RAPTURE?
DO YOU REALLY LOVE THE TRUTH?
DO YOU LEARN THE TRUTH FROM THE BIBLE OR THE DOCTRINES OF THE FALSE TEACHERS WHO CLAIM TO TEACH THE BIBLE?

Immediately following this article is a very excellent article by Dave MacPherson - "DECEIVING, AND BEING DECEIVED." Dave is the preeminent scholar regarding the history of the "pre-trib" lala land doctrines of the false teachers of the last days that Yeshua warned us would be filling the pulpits and airwaves. Dave has paid a price for standing and searching and proclaiming the truth. All of his books are excellent and I highly recommend them for honest scholarship on this subject.

What do we believe and why? In other words, is our rapture belief based on what we have searched through God's word? Has the Word and His Spirit of Truth taught us, OR is it because a view, a doctrinal stand, or a personal belief was handed down to us from; parents, pastors, denominations, college professors, or whoever? The majority of today's famous popular preachers teach that the scriptures teach a "pre-trib rapture." Could they be popular and famous because they teach the people what the people want to hear rather than the truth? Are they true teachers or false teachers? In the last days will true teachers or false teachers be the majority? You find pre-trib taught in most books. Is it taught in the Bible? Honest scholarship, studying the word by the Spirit of Truth, will find the Bible clearly and with no uncertainty teaches the rapture is at the end of the great tribulation. A good pastor will tell you to check everything by the scriptures. Yeshua told us that a sign of the last days will be the many false teachers saying "Jesus is Lord!" We are to search the bible to find out if what whoever says is true or not. Acts 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

The more I studied the Bible the more I began to see that the pre-trib false teachers were adding things, and taking things out. In fact the Bible did not say what they were falsely teaching. Seldom will you hear the truth on radio and probably never on TV will you hear the truth regarding the timing of the rapture. One day I heard two post-tribulation rapture teachers on a small, Christian radio station. There were two different authors interviewed on two different talk shows, who quoted several bible verses that seemed to indicate that the "rapture" was not before, but after the tribulation. I had also heard a pastor on a station out of Oklahoma City, say the same thing. It was so good to know that there were, though a very small minority, few indeed, that did teach exactly what the Bible said without, twisting, adding or subtracting from what the Bible actually said about the rapture being at the end of the Great Tribulation.

I didn't feel that I was strong enough, spiritually to go through the Great Tribulation standing firm. Mat. 24:21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. This had troubled me quite a bit. It became more and more clear to me that I needed to write a book which told the truth about the end time scriptures. I knew that such study would strengthen me and perhaps help others to turn loose of the doctrines of the false teachers which was such a strong delusion that it could cause them to be damned. I knew I had a responsibility before God to teach the truth of His word to my children. I knew that responsibility was mine and could not be abdicated. That was the reason behind the Great Joy in Great Tribulation book. My children were going to know the truth from me about the last days. I had that responsibility before God. I could take no man's word or teaching to relieve me of that responsibility before God to instruct my children. That is how it started, I set out to find the answers, and it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be!

Many of you are familiar with the late Corrie ten Boom. Most would listen to what she had to say on this subject. She is a great saint, and patriarch of the post WW II church, who died in 1983. She is from Holland, and her family helped, hide and disguise Jews so they could get out of Germany during WW II. The Nazi's caught them and put them in the concentration camps. As I recall all her family died while in the camps, except Corrie. She was interviewed by Logos Journal in the Nov.-Dec. 1974 issue, the interview was also reprinted in the Sept. 96 issue of End-Times News Digest. The title of the article was "Preparing for the coming tribulation". Corrie, in that article says --

FALSE TEACHERS: There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this. These are the false teachers Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days. Most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on across the world.

I have been in countries where the saints are already suffering terrible persecution. In China the Christians [were] told, "Don't worry, before the tribulation comes, you will be translated--raptured." Then came the terrible persecution. Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly, "We have failed. We should have made the people strong for persecution rather than telling them Jesus would come first." Turning to me he said, "You still have time. Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when the tribulation comes--to stand and not faint.

As I began work on the Great Joy in Great Tribulation book in 1980, I became more and more confident. Soon there were no doubts about what I believe the bible teaches pertaining to when the rapture will occur. I started out by looking up all the passages that I could find that had anything to do with the rapture, the return of Messiah, or the last days. The passages can indeed be very confusing if taken out of their full and complete context. Verses taken out of context become the pretexts of the false teachers. The Great Joy in Great Tribulation book must have and keep all such verses in full and complete context. That was a foundational principle for the work on the book.

The bible very clearly and without any intellectually honest controversy, teaches without uncertainty, that the rapture will be at the end of the tribulation. There must be sources other than the Word of God to help anyone believe in a pre-trib rapture. I then dug into the commentaries and other books about end-times teaching. As I read them, I saw the reason they sold so many copies is because they all used the same unbiblical tricks of the false teachers. They told their readers what they wanted to hear, not what the bible directly and clearly said. The consistent problem is the scriptures were taken out of context, mis-quoted, twisted, adding and forming doctrines of men, and trampling the word of God. More and more it became clear how weak their arguments were. They had no sound biblical reasons. They would always choose the quote of another "expert" or "scholar" to make the word of God of none effect. They would grab at any straw. They would use, lift, and twist some verses and conveniently ignore others altogether. As it says in Acts 17:11 we should "search the scriptures" to prove whether what authors, teachers, pastors, or any others, say is true or false. Honest scholarship would have to acknowledge that God's word was not lining up with what the books of the false teachers said.

