Prophetic Blunders
All doctrine is built precept upon precept (Is. 28:10). Prophecy is certainly no exception. With the latter times (1 Tim. 4:1) upon us, the Church Age is nearly at an end, Daniel’s Seventieth Week is looming, and the Millennial Kingdom of Christ is not on a far-distant horizon. Here we are, and plainly many prophetic events are about to commence—and in rapid fashion. In the very shadow of the promised fulfillment and the complete realization of events long foretold and foreseen, how are we to distinguish how the moving parts all fit together, and how do we know of a certainty what exactly is our own part?
The answer is that the Lord manifests those things to us by His Spirit from the words of holy scriptures which He gave to us (1 Cor. 2:10-13). The words must be accurate, plain and understandable in such a way that they communicate with clarity the differences and distinctions that separate the various categories of people (Jews, Gentiles and Church of God—1 Cor. 10:32) in the swiftly moving prophetic landscape just ahead. If there is one vital, indispensable key to unraveling the looming mysteries before us, it is unquestionably discerning between the Church and Israel!
Millennial Positions
Christ’s return to earth has always been a controversial issue to men. With the exception of the apostates in North Africa (Origen and Clement), most of the men who are now known as Church Fathers were Premillennialists. They believed that Jesus Christ must first return to earth to deal with sin before His millennial kingdom could be established in this world. This is the biblical and correct position, for that is literally how Revelation 19-20 reads, and it is how NT doctrine is laid out. Premillennialism in that day was known as “Chiliasm”. [1] Postmillennialism is based around the idea of the innate goodness and progress of man, and it meshes well with the lies of evolution and humanism. In this system, things get better and better here on earth until a golden age is realized and Christ comes at the end to reign over an already perfect kingdom. Postmillennialism basically views the millennium as the present Church Age, in which Satan’s power is bound by the power of the Gospel. [2] This false doctrine took a well-deserved beating after WWI, because the world simply was not getting better. The teaching became a haven for liberal theologians who not only deny reality, but who also do the same for Hell, the literal resurrection and the actual second coming of Christ. [3] Amillennialism is marked by the idea that the millennium is not to ever be literally or materially realized, but that it is being spiritually fulfilled now or will be in eternity. Amillennialism suits the Roman Catholic system very well, since Origen and Augustine contributed greatly to its rise. [4] It fits Covenant Theology just fine too, because it denies literal interpretation of scripture and allegorically sees the Church replacing Israel. [5]
With Premillennialism being the demonstrable position of the scriptures themselves, many Christians have been taught the premillennial system, necessitating Christ’s literal 1000-year reign in order to deal with man’s sin and Satan, and to set things right on this earth.
Rapture Controversies
Following a settlement of the millennial question for believers, few prophetic disagreements have produced more controversy than the timing of the rapture, and as the momentum of the last days (2 Tim. 3:1) rushes forward headlong, the hullabaloo seems to foment and fester all the more.
The Pretribulation Rapture is the position of the scriptures with regard to the timing of prophetic future events. Much ado and hair-pulling are made over this view, and there is bitter and malignant opposition to it. Despite the still-rising hostility today, Ryrie says that “Pretribulationism has been a regular feature of classic dispensational premillennialism.” [6] It has become in these latter days, the position to be attacked, and many preachers who once held to the pretrib rapture are abandoning it for other positions. From the Bible believer’s perspective, criticism of the position seems to come from the same quarters as the assault on the King James Bible and the attacks on concise and pure doctrine. Increasingly, even from “pro-KJV” proponents, the Bible is viewed as indistinct in its wording, is distrusted in its written testimony, and in this way, it is subjected to “enlightenment” (alterations; changes) from the “original languages.” Additionally, in even KJV-Only and Fundamentalist Bible schools today, men are not so much taught the Bible as they are taught what other men have taught about the Bible. In this way, many pastors’ and teachers’ foundations rest more on the teachings of men than on the Bible from whence men are supposed to be instructed. Most would not admit that they have been trained in Bible school and seminaries to doubt the testimony of the Bible that they are called to preach, but in broad terms that is absolutely the case.
