22 Hard Questions for Pre-Tribbers
22 Hard Questions on the Pre-Trib Rapture Theory:
Copied with permission © 2006 Bob & Suzanne Hamrick
First, some badly needed definitions:
The “Doctrine” of “Imminence” … Dispensationalism teaches that our Lord Yeshua could actually return at any moment now, and refers to this teaching as the “Doctrine of Imminence”. Briefly, this is the totally false idea that absolutely every event Biblically prophesied to happen BEFORE the return of our Lord Yeshua has already happened, and that he therefore could return “at any time”. Unfortunately for them, this is not taught as a doctrine ANYWHERE in the Bible. The actual Bible verses which they have twisted to try to justify this interpretation are actually simple warnings to us to behave as though the Lord could return at any time, not that he actually could.
Their “doctrine” of imminence is absolutely central to the “Left Behind” myth, for without it, there is no hysterical urgency about the Lord’s return. It is also impossible, because it ignores many literal Bible verses and other indisputable Bible FACTS which directly contradict it, as we will prove! What is even worse,it ignores our Lord Yeshua’s ONLY actual warning and command to his disciples as to what we are actually to DO in the very moment that the Abomination of Desolation is established! This will have the effect of GUARANTEEING that most who follow the FALSE Dispensationalist “Pre-Trib Rapture” myth will suffer and die needlessly for that belief.
The Second Coming … Dispensationalists have SPLIT this single prophesied event into TWO parts. The first “part” is supposedly when Christ returns “silently, invisibly, like a thief in the night, FOR his Church” (the “pre-Trib Rapture”), and a second “part”, which is the actual Second Coming referred to in the Bible, the Glorious Appearing, when Christ returns WITH his Church. It is the TIMING of the “first part” in which Dispensationalism (and most of evangelical “Christianity Today”) errs.
The Wrath of God… The phenomenon known in the Bible as “the wrath of God” is clearly a series of PLAGUES which the Bible says will be visited by God upon all of lost, unrepentant mankind AFTER they have been given ample opportunities by God to repent. The “wrath of God” is NOT the same thing as “the Tribulation”, nor will it take place DURING the Tribulation, although pre- & mid-Tribbers are required by their false, man-made Dispensationalist “doctrines” to believe that it will.
As the name suggests, “tribulation” is a trial or a test (see: tribunal), and there is either a prize to be won or bad consequences to be suffered, depending on how one reponds to the test.
But the Wrath of God is a series ofPLAGUES, NOT tests or trials, nor any part of “The Tribulation”. Plagues are only sent by God as PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT on irredeemably lost individuals, BEFORE those being punished are to physically die. No matter how a lost individual responds to a PLAGUE, he or she cannot get it to stop, or change the outcome of it. By the time the Wrath of God has started pouring out, it will then be too late for anyone on the receiving end of it to do anything about it. Their fate will have already been inescapably sealed for all eternity to come, and that is the full horror of it.
But Yeshua’s Torah-true disciples have been delivered from it: “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” (Romans 5:9) Please note that this nowhere even suggests that we will not suffer, and many die, during the Tribulation! It merely states that we will not suffer the wrath of God, since that is reserved for the lost, and indicates the permanent loss of salvation/eternal life.
According to the Bible, by the time that the Wrath of God starts being poured out, the Church will have already been removed from the earth to meet (Greek: apantesis) the Lord in the air, and will have received our glorified (immortal) bodies “in the twinkling of an eye”, to return to the earth with him soon thereafter for the Battle of Armageddon (1 Thessalonians 4:17; Revelation 15 & 16).
But the pre-/mid-Tribbers typically believe that there is NO WAY that Yeshua, the Lamb, would allow his Church, the “Bride” of the Lamb (Revelation 21:9), to go through what is described as happening in the Tribulation, with the anti-Christ, the False Prophet, martyrdom, the mark of the beast, etc., swirling all around them. This, despite the clear teaching of the ENTIRE BIBLE that suffering for Christ is supposed to be normal for us (1 Peter 4:12-19) . . .
12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
13 But rejoice, inasmuch as you are sharers in Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy.
14 If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you; for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you: they speak evil of him, but you glorify him.
