“We are looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.” Titus 2:13
Will Christians be raptured prior to the Great Tribulation, as most believe? Or will Christians endure the Great Tribulation, looking for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ? What is the “Blessed Hope” of the church today? Is it the escape of tribulation or is it the visible return of Jesus Christ to the earth to redeem His people and judge His enemies? George Eldon Ladd, in The Blessed Hope: A Biblical Study of the Second Advent and the Rapture, argues for the latter, attempting to debunk the theory that the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ are two distinct events separated by the seven year “Great Tribulation.”
George Eldon Ladd is widely considered one the most influential Bible scholars of the 20th century. After pastoring two Baptist churches early in his career, he eventually settled in as New Testament professor at Fuller Theological Seminary in California. Throughout his career he sought to engage the broader academic community with Biblical writing that liberal scholars would have to take seriously. He also sought to promote more unity within the conservative, evangelical world.
In Ladd’s day, much like our own, Dispensationalism was the predominant view of the church. In fact, some were so rabidly Dispensational, that they considered any other eschatological (end times) view to be heretical and dangerous. Ladd argues that such a stance is unnecessary and divisive. He gives a brief historical lesson in this book showing that many stalwart Christian defenders of the faith were NOT Dispensational in their theology. Ladd’ s view is that there should be plenty of room for various views, as long as the views are defended from Scripture. Ladd’s personal view is Historic Premillennialism, which is similar to Dispensationalism in that it espouses a literal 1000 year reign of Christ on earth. But it differs from Dispensationalism in that it see’s the rapture occurring at the same time as the Second Coming of Christ, at the END (rather than beginning) of the Great Tribulation.
Regardless of one’s end times viewpoint, it should be noted that Ladd makes a good case for a post-tribulation rapture both from a historical and a Biblical standpoint. Most of the early church fathers appear to have believed in a literal 1000 year reign of Christ (millennialism) and saw the 2nd coming and rapture as occurring at the same time. Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian are some of the church fathers Ladd presents as holding to these views. Perhaps the most significant of these is Irenaeus who was a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of John the Apostle. While it doesn’t guarantee the validity of the Historic Premillennial position, it is intriguing that a Christian who is one generation removed from John the writer of Revelation would hold these views. Furthermore, the apparent acceptance of other church fathers makes the case from history compelling. But, at the end of the day, it’s Scripture that must be the deciding factor in the case. And Ladd’s primary arguments are from Scripture.
Ladd points out that nowhere in Scripture does it explicitly teach that there will be a “pre-tribulational” rapture. First Thessalonians clearly teaches a “rapture” when we shall be gathered together with the Lord in the air. But to suggest that this rapture will occur prior to the Great Tribulation is an inference that is not explicitly stated. The passage states: “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (NASB)
Ladd’s case is presented throughout that New Testament Christians were not looking to be raptured out of tribulation, but instead the Bible taught Christians to expect tribulation. Given this fact, that Christians throughout the centuries have endured persecution unto death….why would God change this course with the “end times?”
One Scripture that Ladd uses effectively is from 2 Thessalonians 2, where the Thessalonian Christians were afraid they had missed the “Day of the Lord.” “Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.”2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 (NASB)
Paul sets their mind at ease by telling them the “Day of the Lord” won’t occur until the “apostasy” and the “son of destruction” is revealed. Why doesn’t Paul simply tell them to relax about the Day of the Lord since, as Christians, they’ll be raptured before it occurs? Was Paul unaware of a pre-tribulation rapture? That seems unlikely since Paul is the one who wrote the most significant passage on the rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Since most scholars are in agreement that the “Day of the Lord” refers to Christ’s coming in judgment at his Second Advent, the passage in 2 Thessalonians seems to give credence to the belief that the Second Coming and the Rapture are simultaneous events that occur at the end of the Great Tribulation.
Another argument that Ladd addresses is the idea of an “any moment” rapture. Those who oppose Historic Premillennialism state that it takes away the idea that Christ could return at “any moment” as taught in Scripture. Ladd points out that the “any moment” passages refer to the outplaying of all the “end times” events that could being at “any moment.” Furthermore, he states that the Dispensational view requires a “nation of Israel” to be in existence before the rapture of Christ. Therefore, those with a Dispensational view couldn’t have held to an “any moment” rapture anyway, until 1948 and the re-emergence of Israel as an actual physical nation.
