Berean Break
Mar. 14, 2004 broadcast
In Case of Rapture The Bible Will Be Wrong
by George Sinkie
Good
Morning and welcome to the Berean Break. My name is George
Sinkie and I am so glad that you have joined us today. Get
out your Bible and follow along today, check out what is taught
and see that it is the truth and then apply that truth into your
life. As we begin this morning lets go to God in
prayer,
Great God in heaven, we thank
You for this day in our lives, and pray that each of us will
open our hearts and minds to Your will. As we search the
Scriptures together, may we be noble minded like the Bereans.
Lord, may we cast out the man-made creeds and teachings
that will destroy our relationship with You. We thank You
for Jesus and its in His name we pray. AMEN !!
I
believe that many of you have seen them. A warning on the
car ahead of you that says something like Warning: In case
of Rapture this car will be driverless. What is this
doctrine of the Rapture? Where does it come from?
Today we are going to look at the
doctrine of the Rapture and some of the other basic doctrines
that tie in with it. This doctrine is usually taught by
people that are millennialists, which means that they believe
Jesus is going to come back to earth and set up an earthly kingdom
and reign for 1000 years. Most dispensational millennialists
use passages from the books of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation
in support of their doctrine. The passages to which they
often refer are highly symbolic and apocalyptic. That is,
the texts use symbols and figures to represent spiritual concepts.
Admittedly, many of these symbols and images can be difficult
to understand. Keep in mind that the Bible is one large
book composed of 66 smaller books. God does not teach conflicting
doctrines in various places. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians
14:33
33 for God is not a God
of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.
Now Paul is referring to the
first Century use of miraculous powers but the principle holds
true in other areas as well. The Bible is uniform and consistent
in its teaching throughout.
One of the most basic principles
of interpretation is to interpret the difficult passages in light
of those easily understood. This method of interpretation
applies to the Bible or any other document or concept. For
example, when one learns to do mathematics, he must first learn
addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division (usually
in that order) before moving on to algebra, geometry, etc. All
higher math must agree with the elementary principles of mathematics.
Unfortunately, millennialist doctrine twists and distorts
difficult passages and makes them teach something in direct opposition
to easily understood scriptures.
The main points of this lesson
are going to be looking at the most common beliefs in the millennial
system. Not every millennialist will agree with every point
I make, but the following is a summary of the main points and
most millennialists will agree with it. While it is not
the intent to show the errors of every minute point of millennialism,
if we destroy the foundation the rest will collapse.
Here is a condensation of the millennialist
doctrine.
1. Initially, Jesus came to earth
to establish an earthly kingdom in Judah, on Davids throne.
Because the Jews rejected Him, He could not set up the
kingdom. Then as if it were some afterthought He set up
the church instead until He comes again.
2. At some point in the future,
there will be a secret catching away of the saints,
both living and dead, before the tribulation. This
is commonly referred to as the rapture.
3. The tribulation will last
approximately 7 years, during which time the Jews will begin
to rebuild the temple. The Jews will also enter into a
7-year agreement with the Anti-christ. After
3½ years, the Antichrist will be revealed,
at which time he will stop the daily sacrifice and set up his
own image in the temple.
4. During this time, Jerusalem
will be trodden under foot, nations will unite against the city
and overcome it. Great suffering will occur and many will
be carried into captivity; those remaining will turn to
Christ. When the kings of Earth gather to battle against
the Christians, Jesus will descend with the saints to deliver
the faithful and destroy the enemy. Thus ends the tribulation
and the power of the Antichrist.
5. Tribulation martyrs are raised
to reign with Jesus and the other saints for 1000 years, during
which time Jesus will sit on the throne of David, having established
his earthly kingdom in Jerusalem.
6. The tribes of Israel are restored
and the Lord makes a new covenant with them. The temple
will be completely rebuilt with Levitical sacrifices re-established
and continued throughout the 1000 year reign.
7. After 1000 years the
final judgment will take place.
Again I want to state that not
every millennialist is going to believe each of these points
and to some there will be points that I have not listed. Lets
go through these points and see how they compare with what the
Bible teaches.
