Posted on 01/11/2015 10:08:10 AM PST by wmfights
Conclusion: Fifty Arguments for Pretribulationism
In previous discussion of premillennialism in relation to the tribulation, the respective arguments for pretribulationism, partial rapture, posttribulationism, and midtribulationism have been examined, and the pretribulational position in general sustained. By way of conclusion and summary, some fifty arguments for pretribulationism can now be proposed. It is not presumed that the statement of these arguments in themselves establishes their validity, but rather that the previous discussion supports and justifies this summary of reasons for the pretribulational view.
For the sake of brevity, the term rapture or translation
is used for the coming of Christ for His church, while the term second coming is uniformly used as a reference to His coming to the earth to establish His millennial kingdom, an event which all consider posttribulational. While the words rapture and translation are not quite identical, they refer to the same event. By the term rapture reference is made to the fact that the church is “caught up” from the earth and taken to heaven. By the term translation the thought is conveyed that those who are thus raptured are transformed in their physical bodies from natural and corruptible bodies to spiritual, incorruptible, and immortal bodies. Strictly speaking, the dead are raised while the living are translated. In common usage, however, this distinction is not normally maintained.
In the discussion the posttribulational view is considered the principal contender against pretribulationism and is primarily in mind in the restatement of the arguments. The other positions, however, are also mentioned in so far as they oppose pretribulationism on some special point. The preceding discussion has pointed to the preponderance of argument in support of the pretribulational position, and the following restatement should serve to clarify the issues involved.
I. Historical Argument
1. The early church believed in the imminency of the Lord’s return, which is an essential doctrine of pretribulationism.
2. The detailed development of pretribulational truth during the past few centuries does not prove that the doctrine is new or novel. Its development is similar to that of other major doctrines in the history of the church.
II. Hermeneutics
3. Pretribulationism is the only view which allows a literal interpretation of all Old and New Testament passages on the great tribulation.
4. Only pretribulationism distinguishes clearly between Israel and the church and their respective programs.
III. The Nature of the Tribulation
5. Pretribulationism maintains the Scriptural distinction between the great tribulation and tribulation in general which precedes it.
6. The great tribulation is properly interpreted by pretribulationists as a time of preparation for Israel’s restoration (Deut 4:29-30; Jer 30:4-11). It is not the purpose of the tribulation to prepare the church for glory.
7. None of the Old Testament passages on the tribulation mention the church (Deut 4:29-30; Jer 30:4-11; Dan 9:24-27; 12:1-2 ).
8. None of the New Testament passages on the tribulation mention the church (Matt 24:15-31; 1 Thess 1:9-10; 5:4-9 ; Rev 4—19 ).
9. In contrast to midtribulationism, the pretribulational view provides an adequate explanation for the beginning of the great tribulation in Revelation 6. Midtribulationism is refuted by the plain teaching of Scripture that the great tribulation begins long before the seventh trumpet of Revelation 11.
10. The proper distinction is maintained between the prophetic trumpets of Scripture by pretribulationism. There is no proper ground for the pivotal argument of midtribulationism that the seventh trumpet of Revelation is the last trumpet in that there is no established connection between the seventh trumpet of Revelation 11, the last trumpet of 1 Corinthians 15:52, and the trumpet of Matthew 24:31. They are three distinct events.
11. The unity of Daniel’s seventieth week is maintained by pretribulationists. By contrast, midtribulationism destroys the unity of Daniel’s seventieth week and confuses Israel’s program with that of the church.
IV. The Nature of the Church
12. The translation of the church is never mentioned in any passage dealing with the second coming of Christ after the tribulation.
13. The church is not appointed to wrath (Rom 5:9; 1 Thess 1:9-10; 5:9 ). The church therefore cannot enter “the great day of their wrath” (Rev 6:17).
14. The church will not be overtaken by the Day of the Lord (1 Thess 5:1-9) which includes the tribulation.
15. The possibility of a believer escaping the tribulation is mentioned in Luke 21:36.
16. The church of Philadelphia was promised deliverance from “the hour of trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole world, to try them that dwell upon the earth” (Rev 3:10).
17. It is characteristic of divine dealing to deliver believers before a divine judgment is inflicted upon the world as illustrated in the deliverance of Noah, Lot, Rahab, etc. (2 Pet 2:6-9).
18. At the time of the translation of the church, all believers go to the Father’s house in heaven, and do not remain on the earth as taught by posttribulationists (John 14:3).
19. Pretribulationism does not divide the body of Christ at the rapture on a works principle. The teaching of a partial rapture is based on the false doctrine that the translation of the church is a reward for good works. It is rather a climactic aspect of salvation by grace.
20. The Scriptures clearly teach that all, not part, of the church will be raptured at the coming of Christ for the church (1 Cor 15:51-52; 1 Thess 4:17).
21. As opposed to a view of a partial rapture, pretribulationism is founded on the definite teaching of Scripture that the death of Christ frees from all condemnation.
