Don’t Bother Judging Me! :: By Ron Ferguson

Don’t bother judging me!

I get told I am too scared to go into hard times and, therefore, into the Tribulation.

I am supposed to be in the “wishful thinking group” trying to find contentment in avoidance, mythically carried away before the Tribulation comes knocking. That is the reason they say I believe in a Rapture; I don’t want to suffer.

It is conceited for people to say that, and those who do are usually very self-centered. Most of them, I believe, are found in the USA (from my experience). They don’t know what difficult times are but think they will be fine because they have it all worked out.

Ask those who live in Nigeria, Sudan, India, Iran, Congo, Saudi Arabia, Cameroon, China, and so many more that can be named about living in difficult times. Judgmental “know it all” people are short-sighted, speaking off the top of feathery heads and not according to life’s reality.

Such stated nonsense comes from an attempt by the adherence among these people to defend their post-Tribulationism. I don’t know how many Mid-Tribulationists are around these days, but they don’t seem to annoy me.

HOW BAD IS BAD?

2 Timothy 3:1 “Realise this, that in the last days difficult times will come.” We come back to the unresolved question of how bad is bad? Ask someone living in Florida that question, and you’d get a different answer from a Christian in Nigeria whose Christian neighbors were murdered by the advancing Muslims in that nation and your own life teeters in the balance. Those who propose such stupidity about being too scared are living in a matchbox divorced from reality. Go live in another’s shoes.

How many of you get literature from The Voice of the Martyrs or go online to see their site? Bad is really bad when you begin to understand how dreadful conditions are for the persecuted church.

What about the Barnabas Fund? Do you read that, you promoters of false attitudes? Those who criticize Christians who correctly teach RAPTURE before the TRIBULATION really have no concept about the world of persecuted and dying Christians. Let them rest in their parochial misconception.

Believers, don’t be perturbed by the false teaching of Christians entering the Tribulation. That is the very reason Paul wrote to the Thessalonians because they thought they were in the Tribulation (the Day of the LORD) already and were greatly concerned because Paul (rightly) taught them they would have no part in that coming wrath of God.

The scriptures say most decisively – “Jesus our Deliverer from the wrath to come.” “Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10). What part of that do they not understand? Or what about this one? 1 Thessalonians 5:9 “God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” What is the Christian destined for? Many wonderful things, but certainly not for wrath. Read and understand, those who are manipulators of the Bible. Add to this as well – Revelation 3:10 “Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth.”

We take a look at this Timothy verse again – 2 Timothy 3:1 “Realise this, that in the last days DIFFICULT times will come . . .” I just quoted the NASB there. Some of you would read “perilous” if you have the AV. The NIV uses “terrible, but Darby, Holman, the English Standard Version, and NASB have it more correct as “difficult.” “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.” The word there expressed means “times of hardship.”

How is hardship related to difficulty? What defines hardship and difficulty from annoying, troublesome, awkward, etc.?

Who defines difficult? Only God will do that. Christians in the Sudan could easily say they are in difficult times, but don’t judge everyone else’s “times” by the USA standard. There is a wider world out there.

SUBSTITUTION – WRATH – JUDGMENT – PENALTY

The doctrine of substitution would eliminate this nonsense about Christians going through the Tribulation. To begin with, no Christian will be in those 7 years. Nowhere is the word “Christian” used in the Tribulation descriptions. They are “saints,” Tribulation saints, and that reference is to Israel. They are the ones in focus. They are the same ones as in Matthew 24. The whole of Matthew 24, except for the first 3 verses, is set in the Tribulation.

*** THE SETTING IS 2 YEARS INTO THE TRIBULATION ***

“I have not met you before. Where did you come from?”

“I have always been here; still here in London. I am a Christian and was active in my church until all these horrible things arrived.”

“Are you here by yourself, or are more here?”

“Oh, the whole church is here.”

“I thought church people were going to be taken away or something before the supreme leader took control?

“No, that’s not right. We have to play our part and share in the penalty for sin. We were responsible for our sin.

“What part is that?”

“Well, it’s the punishment. God must punish sin, and we know that. We have to bear our share as well.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, on the cross, Jesus took all our sins and died as the Lamb of God. God is angry against sin. That is why we are having all these awful things now.”

“Are you saying God was angry with Jesus on the cross?”

“Yes, in a way. He was punished with the wrath our sins deserved.”

“Are you saying Jesus took your wrath?”

“Yes.”

“All of it?”

I don’t know, but we have to pay our part also. That is why we have to face the wrath of God now in some suffering. That’s why we are in the Tribulation. We need to wait for the Second Coming. And we have to endure.”

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Now, what did you think of that? I hope you thought it was ridiculous nonsense because it is. It is boloney but it exposes the fallacy of Mid and Post-Tribulationism.

The bottom line is that Jesus took ALL our sins and endured the last drop of God’s wrath against sin, OR he endured MOST of God’s wrath, but we have to go through that wrath in the Tribulation because we are guilty of sin and need to suffer our part.

That is so full of doctrinal errors, we won’t even go there but it has to be the position of those who deny a pre-Tribulation rapture, surely. Why else would they place themselves in the Tribulation under the wrath of God? How can they answer?

