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How the world's rejection of the pre-trib rapture proves its validity.
The majority of Christians believe that Jesus Christ will eventually return for His Church. However, there is not as much unity over the timing of Christ's return. Some believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, some a post-tribulation rapture, and a few adhere to a mid-tribulation rapture. Like most Evangelical Christians, I believe in the pretribulation rapture.
The Word of God is not enough to convince some people of the pre-trib rapture's validity. Jesus said, "for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." (Mat 25:13) People who believe in a post-trib rapture are essentially making Jesus or Daniel into a liar, because Daniel tells us there will be a 1260 day countdown from the time the Antichrist sits in the Temple and claims to be God until Jesus' return to earth. If the Antichrist claimed to be God on 1 Jan 2001 AD, then you would know Jesus was coming back on 13 June 2004 AD. Because the same date can not be both known and unknown, the rapture and the second coming have to be two separate events.
For the "Scripturally Hard of Understanding" I've realized a common sense way of proving the validity of the pre-trib rapture. One good way to determine if a doctrine is factual is to see how the devil reacts to it. If you were sitting in your living room watching TV, when suddenly the Satan himself appeared before you, and as quickly as he appeared, he began chewing you out royally, you could pass out cold, but instead you could rebuke him in the name of Jesus and then thank him for letting you know that you must be doing something very pleasing to God get the devil mad at you. The devil doesn't make very many house calls, so we don't have him to get his personal reaction, but we do have the world around us which he and his demons control. If the devil-controlled world displays and ignores or shows disfavor towards a teaching, it's almost assured that the teaching in question can be noted as scripturally sound. A good example is the belief that Jesus is the only way to heaven. The ungodly liberal media hates this doctrine and those who teach it. They prefer to promote the notion that all religions are equal. The Bible quotes Jesus as saying, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6)
When I looked to see what the world's view of the rapture was, I found virtually nothing - I mean there was no secular resources to be found that promoted the rapture teaching. I've listed below five instances where carnal organizations have made what can only be described as an active omission of the pre-trib rapture doctrine:
Prophecy Programs
In the past few years, several networks have broadcast
programs that dealt with the subject of prophecy. These shows
did a wonderful job of educating the public about every New
Age or occultic position on prophecy, but the rapture
teaching was always strangely missing. This oversight had to
be intentional because the rapture teaching enjoys a large
follow among evangelicals. Many of the other teachings that
were aired only have scant adherence by both Christian and
nonchristian groups. The devil knows that coverage of the
rapture will warn people to be ready, and that's something he
definitely does not want to happen.
Supermarket Tabloids
Frequently, when I'm passing through the checkout counter at
my local supermarket, I'll see one of those tabloids with a
headline like, "End of the World Dec 31, 1996" or
some other date. I've examined a good number of these rag
magazines, and I've noticed they always seem to have a
post-trib or apocalyptic view of end time events. I can't
ever recall reading about the pre-trib rapture in one of
these tabloids. In fact, I have a service provider that has a
data base of several tabloid back issues. I searched through
all of the articles that related to the end times and none
mentioned the rapture teaching. Satan must have decided there
needs to be total suppression of the rapture in all secular
resources. You would think having the rapture teaching in one
of these tabloids next to a story about the man who gave
birth to a three headed baby would help discredit the rapture
through association, but apparently the devil has decided it
would be much too dangerous a thing to chance.
Cults
I find cults interesting because most have a fixation with
the end times and prophecy. I surveyed several and I noticed
that no major cult holds the pre-trib rapture as one of its
doctrinal beliefs. Scriptural errors tend to cling together,
and you can find some particular errors in several ,if not
all, cults. Because the rapture teaching is the truth, it is
not taught in any of the main cults. I know of some cults
that sprang from denominations that believed in a
pretribulation rapture. When the group went their own way,
they dropped the pre-trib and adopted a post-trib view.
The Late Great Planet Earth
The book "The Late Great Planet Earth" by Hal
Lindsey was the top seller of the Seventies. It sold more
than 20 million copies. Normally, with such an amazing number
of sales, you would expect the book and its author to receive
an appropriate amount of the media's attention. This wasn't
the case for Hal Lindsey - he was largely ignored by the
secular press. Mr. Lindsey was declared the best selling
author of the decade by the New York Times, but they really
didn't have much choice - he had three books in their top ten
list at the same time. It would have been more noticeable if
they had not given Hal Lindsey the title. I don't recall ever
seeing a major network interview with Hal Lindsey - the
Christian media maybe, but not the secular media. What really
brings to light the media's boycott of "The Late Great
Planet Earth" is the minor success of some New Age books
and how the press reacted them. The Book "Embraced by
the Light," which is a book dripping with demonic
influences, was played up tremendously by the liberal media.
The press highlighted many of the teachings from the book and
talked with the author, Betty J. Eadie, about her
experiences. For a book that's based on true Christian
doctrines to get the liberal media's attention, the demand
for that book would have to be so great that every tree in
North America would need to be cut down in order to publish
it.
The Left Behind Series
Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins' book series Left Behind has sold over 17 million copies. Despite its seemingly amazing popularity, the series remains the
primary domain of Evangelical Christians. To have the original novel and its
sister books that followed, stay at the top of the best sellers list for years, you'd think the talk show community would feel compelled to devote at least one program to this subject. The job of mainstream book critics is to review popular books, but the case of Left Behind, most have turned their noses up at it. The few that did decided to review the book series were less than overwhelmed. A reviewer for the Washington Post wrote, "The books read like artifacts of a time machine sent to retrieve pulp science fiction -- and our morality -- from the '50s." One secular writer made a disturbing, yet true, comment about how most denominations view Bible prophecy, "Most Roman Catholics and mainstream Protestants do not have this level of fascination with the end of time or focus on this elaborate and literal prediction of events."
No Records Found
Now that all the magazine, encyclopedias, and various other
reference materials are being transcribed onto CD-ROM, you
can easily execute word searches of every article in any
magazine going back several years. I wanted to see if any
carnal publications ever made mention of the rapture, so I
used the search functions to hunt for end time related words.
Many common words like: end times, tribulation, and
Armageddon, came up; but the word rapture, in the context of
prophecy, never materialized. The most common reply I
received was "No Records Found."
I would like to conclude by asking any of my Christian bothers and sisters, who do not believe in the pre-trib rapture, a question. If the pre-trib rapture is a lie from the devil, then why do we have the above situations where the pre-trib rapture teaching is excluded by the carnal world? For those of you who are looking forward to or wish to be ready for the rapture, I highly encourage you to check out my web page "Are You Ready for the Rapture?"