My "Take" on the Current Rapture-of-the-Church Craze

IntellectualConservative.com ^ | December 4, 2002 | J. Grant Swank, Pastor

[az4vlad]

Is there really a pre-tribulation rapture of Christians, as Hollywood movies and many of our religious leaders are currently claiming, or does the rapture occur after the tribulation?

The secular bookstores carry bestsellers sporting it. The secular theaters are showing movies sporting. TV talk shows interview religious figures sporting it. It's out of the churches and into the marketplace.

It's the Rapture Craze. Armageddon's there. AntiChrist is, too. So the secret scoop-up of the church is right there--before all global hell breaks loose. The righteous will miss the awful stuff, for sure. Jesus will take them off the planet's surface into heaven before bad times hit the Earth big time.

A recent Sunday morning's religious broadcasting showed a group of believers jumping up and down, rejoicing as they were getting in practice for the rapture! The "rapture jump" is now "in"?

If so, this is horrifying foolishness! Mark it down as biblical truth: There is no pre-tribulation rapture.

However, untold thousands believe in the "secret rapture of the church" prior to the tribulation period. This is because untold thousands don't want to have to think of suffering through a tribulation time frame. The late Corrie ten Boom called this pre-trib rapture teaching the "American doctrine." Go figure.

The belief in a secret rapture of believers before the tribulation is also because of a best-seller, "The Late, Great Planet Earth," by Hal Lindsey which was set loose in the l960s. It has been a paperback aggressively pushed by practically every evangelical / fundamentalist engine going.

Theologians, videos, films and preachers bolster up this myth with their earnest preachings and teachings.

Yet this is nothing but a myth, accented as much by certain theologically conservative Protestant segments similar unto the Roman Catholic underlining of the immaculate conception of Mary. Nevertheless, if there is no biblical support for such a Mariology teaching, it is bogus. Likewise, the pre-tribulation rapture teaching is bogus.

The pre-trib rapture concept was manufactured in the 1800s in an 18 year old Plymouth Brethren girl's dream, told to her Pastor, John Darby, and then relayed to C. I. Scofield who bought into the dream as revealed truth. Scofield placed this pre-tribulation rapture notion as a footnote in his popular Bible, hence the spread of the myth.

However, just the opposite is biblical truth. In Matthew 24:29-3l, for instance, the rapture ("gathering together") is placed in the same time frame as the open second coming of Jesus Christ. And all of this is "after the tribulation" (verse 29). That is it in a nutshell!

Yet pre-tribulation rapturists sidestep this clear passage for more oblique passages. The latter are twisted and turned in order to fit into the "American doctrine." Yet such twisting is not sound exegesis. And for biblically-riveted evangelicals and fundamentalists to commit this drastic error is bordering on the horrific.

All other passages in Scripture relating to the "gathering together unto Him" must refer back to the literal time line provided by Jesus in Matthew 24.

One must not use a symbolic passage in the Book of Revelation or any other symbolically- based section of the Bible by which to draw a pre-tribulation rapture doctrine.

Further, one must not take words of the apostle Paul so as to insert them opportunistically into a conjured pre-tribulation string of Scripture references. Yet this has been done ad infinitum.

Instead, Jesus' literalism of Matthew 24 must be used as the benchmark for all other "gathering together" themes of Scripture.

One starts with literalism and moves into symbolism when seeking to understand Scripture; it is not the other way around.

During the 1970s and 1980s there was much written and preached about a pre-tribulation rapture. This has wound down some in the last decade or so. Why?

Today, with the world situation being what it is, there is not that much risk-taking in preaching dogmatically the pre-tribulation rapture. Why?

Is it because there are many who are beginning to question its validity? Is it because the world state is so uncertain that to go out on a limb with a false hope may ricochet?

One wonders, with world events progressively becoming more and more anti-Christian, why the pre-tribulation rapture persons are not celebrating each dawn as the day when Jesus may return to earth.

Such is not the phenomenon on a large scale. Furthermore, it may be because the next generation has not bought into this notion.

In any case, it is a myth, a legend of conservative Protestantism's own conjuring and has no base in the Holy Scriptures.

Yet these very Protestants are the ones who ardently point out the myths of Catholicism while holding to some of their own myths. Both segments of Christendom need to do some serious housecleaning of manufactured legends in order to return to the simple Bible truths; otherwise, the church suffers from severe lack of knowledge.

What is so frightening about holding to a pre-tribulation rapture? It is more than mere academic quibbling. Holding to such a notion is drastically weakening the church worldwide.

The church should be preparing for spiritual battle against the most evil forces arrayed by hell.

Instead, the church is languishing with a false hope. This is all orchestrated by the demonic powers in order to eventuate in a limp army of believers. And to see that through in this age of laxity in religion does not take much on the part of the dark powers. In addition, the apostate segment of religion is doing its fair share of blackening truth.

Does it take much intelligence to realize that there are awesomely wretched days yet ahead for the righteous remnant?

Those who are not strong will drop--fall away, as biblically predicted. They will be too numerous to contemplate.

But for those who are truly into carrying the daily cross there will be nothing able to thwart their zeal for Christ.

Already the remnant is being strengthened by the Spirit of light. He is gathering His own together in the power of the resurrection and the might of the revealed Word. There numbers are few; but their ardor before the Father is lovingly honored.

Set your vision upon the difficulties yet to be. They are but the trials permitted by the coming Christ.

At the close of the tribulation period, then there will be the gathering together of the believers from the four corners of the earth. They will greet Jesus in the clouds as He descends through space, having left the right hand of the Father in heaven.

The gathering together ("rapture") and the second advent then will be realized as one and the same event occurring at the end of the tribulation time frame. Jesus' declaration in Matthew 24:29-3l states it clearly.

