RAPTURE REMOVAL

NO RAPTURE REMOVAL

• Ed Stevens: Silence Demands a Rapture "A rapture easily explains why no Christian after AD 70 mentioned the occurrence of the parousia (they weren't around to document it).  So when a non-rapture preterist asserts that the rapture preterist has a "documentation problem," it leaves three fingers pointing back at him.  The non-rapture preterist has three other events to find documentation for (parousia, resurrection and judgment). "

• Walt Hibbard: Five Views of the AD70 Rapture - "..Mr. Ian Harding of Australia. I see his refinement of "The Literal Rapture Expectation" view, which I have called simply "The Perfect Is Heaven" view, as the only preterist view of the rapture and related events that meets the full requirements of scripture."

• Walt Hibbard: Reply to Sam Frost's Analysis and Critique of Taken to Heaven in AD70: Blessings Expected a the Parousia By Ian D. Harding - "At this point I think it is only fair, open and honest to urge the “heaven now” preterists to return to sanity in their eschatological studies. If they choose not to do so, they are laying themselves wide open for ridicule and laughter from the entire futurist community and many preterists as well – and even worse will do insurmountable damage to the preterist cause, and to the credibility and honor of the Lord Jesus Christ, the very One whom preterists strive to honor in virtue of their adopting the preterist viewpoint! "

• Gabor Gombor: Word Games on the Rapture - "The critic who stands against the physical rapture fights against a picture of saints flying into the space. It is the next word game with the “air”. Why did not use the author the world “ouranos” here? Let us realize that a rapture does not require flying into sky. The spiritual-physical rapture does not require for a body to fly up. The body can simply disappear and the invisible new uncorrupted body emanates to the Lord. "

• Arthur Melanson: What About the First Century Rapture? - "About this time Ed Stevens, after long study, wrote and published a book, Expectations Demand a Rapture. Walt Hibbard wrote one foreword for Ed’s book, we wrote the other. The book has met with intense opposition. Nevertheless, it is a breakthrough of major proportions. It’s not that Ed has discovered the rapture; that knowledge is as old as Scripture, but it is a major breakthrough in seeing and understanding what the first century Christians knew and understood. It’s a breakthrough that has the power to give fresh, accurate insight to the preterist movement."

• Earnest Hampden-Cook "JOHN xxi. 21-23. - It is possible to see in this passage a suggestion that the "rapture" or "translation" of the saints at the coming of the Lord would not exempt their earthly bodies from death, but would mean the ascension of their spirits, their real and innermost selves, to Heaven in new and glorified bodies, resembling that in which the Lord Jesus ascended."

• James Stuart Russell "We naturally enough say, were such an event as the sudden and simultaneous disappearance of a number of prominent persons from our town, or village, or neighbourhood, to take place, what a sensation it would cause, what alarm and consternation. It would be reported all over the land, it would be the topic of conversation in every company. Very true; but suppose all this occured when the country was in the occupation of a foreign army, when the invaders were marching through the land, leaving devastation and ruin everywhere in their track. Suppose the metropolis in a state of siege, captured, burnt to the ground; fire, famine and slaughter raging, in every quarter; all social order convsulsed amid the agonies of an expiring nation. What sensation would the disappearance of some, of the members of a despised sect excite in such circumstances? Would they be missed? Or if missed would it be thought unaccountable? Amidst the fearful signs and portents of that tremendous crisis the disappearance of the Christians might pass without notice."

• Dan Harden: Response to Walt Hibbard's Support of Ian Harding's Book - "..(O)ur spiritual condition is drastically different from those of the pre-Parousial saints, based solely on the fact that our High Priest returned and brought back with Him our completed atonement.  Christ has made us whiter than snow, blameless before the Lord, despite our shortcomings.  What was a promise / deposit for the pre-Parousial saints is a reality for us today -- even while living on Earth.  Our going to Heaven when we die is BECAUSE of these fulfilled promises.  We don't look forward to them being fulfilled in fullness when we die, or else we would never be qualified to make it on our own, for we are unable to do so on our own.  Indeed, if we didn't have glory in fullness already, we couldn't go to Heaven at all, for God cannot abide anything less than perfection.  But our entrance into Heaven is assured because we already have Eternal Life in fullness NOW!"

• Sam Frost: An Analysis and Critique of Taken to Heaven in A.D. 70:  Blessings Expected at the Parousia "One begins to see that Harding’s definitions of what we do not have yet is rooted in an empirical bias.  That is, we can’t “see” it, so it cannot be so.  We still suffer, we still die, we still groan and we still are subject to error when it comes to seeing God.  In fact, Harding has reduced theology while on earth to “vague spiritual and mental conceptions” (322).  That is, “There is in the present, the perception an acknowledgment of true and good things – the things of God, and the person of Christ, etc., but the perception is unclear, obscure, puzzling” (321).  In heaven we will see God “face to face” but on earth our knowledge is “very imperfect” (321) of God. "

• Nathan DuBois: My Response to Ed Stevens' Book "Expectations Demand a Rapture" "I promised Ed Stevens my critique on his book and I will do my utmost to be thorough and precise in everything he has written and everything I espouse. I will respond in the order that Ed has presented the arguments in this book, from preface to conclusion. I, from the beginning, admit this is an area where I have a strong stance against a physical rapture. As I have stated to many of my friends in correspondence and debate, a proper understanding of exactly what the first century Christians did expect is important in our understanding of the whole gospel and it's place in our lives toady. This is an important issue, not to salvation, but to the knowledge of our Lord God and His plan for mankind in this world, which human kind will inhabit forever."

• Dr. Kelly Nelson Birks: Response to 'Silence Demands a Rapture' - "the Thessalonians, who could not conceive of the nature of the harpazo at Christ’s Parousia in the least (and we don’t do a very good job of it either), would begin to grasp that the meeting with the Lord was to be a personal meeting “within” the believer."

• Preterist Rapture Challenge - "If you believe that the Rapture took place in 70 A.D. at the alleged Second Advent of YAHSHUA, IMMANUEL, YAHWEH of Nazareth the Mashiyach (a.k.a. Jesus Christ) please take this challenge."