Why does everyone cling so tightly to a pre-trib rapture belief? Why are people so unwilling to give up that false hope to be taken out of the world before tough times come? I believe it is because that while they may say they want the Lord to return, that they really don't. They know the return of the Lord will mess up their plans. "How dare you, God, come back before I finish this or that or before I do this or that. OK, God, you can come back, but ONLY if you whisk me out of here before anything like the Great Tribulation comes to my door. I would much rather keep doing what I want do and not have to TAKE HEED to what You said." Then it blasted on my consciousness what is the full meaning of 2 Th 2:11-12 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be DAMNED who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Anyone who comes to accept the bible truth that the rapture occurs at the end of the tribulation, will pay a price when they stop believing the LIE and let go of that STRONG DELUSION. However you had better be willing to pay that price or be DAMNED. Those are not my words. If you don't like them, tell Him you don't like them.

You will find pastors and all religious pre-tribbers, who are strongly deluded Christians, get totally defensive. They will say that they are as sure of a pre-trib rapture as they are sure of anything in the bible. Today almost all either teach pre-trib or completely ignore the time of the rapture. They teach the pre-trib strong delusion as strongly as anything else they teach. You will find that most people are not willing to consider the clear teaching of the scriptures. They believe what they want to believe, based on their comfort zone. They have heaped to themselves false teachers to scratch their itching ears and tell them what they want to hear, regardless of the truth.

God began to give me a clear understanding of the verses that I had been troubled over. He also began to show me new verses on a regular basis that further helped me to KNOW that the "rapture" will occur at the "last (7th) trumpet," at the end of the Great Tribulation.

Most end time scriptures are very easy to understand when we keep them in context and look to the Spirit of Truth for our guidance. We must love the truth of the word of God. We all must remember is that if a person is born-again, then they have God's Holy Spirit living in them. If one does not have unconfessed sin in their life, and being obedient to God's word and to the leading of His Spirit, then anyone can understand scripture. It is not intelligence that gives truth. It is not scholarship that gives truth. It is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, that gives TRUTH. True wisdom, and true understanding, will not be found apart from the Spirit of Truth. The Spirit of Truth, will cause you to reject the doctrines of men that make the word of God of none effect, whether they are a bible scholar or not. You don't need commentaries to understand the scriptures. He has given "unto us ALL things that pertain unto life and godliness." The best commentary on the Word of God is the Word of God. We can understand God's word on our own and we are commanded to KNOW HIS WORD.

If you love the truth and do not want to be deceived this passage will help.

I Cor. 15:51-52 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the LAST trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Notice the phrase "at the LAST TRUMP", what does it mean? Men of God, far, far wiser than I, often say that they had never even noticed that it said LAST trumpet. Listen CAREFULLY the next time you hear Jack Van Impe, or any other false teacher, quote it. Invariably they will say "at the sound of the trumpet we shall all be changed." Let me tell you that is no accident or slip. The word of God says LAST trump. When the false teachers say at the sound of the trump, they are false teachers. Most are shocked. Many pastors will say that they had never really considered it. Most people have never considered what it means. I believe that the only reasonable answer is that it refers to the last trumpet. The seventh trumpet is blown right before the second coming of Messiah, right before the beginning of the 1,000 year reign of Yeshua Messiah begins. To further explore whether it could be the seventh or last trumpet of Revelation that I Cor. 15:51-52 is referring to, let's look at the next two Revelation passages. These are the two passages in Revelation that coincide with the end of the tribulation and the beginning of the 1,000 year reign of Messiah.

Rev. 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. 16 And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, 17 Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. 18 And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. 19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

This is the end of the tribulation when Messiah's Kingdom is set up on the earth. Notice that it says that it is the time for the "dead to be judged", and time for "reward" to be given to God's servants the prophets. It then says "saints" and those that fear the Lord, "small and great". It is too much for someone to convince me that this is referring to only those who just happen to get saved after the church is raptured out. This passage is ALL saints from Adam to you and me, getting their reward.

Now let's look at the other passage in Revelation that is referring to the beginning of the reign of Messiah. Rev. 20:1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. 4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. Vs. 4 is clearly speaking of those martyred during the tribulation, and then the 2nd half of vs. 5 says "This is the first resurrection." If this resurrection at the end of the tribulation, is the "first resurrection," then how could it be 7 years, or 3.5 years, earlier like the pre-tribulation teaching dispensationalists say that the rapture occurs? How many FIRST resurrections are there? Would you believe only one FIRST resurrection?

Let us remember what I Thes. 4:13-17 says: 13 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. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15 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. 16 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 Messiah shall rise first: 17 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.

It states that the dead in Christ shall rise first. That is a resurrection (a lot of people) and Rev. 20:5b says that when the martyred, tribulation saints are resurrected that it is the "first resurrection" If that is the "first resurrection" then the rapture has to happen a split second later, at the END of the tribulation!

Are you thinking "well maybe it isn't called a resurrection?" Search it out. Try to find anything else in scripture. Look at the passage in John when Yeshua raised Lazarus from the dead. That passage proves that when the dead in Christ rise before the resurrection, it is not called a resurrection! Please look at what Martha says, and Yeshua DOES NOT correct her. John 11:20 Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house. 21 Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. 22 But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. 23 Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. 24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the RESURRECTION at the last day. 25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: 26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? 27 She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. So according to Rev. 20:5 the first resurrection is the one when those martyred during the Great Tribulation are resurrected and then we which are alive will be caught up in the air with Messiah. This is commonly called the "rapture".

Now let's look at II Thes. 2: 1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, 2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. 3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; This very important passage proves several things; first is that the "coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (this is the second coming) and the "gathering together unto him" is the same event. In verse 1 it says both phrases as if they are 1 event. In verse 3 it says "that day" they both happen in the same day, not 7 years, or 3.5 years apart!

The second thing these verses prove is that there will be "a falling away first" and that the anti-christ will be revealed prior to the rapture! Some may try to say that "falling away" speaks of unbelievers turning away from God. I say that is impossible, God never refers to unbelievers as anything but unbelievers, how can someone who is already serving Satan, who does not know Messiah, turn away? He is already turned away.

