In Christian eschatology, the Rapture is a reference to “being caught up” referred to in 1 Thess 4:17, when, in the End Times, the Christians of the world will be gathered together in the air to meet Jesus Christ. “Rapture” is an English noun derived from the Latin verb rapio, with a literal meaning of “I catch up” “or “I snatch” (from the infinitive form of the verb rapere, “to catch up”; “rapture” is also cognate to the English words “rapids”, “raptor”, “ravish”, and “rape”). The rise in belief in the “pre-Tribulation” Rapture is often wrongly attributed to a 15-year old Scottish-Irish girl named Margaret McDonald (a follower of Edward Irving), who in 1830 had a vision of the end times which describes a post-Tribulation view of the Rapture that was first published in 1840. In the amillennial and postmillennial views, as well as in the post-Tribulation premillennial position, there are no distinctions in the timing of the Rapture. These views regard the Rapture, as it is described in 1Thessalonians 4:15-17, as being either identical to the Second Coming of Jesus as described in Matthew 24:29-31, or as a meeting in the air with Jesus that immediately precedes his return to the Earth. Within premillennialism, the pre-Tribulation position is the predominant view that distinguishes between the Rapture and Second Coming as two events. There are also two minor positions within premillennialism that differ with regard to the timing of the Rapture, the mid-Tribulation view and the partial-Rapture view. The pretribulation position advocates that the Rapture will occur before the beginning of the seven-year Tribulation period, while the Second Coming will occur at the end of the seven-year Tribulation period. Pre-Tribulationists often describe the Rapture as Jesus coming for the church and the Second Coming as Jesus coming with the church. Mid-Tribulationists hold that the saints will go through the first period (Beginning of Travail, which is not “the Tribulation”), but will be Raptured into Heaven before the severe outpouring of God’s wrath in the second half of what is popularly called the Tribulation. The prewrath Rapture view also places the Rapture at some point during the Tribulation period before the Second Coming. References from Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 are used as evidence that this Tribulation will be cut short by the coming of Christ to deliver the righteous by means of the Rapture, which will occur after specific events in Revelation, in particular after the sixth seal is opened and the sun is darkened and the moon is turned to blood. Van Kampen (1938 1999); his books “The Sign”, “The Rapture Question Answered” and “The Fourth Reich” detail his pre-wrath Rapture doctrine. The Partial Rapture theory holds that true Christians will be raptured before, in the midst of, or after the tribulation depending on one’s genuine conversion to the faith. The posttribulation position places the Rapture at the end of the Tribulation period. Any individual or religious group that has dogmatically predicted the day of the Rapture, a practise referred to as “date setting”, has been thoroughly embarrassed and discredited, as the predicted date of fulfillment has invariably come and gone without event. Conversely, many of those who believe that the precise date of the Rapture cannot be known, do affirm that the specific time frame that immediately precedes the Rapture event can be known. The 2009 film Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage, has thematic elements that parallel the Rapture, although the term “Rapture” is not used.
@Stella it doesn’t matter if you’re Satanist or Atheist. You aren’t a believer so you’re going to hell. Two different beliefs but you still end up in the same place.
thank you so much for the help!!!!!!!!!!!!
In Christian eschatology, the Rapture is a reference to “being caught up” referred to in 1 Thess 4:17, when, in the End Times, the Christians of the world will be gathered together in the air to meet Jesus Christ.
There are many views among Christians regarding the timing of Christ’s return (including whether it will occur in one event or two), and various views regarding the destination of the aerial gathering described in 1 Thessalonians 4. Some denominations, such as Catholics (as described in the Catechism of the Catholic Church 676 and 677) and Orthodox, do not accept the doctrine at all, but affirm the resurrection as the catching away. It was largely developed by Americans from the 17th century to the present, with certain Roman Catholics fostering before, as described in the Doctrinal History section below.
“Rapture” is an English noun derived from the Latin verb rapiÅ, with a literal meaning of “I catch up” “or “I snatch” (from the infinitive form of the verb rapere, “to catch up”; “rapture” is also cognate to the English words “rapids”, “raptor”, “ravish”, and “rape”).
