Monday, March 2, 2009
Session 79: The End Times
This is a very opinionated lesson. We all have an opinion about the end times, but let's make sure that our opinion lines up with the word. The spark is interesting this week. They poll people on the street as to what they believe about the end times. Not many lost people want to talk about this subject. They wish to procrastinate and live their lives to the "fullest" before they surrender to any authority. One definite thing we know is that Christ will physically return to earth.(Matt 24: 29-31) Not only will He return, but He will return for His children. Thanks be to God we will not be left behind. Along with His return we also know that He will reign on earth. These are the facts. The opinion is where will the christians be when these things occur? Heaven or earth? You decide and let me know what you think. Postmillennialism, ammillennialism, premillennialism, dispensational premillennialism, or historic premillennialism? Where do you fall? Who will go first in starting this great debate? One final thought... thanks be to God for the material we are studying. I firmly believe that the holy spirit convicted Dennis in Sunday School on Sunday morning. He walked down front and unashamedly professed Christ as his saviour. Please pray for him and his family. Who will be next? Will God allow the spirit to fill your room as you teach this Sunday? Pray and believe!! Blessings, Billy
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9 comments:
Although we all have our opinions, and you know I have one, we must remember what our by-laws and covenant state. So there is only one way to teach this lesson.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:9, Paul says “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.” It would seem inconsistent for God to promise believers that they will not suffer wrath and then leave them on the earth to suffer through the tribulation. In Revelation 3:10, God promises to deliver believers from the “hour of trail” that is going to come upon the earth Tribulation is defined as a future period in which the Lord will accomplish two aspects of his plan: 1)He will complete his discipline on the nations Israel and 2) He will judge the godless inhabitants of the earth. Since we are not godless inhabitants it would seem impractical to leave Christians on the earth to suffer the same as sinners who do not have a personal relationship with God. I know we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but God has forgiven those sins. Webster defines Salvation as the deliverance from the power and penalty of sin. If we are saved from the penalty of sin –would not one of those penalties be suffering through the tribulation? If we believed in mid tribulation (the rapture occurs at the mid-point of the tribulation) or post tribulation (the rapture occurs at the end of the tribulation) then how could we stress that you need to be saved before the rapture? Revelation 20:4 states that people will beheaded for their faith in the tribulation period –so obviously you could be saved in that time. I think we need to stress the importance of time because no matter which one of the views you believe we are not promised that we will be here when the rapture occurs. Last week in my class I told my class if could all be over in one snap –where would you be? I noticed a hand up and asked if the young man had a question. He said no. After class I asked Dennis why he was raising his hand. He told me I just wanted you to know that I would still be here if God came back because I am not saved. Of course, most of you know that last Sunday morning, Dennis got saved. He was crying and his hands were trembling. He realized that he needed Jesus. That is my motivation to see these kids have the peace of not worrying about the rapture just knowing that God will take care of them. I can’t answer all the questions and there are some things that we will never comprehend until Christ returns. Until then I will cling to the words in Psalm 23:6 “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.”
Crystal
Let me preface these comments with the fact that John and I are reasoning through the scriptures about Pre-Trib vs. Pre-Wrath. This is not a private fight, as Bill Bennett use to say, so everyone is welcome;
John you made an excellent point Wed. night about His imminent return that threw me back on my heels and really made me think. This morning I got up and was thinking about Matthew 24 and here is my rebuttal:
Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. For [that day] will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. 4 He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in God’s sanctuary, publicizing that he himself is God.
2 Thess 2:3-4 (HCSB) Paul here is referring back to Matthew 24,
15 “So when you see the abomination that causes desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place”
Matt 24:15 (HCSB)
Now Daniel is the one that puts this in the middle of the 70th week; He will make a firm covenant
with many for one week,
but in the middle of the week
he will put a stop to sacrifice and offering.
And the abomination of desolation
will be on a wing of the temple
Dan 9:27 (HCSB)
So Jesus and Paul are saying we will see this and that's how we know the time is near. So when does this happen? It appears Daniel answers the question.
Alright, I’ll start by with one thing Paul and I both agree on. We’re definitely on the same team and only express differing opinions on the sequence of events, which we both believe and pray will not have eternal consequences. I think we both use this avenue of expression for three primary purposes. Number one……to show subordinance regarding our leader’s request. Number two……to gather more insight of God’s word through others wisdom, discernment, opinions, and interpretations. And, number three………..to express our personal thoughts and opinions. I pray that I, Paul, nor anyone else ever becomes a discouragement to the other readers. I pray that this blog serves to strengthen and encourage, thereby making us all better Christians and teachers.
