Stephen Hawking won't be surprised by the rapture.

He has talked up the probability of some sort of invasion by aliens who are much more "evolved" than we are. He has stated it will be like Columbus coming to America as in "it didn't end up well for the Indians." I'm pretty sure that as one of the most respected so-called intellectuals in the world he will quickly have some sort of explanation that people will lap up. He might even try and initiate contact with the aliens in hopes of a peace treaty and so that they can help us escape our "dying planet." He believes we've been on here for millions of years and that our only hope for surviving millions of years into the future is to spread out across the universe. With our space technology the only options to move to are the moon or Mars and both of those have obvious issues so he will hope for help from the "aliens." The irony of course is if he would just accept Jesus he would get his wish to escape the planet and to live forever. He does think living forever is possibe, probably partially as a result of living so long with a disease that typically kills very quickly. He credits his survival to his own mental toughness rather than the grace of a God who he mocks who blessed him with a wonderful Christian wife who he eventually rejected due to her "intellectual inferiority" despite caring for him loyally as he physically deteriorated.