15 But we pray that none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.
16 Yet if any man suffer as a disciple of Christ, let him not be ashamed; but let him give glory to God because of this.
17 For the time is coming that judgment must begin with the house of God: and if it first begins with us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
18 And if the righteous shall scarcely be saved, how shall the ungodly and the sinner fare?
19 Therefore let them that suffer according to the will of God entrust the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. (1 Peter 4:12-19)
Dispensationalists also err in their identification of “the Bride of the Lamb/Christ” as being ONLY the “Christian” Church. The Bible states that the Bride of the Lamb/Christ is “spiritual Israel” [Galatians 3:29], who is also “the woman” of Revelation 12. This includes ALL who will ever be righteous before the throne of God, according to God’s standards, whether Hebrew, Christian, or “other”.
Having established these things once and for all (we hope), we press on with our . . .
Twenty-two Hard Questions for pre-Trib Theorists:
#1… “This same Yeshua (“Jesus”), who is taken up from you, shall so come again in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.” [Acts 1:11]
So the Lord Yeshua left the earth once, in plain sight of all in the area, and ascended up into the clouds and out of sight. According to these angels, whom we assume are the messengers of YHVH, this same Yeshua will return in exactly the same manner in which he left.
Question #1: Since Dispensationalism predicts the the Lord Yeshua will NOT return in exactly the same manner in which he left, and the two manners of his return are in fact mutually exclusive, why should Dispensationalism be considered anything other than a cult, and the pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church be considered anything but a false cultic teaching?
#2…“I do not ask You to take them out of the world,
but to keep them from the evil one.”
[From the prayer of our Lord Yeshua in the Garden of Gethsemane: John 17:15 – NASB]
Question #2-A:So, according to our Lord Yeshua, it was not necessary for his Church to be removed from the earth, in order for them to be KEPT FROM Satan’s forces. In view of this explicit prayer on behalf of his disciples by the suffering Son to his Father, HOW could Dispensationalists – or other pre/mid-Tribulation Rapture theorists – expect the Father to deny His only-begotten Son’s prayer, and go ahead and “rapture” the Church anyhow, seven (or 3½) years before the Lord Yeshua’s ONLY prophesied loud, visible, 100% public, non-thief-like return? How?
Question #2-B:
If the Lord Yeshua did know that his Church was going to be “raptured” from the world before the Tribulation, contrary to his specific prayer to his Father , WHY would he (1) DISobediently oppose his will to the will of the Father; and, (2) not make ANY specific reference to this supposedly certain, singular, future event anywhere in his Word?
Question #2-C:
Moreover, if Scripture “really does” describe a pre-Trib rapture, WHY would the Lord Yeshua be so disproportionately concerned with those who would be “left behind” [the unrighteous] without ever mentioning explicitly that they would be, OR that there would be a pre-Trib Rapture in their future if they would be righteous? WHY? Especially since he has specifically promised us all that he would tell us such things: “If it were not so, I would have told you.” [John 14:2]
#3…A Psalm of David. YHVH said unto my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” [Psalm 110:1]
In the above Psalm, YHVH is the Father, and “my Lord” is Yeshua. He even quotes this verse himself in the gospels as applying to him! [Matthew 22:45 & Luke 20:44] And the Apostle Paul states the same thing in Hebrews 12:2. Therefore, this single Psalm verse should assure us all that the Lord Yeshua will surely NOT leave His Father’s side until the END of the Tribulation.
Question #3: If our Lord Yeshua must sit (obediently) at the Father’s right hand UNTIL our Lord Yeshua’s enemies are humbled by the Father’s intentions and power – which SURELY does not happen until the END of the Tribulation and his Glorious Appearing – HOW could our Lord Yeshua leave the Father’s side (disobediently) and come “for” his Church seven (or three and one-half) years BEFORE the Father has done what He promises to do in Scripture?
#4…“But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Messiah would suffer, he has thus fulfilled.
“Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;
and that He may send Yeshua, the Messiah appointed for you,
whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.” [Acts 3:18-20]
If they really are Biblical literalists – as they claim – pre/mid-Tribbers must therefore believe that this “period of restoration of all things” would actually be beginning with the seven years of the Tribulation, which is described in Scripture as a period of ever-increasing destruction – fires, floods, pestilences, plagues, earthquakes, tsunamis, and perhaps meteoric collisions, volcanoes, Satan and his angels walking around on the earth in physical bodies, fake “aliens”, the Mark of the Beast, the Abomination of Desolation, etc.
Question #4: Is it even conceivable for anyone to regard the SEVEN YEARS of such phenomena as a “time of restoration”?
#5…For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep (died).
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. [1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 – NASB]
Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall ALL be changed,
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, AT THE LAST TRUMP: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. [1 Corinthians 15:51-52]
According to these Scriptures, no matter when the Church is to be “raptured”, ALL of those who are going to be included in this FIRST resurrection (of the righteous dead in Christ) and those who are going to be raptured (the living righteous), these MUST ALL receive their glorified bodies at the same time.
Oops! There go the pre-Trib & mid-Trib rapture theories, since that pesky Apostle Paul declares that NO ONE will be changed until the LAST Trump, which can ONLY be at the END of the Tribulation.
Question #5: Do Dispensationalists somehow believe that it is possible to be “raptured” into “heaven” for SEVEN YEARS without first receiving a glorified body? They must, despite all of Scripture making that impossible. If ALL who are going to be saved MUST receive their glorified bodies at the same time, AND if this is going to happen AFTER the FIRST Resurrection – which is of ALL the righteous dead in Christ, both Christians AND Jews – at the END of the Tribulation, then the Dispensationalists MUST ALSO somehow expect this First Resurrection of the dead in Christ to happen BEFORE their “pre-Trib” Rapture! This is also impossible, according to the above, which plainly states that this event happens at the END of the Tribulation (the Last Trump). Given the crystal-clear message of these Scriptures, HOW is a pre-Trib or a mid-Trib Rapture of the Church even possible?
#6 . . .The Lord Yeshua tells us, in his own words, that the world will see him coming in all his glory, and then the Wrath of God will be poured out “upon them which dwell upon the earth”, which is a figure of speech meaning “all of wicked, unrepentant mankind”.
26 “And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
27 “They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
28 “Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built;
29 “But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
30 “Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” [Luke 17:26-30]
And this:
29 “Immediately AFTER the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
30 “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” [Matthew 24:29-30]
And this, which establishes precisely when the Wrath of God is actually poured out, relative to the other events of the end times:
And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Megiddo (Armageddon).
Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, “It is done.” [Revelation 16:16-17]
In other words, the lastof the seven bowls of the Wrath of God is not poured out until just before the Battle of Armageddon and the destruction of the two Babylons, which can ONLY happen at the END of the Tribulation, and is NOT what happens at the BEGINNING of the Tribulation, as the pre-Tribbers claim. These verses PROVE that the “Wrath of God” is NOT the same thing as “The Tribulation” and does NOT happen DURING the Tribulation, but AFTER it!
The Wrath of God also FOLLOWS the removal of those to be saved immediately, in the same day, and not seven (or 3½) years later! The Lord Yeshua here says, unmistakably, that his return will be just like these two historical examples. So, according to the words of Yeshua, the resurrected righteous dead in Christ and the living Church are raptured to meet the Lord Yeshua in the air [1 Thessalonians 4:17]. At the same time, the entire lost world AND WE will see him coming in his glory, and then the wrath of God will be poured out immediately, “in the same day…”
Totally ignoring these Scriptures, pre-Tribbers contrarily assert that the “wrath of God” actually occurs DURING the Tribulation, and is in fact, synonymous with it! They maintain that this is WHY the Church HAS to be removed BEFORE it starts, so we will not have to endure the Wrath of God, despite these clear, unmistakable words of our Lord that the Wrath of God is not poured out until he comes back visibly, at the END of the Tribulation!
Question #6: HOW does an intellectually HONEST, TRUTH-SEEKING, born-again Christian square the Lord Yeshua’s own words with belief in a Scripturally-impossible pre-Trib or mid-Trib “Rapture” of the Church?
