well welcome to marking the end times I'm Mark Hitchcock and I'm I'm coming to you today from my office here at Faith Bible Church in Edmund Oklahoma and on today's program I want to talk about an exciting new discovery or what we could could really better call a rediscovery of an ancient source in support of the pre-tribulation Rapture now next week on The Tipping Point program with Jimmy Evans we're going to do an in-depth teaching on the pre-trib Rapture we're going to answer some of the main objections to it and we're going to give a
lot of the positive support for it so you'll want to be sure and join us for that program uh next week it's a an important program to understand the timing of the Rapture but today what I want to do is I want to get a head start on that and I want to do a deep dive into the one one of the most common objections to the pre-tribulation Rapture and that is it was never taught before 1830 by an Irish Brethren preacher named John Nelson Derby now those of us who believe in preach Tri rap
hear that all the time as an objection to our view we'll say well you it's new it's novel it just came about in 1830 through the teaching of Jay and Derby so obviously something that's that new uh can't be biblical but what I want to do is I want to look in an amazing it is an amazing new discovery a historical Discovery in support of the pre-tribulation Rapture so this is some great stuff out here today now before we get to that I want to mention in a bit we'll go to the subscriber only section
I want to answer answer some questions that have been sent and some great questions one question from dawn is the Bible tells us we can only get to heaven through Christ who died for our sins our sins are forgiven and they are no more the Bible also tells us we can't get to heaven through good works and the Bible also tells us we'll have an account of everything we've done in our life good and bad this is confusing to me and almost contradictory can you clarify well great question Don we we're saved by God's grace
through faith apart from works but someday as believer we will be judged for our works when we stand before the Lord our works don't save us but our works will be the basis of our rewards in in heaven but but there's also this language will be rewarded according to what we've done whether good or bad so we want to talk about what that means uh does that refer to our sins or to something else um a question from Dennis and one from Doug about Isaiah 17 we've been getting a lot of questions about Isaiah 17
in light of what's happening in Syria but Dennis asked what was Syria's territory at the time of the Isaiah 17 prophecy could lands currently experiencing Devastation be part of biblical Syrian territory and then Doug asks in the Isaiah 17 prophecy about damasc Damascus It also says the Fortified towns of Israel will also be destroyed I've read and heard a lot of exposition on Damascus over my many years of study but I've never seen anyone pause to consider the condition of Israel at the time of the Damascus destruction what are the Fortified towns why are they
uh destroyed too but today I want to talk about this amazing new discovery or rediscovery of an ancient source that supports the pre-tribulation Rapture now let me give a little background before I get into this I've been a member of a group called the pre-trib research center for over 30 years uh the pre-trib research center was founded by Tim Le and Tommy ice back in the early 90s and I've had the privilege we have a meeting every year in Dallas in December and had the privilege to be at all of those I think except two
and when we started that group or they started that group and I started attending over 30 years ago there was not one statement historical statement before Jay and Darby in support of the pre-trib Rapture so this was an argument that people often used against the pre-trip Rapture they would say and they would say accurately at that time we haven't found one pre-tribulation statement before John Nelson Derby in all of church history so the the answer the only answer we could really give to that is we would say well you know a lot of times doctrines
kind of fell out of favor for a period of time when were rediscovered you know for instance in the in in the 15 and 1600s the doctrine of justification by faith reemerged in the church well it had been there all the all along but it just was kind of reemerged or rediscovered during that time so that was kind of the only argument we could really give uh to that um this has been an argument that's been used throughout the years uh against the the preach Rapture um there was an interview that John Rich a country
western singer did with Tucker Carlson Jimmy Evans and I on his Tipping Point program did a a kind of a a rebuttal to that but he he used that argument you know the Rapture never appears in church history before 1830 and JN Derby U Michael Brown um and Craig Keener wrote a book a couple years ago called not afraid of the Antichrist and that's almost their main argument in their book they mention it six different times let me just read four these statements from this book I'm not afraid of the Antichrist this says he's kind
of quoting a preacher he heard Michael Brown is who said you see the teaching that the church would be raptured before the tribulation didn't start until 1830 no men or women of God before that time believed it the early church fathers Luther Calvin Wesley or others then another quote this is a minority view in church history no one articulated this view clearly until 1830 it did did not become widespread until the 20th century another quote from that book Darby was the first teacher to circulate pre-tribulation ISM with possibly one or two exceptions not much earlier
than Darby and then the final one yet there is no record of anyone promoting a pre-tribulational Rapture before about 1830 until that time virtually everyone from any Christian or even semi Christian tradition expected that Christ would Resurrect The Righteous and destroy the Wicked at the same time so back in the 1990s the first First pre-trib Source before Darby was uncovered there a it was a quote from a sermon preached by a man named Ephraim the Syrian back in the fourth or F fifth century ad has a clear pre-trib Rapture statement in it um around the
1400s there was another discovery of of a group of people called the dlites they followed a man named brother dolino in the 1400s in Northern Italy pre-trib Rapture statement there William Watson a great a historian and Scholar has found at least a dozen pre-trib Rapture statements in the 16 and 1700s the word wrapped is used the word of people being left behind uh Morgan Edwards in the 1740s about a hundred years before Darby has a clear pre-trib Rapture statement he was a founder of Brown University so in the early 90s we hadn't found one Rapture
statement by historical Rapture statement before Darby now there are at least 30 that we found and some believe that may be as many as about 50 that have been discovered but the most important one of these discoveries I believe that's just been uncovered in recent years is from an early church father named irus now you say well who is irus well irenaeus was the bishop of Leon in modern France in the 2 Century ad and his name means peace that's from the Greek word that means peace he was the leading theological luminary in the 2
