The Daily Word of Righteousness

An Examination of Current Teaching, #48

For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. (Genesis 7:17)

Noah's Ark is a type of our being caught up to Heaven in order to escape the great tribulation.

The story of Noah's Ark often is used as a type of the rapture into Heaven of the believers.

There are some aspects of the story that do not fit the unscriptural "rapture" into Heaven.

In the first place, Noah was not lifted into Heaven but was protected while on the earth. Because Noah obeyed God, his life was preserved as well as the lives of his family members. The heavier the judgment the higher the Ark rose.

The Bible teaches us that God will protect us during the time of judgment.

Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by. (Isaiah 26:20)

There is nothing said here about taking us to Heaven in order to protect us. God saved Daniel in the Lions' den; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace.

The entire ninety-first Psalm speaks of protection during the hour of judgment.

A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. (Psalms 91:7)

God is well able to protect us in the midst of trouble. If God can shield us to the extent eleven thousand people fall around us and the destruction cannot approach us, there is no need for Him to carry us to Heaven to escape the troubles of the Great Tribulation.

To our knowledge, there simply is no Bible basis for the current teaching that God intends to "rapture" His Church into Heaven in order to escape the Great Tribulation. Those who are teaching this unscriptural doctrine need to look again into the Word, I believe.

To be continued.