Well, I have not seen any claims from anyone on this board about a "secret" Rapture.
Unexpected, yes. Secret, no.
So it's kinda hard to defend something when you have made no claim to it.
——>Well, I have not seen any claims from anyone on this board about a “secret” Rapture.
Those who first heard of it (from Edward Irving, Margaret Mcdonald, John Darby, etc...) described it as SECRET, like the biblical scholar below, who was present at the utterances of Margaret Mcdonald, in Edward Irving’s church. Note how many times he uses the word Secret.
The Hope of Christ’s Second Coming: How is it Taught in Scripture? And Why? S. P. Tregelles. March 17, 1864.
“I am not aware that there was any definite teaching that there would be a SECRET RAPTURE of the Church at a SECRET coming, until this was given forth as an utterance in Mr. Irving’s Church, from what was there received as being the voice of the Spirit. But whether any one ever asserted such a thing or not, it was from that supposed revelation that the modern doctrine and the modern phraseology respecting it arose. It came not from Holy Scripture, but from that which falsely pretended to be the Spirit of God, while not owning the true doctrine of our Lord’s incarnation in the same flesh and blood as His brethren, but without taint of sin. p. 26.”
“But there is a very different theory of the coming of the Lord as the hope of His Church, which many teach, and which many more receive, as though it were unquestioned truth.”
“It is said that there shall be a SECRET coming of the Lord Jesus Christ; that at this SECRET coming His believing people who are in their graves shall be raised, and the living changed, and that a secret rapture of the Church shall then take place; that this SECRET coming and SECRET rapture are our hope, and not the manifested appearing of Christ in the clouds of heaven.”
“It is said that after this SECRET removal of the Church, the full manifestation of human evil, for some years at least, will take place, during which time shall be the display of the power of Antichrist,—the persecutions foretold in the Revelation, the extreme trials of Israel, the unequaled tribulation,—and that the end of this will be the manifestation of Christ visibly coming with His Church in the cloud of glory.”
“This is the doctrine of the SECRET coming of Christ, which many now preach as if it were the acknowledged truth of God, instead of its being (as is really the case) that which at every point would require proof from Scripture.”
“But not only is this doctrine of the coming of Christ not taught in the Word of God, but if, in what has been previously said, there is any point of truth, then this whole system stands in distinct contradiction of what the Scripture reveals.”
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It’s no wonder that the PTR community doesn’t like the descriptor word “SECRET”. Doesn’t matter if YOU lay claim to it or not. That’s how it was described at it’s inception, and it has stuck.
With the discovery that the Rapture was taught even by the Essenes, the lie that it was a secret is defeated. But we must remember we are not dealing with a healthy mind. The poster is given to obsessions and tactics such as false characterizations, bullying, badgering and out right lying. Such a sick mind is beyond any human correction. Only God;’s Spirit can remove the satanic Gordian knot of lies and fabrications.
The first huge clue was the posters immediate accusation that Ken Johnson is a liar and that Andy Woods, Gary Stearman, and Mondo Gonzalez are purposely spreading a false gospel. The second huge clue is the SDA cultboi’s obsession with the sexual sins of Ravi Zacharias.