THE RAPTURE ACCOUNT

Well, intrepid readers of my blog, I have decided to use today's post as a workspace for research into the topic of why there seem to be no eyewitness accounts, outside of the New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, of the Rapture.

WHAT IS IT?

Perhaps I should define terms here. The Rapture is the Biblical doctrine that the saints of God living on the earth at the time of Jesus' coming again would be caught up, or "raptured," into the clouds "to meet the Lord in the air."(1 Thessalonians 4:17)

WHEN?

Were it not for the abundance of "time texts" in the New Testament spelling a "near" and "at hand" context for this event, i.e., the first century (or more explicitly, 70 A.D.), , we could rightly speculate a future coming in the clouds of our Lord Jesus with equal amounts of certitude and uncertainty.

I listened to RC Sproul just now about the Rapture of the Church. While it is not a soteriological mandate, i.e., salvation-at-risk issue, to believe one way or the other (at least, I do not think it is), heresy can be merely relative in nature.

By that, I mean Martin Luther was labeled a "heretic" for his anti-ecclesiastical, pro-Scripture stand. I wonder sometimes if we contemporary believers are doing the same thing by anathematizing (condemning) each other for differing opinions on what are popularly called future events.

I plead ignorance about the existence or lack of extra-Biblical sources describing the Rapture taking place in 70 A.D. I do know that an argument from silence is no argument at all. I would probably consult Josephus or others to help verify my tenuous position. I am a sinner, after all. 

AND FINALLY

Let us recall the theological category of eschatology, or "last things," as being the study of those things which the Bible describes as attending "the end of the age [not "world"]."

I am willing to be corrected as being "wrong," as long as I really am!