Tamborine Lady:
"But it is my contention that this very belief (pre-trib rapture) will lead to the great falling away.
Think about it: millions of people have been told that if they accept Jesus, they will be taken out before the bad stuff happens. "
Ah, yes, the old license to sin gambit against
OSAS = once saved, always saved. One figures that
since OSAS is true, then you can sin all you want to
and you won't get unsaved -- i.e. you have
an OSAS license to sin. One probem, if you are
saved (i.e. of the OS part is true), then you
don't want to sin and don't need a license.
Those who preach the license to sin dogma are in error.
Those who preach OSAS are preaching God's truth.
And I'll be preaching God's truth as i am revealed it
from the Holy Bible.
The Pretribulation Rapture/resurrection that
God has planned for His purposes (not for ours)
is God's truth. So it can NEVER BE WRONG.
So if somebody thinks they find an error in what
the Bible teaches, obviously they are in error also.
Thus I must derive: The belief in the pretribulation
rapture is NOT the cause of a great falling away.
Anyway, the "great falling away" teaching is in error.
There is no teaching in the Bible that in the
last part of the last days, just before the Tribulation
period, there will be more apostasy then before.
The two places this teaching come from are:
2 Thessalonians 2:3 and 2 Timothy 3.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 (KJV1769):
1 This know also, that
in the last days
perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves,
covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers,
false accusers, incontinent, fierce,
despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure
s more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness,
but denying the power thereof: from such turn away
That is in the last days.
These are signs that the last days continue.
The last days are the church age, age of gentiles, etc.
The last days begain on the day of Pentacost 33AD
(some say other than 33AD, usually 30AD):
Acts 2:16-17 (KJV1769):
But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
17 And it shall come to pass
in the last days,
saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh:
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams:
BTW, the last days end the day that Jesus comes to
get His Holy Bride, the universal church, the
Body of Christ -- the pretribulation rapture.
I've discussed elsewhere how the "falling away" of
2 Thessalonians 2:1 is the gathering together of
the church at the end of the LAST DAYS (AKA: Church age).
Thus, neither of these two verses show an
end of the last days "great falling away".
So, the PRe-tribulation rapture teaching is true
and cannot lead to a non-exisitant "great falling away".