The Great Left-Behind Delusion - (2)By: Pastor Alan Campbell | 6/18/2003
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The Great Left-Behind Delusion - (2)By: Pastor Alan Campbell | 6/18/2003
Message Details
The Great Left-Behind Delusion - (2)
Speaker: Pastor Alan Campbell
Date: 6/18/2003
References: Isaiah 4:2-3
In the first part of his examination into the "Secret Rapture", Pastor Alan showed that this "doctrine" is not actually supported by the Scriptures - nor, in fact, did it really come into prominence within Protestant Evangelical circles until after 1830 A.D. In this second and concluding part of the series, he now deals with the history and origins of this teaching as well as highlighting some of its more blatant contradictions with the word of God.
The roots of the "Secret Rapture" teaching are to be found within the Roman Catholic Jesuit Movement. At the time of the Protestant Reformation, the Reformers correctly identified the Papal System and its dynasty of Popes as "Antichrist". As a result, many thousands began to leave the Roman Catholic Church and embrace Protestantism. The Papacy needed to find a response to this Protestant teaching and in due course, the Jesuits began to promulgate the alternative prophetic schools of "Preterism" and "Futurism" with its "Secret Rapture" as a counter-attack to Reformation Truth. For a long time, Protestants rejected these "new" teachings but gradually over the years, this "leaven" entered the mainstream of Evangelical Protestantism until today, "Futurism" and the "Secret Rapture" have become the standard belief within Evangelical circles.
In this study, Pastor Alan mentions some of this "doctrine's" most glaring contradictions: why should the carnal, worldly believers of this "Laodicean" church age expect to be "raptured" away before any tribulation, whenever many of God's choicest saints in past ages endured much persecution, many paying the ultimate price for their faith? Daniel didn't escape the lions' den, nor Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego the fiery furnace but the Lord brought them through these trials.
During His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus Christ always did everything openly and the Scriptures show that His Second Coming will likewise not be a silent, secretive thing - nor too, does the Bible's sequence of events relating to the Second Coming, match up with that of the "Secret Rapture" delusion.
Pastor Alan explains that the unfortunate results of this teaching are, among others, a false escapism, the absence of a dominion mandate and a "super-spirituality" leading to an abdication of responsibility. However, the Lord still has His faithful remnant among the believers, who will press on for the "prize of the high calling".