“Cut and Run” Christianity!

“Cut and Run” Christianity!
By Dene McGriff
Only in America; only in the fat and sassy western world, could Christians come up with a “cut and run” theology! If the pre-tribulation rapture folks are right, we will be pleasantly surprised, but if they are wrong, we are in for a rude awakening! Although the pre-trib doctrine may seem trivial to some, it may well be the keystone to deception as events unfold and Christians misinterpret their significance.

There are only two types of Christians in the “last days:” those who are deceived and those that aren’t. If you read what the Bible says in the gospels about this period of time, in Paul’s letters or the book of Revelation, you see two main groups: the persecuters and the persecuted, the deceived and those willing to testify.

All these are the beginning of sorrows. “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another… For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect (Matthew 24:8-10, 24)

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. “Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. (Matthew 10:16-22)

In the “last days” we can expect to see these two groups – real Christians willing to lay down their lives and apostate Christians delivering up real Christians. Just as the religious establishment opposed Jesus and the early church, the apostate church will oppose Christians in the last days as the scriptures above show. Some will be a part of the problem and some a part of the solution. Some will believe the antichrist’s lies and be part of the deception, even turning on other believers in righteous indignation thinking they are doing God a favor.

The Great Deception

How could this possibly happen? Consider for a moment the position of Tim LaHaye, Dave Hunt and the other dispensational Christians who are convinced that the church will rapture before the tribulation. They believe that the church era ends with the rapture and the Lord turns his attention back to the Jews. So what if the church doesn’t rapture and the following scenario occurs? Israel is attacked and America comes to her rescue. The two nations sign a mutual defense treaty and Christians hail the new peace. The walls Israel has built up are torn down and Christians rejoice because America has once again supported the nation of Israel. The Bible clearly tells us that the antichrist signs a treaty with Israel (described in Daniel 9:27). What if this is that treaty and the church is still there?

This scenario is completely discounted because no one believes that America could have a role in prophecy, especially in an evil way (since we have always been one of the good guys standing for truth, justice and the American way). They expect the antichrist to come from Europe and believe that America isn’t even mentioned in prophecy, so even if this were to happen, it would not be an important event. But there is only one country that is Israel’s friend that has the offensive military capability that could make such a defense pact work. Please read the book entitled “In Search of Babylon.” Could it be that a sort of European country (one with a European heritage, laws and language) that grew to dominate Europe is the little horn of Daniel 7?

The average pre-trib Christian won’t get it. After all, they are still here and America is a fine, Christian nation. Even though dispensational scholars realize that this treaty marks the beginning of the tribulation, most won’t recognize it. Christians will get caught up in a patriotic fever because America has sided once again with Israel. They will believe that God has chosen America for just this hour to stand against godless Islam and stand with Israel. This further enrages the Islamic nations who rise up against Israel and you have the Gog-Magog War, which is discussed in great detail on our website. The antichrist takes credit for the miraculous victory and continues to wage war in the region – no doubt bringing democracy and capitalism to the downtrodden masses of the world.

The pre-trib Christian will view this as a marvelous victory, and others will see America as fulfilling her destiny bringing the kingdom of God to the earth as the church and state ride roughshod over evil Islam. Unfortunately, there will be a few Christians caught in the cross fire – those few who understand prophecy and clearly see what is really happening. These will be labeled enemies of the church and state and will eventually be rounded up and eliminated.

Most Christians will fall into one of three groups: 1) the “cut and run” pre-tribbers; 2) those who think America is the chosen nation to bring the kingdom of God to the earth; and 3) those who don’t care about escaping the tribulation but will pay any price to be a testimony. They want to have their cake and eat it too – the good life (split level homes, cruises, soccer, SUVs and all) – only to be plucked out of the world before the going gets rough. They have every expectation of either escaping or ushering in the kingdom by force. They have no thought to stand and testify at the cost of losing everything including their lives.

In the book of Revelation, the word “testimony” is used eleven times. In Chapter 1, it refers twice to the “testimony of Jesus”. In Chapter 6:9, it refers to the “testimony they had maintained.” In Chapter 11:7, they “finished their testimony.” Chapter 12:11 sums it up by saying, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” The root of the word “testimony” in Greek is “marturia” or the word for martyr. In these verses, we see the saints overcoming because they are willing to give up everything, even their lives. These are the few who have not been deceived and are willing to give up their lives for the testimony of Jesus. These are the saints who seek no gain in this world but are willing to follow the saints of old to an ignoble and unfair death.

Why is this Important?

The issue is not the rapture. The issue is not escaping tribulation. The issue is not whether we live or die or whether we suffer a little or a lot. The issue is the testimony of Jesus. The issue is His people, His workmanship and their role in the end. Will they stand with Him until the end as Christians have down through history in the face of beheadings, being burned at the stake, or crucified upside down? I’m not even going to deal with the arguments for and against the pre-trib rapture here because it is discussed in detail in other articles. The pivotal issue is the need for two witnesses because God is going to judge the world. The world is going on trial and God must, by His own law, produce two witnesses if the world is to be guilty as charged. Those witnesses are his two peoples: Israel (at the physical earthly level) and the church (at the spiritual heavenly level).

God has an eternal plan that began in the book of Genesis to work through a people in order to bring salvation to the rest of the world. In the third chapter of the Bible after the fall of man, we see the promise to Adam that “his seed” would bruise the head of the Serpent, Satan (Genesis 3:15) These were the descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – the people of Israel. “I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.” (Genesis 32:13) In Genesis 22:18, we see the promise to Abraham: “and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me." The Old Testament is the story of that people and the land they live in leading up to the coming of the Messiah. God’s promises to the Jews are eternal and unwavering; and in Romans 11 we see that one day they will recognize the Messiah.

