As much as our government has been infiltrated by the enemy, so has the church. Maybe even moreso.
This is a dangerous doctrine. IT IS NOT FROM SCRIPTURE.
I do realize some big lofty names in the bible scholar community are big time rapturists. Moody - for example. But I've been on a quest for a week or so to find anyone of them making solid arguments with actual scriptural foundation to support the dubious claims of the rapture doctrine - and they just simply cannot support it in the scripture.
If you want me to explain further I'll be happy to. But what you should do is go to the bible and find where it makes any claim that Christians will be removed from earth BEFORE or in the middle of the tribulations described in prophecy.
The oft cited verses in Mathew are literally right after Jesus warns you not to be deceived and explains how not to be deceived by knowing the signs of the season of His return. In Luke he even says that "two men will be lying in one bed, one will be taken the other left behind." I don't know why there are two dudes in one bed but I want the rapturist to question why someone sleeping in bed would be raptured (I notice many claiming that you must be alert and watching at the special time).
In Thesolonians 4: Paul clearly teaches that the dead in Christ will be resurrected before the beloved verse about we who are alive at the time going to meet Jesus in the air. I don't have a problem with that - just don't misunderstand that the dead in Christ go "FIRST".
In Rev 20 - Jesus gives us more clarity and explains that in the "First resurrection" people who refused the mark of the beast unto death would rise in that "First resurrection" too.
The rapture doctrine is dangerous for our generation. We appear to be appointed for this time, please do not be deceived.
“Two men in the bed is in Luke [17:34] as I said.” That is just how the KJV translates it, the “men” is added. The Greek dictionary says that the word is indeclinable (can’t tell sex from context), used for all genders. Then it speaks of 2 women, then 2 men (it’s the same word, but the context shows the sex). And I did answer your points. There is support in the Scripture for the rapture. However, this is not the place to make a “solid argument.”
A better point is Jesus’ prayer in John 17, before He went to the cross, that His believers would be one, “even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they may be in Us, that the world may believe that You have sent Me (v. 21).” While we squabble in division over minor points of doctrine, people are dying in unbelief.
When the Lord returns, He won’t congratulate anyone for their “rightness.” Philadelphia was approved because she “kept His word and did not deny His name.” Arminians and Calvinists keep part of the word, and don’t keep the part that doesn’t fit their theology. And all those who have believed in Him are “in His name (v. 12). And those who Christ has received are rejected by those who dispute points of doctrine. There have been whole religious wars fought for minor points of doctrine.