RAPTURE: You can look it up

Now that Howard Camping has woken us to an awareness of End Times, confusion reigns. Even as the media took up the subject there appeared little acquaintance of the fact that the "rapture" (not a Bible word) and the judgment day are not the same. It must be time for a theologian to have a say.

First of all be assured that we all must live to be ready to meet our Maker when life on Earth is over, whether in death or at the Second Coming.

The popular word rapture comes from the text in 1 Thessalonians 4:17: "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." Careful study of the expression "caught up," in the original Greek language allows for several versions, the favorite of mine is "flee through." (This allows for a reminder of how the Hebrew children who where thrown into an overheated furnace and came out without even their clothing being scorched.) Interpretation: The genuine Christians will go through at least some of the repeatedly prophesied seven years of the great tribulation without being destroyed.

With the mention of the "seven years" we have embarked on the never-ending debate regarding the "order of things" for the whole study of "End Times," known to theologians as ESCHATOLOGY. There are a whole package of things that will occur between the "rapture" and the final "judgment day," that being almost the very end of the world.

To get a better understanding of these things you need to study not only the books of Thessalonians, but The Revelation and at least the last part of Daniel. It would be best to find a good instructor and join a class of eager believers for at least a dozen hours of in-depth studies.

EARL D. HUNTER

Coeur d'Alene