The Rapture Theory is NOT biblical. It is a humanistic invention as we shall prove it.

 

The Rapture Theory states: Christ is to come SECRETLY for the Christians. Those who are alive on the earth at that time will be lifted up in the air and the non-Christians will be “left behind” on the earth.

The Christians will be caught up (raptured) to meet Christ in the air and from there they will be transported to some celestial place.

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The world will not know what happened or how they suddenly disappeared.

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Then a unique person, the Anti-Christ will appear and becomes a world Dictator. He will rule the old Roman Empire (EU) as a ten-kingdom and will allow the Jews to build their Third Temple in Jerusalem. After three-and-a-half years, this Anti-Christ man will break the covenant and persecute the Jews. After seven more years, Christ is to come back with His saints to destroy the Anti-Christ and set up His reign of a thousand years on this earth. At the end of the thousand years non-Christians will rise against Christ and Christ will come again with the Christians back from their celestial location. All these details are NOT in the Bible.

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This is a cut and paste story-line just like Hollywood fiction movies.

 

Almost all Christians are readily carried away or already convinced with this teaching which is not in the Bible. Pastors who are really NOT pastors, but Preachers became the "blind leaders of the blind sheep." They take for an enemy to God anyone who differs from their opinions.

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HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF THE RAPTURE DOCTRINE:

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THE FUTURIST THEORY was invented by the Jesuit Cardinal Ribera (AD 1580). He claimed that the whole Book of Revelation is purely futuristic describing events which will take place just at the time of Christ's Coming. He succeeded in shifting the focus of the Anti-Christ from the Pope to another future dictator.

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* Cardinal Francisco Ribera (b. 1537 - d. 1591) published this theory shortly after the Massacre on the St. Bartholomew’s Day (24 August 1572), when about thirty thousands Huguenots Reformed Pastors, Teachers, and Elders were killed by the sword in one single day. The following day, Catherine de Midici created Les Dragonats military division for the sole purpose of killing Protestants throughout the land in France. Their methodology was to occupy the houses of the Reformed believers (les Huguenots) and live with their families attempting to persuade them to become good Christians, i.e., Roman Catholics. If they refuse, they will be raped, their properties confiscated and finally killed or burned alive. Les Dragonats continue to this day as a proud division of the French Army.

While the streets of Paris were still stained with blood and the Seine river was reddish, Jesuit Cardinal Ribera invented and presented his Rapture Theory for a political motive. Remember, the Church is not only a business organization, but also a political organization. It is a Socio-Pyramidal-Political-Religious Organization.

Earlier, the Protestants identified the Catholic Church as the Anti-Christ and the Harlot riding on the Beast (Lucifer). Cardinal Ribera’s Rapture Theory distracted the Christians into a “Futurist” Theology” claiming that the Church is not the Harlot and the Church will be raptured.

Today, almost all “Bible teachers” (Evangelicals, Messianic Jews, Protestants) maintain that Ribera’s Rapture is the right interpretation and thus the Anti-Christ is not the Church, but a future dictator person.

 

EMMANUEL LACUNZ (BEN EZRA)

The Chilean Jesuit Priest Emanual Lacunza (pronounced Lacuntha) (b. 19 July 1731 - 17 June 1801) wrote a book entitled, “The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty,” which claimed that Christ has to come twice, once for the rapture of the Church and then again with an army of his saints. He claimed also that the Anti-Christ would take over the Roman Catholic Church.

He created a storyline which accommodated a special space for all the events which he invented (anticipated) at the coming of Christ. He invented a period of time between the rapture of the saints and the actual appearance of the Messiah in His Glory. He conceived the idea that Christ has to come TWICE.

He maintained, similar to Francisco Ribera, that the appearance of the Anti-Christ and of the two witnesses is futuristic. He claimed that the Anti-Christ would appear only for a few years, just before Christ’s coming. Thus the Anti-Christ is one man, although originally, he claimed him to be a system.

Other Christians believe that Christ has to come three times, while others believe in four even five times, see charts.

All these are man-made based on a story-line created by a process called “montage,” in which people cut verses from different places and paste them together to make a humanistic logical story-line.

 

THE TRACTARIAN MOVEMENT

Tractarianism is pro Roman Catholic Church. It awakened sympathy and unity of the Protestants with the Roman Catholic Church.

