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The timing of when the rapture will take place is a key point
often discussed and debated between denominations and
individuals who accept the concept. A popular interpretation is
that the rapture will take place immediately prior to the
Tribulation, a seven-year period preceding the second coming of
Christ to the earth. Others propose that the rapture will take
place either mid-way through the Tribulation, called The Great
Tribulation, or after it when Christ comes to earth to establish
his kingdom, taking over ruler-ship of the world for 1000 years.
(see Millennialism)
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Some pre-Tribulation proponents maintain that the earliest known
extra-Biblical reference to the "pre-Tribulation" rapture is
from a sermon falsely attributed to the fourth-century Church
Father Ephrem the Syrian, which says "For all the saints and
Elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to
come, and are taken to the Lord lest they see the confusion that
is to overwhelm the world because of our sins." However, the
interpretation of this writing, as supporting pre-Tribulation
rapture, is debated.
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During the 1970s, the
rapture became popular in wider circles, in part due to the
books of Hal Lindsey, including The Late Great Planet Earth,
which has reportedly sold between 15 million to 35 million
copies. Lindsey proclaimed that the rapture
was imminent, an idea which he based on world conditions at the
time. The Cold War and the European Economic Community figured
prominently in his predictions of impending Armageddon. Other
aspects of 1970s global politics were seen as having been
predicted in the Bible. Lindsey suggested, for example, that the
seven-headed beast with ten horns, cited in Revelation, was the
European Economic Community, a forebear of the European Union,
which at the time aspired to ten nations; it now has 27 member
states.
The doctrine of the rapture continues to be an important
component in fundamentalist Christian eschatology today. Many
Christians continue to feel that world conditions point to the
rapture, Tribulation, and return of Christ occurring soon.
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