To compare the Creator’ coming to earth to be held as a ransom for sin, to the sinners that are born under the sin of Adam is very unfair. There are many examples of God delivering his people from the enemy. Jesus came for that very purpose. But his deliverance didn’t stop there. He will again deliver in grandiose fashion in the catching away of the body of Christ.
The same word that people are replacing with the word rapture (because it’s well known) is same word found in mark chapter four where it says “then cometh the devil and taketh out the word that sown in their heart”. I want to say that its harpadzo-but I don’t have my concordance with me. I once asked a friend from Greece what harpadzo means. He pointed to a box and said (in a heavy Greek accent) “If I were to reach in and violently snatch out the contents of that box, that’s what harpodzo would mean”. So the idea of snatching something out of something else is found in the “rapture” scriptures.
Can you just be honest with me on something? Seriously. What does it mean when Jesus says in Luke 21:35-36:
35 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.
36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.?
It’s alright if you have an explanation. I would love to hear it. Is this not saying that there would be “worthy” ones that would “escape”? This tribulation comes upon the whole earth. You can’t escape if you are in the earth. Can you?
How for that matter does one stand before the son of man? I’m just asking. Why pray at all if no one can be worthy of escape? And escape where? To hell? To the mountains? Or maybe heaven?
I think what people are failing to realize is that this is not just about argument. Heck, I don’t want to be wrong if I believe in an “escape” before it gets too heated, and yet that’s not what Jesus meant. Does anybody want to mislead people?
But to fill three pages with scripture and then to never explain THIS scripture, I find a little underhanded. It’s ok if you think that this means we’ll be somehow protected. But why “stand before the Son of Man”? Wouldn’t it be more logical to believe that it means to escape to the place where the Son of Man is located?
Maybe I do read this scripture with rose colored eyeglasses. But when people evade the scripture, it kind of reminds me of the devil. Am I wrong for feeling that way? And it’s not as though person couldn’t say “I’m aware that it LOOKS that way. But that’s not what’s really being said”. Sometime an honest approach works wonders. But to take all of the scriptures that a lot of people believe refers to a “catching away” and to erase them vs. explaining how that we’re understanding them wrong, is no way to go about it.
I’m still open to a logical explanation. But to me this looks like what people are calling the rapture-regardless if it’s a word found in scripture or not (the idea is).
By the way, what did you mean by (I’m quoting you)
“HE SAID PRAY THAT YOU MAY BE ACCOUNTED WORTHY OF ESCAPE, HE DID NOT SAT THAT YOU WOULD ESCAPE:”.
Why should we pray if we’re not going to escape anyway? And what merit is there to being worthy if no one escapes? Poor Jesus, so stupid he’s gone to brain farts. (That doesn’t make a bit of sense to me).
Oh and you said (I’m quoting you):
“When the man of sin setup in the temple of GOD proclaiming to be GOD and proclaiming peace and safety, some that are looking for an escape (Pre tribulation rapture) will recognizes him and say the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some, like Hymenaeus and Philetus did in 2Timothy 2:17, 18 In other words a falling away.. Are you going to be one of these people like Hymenaeus and Philetus or maybe like the ones below?”
I think this is rather ludicrous. Do you know why? It’s because only the proud and arrogant are devastated when they are wrong. “ME, BE WRONG?” Nobody knows either way rapture or not. But what I am saying is that to me, the preponderance of the evidence supports pre-trib rapture. But nobody’ going to run into the arms of the Anti-Christ because there’s no rapture. To me that’s a very religious thing to say.
Let me turn this on you for a moment. I think I sense pride in you. I’m fully prepared in case I’m wrong. Have YOU counted the cost of being wrong? Everything in the New Testament comes as a result of our “believing” for it. Jesus said “he that has not, from him shall be taken even that which he seems to have”. If there is a pre-trib rapture; should you go? You’ve rejected everything in regards to it. You’re certainly not BELIEVING for it. To anybody who might read this, should a person who wants to stamp out this “anti-Christ” teaching be raptured if there is one? From my viewpoint YOU could lose a whole lot more.
Wouldn’t that be scary to be left behind? All because of foolish pride?
I think we both need to lighten up. Neither of us KNOWS anything. Maybe both of us can learn to be a little bit humbler. But regardless of rapture or not I’m still listening to the many arguments about it. I could be wrong.
God Bless!