13 Reasons Why Not to Trust the Modern ‘Secret Rapture’ Theory

[Protestant]

1. Scripture does not teach it.

2. Neither Jesus nor the Apostles taught it.

3. The historical Christian Church never taught it.

4. The martyred millions whom the Word of God calls 'blessed' never taught it.

5. It is a relatively recent invention foisted on the professing Christian Church.

6. Its modern-day prophets make millions teaching and preaching it.

7. It caters to the carnal nature of man who would prefer to escape tribulation.

8. When the Apostle John, himself in tribulation, saw a futuristic vision of the innumerable multitudes of saints in Heaven, not one had escaped tribulation.

9. It requires closing a blind eye to Church history.

10. It requires closing a blind eye to the doctrines and history of the Roman Catholic Church.

11. It requires closing a blind eye to the fulfillment of the Papacy as that predicted Antichrist, the Man of Sin, and his Church, Mystery Babylon.

12. It requires dismissing as erroneous, confused or irrelevant the united testimony of the ancient Christians, Reformers and Puritans who discerned and exposed the Papal Antichrist and his false Church for what they truly are.

13. It gives succor and comfort to the arch enemy of Christ and His Church by teaching Futurism, whose origin is of the Christ-denying Jesuits.

 

[prophet]

You had me at number 1.

I'm always amazed when Christians stumble over what Jesus taught, right along with His 12...

Matthew 24 is Jesus expounding to His Disciples, what He spoke in mystery in Luke 23, and so on.

 

[DHK]

8. When the Apostle John, himself in tribulation, saw a futuristic vision of the innumerable multitudes of saints in Heaven, not one had escaped tribulation.

This is a total non sequitor, as are many of your points resulting from an inadequate knowledge of the subject matter of the thread you started.

The Great Tribulation has nothing to do with believers. It is God's wrath being poured out against the ungodly of the world, and even the world itself. During that time over half the population will be killed. But all those people will be unrepentant wicked infidels, who care not to know God, and continue to rebel against Him. Even if they had a chance to repent they would not. Their hearts are hardened against God.

No believer goes through the Tribulation, therefore your statement is totally irrelevant.

 

[Revmitchell]

This is a total non sequitor, as are many of your points resulting from an inadequate knowledge of the subject matter of the thread you started.

The Great Tribulation has nothing to do with believers. It is God's wrath being poured out against the ungodly of the world, and even the world itself. During that time over half the population will be killed. But all those people will be unrepentant wicked infidels, who care not to know God, and continue to rebel against Him. Even if they had a chance to repent they would not. Their hearts are hardened against God.

No believer goes through the Tribulation, therefore your statement is totally irrelevant.

Preterists try to reduce the Tribulation period as simply tribulation when in fact it is the wrath of God. They misuse the term tribulation so as to defend their weak case for preterism. The bolws being poured out on the world are certainly far more then mere tribulation and scripture is clear that beleivers are not made for the wrath of God.

 

[shodan]

You would think that No. 1 would be enough for Bible believers. http://textsincontext.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/second-coming-rapture-vs-scripture-christian/

 

[Thinkingstuff]

1. Scripture does not teach it.

2. Neither Jesus nor the Apostles taught it.

3. The historical Christian Church never taught it.

4. The martyred millions whom the Word of God calls 'blessed' never taught it.

5. It is a relatively recent invention foisted on the professing Christian Church.

6. Its modern-day prophets make millions teaching and preaching it.

7. It caters to the carnal nature of man who would prefer to escape tribulation.

8. When the Apostle John, himself in tribulation, saw a futuristic vision of the innumerable multitudes of saints in Heaven, not one had escaped tribulation.

9. It requires closing a blind eye to Church history.

10. It requires closing a blind eye to the doctrines and history of the Roman Catholic Church.

11. It requires closing a blind eye to the fulfillment of the Papacy as that predicted Antichrist, the Man of Sin, and his Church, Mystery Babylon.

12. It requires dismissing as erroneous, confused or irrelevant the united testimony of the ancient Christians, Reformers and Puritans who discerned and exposed the Papal Antichrist and his false Church for what they truly are.

13. It gives succor and comfort to the arch enemy of Christ and His Church by teaching Futurism, whose origin is of the Christ-denying Jesuits.

I agree with you in general, however, it seems silly mentioning the RCC in connection with your objections since they don't have a dog in the fight so to speak. They didn't come up with it, nor did they teach it, nor do they support it.

 

[Protestant]

I agree with you in general, however, it seems silly mentioning the RCC in connection with your objections since they don't have a dog in the fight so to speak. They didn't come up with it, nor did they teach it, nor do they support it.

I cite below text from the 1827 edition of The Coming of Messiah in Glory and Majesty written by Chilean Jesuit Manuel Lacunza under the pseudonym of Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra, translated by Rev. Edward Irving, a prominent historic figure in the promotion of Futurism.

If once it is granted that this admirable personage who descends from heaven to earth [Rev. 19:11 ff] with such glory and majesty is Jesus Christ himself in his proper person, it is absolutely necessary to concede that his second coming, which we all look for as an essential article of our [Roman Catholic] religion, is here spoken of. We believe only in two comings of the Lord Jesus Christ, whereof all the scriptures bear clear testimony; one already passed, and the other infallibly to come to pass. This I speak, not to the wind, or away from the purpose, but because I know there be many doctors [i.e. Roman Catholic theologians past and present] (even without counting Arduino and Berruyer) who admit and set forth many other comings of the Lord in glory and majesty, although secret, (which appears to me a true intangling of the matter), and by whose secret comings which they suppose, they pretend to explain not a few passages of the prophets, and even of the gospel; but it is certain that all this is loosely advanced, merely to shun the difficulty and to save the system in any way. [Part 2, p. 274-5]

A Google search will yield much information on this book.

