It was J.N. Darby who in 1830 first articulated the idea that in the end times the church will be secretly taken up to heaven, leaving behind a sinful and godless world.

The key text is 1 Thessalonians 4:17 –

‘Then we who are alive, who are left, will be suddenly caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.’

The Thessalonian believers had been troubled that in the time between Paul’s evangelistic activity among them (in AD 49) and the time that this letter was written (up to two years later), some of their number had died.  They appeared to know something about the Lord’s return for the living, but nothing about what would happen to those who had died ‘in the Lord’ prior to his return.  Paul seeks to reassure them by filling this gap in their knowledge.

Paul tells them that, at the time of Christ’s return from heaven (cf. Acts 1:9,11), deceased believers will be raised and living believers will be ‘caught up’ (‘raptured’) and together will meet the Lord Jesus ‘in the air’, and so be with the Lord for ever.

1 Thess 4:14 confirms that Paul is writing of a visible, and not a secret, event:

‘For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.’

1 Cor 15:51f is closely parallel:

‘Listen, I will tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.’

The fact that in 1 Thess 4 Paul does not mention the fate of unbelievers is not significant: his purpose here is clearly to comfort and reassure believers, rather than to warn unbelievers.

The expression translated ‘caught up’ in 1 Thess 4:17 indicates a sudden and powerful snatching up of living believers by God, who at the same time will raise the faithful dead to eternal life.

The phrase ‘in the clouds’ recalls Dan 7:13 –

‘I was watching in the night visions, “And with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man was approaching. He went up to the Ancient of Days and was escorted before him.’

In Acts 1:9, the Lord ascends to heaven, and ‘a cloud hid him from their sight’.  In verse 11, the angel says –

“Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come back in the same way you saw him go into heaven.”

1 Thess 4:17, then, answers to this prediction.  This verse further confirms that the gathering of living and deceased believers is in order for them together to ‘meet the Lord.’  Schnabel (quoting Fee) explains:

‘The fact that Paul seems to leave Jesus and the “raptured” and risen believers up “in the air” should not overly concern us. There are only two passages in which Paul locates the final destiny of the believers as “in heaven” (2 Cor. 5:1; Col. 1:5). It seems that Paul has “almost no interest whatever in our final eschatological ‘geography’; rather, his interest is altogether personal, having to do with their being ‘with the Lord’.”’

Paul’s teaching does not constitute a completely new revelation.  Not only does it pick up on earlier scriptural themes (from Daniel 7, for example) but it also closely parallels our Lord’s own teaching in Matthew 24.

Schnabel compares the two passages:

As for the notion that the rapture takes place before a time of ‘tribulation’, it appears that Paul is seeking to encourage the Thessalonians in trials that are already present:

1 Thess 3:3 – ‘…so that no one would be shaken by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this.’

See also:

Acts 14:22 ‘They strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith, saying, “We must enter the kingdom of God through many persecutions.”’

and:

2 Timothy 3:12 ‘Now in fact all who want to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.’

Schnabel notes that the theory of a pretribulation rapture leads to ‘major complications’, for it

‘has to assume three comings of Jesus, three resurrections, and two judgments. In this view, Jesus’ first coming is his coming as Jesus of Nazareth, the second coming is in the secret rapture, and the third coming is in glory after the tribulation. It follows that three resurrections have to be assumed: the resurrection of the righteous dead who are raised at the time of the rapture, the resurrection of the righteous who were converted during the tribulation and who consequently died during the tribulation, and the resurrection of the wicked after the millennium. And there are two judgments: the judgment of the righteous at the time of the rapture for the purpose of rewarding the faithful, and the judgment of the unrighteous after the millennium. As the New Testament speaks only of Jesus’ first coming and his coming again from heaven, the theory of a secret rapture before the tribulation is an interpretation of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 that leads to major complications with a whole host of passages.’

The theory of a ‘secret rapture’ also relies on a certain interpretation of described in Mt 24:40–41 (and its parallel in Luke 17:34–35) –

Matthew 24:40f ‘Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one left.  There will be two women grinding grain with a mill; one will be taken and one left.’

But, in context, the one who is ‘taken’ is taken in judgement, not in ‘rapture’.

Consider also Rev 4:1 –

‘After these things I looked, and there was a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said: “Come up here so that I can show you what must happen after these things.”’

This is sometimes understood to be a invitation to the church to leave earth and go to heaven.  But it is, rather, an invitation to receive the visions John is about to the shown.

Rev 11:12 is also considered by some to refer to the rapture of the church –

‘Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them: “Come up here!” So the two prophets went up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies stared at them.’

But, even if the ‘two prophets’ represent the church (rather than two individuals), the terminology of going up to heaven ‘in a cloud’ suggests what happens at the time of Jesus’ second coming (see above), rather than some pre-tribulation rapture.

We conclude, then, with Schnabel, that

‘the “rapture” of the believers, as described by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, refers to the meeting of the believers who are alive on earth with Jesus who comes from heaven to earth, an event that unites them with the believers who had died and who will be raised from the dead. There is no evidence in the New Testament for a separation between believers and unbelievers in which the believers are taken to heaven before the day of the Lord while the unbelievers are left behind on earth to face unprecedented tribulations.’

Based on E. Schnabel, 40 Questions About the End Times, pp93-102.