Carpe Diem

While the commoners among us bicker and quarrel over controversial eschatological matters of "rapture" they fail to realize the existential realism in the New Testament's presentation of exactly what is "raptured" i.e., the day. One need search no further than the illustrious Latin of St. Jerome's Vulgate, a translation prepared for the common among us to see this relative truth so perfectly presented so as to presuppose our perfect perception of it.

Most misconstrue Rabbi Shaul's words in 1Thessalonians 4:16, 17:

quoniam ipse Dominus in iussu et in voce archangeli et in tuba Dei descendet de caelo et mortui qui in Christo sunt resurgent primi deinde nos qui vivimus qui relinquimur simul rapiemur cum illis in nubibus obviam Domino in aera et sic semper cum Domino erimus

to mean that perhaps the Lord will rapiemur (i.e., rapture) his saints at his coming. Talk of timing is meaningless when referring to the eternally redemptive paradigm in which the Scriptures are set, so debate over when the tribulation occurs in relation to the "rapture" is futile. But it is the words of Messiah Yeshua in the tenth chapter of John's Gospel that lays this erroneous idea to eternal rest:

oves meae vocem meam audiunt et ego cognosco eas et sequuntur me et ego vitam aeternam do eis et non peribunt in aeternum et non rapiet eas quisquam de manu mea Pater meus quod dedit mihi maius omnibus est et nemo potest rapere de manu Patris mei

Yeshua is transparent in his presentation. No man shall rapiet/rapere (i.e., rapture) the saints from his and his Father's hands! To suppose that Jesus, himself a man, could "rapture" his saints is to spit in the eternally reflective face of the divine revelation mediated through the humanly articulated and pneumatically inspired utterances of the apostolic witness.

Quite the opposite, the Latin term translated into the English "rapture" is a translation of the Greek hαρπαζω which means to "seize" or "carry off by force." But the joyous transcendence of salvific elation is not forceful and the ever-existing give-and-take relationship of the triune life would never allow a "seizure" of God's people. Rather it is the day itself that is "seized" when the divine meets humanity and heaven is brought to earth. Carpe diem!