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).
“Grace” simply means that it is at the discretion of the grantor.
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MHG, you have to address the conflict generated by your misunderstanding of Paul’s words to the Galatians, compared to his profuse praise to the Colossians for keeping the appointed times, and living by Torah’s love.
“Let no man judge you... but the body of Christ”
Would you have the Colossians judged by their pagan neighbors?
I know that you are simply repeating the twisting of Paul’s words by others, I once did it too, but it is time for reality now.
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Two: you have to make several false assumptions in order to continue to trust Rood over the Holy Spirit inspired Word of God, the Bible.
Three: The GOD of the New Covenant is able to have the words He wants in our day, for your salvation. BUT you have to yield to HIS SPIRIT over the inveigling deceptions of men like Rood.
Four: JESUS was and IS God with us. All one can sense of GOD the Father Almighty is where GOD intersects your spacetime limits as JESUS. The Word of God is literally the Power of God put into communication for men, and THE SPIRIT of GOD is the power over HIS WORD. You would do well to read the WORD HE has given fro you and stop living by the deceptions Rood is feeding into your mind/soul.
Five: I and several others here at FR take the time to write these things to you and the ones reading along, because HIS Spirit of Agape compels us to tolerate the insults and false accusations so that HIS WORD is broadcast as a means to rescue those who are perishing because of men like Rood who are doing satan's work of deception.
You can accuse that the words of Paul have been twisted, but that is in itself a lie from satab meant to cause doubt in your soul over GOD's Words to you. Do you really believe GOD is not stronger than satan? When the Catholic Church made changes to the Word of God (in Genesis and elsewhere) those differences have been exposed! Read the letter Paul wrote to the Galatians, really read it, and you will see that the lies you are being told about that letter's meaning and purpose fall in a heap!
Paul's words are twisted by others (?) making the NT scriptures wrong, in Paul's case...And yet you don't have the 'untwisted' words of Paul to justify your religious views...
Since Paul's words are twisted it stands to reason that Matthew's words are twisted as well...And in that case it's possible that Jesus never existed at all...
And it stands to reason then God's words in your Torah must also have been twisted when it is said God would reject his Jews and give salvation to the unclean Gentiles...
In reality, your group has made up its own religion and scriptures as it rejected the Christianity of the scriptures that God preserved for us Christians...
There are hundreds of millions of Christians past and present who walk by faith and believe the scriptures that we believe God preserved for us...
We pray as the scriptures you reject tell us to and we watch countless miracles unfold because of the instruction in those scriptures...
Your attacks on our Christianity and our bible are meaningless to us...You are not one of us...Admittedly...But it is sometimes fun to watch your unbiblical rants...
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Yes, we do have untwisted words, the words in the Bible that readers willingly twist for themselves, in compliance with ignorant suggestion.
The clarity will come from reading the tremendously clear words of praise that Paul bestowed upon the Colossians for keeping the appointed times and living in the love of Torah.
Colossians is almost impossible to twist, as long as one realizes that the italicized words are not a part of Yehova’s word.
The Colossians had it 100% right. The Galatians tried to mix in man made religion. (just like the majority of modern “christians” do)
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Bonk!
The Galatians, like most of the congregations evangelized in early messianic times, were the gentile descendents of northern Israelites. Gentile because they had been out of covenant, and fellowship for centuries.
They were among the “Lost Sheep” of the House of Israel that Yeshua spoke of in Matthew 15:24.
The epistles were all written to those congregations of Lost Sheep.
Failure to understand this seemingly obvious point is what keeps most of “christianity” from understanding Yehova’s word.
Your jealousy and hatred of Michael Rood is allowing you to stumble. Let go of it! You’re worth too much to lose.
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‘Lost sheep of the House of Israel’ ‘gentile descendents of northern Israelites’ ... so that’s the hook with which you the fish have been reeled in ... you consolation might be that Rood will be in a much worse hellish reality than you in a lesser hellish reality. I am certainly not jealous of a servant of demons, as Rood shows himself to be, and I hate only the eager servants of satan. My prayer for you is that God’s Spirit can and will cut through the demonic wrappings Rood has wound about you, so the truth can be shone into your immortal soul. You are lost, presently.
That is the fact of the word of Yehova.
Yeshua clearly declared that he was not sent but to the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel.
It would be unreasoned to assume that his apostles were sent to anyone but those to whom Yeshua himself was sent.
Anything else is man made religion, not the way of Yeshua.