Our current disagreement involves the timing of the rapture relative to the timing of the Great Tribulation. In the New Testament, the clearest indicator we have in the timing department is found in 1 Thes. 1:9-10. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. The Greek word translated "from" in this passage is "apo." Taken literally, it means we're to be rescued from the time, the place, or any relation to God's wrath. This is later supported by 1 Thes. 5:9 that reads, "God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." Some people point out that you can't use God's wrath interchangeably with the Great Tribulation. And they're right, the two terms are not synonymous. The Great Tribulation is three and a half years long and begins in Rev. 11-13. God's wrath is much longer, beginning in Rev. 6, as verse 17 explains. Post-trib. and pre-wrath rapture advocates try to deny this, but it seems clear to me. God's wrath begins with the Seal Judgments. The Bowl Judgments don't begin the time of His wrath, they end it. (Rev. 15:1) Being rescued from the time, the place and any relation to God's Wrath means the Church is with Christ, before Rev. 6, and that's why I believe the Rapture takes place in Rev. 4 and the Church is the group of believers in view in heaven in Rev.5.
Could a believer, sitting alone on the desert island, with nothing but a Bible and with no pre-conceived ideas, conclude that there's a pre-trib Rapture just from reading about it, or could he only be led into this position by first hearing someone teach him about it? I think, definitely.
Well, From Isaiah 13:9-13 and Amos 5:18, he would have learned that God is going to judge the Earth for its sins in a terrible time called the Day of the Lord when He'll pour out His wrath on mankind. Reading Matt. 24 would have told him that this time of judgment would be so bad that if the Lord didn't put a stop to it no one would survive. But the Lord will put a stop to it by returning in power and glory. Since he would know that the Lord hasn't returned yet, he would know that God's wrath is still in the future.
When he got to 1 Thes. 1:9-10 he would see a pretty clear statement. Jesus rescues us from the coming wrath. In the "who, what, where, when, and why" method of his reasoning, he would have the Who, (Jesus) the what, (rescues us) and the when (the time of the coming wrath). Reading on he would come to 1 Thes. 4:15:17 and get the where (from Earth to the clouds) and in 1 Thes. 5:9 the why (because we're not appointed to wrath).
From there he would logically conclude that since we'll be rescued around the time of the coming wrath and since we're not appointed to wrath, our rescue has to precede it. He could also answer another of his questions in 1 Thes. 4:15:17 and that's how it would happen. The Lord himself will come down from Heaven into our atmosphere and suddenly snatch us away from Earth to join Him there. In chapter 5 he would learn that he would never know the exact timing of this event but only that it would precede the coming wrath.
I believe that since our islander has no one to persuade him differently, he would assume that what he's reading is to be taken literally. And, if that's the case, then the pre-trib position is the only conclusion he could logically come to, because every other position requires, at least a moderate re-interpretation of Scripture.
I expect that, left alone to work this out with only the Holy Spirit as his guide, he would expect to be raptured before the wrath of God begins in Rev. 6. You see, God didn’t inspire the writing of the Bible to confuse us, but to inform us. It's mankind that's gotten everything all mixed up. If you give the Holy Spirit a clear minded student, uncontaminated by man's opinions and prejudices, He would bring that person to the understanding of the rapture that's most consistent with a literal interpretation of Scripture. And that requires a pre-trib rapture.
Of course some won't be convinced until I can point to a verse that says the rapture will precede the Great Tribulation in those exact words. Sorry, no such verse exist. I guess I’ll just have to wait and explain it to them on the way up.
By the way Paul, it won’t change your position, but I don’t think Paul was referring back to Matthew. I don’t believe Matthew was written yet. And given your position, are you still saying Jesus can’t come back for the Church today? Last point……In 2 Thes. 2:1-8 we learn that the man of sin will not be revealed until the Restrainer is taken away. I believe the restrainer is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit restrains evil and resides within the Church. Now with that being said, either the Church leaves before the antichrist is revealed or the Holy Spirit leaves the Church. What do you think?
I’m always open to any correction or criticism.
Your guy on the Island analogy breaks down in that you are making presuppositions for him. Therefore it is impossible to know what conclusion he would come to. Your article is long and good, but I will take time to answer your last paragraph.
