Posted on 02/01/2021 2:35:55 AM PST by Cronos
We've all heard stories about the Rapture — when all the righteous people will be bodily lifted into Heaven, leaving everybody else to endure years of tribulation. It's a popular idea, that appears in loads of books as well as movies. But where did this bizarre idea come from?
It turns out the notion of the Rapture is pretty new — dating back less than 200 years. So who developed this doctrine, and how did it become so popular, almost overnight?
Where did all the people go? The best known treatment of the Rapture is probably Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye's Left Behind book and movie series. The Left Behind tie-in movies feature a wide-eyed Kirk Cameron leading people through a world that looks like a PG-rated issue of Garth Ennis' Crossed. Planes crash into the ground, and cars that are suddenly missing their drivers careen into each other, as a chosen group of people are "raptured" and disappear from the Earth, leaving the rest of the world to fend for themselves.
Depending on which theologian you speak to, only one or two passages from Judeo-Christian religious texts make reference to an event akin to what is portrayed as the Rapture, leaving the idea with very little Biblical support. Instead, most of the lore surrounding the Rapture originates with two people in the early 19th Century: a teenage girl living in Scotland, and a London-born preacher.
Margaret McDonald, a fifteen-year-old girl living in Scotland, experienced a "vision" of the end of the world in 1820. In McDonald's vision, the chosen few are saved from a "purifying" fire. This is not exactly the disappearance in the middle of the day that popular culture views as the Rapture, but an early prototype. Not everyone leapt to follow her view — and in fact, several contemporary religious leaders deemed her visions demonic.
Meanwhile, London-born evangelist John Darby and members of his flock, the Irish-born Plymouth Brethren, popularized and molded the idea of Judeo-Christians being removed from the Earth, prior to an unknown period of strife. But McDonald had no influence on Darby's views, since Darby apparently espoused this idea as early as 1827. But McDonald's visions, and their later publication, no doubt further popularized the idea of the Rapture in Europe.
Popping up in publication Darby traveled to North America on several occasions during the mid-19th Century, teaching his theory of the Rapture. On one of these trips, Darby met with James Brookes, a prominent preacher and writer in Missouri — and, most importantly, the mentor of Cyrus Ingerson Scofield.
Scofield, influenced by Darby's teachings via his mentor, published the Scofield Reference Bible in 1909. The Scofield Reference Bible went on to become one of the best selling religious texts of the early 20th Century, one that continues to sell extremely well in the United Kingdom. Scofield's text displays his personal notes and explanations right next to the King James translation of the Judeo-Christian Bible. The proximity of Scofield's notes to the religious text no doubt lent credence to his words, especially in a world lacking widespread communication systems. As individuals emigrated to the United States in the early 20th Century, this helped spread the belief that Darby had already put in place, during his visits to North America.
Rapture roulette At the moment, Eastern Orthodox churches, many branches of Protestantism, the Anglican Church, and the Catholic Church do not believe in the Rapture.
Amongst those who do believe in the Rapture, meanwhile, the exact details of the event remain quite a mystery. But some leaders do go into specifics — even setting exact dates when the Rapture will happen.
Three different highly publicized dates came and went in the 1990s, but the most recent failed predictions happened just last year. Harold Camping made his second and third attempts to fix a date on the rapture after his humbling announcement of the "confirmed" date of September 6, 1994.
Camping announced May 21, 2011 as the date for the disappearance of the worthy — but after the date passed, he quickly came back and announced the date of October 21, 2011 as the "true" date. Camping predicted a series of earthquakes beginning in New Zealand, to accompany these dates. The 89-year-old Camping and his followers spent $100 million publicizing these two dates in a media campaign.
After nether date turned out to be accurate, many of Camping's followers felt cheated, especially people who'd put their lives on hold for years. This article, checking in on Camping's followers a year later, is compelling but depressing reading. One engineer spent most of his retirement savings on publicizing Camping's predictions, only to see them fail to materialize. Another former believer in Camping told the reporter, "I think I was part of a cult."
Twist words much? I said EARLY rapture. That is wicked doctrine and denies the power of God because that false doctrine believes God is incapable of carrying us through to Christ’s return.
One more excerpt from the above website.
The work contains many references.
Well worth examination.
According to this, a somewhat reprehensible fellow.
