chuck missler false teacher: the pre-tribulation rapture deception! part 3

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4) 

Chuck Misslers Ten Reasons For A Pre-tribulation Rapture PARTS 1 AND 2: http://bewareofthewolves.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/chuck-missler-false-teacher-pre.html http://bewareofthewolves.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/chuck-missler-false-teacher-pre_20.html

The Rapture.. Chuck Missler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1xoON5GLSw

Reason 8: The rapture happens in the air not on the earth.

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

The sound of the trumpet associated with the rapture can also be found in 1 Corinthians 15:52 and Matthew 24:29-31. Matthew 24 describes the sixth seal cosmic disturbances also depicted in Luke 21, with additional information regarding the gathering of the elect (episynágō = rapture). Once again, a pre-wrath view of the rapture (harpázō) is confirmed, as against a pre-70th week rapture. The church will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air at the last silver trumpet, following the sixth seal cosmic disturbances, before the day of God's wrath (Revelation 6:12-17).

Reason 9: The Woman is Israel, not the Church  (Revelation 12:5)

She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, (Revelation 12:5)

There is agreement among many scholars that the Woman is Israel based on Genesis 37:1-10, and that the Male Child is Jesus Christ based on Psalm 2:9 and Revelation 19:15. However, the corporate identification of the man-child as Jesus Christ and the church is a view that completely lacks exegetical substance. In fact, this view is yet another invention of arch deceiver John Nelson Darby. Darby and his supporters identified the man-child as symbolizing both Head and body—the complete Christ, and the catching up to God and to his throne as the rapture of the church. As is the case with every other pretribulationist theory, Darby's interpretation of the man-child is inferential. The word harpázō (caught up) is a snatching away, but it does not necessarily refer to the rapture of the church every time it appears in the scriptures. My view is that the context of Revelation 12:5 is the ascension of Jesus Christ in Acts 1:19 and not the rapture of the church prior to Daniel's 70th week. The Book of Acts tells us that Jesus was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight, which was the precursor for the rapture of the church, not the rapture of the church itself (see 1 Thessalonians 4:17). When the church is caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, the man-child, previously identified as Jesus Christ, is not caught up, since he descends from heaven. Revelation 12:5 clearly says that HE (male gender) is caught up. Although the church is indeed the Body of Christ, it is always referred to in the female gender as The Bride of Christ. Since it is only the Bride who is caught up in the rapture and not Jesus Christ, why would the male gender be used here? In other words, if Christ and the church are synonymous with the man-child, as Darby claimed, how can his interpretation possibly make any sense if Jesus Christ Himself is not raptured at the rapture? In my view, Darby's arguments are the machinations of an intelligent, yet fleshly, even demonically inspired mind. His claim to discover "new" truths, not even given to the apostles, demonstrates that he was puffed up with pride and arrogance. The alteration of scripture is an extremely serious matter. (Deuteronomy 4:2, 12:32; Proverbs 30:5-6; Revelation 22:18-19)

Reason 10: The marriage supper of the Lamb includes the raptured before Revelation 19:11-14.

Revelation 19:11-14 describes the second advent of Christ, who enters the scene on a white horse accompanied by "the armies of heaven", who are generally agreed to either include, or entirely consist of, resurrected believers. Missler places the Marriage Supper prior to the millennial reign of Christ, during the 70th week of Daniel, but this is problematic for a number of reasons.  

The Book of Revelation is not necessarily consecutive, but I believe we can say that it is consecutive when the text indicates that events follow one another by: "After that" or "Then". According to Revelation 19:7 the marriage occurs some time after the judgement of "the great prostitute", who can be identified as the woman who sits on the scarlet beast i.e. Babylon the Great (Revelation 17:3-6). This indicates that the Great Tribulation has come to an end and that the complete number of the tribulation saints are with the Lord. Inexplicably, Missler denies the presence of the tribulation saints at the Marriage Supper, but this poses the question: Would Christ marry an incomplete Bride?  

.....for his judgements are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.” (Revelation 19:2)

THEN I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,
“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage (gámos) of the Lamb has come (ēlthen),
and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage (gámos) supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” (Revelation 19:6-9) 

It is clear that the marriage referred to is a future anticipatory event in verse 7, The marriage of Lamb has come (ēlthen = the aroist form of  erchomai = I come, go). The bride "has made herself ready". A bride who has made herself "ready" for the wedding, is not yet married, she looks forward to the event. Similarly verse 9 speaks of those who are invited to the marriage supper, which again indicates a future event.

Misslers flawed explanation of the Marriage Supper differs somewhat from that of his fellow false teachers in the pre-tribulation rapture camp. Thomas Ice (PTRC) supposes a distinction between the marriage (v.7) and the marriage supper (v.9) within the context of Revelation 19.

Ice: "the marriage of the Lamb to His bride (the church) and the marriage supper of the Lamb are closely related, they are separate events, just as the wedding ceremony and the wedding reception of our day are separate events..... the marriage (marriage ceremony) takes place right before the second coming."

