SOME OBJECTIONS TO GRADED RAPTURE
1
STATEMENT. Are there two
classes of people in the Church, partial overcomers and full overcomers? This theory teaches that there are two
classes, and attempts to create within the Church two groups of believers,
those who partially live in sin and those who do not, those who partially
overcome and those who fully overcome. This
class of interpreters uses the seven promises to the overcomer in Rev. 2. 3., claiming that the full overcomers will
receive rewards and reign with Christ, and that the partial overcomers are to
be finally saved but have no part in Christ’s reign. - F.
J. DAKE.
ANSWER.
It is exceedingly interesting to observe how clearly this objector
himself expresses the plurality of
raptures. He says: “This Rapture (1Thess. 4:
13-18) is the first of a series of raptures
that will take place during the First Resurrection. Besides this Rapture there
will be the Rapture of the Manchild (Rev. 7: 1-3; 12: 1; 14: 1-5), the Rapture of the
Great Multitude of Tribulation Saints (Rev. 6:
9-11; 7: 9-17; 15: 2-4; 20: 4), and the Rapture of the Two Witnesses, (Rev. 11: 3-13). The teaching of more than one rapture is not
only required and stated in the above passages, but necessary to make clear
what Paul meant when he said, ‘every man in his
own order’. ( 1 Cor. 15: 20-23). The Greek for ‘order’ is "tagma" and occurs only here. It is
used in the Septuagint of a body of soldiers and an army (Num. 2: 2; 2, Sam. 23: 13).
It means a company or body of
individuals. In order for every man to
be raptured ‘in his own order’ or company there must be different companies of redeemed
people saved and raptured at different periods."
This
admitted plurality of rapture - which is obvious - makes plurality in Church rapture a very
easy conception, only requiring (what Scripture provides) a simple
discrimination between ‘firstfruits’
and ‘harvest’: that is, not a distinction
wheat-character, but a distinction in grain-ripeness, with consequent
differently dated reaping. If reaping is
dated by ripeness, the problem is solved. So it is written:-
"When the grain is ripe,
immediately he putteth in the sickle" (Mark
4: 29).
2
STATEMENT. Selective Rapture
includes Selective Resurrection. Therefore
the 144,000 must consist chiefly of those who “sleep in
Jesus". But we do not believe that Revelation
14, will
bear the interpretation forced into it as evidence of Selective Rapture. We think that "the
Firstfruits" of verse
4 are those who have passed through the great tribulation unscathed and
that they stand with the Lamb on
ANSWER.
The answer is obvious. Our Lord states that the ‘wheat’ is sown between the two Advents, and therefore
is solely a symbol of the Church; that the ‘harvest’
is a reaping by angels - angels are never said to carry
Israelites into their refuge in the Wilderness; and, above all, He [Jesus Christ] is
Himself ‘firstfruits’
- His rapture, a rapture of firstfruits, has
already occurred. The
figure is conclusive. But other facts
are, if possible, even more so. (1)
These ‘firstfruits’
are the body-escort of the Lamb "whithersoever he goeth" -
therefore throughout the universe, and not only in Palestine; (2) they are
"purchased from among men" - not from Twelve Tribes alone; (3)
they are "purchased out of the
earth" - therefore they are not on the earth;
and (4) they are singing (among others) "before the throne" -
and the Throne throughout the Apocalypse is on high. It is obviously the
heavenly
3
STATEMENT. It is true that only Overcomers will be
caught up. But, then, every believer
is an Overcomer; see 1 John 5: 5. Unfortunately, this is not what
teachers of partial rapture mean by "an Overcomer".
Thus you see how utterly the idea of "a group of
overcomers"
is excluded, because the Manchild was caught up, to
God and His throne, to which no man, however faithfui
can ever attain. - G. V. WIGRAM.
ANSWER.
It is true that faith overcomes the world, and makes an overcomer in the
Apocalyptic sense; but it is a faith far larger than simple, saving acceptance of Christ that
makes what our Lord calls an ‘overcomer’. In the great chapter that reveals overcoming
faith - Hebrews Eleven - there is not a
single example of merely saving faith, but only of a whole life responding to
the whole Word of God:"through faith they subdued
kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions"
(Heb. 11: 33). Our Lord’s own words show that by an ‘overcomer’ He means vastly more than the saved:- "He that overcometh, and
he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give
authority over the nations" (Rev. 2: 26).
If all believers are overcomers, all
believers throughout all the churches of the world for nineteen centuries -
even including regenerate souls in the Roman Communion - have "kept Christ's works unto the end" ; not excepting
the Ephesian Angel to whom the Lord says, -
"Remember how thou hast fallen, and do the first works"
(Rev. 2: 5). Such a
conclusion is as remote from the facts as it is from the Scriptures. It is always a mystery to us where such
writers live: it is not in the Church or in the world known to us. "The cause of
Christ," says D. L. Moody, “is paralyzed
because of sin - the sin of believers."
