Many good Christians believe in the Rapture / Left Behind system of thought, but I believe it has some biblical / historical / theological / social / consistency problems. Let's see:

Biblical issues:
No passage in the Bible uses the word "rapture". No verse teaches that Christ will come twice, first in secret to rapture his church and then a second time seven years later. The Bible teaches that Jesus will return once only.

We can make the rapture theory work by mixing and matching many unrelated Bible verses, howbeit obscure and out-of-context and stitch them into an elaborate belief system. Contrary to left-behind apologists, I believe the Bible does not lay out any detailed master-plan of the "end of the world".

Historical issues:
Left-behind rapture theology is a new invention in the church. Thanks to John Darby who developed the theory in 1830. Before Darby, this rapture/left-behind theory did not exist for about 1800 years; all the church taught and believed was that Jesus would return to judge the world one day and to usher in the Kingdom of God. The Apostles' Creed and the Nicene creed make no mention of this rapture/left-behind theory. It is not the historical faith of Christianity.

Theological issues:
Left-behind theology presents God as a bloody, wrath-filled, violent and vengeful deity. This does not at all resemble Jesus' view of God as the loving heavenly Father who seeks to redeem the world and the Biblical description that God does not want any sinner to be lost. The rapture theory seems to get God wrong.

Social issues:
The rapture theory involves an abandonment of the world God created and wants to renew. Adherents of rapture often say nuclear war and destruction is inevitable, they think seeking or pursuing peace is in vain, and that environmental woes are unstoppable. This is because their eyes are in the clouds waiting for a trumpet to sound so that they can be bodily lifted into the clouds. As a result, there is no call for social justice, no concern about caring for the environment, and no effort to make peace among the nations. THIS theory seems to be a quick recipe for social irresponsibility and social disaster.

What does the Bible then really say about the second coming of Christ?
The Bible teaches four things about the last things.
(a) Jesus will return one day and end history. This is clearly expressed in the Bible.
(b) We don't and won't know the details.
(c) We need to be ready, and prepare for the day by affirming faith in Christ.
(d) We need to be working as we wait. We are called to share the gospel, meet human need and seek justice for all people.

On a related topic, is the Final Judgement. There are three schools of thought. Will the damned face eternal punishment in hell (forever separated from God), or will they have another chance at redemption, or will they be annihilated into nothing (simply be erased)? What is their final destiny? Christian theologians disagree on the topic but the answer, I am certain, is:

We don't know. Their final destiny is in God's hands and not ours. We simply trust God to do the right thing, whatever it is.

What are your thoughts about the rapture theory?

Hmmm but pls would u make references to Biblical scriptures to buttress ur point

Even you DO NOT have a bible reference to prove your point. INFIDEL!

folystory: Even you DO NOT have a bible reference to prove your point. INFIDEL!

why d insults ooo. Mr Holy

teeo: Hmmm but pls would u make references to Biblical scriptures to buttress ur point

Thanks, Teeo. But actually, my emphasis is that the Bible says NOTHING about a rapture, so there are no scriptures to buttress the point.

If you know any scriptures that you think are about the rapture, let's see them shall we?
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folystory: Even you DO NOT have a bible reference to prove your point. INFIDEL!

Your username seems to be missing an L.

At 5:38pm On Jul 08, 2010 on this thread The Left Behind Christians

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Jesus Christ is returning someday soon! But the "rapture" theory is based on human reasoning - which probably accounts for why there are so many different views on it. We often believe what we are told rather than being like the Bereans "who searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so."

Flawed foundation

The word rapture comes from the Latin rapere, meaning, "to seize" or "to abduct." It is translated from the Greek word that is rendered "caught up" in English Bibles today.
All advocates of the rapture agree that the main argument is based on 1 Thessalonians 4:17. Here the argument stands or falls. First, look at verse 17:

KJV: I Th 4:17. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

The Greek verb for "caught up" is harpazo

726 harpazo har-pad'-zo from a derivative of 138;
to seize (in various applications):--catch (away, up), pluck, pull, take (by force). see GREEK for 138

Why would Paul use such a strong word? Let's allow the Bible to speak for itself. The context of the subject begins in verse 13 and concludes in verse 11 of the next chapter. Paul wrote this section of the letter in answer to concerns of the local Christians.
As you read verse 13, you discover that Christians in Thessalonica were grieving over the unexpected deaths of members of their congregation.

Albert Barnes comments: "There seems some reason to suppose, that some of them believed that, though those who were dead would indeed rise again, yet it would be long after those who were living when the Lord Jesus would return had been taken to glory, and would always be in a condition inferior to them" ( Barnes' Notes on the New Testament, notes on 1 Thessalonians 4:13).

