Question: As wonderfully as you research, it astounds me how the heresy of this false “Rapture” ...

Question: As wonderfully as you research, it astounds me how the heresy of this false “Rapture” teaching has gotten so obviously by you….[T]he Rapture teaching that you preach was started by a Roman Catholic named Manuel Lagunza in a book entitled, The Coming of the Messiah in Hope and Glory, published in 1812…this book fell into the hands of Edward Irving…went on to Margaret MacDonald…[and] her false teaching moved on to the Plymouth Brethren…[and] John Darby….[The Lord] showed me that the body of Christ, for their own good, must be prepared to suffer….You in your vast studies have seen how God’s people have historically been made to suffer. Why then do you think we will be any different? This last-days doctrine of a secret “two-staged” Second Coming is one based not on truth but on wishful thinking.

Response: We have dealt with this subject in detail in previous issues and also in several of my books, such as How Close Are We? and Global Peace and the Rise of Antichrist. Please read them and if you have any specific objections, let me know and we can discuss them. As for the Rapture teaching coming from this or that person, a moment’s reflection would tell you that not one in ten thousand of those who believe in the Rapture ever heard of those you name, much less read their teachings and were convinced thereby. I never heard of them until the critics began writing these books. My belief in the Rapture comes right out of the Bible. It is on the basis of the Bible and the Bible alone, not the theories of men or women from the past or present, that we believe in the Rapture.