While the modern idea of the rapture as popularized in the 1830s by John Darby is a modern invention believed by some Protestants, there seems to be even a more modern version of the rapture regarding Catholics.
Now this is all guess-work and not yet proven. Purely speculation, although it seems to fit some of the facts.
I think I had always been aware of this phenomenon, but I started to connect the dots. Usually sitting in close to the back I am one of the last to receive Communion. Going back to my pew I find that almost half the people sitting around me are now gone. Now since often during Mass I close my eyes to concentrate to attempt to pray I can’t say for sure what happened to these people. Still I draw a couple of speculations together. As Cardinal Arinze said “The Apocalypse, or the Book of Revelation, as it also known, presents a striking imagery of the heavenly liturgy and helps us appreciate how the Eucharistic celebration, as it were, looks heavenward.” Maybe these missing Communion recipients were so caught up in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and receiving Holy Communion that they were raptured up into heaven?
Looking at Matthew 24:40 “Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left.” That sounds a lot like the proportion of people that make it all the way past the first verse of the closing hymn.
Still I could find nothing in the Catechism or the writings of the Church Fathers to validate this. Another theory which I much less prefer is that people are just leaving after receiving Communion. I would rather believe in the Catholic rapture than that. I really can’t discount this though in this materialistic age. People can be so caught up in the idea of shopping that they have to leave early to go to the mall and do even more shopping. In Catholic shopping Eschatology this can be described as:
- Pre-mall: Christ returns before a thousand day shopping spree.
- A-mall: The shopping occurs in heaven and those who have died in the faith share in this shopping during the current church age.
- Post-mall Christ returns after a thousand day shopping spree.
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/ Greetings, I saw the following funny noncopyrighted article on the net & just want to share it. /
YOU MAY BE A RAPTURE REDNECK….
by Dave MacPherson
(1) If you think that Antichrist is the sister of somebody’s mother.
(2) If “posttrib” to you is the time after the Chicago Tribune arrives.
(3) If you guess that LaHaye is something that’s made while LaSun is shining.
(4) If you’re sure that Plymouth Brethren would excommunicate anyone driving a Ford or Chevy.
(5) If you don’t believe that Thomas Ice is a substance that can slow down and freeze a thinking brain.
(6) If you think someone is stuttering if he says “666.”
(7) If “partial rapture” is what you say you feel when your denture fits.
(8) If you think Grant Jeffrey doesn’t go way back in time.
(9) If you assume that the Early Fathers were folks who were never late to meetings.
(10) If you reckon that the apocalypse are part of the dragon’s mouth.
(11) If you imagine that Scofield’s notes are never flat.
(12) If you think that R-A-P-T-U-R-E is the way to spell “relief.”
(13) If you’re sure that the King James Translation was when King James was raptured away.
(14) If you don’t believe that Hal Lindsey wanted a rapture view that he could bank on.
(15) If you don’t know that a “fig”ment of someone’s imagination can cause “date”-setting.
(16) If you can’t admit that Dallas The-Illogical Seminary was long famous for Walvoord-to-Walvoord carpeting.
(17) If you conclude that “The Rapture Plot” is where the pretrib rapture will be buried.
(18) If you think that an amill is someone who says “Ah!” whenever mill discussion is proposed.
(19) If you don’t know that Margaret Macdonald’s partial rapturism had her saying: “SOME of the saints know they’ll be in heaven when the rapture happens because they aren’t all here!”
(20) But even a rapture redneck knows that just because some don’t want to be left doesn’t mean they’re right!
Incidentally, Cyrus Redneck has just come up with the very best argument for pretribulationism. He says that
the letters in “rapture” can be found in “pretribulationism” but not in “midtribulationism,” “prewrathism,”
“posttribulationism,” or “partial rapturism” !