THE RAPTURE DOCTRINAL CONFLICT- 1

Much theological debates have been presented by many bible scholars in regard to the subject of the Rapture or the snatching away of the saints.However,all theologians do agree that the Church of Jesus Christ will be raptured at the second coming of the Lord.The argument was about the "TIMING"of the rapture event.

The three main doctrinal belief that has influenced much mainstream church denominations are the Pre-Tribulationist,Mid-Tribulationist and the Post-Tribulationist.I consider myself a PPT (Pre-Partial -Tribulationist) and I'll put up my stand on this matter later on.The the golden bible verses that refer to the imminent return of the Lord and the rapture of the saints are found in I Thessalonians 4:15-17:

"For this we say to you by the word of the Lord,that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those those who are asleep.For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout,with a trumpet of God.And the dead in Christ will rise first.Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.And thus we shall always be with with the Lord"

This scripture clearly mentioned that Jesus Christ Himself will descend from heaven but will not come down to earth,rather He will be hovering in the mid-air (in between the heaven and earth)calling His saints with a loud voice/shout.I wonder what kind of commanding shout that the Lord will be uttering at.Will He be uttering the shout of command like the way He spoke to the dead man Lazarus in the graveyard "Come forth!"or perhaps the good Lord might be shouting as to John in Patmos "Come up here!"?(Rev 4:1) One thing for sure,every sanctified saints will hear His heavenly shout of command because His voice will be accompanied by loud trumpet call.So he who has an ear,let him hear what the Spirit says to His Church (Rev 1:11).

This is the first phase of Christ second coming,the blessed hope of rapturing the saints unto Him.I always have this conviction that the saints will be snatch by the Lord before the tribulation wrath occur.How ever,I will not be too dogmatic to the point of being judgemental with other viewers.The scripture indeed didn't revealed the exact time of the rapture.Therefore,there will be always a room for honest differences of opinion and I will always give them my due respect.Herewith I present a brief history on the emergence of Pre-Trib,Mid-Trib and Post-Trib schools of thought.

PRE-TRIBULATION:Many Pre-Tribulationist owe their opinion to the teachings of John Darby.In 1827,John Darby came into a conclusion in his doctrine that there were not one but"two second coming" what he means was that there will be a 'secret rapture' event to occur before the advent of tribulation.Darby,formerly an Anglican priest born in London was the founder of the Plymouth Brethren movement.He was the catalyst to the creation of a modern theological system called Dispensationalism.However,tribute was also given to Reverend Morgans Edward ,a Baptist pastor in Philadelphia who in 1742 saw this truth about Christ's pre-Tribulation return.He published a book Millennium,Last Days Novelties in 1788 and make his stand ,although he only saw a three and a half-year Tribulation,the doctrine he taught was that the Rapture occurs before the Tribulation.Few noted Pre-Tribulationist of today are Grant Jeffrey,Dr.Tim Lahaye and Dr.David Reagan(Lamb& Lion Ministries)

MID-TRIBULATION: These group of scholars teaches that the Church will go through the three and a half years of Tribulation period but will be rapture just prior to the last three and the half years of Great Tribulation period.In other word,the rapture of the Church will occur right in the middle of the seven years Tribulation period.Mid-Tribulationist teachers include Harold Ockenga,James Buswell and Norman Harrisson.Mid-Tribulationist hold unto their stand based on 1 Corithians 15:52.They were arguing that upon the "blowing of the last trumpet"which is the seven trumpet of judgement in the book of Revelation,the saints of God shall be raptured.Since Revelation chapter 11 recorded the blowing of this seventh trumpet,they now argue that the rapture must have occurred in the middle of the Tribulation.If we carefully study the scripture,we will notice that trumpet mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15 is the blowing sound command for believers whereby the last trumpet mentioned in Revelation 8.9 and 11 were blown for the unbelievers!Therefore the trumpet in Revelation is irrelevance to the believers.The last trumpet in Rev 11 is for the unrighteous and the last trumpet in 1 Corinthians 15 is for the Spirit Filled righteous saints.

POST-TRIBULATION: Bible scholars who hold this theories teaches that the Church will pass through the seven years Tribulation and Great tribulation period and that the saints will pass through all God's wrath and judgements upon the earth(six seals,seven trumpets,seven vials of judgments).Noted Post-Tribulationist are Pat Robertson.Walter Martin,Brian Bailey and John Piper.Post-Tribulationist put up the argument base on the parable in Matthew 13 and the Lord's Olivet Discourse in Mathew 24.One such strong stand was when Jesus said "Immediately after the tribulation of those days..."(Matt 24:29).This passages does look like the saints will be raptured after the tribulation.However,we need to understand that the gospel of Matthew was written to the Jews and therefore Jesus's speech when Matthew penned them were consist of Jewish flavour in it compare to the same speech when Luke wrote in his book.

