IT IS HIGH TIME THAT WE CONSIDERED THE PRETRIBULATION RAPTURE OF THE BORN AGAIN CHURCH TO BE ONE OF THE ESSENTIAL DOCTRINES OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH by Geoffrey Grider for Now The End Begins
Let’s take a look at a few more reasons why the Pretribulation Rapture of the Church is established Bible doctrine. We will not be playing the Laodicean “let’s just agree to disagree game” here, the Pretribulation Rapture of the Church is a fact, and we can prove it. One more thing, we always say the Pretribulation Rapture “of the church” because there is more than one rapture in the Bible. The rapture we see in Matthew 24, when we rightly divide it, is the rapture of the Tribulation Saints, and not the Church.
If the Rapture of the Church is at the Second Coming, and all the wicked followers of Antichrist are now dead and in Hell, who is left to populate the Millennium?
After over 29 years of studying my King James Bible, I have come safely to the conclusion that the Pretribulation Rapture of the Church is not mine or anyone else’s opinion, but as established a Bible doctrine as the virgin birth, the blood atonement, eternal security, or any of the other “essentials” of the faith. It’s high time we considered it as Bible doctrine, and in fact, I say that it is long overdue.
“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (KJV)
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I did not learn about the Pretribulation Rapture of the Church from CI Scofield, good man though he was, and I did not hear about it in the writings surrounding the lives of Margaret McDonald and John Nelson Darby. No, sir, I got it from the source. The apostle Paul first told me of the coming Pretribulation Rapture of the Church, as he speaks of it at length and in grand fashion. So you might say to me, “hey, what gives? I read the everything from Romans to Philemon, and I don’t see a pre-trib rapture of the church, how come??” The answer is an easy one, you are not rightly dividing the word as Paul instructs us, and yes, commands us to do as we read here:
“Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, butto the subverting of the hearers. Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.” 2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV)
See that? Paul is telling us that we can study the Bible until the cows come home, but without rightly dividing the word that we read, it won’t make much sense and will continually lead us to seeming contradictions and dead ends. The gospels will show us places where people can lose their salvation, while Paul says we are “sealed” in and can never lose it. Which is it? I can bring you to places in the New Testament that tells us we cannot be saved without works, and I can also show you places that say if you worked for it then you’re not actually saved. And I can show you not dozens but literally hundreds of places where this odd phenomena repeats itself over and over. But you needn’t fret, rightly dividing sorts all of that out and presents you with an error and contradiction free Bible that you can put your utmost trust and faith in.
