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Commentary
28597
“Why We Believe in the Premillennial Pretribulation Rapture of the Church”
by Art Sadlier   
April 7th, 2016

Some say we should not be concerned about prophecy. However, more than 25% of the Bible is predictive prophecy. If we are not interested in Bible prophecy, we are not interested in the Bible.

God thinks prophecy is important. “And the Lord said shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do” Gen 18: 17. How can we say we are not interested in that which God desires to reveal to us about the future?

More than ¼ of the Bible is predictive prophecy; approximately 50% of those prophecies have now been fulfilled. Those 50% have been fulfilled literally; therefore we conclude that the remaining unfulfilled prophecies will be fulfilled and that they will be fulfilled literally.

  1. We conclude then, that the predictive prophecies concerning the Rapture, the Tribulation Period, the Second Coming and the Millennial Kingdom will all be fulfilled literally, just as the first coming was fulfilled literally.

We have two different interpretations of the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

Ammillennialism – Premillenialism

These different interpretations of scripture involve a large portion of the Scriptures. These interpretations are radically different. They have a profound affect on the understanding of Scripture, on the purpose and direction of the Church, on the expectations of believers and upon the program and purposes of Satan.

Logically, one of these two views must be Apostate! Although we (premillennialists) may have fellowship with Amillennialists, who are brothers and sisters in Christ. We can have no fellowship with them concerning a large portion of the Scriptures.

Amillennialists teach:

  1. There will be no future earthly millennium. The promises of Isaiah 11:6-12 are spiritualized away, along with many other promises.
  2. The present church age is the millennium. That is not what Jesus promised the Church for this present age. See John 15:18, 19 and consider the lives and martyrdom of the Apostles.
  3. The Church saints are now reigning with Christ in a spiritual millennium. See Luke 1:32, 33, Rev 2:26, 27. Both of these relate to a yet future day.
  4. The Church takes the place of Israel and that God is finished dealing with the nation of Israel. See Romans 11: 25-29, Jeremiah 31:35-38. If you can spiritualize that, then language has no meaning.
  5. Satan is Now Bound. They do intellectual handsprings to prove this. They claim that Revelation 20 has to do with the future and yet relegate verses 2 & 3 to the past. The fact is that as the age goes on Satan’s power is increasing 2 Timothy 3:13.
  6. The Tribulation Period took place in 70 AD. Only a vivid imagination can, through spiritualizing things, place the events of the tribulation period back in that time!
  7. At the End of this so-called spiritualized millennium, Christ will return and a general resurrection and judgment will take place.

In Contrast to that Scripture teaches:

  1. There will be a future, literal, earthly millennial kingdom. It is a literal earthly kingdom in Isaiah 2:1-4. It has never happened in the world yet as in Isaiah 11:1-9. It does not describe our world today as in Jeremiah 23:5-8. It cannot be spiritualized as in Micah 1:1-3 and Zephaniah 3:9-12. God made promises to Israel, to David and his seed, Psalms 89:2-4. Do not listen to people who twist the scriptures. See also Hosea 3:4, 5. Those promises cannot and will not be broken. Psalms 89:30-37.
  2. The Present Church Age is not the Millennium. Contrary to the Amil belief, the second coming of Christ precedes the Millennium. The second coming of Christ is presented in Revelation 19: 11 – 20:4, as preceding the binding of Satan, which is concurrent with the beginning of the Millennial age. Revelation 19:11-20 shows Christ’s coming to earth. In Revelation 20:1-3 we have the binding of Satan. Revelation 20:4 tells of the beginning of the millennial kingdom.
  3. The Church Saints are not now reigning with Christ in a spiritualized millennium. Instead of a time of spiritual peace, we are in a time of intense spiritual warfare. 2 Timothy 2:3, 4; 1 Timothy 1:18; Ephesians 6:13; 2 Corinthians 10:4, 5. In no way can the promises of the OT be spiritualized to fit our present situation. They picture, peace and rest and ultimate triumph. These are the very opposite of our present spiritual conflict.

    The Church is not Israel and God still has a plan for Israel. God promised three things to Abraham and his seed.

    Land - Genesis 13:14, 15 - a literal land and described as such. To change that clear, plain statement is to twist the Scripture.
    Seed– Genesis 17: 7, 8 - unconditional, “I will give it unto thee, and to they seed after thee.” To change that clear promise is to make God a liar and discredit His Word. Gen. 3:1 “Yea hath God said”, as Satan asked Eve. An eternal possession, “for an everlasting possession”.
    Blessing - Gen 22:17, 18 – The promise of blessing for Israel is not forfeited because of sin. In the Church, pseudo-Christians do not partake of the blessing promised to the Bride of Christ and the Bride of Christ does not forfeit her blessing because of sin. Forgiven sin magnifies the Grace of God. God will punish and correct Israel but not make an end of her. Jeremiah 30:11; Jeremiah 31:33-36; Zechariah 12:10-14; 13:1, 8, 9. To spiritualize these promises is to twist Scripture and leave us uncertain of “rightly dividing the Word of truth”. See also Isaiah 11:11,12
  4. Satan is Not Bound. In Revelation 20:1-3 notice the purpose for which he is bound. He is bound so that he cannot deceive the nations for the duration of the thousand years. Satan is obviously not bound now in the Church age. Acts 5:3, 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:18; 2 Timothy 2:26; 1 Peter 5: 8.
  5. The Tribulation Period did not take place in 70 A.D. The book of Revelation is a prophecy about future events, not a history about past events Revelation 1:1, 3. Most scholars believe the book was written about 95 A.D., certainly after 70 A.D., therefore it cannot describe events in 70 AD. Irenaeus placed the writing of it in 95 to 96 AD in the reign of Domitian who died in 96 AD. In Matthew 24:21 Jesus describes the tribulation period as the greatest time of tribulation that has or ever will happen to Israel. The events of 70 AD do not fit that category. Josephus gives an eye witness account of what happened in 70 AD, 101,700 Jews were taken prisoner, 1,356,460 killed. The holocaust saw 6,000,000 Jews killed, so the tribulation period is yet future. Zechariah 13:8, 9. All the events of Revelation 6 to 19 were not fulfilled in 70 A.D.
  6. Christ will return prior to the millennium not after it. See Revelation 19:11 to 20:4, this corresponds with what Jesus taught in Matthew 25:31-34, 40-41. Eternity will not begin until after the Millennium. Revelation 20:7; 21:1

Scriptures tell us that someday Christ will come and remove the usurper of this world from his position of ruling over this world. 2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 20:2, 3.

In Luke 1:32, 33 Christ will come to rule over a redeemed Israel, reestablished in their own land. Satan knows if he can destroy Israel he can prevent Christ from fulfilling His promise and thereby he can defeat God. That is what anti-Semitism is all about, that is what is going on in the mid-east today. That is exactly what Ammillennialism is attempting to do theologically. It is a part of Satan’s attempt to defeat God’s program.

This is why the Roman Catholic Church has been anti-Semitic down through the ages. It claims to be the kingdom of God on earth. That claim makes no room for Israel to receive the kingdom; the Roman Catholic Church says that Rome is the eternal city not Jerusalem.

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