A Closer Look

By O. Kelley

About 20 years ago, when I started taking my "walk" very seriously, having realized the gravity of the situation; I was bothered by the fact that so many different doctrines, dogmas, or "views" were being taught or preached from One Book "" The HOLY BIBLE. It seemed to me that One Book "" The inerrant word of God "" should have only one message. It seemed obvious that many "views" had to be in error. And that's what started me on this quest to find out for myself which views were right and which were wrong. I became, in effect, a "Berean"; one who makes sure "" by studying scripture "" that what is being preached is true or not. Of course there are several other "views" out there deserving of a closer look, but if you have any doubts about what is being preached in your church; do what I did. Take your own closer look

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098009694

Book preview

1

The Rapture

All my life I’ve heard it preached that Christian believers would be raptured up to Heaven before the start of the great tribulation: the worst of times the world has ever seen, or will ever see after that. We’ve all attended one or more of those weeklong seminars about end times, where scholarly lecturers come with their highly convincing fast talk and all the pertinent charts and graphs, particularly one very large, highly elaborate, highly detailed, and highly convincing chart that shows the entire past and future history of mankind, from creation to the forever state; with all pertinent events accurately located in time, except for one event.

The rapture is inserted to occur just before the great tribulation. This chart is used as the final authority, as though it was drawn by the indisputable hand of God, to be handed out to all who doubt pretribulation rapture, as divine proof of it. Case closed. I had always liked the idea so much that I gladly accepted it without question, until one day when I heard a pastor (preaching on the subject of end times) read Rev. 4:1: After this (after having been given the seven letters to the seven churches) I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in Heaven: and the first voice I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

Then the pastor looked up and said, We just had the rapture.

For the first time, I really thought about that. Since it was in a Sunday school setting, I was able to ask, What is there about that verse that means anything other than the angel, or Jesus, telling John to come up there and see the things that are to be? He could not explain it to mean anything other than that. (I asked that question during one of those seminars, and they got real upset. One of them shouted, Mark that man for contention!)

Others have tried to say that it is or was the rapture because John was in the spirit (or out of body). But that didn’t make sense, because Ezekiel and Paul were taken out of body and shown things as well, with there being no hint of rapture there either. Nor did Ezekiel, Paul, or John receive glorified, incorruptible bodies as will those being raptured.

Since that passage was so easily seen through as having nothing to do with the rapture, I decided to have another look at all those other passages that are cited as proof of pretribulation rapture while, to be fair, keeping an open mind to the possibility that they might have a point. But after examining all of them carefully, I found that they did not prove what has come to be the denominational doctrine of many churches.

Incidentally, since I completed my study, I heard two of the scholars who used to go around to various churches with their charts and graphs, giving those seminars on pretribulational rapture, come forward to admit that after having taken a closer look, as I did, they have come to the same conclusion I did: that there is absolutely no such proof.

My purpose in writing this is to share what I, and they, have found. It’s hard to decide where to begin. Those people have had a long time to choose verses or passages that seem to add to their volume of evidence. But I have to start somewhere.

Rev. 11:12 is another verse where Come up hither is said by a loud voice from Heaven; signaling, if you will, for the two witnesses to be resurrected and taken up to Heaven. This verse, for some reason, because of the Come up hither command from Heaven is claimed to be a mini-rapture. This invention forgets that when the saints become raptured, it will occur before they die, and it will be all of them, not just two. If it occurs after they die, it is known as a resurrection, not a mini anything. There is only one rapture.

Come up hither may very well be the shout from Heaven that signals the rapture, but not in the context of either of those verses. Something to consider about those two witnesses is that they were especially holy men who died during the tribulation.

I think it is a good idea to take another very close look at Rev. 11:15–19 at this time because it says a lot that I can refer back to later: And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in Heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our LORD, and his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their face, and worshiped God, saying, we give thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned. and the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in Heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thundering, and an earthquake and great hail.

At the sound of the seventh trumpet, verse 15 seems to say that Christ will begin his forever reign, that with verse 18 saying that the time of the dead has come that they should be judged, and the rewards be given to the prophets and the saints. Even though that chapter says things that seem to be referring to the second coming of Christ, it may it may simply be saying that in the present tense, like most prophecy was given, that such was as good as done, although it hasn’t happened