4 Reasons We Don't Believe in a Pretribulation Rapture—Dalton Thomas (MARANATHA GLOBAL BIBLE STUDY)

greetings from our studio here in the Golan Heights in northern Israel today we are in de sixth of the Maranatha fast and day six of our Maranatha global Bible study studying the end of the age and the return of the Lord and the FAI app all the sessions for every day are available for free you can download the app and we go very deep word by word sentence by sentence through some of the most significant and important eschatological passages in the Bible you can go to the app download it and we go into great detail today what I wanted to do is give a bonus session I'm gonna do a condensed short session today addressing the issue of the pre-tribulation rapture let's just jump right into it reason number one that we don't believe in a pre-tribulation rapture meaning we believe that Jesus comes after the tribulation of those days that's a verbatim quote from Matthew 24 after the tribulation the second coming drama unfolds there's not a secret rapture at the beginning of the tribulation that's what the terminology means if this is a new concept for you now that's a significant different worldview in a different gospel message to either prepare for escape or prepare for endurance so let's look at reason number one reason number one we don't believe in a pre-tribulation rapture is because it's not found in the Bible that's the most important point now you can infer it in many many passages in the Bible you can infer it in types and shadows and metaphors and use this as an example Noah was an example he got on the ark and he escaped the judgment Enoch was exempt from the days of Noah the Lord took him up there's lots of these metaphors that are used to justify the teaching but the bottom line is this there's not a single verse in the Bible that affirms a pre-tribulation escape before the days of trouble there isn't one now here's the encouraging thing there's only four verses in the whole Bible the talk explicitly about the rapture I'm gonna mention them briefly and you can go read them on your own the first one is Matthew 24 29 through 31 Jesus says this and immediately after the tribulation of those days those specific days mentioned from verse 15 to 31 the tribulation of those days after that the Sun will be darkened the moon will not give light the Stars will fall then you will see the coming of the Son of Man and he will gather the elect he will gather his beloved to himself that's the simple narrative as Jesus taught it he didn't say that before the tribulation of those days the redeemed will be pulled out and will escape the tribulation of those days in fact once we study what happens in Matthew 24 we see the involvement and engagement and participation of the church all over that message as Jesus is clearly explaining the role of the body of Christ as these pressures are bearing down on the earth the second passage is 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 where the Apostle Paul says this hey Thessalonians you have no need that I should write to you because I already told you this when I was with you the day of the Lord which is the coming of our Lord and our being gathered together with him to him meaning he puts those as one event the coming of our Lord and our being gathered together to them those days that day that specific day that singular awesome day the day of the Lord that day will not come until the great falling away happens first and the man of sin is revealed first so what Paul is saying is this in order for the day of the Lord which by the way he calls the day of the Lord the coming of our Lord and our being gathered together he mentions three terms day of the Lord coming of our Lord gathering to our Lord he says that day it's one day beloved it's not two days it's not one that happens over a span of multiple years it's one event and it's one day that's a compelling point the second point is he says it happens after the great falling away and the man of sin who is the Antichrist the man of sin is this colossal figure in biblical eschatology who will be a massive reason for this great falling away and a lot of the great while that's gonna happen in the generation of the Lord's return polls writing to a church and saying guys you need to prepare that the day of the Lord the coming the Lord's not gonna happen until after that so in other words be prepared to endure that which is also then not surprising why in Chapter one of the same book in second Thessalonians he's encouraging the Saints in Thessalonica says guys I know you're going through a lot of pain and affliction right now but here's the deal your affliction is gonna lift he's gonna bring relief to you on the day he comes in flaming fire in flaming fire not in a secret rapture before the trouble when he comes in flaming fire to do what to deal out quote retribution among the nation's so he says that our day of relief will come on the day when he comes in flaming fire that's very very compelling the third text out of the four is in 1st Corinthians 15 verses 50 51 52 he's explaining the resurrection of our bodies at the end of the age when the Lord returns and he says this we are going to be swallowed up in immortality incorruptible a corruptible flesh will be swallowed up in incorruptible glory when he comes he says this we will be transformed in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet at the last trumpet now if you've studied trumpets in biblical eschatology you know that there's series of trumpets at the end of the age in this end of the age scenario and Paul says this you're gonna get a resurrected body at the end of the trumpets the last trumpet so you know where's the last Trent when's the last trumpet sound you know you don't really need to know when it sounds because you know it's the last one there won't be another one now when we compare that to passages like 1st Thessalonians 4 in Matthew 24 we realized that Paul and Jesus also speak about a great trumpet a last trumpet a seventh trumpet so we know this it happens after the tribulation Matthew 24 after the great falling away and the Antichrist is revealed second Thessalonians and we know that it happens after all the other trumpets at the final trumpet that sounds pretty end doesn't it and then our last text which is a very important one is 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 