Replies

"In your scheme, is repentance one of those works not needed, to be saved?"

Two points of clarification:

1. If by repentance you mean "stop sinning", then I agree that is a work and would say that is not necessary for salvation.

2. If by repentance you mean biblical metanoia, which means to change your heart and mind about Christ and believe in Him, then that is not a work, it is faith, and is necessary for salvation.

As an example, in Acts 2:38 and Acts 3:19 when Peter tells his audience to "repent" (metanoia in the Greek), he is calling on them to change their mind about Christ and become disciples. This is the plain meaning of biblical repentance and would be backed up by just about any lexicon, concordance, or scholarly article on "metanoia."

Now true metanoia will ultimately result in good works and an avoidance of sin, but metanoia is not, in itself, stopping sin, as if any of us could actually be perfect ENOUGH or sinless ENOUGH to warrant salvation.

The "stop sinning" definition of repentance, which has no biblical, Greek, or scholarly basis, negates the whole point of the Gospel: Jesus died for your sins and rose again.

"The 1 Thessalonians 4 passage is talking about the resurrection of the dead on the last day"

Agreed. But it's also talking about the rapture. Notice the whole, you know, "those who are alive and remain"-thing and the whole, "caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in air"-thing?

I didn't address pre/mid/post-trib, but simply made the point that the Bible does teach the rapture, unless of course you don't believe Paul meant what he wrote, or you feel entitled to take generous and liberal liberties with the text.