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POSTED 01 JANUARY, 2003
Editorial:
The Problem of Messianic
Pre-Tribulationists
by
J.K. McKee
editor@tnnonline.net
“Why do you look at the speck
that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice
the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you
say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out
of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own
eye?” (Matthew 7:3-4).
In many cases, the Messianic
community spends far too much time criticizing
mainstream Christianity, and far too less time
concentrating on internal issues and internal
problems that we face. Sadly, what can happen is
that we can criticize the Church for believing
in a particular doctrine, and the Messianic
movement is portrayed as being “spotlessly
clean,” when in actuality that same doctrine or
teaching has every bit as much a stronghold in
the confines of Messianic congregations as it
does Christian churches. This is something that
has come to my attention over the past several
years, and it is imperative that we address this
issue lest we think the Messianic movement is
devoid of internal problems.
Since the release of When Will
the Messiah Return? in Fall 2002, I have
received numerous e-mails and communications
from both Christians and Messianics. Many
Christians have told me that they have been
seriously challenged to examine the Scriptures
once again and re-evaluate their position on the
pre-tribulation rapture. Many Messianics have
told me that they have been reinforced in their
conviction of a post-tribulational gathering of
the saints. But then there is a sector of
Messianics who have reared their heads up and
have clearly fallen into the trap of the
clutches of pre-trib.
Many of you know that the
pre-tribulation rapture teaching is problematic.
While there is considerable debate over texts
like Matthew 24:29-31, “after the tribulation of
those days,” and 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, “at the
last trumpet,” nowhere in Scripture can the
ideology of pre-tribulationism be supported. Its
ideology, pure and simple, is blatant escapism.
Its ideology advocates that the Lord cannot
protect His people during the Tribulation period
and must give them an escape. Its fruit has
created a generation of Believers who are not
prepared in the least to possibly be martyred
for the cause of the Messiah, but instead need
to be pulled out at the first sign of trouble.
Now we can see the
pre-tribulation rapture doctrine’s fruit most
clearly evident in Christianity today. An entire
generation of new Christians are coming to the
forefront who believe that Yeshua can return at
any moment for the saints. Many of these
Christians are immature in their faith, and are
unwilling to possibly give up their lives for
the faith. They are unwilling to possibly face
the antimessiah/antichrist or even be put
through some difficult times. Some may say this
is being judgmental, but this is absolutely the
truth. This is largely based on my experience as
a college student with my own contemporaries who
constitute the next generation of “Christians.”
Now it would be unfair to simply
chastise Christians and say that this problem is
not in the Messianic community. While the
pre-tribulation rapture is largely a Christian
issue, pre-tribulationists in the Messianic
community, as of late, have made themselves
known. Friends, whether we realize it or not,
this is a problem.
Many of you are most certainly
aware that pre-tribulationisism abounds in the
liberal branches of the Messianic community. It
is present among those “Messianics” who believe
that keeping the Torah is optional, including
observing Shabbat, the Biblical
festivals, the dietary laws, etc. They believe
that disobedience to the Torah is not sin,
and as expected, they are mostly pre-trib. These
people believe that God has two groups of elect,
Israel and “the Church,” and are
dispensationalists. In my early days of being in
the Messianic movement, I had frequent debates
with these Leftist Messianics (if they can even
be called “Messianic”). But this is not the
problem that I am referring to.
Since When Will the Messiah
Return? was released has come forth an even
bigger problem than Leftist Messianics asserting
their pre-tribulationism, or for that same
matter more Rightist Messianics who are Torah
observant asserting pre-tribulationism. The
problem that has arisen is that a group of
people who believe in the restoration of all
Israel, Judah and Ephraim, are asserting their
pre-tribulational views. Now I can give some
leeway to Messianics who reject the message of
the Two Houses of Israel being restored in the
end-times and are pre-trib. This is somewhat to
be expected. Many of them because of their
dispensational stance will not see the message,
or perhaps will not want to see it. But people
who believe in the Two Houses of Israel reunited
in the end-times? No. If you truly understand
the message of the unification of Judah and
scattered Israel/Ephraim—you can in no
way, shape, or form be pre-trib.