The Koine Greek text of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 uses the verb form á¼ÏÏαγηÏÏμεθα (harpagÄsometha), which means “we shall be caught up” or “taken away”, with the connotation that this is a sudden event. The dictionary form of this Greek verb is harpazÅ (á¼ÏÏάζÏ). This use is also seen in such texts as Acts 8:39; 2 Corinthian; Revelation 12:5.
The concept of the Rapture, in connection with premillennialism, was expressed by the 17th-century American Puritan father and son Increase and Cotton Mather. They held to the idea that believers would be caught up in the air, followed by judgments on the Earth, and then the millennium. in their New Testament commentaries, with the idea that believers would be caught up prior to judgment on the Earth and Jesus’ Second Coming.
There exists at least one 18th century and two 19th century pre-Tribulation references: in an essay published in 1788 in Philadelphia by the Baptist Morgan Edwards which articulated the concept of a pre-Tribulation Rapture,
Dr. Samuel Prideaux Tregelles (1813-1875), a prominent English theologian and biblical scholar, wrote a pamphlet in 1866 tracing the concept of the Rapture through the works of John Darby back to Edward Irving.
Although not using the term “Rapture”, the idea was more fully developed by Edward Irving (1792â1834). In 1825 Matthew Henry used the term in his commentary of 1 Thessalonians 4.
Some proponents of a preliminary Rapture believe the doctrine of amillennialism originated with Alexandrian scholars such as Clement and Origen
The rise in belief in the “pre-Tribulation” Rapture is often wrongly attributed to a 15-year old Scottish-Irish girl named Margaret McDonald (a follower of Edward Irving), who in 1830 had a vision of the end times which describes a post-Tribulation view of the Rapture that was first published in 1840. It was published again in 1861, but two important passages demonstrating a post-Tribulation view were removed to encourage confusion concerning the timing of the Rapture. The two removed segments were, “This is the fiery trial which is to try us. – It will be for the purging and purifying of the real members of the body of Jesus” and “The trial of the Church is from Antichrist. It is by being filled with the Spirit that we shall be kept”.
In 1957, John Walvoord, a theologian at Dallas Theological Seminary, authored a book, The Rapture Question,, which sold 215,000 copies.
During the 1970s, belief in the Rapture became popular in wider circles, in part due to the books of Hal Lindsey, including The Late Great Planet Earth, which has reportedly sold between 15 million and 35 million copies, and the movie A Thief in the Night, which based its title on the scriptural reference 1 Thessalonians 5:2. Lindsey proclaimed that the Rapture was imminent, based on world conditions at the time. The Cold War figured prominently in his predictions of impending Armageddon. Other aspects of 1970s global politics were seen as having been predicted in the Bible. Lindsey suggested, for example, that the seven-headed beast with ten horns, cited in the Book of Revelation, was the European Economic Community, a forebear of the European Union, which between 1981 and 1986 had ten member states; it now has 27 member states.
In 1995, the doctrine of the pre-Tribulation Rapture was further popularized by Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind series of books, which sold tens of millions of copies and were made into several movies.
The doctrine of the Rapture continues to be an important component of American fundamentalist Christian eschatology.
In the amillennial and postmillennial views, as well as in the post-Tribulation premillennial position, there are no distinctions in the timing of the Rapture. These views regard the Rapture, as it is described in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, as being either identical to the Second Coming of Jesus as described in Matthew 24:29-31, or as a meeting in the air with Jesus that immediately precedes his return to the Earth. Within premillennialism, the pre-Tribulation position is the predominant view that distinguishes between the Rapture and Second Coming as two events. There are also two minor positions within premillennialism that differ with regard to the timing of the Rapture, the mid-Tribulation view and the partial-Rapture view.
The pretribulation position advocates that the Rapture will occur before the beginning of the seven-year Tribulation period, while the Second Coming will occur at the end of the seven-year Tribulation period. Pre-Tribulationists often describe the Rapture as Jesus coming for the church and the Second Coming as Jesus coming with the church. Pre-Tribulation educators and preachers include Jimmy Swaggart, J. Dwight Pentecost, Tim LaHaye, J. Vernon McGee, Perry Stone, Chuck Smith, Chuck Missler, Jack Van Impe, Grant Jeffrey, Thomas Ice, David Reagan, and David Jeremiah.
