The Son of God made one of the strongest proclamations of His life using the title of this article.  It is downright awesome to realize the plain truth of the Lord’s words.  Let me give you three verses that put this title in the proper context.  “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.  For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.  Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”  (Matthew 5:17-19).

Already in Matthew’s day, shortly after the death and resurrection of the Son of God, men were trying to water down righteousness and to attack holiness as the Biblical walk of faith.  A very sharp and critical name was given to the heretics of the faith.  They were called antinomics, which means “no law.”  We have a multitude of men and women today that follow the same mindset.  They teach grace without responsibility and holiness without righteousness.    It is one of the church’s present day pitfalls.  Unregenerate people or backsliders love these doctrines.

Jesus Christ’s words forever destroy the possibility of born again saints disobeying the laws and commandments of God.  Jesus Christ was the “Word” before He was born of woman, and the First Testament is the revelation of that Word.  The basic Ten Commandments and the clear principles of His laws are just as real and even more complete in the Second Testament as in the First Testament.  Notice that Jesus said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law (five books of the Torah) or the prophets (the major and minor prophets of the First Testament), I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill (complete).”  (Matthew 5:17).  The Son of man came to put the final touch on His revelation.  He was the Jehovah-Jireh of the first division of His Word and came in flesh to finish and complete the whole of His Word.  When you throw the First Testament out, you have a corrupted and defiled Holy of Holies with the great vail of woven tapestry removed.  Holiness is non-existent in any redemptive plan that has destroyed the commandments of God.

The whole of the Word (Genesis to Revelation) will never pass away. “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.”  (Luke 21:33).  Every one of us will be judged by the words of Holy Scripture on that awesome judgment day.  Jesus really laid this on the line with the second verse of our present text.  Let’s look again.  “For verily (to emphasize) I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle (the two smaller marks of the Greek alphabet) shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”  (Matthew 5:18).  Do what you want to with the Ten Commandments and all the principles of the Laws of God, but they stand unmoved and shall judge you in the last days.  No wonder Apostle Paul said, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”  (Hebrews 10:31).

Except Your Righteousness Shall Exceed 
On the foundation of those first two verses that we have considered, the Lord Jesus established the absolute fact of what the New Testament saints are required to live.  Free grace or cheap grace is utterly excluded.  Jesus Christ did not come to cast off the righteousness of His Word, but to provide the grace to change man’s heart.  He did not come to cover sin, but to destroy sin.  The First Testament standards are the very standards that Jesus and the early church preached and lived.  They simply gave them a Second Testament of completed interpretation.

Apostle Paul is accused by some of preaching a different gospel than Jesus Christ.  This false idea is expressed by separating the gospel of Christ as a Jewish message and the gospel of Paul as a Gentile message.  Such thinking is false and damning.  The Apostle Paul preached nothing but the gospel of Jesus Christ and the righteousness of the completed Word.  To the Hebrews, he stated the following words from the Holy Ghost.  “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.  Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.”  (Hebrews 10:16-18).  The laws of the Lord thus stated cannot be separated from the whole of the Word of God.

Yes, He freed us from the ecclesiastical laws that the Jewish sacrifices required because He became the perfect sacrifice.  He also removed the commandments of men that had become equal to God’s laws and commandments in the Pharisee systems.  He actually purified the whole of the First Testament by fulfilling the laws of sacrifice and breaking the yoke of ceremonial bondage.  We, as the saints of the Second Covenant, have entered into a “new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.”  (Hebrews 10:20).  Does that make us “loose” from the Ten Commandments and free to live as we please?  No, a thousand times no!

Listen as the Holy Ghost continues to speak by the pen of the great apostle,”And having an high priest over the house of God.  Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.”  (Hebrews 10:21-23).

“Having our hearts sprinkled (the application of Christ’s sanctifying blood) from an evil conscience” is not modern day Christianity, but it is still Biblical.  The soul of a born again believer is a picture in purity.  The commandments of God become our delight and we rejoice in the peace of a pure heart.  Worldly and sinful people love religion without holiness, but it will be wholly inadequate when they face the awesome judgment bar.

