# What is “the Rapture”?
Author: Dwight Gingrich
Author URL: https://dwightgingrich.com/author/dwight-gingrich
Published: 2012-10-31
Category: Bible Bites [Exegesis]
Category URL: https://dwightgingrich.com/category/bible-bites-exegesis
Meta Title: What is "the Rapture"? • Dwight Gingrich Online
Tags: rapture, eschatology, -1 Thessalonians 4:17
Tag URLs: rapture (https://dwightgingrich.com/tag/rapture), eschatology (https://dwightgingrich.com/tag/eschatology), -1 Thessalonians 4:17 (https://dwightgingrich.com/tag/-1-thessalonians-417)
URL: https://dwightgingrich.com/rapture

(Old Facebook Post – Revised)

Here’s some [good exegesis from Phillip Long](http://readingacts.wordpress.com/2012/10/29/1-thessalonians-415-17-meeting-the-lord-in-the-air/) related to the verb “will be raptured \[caught up\]” found in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. (The Bible never mentions “The Rapture” in noun form.)

Quote:

> “The purpose of this catching away is to “meet with Lord.” The word translated “to meet” (ἀπάντησις) is often used of a delegation sent from a city to greet a dignitary or king, usually in order to escort that important person into a city… When the great king comes, his followers will be gathered to him in order to be a part of his great entourage escorting him back to the world he created.”

I find this understanding more convincing than the explanation I grew up hearing, which imported far too many end-times assumptions into the text without listening carefully enough to the text itself in its own historical and cultural context.


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