The Rapture: What Is It and When Will It Happen?
Sean McDowell
apologetics
July 7, 2026
Talbot New Testament scholar Dr. Alan Hultberg joins Sean McDowell to sort out what Scripture says, walk through the three major views, and ask the question everyone wants answered: are we close? Hultberg starts by clearing away the "Left Behind" imagery most of us absorbed from movies and kids' Bible storybooks, then lays out the three positions evangelicals actually debate explaining what separates them, how each handles the tribulation, Israel, and the timing of Christ's return.
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CHAPTERS
00:00 – The pop-culture rapture vs. the Bible
00:45 – Meet Dr. Alan Hultberg
01:06 – What is the rapture? (1 Thessalonians 4)
02:08 – Common misconceptions
04:15 – Is there even a debate that a rapture happens?
06:20 – View 1: Pre-tribulation
09:37 – Pre-trib, dispensationalism, and Israel
11:18 – Whatever happened to mid-tribulation?
11:41 – View 2: Pre-wrath
16:13 – Imminence: can there be signs?
18:32 – View 3: Post-tribulation
20:38 – How each view handles Israel
23:55 – The view Hultberg holds — and why
30:19 – The rapture through church history
33:48 – Where scholars land today
35:06 – Piecing together the whole end-times sequence
46:03 – "Newspaper in one hand, Bible in the other"?
48:33 – Signs and imminence, together
51:02 – Where to go deeper
52:42 – Closing thoughts
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Scripture
1 Thessalonians1 Thessalonians 4




















