Over the past couple of years, I developed a minor interest in magic. I especially love the mentalist, mind bending tricks.
All magic as you know is “slight of hand.” It is literally leading people to look “here” and not “there.
Satan (or Lucifer) is the GREATEST magician of all time. Bar none. He is not only the great deceiver (Revelation 12:9), but a master deceiver, as in 2 Corinthians 11:14... “for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”
In Satan, we know, there is no light but only darkness. Yet billions of people actually believe in one way or another that Lucifer (which means light) is actually the good guy.
Given the current events, and especially what is happening in the Ukraine, Christians are talking about the end times. In many online forums, I am seeing it over and over again...
“Rapture Ready!”
So where did this doctrine of a Pre-Tribulation rapture come from? Most Christians believe that the doctrine of the Pre-Trib (or Pre-Tribulation) rapture came from the founder of the Brethren church, J.N. Darby.
Many Christians also know that this teaching was popularized by C.I. Scofield in the famous Scofield Reference Bible. It was further popularized by L.S. Chafer and Charles Ryrie (The Ryrie Study Bible).
What most Christians don't know is that the doctrine didn't originate with Darby. It originated with a Jesuit Priest by the name of Francisco Ribera. If you are ready to put on your thinking cap and do a bit of historical research, you probably won't find a better summary than the one put together over at ChristianObserver.net.
The Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine may be one of the greatest deceptions (magic tricks) of all time.
Why Is The Pre-Tribulation Doctrine a Deception?
If it is a deception, then Satan is the father of it, since Satan is the father of all lies!
But why would Satan create a doctrine that actually looks forward to the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ and the destruction of Satan himself? That doesn't make much sense.
Try thinking about it a different way. Satan KNOWS that God's Word is true. Every. Word. He knows what is coming. He knows His time is short as we see in Revelation 12:12.
“But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
Like a serpent whose head has been severed, Satan thrashes about in fury, trying to inflict as much damage as possible as he awaits that final word and is cast into the lake of fire. Forever.
But still. Why create a doctrine that literally gets people (millions upon millions of people) to believe that Satan will be destroyed?
Slight of Hand
Satan can't change his destiny and Satan can't change the Word of God (he can twist it, but he can't change it).
What he can change is how people respond to the Word of God.
May I suggest to you that many, many, many Christians today are asleep in the light (hat tip: Keith Green).
When Christians believe that they are going to be raptured out of this world before a seven year period of tribulation, their attitude (and their attention) is likely to shift.
Instead of being like the 10 virgins, looking for the coming of their husband by being prepared, they are not worried. They are Rapture Ready! It moves the focus away from “occupying until He comes,” (Luke 19:13) to not really caring about what is happening around them.
Apart from the cross, I believe we are witnessing the greatest spiritual battle of all time. The devil, his angels and the corrupt, evil globalist cabal is literally mocking God to His face! And all the while, the Israel of God (the Church) stands silent.
Instead of working for the fall of the cabal and a world-wide, Holy Spirit empowered revival of the preaching of the gospel, Christians (not all, but so many) are reading the latest dime store prophecy book (all of which turn out to be wrong) and looking for a secret rapture!
If you are reading this Christian. Let me say it bluntly. You have been deceived. You have been lied to by the media (all of it, including Fox News), by your leaders (corrupt to the core) and by the nations of the world (also corrupt). You have been lied to about C19. You have been lied to about the election. You have been lied to about the vaccine. You have been lied to about the Ukraine. On and on it goes.
Satan has led you to “look here,” and not “there.”
Let me be very blunt. There. Is. No. Pre-Trib. Rapture. The Bible does not teach it and you can only get there by reading it through the lens of the Dispensational narrative. That is why before the 19th century, NO ONE ever taught it. No. One. Not one church father. No one!
Stop fixing your eyes on time, times and half a time and start fixing your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.
Get involved in the fight of your lives. Get involved in saving our children. Get involved in your communities. Get involved in bringing down your corrupt school boards. Get involved in exposing election fraud. Get involved in electing leaders who will restore justice in the land. For the oppressed. For the widow. For the orphan. For the poor.
Always remember that David was not equipped for his fight with Goliath. But he got into the fight anyway. By faith and with five small stones.
Let that sink in (no pun intended). With. Five. Small. Stones.
Allow me to end with this great quote from Arthur Pink,
“Dispensationalism is a device of the enemy, designed to rob the children of no small part of that bread which their heavenly Father has provided for their souls; a device wherein the wily serpent appears as an angel of light, feigning to “make the Bible a new book” by simplifying much in it which perplexes the spiritually unlearned. It is sad to see how widely successful the devil has been by means of this subtle innovation.” A. W. Pink (1886-1952)