The rapture is easily disproven in Scripture.
The film starts with a quote from 1 Thessalonians 4 which believers in the rapture use as the primary proof text in their favor.
***For the Lord himself, with a word of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, will come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord *
in the air. Thus we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)
The problem with seeing this as proof that true believers in Christ will be taken up by Jesus into the clouds to go to Heaven is that it exhibits a lack of understanding of the historical context under which this passage was written. All through scripture we have examples of Kings who “Go out to meet” their enemies in the context of war. Prominent citizens and leaders of cities would also “Go out to meet” friendly kings and generals as they came to visit, as a gesture of respect and honor. Prominent citizens would would leave the safety of the walled city, unarmed, and “Go out to meet” the visiting king or military leader, who would then be escorted back to the city as a guest of honor. Escorting the king back to the city as an honored guest is the context under which Paul wrote this passage. The reference would have been clear to the ancient Israelites but we have lost the historical context. In the proper context, we can see that it is a reference to our “Going out to meet” our king, Jesus, and escorting him back to earth as an honored guest. We will escort Jesus back to the walled city of Jerusalem, which is symbolic for the Church, and Jesus will establish a “New Jerusalem” which John references in Revelation.
***I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven *
from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (Revelation 21:2)
The idea that Jesus will come down from heaven and stop about a mile above the earth in the clouds, that all true believers will go up to the clouds to meet him, and that Jesus will hang a U-Turn and head back to heaven, for ratpture theologiests, means that there will be two second comings of Christ, one at the rapture and one at the end of time. Or is it one full second coming of Christ at the end of time and one partial second coming of Christ at the rapture?
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. (John 6:44)
Consider Christ’s own words here. He states that we will be raised “on the last day.” If 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 is proof of the rapture, then Christ is a liar. Rapture theology states that the true believers who are “Dead in Christ” will rise but that this is not yet the end of time. How can these believers rise from the dead if this is not the end of time when Christ said he will raise us “On the last day?” Perhapse Christ meant “I will raise him on the last day before the rapture”?
The video, in quoting 1 Thessalonians 4 as the standard rapture proof text, disproves iteself. Like most of Evangelical Christianity, it pulls a single verse out of scripture and inteprets it in a vacuum, failing to take into account the political, social and economic context under whicht he author and his intended audience operated and ignoring the rest of scripture, including Jesus own words.
They even threw in a reference to Matthew 24 stating that the rapture will bring relief from “Wars and rhumors of wars.” They even got this wrong. In Matthew 24, Jesus was prophesying about the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and the killing of 1.2 million Jews by the Romans in 70 AD, not about the rapture or about the end of the world.
The guy who throws down the Bible (at 4:30) as the narrator says “Unbelief!” makes the video worth watching though.
-Tim-
