Does the rapture happen in a twinkling of an eye?

Many people believe that the rapture happens in a "twinkling of an eye" (1 Corinthians 15:51-52 (NKJV)) where a "twinkling" means we are here one second and instantaneously gone. So if someone (left behind) were talking to us, we'd just disappear before their eyes. The person left behind would have no idea where we went - in other words they wouldn't know if we when up, down, left, or right. They would no idea what direction we went. This I believe contradicts the bible.

The above scripture is talking about us being "changed" in a twinkling of an eye not "raptured" in a twinkling of an eye. Why do I say this? I say this because the bible has examples of raptures that take some time to happen (in the 10+ seconds to many minutes range). Below are examples of biblical raptures

Enoch - Genesis 4:24 (NKJV) says that Enoch walked with God, then he wasn't since God took him. Unfortunately we have no other details so there is no way to get any timing about Enoch's rapture.
Elijah - 2 Kings 2:11-12 (NKJV) says a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. Even if you assume that the chariot of fire appeared out of nowhere, Elijah clearly saw it go up by a whirlwind into heaven which means that the going up part took some time (I imagine the fastest rocket and how fast he can go up and this would take 10-60+ seconds). So clearly not in a twinkling of an eye.
Jesus - Acts 1:9-10 (NKJV) says while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. Like with Elijah, Jesus going up was slow enough that His disciples saw the direction He went.
2 witnesses - Rev 11:12 (NKJV) says Come up here. And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them. Just like with Elijah and Jesus, people saw the 2 witnesses ascend which means that it was slow enough for people to see them going up.

So I believe that scripture makes it very clear that a rapture is not instantaneous and not in a twinkling of an eye but rather takes some time to happen. Using the above rocket analogy, imagine how long it would be to watch a rocket launch and go up until you could no longer see it. At the fastest you are talking maybe 10 seconds, but it could be many minutes.

Coming back to us being changed in a twinkling of an eye, what does it mean to be changed? This is my guess only, but if we are not changed, then as we start going up, if we are indoors, we'd hit the ceiling and get stuck since our body can't go through solid things. We need to be changed so that our Earthly body is changed to our spiritual body that can go through walls and ceilings. Even if we were outdoors when the rapture happened, so no ceilings to hinder us, as we got higher and higher there would be a point where there is so little oxygen we'd eventually die if we were not changed. Also, the higher we got, the temperature would get colder and colder to the point that if we didn't die from lack of oxygen, we'd freeze to death.

So we absolutely need to be changed so walls, ceilings, and high altitude don't hinder us as we go up.

-- Tait - 2026-02-25

Revision r1 - 2026-02-25 - 20:46:02 - TaitCyrus Edit