Lesson 4: A Recovered Doctrine – The Rapture
Lesson 4 Overview
Is the Rapture of Christians Really in the Bible? with Dr. Andy Woods
This lesson develops the practical importance of the rapture’s imminence and then presents the tenth and final truth about the rapture: that it is a traditional doctrine now being recovered. Dr. Woods also answers the objection that the rapture is missing from early church history. Use this overview to review the key points after watching the full video.
The Christmas and Thanksgiving Analogy
Dr. Woods reinforces the previous lesson’s point about imminence. He compares the signs of the tribulation to Christmas decorations. When you see Christmas lights and music appearing, you know Christmas is near. But if they appear in November, you also know Thanksgiving, which comes first, is even nearer. In the same way, signs of the coming tribulation (a cashless society, the rebirth of Israel, the movement toward a one-world religion and government) show the tribulation is approaching, which means the rapture, which precedes it, is nearer still. We should study the Antichrist, the tribulation, and the temple because Scripture reveals them, but our focus should be the any-moment appearing of Christ, not the Antichrist.
Why Imminence Changes How We Live
Dr. Woods stresses that the purpose of the doctrine of imminence is practical: to change how believers live. Because Christ could return at any moment (1 John 3:2-3), the expectation produces holiness. He gives personal examples of avoiding gossip or changing the channel because the Lord could return at any time, and analogies of a boss who might check in unannounced or parents who might return home at any hour, both of which increase good stewardship.
He argues imminence also fuels evangelism, since knowing Christ could come and rescue the church means friends, relatives, and neighbors who are not saved would be left to face the tribulation. He recalls the late Tim LaHaye, co-founder of the pre-trib study group, saying that wherever the any-moment appearing of Christ is taught, it produces greater holiness, godly living, and evangelism. Dr. Woods believes this is exactly why Satan works so hard to destroy the doctrine, and why he is defending it.
Truth Ten: A Traditional Doctrine Now Being Recovered
Dr. Woods addresses the common objection that the pre-tribulation rapture is missing from the church fathers, creeds, and confessions, and was only taught relatively recently. He argues this objection rests on three logical fallacies.
The first is the recency fallacy, assuming something is false simply because it is new, or true simply because it is old, when a doctrine should be evaluated by whether it is biblical, not by when it appeared. The second is the ad populum fallacy, assuming the majority is always right, when Scripture shows the majority is often wrong (the broad road, the ten faithless spies versus Joshua and Caleb). The third is the genetic fallacy, attacking an idea by attacking its source, such as digging up faults in John Nelson Darby or C.I. Scofield rather than engaging the doctrine itself. He compares this to dismissing the Declaration of Independence because Thomas Jefferson owned slaves.
He points out that Martin Luther faced the very same objection: Rome asked where his doctrine of justification by faith alone appeared in 1,500 years of church history, and Luther anchored his case not in tradition but in Scripture alone (Galatians, “the just shall live by faith”). Dr. Woods argues that what matters is whether the rapture is in the Bible, not whether it is in church history. He cites Acts 20:29-30, where Paul warned that after the apostles departed, savage wolves would come in, which he takes as a description of much of church history, so finding a doctrine absent from that history proves little.
Why the Rapture Faded From Church History
Dr. Woods explains why the doctrine is not prominent historically, pointing to a battle between two ancient schools. The school of Antioch produced the literalists and the early premillennialists (the “chiliasts,” from the Greek word for a thousand), who believed in a future earthly kingdom and dominated the first two centuries. The school of Alexandria, Egypt, a center of Gnosticism (which taught the physical world is bad and so denied a future earthly kingdom), began allegorizing prophecy.
Over time Alexandria eclipsed Antioch, through figures like Origen and especially Augustine, whose City of God gave the first formal treatment of amillennialism in the fourth century. From then on, prophecy was largely spiritualized, and the church did not begin recovering a literal reading until the Reformation, and fully only in the last 200 years or so. Since the pre-trib rapture is only clear on a literal method of interpretation, and since widespread illiteracy meant few owned Bibles, Dr. Woods argues it is no surprise the doctrine faded, and that its recent recovery does not make it untrue.