The Phoenix Preacher: Blissfully or Invincibly Ignorant?

Here is the latest inane quote from the PP:

Whatever your position is on the Rapture, this is the foundation stone you build the doctrine on and it’s a foundation under attack from amillennialism and preterism.

This weeks posts will give you a starting place to understand and defend the premill position intelligently and Biblically.

This guy just can't keep his categories and definitions straight. What is the rapture? Is the "rapture" denied by amill and preterists? What does the rapture have to do with Pre-millenialism?

Unfortunately, the rapture is a term which has several meanings and going to the Greek or English New Testaments don't help in clearing them up. Webster's gives a problematic definition of the rapture as:

3 often capitalized : the final assumption of Christians into heaven during the end-time according to Christian theology.

If that's the definition of rapture then I personally deny it as being a Biblical doctrine. And most Christians historically would deny it as a doctrine of the faith unless heaven is more clearly defined.

What do you mean by Heaven(s)
There are at least a few "heavens" in the Bible. The birds fly in one of them, the stars are in another and God "lives" in yet another one of them. But (the third) Heaven comes down to Earth in the form of the New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation so it is reasonable to conclude that Heaven is not our final destination but the Earth.

So by that definition, Christians would not be taken to Heaven unless the rapture occurred before the end of the Tribulation period. Therefore, most Christians would deny the rapture but it's the definition they are denying, not the basic concept. The basic concept is that Christ will return bodily for His church.

A Working Definition of Rapture?
But if the definition of rapture were slightly altered then very few Amill or Preterist folks would take disagree.

the final assumption of Christians to be with Christ during the end-time according to Christian theology

The Second Coming is the Real Issue
You see, Amill and (most) Preterist folks do believe in a future, personal Second Coming of Christ and that's the key issue. The big difference is that they only believe in one Second Coming, not two or more Second Comings. The Pre-millennialist believes in at least two Second Comings and at least three Second Comings if they hold to some form of Rapture doctrine as described above. Along with the multiple Second Comings they also have to believe in multiple different resurrections - at least three if you are a Pre-Tribulationalist or Pre-wrath advocate.

What did Jesus say?
Jesus never spoke of multiple Second Comings, multiple resurrections or multiple "last days". He spoke of all of these as being at the end of time. It's no more complicated than that. Jesus told us we would suffer tribulation in this world but to be of good cheer since He had overcome the world. The lives and deaths of the martyrs of the Church show that few escape persecution who chose to live righteously in Christ.

What is the history of the doctrine
Pre-millinarians were around for much of the earliest church history phase but by the time of Augustine, the view was seriously on the decline and would have been characterized as cultic at that time.

On the other hand, pre-tribulationalism as a sub-species arose less then 200 years ago and other than the speculations of an 18th century writer or two the idea had no advocates prior to that time. It is completely unknown in Church History. None of the early Church writers wrote about it. It's not in any of the creeds of the church or any of the councils, either. That doesn't make it automatically false. Someone could have discovered it 1800 years later than Christ and the Apostles. It's newness just makes it suspect.

Pre-Wrath Patchwork Quilt
The pre-wrath view is a weak attempt to salvage the pre-tribulational rapture from its exegetical death throws. Still there are no texts which teach it (see previous post "The Cluelessness Continues" where I explain how the texts used for pre-wrath are often misused). It is used by people who want to cling to the idea that they will escape general wrath by being taken off the Earth.

Conclusion
Let's keep what is most important at the top of the list. Christ is coming again to raise the dead, change the living into immortal beings, judge the dead and the living and rule and reign on the Earth forever. That is agreed to by all Christians. As the old creed says "From thence (Heaven) He (Jesus Christ) shall come to judge the living and the dead". That is the doctrine that needs defense, not the pre-wrath or pre-trib rapture doctrine.