//
you're reading...
Thoughts

So what is the rapture?

There has been quite a bit of talk about the rapture of late. My family really got into the discussion when the Left Behind series came out. But there has always been something about this teaching that has left me wondering. If God’s plan is to remove His people from inpending doom then why have so many Christians had to live through great tribulation? When we look at history there have been many times where Christians were persicuted for their beliefs. Some were killed, some exciled, others just ridiculed. Even in more recent history many Christians in the former Soviet Union were sent to the gulog as a result of their beliefs. (Read Father Arseny, 1893-1973: Priest, Prisioner, spiritual Father). For me that was a time and place where a raputure would have been most welcome. But God didn’t rapture His people, he alowed them to live through it.

I believe that tribulation faces all of us. For most of us, this tribulation is not a physical but one of a spiritual nature. How we face and pull through these trials is what really matters. When we face trials with hope, joy, praise, and faith in God then our lives become a blessing. Also when we face trials with negativity then we are consumed, not being a reflector of God’s light but the darkness of the world. I hope that as we face the days after the latest rapture scare we will think of what rapture really means. It is being caught up, I hope we all will be caught up with God as we worship Him in spirit and truth.

Worship is the rapture we all can participate in, in all situations. When we worship we enter into the realm of God, we are no longer caught in the darkness of the world around us, but we are caught in the Light. Worship and prayer is an area of life we can enter no matter where we are, or situation we are in. When we are in a life of prayer we are caught up and with God. When we meet in His houses of worship, we again are caught in his presence. Our contempary ideas of rapture do not represent the historical ideas of rapture, but the feelings of rapture we all experience in His presence are real and present always. For me I was raptured last evening, and will be again this morning as I attend our Meeting for Worship.

About jwquaker

I’m sure everyone wants to know who I am…well if you are viewing this page you do. I’m Jared Warner and I am a pastor or minister recorded in the Evangelical Friends Church Mid America Yearly Meeting. To give a short introduction to the EFC-MA, it is a group of evangelical minded Friends in the Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Colorado. We are also a part of the larger group called Evangelical Friends International, which as the name implies is an international group of Evangelical Friends. For many outside of the Friends or Quaker traditions you may ask what a recorded minister is: the short answer is that I have demistrated gifts of ministry that our Yearly Meeting has recorded in their minutes. To translate this into other terms I am an ordained pastor, but as Friends we believe that God ordaines and mankind can only record what God has already done. More about myself: I have a degree in crop science from Fort Hays State University, and a masters degree in Christian ministry from Friends University. Both of these universities are in Kansas. I lived most of my life in Kansas on a farm in the north central area, some may say the north west. I currently live and minister in the Kansas City, MO area and am a pastor in a programed Friends Meeting called Willow Creek Friends Church.

Discussion

No comments yet.

Leave a Reply

Translate

Meeting Times

816-942-4321
Wednesday:
Meal at 6pm
Bible Study at 7pm
Sunday:
Bible Study at 10am
Meeting for Worship 11am
%d bloggers like this: