The Apostasy is the Rapture?

The Apostasy Is The Rapture?

Sam Linton
http://www.notdeceived.com/apostasy_is_rapture.htm

Introduction
Most Christians, including most who are pretrib, believe that the "falling away" spoken of in 2 Thessalonians means people will be falling away from the faith or from the truth.

2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

Apostasia
However, in order to bolster the claim that 2 Thess. 2 teaches a pretrib rapture, a number of teachers now assert that "falling away" is the same as those who are "caught up" in 1 Thess. 4:17. They do this by claiming the word "apostasia" in the Greek may not mean "falling away" as translated by Bibles such as the KJV and the YLT.

There are numerous problems with this notion.

First, the words apostasia is the root word for - hold your breath - apostasy. Let's see what it means.

apostasy - Abandonment of one's religious faith, a political party, one's principles, or a cause.

apostasy, n.; An abandonment of what one has voluntarily professed; a total desertion or departure from one's faith, principles, or party; esp., the renunciation of a religious faith.

apostasy n 1: the state of having rejected your religious beliefs [syn: renunciation, defection] 2: the act of abandoning a party or cause [syn: tergiversation]

Note that in one instance the phrase "a total desertion or departure from one's faith" is used to define the word apostasy.

Second, it is a "new revelation" according to at least one of its chief proponents, Dr. Roy Hicks:

"I believe that you, the reader, will rejoice as you read in these pages some important new revelations never before published concerning the pre-Tribulation Rapture..."
Another Look At The Rapture (1982)
Dr. Roy Hicks
p. 11

What did Matthew Henry's Commentary say about new revelations?

"The apostle would not have them be deceived: Let no man deceive you by any means, v. 3. There are many who lie in wait to deceive, and they have many ways of deceiving; we have reason therefore to be cautious and stand upon our guard. Some deceivers will pretend new revelations, others misinterpret scripture, and others will be guilty of gross forgeries; divers means and artifices of deceit men will use; but we must be careful that no man deceive us by any means."
Matthew Henry Complete Commentary, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3

Incredibly, the note about "new revelations" is concerning the very text that HIcks and others claim to have "new revelations" about!

Likewise, Spurgeon had this to say (although he was referring to the Plymouth Brethren):

Do not be carried away with new meanings. Plymouth Brethren delight to fish up some hitherto undiscovered tadpole of interpretation, and cry it round the town as a rare dainty; let us be content with more ordinary and more wholesome fishery. No one text is to be exalted above the plain analogy of faith; and no solitary expression is to shape our theology for us. Other men and wiser men have expounded before us, and anything undiscovered by them it were well to put to test and trial before we boast too loudly of the treasure trove.
C. H. Spurgeon
Commenting and Commentaries (1890)
http://www.ccel.org/s/spurgeon/comment/comment.html

Third, adherents such as Dr. Hicks go back to very old English translations which do in fact have the word "departure." However, as pointed out above, the departure is "from one's faith." The connotation of a "departure" of the Church from the earth is an inference only.

Finally, pretrib adherents of the "apostasia equals rapture" belief must - like apparently all of their colleagues - reject the KJV, YLT, and any other Bible based on the Textus Receptus.

Hicks writes:

"In verse 2, Paul begins to write about two separate events. The first event is mentioned in verse 1: our gathering together unto him. The second event is the Day of the Lord, which includes the revealing of that Man of Sin. The "day of Christ," as is it called in the King James Version, is understood by all Greek translators to be the Day of the Lord, or the day of Judgment."
Another Look At The Rapture (1982)
Dr. Roy Hicks
p. 45 

Amazingly, Hicks (and most, if not all, pretrib theologians) sees a 7-year gap in 2 Thess. 2:2. He also claims that the "day of Christ" is wrong and it "is understood by all Greek translators to be the day of the Lord." That is is completely untrue. Many scholars even now reject the Westcott and Hort and other "eclectic texts" that would seem to change the very wording of the Bible in this passage.

Actually, the day of Christ and the day of the Lord are synonymous terms, and that day is after the falling away and after the man of sin is revealed. The question that just begs to be asked is this: Is the pretrib rapture doctrine part of the apostasy?