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Saturday 28 November 2015

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

19 comments:

  1. does all this mean I am not saved if I take the pre-trib rapture stance?

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  2. No Anonymous, but it does make you vulnerable to "falling away" when the rapture does not materialize as you believe:
    Matthew 24:9-13 "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved."
    God bless you x

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  3. The danger of men such as Ice, Fruchtenbaum and others who rely so heavily on Jewish wedding typologies to expound their very weak rapture theories as you have articulated, show clearly that they are as the "blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!" I say this as I have no doubt that the Pharisees who our Lord railed at were perhaps more knowledgeable than most about their Jewish wedding customs-kept them to the letter? But, maybe, just maybe, they could learn even more about them from our friends at the PTRC and Ariel!?
    Many confuse Talmudic Judaism with Mosaic Judaism, but as Mr MacPherson says above, there is much "occultic and antibiblical" within the Talmud, the worst being the "blasphemy about Jesus." I would not want to look within it for guidance!
    I believe there are many deluded souls in Christendom who think just because something is Jewish, that makes it all good and true.
    The Bible contains ALL we need pertaining to salvation, doctrine and holiness etc.
    Those words of yours aptly describe the 'teachers' above; "over-engineered, confusing, convoluted, speculations" and the like.
    Pre-tribulationism as you have described drives a wedge between OT and NT saints, would have the NT Church celebrating the wedding feast in heaven while the Antichrist is doing his worst on earth against the tribulation saints!
    The gospel according to Pre-trib/Dispensationalism does not just need to rid itself of a few extraneous errors, it needs to be totally abandoned like a "menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence" Isaiah 30.22.
    God bless.

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  4. How can the real church, that is The Church The Body Of Christ, also be The Bride Of Christ??

    This is a complete contradiction! There are not TWO CHURCHES!!!

    If the church is The Body with Christ as its HEAD, how can Yeshua marry himself??

    I know that ALL THINGS are possible with God, but this is stretching Scripture TOO FAR in my opinion!!

    I am afraid Treena you are very quick to point out the so called errors in many of the teachings of the finest men God has raised up in the past 200 years or so, therefore just be a little careful with your doctrinal stance, and maybe also the specks and logs issue???

    Still luv you in the Lord, but not some of your recent attacks on some of the Lord's best!!

    Maranatha Blessings,

    Nev.

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  5. Neville, Body and Bride are both metaphors for the Church. Just because scripture uses more than one metaphor to signify the Church does not mean that these metaphors are signifying different churches. You're making the mistake of placing too much emphasis on the metaphor rather than the substance of the metaphor which in this case is the Church. Similarly Catholic doctrine has over-emphasized the meaning of "This is My Body," to mean that the bread is literally Christ Himself beeing offered in a daily sacrifice known as the mass. Metaphors are intended to add meaning by association but not to supplant the object to which they refer.

    God Bless

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  6. Hi Nev.... Paul the Apostle spoke of the unity of Christians with Christ in images such as the vine and the branches, and in terms of a single body that has Christ as its head (Romans 12:5,1 Corinthians 12:12-27, Ephesians 3:6 and 5:23, Colossians 1:18 and 1:24) At the present time believers are betrothed to Christ are we not? (2 Corinthians 11:2) At the marriage feast there will be a Bridegroom and a Bride.I am not quite sure what your objection is really, but I hope I have clarified things for you.

    I have to differ with you about these pre-trib teachers Nev. They may have impressed you, but they have got it very wrong and are putting believers at risk of falling away. They may be highly intelligent but that means nothing to the Lord or to me... it is whether they rightly divide the Word of Truth... and very sadly they don't. God bless tx

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  7. I am a literalist when it comes to the Bible, the inerrant Word of God, so if we take the "metaphorical stance" mentioned by the brother above.......then you can make the Scriptures fit in with what ever doctrine or teaching you wish to adhere to? I prefer not to!

    To me, "The Bride" and "The Church The Body Of Christ" are QUITE DIFFERENT, otherwise we are just playing games with Holy Writ, which is an abomination in the eyes of the Lord!

    Just one final point Treena before I go. You have criticised fine men of God such as Billy Graham, John MacArthur, Chuck Missler, Brian Gemmell, Tom MacMahon, Paul Wilkinson, J Nelson Darby, Cyrus Scofield, Dr E.W. Bullinger and others on your blog over the past many months!

    Are you saying that these fine Christians have just made some bad choices with their interpretation of Scripture, or are you saying that they are not SAVED at all?? Just would like to be clear on this, that is all?

    Thank God that YESHUA is the only true, righteous, and just JUDGE , and that there will be NO MISTAKES with Him!!

    Maranatha Blessings,

    Nev.

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  8. The "fine men of God" you mention are proven to have said things contrary to the scriptures. I do not judge their salvation - only God knows the heart. However,I have every right to judge their teaching - the scriptures admonish us to do so. Prove me wrong scripturally in any of the posts I have written and I will be quite happy to crawl back under my stone Nev. tx

    https://www.moriel.org/component/k2/item/2622-a-difficult-response-to-paul-wilkinson.html

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  9. II Tim. 3:14 mentions the importance of "vetting" our teachers ("knowing of whom thou hast learned them"). One of the best ways to evaluate even the "fine men of God" is to go to little old Google and type in little old "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty" - a process that doesn't demand scholarly degrees or accurate exegesis but only a clear conscience!

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  10. Their sins are finding them out. God bless you Irv x

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  11. Hi Treena,

    Here is a link to cheer us all up in these dark times we are witnessing, it brought a tear to my eye. Hope you dont mind me sharing. God Bless all

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6woSL6yC9wA

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  12. Thank you anonymous very encouraging x

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  13. [Concerning the false teacher known as Chuck Missler, the following was found on the net:]

    CHUCK MISSLER - COPYIST !

