[imardmd1]

>> I’m no scholar buti do not believe it is scriptural, and it is not a doctrine promoted by the Catholic Church. And I believe Christ gave the Church the Keys to the Kingdom” which includes it’s teaching authority. <<

Under the teaching authority, what does the Catholic Church tell about the meaning of the passage in the letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 4, verses 13 to 18?

All the Bible texts I read, including the Douay-Rheims and the Jerusalem Bible, tell that when Jesus comes back, at that moment all the Christians, dead or alive, will rise up into the clouds to meet him. Isn't that the "Rapture" that a lot of Protestants talk about? The passage seems to imply that only ignorant people are not aware of that going to happen(?).

[imardmd1]

P. S. I made boo-boo in Post #37. I only meant to underline the word “all”, not the rest of the paragraph. Sorry!

[Wallace T.]

Like Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox, Protestants believe in Christ's Second Coming and Judgment Day. There are disputes as to whether good and evil will coexist until Judgment Day after which Christ will establish a new heavens and a new earth (amillenialism), whether the church will establish the kingdom of God on earth and subdue evil after which Christ will return (postmillenialism), or whether the world will deteriorate to the point where John's narrative in Revelation actually happens, until Christ returns, crushes His enemies and establish the millennial kingdom (premillennialism). Augustine of Hippo expressed the opinion that Revelation was largely symbolic, and his opinion was accepted by Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and the early Protestants like Luther, Calvin, and Cranmer.

The Rapture doctrine is that the church will be removed from.earth before the seven year tribulation period preceding Christ's Second Coming. This doctrine had scant support until an Irish clergyman, John Nelson Darby, developed the doctrine. The Rapture doctrine fits in with dispensational theology, which holds to the position that the church did not become the New Israel, but that the church and national Israel have separate roles in God's plan. Not only liberals, but also Bible believing Lutherans, Reformed, Anglicans, and Church of Christ members, reject.the Rapture doctrine and dispensationalism generally.

However, due to persuasive advocates of dispensationalism such as C.I. Scofield, H. A. Ironside, John Walvoord, and Hal Lindsay, dispensational theology became dominant among Baptists, Pentecostal, and charismatic churches.