I'm probably the only one that you will see mention Revelation 3:7-10 in conjunction with the rapture. That just shows you that the Church is promised a door that no man can open and no man can shut. That door is what keeps the Church from the hour of temptation that comes on the whole world.
I think you are making it up as you go. I have already rebutted this in great detail and you have already (as is your form) carefully avoided the strong evidence to show this is historic. That is the only way your theories stand. Your explanations are ridiculous and show how blinkered you are with the Prtrib lie. You cannot you present a simple proof text or a viable explanation for each passage you present. This is unacceptable and exposes your theology. Please address the biblical text instead of always advancing your opinions as evidence:
Revelation 3:7-13:
“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”
Firstly, you are butchering the text to support your false teaching.
- There is no mention of the Church (as the collective body of Christ) here. You force that into the text.
- There is no mention of a rapture in Revelation 3:10. You force that into the text.
- There is no mention of a 7-year tribulation in Revelation 3:10. You force that into the text.
- There is no mention of a 3rd coming in Revelation 3:10. You force that into the text.
That is the end of the debate. You have nothing here!
Secondly, you make Christ out to be a liar. According to what you have been taught, He promised the Philadelphians a rapture to heaven to preserve them from undergoing a 7-years trib as a reward for their faithfulness, but, failed to carry through. They all went to the grave, without experiencing this.
If a rapture was indeed the actual reward for this early church’s faithfulness, then, why did they not experience it? After all, they are commended for being obedience and faithfulness. You cannot divorce the reward from the obedience that earned the reward here. Pretribs say the reward is the rapture. Well: did the Philadelphians receive this reward? Evidently not; neither will they. That particular local church is long gone, and they will not be raptured at the second coming in the future but rather resurrected (as the dead in Christ). But the resurrection is nothing particular to Philadelphians; it is an event that every single church in Revelation would one day experience. It is something that all the dead in Christ will enjoy. But none experienced a rapture 2,000 years ago.
Thirdly, if one is to read this portion of Scripture in its most straight-forward and literal way it seems clear that this is specifically speaking to the local church in Philadelphia (Asia Minor) in A.D. 96. There is no way you would naturally relate it to some end-time global Church prior to the coming of the Lord.
You totally negate the relevance of this passage to the literal Philadelphian Church 2000 years ago, who are long gone. You conveniently divert that promise to the Church generally before the coming of Christ to support your doctrine. This is twisting Scripture. This is wrong and done because you have nothing to support your teaching in the Book.
Fourthly, you do not just err in your understanding of God's Word, you also show an ignorance of history. There was heavy persecution of the early Church throughout the known world where the Roman Empire ruled and reigned.
Pretrib seems to ignore the severity of the hour the seven churches in Asia Minor found themselves in. The Church was being assaulted on all sides – both secularly and religiously. On one side the Roman Empire was on a vicious unrelenting campaign of genocide to obliterate the Gospel witness. The severity of the persecution depended on the area each church was located and the attitude of those enforcing the turmoil. Countless believers throughout the world were being destroyed under the jackboot of Rome. In a religious side-show the Jews were resisting the Church at every step.
The same persecution that the Philadelphian church was to be protected from was the very same trial that the church at Smyrna would have to endure. The Lord said to the church at Smyrna in Revelation 2:10, reference the approaching first century trial,
“Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”
Why do Dispensationalists not apply this passage to the entire Church at the end? Remember Smyrna was specifically told that it would go through a period of distinct tribulation. It seems like Pretrib cherry picks a church out of the 7 that suits its theology and then places it in an end-time scenario. The reason is that this message does not fit the carefully constructed Pretrib paradigm. The message to the Philadelphia church (and the Pretrib interpretation of the same) suits their paradigm.
Fifthly, the Philadelphian Christians are promised protection
“from the hour of temptation” on the expressed grounds of their ongoing obedience to God.
Preservation in the midst of trial is a common promise for faithful believers throughout all time. Whilst God’s people have experienced awful persecution through time, it has often been God’s heart in scriptural times and Church history to preserve His elect people in the midst of adversity rather than remove them from it. We see that throughout Scripture.
The same assurance that we find in Revelation 3:10 is found in our Lord’s Prayer in John 17:15 (only it was written a few years before). The comparison cannot be lightly dismissed as both were penned by the same author. Praying to His Father for His followers He petitioned:
“I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep [Gr.
tēreō]
them from [Gr.
ek]
the evil.”
Christ does not ask the Father to ‘take them out’ of the world with its existing tribulation, suffering and inherent evil, as the Pretrib argues, rather the opposite, but that by the power of His Spirit, He would “keep them from” the surrounding evil. This is the same thought that Christ is presenting in Revelation 3:10. Interestingly, a careful comparison between these two passages reveals the remarkable similarity in their import and word construction.
“
keep [Gr.
tēreō]
them from [Gr.
ek] the evil” (John 17:15)
“
keep [Gr.
tēreō]
thee from [Gr.
ek] the hour of temptation” (Revelation 3:10)
In fact, these are the only two places in Scripture that the Greek words
tēreō and
ek are found together. Not only do these two passages
not teach an escape for the Church from this world, but Christ plainly and succinctly proclaims the contrary. Whatever “the hour of temptation” represented to the Philadelphian church they knew that they would be sheltered from its awful throes. There is no indication that they anticipated that blessing to involve being beamed out of the Roman Empire.