If it is not for you, it is not for me to waste further time.
John 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Matthew 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.
1 Thessalonians 5:24 Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
Do you know why so few are chosen? ... Because so few will let HIM do it ... they are too prideful to let go of striving to obtain that which GOD gives ONLY by HIS Grace, never as wages.
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>> “So your leader, Rood, has not told you yet that the Lost of Israel rejected Messiah and He opened the Gospel to ‘others’” <<
The lost sheep of Israel didn’t even get the Gospel of the Kingdom until the apostles brought it to them, after Yeshua had ascended.
Dispensationalism will rot your brain!
Toss it in the garbage where it belongs.
The “other Sheep” Yeshua referred to were the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel.
That is the story depicted in the sky with the “Small Sheepfold,” and “Large Sheepfold” as D. James Kennedy extracted from the scriptures decades ago in his “Real Meaning of the Zodiac.”
Judah is the small sheepfold who mostly rejected Yeshua, and The House of Israel” is the large sheepfold spread throughout the world.
The “Fullness of the Gentiles” is the gathering of the unbelieving gentile House of Israel.
Gee...you sound just like the Mormons who claim only "their" Bible is translated correctly. How about you go back to those verses I posted and tell us how you would translate them? Their context is pretty clear.
Also, you realize, I hope, that we actually have manuscript copies in the original languages with which we can go back and check for those "translation errors", don't you?
Of course grace is given at the discretion of the giver but that is NOT the definition of the word. Grace (from the Greek word charis) means God's unmerited favor.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary says:
b : a virtue coming from God
c : a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace
The whole context of "grace" throughout Scripture is that of it being unmerited, not something gained by earning or working for it. Scripture also uses the term "gift", in that eternal life is a gift of God and not on account of our works. We don't work for a gift, it would cease to BE a gift. God's grace and mercy come to us through His love and we receive His gift of grace through FAITH.
They were among the “Lost Sheep” of the House of Israel that Yeshua spoke of in Matthew 15:24.
The epistles were all written to those congregations of Lost Sheep.
Gentile has nothing to do with Israli covenant relationship...
Mat 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:
Mat 10:6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Nice try but those lost sheep were not Gentiles...Jesus said to go to the lost sheep but stay away from the Gentiles...
One of the first things I learned in bible study is that things that are different are not the same...You would do well to learn that as well...
The Gentiles were unclean...The lost sheep were not unclean...They were lost...And they still belonged to God...
The Gentiles were to be avoided for some time and it wasn't until God revealed to Peter that the Gentiles were acceptable even tho they were unclean...
And it wasn't until God revealed it to the apostle Paul that the lost sheep of the house of Israel would be reject and the church should and would be built on the house of Gentiles...That would be the descendants of Ham and Japeth and any who would receive Jesus as their Savior...
You must think that only your group reads the scriptures...You're not going to deceive us into believing your religion is the truth when we have the preserved words of God staring us in the face...
Everyone that is apart from the covenant is a gentile.
The lost sheep were indeed unclean.
Discretionary actions are unmerited favor.
Quit squirming and wresting the word.
The preserved words of Yehova say your religion is totally man made.
Oh, honey, I'm not the one squirming and wresting here! What does that even mean "Discretionary actions are unmerited favor."??? I don't think you get it. GRACE is unmerited favor. Because of God's GRACE we are saved through faith and that NOT of ourselves. It is the GIFT of God, not of works lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8,9) You've heard of this, right?
In all of scripture Gentiles (or Strangers in the OT) were never considered unclean by God. Just the opposite:
Lev_19:34 The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
Deu 10:17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe.
Deu 10:18 He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing.
Deu 10:19 Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
The notion that gentiles were unclean was strictly an invention of the Jewish religion...a Pharisaical "rule" that had no basis in scripture.
Peter's vision in Acts 10 from God was God attempting to tell Peter that he was dead wrong to consider gentiles as unclean.
Act 10:28 Then he said to them, "You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.
It was ONLY unlawful according to Jewish tradition. But not according to God and scripture.
Yup. That's right. The Rooderites don't get it, as other doctrines they are blind to, that they think are silly (1 Cor. 2:14). They're here with a flash, they twist the scriptures like a party-popper (2 Pet. 3:3,4,16), they go bang, and one day they will disappear, to be viewed by the saints but once more, with tears. but the tears will be shed in heaven, to be finally wiped away. There are not going to be any tears in Hell or the Lake of Fire. There's not even going to be spit.
