I believe in the Holy Spirt, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.[1]
9 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, 11 who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” –Acts 1.9-11
If you are part of the catholic hope of the historic Church of the risen Christ, then you confess and believe in the bodily (second) coming of Jesus Christ. Clearly, there are a massa of views on how that will all unfold. But at base what the Christian must maintain is what Acts teaches, through the angelic witness; and what the Apostle’s Creed confesses in regard to ‘the resurrection of the body.’ The Christian faith has always been an eschatological faith, and this is because her Lord is an eschatological God.
Something that somewhat bothers me is how Christians who find themselves in ‘high churches’ often mock those who are of low church orientation; particularly in North America in the ‘dispensational’ pretribulational/premillennial churches. I grew up in this large sector of American evangelicalism, and held these views myself for the majority of my life; I only repented of them about eleven years ago. What bothers me is that these high folks make it seem as if these “low” folk don’t seemingly believe in what counts as the aspect of the historic faith; but they do! While they have made a whole theological schema out of the word ‘rapture,’ and created a two-stage coming of Christ therefrom, this does not mean that they are no longer adherents to the historic confession of the Church in regard to the resurrection of the body.
We all, as Christians, as earlier noted, affirm the bodily return of Christ; as corollary of the bodily resurrection and ascension of Christ—these are of apiece. The obverse of this confession is illustrated, unfortunately, by someone like David Congdon. He ostensibly rejects the bodily resurrection of Christ, as such he rejects an actual second coming of Christ; indeed, even more radically he rejects the concept of an “after-life” at all. Those of us, though, who are still catholic in the “Apostolic” sense, are adherents to a bodily faith wherein blood, skin, hair, and fingernails, among other things, will last for eternal life; that is through Immanuel’s veins.
If the above is the case, can we as Christians, no matter what our “biblical eschatological” schema place a moratorium on mocking evangelicals who affirm and argue for something like the pretrib rapture theory? I’m not saying we shouldn’t debate these things, or even strongly repudiate them. But what I am saying is that evangelicals who affirm so called “rapture theology” are not part of a cult, nor are they heretics. If they rejected the bodily resurrection and return of Christ, indeed, like our example, they’d be heretical in significant ways; but they don’t reject these things. So, while we may sneer at rapture theology, particularly those of us who grew up and out of it, we should abstain from mocking those who continue to hold to it. Dispensationalists hold to everything, at base, that the Church catholic has for millennia. Dispensationalists, as fundamentum, affirm the bodily return of Jesus Christ. The framework they use to explicate this might be outlandish, I now think it is; but they are brothers and sisters in Christ who are participants in the Church universal, and will finally come to the truth (haha) at the second coming indeed.
Don’t get me wrong: I will be the first in line to debate with Dispensationalists these days. But I am referring to attitude and posture towards our dispensationalist brothers and sisters; they are brothers and sisters, that’s what I’m trying to impress through this post. Their view of ‘rapture’ while, I’d argue, artificial to the prima facie teaching of Holy Scripture, does not place it outside of the pale of orthodoxy. Maybe it rubs up against heterodoxy in certain ways, but it certainly isn’t heretical. I just see too many sweeping generalizations about this ‘theology,’ a dismissiveness that simply glosses and mocks its way past actual engagement with folks who affirm this sort of biblical interpretation.
My hope, my great hope is that Jesus is coming again. The reality is, if you hadn’t noticed in your own life, is that Jesus is an advent Christ everyday of our lives. This sort of advent characterizes His interaction with us as His children. He in-breaks into our daily lives, coming again, bringing His Holy parousia or presence into our moment by moment circumstances in such a way that He, by the Spirit, bears witness to Himself that He will finally once and for all come again for the whole world to see; such that the whole world will bow the knee and say that Jesus is Lord. I yearn for this day, and hope it happens right now. I need to be delivered from this body of death; this body of sin I inhabit daily. This is the Christian’s great hope. Come quickly, Jesus! Maranatha
[1] Third Article, Apostle’s Creed [Emphasis Mine].