In this brief article, Fr. Anthony expresses with clarity the truth of the false teaching known as the “Rapture” and how much it distorts the teachings of the Lord in the Holy Scriptures.Posted on 07/27/2016 8:46:41 PM PDT by NRx
By Fr. Anthony M. Coniaris
In this brief article, Fr. Anthony expresses with clarity the truth of the false teaching known as the “Rapture” and how much it distorts the teachings of the Lord in the Holy Scriptures.
As I was driving one day I encountered a bumper sticker admonishing me:
“WARNING! In the event of Rapture, this car will be driverless.”
The strange belief in the Rapture teaches that some day (sooner rather than later), without warning, born-again Christians will begin to float up from the freeway, abandoned vehicles careening wildly. There will be airliners in the sky suddenly with no one at the controls! Presumably, God is removing these favored ones from earth to spare them the tribulation of the Anti-Christ which the rest of us will have to endure.
Unfortunately the Rapture has been promoted widely by the Left Behind series of books that have sold over 70 million copies.
The Rapture represents a radical misinterpretation of Scripture. I remember watching “Sixty Minutes”a year ago and was appalled to hear the announcer say that “the Rapture is an unmistakenly Christian doctrine”. It is not!
It is a serious distortion of Scripture.
It is astonishing that a belief so contrary to Scripture and the tradition of the Church could be propagated by so-called “Christians”.
According to the Bible and according to the belief not only of Orthodox Christians but also of the Roman Catholic and most Protestant mainline churches, the true Rapture will not be secret; it will be the great and very visible Second Coming of Jesus at the end of the world. That is the one and only “Rapture”. It will not be a separate, secret event but one that every eye shall see (1 Thess. 4:16-17).
The word rapture is not found in Scripture but hearkens to 1 Thess. 4:17 where St. Paul says that when the Lord comes again
“we who are alive…shall be caught up…in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”
This “being caught up…in the clouds”—arpagisometha in Greek, is translated by some as “raptured”. The word itself is not found in Orthodox theology.
The notion of a rapture in which Christ comes unseen to take believers away secretly, and only later comes back again for everyone else publicly—this whole teaching is quite novel. It was almost unheard of until John Nelson Darby formulated it in the 1800s as part of a new approach to the Bible, sometimes called “dispensationalism”.
The purpose of the “Rapture” is to protect the elect from the tribulations of the end times. Yet Jesus said nothing about sparing anyone from tribulation. In fact, He said,
“In the world you have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.”
Nowhere did Jesus ever say that He would return secretly to rapture the elect. Rather, He promised to be with His elect in all tribulations.
“Lo, I am with you always. I will never leave you or forsake you.”
He even had something good to say about being persecuted:
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:10).
Those who espouse the Rapture claim that Matthew 24:40-41 refers clearly to the rapture of the just,
“Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.”
The entire passage, however, refers to Christ’s second coming where He will judge the living and the dead and separate the just from the unjust.
Darby taught as dogma that when the Scriptures reveal that the Lord will reign on earth for a thousand years (Rev. 20:4), this figure is to be taken literally, rather than as a symbol for eternity as we believe. The Council of Ephesus in A.D. 431 condemned as heresy this teaching which is called chialiasmos (millenianism or 1000 years).
In fact, the Seven Ecumenical Councils (325-787 A.D.) in which the essential truths of the Christian faith were defined never mention a rapture. Yet evangelical Christians and Pentecostals keep using obscure passages of the book of Revelation which purport to give a detailed timetable of what will happen at the end of the world, despite the fact that Jesus Himself warned that no man knows either the day or the hour when the Son of Man shall return.
A major problem with the Rapture is that it ends up teaching not two but three comings of Jesus—first His birth in Bethlehem; second, His secret coming to snatch away (rapture) the “born-again”; and third, His coming at the end of the world to judge the living and the dead and to reign in glory. Yet only two not three comings of Christ are mentioned in the Bible. We have the clearest definition of this in the Nicene Creed when we confess that
“the Lord Jesus Christ…will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. His Kingdom will have no end…. I expect the resurrection of the dead. And the life of the ages to come.”
There is no mention of a “Rapture”.
As already stated, most Christians, Orthodox, Roman Catholics and Protestants do not believe in the Rapture. In fact, one Protestant pastor, John L. Bray, summarized magnificently what we Orthodox and most other Christians believe about the Rapture when he wrote these remarkable words,
Though many believe and teach this “Pre-Tribulation Rapture” theory, they erroneously do so, because neither Jesus, Paul, Peter, John, nor any of the other writers of the Bible taught this. Nor did the early church fathers, nor any others for many hundreds of years…. Did you know that NONE of this was ever taught prior to 1812, and that all forms of Pre-Tribulation Rapture teaching were developed since that date? …. If I were to preach something, or believe something, supposedly from the Bible, but cannot find that ANYONE ELSE before 1812 ever believed it or taught it, I would seriously question that it is based on the Bible.
Thus the Rapture is foreign to the Bible and to the living tradition of the Church. It is what we call a heresy, a false teaching. False teachings, such as this, happen when people—like John Darby—believe that they have the right to interpret the Scriptures individually apart from the Living Body of Christ—the Church—where the Spirit of Truth abides and leads us to all truth.