13 through 17 Paul is addressing the community in Thessalonica again which is he wrote this before 2nd Thessalonians why it's called 1st Thessalonians and he says this guys listen if those who have died you know were buried in the ground right now he says this on the day when the Lord comes we're gonna hear a loud trumpet blast that's the same trumpet right he said 1st Corinthians 15 the last trumpet now he says you're gonna hear a great trumpet blast and he says this the dead in Christ will rise first and we who are alive at the coming of the Lord will meet them when the Lord gathers both the dead in Christ and the alive in Christ who are alive in the generation of the Lord's return so again he puts the gathering of the Saints at the end of everything else not only at the end he puts it on the backside of the dead guys the resurrection of the Dead is a pretty final event right he says this the ones in the ground are gonna get resurrected bodies first and we who are alive will get resurrected bodies in the process of that great drama unfolding so after the tribulation after the falling away after the man of sin after all the other trumpets at the last trumpet and at that last trumpet after the dead in Christ rise first those are the only four passages in the whole Bible that talk explicitly about the rapture now there are other ones that talk about things connected to the gathering of the Saints but none of them that that teach openly about the gathering of the Saints there isn't any other pet so that's encouraging because you don't have to study a hundred passages you only have to study for and those four are very clear and very explicit it happens at the end so we conclude can conclude this the pre-tribulation rapture is not in the Bible you can imply it you can infer it you can project it and convey it on to texts but you're not going to find it in any texts the second reason we don't believe in a pre-tribulation rapture is because it's not taught in church history the first time that anyone mentioned it for 2,000 years of church history was in the 1830s in 1850 John Darby said that he came up with this thirty years ago which would be around 1827 so there's two views on where this came from john darby claimed as it was his there's another woman named Margaret McDonald from Glasgow Scotland now she had a dream an encounter with the Lord and wrote the dream down and shared it with her community that got spread around and many people started hearing it now leaders at the time in Ireland and Scotland in England heard the teaching and said that's that's not that's not biblical because she was implying not even really arguing she was just saying this is what happened in my dream was that the people of God were exempt they escaped the final trouble and it grew from there it was largely condemned by leaders in the body at that time but some latched on to it john darby and CI Scofield latched on to it now these guys would go on to be very influential figures in modern theology from there the Scofield Study Bible would get written which was the most popular Study Bible or Bible of that generation and even up until almost our generation and that is how the teachings spread like wildfire another way that it's spread was through a novel of fictional novel series called the Left Behind series now this series was sold millions of copies there's films made about it it went around the world but the reality is this it may be in films and maybe in pop culture it may be in popular books in our generation but before 1830 there's not a single example of anyone teaching it preaching it or even arguing or engaging with it now an interesting thing happened a number of years ago some of the advocates of the pre-tribulation rapture theory wrote a book in defense of the pre-tribulation rapture because many people are starting to walk away from it which is a good thing so they wrote this book to encourage people not to walk away from it and in the appendix they wrote a 15 page appendix where they tried to argue why it was littered throughout church history and many people believed it and so what I heard about this I with the I got excited I thought well maybe there's something I'm not aware of because I've scoured church history and I can't find anyone who ever talked about it so I opened the it up and I saw oh it's 15 pages there's got to be some good evidence in here it's 15 pages of the author's quoting other pre-tribulation authors saying that it is in church history without a single example of it being in church history and this is the overwhelming problem with this issue it's not in church history all throughout the centuries people anticipated that Jesus would return and gather us on the same day you're not gonna find people talking about Jesus coming and people disappearing in their clothes falling onto the ground and then them sitting in heaven for three and a half years while the earth gets bombarded by judgments it's a fantasy it is as left behind States in the way that it's archived it is fiction it is not biblical it is not in church history that's a very important point not because church history is the most authoritative thing the Bible is but it is quite important to recognize that it's a novel idea meaning someone discovered it concocted it created it and injected it into the bloodstream of the global Body of Christ this is why I would argue it's actually a false teaching that it's actually probably most likely rooted in demonic opposition to the Lord's intentions of preparing the global church for the trouble that comes before the day of the Lord because if you can get the global body to be waiting for escape not preparing for endurance then you can set the global body up for confusion for disillusionment and from offense that is a massive win for devils and the power of the air and that's why I believe it's such a destructive teaching and why it's been only injected into the bloodstream of the global body in the last two centuries now the third reason why we don't believe in a pre-tribulation rapture is also a very important one you won't find it taught outside the Western Church now you may find pockets of it here and there of someone in a connected to a frontier area of the earth near unreached people groups who believes it but if you ask them where did you get this from they will say I got it from this teaching from