Post Tribulational View Held by many Godly Christians
Oswald
J. Smith: "...I am absolutely convinced that there will be no rapture
before the Tribulation, but that the Church will undoubtedly be called upon to
face the Antichrist..." (Tribulation or Rapture - Which?, p. 2).
Paul
B. Smith: "You are perfectly free to quote me as believing rather
emphatically in the post-tribulation teaching of the Bible" (letter dated
June 9, 1976).
S.
I. McMillen: "...Christians will suffer in the Great Tribulation"
(Discern These Times, p. 55).
Norman
F. Douty: "...all of the evidence of history runs one way - in favor of
Post-tribulationism" (Has Christ's Return Two Stages?, p. 113).
Leonard
Ravenhill: "There is a cowardly Christianity which...still comforts its
fainting heart with the hope that there will be a rapture - perhaps today - to
catch us away from coming tribulation" (Sodom Had No Bible, p. 94).
William
Hendriksen: "...the one and only second coming of Christ to judgment"
(Israel in Prophecy, p. 29).
Loraine
Boettner: "Hence we conclude that nowhere in Scripture does it teach a
secret or pre-tribulation Rapture" (The Millennium, p. 168).
J.
Sidlow Baxter: "...believers of the last days (there is only one small
part of the total Church on earth at any given moment) will be on earth during
the so-called 'Great Tribulation' " (Explore the Book, Vol. 6, p. 345).
Merrill
C. Tenney: "There is no convincing reason why the seer's being 'in the
Spirit' and being called into heaven [Revelation 4:1-2] typifies the rapture of
the church..." (Interpreting Revelation, p. 141).
James
R. Graham: "...there is not a line of the N.T. that declares a
pre-tribulation rapture, so its advocates are compelled to read it into certain
indeterminate texts..." (Watchman, What of the Night?, p. 79).
Ralph
Earle: "The teaching of a pre-tribulation rapture seems first to have been
emphasized widely about 100 years ago by John Darby of the Plymouth
Brethren" (Behold, I Come, p. 74).
Clarence
B. Bass: "...I most strongly believe dispensationalism to be a departure
from the historic faith..." (Backgrounds to Dispensationalism, p. 155).
William
C. Thomas: "The return of Jesus Christ, described by parousia, revelation,
and epiphany, is one single, glorious, triumphant event for which we all wait
with great eagerness!" (The Blessed Hope in the Thessalonian Epistles of
Paul, p. 42).
Harold
J. Ockenga: "No exegetical justification exists for the arbitrary
separation of the 'coming of Christ' and the 'day of the Lord.' It is one 'day
of the Lord Jesus Christ' " (Christian Life, February, 1955).
Duane
Edward Spencer: "Paul makes it very clear that the Church will pass
through the Great Tribulation" ("Rapture-Tribulation" cassette).
J.
C. Maris: "Nowhere the Bible teaches that the Church of Jesus Christ is
heading for world dominion. On the contrary - there will be no place for her,
save in 'the wilderness,' where God will take care of her (Rev. 12:13-17)"
(I.C.C.C. leaflet "The Danger of the Ecumenical Movement," p. 2).
F.
F. Bruce: "To meet the Lord [I Thessalonians 4:17]...on the final stage
of...[Christ's] journey...to the earth..." (New Bible Commentary: Revised,
p. 1159).
G.
Christian Weiss: "Some people say that this ['gospel of the kingdom' in
Matthew 24:14] is not the gospel of grace but is a special aspect of the gospel
to be preached some time in the future. But there is nothing in the context to
indicate this" ("Back to the Bible" broadcast, February 9,
1976).
Pat
Brooks: "Soon we, in the Body of Christ, will be confronted by millions of
people disillusioned by such false teaching [Pre-Tribism]" (Hear, O
Israel, p. 186).
Herman
Hoeksema: "...the time of Antichrist, when days so terrible are still to
arrive for the church..." (Behold, He Cometh!, p. 131).
Ray
Summers: "Because they [Philadelphia] have been faithful, he promises his
sustaining grace in the tribulation..." (Worthy Is the Lamb, p. 123).
George
E. Ladd: "[Pretribulationism] may be guilty of the positive danger of
leaving the Church unprepared for tribulation when Antichrist appears..."
(The Blessed Hope, p. 164).
Peter
Beyerhaus: "The Christian Church on earth [will face] the final, almost
superhuman test of being confronted with the apocalyptical temptation by
Antichrist" (Christianity Today, April 13, 1973).
Leon
Morris: "The early Christians...looked for the Christ to come as
Judge" (Apocalyptic, p. 84).
Dale
Moody: "There is not a passage in the New Testament to support Scofield.
The call to John to 'come up hither' has reference to mystical ecstasy, not to
a pretribulation rapture" (Spirit of the Living God, p. 203).
John
R. W. Stott: "He would not spare them from the suffering [Revelation
3:10]; but He would uphold them in it" (What Christ Thinks of the Church,
p. 104).
G.
R. Beasley-Murray: "...the woman, i.e., the Church...flees for refuge into
the wilderness [Revelation 12:14]..." (The New Bible Commentary, p. 1184).
Bernard
L. Ramm: "...as the Church moves to meet her Lord at the parousia world
history is also moving to meet its Judge at the same parousia" (Leo
Eddleman's Last Things, p. 41).
J.
Barton Payne: "...the twentieth century has indeed witnessed a
progressively rising revolt against pre-tribulationism" (The Imminent
Appearing of Christ, p. 38).
Robert
H. Gundry: "Divine wrath does not blanket the entire seventieth week...but
concentrates at the close" (The Church and the Tribulation, p. 63).
C.
S. Lovett: "Frankly I favor a post-trib rapture...I no longer teach
Christians that they will NOT have to go through the tribulation" (PC,
January, 1974).
Walter
R. Martin: "Walter Martin finally said...'Yes, I'm a post-trib' "
(Lovett's PC, December, 1976).
Jay
Adams: "Today's trend is...from pre- to posttribulationism" (The Time
Is at Hand, p. 2).
Jim
McKeever: "Nowhere do the Scriptures say that the Rapture will precede the
Tribulation" (Christians Will Go Through the Tribulation, p. 55).
Arthur
Katz: "I think it fair to tell you that I do not subscribe to the happy
and convenient theology which says that God's people are going to be raptured
and lifted up when a time of tribulation and trial comes" (Reality, p. 8).
Billy
Graham: "Perhaps the Holy Spirit is getting His Church ready for a trial
and tribulation such as the world has never known" (Sam Shoemaker's Under
New Management, p. 72).
W.
J. Grier: "The Scofield Bible makes a rather desperate effort...it tries
to get in the 'rapture' of the saints before the appearing of Antichrist"
(The Momentous Event, p. 58).
Pat
Robertson: "Jesus Christ is going to come back to earth again to deliver
Israel and at the same time to rapture His Church; it's going to be one moment,
but it's going to be a glorious time" ("700 Club" telecast, May
14, 1975).
Ben
Kinchlow: "Any wrath [during the Tribulation] that comes upon us - any
difficulty - will not be induced by God, but it'll be like the people are
saying, 'The cause of our problems are those Christians in our midst; we need
to get rid of them' " ("700 Club" telecast, August 28, 1979).
Daniel
P. Fuller: "It is thus concluded that Dispensationalism fails to pass the
test of an adequate system of Biblical Interpretation" (The Hermeneutics
of Dispensationalism, p. 369).
Corrie
ten Boom: "The Bible prophesies that the time will come when we cannot buy
or sell, unless we bear the sign of the Antichrist..." (Tramp for the
Lord, p. 187).
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