” . . . .There were dinners, dances and parties in the French society and Cyrus met Leontine Cerre, a Catholic society lady. She seemed taken with the dashing young man from Tennessee. Cyrus married her on September 21, 1866 when he was twenty-four. Daughter Abigail was born July 13, 1867. Marie Helene was born in October 1869. The family then moved from St. Louis to Atchison, Kansas.
Kansas politics was viciously crooked at that time and anyone in Kansas politics was suspected of corruption. Cyrus was deeply involved in it. Some of the problems involved his brother-in-law’s interests and squatters being ejected from illegally-occupied land. Cyrus had engaged a lawyer, John J. lngalls, as legal counsel to serve the family interests. lngalls later became State Senator and had to be aware of the corruption and bloodshed. Scofield had some sort of law partnership with lngalls who seemed to sponsor him.
In 1871, Cyrus was elected Representative to the Lower House of the Kansas Legislature from the Fourth District for one term. Re-nomination from that District was blocked, so he filed from Nehama County and was elected from the Eighth District. There is no record to show he ever lived there during that period. The Atchison Directory for 1872-73 lists the same addresses as before. In June 1872, Scofield’s first son, Guy Sylvester was born.
Though Ingalls served three terms in the Senate, he was very immoral and had no concern for the truth. He recommended his friend Scofield to President Grant for U.S. District Attorney for the Federal Judicial District of Kansas. Cyrus gave up his seat in the Legislature and took the oath of office on June 8, 1873. This ex-Confederate soldier solemnly swore that he had “never born arms against the United States.”
That was rank perjury. We know he did military service in the South. Evidently in 1873, he was not concerned about perjury. However, a legal conflict of interest brought his term as District Attorney for Kansas to a sudden end in less than six months.
An article on December 14, 1873 in the Daily Times of Leavenworth suggested something was amiss in the D.A.’s office. A case was pending against ex-Senator Pomeroy, and there were hints that Pomeroy paid Cyrus to keep the case from coming to trial.
A later Daily Times item reported that Pomeroy, Scofield and Ingalls were involved in “the most infamous of all infamous political bargains ever transacted in Kansas.” The reporter suggested that Ingalls and Scofield had received pay-offs from railroad officials and settlers in South Kansas. Cyrus resigned on December 20, 1873 and was not involved in politics again.
Now there is another mysterious time in Scofield’s life. Though he was responsible for the support of a family of four, he disappeared for a period of three to five years. One acquaintance said, “Scofield had a bad reputation, and he just skedaddled out of town.” In his story of Scofield’s life, Trumbull gets around this by stating Cyrus did not like the type of life, associates, and activities related to the D.A.’s office.
Leontine Scofield had problems of her own in this period. The son, Guy Sylvester, died in December 1874, a year after Cyrus resigned from the D.A.’s office. In the Atchison City Directory for 1872-73 Cyrus’s residence is still listed there. The St. Louis Directory for 1877 lists “Scofield, Cyrus I., lawyer. Res. 3029 Dickson, St. Louis, Missouri.” This means Cyrus had written Kansas off—along with Leontine.
Mr. Trumbull’s story states that Cyrus returned to St. Louis to practice law. But the publication, The Bench and the Bar of St. Louis County shows no evidence that C. I. Scofield was ever a member of the St. Louis Bar in the nineteenth century. Mr. Trumbull’s story of a successful law practice is in question since the Court Records of St. Louis show that at one point Cyrus badly needed a lawyer of his own.
According to the court records, Cyrus had signed a note for a $200 loan, which was to be repaid within sixty days. The note also bore the alleged signatures of Emeline Papin and C. E Betts. When the borrower tried to collect on the note after sixty days, however, he was unable to locate either Cyrus’s home or office. Between closing date for the 1877 City Directory and August, the “law” office had apparently been closed.. . “ . .
Your jump from atmosphere to earth makes your case for you. What is the explanation of the use of the word Harpazo (seized, carried off by force; snatch out or away), in the context of 1 Thes 4:13-17?
What I find odd is what Prottys take “literally” and what they choose to take “symbolically” Genesis vs John 6 for instance...very peculiar.
Human consciousness functions much the way the Tower of Babel with many different levels. My Father’s Mansion has many rooms.
In the beginning was the word, and that word was made flesh.
What is a word? It is a pattern of consciousness that has meaning. We are consciousness, and there are many levels of consciousness.
Everything Jesus teaches is on how to cleanse our souls of the obstacles to Love, and raise it up by focusing on God. Just as you change stations on a TV, you can change the frequency of your own consciousness with meditation and prayer. But only if you follow Jesus’s teachings. Otherwise you are stuck in the “Flat Consciousness Society “ asleep, and think this is all there is. There is so much more than this. Everything that Jesus said is the truth.
