End Times Part II--God's Wrath and Tribulation are not the Same Event

In Part I last week, we showed the End Times chronology had this order of events: 

Deception, wars, famine—called “the beginning of sorrows”—then the “abomination of desolation” (blasphemy performed by antrichrist) in holy place (that means in Jerusalem's restored temple), then the tribulation, consisting of systematic death and martyrdom of Jews and Christians, then cosmic disturbance; then on the same day, Jesus appears, a rescue (rapture) and then Day of the Lord’s wrath. We spent time proving, Scripturally, that Christians do not get raptured, have to live through the tribulation. Today, that point gets further proof. 


1. Let’s take a closer look at Jesus’ Olivet discourse in Matthew 24:27ff: 


"For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be… 29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven... 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.


What Jesus is saying is, immediately after the tribulation (v.29), here’s what happens: first the cosmic disturbance (v.29) prophesied in Joel 2 (See Part I). It has completely blackened the sky—everywhere--so that then can be clearly visible a sign, like a huge bolt of lightning stretching from the earth’s east to the west--this would be visible in all the world. This rivets everyone’s attention upward—and then will appear our Lord, in glory, visible to all--it is His return. The first event of that return is the rapture, with angels and trumpets to gather His children (though it’s not mentioned until v. 31, see Part I for proof of this order); Jesus has come to rescue righteous men. But His coming, secondly, is to judge disobedient men (as intimated in v.30 with the word “mourn.” More on that later). Thus, five events happen on the Day of the Lord, in order, from these verses and in Part I: Cosmic disturbance blackens the sky, then lightning or a highly visible sign showing the Lord’s appearing in the sky, then the rapture, and the mourning of rebellious men who know judgment is coming.


2.Note the details of the rapture, vv.30b-31: (a) Jesus appears on the clouds of heaven in visible glory, and can be seen by all in a blackened sky lit up by huge sign--thus there is no secret rapture; (b) angels will sound a trumpet; (c) His elect (genuine Christians) will be gathered “from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other;” i.e., in the air. 


3.For anyone who would argue that Matthew 24 isn’t the rapture, look at I Thess. 4:16-17, which all acknowledge are rapture verses: 


For 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. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 


Note the important events: (a) Jesus appears from heaven, with some noise--a shout and the voice of an archangel--so there is no secret rapture; (b) angels blow the trumpet; (c) believers are gathered in the sky, to meet the Lord in the air. Note that these are the very same critical three elements as Matthew 24:30b-31. Is this not the SAME EVENT? Of course it is. Thus Matthew 24 presents the Rapture.  


4.***Now the order of End Times is: Deception, wars, famine, then the abomination of desolation (antrichrist's blasphemy) in the holy place, then tribulation--systematic death and martyrdom of Jews and Christians, and then—on one day--cosmic disturbance blackens the sky, then the sign (like bright lightning, seen by all), then His Coming in the clouds with angels blowing the trumpet, believers rescued, gathered in the sky—and on the same day, other people mourn, the Day of the Lord’s wrath begins on them (more on that wrath later).


5. Now let’s spend some time on a second proof of this order of events.As you will see, this will confirm the Matthew order. In Revelation 6:1-11, the order of the seals 1-5 correspond exactly to the same five events in Matthew 24 (read Part I for more). Here are the Revelation verses:


Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, “Come and see.” 2 And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. 3 When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come and see.” 4 Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword. 5 When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. 6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.” 7 When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see.” 8 So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth. 9 When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. 10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.


6. In verse 1 we have seal 1, with the white horse. The rider has a crown, and goes forth conquering. If you think this is Christ, you are deceived—this Greek word for “crown” (v. 2) is “stephanos.” But the Greek word for the crown Christ wears is “diadema,” for kingly or imperial dignity. Stephanos, on the other hand, is given for triumph in the games or for military prowess—it is a garland of oak, ivy, parsley, myrtle or olive. The wearer is an aggressive conqueror, not a king. The crown-wearer of verse 1 wants us to think he is Christ, but he isn’t. Thus seal 1 is deception.


7. Seal 2, the red horse, is clearly wars. Seal 3, the black horse, where they are carefully handling and measuring expensive food, suggests famine. Seal 4, the pale horse, is death. The seal 5 refers to martyrs. Now turn back to Part I’s analysis of Matthew 24:5-9—the order is the same! Revelation 6 and Matthew 24 refer to the same events!  Deception, wars, famine, death, and martyrs is the order in both.


