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My Answer is -- "yes they can and should" ... many do not engage in it.
Gaslighting is a term for denying the obvious as if such denial will confuse the other person into thinking that the obvious is not true.
For example:
Person A says "Two and Two is four" or "The rapture shows up in 1 Thess 4:13-18"
Person B says "I don't see that so it must not be true... it must be your imagination... you only think that because you don't listen to tradition"....
====================================
Here is an example of a Catholic website that is NOT using gaslighting to make its case against the rapture doctrine we see in 1 Thess 4:13-18
===================== END QUOTE
That is a great example of NOT using gaslighting. Rather they admit that the text clearly supports the view when one reads it on the face of it - but then they go into reasons from scripture why they choose to reject anyway.
I accept the rapture in John 14:1-3 in John 17 and in 1 Thess 4:13-18 -- but I can appreciate the fact that someone who objects to it - is doing a good thing by not resorting to gaslighting.
BTW - their Matt 24 example above - could also have included
Matt 24:29 “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. 31 And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet blast, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
Gaslighting is a term for denying the obvious as if such denial will confuse the other person into thinking that the obvious is not true.
For example:
Person A says "Two and Two is four" or "The rapture shows up in 1 Thess 4:13-18"
Person B says "I don't see that so it must not be true... it must be your imagination... you only think that because you don't listen to tradition"....
====================================
Here is an example of a Catholic website that is NOT using gaslighting to make its case against the rapture doctrine we see in 1 Thess 4:13-18
"Why Catholics Don't Believe in the Rapture"
notice that in the rapture-objecting POV above - they admit this point
=============================================== BEGIN QUOTE from the link above
Then two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one is taken and one is left. (Matthew 24:40-41)
"Believers in the rapture argue that in each of these examples, the one taken is a Christian who is raptured up to heaven, and the one left will remain on earth to suffer the great tribulation. At first, that may seem pretty convincing,..."
...
"The other most common passage used to support belief in the rapture comes from one of St. Paul's letters:
For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17)
"Again, this passage looks like it clearly teaches the rapture, ..."
===================== END QUOTE
That is a great example of NOT using gaslighting. Rather they admit that the text clearly supports the view when one reads it on the face of it - but then they go into reasons from scripture why they choose to reject anyway.
I accept the rapture in John 14:1-3 in John 17 and in 1 Thess 4:13-18 -- but I can appreciate the fact that someone who objects to it - is doing a good thing by not resorting to gaslighting.
BTW - their Matt 24 example above - could also have included
Matt 24:29 “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. 31 And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet blast, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
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