PRETRIB RAPTURE STEALTH ! BY DAVE MACPHERSON

     Many evangelicals believe that Christ will "rapture" them to heaven years before the second coming and (most importantly) well BEFORE Antichrist and his "tribulation."
     But Acts 2:34-35 reveal that Jesus is at the Father's right hand in heaven until He leaves to destroy His earthly foes at the second coming.
     And Acts 3:21 says that Jesus “must” stay in heaven with the Father "until the times of restitution of all things” which includes, says Scofield, “the restoration of the theocracy under David’s Son” which obviously can’t begin before or during Antichrist’s reign.
     ("The Rapture Question," by the long-time No. 1 pretrib authority John Walvoord, didn't dare to even list, in its scripture index, the above verses! They were also too hot for John Darby - the so-called "father of dispensationalism" - to list in the scripture index in his "Letters"!)      
     Paul explains the “times and the seasons” (I Thess. 5:1) of the catching up (I Thess. 4:17) as the “day of the Lord” (5:2) which FOLLOWS the posttrib sun/moon darkening (Matt. 24:29; Acts 2:20)  WHEN “sudden destruction” (5:3) of the wicked occurs!
     The "rest" for "all them that believe" is also tied to such destruction in II Thess. 1:6-10! (If the wicked are destroyed before or during the trib, who'd be left alive to serve the Antichrist?)
     Paul also ties the change-into-immortality “rapture” (I Cor. 15:52) to the end of trib “death” (15:54). (Will death be ended before or during the trib? Of course not! And vs. 54 is also tied to Isa. 25:8 which Scofield views as Israel's posttrib resurrection!)
     It's amazing that the Olivet Discourse contains the "great commission" for the church but not even a hint of a pretrib rapture for the church!
     Many don't know that before 1830 all Christians had always viewed I Thess. 4’s “catching up” as an integral part of the final second coming to earth. In 1830 this "rapture" was stretched forward and turned into an idolized separate coming of Christ.
     To further strengthen their novel view, which evangelical scholars overwhelmingly rejected throughout the 1800s, pretrib teachers in the early 1900s began to stretch forward the “day of the Lord” (what Darby and Scofield never dared to do) and hook it up with their already-stretched-forward “rapture.”
     Many leading evangelical scholars still weren’t convinced of pretrib, so pretrib teachers then began teaching that the “falling away” of II Thess. 2:3 is really a pretrib rapture (the same as saying that the “rapture” in 2:3 must happen before the “rapture” ["gathering"] in 2:1 can happen – the height of desperation!). Google "Walvoord Melts Ice" for more on this.
     My many online articles on various aspects of the 187-year-old pretrib rapture view include “X-Raying Margaret,” "Margaret Macdonald's Rapture Chart," "Pretrib Rapture's Missing Lines," "Edward Irving is Unnerving," "The Unoriginal John Darby," "Edward Irving vs. John Darby," "Catholics Did NOT Invent the Rapture," "The Real Manuel Lacunza," "C. I. Scofield's Hidden Side," "Pretrib Rapture Pride," “Thomas Ice (Bloopers),” “Wily Jeffrey,” “The Rapture Index (Mad Theology),” “Scholars Weigh My Research,” “Pretrib Hypocrisy,” " "Pretrib Rapture Secrecy," “Deceiving and Being Deceived,” "GFM's DVD Survives Paul Wilkinson's Attack," "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty," and (in response to the outrageous claim that the rapture could occur this coming September!) "Ready for Rapture Astrology?"
      If you would like to find my articles on pretrib rapture history and theology in one location on the net, I would invite you to check out the worldwide British blog "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing" hosted by Treena Gisborn who is an outstanding researcher and authority on Biblical topics including prophecy.