Before saying more about Pretribulationism, the following briefly sums up the other positions on the rapture:
- The Post-tribulation Rapture is represented by the view that the Church must endure through the Great Tribulation in order to be raptured at the conclusion of it. This position has the rapture and the Second Advent of Christ occurring together. Post-tribulationism rests upon a denial of dispensationalism and the distinctives the scriptures detail. [7] The position necessitates allegorical scriptural interpretation as opposed to literal interpretation.
- The Mid-tribulation Rapture position sees the Church enduring the first half of the Great Tribulation before being raptured. This view is weak dispensationally, and it too must ignore literal details and distinctions. [8]
- The Pre-Wrath Rapture was popularized by Marvin Rosenthal beginning in 1979. [9] It places the rapture between the sixth seal (Rev. 6:12) and seventh seal (Rev. 8:1), with the Church being the great multitude of Revelation 7:9-17. In this system, the Church escapes before the wrath of God falls (6:17). All of the Tribulation events prior to this (Rev. 6:17) are viewed merely as the wrath of men, but not the wrath of God. Stylized as the “Pre-Wrath Rapture, the Church goes through most of the Tribulation, suffering the events thereof, but she is pulled out before—by their understanding—the wrath of God deals the final blow. This is something of a compromise between the midtrib and post-trib positions.
Since the author unwaveringly affirms the pretribulation rapture to be the position contained within the scriptures, we will attend to more details about it.
Much criticism has been leveled by writers advocating, among other things, that the Pretribulation rapture is of late origin. Dave MacPherson, a post-tribber, made great noise in the 1970s by playing to men’s penchant for conspiracy and drama. [10] He tried to establish that the now much-despised dispensationalist, J.N. Darby, 1) was the first man to ever preach the pretrib rapture, and 2) that he drew his doctrine from a young Scottish lady, Margaret Macdonald, who is said to have had private, mystic (demonic) visions or revelations about the pretribulation timing of the rapture around 1830. [11] It is a great irony that contained in MacPherson’s own book is “Margaret Macdonald’s handwritten account of her 1830 Pre-Trib revelation,” [12] in which she espouses the post-trib position instead of the pretrib position
The Spirit must and will be poured out on the church, that she may be purified and filled with God…This is particularly the nature of the trial, through which those are to pass who will be counted worthy to stand before the Son of man…The trial of the Church is from Antichrist. It is by being filled with the Spirit that we shall be kept. [13]
What MacPherson credited Macdonald with describing is plainly not the pretrib rapture! Nonetheless, it has become a predictable diatribe from the loudest opponents of the pretrib rapture, that 1830 was the approximate date of origination for the doctrine. Rosenthal cited the late date as a fact, [14] and the ever-present YouTube presence, Steven Anderson, also considers the late origin as factual. [15] Alexander Reese declared that prior to the time of Darby, pretribulationism was “a series of doctrines that had never been heard of before.” [16]
Flying in the face of such dramatic and dogmatic rhetoric is the actual recorded truth. Ryrie says, “At any rate, evidence is available and shows that dispensational concepts were held early and throughout the history of the church.” [17] Such “concepts” include the pretribulation rapture. A man named Ephraem the Syrian, in a manuscript dated from 306-374 A.D., taught the pretribulation rapture:
For all the saints and the elect of God are gathered prior to the Tribulation that is to come; they are taken to the Lord lest they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins. [18]
Even earlier, in 270 A.D., St. Victorinus, Bishop of Patau, commenting on Revelation, said:
And I saw another great and wonderful sign, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is completed the indignation of God. For the wrath of God always strikes the obstinate people with seven plagues, that is, perfectly, as it is said in Leviticus; and these shall be in the last time, when the church shall have gone out of the midst. [19]
It cannot be forgotten that Origen’s and Augustine’s amillennialism took hold in the 5th Century, equipping the Roman Catholic Church to commandeer and mold doctrine into the pagan form she wanted. Having ascended to be both the religious whore and political tyrant of Europe and North Africa, for a thousand years she exercised her despotic and bloody power. She not only murdered and burned religious dissidents (often Bible believers and true Christians), but she also burned their books and their writings. For this cause, there is much missing information about all that the various persecuted peoples of that era believed. It is reasonable to conclude that those believers during that time who held on to their Bibles at all costs, and in the face of horrific persecutions, would in reading and memorizing the scriptures have drawn apocalyptic ideas like anyone would today who read the Bible in a literal and believing fashion. By the end of the Dark Ages (1500-1600 A.D.), with a growing number of Bibles available, it is plain that premillennial ideas were percolating among the Bible-savoring masses.
