THE NEW DOCTRINE:

RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH

By Bro. & Sis. M. A. Daoud, Missionaries from

International Bible Assoc., P.O.B. 225646, Dallas TX 75222

(Reprinted from "Miracles & Missions Digest")

The teaching that the Church--in whole or

in part--will be caught up to heaven before the

reign of the man of sin, the anti-Christ, did not

appear in church history until the early part of

the 1800's. Neither any of the early church

fathers, neither the early saints like Augustine

of the Coptic church and Ephraim of the Syriac

church, neither later church writers taught this doctrine.

Neither did the early church creeds of

modern times before the 1800's teach this

doctrine. On the contrary, when they

referred to the last days of the Church, they

said that the Church would continue on earth to

the end of the reign of the anti-Christ.

Of course, belief of Church fathers' creeds

does not prove always a doctrine is true.

The Bible is the proof standard, and it is the only

thing we stand upon and follow.

In the 1700's and 1800's, the best noted

Bible teachers were Matthew Henry and Adam Clark,

who each wrote a complete commentary

of the whole Bible, verse by verse. They did

not teach this new doctrine. I studied both

commentaries and nothing is mentioned about "Rapture."

How have we gotten this new doctrine?

In March, 1830, a woman in Richard

Baxter's church in London, England, when under

supernatural power, prophesied that the Lord

Jesus might come any time and that true believers

in Him might any day be caught up

by translation to heaven. This woman and

this church were connected with the Irvingite

movement that soon went astray on many false

doctrines. The Irvingite movement placed

much emphasis on prophesying under supernatural power, etc.

At the same time, John Darby and a little

group of men gathered at PLYMOUTH,

England, to engage in independent Bible study

which later formed The Plymouth Brethren

group which still exists in England and other

countries. Although Darby and his group of

Plymouth Brethren were not part of the

Irvingite movement, they nevertheless accepted

this prophecy as coming from the Lord and they

incorporated it into their teaching.

Darby was one of the most influential preachers

in England at that time. He liked

this easy way, escape-tribulation doctrine.

But George Muller, of the famous Muller orphanage,

and Spurgeon and many other

famous preachers opposed this new teaching.

But Darby and his group proceeded with the

new interpretations and went on teaching this

new doctrine. Later, Charles Schofield became

one of the Darby line and closely associated

with the brethren teaching of the secret Rap-

ture of the Church and eternal security

teaching.

Another man named W. E. Blackstone wrote

a book called Jesus Is Coming. He

summarized the Darby-Schofield teaching of

the secret Rapture of the Church, and with the

help of some rich believers at that time

published this book and spread it widely to

preachers and missionaries around the world, free of charge.

Oswald Smith of Canada and Henry Frost (American secretary

of the China Inland Mission)--prominent men at that time--

opposed this doctrine, but it was too late to

reverse the wide spread of the book, Jesus Is

Coming. And later the Church went on,

preachers divided into two opinions and

doctrines. Some believe in the secret Rapture,

easy escape, of the Church prior to the

tribulation, while others believe that the

Church will go through the tribulation and the

Lord Jesus will come after the tribulation and the

appearing of the man of sin,

as I explained in the beginning of this article.

Note: You can believe either way you want.

It does not make any difference and will have

no effect on your eternal salvation. What will

affect your eternal salvation is if there is secret

sin in your life and any disobedience of any

clear Scripture that pertains to holiness and

righteousness. But Rapture prior or at the

end of Tribulation is not a basic doctrine.

The one basic Doctrine is that He is coming to take

the Church, His body of believers who lived for

Him and kept holy as He is holy. And holiness

without no man shall see the Lord. Sin will

keep one out of heaven and the pearly gates,

as Jesus told those who professed they knew Him.

He told them, "I never knew you: depart from me,

ye that work iniquity." (Matthew 7:23.)

