I was brought up AS A PRESBYTERIAN and so was never really taught anything about the Rapture at all...not uncommon. Then as a teenager I became very curious about he many writings regarding the RAPTURE and the verses from scripture seemed to back up a PRE TRIB removal of the church to spare her from the coming WRATH. So far so good. Then as an adult I come across the debate about whether or not the church goes through the rapture or not and it seems to me that the greatest argument put forward by those Christians who hold to a POST TRIB viewpoint is that in their opinion the early church fathers did not believe in a PRE TRIB DOCTRINE and that in fact some bloke in the 19th century was the first person to come up with this "THEORY". Well I have read soooo much about this that my head is spinning and I am still confused.
As for PRE TRIB being a relatively new theory....if Paul was addressing voices in the church of Thess who were fearing the coming persecution and "wrath", by telling them that the church would not go through this surely then this is Pre TRIB doctrine which had been "forgotten" by the established "church" for centuries?
is the definition of "WRATH" the problem because it seems plain in context that Paul must have been referring to a time of tribulation or am I misreading this?
is the debate about the ideas of being caught up to meet Him in the clouds and Christ returning to the earth being one or two separate events. Is the debate about geography or semantics, are they the one event described in two different forms of language...two different metaphors or two different locations...how could we ever actually resolve this debate without asking Paul himself what he meant. Why is it not recorded in scripture that Paul's statement caused confusion amongst the brethren and he therefore redefined his terms.....could it be because there was not confusion, it was quite straight forward, just that he meant what he said....once in the air and once to the earth.
And lastly surely if the church is to be raptured after or even during the tribulation then people would need no warning regarding the " be ready s...keep watch...bridegroom arrives unexpectedly......as it was in the days of Noah....statements) surely people would "know the hour" by the tribulation events?
maybe I'm just stupid........very very possible....but why would Christ make this most important and wonderful event so cryptic in His revealing to us?
HELP,!!
