Biblical
By
Robert C. Voiles
Scripture quoted are from "NKJV" and taken
from The New King James Version /
Thomas Nelson Publishers,
Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. Copyright © 1982.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
In Memory of Cubert R. Voiles
We miss him
Dedicated to
George (Shorty) Jones
My best friend, and beloved Brother in Christ
INTRODUCTION
Deep in our inmost being there is a longing for something that is
unseen and missing in the human experience. Nevertheless, every generation
consciously or otherwise, desperately searches for something to fill that
emptiness, that void in our soul that only God can fill.
A wise man once said that
man’s unrealized but lifelong quest, is for a replacement for his mother’s
breast. A longing for love and safety in a chaotic world that at times seems to
make no sense at all, and he wonders if there is a God, where is He? Why does
He seem to be unconcerned with a world that seems to be on the verge of insane
destruction?
This book is about what the
beloved Apostle Paul when speaking of the rapture, called ‘that blessed hope,”
for those who believe; the assurance and fulfillment of every longing that man
has in the person of Jesus Christ. “For God so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life” (Jo. 3: 16).
In the coming studies,
because of the interrelationship between the different facets of eschatological
studies there of necessity must be considerable repetition of certain key
passages of Scripture. Therefore, patience of the reader is requested. In the
opening studies certain things must be considered that seemingly have no
relationship to our primary study of the rapture, when in fact they are
indispensable.
Much of the confusion is
the result of not making distinction between the Old and New Covenants and
therefore, between law and grace, and the difference between Israel and the
church. Paul’s statement that the
present church and consequently the rapture were a mystery to those before him
must not be ignored; otherwise confusion cannot, and will not be avoided.
The reason for those
studies are, critical mistakes were made by the primitive church that until
corrected render impossible a biblical understanding of the rapture and its
necessity in relation to the coming millennial kingdom. As will be
demonstrated, the primary problem with the early church was their parabolical,
or allegorical method of teaching that is still used today by those who deny
the rapture, or confuse it with the Lord’s teaching on the last days judgments.
It is often admitted by the
arapture people that the dispensational teaching of the rapture rests upon a
literal understanding of what the Scriptures say. But since the imagination is
the only thing left apart from the written Word, a simplistic question must be
asked, how can Divine things be understood apart from Divine revelation. And if
God does not mean what He says, how can it be called a revelation? And
furthermore, if God does not mean what He says, why then would He find fault
with anyone?
It is said by some that the
teaching of the rapture is a hoax, but they have nothing to offer but the
confusion of mixing the rapture with the last days judgments that have to do
with different people for different purposes and of different Divine programs.
Usually they see the church as the goal of history and the plans of God who
will bring the world to its end at the Second Advent.
However, James in Acts 15
first speaks of Peter’s encounter with Cornelius, then quotes from the prophet
Amos about the restoration of the kingdom of David and God’s beloved people
Israel after this present age:
Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. “And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written:
‘After this I will return and rebuild the tabernacle of David
which has fallen down. I will rebuild its ruins, And I will set it up, so that
the rest of mankind may seek the Lord. Even all the Gentiles who are called by
My name, Says the ‘Lord who does all these things (Acts 15:14-17).
Of that same time Daniel the prophet said:
I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed (Dan. 7:13‑14).
Here it is said that all people and nations and languages would serve Him. It is plain that the nations speak of earth, since there are no nations and different languages in heaven. Jeremiah says of the rebuilding of David’s kingdom on earth that Amos spoke of:
Behold, I will gather them out of all countries where I have driven them in My fury, and in great wrath; I will bring them back to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. They shall be My people, and I will be their God; ‘Then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them. ‘And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me.…”For thus says the Lord: Just as I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will bring on them all the good that I have promised them (Jer. 32:37‑40, 42).
In v. 42 above God said in the same sentence that the same people who He had brought all the calamity on, He would bring them all the good that he had promised them. Yet so many who readily admit the calamity part because they cannot deny what history has already shown, deny the rest of the sentence of what God said about the restoration of Israel and all their blessings.
The amillennial people say the church is now the new or spiritual Israel and that God has forever abandoned ethnic Israel. The subject can hardly be discussed with them since they constantly reject what God has said as being what He meant.
Of the rebuilding of the kingdom of David that Joel spoke Isaiah says:
And they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations. Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the foreigner shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But you shall be named the Priests of the Lord. Men shall call you the Servants of our God. You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory you shall boast. Instead of your shame you shall have double honor, and instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double; everlasting joy shall be theirs (Isa. 61:4‑7).
