PAUL WILKINSON PRETRIB ERROR LEADING GYPSY TRAVELLERS ASTRAY

Paul Wilkinson | The Beautiful Simplicity of the Rapture—A Gypsy Testimony | 2024

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15).

Paul Wilkinson is back on the scene after a prolonged absence. Very sadly, this period of difficulty doesn't appear to have done him much good, and he has failed to ask the right questions. In particular, his vice-like grip on the pretrib rapture remains unchanged. If he had sought the Lord about this issue, I believe his difficulties would have been resolved a long time ago.

In this video Wilkinson explains how he came to join an Assemblies of God Gypsy church in Wales following an alleged direct word he received from God. This is a huge red flag. The AOG is Pentecostal, known mainly for the false New Apostolic Reformation and Charismania. My prayer is that the Lord will lead the Gypsy community into all truth. (John 16:13).

In a previous post, I exposed Wilkinson's dishonest revisionism concerning John Nelson Darby and the origin of the pretrib rapture.* In reality, Darby claimed that he received the pretrib rapture by "divine revelation". His cultish behaviour and teachings caused a firestorm of opposition from "Open" Brethren leaders George Müller, Benjamin Wills Newton, Samuel Tregelles, and James Grant. These men denounced Darby as a despot who maligned scripture. Darby was also condemned by Charles Spurgeon and DL Moody. 

Darby: "..what God has with infinite graciousness revealed to me concerning His dealing with the Church.."1 

"..it was in this the Lord was pleased, without man's teaching, first to open my eyes on this subject, that I might learn His will concerning it throughout."2 

In Wilkinson's own words, the pretrib rapture is "our blessed hope". 

The phrase "the blessed hope" is found in Titus 2:13. This phrase emphasizes the Christian anticipation of future fulfillment and redemption and refers to the second coming of Jesus Christ. The pretrib camp has modified this phrase to explicitly refer to the pretrib rapture. 

Wilkinson: "Of course there is that threat, there is that wrong teaching of tribulationalism, and it's around; the midtrib, prewrath, posttrib position that just blasts the hope out of the rapture." The prewrath view comes under special assault from pretrib teachers. Wilkinson quotes Tim LaHaye, whose comment reflects his "Left Behind" Mickey Mouse eschatology. Many Christians have rejected the false pretrib rapture in favour of prewrath precisely because it is a theologically bankrupt doctrine with no scriptural evidence to support it. (1 John 4:1).

There was a profusion of emotionalism in Wilkinson's talk but very little actual teaching. What concerned me very greatly is that the Gypsy church are teaching the pretrib rapture to their children and filling them with false hopes.. and so the deception continues.   

Wilkinson briefly mentioned "the hour of trial" in Revelation 3:10 out of context. 

Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. (Revelaiton 3:19).

Pretrib teachers falsely teach that the Antichrist’s great tribulation (thlipsis) and the day of the Lord’s wrath (orgé) are a single period. The scriptures as a whole describe the day of the Lord's wrath in very specific terms as a separate period that follows the Antichrist's tribulation. Believers will be rescued from the hour of trial/the day of God's wrath but not from the great tribulation. (1 Thessalonians 5:9; Revelation 6:12-17; Matthew 24:29). Wilkinson's emotionalism may be persuasive to some, but his self-indulgent displays are not a sign of doctrinal soundness and stability. 

*WOLVES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING: FALSE PROPHETS AND BIBLE TEACHERS IN THE LAST DAYS: ANDY WOODS + PAUL WILKINSON: IS THE RAPTURE A SECONDARY ISSUE?

1. Reflections Upon The Prophetic Inquiry And The Views Advanced In It | Plymouth Brethren Writings
2. Evidence From Scripture of the Passing Away of the Present Dispensation - John Nelson Darby (#62234) - BTP