Twenty Unanswerable Questions

for Pre-Trib Believers:

1. A Psalm of David. Yahweh (“the LORD”) said unto my Lord, “Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” [Psalm 110:1]

In the above psalm, Yahweh is the Father, and “my Lord” is Jesus/Yeshua. This single verse should assure us all that Yeshua will not leave His Father’s side until the END of the Tribulation. If Yeshua must sit at the Father’s right hand UNTIL Yeshua’s enemies are humbled by the Father’s intentions and power – which SURELY does not happen until the END of the Tribulation – how can Christ come “for” His Church seven (or three and one-half) years BEFORE the Father has done what He promises to do?

2. “In the same day...”

The Lord Yeshua tells us, in His own words, exactly what His return will be like:

And this:

In other words, the wrath of God which was poured out upon the wicked followed the removal of those to be saved immediately, in the same day, not seven (or 3½) years later! The Lord Yeshua here says, unmistakably, that His return will be just like these two historical examples. We are removed first, the world and we will see Him coming in His glory, and then the wrath of God will be poured out immediately, “in the same day...”

3. The Apostle Paul tells us [1 Corinthians 15:51-53] that “we shall ALL be changed” “and the dead shall be raised” and “this mortal must put on immortality”. When? “At the LAST trump.”

Dear hearts, there is only ONE series of “trumps” or trumpets mentioned in Revelation, or anywhere else in the Bible, concerning the Tribulation, and that is the Seven Trumpets. The Last Trump must, therefore, be the seventh, which is when Christ returns loudly, visibly, and triumphantly. But if some of “we” are “raptured” at the beginning of the Tribulation, seven years before the Lord’s return, how can we ALL be changed at that time? In a pre-Trib or a mid-Trib rapture scenario, the seven seals haven’t even happened yet, much less the seven trumpets. How could the Church be “raptured” into heaven without receiving their glorified bodies?

This also says that the resurrection of the righteous dead in Christ happens at the Lord’s visible second coming, and Paul says further [1 Thessalonians 4:15] that the resurrection of the righteous dead in Christ precedes the rapture of the Church. How is any of this possible with either a pre-Trib or a mid-Trib rapture of the Church?

4. “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Yeshua Christ;” [1 Peter 1:13]

When is “the revelation” of Yeshua Christ? According to the pre-Trib and mid-Trib Rapture theorists, Christ’s “first second coming” is invisible and silent. If his “first second coming” at a pre-Trib or a mid-Trib “rapture” is silent and invisible, how can it be a “revelation”? And if a pre-Trib or a mid-Trib Rapture is the “true” hope of the Church (according to the Pre/Mid-Trib Rapture theorists), of what is Peter speaking here?

5. Concerning the Lord’s return, the apostle Paul tells us, “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, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” [1 Thessalonians 4:16-17]

Since this unquestionably describes the situation on the earth at the very moment of Christ’s 100% loud, visible, public return (the pre-Trib “second” Second Coming), according to the pre-Trib “theory”, Paul must not have expected to be raptured with the Church at the pre-Tribbers previous “first” second coming! Apparently not, or else he would not be “remaining”, one of those “Left Behind” on the earth at the moment of the Lord’s visible return! Since he says that “WE which are alive and REMAIN”, is it possible that the apostle Paul did not consider himself to be righteous enough to have been raptured along with the rest of the Church? Or did the apostle Paul (or anyone else of note, prior to 1830) simply not believe in or preach a pre-Trib Rapture at all?

6. The apostle Paul says, in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4:

1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,

2 That you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand (or, “imminent”!)

3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

4 Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

7. The Apostle Peter says, in 1 Peter 1:7...

First, this states that we are to be praised and honored because of the way we endure the trial of our faith until Christ appears. What “trial of our faith” is there in a pre-Trib or a mid-Trib rapture? None. We would all be sucked out of the middle of a perfectly ordinary day, to party-hearty with the Lord for seven years? [There are so many things wrong with this, it’s a book all by itself. We recommend ours: “Exposing Satan's ‘Left Behind’”, at http://www.leftbehindlie.com ]

Second, this states that the praise and honor doesn’t happen until “the appearing of Jesus Christ”, which even the most rabid pre-Tribbers concede doesn’t happen until the Lord’s second Second Coming, when He returns “with His Church” [a phrase which, not incidentally, appears nowhere in the Bible in any end-times context!].

So how does a logical, Truth-loving Christian square all this with a pre-Trib or a mid-Trib scenario?

