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

[Monk Brendan]

While the Rapture has been spoken about by other Protestants, it wasn't until John Darby (1800 to 1882) began spreading Dispensationalism and stories of a Pre-Tribulation rapture that "the Rapture" began to become popular. Does God need to wait 1800 years to reveal a new doctrine?

Please Discuss

 

[Aldebaran]

While the Rapture has been spoken about by other Protestants, it wasn't until John Darby (1800 to 1882) began spreading Dispensationalism and stories of a Pre-Tribulation rapture that "the Rapture" began to become popular. Does God need to wait 1800 years to reveal a new doctrine?

Please Discuss

It's probably so popular because it's something that could happen at anytime.

 

[thecolorsblend]

While the Rapture has been spoken about by other Protestants, it wasn't until John Darby (1800 to 1882) began spreading Dispensationalism and stories of a Pre-Tribulation rapture that "the Rapture" began to become popular. Does God need to wait 1800 years to reveal a new doctrine?

Please Discuss

There's an argument that their grasp of soteriology or maybe even ecclesiology is so horrible that they don't realize how sketchy virtually everything they believe in is.

 

[Heart2Soul]

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.

 

[Willie T]

Someday, one or two of you are going to finally read Revelation as it was actually written...... as a letter of encouragement to living Christians in some local churches, around 1,900 years ago.... NOT as a crystal ball, fortune-telling futuristic piece of magic.

 

[redleghunter]

While the Rapture has been spoken about by other Protestants, it wasn't until John Darby (1800 to 1882) began spreading Dispensationalism and stories of a Pre-Tribulation rapture that "the Rapture" began to become popular. Does God need to wait 1800 years to reveal a new doctrine?

Please Discuss

Perhaps because they know their Bibles well? Even know what the earliest fathers opined on?

Considering Irenaeus mentioned a post tribulation "caught up" "rapture" in Against Heresies I think your later date is off by 1700 years or so.


Against Heresies Book V Chapter 29:
1. In the previous books I have set forth the causes for which Godpermitted these things to be made, and have pointed out that all such have been created for the benefit of that human nature which is saved, ripening for immortality that which is [possessed] of its own free will and its own power, and preparing and rendering it more adapted for eternal subjection to God. And therefore the creation is suited to [the wants of] man; for man was not made for its sake, but creation for the sake of man. Those nations however, who did not of themselves raise up their eyes unto heaven, nor returned thanks to their Maker, nor wished to behold the light of truth, but who were like blind mice concealed in the depths of ignorance, the word justly reckons as waste water from a sink, and as the turning-weight of a balance — in fact, as nothing; Isaiah 40:15 so far useful and serviceable to the just, as stubble conduces towards the growth of the wheat, and its straw, by means of combustion, serves for working gold. And therefore, when in the end the Church shall be suddenly caught up from this, it is said, There shall be tribulation such as has not been since the beginning, neither shall be. Matthew 24:21 For this is the last contest of the righteous, in which, when they overcome they are crowned with incorruption.

"Caught up" is harpazo in the Koine Greek. It is also found in 1 Thessalonians 4:17

The term rapture comes from the Latin Vulgate:

deinde nos qui vivimus qui relinquimur simul rapiemur cum illis in nubibus obviam Domino in aera et sic semper cum Domino erimus

 

[redleghunter]

Someday, one or two of you are going to finally read Revelation as it was actually written...... as a letter of encouragement to living Christians in some local churches, around 1,900 years ago.... NOT as a crystal ball, fortune-telling futuristic piece of magic.

How was Revelation 19 taken by the 7 churches? Did Christ return in their time?

 

[Willie T]

How was Revelation 19 taken by the 7 churches? Did Christ return in their time?

Yes, the spiritual transference was already complete, the simple thing John was trying to assure the beleaguered Christians of. It was finalized during the tribulation time.

 

[Truth Lover]

therefore, when in the end the Church shall be suddenly caught up from this, it is said, There shall be tribulation such as has not been since the beginning, neither shall be. Matthew 24:21 For this is the last contest of the righteous, in which, when they overcome they are crowned with incorruption.

"Caught up" is harpazo in the Koine Greek. It is also found in 1 Thessalonians 4:17
The term rapture comes from the Latin Vulgate:

Irenaus was talking about the Second Coming of Christ. He did not believe there would be a period of tribulation that was separate from Judgment Day. When Jesus comes again that is the end of the world.
My objection to rapture theology is that it is essentially saying that Jesus will come three times. Once in the flesh, once to take the believers, and once to take the rest of the people. Scripture does not support that.

If a doctrine was invented in the 1800's it can't be what Jesus taught the apostles. It is a false gospel.

 

[1stcenturylady]

Someday, one or two of you are going to finally read Revelation as it was actually written...... as a letter of encouragement to living Christians in some local churches, around 1,900 years ago.... NOT as a crystal ball, fortune-telling futuristic piece of magic.

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it

 

[redleghunter]

Yes, the spiritual transference was already complete, the simple thing John was trying to assure the beleaguered Christians of. It was finalized during the tribulation time.

What is this spiritual transference?

 

[redleghunter]

Irenaus was talking about the Second Coming of Christ. He did not believe there would be a period of tribulation that was separate from Judgment Day. When Jesus comes again that is the end of the world.
My objection to rapture theology is that it is essentially saying that Jesus will come three times. Once in the flesh, once to take the believers, and once to take the rest of the people. Scripture does not support that.

If a doctrine was invented in the 1800's it can't be what Jesus taught the apostles. It is a false gospel.

Yes it is very possible to interpret Irenaeus as seeing the church caught up right before the second coming of Christ or as a simultaneous event. Historic futurists hold this view and it is supported by Scriptures.

 

[Willie T]

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it

Revelation was written appx. 66 AD, and the Temple and the Jewish System of Animal Sacrifice was prophetically destroyed about four years later.

 

[1stcenturylady]

Revelation was written appx. 66 AD, and the Temple and the Jewish System of Animal Sacrifice was prophetically destroyed about four years later.

96 A.D.

 

[Willie T]

What is this spiritual transference?

Search your Scriptures to learn what "coming on the clouds" meant to people and nations alike. (It was judgement)

 

[Willie T]

96 A.D.

Yes, many people were taught to accept that erroneous date. I was too..... until I began to think some.

 

[redleghunter]

the Temple and the Jewish System of Animal Sacrifice was prophetically destroyed about four years later.

It's true the sacrifice stopped after 70AD.

Revelation was written appx. 66 AD,

Not according to most scholars. The early church did not think so as most scholars and the external evidence shows a later compilation of Revelation. Early estimates are in the 80s AD and later estimates in the 90s AD.

But there are some who have an earlier date.

Scholars' Dates for Revelation

Yet let's not derail the good Monks thread. This thread is not about the dating of Revelation.

 

[redleghunter]

Search your Scriptures to learn what "coming on the clouds" meant to people and nations alike. (It was judgement)

Still not clear . Where does Jesus tell us of a spiritual transference?

Revelation 19 is quite clear who gets destroyed and it's not the Jews in Jerusalem.

 

[redleghunter]

If a doctrine was invented in the 1800's it can't be what Jesus taught the apostles. It is a false gospel.

It's really not a false gospel but an eschatology.

The Scriptures do support two resurrections. Revelation 20 shows this.

 

[Tayla]

Does God need to wait 1800 years to reveal a new doctrine?

There is no rapture. All passages used to support the rapture actually refer to the second coming of Christ.