The arapture people have
from the beginning tried to deny the blessed hope of the churches deliverance
from the horrors of the tribulation. After Paul tells the Thessalonians about
the rapture, he says:
For when they say, “Peace and safety! Then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they will not escape. But you brethren, are not in darkness so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. “…For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him (1 Thess. 3-6; 9-10).
Of course he speaks of our deliverance in the rapture when He says:
“…whether we wake or sleep,…” we will live with Him. When James says “after
this” he certainly is speaking of the removal of the church. Would it make
sense for the church who is already separated from the lost to go into the
tribulation? What would be the point? We have no message to preach and as Paul
said: we are already saved from God’s wrath that is to come in the tribulation.
Our message is salvation
without distinction between Jews or Gentiles, whereas, the Lord said that the
gospel of the kingdom will then be a message by the Jews, first to the Jews,
than to the world (Lk. 14:22-23; Dan. 7:14). The offering of the kingdom of
David to Israel in the tribulation will probably be by Moses and Elijah (Matt.
17:3; 2 Pet. 1:16), and the two witnesses of Rev. 11:3. The preaching of the
144.00 from the twelve tribes of Israel (Rev. 7:4) will most likely be to the
nations.
Nowhere is anything said
about the church preaching the gospel of the kingdom in the tribulation. The
gospel of the kingdom is a Jewish gospel. We certainly cannot preach Paul’s
gospel for today then. Today we can promise the indwelling of the Holy Spirit
to all who will repent and by faith accept the free offer of salvation in Jesus
Christ. The Holy Spirit who restrains the lawless one now will not be present
to indwell believers in the tribulation. Paul says He (He who now restrains)
will be taken out of the way so that the Antichrist will be revealed to the
world.
At the gathering of the
apostles in Jerusalem in Acts 15 it was a cooperative decision that Paul was to
preach his gospel for the Gentiles
to the Gentiles, and the Jewish apostles took their gospel for the circumcision (gospel of the kingdom) to the Jews
only (Gal. 2:2,7-8).
Though the Lord in Matt.
28:19; Lk. 24:47 had said the disciples were to be witnesses to all nations, it
never progressed that far. For a second time as shown in Matt. 22:4-7 and in
the opening chapters in the book of Acts the kingdom was again rejected. With
that rejection established soon after the cross, the new dispensation of grace
was set in motion with the call of Saul of Tarsus to become Paul the apostle to
take his gospel of grace to the Gentile world. That
is the present dispensation that will come to a close at the rapture.
(1)
What is
the meaning of the Rapture?
(2)
Things
that affect everything else.
(3)
The Old
and New Testaments are incorrectly divided
(4) The Gospel of the Kingdom was preached after the cross
(5)
The
present Gospel of Grace was a mystery until the Apostle Paul
(6)
The
present church was a mystery until Paul
(7)
The
Rapture was a mystery until Paul
(8)
Different
methods of entering the coming millennial kingdom
(9)
Differences
in Paul and Peters teaching on the last days
(10) Is the present church the bride of Christ?
(11) Are the twelve Apostles included in the
present church?
(12) Is the Rapture a new teaching, or,
rediscovered?
(13) When will the Rapture occur?
(14) What on earth follows the Rapture?
(15) Is there another chance to be saved after
the Rapture?
(16) Everyone will exist forever
(17) The Millennial Kingdom
(18) A summary of evidences of the rapture
CHAPTER 1
WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE RAPTURE
In recent years, there is a growing interest in what Christians call
the Rapture. Many books have
been written about the subject and many views, pro and con have been advanced.
However, it seems that the theological necessity of understanding related
things has been almost completely neglected. Because Christians do not see
clear picture of the rapture and related things, there is much confusion about
the whole subject. That is one of the reasons that many do not teach or believe
in the rapture at all. There is also the fact that of late some writers have
turned the teaching into fables that have no foundation whatever in the
Scriptures.
One common remark often
heard by the opponents of the rapture is, the word rapture cannot be found in
the Bible. As used today the English word rapture has been adopted from the Latin Vulgate version of the
Scriptures. In 1 Thess. 4:17 Paul speaks of the church being “caught up,” which
is from the Latin word rapturo.
Briefly, the rapture is the
teaching of Paul the apostle that at the end of this present dispensation of
grace, the Lord will come for His bride the church. At that time He will bring
with Him the souls and spirits of those Christians who are with Him now in
heaven and first raise their bodies to be joined with their soul and spirit. At
the same time we who are alive will be instantly changed and caught up together with them
to meet the Lord in the air, and taken to heaven to forever be with Him.
