Who is Left Behind? Understanding the Order of the Final Gathering (Rapture) | DouglasHamp.com
Doug Hamp's Eisegesis: Who will be taken and who will be left? (Luke v17:34-36).
Doug Hamp's incompetence as a bible teacher has become painfully clear over the last few weeks as I have watched his weekly Prophecy Roundtable with fellow hosts Scott Harwell and John Haller. {1} Hamp's mild mannered "chats" belie the lethal doctrines being promoted on these videos. Hamp and Harwell are modern Judaizers who promote Torah-observance, the Talmud and the skewed doctrine known as "Commonwealth Theology" which works on the false premise that both the Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic covenant remain in place. Hamp takes the same position as Joseph Smith (Mormons) i.e. that the church is the ten tribes of Israel (Ephraim). Hamp applies the rapture to Israel and places it at the end of the tribulation. Much more could be said, but I will limit this post to Hamp's interpretation of Luke 17:34-36.
The above link demonstrates Hamp's error in taking one small excerpt from the scriptures in order to justify his warped view that this passage does not refer to the rapture. He does not take into account the parallel passage in Matthew 24 and other related scriptures that confirm that the righteous, not the wicked, are taken. (Psalm 119:160).
Hamp: "..we see that the ones taken from the bed, mill, and field, are not the righteous, but the wicked who have taken the mark of the beast. They are removed to destruction where the birds will eat their flesh. The righteous who didn’t know it will inherit the earth as flesh and blood and have children. The elect (commonwealth of Israel) are gathered by the angels and are transformed in a flash into their new bodies and become rulers with Christ during the thousand-year rule."
Hamp's eisegesis is an inversion of the entire passage. His proof text (Ezekiel 39:17-20), is based on the assumption that Ezekiel 38 and 39 refers to the battle of Armageddon in Revelation 19.* Ezekiel demonstrates that the assembly of the wicked has nothing in common with the rapture event described by Luke i.e. one taken (paralambanó) and the other left. (Luke 17:34-36). Ezekiel describes the gathering of the vultures, not the removal of the wicked, taking place on the the mountains of Israel, the location where Gog's armies will fall. (Ezekiel 39:4 cf. Matthew 24:28; Revelation 19:17). The kings and their armies are assembled together at Armageddon by the three unclean spirits coming out of the mouth of the dragon. (Revelation 16:13-14). And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. (Revelation 16:6).
Luke 17:34-35 : One will be taken (paralambanó). Typically paralambanó is an affirmative verb meaning to receive or to take to oneself. The verb paralambanó refers to the rapture in Matthew 24:40-41 and John 14:3.{2}
“As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD: Speak to the birds of every sort and to all beasts of the field: ‘Assemble and come, gather from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood. You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth—of rams, of lambs, and of he-goats, of bulls, all of them fat beasts of Bashan. And you shall eat fat till you are filled, and drink blood till you are drunk, at the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you. And you shall be filled at my table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all kinds of warriors,’ declares the Lord GOD. (Ezekiel 39:17-20).
Luke 17:26-37
Hamp's conclusion is just as problematic as his faulty exegesis above.