#7… In Matthew 24:29-31, our Lord is describing the end times to his disciples:
29 “ Immediately AFTER the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars (fallen angels) shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
30 “And THEN shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and THEN shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and (THEN) they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 “And he shall (THEN) send his angels (“eagles”) with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall (THEN) gather together his elect from the four winds [everywhere on earth], from one end of heaven to the other [everywhere in heaven].”
In other words, NONE of “his elect” are gathered together from heaven AND earth until they are ALL gathered together at the SINGLE moment of his visible (and ONLY) Second Coming. Moreover, in the Book of the Revelation, the apostle John clearly states that there will surely NOT be any wedding until the number of those who make up the “the guests” (ALL of “the dead in Christ”) is complete:
“And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?’ And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” [Revelation 6:9-11]
NOTE: White robes are SURELY a sign of righteousness (Revelation 19:8 & 14), so these are not some kind of second-class martyrs who will miss the Wedding of the Lamb, as many Dispensationalists (pre-Tribbers) preach. Quite the contrary.
This singular event (the moment when the total number of those to be killed by the forces of the anti-Christ is completed) cannot possibly happen until the one responsible for all of the killing – the anti Christ – is himself slain by the Lord Yeshua, at his Glorious Appearing. [2 Thessalonians 2:8] This is further confirmed by the author of Hebrews, speaking of the Old Testament righteous, “the Jews” <Gasp!>: ?
39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. [Hebrews 11:39-40]
This further affirms that all of God’s righteous will be dealt with appropriately at one and the same time, which utterly contradicts the theory of a pre-Trib or mid-Trib Rapture, even as prophesied:
“Behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me, to render to every man according to what he has done.” [Revelation 22:12]
Behold, the Lord YHVH will come with might, with his arm ruling for him. Behold, his reward is with him and his work before him.
Like a shepherd he will tend his flock, in his arm he will gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom; he will gently lead the nursing ewes. [Isaiah 40:10-11]
You shalt no more be called “Forsaken”; neither shall your land any more be called “Desolate”: but you shall be called Hephzibah (My delight is in her), and your land Beulah (Married): for YHVH delights in you, and your land shall be married.
For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons (the sons of God – John 1:12-13) marry you: and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: you that make mention of YHVH, keep not silence,
And give him no rest, until he establishes, and until he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
YHVH has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, “Surely I will no more give your grain to be food for your enemies; and the sons of the stranger shall not drink your wine, for which you have labored:
But they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise YHVH; and they that have brought it together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness.
Go through, go through the gates; prepare the way of the people; build up, build up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a banner for the people.
Behold, YHVH has proclaimed to the ends of the earth, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your salvation (yeshuah: salvation – Strong’s H3444) comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.’”
And they shall call them, ‘The holy people’, ‘The redeemed of YHVH’: and you shall be called, ‘Darash (Sought out), A city not forsaken. [Isaiah 62:4-12]
So if his reward is with him when he comes visibly, loudly, and publicly at the END of the Tribulation, what would it be that the “pre-Trib-raptured” church would be receiving before any of this happened, if there were such a thing?
Directly contradicting still other dispensationalist dogma, Revelation 19:7 also absolutely establishes the relative timing of the START of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. This states that it does not happen until AFTER the destruction of Babylon, which can only be sometime near the END of the seven years of the Tribulation.
Most important, in Matthew 24:29-31, our Lord is describing the end times to his disciples:
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars (fallen angels) shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds (of earth), from one end of heaven to the other.
As previously noted, these are the words of our Lord describing the situation on earth at the very moment of His return. The angels (the “eagles” of Matthew 24:28 {resurrection of the DEAD in Christ} and Luke 17: 37 {Rapture of the LIVING Church}. See also Exodus 19:4) shall gather his elect from the four winds (which is every point of the compass on earth), and from every part of heaven.
Question #7:If ALL of “his elect” are NOT gathered together from heaven AND earth until the END of the seven years of the Tribulation, HOW can there have been a prior “Marriage Supper of the Lamb” if ALL of “the Bride” could not possibly have been there at any time prior to that moment?
