So the Witnesses still believe in rapture

by eyeslice2 21 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  LongHairGal

  WATON:

  I remember back when I was ‘studying’ and learning about the releasing of those guys from prison and being told the JWs thought this event had special significance!..I remember the pictures in the literature.

  I really thought this was stretching credibility but I kept my skepticism from my study conductors...This was another of JW teachings that I took with a grain of salt.
• 

  waton

  Par. 5" "the tribulation will be cut short because of the "chosen ones"

  ask any jw: who are these chosen ones? choice answer: Chtist's brothers, the anointed. But that would be wrong, because

  GT is cut short so some flesh would be saved, and the chosen ones' flesh is already sacrificed* at the beginning of the Great Tribulation.

  There was a time when the GT was cut short in the middle. Is it now cut short in the beginning? ha ha? * wt teaches that the "anointed " have to sacrifice their right to eternal life on earth to gain the rapture, just like Jesus, the second Adam did.

  So now we have the "chosen ones" being the great crowd, other sheep. great! o.s.
• 

  respectful_observer

  Apologies for wall of text (and weird formatting):

  Here a three relevant recent quotes regarding whether WT believes in a “rapture”:

  WT, October 2019, para. 14

  During the great tribulation, a change will take place regarding the brothers who take the lead on earth. At some point, all anointed ones who are still on earth will be gathered to heaven to share in the war of Armageddon (Matt. 24:31; Rev. 2:26.27)

  WT, July 15, 2015, para. 15

  15 Does this mean that there will be a “rapture” of the anointed ones? Many in Christendom believe, according to this teaching, that Christians will be bodily caught up from the earth. Then, they expect that Jesus will visibly return to rule the earth. However, the Bible clearly shows that “the sign of the Son of man” will appear in heaven and that Jesus will come “on the clouds of heaven.” (Matt. 24:30) Both of these expressions imply invisibility. Additionally, “flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s Kingdom.” So those who will be taken to heaven will first need to be “changed, in a moment, in the blink of an eye, during the last trumpet.”* (Read 1 Corinthians 15:50-53.) Therefore, while we do not use the term “rapture” here because of its wrong connotation, the remaining faithful anointed will be gathered together in an instant of time.

  WT, July 15, 2013, para. 8 (endnote #2)

  "Hence, it appears that all anointed ones who still remain on earth after the initial part of the great tribulation has passed will at some point be raised to heaven before the outbreak of the battle of Armageddon.

  ……………………………….

  · WT does not define "rapture" in the Insight book (since not the word is not in the Bible), so closest we have is from the Reasoning Book:

  Rapture

  Definition: The belief that faithful Christians will be bodily caught up from the earth, suddenly taken out of the world, to be united with the Lord “in the air.” The word “rapture” is understood by some persons, but not by all, to be the meaning of 1 Thessalonians 4:17. The word “rapture” does not occur in the inspired Scriptures.

  • A simple Google search presents this as the top religious-related definition: Rapture /ˈraptʃə/ noun (according to some millenarian teaching) the transporting of believers to heaven at the Second Coming of Christ.

  As usual, the WT plays word games with this issue.

  · When posing the question as whether JWs believe in a "rapture", the writers first state their own WT definition of the word (rather than relying on a dictionary). Any quick check and it becomes very evident that many churches have very different particular points regarding what the rapture would entail (e.g. who gets raptured, in physical vs. spirit form, timing, etc.). Rather than acknowledging this fact and then focusing on the common elements of “rapture” beliefs and definitions (i.e. a group of faithful Christians on Earth will be instantly raised up to heaven before complete destruction of wicked mankind). Instead WT writers pick and choose very particular (and varying) points what "many in Christendom believe" regarding the rapture, being sure to pick a version of the rapture that has very specific elements which do not align with WT teachings.

  · The WT consistently references:

  o Matthew 24:30 when referring to the remaining (JW) anointed being brought up to heaven, whereas

  o 1 Thess 4:17 when citing Christendom’s scriptural justification of “rapture”

  Although both verses speak to the same event, to the casual reader it would appear they are different concepts because they are presented as consistently relying on different scriptural support.

  · Interestingly, as a reminder, even the WT writers acknowledge this is really just a terminology issue in the end:

  • “Therefore, while we do not use the term ‘rapture’ here because of its wrong connotation, the remaining faithful anointed will be gathered together in an instant of time.”
  • Definition of “connotation”: an idea or feeling which a work invokes for a person in additional to its literal or primary meaning. (So it all boils down to how the WT writers “feel” about the word “rapture”.)
• 

  Xanthippe

  Thanks respectful_observer, it's obvious they do believe in a type of rapture. If flesh and blood cannot inherit god's kingdom but the remnant will be in heaven to share in the war of Armaggedon they will be taken up, bodies left behind, effectively left for dead to all human observers.

  As you said playing with words again to look as though their teachings are different from the rest of Christendom. I really don't remember this teaching as a JW thirty years ago I wonder when it started?
• 

  Half banana

  It is interesting to find that the rapture is a relatively modern Christian doctrine. It was invented by John Nelson Derby in 1840. Derby was one of the founding fathers of the Plymouth Bretheren. The idea took off and was adopted by the famous William Miller who was looking to the return of Christ in 1844 leading to the event known as the Great Disappointment.

  This was the spring board for CT Russell with his own take on the advent or return of Christ after another disappointment in 1874. This was his starting point for a mythical forty years until Christ would come again (yawn) in 1914.

  Anyway the upshot of this speculation of The Rapture and return of JC, is one of repeated disappointment-- and colossal wasting of the lives of millions of gullible people.

  Isn't it better to build ideas on facts not on the dreams of holy rollers?
• 

  sir82

  Therefore, while we do not use the term “rapture” here because of its wrong connotation, the remaining faithful

  anointed will be gathered together in an instant of time.

  Gotta love the mealy-mouthed weasel-worded walkback on this.

  "Yeah, sure, it looks like a rapture, and sounds like a rapture, and smells like a rapture...but we don't use the word 'rapture' ".
  
• 

  respectful_observer

  Gotta love the mealy-mouthed weasel-worded walkback on this.
  "Yeah, sure, it looks like a rapture, and sounds like a rapture, and smells like a rapture...but we don't use the word 'rapture' ".

  ^^^^BINGO!^^^^

  "Weasel words" all over the place. If you read the follow three quotes to every evangelical that believes in some form of the rapture, and then asked them if that described "the rapture", 99% would say "Yes, of course!"

  • "...all anointed ones who still remain on earth after the initial part of the great tribulation has passed will at some point be raised to heaven before the outbreak of the battle of Armageddon."

  
  
  

  • "During the great tribulation, a change will take place regarding the brothers who take the lead on earth. At some point, all anointed ones who are still on earth will be gathered to heaven to share in the war of Armageddon."

  • "So those who will be taken to heaven will first need to be “changed, in a moment, in the blink of an eye, during the last trumpet.”
    

  
  
• 

  smiddy3

  Jehovah`s Witnesses / GB ,just do not want to use the same wording where they can avoid it as Christendom does ,they have to be different.

  But by all accounts the JW definition and Christendoms Rapture are one and the same thing .

  Like they dont have the New Testament ,they have 'The Christian Greek Scriptures" ?

  Or the Old Testament ,they have "The Hebrew Scriptures"

  Give me a break.
• 

  Xanthippe

  I'm sure now thinking about it this wasn't the teaching thirty years ago. The remnant who were still alive at the big A were going to be 'Princes' on earth until they died. Doesnt anyone remember that?
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  nowwhat?

  Imagine ol' tony charging down on his horse out of heaven with a sword in one hand and a bottle of booze in the other!