Rapture

Seeking End Times Trends is Fruitless

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Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man. Luke 21:36 

Do you know good pastors who are good at teaching the Bible, but when it comes to end times, they seem to unzip their head, take out their brains and then begin to preach and teach? I know I used to do that, teach my favorite end times theories, until someone challenged me, a high school student who called me out on it and a seminary professor who told me that was not in the Bible. Ouch!

Too many ‘good’ pastors are not honestly seeking real ‘true Truth’ when it comes to eschatology. I am not talking about the faithless and mindless TV preachers and the false teachers and false prophets; rather…well I will not name names… just do not get it. It is unfortunate and fruitless that so many good pastors seem to turn off their brains and not read the Bible, rather read into it theories when it comes to end times, they seek trends and not Him, Christ as LORD!

We need to stop, focus on Christ and His Word not our feeble fruitless ideas!

The point of eschatology and the rapture is that Jesus is coming back! The ‘means’ He uses is not the point, it is that He is coming in His perfect timing, nothing needs to be done or happen first, and it will be more incredible than anyone could ever imagine. We ready ourselves by the growth of our faith not the latest silly ideas or parroting what others say that tickle us.

Focusing on the rapture is like focusing on the mustard on the hotdog while you ignore that you are at the World Series…. Spend all your time arguing about condiments and never taking a look at the game. You miss the main point! It is all about Jesus, His impact in us here and now as we wait by our due diligence to grow in Him and share Him. The timing and details are not given (Matt 24), because they are not important, our faith and fruit are far more important. People who teach and focus on the particular theorems and timing of a rapture or any end times tribulations or an antichrist scenario ignore the main things that Christ has for us. Like a mother with a baby focusing on the fashions of what it should wear and never bothering to feed and care for it (yes some people do that).

Yes we are curious of what and when, it is alluring and fun, but, let’s not lose focus. We have to get the fact it is about God’s love and plan for us. End times is to wake us up on His control, it is not to scare us but excite us, to examine ourselves to see what is in the way and trust in His plan, to not be afraid and embrace Him as LORD! We are to be ready by our faith and our obedience and loyalty not by our theories and complacency to His precepts…

How can I get my church and pastor to get it?

The only thing I seen work is what I am doing (open to any ideas, please post them), have a Inductive Bible study in Revelation and honestly look at the Text and then the 4 views side by side without taking a side and then see what The Word, in context and real word meanings has to say (this is hard, took me 2 years to set up and only 15 people come out a 5,000 member church that I am apart of).

Also, we have exegetical help in the Rapture too, you can do a Bible study, where you do not come to it with a specific view, rather really study and see what God has to say, not what man has to say. If your theory is right it will pan out, if you are mad and do not want to do that, then you are not interested in Truth only your thinking and theorems and how sad that is in the face of our Holy God and Savior!

http://www.intothyword.org/pages.asp?pageid=56857

http://www.intothyword.org/pages.asp?pageid=69539

The barriers? People, especially many pastors because of our pride do not want to be challenged or convicted or seek real Truth only chase trends, because it is easy and no conviction. Why, we can focus on what we want and not bother to really grow in the faith or our character.

Do not be caught up with the “hype” of speculations; rather, be caught up with Christ. Do not ignore the veracity of Eschatology and Revelation. His Word is explicit; He tells us what we need to know and that is that. It is a tragedy to chase what is fleeting and miss His wonders and Truth! We have nothing to add to His Word and nothing to improve about it; rather, it is we who need to be approved.

Be a church leader who follows Christ, seeks His precepts and is suspicious of man’s ideas, but embraces God’s…. Use your brain that God gave, look, observe context, look up words, do not assume, and if it is popular it may be wrong! Do not rest in pride, rather rest in Christ!

 

A ‘new’ Scheduled Camping Trip!

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(Normally I do not waste my time on these nut jobs, but too many people I know in my church got caught up in this, pun intended, because, like so many under fed Christians, they like to focus upon tends and not focus on Christ! Yes, I am sympathetic; but, I am mad as &%$# at this &%@#$#&* guy!)

