In this brief article, Fr. Anthony expresses with clarity the truth of the false teaching known as the “Rapture” and how much it distorts the teachings of the Lord in the Holy Scriptures.Posted on 07/27/2016 8:46:41 PM PDT by NRx
By Fr. Anthony M. Coniaris
In this brief article, Fr. Anthony expresses with clarity the truth of the false teaching known as the “Rapture” and how much it distorts the teachings of the Lord in the Holy Scriptures.
As I was driving one day I encountered a bumper sticker admonishing me:
“WARNING! In the event of Rapture, this car will be driverless.”
The strange belief in the Rapture teaches that some day (sooner rather than later), without warning, born-again Christians will begin to float up from the freeway, abandoned vehicles careening wildly. There will be airliners in the sky suddenly with no one at the controls! Presumably, God is removing these favored ones from earth to spare them the tribulation of the Anti-Christ which the rest of us will have to endure.
Unfortunately the Rapture has been promoted widely by the Left Behind series of books that have sold over 70 million copies.
The Rapture represents a radical misinterpretation of Scripture. I remember watching “Sixty Minutes”a year ago and was appalled to hear the announcer say that “the Rapture is an unmistakenly Christian doctrine”. It is not!
It is a serious distortion of Scripture.
It is astonishing that a belief so contrary to Scripture and the tradition of the Church could be propagated by so-called “Christians”.
According to the Bible and according to the belief not only of Orthodox Christians but also of the Roman Catholic and most Protestant mainline churches, the true Rapture will not be secret; it will be the great and very visible Second Coming of Jesus at the end of the world. That is the one and only “Rapture”. It will not be a separate, secret event but one that every eye shall see (1 Thess. 4:16-17).
The word rapture is not found in Scripture but hearkens to 1 Thess. 4:17 where St. Paul says that when the Lord comes again
“we who are alive…shall be caught up…in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”
This “being caught up…in the clouds”—arpagisometha in Greek, is translated by some as “raptured”. The word itself is not found in Orthodox theology.
The notion of a rapture in which Christ comes unseen to take believers away secretly, and only later comes back again for everyone else publicly—this whole teaching is quite novel. It was almost unheard of until John Nelson Darby formulated it in the 1800s as part of a new approach to the Bible, sometimes called “dispensationalism”.
The purpose of the “Rapture” is to protect the elect from the tribulations of the end times. Yet Jesus said nothing about sparing anyone from tribulation. In fact, He said,
“In the world you have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.”
Nowhere did Jesus ever say that He would return secretly to rapture the elect. Rather, He promised to be with His elect in all tribulations.
“Lo, I am with you always. I will never leave you or forsake you.”
He even had something good to say about being persecuted:
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:10).
Those who espouse the Rapture claim that Matthew 24:40-41 refers clearly to the rapture of the just,
“Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.”
The entire passage, however, refers to Christ’s second coming where He will judge the living and the dead and separate the just from the unjust.
Darby taught as dogma that when the Scriptures reveal that the Lord will reign on earth for a thousand years (Rev. 20:4), this figure is to be taken literally, rather than as a symbol for eternity as we believe. The Council of Ephesus in A.D. 431 condemned as heresy this teaching which is called chialiasmos (millenianism or 1000 years).
In fact, the Seven Ecumenical Councils (325-787 A.D.) in which the essential truths of the Christian faith were defined never mention a rapture. Yet evangelical Christians and Pentecostals keep using obscure passages of the book of Revelation which purport to give a detailed timetable of what will happen at the end of the world, despite the fact that Jesus Himself warned that no man knows either the day or the hour when the Son of Man shall return.
A major problem with the Rapture is that it ends up teaching not two but three comings of Jesus—first His birth in Bethlehem; second, His secret coming to snatch away (rapture) the “born-again”; and third, His coming at the end of the world to judge the living and the dead and to reign in glory. Yet only two not three comings of Christ are mentioned in the Bible. We have the clearest definition of this in the Nicene Creed when we confess that
“the Lord Jesus Christ…will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. His Kingdom will have no end…. I expect the resurrection of the dead. And the life of the ages to come.”
