Rapture Timeline

1981

Chuck Smith and the expectation of a Rapture before 1981

Date approximate Prediction date passed RaptureEnd TimesDate SettingEvangelicalismModern PredictionsFailed Predictions

Quick facts

Predicted date
1981
Who predicted it
Chuck Smith
When announced
1976
Reasoning
1948 plus 40 years, minus a seven-year tribulation period before the end.
What happened
The year 1981 passed without the Rapture.
Historical status
Date approximate. The claim is documented, but the exact date or span is not.
Outcome label
Prediction date passed
Editorial certainty
Low: thin or conflicting sources
Editorial review
Pending. This entry has not yet been checked line by line against its sources. Treat details as provisional.

Prediction

What did Chuck Smith predict?

In books of the late 1970s, the founder of Calvary Chapel wrote that he expected the Rapture to occur before 1981, on the basis of a forty-year generation from 1948 minus a seven-year tribulation.

Interpretation by the author

Why did they believe it?

Smith read the "generation" of Matthew 24:34 as forty years starting from the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. That gave 1988. Counting back a seven-year tribulation, he concluded that the Rapture would happen before 1981.

Scripture as used by the author

Biblical basis cited

Matthew 24:32 to 34 (the fig tree and the generation) and Daniel 9:27 (the seventieth week, read as a seven-year period).

Method

How the date was calculated

1948 plus 40 years, minus a seven-year tribulation period before the end.

Historical record

Historical context

The expectation was common in American evangelical publishing of the 1970s, strengthened by the success of The Late Great Planet Earth (1970). Calvary Chapel grew rapidly in the same decade.

Historical record

What happened when the date passed?

The year 1981 passed without the Rapture.

Historical record

What happened afterward

Smith later said that his view had been mistaken. He continued to teach that the return of Christ was near, but set no further date.

Scripture

Passages cited

  • Matthew 24:32–34 (KJV)

    "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."

    Verse 34 is quoted; verses 32 and 33 give the parable of the fig tree.

Excerpts are from the King James Version (public domain). Listing a verse here does not mean this site agrees with how the author used it.

Sources

Sources and further reading

  1. Chuck Smith. The Final Curtain. Word for Today. 1976. Primary source Exact page references for the 1981 statement still need to be added.
  2. Chuck Smith. Future Survival. Word for Today. 1978. Primary source Exact page references still need to be added.

Found an error or a better source? Send a correction. See also the methodology.

Nobody knows the day.

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