THE RAPTURE THEORY

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need to believe a "theory" any longer.  See how many of the following texts in reference to Christ's comings can be used to support the "Rapture Theory."</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="mailto: heislord@teacher.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto: heislord@teacher.com"><U><IMG SRC="26753640.gif" border=0 width="83" height="100" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <bR> <div> Deuteronomy 33:2*; Psalm 50:3-6#; Psalm 96:13; Psalm 110:1-6#; Isaiah 11:4#; Isaiah 13:6-13#; Isaiah 26:21#; Isaiah 28:21-22#; Isaiah 34:1-8#; Isaiah 63:3-6#; Isaiah 66:15-16#; Jeremiah 25:31-33#; Daniel 7:18,22; Daniel 12:1-2; Joel 2:1-11#; Joel 2:31-32; Joel 3:13-16; Micah 1:2-4; Habakkuk 3:13#; Zephaniah 1:7-2:3#; Zephaniah 3:8#; Zechariah 14:5*; Malachi 3:2#; Malachi 4:1#; Matthew 3:12#; Matthew 13:30#; Matthew 13:38-42#; Matthew 13:47-50#; Matthew 16:27#; Matthew 24:27-28#; Matthew 24:30-31#; Matthew 24:36-51#; Matthew 25:10,19,31; Matthew 26:64; Mark 8:38; Mark 13:24-27; Mark 14:62; Luke 17:24; Luke 17:26-30#; Luke 21:25-28; Luke 21:34-36#; John 5:25,28-29; John 6:39-40; John 6:44,54; John 14:3; Acts 1:11; Acts 7:52; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; Galatians 3:19; 1 Thessalonians 3:13*; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10#; 2 Thessalonians 2:8#; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 9:28; 2 Peter 3:10-12#; 1 John 2:28; 1 John 3:2; Jude 14-15*; Revelation 1:7; Revelation 2:16#; Revelation 3:3; Revelation 6:12-17; Revelation 11:15-19(18#); Revelation 14:14-20#; Revelation 16:17-21; Revelation 19:11-20*; Revelation 19:21#; Revelation 20:1-6; Revelation 20:7-15*; Revelation 20:14#.</div> <bR> <div> *Actually Christ's Third Coming.</div> <div> # Wicked Destroyed At Christ's Coming.</div> <bR> <div> The "#" verses above overwhelmingly prove that all the wicked die any time Christ comes again.  The most famous "proof texts" used to support the "Rapture Theory" are <B>Luke 17:34-36</B> and <B>Mat. 24:40</B>:  "Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left."  The <B>previous verses</B> to these clearly teach the destruction of the wicked in Noah and Lot's day.  Contextual evidence clearly shows that Christ is explaining that "so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."  For Jesus to then change the entire context and say that the wicked will not die because "the one shall be taken, and the other left" is Biblically unsound and a inapplicable rendition of proper English or the original Greek.  The Bible does record that the one left, is the sinner destroyed "with the brightness of His coming" (2Th. 2:8), and the array of many other verses noted above.  According to the parable of the "Sower" (Mat. 13:24-40) the harvest ALSO takes place for BOTH the righteous and the wicked together at the same time (Mat. 13:30), and "the harvest is the end of the world," Mat. 13:39.  Notice also Christ's answer to the disciples question in Luke 17:37:  "And they answered and said unto Him, Where, Lord?  And He said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together."   Here we can see clearly that the ones left are dead bodies for the feeding of the eagles.  Simple deduction then, since the one "left" is destroyed and the other was "taken" to heaven, these verses clearly support Christ's "Second Coming" and put an end to the "Rapture Theory."  Christ stated in Mat. 28:20:  "and, lo, I Am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.  Amen."  Why would Jesus promise to be with the church until the end of the world if He intended to come seven years before to take them out of the world.  The promise would have no meaning and make Christ a liar.</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="mailto: heislord@teacher.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto: heislord@teacher.com"><U><IMG SRC="268453c0.gif" border=0 width="69" height="60" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>First Thessalonians 5:2-3</B> is used to support the Rapture Theory in that Christ comes as "<B>a thief in the night</B>."  And He does, but certainly not for the saints.  The context of this passage supports a surprise to the wicked:  "For when they shall say, Peace and safety;" NOTICE, "then sudden destruction cometh upon them."  Upon Who?  Are we to believe that the "sudden destruction" is the Rapture, or finish the text with a correct understanding of God's Word:  "and they [the wicked] shall not escape," the "sudden destruction" of course.  Certainly the righteous are not meant here, as if they wanted to "escape" the Rapture.  To further prove that the wicked, and not the righteous are portrayed here, let's look at verses 4&5:  "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.  (5)  Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness."  We can see clearly that the ones who are in darkness are overtaken "as a thief," not the "children of light," Raptured to "sudden destruction" (verse 3).  Comparing thief's in the night Peter states:  "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night;  in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up."  No silent Rapture here ("great noise").  And the events indicate the Second Coming of Christ, where everything wicked "therein shall be burned up."  Maybe now you can better understand the warning in Rev. 16:15.  Notice that this is while the seven plagues are falling, before the battle of Armageddon (verse 16) and before Christ comes as "a thief."</div> <bR> <div> The fact that <B>Deuteronomy 33:2</B>, <B>Zechariah 14:5</B>, <B>First Thessalonians 3:13</B> and <B>Jude 14</B> are used to support the "Rapture Theory" are strange indeed.  