It appears that after 80 years, the Gospel Tract Society has changed its position on the rapture. This has shocked some pre-trib ministries.
An article expressing their dismay is up today at RaptureAlert.
quote..
From its humble beginnings in 1926, with only a stall within the family barn and a $100 donation, Lester L. Buttram founded the Gospel Tract Society. God put on his heart a very clear instruction — “Print My Word.” For over 80 years, Lester Buttram and his family have spread the Good News of Jesus Christ through their free tracts, never promoting a particular denomination or church doctrine. Only the Lord knows how many thousands of people over the decades have come to accept Jesus as Savior from the hard work of this faithful ministry.
The Gospel Tract Society has historically taught through their tracts that “prior to The Great Tribulation and the onset of the Antichrist, (the one that the prophet Daniel spoke of as the fourth beast in chapter 7), the Church would be removed from this earth in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye in something called in these latter days as the Rapture or in Biblical times as the Blessed Hope.”
This view, called the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, teaches that Christians can find encouragement and hope that Jesus will return and take up to be with Him those who have accepted Him as Savior. This happens before He pours out his wrath upon the world for its continued rebellion against God during a distinct seven year time period known as the Tribulation.
A Drastic Refocus
The Gospel Tract Society has changed their longstanding view in the last month.
Lamb & Lion Ministries was first alerted to the change when the ministry’s successor, Tom Buttram, asked founder Dr. David Reagan to change the wording in his tract “Living for Christ in the End Times” (based on the article) from “Rapture” to “Second Coming.”
The second alert came when a friend of Lamb & Lion Ministries contacted the Gospel Tract Society for copies of that tract, only to be told the remaining 6,000 in inventory were going to be destroyed.
Upon inquiry as to why the Gospel Tract Society would desire to change the wording and destroy the existing inventory, Tom Buttram responded with a very startling revelation. Tom Buttram now believes humanity has already entered into the Tribulation and the Church will not be raptured until the Seventh Trumpet Judgment has sounded mid-way through the Tribulation. He tells of his revelation:
“I was similarly disturbed when I realized that the coming of the Man of Lawlessness is nearer than we think and deep into that study, I found Daniel telling in Chapter 7:24-28, the order of events, then Paul also in II Thess. 2:3,… but I believe Daniel’s ‘time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time’ has begun today. I believe we will be ‘delivered,’ but not removed from that time until the final Trump… I am now preparing for the Greatest Delusion of all times.”
The Gospel Tract Society’s new website at The Coming Christ further explains in point three under “Where We Are” their dramatic shift in emphasis:
“Most importantly, we have made a major shift in one core belief that the Church of Jesus Christ would be miraculously taken out of this world before The Great Tribulation was initiated and until it was completed (a 7yr. Period.) This is referred to as a pre-Tribulation Rapture. Today, we believe that when the Rapture of the Church takes place, it won’t be until well into the first 3 & 1/2 years. We as Dispensationalists… are having to sort out what our role in the world is now and in the time to come.”
And so, after over 80 years of the Gospel Tract Society proclaiming the imminent return of Jesus Christ, they will now refocus their attention on printing materials “needed for all to escape delusion and attack” by the Man of Lawlessness (the Antichrist) and a Mid-Tribulation rescue by Jesus.
An alarming statement is posted on The Coming Christ website —
“We don’t have all the answers yet and that can be a source of calm to you, as so many others seemed to have it all figured out.”
OK, the esteemed Gospel Tract Society after 80 years of preaching the Rapture of believers before world judgment has just declared that they got it all wrong, that we are actually living in the Tribulation, and that we will all be attacked (means “massacred,” folks) by the coming world leader — and that is supposed to be a source of calm!?! Just how much “calm” are they now going to spread with their newest batch of tracts?
While the Gospel Tract Society is still very amicable with Lamb & Lion Ministries, even offering to give the 6,000 “Living for Christ in the End Times” tracts to the ministry rather than destroying them, I have to – in all good Christian brotherhood – state that their sudden refocus is not founded in reality. (more)
I had to laugh at this:
An “alarming” statement is posted on The Coming Christ website — “We don’t have all the answers yet and that can be a source of calm to you, as so many others seemed to have it all figured out.”
So its alarming to admit you don’t have it all figured out? AHAHAHA…
I think its MORE alarming when someone claims they DO have it all figured out!
Sola Dei Gloria 
“So its alarming to admit you don’t have it all figured out? AHAHAHA…
I think its MORE alarming when someone claims they DO have it all figured out! ”
LOL…
Jesus said He would come like a thief in the night…
Why don’t they just preach to be ready at all times and stop looking for signs?
Great stuff as always PJ!
My sentiments exactly DG.
We should be prepared to meet our Lord every day. For this body we live in may die before he returns.
Well better late than never to discover that we probably WILL face the tribulation, mark of the beast etc., so the tenure of the article is positive albeit surprising.