Listen as the Holy Ghost continues to speak. “He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses.  Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?  For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”  (Hebrews 10:28-31).

The Half-Brother of Our Lord 
James wrote what is said to be the first book of the New Testament.  It is an incredible book and beautifully ties the great commandments of the First Testament to the New Testament church.  He stated in the first chapter. “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.  But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.  For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:  For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.  But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.  If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.  Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”  (James 1:21-27).  What a message of holiness, “Keep yourself unspotted from the world.”  Surely, you say, the early church didn’t preach that.      It gets better.  James begins to quote from God’s commandments in the Book of Leviticus.  “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:  But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.  For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.  So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.”  (James 2:8-10,12).

This is beautiful truth that forever destroys the loose living of this generation.  Someone may say that this letter was only to the Jews.  There are two things to remember.  If it was only to the Jews, why did he write it in the Greek language and second, it was written to the born again Jews, not to the Orthodox Jews still outside of Christ.  Apostle Paul had plainly said the following when speaking of the New Testament church.  “Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.”  (Colossians 3:11).  It is sheer folly to claim that the New Testament has a twin message.  All such thinking originates because of theological systems, not from the literal study of Scripture.

Faith Without Works is Dead 
The Lord’s earthly brother really landed a theological bomb with this great truth.  Apostle Paul called James an “apostle” and spoke of him as together with Cephas (Peter) and John that they “seemed to be pillars in the church.”  (Galatians 1:9,2:9).  His words therefore are weighty words and cannot be treated lightly.  He declared, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.  Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.  Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.  But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?   Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?  Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?”  (James 2:17-22).

We have an entire generation of church leaders and members that have been schooled and taught the doctrines of lawlessness.  The greatest task of a soul winner today is to get the sinners lost so you can get them saved.  It’s tough to find a lost person because of the doctrines of cheap grace.  People that live totally outside of Holy Scripture will boldly state that they are Christians and will be highly offended if you press the claims of the Holy Word of God.  Even the devil believes, but he certainly is not a saint.

The Law Is Our School Master 
One of Apostle Paul’s great lessons is found in Romans chapter seven.  Conviction of sin always precedes conversion to Christ.  It is impossible to repent of sin without a sense of guilt.  The majority of our world will be lost forever because the church world will not preach against sin.  When a Holy Ghost filled man of God begins to boldly and humbly preach the whole counsel of God, conviction of sin rises and revival from God draws near.  A thoroughly anointed man of God proclaiming the claims of righteousness preceded every great revival.

Listen to the apostle.  “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.  But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.”  (Romans 7:7-8).  Sin, when identified by the Holy Spirit, not a judgmental preacher, creates “all manner of concupiscence” (the sense of guilt, the foreboding of one’s lost condition).  This is the foundation of a “rending of the Heavens” by the Holy Spirit that causes revival to occur.  Revival never comes until there is conviction of sin.  This conviction always first occurs in the church and then in the world.  One man prayed, “Move the church so you can move the world.”

Paul continues, “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.  Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.  For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.”  (Romans 7:12-14).  The apostle said that the law is holy and spiritual.  Why?  Not because God is magnifying sin, but that He might magnify His grace to forgive and cleanse.  He reveals His laws of holiness that we might see our nature of sin.

Except Your Righteousness Shall Exceed
That statement sounds unfair and harsh until you discover what Jesus came into our world to accomplish.  If He were telling dark sinners that they must lift up themselves to live more righteousness than the Pharisees, then He would be a taskmaster, not a Savior.  But, His death was already sealed in the plan of God and Jesus Christ knew well the glory of His suffering.  He came to break the powers of sin and to create a brand new family called the church.

Jesus Christ was manifested to destroy the “works of the devil.”  The Apostle John, whom Jesus loved, proclaimed, “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.�  (I John 3:8).  John used the word “manifested” in declaring this statement because he was speaking beyond the matter of His birth.  God had sent His Son into the world by a series of prophecies and miraculous events which made His life and death a divine occasion.  The life and death of the Son of God was a triumph over every limitation and calamity of human life.  He came out from all eternity into our little limited world to bring an end to Satan’s schemes and plans.

