Post by bcool on Dec 15, 2014 7:03:01 GMT -6
Indispensable to any serious study of the Lord's coming is a clear understanding of the doctrine of imminency--the “any moment” return of our Lord Jesus Christ. “I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown”[KJV] (Revelation 3:11). “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” [KJV] (Revelations 22:20). The final appeal of these words is to all individuals who will hear. People in churches today would do well to listen. The Scriptures teach us that the coming of the Messiah for the believer is imminent, that is, He can come at any time or moment. The relationship of the Rapture to the Tribulation must be clearly focused in the mind. While the Rapture of the Church precedes the Tribulation, it does not technically begin the Tribulation, a fact confused even by some Pretribulationists. It is not the Rapture, but the seven-year covenant which begins the Tribulation.
The Rapture is a hotly debated subject in the Church today. The Scriptures do not provide concise wording in one location spelling out in declarative statements one side or the other of this debate such as: the Rapture shall precede, come in the midst of, or after the Tribulation, thus saith the Lord. And when we turn to Bible scholars for help, our access to high-quality information has not, unfortunately, ushered in an age in which disagreements of this sort can easily be solved with a quick Google search. In fact, the Internet has made things worse. Confirmation bias — the tendency to pay more attention to evidence that supports what you already believe — is a well-documented and a common human failing. People have been writing about it for a long time. In recent years, though, researchers have found that confirmation bias is not easy to overcome. Seems you cannot just drown it in facts even when those facts are formed by straightforward conclusions from the inspired text. As a result, every serious student of the Rapture, or any doctrinal tenet, must rely on the Holy Spirit to illuminate the Word of God, and on this subject, to shine light on the real and objective inferences relating to the Rapture's time and details as presented in the Bible. And friends, they are all there to make a persuasive case. Still I hope our little discussion of the Rapture will at least serve as a reminder of the expectant living every believer needs each day to fulfill our Lord's Great Commission to every tribe, nation, tongue, and people.
Since the argument seems foreign to Scripture, I have had to refer to other material out there which boisterously refutes the Pre-Trib Rapture (or any rapture for that matter), and what I am immediately struck by in these documents is the fierce, malicious and personal maligning of individual scholars BY NAME who happen to teach the Rapture from the Bible, particularly the Pre-Trib Rapture of the Church. Perhaps the critics just hate bad ideas. I sure hope that's what it is. I pray that they don't really hate their fellow brethren as much as their venomous attacks seem to suggest. In any event, according to these critics, the Pre-Trib scholars have apparently, 'bless their little hearts', been duped or worse, are villains of the first degree, co-conspirators of what is branded with disaffection, the Rapture Plot. This conspiracy theory has been described by some as the dishonest, 179-year-old, fringe-British-invented, American-merchandised-until-the-real-bad-stuff-happens pretribulation rapture fad. In their own version of, oh let's call it, ‘The Darby Code’, they tell the story of this young Scottish lassie, Margaret Macdonald, who, from out of thin air, came up with the novel notion of a catching up [rapture] of the true Church before the Tribulation. The great “Anglo-Irish” Bible teacher and expositor, John Nelson Darby, bought into her crazy vision of a rapture and the pair, even posthumously, has been threatening the very foundations of Christianity ever since.
OK, you can go ahead and close your mouths. Now if you want to talk about a real plot, let's talk about a satanic plot which is conspiring in the shadows to impugn the very faithfulness of God. There is a satanic plot which boisterously supports faulty conclusions from Bible prophecy. Many times you will find what is behind this false teaching if you look carefully. It may come in what appears at first to be a harmless remark. And yet you sense a condescending tone in the text which hints at what the writer really means. Don't you get it? Words like Zion or Zionist are meant to be pejorative terms. Sooner or later it becomes obvious to you. Bad interpretation of Bible prophecy seems to always boil down to a single issue: What about Israel? What about the Jew? It always ends up being about Israel, and then if we are not careful the prejudice of Anti-Semitism rears its ugly head, out of nowhere it seems, and your end times view starts to change just a little. Just enough. God is done with those no-account, apostate Jews! Well then, in that case, the Church smack dab in the middle of the Tribulation is not so much out of place anymore.
Misunderstanding the role of Israel in God’s plan has a ripple effect on every aspect of theology. We even see this when we study the various views of the Rapture, its timing or whether such a thing even exists. We can trace much faulty doctrine to the improper handling of the Biblical teaching regarding the nation of Israel. For example, “replacement theology” teaches that the church is essentially the replacement for Israel and that the many promises made to Israel in the Bible are fulfilled in the Christian church, not in Israel. So, the prophecies in Scripture concerning the blessing and restoration of Israel to the Promised Land are “spiritualized” or “allegorized” into promises of God's blessing for the Church. This faulty perspective often, though not always, manifests itself in the behavior of believers. And while “replacement theology” does not cause anti-Semitism, the two are not uncomfortable with one another.
