Leftbehind and the Tribulation Period
Some of the most popular Leftbehind books on eschatology are based on the mythological teaching of a future Rapture of the saints on earth. The
Revelation Bible Study
future Tribulation Period teaching books by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins have steered so many in the wrong direction regarding the end times.
The idea that God will one day en mass remove all Christians from the earth is totally unfounded in Scripture. In fact, it is diametrically opposite to what the Biblical text says. The principle which must be kept in mind is that we’re discussing judgment passages.
Christ did not leave us in the dark about what happened during judgment. He gave two very well-known examples to his hearers that have a direct bearing on this subject. Those two examples are those of Noah and Lot.
So, any doctrine of the end time must align closely with those events. Why, because the Lord said, “as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man.” Likewise, he said the same of the days of Lot.
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
If no one asks the question of what actually happened in the days of the judgment upon the world in the days of Noah which Christ likened to the endtime judgment, the premillennial Dispensationalists are not going to tell you.
So, let’s ask the question. Did God rapture saints from the earth in the days of Noah? Is there anyone who would not readily answer no to that question? Let’s face it, there is absolutely no record of a Rapture in the days of the flood.
Next question. Who were the leftbehind? Was it the wicked who remained on earth while the righteous were transported to heaven? Again the answer is no. If anything, the wicked were taken and the righteous were left. (See this principle in the parable of the tares, (Matt. 13:28-30).
Why did God leave the righteous on earth? So they could repopulate the world with righteous people. One of the first things God told Noah after the flood was to replenish the earth.
“So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.'” (Gen. 9:1).
Now he certainly did not mean with wicked people. Wasn’t that the reason the flood came in the first place?
Who was leftbehind in the days of Lot? Well, it certainly was not the wicked. The Bible says God knew how to deliver the godly out of temptations to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment. Lot and his family remained on earth.
Leftbehind and the Coming of the Son of Man Be
Jesus took these two examples and said his Parousia (coming) would be just as those were. In both cases, God took the wicked from the earth through a judgment upon the land, and left the righteous. Therefore the righteous are the leftbehind!
The series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins is pure myth. It is contrary to scripture. They teach a coming unlike the days of Noah and Lot.
Leftbehind: The Promise Never to Destroy the World
After the flood, God promised to never again destroy the world as he had done in the days of Noah. First things first. God never destroyed the earth in the first place. He destroy the “world of the ungodly”, i.e. the wicked people from the earth, (1 Pet. 2:5).
Secondly, after destroying the wicked because of the continual evil in their hearts, he vowed to never destroy the world meaning the “world of the ungodly” as he had done even though man’s heart was evil from his youth. See Gen. 8:21-22). The earth was never the object of destruction, but the ungodly people.
Further, God compares the throne of Christ and its duration with that of the heavenly bodies. In other words, Christ and his throne continue as long as the earth, sun, moon and stars continue.
“My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the word that has gone out of my lips. Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David; His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me; It shall be established forever like the moon, even the faithful witness in the sky.” (Psa. 89:34-37).
In addition, God said David’s seed (Christ) would endure forever and his throne as the days of heaven. (Psa. 89:29).
So let’s put this in the form of an argument.
The throne of Christ endures forever as the days of heaven.
The throne of Christ endures forever as the sun and shall be established forever as the moon.
Therefore, enduring forever as the days of heaven equals enduring forever as the sun and moon.
Here is the point. When the days of heaven cease, the sun and moon will cease. When the sun and moon cease, the throne of Christ will cease. But the throne of Christ endures forever and has no end, (Isa. 9:7, Luke 1:32-33). Therefore, the days of heaven and the sun and moon have no end.
There is no earth ending judgment depicted by the fairy tales in the Leftbehind books.
Leftbehind and the Tribulation Period
The other matter which is so glaringly false about the rapture is the projection of the tribulation into our future. This is tragic. When Jesus spoke of the last day, again, he used the examples of Noah and Lot. (See Luke 17:24-32)
He said the people ate, drank, married and were given in marriage, planted, bought and sold in the days before the flood, until the day that the flood came. In other words, the last day was not the last day of time per leftbehind advocates. Rather, it was the last day of the people who were experiencing that judgment. The world and time continued and does so to this day.
The same was true of the days of Lot. They ate, they drank, they planted, bought and sold, until the days beforehand until the day God rained fire and brimstone from heaven. It was the last day of the wicked in Sodom and Gomorrah, but not the last day of time.
Likewise, the coming of Christ was not a time-ending event. It was a judgment upon Jerusalem and the world in A.D. 70, but time continues on as no one can deny. The great tribulation preceded that event and occurred in connection with it.
Yet, all happened in that first century generation, (Matthew. 24:, 29-34). The leftbehind Rapture teaching gets lost in the simplicity and clarity of this language.
