"For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." - 2 Timothy 2:4
Hey Ahwatukee,
I totally agree with 2 Timothy 2:4, which is the very reason why I keep challenging the pre-trib rapture teaching. There is no specific verse saying that the Body of Christ will be taken up before the Great Tribulation. Not only that, but hopping around in scripture in hopes of proving it. There's a difference when we actually read scripture for Truth and as a lens to expound on things to come, instead of reading through the lens of false doctrines into scripture. Context!
It doesn't make sense to think that Matthew 24 was written to just the Jews. Not only that, but Paul warned the "Gentile" church/congregation (Thessalonians) about the "Falling Away" and the "Son of Perdition." Why go through the trouble of warning them? The real church started with Jesus and the Apostles going out to share the Good News, through the Great Commission. Paul's ministry was to the Gentiles, and there was ministry to Israel. Still the same message!
It doesn't make sense to make a distinction between the body of believers when scripture clearly said that there is none. We are either of the Body of Christ, or not.
1 Corinthians 12:12-13
(12) For just as the body is one but has many parts; and all the parts of the body, though many, constitute one body; so it is with the Messiah.
(13) For it was by one Spirit that we were all immersed into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free; and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
I simply don't agree that a certain group of believers will get a hall pass out of here through escapism.
It's a slap in the face for those that are undergoing persecution and death for Jesus. I don't think the teaching of pre-trib would hold up in the circumstances that they were in... The Word warned us of the spirit of antichrist, many antichrists, and the antichrist (1 John 2:14; 18; 4:3). History proves this.
Believing in the pre-trib is deceiving in the sense that we aren't preparing ourselves. What's better, to be prepared, or not? What's more dangerous? Knowing what the Word told us what would happen, or assuming that we will escape? Personally I think it's better to prepare ourselves to die for the faith and to heed the warnings that were given to us about the antichrist and the mark of the beast. Might or might not happen during our lifetime, but we do know that it will happen because the Word told us.
Once again I wouldn't want the Body of Christ to be caught with their pants down.
Then I saw thrones, and those seated on them received authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for testifying about Yeshua and proclaiming the Word of God, also those who had not worshipped the beast or its image and had not received the mark on their foreheads and on their hands. They came to life and ruled with the Messiah for a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4)
So we can keep debating this, but I rather warn others to not be deceived. Read scripture for yourself and trust in God to reveal it to us. Don't depend on man for answers, and definitely don't just take my word for it. Do what the Bereans did.
All the years in the world doesn't mean anything if we go based upon our own understanding. If a little bit of poison is being read into the Word, then it is tainted from us being able to fully understand the context of what it clearly expounds on.
Done debating this subject and just got a question. Do you believe Jesus came in the flesh and is the Son of God?
