RE: Questions About the Rapture
September 28, 2014 at 9:02 pm
(This post was last modified: September 28, 2014 at 9:59 pm by Drich.)
(September 28, 2014 at 8:15 pm)Jenny A Wrote: Rapture was not theology even discussed in the churches I grew-up in although one of those Churches was Presbyterian and some branches of the Presbyterians were the first to accept it. It's only been with the political rise Evangelical Christians and the Left Behind books that I heard about it at all. Since then I've seen it predicted and the date come and go a few times.
So I've been doing some poking around. As church doctrines go, it's a pretty new idea. Pre-20th Century references to it are extremely thin on the ground. It appears to be at best an 18th Century idea that didn't become anything approaching popular until the 19th. It's now as mainstream as it's ever been.
See The Rapture: A Popular but False Doctrine by Cecil Maranville and Wikipedia Rapture
So my question for Christians are:
Quote:1) Do you believe in the Rapture?yes
Quote:2) If so, how do you support it BiblicallyThe Koine Greek of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 uses the verb form ἁρπαγησόμεθα (harpagisometha), which means "we shall be caught up" or "taken away", with the connotation that this is a sudden event. The dictionary form of this Greek verb is harpazō (ἁρπάζω).[18] This use is also seen in such texts as Acts 8:39, 2Corinthians 12:2-4 and Revelation 12:5.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture
Quote:3) Why is this such a relatively recent idea?The idea isn't new. it is apart of 1 thess 4. The doctrine (details) following the passage are what is 'new.'
Quote:4) Why is it primarily a U.S. Christian doctrine only?It's not. All forms of christianity believe in the rapture, but the subsequent explaination as to what that means varies.