Do jw's believe in a rapture?

[Shiwiii]

Just curious if the regular jw believes in a rapture. I mean I do, but I wonder if jws do. 

[Shiwiii]

I tried looking at the jw website and doing a search, but there was no real answer. 

There was reference to Elijah and when Paul was caught up to the third heaven, but no real answer. 

[Evacuated]

2 hours ago, Shiwiii said:

curious if the regular jw believes in a rapture

doesn't seem to be a consistent view of what constitutes a "rapture".

[Shiwiii]

18 minutes ago, Outta Here said:

doesn't seem to be a consistent view of what constitutes a "rapture".

I don't understand, what doesn't?

 

I mean a rapture where people will be taken up to heaven and not left here on Earth when Jesus comes back to take them. 

[JW Insider]

6 hours ago, Shiwiii said:

Just curious if the regular jw believes in a rapture. I mean I do, but I wonder if jws do. 

Yes, the regular JW believes in a rapture (although some still do not yet know that this is what they believe, because the teaching is rarely repeated). The primary scriptures that indicates the "rapture" have now been explained to be a sudden (instantaneous) taking of that person, while still alive, from earth to heaven. The reason we avoid the term "rapture" is because most of Christendom believes that the person keeps their physical body, and we believe that the physical body is instantly turned into a spiritual body at the time of the "rapture."

Other scriptures that seem to refer to a rapture have not been interpreted to refer to this same "rapture" event:

(Matthew 24:39-41) . . .and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be. 40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken along and the other abandoned. 41 Two women will be grinding at the hand mill; one will be taken along and the other abandoned.

Those verses (and equivalents in Luke) might be another reason that some JWs are not yet aware that they believe in a "rapture." But the recently clarified explanation for the verses below has changed the way we speak about the rapture.

(1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17) . . .because the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel’s voice and with God’s trumpet, and those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first. 17 Afterward we the living who are surviving will, together with them, be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in the air. . .

(1 Corinthians 15:51, 52) 51 Look! I tell YOU a sacred secret: We shall not all fall asleep [in death], but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, during the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised up incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

Note the 2015 Watchtower:

*** w15 7/15 p. 18 par. 14 “Your Deliverance Is Getting Near”! ***
So, what is this gathering work that Jesus mentions? It is the time when the remaining ones of the 144,000 will receive their heavenly reward. (1 Thess. 4:15-17; Rev. 14:1) This event will take place at some point after the beginning of the attack by Gog of Magog. (Ezek. 38:11) Then these words of Jesus will be fulfilled: “At that time the righteous ones will shine as brightly as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.”—Matt. 13:43.
Does this mean that there will be a “rapture” of the anointed ones? Many in Christendom believe, according to this teaching, that Christians will be bodily caught up from the earth. Then, they expect that Jesus will visibly return to rule the earth. However, the Bible clearly shows that “the sign of the Son of man” will appear in heaven and that Jesus will come “on the clouds of heaven.” (Matt. 24:30) Both of these expressions imply invisibility. Additionally, “flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s Kingdom.” So those who will be taken to heaven will first need to be “changed, in a moment, in the blink of an eye, during the last trumpet.” (Read 1 Corinthians 15:50-53.) Therefore, while we do not use the term “rapture” here because of its wrong connotation, the remaining faithful anointed will be gathered together in an instant of time.

[Evacuated]

7 hours ago, JW Insider said:

Therefore, while we do not use the term “rapture” here because of its wrong connotation

Jacob sod pottage.

[derek1956]

I think they are talking about when the anointed are taken to heaven, if so, then they will be taken when the great tribulation is cut short

 

[JW Insider]

5 hours ago, Outta Here said:

Jacob sod pottage.

 

Similar, perhaps. But note that the common defintion, doesn't necessarily connote the incorrect baggage. Shiwiii clarified: 

 

14 hours ago, Shiwiii said:

I mean a rapture where people will be taken up to heaven and not left here on Earth when Jesus comes back to take them.

And Google provides the following as the top definitions in this context.

rap·ture

/ˈrapCHər/

noun: North American

 

(according to some millenarian teaching) the transporting of believers to heaven at the Second Coming of Christ.

  verb: North American

(according to some millenarian teaching) transport (a believer) from earth to heaven at the Second Coming of Christ.

[Matthew9969]

Souls... not physical bodies will be taken up.

 

[Evacuated]

7 hours ago, JW Insider said:

And Google provides the following as the top definitions in this context.  

noun: North American

  

(according to some millenarian teaching) the transporting of believers to heaven at the Second Coming of Christ.

These definitions confirm the incorrectness of applying the term "rapture" if this is what it is understood to mean. It might make sense to someone who believed that Jesus was "transported" to earth when he came to offer the Ransom Sacrifice.

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

2 hours ago, Matthew9969 said:

Souls... not physical bodies will be taken up. 

I understand the point you are making ... and it is a good extrapolation ... except a "soul" is someone ( OR SOME LIVING CREATURE ...) who breathes atmospheric oxygen mix.   The reason we do NOT have to bleed fish (often caught in nets by the thousands ...) is that they ARE not souls. They do not live and breathe air.

I eat clam chowder at least four times a week.

How would you bleed a clam?

They are CHANGED in the twinkling of an eye ... to another life form ... not extracted.

Uh... people, not clams.

 

 

[Bubba Johnson Jr]

35 Nevertheless, someone will say: “How are the dead to be raised up? Yes, with what sort of body are they coming?” 36 You unreasonable person! What you sow is not made alive unless first it dies. 37 And as for what you sow, you sow, not the body that will develop, but just a bare grain, whether of wheat or of some other kind of seed; 38 but God gives it a body just as it has pleased him, and gives to each of the seeds its own body....