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Rapture: What is it? When will it occur?
I am always somewhat taken aback
by the weight with which most Christians view the "rapture" theory today.
Folks, I don't care how you slice it, a belief in a pre-tribulation
rapture, mid-tribulation rapture or post-tribulation rapture
IS NOT A SALVATION ISSUE.
There are just too many people today in the church that want to
make it such, though. No wonder the church of the living God is so
split with a church on every corner that believes any and every wind of
doctrine that comes along!
On the surface, there is enough scripture
to "prove" (at least to most people's satisfaction) any one of the 3
theories concerning the end of time as we know it. There is simply
too much of a big deal made concerning this "rapture" from movies to books
to churches who base their entire salvation on one understanding or the
other. Study with me as we take a look at the Word of God and the
controversy surrounding this mystery.
When the word rapture is
mentioned, most people think of the entire bible believing body of Christ
being secretly removed from the earth by Christ prior to the earth being
destroyed (or nearly destroyed). There are a couple of (mostly)
misunderstood texts from which this theory is taken. The first is
found in the book of Revelation.
Revelation 4:1-2
"After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened
in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet
talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things
which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit: and,
behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne."
What is happening in these two verses of scripture?
Many of you will say “The Rapture”, or the “Rapture
of the church”. Why do you say that? Have you examined
your belief in this? Is it because you have studied this for
yourself or is it because this is what you’ve been taught all your life?
Did someone simply tell you these things or did you actually dig, study line upon
line, precept upon precept and get your understanding through prayer,
fasting and rightly dividing the Word of God? Are you being honest when you
answer?
If you say it’s because you studied it for yourself,
let me make a statement before you say make that claim again:
It is Inadequate and unacceptable to base
your entire conclusion on the 2 verses of Revelation 4 coupled with 1
Thessalonians 4:16-17 (or a small handful of other passages). There
is a wealth of information in other passages of the bible that must be studied before concluding that
these 2 passages are sufficient to to formulate a sound doctrine.
If you have a preconceived notion of what is meant in these 2 verses, I
challenge you now to put your ideas away and let’s study the facts
for ourselves. Let’s see what conclusion we come to. We may
conclude that you are correct. It is also possible to reach a
different conclusion. Let's do one thing regardless: Let's
base our conclusion on the Word of God alone. As with every study I
conduct, let the Bible explain itself!
I am going to assume that you really want to know the truth of what the scripture
says and that you will study the Word of God for yourself in order
to find out what is true. The Word of God speaks for itself, it has always spoken
for itself and it will always speak for itself. Some folks don’t want the
truth and they’ve made it very plain that they wish to hold to their
tradition and their dogma, even to the point of attempting to destroy anyone that upsets
their apple cart.
I further trust that you are not one of those people that will hold to 2 or 3
pet scriptures throughout the Bible and never grow deeper or stronger in
the Word than those scriptures (I've know preachers who have done this).
I’m convinced of better things concerning you!
As we begin our study on the next page we will examine some basic
definitions that must be understood when dealing with this subject.
If you have a Strong's concordance or a good interlinear translation
(Greek-Hebrew), now would be a good time to pull it out and have it ready.
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