22. The godly remnant of the tribulation are pictured as Israelites, not members of the church as maintained by the posttribulationists.
23. The pretribulational view as opposed to posttribulationism does not confuse general terms like elect and saints which apply to the saved of all ages with specific terms like the church and those in Christ which refer to believers of this age only.
V. The Doctrine of Immmency
24. The pretribulational interpretation is the only view which teaches that the coming of Christ is actually imminent.
25. The exhortation to be comforted by the coming of the Lord (1 Thess 4:18) is significant only in the pretribulational view, and is especially contradicted by posttribulationism. continues in sin, while at the second coming the world is judged and righteousness is established in the earth.
44. The translation of the church is pictured as a deliverance before the day of wrath, while the second coming is followed by the deliverance of those who have believed in Christ during the tribulation.
45. The rapture is described as imminent, while the second coming is preceded by definite signs.
46. The translation of living believers is truth revealed only in the New Testament, while the second coming with its attendant events is a prominent doctrine of both Testaments.
47. The rapture concerns only the saved, while the second coming deals with both saved and unsaved.
48. At the rapture Satan is not bound, while at the second coming Satan is bound and cast into the abyss.
49. No unfulfilled prophecy stands between the church and the rapture, while many signs must be fulfilled before the second coming.
50. No passage dealing with the resurrection of saints at the second coming in either Testament ever mentions a translation of living saints at the same time.
3. Pretribulationism is the only view which allows a literal interpretation of all Old and New Testament passages on the great tribulation.
6. The great tribulation is properly interpreted by pretribulationists as a time of preparation for Israel’s restoration (Deut 4:29-30; Jer 30:4-11). It is not the purpose of the tribulation to prepare the church for glory.
I hope you have enjoyed this series as much as I have. I know it's been tough to read the entire articles as they've been posted, but I know for those that stuck with it they learned a great deal. Your patience with dealing with posters who obviously didn't read the articles was appreciated.
Could you please ping a page with all the links comprising the FR appearances? If you are able and will, thanks! (I just haven’t been able to read them all, and I will be able to copy such a list to Notepad for future examination more leisurely.)
I started out a pre-tribulationist in an AG church, but became a mid-tribulationist. At that point, our highly educated Sunday school teacher gave me a copy of his white paper on the subject to bring me back. It was about as big as all of these installments put together.
As I read it I was MORE convinced of Mid-tribulationism.
I used to argue this with people a lot (about 20 years ago). The point by point analysis is exhaustive and not really all that fruitful, I discovered. I focus now more on just the gospel and leave these arguments to those steeped in it. I do think the Left Behind stuff is setting a LOT of people up for disappointment, though - and possibly falling away.
Awesome stuff this has been so rewarding thank you wmfights for posting these articles.
bttt
If you will mail me on how to do it I will.
I will disagree with you on a couple points. Obviously, I firmly believe in pretribulationalism. Also, I don't believe that people lose their salvation if they are Born Again.
I've enjoyed this series tremendously as well.
Walvoord’s 50 reasons puts me in mind of the big hoopla we had back in 1988, which was over a book a pretrib had written timed for that year, the book’s subject was, 88 reasons why the rapture would take place in 1988.
All 88 reasons were wrong.
Also, I don’t believe that people lose their salvation if they are Born Again.
But there are scriptures to support both points of view.
And I also believe the fate of the lost, after the great white throne judgement, is to be annihilated once and for all. i.e. no eternal suffering.
“8. None of the New Testament passages on the tribulation mention the church (Matt 24:15-31; 1 Thess 1:9-10; 5:4-9 ; Rev 4—19 ).”
The passages in Matthew and Revelation do not mention the church specifically entering the Great Tribulation or escaping it. In other words, it is purely speculative to assert the absence of a direct reference to the church as signifying the timing of the rapture. Further, the rapture or translation of living saints is not specifically identified in the Revelation timeline(s). In fact, no general resurrection of believers is specifically described in the events of Revelation.
As for the passages in First Thessalonians, the church is specifically admonished to expect tribulation but not wrath:
1 Thessalonians 1:6-10
And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything. For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
“16. The church of Philadelphia was promised deliverance from ‘the hour of trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole world, to try them that dwell upon the earth’ (Rev 3:10).”
Being kept from the Great Tribulation does not require being taken out of this world:
John 17:15
I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.
(The same Greek word is used to describe the keeping of God in both passages. It could be translated similarly as “saved from” but does not have the same implication. A different word is used in describing our deliverance from wrath which is translated as “saves us from” wrath.)
“17. It is characteristic of divine dealing to deliver believers before a divine judgment is inflicted upon the world as illustrated in the deliverance of Noah, Lot, Rahab, etc. (2 Pet 2:6-9).”
