Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Who’s got a ticket for the Rapture...

This post is probably troll bait, but for those that are interested Nt Wright's surprised by Hope is a great read.

A brief excerpt pertaining to the "rapture" passage -

Parousia is itself, in fact, one of those terms in which Paul is able to say that Jesus is the reality of which Caesar is the parody. (131)

[1 Thessalonians 4:16-17]…are not to be taken as a literal description of what Paul thinks will happen. They are simply a different way of saying what he is saying in 1 Corinthians 15:23-27 and 51-54, and in Philippians 3:20-21. (131)

In 1 Corinthians 15:23-27 Paul speaks of the Parousia of the Messiah as the time of the resurrection of the dead, the time when his present though secret rule will become manifest in the conquest of the last enemies, especially death. (131)

I suggest that he [Paul] is finding richly metaphorical ways of alluding to three other stories that he is deliberately bringing together. (132)

Moses coming down the mountain
The story of Daniel 7
When the emperor visited a colony or province, the citizens of the country would go to meet him at some distance from the city. It would be disrespectful to have him actually arrive at the gates as though his subjects couldn’t be bothered to greet him properly. When they met him, they wouldn’t then stay out in the open country; they would escort him royally into the (132) city itself. (133)
…the meaning is the same as in the parallel in Philippians 3:20. Being citizens of heaven, as the Philippians would know, doesn’t mean that one is expecting to go back to the mother city but rather means that one is expecting the emperor to come from the mother city to give the colony its full dignity, to rescue it if need be, but subdue local enemies and put everything to rights. (133)

Jesus will be personally present, the dead will be raised, and the living Christians will be transformed. (133)

The promise is not that Jesus will simply reappear within the present world order, but that when heaven and earth are joined together in the new way God has promised, then he will appear to (134) us–and we will appear to him, and to one another, in our own true identity. (135)

Would you prepare for a job interview?

Would you prepare for buying a home?

Would you prepare for marriage or children?

Would you prepare for war?

Would you prepare for retirement or death?

Do you prepare for anything? Or just take whatever is given to you in the big brown McDonalds sack?

I accept and even understand your choice to believe.

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The main gist of Wright's book is that the "rapture" and even "going to heaven" aren't really Christian concepts at all.
The Christian hope is that God will do for all created order what he did to Jesus when he raised him from the dead.
If you think "going to heaven when you die" is the point of this whole thing - to leave the material realm for some immaterial casper-ghost place, you've mistaken the Christian message for something else.

Stophel please explain Luke 17:34-37. This is what makes me believe there may be a rapture. I can't explain those verses otherwise.

Read the previous verses. It speaks there not of people suddenly disappearing, but of destruction of the wicked.

Christ will no doubt come for his people, but it ain't gonna be no secret. The world may not see it coming, but Christians are commanded to watch so that they may see it coming. I've always been amazed that people who believe that no one will have any idea when the secret rapture will happen are SO wrapped up in the "signs of the times".....

I see you holding a big brown McDonalds sack.
Crystal clear, even.

That’s reckless !

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Not many tickets issued. Looks like the rapture is a relatively small venue:

Revelations 7:4 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

Well of course...for a few hours, up to, maybe, a week.

Then, I’m ready to Rock It !

😜🦫

I've been skeptical of rapture as I can't find anything cut & dry on it. I don't know when Christ is coming back, but he will. I know to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord at least for believers.

Where is everyone supposed to go, if you’re lifted up?

A Ziggy Stardust type thing? Pick a planet? Galaxy’s supposedly infinite.

Question - Any details or consensus on the drop point for those *Taken*?

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Pure Genius...

Old Kook... you must surely wear an XXL large hat.

Quite possibly the smart man to ever walk the earth.

Iknow this much. there is going to be alot of highly disspointed individuals when they get to the pearly Gates and St. Pete looks like Ron Jeremy and God looks like Joe Pesci

The rapture has been canceled due to lack of qualified participants... signed God...

Kent

Not to worry Brother Beaver, the belt fed is loaded, and the 66mm smoke and illumination rounds are on standby.

Your compliments are not required.

Save them for your Goy Boy buddies as they’re feeling a bit dispossessed at the moment and could use the cheer. You can feel their fear and confusion, literally.

You look good with that big brown Mickey D bag in your gentle hands.

LMAO 😂

I saw that sign clearly from here on earth.

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Jesus says the unrighteous will be taken out from among the righteous! That's very hard on the heads of the folks who never did their own reading.

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