Margaret Mc Donald Who? What?...No Relevance In Pre-Trib Rapture Doctrine

Updated June 16th, 2001

Question

Dear Pastor Malone:

I was always told by my church 22 years ago that we will all be raptured before the Great and Terrible day of the Lord. Last week my Pastor gave me a book by Bill Britton. He says thet Christians will go thru the Tribulation but not get hurt. The "Rapture"' was only believed from 1830 when a Margaret Mac Donald had a vision of people all flying up when Christ came to live in Heaven. A man from the first Scottish Church was also disfellowshipped over it. From then on most churches grasped the idea we will all fly away and now most believe it. When God flooded the Earth, he destroyed the wicked not the righteous and they stayed on Earth and survived . Anyway just a thought to let you know of other beliefs. Also I don't believe many will go in it, as very few Christians are watching ,waiting joyfully and expectantly, living unholy, not separate as God requires. The 10 virgins for instance only 50% were ready.

Brian

Answer

Dear Brian:

You should preface your statement as, "Not many American's will go in the rapture". There are plenty of Chinese, African's, and others around the world that are dying daily for their faith in Jesus Christ. This is not just an American thing. There is more persecution worldwide today then there ever was in the early church. The problem with those who believe that Christian's will go through the tribulation period is they have a diversionary motive behind the scriptures they quote to prove their position. I have talked to many who adhere to the theory that Christian's will go through the tribulation period. It's funny, they always start out calling me a false prophet, and use the very same verses to defend their theory as I do to defend why I believe there will be a pre-tribulation rapture.  By the second correspondence the truth of their motive really comes out. They are afraid that someone is going to slip into heaven via an eleventh hour repentance.  I haven't met one that doesn't hold to this as their underlying motive. For some reason they all believe that God is silly enough to not know the difference between a sincere repentant heart and lip service. When the rapture does occur, God will rapture only those who are His (John 10: 27-30). A prayer of repentance without true repentance is vain and is not forgiven.  Let's get one thing straight; you can't get to heaven on a technicality. Just because you say the prayer doesn't mean that you are sincere. It's a heart thing, and who better then God knows the heart (Matthew 7:21).

One thing that I am in agreement with the mid and post-triber's, there are a lot of professing Christian's living like the world. I wouldn't be surprised (when the rapture does occur) if the number of true Christian's in America is so few that the rapture goes unnoticed in the states. That maybe a little far-fetched, but that tells you the state of this country spiritually. It used to be widely believed that the U.S. had more Christian's then any other country by a big margin. That probably isn't true anymore. There are at least fifty million Christian's (minimum) in China that we know of. That's about twenty percent of the U.S. population. I think we would be hard pressed to come up with fifty million true Christian's in the U.S. Other countries are also knocking on our door or have passed us in terms of people getting saved.

As for Margaret Mac Donald. Let me start out by saying if we fundamental Bible believing Christian's believed that Ms. Mac Donald had a dream we are no better than the Mormon's whose founder said he found an addition to the Bible under a rock. That's the silliest thing I have ever heard. That story is only embraced by the post trbulationalist crowd on behalf of the pre-tribulation rapture believer's.  Meaning post-tribbers want us to believe it and take every available opportunity to say it is one of our core reason why we believe in the pre-tribulation rapture. 

But the truth is, the rapture goes back much further then 1830, only the post-tribulationists believe that that's when it started. All major Bible believing teachers and ministers believe that there will be a pre-tribulation rapture because the scriptures support it (see Question# 1177).  God does not hide spiritual truth from His true spiritual leaders. He never has in the past nor in Bible times.

Even if (and that's a big IF) the pre-tribulation rapture has only been believed since 1830 that's fine with me. God reveals truth when He feels the time is right.

But we now have understanding of scripture revealed to us that after Israel becomes a nation a generation would not pass away until the Lord comes. That generation is about to end. There will definitely be a rapture, that's Biblical (I Thessalonians 4:13-17). Whether you believe it is before the tribulation, in the middle or at the end matters little to me. I will let the Lord sort that out, and I, and every true Christian will stand strong through the power of the Holy Spirit as every persecuted Saint throughout history has.  You see every persecuted Christian since the early church has been looking for the rapture.  They didn't fall away under great persecution and death, and neither will this generation.

What really matters is if you know the Lord and are doing His will. Without such, no man shall see God.

Pastor Malone