Ice goes on to quote Arnold Fruchtenbaum:

"The wedding announcement will be made (v. 6) and the Bride will finally be made ready (v. 7). The reason the Bride will now be fully ready for the marriage ceremony is because she will have her entire bridal gown on (v. 8). . . . this also shows that the marriage ceremony takes place after the Judgement Seat of the Messiah, when the saints are rewarded for their deeds on earth (1 Cor. 3:10- 15). . . . This corresponds to the ritual cleansing of the Jewish wedding system. The ones present at the marriage ceremony are the 'few,' that is, only those in Heaven at that time."
https://www.raptureready.com/featured/ice/TheMarriageSupperoftheLamb.html

The "Day" spoken of by Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:13, is the Judgement Seat of Christ (Bema) (2 Corinthians 5:10). This Day occurs after the rapture of the church, before the second coming of Christ to the earth (Revelation 19:7-8; 2 Timothy 4:8; 1 Corinthians 4:5). In other words, the pre-wrath view has all the elect together after the rapture at the Bema Seat, followed by the marriage before Christ's return to the earth. Fruchtenbaum "develops" the Bema Seat Judgement and inserts a separate marriage ceremony, based on his understanding of the Jewish wedding system and a pre-tribulation rapture. However, there is no indication in the scriptures of an additional marriage ceremony taking place with "the few" i.e. an incomplete Bride minus the tribulation saints. Fruchtenbaum's speculations, however ingenious, are based on the so called "fourth step" of the Jewish wedding ceremony which he applies to the relationship of the Church as the Bride of Christ and a marriage ceremony in Heaven. I have not found Fruchtenbaum's "fourth step" i.e. a private marriage ceremony, in my research.

The ancient Jewish marriage took place in two stages: The two parts were divided by the reading of the ketubah (contract or prenuptial agreement), which was read aloud at the betrothal ceremony (kiddushin).  A year or so later, the marriage itself (nisuin) consisted of the sheva b'rachot (7 blessings) which were read aloud publicly and appear to have been integral to the Marriage Supper. Christians are presently referred to as"The Bride of Christ", i.e. they are betrothed to Christ (1 Corinthians 11:25; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Ephesians 5:25-27 etc.) When Christ returns, Christians will participate in the second stage, the marriage itself (nisuin). Ice and Fruchtenbaum have over-engineered the Jewish wedding in order to further sub-divide the marriage of the Lamb in Revelation 19. However, there is nothing in the Jewish tradition to indicate anything other than two stages of the marriage, the kiddushin and the nisuin. Various things happened within these two stages, but only two events are clearly defined. The passage in Revelation 19 appears to be one complete future event, the Greek gámos makes no distinction between marriage, wedding and wedding-feast.

Frankly, all these convoluted speculations and comparisons with the ancient Jewish wedding are an unnecessary distraction, and in my view make the question of the rapture deliberately confusing (1 Timothy 1:4; 2 Timothy 4:4; Titus 1:14). The Jewish traditions being discussed by Ice and Fruchtenbaum are derived from the Talmud and the Kabbalah. As Dave McPherson aptly points out: " Not only are these sources occultic and anti-biblical, the Talmud is filled with lies and blasphemy about Jesus that are as irrational as they are totally evil."  

http://son-of-encouragement.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/pre-trib-rapture-staged-event.html

It says: "Jewish Wedding traditions being discussed are the rabbinic teachings found within the Talmud and Kabbalah." (Not only are these sources occultic and anti-Biblical but the Talmud is filled with lies and blasphemy about Jesus that are as irrational as they are totally evil!) - See more at: http://son-of-encouragement.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/pre-trib-rapture-staged-event.html#sthash.hU7te62c.dpuf

The pre-tribulation rapture debate is of course about much more than the timing of the rapture. The integrity of many "teachers" promoting pretribulationism and their aggressive agenda is questionable to put it mildly. Not only are they culpable in that they do not rightly divide the Word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15), their blatant distortion of the pre-tribulation rapture history makes them nothing more than con men. As I have previously written, Missler is an admitted plagiarist who keeps some very dubious company. What man of God puts his own name on another author's materials? Missler is, in my view, a false teacher and a dishonest man who cannot be trusted with the weighty task of teaching the Body of Christ! 




 Further Links:

http://bewareofthewolves.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/the-seven-year-pre-tribulation-rapture.html
https://community.dts.edu/mobile/transcript.aspx?course=ST106&unit=10&video=7
https://www.facebook.com/notes/lucile-gilowey/the-jewish-wedding-system-and-the-bride-of-christ-by-arnold-fruchtenbaum/215583665748
http://thectp.org/Notes/Bride/Bride_2.pdf
http://www.stmaryssaltford.org.uk/AMMI-Heaven.pdf
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10434-marriage-ceremonies
http://www.poweredbychrist.com/Pretrib_Rapture_Dishonesty.html

there are two stages in such a wedding: the "kiddushin" (betrothal) and the "nissuin" (marriage). - See more at: http://son-of-encouragement.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/pre-trib-rapture-staged-event.html#sthash.hU7te62c.dpuf