False prophet and teacher Howard Camping seems to not be able to read, at least read God’s Word. If he looked at 2 Peter he would be looking into a mirror…So, what is the new planed “Camping Trip”, what is he up to now? He now says his prophecy was just off a few months, that Judgment Day actually will come on October 21.

The independent ‘Christian’ (by name not by reality, according to Matthew 23, 24 and Galatians 5) radio host and the last of the Millerites (BTW they were a cult! And always wrong!!) said today, May 24,

“…the apocalypse or the so-called global “Rapture” will come five months after May 21, the original date he predicted. Just like the cultist followers of William Miller, father of the Millerites, The 89 year old Camping predicts the second advent and the end of the world would have start on May 21st, 2011.

The Millerites were the followers of the teachings of William Miller who, in 1833, first shared publicly his belief in the coming Second Advent of Jesus Christ in roughly the year 1843. –

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millerism” (From Gabrielle Saveri of World News Net)

Disappointment and anxiety following Harold Camping’s failed prophecy!

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 By Ted Harrison
Special to the ASSIST News Service

OAKLAND, CA (ANS) — As Harold Camping prepares to explain his failed Judgment Day prediction, family and friends of some of his most ardent supporters are becoming increasingly anxious.

Aware that following his 1994 failure there was at least one suicide reported, there are growing concerns about how Family Radio’s end-time ambassadors will cope with extreme disappointment and anti-climax.

The family of US veteran Marie Exley-Sheahan, who had been taking the May 21st prediction to the Muslim world, have made a desperate plea for her to contact them.

Marie, who had shared her experiences on-line via a blog and her Facebook page, last posted a message as May 21st officially ended at the International Date Line. It simply read: “My prayer for family and friends: ‘Father forgive them; for they know not what they do.’ My hope: ‘Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.’ Love to all…’???

Nine hours later her family sent this message via Facebook from the site in the name of Linda Post-Exley.

“Marie your Dad and I love u and will always We only ask u to think about this: Matthew 24:36, ‘BUT ABOUT THAT DAY OR HOUR NO ONE KNOWS, NOT EVEN THE ANGELS IN HEAVEN, NOR THE SON,BUT ONLY THE FATHER.’ JESUS TOLD IN ACTS 1: 7: ‘IT IS NOT FOR YOU TO KNOW THE TIMES OR DATES THE FATHER HAS SET BY HIS OWN AUTHORITY.’ MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT. NO ONE EXCEPT GOD KNOWS THE DAY AND HOUR OF JESUS RETURN TO EARTH. IF JESUS DIDN’T KNOW ISN’T IT CRAZY TO THINK SOMEONE ON EARTH KNOWS? PLEASE CALL US!”

The message received an immediate comment from one friend calling it, the “Saddest thing I have seen on Facebook in a while.”

Another friend reported trying to e-mail Marie unsuccessfully. Twenty hours after Marie’s last posting another friend posted, “Where o where is my friend Marie?? I love you girl, call or text.”

US military veteran Marie Exley-Sheahan travelled extensively around the Middle East to take the 89-year-old radio evangelist’s message to the Muslim world. In messages home she reported receiving a hostile reception from crowds as she attempted to distribute leaflets warning of Judgment Day on May 21st.

“We were temporarily detained by police but we had no serious issues,” she wrote in her blog. “The Lord kept the angry people restrained and kept us out of harm’s way.

“With Turkey being 98% Muslim, it definitely can be intimidating at times. We find ourselves becoming nervous, feeling the tension rise, in certain neighborhoods. Naturally, we have the people that yell at us, throw things, threaten us etc., and that can get discouraging. But then we notice the expressions on some of the people’s faces, expressions of fear or concern and some will turn and ask for another tract or two.”

In Dubai she bought billboard space to advertise the message, but the authorities had the message removed. “The Jericho billboard went up with 23 days left until Jericho and the whole world experiences Judgment once again,” she blogged.

Shortly before leaving for the Middle East Marie Exley, originally from Colorado Springs, married Michael Sheahan and it is believed they traveled together.