For those people –

1. The sacrifice of Christ was insufficient to atone, without reserve, for our sins.
2. The person must bear a part of that punishment.
3. It is a Protestant version of purgatory because we pay for our sins under suffering.
4. It is an utter depreciation of the Lord’s words: “It is finished!”
5. When examined carefully the position reflects salvation by works held by the Catholic church.

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In searching a little for the origins of Post-Tribulationism, I came upon this quote from John F Walvoord:

Historical Argument

[[ Practically all post-Tribulationists charge that pre-Tribulationism is a recent theory which surfaced in the writings of J. N. Darby about 180 years ago. Accordingly, they argue that Post-Tribulationism is the standard doctrine of the church, and they raise the question of why pre-Tribulationism was not advanced earlier if it is actually the teaching of Scripture. George E. Ladd, for instance, devotes a third of his book to the historical argument, and practically every writer on Post-Tribulationism emphasizes and re-emphasizes this point.

[1]. In offering this argument, Post-Tribulationism generally ignores the fact that most modern forms of Post-Tribulationism differ greatly from that of the early church or of the Protestant Reformers and are actually just as new or perhaps newer than pre-Tribulationism.

The Argument from Silence

Practically all Post-Tribulationists appeal to the fact that the New Testament does not state in so many words a pre-Tribulational rapture. Here, they frequently refer to the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24-25), which does not mention the rapture in its list of endtime events. They also argue that in the rapture passages, there is no clear statement of the great Tribulation following the event. Writers like Robert Gundry repeat over and over this argument from silence as one of the most convincing arguments for Post-Tribulationism.

[2]. Almost invariably omitted, however, is the confession that the Bible is also silent on a Post-Tribulation rapture and never mentions the great Tribulation as preceding the rapture. It is a curious note that Post-Tribulationists consistently deny pre-Tribulationists the right to use the argument from silence while using the same argument to support their own viewpoints. By spiritualizing the Great Tribulation, those who take it literally must find some other explanation. Generally, they tend to minimize the sufferings and to insulate the saints from the judgments of the Great Tribulation. Here Post-Tribulationists flounder badly, and their major disagreement on the nature of the tribulation creates serious problems. ]]

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The RC church denies a Rapture and holds to only one coming taken from the Apostles’ Creed that was written in the time when the Rapture was forgotten and suppressed, between 340 – 700 AD. That became entrenched in the RC church, and the Reformers, as they did in a number of things, just kept to the RC teachings. They were guilty of that. That is why God could say of the Reformers, “Your works are not complete.” The Sardis church represents the period of Church history relating to the Reformation.

One of the great flaws of the Reformation is that Israel is also dismissed, actually hated and cursed following Martin Luther’s contempt for the Jews. Also, there was no Rapture in Catholic theology, and that error passed into the churches.

Those who judge me saying I am a coward who does not want to face the trials of the Tribulation, you people take heed lest you fall. We judge no man as to hellfire, but we can judge you people as to very incorrect doctrine. You are not superior because you think you will be braver.

Shape up, you deceived people. “The great day of His wrath has come,” and it fell on Christ who was the sin offering. If Christ was the only one in all creation who could endure the wrath of God for us, who do you think you are? Who thinks you can withstand God’s wrath in the Tribulation?

Jesus is the One that delivers ME from the wrath (actually, the construction is “out of the wrath”) that comes on the earth if I am living before the start of it. What could be plainer? What could be simpler? The Tribulation is for a sinful, unrepentant world. That has not a thing to do with Christians, so it is impossible they will be part of the Tribulation. Just like Noah – he was lifted up out of the wrath of God and returned when it was over, just as the Church will be lifted up out of the wrath but will return when it is all over with the Lord at the Second Coming.

Do not judge me, you people who do not understand the meaning of the cross. On the great Day of Atonement, one goat was released into the wilderness, the scapegoat, bearing the sins of the nation to an unknown place. That is what my Lord did for me. You who call me a coward, did the goat take most of the sins with it, leaving some behind, OR did it take the entire lot? I will have no part in the Tribulation because it is not for me. All the wrath for me is gone, gone with the words, “It is finished.”

Check your theology because it is disgraceful. Are you trying to push a limited atonement onto me?

Revelation 3:10 “Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth.”

I am kept from it. Are you? Are you truly delivered from your sins through a complete trust in the work done for you at the cross? Christ took the wrath for you and will keep you from all the wrath of the future.

Noah was safe in the ark. The storms of wrath that came from God beat against the ark in fury, but Noah was safe inside. He was sheltered in the ark. Jesus Christ is our ARK, and we are sheltered in Him, safe from ALL wrath that is to come from God. It was the ARK (Christ) that took the battering, not Noah.

When Noah emerged from the ark, God did not cast a great helping of wrath on Noah, telling him, “Now you have to play your part in this, so here is some wrath for you.” Stupid and unthinkable, yet that is what Mid and Post-Tribulationists want to do to me; and when I deny the error of their way, then they say I am scared.

May the Lord rest His case.

Ron F

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