BIBLE BELIEVERS’ BULLETIN February 2018 Page 1 Bible Believers’ Bulletin Vol. 42 No. 2 “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17) February 2018 The Pre-Tribulation Rapture By Brian Donovan 4:13-18), and that this event must The Bible-believing Christian, at precede the great tribulation period, some point in his Bible reading, comes since the Lord Jesus Christ “deliv- to the conclusion that the Bible is to ered us from the wrath to come”, as be taken literally and always tries we “wait for his Son from heaven” to make the doctrinal application of (I Thessalonians 1:10). The literal a passage first, before making any return of the Lord Jesus to this earth spiritual application second. Since takes place at the end of the tribulation “All scripture is given by inspira- period which is called “the great day tion of God, and is profitable for of his wrath” (Revelation 6:12-17). doctrine” (II Timothy 3:16), the Bible The Bible student should notice that believer will recoil from any teaching this event takes place at the opening that spiritualizes a verse of the Bible of the sixth seal (verse 12) at the end while it misses the literal and doctrinal of the tribulation period. The church meaning of the text. age saints are previously referred to The same is true when it comes being presented as a “chaste virgin to the teaching of the pre-tribulation to Christ” during the church age (II rapture of the body of Christ. When Corinthians 11:2), but by the time of the verses connected to this subject the second coming of Christ to physi- are taken literally, the reader can only cally reign on the earth, the church come to the belief that the Lord Jesus has already been married to him, Christ will call out the saved of the having been made ready (Revelation present Church Age, both those who 19:7), by going through the judgment have already died, along with those seat of Christ (II Corinthians 5:10). who remain alive (I Thessalonians She is then able to follow behind the Lord when he returns to clean up and In This Bulletin rule this earth (Revelation 19:11-14) The Pre-Tribulation Rapture ............1 at his second coming. The only way My Friend.........................................2 for this to happen would require that The Reality of Eternity ...................15 the church be caught up to heaven The Ultimate Fence Straddler........24 before both the tribulation and the second advent. Unless the Bible is America’s Mental Decay ................31 Continued on 9 Page 2 February 2018 BIBLE BELIEVERS’ BULLETIN My Friend By Dr. Peter S. Ruckman with God or the Bible, but he took “His mouth is most sweet: yea, that boy on as his orderly anyway, he is altogether lovely. This is my as long as he didn’t read the Bible in beloved, and this is, my friend, O Conwell’s tent. daughter of Jerusalem” (Song of Russell Conwell had a ceremonial Sol. 5:16). saber with an inscription in Latin that The text you just read is the end of translated as: “True friendship is eter- an answer given by the bride of Christ nal.” One night as Captain Conwell to a question, posed twice back up in was out of camp on an errand to get verse 9: “What is thy beloved more his company’s back pay for the men, than another beloved . ?” In oth- the Confederates attacked. When er words, what makes your Beloved, Conwell got back to his men, the the Lord Jesus Christ, so special? So camp had been burnt to the ground, from verse 10 to verse 16, the bride along with a railroad bridge nearby. describes her Beloved to the ones In the attack, as all the men were re- who asked her about Him. It is ob- treating across that bridge that had vious from reading the passage that been set to flames, John ran back to she is in love. The bride of Christ is the captain’s tent to get that ceremo- enamored with her Saviour. He is not nial sword. By the time that boy got only her Beloved, He is her Friend. back across that bridge, it was in full There are some things I want to blaze, and his clothes were on fire. say about this Friend and friendship. His buddies put out the fire in the True friendship is eternal. Back in the creek under the bridge, but that kid last half of the nineteenth century, was in such bad shape, he had to go there was a famous (at that time) to a field hospital, where he died two Baptist pastor named Russell Con- days later. well. He wasn’t much of a preach- While dying in that hospital, John er, but he was a great motivational asked to see the captain, but Conwell speaker who built the largest Baptist didn’t make it there before his aid work at that time. died. When Conwell got to that hos- Before he was saved, Conwell pital, he was given his sword and told served as a captain in the Union what Johnny had said about seeing Army during the Civil War. He had him before he died. Conwell’s con- become an “agnostic” (a polite term science just ate him alive over that. for an atheist) at Yale University, and He remembered cussing that boy out he was a godless cuss. But when he for reading the Bible in his tent, and was put in charge of Company D of John in tears said to him, “Captain, I the Second Massachusetts Artillery, love you, but you are a wicked man.” he was assigned a sixteen-year-old Conwell looked at the inscription on boy named Johnny Ring as an aid. that sword and said to himself, “Will That boy obeyed everything Conwell I ever see Johnny again to beg his told him to do but one. He had prom- forgiveness for my ill-treatment?” ised his dying mother that he would No, Captain, you won’t; not in the pray and read the Bible every night. state you’re in. That boy is in a place Conwell didn’t want anything to do Continued on 3 BIBLE BELIEVERS’ BULLETIN February 2018 Page 3 My Friend Continued from 2 John 4:10). you aren’t going in the state you’re in. We have all sorts of songs about Six months later, Conwell got hit this Friend: “What a friend we have by a shell in battle. While he was in in Jesus All our sins and griefs to the hospital, a Baptist chaplain came bear,” “I’ve found a Friend, oh, such by to see him. The two talked about a Friend! He loved me ere I knew Conwell seeing that boy again, and Him,” “Jesus! What a friend for sin- the chaplain told him the only way ners,” etc. Jesus said, “Henceforth I would be to trust the Saviour that boy call you not servants . but I have trusted. So Conwell got saved and called you friends” (John 15:15). told the chaplain, “I must serve God, Back in the early pioneer days of not only for myself, but for Johnny the Old West, things were rough for Ring.” And he did. That teenage boy preachers. I have an incident in my showed true friendship to that god- files of some preacher saying to a less captain. Because of that friend- bunch of cowboys who could barely ship, the captain got saved, and the read or write, “Has Jesus got a friend friendship became eternal. That’s in this house?” After several times of the way the friendship is between driving that question home, one old me and Jesus Christ: it’s an eternal cowpoke got up, banged the dust off friendship. his ten-gallon hat, and said, “Well, True friendship is eternal: it lasts. me.” That parson thought he had him When Kennedy died, his widow set a convert. “Are you Christ’s friend?” up “the eternal flame” outside his asked the preacher. “Not really,” said grave. It was a gas light. It hadn’t the cowboy, “but any man that ain’t been burning 24 hours before some- got no more friends than that, I guess one blew it out. That’s not how friend- I’ll stand up for Him.” That’s the way ship with the Lord is; no one is going it is today: Jesus Christ doesn’t have to blow that out. very many friends right now. I have a photograph at home of an Next, Jesus is a beloved friend. I oak tree that grew up through a tomb- had rather listen to Jesus Christ and stone that read: “For time and eter- His words than the pope, the press, nity.” But that marble slab didn’t last the people, or anybody else. My rela- through time, much less eternity; an tionship with Jesus Christ is like that oak busted it in two. A million years of Jonathan and David: Jonathan from now, I’ll still have my Friend. loved David “as he loved his own The first thing I want to say about soul” (1 Sam. 20:17). that friendship is that He was my Folks are always saying, “Ruck- friend before I was His. Jesus Christ man isn’t very friendly.” You’d be was known for receiving sinners amazed how many friends I’ve got (Luke 15:2) and being a friend to that are real friends.