So you're saying you don't believe this clear Biblical statement?
1 Thessalonians 4:17 (NKJV)
[sup]17 [/sup]Then we who are alive
and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
I'm joining the discussion late so I haven't read all posts. Sorry if you guys have moved on by now but I just wanted to add.
The verse above clearly refers to a very real event. We know that because it's in the Bible and there are no idle words in the Bible. The question is, how much of the description of this event is literal and how much of it is allegorical. What is the event that Paul is describing here?
I think the disagreement is not so much about whether or not there is a "
rapture" but about what this word means to people. For most people it refers to a physical flying up off the face of the earth into the clouds to meet the others who were resurrected. But for me, the description Paul uses is clearly a metaphor for a resurrection/transformation into glorious incorruptible bodies. I don't believe people will actually "
fly up into the clouds".
The end result is the same. We will be with Christ forever and we will be changed and that is of course the important part, but I don't like to use the word "
rapture" to describe this event because it leaves people with the wrong expectation.
First of all, as for being physically
caught up into the air, it just does not make sense. How can people inside buildings fly up into the air? Do they have to open the door first? What if it's locked? Will they miss the rapture? What of prisoners inside jail cells? What of miners working deep underground? What of sailors inside submarines? Obviously for those people to be "
caught up" they would have to supernaturally disappear from those places and then reappear someplace else because their physical bodies can not fly up through those barriers. So right away we know that this is not a physical event.
So if God makes us supernaturally disappear from the face of the earth and then reappear someplace else, where would we reappear? In the clouds? That doesn't make sense. Why in the clouds? Why not go directly to heaven? Besides, what if it's a clear day, and there are no clouds? Clearly it does not make sense for us to fly up through or into the clouds, either physically or spiritually.
Therefore I can't believe that the phrase "
being caught up in the clouds" is a reference to a physical event.
Secondly "
clouds" are often used in scripture to depict
power and glory. Therefore, I believe the phrase "
them in the clouds" is simply referring to those resurrected in the first resurrection who were given
power and glory. Those who are alive and remain being
"caught up together with them", is simply allegorical for also being given
power and glory.
I believe the verse above is reference to the event of the second resurrection, which includes those who are still alive, being given new glorious bodies, to become like those who took part in the first resurrection ("
them in the clouds"). But I do not believe that we are to take the phrase "
being caught up in the clouds" literally. It just does not make sense.