Here’s a paragraph you wrote recently in Ask a Bible Teacher:
“I’ve probably studied the different views of the Rapture as much as any person alive and have always come away convinced of the correctness of the pre-trib position. In fact, over the years my opinion on the timing of the Rapture has gotten earlier in the End Times Scenario, not later.”
Would you please expand on the last sentence with details of things that have caused you to revise your thinking about when the Rapture is likely?
I’m not asking for date-setting. I know it is not possible, and I believe it would be sinful for me to encourage you to do it.
As you might know, it was End Times prophecy that caused my conversion from a life long church goer to a born again believer. Early on I studied all the Rapture positions and and concluded that the pre-trib position was the one most consistent with the literal interpretation of Scripture. In the process I also came to understand that the pre-trib position actually puts the Rapture before the 70th Week of Daniel begins and not just before the Great Tribulation.
Later, while studying Ezekiel 38-39 I saw that it has to occur before Daniel’s 70th week can begin because it’s the Battle of Ezekiel 38 that brings Israel back to the Lord and makes the Temple mentioned in Daniel 9:27 necessary. Finally the way I read Acts 15:13-18 and Romans 11:25 leads me to believe that none of these things can happen until the church is gone. So my position on the timing of the Rapture has advanced from pre-trib to pre-70th Week to pre-Ezekiel 38.