One of my chess buddies has been chiding me about the Rapture. If you don’t believe in the Rapture, he says, you won’t get raptured when the Rapture comes. I don’t understand this. You’d think, if it was in the Bible, all churches would have taught this doctrine: and it wouldn’t have taken theologians 1,800 years to discover it.
My wife explained for me.
“It’s like Monopoly,” she said. “Look at all the people who put money under Free Parking, and it’s yours if you land on it–but that’s not in the printed rules. If they do that with something simple like Monopoly, imagine what they can get up to with Christianity.”
I’m not here to say anyone is wrong for believing in the Rapture. Maybe I’m wrong for not believing in it. I just can’t find it in the Bible, that’s all.
Anyhow, we’re stuck here till the Rapture comes; and while we’re here, I think we ought to stand and fight, while breath is in us, against what the Heathen are doing to our country and our world. Why should we hide under the church-pews while the ungodly “radically transform” America? They’ll only come for us there in the end, after they’ve done everything else they want to do.
When Moses sent men to spy out the Promised Land, the spies all returned with scary stories about great giants living in walled cities, compared to whom “we were in our own sight as grasshoppers.” But one of the spies, Caleb, said, “Let us go up at once and possess [the land], for we are well able to overcome it.” (Numbers 13: 33 and 30)
I’m not here to wait for the Rapture. I’m here to fight.
Great articel. I did not know the Rapture was not in the Bible. Anyway-here is my ditty concerning the messes in my country and yours. First they conquered fear. Then, they conquered the oceans. Then, they conquered the land. Then, they conquered poverty. Then, they conquered logic. Then, they conquered themselves. Dave
Of course a lot of people say it is in the Bible, you just have to know how to look at the text in a certain way. But if it really were there, how come theologians and saints like Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, Luther, and Calvin never noticed it?
I was raised in a non-denominational Christian home, but the church that I attended did not speak about the Rapture nor did my parents believe in the Rapture. I still attend a non-denominational Christian church but after having heard numerous sermons/teachings on Daniel and Revelation, I changed my mind on the Rapture (I believe the Pre-Tribulation Rapture viewpoint) and most of my long-held beliefs on other end-time prophecies. God has given me a great interest in Bible prophecy, but in no way do I have all the answers.
I believe that the passage in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 depicts the Rapture. The way to tell the difference between the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ, in my view, is that in the Rapture we will meet Christ in the air/caught up with Him and in the Second Coming He will be physically present on the earth. I realize that I am simplifying this, but I am not the best articulator of these prophecies. I am very much a novice in the study of Bible prophecy and still have many questions myself, but I will give you a link to a website that has helped me to understand end-times prophecy.
This link gives scriptural support to why some believe in the Rapture:
http://www.lamblion.com/articles/articles_rapture4.php
The sidebar on the right-hand side has links to other end-time prophecies and articles. Enjoy! 🙂
I have read the article you linked to–and what can I say? A lot of people who are smarter than I am, theologically, believe in the Rapture. A lot of people who are way ahead of me theologically don’t believe in the Rapture.
I’m content to leave the whole business up to God. I see it as my duty to plow my furrow for all I’m worth until God brings me home. I reject the teaching that the Rapture is coming any day now, so there’s no point to doing anything but hunker down in church and wait for the trumpet to sound. Unfortunately, this is exactly what all too many Protestant churches in America did when Rapture preaching became popular.
Lee..as one Ole Warrior to another…”Don’t sweat it Buddy, I got your back”…”Praise the Lord…and pass the ammunition”!
Doesn’t believe in the “rapture”, yet spells it with a capital “R” (“Rapture”). Yes, Lee, we know that you are “here to fight”. We remember you taking on that crossword puzzle about a year ago.
For the benefit of those who don’t know what this reader is talking about, there was a puzzle in a Dell Crossword magazine which provided the clue, “Guardian pair in many a home” (four letters), to which the answer was “Dads”–as if this were indeed the case in “many a home.” I believe this reader is trying to demean me for objecting to even the crossword puzzle being used as a vehicle for Organized Sodomy’s propaganda.
Yup–the whole durned human race was totally wrong about this issue, for thousands of years. Lucky for us that a few pin-head progressives showed up in the last century to set us straight.
Well, as my friends in the UK would say, too bloody right, I object! I don’t abandon the truth because some talking head on television tells me it isn’t the truth anymore. That so many others do so, without apparent hesitation, is a cause for grief.
It’s almost enough to get me to believe in the Rapture.
And by the way, in this context, the correct usage is to spell it with a capital R.