The Rapture....

What are your views on the Rapture, or The Coming of Christ? I am extremely interested in what you all have to say regardless of your beliefs... Do you believe it will happen? When do you think it will?

re-incarnation.

im not too familiar with the specifics about the rapture, but does christianity descirbe the return of christ as a re-incarnation?

we know of non-christian religious doctrines that clearly use the theory of rebirth, im thinkin hinduism and buddhism [cycle of being]

if the rapture is another enlightenment, a golden age of understanding, who is behind it?

jesus or shiva? or both?


now what im getting at is that our histories [ancient/modern media] has blurred the specifics about such a prophecy. and what we are left with is an incomplete understanding of the story of renewal.


my hunch is that ebe's and jesus share a common interest, and maybe they are more similar than our histories could ever preserve.

Since you asked, NO! It's not going to happen. The entire rapture lunacy was made up in the late 1800's by a couple of writers playing with scripture. I'm afraid your going to die just like the rest of us heathen, old age or accident.

The creator of all things has never left you. You've never sinned against god or been threatened with damnation by god. Those were lies drilled into you from the moment of your birth by the only true evil in this world, religion.

Look around you! This is a beautiful world full of good people and beauty is everywhere. You have been blessed regardless of your circumstances, for life itself is a gift.

Free the chains from your mind and the chains on your soul will be gone.

Love and light to each of you,

Wupy

Originally posted by Icelandia
What are your views on the Rapture, or The Coming of Christ?

The rapture isn't specifically, as I understand it, the return of christ, but the transcendence of the physical bodies of the beleivers into heaven, directly.

Originally posted by baaronhaile im not too familiar with the specifics about the rapture, but does christianity descirbe the return of christ as a re-incarnation?

No. The return of jesus, the 'second comming', is supposed to by the physical return of his body from heaven, out of the skys and back onto land as himself, not as with, say, the dali lama. Also, christians, and I am not sure how prevelant this beleif is now, originally seemed to have beleived (at least as far as I understand it) in their bodily resurrection in the end times, and that then was when they'd go to heaven in fact. That they'd rest in the grave as rotting corpses until the second comming and then become restored, reanimated, resurrected and only then enter heaven, having been in some sort of 'nothingness' inbetween I suppose.

if the rapture is another enlightenment, a golden age of understanding, who is behind it?

I don't think that the second coming can be seen quite as that, although when jesus returns it supposed to result in the defeat of the 'bad guys', and the rule of a global kingdom with jesus as the head of the state for something like a thousand years. I don't understand what is supposed to happen after that, i guess then everything gets shut down.

mrwumpy
The entire rapture lunacy was made up in the late 1800's

What supports this statement? Are you saying that the early christians did not beleive in a return or anything liek that?

NO, I didn't say that. Christians have always believed that Jesus is coming back. it's the rapture stuff about them getting a sudden urge to fly off into the sky that is recent. It's not supported in the Bible.

Still, It doesn't matter to me since i'm not a christian. Believe what you choose and if i'm wrong than you get to sit next to god and say Neener neener. hehehehe...

Love and light my friend,

wupy

Again, what supports the statement that the 'ascending' was an invention of the 1800s?

Originally posted by mrwupy
NO, I didn't say that. Christians have always believed that Jesus is coming back. it's the rapture stuff about them getting a sudden urge to fly off into the sky that is recent. It's not supported in the Bible.

I consider the biblical content here allegorical, but it is mentioned in the Bible, and most evangelicals take it literally. The Greek "rapturos" was translated as "caught up" in the King James Version, and is thus where the English "rapture" is derived.

The verse in question is II Thessalonians 4:17.

I bow my head to your higher understanding sir. My appologies to all involved. I was wrong, i'm sorry.

Love and light to each of you,

Wupy

Originally posted by Icelandia
What are your views on the Rapture, or The Coming of Christ? I am extremely interested in what you all have to say regardless of your beliefs... Do you believe it will happen? When do you think it will?

There are many passages in the Bible that support a rapture or the second coming of Christ. I personally believe it will happen and here is where I get my thoughts:

Matthew 24:39-41
"and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall the Son of man be. The shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

This was spoken to the disciples when Jesus was close to the end. They were on the Mount of Olives being privately taught by Jesus and he was describing to them what to watch out for and what to look for pointing to the signs of the end times when he will come back.

Acts 1:11
... this same Jesus, which was taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

Angels appeared to the apostles immediately following the ascension of Jesus and spoke these words.

1 Corinthians 15:50-52
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

The apostle Paul was coming to the end of a discussion on what our spiritual body will be when we are raised to meet Jesus when he revealed this nugget.

1 Thessalonians 4:14-17
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

This is the passage that is the most significant as it concerns the rapture. This is again the apostle Paul describing the coming of Christ when he comes back for his people.

As you can see, the Bible is very specific about the rapture, although you will never find the word rapture in the Bible. As for when...