8. Now observe how these two sections of verses, the same thus far, suddenly part in how they detail seal 6: Matthew 24:30-31 (see #1 above) gives us the rapture, and only hints at the wrath of God (it just gives you the word “mourn.”) Since we’ve looked at Revelation 6:1-11 in seals 1-5, let’s see how Revelation 6:12-17 handles the sixth seal. This seal begins with our familiar cosmic disturbance--a further proof that these are the same events as Matthew, since Matthew also has that. But Revelation 6 details the judgment, the second part of the Day of the Lord, skipping the rapture. Whereas Matthew 24 detailed the rapture, and only hinted at the judgment (“mourn”). Here’s Rev. 6:12-17's key phrases:


I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. 13 And the stars of heaven fell to the earth…. 15 And the kings of the earth, the great men…every slave… hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, 16 and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” 


Please note v.17! God’s wrath, even at the 6th and last seal, is only set to BEGIN—yet this is AFTER the tribulation, seals 4-5, as our Matthew 24 study in Part I also outlined. Thus, we conclude the following:  Matthew 24, after tribulation, details the rapture, and hints at the wrath. Rev. 6, on the other hand, also after tribulation, details the wrath, not the rapture. The solution to this “controversy” is simply to put both events—rapture and wrath—after the tribulation, at the same day. Both these sections of verses talk about these events—they just each emphasize a different one on the final Day.


Now let's re-emphasize some important points for those "pre-tribbers" to chew on:  

9. Clearly, after reading the previous note and Revelation 6 and Matthew 24, the tribulation is NOT the wrath of God.  Actually, the tribulation is the wrath of Satan, per Rev. 12:12, as we proved in Part I. 


10.Here's another proof that the tribulation is not the same as the Day of the Lord.  In the tribulation, Satan is having a field day through his antichrist, killing Jews and Christians. But the wrath of God is different: In His wrath (particularly seen in Revelation 8 and 9), only the person of God is mentioned. He does not allow Satan to strut his stuff like the antichrist does who dominates the scene in the tribulation. Proof of this differing emphasis is found in Isaiah 2:11-Let's see what it says about the wrath: 


The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, The haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, And the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. 12 For the day of the LORD of hosts Shall come upon everything proud and lofty, Upon everything lifted up—And it shall be brought low. 


The image we get for the wrath of God in the Day of the Lord is this: unanswered destruction which centers only on God, glorifying His holy nature and cleansing the earth. That’s not the tribulation, where Satan is having a gay old time sticking it to the saints. The wrath and the tribulation are just not the same event. As we have abundantly shown, the wrath of God is after the tribulation, after the rapture. As we have shown you here and in Part I, you have the tribulation, then on the day of the Lord, you have the rapture, then the wrath of God. 
NEXT WEEK: HOW LONG IS THE TRIBULATION? God's Word is abundantly clear on that, too.

Scripture Gives a Definite Order of Events for the End Time

When Jesus ascended back into heaven in Acts 1:11, angels said to His disciples:

This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner.

So we are promised a Blessed Hope of a visible return of our Lord. Scripture elsewhere clearly records it will be in the Last Days, a tumultuous period of martyrdom, beheadings, and rapture. But a huge question is still debated: Do Christians get raptured and escape all the terror, as I hear some people say? I have a theory--based on Scripture, of course, that I will lay out for you, and it will hopefully be as clear as anything you’ll read. The End Times scenario is not as confusing as some make it out. The answers are surprising.

Fact #1: From Joel 2:30-31 and 3:15 we learn that a particular cosmic disturbance will precede the day of the Lord.

And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth… 31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD…15 The sun and moon will grow dark, And the stars will diminish their brightness…

What’s noteworthy about this cosmic disturbance is that the sun, the moon, and the stars grow dark, which blackens the sky worldwide—which has a specific purpose (more on that on a later article). And, these cosmic events are before the Day of the Lord.