PJ said “I think it is MORE alarming when someone claims they DO have it all figured out”. Ha Ha Amen to that, now stay calmmmmm everyone!
I’m calm! ahah 🙂
Wasn’t that funny? I’ll tell you, people that believe they have it all figured out, are spooky. LOL.
I won’t even get into prophecy discussions with folks like that anymore.
The only thing im dogmatic about is Jesus is coming back!
The rapture folks may use this as evidence that the great apostasy, the great falling away from the truth of the Bible, is nigh and that the rapture is imminent. I know that one of the major rapture sites called the trend away from dispensationalism and standing with Israel as evidence that this was going on. And I have to admit, back when I was a rapture advocate, less than two years ago as a matter of fact, that is PRECISELY what I would have said myself.
Yes, me too Job.
(I’ve read the same thing at a few of the bigger pre-trib-dispensationalist boards also)
eschatology is a difficult subject and there are many views, and people like to think their view is the right view. The end time view that is clearly false is the dominist’s view to build heaven on earth.
PJ rather than labelling others and making fun of their view, I think a better approach is to practice christian love and respect each other views. Note that end time views do not affect our salvation. We should be prepared to meet the Lord everyday regardless of our end time views. And it will be great if christians of different end time views can work together to reach the lost with the gospel.
Romans 14:6-10 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
The only thing I am dogmatic about is Jesus IS coming back!
WOW and HALLELUIA pj, What Glorious knowledge and hope.
When the apostle John was shown a LOT of people in heaven….so many that their number was obscured by the sheer density of the crowd, it was stated in scripture that No man could count them…and the messenger, the escort that john had throughout the book asked John a question.
“WHO IS THIS GREAT MULTITUDE?”….dressed in white, palms and heavenly things around.
John was humble enough about the whole situation, so he pleaded ignorance….the truth.
“SIR, YOU KNOW!”…. He figured out that it was a rhetorical question anyhow.
“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands;
10 and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,
12 saying, “Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever Amen.”
13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?”
14 I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who COME OUT of the Great Tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
” IF THESE PEOPLE CAME OUT OF THE GREAT TRIBULATION, DOESN’T IT MAKE SENSE THAT THEY HAD TO GO IN?”
………Revelation 20:4
” I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”
IF THESE CHRISTIANS RESISTED THE MARK OF THE ANTICHRIST UNTO DEATH, WHO RULES DURING THE TRIBULATION, ISN’T IT LOGICAL THAT THEY WOULD HAVE TO ACTUALLY BE IN THAT TIME PERIOD , TO BE MARTYRED THERE?
The pre-tribulation “rapture” has always been a theory, and scripturally deficient, except by dogma….It goes hand in hand with the “America will never suffer crowd”…and “your best life now” theology that denies that there is a cross that we must bear to gain Jesus, also.
I will not argue it, for there is no profit in it, but I must speak the truth, according to the Word. We will go through the “Great Tribulation”, and I do believe that Jihadist Islam is directly related to the anti_Christ. I agree that no one knows the order of events, nor the exact timing…but let us not be swayed by indoctrinations that add up the word on there own, and cut and clip the scriptures according to their own prejudices.
As some of you may know, the Lord has given me some revelation on the end times in America, and I feel that my ministry is to prepare the body, as I warn her, that , ” WE MUST BE PREPARED BY FAITH! ”
WE MUST KNOW JESUS INTIMATELY, AND BE PLEASING TO HIM, NO MATTER THE COST.
STEPHEN, AND THOSE HEBREWS 11 PEOPLE SURE WERE.
What a wonderful and informing blog that you have and congrats are in order. Well, Thomas Ice has it all figured out and he’ll be the first to admit it! He figures that if he keeps muddying up the “dirty linen” history of his rapture doctrine, no one will believe the evidence in a shocking item titled “Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty” which Powered by Christ Ministries has been carrying on its site. Yes, there is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed! Lord bless you all, and may the Lord bless and reward the Gospel Tract Society for putting truth and conscience ahead of money! Mandy
Thanks for your posting, however, your quote from Lion and Lamb site is not correct as they are not correct. We do not state that we believe we are already in the 7 yr. tribulation period. Read our site. The Great Tribulation is a 3 & 1/2 period which could begin soon. If you want good insight, read on our website (www.thecomingchrist.com) the book called “The Harvest.” The clarity of this teaching will cause you to also look further down the GT road.
Thanks,
Tom Buttram, Gospel Tract Society
Thanks for clearing that up Tom…its much appreciated.
And thanks, yes i’ll check out your website: http://www.thecomingchrist.com/
There is a new article on Google your readers might like to read. The title is “Pretrib Expert John Walvoord Melts Ice” – and the Ice is Thomas Ice. What a strange world, right? Burt
Burt, could you send me the link to the article? I can’t seem to find it…
You can email me through the contact tab at the top of the page.
