I have been for quite some time now, as most of you know, doing a lot of end times research. I think that my parents are starting to think that I’m going a bit over board, but that is besides the point. One thing that I have recently become interested in is the Rapture. There is a debate when it comes to the Rapture, quite a large and complex one. There is a debate as to when it is going to occur with regards to the Tribulation, is it before, middle or after? There is a debate as to whether or not it is even going to happen at all. I thought that I would share with you what I have found. Let me just say something first, though no one knows exactly when and how or if the Rapture will occur, but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you are ready for the Rapture or Second Coming of Christ to happen at any moment, that you have a strong, personal relationship with God.
The main points of view are that either we will be “caught up” or Raptured into the clouds where we will meet with Jesus are Saviour before the Tribulation starts and will spend the seven years in Heaven. We will then return with Christ to Earth and reign with Him for a thousand years. The other main view is that there will be no Rapture at all and that the Church will go through the Tribulation and that Christ’s Second Coming is a singular event.
Those who say that there shall be no Rapture often make this claim by first stating that there are no records of Rapture teaching before the 1800’s. However, those who do believe in the Rapture dispute this statement arguing that the Bible clearly teaches about the Rapture in 1Thessalonians  4:17 “After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them(the dead in Christ) in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” Those who dispute the Rapture also point to the fact that the word “Rapture” is not mentioned at all in the Bible, but is derived from the phrase “caught up”. They also say that before the 1800’s this verse was simply viewed as a resurrection passage.
The main argument against the Rapture is the reference to the Parable of the Weeds Jesus told in Matthew 13:24-30, in which the Kingdom of Heaven is described as a man who goes out and plants his seed in his field and while the workers are sleeping the enemy goes and plants weeds in the field. The man’s servants ask him whether they should pull up the weeds, but the man says no, as they may pull up the wheat as well. Then at harvest the weeds are first collected and burned and then the wheat is harvested. It is argued that this parable proves that there will be no Rapture as the evil/wicked have to be judged and removed first.
One main verse used to argue the Rapture is in Matthew 24:40-41,”Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be take and the other left.” Those, however who dispute the Rapture argue that Jesus was not implying that the one who was taken was Raptured, but rather that they were/will be the unbelievers who will be killed as a sign of judgement, as in Luke 17:37 in response to this same statement the disciples ask, “Where, Lord?” the asked. He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.”
Another verse strongly used for the argument of the Rapture is John 14:2-3, “In my Father’s house there are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be were I am.” The very interesting thing about what Jesus says here is that it is exactly, at least the last two thirds are, what the bridegroom would say to his bride after the betrothal contract had been signed in the ancient Jewish wedding. I think this is a valid point to note as the Church is the Bride of Christ and what God command the Israelites to do is a fore shadowing of things to be fulfilled. There are a few interesting things to be noted regarding an ancient Jewish wedding. First, that the groom had to go away for about a year to prepare a place for him and his bride to stay and his father oversaw the building. the father had to give his nod of approval first before the groom could go and receive his bride, so only the father knew the day or the hour when the son would be ready to receive his bride. Another very interesting thing to note is that the bride and the groom went to the place the groom had prepared for a period of seven days before being publicly presented to the community. This is viewed by some as a potential fore shadowing of the Bride of Christ, the Church, being Raptured pre-tribulation.
In all of this, however I believe that this most important thing is not to lose sight of God and Jesus, for therein lies our Salvation. Jesus says (this is just what He has said t me now while I have been writing this post and asking for His guidance) that there will be a loud shout at His coming and we will know that it is His coming and we will not be afraid. So look up for your salvation drawth nigh. Run the race that God has set before you and do not tire as you reach the end, but finish strong. Seek God with all of your heart and He will reveal Himself to you. You need not fear these times as those who have no hope, for all these things have been reveal to us ahead of time that we might be prepared. So be watchful, take note of the signs in the heavens and on earth and pray.
I Speak 
rapture false teachings
1. Rapture doctrine is one of the most recent “new doctrines” in the history of the Church. The only doctrine more recent is the invention of the sinner’s prayer for salvation by Billy Sunday in 1930, which was made popular by Billy Graham in 1935.
2. The fact that John Nelson Darby invented the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine around 1830 AD is unquestionably true. All attempts to find evidence of this wild doctrine before 1830 have failed, with a single exception: Morgan Edwards wrote a short essay as a college paper for Bristol Baptist College in Bristol England in 1744 where he confused the second coming with the first resurrection of Revelation 20 and described a “pre-tribulation” rapture. However Edwards ideas, which he admitted were brand new and never before taught, had no influence in the modern population of the false doctrine. That prize to goes to Darby.
3. Prior to 1830, no church taught it in their creed, catechism or statement of faith.
4. Darby has had a profound impact on religion today, since Darby’s “secret rapture” false doctrine has infected most conservative, evangelical churches. While the official creeds and statements of faith of many churches either reject or are silent about Rapture, neither do they openly condemn this doctrine of a demon from the pulpit.
5. While not all dispensationalists believe in the Rapture. All those who teach the Rapture also believe in premillennialism. Both groups use Israel’s modern statehood status of 1948 to be a beginning of a countdown to the end.
6. All premillennialists, rapturists and dispensationalists alive today believe the Bible reveals the general era of when Christ will return. The date setters of the 1800’s (Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses) based their predictions upon speculative arrangements of numbers and chronologies in the Bible. Today’s date setters without exception wrongly believe that Israel gaining state hood in 1948 fulfilled Bible prophecy and that Christ would return within one generation.