End time predictions are not a new phenomenon, but the Harold Camping prophecy will probably be judged to be one of the most widely reported in history, thanks to modern travel and the Internet. Followers of William Miller in 1844 were variously estimated to number between 50,000 and 500,000. One You Tube site explaining Camping’s Bible calculations attracted almost 2,000,000 viewers.

But with the immediacy of the Internet hundreds of unsubstantiated rumors connected with Camping have flown around the world unchecked. One widely read Twitter message currently reads: “Suicide hotlines set up. Camping’s previous failed prediction caused suicide. Camping has blood on his hands.”

So far there have been no reliably confirmed reports of any of Camping’s followers taking their own life, but as time passes, with no word from family members, there is growing anxiety for the safety of some of his most dedicated disciples. 

Ted Harrison is a former BBC Religious Affairs correspondent.

Camping Trip Cancelled!

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Due to the fact he is a false teacher and a false prophet…

“Be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Matthew 24:44

So millions wasted that could have gone to real authentic missions, now no billboards for the media to make fun of or conceited radio marathons, for the Bible told us, if only Camping and his misguided followers knew how to read…  “The day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. Another way God stated it” 1 Thessalonians 5:2 and  “Be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Matthew 24:44

There it is, do you want to know when Jesus will return? The answer is simple, when he wants to and when we least expect it!

Will the rapture happen tomorrow, May 21st? NO!

Biblical Guy Rapture ,

First off, the rapture is not even in the Bible and people who think there is and have a date are only serving themselves or Satan and not the God of Scripture. In other words, Harold Camping is nuts at best or a servant at the devil at worst, either way do not listen to false teachers! Think I am wrong, just read the book of Jude. By the way, Camping has always been wrong with all of his predictions since I first heard him in the late 70’s he has never been right, what does the Bible say of this? …anyone got rocks-lol?

From Dan Wooding, 70, is an award winning British journalist…

Harold Camping Has Been Searching For The End Of The World For Some Time Now
A former associate shares about the time he worked for the self-appointed prophet

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

EAGLE POINT, OR(ANS) — As Harold Camping and his followers await the end of the world tomorrow (Saturday, May 21, 20110,) a former associate of the self-appointed prophet has revealed that this has been a long-running theme in Camping’s ministry.

 
 

Dr. Jim Krames, who was Camping’s assistant from 1978-80 said, “I knew him well and my technology mushroomed Family Radio’s s audience.” (Krames invented the Satellator, low-power FM broadcasting system).  

Krames said that it was while he was having lunch one day with Camping that he first announced “his propensity to date the Rapture.”  He said, “I spent several hours explaining why such an excursion was a very bad idea. He remained dissuaded for about ten years. In the meantime, I moved on to build two other networks.

“After the last fiasco when he predicted the end of the world for 1994, he ventured even more deeply into his inquiry into dates. He relies on King James Version (the only authentic translation in his opinion) for chronology, and he has the benefit of the fact that Hebrew letters also serve as numbers.  

“His background is engineering, so he tackles chronology problems as if unraveling a Suduko puzzle.”  Dr. Krames said the one day when he was having lunch with Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, as his Arrowhead Springs headquarters, Bright asked him to describe Harold Camping. Krames said, “He is a man in whom there is no guile.”  

When asked to explain what he meant, Krames said, “My point is that although he hammers groups like Campus Crusade for Christ for what he perceives to be ‘easy believism’, his attacks have nothing to do with personalities, or anything. He sincerely believes what he says. He knows no other way to play it. Personally, I found him to be a selfless, caring man.

“Over the years, he has increasingly encroached into Family Radio’s broadcast schedule on a 24 hour regimen; he airs his bible study 4x, the reading of scripture, and his hour long call in talk show, family forum. Yet, today, Family Radio is probably the largest religious broadcasting network, with internet, on-air AM, FM, and Shortwave stations throughout the world.  

“His background is Dutch reformed and is traditionally, these people are ‘A-mill ‘(no millennium), just bang, Jesus returns, and court of last judgment begins. Early on, he withdrew from the congregation he had been active in.  