For the readers who are no acquainted
with the primary scriptures having to do with the rapture, after clearing up
the confusion about the resurrection in the Corinthian church (1 Cor. 15:12-50)
Paul revealed a new truth about the resurrection of the church:
Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not
all sleep, but we shall all be changed--in a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be
raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed (1 Cor. 15:51-53).
In the Thessalonians church there was
confusion about the tribulation and the Day of the Lord. Some had taught that
they were already in the tribulation and the Day of the Lord had already begun.
After correcting that erroneous teaching (2 Thess. 2:3-4) Paul adds:
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we
say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the
coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord
Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel,
and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we
who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to
meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord (1 Thess.
4:14‑17).
In the nineteenth century the rapture was taught by such as John Nelson
Darby (1800-1882) of the Church of England. Until well into the twentieth
century, not much was heard in the established churches about the mystery of the rapture of the church.
Lewis Sperry Chafer who in 1924 founded the Evangelical Theological College, in
Dallas Texas; now known as Dallas Theological Seminary, brought to the church
his great work, Systematic Theology
and the teaching of the rapture.
However, the Scofield
reference Bible, copyrighted in 1909 was perhaps the main vehicle in
establishing dispensational teaching and popularizing the teaching of the
rapture in the churches. The principal advocates of the rapture have been from
the Dispensational viewpoint in the Christian community.
Though Scofield did much
in establishing dispensationalism and the teaching of the rapture, still, he
along with Chafer and others, brought with his teaching many of the mistakes of
the earlier church which still renders impossible the establishment of a true
systematic theology. That is especially true concerning the biblical teaching
of the rapture. Those mistakes will in later studies be discussed to the extent
necessary to the present subject of the rapture
By the term Dispensational, we are
saying that in biblical history there are periods of time and covenants where
God has dealt differently with different groups of people, or in some cases
with a single person such as Abraham. The Apostle Paul names two of those
dispensations. (1) The present Dispensation of Grace (Eph. 3:1). (2) The future
Dispensation of the Fullness of times (Eph. 1:9-10). Though he did not name the
time of the Mosaic Law a dispensation.
The Mosaic Covenant of Ten
Commandments starting in Matthew is spoken of almost 200 times as “the Law.” It
began in Ex. 24:7-8 and covers the same time frame and is referred to by
Dispensationalists as the dispensation of Law that ended at the cross. However,
even the Dispensationalists almost without exception use and speak of what is
erroneously called the “gospels,” as part of the New Testament (covenant) and
is so found in all English bibles. The original books called Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John was unnamed until well into the second century when they were
began to be called “Gospels” by the church. More on that will be said later.
One of the greatest
mistakes made by the early church even while the Apostles were yet alive and is
still with us today, is the present incorrect division of the Old and New
Testaments. To use the books Matt. Mk. Lk. and Jo. as New Covenant documents
mixes two mutually exclusive covenants that can bring nothing but endless confusion.
It was and is still
mistakenly taught almost without exception that the New Covenant began with the
Lord’s teaching, preaching and miraculous works rather than His death on the
cross. That is especially found in His teaching in the Mosaic Commandments in
Matthew chapter 5 commonly call the Beatitudes. In the New Covenant, that
begins with the book of The Acts of the Apostles (New Testament) is found the
present Dispensation of Grace (Eph. 3:2) that was given to Paul the Apostle.
With the word rapture
becoming a more common word today, there is an ever increasing number of
Dispensational viewpoints on the subject, as well as those who oppose the
teaching altogether as being unbiblical. For that reason, the root cause of
those differences must be addressed to the extent necessary to prepare the
reader for the main studies about the rapture.
Generally speaking, most of
the opposition comes from older denominational churches who oppose not only the
teaching of the rapture but dispensationalism altogether. Their theological
position is usually referred to as Covenant
Theology, or, amillennial,
where it is believed that the whole bible is divided into two covenants, the
Old and the New. The Old, beginning with the book of Genesis, and the New Covenant
with the book of Matthew.
But there is no covenant
mentioned in the Scriptures until after the flood in Noah’s day when God made
an everlasting covenant with Noah for all future generations. In Gen. 9:4-16
God established a covenant in which He said He would never again destroy the
earth with a flood. Included in that covenant was the law of capital punishment
that still applies to us today. God said a sign of that covenant would be a
rainbow in the heavens.