As you well know. There's a time for winning souls, but I think now is nearing the last time for warning souls.
When Jesus appears in the Air:
"Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:17 in the AV).
"Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be taken up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ, into the air: and so shall we be always with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:16 in the DRB).
"deinde nos qui vivimus qui relinquimur simul rapiemur cum illis in nubibus obviam Domino in aera et sic semper cum Domino erimus" (1 Thess. 4:17 in the Vulgate; rapier = to rapture).
"επειτα ημεις οι ζωντες οι περιλειπομενοι αμα συν αυτοις αρπαγησομεθα εν νεφελαις εις απαντησιν του κυριου εις αερα και ουτως παντοτε συν κυριω εσομεθα" )1 Thess. 4:17 in the TR; ἁρπάζω = to snatch).
Strongs Number G726
Strong's Definition: ἁρπάζω
harpazō
har-pad'-zo
From a derivative of G138; to seize (in various applications): - catch (away, up), pluck, pull, take (by force).
Total KJV occurrences: 13
Thayer's Definition:
1) to seize, carry off by force
2) to seize on, claim for one’s self eagerly
3) to snatch out or away
Part of Speech: verb
A Related Word by Thayer’s/Strong’s Number: from a derivative of G138 = to take for oneself
==== examples ======
Mt. 11:12 AV = take by force (violently; DRB = bear away (violently); Vulgate = rapit (violenti)
Mt. 13:19 AV = catcheth away; DRB = catcheth away; Vulgate = rapit
Jn. 6:15 AV = take by force; DRB = take by force; Vulgate = raperent
Jn. 10:12 AV = catcheth; DRB = casteth; Vulgate = rapit
Jn. 10:28,29 AV = pluck; DRB = pluck, snatch; Vulgate = rapiet, rapere (infinitive)
Acts 8:39 AV = caught away; DRB = took away; Vulgate = rapuit
Acts 23:10 AV = take him by force; DRB = take by force; Vulgate = rapere (infinitive)
2 Cor. 12:2,4 AV = caught up; DRB = caught up; Vulgate = raptum, raptus
1 Thess. 4:17 AV = caught up; DRB = ; Vulgate = rapiemur
Jude v. 23 AV = pull out (of the fire); DRB = pulling out (of the fire); Vulgate = rapientes
Rev. 12:5 AV = caught up; DRB = taken up; Vulgate = raptus
====== explanation =======
It's pretty clear, folks, that the Latin infinitive rapere means to catch away, take away by force (sometimes violently), to pluck out of, to bear away (violently), or to pull out of (with a sense of being done very quickly).
These are all Jerome's rendering of the Greek infinitive harpadzo. Any confusion comes from the Latin Bible commentators (both RCC and Anglican scholars) created the verb infinitive "to rapture" which was incoporated into the English vocabulary.
There is another meaning, not the Biblical one, which is to be overcome by ecstatic response to a physical or emotional stimulus, but this is not a description of what we are discussing.
Look, FRiends, it's about time we stopped wrangling over whether or not Jesus is going to rapture, to snatch away His Own True Believer-Disciple-Priest-Friends, and only them.
The souls of all the Old Testament saints, as well as those New Testament saints to whom He came, but whose bodies are already dead, are in spirit and soul at this moment in heaven. They will all be with the LORD when He comes for His Own live ones.
You and I won't even have time to say "Au revoir" to the misled, toxically misdoctrinated Rooderites, whose fanciful views of the Bible passages will never hold.
It is very clear that at the moment of the catching up of saints from the earth, it will be when in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, the batting of an eyelash, their souls, each and all, will be joined to a new, everlasting, perfect body for each like that of Jesus, for each of us shall see Him as He is, in His Glorification.
Furthermore, please note that in the verse in view, all these newly-made completed eternal beings will ever be with the Lord. That means BEYOND QUESTION they will never, ever have to go to a Purgatory, let alone to a Hades/Hell/Sheol and Lake of Tormenting Fire.
That also means that those humans who are not caught up alive of from the grave WITHOUT QUESTION shall suffer eternal torment in the place that is reserved for death, Hell, Satan, His Angels, and those humans who choose to remain with him, either actively, or by default.
So be it.
Tell them this once more:
There's a single moment of rapture coming. Step up to the plate. Do what you gotta do. Come to grips with spiritual reality. Quit arguing. It gets you nowhere, man.
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