8. How can there be a wedding of the Lamb, unless “the guests” are ALL there?

In Matthew 24:29-31, our Lord is describing the end times to His disciples:

These are the words of our Lord describing the situation on earth at the moment of His return. The angels shall gather his elect from the four winds (everywhere on earth), and from every part of heaven. If “His elect” are not gathered together from heaven AND earth until the moment of His Second Coming, HOW could there be a “Marriage Supper of the Lamb” at any time prior to the moment when “the guests” are “all there” in heaven? Hmmm?

Moreover, in the Book of the Revelation, the apostle John clearly states that there will NOT be a wedding until the number of those who make up “the guests” (ALL of “the dead in Christ”) is complete:

This does not happen until the anti-Christ is slain by the Lord, at His return. [2 Thessalonians 2:8]

This is further confirmed by the author of Hebrews, speaking of the Old Testament righteous:

In other words, we will all be dealt with appropriately at one and the same time.

The timing of the Marriage Supper is further established in Revelation 19:7, which states that it does not happen until AFTER the destruction of Babylon, which can only be sometime after the END of the seven years of the Tribulation.

Most importantly, in Matthew 24:29-31, our Lord is describing the end times to His disciples:

These are the words of our Lord describing the situation on earth at the moment of His return. The angels shall gather his elect from the four winds (every point of the compass on earth), and from every part of heaven. If ALL of “His elect” are gathered from heaven AND earth at the END of the Tribulation, HOW can there have been a prior “Marriage Supper of the Lamb” if “the Bride” could not possibly have been there at any time prior to this moment?

9. In our Lord’s parable of the wise and foolish virgins, as soon as the Bridegroom arrives, he goes in to the wedding feast with the wise virgins (those who were prepared) and the door is shut, and no one else is admitted after that. IF this is a metaphor for the Lord's return, as many Bible scholars consider it to be, and IF there is going to be a pre-Trib Rapture, this means that NO ONE COULD BE SAVED during the Tribulation, which happens AFTER the pre-Trib Rapture. Since we know that there WILL be people saved during the Tribulation (the souls beneath the altar, etc.), this would necessarily mean that the pre-Trib Rapture is itself impossible!

10. Further in the Book of the Revelation, we find this: xxx

If this is the first resurrection (the second resurrection being of the wicked, at the end of the Millennial Reign), and this first resurrection (which is also the ONLY general resurrection of the righteous mentioned anywhere in the Bible!) includes ALL of those who are killed by the forces of the anti-Christ DURING the Tribulation, and if the resurrection of ALL of the dead in Christ precedes the Rapture of the Church (as Paul states in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17), how is a pre-Trib Rapture of the Church even POSSIBLE?

11. Yeshua also said, “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” [Matthew 24:22] Excuse us, but if “the elect” will have already been “raptured” seven years previously, they would not even be ON the earth! Why would those days (of the Tribulation) be shortened for people who are not even supposed to be on the earth?

12. Yeshua promised us that, “And you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endures to the end shall be saved.” [Matthew 10:22] First, to whom is this addressed, if not to the Church? Second: If the Church is removed from the earth before the Tribulation even starts, what is there to be “endured”?

13. In the above verses, after listing a terrible sequence of trials which the end-times readers will experience, Yeshua says that “he who endures to the end [of the sequence] shall be saved”. This does NOT say that ONLY those who “endure to the end” will be saved. It says that, IF you are in this group, you MUST endure to the end to be saved. The alternative is accepting the Mark of the Beast, and suffering the loss of your salvation as a result. If Yeshua knew that His Church would be raptured out of the world before the Tribulation, against His specific request of the Father [John 17:15], WHY would He not make ANY specific reference to this singular event anywhere in His Word? If Scripture really is describing a pre-Trib rapture, why is the Lord Yeshua so completely concerned with those who would be “left behind” without ever mentioning that they would be?

14. In a pre-Trib/mid-Trib Rapture of the Church, even as portrayed in the “Left Behind” series of “religious fictions”, there would be untold numbers of unsaved people killed as a direct result of God’s intervention, by His removing the Church all at once with NO warning whatsoever. Many of these people would have had no chance to hear the gospel of Yeshua Christ!

Since “The Lord is...not willing that ANY should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance” [2 Peter 3:9], how does this crystal-clear New Testament statement about Yahweh’s intentions square with the undeniable eternal consequences to the unsaved who are killed without warning as a consequence of the catastrophes resulting from the instantaneous removal – by God – of “the elect”?