And God said: this is the sign of the covenant
that I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for
perpetual generations. “I set my rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the
sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.
“…The
rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the
everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is
on the earth (Gen. (9:12-13, 16).
The Amillennial people
speak of the old covenant as beginning with Genesis and the new with the book
of Matthew and commonly called the Old and New Testament. However, there is no
covenant mentioned in the Scriptures until God made the covenant with Noah.
Others were made with Abraham beginning in Gen. 15:18 and with his descendants
later. The Mosaic law of the Ten Commandments did not begin until Ex. 24:7-8
and ended at the cross; not the book of Malachi. That problem will be addressed
in a later study.
The evangelical
Amillennialists believe the present church is the realization and goal of all
that is said in the Bible and is the last period of time that will end at the
Second Coming of Jesus Christ. At that time all mankind will be judged to
determine where each individual will spend eternity and then comes the end of
the world and the beginning of the eternal state in heaven for the redeemed of
all ages.
To them, Paul’s teaching of
the rapture is seen as part of the Lord’s teaching on the last judgments. They
altogether reject the Scriptural teaching of the rapture as well as the
re-establishment of the nation Israel and any future millennial kingdom
promised them.
Many of the older
established churches have ceased to teach or preach the biblical gospel of
grace and the way of salvation altogether, and are hardly more than social
gathering with a political agenda. Consequently, having drifted so far away
from biblical Christianity that anything they say about the rapture or most
anything else in a biblical setting can hardly be discussed with them.
THINGS THAT AFFECT EVERYTHING ELSE
In these first studies, the reader is asked to consider a number of
things that are critical to the understanding of the main subject of this book;
the rapture.
(1)
The Old
and New Testaments (Covenants) are incorrectly divided.
(2)
The present
church did not begin with Peter’s preaching in the book of Acts chapter 2.
(3)
The
present gospel of grace was a mystery until revealed by the Apostle Paul.
(4)
The
present assembly of Christ was a mystery until revealed by Paul.
(5)
The
Rapture was a mystery until revealed by Paul.
If any of the above things are not accepted, than confusion cannot, and
will not be avoided. Already certain things have been said that will differ
considerably from what is generally taught by amillennial and even most
dispensational churches. Without doubt, these conclusions have never been
considered or even heard of by most Christians. Let the reader be assured,
nothing in this book is said that will not be based on the clear teaching of
the Scriptures and so referenced.
The reader is asked to stop
and consider the question, why is there so much confusion and conflicting
beliefs when all are supposedly using the same textbook? The aim here in
respect to the rapture is to eliminate most of that confusion about the 5
things listed above. If we can accomplish that, then many other troublesome
things will cease to be a problem.
The position taken in this
book is by most Dispensationalists, called “ultra dispensationalism. Those
terms are saying that these conclusions are beyond normal conservative
dispensational beliefs. However, it could and will be shown that what is termed
as “ultra,” is simply what the Scriptures teach, and could well be called
fundamental Christianity.
Most of the conclusions in this work
are more akin to, but with some notable exceptions, like those who are referred
to as Mid-Acts Dispensationalists; not yet a common term even in most
dispensational conversations. It is the general belief of Mid-Acts people that
the present assembly of Christ began with Paul the apostle when he with
Barnabas began his first missionary to the Gentiles (Acts 13:2, 46-47), in
approximately AD 46-47, or, 14 years after the Day of Pentecost.
There at Pentecost Peter preached his
first sermon in Acts chapter 2-3 to Israel and thereby opened the doors to the
kingdom of heaven according to the Lord’s instructions in Matt. 16:19. There
for the second time the kingdom was offered according to Matt. 22:4-7 that
ended with the destruction of the city and temple. It was the same gospel as
was preached before the cross by all and again was rejected.
In spite of what almost
all churches teach, Peter and the original apostles were apostles to the Jews
(Gal. 2:2,7-8, and had nothing directly to do with the beginning of the present
church or it’s beginning. On the contrary, when Peter did visit a Gentile
church, Paul had to reprimand him for his inconsistent behavior (Gal. 2:11-14).
In Acts 15:7 Peter speaks of being sent to Cornelius the Roman centurion where
the first Gentile believed after the cross. But that was not the beginning of
the present church and bride or Christ in this dispensation. Paul said the
present church was a mystery until revealed to him including what he three
times called “my gospel.”
