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."
“2. then they that are of Christ, who have believed in his coming. (Those dead and alive). YES”
Bingo.... Exactly...
Your attack upon him is exactly what you are accusing him of doing. Send Love and Pray that all may gain better understanding through his sharing and discourse.
I may not agree with all that he says. But we are both brothers in Christ and I Love him as I do you.
🙏🙏🙏
Your attack upon him is exactly what you are accusing him of doing.
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If you see a child bully another child and you reprimand the bully for his bad behavior, does that make you a bully?
By your logic, you just did the same thing to me that you say I did to Cronos. You go appease the bully. I chose not to. I sowed nothing. I simply attempted to pick off bad fruit that already existed.
Catholic’s can’t accept a rapture, because then it would blow their purgatory myth out of the water.
“The rapture is the ultimate expression of America white privilege.”
Asinine statement, unless you are trying to be funny.
First of all, you accept the validity of white privilege.
Next, the rapture idea did not originate in America.
In regards to purgatory, when you say you’ve got to be cleansed of sin after this life then you are actually blaspheming the cross of Jesus Christ because Jesus is all we need in order to be cleansed and made pure.
correct on your 2nd sentence. There is no such thing as purgatory.
At Jesus Christ’s return, not 7 years early by magic pixie dust are resurrected and judged. The early rapture false theology is a tickling of the ears of people that are afraid of the tribulation. I totally get the fear of the unknown but we’re called to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and He will protect us THROUGH it.
Arm chair scripture interpretation is like a certain bodily orifice.....everyone has one...
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I assume you’re referring to the mouth?
Excellent. Also, as I understand it, we meet Jesus in the air and return with Him immediately, like the custom when an ‘official’ came. People ran out to them and escorted them back. Look at the prodigal son’s father; he ran out to his son and escorted him back. The prodigal was a cherished ‘official’ in that the father gave him a robe and ring and lavished him with love and attention.
I agree with everything you said except white privilege. False beliefs have nothing to do with skin color. We can ALL be duped if we allow it.
Because the pre trib rapture denies God is capable of sustaining you through difficult times. Look at Noah; God didn’t remove him, he poured out wisdom and provision. Look at the Passover; God didn’t remove the first born; he told them what to do and the faithful followed the instructions and were protected. In Ezekiel, God says to mark the foreheads of those that sigh and cry over the abominations and they will be set apart and protected.
People are being fed lies about the end times, in my very humble opinion, as they’re being told they don’t have to prepare for God will whisk them away before times get tough. But, we know from His Word that people can’t come to believe in Jesus Christ without the Holy Spirit so how can anyone come to believe if believers and the Holy Spirit are gone? The answer is, we’re not gone and neither is His Spirit.
It’s important to know that the tribulation is Satan’s wrath, not God’s wrath. The latter comes at the end and we ARE protected from the utter destruction that will befall the earth. (the elements will melt with a fervent heat upon Christ’s return...ie no one survives after His return)
I think commentary is getting muddied on this subject in that (near as I can tell), ALL of us believe in a rapture; a meeting of Christ. The difference is, it happens at Christ’s REAL return, at the end of time. It does not happen in a secret way where life continues on but believers disappear and piles of clothes are everywhere.
That would be those saved after the rapture and during the Tribulation period.
Or do you think that nobody is going to be saved at all during that time?
All of which above are historical constants as precursors awaiting a final fulfillment with many things on the earth that Revelation foretells occurring have not happened. Including,
And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. (Revelation 18:21-23)
And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. (Revelation 20:1-3)
Sign 7 - the gospel worldwide. What did Paul say in Rom 1:8? First, I give thanks[f] to my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is heralded throughout the world and in Col 1:5-6 First, I give thanks[f] to my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is heralded throughout the world in .. -- the word used for "world" is oikoumene - which specifically means the civilized world i.e. the Roman Empire - the Olivet discourse does not use the world "Kosmos" that designates the entire earth.
Wrong. The word in Rom 1:8 and Col 1:6 is actually Kosmos and which can refer to the whole world, starting from its first occurrence. (Matthew 4:8)
Sign 8: Daniel's desolating sacrilege. Matt 24:15-19. Note that the Sanhedrin believed that this had been fulfilled in 167 BC, but that did not meet Daniel's prophecy of 3.5 years
Neither did the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. Daniel's prophecy of 3.5 years in Daniel 9:26 is understood as after the completion of the 483 years, “the Messiah One will be cut off” and fulfilled when Jesus was crucified 3.5 years later in 31AD. However, while in 167 B.C. Antiochus erected a statue of the Greek god Zeus in the Jerusalem temple and offered swine, biblically unclean animals, be offered on the temple, apparently fulfilling Daniel 11:31, yet this was a precursor of the final fulfillment yet to come, for while 70 A.D. resulted in the destruction of the temple yet it did not fulfill "the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place."