Spanish Jesuit Francisco Ribera is acknowledged as introducing the first significant Futurist commentary on the Revelation which set the stage for all Futurist commentaries which were to come later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Ribera

Unfortunately no English translation exists.

However, Protestant commentaries during the Reformation frequently cited his work when defending their view as to the historic fulfillment of the Papacy and Church of Rome as the predicted Antichrist and Mystery Babylon.

For example, German Reformer David Pareus cited both Jesuit Futurist Ribera and Jesuit Preterist Alcasar throughout his commentary.

Commenting on Rev. 19:11, Pareus states Ribera’s view:

Ribera falsely alleges that this Scripture describes an invisible descent of Christ from Heaven before the last Judgment, to succor the saints wrestling and striving with Antichrist and his ministers, claiming, ‘Antichrist is not to appear in the last Judgment because he is to be killed 45 days before the day of Judgment.’ (A Commentary upon the Divine Revelation of Apostle and Evangelist John, translated by Elias Arnold, 1644)

Here we have the two-stage Return of Christ taught; first secretly, and then 45 days later, publicly for the final Judgment.

The amount of information available at one’s finger tips via the Internet concerning the Jesuit origins of Futurism is truly staggering.

For example:
http://www.iconbusters.com/iconbusters/htm/false_prophecy/jesuit/j_app_2.htm

 

[InTheLight]

Reasons number 1 through 6 could describe many doctrines, Calvinism leaps to mind for me.

 

[Protestant]

Reasons number 1 through 6 could describe many doctrines, Calvinism leaps to mind for me.

The heated debate between those who hold to the controversial Doctrines of Grace and those who do not have been ongoing since the days of the Apostle Paul, as is evidenced in Romans 9:18-23.

I have recently posted Waldensian confessions which pre-date Luther by hundreds of years yet held to absolute Predestination based solely on scriptural evidence.

The Arminian position on free will held today by professing evangelicals is the same as that held by the Counter-Reformation Council of Trent, which council was called in order to deify Rome’s position on salvation while damning the Protestant position.

THE COUNCIL OF TRENT
Session VI - Celebrated on the thirteenth day of January, 1547 under Pope Paul III
Canons Concerning Justification
Canon 5.
If anyone says that after the sin of Adam man's free will was lost and destroyed, or that it is a thing only in name, indeed a name without a reality, a fiction introduced into the Church by Satan, let him be anathema.

Nearly 150 years later the Baptists were in full agreement with the Reformers' view:

THE BAPTIST CONFESSION OF FAITH OF 1689
WITH SCRIPTURE PROOFS
CHAPTER 9
OF FREE WILL
Paragraph 3. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, has wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation;4 so as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin,5 is not able by his own strength to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.6
4 Rom. 5:6, 8:7
5 Eph. 2:1,5
6 Titus 3:3-5; John 6:44

Futurism and Arminianism have much in common with the Church of Rome which is why such ‘luminaries’ as Billy Graham, Joel Osteen and James Robison can praise the papal Antichrist.

 

[Eliyahu]

1. Scripture does not teach it.

2. Neither Jesus nor the Apostles taught it.

3. The historical Christian Church never taught it.

4. The martyred millions whom the Word of God calls 'blessed' never taught it.

5. It is a relatively recent invention foisted on the professing Christian Church.

6. Its modern-day prophets make millions teaching and preaching it.

7. It caters to the carnal nature of man who would prefer to escape tribulation.

8. When the Apostle John, himself in tribulation, saw a futuristic vision of the innumerable multitudes of saints in Heaven, not one had escaped tribulation.

9. It requires closing a blind eye to Church history.

10. It requires closing a blind eye to the doctrines and history of the Roman Catholic Church.

11. It requires closing a blind eye to the fulfillment of the Papacy as that predicted Antichrist, the Man of Sin, and his Church, Mystery Babylon.

12. It requires dismissing as erroneous, confused or irrelevant the united testimony of the ancient Christians, Reformers and Puritans who discerned and exposed the Papal Antichrist and his false Church for what they truly are.

13. It gives succor and comfort to the arch enemy of Christ and His Church by teaching Futurism, whose origin is of the Christ-denying Jesuits.

I agree:thumbsup:

Rapture theory may be slightly different from Futurism.
Lacunza, a Jesuit developped Futurism, then Edward Irving translated it from Spanish into English, then Irving and JN Darby attended the Bible Study at Countess Powerscourt.

Each verses brought by Rapture believers can be refuted quickly.

7 year tribulation consists of 2 period, one is the persecution of the Believers by the Beast, the wicked people, for 3 1/2 years.

another 3 1/2 years are the period of Wrath by G against Unbelievers.

God revenge the wicked people by the plagues during the second half of 7 years. God doesn't persecute the Saints, but the Beast and Wicked people and thereby Believers should suffer the persecution. But 3 1/2 years later, 144K will be raptured as the 2 Witness and Prophets are ascending ( 11:10-13) and we can see 144K on the Mount Zion along with Jesus even before His coming.
So, only the limited and chosen people will be raptured, but even that will happen after 3 1/2 years.