Reviving the Blessed Hope of Thessalonians

by Douglas D. Stauffer, Andrew B. Ray, Rick Quatro (Editor)

The question for all ages: Does the Bible conclusively prove that God will Rapture the Church before, during or after Daniel’s Seventieth Week, commonly referred to as the Tribulation period? As the controversy rages and debaters rant and rave, Dr. Stauffer and Dr. Ray methodically, systematically, and scripturally consider many of the end times’ details concerning the timing of the Rapture. This concise commentary on the prophetic events of First and Second Thessalonians provides definitive and undeniable proofs showing that the scripture holds the answer when freed from private interpretation. It is important to understand the timing of the Blessed Hope since it serves as a primary impetus for godly living. With so many contrary voices, the Church’s spiritual survival hangs in the balance.

176 pages, Paperback

Published March 18, 2016

Reviews

[William Struse · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Context of Daniel 9 -

The Rapture of the church is a subject which has been on my mind a lot the past couple of years. I’ve been reading a lot of the books on the topic from varied points of view in an effort to try and distill the best arguments I can find.

It was with great interest that I recently read Douglas D. Stauffer’s and Andrew B. Ray’s new book, Reviving the Blessed Hope of Thessalonians. In this book the authors make their case for Pre-tribulation rapture of the church using the 1st & 2nd Thessalonians as their guide.

There were several things I liked about this book. First the authors in the Preface of the book stated their beliefs right up from. As a fellow futurist I appreciated this because it allowed me to get a clearer view of their perspective and it gave greater insights into how they arrived at the conclusions they did later in the book.

Another thing I like about the book is the authors gave some really prescient advice as it relates to context and Biblical interpretation. I agree with them that context is incredibly important and we ignore it to our own detriment.

I also especially appreciated the author’s criticism of those who merchandise fear as it relates to Bible prophecy. Here is an excellent quote from the authors:

• “Those perverting the plain teachings of scripture and set on inciting fear ought to consider another type of fear. Instead of encouraging God’s people to fear the Tribulation, or the Antichrist, or earthquakes, or famines, or imprisonments, they should consider encouraging God’s people to return to a healthy biblical fear of God. 2 Instead of motivating a fear of losing earthly treasures (homes, food, or health), these preachers should remind people to live in such a way as to not lose their heavenly treasures and rewards.” (Kindle Locations 1703-1707).

* * *

In the spirit of respectful criticism I personally found the authors’ argument for the timing of the rapture to have at least one great weakness. That has to do with the author’s dependence upon Daniel 9 and the 7 year tribulation as a major pillar in their interpretive framework.

In this book the authors went to great lengths to stress the importance of context to any interpretive method. Regarding Daniel 9 and the prophecy of 70 weeks I don’t think they met that standard. First here are a couple of important quotes from their book regarding context:

• “Context determines meaning and false doctrines come from ignoring context.” (Kindle Location 690).

• “Context solves the vast majority of scriptural perplexities and protects Bible students from dangerous assumptions. Ignoring any passage’s context frequently generates interpretations that are irresponsible, detrimental, and sometimes damnable to its adherents. However, private interpretation of scripture is quite common amongst far too many Bible teachers.” (Kindle Locations 1496-1498).

Regarding Daniel 9 I don’t believe the authors addressed the context of the prophecy in the following areas:

• The chronology of Ezra and Nehemiah
• The commandment to restore and build Jerusalem
• The Bible’s Calendar

*Regarding Ezra and Nehemiah the authors failed to provide the context of Ezra and Nehemiah relative to the 2nd temple era chronology of the Bible. The Bible tells us Ezra’s father died in the 19th year of Nebuchadnezzar. This would make Ezra and Nehemiah contemporaries of Darius ‘the Great’ Artaxerxes, not Artaxerxes Longimanus. Nehemiah on the other hand tells us that many of the priest and Levites who came up with Joshua and Zerubbabel under the decree of Cyrus were still alive during the 20th year of a Persian Artaxerxes. Contextually this would place them as contemporaries of Darius ‘the Great’ Artaxerxes as well and not Artaxerxes Longimanus.

*Regarding the Commandment to restore and build the authors state there were only four decrees to restore and build Jerusalem. Contextually there were actually five decrees. The one decree not mentioned was given by YHWH the living God of the Bible. In fact the word “commandment” as is used Daniel 9:25 comes from the Hebrew word dabar which means: speech, word, or utterance. Dabar is used 1439 times in the Bible and the vast majority of these occurrences refer to the dabar of YHWH. In fact dabar is used 4 times in Daniel 9. Of those, three clearly refer to the word of YHWH the living God of the Bible. In the Bible the “word to restore and build Jerusalem” given by YHWH is witnessed by Haggai, Zechariah, and Ezra. Missing the most important decree given in the Bible is a contextual oversight which needs to be addressed in order established Daniel 9 upon a proper Biblical footing.

*Finally, the authors state that the Israel’s calendar was a “lunar calendar”. Contextually this is not entirely correct. The Bible calendar (Israel’s) was based upon both the lunar and solar cycles (Gen. 1:14) Calculating the prophecy of Daniel 9 using only a lunar calendar is not based upon a contextually accurate understanding of Biblical time.

For example the New Testament shows that Yeshua fulfilled the Biblical holy days of Passover, Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits precisely on schedule. These holy days are kept using a Biblical lunar/solar calendar. There is no specific Biblical evidence from the Exodus onwards that Israel ever used a strictly lunar calendar. Had they done so the Biblical months would have moved backwards in time by 11 days each year much the same way the Islamic calendar does today.

* * *

In closing the author’s arguments for the Rapture are directly linked to the prophecy of Daniel 9. As fellow futurist I believe it is imperative that the context of Daniel 9 be addressed in order to establish the timing of the Rapture upon a solid Biblical foundation. Until this is done the authors view of the Rapture must be taken with a Berean’s skepticism.

[NG · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this one with my wife years ago. At the time we were both committed dispensationalists. She was less convinced that Thessalonians teaches a pre-trib rapture after reading this book than before. Now we are amillennialists. I don’t think dispensationalists in their rush to defend a pre-trib versus a post-trib rapture are doing themselves any favors…considering the fact that this would not even have been a discussion prior to the mid 1800’s. The author of this book clearly fails to interact with alternative perspectives and twists the text of Thessalonians to meet his theological agenda.

[Richard DeLong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Rapture / 2nd Coming

Good very good commentary on 1+2 Thessalonians. Explains a lot about the Rapture and the 2nd Coming from KJV Bible.

[Timothy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book on the Rapture that is designed for all levels of Bibke knowledge by clearly defining its terms and carefully laying out the biblical position on the topic.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good read, the only reason I didn't give it a "5" was that not everyone would understand it as much others did reading. You need to understand some of the more advanced teachings of the Bible such as Dispensational truths, pre-tribulation rapture, and other Christian eschatology beliefs to fully ingest everything Doug Stauffer writes about. He has a lot of good charts, that help with understanding the basic principles he teaches. This is not to say that his writings are hard to understand; Doug is a master at simplifying some of the most complicated issues so that everyone can enjoy them. His book "One Book Rightly Divided" was the single most important book that helped me value my Holy Bible like no other book has done. Every Christian needs a copy of this book.

[Rick Owens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good insight presented by the author.