Soul Sleep, Rapture, Pre-trib, Post-trib, Pre-Millenial, Post-Millenial.
‘Church of God’ is actually many denominations that don’t even all belong to a single protestant demoninational category (pentacostal, baptist, evangilical etc). Wayne Blank attends a ‘Biblical Church of God’ which belongs to a denominational/belief group category called ‘Sabbatarian’. Seventh-Day Adventist belongs to this category also. ‘Church of Christ’ appears to be a single denomination and have nothing to do with ‘Church of God’. At the young adult’s ministry meeting last saturday, Churches of Christ was labelled ‘post-millenial’. They are actually ‘a-millenial’ with a few rogue (in reference to their denomination) pre-millenial congregations. I see little scruptural basis of amillenialism unless the interpretation is almost wholly symbolic. The fuffilment of prophecy on the messiah (Jesus) appears to me to be at least 2/3-3/4 (65-75%) literal with some symbolic (remaining 1/4-1/3 / 25-35%) due to the heavy use of metaphores. So I personally reject purely symbolic interpretations (Amillenial, postmillenial, mid-trib rapture premillenial are all primarily symbolic interpretation).
Calvary Chapel is wholly premillenial with pre-tribulation rapture. Fits really nice in the appropriate eschatological belief category in the ‘Summary of Christian eschatological differences’ wikipedia article. My teenage-years church, Christian Faith Fellowship (Middletown, NY) belongs to this category too. I would be clearly in this category if the BibleStudy.org and keyway.ca Online Bible Study site’s scripture backing were not as good as they are. Now I am in a confusion state between the ‘immediate heaven/hell afterlife; pre-tirbulation rapture; pre-millenialism’ vs ’soul-sleep until the first (christians) or second ressurection (no oppty to accept/reject christ); post-tribulation transfiguration-only (no rapture); premillenial’. Soul-Sllep / No Rapture / Ressurection-only doesn’t fit the big-4 millenial teaching categories. To make the confustion worse, neither Calvary Chapel nor CFF appear to pay much attention to people who never heard of christ (Ancient chinese; Mayas; pre-invasion Incas/aztecs). The Great White throne of judgement / 2nd ressurection seems completelly plausible for this group of people, considering that God doesn’t want anyone to perish, but just grabbing something from Ezekial or Isaiah and connecting it up doesn’t seem logically right, but then again, I’m not good at logic proofs (Brian Sugrim is though; I’m good at out-of-the box comparisons, combining/splicing/merging, and pattern-matching though).
Soul-sleep is supported by both Seventh-Day Adventists, and Jehova’s Witnesses. These two groups have a lot of other very un-scriptual or overly-symbolic beliefs. However, Wayne Blank (keyway.ca – Biblical Church of God), Kieth Hunt (articles in BibleStudy.org) and Garner Ted Armstrong (Biblestudy.org articles, witness/character blemished by sexual immorality though), also seem to be soul-sleep (psychopannychism; both 2nd coming & last judgement) post-trib ressurection-only no-rapture, and have demonstrade pretty good and in-context scrpture backing. Also, on a personal simulation, If I went to heaven immediately upon death (or got raptured), gotten spoiled by the paradise, and then have to be dragged back to this boring old drab earth, I’d probably be quite resistant in going back and would probably be quite stubborn without serious threat (jail, torture or serious flogging, death) or very strong peer pressure (best friend and everybody else I like wants to go assuming I successfuly develop much friendship). Many other lukewarm / low-obediance christians (probably 70-80% of all american christians though my church seems only 35-50% lukewarm which is a good influence on me) probably would also not like having to move back to earth after the tribulation ends. I’d actually be worse because I don’t follow VIPs, worse authority-figure VIPs unless I actually want to be friends with them, while many other lukewarms would eagerly follow a VIP that they hardly know).
I would like to resolve the confusion. Purely within the Bible, in a way that would satisfy even the worst proof-freek (excluding illegal logic faith-assumptions that the bible itself is 100% undeniably true) would be made to agree (things proven logically via proof and scientific method tend to not be disputed or confused as much), despite me being not good at proofs (and worse, I can be very content with ‘plausible’). I may be and may always be a lukewarm christian in terms of relationship and obediance, but at least I want more understanding of the word of god, though my motivation is primarily removing fear of the future via removing ignorance (my mother is the opposite – she prefers to be ignorant) and general intellectual greed (greed for knowledge). I also always have liked ’superpowers’ (Danial, Gospels, Acts; I like flight, beam weapons, shields, and telekinesis while Rick & Erik favored more brute-force fist-of-the-north-star style) and I liked the notion of being drunk under the holy spirit (CFF at camps or occasional post-service favoring mid-week; not Calvary Chapel; no dog barking or snake handling though; plenty of toungues and falling-back though). These two parts along with the ‘free-ride salvation’ system of the New testament are the 3 main reasons that I became a christian. But don’t try to use those to manipulate me into false teachings though. If it ain’t in the bible, then you have the burden of the proper application scientific method (no stopping at the hypothisis stage and being content with theories). And even then, If its too much work or suffering, I probably still won’t care. This probably does make me manipulatable via laziness (I only overcome laziness well with strong motivation, autistic-obsession or survival-instinct amplified motivation, or team/tandom-coupled motivations) , fear of change, and contentment which is probably what the devil uses on me now because it is what currently works, at least for pacification and negligence purposes. I probably should get better with that. The best leverage for me is passive-environmental (environmental role-model) and passive-direct (personal role-model) peer pressure by environments and/or people I respect. That’s my main motivation for going to church other than emotional & intellectual ammusement and freebie-pampering.
Here’s some Millenial view / dispensation chart pictures that I got off of the internet. The dispensation diagrams are pre-trib rapture / pre-millenial. Clickable thumbnails (click to get full-size view):
April 23rd, 2007 at 11:05 pm
Thank You
August 11th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Ready for a brain-twister? Check out PRETRIB RAPTURE DIEHARDS on Yahoo. Louise
March 8th, 2009 at 10:14 am
Just putting a penny on this thought. I myself, am in a state of flux on Millennialism. However, The Bible doesn’t say anything so far that proves to me that we’ll be taken before the 7 yr tribulation. What it does say is that we’ll be gathered into the Lord’s army at the battle of Armageddon. I believe this because it is written and because we’re are so deep in Biblical prophesy fulfillment it is almost unreal. I feel that the Bible is pretty much black and white in description, You just have to consider that John/Ezekiel could only describe things with what they had to compare them to. The Lutheran’s believe that we’re already in the 1000 yr reign and that it is Christs spirit that rules the earth. I guess a person could believe this if they never studied the Bible. To many things that were written are happening in order for that to be correct. Things like this and the pre-millenial rapture are dangerous teachings in my eyes. What happens when you’re not raptured? Do you then disbelieve and lose your faith?? Dangerous. Most of the world will be fooled, its written. All I can really say is that a person should sudy the word of God, with the word Christ will destroy, better to know it. For the false teachers out there, (which we are repeatedly warned of by Christ, Paul and the other apostles), beware,,, Malachi ch. 2 has your reward. I guess to put this to a close; I fear for us all that believe in the Lord. Our counrty has turned its back on God and is falling. I’m sure we all question our faith, I do. But I’m always reading and trying to learn as much about our Father and our Savior that I can. Must be doing something right. God Bless you all, I hope that the truth is always reveiled to you and that false doctrines do not rest on you or me for that matter.