[SkyDancer]

PS: With this Rapture thing you have two Second Comings.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

With this Rapture thing you have two Second Comings.

The Rapture is Christ meeting believers in the air - not on earth, as at the second coming.

[Cronos]

SkyDancer PS: With this Rapture thing you have two Second Comings. -- correct, and folks then take it that

1. there are two covenants - for the "Jews" and for "Christians" - completely forgeting that Christianity is a sect of 2nd temple Judaism and "Jews" of today are the descendents of the Pharisee sect of 2nd temple Judaism - sister religions
   
   
2. They then claim a "gentile" church and a "Jewish" church - forgeting that Paul emphasised that "there is no Jew and no Greek in Christ"

As to the ludicrous idea of "meeting believers in the air"

Rapturists make the mistake of thinking "meet the Lord in the air" is about Christ not actually touching the earth.

The word St. Paul uses for meeting the Lord "in the air" is aer the Greek word for atmosphere

This SAME word is used in Ephesians 2:2

And you [a]were dead [b]in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the [c]course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

yet no one would claim that, because of this word, Satan wouldn't influence people on the earth

A consistent rapturist reading of this wod here would mean that only airplane passengers are influenced by Satan's power

NO, when Christ returns to the earth's atmosphere, He has returned to earth

Rapturists trying to point to the "coming in the clouds" -- but this ignores the symbol of divinity in the clouds

The Bible uses three Greek words interchangeably

1. parousia - coming
2. epiphaneia appearing
3. apokalupsis revelation

Rapturists think that there is a different usage for each, but that is false - parousia is not used just for some fake "rapture" and the others for the 2nd coming

Paul doesn't mention this 19th century rapture idea as occuring before the appearance of the antichrist and before the second coming is simple: it never entered into his mind that anyone would believe Christ would rapture His Church before the final Eschaton

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.