It is disappointing to read the works of men that are normally trustworthy in their treatment of Scripture, when it comes to their promotion of a "pre-tribulation rapture," that is , a coming of Christ before the coming of Christ. Consider our brother in Oregon, head of the Berean Call ministry. Over and over his publications define New Testament Christianity and its enemies. But on the subject at hand he seems to fall woefully short of exemplifying his "Berean" philosophy. The brother actually sees "clear distinctions" between the rapture and the second coming. He reported on these distinctions several years back.
For one, he says that at the rapture, Christ does not return to earth, but at the second coming He does. As proof, he offers the words of Jesus in John 14:3: "I will...receive you unto myself that where I am you may be also." Further, he quotes Paul (I Thessalonians 4:17): "...caught up to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord."
Certainly our brother does not suggest that Jesus remains suspended "in the air", that is, the atmosphere above our earth, constantly for those seven years. We all assume that at this point, when the saints are gathered, Jesus either goes back to Heaven, or completes His journey by coming to earth. Now both of the quoted statements only tell us that when we leave here we go to be with Jesus, and remain with Him forever. No other point, especially geographical, can be extracted. So the argument is from silence. Since the text does not state here which way Jesus goes, it is assumed that He goes up, to fit the theory.
True "Bereans" search the Scriptures daily "to find out whether these things be so." My brother Berean needs to compare Scripture with Scripture here: For example, take a look at Matthew 24:30 and 31, and then compare it to the passage he uses in the Thessalonian letter. In both passages are clouds, angels , a trumpet, and a gathering. Matthew's text is acknowledged to be about the final coming, while the pre-trib people say Paul was talking about a rapture seven years earlier. But what distinction can be drawn? Consider :
I Thessalonians 4:16-17: "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
If we add in more of Paul's supposed pre-trib teaching from I Corinthians 15:52, we find that that "trumpet" is the last trumpet. But that ties it in with Revelation 11:15, where the seventh and final trumpet is sounded at a time that is clearly the end of all things. There cannot be another trumpet after this. Yet Matthew 24, supposedly written about a period seven years in the future, mentions another trumpet! The number of trumpets doesn't "add up."
Here's Matthew: "...after the tribulation...the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven ...they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven . And He will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they will gather together his elect from one end of heaven to the other."
Paul knew the teachings about the second coming of Christ. He knew that they involved angels, trumpet, clouds, and a gathering. Is it likely that, in this confused Thessalonian church, he would introduce the same terminology used for the second coming of Christ without spelling out his meaning, that this "coming" is separate from the other?
Further, in Acts 1:9-11, normally considered a "second coming" promise, Jesus ascends into heaven, and a cloud receives Him out of their sight. Angels promise that when Jesus descends it will be in the same manner, as John repeats: "Lo he comes with the clouds, and every eye shall see Him" (Revelation 1:7). It fits the pattern. Jesus comes down, and in the context of Acts, He sets up His kingdom. And like a magnet drawing nails, His own are drawn to Him at that time.
Why did the church buy into the necessity of two second comings? Why aren't both of these events ever described side by side? How do such great Bible scholars buy into a doctrine that demands that they wrest text after text to make it fit?
Seems like this is a greater mystery than the teaching itself.
Hello! I'm brother Bob Faulkner, and I am truly enjoying sharing God's Word with you on Ezine. For a full listing of teachings including audios, go to http://sermonaudio.com and type in my name. Also visit with me at http://chosunhouse.com and let me share with you my love for North Korea.
(Thanks, Bro. Bob. You are totally correct! Spotted the following on the net. Another terrific article is "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty" on the "Powered by Christ Ministries" site. Lord bless.)
ReplyDeletePRETRIB RAPTURE – HIDDEN FACTS !
How can the “rapture” be “imminent”? Acts 3:21 says that Jesus “must” stay in heaven (He is now there with the Father) “until the times of restitution of all things” which includes, says Scofield, “the restoration of the theocracy under David’s Son” which obviously can’t begin before or during Antichrist’s reign. Since Jesus must personally participate in the rapture, and since He can’t even leave heaven before the tribulation ends, the rapture therefore cannot take place before the end of the trib! Paul explains the “times and the seasons” (I Thess. 5:1) of the catching up (I Thess. 4:17) as the “day of the Lord” (5:2) (which FOLLOWS the posttrib sun/moon darkening – Matt. 24:29; Acts 2:20) WHEN “sudden destruction” (5:3) of the wicked occurs! (If the wicked are destroyed before or during the trib, who would be left alive to serve the Antichrist?) Paul also ties the change-into-immortality “rapture” (I Cor. 15:52) to the posttrib end of “death” (15:54)! (Will death be ended before or during the trib?) If anyone wonders how long pretrib rapturism has been taught, he or she can Google “Pretrib Rapture Diehards.” Many are unaware that before 1830 all Christians had always viewed I Thess. 4’s “catching up” as an integral part of the final second coming to earth. In 1830 it was stretched forward and turned into a separate coming of Christ. To further strengthen their novel view, which the mass of evangelical scholars rejected throughout the 1800s, pretrib teachers in the early 1900s began to stretch forward the “day of the Lord” (what Darby and Scofield never dared to do) and hook it up with their already-stretched-forward “rapture.” Many leading evangelical scholars still weren’t convinced of pretrib, so pretrib teachers then began teaching that the “falling away” of II Thess. 2:3 is really a pretrib rapture (the same as saying that the “rapture” in 2:3 must happen before the “rapture” ["gathering"] in 2:1 can happen – the height of desperation!). Other Google articles throwing light on long-covered-up facts about the 178-year-old pretrib rapture view include “Famous Rapture Watchers,” “X-Raying Margaret,” “Revisers of Pretrib Rapture History,” “Thomas Ice (Bloopers),” “Wily Jeffrey,” “The Rapture Index (Mad Theology),” “America’s Pretrib Rapture Traffickers,” “Roots of (Warlike) Christian Zionism,” “Scholars Weigh My Research,” “Pretrib Hypocrisy,” “Pretrib Rapture Desperados” and “Deceiving and Being Deceived” – all by the author of the bestselling book “The Rapture Plot” which is available at Armageddon Books online. Just my two cents’ worth.