The result was redemption on the highest level possible to the human family.  We were redeemed, transformed, translated, made new creatures, filled with His Holy Spirit; and we live and walk far above the Pharisee’s religion.

Conclusion 
Apostle Paul could not have echoed the idea of Jesus Christ better than in his second letter to the church of God at Corinth.  He penned by the Holy Ghost the following, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.”  (2 Corinthians 5:17-18).

We are new creatures.  We have been translated into a heavenly family and fellowship and we walk no more by the world’s bondage.  It is His grace in us that accomplishes Holiness.  We earn nothing by our good lives or works.  It is grace into this family and grace for each step we take.  Soon, our last step will be taken and then it will be glory forevermore.

The “Left Behind” series by Tim LaHaye is thoroughly trashed and hated by the Catholic apologist. Biblical teaching about the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, the Great Tribulation of seven years, and the Millennial Reign of Jesus Christ all flies directly against the Catholic revisions of Scripture. Of course, there are some variations of teaching about the Rapture and the Millennium in our midst, and Catholic writers make much out of those differences. What they fail to do is explain the many variations of doctrine in their own camp about Scripture and major truths.The Catholic view of both the political world and the church is that of a dictatorship rather than a democracy. They brag about their One World views and international monopoly of their contingencies, but their dictatorial and dogmatic approach has always squashed any private views or open debate. Look at any culture dominated by its hierarchy and there are limited human rights, almost non-existent private enterprise that creates great wealth, and very depressed personal freedoms. Let’s especially look at their condemnation of the Rapture and then at their doctrines of End Time prophecy.

“The Rapture Trap”: A Catholic Attack
I have two books from the Catholic bookstore that attack the Rapture with a fury. Both are written by disenchanted Evangelicals who have turned Catholic. The first book is The Rapture Trap by Paul Thigpen.

Let me quote Marcus C. Grodi, another Evangelical who has turned Catholic, from his forward to Mr. Thigpen’s book. He described his background among the Evangelical world. This is the forward he wrote for The Rapture Trap.

“In the mid-seventies, an engineering student I know experienced a powerful, life-changing adult re-conversion to Christ. He was ‘born again,’ in the popular language of evangelical Protestantism, and he grew intent on loving and serving the Lord as completely as he could. Not long afterwards, a friend, anxious to share a book that had shaken his own life to the roots, passed along a copy of The Late Great Planet Earth, a book of apocalyptic speculations by the Protestant fundamentalist writer Hal Lindsey.

“Unable to put the book down, the young man, now working as a plastics engineer, read it from cover to cover. Without adequate religious training to challenge the book’s premises, and trusting in his friend’s sincerity, he accepted the book’s teaching, hook, line, and ‘rapture.’

“In time, the book’s emphasis on the notion of a ‘rapture’– and imminent ‘secret’ coming of Christ–led the young man to question his vocation: ‘If Jesus were to return tonight, would He be pleased with what I’m doing with my life? Would I be content to tell Him that I’m dedicating my life to making better plastic cups, butter tubs, and coffee decanters?’ Eventually this was one reason that the engineer decided to leave his secular career and enter the seminary instead.

“In case you haven’t guessed, I was that young man, and for several years I was caught up in the apocalyptic views expressed in books such as Hal Lindsey’s little volume and more recent ‘Left Behind’ series. During my years of study at an evangelical seminary, I was confronted with every Protestant ‘end times’ notion imaginable. Often during theology classes, or especially around the dinner table, seminarians would debate over the details, the timing, and the imminence of Christ’s return.

“Sometimes contradicting views would split us along denominational lines. (The majority of mainline Protestants actually do not believe in the secret rapture.) Too often these debates led to unchristian anger. I must even admit, shamefaced, that I once lost a close friendship because my friend and I could not see eye-to-eye about whether the timing of Christ’s second coming was preordained or whether it was dependent upon man’s free will in his efforts to reform the world.

