Presents

The Rapture Theory

What makes it so popular?

And why is it a major doctrine in the majority of the Christian churches?

Today there is considerable disagreement among Bible theorists
(those are people who develop their own doctrines and
then look for scriptures to support them) as to when this Rapture occurs.

We have the Pre-trib, Mid-trib, and Post-trib theorists ("trib" is short for tribulation).

The Pre-trib theory is the most prevalent
and states that Christ returns before the tribulation of beast in Revelation chapter 13
and "takes away" His church.

Furthermore, this event could occur at any moment
(which is the reason my Grandma said I should always wear clean underwear).
The beast of Revelation is then left free to wreck havoc and destruction upon the earth,
something akin to a WW III.

Sound reasonable to you?
Hey, sounds great!
We just fly up in the air before the battle and save our own "skins"?

Do you for one moment think that men and women of God are afraid to take a stand
and face losing their lives (in the flesh) if need be to defend their loved ones?
They have proven time and again they are not afraid, else we would not be free today!

To make matters worse, many Christians are told
that when the beast is here they are going to be flown to a place of safety!

It is embarrassing that our brothers and sisters want to "flee into the wilderness"
(most are told they are going to Petra) to be protected by a bunch of rocks.
They've been listening to people with rocks in their heads, promoting a sick woman's dream.

We don't need sheltered caves to protect us!
We're men and women of God, Christians!
Our ROCK is around us at all times.

Besides, the beast is not going to be firing bazookas and bullets at us anyway...
he's going to firing lies at us,
those fiery darts of deception (Eph 6)!

We need to wake up and quit listening to the uneducated!

Remember what E.W. Bullinger suggested in the opening of this study.

Put this Rapture theory to the test of common sense and scripture.

If you can document it in God's Word then by all means hang onto it.
But if it comes up short then forget it!
Be thankful to drop it like a "hot potato".
YOU must decide for yourself based upon your consultation with the Word.

I suppose what is most amazing about the Rapture theory
is that the Bible is not unclear at all about when Jesus Christ returns.

He returns at the seventh trump, the last trump,
after Satan has been standing in Jerusalem claiming he is God.

Paul explained this so thoroughly and simply
that there is no way we can misunderstand who comes first.

This will happen at the sixth trump,
BEFORE Christ returns.

In other words, the Holy Spirit will be taken away in the Rapture
along with the saints
and then Satan will be left to do his destructive thing.

Sorry!

That's such poor scholarship they ought to be ashamed.

But they are not.

They are blind and they are leading the blind.

They have a theory and they twist a poor translation to make it fit.

It won't fit.

Satan, the son of perdition.

He is the subject being discussed.

This is so simple.

That's a "no brainer".

It's Michael, the archangel, the prince of Israel.

Well that's where he is right now and Michael and his troops have him restrained.

Yes,
Satan was here, in person, in the garden of Eden and at the time of Job.

But the last time he was here, in person, was when he tempted Christ,
who upon overcoming his temptation, put him behind Him.

And that's where he is now.

Satan's evil spirit is here,
just as the Holy Spirit is here,
but neither Satan nor Christ are presently here, in person, yet.

They are both coming soon and Satan,
as Paul explained in Thessalonians, will arrive first.

When he and his angels are let go
(cast out by Michael and his angels)
"then will that wicked one be revealed".

Make no mistake!

Let no man deceive you!

Believe our Father's Word.

For that day, of our gathering back to Christ,
will not happen until AFTER Satan, as the false-christ, has reigned.

What happens to our bodies at the last trump?

Would you like to know a secret or mystery?

The apostle Paul is about to show us one.

In 1 Cor. 15 (read the entire chapter) Paul explains that you have two bodies, a flesh body and a spiritual body.

He's talking about you and me.

When our flesh body dies we are changed into our spiritual body
and go to be with the Lord.

Absent from the body, present with the Lord.

This is basic Christianity 101.

Now for the mystery!  Paul is speaking...

Question - Changed to what?

Answer - To our spiritual bodies!

