Why is the Rapture So Popular Among Evangelical and Charismatic Christians?

[redleghunter]

I think it's for recruitment/scare tactic to get people to their churches.

That would apply to any judgement and wrath language in the Bible. So don't see your point.

 

[redleghunter]

Do you have a scripture that says the rapture could happen at any time?

While I’m waiting for your scripture, here are three things that happen at His coming.


Without debating the tribulation timing, it would be good to just observe these biblical facts about the rapture, the resurrection and the destruction of the wicked, including the antichrist, which all take place at His coming.


Point Number 1:

• The resurrection of the dead in Christ will take place at His coming, before the rapture.

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 1 Thessalonians 4:16


Point Number 2:

• The rapture takes place, just a moment after the resurrection, in which all His people will be gathered together to be with Him, in the air. The resurrection/rapture is one event, at His coming.

Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:17


Point Number 3:

The same coming of the Lord, by which the Lord gathers His people at the resurrection/rapture, also destroys the antichrist.

• Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 Thessalonians 2:1
• And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 2 Thessalonians 2:8

The coming of the Lord to gather together His people unto Himself; the resurrection/rapture is the same coming that destroys the antichrist.


Here is the full context.


Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8




JLB

Thanks JLB for what I consider the Historic Futurist view. In my impartial humble opinion as I look at the various views this one has the least complications Biblically and does not require exegetical gymnastics.

 

[redleghunter]

Morgan Edwards also believed in a Pre-Trib Rapture. However, his understanding on the length of the Tribulation was shorter than our understanding of it.

I learned something new today Jason. Thanks!

Most of these discussions always focus on the timing of the rapture, however, I think the piece linked below (scholarly paper) approaches the issue the correct way....When does Christ return. Just going to posit the below as an item of interest for those interested.

http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/29/29-2/29-2-pp163-177_JETS.pdf

 

[rockytopva]

I believe in the seven churches as ages...

Ephesus - Messianic - Beginning with the Apostle to the Circumcision, Peter
Smyrna - Martyr - Beginning with the Apostle to the Un-Circumcision, Paul
Pergamos - Orthodoxy formed in this time... Pergos is a tower... Needed in the dark ages
Thyatira - Catholicism formed in this time - The spirit of Jezebel is to control and to dominate.
Sardis - Protestantism formed in this time- A sardius is a gem - elegant yet hard and rigid
Philadelphia - Wesleyism formed in this time - To be sanctioned is to acquire it with love.
Laodicea - Charismatic movement formed in this time - Beginning with DL Moody, the first to make money off of ministry

Notes....

The Church was not always Messianic, but at one time Messianic, run by the Apostles
There was a time of the Martyrs, and the Apostle Paul was considered the Apostle to the Gentiles.
The Orthodox Church in Pergameon times was a scattered fold
The Church was not always Catholic, I believe the Catholic church is a legitiment Christian church
The Church was not always Sardisean, and this fold could be just as bad as the others
The Church was not always Methodist, and the Methodist type revivals did not last long
The Church was not always materialistic, and there have been many who have went overboard in materialism
History has bore out the message of the seven churches as ages, and if you read into this prophecy you should see it.
I believe in Christian Forums as seeing the reality of a many denominational church as right. And we could learn from one another if we do not harden our hearts.

The Times of the Gentiles....

The persecutions against the first church basically wiped them out. At the close of the Smyrnaen church age all that was left was basically the second church.

And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. - Luke 21:24

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. - Romans 11:25


I believe that the Laodicean church age is coming to a close, the fullness of the times of the Gentiles is at hand, and God the Father will once again eye Israel favorably.

I believe after the last soul has been added to the Christian fold that the Lord will come for his church, in a time as a thief, unlooked for....

13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words. - 1 Thessalonians 4

 

[Anto9us]

I think one thing which could have generated an interest in pre-trib Rapture may have been National Israel -- formed in late forties and big six-day war in late sixties.

This got people into a "newspaper eschatology"
Hal Lindsay published Late Great Planet Earth in mid 70's I think

Then what Darby had popularized, through Scofield Reference Bible -- received a lot of creedence -- people said "Wow - these Dispensationalists kept saying Israel was going to rule their own land again -- and it Happenned!"

Not all charismatic churches are PreTrib -- I used to go to one that was not.