Jesus teaches us how to invite His Soul into ours through communion that we too could be raised up and be one with Him and our Father that is in Him.
He even promised that if we do, the things that He does and even more, we can do too.
Fear cannot exist in the level with His Love. They are two different frequencies of consciousness.
This is real. To anyone who does not understand these words, you are shackled to your body and limited to your five senses. You have not been born again. As if you were, you would realize that Jesus is already here, and we are in Him. It is experiential and not just theoretical.
My soul aches for people who do not understand and experience His Full Love that surpasses all understanding and words of description. It is there for you. Invite Him in to lift you up to Him.
I will not argue, as nothing you could possibly state in words could possibly convince me otherwise. I only pray that you too can experience this.
Blessings with Much Love....
Ps. I would explain the neuroscience of this and how the brain changes in this process if it would help. I’ve spent the last thirty years researching this to understand what I was experiencing.
It is all really simple.
My mistake on the early part.
How does my believing in a pre-trib rapture deny God’s ability to see me through until Christ’s return? Why isn’t it seen as a affirmation that God is merciful. I in no way shape or form, deny any ability for God to do, well, anything he pleases. He’ll have mercy on those he chooses to have mercy.
Again, in my eyes and more importantly, in my heart, I only see this as a positive. And, if it doesn’t occur, then I am ready for what God has planned.
When the Rapture comes......and it will....
....the dead in Christ shall rise first, and those of us remaining ( Christians) will be caught up into the skies.....to Heaven
It’s really that simple to those who believe....
..
...and that complex to those who don’t
You’ve allowed hideous slander by this person to be printed on this forum......absolute apostate junk from whomever this man is.
WHY?
What is your goal?
You don’t think we know about apostasy in some churches?many churches
I assure you many on this forum are very aware.
Your own words are confusing.
You’ve been on this forum a good many years.....
IF I have misread, or misinterpreted you, I will apologize.
Salvation is not confusing!
There WILL be a Rapture.....
I don’t know when .....no one does.....
....save Christ
We are to live as if it is today!
Arm chair scripture interpretation is like a certain bodily orifice.....everyone has one...
Thank you for directing me to reread 1 Corinthians 15. It is very accurate.
“12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. 17 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have died[e] in Christ have perished. 19 If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.[f] 21 For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; 22 for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”
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Are you one of the “First Fruits?”
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“24 Then comes the end,[g] when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
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This is the “Raised Up” that people describe as the rapture. They are the “First Fruits.”
So you post the ramblings of someone who apprently likes to write about children’s cartoons. Said person gets every aspect of the historical record wrong. The representation that pretrib is new teaching is false. Anyone that says otherwise is either ignorant or lieing.
[20] But now Christ is risen from the dead, the firstfruits of them that sleep: [21] For by a man came death, and by a man the resurrection of the dead. [22] And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. [23] But every one in his own order: the firstfruits Christ, then they that are of Christ, who have believed in his coming. [24] Afterwards the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father, when he shall have brought to nought all principality, and power, and virtue. [25] For he must reign, until he hath put all his enemies under his feet.The order is clear
[26] And the enemy death shall be destroyed last: For he hath put all things under his feet. And whereas he saith,
This is the order -- if St. Paul had believed in the rapturist system, he would have included it here, But Paul does NOT allude to the rapturist timeline of the end -- moreover, Paul's timeline excludes that possibility
There is no mention of a two-stage second coming split into a secret rapture and later, a public second advent. In fact, there is not even a hint of a secret rapture.
There is ONE resurrection mentioned (not two like the pre-trib rapturiests put it) and only ONE coming "event" (not two or in two stages as rapturists put it), "the end" arrives, at which time Christ "delivers the Kingdom to God"
1 Cor 15:51-54 does not describe the secret rapture either. St. Paul says that "in the twinkling of an eye, we shall ALL be changed" - this is the event that occurs at the second comingof our Lord and savior, that will occur "at the last trumpet".. the LAST trumpet. Remember that "the last enemy to be destroyed is death (1 Cor 15:26). Nothing after that, the battle of Armageddon is before this.
You can’t be serious. Lol
You read what you believe, not what is written. Please reread what you pasted.
[23] But every one in his own order:
1. the firstfruits Christ,
2. then they that are of Christ, who have believed in his coming.
