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The Rapture or the Second Coming

One thing we know is that those verses don't refer to the coming of Jesus on the white horse.
The reason why has been pointed out to you dozens of times.

You need to stop grazing around the edges.
It isn't about someone grazing around the edges. The problem is that you think everything has to be addressed to validate any post that only addresses the particular issue that you are presenting. And when any specific thing is presented to the specific thing that you posted, instead of dealing with that (and in this case what was said about the Acts and Thess passages that you say are about a pre-trib rapture of the saints from the earth) you simple ignore it all together and with a deflective jump you evidently think is invisible, divert to another set or Scriptures.

So, deal with the first----what was said in post #155---and either refute/challenge it with scriptural support, not suppositional support and declarations. Or, if you find that it is not possible to refute/challenge what was said, be a man, and acknowledge it. I would ask you to do that before I address the specific deflection of this response to post 155, but I know you won't ever do that. My answering the accusation is not for your sake, it is for the sake of rightly handling the word of God.
Here is the passage:
Rev 19:11-16
Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. (Side note: here we see he is already King of kings, and Lord of lords.)

That, and what is depicted in the following verses 17-21, is the final judgement. Not some seven year period of tribulation.

And note carefully what it says. "Then I saw heaven opened." This is not a return of Jesus at all but heaven opened for us to see through images what Jesus is doing in the unseen, spiritual realm. The heavenly perspective of what we see taking place on earth. There is no way to graphically portray it in all its meaning, other than through images---images embedded in the OT, so that the original recipients would understand the full impact and get comfort from it. They, unlike you and all generations removed from this aspect of Hebrew cultural norms of expressing things, were not unfamiliar with symbolic apocalyptic writing. They would know what it meant that in a vision, John saw heaven opened. He was seeing into an invisible to us, realm. He was being shown what Christ was doing in spite of what the situation looked like from our perspective. He is crushing the serpents head, and no matter how bad things are in our world, his victory and their preservation are secure. They would understand what all the images in the vision were representing, because they were intensely familiar with the OT. They would know for example that a horse being white represents righteousness or judgment. A harbinger of conquest.

It is Jesus and the armies of heaven who are doing battle in those passages, and they are doing it from heaven. What we see on the earth is the result of what takes place in heaven. And though the final judgement is expressed in these passages, giving them and us the secure knowledge of the ending, gives all generations in any and all situations the same comfort. No matter what we must endure, we are safe. God will always carry us through to the other side, whether it be 10,000 days before he returns or one minute before he returns.
 
And note carefully what it says. "Then I saw heaven opened." This is not a return of Jesus
Verse 14 tells us the armies "follow Him on white horses".....are they in heaven running around a track?
Verse 15 then mentions striking down the nations...Obviously Jesus left heaven.

The prophecy in Zech 14 tells us hat happens next.

Connect the dots Arial.
 
Verse 14 tells us the armies "follow Him on white horses".....are they in heaven running around a track?
Verse 15 then mentions striking down the nations...Obviously Jesus left heaven.

The prophecy in Zech 14 tells us hat happens next.

Connect the dots Arial.
Instead of being so flippant, why don't you try reading my post, @Josheb's posts, @Hazelelponi 's posts @John Bauer 's posts, @Eleanor's posts and any other Covenant theology poster posting in this thread, for understanding and comprehension. Your responses show that you are absorbing none of it. And even more disturbing, that you absolutely do not want to. You resort to flippancy and foolishness.

That would fall under the heading of lazy complacency and no interest in what is true. Only in thinking that you are the holder of truth and anything else is not worth looking at to see if there is anything possible to it.

But I am done with you. There is no hope left in me that you will ever deal with what I, or anyone else, says. You will never bother to do the work of refuting it, which it should be very easy to do if anything you say is true. Note---we have no trouble dealing with your actual words and presenting a cogent, scripture based rebuttal, with exegesis, correct biblical hermeneutics, exposition, letting scripture interpret Scripture. Letting the Bible do the work. You don't do it because it is not possible to do so and prove something that isn't true according to the Bible. We all know that.
 
For those who put the Rapture and the Second Coming at roughly the same time, I offer this list of contrasts between the Rapture and the Second Coming. Each number in one section corresponds to the same number in the other section. This is also a list that supports the Rapture happening before the Tribulation, and the Second Coming happening at the end of the Tribulation. You will find a list like this one in many Prophecy books.