If you are skeptical about the word "coming" in verse 1 being in reference to the 2nd coming and not the rapture, refer to Strong's Concordance. According to Strong's the word "coming" in II Thes. 2:1 is #3952 which comes from the Greek word parousia. The definition is: a being near, i.e. advent (often, return; specific of Messiah to punish Jerusalem, or finally the wicked); (by implication) physical aspect; coming, presence. This is a word in the Greek that implies a physical presence, not up in the clouds, it also refers to judgment of Jerusalem or the wicked. This is the second coming not something that they say is 7 years before, or 3.5 years before!

Now let us look at a passage, that, contains one of the most abused and misquoted phrases in the bible. Let's look at I Thes. 5:1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. (Paul is basically saying "I've explained this before, and you should understand it") 2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. The phrase, "thief in the night", is often quoted as referring to the rapture. Many believe that the rapture is at the beginning of the tribulation, while they believe "the day of the Lord" is at least near the end of the tribulation. It is at the SAME TIME. The resurrection, the rapture, and the Lord's return is a single simultaneous event happening in the twinkling of an eye, at the LAST TRUMP. We see here in Verse 2 proof that the phrase, at least in this verse, is in reference to "the day of the Lord", not the rapture, unless you understand the resurrection, rapture, and return is a single simultaneous event.

Look at verse 3, "when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them", one thing, of many, that was ignored by the "Christian" media, and 99% of the churches in this country in regard to the recent elections in Israel is that: Prime Minister Netanyahu's campaign slogan, during the election was "Safety and Peace". Former Prime Minister, Shimon Perez, the looser in Israel's election, had a very similar slogan, it was "Peace and Safety". According to Strong's Concordance the Greek word that is translated "safety" is #803, "asphaleia", and it comes from the word "asphales" #804 which means "security". It sure seems to me that "they" are saying "peace and safety"! At times it seems like every other word out of Bill Clinton's mouth is "peace", but there is no peace! Is. 57:21 There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. Ezek. 13:10 b. Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace;.

According to the Bible, according to the word of God, we are not raptured at the beginning, but at the end of the great tribulation. The scriptures prove over and over again that, 1) the dead in Messiah are resurrected, 2) we are gathered to him/caught up/raptured up to be with Messiah in the air 3) we then all return with, Yeshua Messiah, the Lion of Judah to The Mount of Olives, as it is split from east to west, Zech.14:4, to watch the spectacular event as Messiah destroys all the nations armies that are arrayed against Jerusalem.

Based on this, the phrase "thief in the night" is aimed at the event of the "rapture", but not as most apply it. Most people, books, etc. say or infer that Messiah comes as a "thief" to His bride, let's look at verse 3 - 5, 3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. 5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Verses 4 & 5 tells us that since we are "not of darkness" and "not in darkness" so "that day" SHOULD NOT "overtake you as a thief". We may not know the exact time, but we are not meant to be surprised by any event to do with end-times. That is why these things were put in the word of God, so that we are not taken by surprise.

We should touch on a few other points in I Thes. chapter 5 starting at verse 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. 8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. These verses are contrasting those that are of the light vs. those that are of darkness. Verse 4 clearly ties those who are of the darkness being taken as a thief in the night, yet we are not of darkness, but of the light.

Now look at a very significant verse in the position of most pre-trib rapture teachers. I Thes. 5: 9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, This use of the word "wrath" is #3709, orge, is used, as describing God's Wrath, not the wrath of men, or the wrath of Satan. It doesn't mean or refer to trials, tribulation, or persecution at the hands of Satan. I believe that there is a clear difference between the trials and tribulations brought on believers by Satan, and God's Judgments, which come at the end of the Great Tribulation. We are to expect to be persecuted by Satan. John 15:20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

Rev. 13:7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. Are you a saint? The word of God says antichrist will make war with the SAINTS and overcome them. How do you war on someone raptured out? If you are a saint, or if you want to be a saint get ready for the great tribulation war on the saints. You have 42 months of that war BEFORE the rapture according to the word of God.

Daniel was not appointed unto wrath, but God did NOT keep him from the lions den, he kept him safe through, and inspite of, the lion's den. It says that "God sent His angel and shut the lion's mouths" Dan. 6:22. Daniel had "no injury" because he "trusted God". Consider Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they didn't even smell like smoke Dan. 3: 27, God protected them in the fire, He did NOT rescue them from the fire! If we look at the plagues that God brought on Egypt in Exodus, they didn't touch the Israelites, only Egypt. Please consider the miracle of God concerning the light, God brought darkness on Egypt yet Israel had light. Have you ever tried to stop light? It spreads on its own, even a little light permeates the darkness. Keep in mind though, when the angel of death came through, the Israelites were required to be obedient, if they didn't put the blood of the lamb over the door, their first born would have died, as well as their first born livestock.

NO WHERE in the Gospels does it even hint that we are taken out BEFORE the tribulation. In other words, in all of Jesus' words and teachings, we find no statement or hint that we should expect a "secret", rescue from the Great Tribulation! If you really like a challenge just try to prove this to be false, using nothing but the Authorized English scriptures. To do it you must add the doctrines of men. In fact, if we look at Jesus' words it says exactly the opposite. Do you believe what Yeshua said? Look at Matt. 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the END shall be saved. Is the end, the end, or what? Some would try to say that this means the end of this time before the tribulation, or this dispensation, well some try to make anything say anything they would like! May I say Jesus means exactly what He says. The end is the end. The end is NOT 7 years, or 3.5 years before the end. The end is the end. Jesus said He is Alpha & Omega, the beginning and the end. He doesn't mean He is almost God!

