Passage: Revelation 3:10
Duration: 1 hr 18 mins 54 secs
Revelation 3:10 is rightly know as a passage that supports the pre-trib rapture doctrine, but the second half of the verse introduces us to the first use of the term "earth dwellers." "Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth." 3:10 is the first use in Revelation of a phrase I call "earth dwellers" but usually translated "those who dwell upon the earth." ...
Duration: 1 hr 21 mins 47 secs
A number of years ago I had a meal with one of the most well known Reformed theologians in America. The purpose of our get-together was to discuss the issue of Bible prophecy. A number of times throughout our conversation he would stop in mid-sentence and make a comment about how absurd the whole concept of the rapture was. He was not questioning the timing of the rapture at this point, but the very idea and concept of a rapture. Of course, my response was that even though he thought it ridiculous, the Bible teaches this strange event. In fact, the rapture of the church will not be the first rapture in history...
Duration: 1 hr 21 mins 47 secs
Critics of pretribulationism frequently state that belief in the rapture is a doctrinal development of entirely recent origin. They argued that the doctrine of the rapture or any semblance of it was completely unknown before the early 1800s and the writings of John Nelson Darby. While it is clear that pretribulationism was not widely known since the days of the New Testament writers, there have been clear examples of some form of pretribulationism sprinkled throughout church history...
Duration: 1 hr 24 mins 42 secs
Supporters of pretribulationism generally believe that John Nelson Darby (1800–1882) revived this lost New Testament teaching through intense Bible study during convalescence from a riding accident in December 1827 and January 1828. Evangelical opponents of pretribulationism often put forth theories that cast Darby in a bad light. For example, some say Darby got it from Edward Irving (1792–1834), while others say it originated from the prophetic utterance of a fifteen-year old Scottish lassie Margaret MacDonald (1815–1840)...
Passage: Jude 3-4
Duration: 1 hr 22 mins 29 secs
I will never forget what one of my church history professors told us one day in class in the late 1970s at Dallas Seminary. He said something like the following: “Those of us who will follow Christ and His Word, as opposed to the rising emphasis upon religious experience, will increasingly become a smaller group until one day we will be on the outside of the American Evangelical Church looking in.” My reaction to my prof was, ...