Friday, April 17, 2009

Rapture fantasies.

1 Thes. 4:15-18 (ESV)
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. [16] 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. [17] 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. [18] Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Classic Pre-millennialist text ripe for distortion, but only if you cut it from all context and lack the reading comprehension of a first grader. This is the “Proof Text” for a rapture. I don’t disagree with a rapture perse. I disagree that it will be secret, that it will happen before the tribulation, and that the world will continue on after word as it does now, just missing the righteous in Christ with an outbreak of lawless anarchy. I don’t know where they get that based on this. I do believe a trumpet will sound and we who are still alive when judgment day hits will be caught up in the air to avoid the utter destruction of earth. That is all this is talking about. The dead will be resurrected first, then all who are alive will also be raptured to him in the clouds. We will face the judgment seat there, and live forever after with the Lord. These are words of encouragement, not fear mongering. These types teaching this abominable doctrine of pre-millennialism ought to be totally ashamed of the fantasy stemming from the Jewish Myths Paul warns Titus about. Stop torturing the people with it! Stop making it out to be the gospel, it isn’t and you will be judged for it. Judged for your lack of an ability to read, yet insisting on teaching things you do not understand.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bror,

You are so right I came out of stuff like this. Later, I began studying what many would call “amillinialism” simultaneously with Luther’s HD regarding theology of glory vs. theology of Cross and could not help but see the connection and continuity between the two. Ultimately the Premil and its similar types is a ToG and thus where the rubber meets the road give NO HOPE whatsoever to the believer, not today and not tomorrow because one is always looking for that “out” of trial and tribulation. All along wondering, if this is so, why the seeming trial and tribulation now. I say “seeming” because in that “system” you don’t call it trial and tribulation because that’s later so you don’t call a thing what it is even though you experience it. I told my wife here is the link between Amil. and Luther’s HD on ToG vs. ToC, because it has its corporate dimension for all believers and the church and its individual dimension as well; both premil and ToG are reading the tea leaves for God’s good will toward you and not Christ alone, both on a worldly level and individual level. What happens when “trial and tribulation” come your way in whatever form, either today or in the future and “you are not “raptured” up out of it”? What are those overseas who suffer GREATLY for the faith to think? Premil/ToG says, to read the tea leaves for God’s pleasure/displeasure. Amil/ToC says, “Don’t read the tea leaves, stay fixed on Christ alone (Word and Sacrament), even and especially if all hell breaks loose (corporate dimension of faith) or your life seems abandoned by God for whatever reason (temptation/trial on the personal level) (individual dimension of faith).

Yours,

Larry ky

Anonymous said...

Pre-millenialism is in itself not "fear mongering". It is an interpretative tool in regard to eschatological writings. The characterization of its proponents, as is often the case with many things, is usually presented in caricature. Often the most "far out". There are those who seem to speak of the 'end times" as a spooky and ominous time. But, for Christians it is not - but the time of tribulation is presented as such in the Bible.


The answer to your question in regard to where people get the stuff about a rapture prior to a tribulation is found in the view that Israel is not done away with. That in fact the promises to Israel are irrevocable - reference Romans 11.

I read a good and concise treatment of the issue with Israel recently. here is the link. http://www.futureisraelministries.org/files/macarthur_on_future_israel.pdf