- Feb 5, 2002
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Q. Protestants believe in the rapture, and this was never really discussed in Catholic school. What is the Catholic Church’s belief? It would be wonderful to know that we will not have to live through the tribulation. (Connersville, Indiana)
A. If, by the “rapture” one understands that, at the second coming of Jesus, all the faithful, living and dead, will undergo a bodily assumption into heaven — then, yes, I would say that Catholics do believe this.
But there are other elements in what is sometimes understood as “rapture theology” that are not consistent with Catholic teaching — especially the notion that there will be a “secret” coming of Christ where he will snatch believers up to heaven and leave others behind to experience a period of severe tribulation.
Supporters of this view point to the passage in Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians, which says, “For the Lord himself … will come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (4:16-17).
The Catholic understanding of this passage is simply that those believers who are alive at Christ’s second coming will not experience death but will be transformed in glory and join the saints already with the Lord. Catholic theology finds no evidence to support a belief in a subsequent period of tribulation and chaos.
Continued below.
Catholic theology doesn’t support ‘the rapture’
A. If, by the “rapture” one understands that, at the second coming of Jesus, all the faithful, living and dead, will undergo a bodily assumption into heaven — then, yes, I would say that Catholics do believe this.
But there are other elements in what is sometimes understood as “rapture theology” that are not consistent with Catholic teaching — especially the notion that there will be a “secret” coming of Christ where he will snatch believers up to heaven and leave others behind to experience a period of severe tribulation.
Supporters of this view point to the passage in Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians, which says, “For the Lord himself … will come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (4:16-17).
The Catholic understanding of this passage is simply that those believers who are alive at Christ’s second coming will not experience death but will be transformed in glory and join the saints already with the Lord. Catholic theology finds no evidence to support a belief in a subsequent period of tribulation and chaos.
Continued below.
Catholic theology doesn’t support ‘the rapture’
