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THE CULTING OF CHRISTIANITY

 

Part IV

 

 

 

 

 

In our last installment of the Culting of Christianity, we recounted how Rapturist communicators, such as Chuck Missler in the West, and Grant Jeffrey in the East, repeatedly claimed that early church writers all were familiar with the pre-tribulation Rapture doctrine. In books like Jeffrey's Apocalypse, and voluminous public presentations by Missler (and his close ally Hal Lindsey), these and other Cult leaders would rattle off many names, in rapid fire, indicating the Pre-Trib Rapture doctrine was widely known.

 

"This idea is not a new idea. There's a myth going around that this is all a recent invention. You can find these ideas in The Epistle of Barnabus, which is in the first century…Irenaeus, in his Against Heresies, Hippolytus, in the 2^nd century, Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho…Augustine, and others all had this thing of the 2^nd coming being very close. Specific dates were predicted by Joachim of Floris in 1260….Joseph Mede in 1660, William Whiston in 1715, and then again in 1734, and then again in 1866. J A Bengel in 1836….William Miller predicted the famous events in 1843. And then again in October 22 of 1844. CT Russell declared 1874 as the definite date" (Steeling the Mind Of America – Rapture: Who, What, When, Where and How, Chuck Missler, 1996, Compass International; Steeling the Mind Prophecy Conference).

 

Decades ago, after considerable effort, I learned just what each of these individuals taught, and not a single one of them ever heard of the "Christian" version of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. However, as the Internet virtually exploded with growth during this same period, it became much easier for the average Christian to do similar research. So when Grant Jeffrey offered a supposedly Pre-Trib quote from the ancient writer Lactantius in his book Apocalypse, simply by Googling the quote, virtually anyone was able to quickly find it was written by Victorinus, not Lactantius – and vice versa (Jeffrey's slop copying was notorious among those who have studied his citations).

 

Not only that, but once the intrepid netizen has found the quote, it's a simple matter to keep reading – revealing the writer was obviously a Post-Tribulationist, and the limited citation was deceitfully taken out of context. Thus, with much easier access to historical writings via the net, many subterfuges by the prevaricators of Pre-Trib came to light.

 

These were not isolated incidents either. John Walvoord, the highly esteemed Chancellor at Rapture Cult stronghold Dallas Theological Seminary, claimed Pre-Trib is in the ancient writing The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (also known as The Didache). With some crafty editing, the stone liar (who was busily training the next generation of stone liars) offered the following quotation from the ancient writing:

 

"Watch for your life's sake. Let not your lamps be quenched, nor your loins unloosed; but be ye ready, for ye know not the hour in which our Lord cometh" (Bibliotheca Sacra, cited by Dr. Robert Gundry in The Church & The Tribulation, Zondervan, 1973).

 

However, if you Google a large chunk of that purported pre-trib phrase, the Internet search engine will show the writing continues with the following Post-Tribulationist paragraph:

 

"…for the whole time of your faith will not profit you, if ye be not made perfect in the last time….then shall appear the world deceiver as Son of God, and shall do signs and wonders….then shall the creation of men come into the fire of trial, and many shall be made to stumble and perish; but they that endure in their faith shall be saved from under the curse of it" (The Teaching Of The Twelve Apostles).

 

Dave "Fearless" Macpherson notes that after Walvoord did his hatchet job on the truth in Dallas, Pre-trib liar Gerald B Stanton did likewise (Kept From The Hour, paperback 1991), as did J Dwight Pentecost in Things To Come). Amazon reports that Things To Come has sold almost a million copies, so there are at least a million people who have been deceived with just that one writing. Predictably, Grant Jeffrey parroted the same faulty citation from The Didache in his Apocalypse. Although Pentecost and Jeffrey have gone on to their eternal reward (or lack thereof), these liar's reckless theology has now been magnified exponentially by thousands of reprints on websites from well-meaning Pre-Trib deceivers – deceivers who are now deceiving others.

 

"But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived" (II Timothy 3:13).

 

After Grant Jeffrey began to publicize the pseudepigraphical quote from the forger emulating Ephraem the Syrian, just about every one of the Rapturists quickly jumped on the Pseudo-Ephraem bandwagon, as it seemed to provide the clearest statement in favor of Pre-Trib of all the ancient writers. The writing which has generated so much controversy is titled On the Last Times, the Anti-Christ, and the End of the World. The scholars studying the material include "A Sermon by Pseudo-Ephraem" in the title, as there is no doubt it is a forgery.

 

As I alluded to earlier, internal variations in both the Syriac and the Latin versions both show the writing to be from a later era. For instance, the Syriac alludes to the Huns – who don't show up historically until long after Ephraem has died. Likewise the Latin intersperses Islamic references – so it must be centuries later than the 373 AD date of Ephraem's passing, as Mohammedanism began in the 7^th century AD.

