Rapture: Biblical Truth, Misunderstood Passages or Nonsense?

C Mc

Fox News: Either Planet X Will Kill Us All on April 23rd or the Rapture Can Happen Any Time, Take Your Pick

Tom McKayToday 12:20am

Silly fringe theories about Planet X—an imagined planet typically named Nibiru that is on course to hit or pass by Earth with disastrous consequences—are the kind of thing normally relegated to vanity press-published books or those tabloids you browse in the supermarket checkout aisle. On Wednesday, they made it into Fox News, with the added caveat that maybe some other Biblical catastrophe could surprise us instead.

The Planet X theory first emerged in 1995 and is usually evidenced by tortured interpretations of religious texts, with vague suppositions that NASA either hasn’t detected this ominous celestial body or is actively covering up its existence to prevent widespread panic. In an article filed to Fox’s website on Wednesday, this time the prophesied doomsday comes courtesy of an article in British rag the Daily Express citing numerologist David Meade’s interpretation of the Bible’s Revelation 12:1-2:

Is The Rapture finally here? One Christian numerologist says a biblical sign strongly suggests it.

...

The passage reads: “And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.”

In the passage, the woman is represented as Virgo.

According to Meade, the alignment represents “the Lion of the tribe of Judah,” marking the Rapture, the belief that Christ will bring the faithful into paradise prior to a period of tribulation on earth that precedes the end of time.

(Incredibly, while the Express article introduces Meade as a conspiracy theorist, the Fox News one does not.)

Meade is apparently telling every gullible soul with the time to listen that Planet X will appear above the Earth on April 23rd, 2018. This will trigger the Rapture, because the planet’s massive gravitational forces will cause volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, and all that other bad stuff you see in Roland Emmerich movies.

1. What is the Rapture?
2. Is the Rapture biblical?
3. Does Revelation 12:1-2, signals or endorses the "Rapture?"
4. Is this a scare tactic to force people to have "come-to-Jesus Moments?"
5. Where did such teaching originate?
6. Who or what organizations are proponents of such teachings?

These and other questions will debunk David Meade’s conspiracy theorist but reaffirm biblical truth of the "endtime" and the return of Christ. Prophecy can and should be understood without being entangled with "conspiracy theorist" of any stripes. What say ye? Please, biblical answers are needed. We don't need another theory to replace a "conspiracy theorists'." CM

Dave_L

“For you know quite well that the day of the Lord [end of the world] will come in the same way as a thief in the night.” (1 Thessalonians 5:2) (NET)

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16) (NET)

“Then we who are alive, who are left, will be suddenly caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so [in this way] we will always be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:17) (NET)

One of my favorite Tim LaHaye quotes was from his book No Fear of the Storm. He said "One objection to the pre-Tribulation Rapture is that not one passage of Scripture teaches the two aspects of His Second Coming separated by the Tribulation. This is true. But then, no one passage teaches a post-trib or mid-trib Rapture, either."

Tim LaHaye, No Fear of the Storm: Why Christians Will Escape All the Tribulation (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 1992), 69. This book was later re-published as Rapture Under Attack.

Rapture Yoda Walvoord says: "Nor does the Word explicitly place the Rapture at the end of the Tribulation." The fact is that neither posttribulalionism nor pretribulationisim is an explicit teaching of Scripture. The Bible does not in so many words state either."

"Pretribulationism is based on the fact that it allows a harmony of the Scriptures relating to the second advent. The separation of the translation from the return of Christ to earth permits each of the two events so different in character, to have its own place."

"It solves the problem of the confusing and contradictory details in the post-tribulational interpretation llluslrated in the difficulty of the postribulationist's themselves to work out a harmony of prophecies related to the second advent." The Rapture Question (Findlay, OH: n.d., 1957, p.148),

In other words, they made such a mess out of interpreting the scriptures, they created the rapture doctrine out of thin air to make their theology more palatable.

[Deleted User]

A simple solution to find out in less than two weeks time ... April 23 is coming soon and it will evident whether such ideas come true or are a bunch of non-sense.

I actually have appointments scheduled for April 24 and 25 as well as others at later times

C Mc

Funny! We don't have to wait for that day. Just speak today, what the Bible says. CM