Setting Dates For The Rapture Can Backfire

Setting Dates For The Rapture Can Backfire

Setting dates for the return of Jesus Christ can be embarrassing.

IN 1988 Edgar Whisenant, a retired NASA engineer living in Little Rock, Arkansas, suddenly became a best-selling author. He wrote two books that were bound together: The Rapture Rosh Hash Ana 1988 and 88 Reasons Why and On Borrowed Time: The Bible Dates of the 70th Week of Daniel, Armageddon and the Millennium. In these books Whisenant made the startling prediction that Jesus Christ would return to take Christians to heaven between sunset on September 11, 1988, and sunset on September 13, 1988.

This event, popularly referred to as the rapture of the church, is described in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the call of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, all the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with him forever.”

By the time September 11 arrived, more than 4.5 million copies of his 88 Reasons book had been sold, and another 300,000 free copies had been sent to the pastors of America. Christian bookstores had a difficult time keeping the book in stock. The effect of the book was dramatic. The media reported people putting their pets to sleep, selling their belongings, and going to hilltops to await the Rapture.

Some enterprising individuals promoted a Holy Land tour that offered the possibility of being raptured from the Holy Land. Part of the pitch for the tour read, “We stay at the Intercontinental Hotel right on the Mount of Olives where you can get the beautiful view of the Eastern Gate and the Temple Mount. And if this is the year of the Lord’s return, as we anticipate, you may even ascend to Glory from within a few feet of His ascension.” The price for the trip was quoted as “only $1,975 from Los Angeles or $1,805 from New York (and return if necessary).”

One Christian broadcasting network altered its telecasting schedule for September 11 to 13. The hosts of one program cancelled their regular live broadcast and instead ran videotapes on the Rapture, instructing unbelievers what to do if they found their Christian friends and relatives missing.

Apparently many Christians reasoned that if Whisenant knew eighty-eight reasons why Christ would return between September 11 and 13, 1988, at least one of them must be correct. Unfortunately none was.

So what happened when Christ did not return when Whisenant believed he would? Rather than learn from his mistakes, he went ahead and set another date, October 3, 1988. When once again Christ did not appear, Whisenant decided that his calculations were off by a year and wrote another book, The Final Shout Rapture Report 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993. In it he explained his mathematical error and predicted that the most likely date for the rapture was September 1, 1989, plus or minus one day. And once again he was mistaken.

Whereas Whisenant quoted many Scripture verses in his writings, he neglected to take seriously the words of Matthew 24:36: “No one knows the day or the hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself.”

Reflection

Have you ever been asked, “Do you think we are living in the last days?” How should we answer that question? It is important to remember Jesus’ statement in Matthew 24:36 that from the long-distance perspective, no one knows the date of his second coming. Yet at the same time, Christians of every age are to live expectantly, looking for his return.

So stay awake and be prepared, because you do not know the day or hour of my return.

Matthew 25:13