Hugh Latimer, burned in 1555, certainly believed and had his hopes set upon the rapture:
Peradventure it may come in my days, old as I am, or in my children’s days…the saints ‘shall be taken up to meet Christ in the air’ and so shall come down with Him again. [20]
Joseph Mede (1627) distinguished a rapture of living saints from a resurrection of those that sleep, [21] and Increase Mather taught the saints would “be caught up into the air” before the Advent. [22] Peter Jurieu spoke of a secret rapture prior to Armageddon (1687), Doddridge (1738) and Gill (1748) spoke of the rapture as imminent. Macknight (1763) and Scott (1792) said the righteous would be carried to heaven and be kept safe until judgement was past. [23] Thomas Collier, in 1674, seemed to refer to the idea of a pretribulation rapture which he rejected; nevertheless, his objections to the doctrine show that such ideas and beliefs were being debated and taught. [24] Morgan Edwards, in the 1740s, taught a distinct rapture which was to occur three and a half years prior to the millennium, and by 1788 in Millennium, Last days Novelties he discussed a pretrib rapture. [25]
J.N. Darby came to his views of a pretribulation rapture during a convalescence in late 1826 and early 1827. [26] The Brethren movement was briefly the cradle for the pretrib rapture in North America where it greatly spread. The First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s, followed by the Second Great Awakening of the 1790s through the 1830s had imparted to the body of Christ a hunger for the truth about the prophetic future. Darby was the predecessor of many fine Bible preachers and expositors who saw the pretrib rapture in the scriptures and taught it. Cyrus I. Scofield (1843-1921), Clarence Larkin (1820-1924), James Brookes, J.R. Graves, Arno Gaebelein, A.J. Gordon, James Gray, R.A. Torrey, Harry Ironside and many other careful Bible students have affirmed from the scripture the pretribulation view of the rapture. Those who oppose the doctrine often try to paint the picture of pretribbers as being a procession of dupes who blindly jumped aboard a train that Darby started down the tracks in 1830. The entirety of Bass’s Backgrounds to Dispensationalism proves itself to be an attack on John Darby. [27] As earlier documented, 1830 was not the commencement point of the doctrine; furthermore, anyone who has honestly read C.I. Scofield’s dispensational notes, studied Clarence Larkin’s writings and examined Peter Ruckman’s voluminous material, can see plainly that such men were not likely targets for being hoodwinked, nor did they merely pass on other men’s thoughts.
The polemics against the pretribulation rapture have intensified in these last days. Its history is misrepresented, its proponents are often vilified, and its true scriptural foundations are seldom discussed in their true light. While entire volumes have been written expositing the scriptural minutia point by point, the purpose of this writing is to show that at the crucial center of the controversy is the distinction between the Church, Israel and the Gentiles.