Instead - and also contrary to the pre-Trib. rapture, what must first occur is,
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)
"the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" and "our gathering together unto him" and "the day of Christ" and "that day" all refer to the same thing, and which awaits the manifestation of the Anti-Christ siting in the temple of God as if himself is God. Some popes have come close to presuming that though.
The Church was close to being smothered in its cradle if Nero continued and the Jerusalem Christians had not escaped to Pella - this was a tiny community, primarily Jewish and was attacked by both the Roman authorities AND the Jewish authorities. That WAS the great tribulation
Absurd and certainly anticlimactic in the light of the worldwide events in Revelation. Maybe you believe in a local Flood as well. But at least you concur with most Calvinists on one thing.
THEN, in Matt 24:29 And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be moved - This is apocalyptic language exactly referring to Isaiah 13:10-13
And as with other prophecies there are precursors to the final fulfillment.
The clouds - As in Daniel, the Son of Man is coming towards the Ancient of Days (The Father) not to earth. The "clouds on Heaven" symbolize the majesty and glory of the Son when He judges his enemies
Actually this refers to the Son coming in literals clouds of heaven in a literal future return when all the tribes of the earth mourn and shall see the Son of man :
And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. (Acts 1:10-11)
I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. (Daniel 7:13) 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. (Matthew 24:30) Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. (Revelation 1:7-8)
The mourning - Matt 24:30 - "all the tribes of the earth - the Greek word used here is ge namely land. So all the tribes in the land
Wrong and careless again: Even a curosry search would show you that the Greek word gē refers to all the earth even in v. 35: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." (Matthew 24:35) As in such places as, "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." (Matthew 5:18) "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." (Matthew 28:18) And multitudes more. And tribes means races.
the four winds - He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, form one end of Heaven to the other" - Matt 24:31. This four winds is reflected in Dan 11:4 - meaning "scattered everywhere" - and Jesus refers in particular Exek 37:9-10 - and in this jesus predicts the revitalization and reunification of the Jesus-movement the young Christian Church
Wrong again: Rather than the beginning of the Jesus-movement in the young Christian Church this is part of a discourse on "then shall the end come" (Matthew 24:14) in judgment. Thus "if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 24:48-51) Such await a final fulfillment which precursors point to.
Actually I believe there’s the Rapture....
....and later there is the 2nd Coming of Christ
Oh no, I believe some will at least up to this point:
And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. (Revelation 11:13)
Best rapture movie (despite poor video quality) https://tubitv.com/movies/557789/years-of-the-beast
how are people saved after the rapture if the Holy Spirit is gone? That’s a serious question...
if believers are to be light and salt to an unbelieving world, why would a loving God remove us and leave people to fend for themselves? AND...take the Holy Spirit out of the world, which is what leads people to believe in Christ. None of us can believe in Him without the Holy Spirit.
If you actually took the words of consecration and John 6 literally then you would be manifestly consuming the same manifestly physical body of the Lord that was broken/crucified and blood that was shed and which Scripture emphasizes, (1 John 1:1-3; 5:6-8) versus a christ whose appearance does not correspond to what he materially is and stands in contrast to what John defends. For instead of the manifestly incarnated Christ you have a metaphysical contrivance of a "true body and blood" that appears, behaves, smells and by all other tests of physicality to be simply bread and wine, but are said to be non-existent, having been replaced with the body and blood of Christ, whole and entire in each particle down to the smallest visible one being present. Until that is, the non-existent host begins to visibly (which is where sight actually is important) decay, at which point this christ is said to be no longer present either in that form.
In contrast to Jn. 6, no one ever obtained spiritual life by literally consuming anything physical, nor is the Lord's supper ever described as spiritual food in any of the Scripture interpretive of the gospels or as a sacrifice for sins "a sacrifice of propitiation.' Nor is conducting the Lord's supper shown to be a primary unique function of pastors. Instead, preaching the word being their primary active function, (2Tim. 4:2) feeding the flock thereby (Acts 20:28) for it is the word of God that is called spiritual food, even milk (1Pt. 2:2) and “strong meat” (Heb. 5:12-14) of the word of God, with believing the gospel being the means of obtaining life in oneself, by which one is regenerated, (Acts 10:43-47; 15:7-9; Eph. 1:13) Which alone is said to spiritually nourish souls, (1Tim. 4:6) and which builds them up. (Acts 20:32) by hearing the word of God and letting it dwell in them, (Col. 3:16) by which word (Scriptures) man is to live by, (Mt. 4:4) as Christ lived by the Father, (Jn. 6:57) doing His will being His “meat.” (Jn. 4:34)
And with only the metaphorical understanding being what easily conflates with Scripture overall.
Read if you would: The Lord's Supper: metaphorical commemoration or the consumption of the metaphysical "real" body and blood of the Lord Jesus?
Meanwhile it is Catholicism and liberal Prots who allegorize Scripture so much, even to denying historical literal accounts and the Lord's 1,000 year reign.
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