***The order thus far: Cosmic disturbance, then Day of the Lord.

Fact #2: Well, what is the Day of the Lord? Is it the same as the tribulation? Scripture is clear:  No!.  From Isaiah 13:6-9 we understand that the “day of the Lord” is primarily God’s wrath on earth, on sinners, i.e. on people whose sins have not been covered:

Wail, for the day of the LORD is at hand! It will come as from the Almighty.  7 …Every man’s heart will melt…8 And they will be afraid… They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth… 9 Behold, the day of the LORD comes, Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger… And He will destroy its sinners from it.

The tribulation, on the other hand, is Satan’s wrath on Christians (people whose sins HAVE been covered by the blood of Christ). Revelation 12: 12-13, 17:

Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time. 13 Now when the dragon (Satan) saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman (Israel) who gave birth to the male Child (Jesus had a Jewish heritage)...17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring (Christians), who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

For proof of my parentheses identifying people in this symbology, I give you:  (a) the dragon as we look further in Revelation 12:9-10:  

...the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him... the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 

b) Christians are those who "keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."

c) The woman is Israel, the ascendants of Jesus.  The Old Testament's prophets referred to Israel as a "woman" (Isaiah 54:5-6; Jeremiah 4:31; Micah 4:9-10).

d) Finally, "the rest of her offspring" means the Jews (the woman) brought new 

life in Christ to the non-Jews.  See the book of Acts, chapters 10-28.

As this clarified symbology points out, the tribulation pinpoints true Christians (and Jews) as the target of Satan. But as we pointed out before,  in the Day of the Lord, God is targeting men whose sin has not been covered.  Thus, the Day of the Lord is not the same as the tribulation, and those being punished are exact opposites. This will be further proved soon by the chronology. They also have different descriptions. It will also be proven in Part II of these blogs next week.  By the way, The Day of the Lord is not God’s Final Judgment Seat, when He decides eternity on our souls.

Fact #3: On the Day of the Lord, there is a surprise event just before God’s wrath breaks loose: namely, the return of Christ. In that return, He will rescue righteous men whose sins have been covered (the rapture, as it is called, when He gathers His children to be with Him).   Scripture promises this will occur immediately before His wrath on unsaved people—in fact, the rescue and then the wrath happen ON THE SAME DAY. Proof for that is in Luke 17:26-30. There, Jesus cites Noah and Lot as the pattern for His return. The pattern is: (1) the rescue precedes the wrath, and (2) both happen on the same day:

And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man. 27 They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until THE DAY that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all (except Noah's family, who, earlier, He placed inside the Ark. So there’s the pattern: in the same day, there was rescue of the righteous, then a cruel Day on the disobedient.) 28 Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate… they built; 29 but ON THE DAY that Lot went out of Sodom (i.e, Lot was warned and then rescued), it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 Even so will it be IN THE DAY when the Son of Man is revealed.

Note that Jesus emphasizes "the Day" and "on the day."  His point is, two things happened ON THE same DAY--rescue, then judgment. The word “revealed”  in v. 30 mean His return will be visible; note also that His return is a single event, not two returns. So from Facts 1-3 we have the revised order of events, inserting Jesus' return:

***The order:  The cosmic disturbance. Then, on the same day, Jesus makes His single visible return for (a) rapture of the righteous, the saved; and (b) the Day of the Lord--wrath on unsaved men and women. 

Note again that the cosmic disturbance occurs BEFORE rapture and God’s wrath.

Fact #4: From Mark 13:24-25 we learn that our cosmic disturbance occurs AFTER the tribulation.  This is a VERY important point: 

“But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; 25 the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

Now we see the following necessary order of End Times so far:

***The tribulation, then cosmic disturbance, then, on the same day: Jesus’ visible return for rescue (the rapture), then the Lord’s wrath begins. 

Note how the rescue/rapture is after the tribulation. Thus, genuine Christians do not escape the tribulation. Note also that the Lord’s wrath and the tribulation are NOT the same thing because the tribulation is BEFORE the cosmic event, but God’s wrath is AFTER the cosmic event.

Scripture gives lots more information on the tribulation. Let’s look at events happening around it.

Fact #5: Jesus, in Matthew 24:5-31, in what is called the Olivet Discourse, describes three important trends BEFORE the tribulation, then gives two more trends DURING the tribulation. Here’s the relevant passages we will draw from in today’s installment (more study on His Discourse in our next article, Part 2).  Things BEFORE the tribulation:

"For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. 