Regardless of what you “end times” view is, “The Blessed Hope” is a book that Christians should read and examine with an open mind. While you may not agree with all of his conclusions, it would do any Christian well to consider the validity of Ladd’s arguments. Ladd’s hope was that Christians of various camps could debate these issues in Christian love without breaking fellowship. It was also Ladd’s concern that many Christians would one day find themselves unprepared for tribulation because of their blind hope in a pre-tribulation rapture that was unlikely to occur. Ladd makes a good case for his viewpoint, and the wise Christian will prayerfully consider if he’s on the right track regarding future events.
yes, he has some very good arguments, but there is a book by J.Dwight Pentecost called "Things to Come" in which he has some very powerful arguments for the differences between the rapture and the second coming. it would be worth comparing the two views with scripture. As far as i know, pre-trib thinking did not even exist before dispensation came on the scene, making it less that 200 years old. this does not rule it out of course, but it causes one to check twice before believing it. However, being taught the dispensation view I dont know why he says that Isreal needs to be a nation before the rapture. I have been taught that nothing has to happen before Christ's return. my personal view is that Christ does not put the rapture on the time line like the rest of the end time events because he does not want us to know when he is coming back. I am both watching for the tibulation and his return. The only thing i know for sure is that he is coming and that he has a place prepared for little ol' me, maybe when i get over this astonishing fact, i can worry about the timing!!
Posted by: Brian | February 03, 2009 at 03:32 PM
Amen! What an interesting, informative, and much needed blog that you have! There's a deeply revealing article on Google titled "Famous Rapture Watchers" which shows (with quotes and sources) the "rapture" view that the greatest Christian scholars of all time have embraced. It also shows how they interpreted Rev. 3:10 (which Dr. Chafer, the founder of Dallas Seminary, stated is the greatest "proof" for a pretrib rapture). Thanks for your super blog, Brother Shane.
Posted by: Nathan | February 05, 2009 at 03:01 PM
I read this book years ago and loved it. If one takes the time to look up the Scriptures while reading it it will become all the more powerful because his arguments are very logical and rooted in Scripture.
Thanks Shane - -
Posted by: Scott | February 08, 2009 at 02:52 PM
PRETRIB RAPTURE DISHONESTY
by Dave MacPherson
When I began my research in 1970 into the exact beginnings of the pretribulation rapture belief still held by many evangelicals, I assumed that the rapture debate involved only "godly scholars with honest differences." The paper you are now reading reveals why I gave up that assumption many years ago. With this introduction-of-sorts in mind, let's take a long look at the pervasive dishonesty throughout the history of the 179-year-old pretrib rapture theory:
Mid-1820's - German scholar Max Weremchuk's work "John Nelson Darby" (1992) included what Benjamin Newton revealed about John Darby in the mid-1820's during his pre-Brethren days as an Anglican clergyman:
"J. N. Darby was a very subtle man. He had been a lawyer, or at least educated for the law. Once he wanted his Archbishop to pursue a certain course, when he (J.N.D.) was a curate in his diocese. He wrote a letter, therefore, saying he had been educated for the law, knew what the legal course would properly be; and then having written that clearly, he mystified the remainder of the letter both in word and in handwriting, and ended up by saying: You see, my Lord, such being the legal aspect of the case it would unquestionably be the best course for you to pursue, etc. And the Archbishop couldn't make out the legal part, but rested on Darby's word and did as he advised. Darby afterwards laughed over it, and indeed he showed a copy of the letter to Tregelles. This is not mentioned in the Archbishop's biography, but in it is the fact that he spoke of Darby as 'the most subtle man in my diocese.'"
This reminds me of an 1834 letter by Darby which spoke of the "Lord's coming." Darby added, concerning this coming, that "the thoughts are new" and that during any teaching of it "it would not be well to have it so clear." Darby's deviousness here was his usage of a centuries-old term - "Lord's coming" - to cover up his desire to sneak the new pretrib idea into existing posttrib groups in very low-profile ways!
