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Hey everybody, Pastor Steven Anderson here from Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona. In this video I'm going to be debunking Pastor Max H. Graves' teaching on the pre-tribulation rapture. Now first of all he starts out by admitting that there is no one clear verse in the Bible that teaches a pre-tribulation rapture and that the teaching relies upon going all over the Bible and sort of building a case and piecemealing it together. Make it very clear to you, to everybody, that there is no one verse in scripture that just completely states emphatically that the rapture of the church is pre-tribulational. So you have to take scriptures from the different portions of the Bible and develop, present a case in order to demonstrate that the rapture is pre-tribulational. Now those of us on the other hand who believe that the rapture comes after the tribulation but before God's wrath is poured out or a post-tribulation pre-wrath rapture, we have a clear scripture in Matthew 24 where the Bible says, immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken and then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory and he shall send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. So there we go. Jesus Christ comes in the clouds after the tribulation, the trumpet sounds, he gathers the elect and it's right there in a crystal clear scripture. Find one scripture in the Bible that says before the tribulation you can't do it, it isn't there. But let's go ahead and get his first piece of hard evidence for the pre-tribulation rapture. The first piece of hard evidence that we learned about was what we call the imminent return is that Jesus told us to look for the savior. He didn't tell us to look for wars and rumors of wars. He didn't tell us to look for, you know, great signs out of heaven. He didn't tell us to look for the sun to be darkened and the moon to turn to blood. He didn't tell us to look for any of those things. He told us to look for the savior over and over again. We're told to lift up our head and look for our redemption draweth nigh. So he told us there that we are told lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh. Well that's a quote from Luke 21 and remember he told us he didn't tell us to look for signs in heaven. He didn't tell us to look for the sun moving dark. He didn't tell us to look for any wars or he just told us to look for Jesus, you know, lift up your heads your redemption draweth nigh. Let's go to Luke 21 and look up that actual verse in context. Let's back up to verse 25 and there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity the sea and the waves roaring men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth for the powers of heaven shall be shaken and then shall they see the son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory and when these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh. So the Bible flat out tells us that first we are going to see the signs in the sun and moon and stars the waves and seas roaring all these different things all these signs and he says when you see those things lift up your heads and look for your redemption draweth nigh. He's teaching the exact opposite he says no the Bible only tells us to look for Jesus it doesn't tell us to look for any of these things but actually if you read the entire chapter he says when you shall hear of wars and commotions be not terrified for these things must first come to pass but the end is not by and by then said he unto them nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and great earthquakes shall be in diverse places and famines and pestilence and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven and of course you can read this in Matthew 24 Mark 13 Luke 21 he lists all the things and tells us to look for these things and he says when you see these things let me read it again it says in verse 28 and when these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh. So he specifically tells us that when we see the sun and moon and the stars and all these different signs happening that's when we lift up our heads and look so to say that he told us just look for Jesus don't look for any of these other things is just completely false and it's the exact opposite of what Luke 21 teaches and then he quotes Luke 21 to support his false argument. Remember the word immanency meant that he could return at any moment that there was nothing that we that would that has to take place on the calendar on God's prophetic calendar to uh to initiate the prophecy of the of the rapture the gathering together of the saints of his church so everything is in place for him to do that. So again he's first of all ignoring the clear teaching of Luke 21 of all the things that lead up to us looking up and lifting up our heads for our redemption draweth nigh but also second Thessalonians chapter 2 says now we beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by ladder as from us as that the day of Christ is at hand let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed the son of perdition who opposeth and exalted himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. That hasn't happened yet the Antichrist has not been revealed there has not been the great falling away and the son of perdition revealed him sitting in the temple of God and and claiming to be God none of that has happened yet and the Bible is clear it says that day shall not come unless these things happen first don't let anyone deceive you into thinking that the day of Christ is at hand. So second Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 1 through 4 just clearly debunk that point. Then the next thing we looked at very quickly was the identification that we're distinct from Israel the tribulation is not for the church for the church it's for Israel the Bible calls it the time of Jacob's trouble. Okay