Class, discuss.
The Rapture was not found among Protestants until around the middle of the nineteenth century, when a couple of influential British Protestants invented the idea. It’s not biblical, it was not thought of in the early Church, and Martin Luther never said anything of the kind.
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If the main argument against rapture is that it was not discussed until mid 1900, then wouldn’t the same logic work against the gospel writers seeing Jesus revealed in the Scriptures of the old testament?
The rapture is the translation of all the saved sinners caught up in the air by Christ before the 7 year tribulation that will begin after the saved Jew and Gentile body of Christ is taken out of the way as they are not under the wrath of God. Paul was given relelation of these mysteries of God by Christ when God took him to Mt. Siani in Arabia, as Galations teaches, where the apostle to the gentiles was instructed in these mysteries for the body of Christ, the Church, that began after Jesus Christ departed from the mount of Olives east of Jerusalem. At His 2nd advent, He will return to the same mount and begin His 1000 year rule over all the earth after destroying the armies led by the anti Christ and his false prophet in Israel who ruled on the earth for the 7 year tribulation. Christ will then descend to the earth to bring all nations under the Kingship of His rule as God the Father almighty will do for those who trust and believe and love Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. It is God at work to bring in His Kingdom for 1000 years, as the prophets of the Scriptures teach beginning at Moses and ending with Paul and Johns books in the New testament teaching. Paul was taught of these revelation by Jesus Christ Himself and became the apostle to the gentiles and jews, as the Book of Acts teaches. Would to God that Christians read the whole Bible and believed every Word God has spoken there in.
Many of the early Church Elders belived & taught about the Rapture. John The Apostle, Paul (Saul of Tarsus), Irenaeus, Cyprian, Ephraim The Syrian, Ignatius, Barnabas, and many others.
1 Thessalonians 4:15 through 5:4:
“For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.”
This a fascinating topic. I think there are some Rapture believers that believe all babies will be rapture and some that think only some babies will be. I don’t know what they think about post-rapture conception during what follows.
Also, it is strange we live in a society where we probably have the highest % of faithful Christian Rapture believers, but they don’t seem to prepare anything too special to make it easier for the ones that are going to be left behind. Or at least not make it harder. Like you would think there would be foundations or procedures or something to help out the non saved or something.
I’m no expert, but the most I have seen along these lines is almost a joke thing with arrangements made with atheists to take care of Rapture believers pets. But now that I think about it, that actually makes sense for faithful and responsible Christians to do, right?
Freegards
“Thus we are left with a text that simply does not support what rapture theorists say.”
Indeed, I’m a protestant, and I agree, but I’d go even further. The text from Thessalonians flat out eliminates the possibility of any rapture prior to the first resurrection, since it tells us that the living WILL NOT precede the dead in entering the kingdom. Since Revelation is clear that the first resurrection happens at the very end of the tribulation, after Christ’s return is witnessed by the whole world, then what Thessalonians describes cannot precede that.
A guy by the name of Darby conjured it up using vague references in the NT. Then the Scofield reference Bible enlarged on it. Some churches are so radical on it that to not believe in it you're banned. The main problem is people are so caught up in the concept they loose focus of Yeshua and His teachings and of Paul's writings. They feel that why should they bother with anything because they believe the Rapture is imminent.
One of their arguments is that they'll be caught up in the air and forever be with Christ. If I was coming to someones house and they come out to meet me, we all don't go back to where I live but to enter their house to where I'm coming.
In the big picture as a believer in Jesus Christ being what he says he is, I will be letting go if I feel myself lifting up. Christ is my salvation beyond any church doctrine. I hope I’m not on the toilet.
What a bad combination of poor understanding of church history and bibliology.
To operate on this sick would leave almost no meat on the bone.
the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers
or
you’re are gong to be carried away and won’t have to go through the tough times.
Which message will be easier to sell?
I was raised in a fundamentalist church that did not teach “rapture” per se, and until well into adulthood I had never heard the term.
We did, though, believe that at the end we would be “caught up” simply because that’s what scripture says. But we didn’t try to put too fine a point on the details surrounding it; it happens when it happens.
The people who preach rapture can get pretty detailed about it, exactly when and how. They tend to think you have to believe in it the way they teach it to be a Christian but because of the way I was raised, it isn’t my issue.
Trying to de-code Revelations and define the exact sequence is obviously very interesting and great fun... It’ll happen how it happens, when it happens, and I don’t claim to know the details. I’ve got stuff to do in the meantime. God has a way of giving us our daily marching orders, laying stuff before us each day. I’ll focus on that until he calls me home in whatever manner he chooses.
For the preterist view of the rapture, see my article # B12 here:
https://prophecyquestions.com/2014/02/01/articles-by-charles-meek/
So by that criteria, we can then dismiss the unscriptural nonsense about the assumption of Mary which became official church doctrine in 1950.
The rapture certainly has Scriptural support as the article shows, as it quotes the verses on which it is based, which is far more than the assumption of Mary is based on.
It's always, *Do as I say, not as I do* with the Catholic church. They are great about applying a double standard to their teachings and everyone else's.
And besides, where does it get off being an authority on a teaching that it doesn't even believe in?
