Rethinking the Rapture | Alan DiDio

Q: What was the main motivation behind writing They Lied to You About the Rapture?
A: The main motivation? Honestly, holy frustration. After 25 years of studying Bible prophecy I got tired of watching believers either completely ignore the Rapture or treat it as an excuse to disengage from culture. Meanwhile, false narratives are being paraded around like they’re gospel truths… everything from “the Rapture is escapism” to “Darby invented it in the 1800s.”

I wrote They Lied to You About the Rapture because people are spiritually asleep at the wheel, and I believe it’s time for an awakening. The early church lived with a sense of imminence. They didn’t yawn their way through prophecy… they yearned for His return. Somewhere along the way, we lost that urgency. And worse, many started mocking it.

I want this book to help step back from the debate and simply fall in love with His appearing. It’s not about defending a doctrine (though I do that), it’s about preparing a Bride. Jesus is coming soon, and the enemy knows if he can rob us of that expectancy, he can rob us of our effectiveness.

Q: You talk about lies the Church has believed—what are some of the most damaging false teachings about the Rapture you believe Christians need to unlearn?
A: Oh, where to begin? There’s a buffet of bad theology out there, but let me give you the greatest hits that we cover in the book.

First up: “The Rapture is escapism.” That one’s a classic. People act like wanting to be with Jesus is cowardly. As if Paul was clutching pearls in 1 Thessalonians when he said, “Comfort one another with these words.” No, it’s not escapism, it’s expectancy. The Rapture isn’t running from trouble, it’s looking to the King. That being said, there are Christians out there who wrongly use the rapture as a reason to bury their heads in the sand.

The Rapture should inspire us to occupy until Jesus comes, not hide within the four walls of our church. In the book I address lies like this from our own camp.

Then there's the fan-favorite: “The Rapture is a new doctrine invented by Darby.” That’s just historically lazy. If people actually studied the early church, they'd find imminence in their writings and even clear Rapture references before Darby’s great-great-grandfather was born. I provide multiple examples showing that many of the early church fathers actually taught a pre-tribulation rapture view.

And lastly: “Prophecy doesn’t matter, let’s just preach the Gospel.” As if those two are mutually exclusive. The return of Jesus is part of the Gospel. It's the culmination of the Good News and the redemptive work of Jesus in our bodies. You can’t preach the Gospel without talking about His return.

There are many other lies, myths, misconceptions and questions that I address in the book like;

• Are there two second comings?
• Isn’t the world just going to get better and better?
• Doesn’t Matthew 24 teach the rapture at the end of the tribulation?
• What about the “Last Trump”?
• … and more!

Lies like these are spiritual sedatives. They lull the Church to sleep when we should be wide-eyed, watching, and working. That’s why this book isn’t just about correcting doctrine. It’s about calling the Church back to her first love and her blessed hope.

Q: Many believers are confused about the timing of the Rapture. Can you explain your understanding of where it falls on the prophetic timeline—and why that matters?
A: Absolutely. According to the Bible, the Rapture happens before the seven-year Tribulation. Not halfway through, not at the end. Before. The Church is taken out of the way before God’s wrath is poured out.

Jesus said in Luke 21:36 to “pray that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass.” Paul told the Thessalonians that we’re not appointed to wrath (1 Thess. 5:9). And Revelation 3:10 says the faithful Church will be kept from—not preserved through—the hour of trial that comes on the whole world.

Why does that matter? Because if you get the timing wrong, you’ll either be terrified of the future or numb to it. The Pre-Trib view produces expectancy, not apathy. It anchors our hope, fuels our evangelism, and awakens us to righteousness. But if you believe the Church goes through the Tribulation, you either start stockpiling beans and bullets… or you begin to reinterpret everything through fear instead of faith.

God isn’t sending His Bride through the Tribulation to toughen her up. The Rapture is the rescue before the wrath. It's the trumpet that calls us up before judgment comes down. We’ve created several unique charts in the book to help the reader understand when these things will happen and why they shouldn’t be afraid.

Bottom line: the Pre-Trib Rapture fits the prophetic puzzle and the heart of God better than any other position. He hasn’t destined us for wrath, He’s destined us for a wedding.

Q: Why do you think there's such resistance in the Church to confronting End-Time realities head-on?
A: Because talking about the End Times forces people to do something terrifying… take their eyes off themselves.

Let’s be honest, much of modern Christianity has been repackaged into self-help with a Jesus sticker slapped on it. The moment you start talking about the return of Christ, you mess with people’s timelines, comfort zones, and five-year plans.

