"Judging God" (reply to an anonymous comment)by Sharon L. Clemens

Anonymous, I felt your comment should have a full reply..

I disagree that "all Christian theology and organized churches before 1830 believed the church would be on earth during the tribulation..." To so generalize doctrine as to claim "all" believed your viewpoint, is to ignore disputes within the church since its inception. There have been, and will be, in every age, those who are right and those who are wrong because Satan sends false teachers to destroy truth. There is no "all" about it. Therefore, true believers seek to be the "wise" of Daniel 12 who will understand the truth. The Bible alone is the source of truth, not numbers. In fact, our Lord prophesied in Matthew 13, the parable of the wheat and weeds, that false believers would be so numerous in the last days that it will be hard to tell false Christians from true believers.

But each age also has a remnant of those who understand the truth. Let me give you specific examples, from scripture and church history, to disprove your statement that "all" believed as you do. Dispensationalism, which places the Rapture of the Church before the Tribulation [pre-tribulation rapture view], was not a position that came late to the theological table, as you claim. Literal, future Bible interpretation [dispensationalism] did not suddenly appear around 1830. The plain meaning of the text was the teaching of the Apostolic church from its beginning. The term dispensationalism to define literalism became popular at that time; however interpreting scripture literally through the plain meaning of the text had long been established. The historical fulfillment of Christ's first coming proved scripture to be literally fulfilled; the Second Coming of Christ will be just as literally fulfilled.

This literal interpretation is affirmed in the writing of early church fathers such as Ephraem the Syrian, A.D. 373. [Grant R. Jeffrey, "Ephraem and the Pre-Tribulation Rapture," in Final Warning].] Even a cursory study of 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 provides adequate evidence that the early church believed in a pre-tribulation rapture. Why else would the brothers of Thessalonica be "shaken in mind or troubled" when they received a fake letter claiming the Tribulation had begun and they had somehow missed the Rapture--they were shaken because they rightly believed the Rapture would come BEFORE the Tribulation.

Just as false teachers in Paul's day tried to destroy the blessed hope of the early church, so mockers today accuse those who wait in anticipation for the imminent [any moment-] return of Christ of being ignorant. Only a pre-tribulation Rapture position preserves the doctrine of immanency that Christ clearly taught [Luke 12:35-48]. If any event in God's plan MUST come before the Rapture, then the Church cannot be looking for His any-moment return. If we are to "go through" the Tribulation, then the believer would be looking first for the Antichrist to sign a treaty with Israel to begin the Tribulation. If we are to go through the Tribulation, then we would be looking for the Mark of the Beast and the War of Armageddon before we look for Christ to come in the clouds... Any view other than the pre-trib Rapture view destroys the doctrine of immanency. The Church, the Bride, is to be ALWAYS READY--eagerly waiting, watching and working, knowing His return first for the Church could be any moment since His ascension to heaven. Because we cannot know the day and hour, we are to be waiting ALWAYS.

It is also ironic that you liken the pre-trib view to a house of cards--that if one card is removed from the top, the whole thing will fall apart. First, there is no danger that the chronological events of the Second Coming will fall apart. The strength of our view is that no one card can be removed. Each point is irrevocably connected to the other, and the chain begins in Genesis and doesn't end until the last word of The Revelation. God's plan is a logical, clear, and plain sequence that is outlined through a literal interpretation.

Rather, I see the jumbled mass of interpretations by those who pick and choose what they wish to take literally or what they must take symbolically in order to "prove" their position as being like a large fish net full of holes. The advantage of stringing together human ideas of your own invention because the plain meaning is rejected, is that it seems to hold together, even when sections of the net are cut out. Positions outside of dispensationalism are so far apart in their interpretations, and their deductions are so full of holes, the only thing that holds them together is their shared disdain of dispensationalists who believe the Lord will come for His Bride before the Tribulation. Unfortunately, a net that has holes still catches fish. That is why we must pray for spiritual discernment in these days.

Sharon L. Clemens