There is no mention of a “Rapture”.
As already stated, most Christians, Orthodox, Roman Catholics and Protestants do not believe in the Rapture. In fact, one Protestant pastor, John L. Bray, summarized magnificently what we Orthodox and most other Christians believe about the Rapture when he wrote these remarkable words,
Though many believe and teach this “Pre-Tribulation Rapture” theory, they erroneously do so, because neither Jesus, Paul, Peter, John, nor any of the other writers of the Bible taught this. Nor did the early church fathers, nor any others for many hundreds of years…. Did you know that NONE of this was ever taught prior to 1812, and that all forms of Pre-Tribulation Rapture teaching were developed since that date? …. If I were to preach something, or believe something, supposedly from the Bible, but cannot find that ANYONE ELSE before 1812 ever believed it or taught it, I would seriously question that it is based on the Bible.
Thus the Rapture is foreign to the Bible and to the living tradition of the Church. It is what we call a heresy, a false teaching. False teachings, such as this, happen when people—like John Darby—believe that they have the right to interpret the Scriptures individually apart from the Living Body of Christ—the Church—where the Spirit of Truth abides and leads us to all truth.
I can think of no better words to conclude than those of Jesus when He speaks of the one and only “Rapture”, the Second Coming:
“Be on guard. Be alert! You do not know when that time will come…keep watch…if he comes suddenly, do not let Him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: Watch!” (Mark 13:32-37).
It has certainly been my opinion that that was the function of the 144000...as soon as they appear and witness, whole multitudes of folks appear to be saved out of the tribulation period.
It has certainly been my opinion that that was the function of the 144000...as soon as they appear and witness, whole multitudes of folks appear to be saved out of the tribulation period.
Except that he was initially mocking Jesus with the other thief.
It's not an over simplified assumption.
There are no *requirements* that have to be met before He's going to *grant* salvation.
It's as simple as *believe*.
If you add prerequisites to be saved, you negate grace. Salvation then becomes wages due for duty performed.
John 3:3-8 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
John 3:14-18 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
John 6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Luke 18:9-14 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’
But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
I believe that as soon as you accept (your actions and thoughts will show that you accept him) Jesus you are saved. If I accepted Jesus but kept a mistress for the next 30 years; I think I never believed in him in the first place.
The thief came to a realization that he did wrong, and Jesus never did and he was deserving of punishment while Jesus was not. This realization and his request for Jesus to remember him, demonstrated that he had faith in Jesus in the closing moments of his earthly life; therefore (nearly) instant salvation.
And you're in denial.
That is what I believe too. Another person commenting said that these 144,000 will help Jesus govern for 1000 years, and they may. However, in Rev 7, it clearly shows that they are on Earth with God’s seal and that they delivered many people.
I agree.
Conversion WILL bear fruit.
If there is no fruit, there was no conversion, just lip service.
You have to confess with your mouth AND believe with your heart. Simply confessing for whatever reason, doesn’t cut it.
I know some people who *prayed* to receive Christ and have NEVER shown the least iota of growth. One was someone I knew involved in Amway. They stood up and *prayed* to *accept Christ* because that was just something you did to get ahead in Amway.
The other is an acquaintance who is a manipulator and user and just tells me what she thinks I want to hear to get me to help her.
And I’m done with THAT.
I confess with my mouth and believe in my heart that Jesus is the only way. However, I still sometimes feel unworthy; especially when I reflect some of things I have done. I think that is a trick of Satan.
He pointed to Matthew 25. What has me worried is that I never clothed someone, other than throwing out used clothes in the salvation army bin, never fed a stranger, or visited a prison.
The only part of the story we know is what you just wrote. We can only speculate the rest of it. I do wonder how did that Thief know to call Jesus “Lord”?
Oh look, the thug showed up. For all of you who are in denial about what kind of cretins create angry liberals in the name of Christianity, I give you Exhibit A - "wardaddy."
