Fallacies regarding the Pre-tribulation rapture
Before I became a christian, my wife and I read the first few books on the Left Behind series, and we eventually just stopped. I think it had to do with the graphic detail the authors used to described a gun shot wound to one of the characters’ hands, too graphic for a “christian” novel I thought. Fast forward several years later and I started to investigate various things and pre-trib/left behind was one of them. I read how the pope was raptured, a character having an out of body experience, etc and knew I didn’t like what the books had to offer. I started to see that this theory didn’t match up well with scripture, and that Jesus’ second coming only occurs ONCE in ONE part, not 2 parts: one secret and then the final “second” time.
While I was looking for heresy and apostasy at the local Mardel’s (pictures of Jesus anyone?) I found a theology book which compared pre-trib to post-trib and found this interesting tidbit. Pretribbers teach that believers are not to suffer God’s wrath, which is true, but they say that we can’t see God’s wrath poured out so we have to be gone when it happens. Ok, let’s say the a pre-tribulation rapture is true, what about people who become believers AFTER the rapture, shouldn’t they be raptured immediately after conversion, since they too are not to see wrath?
Also, what confuses me is a man like David Cloud, who is against dispensationalism, still holds firm to a pre-trib rapture, even though the two are directly related. I have been reading a book from www.truthseekers.com that goes into the history of how the doctrine was formed some barely 300 years ago.
So why is a pre-tribulation so popular? I think it is fairly simple, Americans don’t want to suffer persecution. Americans have it too easy while Christians in most foreign countries are being persecuted daily. We teach a easy believism gospel that goes something like this, “Just let Jesus into your heart and all your problems will go away. Also, you will be happy all the time and don’t worry about real persecution, because God will just rapture us away before the antichrist is revealed. Isn’t life grand?”
What saddens me the most is that many who believe in a pre-tribulation rapture will have their faith destroyed or worse: they will receive the mark of the beast thinking, “well this can’t be the antichrist, I mean, we haven’t been raptured yet?” Please pray for these decieved people and that God will open their heart to the truth.
September 21st, 2008 at 6:58 pm
I remember being in High School when I first heard about the Rapture.
Before listening to someone talk about it, I just believed that all
followers of Jesus would be like the original disciples and the first
Christians. My favorite Bible story was the stoning of Stephen.
I don’t really know why but I think it had something to do with
Jesus standing up to welcome Stephen and Stephen saying
“Lord, lay not this sin to their charge” echoing Jesus saying
“Father forgive them”. When I heard about the rapture my
head rejoiced but my heart didn’t join my head. My heart said
“no, this is not the right way, why would Christians for centuries,
like the Martyrs have had to die so violently and so cruelly
if there was an escape hatch”. My heart said “why is
America exempt…when every nation that went before
was not?” My head said “yay, Jesus is going to snatch me
out of this mess and I won’t have to finish my homework!!!”
ridiculous I know…but I was a teenager. After about two years
of that and praying for the rapture for insanely childish reasons,
I dismissed the idea of a secret snatch aka the rapture and
returned to my original idea that we ain’t getting out of here
till it’s over and it ain’t over till it’s over….and every eye
shall see Him and those who pierced him…” I think the
volumes of scripture make it plain. Jesus will be with
us to the end of the age..to the end of the world..to the
end of days. I also learned that Paul said “those of us
who are alive and survive…will be caught up”. Survive
puts it in a completely different context. What would
we have to survive if we were not going to be here
during that period of suffering that would be so great..
except for the sake of the elect..doesn’t that mean
the elect will be here? Anyway, I appreciate this blog and others
that expose the fallacy of the pre trib rapture…I think what
really solidified it for me was watching the Hiding Place and
Corrie Ten Boom talking at the end saying “There is no
pit so deep that He is not deeper still”. The Tim Lahaye
books, never had an interest in them. Many of these
authors really spend too much time in my opinion dwelling in the
dark and we are to walk in the Light..as He is in the Light.