 

* Dr. Maitland (AD 1826) published his theory which matched the Jesuits’s for the past 250 years leading to a Futuristic Anti-Christ and events. By the year AD 1831, all Western Churches accepted such futuristic interpretation. They shifted their vision away from the Pope and the Church to some future Rapture ushering the Anti-Christ.

Although the Protestants do not admit it, actually, they are one and the same with the Roman Catholic Church with some variations. All Churches are Roman Catholics in structure, in most practice, in some pagan rituals, and in many doctrines.

 

THE IRVINGITES

Pastor Edward Irving, founder of the "Irvingites", promoted the Jesuit teachings of the futuristic and individualistic nature of the Anti-Christ echoing the works of Lacunza (ben Ezra). Irving taught that 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 refers to a SECRET rapture for the first time in history.

The Irvingites influenced Darby and the Brethren and converted them to believe in and promote the ideas of the "Secret Rapture" and the future of Antichrist.

 

THE OXFORD MOVEMENT

The Oxford Movement was founded on supernatural manifestations which were not from God. Newman, Hurrell Froude, and Robert Baxter promoted the "Secret Rapture" theory.

 

THE BRETHREN MOVEMENT

Brethrenism weakened the resistance of the Evangelicals and all Protestants which brought them closer to the Roman Catholic Church.

The "Brethren" movement followed the teachings of Lacunza and the Tractarianism while, at the same time, they claim that they follow Christ closer than all the other Protestants. Rev. Duncan Mcdougall stated: “if you scratch a Brethren skin you will draw Tractarian blood.”

 

* Dr. Harry A. Ironside, pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago was associated with Philadelphia School of the Bible where I worked as a young man for a while. He strongly believed in and promoted the "Secret Rapture" theory.

 

* J. N. Darby had a great influence through the publication of the Darby Bible where he added his notes as if they were in the Scriptures of God. Most Evangelicals were swayed quickly and effectively to believe in the Secret Rapture and the newest invention of Dispensationalism. Darbyism began to be a very popular evangelical camp. Darby was a leader among the Brethren and then all Evangelicals and Protestants. He followed Irvinge who followed Lacunza.

 

* Edward Cronin came out of Rome. He combined Romanism with Brethrenism and promoted Dispensationalism and the Secret Rapture widely.

 

* Scofield published his famous best seller Scofield Bible which superceded Darby. He implemented a large amount of his futuristic dispensational theories of the “Secret Rapture” in his Bible which mislead many Christians in assuming that his studies were the Word of God.

The blind sheep, the Evangelical believers, accepted everything he taught blindly and considered such teaching as the biblical standard which all Christian must follow religiously. The Christians considered every word Scofield, and Darby before him, wrote in their Bibles, as God’s absolute word although these are humanistic theories.

This teaching of Lacunza, through the Irvingites, began to spread like wildfire among evangelical Christians. Many highly influencial Evangelicals promoted such Secret Rapture and dispensations theory which are NOT biblical, such as: J.F. Walvoord, Seiss, Steams, Pettingill, Panton, McBirnie, Winrod, Estep, Barnhouse, the Joneses, the Beirneses, Oliver Greene, Oral Roberts, Schiffner, Gilpin, John Douglas, Billy Graham, G.L.K. Smith, Wilbur Smith, Oswald Smith, Noel Smith, V. Sears, and Herbert Armstrong.

 

THE BIBLE TEACHES:

THE BELIEVERS WILL BE TAKEN UP IN THE AIR AT THE VERY END

 

1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 “And this we say to you by the word of our Master (Yeshua), that we who may survive and be alive at the coming of our Master (Yeshua), will not precede them who have slept. Because our Master (Yeshua) will himself descend from heaven with the mandate and with the voice of the chief Messenger (Angel) and with the Qarna of Elohim; and the dead who are in the Mashiyach (Messiah) will first arise; and then we who survive and are alive will be caught up together with them to the clouds to meet our Master (Yeshua) in the air; and so will we be ever with our Master. And so, comfort you one another with these words.” (English translation of the Apostolic original Aramaic Text - AENT).

 

These verses need to be interpreted in the light of Matthew 13:24-30

 

“Yeshua Jesus spoke another parable in figure (parable) to them and said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. And when the people were asleep, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and left. And when the blades sprang up and bore the fruit, then the tares also appeared. And the servants approached the House of Master YHWH and said to him, ‘Behold, you did sow good seed in your field. From where are the tares in it?’ And He said to them, a man who is an enemy did this. His servants said to him, ‘Do you desire for us to go pluck them out?’ But He said to them, ‘No, or else while you are plucking out the tares, you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at that time of the harvest I will say to the reapers to pluck out FIRST the tares and bind them in bundles to be burned, but the wheat gather them into my store houses.’” (English translation of the Apostolic original Aramaic Text - AENT).