The Key to Prophecy
Reading the Bible literally, one can see that God deals in different ways at different times with different entities. Recognizing the distinctions and differences is the basis for what is known as dispensational theology. One of the “essential concepts of “Dispensationalism” is that the church is distinct from Israel.” [28] Ryrie declares that “the doctrine of the church is the touchstone of dispensationalism (and also pretribulationism).” [29]
the doctrine of the church is the touchstone of dispensationalism (and also pretribulationism)
Trying to figure out the sequence and details of latter-day events can be confusing because of what seem to be confounding and clashing particulars. This is witnessed by the divided opinions of many preachers and writers. Gladly, once one sees the distinct and different roles played by the two women under consideration—Israel and the Church—both doctrinal and prophetic things begin to fall into place, and the Bible is no longer a Book of incompatible minutia and contradictions.
The Fact of the Pretribulation Rapture
A single passage of scripture which was exposited earlier affirms and engraves the verity of the pretribulation rapture into stone, though the doctrine is certainly asserted and clearly championed on other grounds throughout the scriptures.
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy (24). Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times (25). And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined (26). And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate (27). (Dan. 9:24-27)
Let it be noted that:
- The prophecy is directed exclusively to thy people (Daniel’s people—Israel) and thy holy city (Jerusalem). Israel, and only Israel, is the target (9:24). The Church is a mystery and unforetold at the time of Daniel 9.
- The seventy weeks are weeks of years, i.e. 490 years. Seven weeks (49 years) and threescore and two weeks (434 years) are separated in 9:25. The seven weeks begin in 453 B.C. (discussed earlier) and seem to coincide—give or take—with the close of the OT canon at the time Malachi wrote, around 400 B.C. That time begins the intertestamental period known as the 400 silent years. Adding from that time, the 62 weeks (434 years) would bring us to 69 weeks (483 years) total, and from 453 B.C. to the beginning of the Lord’s ministry in 30 A.D. is 483 years!
- Sometime after the 62 weeks, the Messiah is cut off (9:26), which plainly points to Calvary in 33 A.D. With 69 weeks (483 years) dictated by the prophecy accounted for, that leaves only the singular seventieth week (7 years) remaining. [30]
- The prophecy, as it reads in Daniel 9, specifies 490 years all determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city (Israel and Jerusalem—9:24) in unbroken fashion. In reality, the first 483 years were unbroken until 33 A.D., but since that time there has been a gap of almost 2000 years that has passed. We know this as the Church Age. There is still 1 week of 7 years left in the prophecy to be fulfilled in the future.
- Though there is a 2000-year interlude in the real-time chronology, absolutely nothing in the Daniel 9 prophecy addresses the interruption or acknowledges the entity most certainly known to be the Church. The prophecy remains entirely and singularly addressed to Israel.
The conclusion simply and reasonably has to be that the Church has no part whatever in the Seventy-Week Prophecy of Daniel 9. She had no part in the first 69 weeks, and she has no part in the 70th Week, which is commonly referred to as the Tribulation (the last 3-½ years being the time of great tribulation—Matt. 24:21), and more concisely, the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jer. 30:7). Since the Church abides unmentioned for around 2000 years smack in the middle of the prophecy, this can only mean that she is translated (Heb. 11:5), or raptured (1 Thes. 4:16-18), before the Lord resumes His program and dealings with Israel in the 70th Week.
Daniel’s 70th Week is the time when the Lord is readying Israel to be His bride. The readying of Christ’s bride (the Church) is accomplished during the Church Age and finalized at the Judgment Seat of Christ (Rom. 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10). Until each bride is married to their respective Spouses in the Kingdom Age, neither can abide together, for Israel is dealt with according to the Covenant of Law (Ezek. 20:35) and the Church is dealt with under Grace.
Biblical Events Fit Like a Glove
Having carefully distinguished between Israel and the Church, much of the clash around the rapture question quiets down because biblical facts begin to align and fit together with relative ease. Dr. Ruckman always insisted that false doctrine and heresy usually came from scriptural truth misapplied. The reason that men have taught midtrib, post-trib, pre-wrath and even split raptures, is because there are verses that indicate that they are a reality in certain respects.
