The Pretribulation Deception

By Mitchell H. Miller

A comprehensive study and comparison between the Early Church Chiliast or Premillennial View of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ with the modern doctrine of Pretribulationism.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 7, 2013
• ISBN: 9780989964784

Book preview

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Age of Deception

The End Time Apostasy of Christians

The Destructive Influence of Mass Communications and Public Education

The Failure of Spiritual Leaders

Prophetic Lies

The Disease of Rapturitis

The Chiliast or Premillennial View of Prophecy

The Main Tenets of Pretribulationism

Setting The Stage For The Great Deception

Chiliasm vs. Pretribulationism

The Revelation of Jesus Christ

The Day of Christ and the Day of the Lord

A Quick History of Pretribulationism

A Comparison Between the Two Views

The Olivet Discourse

The Any-Moment Coming

The Imminency Doctrine

The Key To Understanding the Early Expectation and Fulfillment of Christ’s Future Coming

The Interpretation of Prophecy

The Nature of Prophecy

Prophecy and the Foreknowledge of God

How Non-Chiliasts Misapply Prophecy

Passages Which Contradict Pretribulationism

The Relocation of the Kingdom of God

The Two Primary Divisions of the Day of the Lord

The Converging Lines of Prophecy

The Conflagration and the New Creation

The Importance of Mount Zion in the Scriptures

The Judgment Seat of Christ

The Chronology of the Book of Revelation

The Difference Between An Age and A Dispensation

The Time of the End

The Role of Angels

The Reorganization of the Kingdom

The Postponement of the Kingdom at the First Coming

The Dating of the Book of Revelation and Progressive Truth

Be Ye Therefore Ready

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Appendix D

The Pretribulation Deception

Copyright © 2013

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form,

except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review or article,

without written permission from the author.

The Pretribulation Deception

by

Mitchell H. Miller

Comparing the

Early Church Chiliast View on the Second Coming of Jesus Christ

with

Pretribulationism

This book is dedicated to

the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved me, and gave Himself for me

the three Christian men who planted the seed to win me to Christ

to all the faithful preachers who taught me to believe the Authorized Version

and to stand in the Faith

and to

my dear, loving wife whom God chose to be my perfect help meet for life

Introduction

Please Read This First

While the objective of many Eschatology books is to provide the reader with the various arguments of different views of prophecy, this book was written with a specific approach in mind. We consider  that most of these type of books are a waste, and do more harm than good. Who wants to plow through a collection of arguments for a particular view of prophecy, and read about pros and cons, when most of the time the argument itself does not even adhere to any clear, hermeneutical principle of interpretation? The truth is: most books on prophecy are a hodgepodge and mishmash of recycled philosophical and illogical arguments which do more to promote unbelief in the word of God than inform the student. Over the last 40 years, we have read and heard some of the most ludicrous arguments imaginable which are intended to support the hyperdispensational view of Pretribulationism. We will cover many of these so-called arguments and examine them in the light of the early Church prophetic doctrine of Chiliasm. And although we will provide many historical quotations from the early Church fathers, the main interest of our investigation will be the same as with the apostle Paul, For what saith the scripture? (Rom. 4:3)

Therefore, this book will be different than most Eschatology books. Although there is a Table of Contents, this book is not intended to be read by skipping haphazardly from one section to another; it was written specifically to be read in it’s entirety from the beginning to the end. The information in later sections will build upon former sections; starting with the basic and moving to more advanced material as we progress; and if the reader jumps ahead, he will miss the previous supporting framework for the later parts of the book. In fact, this is exactly how the Bible should be read if one intends to understand the context of what is later discussed. For example, reading the book of Revelation without the light of the book of Daniel, Zechariah and other Old Testament prophets would be like trying to study trigonometry without a basic understanding of triangles. Reading the New Testament without the radiant light of the Old Testament is one reason why there is so much false teaching in our local assemblies; many of them try to build a superstructure without a sound and solid foundation. And as we shall demonstrate, Pretribulationism is the quintessence of getting the cart before the horse.

This particular book is also distinctive in the manner in which we present our material. We not only teach what the scripture actually says, but we also sprinkle throughout the text some hard, straightforward preaching. The word of God was not written to simply teach us, but to correct us where we need it (II Tim. 3:16). And while our comments are directed toward all Christians, we specifically aim our large-caliber cannon (AV 1611) at the pastors, teachers and evangelists who were entrusted with the word of God. Believers cannot be expected to fight deception on all sides without casualties. While many of our comments might lead the reader to believe that we do not have any respect for many of the men in which we ultimately criticize; on the contrary, we always appreciate the good that Christian men and women do everywhere for the glory of God; we only take a stand against that which is contrary to the truth. Read this book humbly and prayerfully, from beginning to end, asking the Lord to open the eyes of your understanding (Eph. 1:18); for the scripture says, He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him. (Prov. 18:13).

During the Lord Jesus Christ’s ministry to Israel when He was here on earth, He flatly told His disciples, Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division (Luke 12:51); and this was the tone He took throughout His earthly ministry. The Lord was the great divider of men. He would divide fathers from sons, mothers from daughters. He went around preaching against the sins of men, calling folks "hypocrites," and condemning the religious leaders of His day and time (Matt. 23). And the Lord had a way of always cutting to the very heart of the matter; showing mercy to repentant sinners, while rebuking those who would deceive the innocent. I dare say that if the Lord Jesus was here today, the world would not be able to handle His style of preaching and teaching; and sadly, neither would this latter-day generation of Christians.

