Question About "rapture"

[MrsFrozen]

This is a question for the Protestants on the board, or those who are knowledgeable for the Protestant beliefs.. I have heard many things about the so-called "rapture." I put that in quotes because I don't know the judgement as rapture. Among those things seems to be that Jesus is going to come back to the Earth several times. Is this biblical? Also, why do so many fight about exactly when during the Tribulations He is going to come back? Why do so many people take Revelation literally? My priest says most of Revelation is symbolic, inclusing the mark of the beast. Why do so many Protestants seem to think that it will happen any day now? Jesus says we know not the day nor hour, and the signs He gives us to look for are vague.

Hope someone can help. Thanks, and God bless.

[Iacobus]

I can't tell about what the non-Catholics think but I can say what I know. We just covered this in my youth group. According to what we were told Rev. was written anti-Roman lit and put out as encourgment to the early Church. Rev. is not meant to be taken literay but as a big metaphor. All the other teachings in the Bible say that Christ will come again and only come once. The postion of the Roman Catholic Church is that we are in the "end of time." This times started when Christ rose from the dead.

The rapture in the Bible has about as much support as St. Paul gave to Bill Gates to make Windows. Nill.

[Iacobus]

[url="http://www.catholic.com/library/Rapture.asp"]Rapture[/url] I forgot to post this, sry.

[the lumberjack]

There ARE things in Revelation which are symbolic, and there are things that are metaphoric...but there are also things which are VERY literal.

From Daniel and throughout the Old Testament, thru Jesus' ministry all the way thru the Thessalonian epistles clear on thru the end of Revelation we are given bits and pieces of what the tribulation will be, what it will bring, and what will happen.

From the One World Government, the Great Whore of Babylon, the 7 Trumpet Judgements, the 7 bowl judgements, the Mark of the Beast...without which any man will not be able to sell or trade or ANYTHING.

I'll just use this as a starter example...

look at the world around us...look at how you can CheckCard this and ATM Card that...and NO MORE CASH OR CHECKS TO CARRY! and this new card with "the smart chip!"

they've already started implementing this in some animals for testing purposes... my military Id card has a THIN gold chip that can hold ALL of my necessary information.

look at how Christians are being harrassed to let ANYONE work in their organizations, no matter of sexual orientation....pressing, shutting down...making it harder and harder. the boy Scouts, churches...look everywhere at how hard its getting to be a Christian.

the European union...the Euro...I mean REALLY take a HARD look at the news and whats going on...and compare to scripture...if you don't see it, then nothing I post will ever help.

I'll be back to post more.