4
STATEMENT. To teach that the church will be raptured by
instalments is to woefully distort the figures which God has given to
illustrate this blessed truth concerning His own - the church. The very thought is grotesque and repugnant to
one’s sense of order and fitness. When
the spiritual body is completed, it will be caught up to meet the
beloved bridegroom, one glance from His blessed eyes changing forever her
blackness into comeliness: one flash of His glory, and every spot and wrinkle
cleansed away by the last needed application of the precious blood of Christ,
the Lamb of God. - The Moody Monthly, June, 1925.
ANSWER.
It is rarely that this point of view - the magical change of all believers into perfection at death - is
so unblushingly stated. One verse,
alone, is a sufficient answer. Concerning
the believer guilty of one of the excommunicating sins, the Church is directed
by the Holy Ghost "to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh,
that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus" (1 Cor. 5: 5). The connection that such a gross backslider was
never converted, equally with the contention that because of his sin since
conversion he is lost, wrecks on this text; but, equally, radiant sinlessness
at the Coming founders. The believer whose works of wood, hay, and stubble are burnt in
judgment after his resurrection, is yet himself
"saved as through fire” (1 Cor. 3: 15): did
"one glance from the Blessed Eyes change his
blackness into comeliness,” before ever he had even been judged? The
Eyes of Fire, watching a church (Rev. 2: 18)
have a far graver function. A most
startling disillusionment awaits the believer who imagines that his sins, if un-confessed
and un-abandoned, will not come up for judgment because magically annihilated
at death.
5
STATEMENT. The holders of the
"partial rapture" theory might be asked, "To what degree must
one overcome before one may be sure of being caught away when the Lord
comes?" The answer would
necessarily be, either a perfection unto which no
believer can attain, thus shutting all out, or an imperfection which because of
its universal presence would also debar every believer. Thus the blessedness of the hope of the
Christian is stolen away, the grace of God is made of none effect, the power of
God is proven insufficient, and the purpose of God is hindered in fulfilment, by
the teaching of a partial rapture. The
teaching of a partial rapture confuses law with grace, salvation with rewards,
the hope of the Church with the hope of Israel, makes the types meaningless,
denies the utter depravity of the old nature and the full perfection of the
new, exalts the flesh and leads to spiritual pride, brings in works, and mars
the matchless grace of the living God.* - Serving and Waiting, April, 1932.
ANSWER.
The writer seems totally unaware of the doctrine of reward, so simply
and openly stated in Scripture, and by no one more so than by our Lord. The Lord’s ten cities for ten talents, and
five cities for five talents, is alone decisive of
graded reward for graded holiness. The very absence of a revealed standard of
holiness for rapture is a most powerful argument in its favour; for it not only
cuts out all possibility of presumption, for so none can "be sure of being caught away when the Lord comes",
but it exactly corresponds with the unrevealed date of the Advent - the one for
unceasing sanctity, and the other for unceasing vigilance. We do well to remember the words of Robert Murray McCheyne:- "There is a pride of race,
and a pride of place, and a pride of face,
but worse than all is a pride of grace - spiritual pride."
‘Grace’
can be so preached as to make us saints that we are not.
[*
Such intemperance of language is the danger of us all in controversy, and only
defeats the cause it is intended to promote. This is from a pre-Tribulationist;
but the post-Tribulationist can be no less severe. The very views for which Serving and
Waiting contends, Mr. A. Reese
characterizes thus (The. Approaching Advent of Christ, p. 116):- “Theories that, more than any other factor, not excluding Sacerdotalism, are making the oral teaching of our Lord of
no effect: theories that are blighting Bible study and Christian fellowship all
over the world: theories and traditions that have cursed the movement from the
beginning." God guard us
from intemperate judgments.]
6
STATEMENT. The exhortation in
Luke 21: 36 is not
addressed to the Church nor has it anything to do with the Church. The true Church will not meet Christ as the
Son of Man, but the Church will meet Him as her Lord. The passage means the Jewish remnant on earth
during the great tribulation, the time of Jacob’s trouble. They are to "watch";
we are to "wait". By their watching and praying and their
faithful witness bearing they will be accounted worthy to escape the awful
tribulation and finally when Christ comes as King stand before the Son of Man. The theory of a First Fruit Rapture is
unscriptural, confusing, and rests on a superficial study of prophecy. - Our
Hope, Jan., 1931.
ANSWER.
But the distress immediately preceding this prayer to escape is not the
wrath on Palestine (ver. 23), but "upon the
earth distress of nations, men fainting for fear" (ver 25); it is no physical escape achieved by sudden
flight, as that which our Lord commands to the Jew (Matt.
24: 16), but a moral escape by being "accounted
worthy" through perpetual vigilance and prayer; and it is not an
active escape but a passive – “to be set
[passive] before the Son of man by angels”,
as Dean Alford supplies. The supposition that the phrase ‘the Son of Man’ is Jewish is one of the inexplicable
slips of exposition. It ought to be
obvious that the Son of God is our Lord's divine title, the Son of Man is His
human title, and the Son of David is His Jewish title.
