The Rapture Theory: It's Surprising Origin

askelm.com ^ | March 30, 2003 | Ernest L. Martin

[Destro]

IMHO, The Rapture is false doctrine. An error that arises from the fallacy of sola scriptura - i.e. anyone can read into Biblical passages anything they like.

[LiteKeeper]

NOTE: "Trinity" is not in the Bible either. Is it also a false doctrine based on sola scriptura?

[Fzob]

bfl

[Destro]

Actually you got it backwards - sola scriptura would not allow for the trinity doctrine if the scripture was solely used. You made my point without even knowing it!

[Conservative til I die]

It may come as a surprise to many Christians, but the doctrine of the Rapture is not mentioned in any Christian writings, of which we have knowledge, until after the year 1830 A.D.

This is my "Gee, no sh*t" moment for the week.

Of course it spun out of the early-mid 19th Century. That's when every bad idea of modern Protestant ideology sprang from (Christian Science and similar sects, the Second Advent movement, etc).

[Conservative til I die]

Problem with your argument, which is a problem many Protestants' arguments to Catholics and Orthodox is: WE DON'T BELIEVE IN SOLA SCRIPTURA! Nor do we feel bound to a Sola Scriptura argument for or against a doctrine.

[Destro]

Problem with whose argument?

[Conservative til I die]

Sorry, LiteKeeper's.

[restornu]

Do you want to swim in this pool?

[restornu]

Did I miss understand, I thought the main article was on your take of the rapture concept!

I don't know a thing about SOLA SCRIPTURA?
or translated solo scripture, scripture alone!

[Quix]

WRONG.

I've read very convincing documents that some variation on the theme can be traced back to the first century church. I have no interested in Googling up the refs myself. Other fish to fry at the moment.

Regardless, The Scriptures relating to being caught up in the air to meet The Lord

WILL BE FULFILLED.

I don't think anyone has their timing figured out. I don't think it's God's timing yet, for it to be figured out.

[Destro]

Well I read the rapture books of fiction - and I have to wonder what type of God would take pilots away from airplanes or mothers and fathers from children - vanashing them out of the world in such a cruel and heartless manner.

[Destro]

Well, I read the rapture books of fiction - and I have to wonder what type of God would take pilots away from airplanes or mothers and fathers from children - vanishing them out of the world in such a cruel and heartless manner.

[P-Marlowe]

Judging from something in your post, I have to doubt that you have actually read any "Rapture Fiction." Maybe you've heard about it. But I don't think you've read any.

[Zack Attack]

I certainly don't buy the rapture teachings as I have heard them, but if history does teach us one thing, it's that YHWH does provide protection for those under His covering, even when they have to endure trials and tribulation.

[RnMomof7]

Actually you got it backwards - sola scriptura would not allow for the trinity doctrine if the scripture was solely used. You made my point without even knowing it!

So does this mean the Trinity is made up of whole cloth in your eyes ? Sorta like the assumption ,that is not found in scripture or tradition?

BTW I can defend the trinity from scripture, and I believe that is where the church fathers found it.

You may be interested in the fact that most faiths that came directly from the reformation also do not believe in the rapture. That is a part of the counter reformation.

[Destro]

I started to read it. I could not finish it. I have read accounts of how it is supposed to go down - or up as the case may be.

[franky]

The Bible indicates the Triune God in Genesis when God makes man in "Our Image" More than one was involved in the Godhead.

The Holy Spirit came at Christ's Baptism as a Dove.

The Holy Spirit came to the Apostles and Disciples as a Tongue of Fire on Pentecost.

The evidence from the Gospels culminates in the baptismal commission of Matthew 28:20. It is manifest from the narratives of the Evangelists that Christ only made the great truth known to the Twelve step by step. First He taught them to recognize in Himself the Eternal Son of God. When His ministry was drawing to a close, He promised that the Father would send another Divine Person, the Holy Spirit, in His place. Finally after His resurrection, He revealed the doctrine in explicit terms, bidding them "go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matthew 28:18). The force of this passage is decisive. That "the Father" and "the Son" are distinct Persons follows from the terms themselves, which are mutually exclusive. The mention of the Holy Spirit in the same series, the names being connected one with the other by the conjunctions "and . . . and" is evidence that we have here a Third Person co-ordinate with the Father and the Son, and excludes altogether the supposition that the Apostles understood the Holy Spirit not as a distinct Person, but as God viewed in His action on creatures.

The use of Trinity is first found in Theophilus of Antioch about A.D. 180.

The Trinity has more support in the Bible than any rapture. St. Paul mentions being taken up to the third heaven but admits he did know what it meant or how God was using it. It had no teaching regarding anyone in any time frame being chosen and disappearing from their surroundings.

[drstevej]

***I don't know a thing about SOLA SCRIPTURA?***

How about Solar Scriptura? Scripture that warms you up?

[Destro]

The problem with that is unless a group calls that canon - others can read another version out of those passages - that is sola scriptura in practice.