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.
The Tribulation is SATAN'S wrath, not God's.
Instead of hopping around and picking at individual verses, try reading Matthew 24. Jesus Himself speaking directly about the end. Read it carefully. There's no room for a rapture. Funny Jesus didn't mention it.
Really bruh? These verses are all from Revelation alone. Yes the Devil has wrath but God also uses that in conjunction with other judgements...read these verses and tell me again it's not God's wrath....
"And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:"
"The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:"
"And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God."
"And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God."
"And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever."
"And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth."
"And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath."
Oh and bro, Paul's books are the ones written to us Christians today. Learn the difference between books that are written FOR us versus books that are written TO us, it will help a lot in "rightly dividing the word of truth". I will NEVER ever go to Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John to correct doctrine laid out in Paul's books.
The Pauline routine? Westcott and Hort would be proud. Find a rapture theologian from before the 1830s...there aren't any. New truth isn't truth. Spurgeon? Other baptist/non-Catholic thought leaders before Darby, selling pre-trib rapture? There aren't any.
BTW, Matt chapters 24-25 has more direct from Jesus on the end times than almost any subject He discussed at one time. Only the Sermon on the Mount was longer....Paul's LETTERS don't disprove anything Jesus said, and the suggestion that He was talking to someone else---"the Jews" etc is just a load of crap. "Oh He was speaking to the Jews only". Prove it.
Jesus words. Black ink on white paper. Deny it if you want, but its the sloppiest bald assertion imaginable, strung together by cherry-picked pieces of chapters of multiple books in the NT.
btw--Nelson Darby made it popular in the US in the 1830-50s....Where'd HE get it? Scotland. A teen-aged girl. Catholic mystic.
Honestly, why doesn't someone just cut out all the parts that are for "the Jews" already and save us all the unnecessary reading? To try to be fair, I think sometimes there can be more meaning drawn from some scripture by acknowledging the immediate audience. But to suggest that the gospel writers were so narrowly minded (especially after the great commission) is just absurd.
Good job.