“I encountered again these same issues constantly during my years as a Protestant minister. In every congregation I served, some member or members would challenge the longterm planning of the church because the rapture of true believers, snatching them out of the world into heaven, was to occur any minute. ‘Forget tomorrow!’ they insisted. ‘We must insure that all are ready to meet their Maker tonight!'” (The Rapture Trap, by Paul Thigpen, Ph.D. Published by Ascension Press, pp. 11-12.)

Please forgive the long quote but this helps you understand why the Catholics are promoting this book big time. It’s impossible to believe in the Pre-Tribulational Rapture and still be a Catholic. Their entire worldview makes the Rapture anathema to them. The introduction in this book is entitled, “The Truth Will Set You Free”. A few quotes will give you their basic argument against the Rapture. Thigpen said, “Sadly enough, a mistaken and rather novel idea about Christ’s return, rooted in fundamentalist Protestant teaching, is making the rounds of our culture these days. It claims that Jesus is coming back, not once more, but twice. One of those times, this teaching asserts, He will come secretly to snatch away true believers from their troubles on earth. This even has been dubbed the ‘rapture’ (or ‘secret rapture’), from a Latin verb that means ‘caught up’ or ‘snatched.’

“If you are Catholic, when Jesus comes, many of the preachers of this idea insist, you had better be careful. If you have failed to renounce some of the essential beliefs the Church has taught you, too bad. You are not a true Christian. You will be left behind.

“That claim is simply not true. It is a dangerous error. And that is why this book was written. In recent days many unsuspecting Catholics have gotten caught in the ‘rapture trap.’ I want to help them get free of this unbiblical idea and the anti-Catholic theology to which it is typically shackled. I want to warn other Catholics who might be in danger of getting ensnared. And I hope to help equip Catholic pastors and teachers to dismantle the trap whenever they encounter it.” (Ibid., p. 19.)

Please note in the following quote that the basic argument against the Rapture is church dogma and not the Word of God. They simply do not argue from scripture but from the dictates of previous popes. He further stated, “‘The Rapture Trap’ is written primarily, then, for everyday Catholics who accept the God-given teaching authority of the Church and who have a good dose of common sense. They will find here ample grounds for rejecting the rapture teaching as misguided and alien to both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. I trust they will also discover much more in these pages: an overview of Catholic teaching on the ‘close of the age’ (Matthew 24:3; 28:20); some insights for responding to other questionable claims about the end times; and encouragement to grow spiritually strong in the rich soil of the Catholic faith.” (Ibid., p. 20.)

Note that he calls the teaching of this church, “the rich soil of the Catholic faith”.
Author Thigpen states, “‘The Rapture Trap’ is written primarily, then, for everyday Catholics who accept the Godgiven teaching authority of the Church and who have a good dose of common sense.” (Ibid.) Read this statement from his book, “All the tedious and prickly debates over the true meaning of a biblical Greek term used by St. Paul, or over the true significance of a horned beast pictured in the book of Revelation, really count for very little until this larger issue of authority is resolved, some of these minor debates may count for nothing at all.” (Ibid., p. 21.)

The question is the authority of the Catholic Church to teach doctrines, above and contrary to the Bible. This author closes his introduction of this attack of the truth of Scripture by saying, “To know Christ, who is Himself ‘the Truth’ (John 14:6), we gladly turn to the teaching of ‘the Church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth’ (1 Timothy 3:15). After all, it was the Holy Spirit’s preaching through the Catholic Church that first told the world about the good news of Christ’s coming. And it is the Holy Spirit’s teaching through the Catholic Church that can keep us safely in the truth about His coming again.” (Ibid., p. 23.)

The author’s first chapter is an out-and-out attack on the idea of being “Left Behind.” He calls it, “The puzzling popularity of an odd idea.” He discusses Tim LaHaye’s “Left Behind” series as following, “Breaking new ground in the religious publishing world, this author’s vision of the end of history has created a multimillion-dollar apocalyptic industry…What exactly has Jesus to do with this startling story line? Why in the world would He want to make people disappear and throw the human race into chaos? … Once they are gone, the Devil will be free to take control of the world through his puppet, the Antichrist. Gross horrors will accompany this diabolical man’s wicked reign.” (Ibid., p. 27.)