#8…“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at THE revelation of Yeshua Christ;” [1 Peter 1:13]
According to the pre-Trib and mid-Trib Rapture theorists, there will actually be TWO “Second Comings”, despite there being not one scrap of evidence of this in the pages of any non-Scofield, non-Ryrie, non-Moody, non-Zionist-cult Bible. According to those who are pushing this Laodicean doctrine of demons, Christ’s “first second coming” will be invisible and silent (thief-like), and will happen seven (or 3½) years before his loud, public “Glorious Appearing” at the END of the Tribulation.
Question #8 (in three parts):
(A.) Whenis “THE revelation” of Yeshua Christ? (1 Peter 1:13 ) If his “first second coming” at a pre-Trib or a mid-Trib “rapture” is silent, invisible, and “thief-like”, how can it be a “revelation”?
(B.) If the Lord Yeshua, Peter, and the rest of the Apostles “really” knew and “really” preached a pre-Trib Rapture of the Church as the dispensationalists claim (despite there being not one scrap of evidence of this anywhere in non-cultic Scripture), why would they make a statement like this, which contradicts the very concept of a pre/mid-Trib Rapture itself?
(C.) And if “the grace” of which Peter speaks here is to be brought by the Lord Yeshua at his APPEARING (which can only be at the END of the Tribulation), WHAT is it that he will be bringing at his theoretical “pre-Trib” raid? “Pre-grace”? Or “Un-grace”, to go with the “UN-gospel of grace”?
#9…
Concerning the Lord’s visible, physical return, the apostle Paul tells us,
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then WE which are alive and REMAIN shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet* ( Greek- apantesiς/ apantesis) the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” [1 Thessalonians 4:16-17]
“WE which remain”? What is this? If the apostle Paul really believed in and preached a pre-Trib Rapture, as the Dispensationalists insist, would he expect to be “remaining” on the earth at the Lord’s loud, physical return at the END of the Tribulation? That is, he would hardly expect to be among those who were previously “left behind”. IF pre-Trib were true, would he not have expected to be “raptured” along with the rest of the righteous at the beginning of the Tribulation? From the Apostle Paul’s own words in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, it is apparent that he did not.
* The Greek word for “meet” used above, apantesis, is a very precise, and very unusual word. The sense is of “a going forth by a group of people to escort an arriver back into the city or the dwelling from which they had just come”, as the people of a city would go out to greet a returning victorious general or king. This particular word only appears in three other places in the entire New Testament:
1.) twice, in the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, a group who waited to go out and greet the bridegroom and then to escort him back to his dwelling place, back to the place from where they had just come [Matthew 25:1-12]; and,
2.) once, in Acts of the Apostles [Acts 28:14-15], which describes a group of people coming out from Rome to meet Paul and then escorting him back to Rome, from where they had just come!
“Where we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven days: and so we went toward Rome. And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet (apantesiς) us as far as Appii forum, and the three taverns: whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage.”
ALL of these cases clearly describe a GROUP of people GOING OUT to meet an INDIVIDUAL, and then shortly escorting HIM back to the place from which THEY had just come.
IF we truly are Biblical literalists (as all Dispensationalists claim to be) we will understand that in the actual Rapture of the Church which is prophesied, when Christ comes, believers will be caught up to meet (apantesis) him in the air, and then to soon return WITH the Lord to the earth, but not in any predictable or specified amount of human time. All of which is IMPOSSIBLE with a pre-Trib/mid-Trib rapture of the Church, but ALL of which fits a post-Trib scenario perfectly.
Question #9-A:Since Paul says “WE which are alive and remain”, is it even possible that the apostle Paul did not consider himself to be righteous enough to have been previously “raptured” along with the rest of the Church?
Question #9-B:Since Paul says that, at the Rapture of the Church, we will meet the Lord Yeshua in the air and then immediately return with him to the earth, what does this do to the pre-Trib/mid-Trib theories which are the eschatological cornerstones of so many Laodicean churches today?
#10… The apostle Paul says, in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4:
1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ AND by our gathering together unto him,
[Paul here treats the two events – the Lord’s second coming AND the Rapture – as happening at the same time, even as all of the rest of Scripture does. There is NO suggestion here of a separation of seven (or 3½) years between the two events! Not even a hint!]
