Rapture
The Rapture (meaning "to carry to another place"[1]) is a future event in Christian theology where Jesus Christ will return to Earth to bring his followers to Heaven. In Christianity it is believed that following this amazing event, the world will go through what is called the tribulation. Then later following, will come the millennium (a thousand years).
Tribulation
[change | change source]The tribulation (or the great tribulation) is supposed theory of a period of time somewhere around the rapture, where the Antichrist comes to power and controls the world. It is not entirely agreed among Christians whether the rapture occurs before (Pre-tribulation view), in the middle of (Pre-wrath view), or after the end of (Post-tribulation view) the tribulation, but most Christians seem to hold a Pre-tribulation view. Most Christians agree that the period lasts around seven years.
Millennium
[change | change source]The Millennium is the period following the rapture, and the tribulation, that Christians believe they will live in glory on the Earth. They also believe that Jesus Christ will be in total control over earth for 1,000 years (a millennium).
Other views
[change | change source]Many Christians do not accept the rapture theology. They have a different way to understand the event described in 1 Thessalonians 4. They do not use the term rapture and don't generally subscribe to the dispensational theology associated with its use.[2] They interpret rapture in the sense of Christians gathering with Christ in Heaven directly after the Second Coming. The don't think that many people will be left behind on Earth for seven years after the events of 1 Thessalonians 4:17.[3][4]
Destination
[change | change source]Dispensationalists think the raptured Christians are taken to Heaven. Catholic commentators, such as Walter Drum also think the destination of the 1 Thessalonians 4:17 gathering is Heaven.[5]
A popular Anglican commentator, N. T. Wright, says the destination is a specific place on Earth. He thinks that having gone out to meet their returning Lord, Christians will escort him back to the place they have come from where He will rule. This interpretation of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 has caused some to question the "left behind" idea. [6] This interpretation may sometimes be connected to Christian environmentalist concerns.[7]
Books and movies
[change | change source]Books
[change | change source]In 1950, the novel Raptured by Ernest Angley was published, and in 1995, the first of the Left Behind series was published. These and other books have made the story of the rapture and the tribulation popular.
Movies
[change | change source]The Rapture story has been retold in many movies. The most well-known production company is Cloud Ten Pictures. Which have created the Left Behind film series (Left Behind: The Movie, Left Behind II: Tribulation Force, and Left Behind: World at War), as well as several other movies. Some other notable end times movies are A Thief in the Night and The Omega Code.
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Dictionary.com
- ↑ "Free Methodist, For Jesus' Sake". Stanwood Free Methodist Church. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
Like the early Methodists, the Free Methodist Church is non-dispensational. We reject the new theology born in the late 1800s that society can only get worse, and that Jesus must return to "rapture" His people from earth to heaven. Instead, Free Methodists pray and believe that by His Spirit, God's will shall indeed "be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10 NRSV).
- ↑
- Guinan, Michael D. (2014-04-04). "Raptured or Not? A Catholic Understanding - Catholic Update October©2005". vatican.va. Archived from the original on 2014-04-04. Retrieved 2023-06-15.
- Coniaris, Anthony M. "The Rapture: Why the Orthodox don't Preach it". light-n-life.com. Archived from the original on 2012-11-09. Retrieved 2023-06-15.
- "Where does the Rapture fit into UM beliefs?". The United Methodist Church. Retrieved 2023-06-15.
- Schwertley, Brian M. (2013-03-11). "Is the Pretribulation Rapture Theory Biblical?". reformedonline.com. Archived from the original on 2013-03-11. Retrieved 2023-06-15.
- ↑ 1 Thessalonians 4:17
- ↑ Drum, Walter (1 July 1912). "Epistles to the Thessalonians". Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York City: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 12 December 2010.
- ↑ Wright, N. T. (2008). Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. HarperOne. p. 133. ISBN 978-0061551826.
When Paul speaks of 'meeting' the Lord 'in the air,' the point is precisely not—as in the popular rapture theology—that the saved believers would then stay up in the air somewhere, The point is that, having gone out to meet their returning Lord, they will escort him royally into his domain, that is, back to the place they have come from. Even when we realize that this is highly charged metaphor, not literal description, the meaning is the same as in the parallel in Philippians 3:20. Being citizens of heaven, as the Philippians would know, doesn't mean that one is expecting go back to the mother city but rather means that one is expecting the emperor to come from the mother city to give the colony its full dignity, to rescue it if need he, to subdue local enemies and put everything to rights.
- ↑ Bouma-Prediger, Steven (2010) [2001]. For the Beauty of the Earth: A Christian Vision for Creation Care. Engaging Culture (2nd ed.). Baker Academic. ISBN 978-0801036958.
Other websites
[change | change source]- RaptureReady
- RaptureAlert Archived 2008-04-23 at the Wayback Machine
- ReligiousTolerance Archived 2008-05-16 at the Wayback Machine
- NewFoundationsPubl Archived 2008-11-20 at the Wayback Machine