Class, discuss.
Personally, I think too many people are trying to be prophetic and read into current events and correlate them to Revelations.
To suggest the rapture is a new understanding is to ignore the scriptures that teach such an event. Those scriptures have been with the church from the beginning, and really the argument is not about the existence of a ‘rapture’ but in the timing or interpretation of that event.
These are not new ideas.
1 Th 4:15-17 - …15By the word of the Lord, we declare to you that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise. 17After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.…
http://www.catholic.com/tracts/the-rapture
That is something that SOME Protestants really, really care about. Why???
No, thanks, lol.
The thread title could have been better stated as "The Pre-Trib Rapture?" Because the "gathering" that occurs at the Second Coming has always been part of Catholic teaching. (Whether that "being caught up" entails some notion of a bodily gathering in the clouds or merely an ecstatic (rapturous) emotional/spiritual state at seeing the Lord (e.g., "being on cloud nine" in English idiom) is debatable and, to my knowledge, either view is permissible).
So for anyone to say that "Catholics don't believe in the Rapture" would be incorrect. It's just that the notion is subsumed within the events of the Second Coming, so we don't talk about it as some separate event.
Carry on. :)
Agree with every word, and I’m not a Roman Catholic believer. I especially agree with the phrase “unnaturally stitch.” Many doctrines that should unite Christians become exclusive tests of faith/fellowship by means of unnatural stitching.
Salvation,
This is such a fruitless subject.
From the reign of Constantine to Charles V the Western World experienced over a 1,000 years reign of Christo-centric civilization. I’m with G.K. Chesterton, it has already happened.
“Wheresoever the body shall be, there shall the eagles also be gathered together.” Matt 24:28
If we agree that “Eagles” are the saints/saved/in-the-state-of-grace, then what is the “body” referring to here?
Catholics and Orthodox and other Apostolic Churches believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is truly present Body-Blood-Soul-Divinity in the Eucharist, that when Jesus says “This is my Body”, He means it, and His Word does not fail.
BLUF: Stay close to the Eucharist and you will be saved. If you have oil in your lamp and the Bridegroom comes unannounced, it is no big deal.
Bookmaark