Hot Take Incoming.

I’m 38, I’m a pastor, and I’m completely over the topic of “The Rapture.”

I realized this past week that there are really two topics in today’s Christian world that I am completely over discussing. The first is “The Rapture.” The second is the gross politicization of Christianity in the American West. Maybe one day I’ll write about that second topic—or maybe I’ll just boil it down to three words: Christ over Country. But today, for good reason, I want to lay to rest the endless conversation about “The Rapture.”

Please hear me out: I don’t mean to be divisive. If you hold tightly to a dispensationalist worldview, I still love you, and I’m always happy to grab coffee and talk about Jesus all day long. My goal here isn’t just to poke holes in a theological framework—it’s to share, first, how this teaching shaped my own walk with Christ, and second, to offer a short overview of what the historic church has actually confessed about His return.

From Dispensational Child to  a Creedal Faith

From the time I was about five years old, I was taught that “the rapture” would whisk away the good Christians and leave everyone else behind to suffer through seven years of awful tribulation. Only recently have I begun to process how deeply this teaching affected my youth. Looking back, I’m not sure I followed Christ out of love as much as I did out of sheer terror.

Every few years, someone would predict a date when so-called prophets claimed the end of the world would come. This constant fervor pushed us to say and do some pretty extreme things. As a child, I vividly remember believing that on New Year’s Day, 2000, we would all be raptured. I even tried desperately to convince my skeptical grandparents, because I couldn’t bear the thought of them enduring “seven years of hell on earth.”

But of course, “the rapture” didn’t happen. And here we are again—September 24th, 2025—and it still hasn’t happened.

Why? Because it’s simply not biblical.

The idea is a distortion of Scripture, a fabrication first introduced by John Nelson Darby in the 1830s. It gained traction after being inserted into the margins of the popular Scofield Study Bible, published in 1917. From there, it spread like wildfire because the American church has always enjoyed controversy and sensational myths.

This so-called doctrine has led countless well-meaning believers astray, distracting them with “signs of the times.” But Jesus himself explicitly told us that no one knows the day or the hour of his return. Instead of obsessing over dates and predictions, we are called to live lives of readiness, like the five virgins who brought enough oil (Matthew 25).

Simply put, this view differs from what the historic church has taught about the Second Coming of Christ. In truth, you can only arrive at it by cherry-picking and forcing the text to say what you want it to say. That’s called eisegesis. When I came to the realization that this view was not in line with scripture, it changed everything, even how I sought to live my life. No longer do I walk in a perpetual fear of the end, but rather I began to walk in the joy and peace of my Lord. Suddenly, the scriptural promise that Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29) felt real. Rather than seeking to save a few, God really is patient toward us. “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

Creedal Faith

You may ask, “Well, what do you believe?” Do I believe in “the rapture” as defined by pre-tribulational dispensationalists? No. I believe in what the Church Universal has confessed since its earliest days and defined in its creeds.

Regarding Jesus, the Apostles’ Creed declares: “He will come again to judge the living and the dead.” The Nicene Creed adds that when he comes to judge the living and the dead, “his kingdom will have no end.” In short, when Christ returns, it will not be for a secret removal of believers but to establish his eternal kingdom.

The Apostles’ Creed also affirms my hope in that return: “I believe in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.” And the Nicene Creed gives me the framework by which to live here and now: “We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.”

In essence, I am not trying to decode “signs of the times.” Instead, I strive to live a life that is always ready to see my Lord. I need not worry about tribulation, because we already live in the tension of the “Already and Not Yet.” Christ has already inaugurated his kingdom, and it will be consummated—fully realized—at his return.

In short, I live by the words of the Eucharistic liturgy:

Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.

A Pleasant Reminder

So, I will no longer entertain conversations about “the rapture.” Instead, I will remind people of the truth: if we live daily in pursuit of Christ, there will be no reason to fear his second coming. Instead, we will rejoice that the dead are raised and those still alive will rise to meet our King.

And I will continue to remind everyone that fear about the end of the world—or the shape of the world—is not congruent with a Christian worldview. If a “doctrine” that is supposed to glorify God only produces fear, then it is a doctrine worth challenging.

I leave you with these words from John, the beloved apostle:

“15 God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16 So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.” (1 John 4:15–18 – NRSV)