Friday, March 22, 2019
God said to Christian preachers and teachers: “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Tim. 4:1–4).
In the Church, the prophetic end-time Word wherein men “will not endure sound doctrine” was in part fulfilled when Darby preached his ungodly dispensational and anti-Christ epiphany to the Church. And ever since the mid to late 19th Century his ear-tickling dream transfixed itself upon the hearts and minds of millions. As a result, about ninety-five percent of the Church today has discarded, as inapplicable, the sound teachings of Christ that foretell of Antichrist’s seven-year reign wherein many perish. Out of sight, out of mind!
Pictured here is John Nelson Darby (1800–1882) whose epiphany gave the 19th Century Church, and beyond, its dispensationalism. He carved up the saints into different groups, dividing the Eph. 4:4 “one body” of Christ into multiple bodies being gathered or raptured at different times. Of course, his epiphany preferred him and his followers being raptured pre-tribulation. So convenient! But as for believers of later dispensations?–well, too bad for them, because by Darby’s doctrine, they’ll suffer the tribulation and Antichrist while Darby and his followers watch from the grandstands of heaven, being spared the seven-year tribulation. Please do not trust Darby’s lying spirit and witness, but believe and trust only the witness of the Lord Jesus Christ! Darby’s pre-trib rapture heresy poisoned much of the Church to grave unbelief!
But here’s what God said about men’s dreams that contradict His Word: “‘Behold, I am against those who prophecy false dreams,’ says the Lord, ‘and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all,’ says the Lord” (Jer. 23:32). Not only is God “against those who prophecy false dreams”, He is also against those who perpetuate them.
Darby’s false dream divides the Body of Christ into multiple groups: Old Covenant saints are one group; New Covenant saints another; and tribulation saints yet another. But the truth is that you can’t find that sort of slicing and dicing of Christ’s Body anywhere in Scripture! In fact, God states just the opposite, saying that, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Eph. 4:4–6).
Dispensationalism changes God from impartial to partial. That alone should turn every saint against it. God created only one true Jew: those who believe Him! God confirmed this twice: first, He said to ancient Israel “if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people…And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation’ (Exo. 19:5–6); and secondly, to post-Calvary saints, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people…who once were not a people but are now the people of God” (1 Peter 2:9–10). No division!
This was made possible by God who said “you, being a wild olive tree, [Gentiles] were grafted in among them, [original Jews] and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree” (Rom. 11:17); thus, “Branches were broken off [that is, unbelieving Jews] that I might be grafted in” (Rom. 11:19); “And they also, [post-Calvary Jews] if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again” (Rom. 11:23).
God confirmed that Jew and Gentile believers together become true Jews when He said, “he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God” (Rom. 2:28–29). Thus, we who are not blinded by traditions of men know that the two bodies of believers, both from the Old and New Covenants, have been united together into Christ’s “one body”, because there is no division in Christ.
Believing Jews and Gentiles are grafted into the Vine of Christ and form the “one body”, the Church, called “the Israel of God”. “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:15–16). Therefore, every believer, Jew and Gentile, constitutes the Church, and together are in fact “the Israel of God”. [emphasis added]
This familiar picture has two applications. First, the Biblical text: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20). The literal application of this text is that Christ is outside the door of the Church asking to be let in by anyone who hears His voice. This is largely representative of the end-time Church as it’s focused on programs, politics, economy, culture, media and entertainment, pleasing people more than God. The second application is very personal. Have we invited Christ and His Word of authority into our hearts and lives, or are we happier with traditions of men that keep Christ outside? John Darby’s false pre-trib rapture doctrine is just one of many that abandon our Lord’s testimony that would otherwise lead us safely to the end of this age by finding the safety and provision of God for the final 42 months of the great tribulation.
Today, Darby’s followers continue being seduced by deceiving spirits attempting to make the testimony of Jesus of no effect. And men and women who perpetuate Darby’s dispensational narrative are culpable with him for leading many believers away from the testimony of Jesus whose very testimony “is the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10). Do you hear Jesus knocking?
John Darby’s dispensational pre-trib rapture, or the testimony of Jesus that He gathers His elect “one body” Bride of Christ “Immediately after the tribulation” has monumental consequences. The former is of deceiving spirits, the latter is of the Spirit of God; the former a departure from “sound doctrine”, the latter is the “sound doctrine” of Jesus Christ; in the former “many will be offended” (Matt. 24:10) and increase “the falling away” (2 Thess. 2:3), while the latter equips saints to endure to “the end of the age” as Jesus taught. We have free will, who do you believe?
The world is ready for the “covenant with many” (Dan. 9:27) and for its socialist New World Order leader. Unfortunately, the Church is largely asleep to these growing realities which will bring sudden and crushing reforms against Christians. This global leader hailed as the savior of the world will ravage true Christians of employment and the marketplace. If you don’t already see that fomenting, I pray that the spiritual eyes of your heart be opened to that obvious reality.
As the world pushes into 2020 and 2021, the end of this age will rush toward us like a flood, and only those who have prepared in the testimony of Jesus Christ will be prepared. And know this: there will be no pre-tribulation rapture! Additionally, those who know their God will not only “carry out great exploits” (Dan. 11:32), but are “counted worthy to escape” (Luke 21:36) the last 42 months as they are metaphorically carried on “wings of a great eagle” (Rev. 12:14), to their place of safety; “Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together” (Luke 17:37).
Marlin J. Yoder