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Paul warned believers not to be deceived by anyone saying the Lord had already come (2 Tim. 2:17-19). He uses the false teaching of Hymenaeus and Philetus as an example. They overthrew the faith of some by teaching the resurrection had past. Sadly, history is about to repeat itself. There are teachers today called Preterists. Preterist means past. Preterists believe the events described in The Revelation of Jesus Christ were fulfilled by A.D. 70. They confidently teach the Great Tribulation of the saints by the Beast took place in the first century. This is why many sincere Christians now believe Nero of Rome was the Beast (Antichrist). They point out Nero proclaimed to be God. That he forced many Christians to worship him. Even the number of his name turns out to be 666. When the Word of God appears at the supper of the great God, the Beast will be cast alive into the lake of fire. Unfortunately, Nero committed suicide. This proves this ruler couldn't have been the Beast. Yet many Christians blindly trust in this heresy. Why is this so dangerous? Anyone believing the Beast is past is being set up to receive his mark! The same can be said for those believing they will be raptured before the Beast takes over the nations. These heresies are paving the way for an avalanche of deception.
Paul, I really appreciate your honest effort in trying to refute Preterism. You're giving everyone the opportunity to see just how weak futurist arguments are. You have cited a text that so clearly helps to establish Preterism as true. So, let's dissect your attempt to to use 2 Tim. 2:17-19.
First, Hymenaeus and Philetus taught in the first century BEFORE A.D. 70! They did not teach that the resurrection occurred in A.D. 70 which is our view. When Paul wrote 2 Timothy, they had already taught the resurrection was PAST ALREADY. Had you read further in the epistle to chapter four, you would have noticed that, that is directly opposite to what the apostles were teaching.
In 2 Tim. 4:1, Paul taught that Christ was "about to" [mellontos] judge the living and the dead at His appearing and kingdom. So, Paul, tell us plainly (which you have yet been unwilling to do, does saying something is "past already" equal to saying something was soon to happen?.
Let's make this very clear. Is something that is past already, yet to come in the future. That's the difference between Paul's teaching and that of Hymenaeus and Philetus. Paul said it was future, the other two men said it was already past. Therefore, an event already past before A.D. 70, is not the same teaching as saying it would come to pass in A.D. 70. We affirm Paul taught Christ would come in A.D. 70 not before. A.D. 70 was at hand, when Paul wrote 2 Tim. 4, but a yet-future-to-us-today end of the earth/rapture etc was not at hand or near.
I'll have more to say on this later, but as you can see, it's late and I'm going to bed.
Paul, I appresiate your post. Because I find it hard that anybody can be so dogmatic in their teachings. I appears to me that so many of Pre-mill camp will easily dismiss most of the arguments made here, and in fact will never bring them up when they get together in their studies. In fact they will not take the short time and view the video series "This Generation" by William Bell http://www.youtube.com/user/AllThingsFulfilled#p/…
I am sure that can be said of many preterist as well, not having a earnest desire to search out truth, but instead will stick to the verses they have learned and are affraid to hear the other side out and search out the scriptures themselves.
I have been attending a pre-mill bible study on Revelation, and have found it very interesting, even though they are not open to hearing the other side of their view. They are very versed in the Old Testatment and have brought up may points and questions, that has not convinced me of the pre-mill view, as much as it has made a great case to go against the dogmatic Preterest or Amill. view.
In fact it is allot simpler to point out shortcommings of the various views than it is to proclaim a dogmatic view that can stand on its own. So I for one can not proclaim an absolut view, hence the reason to search out the views in scripture and here on the internet.
Paul, what year did Paul write the book of 2nd Timothy?
Paul, I appresiate your post. Because I find it hard that anybody can be so dogmatic in their teachings. I appears to me that so many of Pre-mill camp will easily dismiss most of the arguments made here, and in fact will never bring them up when they get together in their studies. In fact they will not take the short time and view the video series "This Generation" by William Bell http://www.youtube.com/user/AllThingsFulfilled#p/…
I am sure that can be said of many preterist as well, not having a earnest desire to search out truth, but instead will stick to the verses they have learned and are affraid to hear the other side out and search out the scriptures themselves.
I have been attending a pre-mill bible study on Revelation, and have found it very interesting, even though they are not open to hearing the other side of their view. They are very versed in the Old Testatment and have brought up may points and questions, that has not convinced me of the pre-mill view, as much as it has made a great case to go against the dogmatic Preterest or Amill. view.
In fact it is allot simpler to point out shortcommings of the various views than it is to proclaim a dogmatic view that can stand on its own. So I for one can not proclaim an absolut view, hence the reason to search out the views in scripture and here on the internet.
Paul, Preterists don't teach heresy. The main reason that the Apostle Paul was calling out these two men for teaching heresy in that the resurrection was past at that time (pre AD 70) was because the Temple was still standing. That would mean that all the new believers in Christ as the Messiah would still have to obey the rules of the Law and High Priest in Jerusalem and be circumcised, and bring animal sacrifices into the Temple. This would have been in direct conflict with what Paul was teaching and would have been destructive to the Gospel, especially to the Gentiles. Jesus and His Apostles clearly taught that the Temple and the sacrificial system would come to an end in their lifetime, and it did. They taught that we as followers of Christ belong to a "spiritual temple' not made with hands and eternal, without a geographical location on physical earth, or a need to belong to a particular bloodline.
These events are in the past for us, and the Temple is gone, therefore it is not heresy to teach a past fulfillment based on the "imminent" to those in the 1st century prophecy. The warnings were to them, not us, that is the difference.