The irrational belief in Jewish conspiracy theories has translated into genuine hostility. The Jews have become the perfect whipping boys for all manner of financial, political, and social calamities surrounding humanity. Whatever your political persuasion, you should not distort the truth and insist that the Jew is the root of all the world's problems. Moreover (and this point seems obvious to me), no one should ever propose that any problem could be solved by simply getting rid of the Jew.
In case you have not thought about it much, Anti-Semitism, generally speaking, likes to portray the Jew as the root of virtually all evil in the world. Anti-Semitism engenders a great opposition to Israel as a nation and to the Jews as God's people. It is a masterstroke of treacherous evil. Endless Jewish persecutions verify Satan-inspired antagonism toward God's elect people. History authenticates the devastating effect of such virulent bigotry. The biblical portrayal of this heinous intolerance presents the divine perspective and solution and outlines the plan of God for the Jew throughout human history. In the unconditional covenants to Israel, God guarantees that the Jew will survive despite the cruel treatment. Therefore, He condemns anti-Semitism as a contradiction to His sovereign will and purpose.
The real problem in the world is actually threefold. First, the devil rules this planet in his evil way (Luke 4:4-6; 2 Corinthians 4:4). Second, the inner culprit, the inborn sinful nature of man (Romans 5:12), is the source of all our personal troubles and depravity. And third, our own bad decisions account for a large share of our misfortunes and create self-induced misery (Galatians 6:7-8). Any effort to blame or eradicate the Jews would only compound our problems and in the end destroy us, as anti-Semitism has destroyed every nation that ever raised a hand against God's people. There is a solution for this innate problem of mankind. This solution begins by simply believing in Christ as your Savior. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved” (Acts 16:31b; cf., 2 Corinthians 5:17).
Today when considering Israel as a nation some of Christendom seem reluctant to declare with certainty whether the present State is or is not prophetically significant. Of course if it is not, God could certainly sweep them out of the land, to regather them “in belief” at a yet later date. However, it does seem more likely that God established the State of Israel in 1948 at least to set the stage for the final regathering and restoration of Israel in belief. Frankly, I think we do not attach sufficient importance to the restoration of the Jews. We do not think enough about it. But certainly, if there is anything that is promised in the Bible it is this. I imagine that you cannot read the Bible without seeing clearly that there is to be an actual restoration of the Children of Israel. Ultimately Israel as a nation will be restored to her land and will enjoy God’s blessing. This will happen during the millennial reign of Christ when the nation will experience the fulfillment and benefits of the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
The New Covenant contains a glorious set of promises that can only be realized because of the blood of Christ. That Christ's crucifixion ratified the Covenant is not in question for most conservative Christians today---that the Covenant is presently in full operational force is. The New Covenant promises full obedience, not fractional. It promises all the power of the Spirit which brings about compliance to God's ordinances, not the inconsistency we often experience. It promises comprehensive knowledge of the Lord, not the dim view we presently possess (1 Corinthians 13:12). It promises that teachers will no longer be needed, while today teachers are an important part of the Christian life. If you would like to add to these, you can find other distinctions in the Bible that separate the full operational force of the New Covenant from God's administration of the Church.
Just as the nation of Israel functioned under the auspices of the Old Covenant between the giving of the Law and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, so Israel, and those who join with her in serving the Lord during the Millennium (Isaiah 58) will function under the auspices of the New Covenant. The New Covenant is specifically for the kingdom age, not for the administration of the Church. Apart from our eternal and vitally intimate relationship with the Mediator of the New Covenant (Jesus Christ) and the blood of the New Covenant He shed on Calvary for her Salvation, the Church is not directly involved in the operation of this Jewish Covenant; she instead is under the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2) which becomes operational in the believer at the moment of Salvation by the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Hence forward the law of Christ functions in the filling of the Holy Spirit which empowers and transforms the Christian on a moment by moment basis through the obedience of faith (Romans 8).
There is only one people whom God has promised to preserve throughout history---the Jews. They may be scattered at various times and persecuted a lot of the time, but they have never been obliterated nor have they lost their racial identity. Jews are blessed above all other peoples of the earth as a constant testimony to the veracity and authenticity of the Word of God---a perpetual reminder of His grace and faithfulness. May God the Holy Spirit help you make the correct applications of Bible prophecy as it relates to the distinction between the Church and Israel. May you have the perceptive ability to wade through the false and see only the true issues in this crucial period of our history as a nation. And remember that as long as the United States opposes anti-Semitism we will remain under the blessing clause of Genesis 12:3 which in our desperate times may be our last best hope for a nation. May God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.