Century he was born about 130 ad so think about that that's about 30 years after the Apostle John died and he's raised in Smyrna which is the home of polycarp who was a a disciple of John and polycarp was martyred there in Smyrna about 155 ad so araneus was in a unique historical position to converse and learn from students of the original disciples of Jesus now think about this irenaeus believed in a literal 10,000-year reign of Jesus on the earth he believed in a a literal future Antichrist who had ruled the world for 3 and
A2 years he believed in a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem he believed in a future 7-year time of tribulation and he believed in the restoration of the remnant of Israel during the millennial Kingdom now on all of these topics irenaeus writes as if his views reflected the views of those who had heard the apostles and that were passed down to him but he also believed in a pre-tribulation Rapture and this is an exciting amazing new discovery it's been there for almost 2,000 years but it's just been rediscovered and unveiled for all of us to see so
historically speaking irus is Ground Zero for the preach R Rapture I mean he's exhibit a for this view now I'm going to read you a quote from his book against heresies um Aron has fought a lot of heresies in the second century so has a big work called against heresies it's against heresies book five chapter 29 Section 1 here's what he says and therefore in the end when the church is s suddenly caught up from this it is said there will be great tribulation just has not been since the beginning neither shall be for this
is the last contest of the righteous in which when they overcome they're crowned with incorruption so notice in the end the church is suddenly caught up from all this then there will be tribulation so this looks like a clear pre-tribulation Rapture statement to me it's very difficult to explain that in any other way and that's amazing because again this is a man who was born 30 years after the Apostle John died now the problem is irenaeus in another place seems to indicate that the church will be on earth during the tribulation so there seems to
be a contradiction so let me read this this is against heresies uh book five uh chapter 26 Section 1 and the T horns when you saw are 10 Kings they received no Kingdom as yet but shall receive power as if Kings one hour with the Beast that would be the Antichrist and they will lay Babylon waste and burn her with fire and she'll give their Kingdom to the Beast and put the church to flight after that they'll be destroyed by the coming of Our Lord so it looks like the church is there on Earth being
persecuted by the Antichrist you say well that kind of seems to support you know the post-trib Rapture view that the church is on Earth um but notice uh the statement regarding the church in the tribulation you know that that he makes there again this this kind of looks like a post-trip Rapture now let me make a couple of important uh points here irus may have held to what's called a partial pre-tribulation Rapture view in other words that the the the spiritual Believers would be caught up to heaven or raptured before the tribulation and other believers
would be left behind to endure the tribulation period so at a minimum at a very minimal view we can say that at least irin is held to a partial pre-trib Rapture view but I believe from his writings that irenaeus used the word church differently than modern evangelicals do kind of is a more general term for God's people so we limit the CH the term church today to all believers from the day of Pentecost to the time of the of the pre-tribulation rapture we would call those saved during the tribulation tribulation Saints but IR in erus
used the word Church in a in a more General sense he uses it in his writings for all the Seed of Abraham both Gentiles during this age who are the spiritual Seed of Abraham and the saved Jews of the tribulation who are the physical seed of Abraham so when irus says that the church is going to be caught up before the tribulation but then he says the church will be on earth about being persecuted by the Beast he's not using that in the technical sense that we do I think he's simply saying the church that's
on the earth before the Rapture takes place is going to be caught up to heaven other people will then get saved during the tribulation he calls them the church the these tribulation Saints they're going to be on earth dur during that period of time so what I would say the the worst cas case scenario is again that IR is held to a partial preacher of rapture and the best case scenario is what I hold to that he actually held to a complete pre-trib Rapture for all believers he simply used the word church there are people
being on the earth persecuted by the Antichrist is just kind of his more general term and the people we would call then kind of uh you know pre we would call them tribulation Saints now having said all that of course the scriptures are ultimate final author in in the timing of the Rapture and the Bible tells us the church is going to be rescued from the time of Wrath that's coming I mean it tells us that the Rapture can happen in any moment if you read the book of Revelation the church is absent from Revelation
chapters 4 to 18 you have the church missing during this on Earth during this time of the tribulation so I believe the Bible and church history Point strongly toward the pre-tribulation Rapture of the church and when people bring up you know nobody held the pre-trib Rapture view before J and Darby we have someone who held it in the 2 Century irenaeus many people after that as well but again a man who knew polycarp who knew John who knew the Disciples of the Apostles and was taught by them so I think this is a strong strong
evidence from history church history of of the pre-tribulation Rapture view which means then that Jesus can come back at any moment and if Jesus can come back at any time then that means that you and I uh must be ready all the time and we need to be living in light of his coming so we don't want to be the have the pre-tribulation Rapture just be a doctrine that we hold we want it to be a doctrine that holds us and that changes us and transforms how we live and we need to be prepared for
the coming of Jesus Christ well as always thank you so much for joining us uh I I appreciate your your fellowship in in in these videos and your participation by watching Faithfully every week and if you know someone who I you is is confused about the J and Darby statement and doesn't think anybody before I held that view tell them about this video tell them to watch this video and listen to this and I think it'll be of great help to them we're going to go to the subscriber only section now and we're going to
answer these questions that uh we we mentioned earlier and uh if you're not a subscriber you can go to times.com you can sign up there for just $7 a month and become a subscriber we'd love to have you as part of our ministry so let's go now to the subscriber only section and answer these questions
