"Rapture" - is it real?

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Many Evangelical Christians firmly believe in the so-called “Rapture” where believers are taken to Heaven en-mass. They combine quotes from Revelation. Tribulation and the end of days with Jesus’ 2nd. coming. The fact is that
there may be a “Rapture” but not what so may believe. Actually, just the reverse is stated:
AFTER the Tribulation, the evil will be taken away - not the believers! Read and understand the Bible!
“15 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.”

I mean, think about it - Jesus is returning for 1,000 years, ask yourself then returning to what? If all His followers have been “Raptured” only the evil will remain!
If the evil are “Raptured” as the Bible states, then Jesus and his followers will have 1,000 years of peace and happiness.
 
Do not look for rationality in anti-Biblical npotions. The people who created the concept of the Rapture twisted scripture to suit their need. Those who believe in it now generally haven’t given it much thought (just accepting it as “obviously true, since so many people believe in it.”), or haven’t delved deeply into the verses being quoted to examine their context.
 
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The most common teaching of the rapture can be traced back less than 300 years, to Puritan preachers Increase Mather and his son Cotton. It was further popularized by John Nelson Darby of the Plymouth Brethren. There are numerous applications to the doctrine, including pre, mid, and post millenialism as a time frame. And as you stated, the common belief is that it is the righteous who will be taken. But the scriptures say the end times will be like the time of Noah. In the time of Noah it was the righteous who were left behind to clean up.

There are many explanations from my evangelical friends for this sort of talk, and the bottom line is they believe they will be magically whisked away and be spared the horrific end of the age. What they can’t seem to agree on is who the righteous actually are. Certainly not Bob’s church down the street, they drink alcohol. And that bunch that Jerry and Cindy worship with had a dance last Saturday, so they won’t be coming.

I like what Father Mitch has said when asked about this. “Catholics believe there will be an end times”. End of explanation. 🙂
 
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There is no rapture per the Catholic Church. The rapture is a totally made up doctrine.
 
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I don’t mean to be a Bible-Catholic but if someone quotes chapter and verse for the notion of the Rapture I might perk up.

But I don’t think that I’ll be perking anytime soon though.
 
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CelticWarlord said:
t was further popularized by John Nelson Darby of the Plymouth Brethren.
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The Plymouth Brethren are really a tiny group. I think the publication of Hal Lindsey’s best selling “Late Great Planet Earth” which sold 28 million copies is what really increased the popularity of the rapture among groups that never heard of it.
 
The word rapture actually comes from the Vulgate, so it is surprising that it is used by protestants, but it is described in 1 Timothy 4:17:
…deinde nos qui vivimus qui relinquimur simul rapiemur cum illis in nubibus obviam Domino in aera et sic semper cum Domino erimus
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For our Lord him self in commandment and in the voice of an Archangel and in the trumpet of God will descend from heaven: and the dead that are in Christ, shall rise again first. Then we that live, that are left, withal shall be taken up with them in the clouds to meet Christ, into the air, and so always we shall be with our Lord. Therefore comfort ye one an other in these words.
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The church believes that at the end of the age, Enoch and Elijah will return and convert the Jewish people, and then the saints will be raptured into heaven. This is not necessarily the same as the protestant rapture though, where some people mysteriously disappear and others do not.
 
OmnesBonum said:
The church believes that at the end of the age, Enoch and Elijah will return and convert the Jewish people, and then the saints will be raptured into heaven.
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Can you please provide a source for that from the magisterium of the Catholic Church?

All I am familiar with is that the Catholic Church denies the rapture
 
The rapture in the protestant sense may be denied, but rapture can simply mean the “taking” or “snatching away” of something, which is the Latin word used in the passage from Thessalonians I quoted. Here are some quotes:
And therefore, when in the end the Church shall be suddenly caught up (raptured) from this, it is said, ‘There shall be tribulation such as has not been since the beginning, neither shall be.’ For this is the last contest of the righteous, in which, when they overcome they are crowned with incorruption. St Irenaeus ‘Against Hereses’
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For the wrath of God always strikes the obstinate people with seven plagues, that is, perfectly, as it is said in Leviticus; and these shall be in the last time, when the Church shall have gone out of the midst. St Victorinus ‘Commentary on the Apocolypse’
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For all the saints and elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken (raptured) to the Lord lest they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins. Possibly St Ephraim of Syria. (His whole treatise On the Last Times is a good explanation of early church ideas about the end of the world.)
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Yes, I noticed that too. Lots of Rapture questions today.

Long answer here. Short answer: if Rapture were crucial to our salvation, shouldn’t it be described more plainly? The Left Behind books quote massive amounts of Scripture, but the characters all have to be convinced by other characters putting it in the order required.

Or if you believe in the Rapture, keep in mind that many of us wouldn’t live to see it. People die every day. We need to be ready for our own end. The end of the world will get here in its time, but we may already be in our afterlife by then.
 
No, it is just Protestant meets Hollywood.
 
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