-Brad
DISCLOSURE: DISCLOSURE: I do not pretend to be a Bible scholar. What you see here are my private and unpublished study notes which do not always cite source material. That means some content may not be original with me. But you should know that I always compile these studies in conformity with the scriptural orthodoxy of the Christian faith. I rely on the Word of God as the final arbiter of sound doctrine. That is my bias. And unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New American Standard Bible (NASB), © 1995, The Lockman Foundation. -Brad
The Rapture is a hotly debated subject in the Church today. The Scriptures do not provide concise wording in one location spelling out in declarative statements one side or the other of this debate such as: the Rapture shall precede, come in the midst of, or after the Tribulation, thus saith the Lord. And when we turn to Bible scholars for help, our access to high-quality information has not, unfortunately, ushered in an age in which disagreements of this sort can easily be solved with a quick Google search. In fact, the Internet has made things worse. Confirmation bias — the tendency to pay more attention to evidence that supports what you already believe — is a well-documented and a common human failing. People have been writing about it for a long time. In recent years, though, researchers have found that confirmation bias is not easy to overcome. Seems you cannot just drown it in facts even when those facts are formed by straightforward conclusions from the inspired text. As a result, every serious student of the Rapture, or any doctrinal tenet, must rely on the Holy Spirit to illuminate the Word of God, and on this subject, to shine light on the real and objective inferences relating to the Rapture's time and details as presented in the Bible. And friends, they are all there to make a persuasive case. Still I hope our little discussion of the Rapture will at least serve as a reminder of the expectant living every believer needs each day to fulfill our Lord's Great Commission to every tribe, nation, tongue, and people.
Since the argument seems foreign to Scripture, I have had to refer to other material out there which boisterously refutes the Pre-Trib Rapture (or any rapture for that matter), and what I am immediately struck by in these documents is the fierce, malicious and personal maligning of individual scholars BY NAME who happen to teach the Rapture from the Bible, particularly the Pre-Trib Rapture of the Church. Perhaps the critics just hate bad ideas. I sure hope that's what it is. I pray that they don't really hate their fellow brethren as much as their venomous attacks seem to suggest. In any event, according to these critics, the Pre-Trib scholars have apparently, 'bless their little hearts', been duped or worse, are villains of the first degree, co-conspirators of what is branded with disaffection, the Rapture Plot. This conspiracy theory has been described by some as the dishonest, 179-year-old, fringe-British-invented, American-merchandised-until-the-real-bad-stuff-happens pretribulation rapture fad. In their own version of, oh let's call it, ‘The Darby Code’, they tell the story of this young Scottish lassie, Margaret Macdonald, who, from out of thin air, came up with the novel notion of a catching up [rapture] of the true Church before the Tribulation. The great “Anglo-Irish” Bible teacher and expositor, John Nelson Darby, bought into her crazy vision of a rapture and the pair, even posthumously, has been threatening the very foundations of Christianity ever since.
OK, you can go ahead and close your mouths. Now if you want to talk about a real plot, let's talk about a satanic plot which is conspiring in the shadows to impugn the very faithfulness of God. There is a satanic plot which boisterously supports faulty conclusions from Bible prophecy. Many times you will find what is behind this false teaching if you look carefully. It may come in what appears at first to be a harmless remark. And yet you sense a condescending tone in the text which hints at what the writer really means. Don't you get it? Words like Zion or Zionist are meant to be pejorative terms. Sooner or later it becomes obvious to you. Bad interpretation of Bible prophecy seems to always boil down to a single issue: What about Israel? What about the Jew? It always ends up being about Israel, and then if we are not careful the prejudice of Anti-Semitism rears its ugly head, out of nowhere it seems, and your end times view starts to change just a little. Just enough. God is done with those no-account, apostate Jews! Well then, in that case, the Church smack dab in the middle of the Tribulation is not so much out of place anymore.
Misunderstanding the role of Israel in God’s plan has a ripple effect on every aspect of theology. We even see this when we study the various views of the Rapture, its timing or whether such a thing even exists. We can trace much faulty doctrine to the improper handling of the Biblical teaching regarding the nation of Israel. For example, “replacement theology” teaches that the church is essentially the replacement for Israel and that the many promises made to Israel in the Bible are fulfilled in the Christian church, not in Israel. So, the prophecies in Scripture concerning the blessing and restoration of Israel to the Promised Land are “spiritualized” or “allegorized” into promises of God's blessing for the Church. This faulty perspective often, though not always, manifests itself in the behavior of believers. And while “replacement theology” does not cause anti-Semitism, the two are not uncomfortable with one another.
The irrational belief in Jewish conspiracy theories has translated into genuine hostility. The Jews have become the perfect whipping boys for all manner of financial, political, and social calamities surrounding humanity. Whatever your political persuasion, you should not distort the truth and insist that the Jew is the root of all the world's problems. Moreover (and this point seems obvious to me), no one should ever propose that any problem could be solved by simply getting rid of the Jew.