The mid-Tribulation position espouses that the Rapture will occur at some point in the middle of what is popularly called the Tribulation period or Daniel’s 70th Week. But since the Bible only uses “Tribulation” to refer to the second half of Daniel’s 70th week, from a midtribulationist’s point of view he is a pretribulationist. The Tribulation is typically divided into two periods of 3.5 years each. Mid-Tribulationists hold that the saints will go through the first period (Beginning of Travail, which is not “the Tribulation”), but will be Raptured into Heaven before the severe outpouring of God’s wrath in the second half of what is popularly called the Tribulation. Mid-Tribulationists appeal to Daniel 7:25 which says the saints will be given over to Tribulation for “time, times, and half a time,” – interpreted to mean 3.5 years. At the halfway point of the Tribulation, the Antichrist will commit the “abomination of desolation” by desecrating the Jerusalem temple (to be built on what is now called the Temple Mount, see Third Temple). Mid-Tribulationist teachers include Harold Ockenga, James O. Buswell (a reformed, Calvinistic Presbyterian), and Norman Harrison.
The prewrath Rapture view also places the Rapture at some point during the Tribulation period before the Second Coming. This view holds that the Tribulation of the church begins toward the latter part of the seven-year period, being Daniel’s 70th week, when the Antichrist is revealed in the temple. This latter half of the seven-year period is defined as the great Tribulation, although the exact duration is not known. References from Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 are used as evidence that this Tribulation will be cut short by the coming of Christ to deliver the righteous by means of the Rapture, which will occur after specific events in Revelation, in particular after the sixth seal is opened and the sun is darkened and the moon is turned to blood. His belief is founded on the work of Robert D. Van Kampen (1938â1999); his books “The Sign”, “The Rapture Question Answered” and “The Fourth Reich” detail his pre-wrath Rapture doctrine.
The Partial Rapture theory holds that true Christians will be raptured before, in the midst of, or after the tribulation depending on one’s genuine conversion to the faith.
The posttribulation position places the Rapture at the end of the Tribulation period. Post-Tribulation writers define the Tribulation period in a generic sense as the entire present age, or in a specific sense of a period of time preceding the Second Coming of Christ. and Douglas Moo.
Since the origin of the concept, many believers in the Rapture of the church have made predictions regarding the date of the event. The primary scripture reference cited against this position is Matthew 24:36, where Jesus is quoted as saying; “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only” (RSV).
Any individual or religious group that has dogmatically predicted the day of the Rapture, a practise referred to as “date setting”, has been thoroughly embarrassed and discredited, as the predicted date of fulfillment has invariably come and gone without event. Some of these individuals and groups have offered excuses and “corrected” target dates, while others have simply released a reinterpretation of the meaning of the scripture to fit their current predicament, and then explained that although the prediction appeared to have not come true, in reality it had been completely accurate and fulfilled, albeit in a different way than many had expected.
Conversely, many of those who believe that the precise date of the Rapture cannot be known, do affirm that the specific time frame that immediately precedes the Rapture event can be known. This time frame is often referred to as “the season”. The primary section of scripture cited for this position is Matthew 24:32-35; where Jesus is quoted teaching the parable of the fig tree, which is proposed as the key that unlocks the understanding of the general timing of the Rapture, as well as the surrounding prophecies listed in the sections of scripture that precede and follow this parable.
The first feature-length cineamtic treatment of the Rapture was the 1972 film A Thief in the Night. That film was followed by three sequels and a novel, and set up the genre of the Rapture film. With only a few exceptions, the genre died out by the end of the 1970s, only to resurface again in the 1990s with such films as Apocalypse, Revelation, The Rapture, Left Behind: The Movie, and The Omega Code. Cloud Ten Pictures specializes in making end-time films. The 2009 film Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage, has thematic elements that parallel the Rapture, although the term “Rapture” is not used.
On August 2, 2001, humorist Elroy Willis posted a Usenet article titled “Mistaken Rapture Kills Arkansas Woman”. This fictional, satirical story about a woman who causes a traffic accident and is killed when she believes the Rapture has started, circulated widely on the Internet and was believed by many people to be a description of an actual incident. Elements of the story appeared in an episode of the HBO television drama Six Feet Under, and a slightly modified version of the story was reprinted in the US tabloid newspaper Weekly World News. The story continues to circulate by electronic mail as a chain letter.
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