The next item for a pre-trib rapture:
2 Thessalonians 2:6 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. NKJV
The church contains the Holy Spirit that is the restrainer. The restrainer will leave with the church. Therefore, the church has to go so the lawless one can be revealed. To rebut:
Philippians 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; NKJV
A better and more common translation for the Greek word translated “complete” is preform. So the verse means that Jesus will preform the good work until the day of the Lord. Jesus will work to sanctify His church until the day of Christ. Sanctification only works on earth as you can't put to death the sins of the flesh in a spirit without flesh.
The church with the Spirit of Jesus will be present until the day of the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 4:15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 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. 17 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. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words. NKJV
Above is the event the Thessalonians thought they missed. The “we who are alive” includes all the Christians at that time. Paul wrote both letters to the Thessalonians while he was in Corinth establishing the church there, They were written sometime around 52-54 ad.
1 Corinthians 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed — 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. NKJV
The “we shall not all sleep “applies to all Christians alive at the time. That included the Thessalonian church. This epistle was written after the 2 he sent to the Thessalonians. They cannot be two separate events as it includes the same people and both events describe the resurrection of the sons of God. To make sure there would be no misunderstanding he said the trumpet call would be the last trumpet.
All of the epistles in question were written prior to the destruction of Israel and temple in 70ad.
2 Thessalonians 2:5 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. NKJV
Verse 6 you (the Thessalonians) now know what is restraining the man of lawlessness from being reveled. Something in the preceding verses contains the answer. It's either the apostasy, the man of sin must sit in the temple of God or both.
At the time of Paul's writing the letters the Temple was still standing in Jerusalem. Michael the archangel is guarding the nation of Israel. Michael's job is to protect the nation of Israel from Satan and his demons. The one restraining is Michael. Ten or fifteen years from the time of 2 Thessalonians the temple will be destroyed and Israel will cease to be a unified land possessing nation. Michael will stand down until Israel is again reunited.
Israel is now united as a nation and Michael is back on the job. The great apostasy has begun. God is in control and the lawless one will be revealed in his time. Now all that needs to be done is for Israel to build the temple and then Michael will stand down at God's request.
Come quickly Lord Jesus. Thank God we were born for such a time as this.
The short response, Catholics are to reject any form of millenarianism which explodes into a false rapture.
It is clear from scripture that the Church, the Body of Christ, must traverse the persecution. Those outside in the wilderness may never see persecution because the war is against truth. The Church went through horrendous persecution in the first 3 centuries. It went through persecutions in the Middle Ages and wars from Luther to this day. In the wilderness the altars have been torn down and the antichrist propped up evil men in their place such as Jim Jones. [Cf.
CCC 675]
The Antichrist attacks with subjective truth, after all he suggest, man does not need God except to subjugate Him; after all, it is contrary to nature, innate, and inalienable right and liberty to subject oneself to any authority not sanctioned within himself. He suggests to man and mankind that this way all men can be gods [Cf.
CCC 676]
Scripture reveals the Church enters the glory of the Kingdom of Christ at the supper of the Lamb. Satan will find himself bound in the sense that he is restrained from perverting the gospel and will “no longer seduce” (Rev. 20:3). Truth shall reign forever thereafter. This reprieve allows time to enter a strong man’s house to preach against him. “how can anyone enter into the house of the strong, and rifle his goods, unless he first bind the strong? And then he will rifle his house.” [Matt 12:29] When the gospel is taught evil falls like lightning, (Cf. Luke 10:18); consequently, in this sense you could think of Satan as being bound. [Cf.
CCC 677]
Important for those outside the Church, those lost in a wilderness of their own making is a Book that does not illuminate, for only the Church illuminates the objectivity of eternal life. As such they tell themselves, if it is not in the book, it is not so.
By the rule in chaos, “rapture” is not so.
Rapture is not found in the Book, except by distorting a word found in the Latin Vulgate, “
rapiemur “,” caught up”. Some Catholics believe they too will be caught-up but caught up in perfection and with Him on the
Parousia or the Real Presence of Christ on the last day. There is absolutely no question we will be brought up together just as Christ was “
lifted up, and a cloud caught him away from their sight.”[Acts 1:9]. This is the entire meaning of the Gospel, the God/man paid for our sins making it possible for mankind to be saved then “lifted up” as if on a cloud and ascended into heaven. Paul is telling the Thessalonians that on the last day it will not be those still physically walking about will not experience death because of the sin of Adam, as all men before them most die. Since first the dead and then those still physically alive will be ‘lifted-up’, that is rapiemur, or carried away, as Christ was lifted-up on a cloud. This is a direct reference to the resurrection which is the body and soul, ‘living’ and ‘dead’ together, being raised. Hence there is no advantage or disadvantage in being physically dead or alive. All those who are in Christ will be in the New Israel.
