Rapture: The End-Times Error That Leaves the Bible Behind (12 page)

But in some instances, physical clouds are not even present, and the mention of clouds becomes purely symbolic. Psalm 104:1–3 links these symbolic clouds to God in His glory: “Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, Thou art very great … who makest the clouds Thy chariot.” This purely symbolic use of clouds indicates God’s coming in judgment.

In Isaiah 19:1, we read, “The Lord is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt; and the idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence.” This was fulfilled in Isaiah 20:1–6. Yet no clouds are recorded as having appeared, nor did God make Himself visible in any physical manifestation. God’s coming on a cloud was actually fulfilled in the arrival of the Assyrian army! They were the tool of God’s judgment. God gloriously came on the clouds, but what was physically seen was the Assyrian army.

A similar use of clouds to signify the glory of God in His judgment against Egypt is in Ezekiel: “The day of the Lord is near; it will be a day of clouds” (30:3).

At the Ascension, clouds seem to combine all this symbolism. Jesus “was lifted up, and a cloud took Him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9). His Suffering Servant days were completed. From this point on, the world would see Him as the glorified Son of Almighty God.

The angels hint at this when they tell the disciples that Jesus “will come in the same way as you saw Him go” (Acts 1:11). Some rapturists seem to imply this means that Christ’s second advent cannot occur on a clear day, but that is trivializing the meaning of the angels. They meant that next time Christ will return in glory as the Judge of the living and the dead.

The Church has always understood the symbolism of clouds in this way. Victorinus wrote the earliest extant commentary on The Apocalypse in about 270 A.D. He wrote that Christ “shall come with the clouds.… For He who at first came hidden … shall after a little while come to judgment manifest in majesty and glory” (
COA
, I). More recently, Pope John Paul II stated in his general audience on April 22, 1998, “In apocalyptic language, clouds signify a theophany: They indicate that the Second Coming of the Son of Man will not take place in the weakness of flesh, but in divine power.”

Physical-resurrection language can symbolize spiritual renewal

Ezekiel paints an interesting picture in Chapter 37. He sees a valley strewn with dry bones and is instructed to tell the bones that God will bring them back to life. Sure enough, as Ezekiel watches, the bones regroup. Then muscle and skin attaches themselves to the bones. Finally the breath of life “come[s] from the four winds” (Ezek. 37:9), and the originally dry, lifeless bones turn into a host of living, breathing people.

Ezekiel is told that this is a picture of what God will do for the people of Israel at the end of their captivity in Babylon. Against all odds, they will once again be brought back to Israel from captivity and become a nation again. We can read of the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy in Old Testament history.

God then describes this renewal of Israel in the most interesting language: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.… Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you home into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land” (Ezek. 37:9, 12–14).

When we compare these verses carefully with their fulfillment in history, we find no record of a mass resurrection of Jewish people from cemeteries. It is apparent that Ezekiel used physical resurrection as an allegory for the spiritual renewal of God’s people.

We can learn from this that in apocalyptic literature,
physical-resurrection language can symbolize spiritual renewal
(GR7). That is the whole point of the dry bones. It is almost as if God were reminding us that sometimes a physical resurrection would be no more difficult than a spiritual renewal. Since a rebirth of faith is every bit as miraculous as a physical rejuvenation, the one can be used to speak of the other.

Jesus used this way of speaking (John 5:25–29). For example, He was criticized by the Pharisees for forgiving the sins of a paralytic man. Jesus said to these critics, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?” (Matt. 9:1–8). We sometimes assume (with Jesus’ critics) that the physical restoration is more difficult because it is more readily quantifiable, but that is not God’s perspective.

The idea that salvation is a spiritual resurrection is not novel to anyone who pays attention to the teaching of the Church. We hear it every time a child is baptized, in the prayer of the baptizer.

In his General Audience on April 22, 1998, Pope John Paul II reminded the Church faithful that “the resurrection of the dead expected at the end of time already receives its first, decisive realization in spiritual resurrection, the primary objective of the work of salvation. It consists in the new life given by the risen Christ as the fruit of His redemptive work.”

Chronological order is not always observed in apocalyptic visions

When dealing with apocalyptic literature, we must realize that not only does it use vivid, forceful language, but it often portrays its message in short vignettes, or visions. These can follow one right after another in rapid succession. The order in which these visions occur should not be assumed to be chronological. They are more like an envelope of snapshots than a film. The events pictured may overlap, duplicate, or be isolated from one another chronologically. This is true of visionary writings even when they are not a part of apocalyptic literature.

This may not be the way we would have written them, but it is the way apocalyptic writings are.
Chronological order is not always observed in apocalyptic visions
(GR8).

We can see examples of this ground rule all the way back in Genesis. In Genesis 37:5–11, Joseph dreams two dreams. In the first, the eleven sheaves of his brothers bow to Joseph’s sheaf, symbolizing that his brothers would one day be his subjects. The second dream overlapped the events of the first, but added new details. In the second dream, not only do eleven stars bow to Joseph’s star, but the moon and sun bow as well. This meant that not only his brothers, but even his mother and father would one day be subject to Joseph.

