I do believe Jesus will return. I just don't believe in the Rapture, the Tribulation, or the Antichrist. I'm an amillenial preterist, which, incidentally, has a long history in the church. It's just that virtually everyone in the modern church believes some version of premillenial dispensationalism so I look like a weirdo. :)
I still believe Jesus' return could be at any minute though. Maybe moreso than dispensationalists, since they believe the tribulation has to happen first.
Nivil, if Jesus returns, and you don't call it the Rapture, what do you call it?
Does not the Bible teach that there will be an Antichrist? Or a Tribulation?
Scriptures please. I am baffled.
3 comments:
If you are truely interested in trying to understand these complex prophecies then I would start with the book "Revelation Unvelied" by Tim Lahaye. It breaks everything down so that a person can decipher the different parts of prophecy. Thanks for Blogging!
John,
I don't believe the Antichrist (as in, the ruler of the world during the tribulation) is actually a biblical doctrine. I believe the passages at the end of Daniel referring to the man of sin have already been fulfilled. I also believe that when Paul references the man of sin, he was talking about someone who was already in power.
As far as the Tribulation, whether or not you believe that doctrine is all contingent on how you feel about the book of Revelations. Since I take a preterist view which says that most of the book is referring primarily to the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD and secondarily to the ultimate triumph of Christ over Satan, there's no need to interpret the passages about the Tribulation (none of which refer to a period of longer than 3.5 years, incidentally, and total of which adds up to 14, not 7) as being a time of particular persecution after the rapture.
As far as the rapture itself, the simplest way to boil it down is to say that I believe the "rapture" either occurs at the same time as Christ's return or directly before.
Since viewing the Bible is this way is coming from a completely different school of thought, I can't really support it just by listing scriptures, since you'd no doubt interpret them according to the dispensational approach (not intended as derogatory, jut a fact of human nature), but if you're genuinely interested in this viewpoint (which I decided was more biblical after a great deal of study) I can recommend two resources.
One, the commentary "Revelation: Four Views compiled by Steve Gregg has all four major views of Revelation (Historicist, Preterist, Futurist, Spiritual) arranged in parallel columns and simply presents the interpretations of each school of thought objectively by compiling the consensus from the most prominent scholars of each view. Second, there is a (rather lengthy) series on TheNarrowPath.com called When Shall These Things Be?" which goes into the preterist approach (which is the on I subscribe to) in a lot of depth (the series is about 25 hours long).
I have found the examination of other views to be very edifying and interesting. Also, I personally don't recommend LaHaye for two reasons. One, he's extremely biased and I doubt you'll read anything you haven't heard your whole life. Secondly, he has an irritating habit of dechristianizing those who hold a different view than him (see: Left Behind, where those who hold something besides the dispensational view are left behind). I recommend commentaries which attempt to take a more objective look at each school of thougth and determine validity based on scripture. I like Gregg's approach because he has no particular reason to champion any view except that he finds it the most biblical. LaHaye, on the other hand, has become a very rich man as a dispensationalist. I doubt you'll find the same objectivism there.
If you want more info, let me know.
Oh, and a clarification here on the question in your original post: As far as Christ returning, the dispensational view holds that there will be a rapture, which is separate from Christ's return, followed by the Tribulation, followed by Christ's actual return. I don't believe in the Tribulation, so the rapture is just part of the actual return as far as I'm concerned. In that regard, it's not much different than the belief the Christians will not be raptured until AFTER the Tribulation.
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