 

However, even though the writing was penned in deceit, as the unknown author sought to perpetrate a fraud by claiming it was written by the genuine Ephraem, it is still very valuable as any writing from that far back is extremely rare. Further, the internal evidence in the document indicates the writer was very familiar with the literary output of the genuine Ephraem – with several statements included that appear to be copies of statements from the beloved Syrian. Thus, it is worth a serious examination. Here is the quote in question, drawn from the Latin version, which has generated so much controversy:

 

"For all the saints and elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken to the Lord lest they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins" (On The Last Times, the Anti-Christ, and the End of the World: A Sermon by Pseudo-Ephraem).

 

On the first read, it certainly sounds like a statement indicating the writer expected God to "gather" the believers, in order that they may be "taken" to the LORD "prior to the tribulation." This is particularly so if this is what you want to hear. However, the operative words of "gather" and "taken" can certainly indicate activity of another nature. For example, at an evangelical crusade in a large venue, where a preacher issues an altar call at the end of an impassioned sermon, he might tell those who have chosen to accept Christ as their Saviour to come down from their seats in an auditorium, and gather themselves together at the front of the arena. 

 

We might further suggest that by committing their souls to the LORD Jesus Christ, such are being taken from the clutches of the Devil, before his greatest deception can snare them. 

 

The Old Testament prophet Isaiah has a beautiful statement where He trumpets how the LORD will gather together those He has chosen:

 

"He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young" (Isaiah 40:11).

 

There are dozens of similar statements in Scripture. Consider the following gathering from Revelation:

 

"And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God" (Revelation 19:17).

In a chapter extensively dealing with a large scale departure from the truth among the LORD's people, Isaiah writes the following:

 

"The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come" (Isaiah 57:1).

 

The previous verse indicates that through death, the righteous are "taken away" and are not exposed to the evil that is forthcoming. The Rapture Cult sells their pre-trib event as a form of evacuation so the believer may physically survive the trial of the end. However, Pseudo-Ephraem specifies the gathering of the believers is in a Spiritual sense, so they will be impervious to the "confusion" that will "overwhelm the world."

 

Scholars who are trained to redact every single word of a text have examined every use of "gather" and "taken" in the genuine Ephraem's many writings, and found dozens of sentences which speak of people being gathered and taken to the LORD in Christian conversion.  Further, the only statements where "gather" and/or "taken" occur in genuine and Pseudo-Ephraem are seen in a post-tribulational setting:

 

"They [the angels] will gather together our unhappy race before the judgment seat" (A prayer in Prospect of Judgment, Ephraem, Hymns and Homilies, page 64).

 

As is common among the cultic practitioners with an agenda, the statement in Pseudo-Ephraem is routinely printed out of context. The document's prior statement about the "confusion," which Pseudo-Ephraem says is dead ahead, also occurs earlier in the document.

 

"Why therefore do we not reject every care of earthly actions and prepare ourselves for the meeting of the Lord Christ, so that He may draw us from the confusion which overwhelms the world?" (Section 2, Pseudo-Ephraem, or P/E).

 

To "draw us from the confusion" is certainly less forceful than taken, and the fact that the Rapture Cult priestcraft inevitably avoids context and prior use of the same phrase is quite reminiscent of another common cult mistake. In Christ's promise to the faithful believers in Revelation, where He tells them because they have retained fidelity to Him He will keep them from a forthcoming temptation, Rapturists claim the phrase is a promise to remove these believers before the tribulation.

 

"Because thou has kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth" (Revelation 3:10).

 

Just like "gather" and "taken," the entire statement pivots on two operative words, "keep" and "from." Further, the underlying Greek words only occur twice in the same verse in the entire New Testament, and the other instance also features Christ's words in the Gospel of John. In that second witness, the LORD prays to the Father, and asks Him not to remove the believers from the earth!

"I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil" (John 17:15).

 

Since the Scriptures tell us by the mouth of two or three witnesses is a thing established, if the Pseudo-Ephraem statement were actually speaking of a pre-tribulation Rapture, we would expect to find a 2^nd statement somewhere in Ephraem's voluminous writing. The fact is, there are many post-tribulational statements in both genuine Ephraem, as well as Pseudo-Ephraem, and there is no trace of anything that can contextually be construed as a reference to a pre-tribulational Rapture. In fact, the Syriac version of Pseudo-Ephraem speaks of those who die before the tribulational cycle as blessed, because they "avoided" the calamity through Death:

 

"Pronouncing the good fortune of the deceased who had avoided the calamity: Blessed are you for you were borne away (to the grave) And hence you escaped from the afflictions!" (Pseudo-Ephraem).

 

This is essentially the same statement found in the previous citation from Isaiah, where the righteous are "taken away from the evil to come."

 

"The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness" (Isaiah 57:1, 2).

 

-- James Lloyd

 

[Next: The True Source of Pre-Trib Found In Pre-Christian Era Occult Documents]

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The Culting Of Christianity shows how ancient mystics sought to hijack the gospel through the efforts of the Gnostics – the Occultists who believed secret knowledge was the key to salvation. This work links Egyptian mysticism to leaders in the early church, and the entire work conclusively shows the idea of a pre-tribulation evacuation was written in religious documents before Jesus was born.  For more on this widely suppressed information, see the James Lloyd book THE CULTING OF CHRISTIANITY.