How can this author that was gloriously saved, and the evidence points to a real experience, become so totally determined to destroy some of the greatest truth in Holy Scripture. It was Jesus who said, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:1-3)

With that great promise from Jesus Christ in mind, let’s listen to Thigpen’s reason to attack our glorious hope. “The rapture doctrine is dangerous in yet a third way: It is often tied to a larger, complex body of religious teachings that are explicitly anti-Catholic. As we will see in chapter seven, when fundamentalist authors such as LaHaye and Jenkins write nonfiction books to explain the theology behind their novels, they make it clear that they believe the Catholic Church is a creation of the Devil and will be a tool of the Antichrist. They go so far as to associate the Vatican with the bloodthirsty ‘whore of Babylon’ pictured in the book of Revelation, who drinks the blood of the Christian martyrs in the last days of the world (see Revelation 17:1 – 18:24).” (Ibid., p. 35.)

To add to this statement Thigpen stated, “Catholics who read the ‘Left Behind’ books or see the movie are thus at risk of being deceived into thinking that the very Church Jesus Christ founded on St. Peter and through the other Apostles is actually a counterfeit church. Drawn into reading other books or attending religious meetings that use these spiritual scare tactics, they may not be prepared with an adequate defense against such high-pressure fundamentalist propaganda.” (Ibid., pp. 35-36.)

I believe we are getting the picture. The debate is not about the Bible or what Scripture teaches, but the endangering of the Catholic Church. There is no doubt for a Bible-believing person but that any doctrine that anyone teaches contrary to the plain truth of the infallible Word of God is wrong. The Catholic Church must attack and destroy any idea that confronts their established institution. They cannot create their One World Religion unless they can control the way the people think. Whenever Bible believers begin to make an impact, they always come out fighting. These books against the Rapture are wonderful evidence that truth is making an impact.

The second book that we must discuss is entitled, Rapture: The End-Times Error That Leaves the Bible Behind. It is written by David B. Currie. He is also a former Bible believer who was raised to believe in the Rapture. He and Paul Thigpen have the kind of understanding of Biblical truth to make them well prepared to pick at every point. No person is more dangerous to truth than that person that knows it but turns from it. The Bible makes it plain that when Satan is defeated in someone’s life, he returns looking for an opportunity to reestablish his control. If that life returns to its former empty state, the demon returns with additional demons and the latter state of that person is worse than their former condition. These men are perfect examples.

In the preface of his book on the Rapture, which was written for the Catholic Church, Mr. Currie stated the following, “My own experience cannot help but influence this book. I was raised in a devout Protestant home, the only son of a Fundamentalist pastor. Many of the leaders of the “pre-mill, pre-trib” movement were close family friends. I attended Trinity College and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. While still a believer in a pretribulation rapture, I team-taught a college class on prophecy and preached it from many pulpits. Although I had no natural inclination toward Catholicism, I finally reconciled with the Church in my forties. The rationale behind that lifechanging decision can be found in my book, Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic.” (Rapture: The End-Times Error That Leaves the Bible Behind, by David B. Currie, published by Sophia Institute Press, p. XV.)

What is perfectly evident in this book as well as The Rapture Trap is that the difference is based almost totally on the skewed teachings of Catholicism. I do not know whether these personalities changed their views of the Rapture before they converted to the Catholic Church or after, but I strongly believe it was before. The loss of the literal Biblical interpretation of the End Times sets a person on a sea of change. The church denomination, where I spent over forty years, has, for the most part, left the literal and authoritative sense of Biblical interpretation and, in the process, has changed radically. There is a very strong development in that church hierarchy of a growing acceptance of the Roman Catholic Church. Recently, a leader of that denomination was invited as a guest to a celebration at the Vatican and this was reported, along with a picture, in their official publication. That would have caused a revolt twenty years ago.

Let me simply give a few quotes in the order of development from Mr. Currie’s book.

“Left Behind author Tim LaHaye wants to convince America that the rapture ‘could be any time: today, tomorrow, next week’ (CT), while protecting his flanks with the ‘rolling end of the world’ strategy. He will not compromise on the fact that we are in the final generation.” (Ibid., p. 21.)

