Pre-Trib Rapture
Right from the start I would like to apologize for the extended use of the personal pronouns, “I” and “my” that will appear throughout this article. Apparently my last article struck an enormous nerve, and therefore I am led to write what follows.
It is amazing to me to what extent those who are blinded by hatred will ignore the obvious. It does not matter what you, me, or anyone else writes in defense of the doctrine of the Pre-Trib Rapture; the wolves will ignore the obvious and rage over things not said.
For the most part, I feel the Lord has led me to give comfort to those who are my fellow sheep of like faith, in the doctrines of Christ and prophecy. Sometimes I offer that comfort through new things, but for the most part I try to highlight things already taught by our dearly beloved teachers.
I feel a deep spiritual love for my fellow brethren (“brethren” means both sisters and brothers to me). I have a particular sensitivity when someone (or something) attacks my siblings in Christ. I do not like being attacked, so I can certainly relate when others who believe the same as I do, are attacked simply for believing in what they believe.
I know that all who contribute articles to this website are attacked for what they believe. I’m certainly not the first, nor will I be the last. What follows is not a defense for defending my fellow believers. It is further enlightenment as to why we are attacked, and that it will not stop until the King of kings splits the Mount of Olives with His feet.
“And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south” (Zechariah 14).
The following is a paragraph is extracted straight out of my last article:
Of course there are many honest, born-again believers in Christ do not agree with the Pre-Trib Rapture doctrine. Those believers are not seeking to devour those of us who do. I have to seriously question the motivation of those who focus the majority of their “work for the Lord” in vitriolic attacks launched against the hearts of those who hold to the Pre-Trib Rapture doctrine. Such attacks are an attribute of Satan, not of Christ.
Two distinct groups are recognized within the paragraph above. The first group is found within the parentheses. They are those Christians who do not agree with us on the Pre-Trib Rapture and the exact timing of the Lord’s return, but with whom we still enjoy loving fellowship in Christ. They are certainly not the wolves who are attacking the true sheep because they are the true sheep.
Those within the second group however are packs of wolves. Their main focus is to destroy the sheep of the Good Shepherd. They are well aware that at the current time they are not able to destroy our bodies, so they instead focus their attention on our spirits, on our hearts. They are attempting to destroy that over which they have no power: our faith.
The sons of Satan have no living water upon which to draw. They receive no wisdom from the Spirit of Christ because they are none of His. Oh, they may claim to come in His name, but by their fruits you shall know them. Christ gave repeated warnings that these wolves come in sheep’s clothing. Sometimes, too much emphasis is placed on the wolf part of the wolf; more emphasis needs to be placed on the sheep part of the wolf.
The wolf is able to creep in unaware because he carries the hide of a sheep upon his back. He “hides” within the shell of a sheep. Although he claims the Name above all names, his claim is false. However, in a very short time his true nature comes growling. He and his pack are self-proclaimed theologians, similar to the scribes and Pharisees of two thousand years ago.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matthew 23:27-28).
Why was Jesus so stern in His rebuking of the scribes and Pharisees? Simple, they pretended to be children of God in the form of sheep, but they were openly behaving like wolves. They were the ones who consistently tracked the sheep of the Good Shepherd like prey to be devoured. They were the ones lying in wait to launch an attack at the Lord and His disciples, at a moment’s notice. They showed themselves as the wolves that they were, in a very obvious way.
The Pharisees did not use crude language and noticeable attacks against God. The sheep would clearly recognize them as wolves if they had. No, instead they used cunning language drawn from their head knowledge, but the Lord knew they had no heart knowledge. That is why He said:
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:33-34).
Jesus was saying to the Pharisees, “Look, either take up your cross and follow Me, or just come out and say you hate God and get it over with!” Jesus was teaching that they appeared to be saying good things, but that good things cannot come from an evil heart. A bad tree bears no good fruit.
Satan is continuously supplying the field of the world with modern-day Pharisees. The parable of the wheat and the tares teaches that weeds are clothed with the ability to effectively hide among the wheat. These weeds do not humbly seek out wisdom that only comes from the Holy Spirit. Instead, they fill their bellies with the wisdom of the natural man.
Sure, they are earthly literate, but they are heavenly illiterate. They can read the Bible with their eyes, but they cannot hear the Spirit with their heart. While trying to destroy the sheep, they twist the Scriptures to their own destruction.
“And consider that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:15-16).
The true sheep of Christ humbly draw from the Living Water, so that they may understand the Scriptures.
“He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45).
“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God” (1 Corinthians 2:12).
“But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For ‘who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:10-16).
Unfortunately, even God’s true sheep can stray from the path of holiness to Christ, and can even become blinded:
“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins” (2 Peter 1:5-9).
True sheep are just that: sheep. They are not carnivores. They do not walk about seeking prey to devour. They stay true to the nature of a sheep. They will not even contemplate roaming about the territory or “domain” of other’s beliefs with the goal of ridiculing them for what they believe. Only a wolf would do that.
We, as sheep of Christ, are called to let our lights so shine before men that they are compelled to ask us a reason for the hope that lies within us. By letting our light shine bright, many are drawn toward that light. We are also called to walk in unity and love.
“Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one” (Colossians 4:5-6).
We must maintain our patience and hope in the Lord’s plan.
“For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry” (Habakkuk 2:3).
“Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: ‘For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.’ But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul” (Hebrews 10:35-39).
“That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ” (Ephesians 4:14-15).
“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them” (Ephesians 5:6-7).