now first of all the Bible never calls it the time of Jacob's trouble in fact the only time that the term time of Jacob's trouble is ever used in the Bible is Jeremiah chapter 30 verse 7 where it reads alas for that day is great so that none is like it it is even the time of Jacob's trouble but he shall be saved out of it and this is a verse that's just being completely ripped out of context has nothing to do with this seven year period in the end times that they're claiming that it refers to it's referring to a single day as being the time of Jacob's trouble they just want to pin that title on whatever they want and just apply it to this seven year period in the end times with no evidence no basis okay but not only that if we actually look at the events of the tribulation in the book of revelation they don't apply to Israel because he's saying oh it's all about Israel it's the time of Jacob's trouble they actually apply to the entire world not just to Israel you know let me just give you a couple of examples and when he had opened the second seal I heard the second beast say come and see and there went out another horse that was red and power was given to him that sat there on to take peace from the earth and that they should kill one another and there was given unto him a great sword so the earth is at war it's not just Israel that's at war there okay and then if we look at the events of the fourth seal it says when he had opened the fourth seal I heard the voice of the fourth beast say come and see and I looked and behold a pale horse and his name that sat on him was death and hell followed with him and power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth to kill with sword and with hunger and with death and with the beasts of the earth so the events of the fourth seal again they don't affect Israel only they actually affect one fourth part of the entire earth okay so that's a huge area that's impacted by that and then if we were to go to the trumpets of God's wrath you know after the tribulation when God begins to pour out his wrath in the trumpets and vials again they affect the whole earth the trumpets affect the whole earth or one third of the earth or one third of the sea or the fountains of waters it's not all about the Jews all about Israel this is a myth in fact the only time the Jews are even mentioned in the book of revelation is to call them the synagogue of Satan in chapter two verse nine and chapter three verse nine that's the only time you'll even find the word Jews in revelation and then the only time you'll find the word Israel is in regard to the 144,000 12,000 from each of the tribes of Israel and of course there's a difference between being an Israelite and a Jew I'm not going to go into that for sake of time but to say that the tribulation is all about Israel or the Jews that's a contradiction of clear scripture because all the descriptions of it show it affecting the entire earth not just Israel the next thing that we learned is that we are that we have a position as children of the life according to God we're children of the light and of the day not of the night so we have nothing to fear according to first first Thessalonians chapter five now let's actually look up that passage in context and see if it says what he says that we have nothing to fear because we're the children of light I mean according to him he's saying that we're just going to be gone for all of this because we're going to be raptured in a pre-trib rapture let's see if that's what's actually taught in first Thessalonians five and keep in mind this is right after he just described the rapture in chapter four chapter five verse one but of the times and the seasons brethren you have no need that I write unto you for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the lord so cometh as a thief in the night for when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape but ye brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief ye are all the children of light and the children of the day we are not of the night nor of darkness therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober so he's not saying here that we are not going to be here for these events because we're the children of light what he's saying is that because we're not in the dark about these things they're not going to overtake us as a thief we will be watching and that's why he says therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober if we're supposedly going to be gone before any of this happens then what would we be watching for if supposedly there are no prophecies that need to be fulfilled and the rapture can happen in any moment imminence you know he can come today then there'd be nothing to watch for he flat out says ye brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief see it's going to come upon them unawares but we will be watching and that's why he even said let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober so it does not teach that we have nothing to fear of course we do have nothing to fear in the sense that greater is he that is in us than he is in the world and and though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we will fear no evil for christ is with us but you know we're going to be here when these events happen they just won't overtake us as a thief we know that the truth of the rapture is found in first thessalonians chapter four and that's just very clearly put the rapture does take will take place the problem with first thessalonians four is it doesn't give us a time frame it just states the fact that it will take place so according to him the problem with first thessalonians four is that it doesn't give us the time frame well all you have to do is keep reading into chapter five and you get the time frame so but at the beginning of chapter five is a conjunction okay so he leads into the timing as soon as he finishes talking about the