Rapture or Resurection?

            My most recent post was entitled Seventy Weeks Are Determined.  It summarizes and explains the fulfillment of the very important prophetic text of Daniel 9:24-27. Understanding that the fulfillment of that text was consummated in the ministry, death and resurrection of Christ, and the subsequent carrying of the gospel by the twelve apostles to Israel is of utmost importance and contradicts the widely accepted view that the final “week” of the seventy weeks is yet future.  In fact the prevailing interpretation of that text is the springboard for a complete distortion of subsequent New Testament revelation. I intend to prove in a series of four blogs the truth of the foregoing statement and uncover all of the scriptural truths related to the subject of resurrection. I suggest that you read and understand the content of that previous posting as a prerequisite for the current one and the two additional ones which are to follow.

            Dispensational theology which was popularized over a century ago by the introduction of the Scofield Reference Bible with its numerous notes has thoroughly corrupted an accurate interpretation of many of the most important truths of Scripture. Let’s begin with their theological aberration that there will be a rapture of the entire body of the church prior to a period of tribulation which they say will last for seven years. The tribulation is according to various texts of Scripture is only three and one-half years in duration. After they have completely corrupted the text of Daniel 9:24-27 by introducing a supposed covenant between the Jews and the Antichrist which is subsequently breached by him; they then would proceed by having us to believe that the church has already been “ruptured” prior to the tribulation and God’s dealings are now solely focused on the Jews or national Israel. Leaping from this completely erroneous interpretation of the Daniel text they would take us to I Thessalonians 4:13-17 in the New Testament and identify that text as the supposed support for this pretribulational “rapture”.  That text reads as follows: “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that we sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which ae alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which ae asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” If you would then notice the context following it states that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. So the day of the Lord follows immediately after the resurrection (not a supposed rapture) which is described in detail in the foregoing text. The day of the Lord is that execution of judgment coming upon the earth after the tribulation and then subsequently after the resurrection. It is not that which follows the supposed pretribulational rapture. The fact that this Thessalonians text is speaking of the resurrection and not a falsely fabricated rapture can be verified by many other scriptures. Compare Matthew 24:29-31 as describing the same event. “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the=moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven………….and he shall send his angels with a great sound of trumpet, and they shall gather together  his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” This is the resurrection immediately after the tribulation. Compare also Luke 21:27-28, I Cor. 15:51-52, Rev.11:11-12.  These texts all describe in some manner the resurrection occurring after the tribulation. The concept of a pretribulational “rapture” of all of the church is a theological aberration fabricated by the adherents of dispensational theology and completely endorsed in the notes in the Scofield Reference Bible.

            What dispensational theology has done by transferring the seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy to the end of the age proclaiming its fulfillment in a seven year tribulation results in the denial of the anointing and ministry of Christ to Israel of old. Again please see my previous post Seventy Weeks Are determined to gain the true interpretation of the seventy weeks of Daniel’s prophecy. Numerous other misinterpretations of the word of God have resulted directly from this wresting of the Scripture by dispensational adherents. There is much more to be discovered on the subject of resurrection and we will examine those truths in subsequent posts.

David Lance Dan

For a complete understanding for the distortions and heresies of dispensational theology obtain a copy of my book Christian Zionism and the Scofield Reference Bible by visiting my website: authordavidlancedean.com