Posted on 05/05/2015 6:10:22 PM PDT by EveningStar
Question: A friend of mine has been reading the Left Behind books that have all of this stuff about the “Rapture” in them. Is there really going to be a “Rapture” like these books talk about?
Answer: No.The “Rapture” refers to a passage in First Thessalonians 4, where Christians are “caught up” in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” Many Christians believe, and the Left Behind books promote, that this being “caught up” to meet the Lord will occur before the Great Tribulation sometime in the near future. Christians will simply vanish, meet Jesus somewhere in the air, and then return with Him to Heaven to await the end of time.
(Excerpt) Read more at aleteia.org ...
Some writers have suggested a mass Alien “invasion” of sorts (we should know that aliens aren’t anything more than demons).
Imagine what that would cause.
See Matthew 24:24
He believes that a different “christ” than the one of the Bible has come, and as Paul says, we must reject that.
Interesting thoughts. We know that God gives up the world to mass delusion at the time with the rise of the son of perdition. Will make the people more pliable to whatever schemes are afoot. Great delusion with a vast war as described in Zechariah might do it, but the effects of that war are said to turn many to the Lord “in that day” as well as leaving Israel in a much more strengthened state though temporary. A hastened peace treaty may well come out of that war...who knows.
(as in the collective presence of The Holy Spirit in believers, raptured out from the populations)
This may well be the proper definition of the “restrainer”...but in the times before Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit and the church...what or who was the Restrainer then? What kept the antichrist from arising before the birth of Christ?
You see I think the “restrainer” might have been something or someone more singular, not just the collective presence of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers. It may well be the Holy spirit, who like the wind, comes and goes as he wills acting singularly separate from us. Perhaps it is a special ark angel....like the one that contended with the Demon that controlled Persia who had to get help from Michael the ark angel so he could give Daniel a message.
Thus if the restrainer is not “the Holy Spirit filled church”, it starts to explain why so many believers are said to be killed and imprisoned in the book of Revelation, and why the beast system is said to be allowed to “wear them down”, as well as stating...Revelation 14:12 Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. 13And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.”
If the Holy Spirit is the restrainer, it doesn’t necessarily follow that when he steps out the way that he will abandon Christians and the church should the rapture not immediately follow. The two witnesses are raised up as a living hindrance to the beast system and will blunt at least for 3.5 years all that the Antichrist system would do. Many miracles may occur, there may be places of Goshen as the plagues fall. The 144000 will be witnesses and a comfort to those living at the time for those trying to stay out of the Beast System’s grasp! And at some point, the dead in Christ will rise and then a lifting away of those who believe who are still alive...some think before the first of the full wrath of God starts to fall(the great tribulation), some think at the 1335th day...but a rapture will happen.
My point in all this is to suggest that we pray to the Lord that he come quickly, while at the same prepare our selves to be able persevere should our preconceived notions of the end times not go the way we thought they would. The antichrist will be in charge for a time but his control will be uneven at times especially when God calls forth his judgments! God will not abandon us if things go sideways. A pre-trib rapture would be great...and that is fine....but be prepared for the long haul if it doesn’t. Persevere in the Lord and be strong!
At least you finally read it before commenting. I do disagree with your points, however. And I’m not Catholic, so stow your hate. Even if I were, stow your hate.
We don’t know if it will be Moses and Elijah...since Enoch never died and Elijah never died and the two witnesses are said to be killed then raised up from the dead after 3 days and 3 nights. A great time for the rapture to occur...everybody goes up with the 2 witnesses!
Enoch is another possibility. But in the Left Behind books, I think it’s Moses and Elijah.
Here’sh believin’ in you, Lord!
Yeah in the left behind books...sure.
Christ did say that Elijah is come and is coming again when speaking of John the Baptist. Elijah indeed may pay the Earth a visit again!
If you mean to imply that I hate Catholic, then you are mistaken. And I certainly do not hate you ...
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>> “A pre-trib rapture would be great” <<
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Even though it would demolish Yehova’s stated plan?
Even though Paul told the Thessalonians that it was not possible because the Man of Sin must first come?
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Not one of those scriptures tell us of a pre-trib rapture.
Read the sequence of events in Matt 24 and Mark 13 which unequivocally tell us of a post tribulation return of Jesus.
Show the event sequence of this pre-trib rapture in scripture OR actually read Matt 24 and Mark 13 which unequivocally give the event sequences of a post-trib return of Jesus.
You decide what you will believe the Word of God or the fancy marketing of satan to deceive much of the church as he has.
Try applying the useful tool of FIRST realizing to whom a passage is aim, for what time, and to convey what message. It may be that what you think is aimed at ‘everyone’ is in fact aimed at Jews specifically. Of course if you reject the concept of dispensations this will not be received.
I’ve heard that and it sounds very feasible.
