The Case Against Preterism: Part 2.

"Be diligent to study yourself approved unto God, as a worker who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the Word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15).


In recent weeks, I have received a lot of questions regarding Preterism and Partial Preterism. In many Evangelical circles, particularly in Reformed and Calvinistic Evangelical Churches, there has been a tremendous backlash against the "Left Behind" book and movie series, which features a secret or Pretribulational Rapture, that is, living Christians will instantaneously disappear and will be "snatched away" to be with the Lord. Advocates of the Pretribulational Rapture view cite such passages as 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 and 1 Corinthains 15:50-53
to support their views.

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17).

I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:50-53).


Opponents of the Pretribulational eschatological view argue that no where in these passages does the Scriptures explicitly teach that there will be a "secret rapture" and that such a view is presuppotionally inferred in the exegesis of these passages. Many opponets of the Pretriublational Rapture argue, that these passages simply argue for a literal second coming of Christ which is one and the same event as the rapture.

Opponets of Dispensationalism and Pretribulationalism often cite that the Pretribulational Rapture View is a very recent development in Biblical teaching and infer that John Nelson Darby and the Plymouth Brethren, who were the first individuals to formulate the Pretribulational Rapture view, thus demonstrating it's untruthfulness. However, just because a view is of recent theological development does not immediately negate it's truthfulness. This was the same argument used against the Protestant Reformers by the Roman Catholic Church, that the Protestant's theology was new and innovative and thus untrue. The test of whether or not a doctrine is true or not is not how old it is, this is known as a Chronological fallacy, the test should rather be if the doctrine is Biblical.