Subject: Pre-Trib Rapture Assistance |
Bible Note: Hi CDBJ, I just realized something about something you wrote. You said: "Just as the church age and the temple in Israel ran together for a while until AD 70, even so believers in Christ and Daniel’s 70th week will run hand and hand for a while before the rapture removes the believers." Except that the efficacy of temple sacrifice ended the moment Jesus died. The continuation of animal sacrifice after Jesus' death and resurrection was meaningless, and even apostate, as it represented the refusal to receive Jesus as the true sacrifice. Hebrews makes this very clear in chapter 10. The purpose of the Seventieth Week is the salvation is Israel. If the Church was still on the earth, every Jew that believed would cease to be a Jew, and would be joined to the Church, in which is neither Jew nor Greek. One could even say that the "church" will exist after the rapture, for a time, but not the true church. Not the "saved" church. Just as the temple sacrifice continued after Jesus's death, but not the "saving" sacrifice. So as the apostate temple worship continued for a time following the beginning of the true church, so will the apostate church continue for a time following the beginning of the Seventieth Week. One other thing I'd like to say. Whether you or I believe in a pre-trib or mid-trib rapture (we're both "pre-wrath") has absolutely zero effect on God's ability to fulfill His promise to keep us safe unto salvation. I need not fear anything that may come against me. We could be martyred for our faith at any time, within the Seventieth Week or without it. We do not need to wait for the Seventieth Week to be killed for our faith. Hundreds of thousands are being martyred each year. Should we teach people to think they are safe until they see the antichrist? But of course, I don't believe the true church will see the antichrist, even as Jesus taught: Luke 21:36 "Then be watchful at every time, begging that you be counted worthy to escape all these things, the things being about to happen, and to stand before the Son of Man." Love in Christ, Mark |