http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/18/tick-tock-goes-the-doomsday-clock/
Aside from the obvious . . . that Jesus said "But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only" (Matt 24:36), does this match your own conception of The Day? Apart from setting a calendar day, I think Evangelical Christianity is all too prone to jump on this same "rapture bandwagon." Here are a couple of passages typically used to support "rapture":
1 Thessalonians 4:13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, [4] that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 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. 17 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. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
What if this is a triumphal entry that mimics a Roman triumphal entry, or one similar to Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on a donkey? The kind where people run out to meet the conqueror and usher him back into the city . . . not the kind where everybody leaves.
Matthew 24:40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. 42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
To be sure, there's a separation happening here. Some will go and some will stay, but who's leaving and who's staying? This text doesn't specify. Matthew 13 specifies:
41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.&
49 So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The way I read . . . it's the lawbreakers who will go. In this, the Romans 8 promise of the renewal of all things finds it's fulfillment. And, the Ephesians 1:10 promise of the reunion of heaven (God's presence) and earth finds its fulfillment. And, the Revelations 21 promise of God coming "down" with the bride to dwell with men finds its fulfillment.
I wonder what all the rapture believing folks will do with their prepaid "after the rapture pet care" when the find themselves happily residing in a renewed creation with God.
You are absolutely correct. Just one more thing. You quoted Matthew 24 starting in verse 40. The reading is bigger. Go back to verse 36 and it reads:
ReplyDelete36 But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven,[e] but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
To back your argument more, notice that he says "As in the Days of Noah"...
The world ended once before with the flood and "as in the days of Noah" it was NOT the righteous who were removed from the Earth, it was the unrighteous or "lawbreakers" to use the term that you used. Matthew does not SUPPORT a rapture it actually describes the OPPOSITE of the rapture. One will be taken but its the EVIL one "as in the days of Noah". One will be left - the righteous one just "as in the days of Noah".