A question for Christians on Rapture....?

Question

Ive read several post of people claiming that the rapture is a "new" concept or idea. Well, heres what I think...
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 clearly outlines what will happen upon the 2nd coming of Christ. It may suprise alot of people to know that 1 Thessalonians is attributed as one of the earliest wirttings of St Paul. circa 51 CE. The other being Galations. how can people think this is a new concept?

Answer 1

Response to Minister:

Christians don't rejoice over the idea of people going to Hell or being "left behind". That is why Christians try to get others to become Christians....to have faith in God. We will be sad for those who don't make it to Heaven, just as God will.

True Christians should not sit and judge others about whether or not they will make it. Only God knows. For Christians, or anyone, to judge a person's eternal resting place is a sin.

Response to Question:

I truly believe that no one will know WHEN God will return and the world will end. No one ones because it's written in the Bible that we won't know.

Yes, EVERY generation in history of the world at one time or another has believed they were living in the "end times." God did not mean for this world to be forever. This was only temporary.

The idea of "rapture" is old. It's not new.

Answer 2

Pastor Billy says: Get the book Rapture Trap. I have to agree with skeptsis 1Thes 4 the passage is old, the interpretation is new. The word rapture is not found in the original text of the bible as a matter of fact the word rapture originates as a Latin word in Catholic Latin translations and we know the people who accept the rapture theology being pushed forward entirely reject the Latin Church, Catholicism.

The only rapture (if you wish to call it this) will occur on the last day and the second coming of Jesus Christ there so no rapture as hypothesised by the Left Behind fictional series. It is my greatest hope that people will discover they are falling for a recent novelty which is not authentic Christian teaching on the end-time events.

Contrary to what the person asking the question is asserting the age of the scripture is not in dispute, it is the tradition of interpretation which is disputed here.

Answer 3

It depends on what "Rapture" you're talking about. The "Rapture" that most Christian churches teach about today, which is what is portrayed in the "Left Behind" series (a "silent" rapture) is unscriptural. The Rapture that Paul spoke of was a very noisy rapture that will be seen by every eye on Earth, and after Christ returns, there will be no one left alive on Earth.
The "silent" rapture was formulated by two Jesuit priests during the CounterReformation to take the heat off the Vatican, because they knew that it had been long preached that the book of Revelation pointed to the Pope as the antichrist (but that's another sermon entirely).

Answer 4

The passage is old, the interpretation is new. In the 19th Century, a single verse from 1 Thessalonians, designed to reassure grieving Christians that their dead loved ones will not miss out on Christ's return, was combined with scattered verses from other parts of scripture to cobble together an elaborate cartoon scenario of flying people, cataclysmic wars and impossible natural disasters. No one before that time had any such conceit.

Answer 5

The concept of the "rapture" isn't really new, as much as the word "rapture" is. The difference between the modern concept of the "taking away", is that biblically it happens right before the final wrath, and the "new" teaching, which I believe started sometime in the 1800's, is that it happens before the tribulation even gets started, which is not in the least biblical. I figure it to be wishful thinking.

Answer 6

It is not a new idea, but 1 Thessalonians speaks about the Rapture only. The Second Coming is a separate event.

Answer 7

It's not "new". People have been proclaiming that they are living through the "end times" for years and years and YEARS and years and years. There's always some unhygienic street-corner evangelist crackpot sputtering about how the world is going to end and that all the heathens better get the Lord harassed into their unsaved souls.

It STILL hasn't happened. The sky isn't falling. The oceans aren't boiling. Pigs are most definitely NOT sprouting wings and taking to the skies. They've been barking about it for years and years and years and they'll STILL be barking for years to come.

It's a scare tactic, a convenient freak- the- everliving- crap- out- of- folks magic wand that can be waved about in dramatic fashion any time the religious collective feels the soul harvest is running dry.

Trust me... go about your life. Ok, I'm sure you will anyhow considering there's really no alternative option (besides suicide, and I've heard “God” frowns upon that), but just make sure to keep in mind: STAY CALM. DON'T PANIC. REMEMBER YOUR TOWEL.

Answer 8

The word "rapture" doesn't exist in the bible. BUT the taking away in the twinkling of an eye. does exist,,,,,,,,which I think is what you were referencing.

However, there is a place in Revelations that preaches that the "saints will be defeated"... This to me means that not all followers will be taken away. I can not remember scripture and verse. Please study for your self and you will see that I am correct.

Answer 9

It is not a new concept, to think that you will be rewarded after death. The 9/11 pilots believed it. They also believed that the people they killed were going to Hell. Does it make you proud to share the same belief system? Does it surprise you that it disgusts me?

Answer 10

rapture has got till 2036 to come if not no christians big asteriod hits the planet