Daniel 9:7 tells us
“Righteousness belongs to You, O Lord, but to us
open shame, as it is this day—to the men of
Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all
Israel, those who are nearby and those who are
far away in all the countries to which You have
driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds
which they have committed against You” This
prefaces the prophecy of Daniel 9:24 which says
“Seventy weeks have been decreed for your
people…” Surely, if you understand the message
of all Israel being reunited in the end-times,
and know how the Northern Kingdom of
Israel/Ephraim was scattered abroad, you can see
how Daniel 9:7 references all Israel, “your
people.” This people is the people that goes
through the Seventieth Week of Israel, more
commonly called the Tribulation period.
The way it is has been said to me
in recent days, by supposed Two-House advocates,
is that the Body of Messiah is to be raptured to
Heaven prior to the Tribulation period, and
then during the Seventieth Week Judah and
Ephraim are to be reunited and restored to the
Land. Hello??
Now, I could possibly see a pre-trib
dispensationalist who nominally sees the message
of the restoration of all Israel say something
like this. This pre-tribber, while believing
that he is part of “the Church” and not Israel,
could believe that those of scattered
Israel/Ephraim would be gathered back to the
Promised Land in the Last Days, but obviously
because he will be removed via the rapture to
Heaven it would certainly not involve him. With
a few modifications, this is essentially what is
being taught by “Two-House pre-tribulationists”
and presents us with some serious problems.
Why does it present us with
problems? The first problem should be obvious.
It annuls critical prophecies such as Isaiah
11:14; Jeremiah 3:18; 30:3; and Zechariah 10:7,
10 that speak of the ingathering of both Houses
of Israel into the Middle East. After all, if
some of us, or our posterity, are being prepared
to one day be gathered into the Land of Israel
to fulfill these prophecies, which seemingly
occur during the Seventieth Week, it is
important that we take heed of them. But if we
are to be raptured prior to the Tribulation,
what is the point of us studying them? They do
not concern us.
The second problem that exists is
less obvious. Consider the fact that 1
Corinthians 10:11 says “Now these things
happened to them as an example, and they were
written for our instruction, upon whom the ends
of the ages have come.” What Paul communicates
here is that what occurred to the Ancient
Israelites in the Torah is an instructive
warning to us, specifically those who are to
live in the Last Days. Among the Two-House
community today are many, including myself, who
believe that we should follow and study the
Torah. Even more specific is the admonition that
we are to study the Torah so that what happened
in the wilderness to the Ancient Israelites does
not get repeated—so we can more properly
understand the times ahead and the Last Days.
Is there anywhere in the Torah
that implies a pre-tribulation rapture of the
saints? Let us consider the widely known example
of Moses and the golden calf:
“Now when the people saw that
Moses delayed to come down from the mountain,
the people assembled about Aaron and said to
him, ‘Come, make us a god who will go before us;
as for this Moses, the man who brought us up
from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has
become of him.’ Aaron said to them, ‘Tear off
the gold rings which are in the ears of your
wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring
them to me.’ Then all the people tore off
the gold rings which were in their ears and
brought them to Aaron. He took this
from their hand, and fashioned it with a
graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and
they said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who
brought you up from the land of Egypt.’ Now when
Aaron saw this, he built an altar before
it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said,
‘Tomorrow shall be a feast to the
Lord.’
So the next day they rose early and offered
burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings;
and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and
rose up to play. Then the
Lord
spoke to Moses, ‘Go down at once, for your
people, whom you brought up from the land of
Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They
have quickly turned aside from the way which I
commanded them. They have made for themselves a
molten calf, and have worshiped it and have
sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, O
Israel, who brought you up from the land of
Egypt!’” (Exodus 32:1-8).
