Where Is The Promise of His Coming?

WHERE IS THE PROMISE OF HIS COMING?

A Review and Defense of the Pre-Tribulation
Resurrection of the Church

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of His coming?... II Peter 3:3-4

THE PURPOSE

As a reminder to believers of the Scriptures dealing with the subject of the pre-Tribulation bodily translation (aka the Rapture*) of the true church, in order to equip them to defend the faith when they are challenged by unbelievers. Jude 3 ~ "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." ~ reveals that God has charged us with the command to earnestly contend for the faith -- and that includes this most relevant topic, simply because it is Biblical doctrine and a foundation which Paul himself addressed in 2 Tim 2:17-18 ~ "And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some."

And we were also commanded by Christ to watch and pray. "Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness." 2 Peter 3:17

THE PROBLEM

This report was motivated by the problem of the church falling from it's steadfastness due to the widespread mockery and outright rejection of the doctrine of the rapture. Moreover it is grievous to see those who are supposedly God's people listening to and echoing the words of the unsaved in this regard rather than the Word of God. Instead of looking for and hasting unto the day of God (2 Peter 3:12 ~ Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat...), the church has become threatened by it, or is succumbing to the "new" doctrine of a Pre-Wrath/Post-Wrath rapture, or ignoring the rapture completely.

Instead of looking for the new heavens and the new earth (2 Peter 3:13 ~ Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.), many Christians are encumbered with the cares, riches and pleasures of this life.

"And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection." Luke 8:14

"And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended. And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful." Mark 4:17-19

Instead of warning those who are unsaved of the approaching Great Tribulation and using this opportunity to present the gospel -- so that by receiving Jesus Christ as their Savior they can be saved from this terrible period of time and the coming wrath of Almighty God -- the Church has become lukewarm in proclaiming the message of the Blessed Hope.

"So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Hebrews 9:28

Those who belong to Jesus Christ must rise to the occasion when God gives the opportunity to defend the faith and the doctrine of the resurrection of the saints. Let us not be intimidated by those who mock our Lord, our Scriptures and our Faith.

"If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us." 2 Timothy 2:12

"Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." Jude 3,4

We should speak these truths with the love of Christ, rather than being contentious, even knowing that our words may not received.

"And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." 2 Timothy 2:24-26

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;" 2 Timothy 1:7-8

There are many who would have us believe that the doctrine of the Rapture is a minor issue in comparison with other doctrines of Scripture. However, all of Scripture is inspired and profitable for reproof, correction and instruction; God will use the doctrine of the rapture to bring people to the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

"Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Timothy 3: 12-17

If you are uncertain whether you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, please read the God's Plan of Salvation which explains the "good news" of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

*The term "rapture" is not found in Scripture, and it would probably be more appropriate to use the terms "resurrection" and "translation" when referring to the catching away of the Bride of Christ; however, due to its colloquial usage, we will use the term the "rapture" when referring to this event. It is also important to distinguish between the occult's counterfeit of the rapture, which is an out-of-body experience, and the Scriptural doctrine of the rapture of the saints, which is bodily resurrection.

THE PROPAGANDA

A campaign is being conducted on a grand scale to debunk the pre-Tribulation rapture as a hoax and a false doctrine that appeals to those who have a cowardly, escapist mentality. This in spite of the fact that the apostle Paul encouraged the Church to yearn for the appearing of Jesus Christ: "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." (II Tim. 4:8) There is a reason for the current movement to discredit belief in the pre-Tribulation rapture of the saints, for it will be necessary to assuage the distress of the apostate Church after the rapture of the true Church, and to prepare these lost religious people for a counterfeit rapture at mid-Tribulation.

The Rapture Plot by Dave MacPherson misrepresents the doctrine of the pre-Tribulation rapture as a recent development and attributes its formulation and propagation to certain characters of doubtful reputation, notably Edward Irving (c.1830) and a prophetess named Margaret McDonald who, we are told, received this revelation in a trance. However, as with all sound doctrine, the pre-Tribulation resurrection of the Church has its basis in Scripture rather than in the teachings of men. Proving the pre-Tribulation rapture, chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation present the apostle John's prophetic vision of "redeemed men" in heaven before the seals of the Tribulation are even opened in chapter 6. Rev. 5:9,10 states in the King James Version:

"And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed US to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made US unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth."

The twenty-four elders, who worship Jesus Christ as He is preparing to open the seals of the Tribulation judgments, state that they were redeemed by the blood of the Lamb *from every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation*. If these elders were Old Testament patriarchs or saints who were resurrected between the crucifixion and resurrection, they would be only Jews. But they are a mixed multitude representing a cross section of humanity from every kindred, tongue, people and nation.