Matt. 24:36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. I have had people tell me that this verse means that no one will ever know the week, month, year or anything and base it on this verse. Did you know that the phrase "that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only" is a Hebrew idiom for the feast of Trumpets? Not one of the apostles, who heard Him say this, had any doubt that He would be returning on the feast of Trumpets. That is the only feast that no one can know the day or hour. To this very day it is celebrated over 2 days because no on can know the day or hour of this Feast. Be careful, Yeshua says: "day or the hour". Don't forget Rev. 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. This doesn't directly apply to Matt. 24, but the principle sure does!

Now look at the next 3 verses, Matt. 24:37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Noah and his family were not surprised when it started to rain. God told them to go into the ark and He closed the door 7 days before it started raining! It was the world, the lost, who were taken by surprise. Just as it will be when the time of God's Judgment (the day of the Lord), comes.

Look carefully at the red letter words of Yeshua in Matthew chapter 24.

Matt. 24 vs.3 ...Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? vs.6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the END is not yet. vs.13 But he that shall endure unto the END, the same shall be saved. vs.14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. Please don't be confused by what we have been taught by men, that may or may not be right. Look at Yeshua's words. The Greek word in all of these verses is the same word, # 5056, telos, and it is a word relating to the END, not the end of a dispensation.

Here is a key passage that will help give understanding of the sequence of events (in the last days) as they pertain to us. Remember that this passage will instruct us, from Yeshua Messiah's own words, what we should expect, as well as what actions we should take in preparation for what He called the greatest tribulation anyone would ever face, Matt, 24:21. For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

Matt. 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? 4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. 5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. Why would Messiah say: "And ye shall hear of wars and ..." since there were going to be no Christians going from the new testament era into the Great Tribulation, Yeshua is talking to us who are likely to need to TAKE HEED to these instructions!

7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. 9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. Please explain why Yeshua would say this if all "new testament Christians" would be gone prior to this occurring? Does this sound like we are out of here before this? You is US, the elect who will see it.

10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11 And MANY FALSE PROPHETS shall rise, and shall deceive MANY. Remember what Corrie ten Boom said, she believed that this verse was referring to the pre-trib teaching.

12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13 But he that shall endure unto the END, the same shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the END come. 15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Why, if all Christians are gone, does Yeshua continue to say, to his disciples, "ye and you", when He is speaking directly to his disciples? Brothers and sisters, it is time that we turn on our brains and use some common sense and discernment! God may be beyond our logic capability but he is never illogical. He is a God of logic and reason, if you don't think so read the book of Numbers. The prophecy or end times "experts" take passages and stretch, manipulate, and explain away obvious details in a way that defies all logic and common sense.

16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: This verse tells us at least two things, 1) people that study the bible and observe what it says, Christians, most likely, should be on the alert for "these things" that Yeshua is teaching to His disciples, to occur. (If there was to be a secret rapture of all believers, before these things were to occur, then why would Yeshua waste His words in Matt. 24, Luke 21, and Mark 13) 2) If them which be in Judaea are to flee from "obvious danger" then common sense would tell me that there very well could be a time that we are to flee as well.

17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: 18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. 19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! 20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: Here we have something that Yeshua commands us to pray. This prayer is very definitely a prayer that must occur ahead of time, not last minute. Did Yeshua ever tell a non-believer to pray, in such a manner as this? Could Yeshua be telling Christians to look for, what He is warning us of, and begin to pray for wisdom immediately. Maybe then, when we see these things we would be lead by God to respond properly.

21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Pre-trib rapture teachers say that the "church" is not present after Revelation chapter 3, well who is this speaking of? It looks like the elect are still here on earth and that the days have to be shortened for the elect's sake. Some would say that this word translated elect refers to the 144,000 "Jews" who are sealed in Rev. chapter 7 and 14. Don't buy it, the word in the Greek is eklektos, #1588 in Strong's. This is the same word as in 2 Tim 2:10 Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. This is obviously referring to believers. Matt. 24:22 is speaking of believers as well.

23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. 24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. 25 Behold, I have told you before. How could He tell us BEFORE if the rapture comes before these things occur?

26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. Yeshua is warning us in this verse not to believe anyone who tells us that He will come in a "secret rapture"! 27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. The lightning flashes in the east and you still see it in the west. That is basically what Yeshua is saying. He is saying that is how His coming will be, NO SECRET! 28 For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: 30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. I say that this is the rapture! Please think about the fact that Yeshua, Jesus, tells us absolutely when the rapture occurs in verse 29-3l. IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE TRIBULATION. Do you believe Yeshua? Are you one of His elect?

32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: 33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Brothers and sisters I beg you, please pay attention to the times we are in, Yeshua, our Savior said back in verse 6: And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, verses 7-9 7For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. 8 All these are the begin-ning of sorrows. 9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. Now please look back at verse 33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. I believe with all my heart IT IS AT THE DOORS!

Crop shortages are at all time highs in THIS COUNTRY and they are still selling grain to Russia and China, ON CREDIT! Earthquakes and volcanoes are at levels never before reached. Famines are escalating constantly. I have a Reuters newswire telling of how in North Korea, they won't bury their dead until after the bodies putrefy because people dig them up for food! A friend of mine, who publishes a newsletter, recently told me that there is over 1,000 active volcanoes in the world today. (most are on the ocean floor) One week in the last couple months I recall there being 3 midrange earthquakes on our west coast, in one week. One other week I remember there was 2 major quakes in 2 consecutive days, one in Iran and one in Japan. In the last few years there have been well over one million Christians slaughtered in The Sudan. I have talked to two different men here who fled Sudan to the US because of religious persecution. Right now in the US we have less than a 35 day supply of grain. Wheat reserves are at an all time low. Soybean reserves are at a 20+ year low. Corn reserves are at 40 - 50 year lows.