When we compare the later events of Genesis, it seems that the two visions begin with the same events, but that the end of this second vision is later than the first. The brothers visited Egypt and bowed to Joseph at least a year or two before Joseph’s entire family came to live in the country where he ruled as Pharaoh’s right-hand man.

This duplication of visions crops up again in Genesis. Pharaoh has two disturbing dreams, and he believes the dreams tell two stories. Joseph corrects him, saying, “The dream of Pharaoh is one” (Gen. 41:14–32). The gaunt cows that eat the fat cows in the first dream are parallel to the meager corn that devours the plump corn in the second dream. Both point to a terrible seven-year famine followed by seven years of abundance. (Notice the use of
seven
—GR2).

When we examine visionary literature, we must constantly keep this in mind. The visions might be arranged chronologically. Or they might just as easily not be. They might overlap. Only an examination of the visions themselves will make it clear.

Christ’s first advent catapulted humanity into “the last days”

Ancient Jewish thinkers split history into three ages. First, there was the period before Moses and the Law. Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph lived during this age.

The second age was the time of the Law—the years from Moses until the Messiah’s coming. (The Law of Moses loomed large in the Hebrew mind; it is almost impossible to overemphasize its importance.) Most of the Old Testament fits into this second age. It includes Moses, Joshua, Samson, Samuel, Saul, David, and all of the major and minor prophets.

The final epoch expected by the Jews was the Messianic age. The promise of a future Messianic king, or anointed one, can be traced all through the Old Testament, starting in Genesis. The promise even predates Moses and the Law, and that hope is the heart and soul of biblical Judaism.

The advent of the Messiah signaled the start of this third epoch. Since it was the final stage in salvation, it was called the end of the age, or the last days.

To an ancient Israelite, all of history fit into these three ages, and only these three ages. This mindset can be seen repeatedly throughout Scripture, in both the Old and New Testaments. The author of Hebrews states, “God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these
last days
He has spoken to us by a Son” (1:1–2). We read a few chapters later that Christ “has appeared once for all
at the end
of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (9:26).

In his sermon on the day of Pentecost, Peter quoted from the Old Testament prophet Joel (ch. 2), and applied it to his day: “In
the last days
it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” (Acts 2:17). Notice that his assumption is that he and his listeners were in the last days, or the end of the age. Why? Because the Messiah had come! Peter knew that his listeners would accept the idea that the last days were upon them only if they first accepted the fact that Jesus was the promised Messiah.

St. Peter never changed his mind about this. Much later he wrote that Christ “was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest
at the end of the times
for your sake” (1 Pet. 1:20).

St. Paul certainly shared this view. He refers to his time as “the
last
days” (2 Tim. 3:1). So did St. John (1 John 2:18).

Twenty-first-century Americans might view this as naive, or even mistaken. After all, look at all the important events that have occurred since the time of Christ’s first advent. But we should not dismiss this view with a guffaw. “You must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; they said to you, ‘
In the last time
there will be scoffers’ ” (Jude 18).

Every time the phrase “the end” occurs in the Bible, it does not necessarily refer to this last age. It might be the end of a dynasty, the end of a battle, the end of a festival, or just the end of a life. We must never take a phrase out of its context and try to absolutize its meaning.

Nevertheless, we cannot understand the prophecies of Scripture unless we first accept that, for the biblical authors,
Christ’s first advent catapulted humanity into “the last days”
(GR9). This means that we have been in the last days for two thousand years. The third age of the Jews started with the first advent of Christ and will extend to His second coming, which occurs at the final eschaton.

It may seem to some that these “last days” are dragging on too long. In that case, we might do well to remember the words of Habakkuk, a pre-exilic prophet who awaited the justice of God on the enemies of Israel. He was in for a long wait, yet he wrote, “For still the vision awaits its time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by his faith” (Hab. 2:3–4). The second Jewish age, the time from Moses to the time of Christ, was probably between 1,300 and 1,500 years. Does it seem so strange, then, that the third age would be two millennia and counting? There is no hurrying God.

The Church has always understood the time from the first advent to the second advent as corresponding to the “end of the age” or the “last days” of Scripture. St. Clement was the bishop of Rome from 67–73 A.D., during the intense Neronian persecution. He wrote, “The Books and the Apostles teach that the Church … was spiritual, as was also our Jesus, and was made manifest at the
end of the days
in order to save us” (
SEC
, XIV).

The
Catechism
summarizes it well. “Since the Ascension God’s plan has entered into its fulfillment. We are already at ‘the last hour.’ Already the final age of the world is with us, and the renewal of the world is irrevocably under way; it is even now anticipated in a certain real way” (
CCC
, par. 670).

If I may make a suggestion: place a bookmark at this page. We will refer back to these ground rules scores of times as we progress, using the notation (GR#).