To find a "Pre-Darby pre-trib statement" like Pseudo-Ephraim was the Dispensationalist dream -- I remember the story of a phone call between (pre-trib scholars) Tom Ice and Grant Jeffrees when Jefrees 'found' the pseudo-Ephraim statement. That these pretribbers went so ga-ga over it is just that much more indication that -- no, til Darby, this pre-trib eschatology was well-nigh non-existent.

The early church had Pre-MILLENNIALISTS - Chilaism - Historic premill or whatever you call it -- it did not have preTRIB

well, I think, Monk, the "newspaper eschatology angle" created a lot of interest in pretrib Rapture, with Hal Lindsay's pre-trib book coming out a few years after six-day war

Russia was gonna be Gog of Magog - Henry Kissinger was gonna be the AntiChrist...

I cannot decide if Revelation was written 66 or 96
I take no firm position in eschatology
but main thing I cannot buy into about PreTrib is a "gap" between 69th and 70th 'weeks' in Daniel's prophecy

Nowhere else in the Bible when specific time was proclaimed (I.e. Jews in Egypt, Jeremiah's 70 years captivity)

nowhere is there a "GAP" -- this dispensationalist tool of saying "The prophetic clock STOPPED, and will resume after a pre-Trib Rapture -- it's far-fetched to me now

To me, whether Daniel was written in Babylonian exile times or -- as some scholars suggest -- 167 BC in Macabbean times

Doesn't matter -- you still have the most astonishing prophecies that the 69 shauvim starting with a command to go back and rebuild walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2?) ENDS just about right on the nose with the crucifixion, when Messiah was CUT OFF per Daniel's prophecy

It is possible, but unlikely to me, that a "future 70th shavim awaits"

but animal sacrifices restored? After Christ's perfect sacrifice? Nahh

 

[akaDaScribe]

That's some interesting perspective Rocky.

What's your take on Babylon?

 

[GUANO]

Because it's much harder to follow a 'god' who would put them through such a thing as the "Tribulation" is described to be... The idea became popular during a generation that never experienced any sort of real 'Tribulation' such as war, disease, or famine. Trust me, the idea isn't prevalent anywhere else other than several countries that are heavily influenced by evangelical denominations.

 

[Hermit76]

I'm a former Baptist/Pentecostal Pastor. I believe that it is so popular because it brings with it a sense of security, belonging, and affirmation that is lacking in the Protestant Church. With no sacred tradition, Apostolic Succession, Sacraments, and history, there's not much there that screams, "we're right." However, if you can make the Bible claim that God is going to perform some covert night ops to rescue the entirety of your version of Christianity (because Catholics, Orthodox, etc. are all left behind), it makes you feel, well, special.

 

[Bass4Jesus]

> Why is the Rapture So Popular Among Evangelical
> and Charismatic Christians?

I'm just as mystified. Here's the way I look at it: Even if I get a lightning flash of Truth From Above concerning every possible aspect of the Rapture, am I going to change my behavior (or rather, how I'm constantly trying to improve it)?

No.

Fully-informed or not, can I have any effect at all on how the Rapture's going to play out?

No.

The Rapture will just "be," and there's nothing I or anyone else can do about it.

So, I fully sympathize with the OP's question.

 

[Hermit76]

> Why is the Rapture So Popular Among Evangelical
> and Charismatic Christians?

I'm just as mystified. Here's the way I look at it: Even if I get a lightning flash of Truth From Above concerning every possible aspect of the Rapture, am I going to change my behavior (or rather, how I'm constantly trying to improve it)?

No.

Fully-informed or not, can I have any effect at all on how the Rapture's going to play out?

No.

The Rapture will just "be," and there's nothing I or anyone else can do about it.

So, I fully sympathize with the OP's question.

You do realize that the OP doesn't believe in the rapture?

 

[Ken Rank]

Because it's much harder to follow a 'god' who would put them through such a thing as the "Tribulation" is described to be... The idea became popular during a generation that never experienced any sort of real 'Tribulation' such as war, disease, or famine. Trust me, the idea isn't prevalent anywhere else other than several countries that are heavily influenced by evangelical denominations.