2 That you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as thoughthe day of Christ were at hand.
[I.e., Paul here says that it is NOT “imminent”. He is assuring them (and us) that “the day” (of the Lord’s return AND the Rapture) WILL NOT COME until certain events happen. Which blows the dispensationalist theory of “imminence” out of the water. He does not want them to be “troubled” by the “leaven” of this false doctrine, namely that Christ could come at any time. Neither do we want that.]
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4 Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
Question #10:So, since Paul says that the Great Apostasy (“a falling away”) MUST happen first, AND that the anti-Christ MUST be revealed first, AND the Abomination of Desolation MUST be established first, BEFORE “the day of Christ” (which he equates with BOTH the return of the Messiah AND the Rapture of the Church), what does this necessarily do to the pre-Trib/mid-Trib Rapture theories?
#11… The Apostle Peter says, in 1 Peter 1:7…
“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Yeshua Christ:”
First, this states that we are to be praised and honored because of the way we endure the trial of our faith until Christ appears. What “trial of our faith” is there to be endured in a pre-Trib or a mid-Trib rapture? None. We would all be sucked out of the middle of our perfectly ordinary days, to party-hearty with the Lord for seven years?
There are so many things wrong with this, it’s a book all by itself. We recommend ours:“Exposing Satan’s ‘Left Behind’” at http://torahkingdomliving.com
Second, this states that the praise and honor doesn’t happen UNTIL “the appearing of Yeshua Christ”, which even the most rabid pre-Tribbers concede doesn’t happen until the the pre-Tribbers’ “second” Second Coming, when the Lord Yeshua DOES physically and visibly return “with His Church”[Revelation 14:1 ff].
Question #11:So how does a logical, Truth-loving, born-again, Spirit-filled Christian square all these LITERAL Bible truths with the pre-Trib/mid-Trib theories we have described and so many have believed?
#12… “And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.” [Matthew 25:10 – KJV]
Dispensationalists generally teach that, immediately after the Rapture of the Church, all those who were removed from the earth are immediately taken to “heaven” to celebrate the “marriage supper of the Lamb” with “Jesus”. Not understanding the logical consequences of their own teaching, they often refer to the parable of the wise and foolish virgins as being a metaphor for their “pre-Trib” rapture scenario.
But in that parable, as soon as the Bridegroom arrives, he goes in to the wedding feast with ONLY the wise virgins (those who were prepared) and the door is shut, and no one else is admitted after that. IF this really were a metaphor for the Lord’s return – as most dispensationalist Bible “experts” seem to consider it to be – and IF there were going to be a pre-Trib Rapture, this would necessarily mean that NO ONE ELSE COULD BE SAVED during the Tribulation, which theoretically happens AFTER the pre-Trib Rapture.
Question #12:Since we know that people WILL be saved during the Tribulation (the souls beneath the altar, etc.), HOW can this parable from the Lord Yeshua be reconciled with a pre-/mid-Trib Rapture scenario?
#13… Further in the Book of the Revelation, we find this:
When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained;
and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also. [Revelation 6:9-11]
Question #13: These are ALL of those who have EVER been martyred, INCLUDING those killed DURING the Tribulation. They are wearing WHITE robes, a sign of righteousness. This states LITERALLY that they MUST remain where they are UNTIL the martyrdom ceases (their number is complete), which CANNOT happen until the Lord Yeshua slays the anti-Christ at his Glorious Appearing! IF this number includes ALL of those who are killed by the forces of the anti-Christ DURING the Tribulation (and it does), and IF the resurrection of ALL of the dead in Christ MUST, in fact, precede the Rapture of the Church (as Paul states in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17), how is a pre-Trib/mid-Trib Rapture of the Church even POSSIBLE?
#14… The Lord Yeshua also said, “And unless those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” [Matthew 24:22] Excuse us, but if “the elect” will have already been “raptured” seven (or 3½) years previously, they would not even be ON the earth!
Question #14: WHY would those days (of the Tribulation) be shortened for people who are not even supposed to be ON the earth, according to the pre-Trib/mid-Trib theories?
#15… The Lord Yeshua also promises us that, “And you shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endures to the end shall be saved.” [Matthew 10:22] This promise of eternal reward to those who “overcome” is repeated twelve times in Revelation!
