Rapture views

Post by **_featheredprop** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 3:50 pm

I'm curious if there are many different views of the Rapture. I have always understood it in a pretty basic, evangelical way: that the Lord will literally and physically appear, and that we who are alive will (rather literally) be lifted up into the air to meet Christ.

I'm familiar with the secret Rapture idea - so I'm not referring to that. But, are there other ways of looking at it? Do others view the Rapture in non-literal terms? What arguments has anyone heard against the basic view as I've stated above?

peace,

dane

Post by **_Paidion** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 7:25 pm

As far as I can see, there's no problem with the "basic view" you have stated, except possibly with the employment of the term "rapture". Was that term ever used prior to modern dispensationalism? I realize it may be appropriate to use it to describe the catching up of the saints in I Thessalonians 4, but unfortanately, the term is usually associaited with the pre-trib rapture dispensationalists as per Arno C. Gabelein and C. I. Scofield.

Post by **_TK** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 8:33 am

Dane- that is the way i have always pictured it- the thessalonians passage seems to describe it rather well. what i have questions about now is the timing; dispensationally there is a rapture then a subsequent second coming of Christ seven years later. i no longer believe these are two separate events.

TK

Post by **_featheredprop** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 9:43 am

TK wrote:what i have questions about now is the timing; dispensationally there is a rapture then a subsequent second coming of Christ seven years later. i no longer believe these are two separate events.

TK

TK,

I also was taught that the rapture was separated from the Second Coming by seven years. I don't see that now either.

The reason why I asked my initial question is because I heard someone recently discussing the rapture, saying that they didn't believe in the "orthodox" concept of it. Unforunately, I never heard what they ultimately believed, and so I am interested in identifying any alternate views of it.

peace,

dane

Post by **_sab** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:21 am

i don't believe in a secret rapture or 7 year trib either. I just believe that the last trump is the seventh trumpet (the sixth has already sounded) and that the saints will be caught up at his appearing and this mortal will put on an immortal body.

In view of a number of verses that describe the final judgement - the elements shall melt (2 Peter 3), the earth shall burn as an oven (Malachi 4) plus the many references to a great earthquake (Rev 6, 16, Zech 14, Ezekiel 38 for example) and the reference in Daniel 2 to the stone hitting the image on its feet I think it's possible that the coming of the Lord will have the same force as an asteroid or meteor hitting the Earth if not happening simultaneously as such an event. Every eye would see it and very few would escape. Being in the air with Christ would be the only safe place. (also the references to men trying to hide in caves to escape God's wrath)

I see the whole seven year trib scenario as possibly setting the stage for the scoffers who say , "Where is the promise of His coming?" I've heard some far-fetched speculation from that dept and that is just about the only view the unchurched seem to think Christians believe.

Post by **_Steve** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:38 am

Hi Dane,

In answer to your question, there are some people who think the rapture, in 1 Thessalonians 4, is not physical. I encountered this view back in the seventies from a radio teacher named Bill Britton (now deceased), and a cult-like movement called "The Walk," led by John Robert Stevens.

On this view, as I understand it, the "catching up" of the saints is to be a mental or spiritual leap of some kind, into a higher spiritual dimension. I never fully understood the view, so I may be misrepresenting it in some way. I know that they said "into the air" (1 Thess.4:17) means "in the spiritual realm."

They supported the idea that being "caught up" was not physical by the comparison of the same term in 2 Corinthians 12:4, where Paul's "friend" was "caught up into the third heaven" and Paul said "whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know" (vv.2,3). They felt this verse left open the possibility that being "caught up to heaven" might not necessarily refer to a bodily experience. I am not sure, but I think these people held to a doctrine like the "manifested sons of God" teaching of William Branham.

Post by **_Paidion** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:38 pm

Steve wrote:I am not sure, but I think these people held to a doctrine like the "manifested sons of God" teaching of William Branham.

Well, I believe in the manifestation of the sons of God, yet to come, when Christ's disciples will be made perfect (complete) at Christ's coming [Romans 8:19]
.
But I also believe in the literal catching up of the resurrected saints at his coming (Perhaps one cannot consider this being caught up as "physical" since they will have spiritual bodies).

Post by **_Steve** » Sat Jan 26, 2008 2:48 am

Hi Paidion,

I too believe in the future manifestation of the sons of God, as spoken of in Romans 8:19. The reason I put the phrase in quotation marks was to indicate that I was referring to the particular "manifested sons of God" doctrine of William Branham—which I seriously doubt that you believe in.