Why do you pick up only verses you like?
I AM A FIRM BELIEVER IN COMPARING VERSES TO OTHER VERSES ON THE SAME SUBJECT, AND THEN LETTING THE SCRIPTURES THEMSELVES INTERPRET THE QUESTIONABLE VERSES, KNOWING THAT GOD DOES NOT CONTRADICT HIMSELF. YOU SHOULD TRY IT SOMETIME, INSTEAD OF APPLYING THE PRESUPPOSITIONS PRIOR TO INTERPRETATION, THAT YOU WERE TAUGHT WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG. THEREBY YOU WILL SINCERELY BE TRYING TO REALLY UNDERSTAND VERSES, ESPECIALLY ON THE RAPTURE (CAUGHT UP) AND ISRAEL. YOU JUST MIGHT FIND YOUR PRESUPPOSITION BLINDERS WERE THE WHOLE PROBLEM THAT WAS CAUSING YOUR MISUNDERSTANDINGS.
Just so you know, I was raised in a very strict LUTHERAN Church, Missouri Synod. I KNOW FIRST HAND, how the Presuppositions taught to me in Sunday School, over shadowed letting the Scriptures, interpret Scriptures. As I studied the Bible, AFTER I WAS BORN AGAIN after a third attempt at suicide in a week, I kept finding things in SCRIPTURE, that contradicted what they taught me as a Child. Still it was a VERY HARD THING to break away from the LUTHERAN Teachings that my Mother raised me in. I went to the Pastor three different times with questions about what a particular verse meant, and his only comment was, I am permitted to tell you what it says, but I am not permitted to tell you what it means by what it says. Thus an error in interpretation in that denomination was doomed to remain an error, because the Pastors were Not permitted to EXPOSIT the Word of GOD.
I was by that time listening to Dr. John MacArthur, from Grace Community Church, near L.A., and President of the Master's College & Seminary, every weekday night on Christian Radio. He EXPOSITED the Word of GOD boldly and made it very understandable, while explaining how it applied to our lives. My born again human spirit SOARED with hunger, for that kind of Bible Teaching.
Still Clinging to my LUTHERAN ROOTS, more for my Mother than me, I continued to put up with the Lutheran Church's 15 minute sermons. Then came the final straw. In a private conversation, the Pastor told me he really wanted to teach Expositing the Word, but the Board of Elders insisted the Lutheran rules were forbidding him from EXPOSITING the Word. He then explained that he put in for a Transfer, because the Board of Elders ordered him to cut his sermons from 15 minutes to 10 minutes because they wanted out of Church before Noon. That was it, I NEEDED TO FIND A BIBLE TEACHING CHURCH. I landed at an Evangelical Free Church, which technically that denomination was formed as a spin off of the Lutheran Church, because of people who wanted the Word of GOD Exposited. My Mother was very hurt, and said, "So now you are going to dessert thee Faith. The E. Free sermons were 45 minutes, and then a year and a half later, I started going to a Community Church where the Word was Exposited for an hour every Sunday.
So I really do know how hard it is to break away from clinging to a Denomination you were raised in, even though they were not being faithful to FEEDING THE SHEEP, (Exposit my WORD).
Here is a simple Example of Comparing SCRIPTURE to SCRIPTURE, and letting it interpret the verse. The word Rapture comes from the Latin word Rapturo which means "CAUGHT UP". So we will ask,
ARE THERE any examples in Scripture that GOD uses "CAUGHT UP" to remove Believers from the Earth. YES THERE IS.
Genesis 5:24 (HCSB)
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24 [/SUP] Enoch walked with God;
then he was not there because God took him.
2 Kings 2:11-12 (HCSB)
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11 [/SUP] As they continued walking and talking,
a chariot of fire with horses of fire suddenly appeared and separated the two of them. Then Elijah went up into heaven in the whirlwind.
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12 [/SUP] As Elisha watched, he kept crying out, “My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel!” Then he never saw Elijah again. He took hold of his own clothes and tore them into two pieces.
THERE ARE TWO EXAMPLES of Believers being "CAUGHT UP",
and NOT IMMEDIATELY COMING RIGHT BACK DOWN FROM THE CLOUDS.
Malachi 3:6 (NASB)
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6 [/SUP]
"For I, the LORD, do not change;
therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 (NASB)
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16 [/SUP] For
the Lord Himself will descend [it does not say RETURN] from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and
the dead in Christ will rise first.
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17 [/SUP]
Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
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18 [/SUP] Therefore comfort one another with these words.
We know GOD does not CHANGE, therefore
caught up is not UP AND IMMEDIATELY BACK DOWN. Therefore we truly are going to the WEDDING OF THE LAMB, and it is a REAL EVENT. That Wedding style used by the Jews at the TIME of CHRIST lasted 7 days. I think it is a Week of Years, mirroring the 70th Week of Daniel here on Earth. Whether you believe that is Seven Earth Days or Seven Years is not the point. The Point is, it is PRIOR TO THE SECOND COMING.
Revelation 19:7-9 (NASB)
[SUP]7 [/SUP] "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready."
[SUP]8 [/SUP] It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
[SUP]9 [/SUP] Then he *said to me, "Write, 'Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'" And he *said to me, "These are true words of God."
In a traditional Orthodox Jewish Wedding the Marriage is CELEBRATED for Seven Days in the home of the Bridegroom's Father, then the evening meal of the Seventh Day, is called
the Marriage Supper. Then immediately the Next Day the Couple returns to the Bride's old dwelling place to celebrate the Wedding and even repeat the Vows, in front of her Relatives who could not travel to Wedding at the house of Bridegroom's Father.
AND in
Rev. 19:11-21 we see, the KING JESUS CHRIST traveling with HIS BRIDE to RETURN TO EARTH, to set up HIS EARTHLY KINGDOM.