There’s also a deeper issue: spiritual illiteracy. We’ve raised generations on bite-sized devotionals and Instagram theology. The result? A Church that can quote Paul’s love chapter but stares blankly when you mention Daniel 9 or Revelation 13. We’re allergic to complexity, so we avoid prophecy, when in reality, prophecy is the compass God gave us to navigate the last days.

Then you’ve got the fear factor. Some pastors are afraid to lose people, afraid to stir up controversy, or just plain afraid of sounding like a late-night prophecy chart salesman. But ignoring the End Times doesn’t delay them, it just leaves your people unprepared for them.

And let’s not forget the enemy’s strategy. Satan hates the message of the Rapture because it reminds him his time is short. So, he’s filled the conversation with confusion, division, and mockery. “No man knows the day or hour” has been weaponized into “Don’t talk about it at all.” But Jesus didn’t say ignore the signs, He said watch for them.

So the resistance? It’s a mixture of bad theology, cultural cowardice, and demonic distraction. But we’re done tiptoeing around it. This generation is hungry for the truth about the End-Times.

Q: You write that deception will be one of the greatest signs of the last days. How do you see that playing out today, even within the body of Christ?
A: Oh, it’s not just playing out, it’s doing cartwheels across the Church platform while some folks clap along.

Jesus didn’t say the biggest sign of the last days would be war, famine, or earthquakes. He said it would be deception. Four times in Matthew 24 He warns us: “Take heed that no man deceive you.” That’s not a suggestion. That’s a flashing red light from the lips of the King Himself.

And where is that deception showing up? Right in the pews. Right in the pulpits. We’ve got churches affirming things that God calls sin. Preachers editing their Bibles to avoid “offending” people.

Even worse, deception now masquerades as love. If you speak the truth, you’re “divisive.” If you call people to repentance, you’re “toxic.” Meanwhile, heresy gets a microphone and orthodoxy gets canceled. In today’s church, if you gossip about a minister online you get applauded but if you call out sin in the pews, you get canceled.

And it’s not always obvious. That’s the thing about deception, it doesn’t look like a wolf in a butcher shop. It looks like a sheep with a seminary degree. It sounds spiritual. It quotes a verse. It says “God told me.” But when you dig into it, it’s hollow. No cross. No blood. No urgency.

Paul told Timothy a time would come when people would not endure sound doctrine. We’re there. It’s in the Church. In our feeds. In our favorite authors. In our playlists.

That’s why we need discernment like never before.

So yes, deception is the great sign of our age. But here’s the good news: when the darkness increases, so does the light. The remnant is rising. And we will not be silent. We were born to expose the lies, proclaim the truth, and prepare the Bride.

Q: In your book, you talk about the consequences of believing comfortable lies over hard truths. What are the dangers of a Church that is lulled into spiritual sleep?
A: Jesus didn’t mince words. In Matthew 24:48, He said, “But if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming…”—stop right there. Notice, He didn’t say the servant denied the Master’s return. He just delayed it in his mind. That’s the difference between watchfulness and wickedness: urgency.

The danger of believing comfortable lies like “Jesus isn’t coming anytime soon” or “we’ve got more important things to focus on” is that it lulls the Church into a spiritual coma. No urgency. No holiness. No harvest. Just church as usual, coffee bar in the lobby, three songs and a TED Talk.

A Church that believes the lie that “the Master delayeth” will start blending in with the world instead of being set apart. And according to Jesus, when He shows up, that servant doesn’t get a participation trophy. He gets “cut asunder.” That’s serious.

When we downplay the urgency of His return, we send the message: “Live how you want, there’s no rush.” But the Bible says, “Awake, thou that sleepest… the night is far spent, the day is at hand.”

We don’t get the luxury of spiritual snooze buttons. Souls are on the line. The Judge is at the door. And the moment we start pushing prophecy to the side because it’s uncomfortable or inconvenient, we’ve already crossed into the territory of that wicked servant.

So yes, the stakes are high. And I’d rather be found watching at midnight than apologizing at daybreak.

Q: What role does holiness and repentance play in being ready for the Rapture—regardless of one’s eschatological stance?
A: This is where the rubber meets the road.

1 John 3:3 says, “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” That means if the Rapture is truly your hope, holiness isn’t optional, it’s instinctive. You don’t flirt with sin while waiting for your Groom. You purify. You prepare. You live with oil in your lamp and your shoes on your feet.

And Hebrews 10:25? That’s our playbook: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” When you “see that day approaching” it creates an “even the more so” theology.

In other words, if regular Christians are going to church, watching Christians are assembling even the more so. If average believers are praying, Rapture-minded believers are praying even the more so. If others give, serve, love, forgive, we do it even the more so because we know the clock is ticking.

Holiness and repentance are the uniform of the ready. This isn’t about fear of being “left behind.” It’s about a fierce love that says, “I want nothing to stain my wedding garment.”