“His eschatological views on the start of what he views as the current tribulation began about a decade ago. At that time, he believes, the Holy Spirit exited all churches (including evangelical, Bible believing congregations). Therefore, he began to urge listeners that it was imperative that all true believers exit their church. In fact, he counts staying within a church, even solid, bible believing churches to be proof that you were not truly saved. This is why each Sunday’s broadcast schedule plays hymns, for which listeners can send in for a free hymn sheet (words).”  

Bill Freeman, from Orlando, Florida, shared this recollection about Harold Camping. He said, “In a phone interview I did within a day or two of Camping’s 1994 prediction while working at a DC-based radio network, my final question, ‘what if it doesn’t come about?’ elicited an answer that still leaves me aghast, ‘well, others have made predictions over the years…and they’re still around. Whew!”  

Dan Wooding, 70, is an award winning British journalist..

Do you think that the “rapture” is really in the Bible?

Biblical Guy Rapture ,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtrLNfMFayQ

Perhaps not! You may want to investigate this, Scripture in context, real word meanings… From 20 years of research at the Schaeffer Institute investigated this more thoroughly than anyone, now it seems the rapture is a made up myth and not in the Bible… But do not be like I did get all mad and think rebuttals to a rapture is nonsense, rather read and not read into the Bible what we want it to say…

http://www.churchleadership.org/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=43936&columnid=4624http://www.biblicaleschatology.org/

References

Biblical Guy hermeneutical rules, What is Biblical Eschatology , ,

From the Books

  1. “The Early Church Fathers”
  2. The Shepherd of Hermas, 2; 23:5.(An early Church Father whom many say came up with this theory)
  3. Blackstone, William. Jesus is Coming (1878). Now published by Kregel (1989).
  4. Boyer, Paul. When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1992), page 75.
  5. Benware, Paul. Understanding End Times Prophecy: A Comprehensive Approach (Chicago: Moody Press, 1995), pages 197-198.
  6. Ice, Tommy. “Morgan Edwards: A Pre-Darby Rapturist,” The Conservative Theological Journal, April 1997, pages 4-12.
  7. Denny, Timothy J. and Ice, Thomas D. “The Rapture and an Early Medieval Citation,” Bibliotheca Sacra, July-September 1995
  8. LaHaye, Tim. “Target Number One,” Pre-Trib Perspectives, September 2002, pages 1-3.
  9. Lindsey, Hal, The Rapture, Bantam Books (1983), p. 25
  10. Gundry, Robert, “The Church and The Tribulation”, Zondervan (1973)
  11. Scofield, C. I. The Scofield Study Bible (London: Oxford University Press, 1909).
  12. Larkin, Clarence. Dispensational Truth (Philadelphia, 1920).
  13. Keeley, Robin, Eerdmans’ Handbook to Christian Belief, Wm B Eerdmans Publishing, (1982), p.415
  14. Lindsey, Hal. The Late Great Planet Earth (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1970).
  15. LaHaye Tim and Jenkins, Jerry. The Left Behind book series.
  16. Chris Nelson. (2002–06-18). “A Brief History of the Apocalypse; 1971 – 1997:  Millennial Madness” Retrieved on 2007–06-23.
  17. MacPherson, Dave. The Unbelievable Pre-Trib Origin (Heart of America Bible Society, 1973).
  18. MacPherson, Dave. The Incredible Cover-Up: Exposing the Origins of the Rapture Theories (Plainfield, NJ: Logos 1975)
  19. Rosenthal, Marv: “The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church: Is It Biblical?”, Regular Baptist Press (1991)
  20. Snobelen, Stephen D., Isaac Newton and Apocalypse Now. 2007
  21. “The World Did Not End Yesterday”, Boston Globe(Associated Press), 1992–10-29.
  22. Walvoord , John, “The Rapture Question, 1957.”

