On Sunday I shocked a few people in the pew by suggesting that the church might go through the tribulation period. (If you were in the first service, you may want to check out my sermon on the web - I had to leave about 10" out because of time.)
It is my view that a straightforward reading of Jesus' discourse (Mark 13; Matthew 24; Luke 21) on his return reveals a very simple outline of end-time events:
1. The Beginning of Birth pains (we live in those days now).
2. Days of Distress or the Great Tribulation. Those days will come with the rise of the anti-Christ. We don't know how long they will last, only that they are shortened for the sake of the elect. They could come anytime.
3. The Second Coming. According to Jesus when the days of great distress arrive, his coming is "at the door," though we still do not know the exact time. (Be careful about interpreting Biblical numbers literally.)
I also think that the "evacuation view" (rapture), first developed in Bible prophecy conferences in the 1870s and popularized by C. I. Scofield in the early 1900s, has promoted a rather causal attitude toward the doctrine of perseverance. "Persevering to the end" in difficulty is seldom emphasized. We are waiting to be evacuated - we don't have to worry about perseverance! It has also promoted the notion of a "second chance" for those "left behind" - a dangerous notion that has eternal implications.
If you are still thinking through this issue you may want to get your hands on the classic book by the late George Ladd entitled "The Blessed Hope: A Biblical Study of the Second Advent and the Rapture." Ladd does a nice job with the text, as well as providing some historical perspective. He also makes it clear that this is NOT an issue for Christians to divide over (as many fundamentalists have). If you grew up Baptist and are wondering if this is outside the pale of Baptist orthodoxy (however one may define that), let me assure you that it is NOT. (Baptists in America were not pre-trib until the early 20th century.) Perphaps the most respected Baptist theologian today is Millard Erickson who develops the post-trib view in his work "Christian Theology" (p. 1205-24).
Questions or comments? Let others hear what you are thinking on the bishops' blog . . .
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I was very thankful to be able to break from my routine at college and come listen to this sermon on Father's Day. I must agree that I was shocked initially, but then I realized that the rapture topic was one which I had taken for granted. I did not even know where it was mentioned in the Bible. My references for believing in the pre-trib rapture came only from teachings at the christian middle school I attended in Portage. Things I could remember: Larry Norman's song "I Wish We'd All Been Ready", 1972's "A Thief in the Night" (I remember sitting with the entire 5th through 8th grades watching this movie during the weekly Wednesday morning chapel service--oh, and the year was 1995.), and finally a summer camp sermon where the speaker said that the world will end in exactly one thousand and seven years from the beginning of the tribulation (seven years of tribulation, one thousand years of Christ's reign on Earth).
I then thought it was odd that no reference was made to Revalation during this service. Therefore I began my own investigation there, and soon realized that Revalation does talk about the glorious return of Christ, but does not give any indication of when a rapture occurs relative to that moment...I had assumed that there was some mention of it before it began talking about the judgements and visions of the tribulation. Taking the opportunity to shed light on a subject I had assumed much on for so long, I turned to the internet to search for the verses that are used to defend the different views on the rapture. I found a website - raptureready.com - that looked respectable. The scriputural evidence the website author uses for it's pre-trib rapture argument include Matthew 25:13, 1 Thess. 4:16-18, and 1 Cor. 15:51-53. The verses the author uses from Revalation only mention the return of Christ.
The same website had a page where it defended common refutes on the pre-trib theory, found here (the 2nd topic). I immediately found the rebuttal reasoning very weak: Pre-trib opponents should have thought this one through because any pre-tribulationist has the same right to say, "Nowhere in the Bible does it directly say the Church will go through the tribulation." Jesus did say, "Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh" (Matthew 24:44). The only time frame I can think of when we believers would not be expecting Jesus to return would have to be before the tribulation.
I took the liberty to e-mail the author directly since he did provide his address on the webpage. I asked him what he thought of the verses discussed in Mark 13. His reply: Jeff,
After the rapture of the Church, a large number of people will obviously come to faith in Christ. We believe that this post-rapture statement applies to tribulation believers.
Todd
I'm sure raptureready.com is not the authoratative defender of pre-trib rapture theory, but I found the arguments for it to be poor. First of all, the scripture references are not in context (the cutting and pasting Pastor Young described in the sermon definitely apply here). Secondly, the self-defeating argument that the post-trib theory is just as unproven as the pre-trib theory is circular reasoning, and is not acceptable to me. Thirdly, the author "thinks" the only time frame that makes sense is before the tribulation. I could argue that my expectation for Christ's return would be highest at the onset of the tribulation! After reading about how horrible these end times will be, I cannot fathom the amount of dispair that many believers will undoubtably feel if they find themselves going through a great tribulation and no one has dissapeared. If we cannot know exactly when it will end, the dispair will grow with time as the expectation of a return decreases. This gives much more credit to Christ telling us of the necessity to persevere.
I thought it would be interesting to share my own research with everyone here, but the real meaning of all this to me is that there are many aspects of my relationship with Christ that I have failed to verify in God's Word. Growing up in a predominantly Christian atmosphere, when everyone thinks like you, it's easy to fall into the assumption that "Well, if everyone else thinks it's right, then it must be." This sermon has been one spark for me to investigate many other things I have taken to believe without contextual Biblical reference. Thank you for allowing me to share.
-Jeff
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