I was taught a Pretrib Rapture in the early 70s by friends and the church I began to attend. But I had been raised in church from birth where no such thing ever existed. Since this was new to me, and held by all my new Christian friends, I thought Pretribism was the way to go.
Hal Lindsey had written a book called "The Late Great Planet Earth," and was taking the "world by storm." Lindsey was out of Dallas Theological Seminary, I believe, where they all taught Dispensationalism, which contains Pretrib Doctrine.
So I watched the movies that depicted Christians suddenly disappearing, leaving their cars and planes unattended, and maybe even leaving their clothes behind. And the world "left behind" seemed caught unprepared and unaware of what just happened.
So the world came up with some idea to explain how so many people ended up disappearing--perhaps an alien invasion? And they then proceeded to become terribly ungodly and antichristian since the Christians of the world had gone away, leaving backsliders and pagans in charge.
Not long after becoming Pretrib my brother started harping on me about the need to memorize Scripture. He had participated in Bill Gothard's course on Bible memorization and wanted to pass that on to me. After preaching to me for a half hour or so I decided maybe I should try to memorize some Scripture.
To my surprise memorization came easy for me. Before I knew it I had memorized a few entire books of the NT. 1 John, Colossians, and 2 Thessalonians were were I started. I probably memorized half of the book of Revelation before I got a stopped doing this.
In the process of memorizing 2 Thessalonians I realized that Paul was teaching *against Pretribism!* He said that the Rapture cannot take place until Antichrist is actually destroyed at the Coming of Jesus! And in his time Antichrist had not come yet.
From this point on I've been Postrib. I had a moment of doubt when I moved to S. CA in the mid-70s, after reading Chuck Smith's Commentary on the Revelation. But after some unusual circumstances I was led, I believe, back to full acceptance of Postrib Doctrine, and determined never again to doubt what my 2 eyes are telling me!
I say all this to explain this post. I still believe a Rapture will happen. But will it have the same strange phenomena happen as with the Pretrib scenarios, with people disappearing and the world left trying to explain where people went? This seems all so mythical to me, so fable-like! I'm a bit embarrassed to present the Gospel with things so unlikely, though the resurrectiton is equally a miracle but far more likely in my thinking.
I'm wondering if maybe the real Rapture will be unlike how the Pretrib movies portray it? Jesus said that when he comes will he find faith on the earth? This means that though Nominal Christianity is ubiquitous and common, genuine born again Christianity will not be so apparent, and may not exist as such except in dark corners of the earth.
If so, the Rapture may be more of an unseen event, as though happening when most of the world is hunkered down in bomb shelters during a nuclear war, rather than driving cars and piloting planes. If you look at the account of Elijah's "Rapture" he is even searched for, being that the event is far more subtle than a large-scale disappearance.
Perhaps the real Rapture will be confined to much smaller numbers in a time when religion is on the way out, and born again Christianity is so marginalized that it is no longer part of the mainstream? This may be a ways off, but the way things are going now I can see it happening. Large groups of Christians are being exposed as frauds, and antiChristianity is taking over the world, pushing true Christians out of the way. Your thoughts?
2 Kings 2.9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?”
“Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.
10 “You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise, it will not.”
...16 “Look,” they said, “we your servants have fifty able men. Let them go and look for your master. Perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has picked him up and set him down on some mountain or in some valley.” “No,” Elisha replied, “do not send them.”
Hi Randy. Thanks for the offer to reply. I was once a pre-triber. Allow me to share something I recently discovered from minds better than mine and from a simply reading of Scripture. In Luke 17, beginning verse 34, we see additional details not included in Matthew 24.
Luke 17:34 (Randy, pay attention to the words '
taken' and 'where').
"I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be
taken, the other left. And there will be two women grinding meal together; one will be
taken, the other left.” They said to him in reply, “
Where, Lord?” He said to them, “
Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather.”
Now, recall that, as believers in the Rapture theory (namely pre-trib), we were taught that the ones '
taken' were
Christians with the only evidence left being their clothes in a pile on the ground. With that in mind, note that Jesus said one would be
'taken' in each case to which His disciples asked "
Where, Lord?" (ie. taken where?")
Now connect the dots ie. the bodies of the ones '
taken'
will be eaten by vultures. Vultures eating bodies of the ones '
taken' is a type or sign of death, decay and destruction. That means that
the ones taken are the wicked, not the saved.
Randy, add to that the typology from
the flood mentioned in Matthew 24:39
" they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and "
took them" all away. That is how it will be at
the coming of the Son of Man (ie. the Second Coming).
(Notice Randy, they were "took...away" ie. the same as "taken away" just like the ones Jesus mentioned in
Luke 17). Do you see it?!
We can go even further and add to that the plain words (of
the only passage in the NT that contains the word rapture) that rapture theorist miss. They believe the so-called
rapture will be '
quiet' just like the
'Left Behind' series portrayed, however, in
this only passage where the word
'rapture' (ἁρπαγησόμεθα) occurs, we are told that the
Lord's coming will be
anything but 'quiet'.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
"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" (
raptured) together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
Note: this verse even tells us who was
left behind (
"we which are alive and "remain" shall be "caught up").
Now, ask yourself. Does the
Dispensationalist Rapture theory make sense if....
1) The only verse in the NT that contains the word
'Rapture' (which is suppose to be a quiet affair) states it will be, instead, "...with
a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, with
the trump of God"....and...
2) That the ones
left behind (
we which are alive and "remain" ) shall be caught up {raptured})
You should also Google how Dr. Dale Moody of Dallas Theological Seminary came to refute a pre-trib rapture. Like you, he ended up embracing a post-trib. Surprisingly, omitting the
John Darby style terminology, the ancient churches, East and West, have always embraced (the essence of what rapture theorist call post-trib). The only difference is those ancient churches refer to it as 'The Second Coming'
BTW:
1) the phrase 'the second coming' is always tied to
the end of the age in the NT.
2) The ancient churches, East and West, embrace what Protestants would call ' amillennialism' (although those ancient churches don't use that term). Those ancient churches believe we are currently in the 1,000 reign of Christ. The 1,000 only indicates a long time, not a literal 1,000 years. We know Christ is currently reigning because He ascended to the right hand of the Father. He even told his Apostles that some of them would not taste death until the coming of the Kingdom of God. That occurred at His Ascension. He will come a second time to judge the living and the dead. Praise be to God. May we all be found worthy and abiding in Him at His coming.
If you would like to read a brilliant refutation of the Dispensationalist Rapture Theory, I highly recommend the book: Rapture: 'The End-Times Error That Leaves The Bible Behind' by the once Fundamentalist David Currie. It's a brilliantly written book and not an short read.
God bless you brother.