Expectations Demand A First Century Rapture
by Ed Stevens

All of eschatology has been at a loss to explain the silence of the Church following AD 70. This problem is especially acute for the Preterist believer, since we proclaim the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of God in the first century setting. But we are talking about a silence of history, not the Scriptures. The Bible prophetically is anything but silent - it screams aloud!

Ed, after several years of study, has come to a rather startling conclusion - the literal rapture of the Church! Ed by his own admission came to this view kicking and screaming, but he came, and we are richer for it.

Listen to the logic, the scholarship, and the Bible base for this view. It's the missing piece of the puzzle!

While proofreading the manuscript for this book, I reviewed all of the Scripture references. To say this was a great blessing would be a tremendous understatement. The weight of all the verses presented in this book is evidence in abundance for a literal rapture of the Church prior to AD 70.

We Preterists, your editor included, have spiritualized these verses deeming them fulfilled by covenantal change rather than a literal fulfillment. The covenants did change (praise God), but that did not answer to the real expectations of first century Christians. They were looking for something more, and that "something more" is a literal catching away to be with the Lord forever.

"Then we who remain alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to a meeting with the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord." (1 Thess. 4:17)

Let me ask you - if you had received teaching such as this from Jesus, Paul, John, James, Peter and Jude, what would you expect was going to happen at the return of Jesus Christ? Literal fulfillment? Well, we think so too. Trying to rationalize away the clear language of supernatural events from God has led to false doctrines in preterism - doctrines without Scriptural support.

The literal rapture view in the first century has the power to get us back on the Biblical track, and not just we Preterists, but all of Christianity will be benefactors.

Clearly, Jesus taught his followers they would escape the wrath ready to be poured out on the ungodly. "Then be watchful at every time, begging that you be counted worthy to escape all these things, the things being about to happen, and to stand before the Son of Man." (Lk. 21:36)

Paul taught the same: "...because God has not appointed us to wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. ...and to await His Son from Heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, the One delivering us from the coming wrath." (1 Thess. 5:9-10)

John also tells of Christ's return to receive to Himself those belonging to Him. "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will receive you to Myself, that where I am you may be also." (John 14:3) That place is heaven.

We really should ask ourselves the question Paul asked King Agrippa: "Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead?" And if God can raise the dead, why should we think it incredible that God translates the living?

This vital piece of the eschatology puzzle needs a full review by you! Read with your Bible open! You will get the full picture as you read this volume. Ed not only presents a convincing case for the first century rapture, but he also answers objections from critics of this view.