The way they dance around the world rapture is very reminiscent of the way they dance around the word creationist. The truth is they do believe in the rapture. See the definition of the word.
- 1.a feeling of intense pleasure or joy."Leonora listened with rapture"
synonyms: ecstasy, bliss, exaltation, euphoria, elation, joy, enchantment, delight,happiness, pleasure "she gazed at him in rapture"
- 1.(according to some millenarian teaching) transport (a believer) from earth to heaven at the Second Coming of Christ.
There is nothing about the word rapture that says christians must ascend with their body of flesh. In fact some hollywood portrayals of the rapture show the clothes of the raptured being left behind, suggesting that their physical bodies dematerialized and that they thus went to heaven as spirits.
I suspect the real reason they refuse to use the word rapture, is pride. For too long they have been condemning christendom's rapture teaching as being false so for them to come now and use the word rapture would involve them having to eat humble pie and admit that christendom was right. They can't stomach that so they find some meaningless technicality as an excuse not to humble themselves and use the very word they once shunned.
It's the same dishonest tactic they use to deny the fact that they're Creationists. Just because some Creationists believe in a young earth, they use that as an argument to deny that JWs are Creationists - as if all Creationists believe in a young earth. Here too, the real reason they deny that they are Creationists is pride. Creationism in all its forms - not just young earth Creationism - has been so thoroughly debunked and ridiculed that they are disowning the label. Rather than proudly being ridiculed for the truth of who they are they rather pretend that they're something else.