The purpose of this two-part series on the pretribulation Rapture is to reassure fellow believers that the New Testament indeed places the Lord’s appearing to take us home before the start of the seven-year tribulation.
We live in a day when deception reigns all around us and fear characterizes most people in our world. The media and Big Tech censor truth as never before in America, which makes it rather difficult to discover the reality behind the fake news that confronts us every day.
That’s why we so desperately need the words of Scripture and the hope they give us. Although I believe the Rapture will happen very soon, I do not know when it will occur or what afflictions we might endure before that time. I am certain, however, that Jesus is coming for us before the beginning of the seven-year tribulation that begins with peace covenant between the antichrist and the “many,” which surely includes Israel (Dan. 9:27).
If you have not already done so, please read Part 1 (questions 1-6) before continuing. It will provide a needed context for the remaining points that confirm the biblical truth of the pretribulation Rapture.
I first heard the term “covenant premillennialism” a couple years ago. At the time, I had no idea what it meant, but I assumed it signified a belief in the millennium, the thousand-year reign of Jesus upon the earth. I had never heard of a “premillennialist” who did not possess such a conviction.
Based on listening carefully to the sermons of a pastor who claimed to be a “covenant premillennialist” and looking into the beliefs of other preachers that were of the same persuasion, I gradually constructed the beliefs of the covenant premillennialists and discovered that they are not premillennial in any sense of the word.
Covenant premillennialists believe Jesus fulfilled all of the Old Testament during His first coming; this includes all of God’s covenants with the nation of Israel including the promise of the Land, which the Lord says is an “everlasting covenant” (Psalm 105:8-11). Despite claiming to be premillennial, they do not believe in a literal millennium. How can one claim to be premillennial and at the same time deny its foundational belief?
They obscure their amillennial beliefs under a fog that prevents others from clearly recognizing that they are premillennial in name only.
The fog created by the identifying themselves as “covenant premillennialists” obscures their . . .
When one hears the word “premillennialism,” one naturally assumes that it signifies a belief in Jesus’ thousand-year reign on the earth. However, just like amillennialists, the covenant premillennialists also deny this teaching, albeit in differing ways. Amillennialists combine the millennium with the current age while covenant premillennialists identify it with the eternal state. The end result is precisely the same.
One group openly teaches their denial of a separate thousand-year reign of Jesus while the other one obscures it under a fog by claiming to be premillennial. Both groups believe that Revelation 20:1-10 is symbolic of another reality, one not related to a still future thousand-year reign of Jesus on the earth.
When one sees the word “premillennialism,” it’s natural to assume a belief in a literal thousand-year reign of Jesus. For me, this remains the test of genuine premillennialism.
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