[CCWoody]

He's baaaaacccccck!

[Frumanchu]

I personally think the current pre-trib rapture attention (NOT necessarily the doctrine) has to do with the mass-marketing of the Christian religion as a feel-good religion where it's all about what God can do for you and how He can make your life less of a burden. You don't hear persecution preached too often, as is evident by a survey I saw indicating that very few Christians (especially American Christians) are aware that Christians are being martyred at an unprecedented rate in the world. I think the doctrine is being fueled by a sense of escapism among the weak-hearted who don't have a proper understanding of how God could allow His children to endure tribulation.

A note to pre-tribbers: I'm not in any way mounting a challenge to this doctrine scripturally, merely attempting to explain what I feel are the reasons for it's explosive spread recently.

[grantswank]

thank heaven!

:-)

makes your day, doesn't it?

[grantswank]

thank heaven!

:-)

makes your day, doesn't it?

[grantswank]

gotcha.

right on!

[Royce to the Right]

The view of most conservative scholors is that many of those so called "symbolic" passages you refer to are not symbolic at all.

It strains logic to understand how Christ can come; 1. "as a thief in the night" and, 2."with power and great glory and every eye will see Him", at the same time.

More often than not, those who hold to the view that there is one coming of Christ, one judgement, and one resurrection event, are equally wrong on the doctrine of the gospel of the Grace of God that Paul preached.

I do not claim to be authoritative on the subject of escatology. However, to dismiss the pre-trib rapture as scripturally unfounded is a weak arguement to say the least. One can make a very good arguement for either pre, post,or mid tribulation, and pre, post, and amillinial using the word of God.

The truth is only one view can be right. And, what ever your view or mine is, the important thing is this. What have you done about the person and work of Christ? One truth that is not up for discussion is that He is the only way to the Father.

[drstevej]

***This is all orchestrated by the demonic powers in order to eventuate in a limp army of believers.***

Maybe Grant Swank and the_doc are the same person... :0) Hmmm.

[Jean Chauvin]

"It strains logic to understand how Christ can come; 1. "as a thief in the night" and, 2."with power and great glory and every eye will see Him", at the same time. "

Your problem with the logic is, I think, based on the assumption that a thief must not be seen.

This is a false assumption.

Have you ever heard of a bank robbery in full daylight while there are customers at the bank? Yes, it happens with regularity.

Have you ever heard of a car jacking in full daylight in the middle of the street? Yes, it happens with regularity.

The fact that only ~some~ thieves use the cloak of darkness to carry out their thefts should not lead you to the conclusion that ~all~ thieves must ~necessarily~ be secretive or out of sight. That concept is actually logically invalid.

No, the only requirement for a theif is that he come by ~suprise~ or that he come ~unexpectedly~.

What good is a theif when one knows that he is coming. No, the theivery will only be successful ~if~ it is unexpected.

Therefore, since Christ has told us that the "day of the Lord" will come as a thief in the night", it would be incorrect (faulty logic) to conclude that this ~must~ be a secret coming. Rather, the point of that passage is such that his coming will be unexpected by the world, but we are told in that very same passage to be "ready".

Jean

[Quester]

Have you ever heard of a bank robbery in full daylight while there are customers at the bank? Yes, it happens with regularity.

Have you ever heard of a car jacking in full daylight in the middle of the street? Yes, it happens with regularity.

The fact that only ~some~ thieves use the cloak of darkness to carry out their thefts should not lead you to the conclusion that ~all~ thieves must ~necessarily~ be secretive or out of sight. That concept is actually logically invalid.

A thief ... in the night ?

[CCWoody]

The truth is only one view can be right. And, what ever your view or mine is, the important thing is this. What have you done about the person and work of Christ? One truth that is not up for discussion is that He is the only way to the Father. ~ RTTR

I consider it rather important (I agree that the Lord Jesus is the only way to the Father) that:


1. The pre-Trib dispy crowd seems to suggest that the OT Jews found another way to the Father besides faith in the Lord Jesus.
2. The pre-Trib dispy crowd claims that the Father has a bride in Israel and the Son has a bride in the Church which makes God into a Polygamist.

Therefore, in light of these 2 concerns (they aren't the only ones) I think that the pre-Trib dispy eschatology is a rather dangerous snake to play with.

Woody.

[Jean Chauvin]

Again, even a theif in the night need not be 'secretive'. He only need to be unexpected.

I'm expectant of a theif in the night at my home, that is why I have a means to protect my family ready for that possibility. Because I expect it, he won't succeed. He need not even be secretive, I will be expecting it.

But, if I didn't expect him, he could come with all the noise in the world -even at night- and I'd be his for the taking!

Your secret rapture still has no basis.

Jean

[Quester]

Again, even a theif in the night need not be 'secretive'. He only need to be unexpected. I'm expectant of a theif in the night at my home, that is why I have a means to protect my family ready for that possibility. Because I expect it, he won't succeed. He need not even be secretive, I will be expecting it.

But, if I didn't expect him, he could come with all the noise in the world -even at night- and I'd be his for the taking!

Your secret rapture still has no basis.

Jean

I didn't claim belief in a 'secret rapture'.

I didn't deny that Christians ought to be ready.

I only posed the question of whether the 'in the night' wording in the given passage could render any more meaning to the passage.

[grantswank]

right on!

[grantswank]

true.

[grantswank]

neither points 1 or 2 are raised in the article.

your post does not relate to the article.

[f.Christian]

1corinthians 14: 33

For God is not the author of confusion but of peace,

[grantswank]

yes, so true.

that's why the article was written--to cut thru the confusion.

thanks.

[grantswank]

irrelevant post.

[drstevej]

***irrelevant post. ***

I think that's a bit harsh, but your wrote and posted the article and I defer to your self assessment.