Mitchell H. Miller

The Age of Deception

Beyond all doubt, we are living in the darkest days of the New Testament times, where deception, like a crippling, debilitating plague, spreads throughout the world, bringing destruction and ruin to all who are touched or influenced by it. For those who have chosen to conform to this world of darkness, there is no escape from its clutches; for they have rejected the true light which now shines (I John 2:8); that LIGHT is the word of the living God (Ps. 119:105); and more specifically, the word of prophecy (II Pet. 1:19). The scriptures tell us that if a man TAKES HEED to Prophecy, he has a light that shineth in a dark place until the time of the Lord’s Return, when He will personally appear as the Day Star (II Pet. 1:19; Rev. 22:16).

Now prophecy is like an inspired thread which interweaves within the precious fabric of holy writ, delicately holding every line and precept together; for without prophecy, the Bible would be no more than a profound Book of spiritual wisdom and enlightenment, a moral and ethical guide, a dissertation on Science, or a recorded history. But in God’s marvelous wisdom, He has seen fit to furnish Man with a supernatural Book which not only claims to be given by inspiration of God (II Tim. 3:16), but demonstrates it by accomplishing something which Man could never do: foretell the future:

Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, DECLARING THE END FROM THE BEGINNING, and from ancient times THE THINGS THAT ARE NOT YET DONE, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure…

(Isa. 46:9-10)

When you study the content of the holy scriptures, this amazing phenomena immediately stands out: the scriptures have the ability to FORETELL the future. And this reveals the Bible’s superiority over any other book that has ever been written. God challenges the world by saying "I am the Lord: I WILL SPEAK, and THE WORD THAT I SHALL SPEAK SHALL COME TO PASS..." (Ezek. 12:25). God does this to the tune of over 3,856 prophecies. That is, one verse in eight foretells future events! It is a mathematical impossibility that the Bible could be anything less than exactly what it claims to be. For example, the Old Testament alone gives 333 prophecies concerning the Messiah, some of which were written over three thousand years before Christ was born. The mathematical chances that all 333 prophecies could be fulfilled by one person by sheer chance is 1 in over 84 to the 123rd power (84 with 123 zeros after it)! The odds that even 48 of these prophecies could be fulfilled by ONE MAN are 10 to the 157th power (that is, 10 with 157 zeros after it)!! To try to grasp the immensity of such a number, let’s take a small object such as an electron (an electron is so small that if you lined them up side by side, it would take 2 and one half quadrillion of them to equal the length of one inch). Using the figure of 10 to the 157th power, if you tried to put this many electrons into a big pile, it would be 10,000,000,000 times larger than the Universe itself!

Scientists calculate the Universe to be 6,000,000,000 light-years across. A light-year is the distance which light will travel in one year, moving at the speed of 186,000 miles per second. We are dealing with an almost incomprehensible and astronomical figure, the odds of which a professional gambler would never take against himself; yet Man does so time and time again when He rejects the RECORD that God gave of His Son (I John 5:10).

As the old expression goes: The proof is in the pudding. And the ultimate proof that the Holy Bible is the infallible, inerrant, and supernatural word of the living God is the element of PROPHECY. A man would have to be a blithering fool if he didn’t examine such evidence. But the world is more or less disinterested, even if that lack of interest will ultimately end in their eternal doom (Rev. 20:12-15). And strange as it may seem, with the greatest Book that they have ever seen or ever will see, laying in their laps since 1611 (King James Bible), Christians of our present generation grope for the wall like the blind in their understanding of God’s word (Isa. 59:10), and are as deceived about what it says and teaches as any lost man who is destitute of the truth, supposing gain is godliness… (I Tim. 6:5).

It is the ignorance of the scriptures that makes Christians vulnerable to the diabolical wiles of Satan (Eph. 6:10-12), leaving them tossed to and fro, and carried about with EVERY WIND of DOCTRINE, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive… (Eph. 4:14). The scriptures WARN the believer over and over NOT to be deceived. This deception not only involves Satan (Rev. 12:9), but also false prophets (Matt. 24:4-5; Eph. 5:6; I John 4:1), false doctrine (II Thes. 2:3; II John 7), the work of the flesh (I Cor. 6:9; Gal. 6:7), the human heart (I Cor. 3:18; James 1:22,26; I John 1:8), and very soon in the near future, the work of the Antichrist (Dan. 8,11), the False Prophet (Rev. 13:11-15; 19:20) and the continued reign of the Roman Harlot, Babylon the Great (Rev. 18:23). Avoiding deception is absolutely impossible without a thorough KNOWLEDGE of the scriptures and FAITH in what it says (Mark 12:24).

The End Time Apostasy of Christians

What Christians possessed in spiritual understanding at one time in the Holy Bible (such as a couple centuries ago) has long since faded away into oblivion (Hos. 4:6) and is only a vague recollection (Jer. 4:22). In these last days, Christian churches are mere monuments in the graveyard of the past; colorless tombstones with tarnished inscriptions, deteriorated from years of wavering and instability. There is little left which even resembles what the Church of God once used to believe and stand for (Acts 13; 20). An impenetrable mist of spiritual darkness has settled down upon the Body of Christ lulling her to sleep, and she shows little or no concern for her perilous predicament. There is a name for this condition; it is called apostasy (II Thes. 2:3). Apostasy occurs when God’s people fall away from the truth (II Tim. 4:3-4); that is: the body of revealed truth. Some theologians call this the general analogy of scripture; but technically, it is where the words of living God are set aside and placed on a shelf, being rejected for the traditions and commandments of men (Mark 7:7,13; Col. 2:8). Christians may still take their bibles to church, and use them in the services; they may even read a chapter or two during the week; but the real attitude and disposition of these same believers toward the truth of God is appalling to say the least. The truth is no longer cherished and loved as it should be, but has fallen in the street (Isa. 59:14), leaving the world to come along and trample it with their unbelief. The vast majority of Christians have cast the word of God behind their back (Neh. 9:26), and it is scorned with an almost fanatical zeal. Such apostasy can only lead to SPIRITUAL DECEPTION, and eventually to DIVINE JUDGMENT (see the exact spiritual condition of Israel after the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar in Lam. 3:1-19,42-47).

