Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, responds to a recent tweet and video by Benny Hinn. According to Hinn, the Lord spoke to him, saying he needs to talk to his audience about the great catching up. And that his teaching about the rapture is timely because this event is nearly upon us. Popularized by John Nelson Darby in the nineteenth century, the pre-tribulational rapture theory contends that God has two distinct people and two distinct plans for their two distinct destinies. The church will be raptured seven years prior to the second coming of Christ, and Jews will suffer tribulation. Beginning with Darby, rapture theorists held that, due to the murder of Messiah, Jews were in for a time of unprecedented suffering referred to as the “Great Tribulation.” Multiplied millions today hold firmly to this belief. But is it biblical? Holy Tradition, including Scripture, knows nothing of a rapture independent of the bodily appearing of Christ.
For further study, see Hank’s books The Complete Bible Answer Book—Collector’s Edition, Revised and Updated and The Apocalypse Code: Find Out What the Bible Really Says about the End Times and Why It Matters Today