At the Rapture:
1. Christ comes FOR His own in the air
2. All believers are translated into new bodies
3. Christians are taken to the Father's House
4. There is no judgment on the earth
5. The Church will be in Heaven
6. It is an imminent occurrence
7. There are no signs preceding it
8. It affects believers only
9. It is a time of joy
10. it occurs before the day of Wrath
11. No mention of Satan
12. The Judgment Seat of Christ happens next
13. There is the marriage of the Lamb
14. Only Christ's own will see him
15. The Tribulation begins

At the Second Coming:
1. Christ comes WITH his own
2. No Translation of bodies
3. resurrected saints remain on earth
4. Christ judges the inhabitants of the earth
5. Christ sets up his kingdom on earth
6. It can not occur until the seven-year Trib period
7. The are numerous signs preceding it
8. It affects all humanity
9. It is a time of mourning
10. It occurs after the Tribulation
11. Satan is bound in abyss 1,000 years
12. No judgment seat of Christ
13. His bride descends with him to earth
14. Every eye will see him
15. The millennial reign of Christ begins


This is a pretty solid chart for Pre Tribbers


All Thess passages have the arrival of Christ, removal of believers and day of wrath at the same time--the same event.
 
Here is an author on how rapture mistakes discredit Christianity:
MSN
 
All Thess passages have the arrival of Christ, removal of believers and day of wrath at the same time--the same event.
???? No it doesn't.

Jesus come twice....once in the air at the rapture then again on a white horse at the end of the tribulation.

The discription of the days of Noah fit the pretrib rapture....not the end of the trib rapture.

The bible also tells us christians are not destined for wrath.

Daniel also presents a pre-trib rapture.
 
The apostolic teaching of Christ ( 1Th 4:16-17) & (Lk 10:16) locates the rapture with the second coming.
Are you sure about the Luke passage?...
Luke 10:16 ESV
"The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me."
 
Are you sure about the Luke passage?...
Luke 10:16 ESV
"The one who hears you hears me and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me."
The one who hears the apostles (e.g., 1 Th 4:16-17, which locates the rapture with the second coming), hears Jesus.
 
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As I have said...and you ignore...There is NO WHITE HORSE at the rapture.
Is that why you say the rapture is only a partial coming---because you aren't waiting for the white horse coming? You presume you won't be here when that happens? Is that why you are focused on the rapture instead of Christ?

When a person starts with what they already believe and then looks to Scripture to verify it, they will read into scripture what is not actually there. What is presented here is a clear case of doing that. It uses a wooden literalism where such a thing is not applicable given the genre and arrives at something that is nowhere in the Bible, and in fact is a direct contradiction to the clear statements that have Jesus returning only once. Your interpretation has him returning three times. The Bible presents him returning with the rapture of the saints in Thess, coinciding with the resurrection of the dead in Christ (1 Cor 15). And they are not raptured out of the earth but rise to meet him in the air, the resurrected dead in Christ and those who remain having been changed, and are with him forever. Since that depicts a second coming, it implies they meet him and return to the earth with him where they will be with him forever, and he with them (Rev 21). The victorious Christ with his overcoming entourage.

He does not return on a literal white horse.
Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen (Rev 1:7).
 
I believe the next event will be the 2nd Coming when He comes to Judge the world in Righteousness, and to destroy this world order and usher in Eternity Acts 17:31

31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

2 Pet 3:10-13

10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
 
I believe the next event will be the 2nd Coming when He comes to Judge the world in Righteousness, and to destroy this world order and usher in Eternity
The next event? Nothing before then? Got any idea, specifically, when that will occur?
 
The next event? Nothing before then? Got any idea, specifically, when that will occur?
I should have mentioned the catching up of the living saints and the resurrection of the dead for Judgment
 
Eh. Depends upon how you want to look at it. Noah was taken away from the judgement and destruction of the flood in the ark.
Lot was taken away from the judgement and destruction of Sodom. Luke 17:29-29.

Christians will be taken away from the judgement and destruction of the tribulation when the rapture/resurrection occurs. We should comfort each other with those words.
Noah was not taken away.
He remained in his same physical body on the same physical earth and stood firm by his faith in the one true God who brought him safely through tribulation that came his way.
Just as the end times when people will be saved who go through tribulation by standing firm by their faith in the one true God.
 
I should have mentioned the catching up of the living saints and the resurrection of the dead for Judgment
Yep.

So when is Jesus coming to Judge the world, destroy this world order and usher in Eternity?
 
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