Some scholars have put Matthew as early as AD 50 and 2 Thessalonians at AD51 or 52. Either way I never assumed Paul read the Gospel of Matthew but that he knew the oral traditions of the sayings of Christ. The context of 2Thessalonians 2:1-8 is when the Day of the Lord will take place. The Day of the Lord being the end of the Tribulation (as a side note "like a thief in the night" is never used talking about the rapture, but talking about the Day of the Lord)
You have come to the conclusion that the restrainer is the Church, not as a man on an Island but a man sitting under teaching. There are actually many suggestions 1. Human Govt. 2. preaching of the Gospel. 3. the binding of satan. 4. the providence of God. 5. the jewish state. 6. the Holy Spirit. 8. Micheal. But for argument sake I will agree it is the Church. So the Church is taken away so the Anti-Christ can be revealed, when is he revealed? At the mid point of tribulation because then he reigns 42 months. (another side note: The Greek word messo is used for "out of the way" it does not mean a spatial removal, therefor it could not be the rapture of the church, but rather a stepping aside. Thats from a Greek Scholar name John MacAuthur) So the rapture could take place anytime between now and the mid point of tribulation? Well no, because you and I think the issue is when does the wrath of God take place. Pre-Trib believes it starts at the beginning of 7 years i.e. Seal 1. Pre-wrath believes just past mid point, Seal 6. So, is there a verse that says the rapture will take place before the Great Tribulation that Christ talked about in Matt 24? Yes! 1 Thess 5:9 "For God's purpose for us is not wrath, but salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ",
so the question still remains when is God's wrath? We both have answered that question, just not to each others satisfaction.
P.S. John my Brother, I am counting on you being right, for that is truly my prayer. But if I am right there are going to be a lot of confused church people to a point, the Bible says, there will be a great falling away. (oh wow is that another scripture that backs up my position?)
I just about forgot something from my very first post. This is for all of you that do not keep a copy of your First Baptist Church Screven Members Handbook laying around. (if you need one see Billy or myself)
Chapter VI pg 5 "What is Baptist Doctrine?" paragraph 6.
Baptist have traditionally believed in the literal, visible return of Christ to gather(rapture) His Church prior to the seven years tribulation described in the book of Revelation. Baptist also have traditionally believed in a literal one-thousand year rein of Christ on earth-a time of Israel's glory-The Kingdom of God On the Earth.
Paul, I guess the important thing is that neither of us are left behind. Although I still support the pre-trib position, I now have a much better understanding of your position. I can't say with 100% certainty that your wrong, but I hope you are. My attempts to convert you, has resulted in much study. Thanks for the challenge! I look forward to hearing your views as we continue our studies.
John, I will never forget one of my early mentors, who has already been raptured, use to challange me all the time. One Sunday after church as we were discussing the Bible he ask me about Adam's brother-in-law. When I said he didn't have one, he said "are you sure about that". Man, I spent the entire week tearing Genesis apart verse by verse with every commentary I could find. When we got together on the next Friday I confidently announced that Adam did not have a brother-in-law! He said "I know".
(Thought-provoking blog! Wondering if anyone has seen the following which is on the "Powered by Christ Ministries" site.]
PRETRIB RAPTURE DISHONESTY
by Dave MacPherson
When I began my research in 1970 into the exact beginnings of the pretribulation rapture belief still held by many evangelicals, I assumed that the rapture debate involved only "godly scholars with honest differences." The paper you are now reading reveals why I gave up that assumption many years ago. With this introduction-of-sorts in mind, let's take a long look at the pervasive dishonesty throughout the history of the 179-year-old pretrib rapture theory:
Mid-1820's - German scholar Max Weremchuk's work "John Nelson Darby" (1992) included what Benjamin Newton revealed about John Darby in the mid-1820's during his pre-Brethren days as an Anglican clergyman:
"J. N. Darby was a very subtle man. He had been a lawyer, or at least educated for the law. Once he wanted his Archbishop to pursue a certain course, when he (J.N.D.) was a curate in his diocese. He wrote a letter, therefore, saying he had been educated for the law, knew what the legal course would properly be; and then having written that clearly, he mystified the remainder of the letter both in word and in handwriting, and ended up by saying: You see, my Lord, such being the legal aspect of the case it would unquestionably be the best course for you to pursue, etc. And the Archbishop couldn't make out the legal part, but rested on Darby's word and did as he advised. Darby afterwards laughed over it, and indeed he showed a copy of the letter to Tregelles. This is not mentioned in the Archbishop's biography, but in it is the fact that he spoke of Darby as 'the most subtle man in my diocese.'"
