Question: When questioned [on STSD] about what you said [about the Rapture], you changed your mind, so I thought I would correct you with an understanding of a partial rapture. | thebereancall.org

TBC Staff

Question: You were right when you said [on Search the Scriptures Daily] there will be lots of Christians left behind to face the tribulation because though saved, they were not ready for the first rapture according to Matthew:24:42, Luke:21:36, and Revelation:3:10. When questioned about what you said, you changed your mind, so I thought I would correct you with an understanding of a partial rapture.

Response: No, I did not change my mind. It was a slip of the tongue, which Tom immediately brought to my attention. I quickly corrected my error, which is clear on the video. I have never believed in a partial rapture. It is not biblical.

For there to be a partial rapture, there must be a Protestant purgatory for those who died in a state unworthy to be raptured. No longer on earth, they can't repent and live in a manner, as you say, "worthy of heaven." How will they qualify to be taken to heaven?

A partial rapture contradicts the gospel. We are promised heaven on the basis of Christ's full payment for our sins on the Cross, and His resurrection--not for living a good-enough life. It is in heaven at the judgment seat of Christ (not in some interim place) that we will be judged for our works: "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body [i.e., in life on earth], whether it be good or bad" (2 Cor:5:10). Paul has explained this in another way in 1 Cor:3:11-15. The issue is not salvation but reward or loss of it. Even if none of a man's works come through the fire of God's evaluation, "he himself shall be saved...."

You also argue for a post-trib rapture, deny that the "restrainer" (2 Thes:2:7) is the Holy Spirit indwelling believers, misunderstand that taking all believers to heaven in the rapture only removes God's presence in believers who were raptured but does not remove the omnipresence of God, which always is. The Holy Spirit will still convict and save those who are not guilty of having "believed not the truth..." (2 Thes:2:10-12).

These and other related issues that you raise have all been explained in my books and previous newsletter articles, so I can't take time to discuss them further.