JESUS CHRIST IS COMING!

IOPNA's conversation with a skeptic about the 'Rapture' continues...

Can we believe all this Rapture business? Did Jesus actually promise to come back for His believers?

Sure He did. After celebrating the Passover for the last time with His disciples and only minutes before He was arrested, Jesus said: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:1-3

It is just like a typical Jewish betrothal where the prospective groom takes leave of his fiancee to go home to his father’s house and build extra living quarters for he and his bride who he will soon return for. In the meantime she eagerly looks for his return, telling everybody about her betrothal while preparing herself for the wedding day.

Well that’s clear enough, but wasn’t that said to His Jewish disciples?... what about others?

Just before He stepped out the door, Jesus prayed to the Father: “I do not pray (erotao: demand!) for these alone but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;” (17:20) That includes me and hopefully you.

Did He say when He would return?

No, He said: “But of that day and hour no-one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.” (Matthew 24:36), although He did give some clues earlier, in that chapter and Mark 13, of how things will ramp up towards the end.

 

So much for those who predict the date – only to be proved wrong!

Did the early Christians expect Jesus Christ to come back for them in their lifetime?

Sure they did!...and they were told to be ready. Luke 12:40

At least the disciple John was expected to see Christ return in his lifetime (John 21:23) and he expected it: 1 John 2:28. The apostle Paul certainly expected Christ’s return:
1 Corinthians 1:7, 15:51-52, 16:22 Philippians 3:20-21 Titus 2:13

1 Thessalonians 4:15-18. The Thessalonians expected it: 1 Thessalonians 1:10
The Lord’s brother James expected it: James 5:8, and Peter did too: 2 Peter 3:9-14.

Well, this all started by looking at what Paul wrote in this letter to the Thessalonians. 

Why do we have to take notice of what Paul says?

 

The Lord Jesus said to Ananias about Saul, later called Paul: “…for he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings and the children of Israel…” Acts 9:15
Then Ananias told Saul: “The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know His will, and see the Just One, and hear the voice of His mouth; for you will be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. (Acts 22:14-15) The apostle Peter recognised Paul’s writings to have the same authority as Old Testament scripture in 2 Peter 3:15-16.

So did Paul have any more to say about the Rapture?

Yes he wrote to the Corinthians from Ephesus:“Behold, I tell 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 trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality…Death is swallowed up in victory.”

1 Corinthians 15:51-54

By the way, ‘Mystery’ comes from musterion: ‘a secret only revealed to those initiated’.

Ah, so this ‘Rapture’ thingummy will be real quick – blink and you’ve missed it! Wow!

NEXT TIME: WARNING.
                       What about this ‘wrath’ business that you haven’t explained?  
                       Don’t Christians have to ‘endure to the end to be saved’?
                             
               Click on:http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/warning.html        

Image credit: Tim-Shey.blogspot.com