The Rapture, Another Belief Held By Countless Churches. The scriptures they use to get Christ back to earth to live is, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 NASB, which they call the Rapture.
- 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall 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.
Note, the following parts of the above verses indicates that this will happen immediately, not sometime in the distant future.
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God”
“the dead in Christ shall rise first” and “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air”
These verses indicate the end of the world, nothing else, no inference that Christ is coming back to earth to live.
Two Words they come up with for the rapture is, caught up, in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. The words “caught up”, is in which the Greek word for “caught up” is harpazo. In Latin it is called Rapturo from which we get the word rapture. Harpazo means “to seize, carry off by force; claim for one’s self eagerly; to snatch out or away”.
A dictionary definition: the feeling, in religious ecstasy, of being transported to another place how so many followers have fallen victim to the rapture doctrine is puzzling.
The rapture doesn’t mean that much in itself, but it leads into Christ coming back to earth for a thousand years
There will be only one time when Christ returns, that will be when the world ends and when Those Who Are Still Alive And the Dead In Christ shall be raised up to meet him.
2 Peter 3:10-12 tells how the world ends.
- 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
Some other scriptures corroborating Christs return and the end of the world:
At the last trump 1 Corinthians 15:51-52.
- 51 Behold, I show 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 trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 Implies this will be when the world ends, but 2 Peter 3:10, 12 states that the the day of the Lord is when the world as we know it will end.
Some Leaders of the Past in Unscriptural Emotionally Charged Churches:
- A. Allen, (1911 to 1970), Healing tent, evangelist of the 1950s and 1960s
- Oke Ooye Ilesa, revivalist in 1930, and spiritual founder of Christ Apostolic Church
- William M. Branham, (1909 to 1965) Healing evangelist of the mid-20th century
- The Yoi Do Full Gospel Church) is a Pentecostal church in Korea, pastored by David Yonggi Cho, with a weekly worship attendance of 240,000.
- Two Pentecostal Churches in Buenos Aires attract together 150,000 each week.
- Jack Coe, (1918 to 1956) Healing tent evangelist of the 1950s
- Rex Humbard, (1919 to 2007), The first major TV evangelist (1950s, 1960s & 1970s), and at one time had the largest TV audience of an evangelist in the U.S.
- Kathryn Kuhlman, (1907 to 1976), Evangelist who brought Pentecostalism into the mainstream denominations
- Gerald Archie Mangun, (1919 to 2010), American evangelist, pastor, who built one of the largest churches within the United Pentecostal Church International
- Charles Harrison Mason, (1866 to 1961), The Founder of the Church of God In Christ
- Aimee Semple McPherson, (1890 to 1944), Evangelist, pastor, and organizer of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel
- Charles Fox Parham, (1873 to 1929), Father of modern Pentecostalism
- David du Plessis, (1905 to 1987), South-African Pentecostal church leader, one of the founders of the Charismatic movement
- Oral Roberts, (1918 to 2009), Healing tent, evangelist who made the transition to televangelism
- William J. Seymour, (1870 to 1922), Azusa Street, Mission founder (Azusa Street Revival)