    Many these days are abandoning the pretribulation rapture view, and the June, 1995 article by Chuck Missler (”Byzantine Text Discovery: Ephraem the Syrian”) reveals why there is such a mutiny! First of all, the authoritative scholar that Missler cited, Dr. Paul Alexander, referred only to “Pseudo-Ephraem” and not to Ephraem the Syrian. (If an unsigned ancient manuscript resembles the real Ephraem but there is a question of authorship, they assign it to “Pseudo-Ephraem” - the word “pseudo” meaning “possibly.” For some groundless reason, Grant Jeffrey, the one who reportedly found the “discovery,” changed Dr. Alexander’s terminology and wrongfully referred only to "Ephraem the Syrian"! For more info on Jeffrey, Google “Wily Jeffrey.”) And Missler’s scholarship is also questionable. According to the Los Angeles Times (July 30, 1992), about one-fourth of Missler’s 1992 book “The Magog Factor” (which he co-authored with Hal Lindsey) was a daring plagiarism of Dr. Edwin Yamauchi’s 1982 book “Foes from the Northern Frontier”! Four months later Yamauchi’s publisher revealed that both Lindsey and Missler had promised to stop all publishing of their book. But in 1995 they were found publishing “The Magog Invasion” (which was either a revision or a replacement of “The Magog Factor”) - which had a substantial amount of the same plagiarism! (Dave MacPherson’s 1998 book “The Three R’s” has complete documentation on this and other pretrib scandals.) After listing “1820″ as the reported date of the birth of pretrib (he should have said “1830″), Missler sees a pretrib rapture in that Medieval writer’s phrase “taken to the Lord” and, since he evidently favors rewriting others instead of researching, is unaware that Dr. Alexander explained that this phrase really means “participate at least in some measure in beatitude” - which has reference only to doing acts of virtue on earth and not being raptured away from earth! Alexander added that the same ancient writer held to only one final second coming (and not to any prior coming) which would follow the time of Antichrist! (Readers can Google “Deceiving and Being Deceived” by MacPherson to see how groundless the Pseudo-Ephraem claim is and to learn how desperate pretribs are to find any pre-1830 evidence for their escapist view. Dr. Robert Gundry of Westmont College has also demolished the Pseudo-Ephraem claim in his 1997 book “First the Antichrist.”) Since Missler also leans on Thomas Ice, readers can evaluate Ice’s qualifications by Googling "Walvoord Melts Ice," "Pretrib Rapture Pride," “Thomas Ice (Bloopers),” “Be Careful in Polemics - Peripatetic Learning," and (since Ice says he's working on a UOW doctorate) "Bogus degree scandal prompts calls to wind up University of Wales." For further light on the 185-year-old pretribulation theory, Google or Yahoo “Pretrib Rapture Stealth.” Finally - why would anyone who has the brains of a rocket scientist want to be taken up with the concept of an any-moment pretrib rapture? The answer may well be that there’s more money in elevating a rapture than launching a rocket!

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  14. Thank you for this information Irv.

    Regarding Thomas Ice's fake PhD:

    "Dr" Thomas Ice received his PhD from Tyndale Theological Seminary which is an unaccredited private Christian seminary with its campus in Fort Worth, Texas.


    "WorldNetDaily reported on March 7 that a Texas district court has ordered the Tyndale Theological Seminary to pay fines totalling $170,000 for issuing 34 theological degrees without receiving approval from the state education agency."

    http://www.preteristarchive.com/dEmEnTiA/2001_macpherson_deceiving.html

    It is all quite shocking actually, the evidence is out there, but there are those who choose to remain willfully blind!
    God bless tx

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  15. On certain matters of false teaching some say "it is not a salvation issue." But how do they know this? Error leads to more error; we should heed 1 John 4.1 "believe not every spirit" and 1 Thessalonians 5.21 "prove all things." We know not where we will end up if we don't obey these and many other like warnings in New Testament Scripture?
    The late Gordon H Clarke (American theologian) made this most lamentable of observations back in the early 1960s; "There are too few people who wish to understand even the simplest Bible teaching. This is not a theological age, some writers say it is a post Christian age."
    It is so easy to worship a false Jesus; easy believism and false doctrine are true bedfellows.
    What you say above regarding Thomas Ice is "quite shocking" and "the evidence is out there". Likewise with Missler, his double plagiarism also takes some believing. The name "shysters" comes to mind?
    God bless you.

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  16. Maybe Ice's "PhD" stands for Pretrib History Distorter!

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  17. Indeed Colin, as you very aptly say, the scriptures admonish us to "test ALL things".... The sobering warning given not to change the word of God is reiterated in the Book of Revelation (Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Proverbs 30:6). We would do well to heed the warnings about end time deception in Matthew 24 and elsewhere. God bless tx

    "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book." Revelation 22:18-19)

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  18. I just saw an article titled "Margaret Macdonald's Main Point," exposing Paul Wilkinson and other pretrib rapture promoters, that "The Pre-Trib Rapture is NOT in the Bible" (Facebook) just published. It is by Dave MacPherson who gives evidence that Wilkinson deceitfully censored a portion of Margaret MacDonald's pretrib account in order to falsely claim she was a "post-tribulation Rapture" believer and have an excuse to exalt Darby! All those shocked by Wilkinson's recent vituperation against Joe Schimmel and others should look up the above FB piece.

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  19. Thank you Irv. I know that Wilkinson et al have deliberately twisted the history. They have neither the scriptures nor the history to support them! God bless x

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