Oh please ...
Is this your idea of the Rapture?
Ya ... it's called our "blessed hope."
Titus 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
I'm not a Dispensationalist, "the rapture"--Christians being beamed up into heaven--simply isn't part of my theology; it's simply not part of normative Christian teaching.
What Christians have instead believed, throughout history, is in the resurrection of the dead. That at Christ's parousia the dead shall be raised, bodily. This is, by the way, what St. Paul is talking about in 1 Thessalonians 4 when He speaks of Christ's coming (parousia) and the dead rising, and those alive and remain caught together to meet the returning Christ in the air. But the emphasis is explicit: Christ's return, the resurrection of the dead; it is rather the opposite of the Dispensationalist position that Jesus beams up Christians into heaven (something Scripture simply never mentions, and which Christians have
never believed up until the last two hundred or so years).
So no, this isn't my idea of "the rapture". It's the Christian teaching on the resurrection of the dead. As is confessed,
"We believe ... in the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting in the age to come. Amen."
It's one of the most basic teachings of the Christian religion, mentioned time and again throughout the Scriptures themselves, ...
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Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment." - John 4:28-29
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And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given Me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise Him up on the last day." - John 6:39-40
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No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day." John 6:44
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And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by His power." - 1 Corinthians 6:14
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If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." - Romans 8:11
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Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that He raised Christ, whom He did no traise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.
... But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father after defeating every rule and every authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be defeated is death.
... So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a soulish body; it is raised a Spiritual body. If there is a soulish body, there is also a Spiritual body.
... Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be transformed, in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, at the final trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised imperishable, and we shall be transformed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
'Death is swallowed up in victory.'
'O Death, where is your victory?
O Death, where is your sting?'" - 1 Corinthians ch. 15
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our dead shall live, their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is the dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead." - Isaiah 26:19
"[Christ]
who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself." - Philippians 3:21
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...confessed and believed by every single one of the ancient fathers of the Church, contained in Creeds, and the historic confessions of the faith. It is what all Christians, throughout history and around the world, believe. It is what has always been believed. From St. Paul to St. Ignatius to St. Augustine to Martin Luther, John Wesley; Catholics, Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Orthodox, Anglicans,
everyone.
The doctrine of the resurrection of the dead is fundamental to the Christian religion. Without the doctrine of resurrection there is no Christian religion.
-CryptoLutheran
