ChristiansUnite Forums

                                                    Part-one
                               By Herbert H. Ogletree
The word Rapture wasn’t user back in the olden day’s of the printing of the Bible, when it was first being printed, and down through the many ages of the Bible  I’m afraid if it was it would had been wore it self out long before the word Rapture ever got  all the ways down to us into our very own days and time’s of today, so it was preserved for this very needed times of trials
   
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
The rapture is a reference to the "being caught up" referred to in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, when the "dead in Christ" and "we who are alive and remain" will be caught up in the clouds to meet "the Lord".[1] The term "rapture" is used in at least two senses inmodern traditions of Christian eschatology; in pre-tribulationist views, in which a group of people will be "left behind", and as a synonym for the final resurrection generally.[2][3][4]
There are many views among Christians regarding the timing of Christ's return (including whether it will occur in one event or two), and various views regarding the destination of the aerial gathering described in 1 Thessalonians 4. Denominations such as Roman Catholics,[5] Orthodox Christians,[6] Lutheran Christians,[7] and Reformed Christians[8] believe in a rapture only in the sense of a general final resurrection, when Christ returns a single time.

Pre-tribulation rapture theology was developed in the 1830s by British evangelist John Nelson Darby and the Plymouth Brethren[9], and popularized in the United States in the early 20th century by the wide circulation of the Scofield Reference Bible.[10]

[edit] Etymology
"Rapture" is derived from Middle French rapture, via the Medieval Latin raptura ("seizure, rape, kidnapping"), which derives from the Latin raptus ("a carrying off").[11]
[edit] Greek
The Koine Greek of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 uses the verb form ἁρπαγησόμεθα (harpagēsometha), which means "we shall be caught up" or "taken away", with the connotation that this is a sudden event. The dictionary form of this Greek verb is harpazō (ἁρπάζω).[12] This use is also seen in such texts as Acts 8:39, 2 Corinthians and Revelation 12:5.
[edit] Latin

The Latin Vulgate translates the Greek ἁρπαγησόμεθα as rapiemur,[13] meaning "to catch up" or "take away".[14]
[edit] English Bible versions
English versions of the Bible have translated rapiemur in various ways:
The Wycliffe Bible (1395), translated from the Latin Vulgate, uses "rushed".[15]
The Tyndale New Testament (1525), the Bishop's Bible (1568), the Geneva Bible (1587) and the King James Version (1611) use "caught up".[16]
The New English Bible, translated from the Greek,[17] uses "suddenly caught up" with this footnote: "Or “snatched up.” The Greek verb ἁρπάζω implies that the action is quick or forceful, so the translation supplied the adverb “suddenly” to make this implicit notion clear."
[edit] Doctrinal histo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
Top t of the rapture, in connection with premillennialism, was expressed by the 17th-century American Puritan father and son Increase and Cotton Mather. They held to the idea that believers would be caught up in the air, followed by judgments on the Earth, and then the millennium.[18][19] The term rapture was used by Philip Doddridge[20] and John Gill[21] in their New Testament commentaries, with the idea that believers would be caught up
prior to judgment on the Earth and Jesus' second coming.
There exists at least one 18th century and two 19th century pre-tribulation references: in an essay published in 1788 in

Philadelphia by the Baptist Morgan Edwards which articulated the concept of a pre-tribulation rapture,[22] in the writings of Catholic priest Emmanuel Lacunza in 1812,[23] and by John Nelson Darby in 1827.[24] However, both the book published in 1788 and the writings of Lacunza have opposing views regarding their interpretations.[citation needed] Emmanuel Lacunza (1731–1801), a Jesuit priest, (under the pseudonym Juan Josafat Ben Ezra) wrote an apocalyptic work entitled La venida del Mesías en gloria y majestad (The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty). The book appeared first in 1811, 10 years after his death. In 1827, it was translated into English by the Scottish minister Edward Irving.[citation needed]