I think it was yesterday that I posted this reply to Alain Humbert. This was this individual’s response to Terry’s article that I have been addressing lately: Alain who agrees with Terry states:
“If we ask some of Its (pre-Trib) opponents why they think so, the answer more often than not is a burst of theological machinegun, spraying liberally the Doctrine and those who believe in it with Bible verses flying as so many angry redhot tracers.
Our dissenting brethren (they still believe In JESUS AS their SAVIOUR) are not aware that the devil can make them quote Holy Scriptures for his own purpose.
Whenever I had such an encounter, I content myself with telling them to be prepared For A Pleasant Surprise. But more often than not too, that failed to calm them.
Anyway, we must remember that the Subject Is Not SALVATION-Related, and keep on praying for our brethren to have their eyes opened.”
And this was my response to Alain. It of course will not be posted, but I tried.
I hear what you are saying, but what if it is a salvation related thing? If we read in James the very last couple of verses, James is encouraging us to bring back a brother who has strayed from the truth. What does that mean? This is a brother that he is speaking of. The passage certainly leads one to believe that the purpose is for soul salvation. Now I know that this is hard to stomach but does the stating of it not make “Truth” a much more important foundation to our doctrine? And should we not be attempting to resolve this issue of Rapture when by enguaging and encouraging discussion over it rather than cutting it off? Sure there must be civility in the engagement but without engagement Satan already has His foothold.
Now, following Alain’s comment quoted above is Mark Scheiderer’s comment:
“I believe those who are “flame-throwing anti-Pre-Tribbers” are being deceived and used by the Enemy ( who knows that his time is short.) Thomas Ice and others have proven that around the time of the death of Augustine the established church edited and deleted the Early Church Father’s belief and teachings on a Pre-Trib Rapture. The anti-P-T’s may talk about discussion on the issue, but why should we discuss an issue that was settled in the first few centuries of the Church?
Those of us who believe/teach/preach a Pre-Trib Rapture are simply giving Jacob (Prasch and others) a time of trouble.”
The interesting thing about this is the obvious conclusion that the “issue…was settled in the first few centuries of the Church”. If evidence was deleted; then we have nothing but the scriptures for our evidence. I speak to the evidence claimed by pre-Trib scholars in the book that I wrote. But the claimed evidence is not supportive of their position. This statement of his, however, is informative because it makes obvious the one sided input to this line of thinking, with no rebuttal allowed. All the input then comes from a Dispensationalist pre-Trib bias, without any genuine input from and consideration of the Scriptures presented by the other side.
I was taught theology (eschatology) from the pre-Trib camp, and I was raised in the Southern Baptist Church. Now that does not make me an expert, but it should say to you that I know both sides of the argument. That fact alone is also worthless absent the scriptures to back up what I have gleaned and teach from those experiences.
Pre-Trib Theology has left out the truth component, which requires literal Scriptures backing for any sound doctrine, and this they confirm as they will eventually admit when pressed that there is no literal Scriptural statement to the effect that the Rapture is pre-Trib. The pre-Trib Rapture has as its foundation the separation of the Christian Church from Israel, yet Paul states that in Him (Israel’s Messiah) we have our inheritance. He explains our inheritance as being the same inheritance that Israel was given through Father Abraham, who remember was himself called by God out from among the Gentile world as the patriarch for the covenants and promises which followed. These Paul says by our inclusion in them make us one new man within the New Covenant people. So what are the Scriptural points that need to be considered by all in this discussion? We will get to them in future posts.
Terry James has made the observation that we who oppose the pre-Trib rapture have a scant following. I’m trying to change that, but that is up to God and His timing. But in the interim until God acts Terry sees this as the blessing of God on his form of truth, vs the post-Trib truth. Two options of truth for you to consider — which one is really true to literal scripture?
Anyone reading this has the option to agree with him in which case you would want to spread his truth, or to like what you are seeing here in which case you would I hope want to make this site known to others. I write these articles for those who have not yet considered both sides and compared them to literal Scripture. Thanks for listening.
Reading the articles in the Foundational posts, will assist you to discover the scripture passages relied upon to at least question what the Bible teaches as to the Raptures timing.