15. One consequence of the “doctrine of imminence” is that many lost people who will have never have heard the Gospel will be killed by the hand of God. The Lord says to the prophet Ezekiel: “When I say unto the wicked, ‘Thou shalt surely die’; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.” [Ezekiel 3:18] If the Lord demands that we warn the wicked in order to try to save their souls, are we not also responsible for not doing anything that would directly and predictably result in their premature deaths? Such as contributing to the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, which will hasten the arrival of the “pre-Trib rapture”?

16. If you really believe in the so-called “doctrine of imminence” – that you might be literally “raptured” at any moment – and you are driving a car, truck, boat, or plane when it happens, might not your actions cause someone who had not yet heard the Gospel of Yeshua Christ to be killed in the ensuing “accident”? To be theologically consistent, does not anyone who believes in and preaches the “doctrine of imminence” not have a Christian duty to protect such lost people by immediately surrendering ALL of your operator’s license(s), and immediately ceasing to operate all motor vehicles? If not, WHY NOT?

17. How fair would it be for people who only “believed” after seeing people disappear before their very eyes, to be accorded such superior treatment by God, as compared with those who had lived their entire lives in true faith, WITHOUT seeing the promise, even as Abraham, Joseph, David, and all of the rest of the faithful have – the “cloud of witnesses”, [Hebrews 11:1-40] – down through the centuries? What other example of such extraordinarily undeserved preferential treatment by God of ANY other group of people is there ANYWHERE in the Bible?

18. The Bible says that, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him [God]” [Hebrews 11:6]. But if the Church were to be removed by God prior to the Tribulation, and tens of thousands of VCRs are “Left Behind” with slick, VHS videotape explanations of what will have just happened, how much “faith” would it then take for anyone to “believe” in God? How much “trust” in an invisible, spirit God would be required? Answer: NONE.

19. If “the Church” is to be removed by God before the Tribulation, WHY is this group of people to be treated so differently by God? The 100% consistent message of the Bible is that we MUST be purified and refined by tribulation in order to enter the kingdom of God [Deuteronomy 4:30-31; Isaiah: 48:10; Daniel 12:10; Zechariah 13:9; Matthew 3:11-12; 24:21; John 16:33; Acts 14:22; Romans 5:3-5; 8:35; 12:12; 1 Thessalonians 3:4; Revelation 2:9-10; 7:14]. HOW is this to be accomplished if we are sucked out of the middle of a perfectly ordinary day, right in the middle of our perfectly secure, safe, comfortable, and predictable lives?

20. Our Lord tells His disciples that they (the faithful) WILL SEE the Abomination of Desolation, in Matthew 24:15:

First, to whom is this addressed, if not to the Church? The parenthetical expression (whoso reads, let him understand) above is a crystal-clear indication that the intended audience for this warning extends far beyond the tiny circle of people who were actually listening to our Lord speak.

Second, HOW would it be possible for the faithful to SEE the Abomination of Desolation in a pre-Tribulation Rapture scenario? They wouldn’t even be on the earth when it happened!

Third, if this is “really” addressed to “Tribulation saints” who had been “left behind”, why would our Lord (and Paul) be more concerned about them than they were about those who were going to be “raptured” BEFORE the Tribulation, to whom neither the Lord nor any other New Testament writer addressed a single word specifically mentioning a pre-Trib Rapture of the Church?

Fourth, WHY would our Lord, if He really knew that the faithful were going to be removed by God 3½ years BEFORE the Abomination of Desolation, intentionally mislead them (and us) with the above statement? Why would He, at this particular juncture, NOT tell us that we have nothing to worry about, because we will have already been taken out of the world? This is even harder to swallow, given His repeated assurances about other things He told the disciples: “If it were not so, I would have told you” [John 14:2], PLUS His prayer to the Father, previously mentioned: “I pray not that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.” [John 17:15]

Summary:

The removal of God’s righteous living people from the earth cannot happen until the number of

the righteous dead is complete, and this cannot happen until the END of the Tribulation.

Bible proof texts:

Point #1 The Bible says [1 Thessalonians 4:13-17] that the dead in Christ WILL be

resurrected BEFORE the Rapture. Here Paul boldly declares that not one of those alive when Christ returns is going to be raptured until after the (single mentioned) general resurrection of the righteous dead in Christ, which occurs at the Lord Yeshua’s (only) visible, loud, and 100% public return...

*NOTE: For those who ridicule the original Biblical post-trib version of the rapture of the church as a “yo-yo” rapture, we offer the following bit of Bible exegesis.