Its at the door! 34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. 35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. 36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. Yeshua didn't say that no man would know the season, He said " the day or the hour." The only people today who do not understand the times are the pre-tribbers. Even the heathen seem to understand the end of the age better than the pre-tribbers.

37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. We are commanded to watch, this proves that Yeshua knew that we would not know the day or the hour, but we could recognize the times and therefore we were to watch.

43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. 44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. 45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Please read this verse again, meat would be better translated food.

46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. 48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; Is this different than saying: "we can't know when He is coming it could be a thousand years from now"? That is what I hear from most Christians, total complacency!

49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; 50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, 51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

I would beg you all to read Luke 21 and Mark 13 which is the parallel passages to this chapter in Matthew. Please look at Luke 21:34-36 34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. 35 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. To me verse 36 is one of the most encouraging in the bible in reference to end-times. We have no need to fear, God will sustain us! One thing is required of us though! OBEDIENCE! I Sam.15:22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. ( all the serving we can ever do is not as good as just obeying God) 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

Most pre-trib rapture believing teachers, pastors, and authors say that 2 Thes. 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way., teaches that the Holy Spirit will be taken "out of the way". This, they say, is the rapture occurring, and proof that the rapture is before the tribulation. The church couldn't be in the world without God's Holy Spirit! On this I agree, Yeshua said "I will never leave you or forsake you". Yeshua does not live in our hearts, personally, Psalm 110:1 The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. He is sitting at the right hand of God. He lives in our hearts in the form of God's Holy Spirit, and that Spirit will never leave us or forsake us. This verse does not refer to the Holy Spirit.

We have always been taught that there would be many saved during the Great Tribulation. Indeed there will be. If the Holy Spirit is removed from the world, like some try to teach, then how would anyone get saved, without the convicting power of the Holy Spirit? Jude verse 9, Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. This verse is expressing a principle of relying on God's power. Michael let God rebuke Satan. Rely on God's power, not our own power. Yes Lucifer was the ranking archangel until he rebelled. No, a rebelling Satan is NOT more powerful than a God-serving archangel. Dan.12:1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And there will be a time of distress..." This verse is talking about the end. Verse 2 speaks of the resurrection of the dead. It says in verse 1 that Michael " who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise."

Please look at the verse, 2 Thes 2:7, "he" IS NOT CAPITALIZED! Whenever you find "He" referring to he Holy Spirit, you will find that it is capitalized. Even when Yeshua calls Him a Helper in John 14:26, "Helper" and "He" are both capitalized! Therefore the translators of the King James version Bible are consistent in capitalizing He when referring to the Holy Spirit. The KJV translators did not think that "he" was in reference to God's Holy Spirit! The "he" could be Michael the archangel. The "he" could not be the Holy Spirit.

Brothers and Sisters, please read your bible, look at these verses, take this information to God in prayer. Go ahead, try to prove it wrong, but don't just ignore it and do nothing.

"DECEIVING, AND BEING DECEIVED"

