Nix pre-trib Rapture and Satan smiles

Answering the question of, “Will the Body of Christ go into or even through the tribulation?” Les Feldick writes in his book Questions and Answers from the Bible, “Paul alone gives us the Scriptures concerning what many now ridicule—the rapture or the catching up of the Church which is His body . . .

“Every book that listeners send me advocating a later out-calling mixes verses (from Paul’s epistles) with all other verses that apply only to the Second Coming when Christ will stand on the Mount of Olives. If you mix Paul’s doctrine concerning the rapture of the Church with the Second Coming, then you can mix law and Grace. And, when you mix law and Grace, Satan smiles and God is grieved.”

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Jordan relays, “Some years ago we had some brethren say, ‘Well, we don’t believe in a pre-trib Rapture anymore; we believe the Rapture takes place at the end of the tribulation, after revelation of the Antichrist right before the end.’ They kept asking the question, ‘Do you have a verse that shows you the Rapture is pre-trib?’

“Well, a lot of verses clearly indicate that it is. But they wanted a verse that said it and I always point to II Thessalonians 2:13, which tells you that from the beginning of the 'dispensation of grace,' God’s plan is to save you from the Antichrist.

“Paul writes, [13] But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:

“This is a Calvinist’s favorite verse because it’s the only verse that connects ‘election’ to salvation. In your Bible, though, election is never connected with anybody’s soul salvation or justification. It’s always associated with ‘the purpose of God according to the election,’ which is that the elder might serve the younger. Election always has to do with service in the Bible, never with salvation.

“When you tell people that, somebody will always say, ‘Yeah, but, Brother Rick, what about II Thessalonians 2:13?’ Well, here’s a ‘what about.’ 

"See, God from the beginning chose you to be saved. But you can’t come in with a theological thinking based on some philosophical speculation in the theological gymnastics. You have to come to the verse and read the verse in its context.

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“What ‘beginning’ is he talking about? Look at verse 14: [14] Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Was there a time when Paul’s gospel was not preached? Was there a time when Paul’s gospel began to be preached? So what do you think the ‘beginning’ in verse 13 might be? It’s the time when verse 14 began to be preached. When is that? That’s the beginning of the 'dispensation of grace.'

“From the beginning of the 'dispensation of grace' God has chosen the Body of Christ to salvation. What salvation? Keep reading verse 14: ‘to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.’

“When does that happen? You have salvation in three parts. The first phase is justification, where you have salvation in the present tense. Sanctification is where we grow and walk in that grace. Glorification is that salvation in the future tense when you receive your glorified body and obtain the glorification of our Lord. That’s why Paul talks about having peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

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“Romans 5:1-2 says, [1] Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
[2] By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

“When Paul writes, ‘and we rejoice in hope,’ that’s our future. That glory out there, that’s our hope. It’s not just going to be a prospect; it’s going to be ours. We’re going to obtain it. When? That’s what happens in the Rapture.

“What the verse is telling you is God’s purpose has been to save the Body of Christ from the prophetic program’s wrath. Look at I Thessalonians 5 and 9. You’re not appointed to wrath and that’s what II Thessalonians 2:14 is talking about.

“Paul then says in verse 15, [15] Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

“By the way, the only way you’re going to believe in the pre-trib Rapture is by ‘rightly dividing the Word,’ recognizing the distinctive ministry of the Apostle Paul.

"If you try to go back into Matthew 24 and 25, or Mark 13 and Luke 21, and get a pre-trib Rapture--and a lot of Acts 2 people do it all the time--it isn’t going to work because it’s not back there. The people Christ’s talking to back there are going to go through the tribulation and He prepares them to do it.

“I see people all the time trying to prove an imminence of the Lord’s coming, where He can come at any moment, and they use Matthew to do it and I say, ‘Don’t you read?’ That’s why people abandon the pre-trib Rapture; because they go to passages that aren’t pre-trib.

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“At the Rapture, God literally gathers the Body of Christ and puts the head and the body together for the first time, completely, right in the midst of Satan’s dominion. Pastor Kurz likes to say that when God created Adam, he threw dirt in the devil’s face, and the ultimate throwing of dirt in the devil’s face is going to be right there.

“Paul writes in II Thessalonians 4: 16-17: ‘[16] For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
[17] Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
[18] Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

“Now, when he says we’ll ‘be with the Lord,’ that’s not just the idea of I’m going to be in the room with Him. People argue, ‘Well, I need to know if I’m going to come back on the earth with Him because He’s going to be on the earth.’ Listen, if it had to be that you were going to be in the physical location where the Lord is, how would that work? There’s too many people to be physically with Him.

“That ‘be with the Lord’ is more the idea of ‘those who are with me and those who are against me.’ He’s saying that forever we’re going to ‘get with the program’; we’re going to spend eternity operating and functioning in, rejoicing in what He’s doing and we’re going to be with Him through it all.

“I used to have a friend who’d say, ‘The greatest thing about heaven is I’ll never disappoint the Lord again.’ I came to realize, ‘What’s wonderful to know is you don’t have to wait ’til heaven for that; you’re that in Christ already!’

“You already are accepted; you already are blessed, approved, blameless. You just need to go live in the reality of who God has ALREADY made you in Him. You don’t have to try and attain it; it’s already yours. Go live like it! You see, it’s a different perspective of the Christian life. What a prospect that is!

“By the way, when Paul says ‘wherefore comfort one another with these words,’ the idea is these w-o-r-d-s give internal strength and fortitude. They put fortitude down inside of you where, no matter what happens to your outer man, that ‘inner man is renewed, strengthened by His Spirit with MIGHT’; with the miracle-working power of God in your inner man. That’s God’s Word; that’s God Spirit working in you.”