The Rapture: The Pretribulational Rapture Viewed From the Bible and the Ancient Church

Enjoyed the studies on this very controversial topic. The research as well as the arguments from the standpoint of the other positions on the Rapture.Another great study!!

This work is neither historically accurate or honest. It appears to me that the author either never read some of the early documents he misquotes or he deliberately manipulated texts by editing them to get them to say what he wants. Let's look at his citations to be sure I'm not misrepresenting his work. On Pg 76 he quotes the work of Victorinus, "On the Apocalypse of John" ch 6:14. He quotes, "The church will be taken away". This is true but he leaves out the context. In the verses before thisVictorinus says, (I'll just copy and paste the entire passage without editing)12. "And I saw, when he had opened the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake." In the sixth seal then was a great earthquake; this is that very last persecution."And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair." The sun becomes as sackcloth; that is the brightness of doctrine will be obscured by unbelievers."And the entire moon became as blood." By the moon of blood is set forth the Church of the saints as pouring out her blood for Christ.13. "And the stars fell to the earth." The falling of the stars are the faithful who are troubled for Christ's sake."Even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs." The fig tree when shaken, loses its untimely figs; when men are separated from the Church by persecution.14. "And the heaven withdrew as a scroll that is rolled up." For the heaven to be rolled away; that is, that the Church shall be taken away. Notice that during the time of the sixth seal the church is pouring out her blood through martyrdom and believers are separated from the church by persecution. This is spoken of by Jesus in Matt. 24:29 "Immediately AFTER the tribulation of those days" this sixth seal. Read it for yourself. There is no way this is before the tribulation, or Revelation 4:1 as some are fond of stating. Victorinus was not advocating the author's view. I called the author and asked him about this and his answer was so dishonest I won't repeat it, but I'm sure you can find his contact info like I did and ask him yourself. Next even more dishonest editing. Pg 76,77 Shepherd of Hermas. He edits a statement right out of the context which says the opposite of what he's trying to present as a truth. Notice how he tries to take the meaning of escape tribulation out of context. If the author had read the entire work he would have read this in ch 6:7 "Blessed are those of you who patiently endure the coming great tribulation and will not deny their life".Here is the context of great tribulation and escape....And the beast had on its head four colors, black, then fire and blood, then gold, then white22:10. I asked her about the four colors which the beast had on his head. And she said, "the black is the world in which you live, but the fire and blood signifies that the world must be destroyed by blood and fire, but the gold part are you who have escaped from this world. For as gold is tested by fire and becomes useful, so also are you tested by fire who dwell in it. Therefore, those who endure, and pass through the fire, will be purified by means of it. 24:1-6 If you read the entire 3 chapters for yourself you will see how the author's editing is dishonest.Next, Psuedo Ephrem in "Last Times, the Antichrist, and the End of the World"(Pg 76). I would suggest reading the book, The Resurrection Rapture by Eugene W. Emmerich III. It explains the 8 chapters of Ephrem in detail. Again read in context Psuedo Ephrem says believers are running away from Antichrist, the Restrainer of II Thes 2:7 is the Roman Empire and the Lord returns for the resurrection and rapture after Antichrist is revealed in the temple showing himself to be God by counterfeit signs and miracles. Next Cyprian Epistle 55. (Pg 77). Again if you read the statements unedited in the context of Cyprians epistle, you will see he uses, Dan 2 and the fiery furnace, II Macabbees 7,the mother watching her 7 sons put to death, as examples of escape and deliverance. In ch 1 he states that he and the people of Thibaris should be prepared to do battle with Antichrist. He couldn't be advocating a pre-antichrist rapture. Read the texts for yourself. The uneducated and uninformed fall for this kind of nonsence all of the time. Don'tbe fooled by the author's dishonest representation of the facts. Read Irenaeus-Against Heresies, Book V Chapters 25-36, Hippolytus-Dogmatical and Historical, "Treatis on Christ and Antichrist" ch. 60-66, Tertullian-On the Resurrection of the Flesh ch.24-27,41,42, Methodius-"Discourse on the resurrection part III" Chapter II, verse VII, and "The Banquet of the Ten Virgins" discourse 9, Tusiane, ch.3, Justin-"Dialogue with Trypho" Chapter CX, The Didache-ch.16, and the other church father's discourses on the Resurrection, Antichrist and the last day. You will see what they believed, the resurrection of the just and the rapture is one event, after antichrist.

