Not quite: What happens is that the best souls on earth are supernaturally removed from the earth prior to the Endtimes predicted in Revelation. This means that these souls totally escape the tribulations and go directly to the Lord. The scripture verse usually cited as support for this belief is 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17:BeautifulAlone wrote:[That was my understanding of the Rapture...that the Believers are taken leaving the non-Believers, therefore saying this world becomes He**
But while this seems to refer to the Resurrection after the tribulations, the common belief is that the Rapture will take place beforethe arrival of Antichrist, the plagues and warfare, etc. As I understand it, the battle with Antichrist will go on for a long time after the Rapture. Those who aren't quite good enough to make the cut for immediate ascension can redeem themselves by not getting painted with 666 on your forehead and otherwise annoying the One Worlders who will take over everywhere. Then when the Apocalypse does take place, and the sinful of the world are confined to the Pool of Fire, then those who have proved faithful will join the rest in Heaven.For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
If you have access to the interesting comic-book tracts of Jack T. Chick, you can get a visual and dramatic account of what the Rapture and the Endtimes will be like.
As a Lutheran amillennialist (one who does not believe in a single global event that is the prophesied Endtimes), I guess I'm pretty definitely on the Lord's no-fly list. But then I believe that Antichrist has come many many times and has many more avatars yet to appear before the curtains fall on humanity.
