TAKING A NEW, HARD, LOOK AT THE RAPTURE

    Preachers tell us that the Rapture occurs when God just blows a trumpet and saved souls depart this world for heaven WITHOUT DYING.It's all supernatural, according to your typical preacher. But if we examine the Rapture passages in the Bible, we find that the preachers are lying to us, giving us a storybook version of the Rapture, A sugarcoated childish account of the Rapture. It's high time for a realistic, adult version of it !!  
     The Apostle Paul was stoned to death in Lystra(Acts 14.8,19-20) but then revived and later told of being "caught up" to heaven(2 Corinthians 12.2-4). The Greek word for "caught up" here is "harpazo." The same Greek word is used in 1 Thessalonians 4.17, When it says,"we..will be caught up..to meet the Lord in the air".In the Latin, the word is "rapturo," (instead of harpazo). It's where we get the word "Rapture" from,of course. So when Paul was "caught up," he experienced the "Rapture," The Rapture of one,so to speak, instead of multiple millions. But my point here is that Paul's rapture came by way of physical DEATH.  
     On the basis of that precedent, i assert that the future Rapture of saved souls will come in the context of death, the MASS DEATH of over a hundred million.The Church pastors that claim we will depart without dying are lying, They are "Pollyanna" preachers, all of them good for nothing."Hirelings," as Christ would say (John 10.12-13).  
      It is true that Paul says, "we will not all sleep, But we shall be all changed, in the twinkling of an eye"(1 Corinthians 15.51-52)."Sleep" here refers to the corpse lying prostrate   in the "sleeping" position -  in the grave. All Paul is saying is that we shall not all leave behind "sleeping" corpses.He's not saying we won't all die,rather, that our corpses won't remain.That would be fulfilled in nuclear war.Millions would die, but leave no "sleeping" corpses behind Instead bodies will "vaporize,"  instantly disappearing "In the twinkling of an eye" as Paul would put it.    
      What Bible evidence is there for my dark claim that the Rapture occurs in the context of mass death??!! Just 4 verses after "We..shall be caught up"(1 Thess 4.17), There are these chilling words,"sudden destruction"(1 Thess 5.3). "When they shall say, "Peace and safety [have come], then [instead] SUDDEN DESTRUCTION shall come upon them..They shall not escape." If we will only make an effort to look for a naturalistic explanation for the departure of souls at the Rapture, we will find it !! The "sudden destruction" is KILLING people by the multi-millions, With their souls then ejecting from their bodies in death, as always is the case at death.  
      The question naturally arises, just WHAT IS this "sudden destruction" ??!! Looking to parallel passages about the same thing, ie, the Rapture/Destruction duo, We find,"That day [of the Rapture] cannot come except..the Man of Sin be REVEALED,the Son of Destruction"(2 Thessalonians 2.3). To streamline it we can paraphrase it like this, "The Rapture will come right as the Destroyer   gets revealed [by the mass destruction he launches]". Here the sudden destruction is not explicit, But it is definitely implied by the title: "Son of Destruction," which means a destructive person, But also by the idea of the "revealing" of this destroyer.  
      What would be more likely to "reveal" a destructive person Than his own act of destroying something? But since this man is a government ruler,("king of the North" Daniel 11.36-37) He presumably has at his disposal the military might.of his nation.So the kind of destructive power he will put to use is not merely personal, but MILITARY in nature, even nuclear.  
      Let's review what we have so far:  
1, The Rapture occurs as "sudden destruction" occurs.  
2, It's MAN-MADE destruction for it "reveals" someone as destructive. Natural destruction, eg,a hurricane, wouldn't do that.  
3, Finally, there's a third passage about the Rapture/Destruction combo. Christ predicted that ''the stars will fall," then the Rapture occurs,"the Son of Man will send His angels to gather His Elect" (Matthew 24.29-31). Here, "the stars will fall" serves as the description of the "sudden destruction".It tells us that the destruction will come out of the sky !! It will be fiery like stars. But we already know it will be man-made, So the message is that man-made "stars" will fall from the sky. What man-made objects would fit this description? Missile warheads. Plus, real stars operate by nuclear fusion, ditto for nuke warheads.  
      PS #1: I should clear something up before closing out.The Bible says, "the dead in Christ will rise first"(1 Thess.4.16). "Rise first" need not mean at the Rapture, rather first AHEAD of it. Whenever Christians die, they receive a spiritual body, an angel-like form. For didn't Christ promise, "they will become like the angels"(Luke 20.35-36)? Thus when "those that sleep in Jesus" descend with Christ at the Rapture(1 Thess 4.14), They ("the dead in Christ") will be serving as the "gathering angels"(Matthew 24.29-31). My point is that they will be DEscending not ascending out of graves !!  
       PS #2:Reading that the Rapture will extend from "horizon to horizon" (Matthew 24.31), Preachers take that to mean every Christian around the world will go up. A more reasonable position would be to see that the departing  is governed by the presence of the "sudden destruction"(1 Thess 4.16-5.3). So wherever that "sudden destruction" does NOT reach,the Christians there won't get Raptured !! Russia won't bomb South America, so the Christians in all South America aren't going up. Ditto for Africa,most of Asia too. While Russia isn't going to bomb S. Korea,they do have N Korea to worry about.  
So South Korean Christians can definitely expect to be caught up in the Rapture.  
     How can the Rapture extend "from horizon to horizon" if enormous swaths of land will be left out?? Easy, if you are in Israel, America is to the farthest Western horizon.   Japan is to the farthest Eastern horizon. America will be hit by Russia, and so will our military base in Japan. So that fulfills "horizon to horizon."  All you have to do as Spirit-led Christians is to make an effort to THINK.  
     PS#3: Just because it says that Paul was stoned, then "left for death"(Acts 14.19-20), That DOESN'T mean he was LESS than dead. They left him for dead because he WAS dead. Duh, how hard is that to understand, duh."When the desciples gathered around him, he rose up"( verse 20). Presumably they had PRAYED over him. I've read cases of NDEs, near-death experiences,where the person says the prayers had a drawing effect.The person wanted to stay in heaven but was drawn back to life (on Earth) by praying believers. So, the question arises, if Paul WAS dead, why the fuzzy, vague wording? Well Paul knew Luke who wrote the Book of Acts.Paul probably personally intervened to make the wording "humble" So as to not let his resurrection be put on a par with Christ's own resurrection !! Just a guess on my part.