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''Caught up in the rapture of You''|'''Anita Baker''', "Caught Up In The Rapture"}}
 
A standard feature of some Christian eschatology (a fancy word meaning "study of [[The End of the World Asas We Know It|the end of the world"]]) dictates that, before (or possibly after) [[God]] allows [[Satan]] to screw the world over, He will ''rapture'' his church, by grabbing everyone who is a Christian, or possibly everyone who might also be able to figure out what's going on and do something about it. So basically, a whole lot of people just suddenly vanish without warning, potentially leading to all sorts of [[Hilarity Ensues|interesting effects]]. Or, [[No Endor Holocaust|maybe not so many]].
 
In reality, while this idea has worked its way into popular consciousness regarding the End of the World, it's actually [[Newer Than They Think|a fairly recent idea, dating back to a Protestant group called the Plymouth Brethren in the 19th century.]] A former Anglican minister by the name of John Nelson Darby took a single verse from 1 Thessalonians describing how the church will be "caught up together" in the air to join with Jesus spiritually. Combining this with Premillenialist theology stating that there will be a period of a great tribulation and hardship on earth before Jesus comes back to defeat evil for good and reign for 1000 years, Darby is largely responsible for creating the major trappings of the Rapture that people most commonly associate with Christianity today. It's also worth noting that many Christians do not believe in the Rapture -- the Catholic Church, for example, disavows it entirely.<ref>Their eschatology basically amounts to "The world is going to end. We don't really know how or when but just take our word for it, OK?"</ref> Since its inception, it's remained a religious phenomenon that gained and kept its strongest popularity in America.
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* A common bumper sticker referring to this idea, was one that read "In the event of Rapture, this vehicle will be Unmanned", but doesn't say what happens if the driver was a woman...
** [[The DevilsDevil's Advocate|"Vanity. Definitely my favorite sin."]]
 
== Comic Books ==
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* The [[Nicolas Cage]] movie ''[[Knowing]]'' is a thinly veiled allegory to the rapture, {{spoiler|with aliens taking the place of God}}.
* Along with Hal Lindsey's books, the 1972 film ''A Thief in the Night'' helped to popularize this trope back in [[The Seventies]].
* The ''[[Apocalypse (Film)|Apocalypse]]'' film series kicks off with this, with the Antichrist Franco Maccalusso explaining that those who disappeared were [[A Wizard Did It|removed by him]] because [[Utopia Justifies the Means|they were obstacles to the goal of achieving world peace]].
** ''The Moment After'' starts off with this also.
 