When and how are we going to be changed?

Jesus Christ returns and we "who are alive and remain" are INSTANTLY,
in the twinkling of an eye,
changed from our flesh body to our spiritual body.

Not after Christ has been here awhile,
but instantly at the sound of the trump!

Now, we learned earlier that the son of perdition,
Satan, the spurious messiah, comes FIRST,
at the six trump.

Do you know what that means?

You guessed it!

If you are still in the flesh,
if you still bleed when pricked with a pin,
then Jesus Christ hasn't returned.

Now you know the secret!

Never forget it!
You are still in the flesh when Satan shows up here on earth, claiming to be Christ, i.e. during the tribulation but are changed instantly into your spirit body the moment Christ really returns!

I repeat,
If you still bleed when pricked with a pin you are still in the flesh,
meaning, the real Jesus Christ still hasn't returned.

We are now ready to weigh the scripture of scriptures
upon which the entire Rapture theory hangs in the balance.

It stands here all alone, pulled out of context.

Do you know what subject is being discussed here?

The return of Christ?

Wrong!

You can't guess at these things.

They are too important
and they affect the very salvation of the souls of men and women.

To arrive at the subject being discussed here we must back up to verse 13.

Let's look at both the King James and the Moffat translations together.

The subject is "where are the dead?"

Paul doesn't want us to be ignorant about where the dead are.

The Sadducees were running around telling everyone there is no such thing as a resurrection,
i.e.  there is no life after death.

Those who believe that lie have no hope.

Too bad!

If we believe that Jesus died and rose again then we must also believe
that our loved ones who have died,
knowing Jesus,
rose also (changed of course into their spiritual bodies) to be with Him,
and so they are with Him.

So when Jesus comes back He will bring them with Him.

I like it!

How could we precede those have died and are already present with the Lord?

We can't, they are already with Him.

If you've come this far you are no longer ignorant.

That's the purpose of Paul explaining this...
"I don't want you to be ignorant concerning where the dead are."

So..... Quiz time!

Where are the dead in Christ?

Right!!

They are already with Him.

So don't let your mind think about people "rising" from graves.

They aren't there.

They are already with Christ.

So the "dead in Christ",
those who have died believing in the Lord,
who are with Him now,
will present themselves or stand-up first when Christ returns.

Let's look again at 1 Thes. 4:17

In other words,
we are going to gather together as a group with the saints
that are coming with Jesus when He returns.

Paul uses the same colloquial expression in Hebrews 12:1
when he refers to a great cloud of witnesses,
meaning a group of witnesses.

Christ is returning to the Mount of Olives where He will stand.

That is where we gather to Him, not up in the sky in clouds made of water vapor.

There is so little scholarship given to the Bible today that it is shameful.

There are many figures of speech, analogies, metaphors, etc.
that the Holy Spirit uses in the Bible as tools of communication to better teach us.

But they are often ignored because of ignorance.

Well, we are going to gather to Christ as a collective group,
NOT in clouds (unless you have your head in the clouds).

There is one more word you need to look up for yourself.

Don't take my word for it.

I'm not going to be there at your Final Jeopardy round.
I'll be playing Wheel of Fortune.

The word is "air" in verse 17.

This verse really sounds like we are going to fly into the clouds,
up, up and away into the air.
The Greek word in the original text is "aer" and it has nothing to do with the "air" we find up in the sky.

It has nothing to do with clouds and oxygen.

Do you feel better?
Paul thinks you should !

I know it is not popular to teach against such a widespread doctrine as the Rapture.

But we don't conduct any opinion polls or focus groups here
to see what pleases the people
and then stroke them with lies to keep them coming back. 
(The Felt Lined Plate; Remember!)

If you believe in the Rapture Theory,
for the safety and concern of others,
when you are traveling in "mixed" company,
by all means let a non-believer drive.

When you take a trip there are two things you can pretty much count on:

These pamphlets will contain graphic illustrations of catastrophes
caused by Christians disappearing from the driver's seats
and/or cockpits of cars, buses, trains and planes.