GREAT book for proving the pre-tribulational rapture. Very quick read. I finished it in less than a week. Great resource for debating your mid- post- and pre-wrath- tribulational friends!

I have studied the Feasts of God and I love how Ken Johnson intertwines the prophecies of the festivals with the order of prophesied soon coming rapture and other events. You can bet it is a pre-trib rapture! Dr. Johnson does an excellent job of demonstrating this directly from the Bible. If you are a serious student of the prophesies of the Bible, You might also want to read his book "Ancient Messianic Festivals: And The Prophecies They Reveal" and "Ancient Book of Daniel" as well as "Ancient Prophecies Revealed: 500 Prophecies Listed In Order Of When They Were Fulfilled" In my knowing that Daniel's weeks of years are tied into the Shabuah (7 year sabbatical Shemitah year cycles), Ken Johnson brought the weeks of Daniel to life for me. Jesus will remove all those who are His off of the planet at the end of a cycle and the tribulation will start at the beginning of a cycle. I have absolutely no clue which year just the signs Christ said we are to watch for foretold in prophecy. Dr. Johnson also interprets history and Biblical data correctly placing the crucifixion [during a tetrad of blood moons and sackcloth suns over Israel] in 32 [and 33] AD using Daniel's timeline. He had to account for rulers changing the dates and times just as Daniel prophesied would occur. God had the crucifixion take place at exactly the right timing of the sacrifice to the minute on the correct day. Every spring feast fulfilled to perfection. There is no reason to believe the falls feast prophecies won't be the same right down to the exact minute day and year. Since the Book of Daniel has remained sealed, and only recently started to become an open book, I believe we will be seeing and understanding more and more prophecy as we get nearer to their times of fulfillment.Dr. Johnson also reveals the four hundred years of Biblical history that for centuries has been called missing history. It wasn't missing, it was simply written ahead of time and fulfilled to perfection! I look forward to reading his next publication.

As a leader of Precepts Upon Precepts Book Of Revelation Study at my church, I recommend it to all the participants in class.

I have been a mild skeptic about the hopefulness of protein rapture belief, but am convinced now. I'm now convinced that scripturally the pretrib rapture is solid Biblically.

Ken Johnson does a great job doing research, love his work. He says in the front part of his book he is a pretrib rapture adherent, as am I. He therefore pronounces a pretrib interpretation to every ancient quote. And of course all the scripture quotes have this same view. I started reading the actual quotes first for their actual words. There was hope for definitive proof from historical writings of the pretrib view. There were a few useful exceptions. My personal conclusion is pre trib or mid trib possibly wasn’t an issue for the early church writers. With the plethora of prophecy writers/Youtubers we have today, trying to put “meat” to unfulfilled Bible prophecy necessarily has the writers to pick a pre-trip or a post trib review for their timelines.

A decent book but I do think in all honesty that some proof texts and quotes from church "fathers" have the authors interpretation imposed upon them. There are quite a few grammatical and spelling errors too which give the book an unpolished feel, but I definitely did learn somethings from reading this book so overall I would recommend it.

excellent book opens your eyes to whats really going on, thoughtfull and scripture honouring look at this wonderfull thing called 'THE RAPTURE'...a good buy , am thrilled with purchse, it gives HOPE and long standing persevereance to all those who Truly Trust in GOD Almighty and His word......T.

Blblically sound.

Great book.

Excellent. Highly recommended for service, prompt delivery and product.