This reminds me of an 1834 letter by Darby which spoke of the "Lord's coming." Darby added, concerning this coming, that "the thoughts are new" and that during any teaching of it "it would not be well to have it so clear." Darby's deviousness here was his usage of a centuries-old term - "Lord's coming" - to cover up his desire to sneak the new pretrib idea into existing posttrib groups in very low-profile ways!
1830 - In the spring of 1830 a young Scottish lassie, Margaret Macdonald, came up with the novel notion of a catching up [rapture] of Spirit-filled "church" members before Antichrist's "trial" [tribulation] of non-Spirit-filled "church" members - the first instance I've found of clear "pretrib" teaching (which was part of a partial rapture scheme). In Sep. 1830 "The Morning Watch" (a journal produced by London preacher Edward Irving and his "Irvingite" followers, some of whom had visited Margaret a few weeks earlier) began repeating her original thoughts and even her wording but gave her no credit - the first plagiarism I've found in pretrib history. Darby was still defending posttrib in Dec. 1830.
Pretrib promoters have long known the significance of her main point: a rapture of "church" members BEFORE the revealing of Antichrist. Which is why John Walvoord quoted nothing in her revelation, why Thomas Ice habitually skips over her main point but quotes lines BEFORE and AFTER it, and why Hal Lindsey muddies up her main point so he can (falsely) assert that she was NOT a pretribber! (Google "X-Raying Margaret" for info about her.)
NOTE: The development of the 1800's is thoroughly documented in my book "The Rapture Plot." You'll learn that Darby wasn't original on any chief aspect of dispensationalism (but plagiarized the Irvingites); that pretrib was initially based on only OT and NT symbols and not clear Scripture; that the symbols included the Jewish feasts, the two witnesses, and the man child - symbols adopted by Darby during most of his career; that Darby's later reminiscences exaggerated his earliest pretrib development, and that today's defenders such as Thomas Ice have further overstated what Darby overstated; that Irvingism didn't need later reminiscences to "clarify" its own early pretrib development; that ancient hymns and even the writings of the Reformers were subtly revised to make it appear they had taught pretrib; and that after Darby's death a clever revisionist quietly made many changes in early Irvingite and Brethren documents in order to steal credit for pretrib away from the Irvingites (and their female inspiration!) and give it dishonestly to Darby! (Before continuing, Google the "Powered by Christ Ministries" site and read "America's Pretrib Rapture Traffickers" - a sample of the current exciting internetism!)
1920 - Charles Trumbull's book "The Life Story of C. I. Scofield" told only the dispensationally-correct side of his life. Two recent books, Joseph Canfield's "The Incredible Scofield and His Book" (1988) and David Lutzweiler's "DispenSinsationalism: C. I. Scofield's Life and Errors" (2006), reveal the other side including his being jailed as a forger, dishonestly giving himself a non-conferred "D.D." etc. etc.!
1967 - Brethren scholar Harold Rowdon's "The Origins of the Brethren" quoted Darby associate Lord Congleton who was "disgusted with...the falseness" of Darby's accounts of things. Rowdon also quoted historian William Neatby who said that others felt that "the time-honoured method of single combat" was as good as anything "to elicit the truth" from Darby. (In other words, knock it out of him!)
1972 - Tim LaHaye's "The Beginning of the End" (1972) plagiarized Hal Lindsey's "The Late Great Planet Earth" (1970).
1976 - Charles Ryrie"s "The Living End" (1976) plagiarized Lindsey's "The Late Great Planet Earth" (1970) and "There's A New World Coming" (1973).
1976 - After John Walvoord's "The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation" (1976) brutally twisted Robert Gundry's "The Church and the Tribulation" (1973), Gundry composed and circulated a 35-page open letter to Walvoord which repeatedly charged the Dallas Seminary president with "misrepresentation," "misrepresentations" (and variations)!
1981 - "The Fundamentalist Phenomenon" (1981) by Jerry Falwell, Ed Dobson, and Ed Hindson heavily plagiarized George Dollar's 1973 book "A History of Fundamentalism in America."
