Reprovals and Exhortations

As you read about the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ there are many strong warnings of deception along with challenges for us to Reprove, Rebuke, and Exhort with longsuffering.

 

Titus 2:15

These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

 

II Timothy 4:1-4

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

 

From the first century through the third we can find the writings of the Church Fathers that experienced the same things that we are seeing today. Here Irenaeus reveals to us a method that was used by the false teachers in his time.

 

Irenaeus [A.D. 120–202.]

 

Chapter VIII.—How the Valentinians pervert the Scriptures to support their own pious opinions.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.ix.ii.ix.html

 

Such, then, is their system, which neither the prophets announced, nor the Lord taught, nor the apostles delivered, but of which they boast that beyond all others they have a perfect knowledge. They gather their views from other sources than the Scriptures; and, to use a common proverb, they strive to weave ropes of sand, while they endeavor to adapt with an air of probability to their own peculiar assertions the parables of the Lord, the sayings of the prophets, and the words of the apostles, in order that their scheme may not seem altogether without support. In doing so, however, they disregard the order and the connection of the Scriptures, and so far as in them lies, dismember and destroy the truth. By transferring passages, and dressing them up anew, and making one thing out of another, they succeed in deluding many through their wicked art in adapting the oracles of the Lord to their opinions.

 

You can see how false teachings introduced their views from other sources just as the Pre-Tribulation teachers do, and then they attempt to adapt the scriptures into their system to make it seem probable.

 

Here is an example from a Pre-Tribulation Website http://www.bibleprophesy.org/introwedding.htm

 

A Bible Study of the Marriage of the Bride of Christ (The Jewish Wedding)

http://www.bibleprophesy.org/introwedding.htm

 

"To understand bible prophecy about the return of Jesus Christ, we need to understand the Jewish Wedding as presented in scripture, because Christ spoke of his return with many Wedding Analogies. Matt 22, Matt 25, Rev. 19 & 21, Luke 12:36, "And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding..."

 

Why not just read Matthew 24 in context and see that his return is AFTER the Tribulation, and II Thessolonians 2 in context to see that the Apostasy and the Man of Lawlessness must be revealed first BEFORE our gathering at his coming and appearing. Or see that Jesus says clearly that he will raise us on the LAST DAY.

 

Lets review the above statement for it provides evidence that by bringing in outside sources like the Jewish Wedding, and then attempting to weave ropes of sand they disregard the order and connection of the scriptures exactly as Irenaeus forewarns.

 

Look at the use of Jesus' own words for he tells us to "wait for their lord, when he will RETURN FROM the wedding". The problem for the Pre-Tribulation teachers is they misunderstand this and teach that Jesus is going to return to take the TO the wedding.

 

Here is another quote from another Pre-Tribulation author of "The Waiting Time" that provides incredible clarity to the weakness of the Pre-Tribulation concept.

 

The Waiting Time

 

"The Apostle Paul said that the relationship of the Jesus and the Church is a profound mystery.  Because the Bible is silent about the events of the honeymoon in the Chador, all I can conclude is that the honeymoon occurs in secret.  After the wedding supper, he gathers the church from heaven and descends with them to the ground to do battle."

 

"The bride, his elect Holy Ones seen by the prophets, was gathered from heaven before the descent with Jesus: "

 

This Author then uses Matthew 23:30-31 to prove his point.

 

Matthew 24:30-31

 30"At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. 31And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

 

This is exactly as Ireneaus said for the "dismember and destroy the truth. By transferring passages, and dressing them up anew, and making one thing out of another" for as we have already studied Matthew 24 in context and verses 30-31 is the coming of the Lord with the Great Trumpet, nowhere prior to that was there a Pre-Tribulation rapture found in Matthew 24.

 

Mark provides even more clarity and depth to the same exact event where he takes them from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.

 

Mark 13:27

And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.