RAPTURE RUPTURED

Matthew 24 and Luke 17 have been used as a starting point for many further exaggerated fearsome stories of end times rapture but when read in detail and compared to modern knowledge of our solar system & galaxy beyond the gospel tales look like primitive guesswork & fantasy.

"The paper back apocalypse, how the Christian church was left behind" by Robert M. Price is worth reading. It examines the whole genre of both Christian and secular rapture fiction. 

Matt 24v29 says the sun will be darkened but how could that happen ? It is estimated to be good for billions of years yet

Matt 24v29 says the moon will not give its light but the moon only reflects sunlight and has no light  of its own

Matthew 24v28-29 says at the coming of the Son of Man stars will fall from the sky.
Well since it is impossible for stars to fall to Earth I guess we won't get to v30 with the Son of Man coming on the clouds.

What does Matt 24v31 mean," the angels will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" does it mean there are other civilizations spread through the galaxies of the universe or that Jesus thought heaven was just above our sky ? A trumpet call isn't going to travel very far, certainly not outwith our atmosphere and wouldn't they have been better with mobile phones to text the elect ?

Matthew 24v34 has Jesus say his generation would certainly not pass away until all these things have happened but his generation did pass away and those things never happened.

Matthew 24v35 says heaven and earth will pass away; well this is not so good for those hoping for a happy ever after in heaven. Does heaven mean sky ? Did the authors think the sky & heaven were the self same thing ?

Matthew 24v37 has Jesus talk about Noah as if it was a literal event but science has shown it was very probably a myth - both the Ark and a global flood

On p126 of Robert Price's 'The paperback apocalypse' ,"It is common to see Matthew 24v40-41,("Then two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left.Two women will be grinding at the mill;one is taken and one is left" Cf Luke 17v34) pressed into service as a mention of the Rapture. But Robinson is right: given the context, in which the eschatological catastrophe is compared to Noah's flood and the whelming of Sodom, the one "taken" must be the one destroyed, the one "left" the lucky survivor. See also Genesis 7v23,"He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark." Luke had the disciples ask for clarification:"Where Lord?" Luke has Jesus answer,"Where the body is, there the vultures will circle" Luke 17v37

It could be embarrassing if it was the other way round and the man in bed, Luke 17v34, was raptured at an inconvenient moment & appeared in the next second before God in heaven. I wonder if there would be a 10 minute warning.
TalkOrigins website shows that the Noah's flood story is probably a myth.

Luke 17v29 says fire and sulphur rained down on Sodom from heaven but why didn't they say it was a pyroclastic flow from a volcano? What is the closest volcano to Israel ? Is it the Nabro stratovolcano in the Southern Red Sea Region of Eritrea whose only known eruption was in 2011 or is it Santorini near Crete? Does 'sulphur raining down' even mean anything, what would that look like ? = they were making stuff up.

Website "Amazing Bible discoveries" article,' Sulfur and ash from Gomorrah' makes claims about finding sulfur balls near the Dead sea. How did they come to be there ?

Yet another fantasy: In Ezekiel 47:8-9 there is a specific prophecy that the Dead sea will ".. be healed and made fresh", becoming a normal lake capable of supporting swarms of living creatures and large numbers of fish as a result of a river flowing from a Temple in Jerusalem. v10 Fishermen will stand on the banks between EnGedi to En Eglaim and spread their nets. Is there even a dry valley which slopes from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea ?

Matthew 24v51 has Jesus tell a tale about the master killing the servant who beat his fellow servants and threatens the servant will still weep and gnash his teeth after death. However this would mean that the master had behaved worse than the servant. There servant only beat people but the master murdered people and tortured them, for what ?