An example of Pretrib eisegesis. • Pretribbers believe in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, therefore, they skip the first five verses of 2 Thessalonians 2 and start with verse 6. • “And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.” • Starting there, they make a wild guess and say that one identified in Scripture only as “he” is the Holy Spirit. • Then, with no Scriptural basis whatsoever, they assume that the Holy Spirit MUST leave the earth in order to stop restraining the “Evil One” or the “spirit of lawlessness”. • Scripture doesn’t say that but they are sure that that is true. • Based on their guess that “he” is the Holy Spirit, Pretribbers then make the assumption that the Holy Spirit must leave the earth in order to stop restraining evil. • Based on a guess and an assumption, they are possessed of the conviction that if “he” whom they guess is the Holy Spirit must leave the earth in order to quit restraining, which is an assumption, “he” must take the Church with Him. • Now, standing on a guess and an assumption Pretribbers are convinced that they will go with Him. • Therefore based on a guess, an assumption and a conviction, Pretribbers know that the Rapture is Pre-Trib. • Assured of that, they go back and read the first five verses of the chapter and discover that we cannot be gathered to Christ unless the Man of Sin is revealed first. • “Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and OUR GATHERING TOGETHER TO HIM, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for IT WILL NOT COME UNLESS THE APOSTASY COMES FIRST, AND THE MAN OF LAWLESSNESS IS REVEALED, THE SON OF DESTRUCTION, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-5) • That conflicts with what Pretribbers have already believed, a belief based on a guess, an assumption and a conviction. • Placing their guess, their assumption and their conviction ahead of the clear and plain Scripture that precedes it, Pretribbers decide that those verses must be speaking about the Day of the Lord which comes after the Tribulation but because they are convinced of a Pretrib Rapture, they start speaking in Doublespeak. Now Pretribbers are forced to conclude that WE ARE RAPTURED BEFORE THE TRIBULATION AND THEN RETURNED TO EARTH, AT THE END OF THE TRIBULATION, so that we may be gathered to Him the second time. That does not make sense, which is why Pretrib books all skip the first five verses of 2 Thessalonians 2 and start their argument with verse six. Almost without exception, the passages used as proof texts by Pretrib expositors can be taken apart with equal ease. The more I look at the Pretrib Doctrine, the more evidence I find that it is a doctrine built on wishful thinking and eisegesis. David...
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 02:37:57 +0000
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