They don’t ‘now’ - but they did under Pastor Russel when they were founded - they were disappointed several times when the rapture did not occur. The rest of that article the OP posted (the literal 144,000, the bride, the different classes of followers, etc) are all very (very) similar to Watchtower teachings - further the language used is similar enough that without a little knowledge, it would be hard to tell the difference between the two.
There is a current theme among a number of Christian groups regarding the “Rapture.” While there have been various movements within Christianity over the last two thousand years that have discussed or predicted the End Times, the notion of the Rapture is actually a rather new invention, being fewer than 200 years old in its current form. While it is quite popular among some groups in the U.S. and Great Britain, it is actually not a long Christian tradition. A brief outline of its history follows.
John Asgill (1659 – 1738) published a pamphlet in 1703 that claimed that Christians did not have to die, possibly being “translated,” instead. (He got ejected from the Irish Parliament for his efforts.)
Manuel de Lacunza (1731 – 1801), a Jesuit from Chile, exiled in Italy, suffered a number of personal setbacks when the Society of Jesus came under attack by the Spanish King, then the French king and the pope. He withdrew as a hermit from the community of Jesuit exiles with whom he had been living and began to view the world through his own misfortunes. Writing under the pen name: Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra, he wrote La venida del Mesías en gloria y majestad, observaciones de Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra in 1790. It was circulated in manuscript form throughout South America. After his death, it was published in 1811 and published in England (still in Spanish) in 1816.
Edward Irving (1792 – 1834), was a Scot preacher who discovered Lacunza’s book and published an English translation in 1827. He, too, was caught up in the idea of applying biblical prophecies to specific events and Lacunza’s work provided a path for him to follow.
John N. Darby (1800 – 1882), was an Anglo-Irish priest who worked to convert Irish Catholic peasants to the Church of Ireland, turning them from “Rome.” He fell out with the Irish church when the bishop of Dublin ruled that his converts had to also swear that the British king was the rightful ruler of Ireland. He began to view an ordained priesthood as incompatible with Christian beliefs, then, influenced by Irving’s works, he joined with others who were dissatisfied with the Churches of England and Ireland to form the Plymouth Brethren. From Irving, Darby borrowed the ideas of Dispensationalism, (see below), and millennialism, and from those ideas created the previously unknown notion of the Rapture. The only place that such an idea is mentioned in Scripture is in Paul’s first Letter to the Thessalonians.
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17
[sup]15[/sup] For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
[sup]16[/sup] For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
[sup]17[/sup] Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Whatever Paul might have meant by that passage, he never returned to the idea in any subsequent letter or preaching, so Rapture speculation remains an odd 19th century invention with no connection to genuine Christian belief. Once the the idea was out there, the Rapturists, of course, plumbed the book of Revelation with its very colorful imagery to find more ideas, but they could not agree among themselves as to which passages had what meaning, which is the origin of the four conflicting traditions mentioned below.
There were extensive exchanges of religious thought and belief between the U.K. and U.S. during the nineteenth century, and Darby’s ideas began to show up in both newly formed religious communities and established denominations. Among those who followed his beliefs were Dwight Moody, (of the Moody Bible Institute), and C.I. Scofield (of the Scofield Reference Bible, 1909), ensuring that the notion of the Rapture was given a prominent place among American Christians, despite its recent creation.
The various Rapturist traditions fall into the following categories:
Dispensational Premillennialism: Separate periods of different types of salvations (dispensations) have occurred. The Tribulation precedes the Second Coming, (although there are bitter feuds among the groups regarding the Rapture and whether it occurs Pre-tribulation, Post-tribulation, or Mid-tribulation.)
Amillennialism: The Kingdom of God is present in the world today. Augustine of Hippo (320 – 430) gave formal expression to an existing belief. It is compatible with, but not formally part of, explicit Catholic tradition.
