Fidei Defensor

The Rapture does struggle against these Scriptures, "And the beast was allowed to wage war against God's holy people and to conquer them. And he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation," (Revelation 13:7), "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 heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory," (Matthew 24:29-30), "This means that God's holy people must endure persecution patiently, obeying his commands and maintaining their faith in Jesus, " (Revelation 14:12), "And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this down: Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard work; for their good deeds follow them!," (Revelation 14:13), "I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?," (Luke 18:8), "To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne," (Revelation 3:21), "You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved," (Matthew 10:22), and, "I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!" (John 16:33). These same verses also call into question Preterism (the idea that the whole world will be Christianized before Christ's return). The Rapture is a difficult subject to address because it gets confused with being caught up (1 Thessalonians 4:17, after Resurrection of Dead), and a doctrine by an Irish woman who invented the word rapture, and the Left Behind authors & their contributions.

The answer isn't very clear. I concur with notion of Martin Luther that for someone to commit suicide they had to be "overcome by devil" because to override God's programed instinct in us to "stay alive: fight or flight" requires a supernatural override. The best answer I've heard on this controversial subject is this, "I don't know if you go to hell if you commit suicide, but I do know if you do end up in hell you can't commit suicide to get out." This being meant to caution people not to attempt such an act because it is unclear and not covered in the Scriptures. As one theologian put it, "what the Bible is silent on, we are silent," and so speculation can be dangerous when there is no mention of such an incident in the accounts of the Apostles.

Nay, contemporary worship has become very opaque, obscuring worship in generalized terms. When compared with Hymns like "A Might Fortress is Our God" (Luther) or even "Awesome God" (Rich Mullins), today's worship has a very repetitious sound without making much reference to Scripture or even God's Name. There are exceptions however, so lets not throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water. I myself prefer contemporary worship for travel, while using hymns to hone in on the Holy Trinity's presence in contemplation, and I have once in while enjoyed some Gregorian Chant or Paul Wilbur. In the end it is what edifies you in the Spirit, "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." (Philippians 4:8)