An Examination Of The Rapture Of The Church – Part 1 Of 4 Series

AN EXAMINATION OF THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH – PART 1 OF 4

We are going to enter a journey into the understanding of the Rapture. I am wanting to do that because this is such an important subject, and the changes in the world in these past 24 months have been quite dramatic, further pointing to the imminence of the Rapture.

We do fight a battle when we teach on the truth of the Rapture because Satan opposes the truth. The opposition comes from the secular world and also from churches. I want to add this by way of quotations:

Here is a quote from CNN (media) which is an attack on the Rapture teaching - (Name withheld) wrote, “In this, the rapture has become a uniquely American fear, and a uniquely American hope. It’s both a widely known bit of Christian mythology – religious and secular pop culture alike have frequently depicted some manner of supernatural event that would cause many to disappear suddenly from the Earth - and a controversial, often-misunderstood topic of theology. It’s a fairy tale used to frighten children and a lullaby for grown adults, including my own parents. I’m no longer waiting for the rapture, and yet I see it everywhere.”

CNN went on to say that in the Corinthians and Thessalonians passages, Paul was being dramatic and was using metaphorical language, and was writing in poetic form. They used the old chestnut again by declaring this “falsehood” came from J N Darby. CNN found support from some church in Michigan. They added, “The great problems Christians can’t answer are, it was not taught by Jesus and the word does not occur in the bible.”

The article finishes with, “Yet it's amazing how scriptures get misused, and relatively new theological ideas - such as the rapture - get deeply embedded in certain circles. The rapture is really a plot device for popular entertainment and a bizarre theological teaching in fundamentalist circles, where it functions in a variety of ways. But it's bad theology, and Jesus himself would have been astonished to learn that thousands of years after him there were such notions afloat.”

Well, Satan sure has his sources at CNN.

I will use one more quote, this time from an article written by Jay Parini in association with the Illinois Catholic bishops whose spokesman is a Joyce Donahue, and titled “Even Jesus wouldn't buy 'the rapture’” (updated 12:59 PM EDT, Sun July 6, 2014) – “. . . that denounced the Left Behind series as "one of the most attractively marketed recent false prophets" and as being both anti-Catholic and "in conflict with Catholic teaching. The Rapture ideology, the statement said, promotes "an unhealthy and immature belief in a harshly judgmental God."

“The Rapture idea is based on creative but erroneous interpretations of three Bible passages (1 Thess. 4:13-18, Matt. 24:40-41, and John 14:1-2). In a desperate attempt to cling to a supposedly "literal" approach to interpreting the Bible, the proponents of the Rapture engage in an absurd "biblical hopscotch" by isolating and then re-assembling snippets from very different biblical books.”

"Many Catholics have interiorized this," laments Donahue, the associate director of the Religious Education Office in the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois.

Those quotes above are just a small glimpse at the opposition to the Rapture that is most solidly taught by the Bible. We will now examine the Rapture.

INTRODUCTION:

To communicate information with people, one needs to be able to define the terms. If that is not done then words becomes meaningless and all sense is lost. The word “Rapture” must also be defined. We will look at some history of the word’s origin.

ENGLISH ORIGINS ? RAPTURE —> c. 1600, "act of carrying off" as prey or plunder, from “rapt + -ure,” or else from French rapture, from Medieval Latin “rapture” - "seizure, kidnapping," from Latin “raptus” - "a carrying off, abduction, snatching away" (see rapt). The earliest attested use in English is with women as objects, and in 17c. it sometimes meant rape (v), which word is a cognate of this one.

You know the bird of prey called the RAPTOR. Well its origin is this - raptor (n) ? late 14c., raptour, "a plundering bird of prey;" c. 1600, "ravisher, abductor," from Latin raptor "a robber, plunderer, abductor, ravisher," agent noun from past-participle stem of rapere "to seize", or snatch away.

Ryrie’s Basic Theology ? [Our modern understanding of rapture appears to have little or no connection with the eschatological event. However, the word is properly used of that event. Rapture is a state or experience of being carried away. The English word comes from a Latin verb, “rapio”, which means to seize or snatch, in relation to an ecstasy of spirit, or the actual removal from one place to another. In other words, it means to be carried away in spirit or in body. The Rapture of the Church means the carrying away of the Church from earth to heaven.