There was secret, hidden sin in their lives. (END)

If you would like to examine the 1830's resurgence of the pre-trib theory with an actual reprint of the narrative of Margaret McDonald's "vision", ask for the $11 book, The Incredible Cover-Up by David McPherson: OMEGA MINISTRIES, P.O.B. 1788, Medford, OR 97501, Ph. 1-800-343-1111 or (541) 826-9877 Email: EDGE@the-cutting-edge.org (OMEGA MINISTRIES publishes endtime magazine, "THE CUTTING EDGE".) http://the-cutting-edge.org

COMMENT BY EZEKIELWAR.COM:

(The article above was not written by one of our members. Out of respect for the authors, we re-produced the article in its entirety.) Paul warned against the pre-trib doctrine at the beginning of 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. Therefore, the theory was in existence in the first century, but it has had a resurgence since 1830. Ancient Jewish tradition believed in a rapture that would supposedly take place two weeks before the judgment of the world. This Jewish fable also dates back to the first century.

WHEN WILL JESUS RETURN???

By Bro. & Sis. M. A. Daoud*

*credits: See top

"Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming

of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering

together unto him, 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.

"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;..." (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3.)

From reading the above mentioned verses carefully,

it definitely states that the coming of Christ and the

translation of the living believers [saints] would not

be until after the reign of the man of sin.

The man of sin MUST first be revealed. On this basis,

we believe that Christ will appear to gather His

saints to him after the reign of the Anti-Christ at

the end of the tribulation. And we quote the Scriptures

from the Holy Bible. So we can base our belief on

what is written in the Bible.

"And as [Jesus] 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?

"And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed

that no man deceive you.

"For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ;

and shall deceive many. 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....

"When ye therefore shall see the abomination of

desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand

in the holy place [see Dan. 11:3135], (whoso readeth,

let him understand:)...

"For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not

since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor

ever shall be....

"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:

"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."(Matt. 24:3-6,15,21,29-30.)

The Christian world is divided into two opinions. Some believe that there will be a secret, invisible return of Jesus in the sky where the saints will be translated secretly before the beginning of the tribulation and the revelation of the man of sin which will start soon in our time by the appearing of the beast and the world ruler and climax by the rulership of the man of sin.

The other group who makes the majority, believe that the Lord will come after those days of tribulation as it is mentioned clearly in the Scripture proofs we mentioned.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Whether you believe in rapture before tribulation or Jesus will come after the tribulation of those days is irrelevant. **It is not of great importance and will have no effect on your eternal salvation which way you want to believe. The basic doctrine is that Jesus will come to take His saints at the end. "And he that overcometh [overcomes sin and the world], and keepeth my works [life] unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations." (Revelation 2:26.) And that is the basic, fundamental doctrine.

**COMMENT BY EZEKIELWAR.COM:

(The articles above were not written by one of our members. Out of respect for the authors, we re-produced the articles in their entirety.) The pre-trib, sneaky-thief, secret Jesus is 'another Jesus'. The pre-trib 'Jesus' is not the Lord Jesus Christ Who is the Spirit of prophecy. It is crucial to believe in the post-trib rapture--the only rapture. A person who believes in the pre-trib theory runs the risk of opening himself up to even greater deception(s) in the future. A pre-tribber is hard of hearing towards the Holy Spirit, and is in disobedience to the full voice of prophecy. Pre-trib talk constitutes idle chatter; idle words are dangerous to the soul. When the tribulation begins, many pre-tribbers will turn their backs on God, saying, "How could a loving God allow His kids to go through the tribulation?" (They say this even now.) When the tribulation begins, a few pre-tribbers will commit suicide. After the tribulation begins, many pre-tribbers will go the full gamut of deception even unto trusting in the antichrist, because they were told that Jesus would return before they were persecuted by the antichrist. Many pre-tribbers have contributed to the antichrist spirit by encouraging Christians not to be involved in government. In order for evil to reign, all that is necessary is for the righteous to do nothing. On the other hand, when these negative things begin to happen, God still has His remnant of pre-tribbers who will become post-tribbers. Praise God!

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