this book from this Bible School from this TV teaching televangelist but they're not gonna say I got it reading my Bible at home no one ever discovers the pre-tribulation rapture teaching sitting at home alone you have to be taught this message which is a very important point no one no one just stumbles into a pre-tribulation conviction unless you're taught the teaching first and here's why I think this is significant much of the church today is already living in tribulation they're not living in the Great Tribulation that will precede the Lord's turn but they're living in tribulation and we in the West are not we're about to be but we're not right now and that's why believers in Iran and Syria and difficult places around the Middle East the Muslim world the Buddhist world the Hindu world who are dealing with persecution who are dealing with incredible challenges they're not preparing for escape from trouble because they live in trouble all day long it's the air that they breathe and so they are prepared for future tribulation because they're living in present tribulation which is a very important reality for us to grapple with is this the pre-trib rapture is conducive to Western culture it's not conducive to a culture that's enduring persecution I'm gonna read a quote from you a quote to you from someone that I have great respect for and if you know her name you have great respect for her - her name is Corrie ten Boom Corrie ten Boom you may know this name from what they did for the Jewish people her and her family did for the Jewish people during the Holocaust amazing family amazing woman this is what she wrote in 1974 she survives the Holocaust and she writes this in 1974 hear these words from a woman who endured more than you and I can possibly imagine I think she has a right to speak she says this there are some among us teaching that there will be no tribulation that the Christians will be able to escape all this these are the false teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on across the world I have been in countries where the Saints are already suffering terrible persecution in China the Christians were told by American Bible teachers quote don't worry before the tribulation comes you will be raptured then came a terrible persecution millions of Christians were tortured to death later I heard a bishop from China say sadly quote we have failed we should have made the people strong for persecution rather than telling them Jesus would come first tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution how to stand when the tribulation comes to stand and to not faint Corrie ten Boom nineteen seventy four the fourth and final reason the dovetails well with this that we don't believe in a pre-tribulation rapture is because the message of escape is not found in any of Jesus's preparatory warnings about the generation that will live through the dynamics that lead to the Lord's return Jesus's emphasis when he was proclaiming preparation was to prepare for endure and engagement not escape and exemption I'm gonna say that again because this is very important if you scour the red letters of Jesus that speak about the end of the age his message revolves around engagement on the ground amidst the trouble the gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed to all nations then the end will come the gospel will advance the gospel will go forth but what if the people who have the gospel are removed who will be the bearers of the message Jesus told us to prepare for engagement and he told us to prepare for endurance when we look at the passages in the New Testament the the Lord and the Apostles emphasized this issue of unprecedented martyrdom in the generation of the Lord's return which means this we need to prepare for the shedding of blood in Mass that we are going to be like our Lord following in his footsteps laying our lives down for his name's sake this is why in Matthew 24 Jesus would say this in those days you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake and they will deliver you up the tribulation and put you to death for my name's sake Jesus did not proclaim exemption from tribulation ever he did not proclaim escape from tribulation ever in fact he said this before he left in this world you will have trouble but I have overcome the world take heart fear not be a good soldier Paul would say prepare for the days of trouble ahead don't prepare to be exempt and to have privileged status while your neighbor has to endure the pressures that are to befall the earth before the Lord returns and I'll end with this a very important passage in Revelation chapter 7 the Apostle John is in this encounter with the Lord he's in he's looking around and he sees multitudes of people worshiping God in Revelation 7 from every tribe every multitudes multitudes in all languages adoring God and an angel says who are these and John says I don't know who are they and he says this these are those who have come up out of the Great Tribulation or in the original language those who have come up out of the tribulation the great one which means this if the church is somehow raptured before the Great Tribulation the church is not invited to that party those that great mixed multitude from among the nations will worship Him having come up out of the tribulation having washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb the white robes are given to martyrs and this is a very appropriate point to end and to say Amen on the Lord is preparing the global body of Christ to give a final martyr witness before his return and without that martyr witness the gospel of Christ and him crucified will not be declared and demonstrated the way that God intends it to in the generation that he sends his son to Jerusalem to establish his government and his rule and his reign again if you're interested in studying this subject in greater detail in an exegetical way in the Bible verse by verse go download the FAI app go to the Maranatha global Bible study in all the sessions the video the audio the notes are free and you can do whatever you want with them thank you for listening bless you and maranatha you

Channel: FAI STUDIOS

Views: 741,398

Keywords: rapture, end-times, Joel Richardson, eschatology, Dalton Thomas, FAI, Maranatha, pre-trib

Id: 9ifs4kGli0g

Length: 21min 59sec (1319 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 30 2020