Church of God News

Preaching a pre-tribulation rapture weakens the church

Joseph Grant Swank, Jr., is a pastor at New Hope Church in Windham, Maine, and is the author of five books and thousands of articles that have appeared in various Protestant and Catholic publications.  He has BA and MDiv degrees, with graduate work at Harvard Divinity School.

Renew America, DC – June 22, 2008

Mark it down as biblical truth: There is no pre-tribulation rapture.

However, untold thousands believe in the “secret rapture of the church” prior to the tribulation period. This is because untold thousands don’t want to have to think of suffering through a tribulation time frame. The late Corrie ten Boom called this pre-trib rapture teaching the “American doctrine.” Go figure.

The belief in a secret rapture of believers before the tribulation is also because of a best-seller, “The Late, Great Planet Earth,” by Hal Lindsey which was set loose in the l960s. It has been a paperback aggressively pushed by practically every evangelical / fundamentalist engine going.

Theologians, videos, films and preachers bolster up this myth with their earnest preachings and teachings.

Yet this is nothing but a myth, accented as much by certain theologically conservative Protestant segments similar unto the Roman Catholic underlining of the immaculate conception of Mary. Nevertheless, if there is no biblical support for such a Mariology teaching, it is bogus. Likewise, the pre-tribulation rapture teaching is bogus.

The pre-trib rapture concept was manufactured in the 1800s in an 18 year old Plymouth Brethren girl’s dream, told to her Pastor, John Darby, and then relayed to C. I. Scofield who bought into the dream as revealed truth. Scofield placed this pre-tribulation rapture notion as a footnote in his popular Bible, hence the spread of the myth.

However, just the opposite is biblical truth. In Matthew 24:29-3l, for instance, the rapture (“gathering together”) is placed in the same time frame as the open second coming of Jesus Christ. And all of this is “after the tribulation” (verse 29). That is it in a nutshell!

Yet pre-tribulation rapturists sidestep this clear passage for more oblique passages. The latter are twisted and turned in order to fit into the “American doctrine.” Yet such twisting is not sound exegesis. And for biblically-riveted evangelicals and fundamentalists to commit this drastic error is bordering on the horrific.

All other passages in Scripture relating to the “gathering together unto Him” must refer back to the literal time line provided by Jesus in Matthew 24.

One must not use a symbolic passage in the Book of Revelation or any other symbolically-based section of the Bible by which to draw a pre-tribulation rapture doctrine.

Further, one must not take words of the apostle Paul so as to insert them opportunistically into a conjured pre-tribulation string of Scripture references. Yet this has been done ad infinitum.

So, a Protestant minister and theologian has reported that the there is no pre-tribulation rapture, that this teaching is a myth, and that it hurts Protestants.  He is correct on all of that.

Those who wish to know more about the truth on this subject and how God will protect the Philadelphia remnant of His church may wish to read the following articles:

Is There A Secret Rapture for the Church? When and Where is the Church Protected?What does the Bible really teach? Who really is left behind?
Laodicean Warning for God’s People Is there really a place of safety? Do God’s people need to be warned? Warned for what?
There is a Place of Safety for the Philadelphians. Why it May Be Petra This article discusses a biblical ‘place of safety’ and includes quotes from the Bible and Herbert W. Armstrong on this subject–thus, there is a biblically supported alternative to the rapture theory.
The Philadelphia Church Era was predominant circa 1933 A.D. to 1986 A.D. The old Radio Church of God and old Worldwide Church of God, now essentially the Living Church of God.