“Anything touching on Jerusalem in Israel or Babylon in Iraq strikes a raw nerve with them.” (Ibid., p. 23.)

“A second problem with premillennialist has to do with their vision of the Kingdom of God. Is it spiritual or physical? The premillennialist would claim it must be a corporeal reign of Christ here on earth. Critics would counter that this completely misunderstands the message of the major prophets of the Old Testament (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel), not to mention the message of the entire New Testament.” (Ibid., p. 47.)

“The third view, amillennialism, is the one held by the vast majority of Christians, whether Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant. It is the only acceptable option for the Protestant who claims to stand in the tradition of Luther or Calvin and for the Catholic who seeks to remain faithful to the teaching of the Church.” (Ibid., pp. 48-49.)

“While the Catholic appeals to Scripture, Tradition, and the teaching authority, or Magisterium, of the Church to guide his beliefs, rapturists claim to rely exclusively on the ostensibly clear and self-interpreting text of the Bible. So it is fair to ask whether the rapturist belief system is the best way to understand the relevant Scripture passages, considered apart from other authoritative voices. Of course, as Catholics, we would say this approach removes two legs of the three-legged stool of truth. But discounting for our purposes Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium, can the rapture theory really do justice to what the Bible teaches?” (Ibid., p. 51.)

“The Book of Daniel lays the foundation for the entire time framework of rapturist theology.” (Ibid., p. 79.)

“In fact, this gap does great violence to the text, to the fundamental message of the vision – all for the purpose of protecting rapturists from the idea that the Catholic Church might have to be examined as a possible candidate for the present-day Kingdom of Heaven.” (Ibid., p. 82.)

On and on this author espouses the doctrines and teachings of the church he has embraced. When you couple his support of the Mass and the literal transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the substance of His body, with the Marian message, the infallibility of the words of the pope, purgatory, etc., only demonic deception could lead souls to such depths of untruth.

After both of these books attack Bible believers because there have been so many false claims, false prophecies, and false prophets; they describe the situation in their own Catholic ranks to be equally flooded with false alarms. Listen to author Thigpen speak to this issue. “To complicate the matter even further, contemporary ‘messengers’ have sprung up and multiplied as fast as wild mushrooms, and some of them may be just as poisonous. Their messages sometimes agree with one another, sometimes not. Meanwhile, anyone who wants to stay up on the latest alleged locutions has to invest considerable time reading through the stacks of visionary emails that fly around the world daily via the Internet.

“A number of these messengers call for concrete, immediate actions from their listeners. Some insist, for example, that Catholics must procure a supply of blessed candles (a few sources even dictate that they must be beeswax candles), because only these will be capable of providing light in homes during the ‘three days of darkness.’ Others call for the creation of hidden sites of refuge, well stocked for survival, to be used soon when the great persecution of the Church arrives. Still others urge the faithful to move away from coastal areas, because the coming comet will cause tidal waves that will wipe out the populations of coastlines around the world.” (The Rapture Trap, by Paul Thigpen, Ph.D. Published by Ascension Press, p. 227.)

After warning of the dangers from Catholic mystics, Thigpen states, “Even so, we certainly do not want to miss out on any extra graces our Lord may want to give us through private revelations. How much poorer we would be if our Lord had never asked St. Margaret Mary Alacoque to spread devotion to His Sacred Heart! How many souls have been drawn to God because that revelation has spurred them to make use of the more ordinary means of grace! If God has truly spoken, and His words have meaning – perhaps even urgency – for us, we are wise to want to hear and obey them.” (Ibid., p. 82.)

Conclusion
The Rapture of the Saints and the Pre-Tribulation doctrines of Scripture have never been so attacked in church history. This of itself is prophetic. By Apostle Peter, the Holy Ghost said that men would say, “Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (II Peter 3:4, 9)

This vicious attack on the Rapture by the largest religious organization in the world, the very church with much to lose if you believe the truth, is prophetic of where we are in final history. Man cannot set the hour because the Father alone knows the time. Our joy is to watch, occupy, be busy for His Kingdom on earth, and be ready. In a moment that you think not, He may well return.