Is a Person a Christian if He or She Doesn't Want to be Raptured?
Re: "BaBerean2," "Berean777," and "interpreter" @ christianforums.com
Quote:
Originally Posted by BaBerean2
I do not want to be "taken" in the verses from Matthew chapter 24, because they are those "taken" and burned in the fire from the parable of wheat and tares.
Why don't you want to be raptured here? The Bible says "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14.3) and "we which are alive and left shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4.17).
Both the "taken" and the "left" are saved so "watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come" (see Matt. 24.42) If you are not watchful then you won't be taken, for you were not ready to be received at the first rapture (assuming you are a Christian).
"Your Lord" is speaking to both the taken and left whose Lord is Jesus.
To you Christianity is a cult if you don't accept the gospel, but this is God's redemptive design, not a cult, that you reject. Resurrection and rapture are part of the gospel of salvation that you reject. I would not want to be in your shoes.
Matt. 24.39 says "took them all away." The word used is "airo" which means to "remove" or "cause to cease." "Taken" in Matt. verse 40 and 41 is "paralambano" which is "companion" or "join to oneself" with the Lord in rapture.
God uses two different words to give two completely different meanings to express different things in context, but Satan tries to mingle them together because Satan is the author of confusion.
In one case people were partying and lovers of the world. Whereas the Christians, both taken and left, were working in the field, grinding at the mill and so forth. The reason Matt. 24.42 says why some Christians are left is because they were not watchful. But you don't care about this or the conditions the Lord set forth that Paul describes as "carnal/flesh" Christians and "spiritual" Christians in 1 Cor. 3.1.
The word “taken” is paralambano in Greek. Besides being translated “to receive” as its basic meaning, it can also denote the idea of “to take to (or with) oneself”—In the New Testament this word is used 52 times, most of which instances convey a good meaning. John 14.3 (“and will receive you unto myself”) is the only instance wherein our Lord speaks directly on rapture. Three times He took Peter, John and James along with Him (see Mark 5.35-43, Matt. 17.1 and 26.37). There, “paralambano” on all three occasions connotes a good idea. In John 1.11 (“they that were his own received him not”), the meaning will be good if people receive the Lord. The word “received” in Colossians 2.6, “received” in 1 Thessalonians 4.1, “received” in 2.13, “receiving” in Hebrews 12.28, “take” and “took” in Matthew 2.13-14, “took” in Acts 15.39, “took” in 16.33, and “took” in 23.18—all are paralambano and all suggest something good. Even in the Old Testament, the equivalent Hebrew word for “took” (laqach) in Genesis 5.24 refers to rapture; and the same Hebrew word for “fetched” (laqach) in 1 Samuel 10.23 means something good.
Enoch and Elijah were raptured or paralambano. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah! Amen.
The Lord insists that you repent now. Stop clinging to a lie.
For more evidence of the same,
http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/Matthew_24.htm
I can see you BaBarean2 when you are in the Tribulation and a couple million are first raptured for being watchful, Rev. 12.10 says you will accuse the brethren day and night, because you falsely assumed if it was the Tribulation you would have been taken and not left. Perhaps you will label the rapture as a Satanic deception.
So not only do you exclude yourself from the first rapture on account of disregarding and not caring for the need to be ready, but it is doubtful when you are in the Tribulation you will even recognize it is as such, because you pridefully and arrogantly assumed if it was the Tribulation you would have already been taken and not left.
How then will you be empowered to refuse or even identify the mark of the beast implant to be able to buy and sell? You put yourself in a very precarious position BaBerean2 that is a reflection of your jaded attitude towards the Lord by taking away the hope of the Church.
The church would lose her hope - “Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2.13) - for included in this hope is the blessing of escaping the Tribulation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by interpreter
As in the days of Noah and Lot, the bad guys are taken, and the good guys are left. I pray that I am one of those "left behind." There is no rapture because Jesus never mentioned one.
The Bible says many Christians will be martyred during the Tribulation so they will be swept away according to you, but then you are accusing Christians of being bad guys. Indeed, you will be left behind because you don't want to be raptured so you shaln't be. Rapture is seen in John 14 by the words of Jesus: "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."
"Then we which are alive and left shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4.17).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Berean777
Taken means not staying here on earth. But taken is not been taken alive, no no no, on the contrary those that lived in Noah's days were taken by death.
Taken indeed means not remaining on earth, for to be taken is to be raptured. To be swept away is to go down to the grave. Two different Greek words mean completely the opposite: one goes below, the other goes above. Many Christians will be martyred, thus, swept away by this false interpretation, which is hardly just. Therefore, to be taken is to be first raptured according to readiness.
The 5 wise virgins were take (Matt. 25.1-13). It was not good for the 5 unwise virgins to be left.
It was not good for the woman in labor to be left (Matt. 24.19).
How can two people in a bed not both be swept away since they are asleep and side by side? (Luke 17.34). But one can be raptured alive ("taken") and the other left.
Enoch was taken and Noah was left. Elijah was taken and Elisha was left.
Jesus was taken and the disciples were left.
Therefore, if "swept away" means "taken," God won't hold you accountable because the overwhelming preponderance of evidence and context point to "taken" being good and "left" being bad.
How can Jesus say to them "your Lord" (Matt. 24.42) and yet sweep them away for being bad? Rather, they are "taken" for being good, and carnal Christians are "left," not to be swept away per se as unregenerates, but for not overcoming. Carnal Christians lose the reward of being first raptured. The Bible is speaking to Christians and consequences for us, for keeping or not keeping the word of His patience to be kept from the hour of trial that is to come upon the whole world (Rev. 3.10). To escape all these things that shall come to pass of the Tribulation, one must be watchful and prayerful (Luke 21.36). If you are watchful, you will be taken and not left (Matt. 24.40-42).
christianforums.com, by the way, banned me for defending the first rapture yet again while these individuals who reject the rapture (even the rapture of Jesus) carry on for the great harlot of religious Rome, the Roman Catholic Church, that owns that website. They have no faith in the resurrected and ascension (rapture) of the Lord Jesus even though the Bible says as He was resurrected so shall we be. Even the unsaved are resurrected and raptured, but for Hell.