1984 - After a prof at Southeastern College of the Assemblies of God in Florida told me that the No. 2 man at the AG world headquarters in Missouri - Joseph Flower - had the label of posttrib, my wife and I had two hour-long chats with him. He verified what I had been told. But we were dumbstruck when he told us that although AG ministers are required to promote pretrib, privately they can believe any other rapture view! Flower said that his father, an AG co-founder, was also posttrib. We also learned while in Springfield that when the AG's were organized in 1914, the initial group was divided between posttribs and pretribs - but that the pretribs shouted louder which resulted in that denomination officially adopting pretrib! (For details on this and other pretrib double-mindedness, Google "Pretrib Hypocrisy.")
1989 - Since 1989 Thomas Ice has referred to the "Mac-theory" (his reference to my research), giving the impression there's no solid evidence that Macdonald was the real pretrib originator. But Ice carefully conceals the fact that no eminent church historian of the 1800's - whether Plymouth Brethren or Irvingite - credited Darby with pretrib. Instead, they uniformly credited leading Irvingite sources, all of which upheld the Scottish lassie's contribution! Moreover, I'm hardly the only modern scholar seeing significance in Irvingism's territory. Others in recent years who have noted it, but who haven't mined it as deeply as I have, include Fuller, Ladd, Bass, Rowdon, Sandeen, and Gundry.
1989 - Greg Bahnsen and Kenneth Gentry produced evidence in 1989 that Lindsey's book "The Road to Holocaust" (1989) plagiarized "Dominion Theology" (1988) by H. Wayne House and Thomas Ice.
1990 - David Jeremiah's and C. C. Carlson's "Escape the Coming Night" (1990) massively plagiarized Lindsey's 1973 book "There's A New World Coming." (For more info, type in "Thieves' Marketing" on MSN or Google.)
1991 - Paul Lee Tan's "A Pictorial Guide to Bible Prophecy" (1991) plagiarized large amounts of Lindsey's "The Late Great Planet Earth" (1970).
1991 - Militant Darby defender R. A. Huebner claimed in 1991 to have found new evidence that Darby was pretrib as early as 1827 - three years before Macdonald. Halfway through his book Huebner suddenly admitted that his evidence could refer to something completely un-rapturesque. Even though Thomas Ice admitted to me that he knew that Huebner had "blown" his so-called evidence, prevaricator Ice continues to tell the world that Huebner has "positive evidence" that Darby was pretrib in 1827! Ice also conceals the fact that Darby, in his own 1827 paper, was looking for only "the restitution of all things" and "the times of refreshing" (Acts 3:19,21) - which Scofield doesn't see fulfilled until AFTER a future tribulation!
1992 - Tim LaHaye's "No Fear of the Storm" (1992) plagiarized Walvoord's "The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation" (1976).
1992 - This was when the Los Angeles Times revealed that "The Magog Factor" (1992) by Hal Lindsey and Chuck Missler was a monstrous plagiarism of Prof. Edwin Yamauchi's scholarly 1982 work "Foes from the Northern Frontier." Four months after this exposure, Lindsey and Missler stated they had stopped publishing and promoting their book. But in 1996 Dr. Yamauchi learned that the dishonest duo had issued a 1995 book called "The Magog Invasion" which still had a substantial amount of the same plagiarism! (If Lindsey and Missler ever need hernia operations, I predict that the doctors will tell them not to lift anything for a long time!)
1994 - In 1996 it was revealed that Lindsey's "Planet Earth - 2000 A.D. (1994) had an embarrassing amount of plagiarism of a Texe Marrs book titled "Mystery Mark of the New Age" (1988).
1995 - My book "The Rapture Plot" reveals the dishonesty in Darby's reprinted works. It's often hard to tell who wrote the footnotes and when. It's easy to believe that the notes, and also unsigned phrases inside brackets within the text, were a devious attempt by someone (Darby? his editor?) to portray a Darby far more developed in pretrib thinking than he actually had been at the time. I found that some of the "additives" had been taken from Darby's much later works, when he was more developed, and placed next to or inside his earliest works! One footnote by Darby's editor, attached to Darby's 1830 paper, actually stated that "it was not worth while either suppressing or changing" anything in this work! If his editor wasn't open to such dishonesty, how can we explain such a statement?
Post-1995 - Thomas Ice's article "Inventor of False Pre-Trib Rapture History" states that my book "The Rapture Plot" is "only one of the latest in a series of revisions of his original discourse...." And David Reagan in his article "The Origin of the Concept of a Pre-Tribulation Rapture" repeats Ice's falsehood by claiming that I have republished my first book "over the years under several different titles."