Such events are indeed a reality, but they only stand true as part of the premillennial, pretribulational system to which the Bible bears witness. These other “rapture events” do not compete or conflict with the pretrib rapture, but are instead prophetic components that are part of the pretrib system! They become heresies when men mistakenly think them to be defining doctrine and endeavor to make them stand by themselves.
Let the reader take as a given the pretribulation rapture, with the Church being translated at the end of the Church Age. She then attends the Judgment Seat of Christ (JSOC) (Rom. 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10; 1 Cor. 3:11-15) in order to prepare for marrying the Bridegroom (Rev. 19:7; 2 Cor. 11:2).
A Midtribulation Rapture Indeed. With the Church in Heaven at the JSOC, Daniel’s Seventieth Week ensues on earth. The Antichrist ascends (Is. 14:13-14!) in power and influence and temple worship is reestablished for the Jews; however, in the midst of the week he (the Antichrist) shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease (Dan. 9:27). Sometime during—perhaps somewhat before or after—that time frame, Matthew 25 speaks of an event that occurs:
Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. (1) And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. (2) They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: (3) But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. (4) (Matt. 25:1-4)
When midnight comes, so does the Bridegroom, and the virgins are called to go out to meet Him. (25:6). The foolish virgins, having no oil for their lamps, had to go buy oil (25:9-10). In their absence, the Bridegroom came and the wise virgins went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut (25:10). The Bridegroom refused to open the door for the foolish virgins and denied knowing them (25:11-12).
The salient points are these:
- Here are ten virgins (25:1). They are not the Church, for the Church is a singular chaste virgin to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2).
- The ten virgins are not the Church, for the Church marries the Bridegroom, and these virgins are only called to meet the bridegroom (25:1), to meet him (25:6), and they only went in with him to the marriage (25:10). They are attendees at the wedding, not the bride to be wed.
- Being foolish, five of the virgins had no oil. Oil almost invariably signifying the Holy Spirit, the virgins had to go buy it (25:9-10). No part of the Church body has ever bought the Holy Spirit, but He has ever been received by faith (Gal. 3:2).
- Midnight (25:6) is the time of the occurrence. Christ’s return in glory comes at morning when the Sun of righteousness [shall] arise with healing in his wings (Mal. 4:2), when the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts (2 Pet. 1:19)
- This means that there really is a midtrib rapture, because somebody gets out of the middle of the Tribulation so that they may attend the wedding. The Church is translated before the 70th Week begins, and some time must be allotted for the JSOC. At some period between the beginning of the Week and the end of the Week, the Church is ready to be married, and some Tribulation saints are honored to be raptured themselves in order to attend the marriage. I don’t mean to shout, but THE BRIDE HAS TO BE IN HEAVEN PRIOR TO ANYBODY ATTENDING HER WEDDING! The late comers are not the Church.
This also coincides with a partial or split rapture, which we have not hitherto mentioned. Five virgins are taken to heaven and five are left to suffer what is yet to come in the Great Tribulation. So, Matthew 25:1-13 relates to the midtrib rapture, which is also a partial or split rapture. Luke 21:36 also supports a midtrib rapture, where the Lord admonishes men to pray that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass. His exhortation follows a detailed description of the Tribulation events, and gives hope of escaping them early. The application of Hebrews 9:28, unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation may also be a reference to the midtribulation rapture, though it may apply to the post-trib rapture, as well. The contingency in the passage is that the people involved must be looking for Him!
For years, men have pointed to these verses to prove the Church goes through at least part of the Tribulation. They are right in that the scriptures testify that somebody does experience a midtrib or a split rapture, but it simply is not the Church, for she has preceded these tribulation saints in being made ready for her marriage to the Lord Jesus Christ.
