In other words, what they are suggesting is that because there are certain events that have taken place in the past, a similar type of event is sure to take place in the future. In the instance of Noah, the argument is that because of the example of Noah and his family receiving a warning from God to build the Ark because of that warning he was rescued before the great flood began.
Therefore, with the assertion being that because Noah was told to build the ark before the flood began Christians will be taken up into Heaven before the Great Tribulation begins.
Those Christians are then calling that event a pre-tribulation Rapture, citing that what has happened in the past is sure to happen again.
The word Rapture immediately conjures up images of millions and millions of Christians suddenly floating up into the air and into Heaven to be with the Lord forever. However, the word Rapture is never ever mentioned anywhere in the scriptures, nor is the notion of Christians floating up into Heaven to be with the Lord forever.
There have actually been three events relative to certain individuals disappearing up into Heaven without having to die first. Jesus himself, Elijah and Enoch! Those are the only instances where it speaks of certain select people disappearing up into Heaven without having to die first in an event that could rightly be called a Rapture.
However, because there have already been those who have disappeared up into the Heavens there is no scriptural evidence, and therefore no guarantee whatsoever, that such an event is ever going to happen again.
However there may be a strong possibility that there are certain portions of the scriptures that have repeated themselves in perhaps more ways that what most of us mere mortals realize.
Nevertheless, there is still nothing that I can see which gives any real indicator that what we have seen in the past has any correlation that ties into future events, particularly with reference to the timing of the Day of the Lord, or the Second Coming. The facts of the matter are that there is no one who really knows the hour or the day for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are not three events, but two, with the second event occurring at the end of the seven years of tribulation. How those who profess to know the word of God see that there are three events is really beyond the pale. There is nothing of the kind is mentioned in the word of God.
The word Rapture immediately conjures up images of millions and millions of Christians suddenly floating up into the air and into Heaven to be with the Lord forever. However, the word Rapture is never ever mentioned anywhere in the scriptures, nor is the notion of Christians floating up into Heaven to be with the Lord forever - without of course having had to die first.
In fact, there was even one man who offered thousands of dollars to anyone who could show him a scripture were the scenario above of millions and millions of people floating up into the air and into Heaven was actually made mention of in the scriptures. However, there was no one who could because it simply is not there to begin with.
I still understand that the word Rapture is a substitute phrase for the Day of the Lord or the Second Coming. However the problem with substituting a word like Rapture into the scriptures when it is not there to begin with is that starts to create confusion. What we are then left with are all of the wild and totally erroneous theories that begin to emerge relative to the timing of the alleged Rapture.
Barry Smith was a wake up to this reality. Instead of the word Rapture, he preferred to say the Taking up of the Church.
There may be some, who are reading this and are saying that the Taking up of the Church and the Rapture are one in the same event.
Nevertheless, the reality of the matter is quite different for the reasons mentioned above.
The Taking up of the Church raises undertones of meeting the Lord in the air, just as the scripture said would be the case. On the other hand, the word Rapture raises associations of Christians suddenly being floated off the face of the earth and up into Heaven.
Notwithstanding that fact, there is nothing at all in the word of God that says there is ever going to be a Rapture in the most common sense of the understanding of the word described above.
Accordingly, instead of the word Rapture, I would prefer to use the terminology of the Taking up of the Church but having used that terminology I am still not referring to a Rapture.
WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONLIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical and thoroughly evil.
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