Then the tribulation, two important things:
9 Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake... 15 Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place”… 16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. …21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. …

Summarizing events from these verses: In order, they are:

a. In verse 5, the key word is Deceive. (Keep in mind: the tribulation has not begun yet.)

b.Then we have Wars in verse 6-7a.

c.In verse 7b, there is Famine (along with pestilences and earthquakes). These first three are called the “beginning of sorrows” in v.8.

d.THEN the TRIBULATION BEGINS, as verse 9 clearly points out, with two trends: Death(they will...kill you) and Martyrdom (you will be hated…for my name’s sake).

Thus, there are five important disastrous events, in the order given. Three before the tribulation begins, two after.

In verses 15, 16, and 21 of Matthew 24, Jesus breaks away from straight chronology to provide some details, that flesh out our events: For one thing, He gave an important “tip-off” as to when the tribulation begins: The tribulation begins when they see the “abomination of desolation” (that’s the blasphemy done by the last-days antichrist, see also Daniel 9:26-27) standing in the holy place, in Jerusalem. They are urged to then flee into hiding as fast as they can, because the antichrist will begin the tribulation by starting to kill two groups of people: the Jews first, but he particularly goes after Christians. Note Revelation 13:7 on that:

It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.

Note: The “saints” referred here are all genuine Christians living at that time. Nobody got raptured away from this, as we proved at the end of Fact #4 above, from Scripture. Christians living then will have to endure the tribulation. Rescue, or rapture, doesn’t come til’ after the tribulation, just before God’s wrath.

***Now the order of End Times is:  Deception, wars, famine (the 3 called the beginning of sorrows), then the “abomination of desolation” in the holy place (i.e, in Jerusalem) then tribulation begins with the widespread death and martyrdom of Jews and Christians. Later there is the cosmic disturbance, and then on the same day, Jesus appears, rescues/raptures His people, and then the Lord’s wrath on the unsaved. 

My next two articles expand further on this chronology.

I would like to take our final minutes on Part I to address two arguments brought up by the pre-tribulationists (those who believe saints are raptured before any of the five terrible events in Matthew 24). Their idea is, Christian rapture is before any of the above disasters.

First is their insistence of “imminency,” that there are no signs preceding the rapture. Under their scenario, with no signs, the rapture can occur at any time: maybe today, maybe in 50 years, or 500 years from now. Under the scenario I’ve laid out, however, clearly there are signs preceding the rapture.

Let me give more proof that there are signs. Matthew 24:31-33 below, a description of Jesus' rescue, says rapture events are preceded with signs. It begins with a description of rapture:

And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. 32 “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it (the rapture,his subject matter) is near—at the doors!

As you can see, when you see all these things, these signs, you know that summer (harvest, the rapture) is near. Thus, Scripture blows the “no-signs-imminence” idea away.

“Pre-tribbers’” second argument is based on I Thessalonians 5:9:

For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ

They think this says that Christians will avoid the tribulation--but they think the tribulation is God’s wrath, and God will not allow such massive suffering on their bodies.

To argue their point, firstly, does the word “salvation” in Scripture usually mean saving our bodies? Not really—it usually means saving our souls. Pre-tribbers assume (1) the five disastrous events above are all tribulation, and (2) the tribulation is God’s wrath, and (3) To them, avoiding God’s wrath means that God wants to save our bodies from suffering. But these are three wrong ideas, as we have discussed. They then conclude Christians won’t go through any of the above sufferings. But the tribulation is not God’s wrath, they’re two separate events, as we have shown and pointed out above. Wrong assumptions, wrong conclusions.

But we still have to ask ourselves, will God allow massive suffering and death to His children? The simple answer is, yes. Consider all the martyrdom that has gone on (see other blogs). Another perspective on that question, ask yourselves, what’s more important, the body or the soul? The soul, of course (Matthew 5:30 and 16:26). Christians WILL endure intense persecution of their bodies during the tribulation. Our bodies may be sacrificed for Him, but thank God, our souls won’t be touched by His wrath, whereas most souls go to hell. THAT’s what I Thessalonians 5:9 means when it says we’re not appointed to God’s wrath. We need to take the long view, thinking about our eternal souls, not our temporary bodies. Also, if we are martyrs, we go immediately to be with the Lord—which is a blessing!

