Deeper Bible & Theology

Cease Not To Pray: Part 3

Steve SannLeave a comment

Editors note: the guest article appearing here does not necessarily reflect the views of Bible Rebel editors or other guest authors and contributors. Bible Rebel seeks to present a wide range of ideas and viewpoints in order to fulfill our mission to provide resources for “Curious Fearless Faith”. This is Part 3 in a new series on prayer called ‘Cease Not To Pray’ by Steve Sann.

Cease Not To Pray: Part 1
Cease Not To Pray: Part 2

PRAYING PERFECTLY

This woman’s incident paints a vivid picture of how our prayer is crucial to bringing God onto the scene. Prayer unleashes God’s presence and power into this world. In all their journeys, He arrives prepared to protect and prosper those for which you pray. Knowing this, we should seek to implement the most effective prayer technique possible in our lives. What makes tongues, in many applications, the most effective form of prayer? I Corinthians 14:2: For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries [or, secrets].

What makes praying in the spirit so uniquely different than praying with our understanding? When speaking in tongues, we are speaking a language God is giving us at that moment. Since we cannot understand it, what we speak is unknown to us; hence, it is a secret, a mystery to us. All the time, however, God understands our prayer without question.

And herein we discover its remarkable uniqueness: praying by the spirit is truly perfect prayer. It is perfect because it is a prayer crafted by God Himself, untainted by our fallible minds! Spoken in a foreign language and bypassing our understanding, our mind is unable to interfere by interjecting our own limitations, fears, guesswork or doubts. We pray to God the exact prayer words that He gives our spirit, making our prayer perfect in every way. By speaking a language that is foreign to us, God guards the spirit’s perfect prayer from our natural tendency to “improve” it! Verse 14 explains it this way: I Corinthians 14:14: For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.

Here again, this verse points out that the speaker’s understanding is unfruitful, and unproductive, as he cannot understand the words spoken. Also, note here and throughout I Corinthians 14, in order for our spirit to pray, we are the activators. We are one hundred percent in control. The spirit does not act of its own will any more than my mouth moves of its own will. The spirit is melded into our very being and functions by the willful believing action of the believer. Notable examples are found in Acts 2:4 and Philippians 4:13.

God’s spirit within us has become part of our total makeup. It is our spiritual “radio receiver”, our connection with God. Like an organ of our body, the spirit remains a vital part of us throughout our lives. When we speak in tongues, the spirit conveys the information from God, enabling us to pray perfectly. We move our lips, our mouths, our tongues. We form the words as the spirit gives us the language. What we speak is God’s business, but that we speak is our business. Our responsibility: To Speak!

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Rick TryonLeave a comment

Please take a minute to subscribe to the Bible Rebel monthly newsletter – it’s free and will keep you up-to-date on all our articles, videos, and features.

Our Mission at Bible Rebel

  1. To monitor current news and events related to faith and culture.
  2. To provide an alternative viewpoint to the world’s pervasive climate of darkness, nihilism, and hopelessness for those seeking truth, light, and purpose.
  3. To examine and question the assumptions of religious tradition and provide a resource for information and inspiration for people of faith who have become dissatisfied with an increasingly lifeless and empty ‘churchianity’.
  4. To present the Biblical truths which reveal God’s nature and purposes and proclaim the lifechanging, world-altering, radical message of Yeshua the Messiah – Jesus Christ, our risen Lord and Savior.

At Bible Rebel, this is our one and only creed:
Our living God is a loving God and the Bible is His revealed word and will.
Our hope and eternal salvation relies entirely on the work of God’s only begotten son, Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life.

So, expect some controversial viewpoints and uncomfortable ideas in some of the coming content from Bible Rebel.

June And July Highlights

Rethinking The Rapture: What Does Delivered From Wrath Mean?

Rethinking The Rapture: What Does Delivered From Wrath Mean? Part 2

They Said It: Quotes About Luther And The Reformation (A new feature from Bible Rebel)

Who Cares: One-Minute Video Message

Ten-episode Bible 101 video series completed

Watchdog Alert: Biblical Archaeology News

Why Must We Pray, Anyway: Part 4

Coming in July and August

Continuing the “Rethinking The Rapture” series.

More in-depth content on deeper biblical studies and theological issues.

You can find all of the current Bible 101 episodes and One-Minute Mini Messages here on our YouTube Channel, and you can subscribe to our YouTube channel here.

We’ll also be continuing our regular features and guest articles and series:

  • Rethinking The Rapture
  • They Said It
  • Guest articles
  • And more…

Watchdogs

As always, we’ll be keeping a watchdogs eye on all of the latest political, religious, biblical archaeology, and cultural news and events from around the world and bringing to you in bite-size chunks to keep you informed.

Finally, are you interested in contributing content to Bible Rebel?

Bible Rebel is always looking for interesting, compatible content for our biblerebel.com website/blog. We are accepting writing and video submissions for review and possible publication on our platform.

If you have a teaching series, opinion piece, research piece or other content that fits with the Bible Rebel mission we’d like to see it!

If your content fits our mission and creed, included below, then email it to us at in**@********el.com. Written pieces should be no more than 500 words and video content no longer than 7 minutes – either can be submitted as part of a longer series for consideration.

Thanks, and stay tuned for the next newsletter in August.

Oh, and please go over and give us a follow on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter).

Rick Tryon
Editor/Publisher
Bible Rebel & biblerebel.com

Rethinking The Rapture: N.T. Wright’s ‘Farewell to the Rapture’ Redux

Rick Tryon3 Comments

In a previous piece in this ‘Rethinking The Rapture’ series I referenced New Testament scholar N.T. Wright’s 2001 essay, Farewell to the Rapture in the context of the Left Behind books and the pop theology of a secret Rapture.

Here, I’d like to return to Wright’s essay and offer a couple of more quotes from it in order to illustrate some of the thinking behind the views held by those who reject the evangelical, Left Behind, invisible Rapture interpretation of eschatology.

“It is Paul who should be credited with creating this scenario.  Jesus himself, as I have argued in various books, never predicted such an event. The gospel passages about “the Son of Man coming on the clouds” (Mark 13:26, 14:62, for example) are about Jesus’ vindication, his “coming” to heaven from earth.  The parables about a returning king or master (for example, Luke 19:11-27) were originally about God returning to Jerusalem, not about Jesus returning to earth.  This, Jesus seemed to believe, was an event within space-time history, not one that would end it forever.”

You’ll need to open your Bible and put on your thinking cap for some serious, critical biblical exegesis as you consider what Wright is saying here.

And here:

“The Ascension of Jesus and the Second Coming are nevertheless vital Christian doctrines, and I don’t deny that I believe some future event will result in the personal presence of Jesus within God’s new creation.  This is taught throughout the New Testament outside the Gospels.  But this event won’t in any way resemble the Left Behind account.  Understanding what will happen requires a far more sophisticated cosmology than the one in which “heaven” is somewhere up there in our universe, rather than in a different dimension, a different space-time, altogether.

The New Testament, building on ancient biblical prophecy, envisages that the creator God will remake heaven and earth entirely, affirming the goodness of the old Creation but overcoming its mortality and corruptibility (e.g., Romans 8:18-27; Revelation 21:1; Isaiah 65:17, 66:22).  When that happens, Jesus will appear within the resulting new world (e.g., Colossians 3:4; 1 John 3:2).”

We’ll dive deeper into these ideas in coming ‘Rethinking The Rapture’ posts – for now, I hope you will take a hard look at what Wright is conveying here.

Why Does God Allow Children To Drown?

Rick Tryon1 Comment

The latest from CNN as of Sunday afternoon: At least 80 people have died in connection with the flash floods that struck central Texas early Friday, according to officials. The toll includes at least 21 children in Kerr County, where 11 girls and one counselor are still missing from Camp Mystic, authorities said.

An often-asked question: “How could anyone believe in an all-powerful, loving God who would allow so much evil and suffering in the world?“

That’s a very difficult question, and there are countless books, articles, sermons, doctoral theses, movies, songs, and philosophical/theological debates on that subject (often referred to as theodicy or the problem of suffering), dating back centuries, that attempt to answer it.

The typical and extremely simplistic reasoning offered by some Christians as to why God would allow children at a Christian camp to drown goes something like this: “Well, God needed more angels in heaven.”

I believe that explanation is light-years away from the truth—and could even be considered inappropriately cavalier.

For me, beginning to understand the “why” of it all starts with this simple proposition: in order for there to be a level playing field where human beings are able to exercise actual free will, the conditions that create the possibility for failure, tragedy, and death must exist. Free agency is meaningless if there are no possible negative consequences resulting from human choices.