The Bible speaks of perilous times wherein evil men and SEDUCERS shall wax worse and worse, DECEIVING and BEING DECEIVED (II Tim. 3:1,13). Men are not only deceivers, but they are also self-deceived, fooled by their own folly (Prov. 26:11). And the world is filled with these foolish men; many of them are bankers, lawyers, congressmen, senators, teachers, policemen, and a conglomeration of pastors, teachers and evangelists.

Note how the passage in II Timothy 3:13 describes one of the deceptive techniques by the world system: SEDUCTION. These seducers (v. 13) will deceive by enslaving the consciences of men. This enslavement involves the affections, and the norms and standards of the conscience. The conscience is the most vulnerable part of the human soul; for it is the conscience which anchors the soul with respect to the Faith (i.e. the body of revealed truth), of which the scriptures tell us, some "having PUT AWAY concerning FAITH have made shipwreck" (I Tim. 1:19). This is not talking about personal faith in God, but THE TRUTH which God has revealed to the believer in the scriptures: "THE faith" (Acts 6:7; 14:22; 16:5; Gal. 1:13; Eph. 4:13; Phil. 1:27; Col. 1:23; 2:7; I Tim. 1:2; 3:9; 4:1; 5:8; 6:10,21; II Tim. 3:8; 4:7; Tit. 1:13; 3:15; I Pet. 5:9; Jude 1:3, etc.). The most serious situations in which a believer can find himself is when he allows his conscience to be destroyed by the seductive pleasures of this world, and the wrongful desires enjoyed by the flesh (Luke 8:14; 21:34) which, the Bible says, war against THE SOUL (I Pet. 2:11). And accompanying this seduction is false doctrine, which Paul the apostle was the most concerned about for his young convert and minister, Timothy (II Tim. 2:15; 3:13-17; 4:1-4). For false doctrine will infect the believer’s soul, and cause his faith to suffer, his conscience to weaken, which will eventually result in the inevitable DECEPTION of his soul.

The Destructive Influence of Mass Communications and Public Education

According to the scriptures, Satan is designated as the prince of the power of THE AIR (Eph. 2:2); this would be the same prince which Jesus spoke of in John 12:31, 14:30 and 16:11. The Devil will soon manifest himself in the person of his own son (the son of perdition, II Thes. 2:3-4), the Antichrist, who is called a prince in Dan. 9:26 and Ezek. 21:25. And so because he currently retains rule and authority over, not only earthly kingdoms (Luke 4:5-7), but the airwaves, any Christian should be able to apprehend the unceasing propagandizing of lies and falsehood, sin and ungodliness, through the mass communications of radio and television, newspapers, books and magazines, all of which has steadily increased global deception. And the more technologically advanced these mediums become, so does the advancement of deceit and prevarication. American television advertising has progressed technologically to the point that a commercial advertiser can put across an absolute lie to the general public with very little difficulty or opposition; and even Christians will believe it! Products which are as worthless to the consumer as a bottle of itching powder can be made to look like the proverbial elixir of life, a cure-all which has the power to heal all disorders. For an example, with the aid of photographic special effects and computer enhancements, a jar of face cream can appear like a fountain of youth for older women. In short, just about anything that the American public does not need can be made out to be their salvation.

Among these mediums of deception, the American television is probably the number one tool of Satan to keep the general public blind to the truth and to influence believers to walk in darkness. Almost twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, something is projected upon the television screen which will try to mislead and defraud, promote the wholesale practice of sin and ungodliness, swindle from us our pocketbooks, twist the facts of nature and history, corrupt our minds and consciences, create illusion, despair and ambiguity, and flimflam even the most seasoned con-artist.

And because on the whole, America has rejected the Holy Bible as the ABSOLUTE STANDARD for faith and godly living, deception runs rampant in every fabric of our society. It has infiltrated the American public school system like poison dumped into drinking water. Since 1952, the so-called education of young people has become nothing more than an indoctrination of historical, philosophical and psychological LIES, and the circumvention of absolutes, such as the laws of nature and the truth of God. It is a diabolical, subversive brainwashing of the soul, which produces an unthinking, undisciplined and irresponsible individual whose MIND has been polluted with the raw sewage of this world (the course of this world, Eph. 2:2), and whose CONSCIENCE has been irrevocably demoralized (seared with a hot iron, I Tim. 4:1).