One distinguish example is how Matthew wrote about fleeing from the towns of Judea to the mountains and the Jewish law on traveling during the sabbath (Matt 24:15-20).However in Luke's account on this same occasion,it was omitted.Instead,Luke told the saints to listen to Jesus's hopefull words to "look up and lift up your heads,because your redemption draws near"(Matt 21:28) and also "..be counted worthy to escape all these things..."Matt 21:36).Therefore we see that that both Matthew and Luke were speaking on two distinct saints.The saints in Luke's account would probably those who receive Christ before the Tribulation,whereby in Matthew's account,the saints are the Jews who receive their Messiah during the Tribulation period.The same thing with the parable of the wheat and the dragnet (Matt 13:24-30,Matt 13:47-50).This parable refers to the separation of the saints and sinners at the the end of the seven years of Tribulation.Those living saints are the Jews and non-Jews who receive Jesus Christ as their Saviour/Messiah during the tribulation period.These saints were the result of the end time great evangelization by the 144,000 Spirit filled Jews evangelist (Rev 7) being raised by God including the Two Anointed witness (Rev 11:3)

MY INITIAL REVELATION ON A PRE-PARTIAL TRIBULATION BELIEF
When I was a young Christian, the LORD showed to me some good things and shadow of the End-Time prophetic events.God even showed me in visions on the end time events.The Holy Spirit showed me a glimpse vision on revelation 6:12-17 some few years ago and I was terrified.I was still young then,but I knew for certain that there is going to be an End time rapture event and that the Lord will come to gather all His elect and snatch them away to meet the Lord in the air.These are some of the scriptures that the Holy Spirit has showed to me:-

1.I was reading about Philip the Evengelist,how the the Holy Spirit lead him to meet an Ethiopian man who was on his way back to his country riding on a chariot.(Acts 8:26-40).The Spirit of the Lord spoke to Philip"Go near and overtake the chariot"(Verse 29).So Philip ran to catch up with him.Philip then began to preached Jesus to him.The eunuch became a believer and requested Philip to baptize him.The Bible said "And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water;and he baptized him.Now when they came up out of the water,the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away,so that the eunuch saw him no more;and he went on his way rejoicing.But Philip was found at Azotus"(Verse 38-40)The Lord showed me that Philip symbolizes the sanctified,Spirit filled saints and that the Holy Spirit will be the divine transporter on the rapture day. God showed me that it is the wrapping power of the blessed Holy Spirit that will transport us from this earth to meet the Lord Jesus in the air on the day of rapture.

2.Again as I was meditating on the book of Revelation,I was drawn to the scenario where during the sabbathical seclusion of John the apostle in the island of Patmos he received a vision from Jesus.John wrote "After these things I looked and behold ,a door standing open in heaven.And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me saying,"Come up here,and I will show you things which must take place after this"Immediately I was in the Spirit and behold,a throne set in heaven and One sat on the throne"(Rev 4:1-2)

After John heard the voice of Jesus commanding him to come up ,immediately John was caught up by the Spirit and found himself at the throne of God in heaven.John was literally transported from the island of Patmos by the Holy Spirit to heaven.John then saw God's throne and One sitting on it.John said"I was in the Spirit".He was filled with the Spirit and wrap under the power of the Spirit that enabled him to be transported unto God's heavenly throne.I believe John was taken up or raptured to heaven because Jesus did command to"Come up here".The Lord open my understanding upon reading this passage.John is the symbol of the Church of Jesus Christ and upon hearing the loud command of the Lord "come up here",he was literally translated or raptured up to heaven by the Holy Spirit.After the masseges to the seven Churches in Revelation 2-4,and after John was raptured to the throne of God,the Church was never again mentioned or even quoted until Revelation 19:1-10 where Christ's bride ,the Church participated in the marriage supper of the Lamb,Jesus Christ.

3.I was astounded to read on how God judged the two sin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by raining brimstone and fire from heaven.God first send His angels to save Lot,his wife and his two daughters from being destroyed(Genesis 19:12-29).Spiritually speaking,this is the type of end time God's seven years of tribulation judgment period and that the Saints of God were delivered from the wrath that was coming.No doubt God's servant Lot,his wife and his two daughters did escape but then Lot's "...wife looked back behind him,and she became a pillar of salt"(Genesis 19:26).Lot's wife symbolized believers who were saved,born again Christian but became a lukewarm,compromising living in between the work of the flesh and the Spirit,found themselves being "left behind".

The Lord Jesus even quote this example as similar to His imminent return."Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot:They ate,they drank,they bought,they sold,they planted,they built.But on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.."(Luke 17:28-30).Jesus then specifically,highlighted this incident "Remember Lot's wife"(Luke 17:32)

4.God showed me that the seven Churches in the book of Revelation represent all the Churches and its spiritual condition of today and generation to come should the Lord tarry(Rev 2-4).However,the Lord specifically mentioned the Church in Sardis as a "Dead"Church i.e.spritually dead and thus when Jesus come to rapture His Church,His coming will be like "thief"in the night that they won't even know that rapture has occurred .Should the Sardis Church continue to be "Spiritually dead"and not watchful, I believe this Church will not be caught up to meet the Lord on His coming.Will this type of Church go through the seven years tribulation?I believe so unless they repent!The same thing with the Church of the Laodiceans(Rev 3:14-22).This" Lukewarm"Church who are spiritually poor without the fullness of the Spirit in them will not be "caught up"to meet the Lord in the air but rather will be vomited out(Rev 14:16).Jesus always admonish His Church to repent,to be watchful always and be slumber spiritually so that they be ready for His imminent return.

Some scholars mentioned that the Bible should be interpreted literally but some disagree and instead they believe that it should be interpreted spiritually.I believe the Bible should be interpreted both literally and spiritually.But again the interpretation should be in the context of human common sense.Dr.D.A.White, a famous Bible Scholar,once wrote:"The golden rule of interpretation was that :When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense,seek no other sense,therefore,take every word at its primary,ordinary ,usual,literal meaning,unless the facts of the immediate context ,studies in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truth,indicates clearly otherwise".(Dr.D.A.Waite -Ephesians-P10).I do agree with his statement to some points. I will continue to post my belief with a strong scriptural proof and conviction as to why I believe in Pre-Partial Tribulation doctrine in my next posting.God bless us all