No, not all "Christians" agonize over following the teachings in the spirit of love that Jesus taught them. Some live in the darkness in the back of bars and tied to junkyards with chains.
In my experience, there are way more wardaddys out there than the rest of you, and they're all snarling for a fight in the name of Jesus. That's what makes all these liberals - that's why they vote for Hillary and big government over the Constitution and the freedom of life in Christ - because in their experience, wardaddy is the REAL face of Christianity.
Y'all need to wake up and smell the wardaddy coffee - he represents cowardice, yes, but look at the damage punks like him have caused - 40 million locked in votes for Hillary before Trump even ties his shoes in the morning.
wardaddy is the problem I'm talking about, and you're all in denial about the size of it. Just like "moderate Muslims" that don't speak out against "radical Muslims," true Christians don't denounce thugs posing as Christians.
And until that changes, we'll have millions of liberals voting for creatures like Hillary.
You can always start...I think it speaks of an attitude of heart anyway...if an obviously thirsty or hungry person came around I think you would probably feed them...ever stop to help change a tire, help an elderly neighbor with their lawn or bring in groceries...? That’s what that verse is saying...to have a heart for the needy and helpless, to have a helping loving attitude towards the needs and people all around you. Lots of ways exist to love your fellow man..Christ simply provided a pattern of response and used a few examples...there are many many ways one can show the love of Christ and be known as ‘worthy”! Volunteer for a soup kitchen, indeed send in food and or money to help supply that soup kitchen for a day! The ways are numerous. Be a mentor for a struggling at risk child...Christ is in all that! You want something to do...God will find you something!
I wouldn’t mind mowing my neighbor’s lawn every now and then, even if they sat and watched me do it. I cleared their driveway a couple of times, even though they can. I just get the idea some people want a small break sometimes.
I have done some of the things you said. But sometimes I think I am too stingy.
Matt 7
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. (obey the commandments)
I suggest you keep reading. The thing these people are missing is faith. They rattle off a long list of what they did. Only faith is missing.
So the millennium or one thousand year reign on earth is just symbolic of eternity???
Apparently your Ephesus council were stupid or just lying...
Rev 20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
So after eternity is over with, Satan shall be loosed from prison to go about the earth to deceive the nations...Ya right!!!
You guys must never read the scriptures...That's the only way you could be susceptible to this deception...They pull the wool over your eyes and you don't even know it...
If you want to know the social impact of millions of Christians suddenly gone, ponder one verse describing end times...”the love of many will grow cold”. There will be no expectation of help when misfortune falls on one, only massive distrust of all the peoples in one another.
Murders, mayhem, and corruption will increase with no leavening force to blunt or curtail the excesses. Many a seeming kind smile will have fang and venom behind it and for most, a wearying constant stress of life that hangs on the heart like a 100 lb weight!
Picture the depressive greyness and the killing barbarity of North Korea spread everywhere and the vain harlotries of Babylon presented as a replacement for genuine Godly joy, which instead is only a temporary anesthetic of the pain in one’s dying soul,(”lipstick on the pig” known as life on Earth at that time) and you’ll get the picture of life on Earth without Christians!
We are indeed the salt of the Earth...we are that “angel that touches the pool of Bethesda”, only we touch the Earth in that way to show that there is indeed hope of salvation and healing for any who would wish to take that plunge into God’s grace! Peace to you!
Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)
And without faith, it is impossible to please God.
Wow...I didn’t know that believing in the literalness of the timing of the millennial reign of Christ was condemned as heresy...? While a lot of things in the Bible are symbolic...the wording of Rev 20 is so stark, so specific in it’s meaning that it helped prompt a certain boy at age 11 to receive Christ. Perhaps only a child or perhaps those with child like faith can see the clear meaning of Revelation 20.
I like your reasoned analysis...(”So after eternity is over with, Satan shall be loosed from prison to go about the earth to deceive the nations...Ya right!!!”) Heh heh! What you said and more! You win the eschatology discussion awards of the internet for the day!
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