Postmillennialism: Christianity will slowly convert the world, culminating in the Chiliad, (the thousand year reign of Jesus). (This belief prompted the formation of “Christian Reconstruction”, “Kingdom Now Theology” and “Dominion Theology,” most of which groups have now abandoned tribulation and Rapture theology so that Postmillennialism is mostly dead as a Rapturist belief.)
Preterism: Apocalyptic literature foretold events occurring in 1st century. (E.g., it presumes that the Revelation of John was written during period of Nero, foretelling destruction of Jerusalem)
In contrast, the nearly 2,000 year old Christian tradition is non-millennialist in contrast to the 200 year old Rapturist tradition:
The “foretellings” of prophets and found elsewhere in Scripture are based on efforts to encourage the persecuted to hold to the faith, but do not have actual predictive value for specific events.
Oh, tom~. You and your wacky stories.
Hey! It’s The Straight Dope. Every once in a while I enjoy seeing a fact posted, even if I have to do it, myself.
The authors of Isaiah liked the Persians very much.
Small wonder, because the Persians set them free from the Babylonian exile and gave them Jerusalem.
They even go on to state that the Persian king is Yahweh’s anointed one.
Wow, I didn’t know we had any rapture believers in Poland. I’ve always considered it such a very American thing.
Well, learn something new every day.
That being said, I’d be willing to make a bet we have more Pastafarians than rapture enthusiasts.
The Rapture happened last week, but everyone was busy watching the Olympic curling.
Still here? Sorry.
Wait!
Where is the OP? Hmmm…
She said Rapture twice.
He likes Rapture.
N.B. I don’t know the OP but in Poland I believe Karol is a male name (as with this guy).
According to Matthew(quoting Jesus, there will be no Rapture, Jesus spoke of the world ending and it wasn’t at all like the writings of John, Jesus also said he would return in his father’s glory before some of them standing there saw death. It didn’t happen, nor did the world end in that generation
Some churches say the word generation meant differently than we do, but Matthew also used the word generation as we do when he wrote there were 14 generations between David and Jesus.
He. Karol is a boy’s name. Like Karl, Karel, Carl, Charles.
nm
And that Perisan king, Cyrus the Great, is called a messiah by the Israelites. If I understand correctly, the Jews don’t view the concept of “messiah” as someone who comes only once at the end of time like the Christians do. The Jews see a messiah as someone who delivers them from their oppressors.
I learned only recently that the name “Koresh” (as in David Koresh) is a variation of “Cyrus.”
“Messiah”, in Hebrew, simply means “anointed one”, from the ancient custom of pouring oil on the head of kings. The implication is that the Messiah is a king who has been approved by God.
Anyone familiar with Handel’s MESSIAH just sang that in their heads.
I’ve been a Rapturist & a Bircher. I am a Christian conservative, a Zionist, somewhere between a historic Pre-Miller & a Preterist Post-Miller, & a student of Conspiracy theories & hoaxes. I’m a Thought Criminal & Hater by a lot of SMDB standards…
And yeah, that’s a hate site. And the whole Little Herd/Big Herd/Great Multitude thing- that’s definitely re-heated from the JWs.
And Zadok the Priest as well. Handel knew how to write a good tune.
NOT symbolic.
As for when? Well, I’ve got some bad news for you, karol; it already happened. Last week, in fact. And I was one of them. 
Here’s how it went down: there were 144,000 of us, like it said in what turns out to be the only correctly translated version of Revelation. And we were from all times and places in the entire continuum of intelligent life, from the Big Bang, until the heat death of the Universe. I’m not absolutely certain of the distribution, but I’d say that no more than one percent of us were from Planet Earth. And of us, I saw only one pair of humans who were apparently from close enough to each other geographically and chronologically to even successfully communicate with one another.
It was a big clusterfuck is what it was. NOBODY was having a good time. We just stood around waiting for our intake interviews. When they got to me, I just asked politely if I could be sent back. They were pretty nice about saying “yes.”
To tell you the truth, I had the impression that OG really hadn’t thought the whole thing through, and was only too happy to comply with my request. My pajamas were cold by the time I was returned to them, though. :mad: