Rapture Denied

In part one of this study we looked at the Gnostic heresy that produced certain results in Church doctrines over the ages, notably the search for new revelations to reveal hidden spiritual meaning that would unlock a deeper life for Christians.The Gnostic doctrine is ever seeking for a new thing - a new revelation that will give power and release from the fallen material world. Bear this in mind, as it provides a key to understanding the Toronto and Brownsville teachings.When the Apostle Paul was in Athens he came up against certain philosophers:

Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, "What does this babbler want to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods," because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? "For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean." For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. Acts 17:18-21

It was the desire of pagan (and later, Christian) philosophers and mystics to seek out a "new thing". The revelation given once-for-all in Jesus Christ was somehow not enough for these seekers and they ever looked for "more, more". However, scripture tells us very plainly that there is no hidden new thing to come to light:
That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, "See, this is new"? It has already been in ancient times before us. Eccl 1:9-10

God has provided the revelation of the Truth to mankind in and through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus IS the Truth, God incarnate. Searching for some additional key to understanding the universe is fruitless. In any case, God does not deal in secret wisdom but all that He does is open and available to all. Seek and ye shall find.
NEW THING SCRIPTURES MISQUOTED
Here is the new thing as defined by Clayt Sonmore (Thy Kingdom Come Ministries) in his book "Beyond Pentecost":
"This new thing God is bringing forth is the MERGING OF GOD AND MAN, not seen in fulness since the separation of man from God in the Garden of Eden, with the possible exception of Enoch and Elijah." (5)

For many years, scriptures referring to a "new thing" have undergirded the belief in an endtimes global revival, a latter-rain outpouring, that will bring the corporate Church to fulness, glory and rulership.However, when we examine these scriptures it becomes apparent that the "new-thing" spoken of in scripture is actually the astounding birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God become human:
"How long will you gad about, O you backsliding daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the earth-- a woman shall encompass a man".Jer 31:22

The totally unprecedented and new event that only God could create, was the birth by a Virgin of the Son of God. A human woman encompassed in her womb the divinity. Who could have invented such a thing? This was so new that those who were told it - the Old Testament people of God - did not understand it!
Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them. Is 42:9

"Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." Is 43:18-19

This is the passage often quoted by those who believe in the new thingology. They read this allegorically to mean that God will send an unprecedented global outpouring of His Spirit in the endtimes, to bring the Church to glory and the world to salvation.But if you look at the passage as a whole, you’ll find it’s not about the Church - it’s about the Jews and the Messiah! Reading verse 19 in context we can see that the subject is the former deliverance of the Jews from Egypt, overshadowed by the latter deliverance from the exile in Babylon.One Commentator says of this passage:
"God reminds them of the great things he did for their fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt… He that did this can, if he please, make a way in the sea when they return out of Babylon. The best exposition of this is from Jer. 16:14-15; 23:7-8. It shall no more be said, The Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; that is an old thing, the remembrance of which will be in a manner lost in the new thing, in the new proof that the Lord liveth, for he brought up the children of Israel out of the land of the north." (4)

The passage looks forward prophetically to an even greater restoration of Israel in the 20th Century. And, spiritually, it refers to the deliverance of mankind from captivity to sin and the devil, by the birth and death of Jesus Christ, where the "new thing" is the New Covenant in His Blood. Nothing in the passage is prophetic of a latter-rain revival!New-thing-ology is the bedrock of revival teaching - yet it falls at the first fence.