rapture in first thessalonians four but of the times and the seasons brethren you have no need that i write unto you why not why not tell us the times and seasons for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the lord so cometh as a thief in the night so the reason why he doesn't have to write to us about the times and the seasons because we already know that the day of the lord so cometh as a thief in the night now if the day of the lord and the rapture were two different things then that would make no sense it wouldn't make any sense to say oh you don't need to know the times and the seasons of the rapture because you know the timing of the day of the lord is as a thief in the night if those were two totally different things that would make no sense but the day of the lord and the rapture are the same thing okay why is that because the sign associated with the day of the lord over and over and over again in scripture is the sun and moon being darkened just look up the term day of the lord old testament new testament sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great terrible day of the lord come over and over again the sun and moon being darkened is mentioned in conjunction with the day of the lord okay then in matthew 24 when he says after the tribulation christ comes in the clouds the trumpet sounds and he gathers his elect what does it say the sun and moon will be darkened at that time because the rapture takes place on the day when the sun and moon are darkened why because the day of the lord and the rapture happened at the same time and so that's why he tells them about the rapture in first thessalonians four and then he ties that in with the timing of the day of the lord so there's no problem with first thessalonians four there's a problem with the guy reading first thessalonians four because he's stuck on a pre-trib rapture he will not accept the clear teaching of chapters five verses one and two where he just flat out says look the day of the lord's so coming as a thief in the night that's why you don't need me to write to you of the times and seasons of the rapture same day and it's very very interesting when you start studying what the the way a jewish wedding was uh was laid out so after he goes through these pieces of what he called hard evidence for a pre-tribulation rapture then he gets into his soft evidence for the pre-tribulation rapture and he gets into the jewish wedding ceremony then as the groom went back to his bride in the chamber the members of the wedding party returned to the wedding guest and announced the consummation of the marriage upon receiving the good news the wedding guests remained in the groom's father's house for the next seven days seven days they celebrated for seven days all right they celebrated a great they had a great feast for seven days during the seven days of the wedding feast the bride and groom remained hidden in the bridal chamber for seven days of the hookah and afterwards the groom came out of hiding bringing his bride with him but with her veil removed so that everyone could see her he presented his bride to the people at the wedding party at the end of the seven days the last day of the wedding party the final day all right and if i had a nickel for every time i heard about this jewish wedding ceremony i'd be a wealthy man but you'll never find it in scripture they read all these books by christ rejecting rabbis and and christ hating jews about their wedding feasts and wedding ceremonies and then they try to foist these rabbinical talmudic jewish teachings onto the scripture but if you actually study the bible you won't find what they're talking about you know the bible goes through all these different feasts of the lord and holidays and and symbols and and rituals in the old testament but it never mentions a wedding feast ordained by god they say oh it's a it's a seven day jewish wedding well if you study your bible you'll find two different groups of people that had a seven day wedding in the bible the examples of this you'll find are jacob when he goes to laban that's laban's tradition of course laban is an idolater laban worships little statues of gods okay he is not one who is worshiping the true god of the bible okay and then secondly we see the philistines have a seven day wedding feast with samson okay so this is a totally extra biblical teaching it's not found in scripture so instead of just going with the clear teaching of scripture matthew 24 mark 13 and luke 21 which all clearly show that the rapture happens after the tribulation the clear reading revelation six and and tying that in no they go with extra biblical judaizing jewish fables is what they are by the way uh let me just say something dispensationally speaking we have to understand something this is a jewish book all right it's a jewish book very early on god established his people the jewish people almost almost every one of the people who penned this book are of jewish descent whether it's old testament or new testament much of what we find in the culture of this book is from the jewish from the jewish culture the jewish mind we have to take that into consideration when we read it then he holds up his bible and says this is a jewish book and and that's his justification for using these extra biblical jewish teachings to try to interpret the bible well the new testament is not a jewish book the new testament is actually negative toward the jews as being the ones who killed jesus and rejected jesus christ let me ask you this if if the new testament is a jewish book then why is the first epistle written to the romans why is the next epistle written to the corinthians people living in greece why is the epistle to the galatians there ephigians philippians colossians these are all gentile places these are all churches in asia or in greece or in macedonia thessaloniki right thessalonians okay guys like timotheus titus philemon and sure