Posted on 01/31/2021 2:46:43 PM PST by Jan_Sobieski
No, He isn’t coming twice.
Believers are caught up to meet Him in the air. He never comes to touch earth. We go to Him.
Second coming is when He physically touches earth.
You have feebly conflated the scene at the Great White Throne of Judgment with judgment of Christians. Christians are not at the Great White Throne to be judged. We have been judged in Christ and made new creations. 1 John 3:9 holds a wonderful message for you, if you will accept it. To those God has born from above, He abides in their born again spirit ... and even you cannot toss Him out from your spirit. Your soul of sinful penchants however, well God is in your spirit not your soul, so the soul can and does still sin ... much less as you submit it to His Presence and directing, but since you inherited your soul from Adam it still sins but will be discarded at death or the transformation of the Rapture..
Bookmark.
Yes, the Church is the spotless virgin who is the Bride of Christ. But I don't think this parable is talking about the bride. The "virgins" are bridesmaids at a wedding - they aren't the Bride. God didn't approve of polygamy so they wouldn't be representing the church/Christians who are called the "Bride of Christ". In one view the wise and foolish virgins are representing the Jews - the nation of Israel - who come out of the Tribulation as either believers in Jesus Christ as Messiah and enter into the Millennium or who have rejected Him and they do not.
What doesn't make logical sense is believing that Almighty God has appointed us to endure His wrath during the Tribulation when He told us we are NOT appointed unto wrath.
Why would the Bride be beaten up along with the ungodly right before the Marriage Feast of the Lamb? Is that logical?
I believe in the rapture of the Church. Meaning those who have been born again into eternal salvation by faith. So whether the rapture is true or not, I’m heaven bound. If it happens I’m ready, if He tarries I’m still ready. What each of us believes in our heart isn’t going to change Gods plan. I think it best to check on our on salvation and make sure we are ready. We each need all of the oil promised to us and it will be enough. At the moment of being saved we are secure in Him, filled with Holy Spirit and Heaven is our home.
What’s that got to do with this Rapture thing?
Then why is the 2nd. Coming mentioned before this Rapture thing?
The “Rapture thing” is the catching up of the church BEFORE the start of the Tribulation - which is the pouring out of God’s wrathful judgement upon the ungodly world system. The Bridegroom is removing His bride so that she/us are not suffering that wrath.
Some people think that there’s been no promise from God that believers will be spared persecution, and that is true. In fact, we should expect to undergo persecution, trials and testing because we are Christ’s. But the Tribulation is different. It is not going to be the devil’s wrath being poured out but Almighty God’s. There will be great tribulation such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be again. He promises that we are not appointed unto that wrath.
I’d rather stay through this “Tribulation” than get caught up with this so-called Rapture. Can you imagine what would happen if a martyr of the early church came up to you and asked how you were martyred and your reply would be “Well I was in the Walmart parking lot in the middle of summer with two baskets of groceries and I saw my car had a flat tire, baby screaming ... etc etc”
PS: Again, all the verses prior to this Rapture talk about the 2nd. Coming then come the verses following that are used as proof texts for this Rapture.
Thanks. That was a delightful story indeed.
You’re welcome. Isn’t that a good one? It’s long been one of favorite O Henry short stories.
Notice how the parable expands our understanding of the earlier phrase “one is taken, and one is left” (Matt. 24:40–41).
This parable shows that Jesus meant “left out of the eternal Kingdom.” He never meant “left behind at the secret rapture,” as rapturists claim.
Jesus is talking about the taking of Christians into eternal bliss. Two men will be working together. One will be taken, and the other left out of the marriage feast (Matt. 24:40). Two women will be together. One will be taken into the marriage feast of the Lamb, and the other left out (Matt. 24:41).
In the parable before this, tye parable of the two servants,Jesus does not mention any hint of a seven-year tribulation or a Millennium after this coming. All that remains is either eternal bliss or eternal damnation.
Christ’s second coming will be sudden. It will be public and unmistakable. Christians will be irresistibly attracted to their Lord immediately. We cannot determine its precise timing, so we should live each day in anticipation, yet prepare for the long haul. Christians will be living and working alongside non-Christians when it occurs. Every person will receive his just reward in the end based on the charity he has shown.
Nothing even remotely suggests the private rapture that rapturists try to deduce from these verses. Nowhere is anyone “left behind.” There is no secret rapture preceding a seven-year Great Tribulation; indeed, the Great Tribulation Jesus predicts here has already come to pass. There is no mention of a separate millennial reign of Jesus as Messiah after the judgment.
Ezeki -- you don't believe that Jesus was the Messiah, right? That He was/is God
The Church i.e. Christianity IS Judaism - it is a continuation of the Jesus-movement-Jewish sect.
The ones we call “Jews” today are a continuation of the Pharisee-sect, more properly called Rabbinical Judaism. They hold the Talmud (the Oral Torah) on par with the Written Torah and that’s what a lot of Jesus’ disputes were about.
In the apocalypse, that is referred to as the battle with Gog and Magog, Christians will participate in that confrontation because there will be no secret rapture before it. Our comfort rests in Him who will emerge from that confrontation as the Victor.
THAT is the reassurance Paul offers, not the promise of an escape from the great Tribulation.
"the Great Departure" -- are you a Buddhist, MHG? That concept of Nirvana and aloks etc. ain't Christian mate.
1 Thess 4:15 to 5:2 says nothing about a rapture. St Paul wrote to the Thessalonian Christians because they were worried about who died before Christ's return. Rapturists make the error that Christ will not actually touch down on the ground and that Christians will get some pass from the tribulations -- this is non-existent in the text
The ord Paul uses for meeting the Lord "in the air" is aer, the Greek word for atmosphere (ref Eph 2:2). In the latter, Satan is called the prince of the power of the "aer" - so do rapturists think only airplane passengers are influenced by Satan??
No, that's another nonsensical rapturist posing
When Christ returns to the earth's atmosphere, he has returned to earth -- we will meet Christ at His second coming. No rapture away
The "like a thief in the night" is to be taken in the context of Matthew 24 -- the "cry of comman", "the archangel's call", "the trumpt of God"
There is no secret rapture
All the passages speak of one and only one more advent of Christ - no secret rapture
Panie Janie
Revelation 19 talks of the second coming, not to a “two part” second coming.
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