The
Israelitish escape is the fruit of sudden, intense
muscular effort, the Christian escape of prolonged moral preparation and prayer.
"Ye are the
salt of the earth,” our Lord says (Matt. 5:
13), "ye are the light of the world":
it will hardly be contended that the Jew, either then or now, is the light of
the world: "but if the salt have lost its savour"
- not its nature ; it is salt still: literally, if it has ‘become foolish’ -
"it is thenceforth good for nothing" -
the gross backslider is not only good
for no Christian purpose, but is the world’s worst stumbling block - "but to be cast out and trodden foot of men."
Exactly this happens in the
Tribulation.
7
STATEMENT. Of late, certain
men have confused Christians by teaching what they term "a partial
rapture". They claim that only
certain ones whose surrendered lives have made them worthy will share in this
glorious destiny. They say the others
have not reached a certain standard of spirituality will not share in it. -The
Prophetic News, Oct., 1937.
ANSWER.
The same issue of the Prophetic News says:-
"No greater book on prophecy has ever been
written than Seiss' Apocalypse." We wonder if the critic of partial rapture is
aware that Dr. Seiss
is one of "the certain men who confuse Christians."
Dr.
Seiss says (The Apocalypse, P. 371):-
"Some saints are raised, translated, and glorified in advance of others: there is in every instance some ‘firstfruits’ before the
general harvest. And so we are
taught, as Ambrose, Luther, and Kromayer admit, “that particular resurrections and translations occur at
intervals preceding the full completion of the glorified company."
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THE OVERCOMER
"He
that overcometh." It is there in this one or that has not
allowed the pressure of the world to prevail, has not let the salt of a
consecrated personality lose its savour, or the light of a steady witness to
Christ grow dim, who has used the God-given talents, be they ten or five, or
even if there were only one, as God would have them used - that the answer to
the message of the risen Christ is given. It is he who has met the buffetings of the
stream, and yet has not let the stream carry him away; he who, with whatever
slips and stumbles, has yet remained faithful in the very little; he who may
seem to himself sometimes to have lost much, yet has never lost heart - it
is he who overcomes, who is a victor.
-
CANNON J. K. MOZLEY, D.D.
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE BELIEVER
By W. P. CLARK
(From an Address to the
Grace! 'tis
a charming sound, harmonious to the ear,
Heaven with the echo shall
resound, and all the earth shall hear:
'Twas
grace that wrote my name, in Life's eternal book:
Grace taught my wandering feet
to tread the heavenly road:
Grace all the work shall crown,
through everlasting days.
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Yes!
no word in human vocabulary is dearer, and we can hardly over-emphasize the
wonderful fact that we are saved by Grace alone through faith - free, unmerited
grace with no works of our own, and that we shall never perish; but it is possible to emphasize Grace to
the exclusion of God’s infinite justice, and to attribute to Him an easy
generosity which would gloss over the un-confessed and un-forgiven sins of His
own people, and so deprive believers of all responsibility for their walk and
life and character. In view of such
statements from the lips of our Lord Himself - "the
Son of man shall come in His Glory and then shall he
render to every man according to his deeds", and, "Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me to render to
each man according as his work is" - it can hardly be denied that
reward is according to our works,
and will be awarded at the Coming of our Lord.
The
question is, what are the rewards, and whether they can be lost. Undoubtedly
the
Stronger
still is the parable of the "Faithful and wise
servant whom his Lord had made ruler over his household." According to the exegesis of some exponents of
Scripture, the servant ought to be classed as a believer when he is found doing
his Lord's will and is "set over all his goods",
but becomes an unbeliever when, not expecting his Lord’s return, he acts
wrongly and is appointed his portion with the hypocrites: the word "with" showing that he is not himself a hypocrite.
Such a contention would be absurd and
illogical, especially to those who hold the view of the final perseverance of
the Saints. The faithful and unfaithful
servants are all judged at the same place and time - the Bema - where no
unbeliever’s stand; therefore all are believers.
Many
other Scriptures prove the exclusion from the Kingdom of some believers, which
it would not be possible in a short paper to examine, but one outstanding one
may be referred to (1 Cor.
6: 9, 10); it expressly and in
unequivocal terms states exclusion. "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the
Our
Lord’s own promise is, "To him that overcometh
will I grant to sit with me in my throne." It will hardly be denied that all Christians
are not "overcomers". Even the Apostle Paul had to run, fight, and
buffet his body lest that by any means after being a herald he himself should
be rejected - disqualified for the Prize ; and so, "forgetting those things that are behind", he
"pressed towards the mark for the Prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus". If the
chief Apostle was in danger of losing his Crown, how much more we! A gift once received from God is certain, and
so eternal
life: not so a prize - as the
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