Pre-trib rapture fans (I grew up Baptist, so I believed it too) have to hippity-hop and pull short passages out to build their eschatology. NO WAY anyone of normal intelligence could generate "secret pre-trib rapture" on their own reading without theology schools etc....
But ... "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (II Peter 1:20-21)
We DO have one entire chapter, Matthew 24, where JESUS Himself provides the eschatology.
Why? Because Jesus' disciples, His friends, are asking Him, SPECIFICALLY, "what happens to us? What happens at the end?"
"And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?" (Matt. 24: 3)
The end-time events described by Jesus in response to the disciples' questions is the eschatology taught by the most influential preachers in our history--like Jonathon Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, etc...There was NO pre-trib rapture theology before the 1820s. John Nelson Darby of the Plymouth Brethren and the Scofield (Westcott and Hort). A Scottish Catholic mystic, Margaret MacDonald is also "credited" with generating pre-trib via her "dreams and visions" between 1815 and 1820. Darby visited her in the 1820's.
Interesting that Jesus never mentions a secret rapture in the entire chapter, even though He is describing the very beginnings of the end times' tribulations through the end. Read the entire chapter carefully and literally.
First mention of removing Christians from the Earth:
"And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all of the tribes of earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory." (Matt 24:30)
"And he shall send his angels with the sound of a great trumpet, and they shall gather together the elect, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matt 24:31)
Why don't we go straight to Jesus? Why does He have the ANGELS gather the elect? Because He's on His way down to Earth, rolling up His sleeves to whup arse.
Jesus laid it ALL out for His disciples when they asked Him about "the end". We don't need to infer, analyze, or draw comparisons. He didn't "forget" the secret rapture. It's just NOT THERE.
Pre-trib rapture fans (I grew up Baptist, so I believed it too) have to hippity-hop and pull short passages out to build their eschatology. NO WAY anyone of normal intelligence could generate "secret pre-trib rapture" on their own reading without theology schools etc....
But ... "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (II Peter 1:20-21)
We DO have one entire chapter, Matthew 24, where JESUS Himself provides the eschatology.
Why? Because Jesus' disciples, His friends, are asking Him, SPECIFICALLY, "what happens to us? What happens at the end?"
"And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?" (Matt. 24: 3)
The end-time events described by Jesus in response to the disciples' questions is the eschatology taught by the most influential preachers in our history--like Jonathon Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, etc...There was NO pre-trib rapture theology before the 1820s. John Nelson Darby of the Plymouth Brethren and the Scofield (Westcott and Hort). A Scottish Catholic mystic, Margaret MacDonald is also "credited" with generating pre-trib via her "dreams and visions" between 1815 and 1820. Darby visited her in the 1820's.
Interesting that Jesus never mentions a secret rapture in the entire chapter, even though He is describing the very beginnings of the end times' tribulations through the end. Read the entire chapter carefully and literally.
First mention of removing Christians from the Earth:
"And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all of the tribes of earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory." (Matt 24:30)
"And he shall send his angels with the sound of a great trumpet, and they shall gather together the elect, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matt 24:31)
Why don't we go straight to Jesus? Why does He have the ANGELS gather the elect? Because He's on His way down to Earth, rolling up His sleeves to whup arse.
Jesus laid it ALL out for His disciples when they asked Him about "the end". We don't need to infer, analyze, or draw comparisons. He didn't "forget" the secret rapture. It's just NOT THERE.
No.