I believe that you are correct with your line of thinking, up to a point :) If you have no desire to study such a topic as the rapture, then by all means do not study it. I do not think it a grievous sin to do such a thing. I have found that until you have it on your heart to study a topic, the study of such a topic will not bear any fruit. But once you feel led to study the topic, no matter what the topic is, this means that you are after the truth of the Word, the truth of what scripture says about it.
When I started down my road of study, I allowed our Father in heaven to lead my studies. This means that I did not use a study manual which my church recommended, but I studied all versions of the subject. I studied what the Catholics thought, I studied what the Seventh Day Adventist thought, what the Protestants thought. I read books on the subject, watched DVD’s and listened to cd’s on the topic. Once I had a good understanding of what each denomination thought and believed on a topic, I then took it before the Father in prayer and contemplation. I would think on the matter for hours at a time, I would run a belief through my own internal logic system to see if all of the parts fit together.
Sometimes these studies would last a number of years, because I would take a belief and run with it. If the belief was wrong, then after a time of study the spirit within me would start to show me the errors of it. As I took my time and studied a subject, if it was wrong, this fact would be made aware to me. Many times I would run with a belief, get to the end of my studies on the subject, and discover that I had reached the end of the line of belief which I had, that I had to go all the way into and down the rabbit hole to find out that my belief was wrong.
Many times I found that my new found belief did not match up with my other doctrines which I had a belief in. If I had a belief that did not match up with my other doctrines, and I had reached the end of my study on the topic, I would set it aside and start looking into the other topics which my first belief did not mesh with. More times than not I found that my other doctrines was wrong, so I then had to start going down that rabbit trail to find that truth.
This is a never ending process in my opinion. I, even to this day, leave room for my belief system to be changed. I have found that only by having an open mind to any subject will you ever find the truth in that subject. Your belief system must make since to you, no one else.
I have found that most denominations teach the wrong things, they do not have a grasp of the real truth. The leaders of the churches get their knowledge from man through a theology school. “Theo” is the Greek word for “God.” Ology in Greek means “The study of,” so theology is the “study of god”. This means that the study of god produces a man’s doctrine because it is a study by man, not by the holy spirit.
You must allow the spirit of God to come within you and teach you the meaning of scripture. To me this is what 2 Peter 1:20 tells us, that no scripture is of a private interpretation. If you decide on a meaning to scripture, is it of a private interpretation? I say yes. If a group of you believe on a meaning within scripture, is this of a private interpretation? I say yes. If a whole country believes the same on a doctrine, is this of private interpretation? I say yes, for any interpretation which comes by man alone is of a private interpretation, no matter how man people come into the belief of the doctrine. For scripture to be correct, it must be taught by the spirit of God, not by man.
I have found within scripture that your salvation is between you and God only. No other person or individual can bring you to salvation. No church can bring you to salvation, salvation is a personal matter that you wii attain through the spirit by God. You pray to God, God answers by faith (faith is hearing God’s voice for yourself). Most of us do not have faith at this time, for we do not hear God for ourselves just yet.
So I say study when you are led to study by the spirit, for only then will you gain the truth.
Many Blessings
PS: As far as the rapture goes, my study has shown it to be a false doctrine, a doctrine of man. The history of this doctrine goes back to the early 1830’s, when certain men started to believe on this doctrine and started to teach on it. C I Scofield then placed it within his Bible and what was once a very limited belief system has now come to denominate the christian understanding. You can find many articles online concerning Margaret McDonald who had a vision (which I believe the vision to be true), then a man by the name of Darby took that vision and turned it into the rapture. Then you got the pre, mid and post tribulation to make it fit with everyones other doctrines.
There are people who have a vested interest in promoting the doctrine of the rapture. So when you do your study you will find both pro and con concerning MaDonald, Darby and Scofield. It is up to you to make up your own mind by reading all of the pro’s and con’s on the topic.
But this was not the only reason I finally rejected the rapture theory. As I became aware of other topics and my belief in them, the rapture no longer made sense to me. What the rapture does in my opinion, is hid the truth concerning the end times and the second coming of Christ. Just as the Jews did not understand the first coming of Christ, so also the Churches do not understand the second coming of Christ. Just as the Sadducees and Pharisees did not understand nor teach the correct knowledge of the first coming, so also the leaders of the christian denominations are not teaching the correct understanding of the second coming.
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