Believers such as Noah and others do go through tribulation and persecution. What they escape is God’s wrath. God destroyed the world in Noah’s day with a flood, but will destroy the current world with fire as He did with Sodom in Lot’s day. This fiery destruction is sudden, surprising, and immediate when believers are raptured out, unlike the early days of Daniel’s seventieth week which Christ describes as the beginning of sorrows and not yet the end.
1 Thessalonians 5:2-3
For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.
2 Thessalonians 1:6-8
it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 3:3, 4, 7, 10
knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” ...
But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
Nowhere in the Olivet discourse does Christ describe this sudden, cataclysmic, fiery destruction. The reason is that it follows the Great Tribulation and happens in the time known as the End, the Last Day, the Day of the Lord, the Day of Christ, the Day of God, and the Day of Wrath.
Note how Paul connects the Resurrection of believers to the time known as the “End”. And yet Christ describes the early events of Daniel’s seventieth week as happening before the “End”.
1 Corinthians 15:22-24
in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the END [emphasis added], when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.
Matthew 24:3, 6, 8, 13, 14
Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the END [emphasis added] of the age?”
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the END [emphasis added] is not yet.
All these are the beginning of sorrows.
But he who endures to the END [emphasis added] shall be saved.
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the END [emphasis added] will come.
The correct understanding of the timing of Christ return will be found in the balance of two sets of instructions:
1. watch and be ready
2. wait patiently
I am persuaded that preparing for a pre-wrath rapture is admonished in scripture. We should expect persecution and tribulation, and endure these patiently. We should anxiously await and expect deliverance by Christ’s return before His wrath is poured out on the earth.
Well, maybe I can do it for myself without causing you a bother.
What I will do is just search on the title key words “Premillennialism and the Tribulation” if this is part of every one of the articles, then just open them up successively and cut/paste the link for each one from the address bar into a Notepad text file.
Then I can always later just open up my browser, copy the link from notepad into the browser address bar, and jump directly to the first FR page with the article and all the opening comments.
Hope that makes sense. But if you already had accumulated a list of the posts you made for this, with their http links, it would have been just a couple of keystrokes to post the list. No matter.
Thanks for the great effort you have made to provide these segments of a very interesting and quite detailed account of the related Scriptures and Premil doctrine!
I believe almost all the articles are listed as “Millennial Series”
bookmark
Thank you great series.
If you go to the posted article link you can access the entire series.
Based upon experience I am a Pre-Tribber.... But hopefully some will be Mid-Tribbers too.
Christ is already here and if you allow yourself to be raised up you too can experience Him.
Matthew 24:26
26 “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Is He a really big dude that He can be seen in the east and the west at the same time? Yes He is, as we exist within Him. That is the clue. The same one given in Matthew 17 several times.
Being raised up is not physically being raised up. It is being raised up in consciousness to a level where the things that Jesus did and even more you too shall do, not just in His name, but in HIM.
Our perception of reality changes based upon the operational frequency of our consciousness. In order to raise it we must always Love God, or focus on the highest level possible and strive to be One with It. In order to raise up we must follow Jesus’ commandment number two as well by resolving and removing the obstacles to Love that exist within our souls in order that we may remove the ballast and anchors that attach us to the lower levels and prohibit us from doing a better job at commandment number 1.
To do this we must go within and we will find that the Rapture is already available to us.
The physical body is also raised up, per se as it is totally a manifestation of our soul or consciousness. (This is how Jesus did His healings) But being “raised up” does not mean that we “stay up.” That is up to us to continue the process.
By raising up the operational frequency of the soul, the physical body is automatically raised up, but still exists in the same space as before.
Hell is really just being here holding on to the dense lower frequencies as Heaven is opened up upon us.(It is open now and the Holy Spirit is being poured upon us in greater quantity than ever before... That’s why Peter quoted the prophet Joel in Acts 2 on this topic) It is why the sparks fly when a dense object is placed in the high frequency of the microwave. It’s the reason that a prayerful blessing upon an evil man is like placing hot coals upon his head.
In my first comment I mentioned that my opinion is “Experiential.” The experience is real and available to all who seek it.
Just as Peter’s doubt sank him in the water, our attachment to this lower reality will do the same to us as Heaven upon earth increases. Let go and let God and you meet Jesus daily... not just in theory but experientially.
“48. At the rapture Satan is not bound, while at the second coming Satan is bound and cast into the abyss.”
Quite a few years ago (in the early 1990’s), I met satan in person. The room became freezing cold and he came upon me as I was redeeming his minions. I turned to Archangel MiKiEl and said, “There he is. You can get him!”
MiKiEl immediately replied, “It is not time yet!” It was that evening that I stopped doing exorcisms and demonic confrontations in a purposeful manner as I suddenly realized that GOD is in control and everything is unfolding exactly according to His plan on His timeline. Even satan is a creation of God and serves a purpose in the Divine Plan.
John 17:15
I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one."
So true, so true... I got goosebumps up both arms and the back of my neck when I read this in your post.... Thank you for posting it.
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