by Dave MacPherson

You've probably heard that the pretribulation rapture view was published by a Rev. Morgan Edwards in 1788 and also by a Medieval writer called Pseudo-Ephraem 1000 years earlier.
The Edwards claim (promoted by John Bray and copied by Frank Marotta, Thomas Ice, Tim LaHaye etc.) is based on a 1980 book by Thomas McKibbens and Kenneth Smith, while the claim for Pseudo-Ephraem (promoted by Grant Jeffrey and copied by Thomas Ice, J. R. Church, Jerry Falwell, Tim LaHaye, Chuck Missler, Dave Hunt, Hal Lindsey etc.) rests on a 1985 book by Paul Alexander.
Not only have these promoters covered up and twisted what
McKibbens/Smith and Alexander have written, but they've also concealed and perverted Morgan Edwards' and Pseudo-Ephraem's own words!
Let's focus first on Morgan Edwards (hereafter: M.E.).
Promoters see a pretrib rapture in the following words by M.E.:
"...the dead saints will be raised, and the living changed at Christ's
'appearing in the air' (I Thes. iv, 17); and this will be about three
years and a half before the millennium...."
If promoters had been sure of their pretrib claim, they never would
have had to collusively cover up the following M.E. statements that
contradict their claim:
On p. 14 M.E. described the "Turkish or Ottoman empire" (which began around 1300 A.D.) as the "beast that started out of the earth" (Rev. 13's second beast). (Since Bray etc. repeatedly claim that M.E. had only a "futurist" outlook, without which M.E. couldn't have logically expected a pretrib rapture, Bray deliberately skips over the historicism in M.E.'s "Ottoman" remark - historicism being the belief that the tribulation, covering many centuries, began at some point in the distant past.)
On p. 20 M.E. wrote that the "wicked one" (II Thess. 2:8) has
"hitherto assumed no higher title than 'the vicar general of Christ on
earth'" and described "Antichrist" as "popery" and a "succession of
persons." (Promoters emphasize M.E.'s comments about the "last" Pope and ignore M.E.'s view that "popery" had "hitherto" (for many centuries) been playing the role of II Thess. 2:8's "wicked one" while wearing a "mask" (as he put it) - a first beast that historicism could easily see during the second beast's reign!)
Since historicism - and not preterism or futurism - is the only one
of these three schools which often thinks "years" when reading "days" in the Bible, it isn't surprising to find such year/day historicism in M.E.
On p. 19, for example, while discussing Rev. 11's two witnesses, M.E.
says "there are no more than about 204 years between now and their death:
I should therefore expect that their appearance is not far off." (Bray
quotes M.E.'s very next sentence, on another matter, but ignores this one!
Could a futurist ever apply a couple of centuries - instead of only 1260 days - to those witnesses?)
Something else. The authoritative 1980 book about M.E. that inspired
the claim promoted by Bray, Ice, LaHaye etc. never classified M.E.'s view as "pretrib," or even remotely resembling it, and the book's authorship had the same conclusion when later interviewed by both phone and correspondence!
And when Thomas Ice's "Pre-Trib Perspectives" newsletter (Sep./Oct., 1995) ran his own article promoting Edwards as a teacher of "pretribulationism." he couldn't find any of the heavyweight authorities on Edwards, that he listed and quoted, evaluating that 18th century pastor as a pretrib!
In light of the fact that Edwards embraced historicism (which can see
some future things yet to be fulfilled) and not pure futurism (which sees no past tribulational fulfillment), it's easy to believe that Edwards, like some other historicists of that period, saw a three-and-a-half-year period at the end of a 1260-year tribulation - the same percentage a futurist would have if he were to see a period of three and a half days at the end of a 1260-day tribulation; such a percentage would of course be a posttrib view!
At least I don't have to juggle or cover up historical data to come
to such a conclusion!
But now it's time to analyze Pseudo-Ephraem (hereafter: P-E), the
name attached by scholars to manuscripts that were possibly, but not
provably, written by the well-known Ephraim the Syrian who lived from
306-373 A.D.
And what's the discovery in P-E's early Medieval sermon on the end of the world that's led pretrib promoters to see pretrib in it? It's
basically these words:
"For all the saints and elect of God are gathered, prior to the
tribulation that is to come, and are taken to the Lord lest they see the
confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins." A pretrib rapture is seen by promoters in the phrase "taken to the Lord."
It needs to be emphasized that pretrib in P-E has been palmed off on
unsuspecting Christians by promoters seeing rapture aspects in P-E's
sermon where none exist and by covering up such aspects where they do exist in his 10-section sermon!
In Section 2, P-E says that the only event that's "imminent" is "the
advent of the wicked one" (that is, Antichrist). Nevertheless, Grant
Jeffrey in his 1995 book, FINAL WARNING, had the audacity to claim that P-E "began with the Rapture using the word 'imminent'" and added in the next sentence that "Ephraem used the word 'imminent' to describe the Rapture." (If he and other P-E promoters can look at a coming of Antichrist and see a coming of "Christ," is it any wonder that in his endtime view folks will look at Antichrist and see "Christ"?
Ephraim the Syrian, reportedly P-E's inspiration, said the same thing
(SERMO ASCETICUS, I): "Nothing remains then, except that the coming of our enemy, Antichrist, appear...." (Nobody's ever found even a trace of pretrib in this earlier work!)
In the before-the-tribulation sections, P-E mentions neither a
descent of Christ, nor a shout, nor an angelic voice, nor a trumpet of
God, nor a resurrection, nor the dead in Christ, nor a rapture, nor
meeting Christ.
So where does P-E place the rapture? The answer is found in his last
section (10) where he writes that after "the sign of the Son of Man" when "the Lord shall appear with great power," the "angelic trumpet precedes him, which shall sound and declare: Arise, O sleeping ones, arise, meet Christ, because the hour of judgment has come!" (Like Morgan Edwards and Manuel Lacunza, Pseudo-Ephraem has the nasty, non-pretrib habit of blending the rapture with the final advent!)
In the July/Sep., 1995 BIBLIOTHECA SACRA, Dallas Seminary's journal, Thomas Ice and his co-author Timothy Demy pulled off one of the worst revisionisms of P-E ever: when summarizing Section 10 they carefully deleted what P-E included between "trumpet" and "judgment" (deleted the distinctive I Thess. 4 aspects in that posttrib setting), giving unsuspecting readers this utterly misleading condensation: "A trumpet will sound, calling forth the dead to judgment."
But P-E says much more, as can be seen; he places the resurrection of those who sleep in Jesus and the rapture of those who meet Jesus (details found only in I Thess. 4) at the Matt. 24 coming!
A moment ago I said that Edwards and Lacunza had the same
rapture/advent blending. Here's evidence. Edwards in his 1788 work (pp. 21-22) speaks of "the son of man in the clouds, coming to raise the dead saints and change the living....The signs of his coming, in the heavens, will be 'the trump of God [I Thess. 4:16], vapour and smoke, which will darken the sun and moon [Acts 2:19,20]....'"