On the other hand, God’s word, throughout the centuries, has always been the light for Man’s spirit (Ps. 119:130), opening the eyes of his understanding (Eph. 1:18); for it is Man’s spirit which is the candle of the Lord (Prov. 20:27). Without this pure light from God, man is left blind, destitute of the truth (I Tim. 6:5) and left to his own corrupt, vain imaginations (Rom. 1:21). When the word of God became available in the universal language of English through the publication of the King James Bible in 1611, the Devil countered immediately by lining up more philosophers, scientists and educators to discredit the claims of scripture than in all the centuries before it. From John Locke (1632-1704) who supposedly inaugurated the Age of Empiricism (which was at least 15 centuries out of date), to Spinoza (1632-1677), to Newton (1642-1727), to Berkeley (1685-1753), to Voltaire (1694-1778), to Hume (1711-1776), to Leibnitz (1724-1804), to Kant (1724-1804), to Lessing (1729-1781), to Bentham (1748-1832), to Goethe (1749-1832), to Schelling (1775-1854), to Fichte (1762-1814), to Hegel (1770-1831) and Schopenhauer (1788-1860), all of these men initiated the heady, high-minded philosophical, antiChristian rationalism that provokes foolish men to think their way into Hell; that is, to justify their rotten sins while rejecting the blood atonement of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, as their provisional sacrifice for sin. Then, following in the 1800s, came German Rationalism, and afterward, in the 1900s, Existentialism; all of these philosophical ideas, including Textual Criticism which originated from the Romanist’s Bible revisors, have contributed much to the DECEPTION of Europe and America, and have swayed the Body of Christ to reject the Authorized Holy Bible of 1611 as the infallible, inerrant word of God (Col. 2:8). For a concise, yet thorough history, of how the true Bible Text has been preserved down through history from pagan religion and the corrupting influence of Rome, the Christian should read Our Authorized Bible Vindicated by Benjamin G. Wilkinson, Which Version is The Bible? by Floyd Nolen Jones, and The King James Bible Defended by Edward F. Hills.

You see, the world does not realize that they are dealing with a pro; an evil genius with almost 6,000 years of experience in the art of deception (I Thes. 2:18; I Pet. 5:8). The Devil is the Master of illusion (II Cor. 11:13-15) making Harry Houdini, Mark Wilson and David Copperfield look like rank amateurs. And one day very soon according to II Thes. 2:9, Satan’s son, the Man of Sin, plans to pull off the big one on the whole world (Rev. 12:9) using all power (hydrogen and electromagnetic energy, the God of forces; Dan. 11:38), signs (counterfeit Messianic signs; Luke 21:8; John 5:43) and lying wonders (miracles; cf. Rev. 13:14; 16:13). The common belief of the world that seeing is believing will be their undoing, and eventual destruction (Rev. 11; 13). When the False Prophet, the forerunner of the Man of Sin, brings to life the Image of the Beast (Rev. 13:15) in the sight of the whole world (v. 14), the unregenerate will believe and take the mark of the Beast, damning themselves to an eternal lake of fire (Rev. 14:9-10). The prudent Christian should be well aware that what is NOT SEEN is more often that which is real and substantial (Heb. 11:1; II Cor. 4:18; John 20:29).

The Failure of Spiritual Leaders

In Ephesians 4:8-12, we are told that when the Lord Jesus Christ ascended up on high that He gave GIFTS unto men (v. 8); these unique and special gifts are specifically mentioned in verse 11 as "apostles…prophets…evangelists…pastors and teachers." This four-fold gift ministry to the Body of Christ has a three-fold purpose, as outlined in verse 12:

1. For the PERFECTING of the saints

2. For the WORK of the ministry

3. For the EDIFYING of the Body of Christ

Although the ministries of the apostles and prophets have passed, because they were foundational in character (Eph. 2:19-20), the ministries of the evangelists and pastors and teachers were subsequent, continuing past the transitional period of the book of Acts ("the Acts of the Apostles" in the King James Bible) when God was still dealing with Israel as a nation (Acts 5:30-31). After the New Testament Apostles and Prophets disappeared from the scene, the only real spiritual leadership which remains in the Church are those pastors (Eph. 4:11) who are to use the office of bishop to take care of the church of God (I Tim. 3:1,5). This specialized calling has strict qualifications (I Tim. 3:2-7; Tit. 1:6-9) and scriptural disciplines which would easily disqualify 90% of American pastors today. The average pastor has little use for engaging in any kind of warfare (II Tim. 2:3-5), or sharing the pulpit with two or three other pastors as the New Testament churches did before Rome influenced them to do otherwise (Acts 20:17,28; 14:23; Phil. 1:1; I Tim. 5:17; II Tim. 2:2; Tit. 1:5, etc.); and who often disobey the Biblical commands found in I Tim. 2:11-14; 4:7,12-16; 5:20-21; 6:17-18; II Tim. 1:13-14; 2:2-3,15-16; 4:2,5; Tit. 1:13-14; 2:1,7-8,15, etc. This is the main reason why the modern, Fundamental, local church in America is no longer militant, Biblical, or bearing fruit (in the sense the scriptures define fruit; see Rom. 6:21-22; 7:4-5).

If there was one truth which is made abundantly clear from the word of God, it is this: historically, wherever God’s people turned away from the truth, they always did AFTER their spiritual leaders had already done so.

For the PASTORS have become brutish, and have not sought the Lord: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.

