M-G: 3.15.25 // Foreviews 4Sale

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, right? Foreviews are insertions of theological ideas that interfere with or contradict sound doctrine of Scripture by denying truth or distorting it for gullible believers willing to buy a good deal that, in reality, is unrealistic and a lie. Buyers beware! There are a lot of false teachers out there having a form of godliness but denying its power (2 Tim 3:5)! From such sellers, turn away!

I always remind my wife whenever she goes shopping that "a good deal is not always God’s will." I can tell you that Foreviews 4Sale are manmade and never a good deal, for the agenda behind the seller (Satan) is to get us out of the will of God by any means possible (subtle or blatant) so that we cannot bring glory to Him. Let me give you an example of a subtle deal by the devil heard from the pulpit of an evangelical church.

Have you ever heard of good preachers unwittingly advocate that there is coming a groundswell revival across America? It is presented as a fact rather than being conditioned upon the Rapture. It is misleading. It would be more accurate to qualify that statement by including the phrase "barring the rapture," but that is not included in the opinion being propagated. Nonetheless, out comes the unthinking amen from the congregation!  

It sounds so spiritual to vocalize it publicly, and we all desire that unbelievers would come to Jesus. But the Rapture of the Church is the next eschatological event to take place (see Note 1), whether or not 2 Pet 3:9 is quoted all day long as a proof-text that the Rapture has to wait for one last revival or spiritual awakening in America or anywhere from around the world! From Pentecost in 30 A.D. to the present, the impending Rapture event has always been on the verge of happening! 

Manmade “foreviews” are all antithetical to the teaching of Scripture, just as the belief in a coming revival that contradicted the teaching of the imminent (at any moment, impending, looming overhead, “about to come,” et al.) return of Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Cor 15:51-52; 1 Thess 4:13-18; Rev 3:10). The imminent feature of the Rapture indicates that there was nothing prophetically to happen or be fulfilled after the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) preventing this epochal event from becoming a reality. The Apostle Paul, who died in ~64 A.D., was looking for the imminent return of Christ in his day (cf. “we” in 1 Thes 4:16-17; 1 Cor 15:51-52; Php 3:20). 

It is true that the time of His return for the Church and seven years later (at the minimum) before His arrival on earth to reign (the Second Advent, 2A) are unknown. With the previous eschatological event (the rapture of the Church), there are no signs, and the timing remains completely non-predictive. For Christ to return to earth to rule and reign for one thousand years, the world has yet to experience the seven years of tribulation before 2A can happen. 

Even with the Divine disclosure providing a biblical foretelling that the 2A is going to happen only after the conclusion of the Great Tribulation period on earth, no human will ever know the day or hour of His arrival as King of Kings and Lord of Lords (cf. Mt. 24:36-44; 25:13; Acts 1:7). Concerning the timing of 2A, the saints will finally know on the other side of eternity because we will be coming back with the Messiah after the Great Tribulation has run its course down on earth.

I cannot speak for you, but I find it confusing and frustrating at times when a preacher/teacher cites a reference to support the Rapture that contextually refers to 2A or vice versa. What may help you in this regard is paying attention to the context and understanding the main similarity of 1A (First Advent) and 2A (Second Advent) and noting a salient dissimilarity between the Rapture and the Advents. Some highly esteemed Bible scholars still treat 2A in two phases or stages: the Rapture of the Church (Phase I or Stage I) and in Phase II or Stage II, the Messiah returns to earth to reign and rule after the Great Tribulation.

So that you know, I am very cautious when I take a different path from conservative evangelicalism; I really try to avoid going beyond the established norms as a matter of practice unless there are compelling reasons to do otherwise. Yahweh knows my heart that this is not an arrogant thing I pursue and is rarely done on my part. My approach or outlook violates no biblical truth and makes terrible sense concerning distinguishing the Rapture from 2A.  I, too, used to teach that the Second Coming was two-phased or in stages, but now, I take a different conservative theological tack for clarity.  

Ask yourself this question. What is the main thing the two Advents share in common? Jesus is physically on the earth, right? He came to earth via the womb of Mary in 1A, and He will physically come to earth to rule and reign from Jerusalem for a thousand years with the 2A. Both Advents require the Messiah to be physically on terra firma. 

At the Rapture event, Jesus is physically in the clouds and not touching the earth, calling us up to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thes 4:16-17) and returning to heaven. So, we need to cite the right verses for heavenbound and the correct verses for earthbound and stop citing eschatological verses in the wrong direction, yes? Treating the Rapture as separate from 2A helps with that, not to mention that we have a seven-year gap between the Rapture and 2A. Keeping them separate makes perfect sense to me, anyway!

Essentially, all I did was remove the Rapture from 2A as a phase or stage and restored it to its unique parenthetical quality in the scheme of end-time events, which begins with the Rapture of the Church. Some may huff and puff, but they will get over it! It is not a personal practice to break fellowship with another over eschatology except for one reason: those who reject the idea that Jesus is coming back. Such heresy makes our Lord and Savior out to be a liar (cf. Jn 14:3), and I want nothing to do with such folks.

In the meantime, what should we do as believers in Jesus the Messiah with a rapture looming overhead? I like the translation of Titus 2:13, LSB, 

Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ [emphasis mine]. 

The tense in the Greek for looking is in the present, meaning a continuation; the idea is to keep looking. Hope here (Greek, elpis] never carries the nuance of uncertainty but rather anticipation, expectation, certainty, assurance, et al. 

Our spiritual state of mind and affairs is to glorify God in all that we do right now in the present tense (cf. 1 Cor 10:31; 2 Cor 5:10) as we commit to carrying out His will for our lives regardless of the times, looking, with due vigilance, for His appearing and living a life of purity or godliness (cf. 1 Cor 15:58; Titus 2:12-13; 1 Pet 1:15-16; 1 Jn 3:3). For how long? Until we are raptured or R.I.P. It’s a lifestyle that manifests the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23). If we claim to be an apple tree, others should see apples dangling from our branches, right? As James, the Lord's half-brother said, Faith without works [fruit] is dead (Jas 2:20).

In the meantime, do not be spiritually duped and buy into any manmade Foreviews 4Sale, for we have been fully warned about false teachers peddling their wares. They want you to buy into their falsehood that Jesus returning is a lie (cf. 1 Sam 15:29; Titus 1:2; Heb 6:18), or that there is still something that has to take place before He returns (recall that Paul was looking for Jesus' return), et cetera. Jesus is coming for His Church at any moment (cf. Jn 14:3)! Be vigilant! Foreviews 4Sale are nothing more than tampering with the Word of God for a darker purpose. <>< 

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Note 1. An alternate school of thought believes the genesis of the seven-year Tribulation Period is the next eschatological event and not the Rapture. Such a view teaches that the rapture of the Church will take place at the midway point of the Tribulation Period. Refutation of this view is not the scope of this article, but I wanted to mention it because there are good people who subscribe to a mid-tribulation rapture of the Church. Again, I would not break fellowship with such believers who take up this position.