From the Web:

  1. “St. Ephraem”in the Catholic Encyclopedia on the Internet.
  2. Ed Reese, “Henry (Harry) Allan Ironside”

3. http://www.aroundomaha.com/sschool/rapture.html

4. http://www.geocities.com/lasttrumpet_2000/timeline/jeffrey.html

5. http://www.khouse.org/articles/1995/39/

6. http://www.bibleprophesy.org/ancient.htm

7. http://www.geocities.com/lasttrumpet_2000/timeline/ephraem.html

8. http://us.geocities.com/worldview_3/2tribchurch.html

9. http://bibleprophesy.org/jesuitrapture.htm

10. http://www.raptureready.com/

11. http://www.bibleprophesy.org/

12. http://www.raptureready.coml/

13. http://ag.org/top/Beliefs/Position_Papers/pp_4182_rapture.cfm

14. http://www.graceonlinelibrary.org/articles/full.asp?id=9%7C21%7C40

15. http://www.gonethefilm.com/

16. http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blrapture.htm (this is here because it is funny and make an excellent sermon illustration to this article)

17. http://www.rapturefund.org/

18. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millerites

© 1991, 2008, R. J. Krejcir, The Francis A. Schaeffer Institute of Church Leadership Development, www.truespirituality.org/, www.churchleadership.org/

What the Parable of the Tares Teaches us About the Rapture?

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In a previous article, I showed that the wicked are taken out of the picture before the gathering of the Church. In this article, I will show that this teaching is also found in the parables of Jesus, particularly in the Parable of the Tares.

Matthew chapter 13 first records the Parable of the Tares (13:25-30) and then its interpretation by Jesus (13:36-43). The parable is about a farmer who had an enemy. When the farmer sowed his wheat, the enemy came during the night and sowed “tares” amongst the wheat. Tares are a kind weed commonly found in Palestine, also referred to as “cheat” or “bearded darnel.”

The servants of the farmer wanted to go through the fields and rip out all the tares, but the farmer stopped them saying that the process of tearing out the tares would only make things worse because the wheat would also be torn. They were to be allowed to grow together until harvest time and then the tares would be gathered first and thrown into the fire. This would be followed by the harvest of the wheat.

You’ve probably already guessed the meaning of this parable, but in case you haven’t, Jesus interprets it for us. So, we have here one of the few occasions when Jesus interprets his own parable for his disciples.

Jesus says that the sower is “the Son of Man” (v. 37), a title that He frequently used to refer to himself. The field “is the world” (v. 38). This parable is not talking about wheat and tares growing up together in the church, but in the world. The good seed represents the “sons of the kingdom” (v. 38). These are the redeemed, that is, the Church of God.

The tares represent the “sons of the evil one” (v. 38). These are the wicked, those who refuse to follow the Christ of God. The enemy is the devil (v. 39). The harvesters are the angels of God who will participate in the judgment of the world (v. 41). The harvest is the Day of Judgment when the tares are gathered up and “thrown into the furnace of fire” where there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (v. 42).

The world is God’s field, but the devil will continue to sow wicked men and women in that field until the end of time. Christians are prohibited here from attempting to eliminate the wicked by force. Instead, the wicked and the redeemed are to grow up together until the day of harvest.

Now, in relation to the topic of this post, I come to the important question: WHO IS GATHERED UP FIRST, the Church or the wicked? Stop a moment before you answer that question. Go back to the text and read it. I’ll wait . . .

In the parable itself, the sower says to his servants: “First, gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up” (v. 30). In Jesus’ interpretation he says:

“The Son of Man will send forth his angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father (vv. 41-43).”

Did you notice the words that indicate sequencing? FIRST, the wicked are gather up and thrown into the furnace of fire. THEN the wheat (i.e., the children of the kingdom) are gathered into the barn.

Remember that the word “rapture” means “to be gathered up.” The only ones “gathered up” in the Parable of the Tares are the wicked. More importantly, they are gathered up BEFORE the believers are gathered into the Lord’s barn (v. 30).

