It is only in the past twenty years that I began to take the idea of a Rapture seriously! From 1973 to the year 2000 or so I felt that the Rapture was probably a false doctrine caused by people not properly understanding the two major resurrections. One is at the Second Coming and the other at the end of the millennium! I began to think that there could be a Rapture after reading the description of it by near death experiencer Dr. Richard Eby! Here is the NDE account that got me to rethink this doctrine???? https://www.near-death.com/science/articles/richard-eby-and-secomd-coming-of-christ.html#a03
Hey Dennis, I'm more interested in planning for the long term instead of relying on an end of the world is coming soon mindset.
Good point......I also am trying my best to leave the people of this earth with theories on how to produce the utopia shown to near death experiencer Howard Storm by the year 2185 or so! https://www.near-death.com/experiences/exceptional/howard-storm.html#a04
The concept of a Rapture is kind of controversial among different denominations. It has to do with an interpretation of 1 Thessalonians 4:17. (A more accurate translation of "air" in that context would be spirit ) There's a disagreement about whether the Resurrection will be on Earth or in Heaven, and what the exact time frame will be within the context relative to the other unsaved people on Earth. I think all Paul was really trying to say there is that those who have already died are not really at any disadvantage compared to those who are still alive at that time. Jesus said in Mathew 24:30, Luke 17:37, that some would be taken and the others left. However, you can tell by the context that the ones who are going to be taken are not going to a good place, so that does not jive with the whole Rapture theory.
Whether there will be a Rapture, to some extent depends on exactly what you mean by "a rapture". There is a semantic component to this argument. Some say it will not matter because "Heaven is where God is". (However, to understand that statement we might have to go into some further semantics, and point out that God is nearer or more present in some places than other places, and there are different qualities to that presence.) Thus if Christ comes to Earth in his full glory, Earth will be equivalent to Heaven at that time, so there would be no need for the dead to rise to some other physically separate Heaven at that time.
You are correct...... once the resurrected saints meet Messiah Yeshua - Jesus in the air....... it sure seems to me that they come to the earth????? https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/zec/14/1/s_925001 Zec 14:4 "And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south." Zec 14:16 ¶ And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD'S house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts. https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/rev/5/10/s_1172010 Rev 5:10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
If you believe in the theory that we are living in a giant computer simulation, then a rapture is scientifically possible. Human biological data of “chosen” individuals could be stored in a separate file from the rest of “creation.” During the rapture, that file could then be transferred from earth to the cloud (heaven), while material objects such as your clothes, dentures and pacemaker would be left behind. Or perhaps the program could be fine tuned to include personal objects within your body. More info on simulation theory: https://www.simulation-argument.com/
The idea that we are living in a computer simulation is quite logical. https://www.near-death.com/science/research/science.html
