Month: September 2025

THE TERRIBLE POWER OF DENOMINATIONAL DISTINCTIVES

Those of us who grew up in denominational churches are at a terrible disadvantage. They told us, plainly, that the Bible is the Word of God and the ultimate authority in every situation. Then, often not so subtly, they taught us that all Scripture must be interpreted in a manner consistent with our denomination’s doctrine and beliefs…

“As Baptists, we know that you cannot lose your salvation. With that in mind, what do you think this verse could mean?”

With those words, a professor at a Baptist college once started the discussion on Galatians 5:4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by the Law; you have fallen from grace.

As an older student, I had prepared an argument:
“You cannot be severed from that to which you are not attached. You cannot fall from where you are not. You cannot enter Heaven without Christ or apart from grace.”

It was however, obvious from his opening statement that such arguments would not be allowed…

Today, in my own mind, I can imagine a professor at Southern Methodist University opening a discussion on John 10:28 “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.” with the words, “As Methodists, we know that you can lose your salvation. With that in mind, what do you believe this verse might mean?”

Those of us who grew up in denominational churches are at a terrible disadvantage. They told us, plainly, that the Bible is the Word of God and the ultimate authority in every situation. Then, often not so subtly, they taught us that all Scripture must be interpreted in a manner consistent with our denomination’s doctrine and beliefs… Passages that would seem to reenforce those doctrines were exaggerated, repeated, preached on and taught. Scriptures that, even on the surface, might bring those doctrines into question, were ignored, glanced over, or sometimes imaginatively misinterpreted. While the Methodists freely taught on Galatians 5:4, they cleverly (and intentionally) skipped over John 10:28. The Baptists simply reversed that practice.

Midlife, God gave me a great opportunity… forced to leave one denomination and adopt another, I was given the opportunity to honestly search the Scriptures to find the truth when denominational distinctives clashed… I quickly came to the conclusion that the denominational distinctives on both sides were basically garbage being used to convince parishioners to never visit the church down the street…

Please, for God’s sake and your own, read the Scriptures in plain language… Understand that, while it often uses figures of speech, the Bible says what it means and means what it says… If you will do that, you will cry a lot, learn a lot, and come out a different person than you are now…

PRAY-THINK-PRAY

David…

IMMEDIATELY AFTER

An argument against the belief that the rapture occurs before the tribulation, citing Paul, Jesus, and John as witnesses to the contrary. Paul states the dead in Christ rise first, while Jesus specifies the elect are gathered immediately after the tribulation, and John confirms this resurrection follows the tribulation.

You disagree with Paul, Jesus, and John and say that the rapture happens before the tribulation???

In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul writes, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord.”

The dead in Christ MUST rise first.
When do the dead in Christ rise?

In Matthew 24, Jesus tells us,
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days:

The sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not shed its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the celestial powers will be shaken.

30 “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the peoples of the earth will mourn; and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Jesus says that the elect of God will be raised, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days…”

In Revelation 20, after the tribulation, John sees the resurrection of the elect and he writes,
“They (the elect) came to life and reigned with the Messiah for 1,000 years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the 1,000 years were completed. This is the first resurrection.

So Paul says that the Dead in Christ are raised before the rapture. Jesus says that the elect are raised “after the tribulation”. John, after the tribulation, at the return of Jesus, says that he sees the elect raised from the dead. He tells us that “THIS IS THE FIRST RESURRECTION”.

You disagree with Paul, Jesus, and John and say that the rapture happens before the tribulation…

Wow… Who am I to believe?????

PRAY-THINK-PRAY