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Tuesday 1 August 2023

OLIVIER MELNICK: "WHAT IF WE ARE WRONG ABOUT THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE?"

 (55) WHAT IF THE RAPTURE WAS A MYTH? WHAT IF IT NEVER HAPPENS? ARE WE WRONG ABOUT ALL THIS? - YouTube

In the above video, Olivier Melnick asks the critical question: "What happens if I have been wrong about the rapture for the last 40 years? It is possible."  

Melnick is the Southwest Regional Director of Chosen People Ministries and is very popular with the pre-trib camp, often appearing as a guest of Andy Woods, Tom Hughes etc.1  

No one in their right mind wants to suffer the unprecedented persecution that will evidently take place during the great tribulation and I do not blame anyone for wanting to escape it. (Matthew 24:21). My difficulty is that there is no way around the fact that the scriptures teach that the church will indeed enter the tribulation, and as such, believers should be prepared to endure it. (Revelation 12:17; 13:10; 14:12). 

Melnick rightly points out that to deny the rapture entirely is unbiblical given the various scriptural references to it. He then turns his attention to the traditional post-tribulation view of the rapture. Melnick is right when he points out the inherent difficulties posed by traditional posttribulationists. However, it seems highly unlikely that he is ignorant regarding the critical distinctions between the prewrath rapture and traditional posttribulationism! Pre-trib believers should not be deceived by attempts to portray the prewrath position and the traditional post-trib as synonymous.

A number of traditional post-trib views do not find biblical support:

The resurrection takes place in Revelation 20
The second coming begins in Revelation 19
The second coming begins when Jesus physically comes to earth
The seals, trumpets, bowls occur concurrently
The rapture happens at the seventh trumpet
Paul’s “last trump” refers to the seventh trumpet in the book of Revelation
The great tribulation is 3.5 years long
The Day of the Lord is a literal 24-hour day
After the rapture, God’s people immediately descend to earth2

Unfortunately teachers within the traditional post-trib rapture camp refuse point-blank to tackle the theological difficulties associated with their view. I refer to teachers like Joe Schimmel (Blessed Hope Chapel) and Sam Adams (Independence Baptist Church). Teachers like Schimmel and Adams give ammunition to the pre-trib camp, and their stubborn refusal to address legitimate post-trib theological problems is a hindrance to the discussion and is injurious to the Body of Christ.

In common with other pre-trib teachers, Melnick does not make the correct distinction between the persecution of the Antichrist (tribulation/thlipsis) and the wrath of God (wrath/orgé). (Revelation 6:17; Matthew 24:29). Melnick also errs in that he espouses a "signless rapture", whereas the scriptures specifically speak of the sign of the Son of Man associated with the gathering of the elect (the rapture). The pre-trib denial of the application to believers of the Olivet Discourse and their misinterpretation of other rapture passages is very concerning. Melnick: "How could a rapture happen at the end of the period of seven years be unknown and imminent?"  Imminency is yet another flawed pre-trib doctrine. These are all very significant errors that have been addressed many times by prewrath scholars. (See Further Links)

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:29-31).

Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness[a] is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3).

In his early days as a believer, Melnick swallowed the hype of prophecy huckster Hal Lindsey, the author of The Late Great Planet Earth in 1971.3 I believe Lindsey is now on his third or fourth wife and is disqualified from the ministry. Lindsey puts me in mind of many current pre-trib date setters who all but name the time of the rapture.4 Lindsey: "..the decade of the 1980s could very well be the last decade of history as we know it."5  It is understandable that a new Christian would believe this nonsense, but surely it is time to grow up. (1 Peter 2:2; Ephesians 4:15). I do not want to insult Melnick, but forty years of bible study does not qualify him as a prophecy expert. Many prominent bible teachers remain in significant error all their lives! No matter what the claims and boasts of various teachers, it is always necessary to test the spirits. (1 John 4:1). Even Paul submitted himself to this principle. (Acts 17:11).

I believe that if Melnick were to study the prewrath position minus his current confirmation bias, then he would recognize the pre-trib rapture as a false doctrine. 

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