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** The parody novel ''Right Behind'' had a fake Rapture and a climax of the protagonist fighting the [[Anti Christ]] in a Christian bookstore by chucking Precious Moments figurines.
* In the ''[[Christ Clone Trilogy]]'' by James Beauseigneur, the Rapture is somewhat subverted, in that when what becomes known to the world as "The Disaster" strikes, the raptured Christians don't disappear, but {{spoiler|''actually die''. Their souls still go to God, though}}.
* In ''[[Good Omens (Literature)|Good Omens]]'', a televangelist is gushing about the Rapture to his TV audience, when he's accidentally possessed by Aziraphale, an actual angel, who lets it slip that no, they're going to be far too busy with Judgement Day to bother with protecting the locals. Let God sort it out.
* Before ''[[Left Behind]]'', there was Hal Lindsey. Although he didn't create the idea of the Rapture, he helped [[Trope Codifier|codify]] it with his 1970 book ''The Late, Great Planet Earth'', which purported that the Rapture would take place in [[The Eighties]], coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the foundation of Israel. [[Undermined Byby Reality|His predictions are]] [[Hilarious in Hindsight|pretty funny now]], but back then, a lot of people took him [[Serious Business|very seriously]], and it helped to fuel the popularity of dispensationalism in American Christianity.
** Remember our friend John Nelson Darby that we mentioned at the top of the page? Lindsey graduated from the theological university that was started by one of Darby's staunchest supporters. Reportedly, his former colleagues were a little mad that he made ''millions'' off of essentially publishing lecture notes.
* The Evangelical Rapture is cited and explicitly occurs during the plot of [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[Job A Comedy Of Justice|J.O.B.: A Comedy of Justice]]''. {{spoiler|It's subverted, however, when it's revealed that God (who is a [[Jerkass]]) deliberately invoked it as part of a petty scheme to [[Secret Test of Character|screw with the protagonist's faith]] and, moreover, God and Satan themselves are merely minor deities in a [[Celestial Bureaucracy]]. The whole scheme ends with a massive [[Reset Button]], except that the hero gets his girl and lives [[Happily Ever After]] as a reward for his faith.}}
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* This is actually ''inverted'' in the belief system of the Jehovah's Witnesses. They believe that God will remove the unworthy from Earth (no Heaven or Hell, [[The Nothing After Death|just]] [[Cessation of Existence|oblivion]]), lift the remaining 144,000 to Heaven (it should be noted that all 144,000 aren't necessarily all alive ''now''), and leave the rest to rebuild the world [[New Eden|as it was meant to be]] and live there eternally.
* A radio preacher named Harold Camping once predicted that the Rapture would occur on May 21, 2011 at 6:00 PM, and whipped up a lot of publicity for it through a barrage of print and billboard advertisements. Some radio stations "celebrated" by playing [[Suspiciously Apropos Music|songs]] like [[Britney Spears (Music)|Britney Spears]]' "Till the World Ends" and [[REM (Music)|REM]]'s "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)", while a number of atheist/secularist groups held "Rapture parties" on the date. Eventually 6 PM passed through every time zone with no true signs of an apocalypse. He later changed it to October of the same year, where it still didn't happen.
** He also predicted it would happen in 1994. [[Captain Obvious|He was wrong then, too.]]
 
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** This being one interpretation of the meek inheriting the Earth.
** This is also the premise behind the RPG ''Rapture: the Second Coming''. (Despite [[Colon Cancer|the title]], it's not a [[White Wolf]] game.)
* The ''[[New World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|New World of Darkness]]'' book "Mirrors" presents the Rapture as one of many causes for [[After the End|post]]-[[Apocalypse How|apocalyptic]] [[The End of the World Asas We Know It|scenarios]].
* The [[New World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|New World of Darkness]] fan game ''[[Genius: The Transgression (Tabletop Game)|Genius: The Transgression]]'' lists The Rapture as one of the future events that may be encountered by foolish time-travelling Geniuses, although things seem to be pretty under control.
 
== Video Games ==
 
* The name of the city of Rapture in ''[[Bio ShockBioshock]]'' is an obvious reference to this concept, and its setup bears some marked similarities to it. The main difference is that, rather than devout Christians being whisked away in a flash, it's the "productive class" leaving society voluntarily, ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'' style -- [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|business owners]] who feel that their workers shouldn't control them, [[Mad Artist|artists]] who feel that they are being censored by a society [[Lowest Common Denominator|too stupid]] to see their "[[Small Name, Big Ego|brilliance]]", [[Mad Scientist|scientists]] who feel that "petty" morality and ethics hinder [[For Science!|proper research]], etc.
 
== Western Animation ==
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** The "Simpsons Bible Stories" episode featured the Flanders family Raptured while everyone else in Springfield is left to go to Hell. Lisa was about to be Raptured too, but gets pulled down by Homer. Of course, apparently the worst thing about Hell is pineapple pieces in the cottage cheese.
** There's also the scene in "Sideshow Bob Roberts" where the construction crew arrives to tear down the house while Homer's sleeping. Homer wakes suddenly and yells, "Ahhh! It's the Rapture! Quick! Get Bart out of the house before God comes!" Clearly this was during one of Homer's more devout phases.
* In the ''[[American Dad (Animation)|American Dad]]'' episode "Rapture's Delight", when the Rapture happens Stan and Francine get left behind, probably because they just had sex in the church's [[Unfortunate Implications|closet.]]
** Later Stan seeks out Jesus and [[Attempted Rape|nearly gets raptured.]]
 
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