I said not by most. I didn’t say not by any.
ETA, looks like I DID leave out “most.” I meant to say “Most.” Honest.
Look, you may have to consider the meaning of verse 17 in the light of verses 15 and 16, but it’s not like the context appreciably changes the meaning: it still says what it says.
Sure, Paul’s saying the dead rise first, and this may well be his main point. But he’s still saying something about what happens to the living at the time of Jesus’ return. That ‘something’ seems to be that they will “be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” I’m not sure how the context makes that go away.
What will happen to infidels on the rapture?
We get all the good stuff the holy rollers leave behind. In fact, if you’re preparing for the Rapture it might be a good idea to pass out your valuables beforehand, so as not to be weighted down with material things.
Yes, but that refers to the second coming. It’s got nothing to do with a “rapturing” of souls prior to a battle with the Antichrist, etc. The “left behind” in that passage are merely the living who go up immediately after the dead. He’s referring to the end of the world. Not good people going up and bad people staying behind. Bad people just get killed in Paul’s scenario. There isn’t any “Beast” or “tribulation” in it.
Whoaaa, something’s off here. “The dead Christians will rise first”. You mean they haven’t gone up already? They are just there moldering in the ground? Where are the “souls”? Hovering around somewhere - in limbo - in a waiting room with a really large “serving next” number? For the last 2100 years for some of the early adopters?
You need a second coming to kick things in high gear?
And where does Bruce Campbell come into all this armageddon/rapture thingy?
Pretty much. They were “sleeping,” waiting for for bodily resurrection on judgement day. The body/soul separation wasn’t really part of the theology yet (though Paul said dead physical bodies would be transformed into spiritual ones). The whole “eternal life” thing was essentially a literal one.
It was already Jewish tradition that there would be a resurrection of the dead on judgement day. You can’t have the resurrection before judgement day.
Something else that should be understood is tthat these early Christians (including Paul himself) thought Jesus’ return was imminent - that it would happen within their own lifetimes. Heaven wasn’t something to strive for after death to them. They thought it was going to happen any day, and they were worried that their recently deceased loved one would miss it.
The answer to this is obvious if you give it some real thought.
Bruce Campbell IS God
Yep. This is why they have to “rise up” on judgement day.
Well, you get in your car and you drive real far, and you drive all night and then you see a light, and it comes right down and lands on the ground, and out comes a man from Mars, and you try to run but he’s got a gun, and he shoots you dead and he eats your head. And then you’re in the man from Mars. You go out at night, eatin’ cars. You eat Cadillacs, Lincolns too, Mercuries and Subarus.
There are some historic differences of Scriptural interpretation with regard to the Subarus.
This is not a dead theological idea, either. Christians debate as to whether upon dying the soul goes immediately to heaven, or goes nowhere until the Second Coming/Final Judgment (although it’s generally agreed that it is “instant” from the perspective of the deceased). And the actual traditional Chrisitan doctrine is that in the afterlife people will have actual physical bodies, as Jesus did after the resurrection.
What sects other than Catholics champion the former?
If you keep your anti-rapture helmet handy, you can stay. I’m making sure I have some extra pairs of glasses myself. Lots of books to catch up on.
Oh, and a chain saw. If the dead are rising first, they may stop off on earth for some
brainnnnnnnsssssss
Dangit if elucidator didn’t try to get in first and hog all the rapturists’ ex-possessions.
I’ll have to settle for cash.
They go to Heaven. The sanctimonious and the hypocritical get left behind.
Eastern Orthodoxy & most Protestant churches- Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Congregational, Baptist, Pentecostal, etc. The most well-known ones that champion the latter are Seventh-Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses & the Armstrong-based Churches of God.
16million is a blip on the radar in the scheme of the world. Southern Baptists are uniquely USA invention and are at the root of most lunatic ideas that are attributed to Christianity.
God will smack people who added nonse like the rapture and helped derail Christianity
The atheists and believers of the wrong faith will burn in hell for eternity. That’s what the Bible is saying.
As far as religions are concerned, this is a severely anti-social and dysfunctional way of treating other people. All three Abrahamic religions have a similar vein of violent anti-social factor in their belief system.
Kind of like, animals.
Don’t worry about it; 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 Revelations. And we were from all times and places in the entire continuum of intelligent life. 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. 
There is no Rapture. It has no basis in the Bible and is a recent invention. Likewise, anyone who claims to know the time and/or date of the Second Coming is a liar. The Bible says he will come like a thief in the night … with no warning. No one knows when, because that is how he intends it to be.
As a thief in the night - Suddenly and unexpectedly, as a robber breaks into a dwelling. A thief comes without giving any warning, or any indications of his approach. He not only gives none, but he is careful that none shall be given.
The rapture already happened. It was back in 1975.
Turns out Jimmy Hoffa was the only one who made the cut. Go figure. The rest of us have all been left behind to suffer the rule of the Anti-Christ, who we know as Zach Braff.
What can I say? God’s ways surpasses the understanding of man.