A Post-tribulation Rapture too. With the Church in Heaven, her garments all wrinkle free after the JSOC, the midtrib saints join Heaven’s hosts as, perhaps, honored attendees at the marriage of Jesus Christ and His lady. Another host of saints also is in waiting:
Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;(35) And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. (36) Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. (Lk. 12:35-37)
It cannot be overlooked that:
- There is also a group of tribulation saints waiting the Lord’s return after the wedding. This means a post-trib or late-trib rapture.
- The Second Advent of Christ and the rapture of the Church cannot possibly occur in the same time frame, as post-tribbers insist it must. When the post-trib saints receive their Lord at His Advent, He is already married! Pardon the shouting again, but THE POST-TRIBULATION SAINTS HAVE NO PART WITH THE CHURCH!
Matthew 24:40-41 and Luke 17:34-36 describe how late in the Tribulation, some will be taken and others shall be left. This is a post-trib rapture—perhaps more appropriately—a very late tribulation rapture. Also, Moses and Elijah prophesy 1260 days in the Tribulation (Rev. 11:3) before being killed by the Antichrist (11:7). Their bodies shall lay in the street for 3 ½ days (11:8-9) before they are resurrected (11:11) and summoned to heaven with a Come up hither (11:12). This in all likelihood includes others besides the two witnesses and coincides with tribulation saints that go to meet the Lord returning from the wedding (Lk. 12:36).
Stauffer believes, “There is no general catching up in the days approaching the Second Advent. It is simply NOT A RAPTURE.” He believes the elect of that day are gathered for protection upon this earth. [31] Despite what he says, the saints of Luke 12:36 meet the Bridegroom after the wedding, and Moses, Elijah and the accompanying saints are caught up into heaven (Rev. 11:12).
The Pre-Wrath Rapture is a Dud (actually a Post-trib rapture). The backbone of the false pre-wrath Rapture theory is that the Church experiences 6 of the 7 seals in Revelation 6:1-8:1. Marvin Rosenthal, the theory’s originator, views Revelation’s 1st four seals (Rev. 6:1-8) as the first half of the Seventieth Week (the beginning of sorrows—Matt. 24:8). The Great Tribulation, or second half of the Week, begins with the fifth seal (Rev. 6:9-11). The opening of the sixth seal (6:12-17) signals to the world, through the great cosmic disturbances, that the wrath of God is about to fall (6:16-17). By Rosenthal’s reckoning, the judgments of the Tribulation are only the wrath of man up to Revelation 6:16-17, which marks the fall of the wrath of God. He says the “Church” gets raptured between the sixth (6:12) and seventh (8:1) seals, thus missing the wrath of God in the “pre-wrath rapture.” The Church will know the rapture is nigh, he thinks, when the sun goes black and the moon turns to blood (6:12). [32]
The failings of this theory:
- Rosenthal overlooks the fact that there are four narratives of Christ’s second coming in Revelation:
- 6:14-16—after the 6th Seal,
- 11:14-15—after the 7 Trumpets,
- 14:15-20—after the account of the woman in the wilderness (chap. 12) and the account of the beast (chap. 13), and
- 19:11-21—after the 7 Vials (chap.15-16) are poured out and after the Whore’s destruction (chap. 17-18).
He makes the seals, trumpets and vials sequential in time, with the 7th seal containing the
7 trumpets, and the 7th trumpet containing the 7 vials. [33] This is not true, for the Bible records an account of the Second Advent after the end of each of the seal, trumpet and vial judgement sequences.
- In his system, the wrath of the Lamb (6:16-17) and the wrath of God (11:18; 14:19 & chap. 15-16) only fall after the 7th seal is opened (8:1). Unfortunately for the theory, the 3 classes of judgments are not consecutive in time. The fact that each judgment category ends in the Second Advent, shows that they are all occurring simultaneously. The vials all contain the wrath of God, and some of them certainly fall before the fictitious “pre-wrath rapture.” He fooled himself into thinking that all judgments prior to the 7th seal (8:1) were the wrath of man [34] and that the wrath of God only falls after the 7th seal, but in the simultaneous judgments of the Great Tribulation, his system immediately fails.
