How do I show a Protestant the fallacy of the Rapture?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Valtiel
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
V

Valtiel

Guest
My brother and his neighbors are completely protestant in their beliefs and practices. They completely believe their religious/protestant doctrines to be right and the catholic church and religion to be flawed and wrong. But the main thing with them is their belief in the rapture, they are always poking me about it, how do I show them that the rapture doctrine is absolutely wrong?..
 
Well, if you’re all alive when Christ returns and there was no rapture before that, you can say “I told you so…”

Seriously, though, there are a lot of good threads on the topic here with a little searching. My best recommendation is to read up about it with a couple books: The Rapture Trap (Thigpen) and “Will Catholics Be Left Behind?” (Olson)

Posts on a forum may help you out, but there’s nothing quite like immersing yourself in a little more detail and letting it soak in.

You may also want to - if you’re confident that you are well-formed enough - to read some of their stuff. Read Hal Lindsey’s “There’s a New World Coming,” and “The Late Great Planet Earth.” This is like their Bible. It will help you understand where they are coming from. I also read the Left Behind series to get more acquainted with their point of view.

I only recommend that if you feel confident in the Catholic worldview.
 
It’s pretty hard to come up with a strong refutation unless you are knowledgeable about how the pre-tribulation rapture adherants arrive at their belief. I read Thigpen’s “Rapture Trap” and he has a skewed idea of the pre-trib agenda. I wish he was more objective and had presented the pre-trib factors thoroughly. After all, the pre-trib people are intelligent, and if you check them out they seem to make their case. Then, check out the Catholic position. We are post-tribulation adherants, although the Church will not use that category. (one is either Pre or Mid or Post in the protestant definition)
 
Just ask them if you could have their home after the rapture:D

God Bless
 
Valtiel,

Sincerely, is the rapture the only doctrine that concerns you regarding your brother and his neighbors? While Protestants do have it wrong regarding the rapture, it is not something that is likely to cause a person to lose their salvation. However, there are many false Protestant doctrines (like once saved, always saved) that can lead a person down a very dangerous spiritual path. Frankly, in most cases all one has to do is to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior and they will be saved according to many Protestant Theologians–and every Catholic does that.

Personally, I would ask them how such things impact their salvation. Get them to talk about more important matters…
 
40.png
Valtiel:
My brother and his neighbors are completely protestant in their beliefs and practices. They completely believe their religious/protestant doctrines to be right and the catholic church and religion to be flawed and wrong. But the main thing with them is their belief in the rapture, they are always poking me about it, how do I show them that the rapture doctrine is absolutely wrong?..
Click to expand...
My mother follows the Rapture yet she views the “Left Behind” crowd as cheap sensationalism. There seem to be many levels to the Rapture adherents. She follows the teachings of J. Vernon McGee of the Dallas Theological Seminary (who is now Dead but his Radio programs continue indefinitely…) which is little bit more complex system than the typical Left Behind group. I have found people of this type when you pin them down on specific verses they are very adept at avoiding the obvious conclusion that Rapture is wrong by saying “you have to take the whole bible”. An example of this “dodging” is Mathew 24:36 et seq and parallel verses which Jesus compares the coming of the Son of Man to time of Noah where one will be taken, and another left. The standard approach by some apologists is use this to refute the rapture since in the time of Noah those left behind were “God’s people”, while ones taken were those killed by the flood. However, those of what I call Higher Dispensationalism crowd tries to get around this flaw by saying the that “coming of Son of Man” in Mt 24:36 is not the rapture but his final coming. In other words they will argue that the “Caught up in the clouds” (of 2 Thess) is a event prior to the coming of the Son of Man referred to in Mt 24:36.
 
The Catholic Church actually teaches “half” of the “rapture” doctrine: The Apostles Creed says, “From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.” The Heaven-bound living will be translated directly into Heavenly glory without dying. 1 Corinthians 15:51. That seems to be a “rapture.”

There just won’t be any “thousand year period” or anything like that between the “rapture” and the end.

It will occur ON the Last Day.
 
40.png
MarySon:
Just ask them if you could have their home after the rapture:D

God Bless
Click to expand...
Hi Maryson, Home? I,m not even going to be able to keep my wife according to scripture. 😦 God Bless
 
To them, the “Rapture” is God’s truth.

If they don’t listen to you, let them believe what they want. It doesn’t hurt me for someone else to believe in Rapture, nor to hear others discuss it. If they are anxious about me because I don’t believe it, that’s their problem and not mine. Plus, if they are “anxious” about me then I can quote to them from Phillipians:
Phillipians 4:6-7:
Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Click to expand...
For all intents and purposes the whole issue of Rapture is entirely academic. Rapture or not, I am still commanded to love God and other people, so there really isn’t anything in particular that I can see I need to do based on someone’s view of the mechanics of the second coming. (Or third coming or whatever, as some of these folks think.)

Alan
 
Ask them where the term ‘rapture’ is in scripture, that should lead to a cool talk on words and there meanings.
Ask them if they belive in Gods mercy seventy times seven?
Pray for them the dillushioned (spell)
Br CreosMary
 
I have found that the fundies with whom I’ve dealt; their entire belief system is as based on the “rapture” thing as our Catholicism is based on The Eucharist. It is next to impossible to reason with these type persons. I tell them the truth of the matter and walk away, refusing to argue and hopeing I’ve given them something to go look up in their Bibles.
 
40.png
catsrus:
I have found that the fundies with whom I’ve dealt; their entire belief system is as based on the “rapture” thing as our Catholicism is based on The Eucharist. It is next to impossible to reason with these type persons. I tell them the truth of the matter and walk away, refusing to argue and hopeing I’ve given them something to go look up in their Bibles.
Click to expand...
Well you see it is usually when I’m in the car listening to heavy metal with them (anything but protestant music to them is sinful to listen to) or anything of that nature they usually just sort of do this annoying hinting thing that what I’m doing is wrong (anything thats not part of their baptist ideology is wrong) by saying “Look at that ray of light coming through the clouds, reminds you that Jesus could come back at any minute huh?”. But I keep wanting to tell them that there will be no pre tribulational rapture only a post, but I don’t have enough knowledge of the matter off hand to get into a debate with them.
 
If you are debating a Protestant, someone who belongs to one of the denominations founded by the 16th century reformers and their successors, who knows and understands his faith, you have no need to prove the fallacy of the Rapture because they do not believe in it. If you are debating someone brought up in a Protestant tradition who has forsaken his faith to buy into the Rapture fallacy introduced early in the last century as an innovation that denies the saving action of Christ on the Cross and the efficacy of the Resurrection, then you are not even debating a Fundamentalist, who bases his belief solely on scripture, in which the Rapture has no basis. You are debating a non-Christian cultist, similar to a Mormon or JW, who denies Christ so that is where you have to begin your argument. A study of the early fathers who challenged Arianism, especially Athanasius, is the place to start.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top