(Jer. 10:21)

To become brutish means to lack reasoning and understanding and become like the beasts of the earth (cf. Jer. 10:8,14; see also II Pet. 2:12 where false teachers are likened to natural brute beasts). A brutish person is kin to the fool, and lacks a real understanding of God’s thoughts and works (Ps. 92:5-6). This is exactly what has happened to the pastors of America and Europe. They no longer feed the flock of God (I Pet. 5:2; cf. Acts 20:28) with the faithful word (Tit. 1:9) because they are not "apt (suitable, fit) to teach" their flocks (I Tim. 3:2; 4:13-16; II Tim. 2:15); they are spiritual novices to the uttermost degree (I Tim. 3:6). Somehow modern pastors have been led to believe that their primary purpose in the ministry is kind of like a social worker: they are to counsel, visit the sick members of the church, evangelize on occasion [where they do mostly from the pulpit, not in the field], and deliver motivational messages to the local assembly. Pastors of this kind are a dime a dozen; they have no business being in the pulpit. You can spot these pastors very easily:

1. Their sermons are superficial; there is no real time put into their messages (As a friend of mine down South used to say, A three-point outline, a poem and a prayer.).

2. Their sermons cascade through a dozen or so subjects and repeat (e.g. church attendance, giving, personal dress, the basics of Christian duty, etc.).

3. Their sermons are usually long, filled with repetitive statements, contain little scripture and illustrations, and if boiled down to the basic points would last about five minutes; this is because the modern pastor spent just as little time in his preparation (in contrast, compare the sermons of the Old Testament Prophets, the Lord Jesus Christ, etc.). The primary purpose of pastors is to TEACH (Eph. 4:11-13; I Tim. 3:2, apt to teach; II Tim. 2:15; Tit. 1:9); you cannot teach without KNOWING God’s word, and being able to illustrate it’s truths.

4. Their sermons rarely touch upon the sins of the saints. Sins, such as greed, jealousy, holding grudges, church politics, dishonesty, lust, worldly thinking, pride, tradition, etc., and those listed in Gal. 5:19-20, I Cor. 5:10-11; 6:9-10, and illustrated in both Testaments, are rarely or never preached on. The old-time preachers who brought revival to America did so through the preaching of the word of God (not through sensationalism or politics), and they spent little time on such subjects as giving, church attendance, dress, etc.; they dealt with issues of the heart, matters that could not be feigned or counterfeited. Putting it simply, the average pastor in America is not preaching the word (II Tim. 4:2), let alone ALL the counsel of God (Acts 20:27) as he is called to do.

5. The local church is used as an expedient, evangelistic outreach(?) to the lost, while 98% of the attending congregation are Christians. This happens when a pastor forsakes his vocation as pastor (Eph. 4:11) and substitutes something else, such as the vocation of an evangelist (cf. Acts 21:8). There is a major difference between a pastor doing the "work of an evangelist" (a reference to personal evangelistic work, which he is supposed to also do; II Tim. 4:5), and making this the MAJOR emphasis of his ministry. It is no wonder so many Christians in our congregations never grow in grace and remain spiritual babies (Phil. 1:8-11). The pastors have forsaken the major duty of their calling: that of shepherding the flock (I Tim. 3:2-7; 4:13-16; 5:17,20; 6:11-12,20-21; II Tim. 1:13-14; 2:2,14-15, 24-26; 4:1-5; Tit. 1:6-9; I Pet. 5:1-3).

6. The typical pastor in America is not a student of the word (II Tim. 2:15). He could not comment intelligently on such subjects as the word of PROPHECY (II Pet. 1:19); a topic which is interwoven throughout scripture; not to mention is the major topic of the Holy Spirit of God (things to come, John 16:13); the doctrines related to salvation (Regeneration, Justification, Redemption, Propitiation, Reconciliation, Remission, Expiation, Sanctification, Substitution, Imputation, Adoption, Spiritual Circumcision, etc.) and their relationship to the past, present, and future of all believers; church government; the interrelationship of the human spirit, soul and body; the seven aspects of truth and their applications; the seven Bible covenants and their relationship to dispensations; the doctrines of the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of heaven (a primary theme of the Bible); the oppositions of science, philosophy and tradition; the cults and their false teachings; victorious Christian living, divorce and remarriage; etc. In short, the modern pastor doesn’t know enough Bible to teach a Daily Vacation Bible School; you could not siphon enough material out of the average modern Bible study or sermon in the typical local church to fill a straw. The majority of the pastors in America are young men who think that they are somehow equipped to shepherd a flock because they went to a Bible college or school for three or four years. Nothing could be further from the truth. They are not only brutish but genuinely deceived. The vocation of pastor is not a calling to be taken lightly; and this is why God requires such strict qualifications for the office (must, I Tim. 3:1-7; Tit. 1:5-9). No Bible college or school can qualify anyone for the ministry, even if the student has been thoroughly processed, pasteurized, and homogenized in the Christian institution’s denominational gobbledygook.

Prophetic Lies

In the scriptures we often find God choosing a prophet to be His divine messenger (Heb. 1:1), who would deliver His prophetic word under the administration of the Holy Spirit (II Pet. 1:21). Many of the Old Testament Prophets were called specifically to go to the nation of Israel and bring a message of judgment against them. For example, prophets such as Elijah, Elisha, Micaiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah were sent to condemn and expose the sins of kings, princes, priests, and others of his own nation. Ezekiel the prophet’s entire message was a tirade against the land (Ezek. 21:2), the mountains (Ezek. 6:2), the forests (Ezek. 20:46), the shepherds (Ezek. 34:2), the city of Jerusalem (Ezek. 4:7), the princes (Ezek. 11:1-4), and a myriad of false prophets (Ezek. 13:2)! He left no stone unturned in his scathing and caustic prophetic pronouncements.

