What is the rapture? One view of the rapture has been popularized in the left behind series of books and movies.

The rapture is depicted as the moment when Jesus silently raptures his people to be with him,

leaving the rest of the world to cope with their sudden absence.

Obviously, the effect on those left behind is dramatic and makes for a great movie.

Cars start veering wildly on the freeway because they suddenly lack drivers.

Airplanes plummet from the sky because they suddenly lack pilots,

and select branches of chick-fil are left slightly understaffed.

The rapture is one of those terms that doesn't actually appear in the Bible, but it has become a shorthand way of describing a concept that definitely does appear in the Bible.

The word rapture means exaltation or happiness.

It describes being transported, at least emotionally, to a place of total delight. And for more

than 18 centuries, the rapture was understood to be the moment of Jesus Christ's second coming. The time

when Jesus returns, calls his people to be with him forever, and judges the living and the dead.

However, in the last century and a half, a new understanding of the rapture emerged.

This new interpretation was popularised by a man named John Nelson Darby,

whose teachings have become known as dispensationalism.

You can see Darby's influence in the Left Behind series.

In contrast to the previous 18 centuries of teaching, Darby taught that Jesus would effectively

return in two stages.

First, he would come secretly to rapture the church. Millions of believers would suddenly disappear.

And then, at some point in the future, after that, Jesus Christ would return again in

visible glory to judge the living and the dead. The big question is, what does scripture say about this? Is there support for a secret

rapture of the church followed later by the second coming of Christ? Or are the two events one and the

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