to rapture-oriented theological views. Though the term "rapture" is derived from the text of the Latin Vulgate of 1 Thess. 4:17—"we will be caught up", (Latin: rapiemur), [[Catholic Church|Catholics]], as well as [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]], [[Anglicans]], [[Lutheranism|Lutherans]] and most [[Reformed Christianity|Reformed Christians]], do not generally use "rapture" as a specific theological term, nor do any of these bodies subscribe to the premillennialist dispensationalist theological views associated with its use, but do believe in the phenomenon—primarily in the sense of the elect gathering with Christ in [[Heaven in Christianity|Heaven]] after his Second Coming.<ref>Michael D. Guinan, "Raptured or Not? A Catholic Understanding", ''Catholic Update'', October 2005, https://web.archive.org/web/20140404105238/http://www.americancatholic.org/Newsletters/CU/ac1005.asp . Cf. [https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s2c2a7.htm "Catechism of the Catholic Church – The Profession of Faith"]. [[Holy See|Vatican]].va. Retrieved 2011-10-21.</ref><ref>Anthony M. Coniaris, "The Rapture: Why the Orthodox don't preach it," Light & Life Publishing, Life Line, September 12, 2005, Volume 2, Issue 3, available at https://web.archive.org/web/20121109035607/http://www.light-n-life.com/newsletters/09-12-2005.htm accessed January 27, 2012.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-03-11 |title=Is the Pretribulation Rapture Theory Biblical? |url=http://reformedonline.com/view/reformedonline/rapture.htm |access-date=2023-10-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130311041013/http://reformedonline.com/view/reformedonline/rapture.htm |archive-date=2013-03-11 }}</ref> These denominations do not believe that a group of people is left behind on earth for an extended Tribulation period after the events of 1 Thessalonians 4:17.<ref>See notes above for specific denominations (Catechism – Catholic, Light & Life Newsletter – Orthodox, Lutheran Witness – Lutheran, Reformed Online – Reformed).</ref>

Pre-tribulation rapture theology originated in the eighteenth century, with the Puritan preachers [[Increase Mather]] and [[Cotton Mather]], and was popularized extensively in the 1830s by [[John Darby (evangelist)|John Nelson Darby]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Markham |first=Ian S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h6SHSAjeCrYC |title=The Student's Companion to the Theologians |date=2013-01-16 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1-4443-0865-5 |language=en}}</ref><ref>Carl E. Olson, "Five Myths About the Rapture," Crisis pp. 28–33 (Morley Publishing Group, 2003) ("LaHaye declares, in Rapture Under Attack, that "virtually all Christians who take the Bible literally expect to be raptured before the Lord comes in power to this earth." This would have been news to Christians—both Catholic and Protestant—living prior to the 18th century, since the concept of a pretribulation rapture was unheard of prior to that time. Vague notions had been considered by the Puritan preachers Increase (1639–1723) and Cotton Mather (1663–1728), and the late 18th-century Baptist minister Morgan Edwards, but it was John Nelson Darby who solidified the belief in the 1830s and placed it into a larger theological framework."). Reprinted at http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=5788 .</ref> and the [[Plymouth Brethren]],<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Blaising |first1=Craig A. |title=Progressive Dispensationalism |last2=Bock |first2=Darrell L. |date=1993 |publisher=[[Baker Publishing Group|Bridgepoint Books]] |isbn=978-1-4412-0512-4 |location=Wheaton, Illinois |author-link1=Craig A. Blaising |author-link2=Darrell Bock}}</ref> and further in the United States by the wide circulation of the [[Scofield Reference Bible]] in the early 20th century.<ref>''The Scofield Bible: Its History and Impact on the Evangelical Church'', Magnum & Sweetnam. pp. 188–195, 218.</ref> Some, including Grant Jeffrey, maintain that an earlier document called Ephraem or [[Apocalypse of Pseudo-Ephraem#Latin Pseudo-Ephraem and the Rapture Doctrine|Pseudo-Ephraem]] already supported a pre-tribulation rapture.<ref>Ephraem the Syrian, JoshuaNet, 27 Jul. 2010. http://joshuanet.org/articles/ephraem1.htm & 1995 Grant R. Jeffrey, ''Final Warning'', published by Frontier Research Publications, Inc., Toronto, Ontario</ref>