I’ve been ignoring all this hullabaloo since it seems pretty clear that Jesus said we don’t know the date and time, to paraphrase.
Do most Christians believe in the concept of Rapture? I thought I’ve read in the past that Rapture isn’t described in the Bible. Looks like Bible study is in my future.
No. It is a novelty invented in the 1800s.
Checkout khouse.org
They have great studies (including on the Rapture) that are MP3 downloads.
A really easy fast way to do Bible studies.
“For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; Then we who 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.” (1st. Thess. 4:16-17).
‘Then we who are alive’ refers to Christians still living.
It is called by several names Rapture (which is a man coined phrase), Catching Away of the Bride, calling of the Bride...the Bride are those who accept Christ as their Savior. And that does not include the CINO’s (Christian in name only). They will be Left Behind, with the unbelievers.
All will happen in the twinkling of an eye, and only GOD knows the day and hour, not even Jesus knows when the Trump will be ordered sounded.
Try reading the Left Behind series it is fictional, but tells what to expect in plainer, easier to understand form. It explains the mark of the Beast, 1 world religion, 1 world dictator, the opening of the 7 seals, the pouring out of the bowls.
I do believe in the Rapture, mainly because the Tribulation period is seven years, and there is allot that needs to happen in just the first 3 ½ years of it. It would take Global Chaos for one man, the Antichrist to enter the Worlds stage and deceive nearly everyone LEFT on the planet, (all the peoples of the World in all religions) in such a short period of time.
The only type of “Global Disaster” I could think of on that scale would be for 200 or 300 million Christians to just vanish. And the whole point for the belief in the Rapture is we don’t believe Jesus meant for the Saved to have to suffer through the horrors that will happen to the planet during those seven years. And because he loves us so much and does not wish that any shall parish into eternal Hell, he knows it will take a great shake-up of those left to finally get them to listen. The “tough love” that so many of us fathers are familiar with. That we believe is the whole point of the Tribulation. Many will be saved during this time but they will be persecuted horribly, much like the first Church was, with public executions and torture, only to be ended with the physical return of Christ.
Sometimes we Calvinists find the dispensationalists rather entertaining, but this will paint all believers in the bad light. Predicting the date of the second coming is something those faithfully following scripture just don’t do regardless of eschatology. All doctrinally sound Christians agree Christ will have a second coming. Us adhering to covenant theology, believe when he comes, he comes and stays. No come down, rapture some and then return 7 years later. Any “meeting him in the air” is like the crowd going out to welcome their beloved victorious king home from battle. We’ll rush to meet him and escort him with praise into the gates of his earthly kingdom.
I was told by a Camping follower, that if we aren’t raptured today it means we aren’t true believers and Camping will still be correct. Now that is faith, but very misplaced faith. Camping will spiritually ship-wreck many today. This is evil disguised as light.
We should not ridicule or humiliate those that believed Camping, but pray for them and help them escape the grips of this false teacher (Jude 22 & 23), speaking graciously with love and concern. And for us that didn’t step into this snare, I think a reading of Romans 12:3 may be helpful.
Freepers, help me out here. Didn’t he predict the end of the world to occur later in the year and this would only be the rapture of true believers?
Peace all...
While the vast majority of Christians in the world do not believe in this Dispensationalist concept of the Rapture, it seems like the majority of Freepers do. It comes from a novel mis-reading of Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians.
I would also point out that it is also inconsistent with the long history of persecution and the Christian faith through history. Christians have given witness to their faith by accepting death and suffering since the time St Stephen was stoned to death. Jesus, who endured great suffering on our part, told us us the ‘servant is no better than the master’ so we should expect to share in this suffering too. To expect that somehow Christians should be whisked out of the world to avoid tribulation at the end seems nonsense.
Our time in this world is but a blink of an eye compared to life in the next. If we can keep faith in the promise of everlasting life from a good, eternal, almighty God, we can endure any pain or trouble in this world.