1830 - In the spring of 1830 a young Scottish lassie, Margaret Macdonald, came up with the novel notion of a catching up [rapture] of Spirit-filled "church" members before Antichrist's "trial" [tribulation] of non-Spirit-filled "church" members - the first instance I've found of clear "pretrib" teaching (which was part of a partial rapture scheme). In Sep. 1830 "The Morning Watch" (a journal produced by London preacher Edward Irving and his "Irvingite" followers, some of whom had visited Margaret a few weeks earlier) began repeating her original thoughts and even her wording but gave her no credit - the first plagiarism I've found in pretrib history. Darby was still defending posttrib in Dec. 1830.
Pretrib promoters have long known the significance of her main point: a rapture of "church" members BEFORE the revealing of Antichrist. Which is why John Walvoord quoted nothing in her revelation, why Thomas Ice habitually skips over her main point but quotes lines BEFORE and AFTER it, and why Hal Lindsey muddies up her main point so he can (falsely) assert that she was NOT a pretribber! (Google "X-Raying Margaret" for info about her.)
NOTE: The development of the 1800's is thoroughly documented in my book "The Rapture Plot." You'll learn that Darby wasn't original on any chief aspect of dispensationalism (but plagiarized the Irvingites); that pretrib was initially based on only OT and NT symbols and not clear Scripture; that the symbols included the Jewish feasts, the two witnesses, and the man child - symbols adopted by Darby during most of his career; that Darby's later reminiscences exaggerated his earliest pretrib development, and that today's defenders such as Thomas Ice have further overstated what Darby overstated; that Irvingism didn't need later reminiscences to "clarify" its own early pretrib development; that ancient hymns and even the writings of the Reformers were subtly revised to make it appear they had taught pretrib; and that after Darby's death a clever revisionist quietly made many changes in early Irvingite and Brethren documents in order to steal credit for pretrib away from the Irvingites (and their female inspiration!) and give it dishonestly to Darby! (Before continuing, Google the "Powered by Christ Ministries" site and read "America's Pretrib Rapture Traffickers" - a sample of the current exciting internetism!)
1920 - Charles Trumbull's book "The Life Story of C. I. Scofield" told only the dispensationally-correct side of his life. Two recent books, Joseph Canfield's "The Incredible Scofield and His Book" (1988) and David Lutzweiler's "DispenSinsationalism: C. I. Scofield's Life and Errors" (2006), reveal the other side including his being jailed as a forger, dishonestly giving himself a non-conferred "D.D." etc. etc.!
1967 - Brethren scholar Harold Rowdon's "The Origins of the Brethren" quoted Darby associate Lord Congleton who was "disgusted with...the falseness" of Darby's accounts of things. Rowdon also quoted historian William Neatby who said that others felt that "the time-honoured method of single combat" was as good as anything "to elicit the truth" from Darby. (In other words, knock it out of him!)
1972 - Tim LaHaye's "The Beginning of the End" (1972) plagiarized Hal Lindsey's "The Late Great Planet Earth" (1970).
1976 - Charles Ryrie"s "The Living End" (1976) plagiarized Lindsey's "The Late Great Planet Earth" (1970) and "There's A New World Coming" (1973).
1976 - After John Walvoord's "The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation" (1976) brutally twisted Robert Gundry's "The Church and the Tribulation" (1973), Gundry composed and circulated a 35-page open letter to Walvoord which repeatedly charged the Dallas Seminary president with "misrepresentation," "misrepresentations" (and variations)!
1981 - "The Fundamentalist Phenomenon" (1981) by Jerry Falwell, Ed Dobson, and Ed Hindson heavily plagiarized George Dollar's 1973 book "A History of Fundamentalism in America."
1984 - After a prof at Southeastern College of the Assemblies of God in Florida told me that the No. 2 man at the AG world headquarters in Missouri - Joseph Flower - had the label of posttrib, my wife and I had two hour-long chats with him. He verified what I had been told. But we were dumbstruck when he told us that although AG ministers are required to promote pretrib, privately they can believe any other rapture view! Flower said that his father, an AG co-founder, was also posttrib. We also learned while in Springfield that when the AG's were organized in 1914, the initial group was divided between posttribs and pretribs - but that the pretribs shouted louder which resulted in that denomination officially adopting pretrib! (For details on this and other pretrib double-mindedness, Google "Pretrib Hypocrisy.")