For remember, that any Second Coming of Christ brings destruction "with the brightness of His coming," 2Th. 2:8.  These four verses used by Dispensationalists are sensational to say the least, because all of them basically state that Christ is Coming "with all His saints."  The problem is, Christ cannot come "with all His saints" if there are still some on the earth when He comes!  Nor can I see there being a "Secret Rapture" taking place "with all His saints" being silent around the glory of Christ for:  "And He answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out."  Luke 19:40.</div> <bR> <div> In an interesting twist on a scripture, the Dispensationalists use <B>Revelation 3:10</B> as a Rapture text in that God says:  "I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation."  In other words, you will be Raptured before the 7 year tribulation.  This brings up another major flaw in the Rapture theories.  There are 4 views, three of which I understand:  pre-tribulation;  post-tribulation;  mid-tribulation.  It is critically important that <B>you</B> understand that all Dispensationalists theories are founded on <B>Daniel 9:25-27</B>.  Here is where the "one week" of prophecy is extracted and in Bible prophecy a day equals a year (Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:6).  Thus we establish what the Dispensationalists call "The Seven Year Tribulation."  However, no one, no matter what he may believe about this passage, should ever miss the context of these scriptures and that these verses are clearly teaching the future crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  They establish beyond all doubt the exact year of His being "cut off," which takes place "in the midst of the week."  But this prophecy does not then take upon itself a dual application and apply to a mid-tribulation departure from the earth.  Else the Dispensationalists better have Christ come down and be crucified again "in the midst of the week," 3 ½ years into their 7-year tribulation in order for them to have been Raptured.  It would be better for us to understand that Christ has already come as prophesied by Daniel and that there is no bases for a 7-year time span that has anything to do with an UN-Biblical Rapture.  Christ established the length of the tribulation, if you must have a duration, when He said:  "And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved:  but for the elect's sake [<B>sounds like they are going through it</B>] those days shall be shortened."  Mat. 24:22 (see also Mark 13:20).  I hope you see my point by now, that "Messiah" being "cut off," "in the midst of the week," has nothing to do with the tribulation, and is senseless to any form of "Rapture Theory."  Just a closing thought on Rev. 3:10.  Jesus completely clarified the meaning of this passage when He stated a similar expression in John 17:15:  "I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil."  And Luke 21:34-36:  "And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.   For as a snare shall it come on all them that <I><B>dwell on the face of the whole earth</B></I>.  Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to <I><B>escape all these things that shall come to pass</B></I>, and to stand before the Son of man."</div> <bR> <div> Finally, Dispensationalists teach that there are two separate stages of Christ's coming and are indicated in the Greek.  They argue that there will first be the Rapture (parousia), His secret coming;  then seven years later will be the Revelation (apokalupsis), His coming in power and glory.  By Contrast, the Bible actually uses these terms <I><B>interchangeably</B></I>.  For example, in Mat. 24:37 we read:  "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming (parousia) of the Son of man be."  Luke's account of the same event states:  "And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.  (30)  Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed (apokalupsis)," Luke 17:26,30.  Thus is clearly shown that the coming "parousia" of Christ and the revelation "apokalpsis" of Christ are <I><B>one and the same events</B></I>.  There is no basis for placing seven years in between these two words.  Pre-tribulationists claim that the word "parousia" is used by Paul in 1Th. 4:15 to describe the secret rapture.  But in 1Th. 3:13 Paul uses the same word to describe "the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints" - a  description, according to pre-tribulationists, of the second phase of Christ's Return.  Again in 2Th. 2:8, Paul employs the term "parousia" to refer to the Second Coming of Christ which will cause the destruction of the antichrist-an event which, according to pre-tribulationists, is supposed to happen at the second phase of Christ's Coming.  Similarly the words "apokalypsis" and "epiphaneia" are used to describe both what pre-tribulationists call the rapture (1Co. 1:7; 1Ti. 6:14) and what they call the <I><B>Return</B></I> or second phase of Christ's Coming (2Th. 1:7-8, 2:8).  Thus the vocabulary of the Rapturests provides no basis whatever for a two-phases distinction of Christ's Return, since its terms are used interchangeably to <I><B>describe the same single event</B></I>.  More important still is the fact that each of the three terms is clearly used to describe the post-tribulational return of Christ which is viewed as the object of the believer's hope.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="mailto: heislord@teacher.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto: heislord@teacher.com"><U><IMG SRC="19a37280.gif" border=0 width="55" height="40" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>