The word “meet” used in v. 17 above (apantesis: Greek - apantesis ) describes a group of people going out to “meet” an individual at a distance, and then to return with that person back to the place from which the group had started out. This remarkably precise word is only found in three other places in the entire Bible:

1.) twice, in the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, who waited to go out and greet the

bridegroom and then to immediately escort Him back to His dwelling place, back to

the place from where they had just come [Matthew 25:1-12]; and,

2.) once, in Acts of the Apostles, which describes people coming out from Rome to meet

Paul and then to escort him back to Rome, from where they had just come!

ALL FOUR of these usages clearly describe a GROUP of people GOING OUT to meet an INDIVIDUAL, and then quickly escorting HIM back to the place from which THEY had just come. Seeing then how this highly descriptive, particular word for “meet” is used consistently and precisely ONLY these four times in the Bible, we understand that when Christ comes, believers will be caught up to meet Him in the air, and then to quickly return WITH the Lord to earth, but not in any specified (or predictable) amount of human time. This fits a post-trib rapture scenario perfectly, but cannot be made to fit a pre-trib or a mid-trib scheme at all.

End of Note.

Point #2 The Bible says [Revelation 6:9-11] that NONE of the dead in Christ will be

resurrected until ALL of them who are going to be killed for their witness HAVE BEEN killed

for their witness, i.e., until “their number is complete”...

...and Hebrews 11: 39-40, speaking of the Old Testament saints, declares that they and we will

all “be perfected” together...

This being the case, “that should be killed as they were” can only mean that, at the time of the “fifth seal” during the Tribulation – which is before the “seventh seal”marking the end of the first half of the seven years of the Tribulation, before the start of the seven Trumpet plagues upon “them that dwell upon the earth – none of those who were ever martyred for Christ will have received their reward yet, nor will they until the killing of the saints is finally ended by our Lord’s return. This being the case, how is it possible that there could be a “Marriage Supper of the Lamb” consisting solely of those who had been spared martyrdom by a pre-Trib rapture?

This being the case, Ezekiel’s vision of the resurrection of the Jews [Ezekiel 37, the “dry bones”

chapter] must apply to the Jews participation in the general resurrection of ALL of the “dead in

Christ”, there being no other way for us all to be “made perfect” at the same time.

Point #3 The Bible says [2 Thessalonians 2:8-9] that Christ will slay the anti-Christ at His

return, ending the killing of the saints, and completing their number.

Point #4 The Bible says [Matthew 24:29-30] that the Lord’s return will not happen

until the END of the seven years of the Tribulation.

The words of our Lord:

Point #5 Therefore, the Resurrection of the dead in Christ and the Rapture of the

Church cannot possibly happen until AFTER the Tribulation, i.e., a POST-TRIB

Rapture of the Church.

This “completion” of the number of the “righteous dead in Christ” cannot happen until the last

righteous Jew and the last righteous Christian, and the last righteous Gentile has been killed.

THAT will not happen until the Lord Yeshua’s glorious appearing, at the END of the seven

years of the Tribulation, when He puts an end to the reign of the anti-Christ, the false prophet,

and all of the rest of Satan’s influences AT ONCE, including the killing of God’s righteous.

ONLY THEN will the number of the righteous dead in Christ be complete, and ONLY THEN

may they ALL be resurrected, and ONLY THEN can all of the righteous living be raptured along

with them, i.e., a post-tribulation rapture of the church (and of all others who are righteous

before God).

Pre-Tribbers have no legitimate Biblical responses to any of these questions. Post-Tribbers do, because belief in a Rapture of the Church at the END of the Tribulation is 100% consistent with these – and all other – facts in the Bible.

1,800 Years of Christian Stupidity?

If pre-Trib is true, then the entire Christian Church prior to 1830 was stupidly mistaken about this central tenet of evangelical Christianity, and this is precisely what dispensationalists maintain. They believe that their theory, the invention of one man, constitutes “a return to Biblical accuracy” after 1,800 years of darkness. So say all the other Gnostics.

Prior to that time, no one of note in the Church preached a pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church. Virtually every Church father and writer fully expected to suffer under the anti-Christ if he should arise during their lifetimes. It is only since a 15-year-old girl named Margaret MacDonald claimed to have had a “vision” of a pre-Trib Rapture in 1830, and a preacher named Darby jumped on it and started preaching it, that the insidious preTrib doctrine (and dispensationalism, the false gospel which spawned it) has infected the world.

