Pre-Trib Rapture - A Staged Event

By Dave MacPherson

 

     Can pretrib rapturists find support for their view in the stages of a Jewish wedding, as some assert?
      Every encyclopedia I checked (including the Jewish Encyclopedia) states that there are two stages in such a wedding: the "kiddushin" (betrothal) and the "nissuin" (marriage).
      Although some pretrib leaders find proof for their rapture view in Jewish wedding stages, there is widespread disagreement among them over how many stages there are.
      In his comprehensive book "The End Times Passover," media figure Joe Ortiz refers to John Walvoord's book "The Rapture Question" which accepts R. C. H. Lenski's view that a Hebrew marriage has three stages.
      Charles Monk sees 5 "customs" (stages).
      Arnold Fruchtenbaum has found 6 "steps" (stages) that Thomas Ice has appropriated.
      The ReturnToGod.com site observes 12 "steps" (stages).
      Not to be outdone, Renald Showers actually sees 17 "customs" (stages).
(Think of all the work to boil down 17 or even 5 stages into a two-stage second coming!)
      An internet blog titled "For the Love of Truth" is representative of not a few that reveal that it's dangerous as well as unscriptural to base a pretrib rapture outlook on Jewish traditions. In an article titled "Jewish Wedding and Rapture" the same blog has some startling information:
      It says: "Jewish Wedding traditions being discussed are the rabbinic teachings found within the Talmud and Kabbalah." (Not only are these sources occultic and anti-Biblical but the Talmud is filled with lies and blasphemy about Jesus that are as irrational as they are totally evil!)
      It reveals that certain pretrib leaders "have taken snippets of the various Jewish wedding traditions" and "rearranged and reinvented the content and events and then made the declaration that the Jewish wedding tradition is really the story of Christ and the rapture...."
      It also states that "the seven blessings [during the ceremony] obviously have nothing to do with Jesus Christ or His return," adding that "Nowhere does the Bible tell us to interpret scripture by looking to man's traditions."
      Incidentally, it's well-known that pretrib rapture defenders claim that certain Bible passages are on "church" ground while other passages are on "Jewish" ground and that we should always maintain the Darby-approved "church/Israel separation" principle. However, with impunity they can jettison that principle in the twinkling of an eye if they need support for their 182-year-old novelty from occultic Jewish traditions or from Lev. 23's Jewish feasts!
      Since far too many pretrib leaders seem to be "stagestruck," and since their strickenness has rubbed off on me, I hereby share a personal "revelation" I've had lately that I've titled "The Seven-Stage Coming (I Thess. 4)" which proves that pretribs should be looking for a seven-stage coming and not just a measly two-stage coming:
    
1 - The Lord descends.
2 - The shout.
3 - The archangel's voice.
4 - The trumpet of God.
5 - The dead rise.
6 - The caught up (rapture).
7 - The meeting in the air.
    
     Yes, seven stages. And isn't 7 supposed to be a perfect number?
      Something else. Have you noticed the unnatural language pretribs like to use? If a friend visits me, goes away for a month, and then comes back and visits me again, he never says: "I'm back for the SECOND stage of my one visit." But pretribs use wording like this when they place SEVERAL YEARS between their two stages!
      During their short history pretrib promoters have disagreed on many things in addition to the number of stages in a Jewish wedding. They have also disagreed on which Jewish feast is symbolic of a pretrib rapture, and disagreed on which symbol in the book of Revelation is the best "pretrib" symbol. (For 30 years Darby's basis for a pretrib rapture was Rev. 12:5's "man child" that is caught up!).
     Finally, it's apparent that pretrib teachers are experts in arithmetic - the MULTIPLYING of stages which has caused a lot of DIVIDING among Christians!

     For 300 pages of the most accurate documentation anywhere on the long covered up but now revealed history of the pretrib rapture view, I invite you to obtain Dave MacPherson's book "The Rapture Plot" at Armageddon Books and other online stores. Google "Scholars Weigh My Research" to see how eminent scholars have evaluated his discoveries. Also Google "Pretrib Rapture Secrets," "Pretrib Rapture Secrecy" and "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty."


For information about Joe Ortiz books, please click this link> (The End Times Passover and Why Christians Will Suffer Great Tribulation. To access Joe's blogs and web sites, please click this link>Joe Ortiz.