I know this isn't a popular thought, but I do agree with you. The pre-tribulation rapture is centered mainly in western, dispensational, evangelical countries... and narrowed down more... mostly the U.S. The truth is, and this is where the disconnect rests.... the tribulation is NOT the wrath... it is not God's anger being poured out on the unjust, that is at the END of the tribulation. The tribulation itself is a time of trial, testing, purging... a time when the people of God are confronted by a common foe and because of that, draw closer not only to God, but to each other. The divisions we currently see today, will be repaired and we'll resemble a nation within the nations as we await the return of Messiah who will set up a Kingdom.

 

[redleghunter]

Because it's much harder to follow a 'god' who would put them through such a thing as the "Tribulation" is described to be... The idea became popular during a generation that never experienced any sort of real 'Tribulation' such as war, disease, or famine. Trust me, the idea isn't prevalent anywhere else other than several countries that are heavily influenced by evangelical denominations.

There are more compelling theological considerations than "brave brave Sir Robbin runs away."

As I opined on earlier in the thread:

Why is the Rapture So Popular Among Evangelical and Charismatic Christians?

 

[redleghunter]

I'm a former Baptist/Pentecostal Pastor. I believe that it is so popular because it brings with it a sense of security, belonging, and affirmation that is lacking in the Protestant Church. With no sacred tradition, Apostolic Succession, Sacraments, and history, there's not much there that screams, "we're right." However, if you can make the Bible claim that God is going to perform some covert night ops to rescue the entirety of your version of Christianity (because Catholics, Orthodox, etc. are all left behind), it makes you feel, well, special.

A most sardonic way of looking at it.

 

[Andy centek]

What has been written in the scripture has been written.What has been given to mankind has been given. To those with the enlightenment of the mind who do see the spiritual, They see. To those who do not, they won't: Unless God be willing on an individual basis.
Hence comes man's religion in various packages. God's truth is still in One Package, that given by the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ and now through Christ Jesus.

Andy Centek

 

[Bible Highlighter]

I think one thing which could have generated an interest in pre-trib Rapture may have been National Israel -- formed in late forties and big six-day war in late sixties.

This got people into a "newspaper eschatology"
Hal Lindsay published Late Great Planet Earth in mid 70's I think

Then what Darby had popularized, through Scofield Reference Bible -- received a lot of creedence -- people said "Wow - these Dispensationalists kept saying Israel was going to rule their own land again -- and it Happenned!"

Not all charismatic churches are PreTrib -- I used to go to one that was not.

To find a "Pre-Darby pre-trib statement" like Pseudo-Ephraim was the Dispensationalist dream -- I remember the story of a phone call between (pre-trib scholars) Tom Ice and Grant Jeffrees when Jefrees 'found' the pseudo-Ephraim statement. That these pretribbers went so ga-ga over it is just that much more indication that -- no, til Darby, this pre-trib eschatology was well-nigh non-existent.

The early church had Pre-MILLENNIALISTS - Chilaism - Historic premill or whatever you call it -- it did not have preTRIB

well, I think, Monk, the "newspaper eschatology angle" created a lot of interest in pretrib Rapture, with Hal Lindsay's pre-trib book coming out a few years after six-day war

Russia was gonna be Gog of Magog - Henry Kissinger was gonna be the AntiChrist...

I cannot decide if Revelation was written 66 or 96
I take no firm position in eschatology
but main thing I cannot buy into about PreTrib is a "gap" between 69th and 70th 'weeks' in Daniel's prophecy

Nowhere else in the Bible when specific time was proclaimed (I.e. Jews in Egypt, Jeremiah's 70 years captivity)

nowhere is there a "GAP" -- this dispensationalist tool of saying "The prophetic clock STOPPED, and will resume after a pre-Trib Rapture -- it's far-fetched to me now

To me, whether Daniel was written in Babylonian exile times or -- as some scholars suggest -- 167 BC in Macabbean times

Doesn't matter -- you still have the most astonishing prophecies that the 69 shauvim starting with a command to go back and rebuild walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2?) ENDS just about right on the nose with the crucifixion, when Messiah was CUT OFF per Daniel's prophecy

It is possible, but unlikely to me, that a "future 70th shavim awaits"

but animal sacrifices restored? After Christ's perfect sacrifice? Nahh

A week = 7 years.

27 "Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also." (Genesis 29:27-28).

Daniel 12:11 NLT says,

From the time the daily sacrifice is stopped... there will be 1,290 days.

