I have in mind Dr. Michael Rydelnik, a widely heard voice on the Moody Radio Network who calls himself either a Hebrew-Christian or a Jewish-Christian - take your choice.
Rydelnik just returned from another trip to Israel and couldn't wait to use his melodious radio voice to keep his listeners in their expectant state of rapturous stupor.
In order to help shore up the worldwide collapsing of the pillar of sand known as pretrib he started off by daring to say that when the tribulation starts, the "day of the Lord" will also be happening!
Rydelnik thus covered up the fact that neither J. N. Darby nor C. I. Scofield (D. L. Moody's colleague!) dared to stretch forward the posttrib "day of the Lord" and hook it up with their previously-stretched-forward pretrib rapture - evidence that Christian Zionists like Rydelnik can sharply disagree with earlier Zionists!
Scofield, for example, states in his Rev. 19 notes that the same "day" is preceded by the "cosmical disturbances (Joel 2.1-12; Mt. 24.29; Acts 2.19, 20; Rev. 6.12-17)." (In Rydelnik's case, the future posttrib sun/moon darkening has been preceded by his own scholarship darkening.)
There are historical persons that Rydelnik and other modern pretrib rapture Zionists love to cover up: eminent Hebrew-Christian scholars of the past, all of whom were NOT pretrib!
While names like Biesenthal, Caspari, Delitzsch, Neander, Rabinowitz, and Schereschewsky are practically unknown by most Christians, the names of Baron, Edersheim, and Saphir are much more recognizable.
David Baron ("The Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah," p. 323) wrote that Paul "spoke of 'the blessed hope and the appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ' (Tit. ii.13), for then the hope as regards the church, and Israel, and the world, will be fully realised."
Alfred Edersheim, who expected only one future coming of Christ for judgment, stated in "The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah," Vol. II, pp. 451-2: "We shall best succeed, not by going out of the world, but by being watchful in it."
Adolph Saphir ("The Epistle to the Hebrews," pp. 95-6) spoke of "the advent of the Messiah, which is yet in the future, to which both the believing synagogue and the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ are looking, when He is to be manifested in great power, and to be acknowledged as King of the whole earth."
Nowadays the Mideast is constantly in the news. Some feel that Israel can do no wrong while others are convinced that Israel can do nothing right. There are pretrib teachers who even believe that Israel has a special "covenant" with God apart from the Gospel.
And Christians are learning at the same time that a person can disagree with Mideast policies without being viewed as anti-Semitic or hateful.
Finally, Google "Pretrib Rapture: A Staged Event," "Pretrib Rapture Stealth" and "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty."
Daisy said...
ReplyDeleteHi Treena,
Do tou believe it is false teaching that the Church will be taken up by Christ and remain with Him during the Tribulation, and then return with Him to earth at His second coming?
13 September 2017 at 05:45
Irving S. said...
Daisy, I would say that a pretrib rapture is not only false teaching but a dangerous teaching as well. The late Corrie ten Boom was part of a Dutch family that hid Jewish persons in their Netherlands home so that Nazis could not kill them. Her early life inspired "The Hiding Place" (book and movie). Her later article "The Coming Tribulation" (still on the net) stated that "millions" of Chinese Christians were tortured to death when the Communists got power and took over China in the late 1940s - and she added that this slaughter took place simply because foreign missionaries from the US etc. had assured the people (falsely) that they would be raptured off earth before the Commies would do anything bad! (On the other hand there were non-pretribs such as H. A. Baker who told the Christians to flee to the mountains; they did and survived!) This is just one of many examples showing how dangerous the pretrib fly-away view truly is. And it is non-Biblical as well as dangerous. This is brought out in Google articles such as "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty," "Pretrib Hypocrisy," "Rev. 3:10 - the Pretrib Rapture Clincher," "Pretrib Rapture: A Staged Event," "Pretrib Rapture: how WHAT becomes WHEN," "C. I. Scofield's Hidden Side," "Pretrib Rapture Pride," "Hal Lindsey's Pretrib Rapture Proof," "Evangelicals Use Occult Deception," "Pretrib Was New in the 1830s," "Pretrib Rapture Stealth," and "Ready for Rapture Astrology?" - just some of the many articles I've seen on Treena's great site in recent years. God bless you, Daisy.
13 September 2017 at 09:15
This post has been republished due to an error in the title on my part. I seem to have lost some comments. Please feel free to send your comment again if you wish. God bless.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it wasn't "an error...on my part", it could be that the IT boffins at the PTRC have managed to intercept your website?
ReplyDeleteAmen to Irv's comment!
God bless.
I wouldn't put it past them Colin, but it was my error.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.