The Rapture
As Catholics we shouldn’t get caught up or carried away by all the end times talk, that the “Left Behind” series of books have fueled by focusing on a rapture. (Rapture literally means caught up or taken away.) The idea, based on a Protestant misinterpretation of Matt. 24:37, is that believers will be raptured up to heaven before the end of the world, while nonbelievers will be left behind.
Matt. 24:37-41, Protestant believe, depicts Noah and his family as examples of believers that are raptured. However, reading this passage in its context will show otherwise. Verse 38 through 39 says, “in those days they were eating and marrying and giving in marriage, up to that day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away.”
Here, we see the non-believers who are unprepared and are carried away, while Noah is left behind to carry out God’s mission. If you read this with its parallel text Luke 17, you will see Lot from the Old Testament also being left behind while Sodom and Gomorrah perish.
As Catholic we are to live our lives as though the end times are imminent and as though we will soon be judged. So in case of Rapture, just like Noah and Lot, I’m staying! How about you?
God bless,
Pat Bline