If there will be no pre-Tribulation rapture, how does one explain the presence of redeemed Gentiles from every tongue and nation in heaven before the Tribulation even begins? Who are these men if not the saints who are raptured at the end the Church Age? Remember, Paul said in I Thess. 4:16 that the dead in Christ would precede the living saints in the resurrection and would not be resurrected until then.

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 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 the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. I Thes. 4:15-17

Since there can be no redeemed Gentiles in heaven before the rapture, this resurrection must occur before Revelation 4 and, therefore, before the Tribulation starts in Revelation 6. It should be noted that modern versions of the Bible have revised the wording of Rev. 5:9,10 so that the twenty-four elders do not refer to themselves as the redeemed, but to the people who are still on the earth. So this is where the mischief began to dispense with the pre-Tribulation rapture and why so many fail to understand that the rapture of the Church occurs prior to the Tribulation period.

NIV - You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.
NASV - Worthy are Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And Thou has made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.

Also, those who do not interpret the book of Revelation literally and chronologically would fail to see that the rapture is pre-Tribulation. (Yet many of these same people use the Tribulation chronology to locate the rapture at the 7th Trumpet or end-Tribulation.) Our report, Heeding Bible Prophecy demonstrates how the literal fulfillment of end-time prophecies will take place within the dispensational framework, which is really the only way to make sense of Bible prophecy.

The assault on the pre-Tribulation rapture is part and parcel of a larger attack on the dispensational divisions of Scripture. Within this doctrinal framework, God's dealings with Israel were interrupted by the Church Age and will resume for seven years following the removal of the Church from earth. This doctrine is foundational to classic Pauline Dispensationalism, which was expounded by early Church fathers such as Irenaeus of Lyons (120-202 A.D.) in Book V of his treatise, Against Heresies:

"For in as many days as this world was made, in so many thousand years shall it be concluded. And for this reason the Scripture says: 'Thus the heaven and the earth were finished, and all their adornment. And God brought to a conclusion upon the sixth day the works that He had made; and God rested upon the seventh day from all His works.' This is an account of the things formerly created, as also it is a prophecy of what is to come. For the day of the Lord is as a thousand years; and in six days created things were completed: it is evident, therefore, that they will come to an end at the sixth thousand year...

"Those nations however, who did not of themselves raise up their eyes unto heaven, nor returned thanks to their Maker, nor wished to behold the light of truth, but who were like blind mice concealed in the depths of ignorance, the word justly reckons "as waste water from a sink, and as the turning-weight of a balance--in fact, as nothing;") so far useful and serviceable to the just, as stubble conduces towards the growth of the wheat, and its straw, by means of combustion, serves for working gold. And therefore, when in the end the Church shall be suddenly caught up from this, it is said, 'There shall be tribulation such as has not been since the beginning, neither shall be.' For this is the last contest of the righteous, in which, when they overcome they are crowned with incorruption...
"But when this Antichrist shall have devastated all things in this world, he will reign for three years and six months, and sit in the temple at Jerusalem; and then the Lord will come from heaven in the clouds, in the glory of the Father, sending this man and those who follow him into the lake of fire; but bringing in for the righteous the times of the kingdom, that is, the rest, the hallowed seventh day; and restoring to Abraham the promised inheritance, in which kingdom the Lord declared, that 'many coming from the east and from the west should sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.'
"For as the Lord 'went away in the midst of the shadow of death,' where the souls of the dead were, yet afterwards arose in the body, and after the resurrection was taken up [into heaven], it is manifest that the souls of His disciples also, upon whose account the Lord underwent these things, shall go away into the invisible place allotted to them by God, and there remain until the resurrection, awaiting that event; then receiving their bodies, and rising in their entirety, that is bodily, just as the Lord arose, they shall come thus into the presence of God. 'For no disciple is above the Master, but every one that is perfect shall be as his Master. As our Master, therefore, did not at once depart, taking flight [to heaven], but awaited the time of His resurrection prescribed by the Father, which had been also shown forth through Jonas, and rising again after three days was taken up [to heaven].'"

