4th April 2003 at 10:48 AM ephod said this in Post #33
Idzerd
I was making a technical point, and indeed you agree I made that point correctly.
My whole focus is to wake people up to the fact that the pre-trib rapture is simply and totally a deception that has engulfed a great majority of the church.
As the tribulation approaches (listen to the hoof beats!!!) the timing of the gathering (ie. rapture) of God's people is of total importance. I have chosen not to get involved in endless discussions of the rapture timing, but to be totally bold in simply stating the pre-trib fib is just that---a lie---authored by the father of lies!!!! It is a false gospel...............
ephod
Yes, I agree.
The whole idea of Pre-Tribulational Rapture began with an occultish vision of Margaret McDonald in 1830.
"Historic" Pre-Millennialism, which was the view of some in the early church and Dispensational Pre-Millennialism, which was contrived in the early 1800's, are quite different.
I will note, thought, that most people who claim to believe in "Historic" Pre-Millennialism, as opposed to the Dispensational Pre-Trib variety, are not really adherents of "Historic" Pre-Millennialism at all.
For "Historic" Premillennialism as taught by some in the early church (such as Martyr and Irenaeus) believed in a "subterranean Hades" as an interlude between this life and heaven. The saints had to wait in this "subterranean Hades" until the return of Christ. Only then could they be in the presence of God.
"Historic" Premillennialism was actually a theory which was taken from non-
christian Jewish writings (Irenaeus cited the "Papias of Hierapolis" for his Pre-millennial theory) and not the Bible.
In fact, the Historic Pre-Millennialists agreed with the amillennialists (post-millennial) on the interpretation of Rev 20. In other words, the "Historic" Pre-Millennialists did not get there "Millennial Kingdom" from Rev 20. They got it from the non-Christian Jewish writings.
Idzerd