Question #15-A:First, to whom is this addressed, if not to the Church?
Question #15-B:Second, if the Church is removed from the earth before the Tribulation even starts, what is there to be “endured” or “overcome”?
Question #15-C:Third, if the pre-Trib removal and reward for the Church is to be automatic, universal, and unqualified, WHY all these warnings that we MUST overcome, endure, hold fast, etc., OR we will lose our reward? [Revelation 3:12]
#16… In the theoretical pre-Trib Rapture of the Church, even as portrayed in the “Left Behind” series of “religious fictions”, there would be millions of unsaved people, in effect, killed by God without warningas a direct result of His sudden, unilateral, catastrophic, and global intervention in the affairs of men, by His removing the Church all at once, with NO warning whatsoever. Many of these people killed by God without warning would therefore have had no chance to hear the salvation gospel of His Son, Yeshua Christ!
Question #16: Since “The Lord is…not willing that ANY should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance” [2 Peter 3:9], how does this crystal-clear LITERAL New Testament statement about the eternal, unchanging character and intentions of our Creator square with the undeniable eternal consequences to the unsaved who would be killed without warning as a consequence of the catastrophes resulting from the instantaneous removal – by God – of “the elect”?
#17… So, one major “unintended consequence” of the Dispensationalist “doctrine of imminence” (that Christ “could” return “for” his Church at any moment now) is that millions of lost people around the world who will have never have heard the Gospel of Yeshua of Nazareth could be killed by the hand of God. But the Lord says to the prophet Ezekiel:
“When I say unto the wicked, ‘Thou shalt surely die’; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his sin; but his blood will I require at thine hand.” [Ezekiel 3:18]
Question #17:If YHVH Elohim requires that we warn the wicked in order to try to save their souls, WHY would He not also be bound to at least the same moral standard? If He is so bound, then a pre-Trib/mid-Trib rapture of the Church is utterly inconsistent with the revealed moral nature of the God of the Bible. If He is not bound, then He is not the God of the Bible, and is but another false god, the “god” of Dispensationalism, which IS the Church of the Laodiceans.
#18… If one really believes in dispensationalism’s bogus “doctrine of imminence”, that one could be literally “raptured” at any moment now, and if one were driving a car, truck, boat, or plane when it happened, it is highly likely that such careless behavior would directly cause someone who had not yet heard the Gospel of Yeshua Christ to be killed in the ensuing “accidents”, exactly as are described and prophesied in the “Left Behind” series of hi-tech pipe dreams. In fact, in their misbegotten desire to scare people into accepting Christ as Savior, the producers of these pseudo-Christian, ANTI-CHRIST nightmares have devoted a substantial portion of their special effects budget to depicting just such gory events in great detail, “the better to scare you with, my dear.”
Question #18-A:To be theologically consistent, SHOULD NOT anyone who claims to be a disciple of Yeshua/Jesus Christ, and who also believes in and preaches the “doctrine of imminence” have a genuine Christian duty to protect ALL such lost people by immediately, today, RIGHT NOW surrendering ALL of his or her vehicle operator’s license(s), and immediately ceasing to operate all motor vehicles?
Question #18-B:If not, WHY NOT?
#19… The “Left Behind” series of “religious fictions“(and all similar Dispensationalist deceptions) portray people hurriedly making “decisions for Christ” only after seeing people disappear before their very eyes.
Question #19: How just would it be for these people to be accorded such incomparably preferentialtreatment by the God of the Bible, as compared with those true saints who had lived, suffered their entire lives, and DIED in true faith – “faith”, as the God of the Bible describes it – and made those same “decisions” WITHOUT having seen the evidence of the promise, even as Abraham, Joseph, David, and all of the rest of the faithful have – the “cloud of witnesses” [Hebrews 11:1-40] – down through the centuries? And what other example is there ANYWHERE in the Bibleof such extraordinarily undeserved preferential treatment by God of ANY other group of people?
FYI, in the Book of the Revelation, there is only ONE group who believe such things about themselves, and that is the church of the Laodiceans. [Revelation 3:14-19]
And unto the messenger of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot: I would you were cold or hot.
So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of my mouth.
