Is the rapture Biblical?

I used to contemplate these questions then I decided that it is what it is and my “belief” about it doesn’t change what it is. I decided that it was a question not worth arguing. There are many arguments for post millennial, pre millennial and no millennial theories and being wrong or right has no effect on my relationship with Christ so I choose to trust that he is in control. My job is to seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly with my God.

@genjgal Wikipedia has a good article discussing how the current premillennialist ideas came about in the very late 18th century. It seems strange to me that if premillennialism is such a vital article of Faith, God waited so very long after the death of Jesus to reveal it.

But personally, I don’t believe El, the God of the Desert, is anything more than a perverse and evil myth promulgated by the priestly set to enrich themselves at the expense of an illiterate bunch of early bronze age desert nomads. I suspect there was a radical rabbi during the time of the Roman occupation of Palestine, and that his followers cooked up the stories we now have in the new testament of the Bible. But my concerns with the many gaping holes in logic and reason applied to both Old and New Testaments leave me completely uninterested in entering into arguments about how often Jesus will return, how many he’ll catch up in the air with him, and who will get left behind.

What tenacious believers those believe this must be. I guess having hope for this long is a positive thing for them. Personally find it difficult to begin to believe, but I can understand the freedom this must give the followers of the Rapture.

The word “rapture” isn’t even used in the bible.

These scriptures are supposed to be about the “rapture”:

1 Thessalonians 4:13–18
13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

And here:

1 Corinthians 15 50:54

50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

And then there are the reports of it actually happening now, really watch the entire video.

From what I remember of my religious teachings, the tribulations happen before the rapture. When Christians have to stand up for Jesus or not and suffer for loving and following Him. (Mark of the beast, Anti-Christ, etc…)

Here are 61 references to the Rapture from the Bible.
http://www.openbible.info/topics/the_rapture

It’s quite clear that the rapture is after the tribulation. (Matthew 24)
I think you’d have to be ignoring part of the Bible to believe that the rapture comes first.

Clearly @genjgal, you’d have to be ignoring part of Matthew 24 to believe the rapture comes before, during, or after.

Matthew 24:36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies That is a misinterpretation. Did you actually read Matthew 24 before you posted that?

I do not have any idea when Jesus is coming back. Matthew 24:36 is referring to the time rather than the sequence of events.

The sequence of events is made clear in Matthew 24:39–31
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

[Emphasis added]