Thoughts On the End Times [5]: I Proved the Pretribulation Rapture But Didn't Buy It
The only rapture passage in the Bible doesn’t teach a pretribulation rapture, but my senior theology prof wanted me to defend that view from the Bible. I was at a loss, so I started reading pretribulation scholars to see how they defended their view. I discovered that it required an entire system of theology (dispensationalism) to make the pretribulation rapture stand.
The key idea in dispensational theology is that there are two separate and distinct peoples of God (Israel and the Church), each with their own distinct program. The two programs cannot be running together in the world at the same time. God only operates one program at a time.
God’s plan for Israel operated from Moses to Jesus. When the Jews rejected and crucified Jesus, God put His plan for Israel – a world kingdom centered in Jerusalem with the Messiah on the throne – on hold. He then launched a SECOND plan for a SECOND entirely NEW people: the Church.
The Church is comprised of anyone, Jew or Gentile, who believes in Jesus. This new plan began at Pentecost (Acts 2) when the Holy Spirit came to live inside of believers – something which, dispensationalism says, was not the case in the plan for Israel.
God temporarily paused the program for Israel because, according to dispensational theology, He plans to return to that plan and complete it. That’s what most “end times teaching” involves: God once again dealing with the world through national Israel rather than through the Church.
The belief is that in the Tribulation period (described in a previous blog) God returns to dealing with national Israel. The Tribulation has to do with Israel, not the Church. Since God does not run both plans (Israel and the Church) at the same time, the Church must be removed from the world.
The answer of dispensational theology is the rapture. Even though the Bible nowhere teaches a rapture before the tribulation, the whole theological system requires that the church be removed before the Tribulation so God can finish His plan for national Israel. Therefore, the rapture must take place before the Tribulation.
And that’s it.
That is what I presented in my senior theology paper.
And I aced the paper.
But in the process of writing it, I developed serious misgivings about whether the Bible supported the pretribulation rapture view or the whole understanding of the Bible required to support it.
I was 21 – getting ready to graduate and move to the next step of whatever God had for me – and I was struggling because the only view I had ever been taught, not just about the end times, but about how to see the entire Bible and all of history, was crumbling.
I had to go back to the drawing board and figure things out.
That was in the fall of 1981.
A year later I would be called as the pastor of Mountain View Chapel.
And still working through these theological difficulties…
The key idea in dispensational theology is that there are two separate and distinct peoples of God (Israel and the Church), each with their own distinct program. The two programs cannot be running together in the world at the same time. God only operates one program at a time.
God’s plan for Israel operated from Moses to Jesus. When the Jews rejected and crucified Jesus, God put His plan for Israel – a world kingdom centered in Jerusalem with the Messiah on the throne – on hold. He then launched a SECOND plan for a SECOND entirely NEW people: the Church.
The Church is comprised of anyone, Jew or Gentile, who believes in Jesus. This new plan began at Pentecost (Acts 2) when the Holy Spirit came to live inside of believers – something which, dispensationalism says, was not the case in the plan for Israel.
God temporarily paused the program for Israel because, according to dispensational theology, He plans to return to that plan and complete it. That’s what most “end times teaching” involves: God once again dealing with the world through national Israel rather than through the Church.
The belief is that in the Tribulation period (described in a previous blog) God returns to dealing with national Israel. The Tribulation has to do with Israel, not the Church. Since God does not run both plans (Israel and the Church) at the same time, the Church must be removed from the world.
The answer of dispensational theology is the rapture. Even though the Bible nowhere teaches a rapture before the tribulation, the whole theological system requires that the church be removed before the Tribulation so God can finish His plan for national Israel. Therefore, the rapture must take place before the Tribulation.
And that’s it.
That is what I presented in my senior theology paper.
And I aced the paper.
But in the process of writing it, I developed serious misgivings about whether the Bible supported the pretribulation rapture view or the whole understanding of the Bible required to support it.
I was 21 – getting ready to graduate and move to the next step of whatever God had for me – and I was struggling because the only view I had ever been taught, not just about the end times, but about how to see the entire Bible and all of history, was crumbling.
I had to go back to the drawing board and figure things out.
That was in the fall of 1981.
A year later I would be called as the pastor of Mountain View Chapel.
And still working through these theological difficulties…