This event in the life of the
people of Israel is one that we must take strong
heed to. Moses is up on the mountain receiving
the Ten Commandments from God and, because he
delayed his coming down, the people got
restless. As a result, they demanded that Aaron,
Moses’ brother, make them a visible god that
they could worship. Aaron, giving into the
people’s demands, had them collect gold and made
a molten calf, which they proclaimed to be
“God”:
“Now when Moses saw that the
people were out of control—for Aaron had let
them get out of control to be a derision among
their enemies—then Moses stood in the gate of
the camp, and said, ‘Whoever is for the
Lord,
come to me!’ And all the sons of Levi
gathered together to him. He said to them, ‘Thus
says the
Lord, the God of Israel, “Every man of
you put his sword upon his thigh, and go
back and forth from gate to gate in the camp,
and kill every man his brother, and every man
his friend, and every man his neighbor.”’ So the
sons of Levi did as Moses instructed, and about
three thousand men of the people fell that day”
(Exodus 32:25-28).
When Moses finally did return to
see the people corrupted into idolatry, his
reaction was very strong. He commanded those
Levites who were true to their faith in the Lord
to come to him and then eliminate those who were
committing the sin and three thousand were
killed by the sword.
The Israelites in the wilderness
seemingly could not wait forty days for Moses to
return from the mountain with the ordinances
that were to establish their nation. Today, we
too await One to “come down,” the Messiah
Yeshua. He has been in Heaven at the right hand
of the Father for almost 2,000 years and the
Scriptures tell us that He will return.
When in the wilderness, the
Ancient Israelites could not wait for perhaps
another day to allow Moses the time to descend
from the mountain and instead demanded that a
visible idol be created for their worship. When
Moses found them engaged in the horrendous sin,
chaos ensued and many were slaughtered. Moses
had the idol destroyed and ground into a powder
which was mixed with water for the people to
drink.
Those of us who are waiting for
the return of the Messiah need not follow the
same example as our forebearers in the
wilderness. We do not need to get restless so as
to start building our own golden calves and then
find out that when Yeshua does return that He is
angry beyond belief and casts us from His
presence. Sadly, this is exactly what has
happened with the pre-tribulation rapture
teaching. Many who blindly accept it are
worshipping golden calves. They are reveling
around idols and one day Yeshua will return and
smash them, showing up unexpectedly “ruining
their plans.” Contrary to what some might say,
the pre-tribulation rapture does not encourage
holy and set-apart living. It spawns careless
living and minimalist faith—because one might as
well “have fun” because Believers will not have
to go through the Tribulation period.
Hopefully, we should know better.
Let us take this instructive warning from the
Torah seriously and not be reveling around
golden calves as we compare our Messiah’s return
to Moses’ return down from the mountain. Let us
be patient and fighting the good fight of faith
as we have been called. Let us remember that our
calling is to restore the divided Israel and
thus hasten Yeshua’s appearing. Let us remember
that we have a job to do, which is not to be
escapists and run at the first sign of trouble.
Through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, we
are called to stay and fight. And, we must take
on the false teaching of pre-tribulationism and
see that it is purged from our midst.
So what are we to do about the
problem of Messianic pre-tribulationists we are
presently encountering? We pray that they see
the error of their ways. We pray that they will
see that they are not helping the restoration of
all Israel, but actually working against it.
But, in the event that they do not turn from
this grievously false and escapist teaching, we
pray that as these people talk about the reunion
of all Israel, and then couple it with their
pre-tribulationism, that they expose
themselves—because they will. They will expose
themselves at the very least as being immature,
and perhaps even as plants of the enemy,
performing the will of the enemy and not that of
the Lord.
All I can say to
Messianic pre-tribulationists is that when I was
still in the Church I was post-trib and that was
critical in my becoming Messianic and Torah
observant. If I were pre-trib, I would not be
writing this today and I would still be in the
Church. I would see no point at being Messianic.
In the joking words of my loving sister Jane,
“Being Messianic and pre-trib are totally
incompatible. They will cause you to
spontaneously combust.”
J.K. McKee (B.A., University of Oklahoma; M.A.
Student, Asbury Theological Seminary) is the
editor of TNN Online (www.tnnonline.net) and is
a Messianic apologist. He is author of several
books, including: The New Testament Validates
Torah, Torah In the Balance, Volume I, and
When Will the Messiah Return?. He has also
written many articles on the Two Houses of
Israel and Biblical theology, and is presently
focusing on Messianic commentaries on various
books of the Bible. |
