Our questions include, how did we arrive at our doctrines? Does the Bible really teach what we think it teaches? Why do churches do what they do? What is the biblical basis of church leadership structure? Why do certain traditions get entrenched?
It's easy to be spoon fed the conventional wisdom, but it's an entirely separate thing to search these things out for one's self. In the past we have read the Bible with these unexamined understandings and interpreted what we read through those lenses. We were lazy about our Bible study, assuming that pastors and theologians were telling us the truth, but we rarely checked it out for ourselves.
Therefore, these Rethinks are our attempt to remedy the situation.
We should note that we are not Bible scholars, but we believe that one doesn't need to be in order to understand the Word of God.
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Introduction
It won't be like the Left Behind books and movies.
The rapture. It too often surprises us what Christians will take on face value from their pastors. Why are church people so accepting of every word that falls from the lips of clergy?
The most popular explanation of end times is that Christians will be secretly taken up to heaven just before the Great Tribulation is unleashed. Everyone "left behind" will be surprised by the sudden absence of millions of people. This is known as the pre-tribulation rapture.
However, we believe there is no Scriptural evidence that the rapture will occur before the Tribulation.
Let's look at some Scriptures.
1Th. 5:4-10
The primary passage upon which the pre-trib position relies is
1Th. 5:4-10 But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5 You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.
Pre-trib enthusiasts believe this passage teaches that because Christians are not appointed to suffer wrath they will be raptured out before the wrath of God is poured out during the Great Tribulation.
However, Paul's entire thrust was to counsel the Thessalonian church to lead righteous lives and not participate in the deeds of darkness. He was reminding them of who they are. They should therefore lead the kind of lives that they would not be surprised at this day.
"This day should not surprise you." Paul was referring to the Day of the Lord, the Last Day, the day of judgment that concludes the Great Tribulation. But if Christians are going to be raptured before the Great Tribulation, how is it possible they would be surprised at this day when they're already gone?
Paul was not equating the wrath of God with the Great Tribulation. The wrath the Thessalonian church was not appointed to suffer is the wrath against the lost, because this church was saved. That wrath is not in their future.
Paul was not equating the wrath of God with the Great Tribulation. The wrath the Thessalonian church was not appointed to suffer is the wrath against the lost, because this church was saved. That wrath is not in their future.
A Christian does indeed escape the wrath while yet experiencing the trouble. These are two are different things.
It is an interesting that Paul goes into great detail about the persecutions, troubles, and difficulties he was experiencing [1Th. 2:21, Th. 3:4, 1Th. 3:7], and also mentions their sufferings [1Th. 2:14]. But for some reason pre-tribbers think that Paul was telling the Thessalonians they would escape the Great Tribulation, yet they already were experiencing tribulation.
None of us will escape tribulation:
Ja. 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds...
Jn. 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”We believe the Church will go through the Great Tribulation, and God will preserve His people:
2 Peter 2:9 ...the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.
We frankly don't understand this fear of tribulation. The simple fact of the matter is that 1 Thessalonians 5:9 is not about the Great Tribulation, it's about wrath versus salvation. Those who are saved escape God's wrath. That's it.
Rev. 7:13-14
Continuing on with the idea that Christians will escape the Great Tribulation because of the rapture, we would want to ask, what about the Christians who believe after the rapture? THEY apparently are appointed to suffer wrath:
Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes — who are they, and where did they come from?” 14 I answered, “Sir, you know.” And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
The pre-trib position simply contradicts itself. Some Christians are indeed appointed to suffer the wrath, if we are to accept their take on 1 Thessalonians 5:9. We wonder why present day Christians are so focused on being raptured before the tribulation, but seem unconcerned that other, post-rapture Christians will experience God's wrath? If indeed we are not appointed to wrath, why are the Great Tribulation Christians the exception?
Lk. 17:34:37
I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 35 Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.” 36 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 37 “Where, Lord?” they asked. He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.”
Hmmm. Where will those taken be taken to? Death. This is not a rapture proof text.
When he comes it will not be a secret:
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
The rapture is on the Last Day, the Day of the Lord, the same day he judges the nations:
At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
Joel 2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.
"Terrible" is yare', conveys the idea of fear. It will be a great day for the saved, but a terrible one for the lost.
Conclusion
We think that a plain reading of the Scriptures reveals a relatively simple procession of events of the end times.
- We are living in the Last Days
- There are always times of tribulation, but there will be a final Great Tribulation
- The Church is called to faith, including faith that God will preserve it through all trouble and tribulation
- On the Day of the Lord, the last day, Jesus will come on the clouds, receive His Bride, and there will be a new heavens and a new earth.
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