rapture

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Permalink Reply by Colby on December 31, 2012 at 11:42am

        Great question!  As always, our opinions or beliefs about such matters should be informed and guided by the Holy Scriptures being careful not to read into God's Word things that aren't there.  Please note that the reference to 2nd Thessalonians is incorrect.  You mean to say Paul's First Letter to the Thessalonians: First Thessalonians 4:17.  For the benefit of all, I would like to post the verse in context.

• But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. [13]
• For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. [14]
• For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. [15]
• For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. [16]
• Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. [17]

        Christians hold diverse and often conflicting views regarding eschatology or end times and the second coming of Jesus, depending on how they interpret the Scriptures.  These fall broadly into four main camps: 1) the Preterist approach, 2) the Historicist method, 3) the Futurist method, and 4) the Idealist or Symbolic method.  For some, focusing on eschatology can become an unhealthy preoccupation or obsession because they miss the larger picture of Christ's redemptive work.  For many, it's a worthy matter of speculation and Biblical scholarship.  

        For all believers,  our hope is grounded in what Christ has done for us on the cross and his resurrection.   In Christ, we have been given the gift of eternal life, of salvation, including forgiveness, justification, sanctification and glorification.  While we may have different opinions on eschatology, these are transcended by the common hope we share in "looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our Great God and Savior Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13).  Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ is coming again!

 

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Permalink Reply by Colby on December 31, 2012 at 12:11pm

What does the Bible say about the rapture?  Two key questions:

1. Is the rapture a literal or figurative event?  There are clearly many figurative passages in the Bible.  But how are we to know which passages should be interpreted literally and which figuratively?
   
   
2. If a literal event, when will the rapture occur?  a) Before, b) during, or c) after the tribulation (i.e., pre-, mid-, or post-tribulation)?

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Permalink Reply by Terri Watson on January 2, 2019 at 8:14pm

All my like I have heard , pre trib, mid trib, post trib. So I just  ask God " which one is it". And He started showing me through the scriptures that the rapture will happen toward the end of the tribulation. So I lean toward pre wrath. I cannot see any scripture that supports pre trib.

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Permalink Reply by Axe Elf on January 11, 2019 at 12:49pm

I'm a pan-tribulationalist.  I believe it will all pan out in the end.

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Permalink Reply by Tammy on January 19, 2019 at 7:16am

True that

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