Paul wrote that they should not grieve over this: "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus [believers who had died]" (verse 14).
Was he responding to a worry about whether Christ would rescue believers from the Great Tribulation? No, nothing is said of this. Nor is there anything in these verses that intimates Christ making a swooping pass by the earth to snatch off a few people to take them to heaven. These verses refer only to the doctrine of the second coming, at which time Jesus sets foot on the earth.

History

Great numbers of sincere people have placed their hope in this belief without biblical proof. In the 1500s, there was much opposition to the depredations of the Roman Catholic Church, with people like Calvin, Luther and Huss excoriating the pope as the Antichrist. The Council of Trent in 1545 was for the purpose of the Counter-Reformation,and it affirmed the the belief that catholic tradition had equal authority or was even superior to the bible.

The idea of a rapture is said to have originated with a Spanish Catholic Jesuit priest named Ribera, in 1580 A.D. during a time of much bloodshed in Europe as Roman catholics persecuted and murdered their opponents. This doctrine said that Christ was going to come and secretly snatch away the Church before a great seven-year tribulation, when the "Antichrist" would rule the world. This doctrine of futurism claimed that the prophecies of the book of Revelation only applies to the last seven years of human society. It was designed to take the pressure off the Roman catholic Pope, who was universally regarded as being the Antichrist by His opponents. Later Emmanuel Laconza, also a Jesuit priest, built on Ribera's teachings. He later wrote a book under the assumed Jewish name of Rabbi Ben Ezra. He later began teaching his theory of a 45 day "rapture".

Later, a man by the name of Edward Irving, who was born in Scotland in 1792, became one of the most elequent preachers of his time, and a leading figure of the Catholic Apostolic Church of England. Irving discovered Lacunza's book and fell in love with it, and translated it into English, and it was published in London in 1827. Around this time Irving heard what he believed to be a voice from heaven, commanding him to preach the Secret Rapture of the Saints. Irving then began to hold Bible conferences throughout Scotland, emphasizing the coming of Jesus to rapture His church.

John Nelson Darby picked up on the doctrine in the early 1830's in England. Darby changed the time period of the rapture from 45 days to 3 1/2 years. John Nelson Darby started a movement called the Plymouth Brethren in America. This secret rapture theory was introduced into the United States and Canada in the 1860's and 1870's although there is some indication that it may have been taught as early as the 1840's. Darby visited the United States at least six times.

The new teaching was spreading, a Congregationalist preacher by the name of C.I. Scofield came under the influence of Darby and the Plymouth Brethren. Scofield later was to write the Scofield Reference Bible which had a tremendous impact upon the beliefs of many people. Through his Bible, Scofield carried the theory of a secret rapture into the very heart of evangelism. Some look on the "notes" in this Bible as the Word of God instead as notes of Scofield.

Let us now examine the chain of how the theory of a secret rapture originated; It began as a Roman Catholic invention by the Jesuit Priest Ribera, who later influenced another Jesuit Priest Lacunza, Lacunza influenced Irving, Irving influenced Darby, Darby influenced Scofield; Scofield and Darby then influenced D.L. Moody, and Moody influenced the Pentecostal Movement.

How was it that the Pentecostal Movement was influenced?
The Assemblies of God is the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world. When the Assemblies of God held their first council in 1914 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, they were a small movement and didn't own a publishing house. They needed study material for their church and they bought it from Moody Press and then had their own cover stitched on it. By purchasing their teaching material from Moody Press the Assemblies of God began to teach the doctrines and theories of D.L. Moody who had obtained them from Scofield, Darby, and others.

Does the Bible then teach that will there be a "secret rapture"?

Matt 24:
[27] For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Rev 1:
[7] Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
Acts 1:
[9] And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
[10] And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
[11] Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
I Th 4:
[16] For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
[17] Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Matthew 24:

[25] Behold, I have told you before.
[26] Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
[27] For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
[28] For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
[29] Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
[30] And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
[31] And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

@Aletheia:

Thanks for the contribution!

(And for the correction about the history of the rapture theory. I thought it absolutely started with Darby, then with Scofield, then Moody)

Indeed, Christ will return someday. And the Bible doesn't seem to teach that this is in order to secretly snatch away the believers.

As regards Pips V. T-. Abeg no expose, cos privacy is key to a man's peace of mind. There are things that mustn't mix in this world or the mix will be explosive. Like saltpetre and fire. you keep em separate.

That is my own contribution to Rapture sha.

Thanks for your comment, Pastor AIO

May God increase our understanding...

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Colossians 2:8