 

Both groups of verses are explaining one and same event. The wicked, the social Christians, the social Messianic Jews, the non-repenting Jews who reject Yeshua Jesus will be plucked out FIRST and will be judged. Then the believers will be lifted up to meet Yeshua Jesus in the air while He recreates the universe again.

 

Lest someone says that the parable in Matthew 13:24-30 is just a figure of speech, Jesus Yeshua said the same teaching in a direct manner in Matthew 13:41-42

“The Son of man will send his Messengers out, and they will pluck from His Kingdom all stumbling blocks and all workers of iniquity. And they will cast them into the furnace of fire, and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then, the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear,” (Isaiah 60:1; Daniel 12:3) (English translation of the Apostolic original Aramaic Text - AENT).

Notice the word "Then" indicates a second event in sequence. It is evident that the non-believers will be taken out first to the eternal fire and punishment. The believers (true Messianic believers) will be lifted up in the air while Yeshua Jesus is recreating the New Heaven and the New Earth.

 

Jesus said that in the Last Day (the Second Coming) the non-believers and the social Christians will be taken out first and will receive their judgement just like the tares and the weeds will be plucked out first and thrown into the fire. Then, the Messianic Hebrew believers will be lifted up to meet the Lord while the Lord is recreating the New Heavens and the New Earth. Then the Messianic Hebrew believers will come down with the Lord to live in the New Jerusalem which comes down from the New Heaven. The earth and the universe will be new.

I personally believe that the Great Tribulation occurred at the time of Vespasian and Titus and continued with Hadrian. Historians agree that the Messianic believers (AD 69) who were about 61,000 Messianic Hebrews in about two thousand congregations in Jerusalem region, when they saw the preparation of Titus to siege Jerusalem, they remembered the words of the Lord Jesus about the Great Tribulation.

They all, without exception, left Jerusalem to a safer region in Pella. “For then will be great suffering such as has not been from the beginning of the world until the present, nor will ever be again. And if those days were not shortened, not any flesh would live, but because of the chosen (the Messianic Hebrew believers), those days will be shortened” (Matthew 24:21, 22).

Now, for about 2000 years, we are living in the Millennium period. At the end of this period there will be a great war in the valleys of Meggido (har Mageddo - Armageddon). This great war will occur due to the fact that Satan will be released for a very short time. At that time, the living who “survive and are alive” would also have witnessed the end of what is known as Jacob’s Trouble (2 Peter 3:10-12).

Christ YHWH is the King of the universe. The typical Hebrew prayer is “Barukh Atta YHWH (Adonai) Melekh Kol ha ‘Olam - Blessed are you YHWH, King of the universe.” This blessing and prayer is not a futuristic, but actual truth. This also describes the Millennium, Isaiah 11:6; 65:25.

 

Many people believe the invented teachings of the Church leaders that the Millennium is futuristic and is limited to one thousand solar years. Such interpretation is not biblical, although it appears humanistic and logical. Such teaching depends on believing that Satan is the Ruler of this world, which is false. Jesus the Messiah is the Ruler of this world here-and-now.

 

The word “rapture” like the word “trinity” is not found in the Scripture.

Most Christians who are fighting (killing, figuratively) each other in favor of the Rapture, to be this way or that way. They assume and take for granted that they are already faithful believers in the Lord Yeshua Jesus and will be raptured first.

 

I like the words of a Messianic Jewish rabbi Ackerman: “I want to be left behind.”

A future rapture is nothing but a clever deception of Lucifer to make Christians think that they are complete waiting to fly away with the Lord. In reality, the Christian teaching of the Rapture gives authority to the Anti-Christ, the Church.

 

The Goal of true believers should be

(1) Entering through the Door by faith in Yeshua Jesus to be regenerate in their spirit.

(2) True repentance from all sins and compensation for all damages caused by their sins.

(3) Live a true faithful unpolluted life evidenced by the Seventeen Marks of the true believers. These include obedience to the Ten Commandments and the Clean Food Kashrut Law according to the Scriptures and NOT according to the interpretation and explanation of the Church.

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This is what Yeshua Jesus taught and it is opposite to what the Church is teaching.

See the Five Charts of the History of Time.