Is The Rapture In The Bible?

Q

The word rapture is not in the Bible, therefore any teaching on the rapture is false teaching.

A

This one has been around a long time, but I don’t know if I’ve ever been asked about it, so here goes.

The English translation of 1 Thes. 4:17 , where Paul introduced the rapture, reads in part,

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.

In the Greek language the word translated “caught up” is harpazo. It literally means to seize, or carry off. About 1700 years ago, when the Bible was translated from Greek into Latin, they used a word we pronounce “rapture” to translate harpazo. (Rapture is a word of Latin origin that also means “to carry off”.) Not being a Greek word, rapture is not part of the original language of 1 Thes. 4:17. And since our English Bibles are translated directly from Greek, it doesn’t appear in our translations either. But while the word itself is not there, the event it describes certainly is.

Lucifer is another word of Latin origin that you won’t find in the original texts. Would anyone agree that means there really is no devil? Of course not. It doesn’t make sense to deny either the devil or the rapture based on the absence of these Latin words.