A Disillusioned PreacherMore than forty years ago this writer was the youthful pastor of a village church. He was an ardent Bible teacher (???), charting the seven dispensations, selling the Scofield Reference Bible, wishing he was rich enough to present copies of “Jesus Is Coming,” by W. E. Blackstone, to all of his friends and convinced that the Moody Bible Institute was the only hope, and perhaps the last hope, of apostate America. And then he was asked a question:
“What verse teaches that the church will be caught away before the tribulation?”
He quoted several referring to the second coming of Christ. Following each came the question:
“Does that say that the church will be caught away before the tribulation?”
He went to his room and searched the concordance. No help! He searched his bookshelves. Popular authors constantly asserted that Jesus is coming, before the tribulation. None of them quoted a verse which taught it. Beautiful dispensational charts, but no verse. How stupid can men be! This writer professed to teach nothing without a “thus saith the Lord;” and yet he was unaware that there was no, “thus saith the Lord,” to support this hub of prophetical doctrines, this rapture of the church before the tribulation. One question, without argument or persuasion, and against his own desires, revolutionized this writer’s life. All of his interests and affections were on the rapture side of the question. It took years to think around this problem, and in those troubled years a pamphlet discussing this issue frankly would have been priceless.
The issue is not literalism, or spiritualizing, or Jewish features of the tribulation, or clear distinctions between church and Israel, or the fulfillment of Jewish kingdom promises, or modernism, or deploring a hopeless future,
We state the issue plainly: IS JESUS COMING ACCORDING TO HIS WORD IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE TRIBULATION? OR IS HS COMING ACCORDING TO THE WORD OF SOME EMINENT PREACHERS IMMEDIATELY BEFORE THE TRIBULATION?
Literalists should be literal! Chapter and verse! Please! Plain Speaking On The Rapture Question
He will remove the Church (Rapture) - true believers in the Christ of Holy Scripture then judge the world for seven years then he will come again with the saints of heaven..
You have to see things through a despensational window to see the whole pic. when certain groups through Israel under the bus they miss out on the whole tribulation and rapture teachings..
Thanks, TC. This is the framing of the issue I have been looking for.