Beam Me Up, Jesus!

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by mel smith

I have become interested in the topic of the rapture, the second coming of Christ, and the millennium. I questions my past acceptance of pre-tribulation propaganda written by the likes of Hal Lindsey, Jack Van Impe, the LaLondes, and others. I never even read Tim LaHaye’s fairytales, thank God, but I wonder even about some of the more scholarly dispensationalists and their teaching, folks like John Walvoord. With an open mind, I have started to read several books that consider these things.

Three Views On The Rapture

I am reading the book, “Three Views on the Rapture” by Stanley N. Gundry and Gleason L. Archer. The book is written at a more scholarly level than I am at. Greek words… they look funny and I make something up about their pronunciation, but I have no clue. Still, I am able to pick a few things up as I read this book.

First, I am impressed by the cordial approach that each side adopts toward their opponents as they put forth their ideas. They recognize that no one really knows, or will know for sure, what God’s plans will be before they unfold. Unlike John Walvord’s statement as he discussed Pretribulation, midtribulation, posttribulation, and partial rapturism:

“An offshoot of pretribulationism, though seldom recognized as an orthodox point of view, is the partial rapture concept that only the godly Christians expecting the return of Christ will be translated before the Tribulation. The rest will continue through it until the return of Christ to establish His earthly kingdom. It is obvious that only one of these four possible positions is correct, and it is the duty of the student of Scripture to determine which is the proper interpretation of related Scripture.” (Walvoord 19)

Perhaps it is true that only one of those four views could be true but I’m saying none of those four views MUST be true! It might be something all together different, so I think Walvoord’s words are a misstatement.

Robert Van Kampen came up with a new theory on the rapture known as pre-wrath and convinced Marvin Rosenthal of its correctness. They both wrote books in the 1990’s presenting this new theory.
Two decades later, has this new theory held up to scrutiny?

First question: Why not just read the bible and ignore all these ‘other’ ideas and teachings of men?

I think a great example of why Not to rely on ‘yourself, God, and scripture’ is found in William Miller (1782 -1849). Mr. Miller is only one of a multitude of people that have decided to study the scriptures without relying on the benefit of other scholars. After two years of consulting with himself, Mr. Miller became convinced that the return of Christ was imminent – in 1844! Like many others that have traveled this solo route, just me and God, Mr. Miller lost his way and led thousands upon thousands into his error. Several cult organizations of our day can trace their heritage to their father, William Miller.

Scripture, on the other hand, tells us that we are not all teachers, not all preachers, not all of us receive gifts of knowledge, but God has given these gifts to those He has chosen within his church. I believe that relying on others and studying the ideas, teaching, scholarship, and Godly wisdom that God has given to other members of the body of Christ in our day and throughout all time of Christ’s Church is a wiser course to travel. I am not a historian, I can not read the original languages of the scriptures, and I can not even think very deeply on most days. I can turn to God and His Spirit to teach me, but I will remember that He has already given me great gifts as he has appointed others to do the things I cannot.

My study of the rapture and the return of Christ will include a study of many writings on this subject as I seek to learn not only through the Spirit of God and the Scriptures, but through the many men and women that God has already prepared to teach on the subject.

Today I am finishing reading another book, “The Last Days According to Jesus” by R.C. Sproul. Since I have many more books to read on this topic, I may begin to write a short post on each title as I finish reading them.

Note: I am continuing to work on this post, it’s not finished yet. I’ll be adding and updating for a few days or weeks yet. Mel Smith.

Works Cited:

Rosenthal, Marvin. The prewrath rapture of the church. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Inc., 1990.

Walvoord, John. The Rapture Question . revised and enlarged. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979.