Dr. Greg Waddell
Director of Institutional Improvement
Mid-South Christian College
DrGregWaddell (at) gmail.com

See his Blog: www.SpiritOfOrganization.com

THE WICKED ARE RAPTURED FIRST

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AN EXPOSITION OF MATTHEW 24:41-42

You’ve probably heard the stories. A bus is heading down the highway when the bus driver and several passengers suddenly disappear causing the bus to veer off the road in a horrific explosion of broken glass and twisting metal. One of the pilots of a jet airliner disappears forcing the other pilot to take over the controls just in time to keep from crashing. It dawns on everyone that millions have vanished from the earth in an instant, leaving all those remaining with a sick feeling of dread.

Is this really what the Bible teaches will happen at the end of time?

Many evangelical Christians believe that a day will come when the saved will be removed from the earth without having experienced death, leaving behind all those who do not know Christ. I do not believe the Bible teaches this “Doctrine of the Rapture.” I’ve seen the supposed biblical evidence for it and I am not convinced.

In this post, I want to focus on Matthew 24:40-41, a passage that is often used to support the the rapture. I want to show that, in reality, this passage teaches exactly the opposite of what proponents of the rapture doctrine teach. The text reads:

“Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.”

It may appear that these words support the doctrine of the rapture as described above. However, those who interpret it this way have committed one of the classic errors of biblical interpretation; they have ignored the context in which these words are found. To understand that context, we must look at the words immediately prior to our text. Jesus says:

“For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Mat 24:38-39).

Jesus is comparing the days of Noah with the days immediately leading up to His second coming. Here is the key: Jesus says, “they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.” The phrase “took them all away” is a translation of the word HEREN in Greek and it literally means to be “lifted up,” “taken up,” “carried away.” Our English word “rapture” comes from an archaic French root that originally referred to the “act of carrying away.” So, Matthew 24:40-41 is in fact talking about a rapture.

Here is my question: in the days of Noah, who were the ones raptured? Obviously, the wicked are the ones taken away by the flood. They are the ones who were eating, drinking, and getting married. They are the ones who “did not understand.” It is the wicked who are raptured by the flood unto destruction and the righteous remain in the safe protection of the ark.

Now, let’s read the text again:

“Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. “Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left” (Mat 24:40-41).

If we take the context seriously, we are left with no choice but to understand that the ones taken are the wicked. Jesus is simply using another example to say the same thing he just finished saying in the Noah example. Two men will be in a field and suddenly, the wicked will be “raptured,” “taken away,” and the believer will be left in safety. Two women are grinding at the mill; the wicked woman is taken while the redeemed woman is left behind in safety.

If this is a correct interpretation of Matthew 24:41-42, then it dismantles one of the key arguments used by those who support the idea that it is the Christians who are taken first and that the wicked are left behind.

Dr. Greg Waddell
Director of Institutional Improvement
Mid-South Christian College
DrGregWaddell (at) gmail.com

See his Blog: www.SpiritOfOrganization.com

Farewell to the Rapture?

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(N.T. Wright, Bible Review, August 2001.  Reproduced by permission of the author) 

Little did Paul know how his colorful metaphors for Jesus’ second coming would be misunderstood two millennia later. 

The American obsession with the second coming of Jesus — especially with distorted interpretations of it — continues unabated.  Seen from my side of the Atlantic, the phenomenal success of the Left Behind books appears puzzling, even bizarre[1].  Few in the U.K. hold the belief on which the popular series of novels is based: that there will be a literal “rapture” in which believers will be snatched up to heaven, leaving empty cars crashing on freeways and kids coming home from school only to find that their parents have been taken to be with Jesus while they have been “left behind.”  This pseudo-theological version of Home Alone has reportedly frightened many children into some kind of (distorted) faith. 

This dramatic end-time scenario is based (wrongly, as we shall see) on Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians, where he writes: “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of an archangel and the trumpet of God.  The dead in Christ will rise first; then we, who are left alive, will be snatched up with them on clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). 

What on earth (or in heaven) did Paul mean? 