In fact, in Ezekiel 13 we find one of the strongest denunciations against the prophets of Israel that you will ever read. It is akin to the words found in Jeremiah 23 or the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 23. Here we find Ezekiel blasting the prophets of his day for prophesying out of their own hearts (v. 1), following their own spirit (v. 2), seeing vanity and divining lies (v. 9). Ezekiel condemns these prophets for seducing the people (v. 10) and giving them a FALSE HOPE (...they have made others TO HOPE that they would confirm the word, v. 6). The particular problem with these prophets, aside from the obvious, was the tendency to preach only what the people wanted to hear (v. 6)! Sure sounds like the politically-correct preachers in America to me! The people were not interested in hearing negative messages of judgment, and such like; they wanted to hear lies and trust in falsehood (Jer. 13:25). "My preacher said it, so that settles it for me. Ever hear that one? Too many times God’s people vainly follow the syrupy-sweet theological opinions and theories of modern pastors and evangelists merely because they sound good (positive) or feel right" (emotionally satisfying), and not because the word of God confirms such things (I Thes. 5:21). A good example is Joel Osteen: I have never heard him preach against the sins of God’s people or preach the gospel of I Cor. 15:1-4. Maybe this is why he is so popular! But he can sure make folks feeeeel sooooo goooood about themselves, can’t he?

Ezekiel’s message against the foolish prophets (Ezek. 13:3) likened their lying prophecies to walls built with untempered morter (Ezek. 13:10-11); that is, like a wall of sand without any real adhesive properties. From all outward appearances, the walls looked as if they could withstand a flooding shower or even a storm of hailstones (Ezek. 13:11); but in an actual test, they would easily fail (Ezek. 13:11-16)!

And so, just as it was in Ezekiel’s day, preachers today are rearing up spiritual walls for the people that appear from a distance to be soundly built, sturdy and solid; the foundations of these walls seem well-grounded and firm; nothing could possibly topple them. Yet when one closely examines these walls, he will find the material to be crumbling and falling apart; large cracks and gaping holes developing throughout the structure; and after an examination in depth, the entire foundation to be makeshift and insubstantial.

The Bible is filled with examples of false prophets which lead the people down the road to destruction by messages of peace!! For example, when the people of Judah were warned by Jeremiah the prophet that they were headed for captivity under Babylon for a period of 70 years (Jer. 25), and this warning was again confirmed by another prophet by the name of Urijah (Jer. 26:20); suddenly, up pops a son of a prophet named Hananiah, who proceeds to contradict the word of Jeremiah, pronouncing to the people that the captivity would only be two years long, and that even Jeconiah the king would return to Jerusalem (Jer. 28:1-4)! But Jeremiah had clearly said that Jeconiah the king was cursed and would die in Babylon (Jer. 22:24-26)! The truth was: Hananiah made the people of Judah trust in a lie (Jer. 28:15) with his false message of peace (Jer. 28:9); and the people ate it up. This is just one example of how a positive lie brought false hope to an entire nation! And as we shall see in the following pages, this description can be readily applied to the foundations of Pretribulationism.

The Disease of Rapturitis

The Chiliast view of Christ’s return is one of the most blessed truths in God’s word (II Tim. 4:8). This invigorating message of the blessed hope (Tit. 2:13) should be the motivating factor and inspiration which provokes God’s people to serve the Savior until that Day when He gloriously appears in the clouds, and we are transformed into His very image (I John 3:2; I Cor. 15:51-52). Oh what a Day that will be when that which the Lord Jesus accomplished on the Cross will be realized in it’s fullness, and the believer’s salvation is made complete (Rom. 8:23; 13:11; I Thes. 5:9-10; Heb. 9:28)! Unlike the Pauline doctrine of salvation by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8-9), this precious hope and it’s accompanying message of the Theocratic Kingdom (Matt. 16:28; I Tim. 6:14-15; II Tim. 4:1) is spoken of throughout both Testaments; and by just the sheer number of passages, it is the main theme in the Holy Bible. Beginning in Genesis in the garden of Eden with Adam as the federal head of Mankind (Heb. 2:5-8; I Cor. 15:45-50), and encompassing all the way to the New Jerusalem on the New Earth in the book of Revelation (Rev. 21:1-3,10-11,22-26; 22:1-5), this predominant topic of scripture was preached and taught by the Prophets, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostles and the early Church. It revolves around the great doctrines of the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of heaven; both of which are related, but distinct in God’s word: the first being a literal, invisible, spiritual dominion, in which God is King over all created spiritual beings, authorities, principalities and powers (Eph. 1:19-23; 6:10-12; Col. 1:16; Ps. 82:1); and the second being a literal, visible, physical, earthly dominion, because God is sovereign over all physical creation, including Man, the Earth, the sun, the moon and the stars, including all suns, constellations, galaxies and nebula (Ps. 148:1-6; Isa. 42:5; 45:11-12,18; Col. 1:16; Rev. 4:11; 10:6). Both of these kingdoms will be UNITED in ONE glorious, spiritual and physical, Theocratic Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ during His future Millennial Reign on the New Earth (Rev. 20:1-6). This glorious Kingdom will be the supreme and consummate fulfillment of the covenants of promise (Eph. 2:12), which incorporates the Gentiles, who have been made partakers in Christ (Eph. 2:11-13). This wondrous and excellent hope which once only pertained to the nation of Israel, became the very hope which the apostle Paul preached to the Gentiles (Acts 24:14-15; 26:6-7; 28:20; 15:4). There has been more heresy, false teaching and philosophical nonsense taught in our local, Christian assemblies, as well as political, social, economic and humanistic proselytizing by the world, all because of the indiscriminate melding together of these two separate kingdoms prior to the Lord’s return to this earth to sit on David’s throne (Luke 1:30-33). Mankind is always trying to bring in the Kingdom on his own, without the King being present. And for our immediate purpose, this would be too comprehensive a subject to discuss here (For further study on these two unique kingdoms, see The Sure Word of Prophecy by Dr. Peter S. Ruckman).