Although my book repeats a bit of the Macdonald origin of pretrib (for new readers), all of my books are packed with new material not found in my other works. For some clarification, "The Incredible Cover-Up" has photos of pertinent places in Ireland, Scotland, and England not found in my later books plus several chapters dealing with theological arguments; "The Great Rapture Hoax" quotes scholars throughout the Church Age, covers Scofield's hidden side, a section on Powerscourt, the 1980 election, the Jupiter Effect, Gundry's change, and more theological arguments; "The Rapture Plot" reveals for the first time the Great Evangelical Revisionism/Robbery and includes appendices on miscopying, plagiarism, etc.; and "The Three R's" shows hypocritical evangelicals employing occultic beliefs they say they have long opposed!
So Thomas Ice etc. are twisting truth when they claim I am only a revisionist. Do they really think that my publishers DON'T know what I've previously written?
Re arguments, Google "Pretrib Rapture - Hidden Facts" and also obtain "The End Times Passover" and "Why Christians Will Suffer 'Great Tribulation' " (AuthorHouse, 2006) by media personality Joe Ortiz.
1997 - For years Harvest House Publishers has owned and been republishing Lindsey's book "There's A New World Coming." During the same time Lindsey has been peddling his reportedly "new" book "Apocalyse Code" (1997), much of which is word-for-word the same as the Harvest House book - and there's no notice of "simultaneous publishing" in either book! Talk about pretrib greed!
1997 - This is the year I discovered that more than 50 pages of Dallas Seminary professor Merrill Unger's book "Beyond the Crystal Ball" (Moody Press, 1973) constituted a colossal plagiarism of Lindsey's "The Late Great Planet Earth" (1970). After Lindsey's book came out, Unger had complained that Lindsey's book had plagiarized his classroom lecture notes. It was evident that Unger felt that he too should cash in on his own lectures! (The detailed account of this Dallas Seminary dishonesty is revealed in my 1998 book "The Three R's.")
1998 - Tim LaHaye's "Understanding the Last Days" (1998) plagiarized Lindsey's "There's A New World Coming" (1973).
1999 - More than 200 pages (out of 396 pages) in Lindsey's 1999 book "Vanished Into Thin Air" are virtually carbon copies of pages in his 1983 book "The Rapture" - with no "updated" or "revised" notice included! Lindsey has done the same nervy thing with several of his books, something that has allowed him to live in million-dollar-plus homes and drive cars like Ferraris! (See my Google articles "Deceiving and Being Deceived" and "Thieves' Marketing" for further evidence of this notably pretrib vice.)
2000 - A Jack Van Impe article "The Moment After" (2000) plagiarized Grant Jeffrey's book "Final Warning" (1995).
2001 - Since 2001 my web article "Walvoord's Posttrib 'Varieties' - Plus" has been exposing his devious muddying up of posttrib waters. In some of his books he invented four "distinct" and "contradictory" posttrib divisions, claiming that they are either "classic" or "semiclassic" or "futurist" or "dispensational" - distinctions that disappear when analyzed! His "futurist" group holds to a literal future tribulation and a literal millennium but doesn't embrace "any day" imminency. But his "dispensational" group has the same non-imminency! Moreover, tribulational futurism is found in every group except the first one, and he somehow admitted that a literal millennium is in all four groups! On the other hand, it's the pretribs who consistently disagree with each other over their chief points and subpoints - but somehow end up agreeing that there will be a pretrib rapture! (See my chapter "A House Divided" in my book "The Incredible Cover-Up.")
2001 - Since my "Deceiving and Being Deceived" web item which exposed the claims for Pseudo-Ephraem" and "Morgan Edwards" as teachers of pretrib, there has been a piranha-like frenzy on the part of pretrib bodyguards and their duped groupies to "discover" almost anything before 1830 walking upright on two legs that seemed to have at least a remote hint of pretrib! (An exemplary poster boy for such pretrib practice is Grant Jeffrey. To get your money's worth, Google "Wily Jeffrey.")
FINALLY: Don't take my word for any of the above. Read my 300-page book "The Rapture Plot" which has a jillion more documented details on the long-hidden but now-revealed history of the dishonest, 179-year-old, fringe-British-invented, American-merchandised-until-the-real-bad-stuff-happens pretribulation rapture fad. If this book of mine doesn't "move" you, I will personally refund what you paid for it!
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