I’d like to plead a word of exhortation to today’s pre-tribbers: What if all this happens while we’re alive, say in the near future? If my Scriptural proofs are right, pre-tribbers will be shocked when they have to endure suffering.  With the wrong mindset, pre-tribbers are terribly unprepared for the End Times. They will feel deceived when they’re surprised by one more disaster after another and they are still around and haven’t been rescued yet. We’re talking about a lot of people who believe this theory--most evangelicals have been swayed by popular teachers like Hal Lindsey, movies and books like the “Left Behind” series, a lot of TV evangelists like John Hagee, and most teachers from Dallas Theological Seminary. But the earliest church fathers (closest to Christ and the apostles) felt Christians would go through tribulation in the End Times. It’s clearly taught in Scripture—not only in my above chronology, but look also at II Thessalonians 2:1-4:

Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him (Paul is getting ready to answer their question about the timing of the rapture) we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come (the phrase "day of Christ" is translated the “day of the Lord” in NIV, so it’s the same thing.  Thus, he’s implying that the rapture is at the same time as the day of the Lord--which I'm asserting above.) 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day (remember, Paul is answering their question about the rapture) will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

Scripture clearly points out that the rapture, the beginning of the Day, cannot come until after the antichrist is revealed! But that means they’ll still be around, and have to run for their lives, as death and martyrdom are coming. And those Christians (and Jews) alive at the time will have to suffer the Deception, the Wars, and the Famine, as well.

Sure, it would be great to whirl off and avoid suffering. It’s easy to see how such a theory, even if it had no real Scriptural basis, would become VERY popular. But popularity is not truth.

Pre-tribbers, think about this, too: Wouldn’t this pre-trib flight of yours abandon unsaved relatives and friends to go through the world’s worst hell-on-earth without you? So, are you saying that you want to leave your unsaved friends and relatives without the Holy Spirit in us to help them? You want to leave them without explaining the meaning of all that's happening, you don’t want to try to get them saved before they die in countless numbers in God’s wrath? If you ask me, if a real Christian is a soldier for the Lord, that’s “absent without leave,” or AWOL thinking! The pre-trib theory recommends an irresponsible “AWOL” mentality. Thinking that way seems uncompassionate, to say the least.  Now I ask you to probe yourself: What behaviors do you have (not counting the number of appearances in church) that prove you’re a Christian? When we consider that only a minority of people on earth make it to heaven (Matt 7:13-14), it is really possible that you might be deceiving yourselves by assuming you’re Christian. Do you have the fruits (Galatians 5:22ff) and obedience (John 15:6) necessary? Pray, confess sin, get baptized, make Jesus your Lord and follow His commandments; repent, seek a new life daily abiding in Him. Be ready to suffer or die for Him if necessary, rather than sticking to this desire to run away. He did the ultimate sacrifice for us. We may have to do it for Him.

Founders of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture Theory--II

In the study of Scripture and future things, perhaps no theory gets more publicity and believers than the pre-tribulation rapture theory, which says the rapture of Christians to heaven will occur before the disastrous tribulation (spoken of in Revelation 6 and Matthew 24-25).  But I believe this “pretrib” view to be faulty, and have laid forth a chronology in three blogs elsewhere in this website. You can also read the bio of John Darby (last week’s blog), who, as a founder of the pre-trib theory, had deep faults The post-trib (or a pre-wrath) view, also shared by many scholars, is not as popular, because it has Christians enduring the tribulation.  But it has the advantage of being based solely on Scripture, as I have lots of verses backing it up.  Their pre-trib view has fascinating books and a movie (“Left Behind”) backing it up.  They also have their Scriptural backup, which are shaky. But one way to decide is to take a good look at their main founders, C.I. Scofield and John Darby. They lack any credibility, as we saw last week—and we’ll see today.    

Even modern believers of the pre-trib idea admit its weakness.  The college that churns out the most pre-trib pastors is Dallas Theological Seminary.  One of its presidents, John Walvoord, wrote over 30 books, many celebrating this view of end-time events.  The only problem is, Walvoord, revered as the academic patriarch of pre-trib, is quoted as saying:  “There is no passage (of Scripture) that teaches the pre-tribulation rapture.”  Attempts to do so, as he said, are “strained.”  Walvoord tried hard to paint the early church fathers pre-tribulationists, too—but he failed, as most objective scholars agree.  Most of the early church fathers (by that I don’t mean Catholic here) were post-tribulational (see last week’s blog for clarification).  Another scholar, Dr. John MacArthur, says the only way you conclude pre-trib is, it’s “between the lines.”  So, in a black-and-white Bible, the pre-trib view is….in the white! Where there’s no print. Saying this, he’s really saying, “I don’t have the proper proof, but this is my opinion.”  But you can hardly make doctrine out of people’s speculations and opinions, but that’s what happened. Popularity really decided it, not Scripture.

