I see it a lot being written and been told it. I want to know why people believe it is false.
I consider it my only hope each day. ....
The doctrine of "the rapture" is not something believed by the overwhelming mass majority of Christians because it's simply never been a Christian teaching. The doctrine was invented and developed in the 1800's, chiefly by an Irish preacher named John Nelson Darby and the Plymouth Brethren. It came to the United States when several accolytes of Darby's teaching began preaching the doctrine across the Atlantic, some of these early Dispensationalist preachers include Dwight L. Moody. Another man, Cyrus Scofield published the Scofield Reference Bible, which was the King James Version with explanations and reference notes in the margins which advocated a Dispensationalist interpretation. Several seminaries were established to preach the new doctrine.
The new doctrine began to develop more support in the 20th century, specifically among Fundamentalists and Evangelicals, and by the 70's and 80's had become firmly entrenched in American Evangelical theology, and in the 80's and 90's a booming business of books that advocated the doctrine swelled in popularity, including Hal Lindsay's
The Late Great Planet Earth, and more popular Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkin's
Left Behind series of novels.
It is a popular doctrine in select Christian circles, but has never been accepted by mainstream, traditional Christian churches on account that these doctrines are at odds with what Christianity has always taught, and for the simple fact that they aren't biblical.
The idea that Jesus is going to snatch people into heaven prior to a seven year period of tribulation is no where to be found in Scripture, and it was never taught in the early Church, or by anyone in the history of the Christian religion until less than 200 years ago.
That's why many Christians say the rapture is a lie, because it's simply not orthodox Christian teaching, it's not biblical teaching, it's a modern, new doctrine invented less than two centuries ago that is accepted by a very small minority of Christians.
The historic, orthodox, and mainstream teaching is that the Lord Jesus will return, in glory, as judge of the living and the dead, and that when He comes the dead will be resurrected, and we who are alive shall share with them in their transformation as Christ comes and God makes everything new.
When Jesus comes, it will not be hidden, it will not be a secret, it will be known by all, as Scripture says, "Every eye shall see Him" (Revelation 1:7), when He comes He comes in judgment, even as it was in the days of Noah where people were getting married and going about their business as usual when, without warning, the flood came and took the wicked away--"two will be in a field, one will be taken, and the other left" (Matthew 24:40) refers to Judgment, it was the wicked who were taken away in the flood. When the Lord returns, it is in glory, as judge of the living and the dead, "Behold! I am coming soon, and I will repay everyone for their deeds" (Revelation 22:12).
Christ will come, at a time we don't know (Matthew 24:36), and when He comes the dead will be raised (1 Corinthians 15:20-28), and we who are alive at His coming will join with them, caught in the air to meet the returning and victorious Lord Jesus as He comes down from heaven to the earth (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18), in judgment (2 Timothy 4:1), and when He does He will hand all things over to the Father, and God will be all in all, and He will make all things new: A new heavens and a new earth (Isaiah 65:17, Revelation 21:5).
This is the historic belief of the Christian Church, and what is believed by most Christians--Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox alike.
The "rapture" is simply a false doctrine based on very bad interpretations of Scripture and modern human imagination.
-CryptoLutheran
