When will you know that the Rapture is here?

Answer 1

A:

According to John Nelson Darby, a nineteenth-century British evangelical preacher and founder of the Plymouth Brethren, you will know that the Rapture has begun when you see Christians missing everywhere, because they have been taken bodily up into heaven. You yourself would only miss the Rapture if you do not believe in Jesus Christ. The 'Rapture' was a theological invention that states that Christ will return twice, first in secret to "Rapture" his church out of the world and up to heaven, then a second time after seven years of global tribulation for non-believers, to establish a Jerusalem-based kingdom on earth. Christians have always taught that Jesus will return to earth and that believers should live in anticipation of his second coming, but Darby's scheme differs in that Christians will be "raptured" up into heaven, before a seven-year tribulation of non-Christians.

If you miss the Rapture, according to Darby and his successors, you face a seven-year period of utmost torture and unbearable pain, but you will also be given the chance to believe. It is one thing to predict the Rapture, but it is an entirely different thing to demonstrate that it will ever happen. The Rapture has no genuine biblical support, so there is no good reason to believe there will ever be a Rapture and therefore no need for concern as to how to know if the Rapture is here. John Nelson Darby has sunk into obscurity, apart from his followers in the Plymouth Brethren, and so should his predictions.