Study – Grow – Know

Jesus Apparently Wants to Beat Up His Body/Bride So She is Purified

September 24, 2014 at 7:38 AM 6 comments

When you stop to consider the way many people think today, there appears to be little logic utilized before arriving at certain conclusions. To hear Mid-Wrath, Mid-Trib, Post-Trib, and others tell it, Christ’s Bride must go through the Tribulation (or part of it) because this is how He will purify His Bride. In order to be purified, His Bride must suffer the ravages of the Tribulation. She must come out on the other side of it – provided those who make up the Bride live through it – battered, bruised, and dead. This is the only way that God can purify His Bride.

However, as Pete Garcia notes in his latest article, “The Anti-Rapture,” 1 John 3:2-3 shows us that it is not the Tribulation that purifies, but something else entirely:

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

The text tells us that we are NOW children of God (for all who have authentic salvation) and when He is revealed (at His 2nd Coming), we shall be LIKE Him. In other words, we will be changed as Paul notes, in but a brief second in time. We will go from having this corruptible, sin-laden body to one that has nothing to do with sin. The change occurs as we move from this life to the next, either through death or rapture. What helps to keep me from sinning? The focus on the fact that Jesus will return as conquering King one day.

Why would Paul tell us in Ephesians 2 that we are already seated with Christ if that was not as good as accomplished?

Garcia also points out that not only is the Church the Bride of Christ, but we are something more besides. The Church is His BODY. If the Church is intended to go through the Tribulation for the purpose of being refined and purified, then we can only assume that Jesus wants to beat Himself up. We are HIS Body, correct? If we are HIS body and therefore must go through the Tribulation to become purified, then in essence, Jesus is beating Himself into submission so that His Body will be like the Head (Him); perfected.

There is something terribly wrong with this reasoning that causes one to believe that Christians must go through the Tribulation in order to be refined and purified. If that’s the case, then I must ask about all those true Christians who have previously died. They will miss this extremely important time of severe testing in order to become purified. What happens to them? Because they died, they’re purified anyway? If that’s the case, then the Tribulation period is certainly not needed, is it? Or maybe the Christians who have already died are “second-class” Christians?

No, that can’t be right, because Paul says those who have died already are the first ones to be raised in the Rapture. Let’s look at exactly what Paul says here in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17:

16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.…

It is my contention that the above text refers to the Rapture, which I believe occurs prior to the Tribulation. But let’s say – for argument’s sake – that this is speaking of Christ’s 2nd Coming at the end of the Tribulation. If so, the dead still rise first and many of the dead go back to the time of Jesus and will miss the entirety of the Tribulation.

Yet, there are many today who want us to believe that the Church is so bad, so bereft of power, so impotent when it comes to the things of the Lord, that the only way God can restore the Church (Christ’s Bride) is to literally beat the crap out of her.

The Church is not Israel. Never has been and never will be. There is a huge difference in the way God has dealt and will deal with Israel and the way He has dealt with Christ’s Body, the Church.

People look at the church today and lament, “oh, it’s so terrible! Look at how weak and ineffective the church is! Such a disgrace!” I disagree. We judge that based on what we THINK the world should look like today, yet it is clear from Scripture that we are moving toward a time of absolute and unparalleled evil rising in this world. The job of His Bride is to evangelize the lost but too many believe that we are supposed to grow to the point of gaining full dominion over the earth and thereby ushering in Christ’s Kingdom at His 2nd Coming. This – in my opinion – does not at all square with Scripture.

Probably the biggest problem I have with those who believe it will take something like the Tribulation to purify Christ’s Bride is the amount of arrogance as well as judgment exercised toward people like me. These people arrogantly believe they are doing it right. Because they are not “shrinking” from the coming terrible time of persecution, they are better off. They are the ones who really please God. They bring a warm smile to His face. However, to them, God frowns on people like me to the point that He may even take back His salvation because of my “rebellion” against Him.

There is something hugely problematic about those who vociferously and angrily reject a Pre-Trib Rapture position on the alleged basis that this is the chosen method of God’s final purification process for the Church.

Yes, there are many Christians throughout the world being persecuted now to the point of death in many cases. But these Christians are NOT better than any other Christian at all. God does not love them more. That is their lot. It is what God has chosen for them, not for their purification, but for His glory. Those Christians who are persecuted to death receive more rewards, but not more love or more forgiveness.

There is NOTHING I can do to enhance my salvation and that includes anything that supposedly causes me to become “more” pure. I can gain more rewards, but I cannot change my current spiritual standing before God. It is impossible.

As far as God is concerned, when He sees me, He already sees Jesus’ righteousness in me since that has been imputed to my account. I am already righteous! My goal from the point of receiving salvation forward is to seek to live like Jesus. This process is called sanctification and it is something we all must participate in. The more we are able to do this (in His strength), the more we will glorify Him. We cannot make ourselves “more” pure. We are already as pure as God can make us positionally in this life.

Once we either die or are taken in the Rapture, the process of moving from this life to the next finishes the job, practically speaking. The wrath of the Tribulation (God’s wrath) does not make me more pure. To believe it does means that the Christian has included WORKS into their life and is counting on those works to purify him.

Our sin – past, present, and future – is completely washed away at the moment we receive salvation. We can add NOTHING to it at all! The Tribulation will allow some who come to Jesus then to bring glory to His Name just as the Christians under Nero did the same. They were not purified because of that persecution. They brought glory to God.

Bringing Him glory is the goal.

Entry filed under: Religious - Christian - Theology. Tags: anti-rapture.