What denominations believe in the Rapture?

[RileyG]

Self-explanatory. I know Pentecostals do.

 

[BobRyan]

Seventh-day Adventists believe in the rapture and may be the single largest denomination that does (or one of the two largest that does).

John 14:1-3 predicts it.
Matt 24:29-31 predicts it
1 Thess 4:13-18 predicts it

Notice Matt 24 in that case ---

29 “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. 31 And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet blast, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

 

[RileyG]

Seventh-day Adventists believe in the rapture and may be the single largest denomination that does.

Fascinating! I didn't know that. I know very little about SDA other than they were founded by a woman and celebrate the sabbath on Saturday. (I am getting off topic...)

 

[BobRyan]

Fascinating! I didn't know that. I know very little about SDA other than they were founded by a woman and celebrate the sabbath on Saturday. (I am getting off topic...)

Christianity Today identified Seventh-day Adventists as the 5th largest Christian denomination in the world in its January 2015 article on Ben Carson and SDAs.

Adventists trace their roots to the baptist minister William Miller and his "Millerite movement" in the first half of the 19th century. About 50,000 people in the U.S. were in that movement and in late 1844 about 50 of them went on to study and form the core group of what became Seventh-day Adventists

 

[RileyG]

Christianity Today identified Seventh-day Adventists as the 5th largest Christian denomination in the world in its January 2015 article on Ben Carson and SDAs.

Adventists trace their roots to the baptist minister William Miller and his "Millerite movement" in the first half of the 19th century. About 50,000 people in the U.S. were in that movement and in late 1844 about 50 of them went on to study and form the core group of what became Seventh-day Adventists

Thanks for the info! I was thinking of Ellen G. White. Excuse my ignorance.

 

[RileyG]

Thanks for the scripture passages.

 

[BobRyan]

Thanks for the info! I was thinking of Ellen G. White. Excuse my ignorance.

You are right that Ellen White (Ellen Harmon at the time) was one of those 50 people that went on to start what later became the SDA denomination - (she was 17 years old in 1844 and lived at home with her parents)

 

[CallofChrist]

Anglicans/Episcopalians do not believe in a "rapture"

Today the Episcopal Church is also an independent branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and members are known both as “Episcopalians” and “Anglicans.” The Episcopal Church is one of 30 autonomous national churches that are part of the Anglican Communion. The Communion has over 70 million members in 164 countries and is the third largest body of Christians in the world, after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. The Episcopal Church numbers between 2–3 million of those 70 million members.

About the Episcopal Church — Church of the Ascension

 

[RileyG]

You are right that Ellen White was one of those 50 people that went on to start what later became the SDA denomination - (she was 17 years old in 1844 and lived at home with her parents)

Thank you! I was not aware of that information!

 

[BobRyan]

As far as a know a number of Evangelical denominations (but not all) believe in the rapture and only those who believe in the Rapture - believe the saints go to heaven for some period of time (after the appearing of Christ as predicted in John 14:1-3 )

 

[RileyG]

So far:

Pentecostals/AOG
Seventh Day Adventist
Some non-Denominational
Some Baptists (???)
Some Evangelicals

 

[The Liturgist]

Self-explanatory. I know Pentecostals do.

Interestingly the Rapture as a theological construct is of extremely recent provenance, originating with John Nelson Darby, a minister in the Plymouth Brethren, in the 19th century.

 

[The Liturgist]

As far as a know a number of Evangelical denominations (but not all) believe in the rapture and only those who believe in the Rapture - believe the saints go to heaven for some period of time (after the appearing of Christ as predicted in John 14:1-3 )

Umm what? I think I must be misunderstanding you, because the doctrine of most churches is that Christians go to Heaven for some period of time. It is not our Eschatological final destination as far as we are aware, but our repose in Heaven pending the Eschaton is the ancient faith of the very early church. Indeed the saints are there now, because they are alive in Christ.

 

[RileyG]

Interestingly the Rapture as a theological construct is of extremely recent provenance, originating with John Nelson Darby, a minister in the Plymouth Brethren, in the 19th century.

Interesting enough, didn't the Plymouth Brethren join the the modern day UMC? I know Methodists don't believe in it.

 

[The Liturgist]

So far:

Pentecostals/AOG
Seventh Day Adventist
Some non-Denominational
Some Baptists (???)
Some Evangelicals

If I were you, I would start with the Rapture construct of John Nelson Darby and use that to evaluate the other claims. Given that the Adventist doctrines include Soul Sleep, an Investigative Judgement, Annhilationism, and the conflation of St. Michael the Archangel with Christ our Lord and God the Son, who the early church always maintained were separate, their conceptualization of the eschatology to which the rapture is commonly associated (premillenial dispensationalism, basically the story you find in the Left Behind novels) is likely to be somewhat distinct from the rest.

This becomes helpful for analysis if you regard the John Nelson Darby eschatology as the urtext, and then use the SDA eschatology as a textual outlier, influenced by various doctrines from the early Adventists and Ellen White, and then use these two prototypes to evaluate the others. For example, it would be interesting to see how the doctrine might change depending on how the church in question understands baptism and eschatology, and also how old the particular church in question is.

 

[The Liturgist]

.

 

[CallofChrist]

How an organization interprets 1 Thessalonians will be a key factor

 

[The Liturgist]

Interesting enough, didn't the Plymouth Brethren join the the modern day UMC? I know Methodists don't believe in it.

You are thinking of the Evangelical United Brethren which was a German Methodist movement founded by German immigrants to the US in the 18th century who were inspired by John Wesley.

Plymouth Brethren are very different, a denomination which originated in the UK in the 19th century, which is divided into Exclusive Brethren and Open Brethren (the former try to separate themselves from the world and are extremely conservative).

 

[BobRyan]

Umm what? I think I must be misunderstanding you, because the doctrine of most churches is that Christians go to Heaven for some period of time.

Who teaches that the saints are resurrected at the appearing of Christ and a then go to heaven other than evangelicals and SDAs???

Or do you mean "go to heaven while dead in Christ - before the appearing of Christ"???

 

[ByTheSpirit]

I was once told I was under Gods curse as an Assemblies of God minister because I broke with the denomination about the timing of the rapture. The Assemblies of God (in fact most Pentecostals/Charismatics) adhere to a pretribulation rapture, while I believe the church is raptured after the Tribulation at Jesus second coming.

The Independent Fundamental Baptist Church I grew up in also preached the pretribulation rapture. That was probably the only doctrine they had in common with the Assemblies of God that wasn't salvation related.

SDA believe in a post tribulation rapture for the most part.