Will There Be a Pre-Tribulation Rapture?

Joseph Herrin (05-13-2010)

For those waiting to listen to the audio messages from the first series of meetings in North Georgia, I received the audio files this week. I have edited and forwarded them to a brother in Christ who manages the Heart4God website for me (Thank you Ifeanyi!). As soon as he has them posted I will let you know. I do encourage the saints to listen to these messages as they are Yahweh’s words of instruction and encouragement to His people who must embrace a life of surrender to the leading of His Spirit if they are to be numbered among the firstborn and attain to the first resurrection.

You can keep checking the audio page of the Heart4God website to see when they are available. The series will appear under the heading “If You Would Be Perfect.”
http://heart4god.ws/audio.htm

I will post their availability as soon as I am made aware of their availability and have time to post again. During days that I am speaking I do not have much time available to get on the computer.

Will There Be a Pre-Tribulation Rapture?

Recently, I received a correspondence concerning the subject of the widely accepted belief that there will be a pre-tribulation rapture of the saints. I thought it would be helpful to many to share this correspondence.

Subject: Information please

I have been receiving messages forwarded to me by a friend... I don't always have time to read everything, yet do try to scan the messages to receive insight and understanding.

What I'm wondering - I checked your site and didn't find the answer to this question so that is why I'm asking you via email - do you believe in the Blessed Hope with those IN Christ, sealed with the Holy Spirit, will be removed prior to the wrath of God 7 year tribulation time?

The person sending me your messages states he does not believe in The Catching Away of The Body of Christ and believes all those in The Church, will go through the tribulation...

Thank you for responding.

In Him....abiding in His love and grace....secure in His rest...filled with HIS peace.

(Name Withheld)

Dear (Name Withheld),

Thank you for writing and asking your excellent question. There is a tremendous amount of false doctrine present in this hour, and it is the responsibility of every son and daughter of Christ to "study to show themselves approved unto God, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." This specific teaching of a pre-tribulation rapture is one area in which all saints should seek the mind of the Father for themselves. Many have accepted doctrines that appeal to the soul and flesh. Without a doubt, avoiding all trouble and distress is an idea that appeals to the natural man. However, it is not an idea that harmonizes with the lives and teachings of Christ and His apostles.

Please consider the following verse as a starting point for your own exploration of this subject.

Mark 13:19-20
"For those days will be a time of tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created, until now, and never shall. And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect whom He chose, He shortened the days."

Christ is declaring here that the days of tribulation to come will be so severe that it would seem as if all life would perish in the evil of those days. For the sake of God's elect WHO WILL BE PRESENT DURING THOSE DAYS God has chosen to shorten the days. If He did not, even all the elect of God would perish.

There are MANY scriptures that reveal that it is the will of the Father for His sons and daughters to pass through great tribulation before they enter into glory. Christ is the pattern for all those who would stand as overcomers. He had to suffer before He entered into glory, and so too must all who would share in His glory.

Luke 24:25-26
And He said to them, "O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?"

Philippians 1:29
For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake...

In your e-mail you spoke of the "blessed hope" of a pre-tribulation rapture. The disciples and apostles never spoke of a rapture as the "blessed hope." It was the resurrection of the dead which is the blessed hope of the believer. Yet many who do not want to entertain any thought of walking through fiery tribulation with Christ have fixed a false hope on a rapture that will not take place.

I encourage you to labor to divide between the voice of your soul and the voice of the Spirit. The soul will always desire to avoid suffering, but such is not the plan of our Father. Many ministers and Bible teachers proclaim that which appeals to the soul, and have consequently amassed large followings, but they are leading multitudes into deception.

I pray that the Spirit of Christ might guide you into all truth.

May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days,

Joseph Herrin

I do have other writings that relate to the subject in various ways. Many Christians believe the removal from the earth of Believers is the next great event to be anticipated. This is a false expectation. Even as the Jews were looking for the Messiah to appear in a manner that their souls found attractive, so too has the church fallen into a similar error. He will appear in a place, and in a manner, that will offend many Christians, even as His appearing 2,000 years ago offended many Jewish believers.