Matthew 5:45 – “For He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”

God is entirely just, and He has committed Himself to abiding by the conditions that allow free agency—and the processes of nature in a now fallen creation—to operate.

God doesn’t break His own rules, and He absolutely has a grand purpose in mind, which He will bring to pass by His own power and in His own time.

For now, we live in a broken and fallen world, and sometimes it’s nearly impossible for us to see light through all the darkness, given our very limited understanding—but a day certain is coming when we will know, even as we are known.

Rethinking The Rapture: Matthew 24:40-42

Rick TryonLeave a comment

Let’s return to an earlier post in this Rethinking the Rapture series, where I raised a question concerning the words of Jesus in Matthew 24: “One will be taken and one left.”

Matthew 24:40–42 (KJV):

“Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.”

Would the disciples, to whom Jesus was speaking those words at that time and in that place, have understood Him to be referring to a future Rapture of the Church—where some people would disappear into the sky in a secret event, while their walking or working companions would be left behind on earth?

The context strongly suggests that they would not have understood His words to mean a future Rapture.

The immediately preceding verses, 37–39, compare the coming of the Son of Man to the days of Noah, when people were eating, drinking, and marrying—until the flood came and took them all away.

Plainly, the ones who were “taken” were those swept away in the flood in judgment. The ones left behind were Noah and his family, who were spared and remained on the earth to begin anew after the flood judgment.

Understanding this context should make it crystal clear who Jesus was referring to in Matthew 24:40–42 when He said, “One will be taken and one left.” The one taken is taken in judgment, not in a Rapture. And the one left remains to experience the blessings of the Kingdom—not the punishment of woe and tribulation.

Rethinking The Rapture: Introduction

Rethinking The Rapture: Questions

Rethinking The Rapture: More Questions

Rethinking The Rapture: N.T. Wright’s ‘Farewell to the Rapture’

Rethinking The Rapture: What 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 Doesn’t Say

Rethinking The Rapture: Millions Of Christians Were Not Delivered From Wrath

Rethinking The Rapture: What Does ‘Delivered From Wrath’ Mean?

Rethinking The Rapture: What Does ‘Delivered From Wrath’ Mean? Part 2

Rethinking The Rapture: What Does ‘Delivered From Wrath’ Mean? Part 2

Rick TryonLeave a comment

In this post I want to wrap up our brief discussion on what the phrase “delivered from the wrath to come” in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 means.

1 Thessalonians 1:10 – “And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” (KJV)

Notice what this verse doesn’t say. It doesn’t say, “Jesus will come from heaven and pull us into the sky with him, then take us away so that we won’t have to suffer a seven-year tribulation period.”

Paul certainly had the vocabulary to say that if that is what God had wanted him to write to the Thessalonians.

Notice also that the tense of the verb “delivered” (rhuomenon) in the Greek is the present participle form which implies ongoing or continuous action: “the one who is delivering” or “who delivers.” It suggests a current, ongoing protection from wrath, not a specific future time period of seven years or some other period of time.

Believers can be, are being, and will be delivered from wrath without being taken up into heaven. In other words, God is more than able to protect and shield His people in all circumstances and places, even great tribulation on earth, through the mercy and grace provided in Jesus Christ.

My personal rule in reading the Bible is to first consider how the original readers for whom the words were written would understand the text in its broader historical, biblical, and cultural context, as well as it’s more immediate textual context.

So, do you suppose the First Century Thessalonians would have understood this verse to mean, “Hey, y’all, don’t worry about the seven years of wrath coming in the Great Tribulation period, you won’t have to go through that because Jesus will scoop us up and out of here before that happens.”?

I think that one can only come to that interpretation by reading a great deal of pre-conceived pop theology into the scripture, rather than just reading what’s plainly written.

More on “Rethinking The Rapture” coming soon.

Rethinking The Rapture: Introduction

Rethinking The Rapture: Questions

Rethinking The Rapture: More Questions

Rethinking The Rapture: N.T. Wright’s ‘Farewell to the Rapture’

Rethinking The Rapture: What 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 Doesn’t Say

Rethinking The Rapture: Millions Of Christians Were Not Delivered From Wrath

Rethinking The Rapture: What Does ‘Delivered From Wrath’ Mean?

Why Must We Pray, Anyway: Part 4

Steve Sann1 Comment

Editors note: the guest article appearing here does not necessarily reflect the views of Bible Rebel editors or other guest authors and contributors. Bible Rebel seeks to present a wide range of ideas and viewpoints in order to fulfill our mission to provide resources for “Curious Fearless Faith”. This is Part 4, the final part, in a new series on prayer called ‘Why Must We Pray, Anyway’ by Steve Sann.

