Collateral Bloggage

I’ve stated previously on this blog that I don’t believe in the Rapture.  Several times (see here, here, and here for examples).  In case you’re now lighting up torches and thinking of erecting a stake on which to burn me, let me assure you that the “Rapture” I don’t believe in is the Pre-Tribulational Rapture.  I definitely do believe in the Second Coming of Christ.  You could even call it the Rapture.  This passage in 1 Thessalonians 4 captures my belief quite nicely:

It’s a really interesting thing to me, the fact that such a mythology of the End Times has built up around such a simple passage (to be fair, the End Times teachers focus more on Daniel and Revelation, but mostly Daniel).  But this seems quite plain to me.  There are the dead and the living.  On the Last Day, the Lord will raise the dead and the living.  Where’s the Secret Rapture here?  The language of the shout and a trumpet and the voice of the archangel speak to a very noticeable Second Coming.  Paul didn’t mention anything about Antichrist or Tribulation here.

Of course, this passage doesn’t undermine the Post-Trib position.  Granted.  But it would certainly seem to destroy the Pre-Trib view.  Maybe I’m missing something.  But this passage seems to point to the End of History.  That’s a wrap-ture.

It might seem interesting for me to have this many posts on this subject, and I think it stems from having grown up in churches that seemed really End-Times-Focused.  So now that I’ve read the Scriptures for myself and found those old positions wanting, I like to share.  Let me be clear, though, that I don’t really think this stuff is all that important.  It’s just interesting to me.

Now that I’ve said it’s not important, maybe I’ll take on the Second Coming passages in 2 Thessalonians next week!!!!  That is, unless somebody suggests something more interesting.