The Rapture is not wishful thinking or magic thinking. It is sound Biblical teaching. Did Paul teach on it to the men and women he converted to Christ? Yes he did! He gave them clues we are only in this epoch beginning to discover and sort through, like the passing phrase in the entry to I 1 Thess 1:10, where Paul refers to the rescue from the coming wrath as a done deal, already guaranteed by the Promise of God.
To someone not faithing in GOD's Promises, a coming Rapture/deliverance/rescue of a select group is at onceunsettling, then disgust sets in, that these people would claim GOD will snatch some away then pour HIS wrath on them and theirs. It is natural to then aim insult and anger at the messengers.
Belief in the coming Rapture of the Church/the Body of Christ is not essential to your salvation. But once you are born from above the message JESUS introduced to His in the Upper Room Discourse is of great comfort. It does however carry with it an urgency, for once HE comes to collect HIS in the clouds and return tot he Father's House for a seven year period before bring us back, once he calls out His own, think of what is left upon the Earth to endure without The Grace of The CHURCH AGE sorting mena nd women out!
Let's just hear from the Lord directly on this topic. The Disciples asked Him directly about it all. You guys are skipping the part about how Jesus discusses the great Apostasy and the great Delusion or Deception.
By elevating "the Rapture" you are elevating it into a separate doctrine of its own, which constitutes false teaching. Just listen to the Lord Himself, don't listen to me...
GOD WILL HAVE TO SHORTEN THE TIME FOR THE SAKE OF THE ELECT.
"And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25 Behold, I have told you before.
26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.