The Rapture?

In the late 1980’s, a booklet came out entitled, “88 Reasons the Rapture Could Occur in 1988”. It caused quite a stir. I was 22 years old, and working at Zantop. I had recently turned my life around, started going to church; and, more importantly, began studying the Bible for myself on a regular basis—in order to develop a more intimate, personal Relationship with Jesus.

Because those that I worked with were aware of my new commitment, they were involving me in many discussions concerning this booklet. Finally, I obtained a copy for myself. It was very persuasive, and was filled with Scripture verses which seemed to prove the point; but, I did not feel good about it. Thinking it best not to try arguing against it, I would simply say something like, “It really does not matter ‘when’ to a born-again Christian; it only matters ‘when’ to the unsaved. Where do you stand?”

Last week, I brought this subject up to a friend of mine; and, he remembers his pastor preaching regularly from the booklet. In fact, I understand that there were lots of preachers using this booklet from the pulpit telling people to get ready for the rapture that was to occur between Sept 11 & Sept 13, 1988.

Why bring this all up? First of all, to try to clear up some confusion. If you do an internet search concerning the rapture, you will find a large volume of material. After reading through a few pages, I realized that it was a dead end. Most articles are written by people who heard from God. However, person number one (who heard from God) says one thing about the rapture; and, person number two (who also heard from God) says something else which contradicts the other…and so on and so forth.

Secondly, I have been reading through 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. It seems that what we call the rapture, is addressed in both books. (Maybe there was a ‘scroll-et’ going around…”50 Reasons that Jesus is Coming Back in A.D. 50”?) I don’t know, but there seems to have been some confusion back then also—concerning the return of Jesus to gather up all of the Church.

One should definitely read all of 1st and 2nd Thessalonians to get the full picture, but for now, take a look at 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12; especially verses 3 & 4.

It seems that most confusion in this world would be cleared up...if we would just read our Bible.

Oh, here is a little summary of what happened to the “88 Reasons” booklet…