Because you say, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing”; and you do not know that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
I advise you to buy from me gold tried in the fire, that you may be truly rich; and white raiment, that you may be truly clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness does not appear; and anoint your eyes with eyesalve, that you may truly see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
#20…The Bible states that “Without faith, it is impossible to please Him (God).” [Hebrews 11:6] IF it is IMPOSSIBLE to please this God without faith, and IF this God defines “faith” as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1), and IF one’s “religious conversion” does not involve UNseen things, but only SEEN things, then such a person is not demonstrating Godly faith, but is merely taking a desperate, rational – but not necessarily repentant – step in order to try to save his or her otherwise doomed neck.
Question #20:If the Church were to be removed by God prior to the Tribulation, and tens of thousands of VCRs and DVD players were “Left Behind” with slick, multimedia explanations of what had just happened,how much “faith” would it then take for anyone to “believe” in God, and what chance is there that such a “choice” – according to the Bible – would actually result in the individual’s salvation?
#21… Dispensationalists believe that “the Church” is to be removed by God before the start of the prophesied seven-year period known as The Tribulation. Despite the LITERAL declaration of ALL of Scripture to the contrary, they also believe that this group of “unrefined”, “untested”, “non-overcoming”, “non-enduring”, selectively-commandment-keeping (“We’re not under the law, we’re under grace”) people – who believe that they “have need of nothing” – will, in some way unspecified in Dispensationalism OR in Scripture, somehow still achieve the righteousness deemed essential by the God of the entire Bible. They persist in this belief, despite the 100% consistently CONTRARY message of the ENTIRE Bible that ALL MUST be purified and refined by tribulation in order to enter the kingdom of God [Deuteronomy 4:30-31; Isaiah: 48:10; Daniel 12:10; Zechariah 13:9; Matthew 3:11-12; 24:21; John 16:33; Acts 14:22; Romans 5:3-5; 8:35; 12:12; 1 Thessalonians 3:4; Revelation 2:9-10; 7:14].
Question #21:HOW could this “purification” and “refining” POSSIBLY be accomplished if the entire believing, righteous Christian Church were to be sucked out of the middle of a perfectly ordinary day, right in the middle of a perfectly secure, safe, comfortable, and predictable life?
#22… The Bible tells us that it is THE READERS of His words (the end-times faithful) WHO WILL SEE the Abomination of Desolation, in Matthew 24:15:
“When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso READS, let him understand:)”
Question #22, (in four parts):
First, the parenthetical expression “(whoso reads, let him understand)”, which was inserted in the text of our Lord’s words by both Matthew and Mark, is a crystal-clear indication that the intended audience for this warning extends far beyond the tiny circle of people who were actually listening to our Lord’s spoken words. So to whom is this addressed, if not to the Church?
Second, in a pre-Tribulation Rapture scenario, the faithful wouldn’t even be ON the earth when it happened, so HOW would it be possible for them to SEE the Abomination of Desolation?
Third, if this is “really” addressed to “Tribulation saints” who had been “left behind”, WHY would our Lord (and Paul) be MORE concerned about THEM than they were about those who were going to be “raptured” BEFORE the Tribulation, to which “pre-Trib rapturees” neither the Lord nor any of his disciples addressed a single specific word?
Fourth, IF our Lord Yeshua knew that the faithful were going to be removed by God 3½ years BEFORE the Abomination of Desolation, WHY would he intentionally mislead them (and us) with the above statement? Why would he, at this particular juncture, NOT tell us that we have nothing to worry about, because we will have already been taken out of the world? This is even harder to swallow, given his repeated assurances about other things he told the disciples: “If it were not so, I would have told you” [John 14:2], PLUS his prayer to the Father, previously mentioned: “I pray not that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.”
FYI, the TRUE hope of the TRUE disciples of the Lord Yeshua during the Tribulation is in the Biblically-prophesied physical deliverance by the angels of YHVH to a physical sanctuary ON THE EARTH for the entire 3½ years of the Great Tribulation.
Not a problem for Torah-keeping saints. How’s that working for you?
Details on request.
In our Lord Yeshua’s Love,
Bob & Suzanne Hamrick
http://torahkingdomliving.com
ru12@runbox.com
