Friday, October 18, 2019
God said “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:29–30). Truth imparts grace.
Upon Satan’s defeat at the resurrection of Jesus Christ, he turned to inspiring men to destroy Christ’s teachings that guide believers to eternal life. Using his corruption of a dispensational pre-tribulation rapture, Satan found willing men like John N. Darby (1800–1882) and Cyrus I. Scofield (1843–1921) and others to deliver his deceptions. Many pre-trib rapture teachers are now wealthy by their books, movies, DVDs, and television productions, reaping millions of dollars in profits. But dispensationalism is a lie designed to deceive, and in the end, offend.
When the Nineteenth Century church heard the theology of a pre-tribulation rapture, its ears were tickled to the point of no return. So successful was that people-pleasing deception that it became a prerequisite to evangelical denominational church ordination. While defrauding the testimony of Jesus, it’s become one of the most ardently protected doctrines in the church. Its claims are remarkably false, and in days to come will terrorize and offend those deceived.
Dispensational theology promises the imminent return of Christ at any moment, claiming that no other biblical prophecy needs to be fulfilled before the rapture. The problem with that false claim is that it falls squarely into the work of Satan to destroy the testimony of Jesus. As a result much Scripture is neutralized and made of no effect which is exactly what Jesus said traditions of men do, see Mark 7:13. In this forum the full disclosure of dispensational atrocities is prohibitive.
Dispensational theology teaches that unbelieving Jews of Israel are God’s chosen people, and that Christ’s return for post-Calvary saints is a pre-tribulation event, while God’s Word teaches the exact opposite. And if anyone dares teach against those traditions he invites trouble with the organized church. I know. Dispensationalism produces an avalanche of unbelief and theological avoidance of the truth. But as long as one approves false teachers, their footnotes and traditions of men in dispensational material, then one remains in good standing with the organized church.
Search the Scriptures, be Berean (Acts 17:11), not according to what you’ve been told to believe, but on what the Word of the Lord clearly teaches. Yes, under the Old Covenant God did say to ancient Israel “Now therefore, 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). But Israel loved the wages of sin and unbelief more than God!
And anyone who knows the Old Covenant knows that ancient Israel did not obey God’s voice, or keep His covenant. In fact, ancient Israel’s rebellion became so prolific that God repeatedly gave her to exile and captivity by heathen nations. After much unrepentant rebellion, God had enough, and said, “Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also” (Jer. 3:8). In truth, God has NEVER remarried ancient, unbelieving Israel, nor are they His people! Yet, many dispensational teachers tell the church that unbelieving Jews are yet God’s chosen people. In Christ, true Christians are His chosen people!
Accordingly, God says to true post-Calvary Christians that “you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy” (1 Peter 2:9–10). The exchange is clear, and that truth will revolutionize your faith as a believer; for truths are revealed that will cause you to embrace the end-time testimony of Christ, and to divorce yourself from the numerous dispensational heresies that nullify much of God’s prophetic Word.
Due to dispensational theology, the church increasingly engages in false Zionism; some false teachers even asserting that unbelieving Jews don’t need to believe in Christ to be saved, that God has another covenant with them. I pray you hear the Serpent’s hiss in that lie! Here’s why: “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we [true Jews, Rom. 2:28–29] are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Rom. 8:16–17).
Dispensational theology segregates New Covenant Scriptures as though Christ taught one thing and His apostles another – though in fact His apostles affirmed exactly what Jesus taught. Much scriptural segregation is end-time related causing the church to discard Christ’s teaching that He gathers His elect “Immediately after the tribulation” (Matt. 24:29–31), falsely alleging that that pertains only to unbelieving Jews of Israel, that New Covenant saints are exempt. Of course, by necessity, that heretical teaching leads into many others in order to consistently guard traditions.
For example, if Christ gathers His elect saints before the tribulation, then naturally ALL OTHER seven-year, tribulation-related Scriptures MUST also be nullified to the pleasure of the mind of flesh. And the lie to be mourned is the one that dissuades from biblically God-given reasons to believe and prepare in the promises of Christ for the end-times. Imagine, had dispensational preachers been present to deceive Noah, he would never have built the Ark that preserved his family through the deluge; nor would Joseph of ancient Israel have stored seven years of food in preparation for the seven-year famine that would otherwise have been a death sentence for many.
Under dispensational theology, the list of New Covenant dispensable Scriptures are a schism against Jesus Christ who purchased our salvation by His broken body and His shed blood. Gone is the need to discern that as the days of Noah and Lot were, so it will be in the end-times; gone is the need for wisdom in the Seal Judgments; gone is the need for and rewarding study of the Trumpet Judgments; and gone is the divine secret of finding God’s safety and provision in the Vile Judgments. In fact, GONE is nearly the entire Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ!
Sadly, most people in the church have not been taught from the pulpit that “Every word of God is pure; [that] He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. [And] Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar” (Prov. 30:5–6); nor that “all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Rev. 21:8). In traditional allegiances, many Christians are more concerned with gun rights and other national freedoms than truths that have been ripped from their hearts by dispensational theologians!
Ancient Israel also rejected the warnings God gave her, and that relationship ended in divorce. Let’s never forget God’s promise that “I am the LORD, I do not change” (Mal. 3:6), and that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). What God did in ancient times, He will do again. That promise should cause us to prepare in truths that have power to keep us through the end-time apocalypse to eternal life.
Due to the pre-tribulation rapture heresy my spirit mourns for the many sincere Christians who are totally ignorant of the truth that Christ gathers His elect “Immediately after the tribulation” (Matt. 24:29–31), “in the first resurrection” (Rev. 20:4–6), “at the last day” (John 6:40, 44, 54), when “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thess. 4:16), “at the last trumpet” (1 Cor. 15:51–52), when “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” (Rev. 11:15), because Christ “must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything” (Acts 3:21 NIV).
Marlin J. Yoder