John Nelson Darby invented the ‘pre-tribulation’ theory less than 200 years ago based on a perverted interpretation of Scripture. The only mention of ‘pre-tribulation’ prior to Darby was in a short essay by the college student Morgan Edwards. Edwards had conflated the second coming in Apocalypse 20. Darby’s primary errors start with separating ‘Kingdom’ from ‘Church.’ God’s Kingdom is the Church, us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light. It is Christ "who hath
made us [the Catholic Church] worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light:
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love" [Colossians 1:12-13; see also Apocalypse 1:6, 9]. Christ Kingdom changed Moses’ Kingdom into the “Kingdom of the Son of His love” . Following Darby came D. L. Moody, Cyrus Scofield, Lewis Sperry Chafer, and Clarence Larkin carry the mantle of error. For a short period I followed Hal Lindsey’s predictions in the “Late Great Planet Earth” who also added his name to the chain of error along with Tim LaHaye who wrote a series of fictionalized stories sensationalizing the erroneous concept.
The pre-tribulation theory is a man-made doctrine of men is born out of fear by the culture of error that prescribes 'scripture interprets itself’. The culture is Protestantism and the error is 'Book alone.' If the Bible “interprets itself,” one is forced to ask how this critical issue cannot be made “self-evident”. And why are these so called evident truths differ from one culture of error and never seem to comes to pass? Most part Catholic's find rapture's main theme, of course each theme is a bit different, is to avoid tribulations, it’s odd; Christ tells us in Matthew 16: 24-25; “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For he that will save union with Christ. Yet each protestant paradigm tells a different 'truth', why is that if "Book interprets Book"?
Teeth-grinding Dorothy like faith requiring only the click of the heels and Christ comes and goes, comes and goes, ad infinitum, to serve and benefit of Dorothy. Recently reformers have turned over God's revelations to man eating heathens only to have this phony rapture-thing miss yet another dinner date
In antiquity, when the king came to town, all the honorable nobles brought themselves together
simul rapiemur cum and went to the outskirts of town to greet the king and escort him to into the town. Consequently, those who would “rapture” are taking a common idiom for reality. A “cool man” remains at 98.4 degrees Fahrenheit.
But let us add a thing two more to the ruptured idea of “rapture”. Christ himself said that end days would be like the days of Noah.
But of that day and hour no one knoweth, not the angels of heaven, but the Father alone. And as in the days of Noe, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, even till that day in which Noe entered into the ark, And they knew not till the flood came, and took them all away; so also shall the coming of the Son of man be." [Matthew 24:36-39]
In Noah’s day who was taken up by the sea? The good guys? The Bad guys? Those making marry until “the flood came and took them all away.” (Matt 24:39)! The bad guys were taken up; Noah was left on a boat, a covenant ark. This is a real contradiction for LaHay who wants to send up the good guys in lieu of those God judged as wicked men eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. (Cf. Gen 6:5). You might want to be taken up, but I’ll remain aboard the ark, the Church.
“. . . the dead who are in Christ, shall rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be taken up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ, into the air, and so shall we be always with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort ye one another with these words." [1 Thessalonians 4:16-17]
These people didn’t enter the Ark. They continued on with their lives until “Noe entered into the ark,” Matt 24:38 and ‘THEY,’ that is the people continuing on with their lives, marrying and giving in marriage, DIDN’T KNOW UNTIL THE FLOOD CAME. (Cf. Matt 24:39 sqq.).
The Elite (the once saved always saved crowd) didn’t fly up to the clouds rather the “Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory”.(KJV). And those already in heaven, had consumed Him in their life here on earth. You might say they consumed Him bite by bite, so that He could consume them "from the four points of the compass (‘the four winds’).“ (Cf. Matt 24:30 KJV)
Perfecting our faith, we await His coming in patience and humility - not fear and anxiety.
JoeT