Thanks Burt! 🙂
Rev. 16:15 BEHOLD I am coming as a thief… Jesus was always referring to His Second coming As a Thief to Those who don’t watch..
You are right Jeremiah, Jesus IS coming as a thief to those who don’t watch. True followers and lovers of Jesus ARE watching as we read and know the scriptural signs that are written for our enlightenment and guidance. Unbelievers however are the ones who will be caught out ‘as a thief in the night’. They are the ones that Rev.16:15 are referring to.
It’s amazing how the rapture belief still holds many as it does. The Coming of the Lord as a thief in the night (1 Thess) is only for those who are in darkness, “but you are children of light” as Paul refers to the believer. After certain things happen, the believer will know when the Coming will occur–it will be no surprise.
PRETRIB RAPTURE STEALTH !
Many evangelicals believe that Christ will “rapture” them to heaven years before the second coming and (most importantly) well BEFORE Antichrist and his “tribulation.” But Acts 2:34, 35 reveal that Jesus is at the Father’s right hand in heaven until He leaves to destroy His earthly foes at the second coming. And Acts 3:21 says that Jesus “must” stay in heaven with the Father “until the times of restitution of all things” which includes, says Scofield, “the restoration of the theocracy under David’s Son” which obviously can’t begin before or during Antichrist’s reign. (“The Rapture Question,” by the long time No. 1 pretrib authority John Walvoord, didn’t dare to even list, in its scripture index, the above verses! They were also too hot for John Darby – the so-called “father of dispensationalism” – to list in the scripture index in his “Letters”!)
Paul explains the “times and the seasons” (I Thess. 5:1) of the catching up (I Thess. 4:17) as the “day of the Lord” (5:2) which FOLLOWS the posttrib sun/moon darkening (Matt. 24:29; Acts 2:20) WHEN “sudden destruction” (5:3) of the wicked occurs! The “rest” for “all them that believe” is also tied to such destruction in II Thess. 1:6-10! (If the wicked are destroyed before or during the trib, who’d be left alive to serve the Antichrist?) Paul also ties the change-into-immortality “rapture” (I Cor. 15:52) to the end of trib “death” (15:54). (Will death be ended before or during the trib? Of course not! And vs. 54 is also tied to Isa. 25:8 which Scofield views as Israel’s posttrib resurrection!) It’s amazing that the Olivet Discourse contains the “great commission” for the church but not even a hint of a pretrib rapture for the church!
Many don’t know that before 1830 all Christians had always viewed I Thess. 4’s “catching up” as an integral part of the final second coming to earth. In 1830 this “rapture” was stretched forward and turned into an idolized separate coming of Christ. To further strengthen their novel view, which evangelical scholars overwhelmingly rejected throughout the 1800s, pretrib teachers in the early 1900s began to stretch forward the “day of the Lord” (what Darby and Scofield never dared to do) and hook it up with their already-stretched-forward “rapture.” Many leading evangelical scholars still weren’t convinced of pretrib, so pretrib teachers then began teaching that the “falling away” of II Thess. 2:3 is really a pretrib rapture (the same as saying that the “rapture” in 2:3 must happen before the “rapture” [“gathering”] in 2:1 can happen – the height of desperation!). Google “Walvoord Melts Ice” for more on this, and also Google “Pretrib Rapture Pride.”
Other Google articles on the 183-year-old pretrib rapture view include “X-Raying Margaret,” “Margaret Macdonald’s Rapture Chart,” “Pretrib Rapture’s Missing Lines,” “Edward Irving is Unnerving,” “The Unoriginal John Darby,” “Catholics Did NOT Invent the Rapture,” “The Real Manuel Lacunza,” “Thomas Ice (Bloopers),” “Wily Jeffrey,” “The Rapture Index (Mad Theology),” “America’s Pretrib Rapture Traffickers,” “Roots of (Warlike) Christian Zionism,” “Scholars Weigh My Research,” “Pretrib Hypocrisy,” “Appendix F: Thou Shalt Not Steal,” “Pretrib Rapture Secrecy,” “Deceiving and Being Deceived,” “Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty,” “Famous Rapture Watchers,” and “Morgan Edwards’ Rapture View” – most by the author of the bestselling book “The Rapture Plot” (the most accurate and documented book on pretrib rapture history which is obtainable by calling 800.643.4645).
Thanks for the comment Irv and pointing out the various issues concerning a pretrib rapture.
Yes, it is amazing…especially due to the manner in which pretrib believers (dispensationalists) interpret all of Matthew 24 as not yet being fulfilled.
Thats true. It wasn’t until i began to read through documents and teachings from early church fathers and/or leaders that i realized this myself. Once i understood this and studied the verses again, any confusion i’d had concerning these verses (which were many, having been a dispensationalist all my Christian life) was instantly cleared up.
Isn’t that bizarre?! I recall reading that interpretation in some book…and thinking, ‘WHAT? now wait a minute….!!!!” Ahaha…