Revelation 11:2 NLT says,

The nations ... will trample the holy city for 42 months.

Daniel 9:27 says,

And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,

In the middle of the week the sacrifice is stopped. If the week is seven years according to Genesis, then at the point the sacrifice is stopped we would have 3 and a half years or 1,290 days, or 42 months to go. Two 3 and a half years = 7 years.

It all fits.

Prophetic gaps are nothing new to Scripture, as well.

Jesus closed the book in Isaiah (when talking about the good news) right at the point when the Day of the Lord was supposed to come (Compare Isaiah 61:1-2 with Luke 4:18-19).

Here is another one.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

Okay. So the prophetic gap is between the point Jesus is born vs. the government being upon his shoulders. There is a gap of time between him being born by way of a virgin and ruling during the Millennium.

We are under an age of grace. Grace is about not accounting your sins against you. God is giving man time or space to repent. The prophetic clock of the ending Judgment is on hold because of the grace of Jesus Christ.

Daniel 9:27 mentions the "consummation" or an end of all things within the 70th week.

Definition of consummation:

the ultimate end: finish

Definition of CONSUMMATION

I mean, God literally stopped the sun for Joshua. This would mean that time would have stopped within the universe (or at least for the sun) besides the time that effected Joshua. So yes. God can stop the clock.

Genesis 1:14 says,
"Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:"

In other words, the lights in the sky were to determine the days, seasons, and years (Which is a measurement on time).

 

[Andy centek]

I remember my church playing the movie Left Behind.....I never liked it nor agreed with it.....but I didn't become fully convinced that there is no pre-tribulation or mid-tribulation rapture until I read the entire Book of Revelation.....there were just too many scriptures that indicated we would be here. Coming from a background of Baptist to Pentecostal faith I was quite alone in what I believed. Had to keep it to myself for years until more recently where others have started sharing their same beliefs.

 

[Andy centek]

Isn't it interesting how the pronoun, We, gets added to where it is not used in the scriptures? Who is the we that people like to add to the scriptures? Scriptures always says who it is writing to, or about. The problem is that man likes to put themselves is where they like it the best.
For example: The we that is injected has replaced the, They, the Israelite's. The Gentiles are never addressed except in the apostle Paul's writings. Why? Because He was sent by Jesus Christ to be THEIR APOSTLE; as well as the converted Jews. Yet many ignore that truth which is given in the scriptures for the Gentiles and choose to use whatever scriptures they like!

Andy Centek

 

[redleghunter]

The truth is, and this is where the disconnect rests.... the tribulation is NOT the wrath... it is not God's anger being poured out on the unjust, that is at the END of the tribulation. The tribulation itself is a time of trial, testing, purging... a time when the people of God are confronted by a common foe and because of that, draw closer not only to God, but to each other.

I guess it depends on where you see 'the END of the tribulation."

However, wrath is mentioned quite often before the Second Coming in Revelation 19:

Revelation 6: NKJV
12 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. 13 And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. 14 Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. 15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, 16 and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”


Revelation 8: NKJV
13 And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!”

We see here those who survive the last three trumpets don't repent. Does not sound like the Church is under trial, testing and purging. This is outright punishment for wickedness.

Revelation 9: NKJV
18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. 19 For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.

20 But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

Revelation 15: NKJV
1Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete.

[...]

5 After these things I looked, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened. 6 And out of the temple came the seven angels having the seven plagues, clothed in pure bright linen, and having their chests girded with golden bands. 7 Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever. 8 The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power, and no one was able to enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.


Revelation 16: NKJV
1Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth.”

[...]

17 Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” 18 And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. 19 Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. 20 Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 21 And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great.

 

[Bass4Jesus]

You do realize that the OP doesn't believe in the rapture?

Whether MB does or doesn't, it's n/a to the question he originally asked: Why is the Rapture so popular among evangelicals and charismatics. The answers to that question don't hinge on one person's belief or nonbelief in the Rapture. These are separate, disconnected issues.

 

[Hermit76]

Whether MB does or doesn't, it's n/a to the question he originally asked: Why is the Rapture so popular among evangelicals and charismatics. The answers to that question don't hinge on one person's belief or nonbelief in the Rapture. These are separate, disconnected issues.

Your response made it sound like you assumed he believed in the rapture.