Nitzavim - The Rapture or the Ingathering?
“If any of thine that are dispersed be in the uttermost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will He fetch thee.” (Deuteronomy 30:4)
In Nitzavim, this week’s Torah Portion, we are given a nod to the second coming, and how God will gather all of the exiles from the ends of the earth.
Many Christians place an immense importance into the rapture, an eschatological doctrine that’s supposed to happen at the second coming. According to this belief, when Yeshua returns, he will snatch away his true believers, and teleport them to heaven. During this teleportation, God will transform the believers from mortals to immortals. Before this happens though, The dead believers in Yeshua will be resurrected and immortalized. With the living and the dead in tow, Yeshua will whisk them away to experience the joys of paradise.
In some versions of this belief, the raptured remain in heaven forever, in “pre-tribulation” doctrines, the raptured will only be in heaven for seven years, during which a time of judgement called the “tribulation” will happen. It is believed that during the tribulation, the Jews and the rest of the world who didn’t believe in Yeshua before the rapture will fall underneath the rule of the Antichrist. After the seven years are up, the raptured and Yeshua will come back to earth, to fight in the battle of Armageddon.
There are two other versions of this belief, a “post-tribulation” doctrine where the believers of Yeshua will be subject to the tribulation as well, and a “mid-tribulation” doctrine where the believers will only be subject to half of the judgement.
This idea of rapture is very foreign to traditional Christianity, in fact, there are only a few places in the Bible that mention people being transported, and none of them state that the people go to heaven. One passage that believers in the rapture state is 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18, where it says:
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
While it does say that the people will be “caught up” it does not say that they will be caught up to heaven. It says that “so shall we ever be with the Lord.”, but it does not say “in heaven.”
There are three other passages that rapture believers state that have their own problems with the rapture doctrine:
The first is 1 Corinthians 15:51-54:
“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”
This text confirms the resurrection of the dead and that the believers of Yeshua will be made immortal, but it has no mention of being caught up to heaven.
The second text is Philipians 3:20-21:
“But we are citizens of heaven, and it is from there that we expect a Deliverer, the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. He will change the bodies we have in this humble state and make them like his glorious body, using the power which enables him to bring everything under his control.”
Those who believe in the rapture believe that when it says we are the “citizens of heaven”, it means we will take up our rightful residency in heaven one day, but this does not actually imply this. Paul’s citizenship was in Rome, but he had never been to Rome and certainly didn’t expect to spend the rest of his life in that city. “We are citizens of heaven” simply means that our citizenship is from God.
The third and last text is Luke 17:34-36:
“I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed — one will be taken and the other left behind. There will be two women grinding grain together — one will be taken and the other left behind. Two men will be in a field — one will be taken and the other left behind.”
Rapture believers try to point to this scripture and say that Yeshua referred to the rapture. But this isn’t true, Yeshua referred to the people being taken away not as delivered or rescued, but as judged. This is why, when the disciples, or Talmidim in hebrew, asked Yeshua “Where, Lord?”, in Luke 17:37, Yeshua answered, “Wherever there’s a dead body, that’s where the vultures gather.”
Yeshua was telling the Talmidim to be scared of being “taken.” Wherever those who are “taken” away are taken, we do not want to go there. Better to be “left behind” than to be food for vultures.
The Brit Hadasha always quotes a passage from the Tanach to back up it’s points, so how come when Paul talks about being “caught up”, he doesn’t cite a passage to support his claim? Why is there no other mention of the rapture anywhere else in the Bible?
In order to understand this, first we have to see what Jewish sources have to say about the coming of Messiah. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, on Deuteronomy 30:4 it states:
“Though you may be dispersed unto the ends of the heavens, from thence will the Word of the Lord gather you together by the hand of Elijah the great priest, and from thence will He bring you by the hand of the King Messiah.”
For hundreds of years, the Jewish people have been scattered across the world. The Torah and the Prophets promise that one day God will bring his chosen people from the ends of the earth to Israel, our ancient homeland. We pray that God will do this three times a day, every day, in the 10th stanza of the Shemoneh Esrei:
“Blast the Shofar for our freedom. Lift a banner to gather our exiles, and gather us together from the four corners of the earth. Blessed are you, O LORD, who gathers those who are scattered of his people Israel.”
The Prophet Isaiah links the gathering of the exiles with the sound of the shofar:
“And it shall come to pass in that day, That a great horn shall be blown; And they shall come that were lost in the land of Assyria, And they that were dispersed in the land of Egypt; And they shall worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 27:13)
The Prophet Ezekiel connects the ingathering with the resurrection of the dead:
“Therefore prophesy, and say unto them: Thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, O My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel.” (Ezekiel 37:12)
Finally, Rashi comments on Deuteronomy 30:3 and lends weight to the idea of the believers being “caught up”, when he talks about the gathering of the exiles as if God must pick up each person with his hands:
“that the day of the gathering of the exiles is so important and is attended with such difficulty that it is as though He (God) Himself must actually seize hold of each individual’s hands dragging him from his place (so that God Himself returns with the exile), as it is said, (Isaiah 27:12) ‘And ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.’”
Paul wasn’t speaking about a “rapture” where believers would be caught up into heaven. Paul was talking about the time where Yeshua would come back and gather the exiles, from the four corners of the earth, and bring them to Israel. Just as it says in Ezekiel 37:21-24:
“And say unto them: Thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, whither they are gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all; neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will save them out of all their dwelling-places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them; so shall they be My people, and I will be their God. And My servant David shall be king over them, and they all shall have one shepherd; they shall also walk in Mine ordinances, and observe My statutes, and do them.”
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