Lacunza's 1812 work THE COMING OF MESSIAH IN GLORY AND MAJESTY (Vol. I, p. 113) declares: "...you will find St. Paul and the Gospel speaking one and the same thing: He shall send his angels and they shall gather his elect from the four winds; who can be no other than those very ones who are in Christ, who sleep in Jesus." (A few have assumed that there's pretrib in an earlier Catholic, Franciscus Ribera, but in his 16th century Revelation commentary he viewed Rev. 12's "woman" in the tribulation as the Christian Church!)
But let's go back to Pseudo-Ephraem.
Dr. Paul Alexander, the leading authority whose book inspired the P-E claim, is portrayed in Jeffrey's book, FINAL WARNING, as "perhaps the most authoritative scholar on the writings of the early Byzantine Church." But this misleading statement, designed to make readers think that Professor Alexander supports the P-E claim, covers up the fact that this world famous scholar sees not even a smidgen of pretrib in the same Medieval writer!
In fact, Alexander writes that the phrase "taken to the Lord" (which
has become a bonanza for pretrib history revisionists) means "participate at least in some measure in beatitude." While Jeffrey and Ice do include this "beatitude" phrase, all P-E promoters carefully avoid revealing that the Catholic doctrine of "beatitude," according to the NEW CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, has to do with "the highest acts of virtue that can be performed in this life" - works on earth and not being raptured off earth!
(Elsewhere in his sermon P-E repeats the importance of doing "penance," because of "our sins," so that church members will be "sustained" during the tribulation!)
In fact (again), Alexander has two summaries (textual and outline),
in chronological order, of P-E's endtime events. And guess what. Alexander demonstrates both times that P-E saw only one future coming ("Second Coming of Christ" for the "punishment of the Antichrist") which follows (!) the great tribulation ("tribulatio magna lasting three and a half years") - claim-smashing summaries that self-serving promoters, with malice aforethought, have jointly swept under their "secret rapture" rug!
Since "Dr." Thomas Ice is the most rabid pretrib defender who's long
promoted the (false) claims for John Darby and, more recently, Edwards and Pseudo-Ephraem, and at the same time covered up or twisted the (true) claims for Margaret Macdonald and the Irvingites, it's fitting to quote the first sentence of a recent news item:
"WorldNetDaily reported on March 7 that a Texas district court has
ordered the Tyndale Theological Seminary to pay fines totalling $170,000 for issuing 34 theological degrees without receiving approval from the state education agency."
This is the Fort Worth seminary that gave the title of "Dr." to Ice -
which is at least an improvement over "Dr." C. I. Scofield who, in the
1890's, began deceitfully adding "Dr." to his name instead of waiting for some institution to confer it upon him!
Well, I didn't mean to write a book here; I merely wanted to share
some long covered up facts about pretrib dispensationalism. My 300-page book THE RAPTURE PLOT (with footnotes, index, bibliography, appendices, plus great commendations from leaders, and obtainable by calling 800-967-7345) has the sort of info I've just outlined plus much, much more.
If you decide to get a copy of my PLOT book, I won't have to tell you
about the rest of the bizarre history of the 171-year-old, British-born
pretrib rapture view.
I won't tell you that the same promoters have used the same
unscrupulous, "twistorical" methods to try to discredit Margaret
Macdonald, the real pretrib originator in early 1830, and cover up the
fact that other partial rapturists who followed her and taught the same
thing have all been classified as pretribs!
I won't tell you that promoters who claim that John Darby was pretrib
as early as 1827 won't admit that he then had only his "heavenly church" theme, that he was still clearly posttrib as late as a Dec., 1830 article (he was waiting "to meet Him in the air in order to His judging of the nations"), that he wasn't clearly pretrib before 1839, that in 1839 Darby's only pretrib basis was Rev. 12's "man child" symbol (which symbol had been Edward Irving's pretrib basis since 1831!), that in his 1991 book (p. 100) R. A. Huebner admitted that his source for his 1827 claim for Darby could just as easily refer to something completely un-rapturesque, and that Ice since 1991 has covered this up and continues to declare, while searing his conscience, that Huebner "documents" his belief that Darby was pretrib in 1827!
I won't tell you that all of Darby's so-called "thoughts" which
promoters for generations have claimed led him to pretrib (thoughts like the "Gentile parenthesis," "Church/Israel dichotomy," and the "literal method") were taught by others much earlier and that he subtly plagiarized them! (Dispensationalist scholars must have known that airing even a tiny fraction of this would have been a deathblow to their system!)
I won't tell you that throughout most of the 1800's the leading
church historians - whether Irvingite or (Plymouth) Brethren -
overwhelmingly credited the Macdonald/Irvingite orbit with pretrib; none credited Darby!
I won't tell you that in 1880, a year after his Christian conversion,
C. I. Scofield was in jail in St. Louis for forgery (he'd stolen his
mother-in-law's life savings by means of a real estate scam; would most non-Christian crooks do this?), that after he deserted his wife and children she divorced him in 1883 and he remarried three months later and covered everything up, and that as late as 1899 he still owed thousands of dollars he'd stolen 20 years earlier and had been writing phony IOU's to keep from paying back the money!
I won't tell you that after Darby's death in 1882, the editor of his
many books, William Kelly, plotted to steal credit for pretrib away from
the Macdonald/Irvingite connection and give it posthumously to Darby, that he achieved this between 1889 and 1903 by changing and covering up portions of early Irvingite and Brethren documents, and that 20th century British and American publishers have conspired to continue this historical revisionism in order to enjoy phenomenal sales of pretrib rapture material!
And I won't tell you that during the past century and a half, some of
the most influential pretrib rapture books, by British as well as American authors, have been filled with sloppy scholarship and, what's worse, breathtaking amounts of plagiarism and even occultic teachings mixed in with evangelical theology!
Or that my PLOT book and my later book THE THREE R'S reveal, with comparison quotes and in more or less chronological order, embarrassing plagiarism in writings by John Darby, Joseph Seiss, E. W. Bullinger, Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye, Merrill Unger, Jerry Falwell, Ed Dobson, Ed Hindson, Charles Ryrie, David Jeremiah, C. C. Carlson, Paul Tan, Chuck Missler, and Jack Van Impe, for starters!
Finally, let me say that although I've been researching rapture roots
more than 30 years now, I've been into computers only a relatively short time. The discovery of the extent to which misinformation about the pretrib origin has been circling the earth at computer speed still boggles my mind!
But authors are only part of the problem. After all, if an author
gets royalties of, say, 10 percent, the other 90 percent goes to the
publisher - which means that publishers can have much more incentive to keep churning out bestselling books that are filled with historical error and even deliberate deception simply because they receive far more money than the authors!