The first point we want to look
at is that according to the millennialist:
Initially,
Jesus came to the earth to establish an earthly kingdom in Judah,
was rejected by the Jews, and set up the church instead until
he came again.
If an earthly kingdom was the
plan, then it is interesting that Jesus was ignorant of the plan
of God. Consider the discussion between Pilate and Jesus recorded
for us in John 18:33-37
33 Pilate therefore entered
again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus, and said to Him,
Are You the King of the Jews?
34
Jesus
answered, Are
you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you
about Me?
35
Pilate
answered, I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and
the chief priests delivered You up to me; what have You
done?
36
Jesus
answered, My
kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this
world, then My servants would be fighting, that I might not be
delivered up to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not
of this realm.
37
Pilate
therefore said to Him, So You are a king? Jesus
answered, You
say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born,
and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the
truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.
Did Jesus lie to Pilate? Or
did He reveal truth as He said was His purpose for coming? The
millennialist doctrine of an earthly kingdom would mean that
Jesus is a liar. I believe that there is a lie being told,
but it is not being told by Jesus. Now the destruction
of this one point shows that the millennialist doctrine is not
Scriptural, and therefore we could stop right now but we are
going to go on so that we can deal with the doctrine of the Rapture.
Before
we leave this first point though we need to look at the idea
that the church was an idea that God came up with when the Jews
rejected Jesus. This would make the church some kind of
Plan B. This doctrine also borders on blasphamy
because it calls into question whether God is all-knowing. Of
course the Bible shows that this man-made doctrine is the one
lacking knowledge. Turn with me over to Ephesians 3:8-12,
where Paul writes,
8 To me, the very least
of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles
the unfathomable riches of Christ,
9 and to bring to light
what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has
been hidden in God, who created all things;
10
in order
that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through
the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly
places.
11
This was
in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in
Christ Jesus our Lord,
12
in whom
we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.
The church is not some afterthought
or Plan B; the church is and eternally has been Plan A.
The church was a part of Gods eternal purpose, and
those who teach differently are false teachers.
We are going to go ahead and look
at the Rapture doctrine even though without the earthly kingdom
it cannot stand. The second point we mentioned was:
There will be a secret catching
away of the saints, both living and dead, before the
tribulation. This catching away is commonly referred
to as the rapture.
This catching away
is still at some future time from us now, which according to
this man-made doctrine makes the tribulation yet
to come at some future time. As we examine the Scriptures
we see that this does not harmonize with Scripture at all.
First of all, John was going through
the biblical doctrine of the tribulation, along with the other
Christians of that day, in the first century. You can read
it and understand it in Revelation 1:9
9 I, John, your brother
and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance
which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos, because
of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
John also shows here that the
kingdom was already in existence because he was in it already.
So we see the error of their tribulation doctrine
as well as their kingdom doctrine.
Now what about this Rapture,
this secret catching away. Does the Bible support the idea
that cars will be driverless? Will some be raised at one
time and then years later others raised on the last day? How
can we know? How can we tell? I believe that the
Bible will answer these questions if we sincerely search the
Scriptures.
Lets look at John 6:40, where
Jesus says,
40 For this is the will
of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes
in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise
him up on the last day.
Notice when the righteous are
going to be raised, on the last day. Now you
have to make a choice you can believe Jesus who says the
resurrection is going to be on the last day or you can believe
the man-made doctrine of the rapture which teaches
that the resurrection is going to be 1007 years before the last
day.
The rapture doctrine
also teaches a false doctrine of multiple resurrections. On
the other hand, Jesus teaches in John 5:28-29
28 Do not marvel at this;
for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall
hear His voice,
29 and
shall come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection
of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection
of judgment.
Notice that it says all
who have done good deeds and evil deeds
will come forth in an hour. An hour
is singular, this is showing that this happens at one time, not
multiple times separated by over a thousand years.
Now there are other points of doctrine
in the millennialist doctrine, but we have seen that the very
foundation of their doctrine is wrong so nothing that they build
upon it will stand. The kingdom already exists and has
since the first century. The tribulation was already going
on in the first Century. And the idea of the rapture
is not taught or supported in Scripture. |