Discussion here is fine. Someone posed a similar question in private. Without going into great detail, my thoughts can be summed up as follows:
I think -- I say think, because various people, from astute and brilliant to mediocre and limited, have held various theories and views since the beginning of time, and they have all come (so far) to the same result. That being, that years have come and gone, and everyone who held that the end would be in their lifetime has also come and gone. The Rapture, as well, will only be proven out when we look back from eternity. I think that there are convincing arguments for all three positions -- pre, mid, and post. Lots of pre support in many verses, yet ALL require at least some interpretation or conjecture. A lot of the conclusions in this camp are actually pro pre by way of elimination -- "what else could it mean?" Mid-tribulation rapture could still avoid "God's wrath". Post-tribulation believers could simply be "protected" by God from the last 3 1/2 years of plagues, etc.
With no definitive (although many pre-tribulation rapture believers will say they do have "the answer") proof, I tend to believe it is better to NOT expect a rapture to spare us from everything. If it happens -- great surprise. If it does not, what a disappointment to be avoided by holding a non-changeable view. Can you think of a better way to explain why the "elect" could be fooled? How many nominal believers, expecting a "rapture", yet not knowing much about the anti-christ, will readily accept his miracles and explanations in their complete despair at what is happening around them during the tribulation? Also, just as Americans pay men millions to dribble a ball while not being able to speak in complete sentences and pay huge, ridiculous premiums in the greatest casino of all-time (the stock market) because of greed, so too, who are we to expect that we will be the only generation of people on the planet to escape all persecution? Did the apostles? Did the early Christians? Do any Christians around the globe today escape persecution? If the theory (I say theory, because it is certainly not doctrine) of prosperity and health being preached from many TV pulpits and many others in America today were true, then tell me what Jesus, and the apostles, and 99.999% of every other Christian in history missed that these gold-chained, pinky-ringed, permed-hair, gaudy-suited, loud-mouthed, worldly ("you are not of this world???"), men with pink-haired wives now preach as gospel? How many of these Christians do you think will take a mark, or swear allegiance, or follow blindly ANYONE who does miracles and promises wealth and health as opposed to death and torture if there is no pre-tribulation rapture?
All I know is, God usually does things differently than what finite man composes in his/her brain. If I can't figure out where God came from, I'm certainly not going to assume I know exactly when and how He's going to return.
I remain,
SOROS
ps I think that "prosperous" America is about to taste the "agony of defeat" in relation to easy stock market money and expected annual returns. Perhaps the prosperity gospel will die with it as well? |
