Yet it's amazing how scriptures get misused, and relatively new theological ideas -- such as the rapture -- get deeply embedded in certain circles. The rapture is really a plot device for popular entertainment and a bizarre theological teaching in fundamentalist circles, where it functions in a variety of ways. But it's bad theology, and Jesus himself would have been astonished to learn that thousands of years after him there were such notions afloat.
At least he won't have to watch "The Leftovers" on TV. Print Email More sharing Reddit. Directed by Ridley Scott, some critics say the movie "whitewashes" the Bible. Dar Salim, shown here pointing, was born in Baghdad, Iraq, and is one of the few actors of Middle East descent in the new biblical epic "Exodus. Patricia Heaton, right, stars in a new Christian comedy "Moms' Night Out," about a trio of moms out on the town.
Kevin Sorbo stars in the sleeper hit "God's Not Dead. Hollywood's religious revival. Jay Parini. View my Flipboard Magazine. Opinion on the news. How AirAsia flight compares to Air France crash. Don't turn your back on these children. We know from 2 Thessalonians that these believers were already suffering persecution, so this conclusion was not farfetched.
The Removal of the Restrainer is the Rapture There have been various views concerning the identity of the restrainer. Pentecost lists five of them as follows: 1 the restrainer was the Roman Empire, 2 the restrainer was human government and law, 3 the restrainer is Satan, 4 the restrainer is the church, and 5 the restrainer is the Holy Spirit Pentecost, Things To Come, — Several comments should be made about these views. First, the restrainer could not be the Roman empire because such a view limits the restrainer to the past, while Paul indicates that the one being restrained the man of sin will live in the future, during the day of the Lord.
Second, human government will continue to exist even when the man of sin is revealed; therefore human government cannot be the restrainer, since the man of sin is revealed AFTER the restrainer is removed 2 Thessalonians , 8. Third, Satan cannot be the restrainer because a house divided against itself will fall.
Nevertheless, in verse six, some thing is doing the restraining, while in verse seven, the restrainer is a person, so the church could be involved in the restraining process. Fifth, the Holy Spirit is the restrainer because only a member of the Godhead is able to restrain this man of sin who is empowered by Satan.
Wilbur Gingrich and Frederick W. Despite the setup, neither the show nor the book are overtly religious. The word rapture is never used — at least not in the book — and the ranks of the disappeared seem to have been chosen at random. And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.
And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Read on in 1 Thessalonians. Which strongly suggests that Christians will still be on the earth at that moment, rather than having been previously removed from it. So, the most likely interpretation of the rapture is the one the church held for eighteen and a half centuries.
It is something that will happen when the Lord returns in His glory to judge the living and the dead, the blissful moment when we are taken up to be with Him forever. Whichever view we take, however, as Christians our hope is the same.
0コメント