Irenaeus' treatise, written in the 2nd century A.D., demonstrates that Dispensational eschatology was taught by the Church fathers and accepted by Christians of the early Church period. However, concurrent with the rise to power of the Roman Catholic Church in the fourth century, St. Augustine of Hippo wrote The City of God which proposed a new interpretation of Bible prophecy. To facilitate the transition from dispensational truth to Augustine’s private interpretation--which advanced the earthly kingdom theology of the Catholic Church--the prophetic chapters of Irenaeus’ treatise were duly suppressed by Rome. In his book, The Pursuit of the Millennium, Norman Cohn attributes Augustine’s false teaching to the Gnostic tradition propagated by Origen, a student of Clement in the Gnostic school at Alexandria, Egypt. It was also during this period that the Gnostic manuscripts of Origen were used to produce the ecumenical Bible commissioned by Constantine to facilitate the merger of paganism and Christianity:

"The third century saw the first attempt to discredit millenarianism, when Origen, perhaps the most influential of all the theologians of the ancient Church, began to present the Kingdom as an event which would take place not in space or time but only in the souls of believers. For a collective, millenarian eschatology Origen substituted an eschatology of the individual soul. What stirred his profoundly Hellenic imagination was the prospect of spiritual progress begun in this world and continued in the next; and to this theme theologians were henceforth to give increasing attention. Such a shift in interest was indeed admirably suited to what was now an organized Church, enjoying almost uninterrupted peace and acknowledged position in the world. When in the fourth century Christianity attained a position of supremacy in the Mediterranean world and became the official religion of the Empire, ecclesiastical disapproval of millenarianism became emphatic. The Catholic Church was now a powerful and prosperous institution, functioning according to a well-established routine; and the men responsible for governing it had no wish to see Christians clinging to out-dated and inappropriate dreams of a new earthly Paradise. Early in the fifth century St Augustine propounded the doctrine which the new conditions demanded. According to The City of God the Book of Revelation was to be understood as a spiritual allegory; as for the Millennium, that had begun with the birth of Christianity and was fully realized in the Church. This at once became orthodox doctrine. Now the very fact that the eminently respectable Irenaeus could have regarded such a belief as an indispensable part of orthodoxy was felt to be intolerable. Determined efforts were made to suppress the millenarian chapters of his treatise Against Heresies, and to such good effect that it was only in 1575 that they were rediscovered in a manuscript which the expurgators happened to have overlooked." (Norman Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages, NY: Oxford University Press, 1961, p. 30.)

The effect of repudiating the pre-Tribulation rapture will be to assure apostates who are left behind that they have not missed the coming of Jesus Christ for his bride, which (they are told) will be a pre-Wrath /post-Tribulation event. Adding to the confusion of these deluded souls, the movie, Left Behind, which is based on a series of books written by Tim LaHaye, presents a false gospel, to wit, that one must simply *believe in God* in order to be saved. Prior to release of this movie in theatres on February 2, 2001, which happens to be the Druidic feast of Imbolc, the Left Behind series and video presentation were heavily promoted in Christian churches. At the close of this video, Christian audiences heard a pitch by the lead actor to promote the Left Behind movie among their friends and acquaintances. The net effect of using Christians to promote this movie will be that many who are left behind to endure the Tribulation will accept the false gospel presentation contained therein as Gospel truth -- a false gospel endorsed by Christians no less!

Why would Tim LaHaye and his producer, Peter LaLalonde, fail to include a thorough and Biblical presentation of the Gospel in a purportedly Christian movie to which nonbelievers will flock in their distress during the Tribulation period? Tragically, the omission of the genuine Gospel message and inclusion of a false gospel appears to be deliberate. Tim LaHaye's Masonic propensities are now being noted by certain Christian researchers, whose findings are posted in: Left Behind & Tim LaHaye's Masonic Connections.

THE PROMISE

False teachings concerning the doctrine of the Rapture will facilitate credence by a lukewarm Laodicean Church of the multitude of counterfeits that will be put forward during the Tribulation Period. More precisely, there will be such an elaborate system of counterfeits of the Antichrist, the False Prophet, Mystery Babylon, the Mark of the Beast, and many other deceptions that the Apostate Church will fail to recognize the true Antichrist, False Prophet, Mystery Babylon and Mark of the Beast. It was for this reason that Jesus warned his disciples in Matt. 24:24, "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." "If it were possible" suggests that God will remove his "very elect" from this world prior to the Tribulation in order to prevent their deception by this very sophisticated conspiracy.

Those who scoff at the pre-Tribulation Rapture in particular deride the "escapist" mentality of holding to the Blessed Hope; however Jesus personally advised His disciples to pray that they would escape the Tribulation:

"And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." (Luke 21:36)

Those who are "accounted worthy to escape" that day, which will fall as a snare upon all who dwell on the earth, will also be spared the temptation of the strong delusion of II Thessalonians 2:11. Jesus prophesied to these, His elect: "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. " (Rev. 3:10) The elders of these elect are seen in the next chapter of Revelation, casting their crowns of gold before the Throne of the Lamb, before the Tribulation begins.