Irvin Baxter's Rapture Heresy

 

Irvin Baxter's Rapture Heresy

 

One of the strangest statements on Mr. Baxter's website concerns the Rapture. In response to a question about the timing of the Rapture, he says, "Unfortunately, rapture timing debates between brothers in Christ often become divisive, and for this reason, Endtime has chosen to avoid the issue for now." This non-answer is truly astonishing! Here is a person with an opinion on everything in the prophetic scriptures, yet he chose to "avoid" one of the most important issues!

"What I want to do is to teach the Jews the prophecies of the Bible, so that they're not operating blindfolded," says Mr. Baxter

Bear in mind, the Jewish Scriptures were written in Hebrew, not in seventeenth century King James English. What has made Christian believers so vulnerable to Bible tampering is that almost none of them can read or understand the Hebrew Bible in its original language. Virtually no Christian child in the world is taught the Hebrew language as part of a formal Christian education. As he and countless other Christians earnestly study the Authorized Version of the Bible, there is a blinding yet prevailing assumption that what you are reading is Heaven-breathed. Tragically, virtually every Christian in the world reads the translation of men rather than the Word of God. On the other hand, every Jewish child in the world who is enrolled in a Jewish school is taught to read and write Hebrew long before he or she even heard the name of Luther.

Unbeknownst to Mr. Baxter and parishioners worldwide, the King James Version and numerous other Christian Bible translations were meticulously shaped and painstakingly retrofitted in order to produce a message that would sustain and advance Church theology and exegesis. This aggressive rewriting of biblical texts has had a devastating impact on Christians throughout the world who unhesitatingly embrace these corrupt translations. As a result, Christians earnestly wonder why the Jews, who are the bearers and protectors of the divine oracles of God, have not willingly accepted Jesus as their messiah. [1]

Mr. Baxter' approach to prophetic interpretation makes it clear why the plain sense meaning rule is so important. That rule states: "If the plain sense makes sense, don't look for any other sense, or you will end up with nonsense."

Replacement Heresy
There are many forms of Replacement Theology. We wont go into much detail here. In essence however, any teaching or movement (including the Two House/Armstrong Church of God spin-off sects) that claims to have replaced Israel as the Elect falls into this category. Some Nicene Christian denominations claim to have replaced the Jews directly (the Catholic Church, Jehovah's Witness etc) while others are more subtle, claiming that only those who "accept Jesus" according to their understandings are "true Jews" or "spiritual Israel." If you take nothing else from lessons, understand that HaShem is ONE and that Judaism has not and will never be replaced by anyone. To claim the Jews have been replaced is to call HaShem a liar because He said: "For I am Adonai, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed" -- Malachi 3:6 and "God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him -- Genesis 17:19.

Is the Rapture a Biblical Doctrine?

By John of AllFaith

To make sure we are on the same page with what the Rapture is supposed to be, please begin by watching this 2 minute video by a Rapture beliving ministry:

The Rapture doctrine means one thing and one thing only. It does not refer to people going to Heaven after they die, to people having visions or traveling in visionary states etc. The Rapture theory refers to the belief in the nearly instantaneous translocation of every single "Born Again Christian" on earth to Heaven as shown in this video. It refers to the nearly instantaneous disappearance of millions (if not billions) of human beings around the globe without a trace. It speaks of the "taking away" of every child on earth, of jets falling from the skies as Christian pilots are "taken" (arguably a good reason not to hire Christians hehe); it foretells the worst multi-car pile-ups in history as every vehicle being driven by a Christian is suddenly abandoned and careens out of control, of husbands and wives, parents and their children being separated as the Christians are "taken" in a twinkling of an eye from all over the globe.

This is what we mean by the term Rapture.

The Doctrine of the Rapture of the Church is the popular Nicean Christian belief that at some point in the future HaShem will extract all true "Christians" from the earth, "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye" leaving everyone else here to suffer under the reign of the coming Antichrist (Rex Mundi).

This idea gained popular support through the teachings of Dr. Clarence Larkin (Dispensational Truths), Rev. Charles Scofield (The Scofield Bible), a plethora of Second and Third Great Awakening Evangelists (see my study The Great Awakenings for more on these religious developments), and more recently from the unbiblical works of fiction by Tim Lahey known as The Left Behind Series in which the Antichrist is depicted as a Transylvanian Dracula-type Liberal do-gooder gone bad! Likewise, Family Radio of Harold Camping has used this teaching to mislead millions. We need to understand the truth of this! Is this a biblical doctrine? 

There is voluminous evidence in the Bible that the Kingdom of God will reign on this earth!

"But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the House of the Eternal shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people [physical human beings will still be alive on the earth during that day!] shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Eternal, and to the House of the God of Jacob and He will teach us of His ways and we will walk in His paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the Word of the Eternal from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Eternal of Hosts has spoken it" (Micah 4:1-4).

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God [meaning, 'God-breathed'], and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16)

Major footnote: When Paul wrote his letter to Timothy there was No "New Testament". Paul is talking about the Tanach (what christians call the old testament)

The divinely-revealed Word of God is the ultimate source to which we must go to discover the real truth about the reward of the saved, about what happens at death; about the promise of "heaven," or the threat of "hell."

Wouldn't it seem logical to you that if heaven is the reward of the saved; that if hell is the reward of sinners; that if the saints are raptured away to heaven—there would at least be one scripture somewhere in the Bible plainly saying so?

Jesus was a Jew. I know, shocking to some, he would most definitely been versed in the thirteen principles of faith, one of which is the belief in the resurection of the dead.

"The Christian idea of rapture is another such idea, which has little or nothing to do with Jewish tradition, which has always believed in the notion of the resurrection of the dead.”

Belief in the eventual resurrection of the dead is so fundamental to Jewish thought that it is one of the Thirteen Principles of Faith. These 13 basic Jewish beliefs were compiled in the 12th century by the one of the greatest codifiers of Jewish law, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (also known as Maimonides or Rambam).

I believe with perfect faith that there will be a resurrection of the dead at the time when it shall please the Creator, Blessed be His name, and His mention shall be exalted for ever and ever.

"Thy dead shall live, my dead bodies shall arise–awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust–for Thy dew is as the dew of light, and the earth shall bring to life the shades.” Isaiah 26:19


SOURCE:
[1] http://www.outreachjudaism.org/articles/lutheran.html
[2] http://www.allfaith.com/prophecy/rapture.html
© 4.16.08 (updated 5.17.11)
Let's discuss this on his Blog!