It doesn’t help that another one of their believers, Edgar Whisenant, predicted the rapture would occur in 1988, sometime between Sept. 11 and Sept. 13. He published two books about this, 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988 and On Borrowed Time. Eventually, 300,000 copies of 88 Reasons were mailed free of charge to ministers across America, and 4.5 million copies were sold in bookstores and elsewhere. Whisenant was quoted as saying "Only if the Bible is in error am I wrong; and I say that to every preacher in town" and "[I]f there were a king in this country and I could gamble with my life, I would stake my life on Rosh Hashana 1988."  Well, it’s a good thing he didn’t bet.  He was clearly deceived—and wrong, since there was no rapture.  (He also predicted the rapture on three more years, but everyone lost interest).

This kind of arrogance of Walvoord and MacArthur, allowing their opinions to become modern-day doctrine, with no Scriptural proof, along with the failed prophecy of Whisenant, make these men false prophets.  So I would like to take the time to go back to the idea’s founders.  Last week it was John Darby.  This week we look at C.I. Scofield.  You will find their biographies  stimulating, to say the least.  

It is well known that Cyrus Ingerson Scofield (1843-1921) was instrumental in bringing the dispensationalist theology to the world through his Scofield Reference Bible, first published in 1909.  To quote Wikipedia:

“It was largely through the influence of Scofield's notes that dispensationalism grew in influence among fundamentalist Christians in the United States. Scofield's notes on the Book of Revelation are a major source for the various timetables, judgments, and plagues elaborated on by popular religious writers such as Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye; and in part because of the success of the Scofield Reference Bible, twentieth-century American fundamentalists placed greater stress on eschatological speculation…”

Scofield was really a Bible commentator.  What’s bad about that is that he never had a theological degree.  That did not stop him from the audacity of placing his notes among the pages of Scripture—a new idea at the time—for his Scofield Reference Bible.  The arrogance was breathtaking, but that’s not all.  I would not trust a Bible commentator that had a long series of questionable events in his past—would you?  Carrying on with other women while still married, for example.  Along with several other crimes.  What about the fact that his hijinks continued after he was allegedly saved, publically?  And here’s one:  though he never had a theological degree, he claimed to be Doctor of Divinity.  Let’s look at all the proof. 

Scofield claimed he was a lawyer.  But there was no record of any law degree or passing any bar exam.  He was apprenticed as a lawyer, but as you will see below, too many obstacles prevented his becoming a lawyer. A newspaper hounded him, good thing.  Start with an alias that he used frequently, a sure indication of a con man.

The November 29, 1877 edition of the Milwaukee Daily Sentinel reported that:

"A fellow named Charles Ingerson, who for 2 weeks past boarded at the Metropolitan Hotel, is under arrest for vagrancy. The fellow pretended to be the owner of a 1,300 acre plantation near Mobile and was paving the way to a union with a fair daughter of the South side, when his career here was suddenly brought to a close by the landlord of the hotel, Mr. Sam D. Maynard, who cared more to save the lady than to call him to account for the amount of the board-bill."

The same newspaper on December 4, 1877 followed up on this developing story, saying, "Ingerson, arrested on a charge of vagrancy by the landlord of the Metropolitan Hotel, is to be set free. His affianced settled his board-bill and the course of true love will again run smooth."

On December 17, 1877 we read further: "The fellow Ingerson, who talked freely of his large cotton plantation away down South, is again under arrest for vagrancy. He wheedled his affianced into paying his board-bill at the Metropolitan Hotel and has since managed to exhaust her pin-money and the loose change of a number of South Siders."

Luckily for "Ingerson," the local reporters did not find out that he was already married, having a wife and two daughters who were living in Atchison, Kansas.

