I know that this is a big controversy but if you read this pdf file with understanding,
you will know one hundred percent with no doubt that there is no rapture.
You will also be able to easily prove it to anyone.
Well written and presented, but there are unwarranted assumptions, mistranslation, and errors.
A "cloud" is a shapeless, or definitely-shaped, mass covering the heavens.
Assumptions:
1) Metaphor is not slang.
It is rhetorical (skillful or artistic) use of a word or phrase denoting one kind of object (cloud)
or idea in place of another (crowd),
suggesting a likeness (shapeless mass covering the heavens)
between them.
2) When "cloud" is used as a metaphor, we always know the metaphor is warranted from the context,
wherein is stated the
noun to which the likeness is suggested, as in:
"cloud of
witnesses" - witnesses (people) are
metaphorically likened to clouds (Heb 12:1).
These men are "
mists driven by a storm." - men are
metaphorically likened to mists (2Pe 2:17).
Apart from the context showing "clouds" are being used metaphorically,
there is no license to assume that clouds are not literal.
We find no mention of
nouns (witnesses, men, etc.) in the following to which the likeness of clouds is suggested, therefore, the clouds here are literal:
on the mount of transfiguration (Mt 17:5),
which covered Israel in the Red Sea (1Co 10:1-2),
seen in the apocalyptic visions (Rev 1:7, 10:1, 11:12, 14:14, 15, 16),
in connection with the rapture (1Th 4:17),
Christ's second coming (Mt 24:30, 26:64), or
at the ascension (Ac 1:9).
So, we have no license to assume that
the catching up in the "clouds" with the resurrected saints at the rapture,
which occurs at Jesus second coming
on the clouds (1Th 4:17),
means caught up in a "throng" of people
rather than in actual clouds (Jesus is not coming
on a "throng" of people).
Mistranslation:
In 1Th 4:17, "air" is the Greek
aer, which means "atmosphere,"
while
pnoe means "breath",
and
pneuma means "spirit".
Paul did not use
pnoe or
pneuma because he did not mean "breath" or "spirit", respectively,
he used
aer because he meant "atmosphere."
And we have no license to assume that
meeting the Lord in the "air" at the rapture
means meeting the Lord "in the spirit."
Errors:
This taking unauthorized license with the words of the texts is yielding misinterpretation and error.
Paul states we will be caught up in the clouds (not crowds)
to meet the Lord in the atmosphere (not in the spirit).
We have no license to assume otherwise.