Suffice it to say, we have too many Christians who have been taught to be content with merely a mystical Church which has no relationship to past history (Eph. 3:3-5), experiencing only spiritual blessings in the heavenlies (Eph. 1:4). Both of these unscriptural terms ("mystical, heavenlies) are used heavily by well-known hyperdispensationalists, such as E. W. Bullinger, Charles H. Welch, C.I. Scofield, Clarence Larkin, Cornelius Stam, J. Dwight Pentecost, Charles Ryrie and a host of others. While some of these men are more hyper" than others, this doesn’t change the fact that every one of them promote and teach the SAME hyperdispensational view of the Second Coming of Christ, relegating ONE miniscule event of that future Coming as an entire crisis in itself; in effect, consigning it to a distinct and separate Coming unto itself. Pretribulationists call this additional coming, the Rapture; a theological term taken from the Latin word rapere which is supposed to be a description of the believers being caught up into the air (I Thes. 4:17). To put this another way: from ONE lonely passage found in the word of God, Pretribulationists have created an entire doctrine unto itself which is used as a platform for a hyperdispensational prophetic theory. And to do so, every one of these Pretribulationists must segregate this ONE VERSE entirely from it’s own CONTEXT in the very same book (I Thes. 3:13; 5:1-2); otherwise it would immediately compromise their own theory!! And the reason is very simple: the underlying motive by ALL hyperdispensationalists is to completely disassociate the hope of the Church (Col. 1:5) from the Chiliast hope of covenant and prophecy (Rom. 15:4). But to any Bible-believing student of prophecy, both of these are clearly UNITED together in ONE comprehensive, multifaceted, glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ (Tit. 2:13). This should be abundantly apparent, for the New Testament Apostles not only quoted the Old Testament in reference to this exhaustive feature of prophecy, but applied the quotations to an extensive number of other prophetic truths, all of which were taught to the Church (e.g. as the apostle Peter did in Acts 2; see further comments on this later). This easily establishes Old Testament prophecy (even though separated from the New Testament dispensationally) as undeniably the FOUNDATION for some of the most important and preeminent prophetic truths taught by the Apostles. The apostle Paul clearly proclaims that the Church is BUILT UPON the FOUNDATION of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone… (Eph. 2:20). And this is as it should be; for the writers of the scriptures always BUILT UPON the earlier books of the Bible. For example, the Pentateuch (the first five books of Moses) are referred to by the latter Prophets no less than 1,531 times! And so it should be no surprise that the New Testament Apostles frequently quoted from the Old Testament scriptures as supportive proof to lay the foundation for some doctrinal truth (Rom. 15:2-4; Acts 26:22-23; Gal. 4:26-28; Heb. 10:35-38; I Pet. 3:8-12).

For PRECEPT must be upon PRECEPT, PRECEPT upon PRECEPT; LINE upon LINE, LINE upon LINE; here a little, and there a little…

(Isa. 28:10)

The line here is the measuring line of a builder (Isa. 28:17; 44:13; Jer. 31:39); it was used like we would use a ruler: to MEASURE and to keep things STRAIGHT and LEVEL. Construction engineers today still use the line as a measuring tool. Now in Isaiah 28:10, the line represents that portion of God’s word which measures and straightens out people (v. 11); specifically, in this context, Isaiah is preaching to the drunkards of Ephraim (v. 1). Thus, in the Old Testament scriptures, one will find that it contains the basic, foundational PRINCIPLES found throughout the word of God. The apostle Paul sketches out for all believers the scripture’s essential purpose: for REPROOF, for CORRECTION, for INSTRUCTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS (II Tim. 3:16). And observe how the context of this passage is a reference to the Old Testament scriptures as the holy scriptures (v. 15), which Timothy learned as a child! (cf. Rom. 15:4). I have found that this rudimentary principle has not been heeded by modern-day Christians (unlike the early Church), who usually limit their Old Testament reading to portions of the Psalms or the Wisdom books because they hate reproof (Prov. 12:1) and have despised the WORD of the Holy One of Israel (Isa. 5:24).The Old Testament prophets will take a rod across the believer’s backside!

