The Rapture (Snatching Up) of Living Saints in the 1st Century

The Rapture (Snatching Up) of Living Saints in the 1st Century [See blog editor's note on the use and meaning of the term "rapture" after Russell's excerpt]

Below is the 16th of multiple excerpts of commentary from Parts I and II of The Parousia, the late 19th-century masterpiece on the Second Coming by James Stuart Russell. The initial 31 posts on this blog deal with the Book of Revelation, which is cogently interpreted in Part III of Russell's magnum opus. (For all blog posts, see russellparousia.blogspot.com)
"THE CRUCIAL QUESTION [of whether the rapture happened in the 1st century] "Doubtless most readers will shrink from the demand made upon their faith, when they are asked to believe that the predictions of our Lord in Matt. xxiv. [24:31], and the kindred prophecy of St. Paul in 1 Thess. iv. [1 Thess. 4:15-17, regarding the "rapture" (snatching up) of living saints] had a veritable accomplishment [in connection with Christ's "Parousia" or Second Coming, historically signified when Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed in A.D. 70]. Many will regard it as an extravagance which refutes itself. Let them consider whether this demand is not made by the most express affirmations of Inspiration. These predictions are bounded by certain limits of time. The time is explicitly declared to fall within the period of the then existing generation [Matt. 10:23, 16:28, 23:36, 24:34, 26:64; Mark 9:1, 13:30, 14:62; Luke 9:27, 21:32, 22:69; Rev. 1:7]. No artifice of logic, no violence of interpretation, can evade or gainsay this undeniable fact. Credible or incredible, reasonable or unreasonable, the authority of Scripture is committed to the affirmation [of the rapture occurring within the 1st century]. And why should it be thought incredible? The reply will be, "Because there is no historical evidence of the fact." This, however, is an assumption. It deserves consideration whether we have not all the evidence which the nature of the case admits [requires]. What evidence, for example, may be reasonably required that the most seemingly incredible event predicted in Matt. 24:31, and in 1 Thess. 4:17, commonly denominated "the rapture of the saints," actually took place? The principal, if not the only, portion that seems to come within the cognizance of human sense, is the removal of a great multitude of the disciples of Christ from this earthly scene. We might expect, therefore, that there should be some trace in history of this sudden disappearance of so vast a body of believers. It surely must have made a blank in history; a failure, at the least, in the continuity of the records of Christianity. Admitting that the predictions do not require an absolute and universal removal of the whole body of the faithful (for it is manifest that there is a clear distinction made between the watchful and the unwatchful, the ready and the unready, and that as many might be shut out of the kingdom as those who went in), yet the language of the prophecy certainly implies the sudden and simultaneous removal of a very great number of the faithful. Is there, then, any vestige in history of such a blank? Most certainly there is, and just such an indication as we might expect. A silence which is expressive. Silence where, a moment before, all was life and activity. The ecclesiastical historian [of the post-A.D. 70 early church] will tell you that the light suddenly fails him. The Christian Church of Jerusalem, of which an apostle could say, "Thou seest, brother, how many myriads [thousands] there are among the Jews which have believed" [Acts 21:20], suddenly dwindles into two wretched sects of Ebionites and Nazarenes. Where are the many myriads of St. James? Where are the "hundred and forty and four thousand" whom St. John saw, with the seal of God on their foreheads, and standing with the Lamb on the Mount Zion [Revelation 14:1]? Did they perish in the siege of Jerusalem? Certainly not; for it is universally agreed that, forewarned by their Divine Master, they retired from the doomed city to a place of safety [the city of Pella, according to the accounts of church fathers Eusebius and Epiphanius]. Yet they seem to disappear and leave no trace behind. Ask the ecclesiastical [early church] historian to put his finger on the spot where the records of early Christianity are most obscure, and he will unhesitatingly point to the period when the Acts of the Apostles end. Of this period the learned [Johann