The rapture concept is based entirely on one passage that can have many different interpretations. I don’t accept that the passage means a removal of the faithful from a world that then undergoes a tribulation. In fact, the tribulation falls upon the faithful in the end times and the so-called taking up is actually a rising up spiritually at the appearance of Christ at the second coming. This ends the tribulation and leads to the Kingdom. Hence we could be a lot closer to the end of the timetable than many believe, because what we’ve seen in the past can be viewed as the tribulation and a reign of antichrist, in particular if you think that this prophecy means spirit of antichrist and not an individual capital-A Antichrist.
I concede that there is to be a “man of sin” who is chief among the antichrists, but perhaps many already successfully identified him.
Either interpretation may be correct but the fact that millions believe in one or the other shows there is no clear discernment about this, nor can there be since a clear discernment is only possible in foreknowledge of the “day and time” which nobody has. I would say that it is valid to look at any recent seven year period either completed or nearly completed as the time of the end, and that we could be a lot closer than some think to the end of days. I don’t believe that the United Nations will ever succeed in bringing about a world government and I think that globalism as it already exists is as close as we will get to seeing that final step before the second coming.
This is exciting in that there may not be any seven year wait for the final act of this spiritual drama in which so many of us have been vitally interested for many years now. It could just as easily be seven months, or seven days. And with President Trump, I see a leader who is capable of responding to these events in a positive way, in other words, a sign of God’s blessing on America despite the presence of many unfaithful and false prophets.
No,actually the RAPTURE concept is based on one APOSTLE; PAUL.
I would add, who here thinks they have so far escaped a tribulation brought on by the spirit of antichrist? Would those bakers in Portland and elsewhere think they had done so? Would victims of various terrorist attacks see it that way? How about victims of lawfare in various western countries? I am one of those. Believe me, there has been no easy escape from tribulation by going up into the clouds with Jesus. And this was never promised to us, I think it is just wishful thinking that there would be an easy way out.
Jesus himself states, “if those days had not been shortened, then no flesh would have escaped (the tribulation)” so in fact He is saying that the tribulation is well advanced among the believers of the end times before an event brings it to a conclusion — that event would appear to be His coming again in “power and great glory.”
However, I would concede that all of the above can be true and there can be a rapture of the faithful out of the doomed earth, the two concepts are not mutually exclusive, but certainly there is no Biblical foundation for any notion of a tribulation entirely post-Rapture. Thousands of your fellow believers can testify otherwise on that.