Grant Jeffrey has characterized the writings of someone referred to as “Pseudo-Ephraim” as espousing a pre-Trib Rapture of the Church. In fact, this interpretation hangs on the translation of one word, “tribulation.” Mr. Jeffrey goes to great lengths to paint “Pseudo-Ephraim” as some kind of a lesser-known, but highly regarded early Church father. Unfortunately for this view, he is regarded by those who have studied writings ascribed to him as an impostor who sought to lend weight to his preachings by attaching the name of Ephraim the Syrian’s name to them. So the actual authorship of the sermon cited by Mr. Jeffrey is not only questionable, it is impossible to verify.

The sermon in question is 1,500 words in length, but the single sentence which Mr. Jeffrey and his pre-Trib associates find so supportive of their position is this:

The part that they find useful is the “prior to the tribulation” statement. But what is not clear is what the underlying word originally was which has been translated as “tribulation”. If by “tribulation” was meant “the plagues associated with the wrath of God”, then Pseudo-Ephraim was merely explaining to his audience why the righteous would be removed. This is borne out by his choice of the word “lest”, which indicates purpose, and has nothing to do with a critique of the timing of the rapture. If this was intended by the author to be a broadside against the prevailing post-tribulation rapture view of virtually ALL of the other early Church fathers, it was remarkably mild and well-concealed!

The part that we find interesting is that, for all of its antiquity, it still expresses a position that actually denies the possibility of a pre-Trib or a mid-Trib rapture! In stating that all the saints and elect of God are gathered and taken to the Lord at once, “Mr. Pseudo” has actually described a scenario which is ONLY POSSIBLE with a post-Trib Rapture! As we have seen, Revelation 6:11, which unarguably takes place DURING the Tribulation, tells us that...

If nothing else, this should inform us that the final number of God’s righteous will not be complete until the LAST martyr has been killed by the anti-Christ, and this cannot happen until the Lord’s return at the END of the Tribulation. Since those to be martyred DURING the Tribulation are PART of “God’s saints and elect”, there is NO WAY that ALL of God’s saints and elect can be taken to be with Him until the END of the Tribulation, Q.E.D.

Therefore, Mr. Jeffrey’s “Pseudo-Ephraim Pre-Trib Manifesto” turns out to actually be a ringing endorsement of the original post-Trib Rapture doctrine, as opposed to the novel 1830’s Darbyite theory called “pre-Trib”, which he has bought into.

This “doctrine of demons” encourages people to believe that they can be saved because of their fear of hell. But fear of hell is not love of God, and fear of hell has NO power to save. It swells the church memberships of those who preach it, but according to Paul it is “another gospel”:

Moreover, many who name the Name of Christ believe that they are “the elect”, and that they therefore cannot be deceived. But Jessie Penn-Lewis, in her classic work “War on the Saints” explains why this is not so:

In effect, many who have believed the pre-Trib doctrine, or any other false teaching (Calvinism, Arminianism, denominationalism) which serves to separate them from God’s Truth, have made idols of their beliefs. They have set up false doctrinal idols in front of themselves and worship them as fervently as any Baal-worshiper ever did. And Yahweh (“the LORD” in most Bibles, which is a generic title, not His real, self-given name) tells us exactly what His attitude is toward such behavior, in Ezekiel 14:1-11. Ezekiel is speaking:

The Word also warns us that:

1... “there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingers not, and their damnation slumbers not.”

[2 Peter 2:1-3]

We pray that your eyes may be opened to the true nature of the perils which surround us all, and realize that none of us can afford an attitude of complacency if we are to avoid being deceived. We cannot rely on preachers to do our thinking and praying for us, not only because many of them are themselves already deceived, but because we are all called, as Israel was originally, to be a holy nation of individual priests ourselves. This requires a personal relationship with the Lord, personal sacrifice, and personal holiness, without which our “Christian walk” is meaningless.

The Good News about “the Rapture” . . .

According to those who preach a pre-Trib rapture of the Church, the Church is going to be whisked away to Glory with no warning whatsoever, leaving a dazed and wounded world to try to figure out what happened. The good news is that they’re wrong. The better news is that you’re finding out here about the good news.

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” [Proverbs 27:6]

Bob & Suzanne Hamrick

Palm Coast, Florida

2posttribs@bellsouth.net

For a more exhaustive explanation of the holes in the pre-Trib “theory” and what it means to the Church, please see our book “Exposing Satan’s ‘Left Behind’” at http://www.leftbehindlie.com.