August] Neander says that, 'We have no information, nor can the total want [lack] of sources for this part of Church history be at all surprising.' And, again, he speaks of 'the age immediately succeeding the Apostolic,' of which we have unfortunately so few authentic memorials ('Planting and Training,' chaps. v. and x.). [Also,] [Frederic] H[ui]dekoper, a Dutch theologian, in his work entitled, 'Christ's Descent to the Under-world,' remarks that--- "'On leaving the Apostolic age we almost lose sight of the Christians in a historical chasm of sixty or eighty years.' "Archdeacon [Frederick William] Farrar more emphatically dwells upon the fact and probable cause of this unaccountable eclipse--- "'Although we are so fully acquainted with the thoughts and feelings of the early Christians, yet the facts of their corporate history, and even the closing details in the biographies of their very greatest teachers are plunged in entire uncertainty. When, with the last word in the Acts of the Apostles, we lose the graphic and faithful guidance of St. Luke, the torch of Christian history is for a time abruptly quenched. We are left, as it were to grope among the windings of the Catacombs. Even the final labours of the life of St. Paul are only so far known as we may dimly infer from the casual allusions of the Pastoral Epistles. For the details of many years in the life of St. Peter, we have nothing on which to rely, except slight and vague allusions, floating rumors, and false impressions, created by the deliberate fictions of heretical romance. "'It is probable [Farrar continues] that this silence is in itself the result of the terrible scenes in which the apostles perished. It was indispensable to the safety of the whole community that the books of the Christians, when given up by the unhappy weakness of 'traditores' [Christians who handed over information to the Roman authorities] or discovered by the keen malignity of informers, should contain no compromising matter. But how would it have been possible for St. Luke to write in a manner otherwise than compromising, if he had detailed the horrors of the Neronian persecution? It is a reasonable conjecture that the sudden close of the Acts of the Apostles may have been due to the impossibility of speaking without indignation and abhorrence of the Emperor [Nero] and the [Roman] Government, which, between A.D. 64 and 68, sanctioned the infliction upon innocent men and women, of atrocities which excited the pity of the very Pagans. The Jew and the Christians who entered on [wrote about] such themes, could only do so under the disguise of a cryptograph [code], hiding his meaning from all but the initiated few, in such prophetic symbols as those of the Apocalypse [Book of Revelation]. In that book alone we are enabled to hear the cry of horror which Nero's brutal cruelties wrung from Christian hearts.' ('The Early Days of Christianity,' vol. ii. pp. 82, 83). "Still more vividly and forcibly, if possible, the case is put by the able reviewer [not identified by name] of [Joseph Ernest] Renan's 'St. Paul' in the pages of 'The Edinburgh Review,' April, 1870--- "'This volume ([Renan's] 'The Life of St. Paul') takes us through the whole period of, what we may call, the ministry of the great apostle, embracing those all-important fifteen or sixteen years (A.D. 45-61), during which his three missionary journeys were undertaken, and the infant Church, with four bold strides, advanced from Jerusalem to Antioch, from Antioch to Ephesus, from Ephesus to Corinth, and from Corinth to Rome. Once arrived there, once securely planted in that central and commanding position, strange to say, the Church, with all its dramatis personae, suddenly vanishes from our view. The densest clouds of obscurity immediately gather round its history, which our eager curiosity in vain attempts to penetrate. It is gone, amid a wreath of smoke, as completely as when a train plunges into a tunnel. In the words of M. Renan---'The arrival of St. Paul at Rome, owing to the decision taken by the author of the 'Acts' [i.e., Luke] to close his narrative at that point, marks for the history of the origin of Christianity the commencement of a profound night, illuminated only by the lurid fire of Nero's horrible festivities, and by the lightning flash of the Apocalypse [Book of Revelation].' The causes of this sudden and confounding disappearance have not, to this day, been thoroughly investigated.... The history of St. Paul's life, and the history of