And the song said,

"Jesus is coming soon,
Morning or night or Noon,
Many will meet their doom,
Trumpets will sound!

All of the dead shall rise,
Righteous meet in the skies,
Going where no one dies,
Heavenward bound..."

I feel that it's safe to say that heaven is the hoped-for destination of most who claim the name of Christ.

Is that where YOU hope to go?

I wonder sometimes how to reconcile the theory of the Rapture with the scriptural Resurrection .

Does a 'Rapture' take place BEFORE the Resurrection , or not?

Just what scriptures are used to 'prove' the Rapture?

Does the Rapture occur at the Second Coming of Christ or is there a 'secret' coming that no one sees except those who are "Raptured" away?

I'm not sure about these things and hope that someone can enlighten me.

I'd like to at least understand the doctrine better.

Phil
Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Zero Response*
Because of limited time, I have chosen to go back to the beginning and bring forward some topics that originally received NO RESPONSE.

If you have time, please re-read these threads and see if you have any comments.

Other 'zero-response' threads will also be brought forward.

Phil

came about in the late 1800's and was rapidly embraced by may denominations includeing the RCC at that time...shocking many in that time that knew the truth of the teaching.It was based upon the dream of a young woman...new convert and the enthusiasm of a young minister who needed a vison to enlarge his reputation.Both ingredents for fable bearers.I can provide the whole story if your interested....I'll just have to search it out...I can't remember names right now.But do know the of the division it drove between men and the nominal churchs that were still alive in my youth.

But do know it's like the many differnt teachings on water baptism... once embraced in the heart of a believer takes an act of God to remove it.Or better put one seekng Gods will above all ealse.

lee

...as a fable?

Interesting...

Phil

what I've heard spoken of by people in the churchs.Like I said the teaching itself of being taken away to some pie in the sky place....you know streets of Gold mansions in the sky so on....is really a distractor...robbing the children of God of truth and a right mindset in Christ.

Heres a few thoughts that brake the fable for me, just quikies,

Christ Jesus = street of gold spoken of in that he is the path and the gold surrounding the Fathers house.

many mansions= are Gods dwelling place not mans for man is to be that mansion that God spirit dwells in.


and of coarse there is more to be said on the matter...but the fact is the fables that have been weaved are in line with earthly thinking and desires of comfort and wealth on a physcal scale.Seemed innocent enough I'm sure on it's early conception, when poverty was so abundent....how could it hurt to hope for comfort and wealth.But it has blinded mens eyes to the truth and work which the Father desires in his body....blocking the Kingdom of God from many.

That doesn't mean that God doesn't like or love his children but it must pain him to see them never mature as they cling to these false hopes and doctrines that are not keys to the Kingdom of God.

But we can know there is a remnant that is being set aside for his purpose to fullfill the body of Christ and his work upon the earth.

my thoughts anyway, but certainly not the fullness of Christ....just where I find myself in this hour...looking for other than the desires of men.

There has even been a few who beleive in these fables who have shared how men have heard the voices of mens moanings from near the mouth of volcano's...now how more revealing can it be that men have clung to superstitions and fables making a mockery of the word of God.

lee

... the teaching of the rapture is false because it means that Jesus Christ will have to return twice! First there will be a secret, unheralded return in which He will whisk all Christians, both living and dead, off to Heaven to be present there during the time that the Great Tribulation is taking place on earth. This secret coming supposedly could occur at any moment and will come without any advance warning to anyone. Seven years later (or three and a half according to some) Christ will return openly in power and glory to destroy the wicked and to establish His Kingdom.

The term "rapture" is used nowhere in the Bible. It is a term that has been invented by men and applied by them to what they term "the first phase" of the Second Coming. The Bible itself, however, nowhere says that Christ’s coming will occur in phases.

A nineteenth century British preacher, John Nelson Darby, was the one who developed the rapture teaching and began to promote it in the 1830s. He was the founder of the Plymouth Brethren Church and developed a scheme of scriptural interpretation called dispensationalism.

teaching is the one I was referring to.My grandfather a young man in those years and minister was very disappointed in the way that fairy tale swept threw the mainstream churchs, but really it's gotten much worse sense then.I wonder what he would think if he were here still.

Oh well it's all going as planned I beleive....the heart is being revealed...that the children of God can be seperated.


lee