As I was at Wal*Mart the other night shopping for a few household items with my offspring, I always like to visit to the newly revised book section. I couldn't help notice all the Christian Fiction books. Particularly, the soap opera series known as "
Left Behind" by
Time LaHaye and
Jerry B. Jenkins. I know, I know, the book states that its to be taken as fiction and the authors should be allowed some artistic license. However, that defense flies out the window as soon as the authors start quoting scripture to support their theory of the "secret" Rapture. Especially if non-Christians reading these books believe it's story line is what all Children of God believe.
Will billions of Christians disappear without a trace or be "silently" Raptured? Where is that supported in the Bible? My Bible says in
1 Thess 4:16,17 that, "the Lord descend from heaven with a SHOUT, with the VOICE of the archangel and the TRUMPET of God..." (Caps to emphasize). And
Rev 1:7 states that "...every eye shall see Him".
Silent? I think not.
Secondly, Peter and Paul use the same term "Thief in the night" (
2nd Peter 3:10;
1 Thess 5:2) to describe the day of the Lord. Is the Rapture and the day of the Lord all one event? I guess that's a related question to the Rapture. Peter goes on further in 2nd Peter 3:11
"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." Thirdly,
1 Cor 15:23, 24 Paul states that after Christ's coming, then comes the END. And in the Greek, the word "end" actually means that...END.
Wait, that leads to another related question to the Rapture. Where does that leave room for the
Seven Year Tribulation? Peter states that everything is "going to burn" thereafter [when Christ returns]. Then Paul states that after Christ's coming, then comes the end (
1 Cor 15:23, 24 )
Again, where is this Seven Year Tribulation after the Rapture, chapter and verse in the New Testament? There's more. Later,
Paul wrote that in the "Twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound...." There's that trumpet sound again we read about earlier. Paul, between 1 Thess and 1 Cor 15 gives us all the details we need to know about Christ's return,
"then comes the end".
Is this Seven Year Tribulation something I'm supposed to read into
Eschatology just because a series of books has popularized it? Is it a matter of doctrinal tolerance? Is it
"Replacement Theology" as some might assert?
I think not.
I guess it's based on your
hermeneutic of the Old Testament book of
Daniel, Chapt 9:24-27. That's for another blog entry at another time. Stay tuned.
Just being a
Berrean.