While not identified anywhere in the Bible by the name, 'Rapture' is how the Second Coming of Jesus Christ has been described for almost two centuries. According to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, this is when the Lord will return from Heaven, the dead will be resurrected and living Christians who have been baptized will join Him in the clouds. The question on everyone's mind is when will the rapture happen; when do we have to clean up our acts and turn our backs on sin to avoid spending eternity in the fiery lake.
The Bible records small-scale episodes of specific individuals being 'raptured', or supernaturally whisked away by the Lord without going through the customary formalities of death and burial. Genesis 5:24 tells of Enoch, who walked faithfully with God for 365 years and disappeared, because the Lord took him away. A similar episode is recorded in the Book of Acts, Chapter 8, verses 26-40. The Apostle, Philip, encounters an Ethiopian eunuch on the road home from Jerusalem. The eunuch, who was responsible for the treasury of Queen Candace, asks Philip to baptize him in the water.
Philip obliges. As the pair emerge from the water, the Lord takes Philip away and transports him to Azotus. Philip continues to preach the Gospel while the Ethiopian celebrates his spiritual rebirth.
It was the 19th century Anglo-Irish evangelist, John Darby (1800-1882), who first raised public consciousness about the scriptures dealing with the rapture. While Morgan Edwards, a Baptist pastor from Wales, had published an essay on the subject, it was Darby who made it popular. Darby went on to translate the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible and produce his own version of the Bible.
Over the years, many attempts have been made to predict the exact date of the Saviour's return and, by definition, the Rapture. These forecasts have repeatedly failed as one date after another passed by uneventfully. Among the most notorious ersatz prophets have been the Reverend William Miller and Samuel Snow in the 19th century and, more recently, Harold Egbert Camping.
While the Reverend Miller forecast that the Second Coming would take place in the year 1844, Snow took it a step further and declared that the Rapture would occur on a specific date, October 22, 1844. Having given away all their worldly goods, thousands of faithful Christians sat on mountaintops all over New England on the designated night. Many wore robes of white while others, for some reason, waited in metal washtubs. When midnight struck uneventfully, the Rapture gave way to the Great Disappointment.
There were no blaring trumpets, thundering horses or golden chariots that night. The only sounds were the jeers and taunts of the skeptical towns people who had not subscribed to Snow's prediction. Reverend Miller's church fell apart, his flock destitute and humiliated.
Harold Camping predicted that Doomsday would take place on no fewer than three occasions: September 6, 1994; May 21, 2011 and on October 21, 2011. As we are here today living on Earth to tell the tale, it is clear that his predictions never materialized. Camping was forced to admit that, as written in Matthew 24:36, nobody knows when will the rapture happen.
The Bible records small-scale episodes of specific individuals being 'raptured', or supernaturally whisked away by the Lord without going through the customary formalities of death and burial. Genesis 5:24 tells of Enoch, who walked faithfully with God for 365 years and disappeared, because the Lord took him away. A similar episode is recorded in the Book of Acts, Chapter 8, verses 26-40. The Apostle, Philip, encounters an Ethiopian eunuch on the road home from Jerusalem. The eunuch, who was responsible for the treasury of Queen Candace, asks Philip to baptize him in the water.
Philip obliges. As the pair emerge from the water, the Lord takes Philip away and transports him to Azotus. Philip continues to preach the Gospel while the Ethiopian celebrates his spiritual rebirth.
It was the 19th century Anglo-Irish evangelist, John Darby (1800-1882), who first raised public consciousness about the scriptures dealing with the rapture. While Morgan Edwards, a Baptist pastor from Wales, had published an essay on the subject, it was Darby who made it popular. Darby went on to translate the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible and produce his own version of the Bible.
Over the years, many attempts have been made to predict the exact date of the Saviour's return and, by definition, the Rapture. These forecasts have repeatedly failed as one date after another passed by uneventfully. Among the most notorious ersatz prophets have been the Reverend William Miller and Samuel Snow in the 19th century and, more recently, Harold Egbert Camping.
While the Reverend Miller forecast that the Second Coming would take place in the year 1844, Snow took it a step further and declared that the Rapture would occur on a specific date, October 22, 1844. Having given away all their worldly goods, thousands of faithful Christians sat on mountaintops all over New England on the designated night. Many wore robes of white while others, for some reason, waited in metal washtubs. When midnight struck uneventfully, the Rapture gave way to the Great Disappointment.
There were no blaring trumpets, thundering horses or golden chariots that night. The only sounds were the jeers and taunts of the skeptical towns people who had not subscribed to Snow's prediction. Reverend Miller's church fell apart, his flock destitute and humiliated.
Harold Camping predicted that Doomsday would take place on no fewer than three occasions: September 6, 1994; May 21, 2011 and on October 21, 2011. As we are here today living on Earth to tell the tale, it is clear that his predictions never materialized. Camping was forced to admit that, as written in Matthew 24:36, nobody knows when will the rapture happen.
No comments:
Post a Comment