Which leads me to give you some of my reactions to publishers that
are less than pleasant. After I gave proof to a well-known publisher in
the Chicago area that one of its authors had plagiarized one of my books, I received a sympathetic letter from the publisher expressing concern; but no changes to my knowledge were made in the dishonest book which was kept in print, and neither my publisher nor I was ever financially reimbursed.
I know a pretrib book publisher in California that was caught
publishing a pretrib book that was a huge plagiarism of a book that had come out several years earlier. After being confronted by the other publisher, the offending publisher promised to withdraw the book, which it did for a while. But sometime later the offending book was quietly reissued - with the same old plagiarism but with a new book title to avoid detection!
In recent years Hal Lindsey has learned what publishers have always
known, that there's far more money if you can be your own publisher or at least control the publishing of your own books. If a person looks closely at his 1999 book, VANISHED INTO THIN AIR (published by the same Western Front Ltd. which was, oddly enough, his "neighbor" when his home was in Palos Verdes, California), he discovers that more than 200 pages (out of 396 pages) are virtually carbon copies of corresponding pages in his 1983 book THE RAPTURE - with no "updated" or "revised" notice included!
This is robbery on a grand scale for unsuspecting buyers who've been assured that VANISHED is a "new" book! Hal has done the same nervy thing with several of his books, something that's allowed him to live in million-dollar-plus homes and drive cars like Ferraris!
And what about Lindsey's THERE'S A NEW WORLD COMING which Harvest House Publishers has owned and been republishing for years? During the same time Lindsey has been peddling his reportedly "new" APOCALYPSE CODE, much of which is word-for-word the same as the Harvest House book! And there's no notice of "simultaneous publishing" in either book! Think of the feelings of customers who buy Lindsey's version only to find out that it's largely a mirror image of the other publisher's version which they had bought previously! Talk about greed!
And then there's Tim LaHaye. His 1992 book NO FEAR OF THE STORM, published by Multnomah Press Books, has an entire chapter entitled "MacPherson's Vendetta." Relying on miscopied secondhand sources that in turn miscopied still earlier sources, he gives the impression that my decades of rapture roots research is my revenge for the troubles pretrib caused my family in the 1950's including my expulsion from Biola in downtown Los Angeles. (My mother went to be with the Lord not long after I was "raptured away" from L.A.) But LaHaye's "crystal ball" is cracked because I didn't even wonder about the pretrib origin, or start any research on it, until two decades later - long after the chief troublemakers had been off the scene and forgotten!
Since my origin research has never had any reason to hide or twist
any historical facts, my practice in my eight book titles has always been to give proper credit and list sources when quoting or discussing others including pretrib critics. In light of LaHaye's chapter about me, maybe he (or Multnomah) can explain why he doesn't list any of my books in his footnotes or even his bibliography!
But his bibliography does list John Bray's 1982 pretrib origin
booklet, containing only 34 pages of "origin" text, even though LaHaye has denounced Bray's claim that Lacunza taught pretrib (the same Lacunza that Bray has long since de-emphasized!) and even though Bray's little booklet is packed with miscopying errors, misspelled names, and even two instances of his plagiarism! How fair is it for LaHaye to discuss me at length without listing my books and publishers so that readers can learn what I've actually written?
The same LaHaye book (reprinted in 1998 as RAPTURE UNDER ATTACK) is filled with mountains of copying errors and missing footnotes, and his inclusion of Margaret Macdonald's short 1830 revelation account has 48 missing words - the same 48 words that Thomas Ice somehow left out (which changed the meaning) when he reproduced it three years earlier!
Why is it that Multnomah and other pretrib publishers almost never
make any changes whenever errors and dishonesty in their books are pointed out to them? Don't they have time or money for necessary proofreading?
Don't they have any self-respect? Don't they fear God?
One happy exception to publishing dishonesty is Thomas Nelson
Publishers. After I convinced that company, with a stack of photocopies of marked pages, that David Jeremiah's and C. C. Carlson's ESCAPE THE COMING NIGHT (1990) is a massive plagiarism of Lindsey's THERE'S A NEW WORLD COMING, a top TNP official sent me a letter, part of which revealed that "we at Thomas Nelson are very concerned about this matter. Accordingly, we are destroying all our current inventory of this title and will not
reprint the book. Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention."
(Anyone wishing a copy of this TNP letter can send a SASE and request it from me: Dave MacPherson, Box 1226, Monticello, Utah 84535.)
But as I've shown, many pretrib publishers are a far cry from Thomas
Nelson. Their bottom line consists of three things: money, money, and money! They don't care that pretrib is less than 200 years old and that it didn't take over American evangelicalism much before "Doctor" Scofield's Bible in 1909! They don't care that the late Corrie ten Boom stated in a published article that pretrib leaders are "the false teachers Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days" and that pretrib caused the deaths of "millions" of Chinese Christians when the Communists took over China! And they don't care that the dishonest pretrib theory they peddle for money in fact makes them accessories to the past, present, and future mass-murder of fellow believers!
Since the same evanjellyfish publishers don't care, I intend from now
on to focus as much on their business practices and personal lives as I have on past and present pretrib authors. If anyone can send me documented evidence in this regard, I'll be happy to share it on the internet and in other ways.
But I really must stop. If this article has whetted your curiosity,
call 800-967-7345 in South Carolina and get my book THE RAPTURE PLOT, the most detailed and documented book on the pretrib rapture's astonishing and long hidden history. Or you can order it through online bookstores such as armageddonbooks.com.
As a historian I confess that I am no expert on where the different
kinds of "wrath" (e.g. Satan's wrath and God's wrath) should be placed on prophecy charts. To me, a really important "wrath" question is whether or not the rapture will happen before the coming of pretrib wrath against those who expose pretrib dishonesty!

Alan Mitchel has written an excellent article
"RAPTURE - What we blieve and why! Click here to read this excellent parallel article that has been on the GJiGT www site for more than a year. http://www.moresureword.com/alanrap.htm

IT'S AT THE DOOR!

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Fear Not! Only be strong, be very strong and of good courage. Look up for your redemption draweth neigh. He will soon pour out His Spirit and seal His bondservants. Rejoice in the L-rd, again I say rejoice! Soon we will see the fulfillment of Isaiah 17 and Amos 1.

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