The Rapture doesn’t excuse us from righteous living; it demands it. And the closer that trumpet gets we’re reminded to live holy. Live hungry. Live ready. And if you really believe He’s coming... it’ll show.

Q: Many believers wonder how to prepare their families for the days ahead without living in fear. What advice do you have for them?
A: First, let me say, we’re not here to scare our families. We’re here to prepare them. There’s a big difference. Fear paralyzes, but faith equips. And when it comes to the days ahead, your home should be the most spiritually equipped place on the block, but it should also be the most joyous one too. So many people have been turned off by those who are pushing a fear-based or sensationalized eschatology.

The truth is, this generation is fascinated by end-time teaching. It’s the older saints who tend to avoid it because of how it was mishandled in the past. But young people? They’re hungry. They’re watching documentaries on the Nephilim, breaking down Book of Revelation podcasts, and asking questions that pastors used to dodge. So here’s the advice: don’t hide prophecy, teach it. Make your dinner table a discipleship table. Bring your kids into the conversation. If they can memorize Minecraft recipes, they can handle Matthew 24.

But teaching isn’t enough. The greatest thing you can do for your family? Be a living example. Let them see what expectancy looks like in real time. When the world panics, let them see you praise. When others hoard, let them see you give. When culture compromises, let them see you stand. Your stability will preach louder than any sermon.

And here's the best part… you don’t need to have all the answers. Just live like Jesus could come today and plan like it could be 100 years but do it all with joy. That’s how you prepare your family. Not by building a bunker, but by building a life that says, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord and even the more so as we see the day approaching.”

So, keep your eyes on the skies and your heart on the harvest. Get your house in order, but do it with joy, not dread. Because when your kids see you living with hope instead of fear, they’ll want what you have.

And spoiler alert: we win. So, teach your family to live like it.

Q: What do you say to those who think End-Times discussions are just fear tactics or distractions from more important spiritual issues?
A: I get it. And I’ll be the first to admit—yes, End-Times preaching has been misused in the past. I’ve seen the fear-mongering charts, the scare-you-straight altar calls, and the VHS tapes with Antichrist jump scares. That’s real, and I address those misuses and lies directly in the book.

But here’s the problem: just because some people abused it doesn’t mean we can avoid it. You don’t throw out the baby with the beast, bowls, and trumpets.

We cannot afford to ignore prophecy. Why? Because over 30 percent of Scripture is prophetic. That’s not a side issue, that’s a third of the Bible. We don’t get to cherry-pick what we want to preach and skip what makes us uncomfortable. The Church was never called to be a buffet, and I would add that if you’re skipping the meat of prophecy, you’re spiritually malnourished.

For every one prophecy in the Old Testament about Jesus’ first coming, there are eight about His second. That tells me something: God wants us paying attention. Jesus even wept over Jerusalem in Luke 19 because “thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.” They missed the moment. And sadly, many today are about to do the same.

So, when someone says, “This is just a distraction,” my answer is simple: No, this is the main event. This isn’t fear-mongering. This is the blessed hope. It’s the fire that purifies us, the urgency that drives evangelism, and the alarm that keeps us awake in a sleeping world.

End Times teaching isn’t a distraction from important spiritual issues, it’s the lens that brings them into focus. Because if Jesus really is coming soon, then prayer matters more, purity matters more, preaching matters more. I even make the case in the book that belief in the rapture is actually the helmet of salvation mentioned by Paul in Ephesians chapter 6. Is that important? You be the judge.

So yes, let’s reject fear tactics. But let’s also reject apathy. Because if you truly believe He’s coming, it changes everything.

Q: If there’s one message you want people to take away from, They Lied to You About the Rapture, what is it?
A: If there’s one message I want people to take away from They Lied to You About the Rapture, it’s this:

Fall in love with His appearing.

Don’t just debate it. Don’t just dissect it. Desire it.

Yes, the book tackles tough questions, clears up confusion, and calls out false teachings but the heart behind it isn’t to win an argument. It’s to wake up a generation to the beauty of Jesus’ return.

2 Timothy 4:8 says there’s a crown reserved, not for scholars, not for end-time experts, but for all those who love His appearing. That means your longing for Jesus’ return is so valuable to Him, He’s going to reward you for it. That’s powerful.

This book isn’t meant to stir up more division, it’s meant to lift you above the debate; to move past the charts and timelines and lead you to a place of holy longing. Because once you’re in love with His appearing, everything changes. Your priorities shift. Your appetite for the world fades. Your urgency increases. And your eyes stay fixed on the sky.

So, if you close the book and walk away with anything, I pray it’s a love for His return and a revelation that hope is worth defending.