I can think of no better words to conclude than those of Jesus when He speaks of the one and only “Rapture”, the Second Coming:
“Be on guard. Be alert! You do not know when that time will come…keep watch…if he comes suddenly, do not let Him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: Watch!” (Mark 13:32-37).
Find the correct path un studying the Rapture of The Church, The Body of Christ relies heavily upon comprehending who is the Restrainer Who restrains the revelation of anti-Christ at this time [ 2 Thess 2:5 Don’t you remember that I repeatedly told you about these things when I was still with you? 6 You know what it is that is now holding him back, so that he will be revealed when his time comes. 7 For the secret of this lawlessness is already at work, but only until the person now holding it back gets out of the way. ]
LEFT BEHIND first published in 1995. People were expecting the end to come then but it didn’t, so a series was written. Too many people I know spent all their time reading this series and not reading the Bible. These books are available cheap at any second hand store, Salvation Army, Goodwill, yard sale, ect, as People finally realized they are FICTION and tossed them out.
"Available at fine garage sales everywhere!"
I personally dislike religious fiction, except Pilgrim’s Progress. I would rather read the Pilgrim’s Progress or Homer’s Odyssey any day.
What, you don't like Amish romances?
First, GOD does not have plan B.
Read, actually READ the Revelation of John; there will be sacrifices AMONG THE JEWS in the Millennial kingdom.
CHRIST IS THE ONLY SACRIFICE that can cancel Once For All Forever. EVERY real born from believer knows that. Do you need further help understanding that?
A real dispensationalist does not hold that 'the old testament interprets the New Testament'. That foolishness is on you.
NO ACTUAL Christian would endorse your foolishness: "Christ is there to point us back to the Law." Catholicism on the other hand does precisely that with all the sacramental fealty required in order to strive for salvation in catholiciism. Christians actually read the Bible and know what Paul said regarding Faith and the law. You would do well to open the Bible occasionally without catholic colored glasses.
Hear here! Correctamundo! HOWEVER, the doctrine of immanence does help many turn away from sin they are tempted to because they wouldn’t want to be mired when the transformation happens.
What an utterly useless jibe, from someone claiming to be of the same religion as the one who first translated the Greek text into Latin, giving satan the name Lucifer.
Some of them do read this stuff...And then they let themselves be talked out of the simple, clear, plain words of God...
Rev 20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
These are the words God told John to write down...What idiot is going to claim that God didn't really mean that at all???
And then they go and write books on what God didn't say...They erect councils to verify and AGREE upon what God did not say, anywhere...And the duped just follow the pied piper...
ASK GOD! He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, seek His words.
What a prime example of the Catholic haughtiness ...
What is?
The author, and apparently you do not see it there before you, conflates the elect alive during the Tribulation (the Jews primarily) with the Body of Christ. Again error made on purpose to skew the reasoning.
If this sort of writing is tingling your ears, better dwitch bookstores.
A better place to spend contemplation is in regard to what will be such a great lie that the whole remaining worls are mostly taken in by it; additionally, the lie is not even heard by the ones who have/are/and will be faithing in Christ.
You really believe that insult is based in truth? Why do you suppose we Christians pray for God’s Spirit to awaken the twisted minds of sexual degenerates?
I live alone. Recently, I lost my dear Miss Kitty to Lymphomas. I will not take in another house pet because I believe the Rapture is that near, and I would not want a dear little one left unattended to starve or worse. The world will be extremely chaotic even minutes after the apostasia, the departing.
I know some Catholics to whom I have offered access to what I have ‘set aside’ and I do give away ‘tools’ to those likely to be left behind, for their defense.
What insult do you think I'm saying is based in truth?
Do you take Jesus's declaration of the role of His Greatest Commandment as an insult? Or are you just pissed that Jesus is commanding you to love people you've declared as sexual degenerates with twisted minds?
And why are you taking it out on me? Is it Jesus's Greatest Commandment, or not?
It's incredible, Christians quote the Bible all day long, but when I quote the Greatest Commandment, they get enraged. Where does that come from?
If you are ever born from above, I assure you your perspective will change and you attitude will change, and you will begin to actually KNOW the one Whom you are using as you foil on this thread.
Incredible. No experiences, no thoughts, no understandings are legitimate other than yours. No appreciation for testimony. Zip. And on top of it, some weird smack at Catholicism, which I never mentioned.
You want to know weakness? Real weakness is declaring that God is so small that the only human being on the planet with a legitimate spiritual experience is you - and people who agree with every word you say.
The infinite God looks at your tiny mind with pity. And Jesus says, Lord forgive him, for he knows not what he does.
P.S. You know that Greatest Commandment?
It still stands.
Are you also a Mormon, like Storm Prepper?
Read John 3, the whole chapter. But pay close attention tot he analogy JESUS used with Nicodemus regarding the Brass Snake Moses raised upon a pole. The healing from the poison was immediate, without cancellation, and so simple all one had to do was LOOK at the snake believing God made this provision for the snake bites! When men add stuff to that simple formula JESUS taught to Nicodemus, THAT is where the Gospel gets gnarled up.
No, and never will be.
That said, after reading these threads; Buddhism is looking better and better.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.