Now although the prophet Isaiah is actually making another application in the passage above, what we can still learn is the importance of building upon the former. You must BUILD UPON ESTABLISHED TRUTHS. This Bible principle is completely disregarded by hyperdispensational Pretribulationists; and this is how you know that their novelty doctrine corresponding to the Rapture of I Thes. 4:17 is a con game and nothing more. It is pure pretense and a complete fabrication to presume that the apostle Paul was referring to an additional and distinct Coming of Christ, knowing that he frequently quoted the Old Testament scriptures to prove his doctrines (Rom. 14:10-12; 15:8-12; I Cor. 15:51-55; Gal. 3:5-9,11-12; Heb. 10:12-18; 12:25-27, etc.). Not once, in any of his epistles, does Paul deny or correct the Old Testament doctrine of the Prophets on the SECOND COMING of Jesus Christ; nor does he try to disassociate it from his own unique New Testament doctrines. When it comes right down to it, the truth of the matter should be obvious: Paul is simply amplifying upon many of the themes of the Old Testament scriptures, such as the Resurrection (I Cor. 15:12-57), the Kingdom inheritance (Col. 3:24), the description and work of the Antichrist (II Thes. 2:3-10), and many others which are related to the Second Coming of Christ. In this sense only, could we call Paul’s doctrines new. The truth is: the apostle Paul, nor any of the other apostles, give our Pretribulationists the justification to talk about a new revelation (i.e. the Rapture) and construe from this that Paul must of been describing an entirely separate Coming which is completely unrelated to the one prophesied in hundreds of Old Testament passages. This ludicrous, Pretrib assumption doesn’t just take a hop, skip and a jump from Biblical exegesis (a favorite appellation of modern scholarship), but is a considerable leap off the precipice of sound thinking! The Rapture of believers mentioned by the apostle Paul in ONE VERSE in the entire word of God is merely an amplification on the identical Chiliast (Premillennial) Coming taught in the Old Testament. The scriptures never set aside the major doctrine of the Day of the Lord anywhere (Acts. 2:20; I Thes. 5:2; I Cor. 5:5; II Cor. 1:14; II Pet. 3:10; Rev. 1:10), nor the Lord’s grandiose and triumphant landing on this earth (Zech. 14:4; Acts 1:11; 3:19-21). The apostle Paul simply adds supplementary details to the abundance of prophetic scripture, which have their singular application for all New Testament believers who have come to the Lord through Paul’s gospel message, which came by the revelation of Jesus Christ (Gal. 1:6-12; II Thes. 1:7-10). The apostle Paul calls this special revelation a mystery, which had not been revealed during the Old Testament period, but had been kept secret until God chose to reveal it through the apostle to the Gentiles (Rom. 16:25-26; Eph. 3:1-7; 6:19-20; Col. 1:25-27). And this distinctive calling of Paul certainly does not mean that the SAME Second Coming promises to Israel are not related to the SAME Coming promises to Gentiles (Acts 1:9-11; II Thes. 2:1-9). There has simply been an addition to the program of God, where God dispensed grace to the apostle Paul (Eph. 3:2) to make ALL MEN see what is THE FELLOWSHIP of the MYSTERY, which from the beginning of the world hath been HID in God…to the INTENT that NOW…might be KNOWN by the church the MANIFOLD WISDOM of God, according to the ETERNAL PURPOSE… (vs. 9-11). In Paul’s own words, this mystery, which was kept secret since the world began (Rom. 16:25) is NOW made manifest by the scriptures of THE PROPHETS (i.e. the Old Testament scriptures; Rom. 16:26). Although this mystery had been kept secret until the apostle Paul revealed it by way of his own ministry to the Gentiles, it was plainly written in the Old Testament scriptures, hidden away until that moment when the nation of Israel would make their woeful choice in rejecting their own Messiah and turning down the restoration of their own promised Kingdom (Matt. 21:42-43); of which we will go into much more detail later.

What so many of our Pretrib brethren seem to forget is the clear, infallible and ABSOLUTE FACT that the Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostles preached and taught on the Second Coming long before there were any New Testament scriptures even around (Matt. 24-25; Acts 1-4)! The only scriptures written up to this point was the Old Testament scriptures, which were read in the synagogues every Sabbath day (cf. Acts 13:27; 15:21). If the Body of Christ, as a spiritual entity (Eph. 1:22-23) was newly formed on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) (as many Pretribulationists will even admit, except for the most hyper ones), then there should be NO DOUBT that the realization of the Church’s Hope IS the postTribulational-preMillennial Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 1:11; 2:17-21,34-35; 3:19-21; 26:6-7). And the apostle Peter, who actually preached at Pentecost, never states anything to the contrary; and in fact, wrote in his first epistle many years later (around 60 A.D.) concerning the hope of the believer (I Pet. 1:3,13), stipulating that it would become manifest at the REVELATION of Jesus Christ (I Pet. 1:13; cf. vs. 1-11; II Pet. 4:13; 5:1). All Pretribulationists will admit that the Biblical term Revelation refers to the literal, visible Coming of Lord in glory, when He REVEALS Himself to every eye (a descriptive phrase from the apostle John who actually wrote the book of Revelation (Rev. 1:1,7). The majority of our Pretribulationists do not realize that the book of Revelation (as no other book) exclusively REVEALS the Lord Jesus Christ in His Second Coming capacity, from beginning (Rev. 1:7) to end (Rev. 22:12). When the apostle John was in the Spirit (Rev. 1:10; 4:1-2; 17:3; 21:10), he was bodily transported into the Day of the Lord (Rev. 1:10), and was carried to and fro (Rev. 17:3; 21:10) like Philip (Acts 8:39) and Ezekiel (Ezek. 37:1), back and forth from heaven to various locations on earth (Rev. 11:1-2; 13:1; 17:3; 21:10,15,22; 22:1, etc.). John was not just perusing visions of the future; he was actually transported to various moments into the future and back again, seeing it all firsthand as an eyewitness! Note that the Lord’s Day of Rev. 1:10 is NOT a day of the week such as Sunday; for the Bible never refers to any day of the week as the "Lord’s Day." This notion, picked up by Christians, is taught by the Roman Harlot and is pure tradition (Rev. 17-18), who has always rejected the Holy Bible as the absolute authority of God. Although the Lord Jesus rose from the dead very early on the first day of the week (Mark 16:9), that day is never called the Lord’s Day in the scriptures. The only reference to the Lord’s Day in the Bible which has any significance is the future Day of the Lord. There are 20 direct references in the Bible to this special Day (Isa. 2:12; 13:6,9; Ezek. 13:5; 30:3; Joel 1:15; 2:1,11;