One writing that focuses upon this subject is titled “The Next Appearance of Christ.”

http://parablesblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/next-appearance-of-christ_09.html

The apostle Paul prophesied that “in the last days” men in the church would turn aside from truth and embrace myths and fables. He told Timothy that men would not endure sound doctrine, but would heap up to themselves teachers to tell them the things they wanted to hear.

We are living in the hour of the fulfillment of the apostle’s words. I encourage those who read these writings to develop solid habits of Scripture study for themselves. In an hour when deception is sweeping across the church like a flood, it is only those who are anchored who will not be swept away into error.

May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days.

P.S. There is so much in the news at this hour that I want to write about, but time has not permitted me. The nomination of Elena Kagan as the 112th Supreme Court Justice is a watershed moment in this nation. It will be the first time that there will be no Protestant Christians serving on the nation’s highest court. Ms. Kagan is also a homosexual, and her appointment is in keeping with the direction of the current Presidential administration which has staked out a clear course of promoting abominations, inviting the judgment of Yahweh upon this land.

I am reminded of the Kingdom of Israel under King Ahab.

I Kings 16:29-32
Now Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of Yahweh more than all who were before him. And it came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshiped him. So he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria.

The present government acts as if it is a trivial thing that the nation has heaped up judgment against them by the great weight of her sins, murdering her unborn babies, degenerating into rampant immorality where fornication is the norm and chastity is now a great rarity. The nation and her leaders have not repented, but are pursuing a course of ever increasing wickedness.

Tragically, the people of God have not appeared as salt and light to this generation. Christ told His disciples that they would lose their saltiness if they did not count the cost of discipleship and submit the entire rule of their lives to the Father. A church that has given Yahweh only a portion of their lives is not fit even for the manure pile. Such words offend, but they are not my words, they are the words of Christ.

Luke 14:25-35
Now great multitudes were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying,' This man began to build and was not able to finish...’ So therefore, no one of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions. Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

People of God, can a Christian be considered salty today if he/she has not given the entirety of their life, possessions, and relations to God? Christ stated that they would lack the flavor, and taste, the aroma of His Father.

The judgments coming to America are first for the people of God. In the nomination of Elena Kagan I can truly see the tribulation and chastisement that must soon appear to those who are people of God. A recent article relating to her nomination states the following:
























Elena Kagan - Scourge of God’s People?

Wright told LifeNews.com that Kagan was Associate Counsel to President Bill Clinton and Deputy Assistant to him for domestic policy -- which, under Clinton, advocated abortion.

Kagan was credited by the ACLU with “shaping Clinton’s policy on hate crimes," Wright noted.

"The Clinton Administration treated pro-life activists like violent criminals, creating a task force in the Department of Justice and a grand jury to investigate peaceful pro-lifers. This raises serious concerns that she shares the hostile view that religious beliefs are a form of 'hate,'" she said.
[Source: http://www.lifenews.com/nat6220.html]

(Those familiar with the symbolic meaning of the numbers 6 and 22 will appreciate the importance of the numbers in the above link. 6 is the number of the flesh man and 22 symbolizes flesh cutting, or the removal of flesh. Yahweh will raise up scourges in this nation whose ultimate impact will be to remove the flesh from His people.)

I have no doubt that in the very near future that a great many “religious beliefs” will be subject to criminal prosecution. This blog post will itself be a chargeable offense in the near future. Yet, persecution is not an evil thing. The church has become degenerate in its ease. Persecution is a great separator and refiner. Those who refuse to bear hardship will fall away, leaving a living and vital core remnant of true believers who will be purged, purified and refined as they walk as aliens and strangers in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation.

What I see occurring in the nation is very much related to the subject of this post. Yahweh will not remove His people from persecution and tribulation. It is intended to refine them as silver and gold, which is put in the fire. Those who are proclaiming an escapist rapture will fail to prepare themselves to stand in days of trouble.

Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws

Parables Blog: www.parablesblog.blogspot.com

Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063