In case you have not thought about it much, Anti-Semitism, generally speaking, likes to portray the Jew as the root of virtually all evil in the world. Anti-Semitism engenders a great opposition to Israel as a nation and to the Jews as God's people. It is a masterstroke of treacherous evil. Endless Jewish persecutions verify Satan-inspired antagonism toward God's elect people. History authenticates the devastating effect of such virulent bigotry. The biblical portrayal of this heinous intolerance presents the divine perspective and solution and outlines the plan of God for the Jew throughout human history. In the unconditional covenants to Israel, God guarantees that the Jew will survive despite the cruel treatment. Therefore, He condemns anti-Semitism as a contradiction to His sovereign will and purpose.
The real problem in the world is actually threefold. First, the devil rules this planet in his evil way (Luke 4:4-6; 2 Corinthians 4:4). Second, the inner culprit, the inborn sinful nature of man (Romans 5:12), is the source of all our personal troubles and depravity. And third, our own bad decisions account for a large share of our misfortunes and create self-induced misery (Galatians 6:7-8). Any effort to blame or eradicate the Jews would only compound our problems and in the end destroy us, as anti-Semitism has destroyed every nation that ever raised a hand against God's people. There is a solution for this innate problem of mankind. This solution begins by simply believing in Christ as your Savior. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved” (Acts 16:31b; cf., 2 Corinthians 5:17).
Today when considering Israel as a nation some of Christendom seem reluctant to declare with certainty whether the present State is or is not prophetically significant. Of course if it is not, God could certainly sweep them out of the land, to regather them “in belief” at a yet later date. However, it does seem more likely that God established the State of Israel in 1948 at least to set the stage for the final regathering and restoration of Israel in belief. Frankly, I think we do not attach sufficient importance to the restoration of the Jews. We do not think enough about it. But certainly, if there is anything that is promised in the Bible it is this. I imagine that you cannot read the Bible without seeing clearly that there is to be an actual restoration of the Children of Israel. Ultimately Israel as a nation will be restored to her land and will enjoy God’s blessing. This will happen during the millennial reign of Christ when the nation will experience the fulfillment and benefits of the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
The New Covenant contains a glorious set of promises that can only be realized because of the blood of Christ. That Christ's crucifixion ratified the Covenant is not in question for most conservative Christians today---that the Covenant is presently in full operational force is. The New Covenant promises full obedience, not fractional. It promises all the power of the Spirit which brings about compliance to God's ordinances, not the inconsistency we often experience. It promises comprehensive knowledge of the Lord, not the dim view we presently possess (1 Corinthians 13:12). It promises that teachers will no longer be needed, while today teachers are an important part of the Christian life. If you would like to add to these, you can find other distinctions in the Bible that separate the full operational force of the New Covenant from God's administration of the Church.
Just as the nation of Israel functioned under the auspices of the Old Covenant between the giving of the Law and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, so Israel, and those who join with her in serving the Lord during the Millennium (Isaiah 58) will function under the auspices of the New Covenant. The New Covenant is specifically for the kingdom age, not for the administration of the Church. Apart from our eternal and vitally intimate relationship with the Mediator of the New Covenant (Jesus Christ) and the blood of the New Covenant He shed on Calvary for her Salvation, the Church is not directly involved in the operation of this Jewish Covenant; she instead is under the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2) which becomes operational in the believer at the moment of Salvation by the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Hence forward the law of Christ functions in the filling of the Holy Spirit which empowers and transforms the Christian on a moment by moment basis through the obedience of faith (Romans 8).
There is only one people whom God has promised to preserve throughout history---the Jews. They may be scattered at various times and persecuted a lot of the time, but they have never been obliterated nor have they lost their racial identity. Jews are blessed above all other peoples of the earth as a constant testimony to the veracity and authenticity of the Word of God---a perpetual reminder of His grace and faithfulness. May God the Holy Spirit help you make the correct applications of Bible prophecy as it relates to the distinction between the Church and Israel. May you have the perceptive ability to wade through the false and see only the true issues in this crucial period of our history as a nation. And remember that as long as the United States opposes anti-Semitism we will remain under the blessing clause of Genesis 12:3 which in our desperate times may be our last best hope for a nation. May God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.
-Brad
DISCLOSURE: DISCLOSURE: I do not pretend to be a Bible scholar. What you see here are my private and unpublished study notes which do not always cite source material. That means some content may not be original with me. But you should know that I always compile these studies in conformity with the scriptural orthodoxy of the Christian faith. I rely on the Word of God as the final arbiter of sound doctrine. That is my bias. And unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New American Standard Bible (NASB), © 1995, The Lockman Foundation. -Brad