Hypocrisy all the way around.
In the middle 1820’s a religious environment began to be established among a few Christians in London, England which proved to be the catalyst from which the doctrine of the Rapture emerged. Expectations of the soon coming of our Lord were being voiced. This was no new thing, but what was unusual was the teaching by a Presbyterian minister named Edward Irving that there had to be a restoration of the spiritual gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapters 12–14 just before Christ’s Second Advent. To Irving, the time had come for those spiritual manifestations to occur. Among the expected gifts was the renewal of speaking in tongues and of prophetic utterances motivated by the spirit.
Irving began to propagate his beliefs. His oratorical skills and enthusiasm caused his congregation in London to grow. Then a number of people began to experience the “gifts.”
In 1830 a revival of the “gifts” began to be manifested among some people living in the lowlands of Scotland. They experienced what they called the outpouring of the Spirit. It was accompanied with speak-ing in “tongues” and other charismatic phenomena. Irving preached that these things must occur and now they were.
On one particular evening, the power of the Holy Spirit was said to have rested on a Miss Margaret Macdonald while she was ill at home. She was dangerously sick and thought she was dying. In spite of this (or perhaps because she is supposed to have come under the “power” of the spirit) for several successive hours she experienced manifestations of “mingled prophecy and vision.” She found her mind in an altered state and began to experience considerable visionary activity.
The message she received during this prophetic vision convinced her that Christ was going to appear in two stages at His Second Advent, and not a single occasion as most all people formerly believed. The spirit emanation revealed that Christ would first come in glory to those who look for Him and again later in a final stage when every eye would see Him. This visionary experience of Miss Macdonald represented the prime source of the modern Rapture doctrine.
Many people have thought that John Darby, one of the leaders in the beginnings of the Plymouth Brethren Movement, was the originator of the Rapture doctrine. This is not the case. John Darby received the knowledge of the doctrine from someone else. His source was Margaret Macdonald. Her sickness during which she received her visions and revelations occurred sometime between February 1 and April 14, 1830. By late spring and early summer of 1830, her belief in the two phases of Christ’s coming was mentioned in praise and prayer meetings in several towns of western Scotland. In these meetings some people were speaking in “tongues” and other charismatic occurrences were in evidence. Modern “Pentecostalism” had its birth.
These extraordinary and strange events so attracted John Darby that he made a trip to the area to witness what was going on. Darby visited Miss Macdonald in her home. Though he did not approve of the ecstatic episodes that he witnessed, there can hardly be any doubt that the visions and spiritual experiences of Miss Macdonald are the source of the modern doctrine. After returning from Scotland, Darby began to teach that Christ’s Advent would occur in two phases.
Darby was a brilliant theologian with outstanding scholarly abilities. The renewal of language studies, the teaching of the doctrine of ‘dispensationalism’ came from Darby and the Plymouth Brethren. The Rapture doctrine originated with Margaret Macdonald, and Darby popularized it. Scofield and others took it over. But Darby provided the intellectual mantle that helped make it respectable.
I was brought up under this teaching. My Great grandfather in England was contemporary with Darby and was a part of the Plymouth Brethren movement. He and Darby were friends. And no, I am not an advocate of the pre-trib rapture teaching, nor am I a dispensationalist.
I do think of the parable of the ten virgins...it is imperative for us to be ready for what is to come, for we do not know the time nor the season.
One second after the Rapture, there will not be even ONE believer left on the Earth. By 'believer' I mean a human being who has done what Jesus proclaimed as the Gospel which defines the 'Church Age'. By faithing in Jesus as Savior, they have been born from above.
The thing that Jesus said must be done for membership in the 'Ekklesia' is believing (an action word, not a noun) on Him Whom God sent for birthing people from above. Jesus explained it to Nicodemus (John 3:14-18), connecting it for Nic to what happened in Numbers 21:4-9.
The word translated into English as 'believe' and at other passages as 'faith' is the key. With the heart man believes unto righteousness (Abraham believed God and it was couinted for him righteousness) and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (with the mouth a man states what he believes, that Jesus is The Savior, his Savior, the One Whom God raised from the dead to show His acceptance of the means for God's Grace to be real for sinful man).
Those who believe, faithe, really confess that Jesus is Lord and Savior will be snatched away from this Earth and with them the indwelling Holy Spirit spark in each human spirit. It is that spark of His Holy Spirit, put in the cleansed human spirit, that marks every person who has been 'born from above' as Jesus told Nicodemus is essential. It is also that collective spark which will stop restraining the lawless one ... the Rapture ends the Church Age, the age of The Ekklesia receiving an internal spark of Holy Spirit life upon being born from above.
Oh yes, and the Rapture of the born from above dates back to Paul revealing that hidden mystery. Jesus introduced the Truth of it in John 14, in the Great Upper Room Discourse, AFTER Judas left their company to go and betray Jesus.
Mark
But lest we get arrogant, just because a notion is new does not mean it is false. A mystery in scripture is always a revelation but also plan A oriented notion, like what Paul wrote in 1 Cor 15:51-56. God does not have 'Plan B's' ... He knows the end from the beginning.