1989 - Since 1989 Thomas Ice has referred to the "Mac-theory" (his reference to my research), giving the impression there's no solid evidence that Macdonald was the real pretrib originator. But Ice carefully conceals the fact that no eminent church historian of the 1800's - whether Plymouth Brethren or Irvingite - credited Darby with pretrib. Instead, they uniformly credited leading Irvingite sources, all of which upheld the Scottish lassie's contribution! Moreover, I'm hardly the only modern scholar seeing significance in Irvingism's territory. Others in recent years who have noted it, but who haven't mined it as deeply as I have, include Fuller, Ladd, Bass, Rowdon, Sandeen, and Gundry.
1989 - Greg Bahnsen and Kenneth Gentry produced evidence in 1989 that Lindsey's book "The Road to Holocaust" (1989) plagiarized "Dominion Theology" (1988) by H. Wayne House and Thomas Ice.
1990 - David Jeremiah's and C. C. Carlson's "Escape the Coming Night" (1990) massively plagiarized Lindsey's 1973 book "There's A New World Coming." (For more info, type in "Thieves' Marketing" on MSN or Google.)
1991 - Paul Lee Tan's "A Pictorial Guide to Bible Prophecy" (1991) plagiarized large amounts of Lindsey's "The Late Great Planet Earth" (1970).
1991 - Militant Darby defender R. A. Huebner claimed in 1991 to have found new evidence that Darby was pretrib as early as 1827 - three years before Macdonald. Halfway through his book Huebner suddenly admitted that his evidence could refer to something completely un-rapturesque. Even though Thomas Ice admitted to me that he knew that Huebner had "blown" his so-called evidence, prevaricator Ice continues to tell the world that Huebner has "positive evidence" that Darby was pretrib in 1827! Ice also conceals the fact that Darby, in his own 1827 paper, was looking for only "the restitution of all things" and "the times of refreshing" (Acts 3:19,21) - which Scofield doesn't see fulfilled until AFTER a future tribulation!
1992 - Tim LaHaye's "No Fear of the Storm" (1992) plagiarized Walvoord's "The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation" (1976).
1992 - This was when the Los Angeles Times revealed that "The Magog Factor" (1992) by Hal Lindsey and Chuck Missler was a monstrous plagiarism of Prof. Edwin Yamauchi's scholarly 1982 work "Foes from the Northern Frontier." Four months after this exposure, Lindsey and Missler stated they had stopped publishing and promoting their book. But in 1996 Dr. Yamauchi learned that the dishonest duo had issued a 1995 book called "The Magog Invasion" which still had a substantial amount of the same plagiarism! (If Lindsey and Missler ever need hernia operations, I predict that the doctors will tell them not to lift anything for a long time!)
1994 - In 1996 it was revealed that Lindsey's "Planet Earth - 2000 A.D. (1994) had an embarrassing amount of plagiarism of a Texe Marrs book titled "Mystery Mark of the New Age" (1988).
1995 - My book "The Rapture Plot" reveals the dishonesty in Darby's reprinted works. It's often hard to tell who wrote the footnotes and when. It's easy to believe that the notes, and also unsigned phrases inside brackets within the text, were a devious attempt by someone (Darby? his editor?) to portray a Darby far more developed in pretrib thinking than he actually had been at the time. I found that some of the "additives" had been taken from Darby's much later works, when he was more developed, and placed next to or inside his earliest works! One footnote by Darby's editor, attached to Darby's 1830 paper, actually stated that "it was not worth while either suppressing or changing" anything in this work! If his editor wasn't open to such dishonesty, how can we explain such a statement?
Post-1995 - Thomas Ice's article "Inventor of False Pre-Trib Rapture History" states that my book "The Rapture Plot" is "only one of the latest in a series of revisions of his original discourse...." And David Reagan in his article "The Origin of the Concept of a Pre-Tribulation Rapture" repeats Ice's falsehood by claiming that I have republished my first book "over the years under several different titles."