Normally (let's say you're a non-believer) you just browse through the pamphlet
and put it back down,
but this time you're placed on hold so you decide to read it (as entertainment of course).

You can't imagine that God, if He is a loving God,
would do something as preposterous as yank a driver out of a moving vehicle
that contains passengers and let it crash.

Your common sense tells you it doesn't make sense.

Then a logical thought hits your brain.

"If He's all powerful then He could at least stop the car engine first or land the plane."

The on-hold music continues so you read on!

You next come to Biblical documentation supporting the catastrophes.

You are told the Bible says it's actually going to happen!
Yep, right here in Matthew 24 it says
"Then 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."

You conclude the Bible really says that!

The music abruptly stops and the party that had you on hold returns to the conversation.

You put down the pamphlet, finish your call and leave.

However, subconsciously you have doubts about God's Word.

What about Matthew 24?
Does it support the Rapture theory?
Let's examine it and rightly divide the Word.

Jesus is continuing to answer the question asked of Him by the disciples in verse 3.

The question is:

Then He cites an historical event,
in which occurred some corrupt acts
 that will again take place just prior to His return.

Who was marrying and giving in marriage?

Let's go to Genesis chapter 6 and find out.

Never-the-less, it was the sons of God,
i.e. angels, that took them to wives the daughters of Adam.

So pervasive were the "fallen" angels in their marrying with Adam's offspring,
that after several generations only one family, Noah's, was left untouched.

In Gen. 6:9 you'll find that Noah was "perfect" in his "generations",
i.e. he had a pure, uncorrupted pedigree.

This is extremely important in order to understand what it will be like in the last days.

It would be through the generations, the offspring, of Adam and his wife, Eve,
that the Messiah would be born.

Satan repeatedly, throughout the Old Testament, tried to thwart God's plan,
even from the very beginning, in the garden of Eden.

At the time of Noah,
 only eight pure-blooded adamic souls were left unblemished,
uncorrupted by the angels,
through which Jesus Christ could be born.

The rest had intermarried with the angels,
the offspring of which produced giants.

God caused the flood of Noah to rid the earth of these giants and maintain a pure strain of humans not contamnated by the angels from whom Christ would be born.

Noah and his family, God's servants?

No!

It was those who were partaking in the marry and giving in marriage.

It will be just like that prior to Christ's return!

Those who KNOW NOT,
those partaking in the marrying and giving in marriage.

Marriage with whom?

Yes, marriage with the fallen angels that are cast to the earth with Satan, the false-christ.
Only this time it's spiritual marriage!

These are same angels of Gen. 6 we just read about.

Did you know that?

Only this flood is a flood of lies spewed forth by Satan himself.

Though we don't know the precise moment,
we can know the "season" and the sequence of events
and not be the first one "taken".

Paul told us exactly the same thing in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

Read on.

We won't be taken by Satan, passing himself off as Jesus!

We'll wait right here, working "in the field",
waiting for the true Messiah, thank you!

Live Link to->>> Those who endure until the end are the ones who will be saved.

He loves and protects them/us.

He's our Father, He loves us, and He has all Power in heaven and earth.

There is much more that could be "brought to light" concerning the Rapture theory.

The Rapture theory cannot withstand the test of scripture.

It cannot be documented in the Bible.

It can only be made to "appear" Biblical
if you take verses out of context and twist them.

The Rapture theory is found "wanting" and should,
as E.W. Bullinger stated at the beginning of this series,
be thankfully discarded and replaced by the truth of scripture.

Furthermore, our Father hates false doctrines,
and in particular those who "hunt the souls to make them fly". Read Ezekiel 13:20.

Finally, if perchance you are not convinced
and still wish to cling to the traditions of men
and hold onto the Rapture concept then always remember this.

For the safety and concern of others,
when you are traveling in "mixed" company,
by all means let a non-believer drive.

You can be plucked anytime from the back seat and not cause an accident!

is

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Rhine Publishing Co.