The Rapture: The Corrie ten Boom Trump Card (#5)
The Parable of the Sower: Can We Apply it to Jacob Prasch’s Pre-Wrath Rapture?
The demarcation between followers of Christ Jesus and of Antichrist will be much sharper and more distinct during the seven-year tribulation than what we are presently experiencing in the churches.
This begs the question whether we can apply the parable of the wheat and tares in Matthew 13 to Prasch’s Pre-wrath Rapture. I don’t think so. The whole purpose of the enemy is to sow false Christians among the true Christians so as to mislead them into error and apostasy.
During the seven-year tribulation the enemy (Satan) will hardly come among the saints secretly and sow followers of Antichrist who openly bear his number 666 among the “wheat” (true Christians).
In fact, a physically furnished mark (666) will distinguish the false Christians from the genuine followers of Jesus Christ. Therefore, no one can claim that a falling away of professing Christians before the Pre-Wrath Rapture will precede the Rapture because there won’t be any Christians who are going to fall away from the faith, unless many of the saints who are going to enter into the seven-year tribulation are going to lose their salvation.
The No-Pretrib cronies must of necessity uphold the abominable doctrine that true saints can lose their salvation to counter the notion that only professing Christians will fall away during the seven-year tribulation.
The point I am venturing to make is that the most likely period for the Rapture to take place — that is, if the falling away of professing Christians is going to be the main sign of an impending Rapture — will be before the seven-year tribulation because the profession of faith in today’s churches is often so subtle that is difficult to discern between true and false Christians, unless, of course you ask them to present you with a testimony of their conversion to Christ Jesus.
Any concerted effort to profess that they are true Christians during the seven-tribulation will be so obvious to the naked eye, on account of the mark of the beast (666), that anyone will be able to see right through their charade owing to the fact that they will be the only ones able to buy and sell.
At any rate, the Bible does not say the Antichrist will appear on the scene first, and then after that the apostasy or falling away from the faith by professing Christians. It says, “for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.”
Prasch can only place the falling away before the Pre-Wrath Rapture if the time frame between the falling away and the disclosure of Antichrist is an indefinite prolonged period of time. This would, however, contradict Miriam Webster’s and other distinguished dictionaries’ definition of the word “and.” Bearing in mind that Antichrist will appear right at the beginning of the seven-year tribulation at which time he is going to make a covenant with the many among the Jews, it follows that the falling away may be any or all of the apostasies that have occurred throughout church history.
Jacob Prasch and his No-Pretrib buddies can argue as much as they like, the Antichrist makes his appearance right at the beginning of the seven-year tribulation when he signs a covenant with many in Israel (John 5:43)
If Miriam Webester’s dictionary of the word “and” is correct then Prasch must of necessity place the falling away from the faith of professing saints shortly before or just prior to the Pre-Wrath Rapture, causing the Antichrist to make his entrance on the world scene before the falling away instead of the other way around.
This alone strengthens the view that apostasia does not convey a departure from the faith by professing Christians but the departure of the Bride of Christ. Why? Because it is the only feasible way to accommodate the correct meaning of the word “and” in 2 Thessalonians 2:3.
Furthermore, the departure from the faith can only be attributed to professing Christians (unbelievers). Had it been attributable to believers, we would have to accept the doctrine that a saint can lose his salvation, which is unthinkable in the light of what Jesus says in John 10:27-30. How the Anti-OSAS bunch can believe they are stronger than God Himself and able to rip his hands apart to escape his salvation, is way beyond me.
John 10:27-30 Amplified Bible (AMP)
27 The sheep that are My own hear My voice and listen to Me; I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they will never, ever [by any means] perish; and no one will ever snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater and mightier than all [Satan and his host of demons and all of mankind]; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are One [in essence and nature].”
“No Way,” saith the gods on the Pre-wrath and Post-Trib mount of Olympus. “We are mightier and stronger than God and able to wrench open his and his Son’s hands so that anyone who wants to escape his salvific love can easily do so.”
Really? The Bible very clearly affirms that everyone who is truly saved will never even contemplate such a thing as turning their backs on God, wrench open his hands, if they could, and walk away from him never to return again.
2 Corinthians 7:10 Amplified Bible (AMP)
10 For [godly] sorrow that is in accord with the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation; but worldly sorrow [the hopeless sorrow of those who do not believe] produces death.
Once again, we must ask, why would God deem the alleged departure from the faith of a bunch of professing Christians as the most important sign that the Rapture is at the door whilst it is evident that no signs are given for the Rapture? That’s ridiculous.
Moreover, if no signs are given for the Rapture, then “apostasia” cannot be viewed as the most important event to take place before the rapture, in the sense of it being a departure from the faith.
If the Rapture occurs between the 5th and 6th seal as Prasch asserts, only a small number of living saints will experience it since most of the people among the Jews and Gentiles who are going to be saved during the seven-year tribulation are going to be slaughtered by Antichrist (Daniel 8:25).