Matthew 24:42 tells us that we will not know the hour when the Lord will come. In Mark 13:32, Jesus tells us that not even the angels know when he will return. In Acts 1:7, right before his ascension, Jesus tells the apostles that it is not for us to know the times or the seasons.

Again, the Bible makes it clear that we will not know when he will come back. Jesus spoke a parable about a groom coming to take his wife and that no one knew when he would come. Those who were ready for his coming would go with him and those who were not would be left behind.

I hope this helps to answer your questions.

At His first coming Christ also came from heaven, as it is explicitly stated in the Gospel. Christ Himself says: "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven."
[1 John 3:13.]

It is clear to all that Christ came from heaven, although apparently He came from the womb of Mary. At the first coming He came from heaven, though apparently from the womb; in the same way, also, at His second coming He will come from heaven, though apparently from the womb. The conditions that are indicated in the Gospel for the second coming of Christ are the same as those that were mentioned for the first coming, as I said before.

The Book of Isaiah announces that the Messiah will conquer the East and the West, and all nations of the world will come under His shadow, that His Kingdom will be established, that He will come from an unknown place, that the sinners will be judged, and that justice will prevail to such a degree that the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the kid, the sucking child and the asp, shall all gather at one spring, and in one meadow, and one dwelling. The first coming was also under these conditions, though outwardly none of them came to pass. Therefore, the Jews rejected Christ and sentenced Him to death. Nevertheless, each one of these conditions had a signification that the Jews did not understand; therefore, they were debarred from perceiving the truth of Christ.

The second coming of Christ also will be in like manner: the signs and conditions which have been spoken of all have meanings, and are not to be taken literally. Among other things it is said that the stars will fall upon the earth. The stars are endless and innumerable, and modern mathematicians have established and proved scientifically that the globe of the sun is estimated to be about one million and a half times greater than the earth, and each of the fixed stars to be a thousand times larger than the sun. If these stars were to fall upon the surface of the earth, how could they find place there? It would be as though a thousand million of Himalaya mountains were to fall upon a grain of mustard seed. According to reason and science this thing is quite impossible. What is even more strange is that Christ said: "Perhaps I shall come when you are yet asleep, for the coming of the Son of man is like the coming of a thief."Perhaps the thief will be in the house, and the owner will not know it.

It is clear and evident that these signs have symbolic signification, and that they are not literal.


[edit on 26-12-2004 by Sep]

When Israel is attacked as by a scorpion, two fronts from the south then one over the Northern high ground from Syria then they will be surrounded.
The US will have left to fight North Korea and in so doing will discover that the tritium in their war heads no longer function properly (thanks Ted).
Yeshua now in his glorified body will come in His tower (originally the Tower of Babel). It will be covered in crystal. Angels of light will gather the true believers if they do not look back at their bodies of flesh and will gather at the tower at Armageddon. One day shall pass in the world outside this tower with no deaths but it will be like a thousand years inside. Then the tower will go up into the vine of light that connects the 270 worlds made by our God.
Satan will take on the flesh of the new Pope and a thermonuclear war will consume all but very small sections of the world.
Final Judgment much later may go better on Satan than any of his followers for his mind is clouded. He is gathering all evil to him. When they are Judged and cast in the fire they will loose all power of light used in their creation and they will each be in separate bags too small to stretch out in. Every memory of them shall be erased form all who ever knew them and they shall be formed in a sphere of eternal darkness with only the memory of their evil deeds to keep them company. This ball will seal the end of the vine of light (to keep the Sons of Darkness out) while God creates a new world at a new opening.
The ones that are in the Rapture and those that pass final Judgment will be free of rebirth given a new body of crystal with vapor that emits light. These bodies will not eat, drink, sleep, breath or even blink but they shall know no pain but will feed on love and will more closely swim than fly in a heaven that is more of a fluid (liquid) than air. Until they are reborn to a new world and further refined. All energy from all those lives in all those worlds is used by the Creator at the end of the vine of light for new creation.
That is how I see it in a brief overview.

The Rapture will take place in the next seven Years.

I did a post here:

www.belowtopsecret.com...

Originally posted by mrwupy
I bow my head to your higher understanding sir. My appologies to all involved. I was wrong, i'm sorry.

Damnit man you are not allowed to be polite or reasonable here!!! And most certainly no one is allowed to admit that they are wrong! Its rule number one of internet posting. Tell him that the KJV is definitive or something like that!!![/sarcasm]

there are two theories, a pretribulation and a post tribulation rapture
(Tribulation referring to the 7 year reign, etc)


In the late 1800's, the pretribulation theory came about, which has no biblical support. ( maybe that is what was being referred too earlier). There are various books today that accept that theory, although the Bible does not support it one way or the other.


the passages in mathew refer to how times were in Noah's day, nobody was expecting a flood, nobody was expecting things to change, two people standing there yakking away, and suddenly one was swept away. That is how it will be when Jesus returns, Nobody will be expecting it, and then it will occur.