I spend a portion of my time on social media, on X, Facebook and Youtube, confronting the false doctrine of the Pre-tribulation Rapture. It starts out with me simply saying to prove the doctrine using only scripture, no outside doctrines, and make sure there is a scripture reference that sets the timing for the verses you use as happening before the tribulation. I do this and know they confidently go to their Bibles to get the verses and discover that none of them have a timeline for the event that puts them before the tribulation. After this point, they have to make a choice… do their own deep dive study or ignore the huge holes blown in the theology of the Pre Tribulation Rapture that were just exposed. Some will come back, ignoring the timeline problem and quote the standard verses… then I’ll show in the scripture the actual timeline that the verse aligns with. At this point it happens. They turn on me to discredit me as a person and a Christian.

(Sigh)

I get called reprobate, wolf, false teacher….. and told to stop teaching because I’m leading people astray… or that I should leave the teaching of theology to people who have been trained. Mind you, this is just for asking for proof from the scripture and using the scripture to prove the truth. Do you know how deceived you have to be to call a person a reprobate for requiring scriptural proof of doctrine? But the WEIRDEST thing so far were the 2 people who went on my page and saw that I had a John MacArthur post that asked me if I realized that MacArthur taught the pretribulation rapture. It left me scratching my head and asking myself why these 2 people think that would invalidate my beliefs…or make me change my mind to align with his doctrine over my own beliefs based on my own study into the word of God. My response was, “I can like teachings by a pastor or teacher and reject others that don’t align with the word. I don’t have to be in complete agreement with them to be edified by the sound doctrines they teach in other areas. We should be comparing what is being taught against the word of God.”

How is this even a question though?
Do people accept the entire doctrines taught by these pastors without comparing them to the word for themselves?
This is frightening to even think about.
If people are doing that, they’re ripe for deception and to be led astray.

During prayer this morning I prayed about something that has been bothering me since I had these conversations.

How are so many of these wonderful men of God…. these brilliant teachers… so deceived about the pre tribulation rapture?

I know it has something to do with theology being taught with the influence of the Scofield’s Reference Bible that is and was used in American Seminaries… but at some point I would think these pastors would have been challenged in their beliefs by what is actually in the word and corrected their false beliefs.

Just because so many of them believe this false doctrine is not justification or reason for anyone to follow them because of their credentials… besides…there are other just as qualified pastors and teachers who refute the pre tribulation rapture…. so we don’t follow teachers blindly, we learn from them prayerfully and through the lens of the Word. Any godly teacher will welcome you to compare their doctrines to the Word. When they don’t, you need to run.

I was looking for a church to attend and was speaking to a pastor. I asked him a few question about his beliefs, including his beliefs on the pre tribulation rapture. He told me he believed in the rapture before the tribulation, and I told him I don’t. He began to try and convince me with the scriptures and notions they all believe, and I refuted them with scripture… respectfully. This conversation was to defend my right to arrive at my own conclusion through independent study of the word and to show that I arrived at this conclusion through study and not just grabbing on to a doctrine I heard somewhere. I firmly believe any pastor I have needs to realize before I join the church body that his spiritual authority comes behind God’s and the Holy Bible. This pastor became enraged… he told me that he had attended seminary and knew what he was talking about, and I needed to shut up and learn from his wife. He took my disagreement with his doctrine as an insult… because he was clearly offended. Then as we chatted a little more, his language started being …how to put this….on the edge of cursing…like he said words that weren’t swear words but were still improper and a serious red flag for a Pastor. One short conversation, and he blew a fuse over my not being willing to hand over my doctrinal beliefs, shut up and fall in line.

So, I’m sitting this morning with the question as to how so many dynamic pastors and teachers could believe a doctrine that isn’t taught in the Bible. I prayed about it and even though I sincerely believe I’m correct in my own doctrine, I prayed the Lord to show me any errors in my own beliefs while I prayed for the answer of how this doctrine is deceiving so many. Someone needs corrections… it’s either me or them… so whoever it is, Lord, please correct the error. I’ve been humbled before when I was all in on a doctrine I was sure was right, only to find out later I wasn’t… so, in all humility I submit my own beliefs to the Lord for correction before I ask for the Lord to correct others… just as the Lord outlines in Matthew 7.

I go over the verses and can’t see how what I believe is wrong…. it aligns with the way God has always been… it aligns perfectly with the word… it has zero issues, unlike the pre-tribulation doctrine that is fraught with conflicts and can’t even be taught with only scripture. So I pray my attitude is correct before the Lord, because while I can be doctrinally correct, I can be spiritually wrong and still miss the mark if my attitude is pharisaical.

The only reasons I can think these pastors and teachers cling to this belief is because they learned in seminary and failed to challenge what they were being taught against what is written.

Another reason is because some of these preachers know if they don’t do a little ear tickling, their congregation will leave and go to a church that will. They themselves don’t believe in the doctrine, but teach it because they figure it doesn’t matter as long as the person is saved…. basically, seeker behavior. I would absolutely steer clear of any pastor who does something like this… because this is a pastor who compromises on the truth of the Word of God showing they do not have the proper reverence to be leading a congregation.

The last reason is that they know the word and can teach it, but they don’t know Jesus. My amazing husband gave this analogy.
” Imagine a rock in the middle of a river…. the water is flowing over it for a really long time…. but then one day you take the rock out and crack it open to find it is completely dry in the middle… because the water never penetrated. There are people sitting in churches like this… they look soaked with the water of the word, but it’s just an illusion… their insides are dry and untouched by the water.”