We hear yet more of "Ingerson" from the October 3, 1878, issue of the paper, which was still off slightly on his real name that they had found out:

"Cyrus Schofield [sic] alias Chas. Ingerson, who has been hanging around here since the first of July, and who figured conspicuously at the Metropolitan Hotel in Milwaukee a year ago, was arrested here [Horicon, Wisconsin] Tuesday morning on a charge of forgery, dispatches having been received by Deputy Sheriff A. E. Hart from parties in St. Louis to hold Mr. Schofield until an officer should arrive to take him in charge. Mr. Hart lodged the gentleman in our county jail, where he awaits the arrival of the Chief of Police of St. Louis."

All of this is significant, because many years later, Scofield, who eventually became famous as a Congregationalist preacher and editor of the Scofield Reference Bible, also made the claim that he had maintained a successful law practice in St. Louis during the very same period of time that he was experiencing all these problems with the law in Wisconsin.

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How could Scofield have maintained a large law practice in St. Louis in this period, if he spent most of that time either in Wisconsin or in jail?

Wikipedia’s comments include that he was a “self-confessed” heavy drinker, and his dirty tricks included, most spectacularly, his time period helping a Kansas Senator, Ingalls, around 1873.  Mr. Ingalls was forced to fire him the same year he hired him because Scofield accepted bribes, stole political contributions intended for Ingalls, and forged signatures on bank promissory notes.  The last of those charges earned him jail time.

By now, some of my patient readers may be thinking, "What do we care about his background, as long as Scofield was saved in 1879?" and, "It is unfair to bring up offenses committed by Scofield before he was saved."  Well, fact was, he returned from Milwaukee to St. Louis around the end of 1877, and then left St. Louis in the late summer of 1878 to avoid a forgery charge. He was returned to St. Louis on October 8, 1878, and spent much of the following year in jail, until his case was finally dismissed in November, 1879.  But we have further: let’s see if his ‘salvation’ made a difference:

Scofield's conversion to Christianity is variously claimed to the year 1879 or 1880. He testified that he was saved through the witness of one of his “law clients,” Thomas McPheeters

Scofield's biographer Charles Trumbull states that McPheeters witnessed to Scofield and won him to the Lord in Scofield's law office. BUT efforts have been made to locate that office without success.

To add to the confusion, there are other stories of how Scofield was converted. A story that appeared in the Atchison, Kansas Patriot, and the Topeka, Kansas Daily Capitol, in 1881 stated that Scofield, having spent 6 months in jail in St. Louis, was converted while in jail. (I thought it was in his law office with a client?) But his ways did not change, even if that story is true; after his release from jail, he began a courtship with a Christian woman, alleging that he was now divorced from his wife in Kansas (which was not true - they were still married until 1883).

More to the story:

As of 1899, Scofield still owed a lot of people in Atchison, Kansas, a lot of money which he had not yet paid back. This was noted in an article in the Kansas City Journal on December 28, 1899. Scofield had attracted the notice of the paper by officiating at the funeral of the famous evangelist D.L. Moody.

D. Jean Rushing of East Tennessee State University, in her unpublished paper on the life of Scofield, notes,

"Atchison residents still sought restitution from Scofield after he became a clergyman, the paper reported, 'when approached by his Kansas creditors, Parson Scofield declared that he is poor and unable to pay.' Perhaps what Rev. Scofield owed in Atchison, Kansas, far exceeded his income sources--but  if he didn’t take 7 months’ vacation abroad, he might have made some headway in paying the debts."

Most fundamental Baptist churches today would expel such a scoundrel from the membership. They certainly would not make such a man into an almost infallible source of Christian doctrine, and yet that is exactly what modern dispensationalists have made out of Scofield.

What about Scofield's marriage? When he got saved, surely he returned to the wife and children he had abandoned in Kansas, and took up his proper role as husband and provider, like a Christian man should. Right? Wrong!

David Lutzweiler, in his Scofield biography, In Praise of Folly, notes that:

"Leontine [Scofield] had drawn up that first pleading for divorce. The papers were filed on December 9, [1881] charging that her husband had 'absented himself from his said wife and children, and had not been with them but abandoned them with the intention of not returning to them again.' The divorce was final in December 1883.

Scofield's followers have made all sorts of excuses for his divorce. They say that there was no way the newly saved Scofield could be expected to get along with a fanatically Roman Catholic spouse.

