Saturday, 7 June 2025

TOM HUGHES: GASLIGHTING AND PRETRIB MANIPULATION

It’s More Dangerous Than You Think - The Rapture Lie | The Tom Hughes Report

Pretrib leaders can be frustrating to deal with due to their habit of changing the goalposts and then blaming and berating their critics for misquoting them, denying the very thing they originally asserted. In other words, in the above video, Tom Hughes (Hope for our Times) is gaslighting

Tom Hughes: "Where does the term 'secret rapture' come from? ..You only hear that term from critics, not from people who actually teach the pretribulation rapture. It's a pejorative, a term of dismissal. The only time I have ever heard pretribulation teachers use the term 'secret rapture' is when they were quoting critics." I don't think they have mentioned this to Jack Hibbs, who has used the term "secret rapture" in the title of his recent video! "Jack Hibbs: The Secret Rapture Happening Before the World's Greatest Trial" (22nd May 2025).    
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The secret rapture: "A signless event"  

The doctrine of an imminent secret pretribulation rapture emerged during the early 19th century through the teachings of cult leader John Nelson Darby (1800–1882). 

Darby is credited with being the first person to have taught the "secret rapture" of the church. In his own words, Darby claimed that God revealed dispensational hermeneutics to him directly. As such, he claimed the equivalent of "apostolic" authority for this novel teaching, and he would brook no opposition to it. 

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 

Alan Kurschner: "An older expression in pretribulational literature—and can still be used occasionally today—is secret coming or secret rapture. From my exposure to older pretrib and non-pretrib literature, it seemed to be used synonymously with the expressions signless coming or signless rapture, in contrast to an announced coming or announced rapture."3  

The theology of the "secret rapture" was further expanded by the "Left Behind" eschatology of Tim LaHaye, founder of the Pre-Trib Research Center. The storyline of Left Behind was fictional, but LayHaye claimed to represent "biblical" pretribulational premillennial eschatology. In the film, the rapture was signless, and Christians simply vanished without a trace, with those left behind perplexed by their disappearance. 

I have recently heard Paul Wilkinson promote exactly the same idea. Wilkinson: "There will be no signs before the rapture.. the world won't see this."4

Jimmy Evans: "A billion believers in the world instantly disappear.. What is going to be the explanation?" Billy Crone surmised that demons would explain the rapture away in terms of an alien abduction.5 

Leslie Chua: "Millions of Christians will disappear suddenly without any warning. They will vanish mysteriously in the twinkling of an eye (1 Corinthians 15:51-52) leaving no trace behind. It is as if they just vaporise into the thin air. Nothing like that has ever happened before."6
  
Below are specific rapture passages that absolutely refute the claim that the rapture is a signless event. The scriptures explicitly refer to "a great earthquake, cosmic disturbances, the sign of the Son of Man, a loud trumpet, a loud command, the voice of an archangel, every eye will see him."  

And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven." (Mark 14:62).

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 cf. Acts 1:9-11).

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise. / After that, we who are alive and remain 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).

Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. (Revelation 1:7).

When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Revelation 6:12-17).

The fallacy that the church fathers were pretrib

Tom Hughes and other pretribulational leaders are attempting to distance themselves from John Nelson Darby for obvious reasons. Instead, they are trying, but failing, to prove that pretribulationalism was taught by the church fathers. Lee Brainard is the chief culprit in this dubious endeavour. Brainard takes isolated parts of the church fathers' writings out of context and interprets them as pretrib. It has been demonstrated unequivocally and repeatedly that the church fathers believed that the church would face the Antichrist and were prewrath. 

According to Irenaeus, the Church will go through the last contest (the tribulation) before being "caught up" and crowned with incorruption.

Ireneaus: "And therefore, when in the end the Church shall be suddenly caught up from this, it is said, There shall be tribulation such as has not been since the beginning, neither shall be. Matthew 24:21 For this is the last contest of the righteous, in which, when they overcome they are crowned with incorruption." Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book V.7

Further evidence can be found in the following document that directly quotes the church fathers: Microsoft Word - Prewrath - Early Church Fathers.docx

The John Rich and Tucker Carlson interview8

If Tucker Carlson's reasons for bringing up the subject of the Scofield Reference Bible during this interview were antisemitic, John Rich did not take the bait. Rich avoided the question of modern Jews and Israel, and the subject of Middle East politics was not discussed. Rich has openly stated that he believes that the church will face the Antichrist, and it appears that he is a prewrath believer.9 Prewrath believers are anything but antisemitic, as can be demonstrated by the following statement by the prewrath ministry Zion's Hope. David Rosenthal is President of Zion’s Hope and editor-in-chief of Zion’s Fire magazine. Their statement sums up the eschatological view of Israel held by the prewrath camp.    

Zion's Hope: "We believe God has sovereignly chosen the Jewish people as the nation through which to reveal Himself, His glory, and His salvation. Although Israel has sinned by rejecting the Messiah and is presently under national blindness, God has a remnant according to His grace. We believe the Jewish people are in need of salvation and are saved only by faith in Jesus Christ just as the Gentiles. We believe Israel is distinct from the Church and the promise to Israel of future blessing will be fulfilled at the Messiah’s second coming."10

Given the overwhelming evidence against a "secret rapture", Hughes and others have recognized the need to alter the goalposts, even though this was the previously held position of the pretrib camp. They are free to do so, of course; they just need to be honest! Hughes' gaslighting tactics and his disinformation about the church fathers are disingenuous. (Matthew 12:36-37; James 3:1). Furthermore, there is no evidence to support the insinuation that John Rich is antisemitic.




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
3. The Meaning of 'Secret' in the Pretribulational Rapture Expression 'the Secret Coming of Christ' | ESCHATOS MINISTRIES
4. WOLVES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING: FALSE PROPHETS AND BIBLE TEACHERS IN THE LAST DAYS: PAUL WILKINSON FALSE TEACHER: PRETRIB BLATANT DISHONESTY
5. Demonic Lies About The Rapture | Tipping Point | End Times Teaching | Jimmy Evans
6. In The Aftermath Of The Rapture — Rock of Ages Church
7. CHURCH FATHERS: Against Heresies, V.29 (St. Irenaeus)
8. John Rich: Donald Trump, the Darkness of Eminem’s New Album, and the Song Inspired by God
9. "When Is The Rapture"
10. Zion's Hope - What We Believe

1 comment:

  1. Wow, thankfully we have someone like you setting everyone else straight.

    ReplyDelete