Here, take this mark on your forehead or hand to prove your fidelity to the human race, and to prove that you are not a traitor, in league with the aliens.
Or a zombie, taken over by some alien force.
The Rapture (1Thess4:13-18) and the Second setting foot on Earth (Rev19:11-19) are two different events. The first will snatch away millions and millions who are vital to the smooth running of the infrastructure, and the chaos THAT will cause will be bad enough. But then the forces still on Earth when it is void of 'the restrainer' (as in the collective presence of The Holy Spirit in believers, raptured out from the populations) will rail at each other and then seek to erase Israel from the planet ('get rid of those pesky 144,000 evangelizing troublemakers!').The First coming of Son of Man was to the Jewish people, and he was 'cut off', rejected by the Jews, as foretold in Isaiah and Daniel and elsewhere (Ez, Zachar, etc). The Second coming of the Son of Man will also be to the Jews, the Jewish evangelizers, the 144,000, or at least those remaining alive at His touchdown on Earth the Second time.
Jesus need not set foot on earth to call out His bride, and in fact that is perhaps why He himself alluded to the Bride and the bridesmaids and the trimmed and untrimmed lamps. He visited Saul on the road to Damascus without 'touching down' on the Earth.
Many site the days of Noah incorrectly, on purpose, trying to claim the unrighteous were taken, not Noah. But the essence of the Rapture will be the same as in the days of Noah, when God shut the Noah family up in the Ark BEFORE the rains came and the waters rose eventually drown all but those taken into the Ark.
And then they try to use the days of Lot, but there too the Angels came and directed Lot and his family out of Sodom BEFORE the targeting happened. The Lord delivered His chosen BEFORE the bad things arrived. At the end of the Trib period, the tares will first be removed and then a harvest of new saints will happen, new saints formed during the tribulation and the pouring out of the wrath on that terrible Day of The Lord.
So the Lord will come and take His Bride out BEFORE the Tribulation arrives. And this taking out will change the balance of power on Earth in a mighty way, allowing the forces of evil such as Islam to rampage unopposed, until Israel fights back (Psalm 83 war). The 'Pale Horse' BTW can be translated as the green horse ... green in any flag of note today?
The Rapture is depicted by Paul and Jesus as delivering from the tribulation. The Second Coming (a Jewish reference since He will be making His second arrival ON EARTH) will be bringing his saints as an army in clean linens and His vesture will be dipped in blood. The bridegroom would not come for His bride with his vesture dripping blood. But He would have the dripping of blood when coming as conquering King and Lord of Lords, to serve Judgment upon the earth.
When folks demand that we stop explaining these things, it is a sure sign to me that the 'plane is over the target'. The Rapture could happen any moment, between NOW and 2017. I suspect it is sooner rather than toward 2017, because it is the chaos following the Rapture which I believe makes it so easy for an evil leader to get the world to agree to his enactments.
And we should also note that because the world will believe a great lie (regarding the snatching away no doubt, since those left behind will say 'good riddance to those pesky myth-mongers called 'Christians'), God will send them strong delusion. But those 144,000 evangelists will not be afraid of martyrdom for His namesake, because they will have been selected by the Holy Spirit and will know precisely when the Second Coming is to arrive, in 7 years split into two 3 1/2 year periods.
The Rapture and the Second Coming are two distinctly different events, I believe, separated by exactly seven years. But the Rapture could come a few weeks or months before the man of sin emerges making Peace and Safety utterances.
“Dispensations” are demented nonsense. There is no support anywhere in the scriptures for them.
All of scripture is sent to the “People for his Name.”
The people for his name are spread throughout the world, and are called “The Lost Sheep of the House of Israel.”
Yeshua assured us that they are who he came to gather, in Matthew 15:24.
They are the same people evangelized by Paul in his voyages throughout southern Europe. Yeshua’s assembly!
They are not “Jews.” Jews are the “House of Judah,” and are covered by separate prophecies.
Dispensational theology will be a ticket to accepting the mark of the beast.
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It will be interesting to see Marzulli's and Gallup's faces in the Rapture, as they and we are zipping up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. There are lots of things we Christians disagree over, but sharing our Lord as our deliverer is thankfully not left up to us to determine. We just focus upon what Peter said in Matthew 16:18 and God handles the complicated stuff after that. Thanks be to God
You need a new, dry, spittle rag.
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>> “The Rapture and the Second Coming are two distinctly different events, I believe, separated by exactly seven years.” <<
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Total nonsense!
The “rapture” is the “First Resurrection,” which will be followed 15 days later by Yeshua’s return to the Earth to crush the “Governments of Men.” It all begins at the end of the tribulation, which begins the wrath of God in the bowl judgements.
The Thessalonians had been told that a rapture had happened, and that they had been left behind. The total purpose of Paul’s letter was to tell them that it was impossible, because the “Man of Sin” must come first, then the tribulation of the saints.
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