It is Paul who should be credited with creating this scenario.  Jesus himself, as I have argued in various books, never predicted such an event[2].  The gospel passages about “the Son of Man coming on the clouds” (Mark 13:26, 14:62, for example) are about Jesus’ vindication, his “coming” to heaven from earth.  The parables about a returning king or master (for example, Luke 19:11-27) were originally about God returning to Jerusalem, not about Jesus returning to earth.  This, Jesus seemed to believe, was an event within space-time history, not one that would end it forever. 

The Ascension of Jesus and the Second Coming are nevertheless vital Christian doctrines[3], and I don’t deny that I believe some future event will result in the personal presence of Jesus within God’s new creation.  This is taught throughout the New Testament outside the Gospels.  But this event won’t in any way resemble the Left Behind account. 

Understanding what will happen requires a far more sophisticated cosmology than the one in which “heaven” is somewhere up there in our universe, rather than in a different dimension, a different space-time, altogether. 

The New Testament, building on ancient biblical prophecy, envisages that the creator God will remake heaven and earth entirely, affirming the goodness of the old Creation but overcoming its mortality and corruptibility (e.g., Romans 8:18-27; Revelation 21:1; Isaiah 65:17, 66:22).  When that happens, Jesus will appear within the resulting new world (e.g., Colossians 3:4; 1 John 3:2). 

Paul’s description of Jesus’ reappearance in 1 Thessalonians 4 is a brightly colored version of what he says in two other passages, 1 Corinthians 15:51-54 and Philippians 3:20-21: At Jesus’ “coming” or “appearing,” those who are still alive will be “changed” or “transformed” so that their mortal bodies will become incorruptible, deathless.  This is all that Paul intends to say in Thessalonians, but here he borrows imagery—from biblical and political sources—to enhance his message.  Little did he know how his rich metaphors would be misunderstood two millennia later. 

First, Paul echoes the story of Moses coming down the mountain with the Torah.  The trumpet sounds, a loud voice is heard, and after a long wait Moses comes to see what’s been going on in his absence.

Second, he echoes Daniel 7, in which “the people of the saints of the Most High” (that is, the “one like a son of man”) are vindicated over their pagan enemy by being raised up to sit with God in glory.  This metaphor, applied to Jesus in the Gospels, is now applied to Christians who are suffering persecution. 

Third, Paul conjures up images of an emperor visiting a colony or province.  The citizens go out to meet him in open country and then escort him into the city.  Paul’s image of the people “meeting the Lord in the air” should be read with the assumption that the people will immediately turn around and lead the Lord back to the newly remade world. 

Paul’s mixed metaphors of trumpets blowing and the living being snatched into heaven to meet the Lord are not to be understood as literal truth, as the Left Behind series suggests, but as a vivid and biblically allusive description of the great transformation of the present world of which he speaks elsewhere. 

Paul’s misunderstood metaphors present a challenge for us: How can we reuse biblical imagery, including Paul’s, so as to clarify the truth, not distort it?  And how can we do so, as he did, in such a way as to subvert the political imagery of the dominant and dehumanizing empires of our world?  We might begin by asking, What view of the world is sustained, even legitimized, by the Left Behind ideology?  How might it be confronted and subverted by genuinely biblical thinking?  For a start, is not the Left Behind mentality in thrall to a dualistic view of reality that allows people to pollute God’s world on the grounds that it’s all going to be destroyed soon?  Wouldn’t this be overturned if we recaptured Paul’s wholistic vision of God’s whole creation?              
           

 http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_BR_Farewell_Rapture.htm 

[1] Tim F. Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Left Behind (Cambridge, UK: Tyndale House Publishing, 1996).  Eight other titles have followed, all runaway bestsellers.

[2] See my Jesus and the Victory of God (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1996); the discussions in Jesus and the Restoration of Israel: A Critical Assessment of N.T. Wright’s Jesus and the Victory of God, ed. Carey C. Newman (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999); and Marcus J. Borg and N.T. Wright, The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999), chapters 13 and 14.

[3] Douglas Farrow, Ascension and Ecclesia: On the Significance of the Doctrine of the Ascension for Ecclesiology and Christian Cosmology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999).