- Other general goofs in this false scheme are:
- The view that the throng of Revelation 7:9-14 is the Church, [35]
- His bad theology regarding Calvinism and Eternal Security, [36]
- The New Heavens and New Earth being here prior to the Millennium, [37]
- A skewed understanding of the elect, [38]
- The day of Christ and the day of Jesus Christ being the same as the day of the Lord. [39]
- Naturally, he doesn’t believe the Bible as it stands, and, in typical fashion, butchers the truth in his safaris into the Greek. [40]
In the end, the pre-wrath rapture would be nothing more than a post-tribulation rapture made more elaborate by false conclusions about when the wrath of God falls and other doctrinal miscarriages.
The lesson to be learned from each of these disparate theories held by those who wish to have their brand of doctrine stand alone and distinct from Pretribulationism, is both doctrinally profound and indispensable. Each false species of theory is marked by its inability to distinguish the Church and her unmatched doctrinal attributes.
Each false species of theory is marked by its inability to distinguish the Church and her unmatched doctrinal attributes
All of the theories above conflict and clash, but when the body of Christ is properly discerned dispensationally, the confusion and contradiction subside and the rest of the picture begins to fit together. That is why proper dispensational division is the key to the Bible. Further, it has been displayed that discerning the Church is one of the most critical components for a Bible believer. A descent into false doctrine and heresy is the earmark of each of the theories, and ignoring the minutia and clash of details, the problem started each time by not discerning the Church. [41]
Hand in glove with this is the inability to identify Israel, Steven Anderson, a pre-wrath rapture proponent, [42] is also deeply compromised by Replacement Theology [43] and holocaust denial [44]. Uniformly, those who hold to alternate theories of the rapture utterly dismiss the fact that Daniel’s Seventieth Week is Israelite in its entirety (Dan. 9:24-27), that it is called the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jer. 30:7) and that the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 was declared to Jesus’ disciples before the Church was organically formed (Acts 2), and before the Jews had officially and finally rejected Christ as their Messiah.
The Consequences Come Home to Roost
Consider the fact that from the early days of the patriarchs, when the Lord conceptualized the fledgling nation of Israel as a young woman and Jerusalem as a foundling Canaanite (Ezek. 16:3), the Bible’s narrative in both testaments is built around two Bridegrooms: 1) the Lord God and 2) the Lord Jesus Christ. It follows that there would be two brides, but those two brides have proven to have confounded many a bright theological mind. At times the two brides have been confused for one another. At others, they have been conceptualized as one. Of the two, one is often lost, dismissed or ignored and it is not the least uncommon that one is viewed to have replaced the other.
Nevertheless, there are certainly two Bridegrooms, and they are both most certainly prophesied to have brides. The two brides—Israel and the Church—wind up being the keys to so many of the mysteries of God the Father and God the Son! Misunderstanding the detailed and separate natures of the two brides promises doctrinal shipwreck somewhere down the line.
- God’s program in the OT past, the apostolic era, the transitional period in Acts, the Tribulation and the Millennium cannot be understood without a grasp of Israel’s true role.
- The unprecedented blessedness and scope of NT salvation cannot be apprehended without envisioning the Church as the Lord does.
- Tremendous confusion abounds due to the conflicting tenets of law vs. grace. Confusing the brides promises confusion of these two critical elements, and vice versa.
- Allegorizing and over-spiritualizing the characteristics that distinguish the two brides destroys their identities, their true histories, their roles, their distinctiveness and is an affront to the Master planner.
- The details of prophecy become obscure and indecipherable. Various heretical theories abound and gain traction because no one can confirm authoritatively which construct is the correct one.
- Doctrine becomes a gray mush of conflicting details and minutia which must be smoothed over and generalized into oblivion.
^[1] Peter S. Ruckman, The History of the New Testament Church, Vol. 1, (Pensacola, FL: Bible Baptist Bookstore, 1982), 118.