Although my book repeats a bit of the Macdonald origin of pretrib (for new readers), all of my books are packed with new material not found in my other works. For some clarification, "The Incredible Cover-Up" has photos of pertinent places in Ireland, Scotland, and England not found in my later books plus several chapters dealing with theological arguments; "The Great Rapture Hoax" quotes scholars throughout the Church Age, covers Scofield's hidden side, a section on Powerscourt, the 1980 election, the Jupiter Effect, Gundry's change, and more theological arguments; "The Rapture Plot" reveals for the first time the Great Evangelical Revisionism/Robbery and includes appendices on miscopying, plagiarism, etc.; and "The Three R's" shows hypocritical evangelicals employing occultic beliefs they say they have long opposed!
So Thomas Ice etc. are twisting truth when they claim I am only a revisionist. Do they really think that my publishers DON'T know what I've previously written?
Re arguments, Google "Pretrib Rapture - Hidden Facts" and also obtain "The End Times Passover" and "Why Christians Will Suffer 'Great Tribulation' " (AuthorHouse, 2006) by media personality Joe Ortiz.
1997 - For years Harvest House Publishers has owned and been republishing Lindsey's book "There's A New World Coming." During the same time Lindsey has been peddling his reportedly "new" book "Apocalyse Code" (1997), much of which is word-for-word the same as the Harvest House book - and there's no notice of "simultaneous publishing" in either book! Talk about pretrib greed!
1997 - This is the year I discovered that more than 50 pages of Dallas Seminary professor Merrill Unger's book "Beyond the Crystal Ball" (Moody Press, 1973) constituted a colossal plagiarism of Lindsey's "The Late Great Planet Earth" (1970). After Lindsey's book came out, Unger had complained that Lindsey's book had plagiarized his classroom lecture notes. It was evident that Unger felt that he too should cash in on his own lectures! (The detailed account of this Dallas Seminary dishonesty is revealed in my 1998 book "The Three R's.")
1998 - Tim LaHaye's "Understanding the Last Days" (1998) plagiarized Lindsey's "There's A New World Coming" (1973).
1999 - More than 200 pages (out of 396 pages) in Lindsey's 1999 book "Vanished Into Thin Air" are virtually carbon copies of pages in his 1983 book "The Rapture" - with no "updated" or "revised" notice included! Lindsey has done the same nervy thing with several of his books, something that has allowed him to live in million-dollar-plus homes and drive cars like Ferraris! (See my Google articles "Deceiving and Being Deceived" and "Thieves' Marketing" for further evidence of this notably pretrib vice.)
2000 - A Jack Van Impe article "The Moment After" (2000) plagiarized Grant Jeffrey's book "Final Warning" (1995).
2001 - Since 2001 my web article "Walvoord's Posttrib 'Varieties' - Plus" has been exposing his devious muddying up of posttrib waters. In some of his books he invented four "distinct" and "contradictory" posttrib divisions, claiming that they are either "classic" or "semiclassic" or "futurist" or "dispensational" - distinctions that disappear when analyzed! His "futurist" group holds to a literal future tribulation and a literal millennium but doesn't embrace "any day" imminency. But his "dispensational" group has the same non-imminency! Moreover, tribulational futurism is found in every group except the first one, and he somehow admitted that a literal millennium is in all four groups! On the other hand, it's the pretribs who consistently disagree with each other over their chief points and subpoints - but somehow end up agreeing that there will be a pretrib rapture! (See my chapter "A House Divided" in my book "The Incredible Cover-Up.")
2001 - Since my "Deceiving and Being Deceived" web item which exposed the claims for Pseudo-Ephraem" and "Morgan Edwards" as teachers of pretrib, there has been a piranha-like frenzy on the part of pretrib bodyguards and their duped groupies to "discover" almost anything before 1830 walking upright on two legs that seemed to have at least a remote hint of pretrib! (An exemplary poster boy for such pretrib practice is Grant Jeffrey. To get your money's worth, Google "Wily Jeffrey.")
FINALLY: Don't take my word for any of the above. Read my 300-page book "The Rapture Plot" which has a jillion more documented details on the long-hidden but now-revealed history of the dishonest, 179-year-old, fringe-British-invented, American-merchandised-until-the-real-bad-stuff-happens pretribulation rapture fad. If this book of mine doesn't "move" you, I will personally refund what you paid for it!
(just saw above item on the web! Betty)
Posted by: Betty | April 28, 2009 at 12:49 AM