I don't know if I believe in "
The Rapture", the theology that the true Christians will be taken to heaven before the worst tribulations go over the world. Many theologians say that the teaching is not in the Bible at all. But the church father
Eusebius of Caesarea (260-339) seems to have believed in it, see
here, and also the church father
Ephraim the Syrian (306-373), see
here, so it
could have been a teaching in the first church and of Jesus. I think it's possible to interpret certain Bible passages in the direction of
pretribulation Rapture. But this is somewhat uncertain.
I go to visions for confirmation for The Rapture teaching, and there are a lot of stories about Rapture visions and Rapture dreams on youtube. The youtubevideo that struck me most was the one with the title
WHAT THE LORD REVEALED TO ME ABOUT YEAR 2025 from 2021, where an Afroamerican woman tells about a vision of Jesus where Jesus said his return would be in 2025. And then there are near-death experiencers who have been told about The Rapture by Jesus or angels. See for example
this video, where Jesus tells a man in a near-death experience in 1991 that The Rapture will happen 2038. If I have to choose between the 2025 vision and the 2038 vision, I choose the 2025, because 2038 feels too far away. The Great Tribulation probably starts long before that, because of the end of oil exports. And if I have to believe in The Rapture, I believe in the pretribulation Rapture (how wonderful it would be if God rescues us from the worst time in history). Or, I would say, I don't believe in it, it is so speculative and fanciful, I just hope for it. And I hope for Rapture in 2025. Why do I hope for 2025? Well, partly because of the coming end of diesel exports that I have written extensively about on this blog, but also because of some simple apocalyptic calculations, presented in the youtubevideos
Rapture by 2025? (2021) and
2025 - The Time of Jacob's Trouble - Bible clues identifying the time of end-time events (2021). Briefly, the video says that history consists of seven millennia since Adam's fall, and they correspond to the seven days of creation. The last millennia is the sabbath millennia, when God and mankind rest. It is the "
millennial kingdom", or the coming "Golden Age", the final age before everything is completely restored. The four first millennia were from Adam's fall to the death and resurrection of Christ in passover AD 32 (see the calculations
here), and the next two millennia are from the death and resurrection of Christ to the Second Coming of Jesus to the earth in passover 2032. This last idea is also found in the large apocalyptic works of Norwegian scholar and apocalyptic
Oskar Edin Indergaard, who wrote five big volumes on the Second Coming. My father Willy Larsen also makes use of it, based on the work of Norwegian apocalyptic thinker Gunnar Bertelsen, but for him it is the date of The Rapture.
The pretribulation Rapture is usually put 7 years before the Second Coming, because of some prophecies in the book of Daniel, and I will do it also. Then, if the Second Coming is in passover 2032, The Rapture is in passover 2025. Or it could start already in 2024, after passover 2024 there is seven years to passover 2032.
I am conscious about the fact that these calculations are based on our ordinary time counting, and do not take into account the
phantom time hypothesis of historian Heribert Illig, which I do in some calculations in other places. Why I do not take it into account here, is because
I believe Jesus will fulfill the prophecies in the Bible using our ordinary time counting, for our sake, to meet our general expectations, but maybe not the detailed prophecies of anybody. But many have the expectation that Jesus will return in their lifetime, and I think Jesus will this time answer their hopes and prayers.
I will also remark that I do not believe in the ordinary fundamentalist Rapture theology of the
Left Behind movies and the Christian right in US. It feels too mundane. I believe that nobody are able to fantasize correctly about The Rapture, so strange it will be. The whole creation will be transformed, Mother Earth will die and resurrect, and we with her, and this is too much for our fantasy. And there are probably many steps in this transformation process, it will take time. I believe in the verse by Saint Paul: "
However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him— "(
1. Cor. 2:9)
Here I have collected some material for further study:
Youtubefilms about Rapture 2025:
Books about Rapture 2025:
Articles about Rapture 2025:
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