The Silence is Deafening!
By John L. Bray
This article is not written to be confrontational by any means. The simple purpose is to give some thoughts for consideration to those who are interested in the subject.
Why is it that we cannot find any Christian writers following closely after the events of A.D. 70 and writing about those events? Some say a literal, bodily, physical rapture took place in A.D. 70 (see James Stuart Russell in The Parousia). If so, why didn’t somebody soon afterwards write about the disappearance of thousands of Christians if, indeed, such a rapture took place? It would have made “headline” news. Surely someone would have written about such a rapturous event. My opinion is that no one right afterwards wrote about it because such a thing never happened. Even Josephus, the historian, writing just five years after the fall of Jerusalem, tells all about that war that destroyed Israel, but he never mentioned any rapture or disappearance of Christians. The silence is deafening! Such an event must not have taken place, and especially so since we have those who tell us of Christians still around after A.D. 70.
Eusebius, the historian, in The History of the Early Church, page 123, said:
“After the martyrdom of James and the capture of Jerusalem which instantly followed, there is a firm tradition that those of the apostles and disciples of the Lord who were still alive assembled from all parts together with those who, humanly speaking, were kinsmen of the Lord—for most of them were still living.”
Also, in The Early Church by Henry Chadwick, page 23, we read:
“The Jerusalem community had left the city when the resistance started the war in 66, and they were again harried as potential traitors during the Hadrianic war under Bar-Chochba in 133-5.”
Christians were still around. They were not raptured to Heaven in the first century. No one disputes the fact that the Christians in Judea escaped to Pella in Trans-Jordan in 66 A.D. when Cestius Gallus came against Jerusalem from Rome and provided a lull in the fighting long enough for all the Christians to get out. They survived those awful days of tribulation by being in protective custody in another country. If they had suddenly been transported to Heaven, somebody would have certainly mentioned this. The silence seems very deafening!
For those interested in this particular aspect of fulfilled eschatology, I would suggest a reading of my little book entitled The Rapture of Christians (May, 1998). Unfortunately, this little book is out of print for the present, but is one we hope to republish later on.
The New Testament never speaks of a “partial” rapture—that is, of only certain “sanctified” Christians being caught up at Christ’s coming. As to the resurrection of what Christians would be caught up when Christ came, Paul said, “those that are Christ’s at His coming” (1st Corinthians 15:23). What was the requirement for rising to meet Christ? It was to belong to Christ—“those that are Clirist’s.” All believers will ultimately be with Christ. There is no such thing as a partial rapture taught in the New Testament—that is, of some Christians and not others.
Some think that John 14:1-3 teaches a rapture of Christians to Heaven. It does not. It does not even say that Christ will take anybody to Heaven, He spoke of “mansions” where He and His disciples would be. The Greek word for “mansion” is “mone” and means an abiding place or a residence. Jesus used that same word in that same chapter, vs. 23, when He said “we will come unto him, and make our abode (“mone”) with him.” He had just said, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (vs. 18). This is also what He had just said in verse 3, “I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.” Was He talking about two different comings in this chapter, using the same word for “mansions” in both places?
Jesus said He would come to “receive” His disciples (have a “friendly encounter”). He did not say He would take them to Heaven. Jesus said He would make His “abode” with us. This would be in the person of the Holy Spirit. We become the mansions of which He spoke in verse 2. He is saying that Christians will become the dwelling places of Christ in the Father’s house.
One theologian (Robert Gundry in First the Antichrist, page 112) took this viewpoint of John 14:2-3:
“Conclusion: John 14:2-3 isn’t talking about the second coming and a rapture of Christians to heaven for the duration of the tribulation or of any other period of time, but about Jesus’ coming to the disciples in resurrection after the crucifixion and providing them abodes in himself through giving them the Holy Spirit.”
My own thoughts have led me to believe that this prediction of Jesus was fulfilled at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended, filled the Christians, and thereafter never left them (John 14:16). The writer of Hebrews could confidently write, “But Christ as a son over his own house; WHOSE HOUSE ARE WE…” (Hebrews 3:6).
Unless we are to say that John got his material all mixed up and quoted Jesus as predicting two different comings of Himself, a careful reading of the following two chapters (John 15 and 16) should convince us He is talking about His coming in the person of the Holy Spirit at the introduction of those three chapters and as recorded in John 14:1-3.
No, I don't think Christians were literally and bodily levitated up into Heaven in A.D. 70, or A.D. 66, or any other time, leaving the whole world to wonder about their disappearance and bemoaning the fact that they were “left behind.”
No one wrote about such, and the silence is deafening!
Name:
Dion
Sanchez
Email Address:
dionsanchez_zlimo@yahoo.com
Date:
May 21, 2007
Time: 10:03:12 PM