there's a book written to the hebrews there's the book of james directed to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad there are scriptures that are directed them but what about the book of revelation is it written to the jews no it's sent to the seven churches in asia so at the end times or tribulation or these different events are all about the jews then why does he send the book of revelation to seven churches in asia if the new testament is a jewish book then why is the new testament written in the greek language if it were a jewish book wouldn't it be written in hebrew or aramaic no it's written in greek why because it's not a jewish book it's a book being written to the entire world and no the jews culture does not help us interpret the bible because the bible transcends the culture of human beings okay it's it's for all people and it's from god who dwells outside of time and culture much of what we find in the culture of this book is from the jewish from the jewish culture of the jewish mind we have to take that into consideration when we read it he even goes so far as to say that it came from the minds of jews no this came from the mind of god not from the mind of jews okay this is god's word and today's jews are not even the jews of the bible because today's jews are christ rejecting people okay they're people who worship another god because the bible says if you don't have the son you don't have the father the jews of today worship a different god than the jews of the old testament so that doesn't make any sense to take jewish teachings from after christ and foist them onto the scriptures then lastly as part of his soft evidence for a pre-tribulation rapture he points to revelation four one as symbolizing the rapture and and he points to revelation four and five to prove that the rapture comes before the tribulation the bible says uh as a door is opened in heaven immediately he was he was transported into heaven right he raptured into heaven if we're gonna if we're gonna use that terminology which is perfectly fine caught up into heaven right is the is the word and we see some things about this john being a representation of the of a church-age saint right he is the contemporary of of the church so we know that in revelation chapter four and five not only do we see john in heaven but we also see the elders 24 elders the representation of the saints think about this for a month those those are those are people represented in the throne room in heaven well what's funny about this is that earlier in the sermon he claims that it's a literal interpretation that leads you to a pre-trib rapture and an allegorical interpretation that leads you to you know another position excuse me most important aspect of that of that truth is the fact that when you approach the bible dispensationally uh then it forces you to approach the bible literally and when you approach the bible literally then that uh that brings you to the conclusions that we presented last week well listen to revelation four one after this i looked and behold a door was opened in heaven and the first voice which i heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me which said come up hither and i will show the things which must be hereafter and immediately i was in the spirit and behold a throne was set in heaven and one sat on the throne so a literal interpretation of that verse is that one person john was caught up to heaven not even bodily not even physically just in the spirit one guy was caught up to heaven but he's taking the allegorical interpretation of saying oh this one guy represents all believers and i know he's only caught up in spirit but you know that represents the bodily catching away in the rapture when you know there's a bodily resurrection and then we which are alive and remain are cut up together with them in the clouds that's a big stretch and and here's the thing about it this whole thing of literal versus allegorical is foolish anyway because the bible is understood both literally and allegorically i mean the bible flat out tells us in galatians 4 that the story with isaac and ishmael is an allegory now of course we also believe that it literally happened but it's also an allegory so this either or between literal and allegory is a foolish way to read the bible anyway they claim we take everything literally well if you take everything literally then you're going to end up believing a lot of weird doctrine like for example the catholics go too literal when they think they're actually literally eating the body and blood of christ when they partake of the bread and the cup of the lord's supper or communion if you take the bible too literally in revelation i guess you think that there's actually a woman literally standing on the surface of the sun and then she actually has the moon on her head and that she actually is wearing a crown of 12 literal stars okay so that's just that's just kind of a silly argument anyway but who's being allegorical now you know we're we're taking the plain reading of the text in matthew 24 mark 13 luke 21 telling us that the rapture comes after the tribulation he takes an allegory and the allegory doesn't even make sense because how can one guy who goes up in spirit be a good representation of the resurrection of all christians who've ever lived and all christians on the earth at that time being bodily caught up to be with the lord so again thank you for watching and again if you're not convinced if you still think that there is any merit to this pre-tribulation rapture teaching i would strongly recommend that you watch our film after the tribulation it's free on youtube the whole documentary is there for you to watch after the tribulation there's also a verse by verse revelation series going through all 22 chapters of the book of revelation verse by verse and just annihilating this false teaching of a pre-trib rapture god bless you have a great day