When reading the remarks of almost all of the
best commentators, it is conspicuous that they completely ignore or perhaps to
be more accurate, deliberately avoid what Paul said in Rom. 16:25; Eph. 3:4-5;
Col. 1:24-27 that his gospel was a mystery to all the other apostles until he
explained it to them.
If his gospel was unknown to the apostles to the circumcision
(Jews) which included Peter, then Rome’s claim that Peter was the founder and,
or head of the Roman church is at odds with Peter and the other apostles.
Furthermore, if Peter was the head of the Gentile churches, why then did Paul
not address his epistles to Peter? Or even more so, why did Peter not write
epistles to the Gentile churches instructing them instead of Paul? Peter’s
epistles were to Jews, the “pilgrims of the dispersion” (1 Pet. 1:1) to whom
all the original twelve were apostles and remained so (Gal. 2:7).
For those readers who have questions and a desire to learn
more about those and other such things discussed in this work, thoroughly
documented, critical studies on these and many other things can be found in
this authors work, “Theological Heresies That Shaped World
History,” presently
published by Tate Publishing, LLC.
The
basic problems to be discussed originated with the early church and their
method of teaching the Scriptures. That method was the parabolic or allegorical
teaching that much of the Scriptures (even historical events) were not to be
taken literally, but had to be given an allegorical interpretation.
Through that method of
teaching came the belief that Israel having rejected and crucified their King
and Jerusalem and the temple had been destroyed, the church was a new Spiritual Israel, God having forever
abandoned ethnic Israel. Starting in the early third century with the Roman
emperor Constantine and the church being embraced by the state, she became the
state sponsored religion.
With the newfound freedom
and power, soon thereafter began the teaching that if the church had replaced
Israel, she must be the earthly kingdom promised to Israel by all the prophets.
As the old axiom goes: power corrupts, and total power corrupts totally.
Instead of being a light to the world, she became the instrument that paved the
road to a thousand years of the dark ages. Some of the darkest times in human
history, and that, by those who were supposed to be the light of the world.
As to the parabolical or
allegorical method of teaching, it is understood that many historical bible
narratives can have a secondary meaning. Such as Paul’s use of the person of
Hagar the bondwoman of Abraham in Gal. 4:21-31. Because she was a bondwoman,
Paul uses Hagar as a picture of bondage under the Mosaic law of the Ten
Commandments. However, he in no way suggests that Hagar was not a real
historical person.
Today the method is often
spoken of by the layman as “spiritual
interpretation.” The simple truth is, if any passage is spoken in an
unmistakably normal way using normal words and language, if it does not mean
what is said, then it has no meaning at all. In which case, the only thing left
is the imagination of those who refuse to believe what the Scriptures say.
Since their teaching is from their imagination rather than the Scriptures, were
it not that they are always mimicking each other, no two would come up with the
same thing.
It was even taught by many
in the early church such as Barnabas, Clement of Alexandria and especially
Origin (165-254 AD), that God actually falsified many Scriptures to hide the
truth from the simple-minded layman. That method became the normal method of
teaching for 18 centuries until the Reformation and modern times. It was the
parent of all later heresies, and is still used today by most of what is called
Christianity.
The position of this book
is that nowhere before the cross did the Lord directly speak of the present
assembly of Christ or the rapture. The present church was a mystery (unknown)
before being revealed to Paul the Apostle and will be discussed in a later
study.
From the previous study it was said that amillennial Christians often
deny a literal meaning to many literal historical Scriptures. Through that same
method of teaching even before the New Testament Scriptures were finished,
church leaders have given us the incorrect division of the Old and New
Covenants that is found in all modern bibles.
It was taught by the early church leaders,
Barnabas, Justin, Irenaeus, Clement, etc. that the New Covenant began either
with the Lord’s teaching the beatitudes of Mathew chapter 5, or, with
the coming of John the Baptist. The
Lord in Lk. 16:16 said that the law and the prophets had spoken of the kingdom
until John the Baptist announced it as being at hand. But they and most today teach that the Lord
meant the Mosaic Law existed until, or ended with John. That was therefore the
beginning of the New Covenant.
In view of the aftermath of the present
division of the Old and New Covenants, it can in truth be said: apart from
their method of teaching, no device could be invented that would wreck more
devastation in the establishment of a systematic theology, and with more far
reaching effects than the present division. There are at present over 225 different
religious denominations in America supposedly coming from the same textbook,
the bible. We have combined two mutually exclusive covenants that among many
other things, demands exactly the opposite things to obtain eternal life.