the Apostolic age, together abruptly end. Black darkness falls upon the scene, and a grim and brooding silence---like the silence of impending storm---holds in hushed expectation of the 'day of the Lord' the awe-struck, breathless Church. No more books are written, no more messengers are sent, the very voice of tradition is still. One voice alone, from amid the silence and the dread, breaks upon the straining ear; it is the Apocalyptic [Book of Revelation] vengeance-cry from [John of] Patmos, 'Babylon the Great is fallen! [referring to 1st-century Jerusalem; see previous Parousia blog posts on the identity of Babylon.] Rejoice over her, thou heaven! and ye holy apostles and prophets! for God hath avenged you on her: she shall be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.' (Rev. xviii. 20 [Rev. 18:2, 8, 20]) "THE TRUE SOLUTION. "It remains for the reader to consider, whether the causes suggested in the preceding quotations furnish an adequate explanation of this singular phenomenon [of the rapture]; or whether the solution of the problem is not to be found in the actual occurrence of the events predicted by our Lord and His apostles. There, in the written record of Inspiration, stand the ineffaceable words which foretell the speedy return of the Son of Man to judge the guilty nation and avenge His own elect. His coming was indissolubly connected with that same [1st-century] generation [Matt. 10:23, 16:28, 23:36, 24:34, 26:64; Mark 9:1, 13:30, 14:62; Luke 9:27, 21:32, 22:69; Rev. 1:7]. The attendant circumstances of His coming are set forth with marked precision. Everything points to a sudden, swift, far-reaching catastrophe, analogous to that which took place 'in the days of Noah when the flood came, and took them all away [Matt. 24:37, Luke 17:26],' or in the days of Lot, when the tempest of wrath overwhelmed Sodom and Gomorrah [Luke 17:28-30]. These are the very images used by our Lord to describe the suddenness and swiftness of His appearing. No wonder that there should be a 'total blank' in contemporary history; that there should be a solution of [the break in] continuity in the records of the Christian Church; that the pen of St. Mark should be arrested in the midst of an unfinished sentence [Mark 16:8, the authentic ending of the Gospel of Mark], that St. Luke should abruptly break off his narrative [in the Book of Acts] of the life and labors of St. Paul. Grant [by faith] that there is no failure in the predictions of Christ; that His words had a veritable accomplishment; and all is explained. There is [therefore, referring to the 1st-century rapture] an adequate cause for the otherwise unaccountable hiatus which occurs in the Christian history of the time, and for the total obscuration of the [Apostolic] Church, and all its greatest luminaries. Is it unreasonable to ask that the plainest declarations of the Lord Himself, and of His inspired witnesses should obtain a candid hearing, and a cordial belief, from all who own Him as Lord and Master? Surely that robust faith is not utterly extinct, which once could say, "Let God be true, and every man a liar [Romans 3:4]." ----- Blog editor's note on the term "rapture": The semantic debate over the use of the term "rapture" is nothing more than a red herring (a distraction from the real issue). "Rapture," although not found in the Bible -- meaning English translations of the Greek New Testament -- is derived from the Latin Vulgate rapio -- meaning to "seize," "snatch up," "snatch away" -- and thus qualifies as a legitimate theological term like "Trinity" (from the Latin Trinitas), which also does not appear in equivalent form in the original Greek New Testament or any English translations of it. Now, turning to the substance of the debate over "rapture": the N.T. Greek word at issue in 1 Thess. 4:17 is ἁρπάζω (harpazo), which in different contexts means to "seize on" (Matt. 11:12); "carry off by force" (John 6:15, Acts 23:10); to "snatch away" (Acts 8:39); to "snatch up" or "catch up" (2 Corin. 12:2, 12:4; 1 Thess. 4:17, Rev. 12:5, used in the passive voice to mean "caught up"). See https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g726/kjv/tr/0-1/ For further reading on the case for a 1st-century rapture or "snatching up" of living saints, see the compelling work "Expectations Demand a First Century Rapture" (2003) by Edward E. Stevens. Published by the International Preterist Association. Website: www.preterist.org ------

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