^[2] Couch, Mal, ed. Dictionary of Premillennial Theology, 107.
^[3] David E. Walker, The Bible Believer’s Guide to Dispensationalism (Miamitown, OH: Daystar Publishing, 2005), 31.
^[4] Ibid., 28
^[5] Couch, Dictionary of Premillennial Theology, 107.
^[6] Ryrie, Dispensationalism, 173.
^[7] Pentecost, Things to Come, 164.
^[8] Ibid. 179
^[9] Marvin Rosenthal, The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1979).
^[10] MacPherson, Dave. The Incredible Cover-up: Exposing the Origins of Rapture Theories, (Medford, OR: Omega Publications, 1975).
^[11] Ibid., 93.
^[12] Ibid., 151
^[13] Ibid., 153
^[14] Rosenthal, The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church, 53.
^[15] David W. Cloud, “The Pre-Tribulation Rapture,”Way of Life Literature, accessed December 21, 2019, https://www.wayoflife.org/reports/the_pre_tribulation_rapture.html.
^[16] Walvoord, John F. The Rapture Question, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing, 1979), 50.
^[17] Ryrie, Dispensationalism, 72.
^[18] Walker, The Bible Believer’s Guide to Dispensationalism, 60.
^[19] LaHaye, The Rapture, 156.
^[20] Ibid. p.29.
^[21] Ibid. p.156.
^[22] Couch, Dictionary of Premillennial Theology, 346.
^[23] Ibid. 346
^[24] Ibid. 346
^[25] Walker, The Bible Believer’s Guide to Dispensationalism, 344.
^[26] Couch, Dictionary of Premillennial Theology, 346.
^[27] Bass, Backgrounds of Dispensationalism, 7.
^[28] Ibid. 94
^[29] Ryrie, Dispensationalism, 143.
^[30] Most dispensationalists hold that the entire 70th Week remains to be fulfilled. Worthy of note, Brian Donovan has postulated that one-half of the 70th Week was fulfilled during Christ’s 3-½-year ministry, leaving only 3-½ years left of the final week. This is interesting because “1260 days,” “a time, times, and an half” and “forty and two months,”—all equaling 3-½ years—are much repeated time frames in Daniel and Revelation and refer to at least part of the 70th Week. Donovan sees the prophetic stopwatch as being currently stopped at the midpoint of the 70th Week, until it is started again after the Rapture of the Church and the subsequent beginning of the Antichrist’s ministry as the Son of Perdition. His concept does not alter the sequence of events to come—the Rapture is still the next waypoint—but it does telescope events of what most consider to be a 7-year Tribulation down to 3 ½ years instead. For more, see Donovan, Brian. The Revelation of the Seventy Weeks, (Pensacola, FL: BB Bookstore, 2016). For the sake of simplicity, this work will consider Daniel’s Seventieth Week as a unified 7-year period, still unfulfilled and wholly future.
^[31] Douglas D. Stauffer and Andrew B. Ray, One Book Rightly Divided: The Key to Understanding the Bible: Prophetic Edition (Knoxville, TN: McCowen Mills Publishers, 2018), 567.
^[32] Rosenthal, The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church, 111-113.
^[33] Ibid., 145, chart 147.
^[34] Ibid., 145, chart 147.
^[35] Ibid., 185.
^[36] Ibid., 144, 199, 227.
^[37] Ibid., 131.
^[38] Ibid., 109.
^[39] Ibid., 118.
^[40] Ibid., 218.
^[41] Ibid. 18, 60.
^[42] Steven Anderson, “Undeniable Proof the Pre-Trib Rapture is a Fraud,” youtube.com, accessed December 21, 2019, video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9yNCcT8Hko.
^[43] David Cloud, What About Steven Anderson, (Port Huron, MI: Way of Life Literature, 2017), http://www.wayoflife.org., e-book, loc.300.
^[44] Ibid., loc. 103