3. [24] Afterwards the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God
That sequence is pretty clear.
2. then they that are of Christ, who have believed in his coming. (Those dead and alive). YES
In the Tribulation there will be no food nor housing nor transportation for those who do not take the Mark of the Beast...Bible tells us people will be so hungry they will eat their offspring...The Wrath of God upon the earth will be so devastating that few will survive...Is that the comfort you are referring to??? That's the reassurance as we watch them rip the arms off our living children trying to get us to eat the wafer??? Oh yah, history does repeat itself...
Rapturists make the mistake of thinking "meet the Lord in the air" is about Christ not actually touching the earth.
HaHa...We don't make any mistake...We know what land and air means...
The word St. Paul uses for meeting the Lord "in the air" is aer the Greek word for atmosphere..NO, when Christ returns to the earth's atmosphere, He has returned to earth
And clouds mean earth as well??? So what are the boundaries??? What are the first, 2nd and third heavens??? You don't have a clue...
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
So tell us Teacher, who is it that is at the Wedding in heaven during the Great Tribulation???
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4)
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation [I think that sees "all these things"] shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. (Matthew 24:29-35)
And the Bible most apparently teaches that the resurrected/raptured saints (who have part in the first resurrection - the resurrection of life:” Jn. 5:29a; Rev. 20:6,7,14) will return with the LORD from Heaven to execute judgment, and to reign with with Him for the 1,000 year millennium. (Rv. 2:27; 19:15; 20:6 - and during which the Jews shall be tested):
“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." (Jude 1:14-15; cf. Mal. 3:18; Mt 16:27; 19:28; Mt 24:30,31; 25:31; Lk. 22:20; 2Th 1:7,8; Re 1:7; 5:10; 19:6-20; 20:4)
“Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” (Mt. 13:43) And as stars differs from one another in glory, (1Cor. 15:41) it is not unreasonable to suppose that in eternity some saints might shine brighter than another, depending upon how single their eye was on earth, (Mt. 6:22) and how they responded to the light and grace they received. (Lk. 12:48)
However, Rome rejects the literal 1,000 year reign of Christ, and many Catholics reject the latter-day conversion of Jews (the remnant that are left) before that event
Yet
Yet we have,
“the influence to a Jesuit priest, Manuel Lacunza (1731-1801), who was born in Chile but came to Italy in 1767 where he would spend the rest of his life. Posing as a converted Jew (under the pseudonym Juan Josafat Ben Ezra), he wrote, in Spanish, a large apocalyptic work entitled The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty. The book appeared first in 1811, 10 years after his death. http://www.americancatholic.org/Newsletters/CU/ac1005.asp
Another influence is said to be a Jesuit priest named Francisco Ribera (1537–1591) was a Spanish Jesuit theologian, identified with the Futurist Christian eschatological view.
“In the Dictionary of Premillennial Theology (1997) it is said that Ribera was an Augustinian amillennialist, who may have revived a “mild” form of futurism.[1] His interpretation was then followed by Robert Bellarmine and Thomas Malvenda.[2]
Thomas Brightman, in particular, writing in the early 17th century as an English Protestant, contested Ribera’s views. He argued that the Catholic use of the Vulgate had withheld commentary from the Book of Revelation, and then provided an interpretation avoiding the connection with the Papacy put forward in the historicist point of view.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Lacunza
Ribera “in the days of the Reformation, first taught that all the events in the book of Revelation were to take place literally during the three and a half years reign of the antichrist way down at the end of the age.” http://www.theologue.org/Theory-JPEby.html (Protestant source, which gives the most lengthy explanation).
The reason I know we are in these times and this is the sequence is that in spite of me being a sinner, Christ has already raised me up. I’ve been straddling these two realities ever since I died of meningitis over thirty years ago, went to Heaven, and then returned to this reality, but not fully.
I’ve been in both at the same time.
My sins were cleansed when I went to Heaven, but I continue to sin and He continues to give me grace in spite of me.
I humbly share that abilities that are not of this realm have been placed upon me through Christ who is in me. I pray that their is a New Pentecost where everyone is raised up to experience this.
Human philosophy has no place in the Bible...Man's wisdom is not God's wisdom...
Proverbs 6:16
There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.
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Cronos picture should be next to the last line about sowing discord among brothers. He seems to get his jollies posting these threads that he knows will start arguments among believers. Don’t feed this ugly troll. God will deal with him in time.
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