Once Jesus the Messiah came, a new era began as salvation and a spiritual rebirth are available to all who open their hearts to Him. This is the beginning of the church – a spiritual people born of the Spirit. Over the next nearly 2,000 years we observe two incredible things – the growth of that body of believers throughout the world, and the little remnant of Jews brought back to their promised land.

Although there are some who would say that since the Jews rejected the Messiah, they should be cut off, fortunately, God doesn’t give us what we deserve. Even though Israel is called a valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 36), God will still breathe life into them when the time comes. Even though we don’t deserve salvation, God loved us even when we were unlovely and enemies of God.

So we see that God has two peoples – Jews and Christians – those chosen to live in their land and birth the Messiah for the salvation of the nations; and those that are born into a relationship with God though Jesus Christ. The first are recipients of God’s promises to his chosen people who physically inhabit the land and the latter to those people who receive a spiritual rebirth and are looking for a heavenly city.

This brings us to the focal point of prophecy – Chapter 11 of the book of Revelation. We see two witnesses called the two olive trees and the two lampstands testifying on the earth. God is about to judge the earth but can only do so based on the testimony of two witnesses. (Deuteronomy 17:6) “Two” refers to a corporate testimony. Israel is always referred to as the olive tree(s) (it is even on their national flag) and the church as lampstand(s) (Revelation 2 & 3). These are God’s two corporate peoples (physical and spiritual) testifying on the earth to His greatness and faithfulness standing together. Satan makes war against these two witnesses. The word “war” means a “worldwide conflict.” You don’t make war against two people as some propose, but you do against two people groups. We have written on this subject extensively so I’m not going into more detail here.

We come back to the question. Why is this so important? God can’t accomplish His job without both the church and Israel present. The apostate church comes up with reasons for getting rid of one witness or the other. One group, the dispensationalists, say that the church dispensation (age) is over, so it raptures and God turns His attention to Israel (who has to face the Tribulation alone). Another group says Israel lost its right to any promises when it rejected the Messiah, so the church inherits all of their promises and the nation of Israel is of no prophetic importance. A subgroup will even say that the church will take dominion over the earth and set up the kingdom. Both groups ignore the fact that there are two groups of 144,000 in Revelation: Israel in chapter 7 and the Church in chapter 14, as well as the two witnesses in Revelation 11. These are God’s two witnesses.

The net effect of believing in the “cut and run” rapture doctrine is that 1) Christians do nothing to prepare for the “Tribulation”; and 2) since they don’t plan on being here, the events overtake them and they don’t understand what is happening; and 3) one of the two witnesses is removed. The church continues in its complacency and the clergy keeps taking care of the laity so they can go about their business undisturbed during the week. Pastors seldom mention prophecy except in passing and when they do, they usually get it wrong. They don’t understand prophecy because 1) they were taught out-dated interpretations; 2) they don’t expect to be here; 3) it is too negative, scary, and unnecessary if we are all gone anyway. So they just ignore about a third of the Bible. We have explained in other articles why they don’t understand prophecy. They were taught by well meaning Christians who interpreted prophecy based on 19th or 20th Century historical and political realities but they fail to take a fresh new look at prophecy today.

Blind Support for Israel

We firmly believe that God brought the Jews back and allowed the nation of Israel to be reestablished after 2,000 years. We recognize it as not only a miracle and fulfillment of prophecy but a sign that we are getting close to the end. But Christians and Jews alike should be aware of the trap being set. Dispensationalists are great supporters of Israel. They see the restored nation of Israel as the fulfillment of prophecy (which is absolutely true). They believe that those who bless Israel will be blessed, and so forth. This leads the evangelical church to be supportive of any American government that supports Israel. Blind support for Israel and the American government (her only apparent friend in the world) is a trap. Yet, many well-meaning Christians support any administration that supports Israel.

This sets the church up for more deception. The Bible clearly tells us that a great “end times” economic, religious, and military super power will sign a mutual defense treaty with Israel marking the beginning of the seventieth week of Daniel; only to turn on it in three and a half years (Daniel 9:27) . Again, we have written extensively on this subject so I am not going into great detail here. Doug has written even more; so, please see his articles. Suffice it to say that the leader of a great “end times” economic, religious, and military superpower signs a treaty with Israel (Daniel 9:27). That “leader” is the antichrist who later turns on Israel and the church. There is and has been only one nation that has consistently supported Israel and has the economic and military power to enter into a defense treaty with her. If we get too “political” in our support of that nation – supposedly “blessing” Israel – we may inadvertently find ourselves supporting the antichrist.

Conclusion

The deception will be great and the American evangelical church is set up for a fall. Christians predisposed to the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine only compound their ignorance by not understanding prophecy. If ever there were a time to really understand prophecy, it is now. Christians run the risk of completely missing it and falling into deception and apostasy.

Just like anything in the Christian life, divine revelation is required before our fallen minds can understand. After running a website for the past eleven years, I have received hundreds of emails from Christians around the world. I have never received one saying, “Wow thanks! I never saw that until I read your site.” Instead they read, “You have confirmed what the Lord has been showing me. Thank you.”

Unfortunately, we all get locked into our own way of thinking and look for ways to justify and reaffirm it. I have never encountered a doctrine that draws out more emotion, energy and ire than the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine. This “cut and run” theology discounts the role of the saints of God in the last days, sets Christians up for deception, dampens interest in prophecy, and fosters the lukewarm spirit in today’s Laodicean church.