However, it is not clear that Scofield ever made any attempt to reconcile with his wife. But his Christian “scruples” (if he had any) about being unequally yoked to an unsaved spouse had nothing to do with it.

The August 27, 1881, the Topeka Daily Capital reported:

"Cyrus I. Schofield [sic] formerly of Kansas, late lawyer, politician,… has left the state and a destitute family and took refuge in Canada... In the latter part of his confinement, Schofield became converted, or professedly so. After this change of heart his wealthy sister came forward and paid his way out by settling the forgeries, and the next we hear of him he is ordained as a minister of the Congregational Church.

“In the meantime the courtship between himself and the pretty young representative of the Flower Mission continued.  Schofield represented at first that his wife had obtained a decree of divorce. When the falsity of this story was ascertained by inquiries of our district clerk (ed note:  She did not even file for divorce until several months later), he started on another lie that a divorce would be obtained, that he loved his children better than his life, but that the incompatibility of his wife's temper and her religious zeal in the Catholic Church was such that he could not possibly live with her.

Rushing reports on how Scofield's divorce was hurriedly finalized, right around the time that he was being ordained by the Congregational Churches of North Texas:

"Leontine Cerre Scofield filed for divorce just days before the council held the ordainment ceremony...later freed from 'being unequally yoked,' Scofield took notice of Hettie Hall Van Wartz, another northerner who relocated to Dallas, Texas, from Michigan. Hettie and her sister Mattie joined First Congregational Church just one day after the court filed Scofield's divorce.  Dallas County, Texas, issued a marriage certificate to Cyrus Scofield and Hettie H. Van Wartz and they married on March 11, 1884."

In the information that Scofield submitted for publication in the 1912 edition of "Who's Who," he omitted any reference to his first wife and his children. At that time, knowledge of his divorce and remarriage would have been very damaging to his reputation.

The 1912 "Who's Who" entry contains other errors that could have been based only on information supplied by Scofield. It states that Scofield served in the Tennessee Infantry from May 1861 "to the close of Civil War." But the Civil War ended in April, 1865. It is a matter of record that Scofield was discharged, then conscripted, then deserted to the Union—in 1862.

Scofield moved to St Louis, Missouri, and was living there at the time of General Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Virginia, in April, 1865. However, he told his biographer Trumbull that he was "12 miles from Appomattox" at the time of the surrender, and said he claimed his share of Union Army food supplies that were transferred by General Grant to Lee's troops.

In his "Who's Who" entry, he gave the date of his second marriage as July 14, 1884, which is 4 months after the correct date of March 11. There was a simple reason for this lie. Canfield states, "It was reported by Trumbull and others that Cyrus and Hettie were married after a friendship of about 6 months. Now backdating 6 months from March, 1884, takes us back to September, 1883. So Cyrus was seeing Hettie before he was divorced.  Cyrus was then still legally bound to Leontine and not morally free to court Hettie or anyone else."

Scofield prudently omitted any mention of his alleged, and totally undocumented, D.D. degree (Doctor of Divinity) in his "Who's Who" entry. There is no record of any educational institution granting Scofield such a degree, but that did not stop him from claiming to have such a degree on the front page of his Scofield Reference Bible. Actually, we have no record of Scofield receiving any formal theological education.

Not only did Scofield expunge from the public record any mention of his first wife and children, but it is a matter of record that he never provided them any substantial financial support, even after he started receiving generous royalties from sales of the Scofield Reference Bible.

Nowadays there are serious legal penalties, as well as social ostracism and disgrace, for fathers who fail to pay child support, but for Scofield it was evidently okay.

On May 4, 1921, Scofield wrote to his daughter Abigail, in response to a request for money, and advised her to pray to a Roman Catholic saint for the money.

The purpose of delving into Scofield's personal history is to point out that a man with his serious failings and problems ought not to be considered a good source of doctrine and practice for fundamentalist churches today. Actually, his continual habit of lying, according to Scripture, meant he was unsaved, and bound for hell.  See Revelation 21:8:

But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

So let’s throw him out for a source of doctrine on such an important subject.  Next week, let’s have a look at John Nelson Darby, who came up with the idea originally.

Acknowledgements: 

Wikipedia

Thomas Williamson, “C.I. Scofield, The Rest of the Story”