Why Must We Pray, Anyway: Part 1
Why Must We Pray, Anyway: Part 2
Why Must We Pray, Anyway: Part 3

Holding Back the Destruction

With this in mind, it is easy to understand the spiritual pressure mounting from this world to minimize the importance of prayer. All the while, however, it is only the “believing believers,” those who remain active in prayer, who continue to restrain the powers of darkness from raiding and destroying.

II Thessalonians2:6-8a:

And now you know what is restraining, that he [the “son of perdition”; i.e., the anti-Christ] may be revealed in his own time.
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
And then the lawless one will be revealed…

We know Satan is the god, the authority, of this world. It is his to destroy. So, we must ask: Why hasn’t Satan completed his objective of annihilating the earth and all the people in it? After all, he’s “large and in charge!”

As long as the believers—those who actually call upon God in prayer—are intermixed within Satan’s kingdom, the grand finale of Satan’s power cannot be revealed. But the day will come at Christ’s return when the believers will be taken out of the way (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17), and the authorities of Satan will usurp preeminence. This event of our departure is detailed in I Thessalonians 4 and referred to in II Thessalonians 2:1 as the Gathering Together, in more recent times as the Rapture.

Until that day, however, it is the believers who restrain Satan’s rage. Yet, not just any believer; it is the “believing believer” that stands between the people of this world and Satan’s wholesale wrath.

Who are these “believing believers”? These are not just the people who have attended a few church fellowships, perhaps have read a lot of the bible, or even who are merely born-again. Satan has been haply running over these folks for centuries. No—rather, the believers spoken of here are those who have sharpened their skills at bringing the powers of heaven to bear on earth—by walking in their sonship rights, claiming their authority, walking in the spirit, and petitioning God. We are speaking here of the true intercessors, those who bring the fight into the streets.

These are they who cannot be destroyed because they reside within the cone of God’s presence. And until they are taken out of the way at Christ’s return, it is they who restrain Satan’s ultimate will upon this world and its inhabitants.

Since man’s expulsion from the garden, throughout history, there has always been at least one “believing believer” standing, interceding on behalf of protecting God’s people. In fact, in the Old Testament, this was taught: it was understood as a vital responsibility of every man and woman of God to readily intercede for God’s people.

Rethinking The Rapture: What Does ‘Delivered From Wrath’ Mean?

Rick Tryon1 Comment

Many Rapturists believe that 1 Thessalonians 1:10 must be interpreted to mean that God will not allow believers to go through a 7 or 3 1/2 year tribulation period and that the Rapture will rescue the saved who are alive at the time.

Here’s the thing – there are other ways of reading “delivered from the wrath to come” that, in my opinion, make way more sense and fit more accurately with the overall themes of the Bible in the context of judgement and salvation.

So, asked Mr. Art Intelligence to provide a summary of what it means, here’s what I got:

“The phrase “delivered from the wrath to come” refers to a key theme in Christian theology, particularly in relation to salvation, judgment, and the end times. It’s most directly found in 1 Thessalonians 1:10:

“…and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.” (ESV)

Here’s what it generally means:

1. “Wrath to Come” = God’s Future Judgment

  • In biblical context, “wrath” refers to God’s righteous anger and judgment against sin and evil.
  • “The wrath to come” is typically seen as a future event — often associated with the Day of the Lord, end-time judgment, or the Great Tribulation.

2. Deliverance Through Jesus Christ

  • Christians believe that Jesus’ death and resurrection satisfy the demands of divine justice, so those who trust in Him are not subject to God’s wrath.
  • To be “delivered from the wrath to come” means being spared from God’s judgment, whether that’s:
    • eternal separation from God (hell),
    • or specific apocalyptic judgment in the end times (depending on one’s eschatological view).

3. Different Theological Interpretations

There are several interpretations of how and when this “deliverance” happens:

  • Pre-Tribulation View (Dispensational):
    • Believers will be raptured before a time of tribulation and judgment on earth (Revelation-style wrath).
    • This is a common belief among many evangelicals and in popular media like Left Behind.
  • Historical View:
    • The “wrath” may refer to eternal condemnation, not necessarily a future earthly tribulation.
    • In this view, deliverance is more about salvation from hell than escape from earthly suffering.
  • Ongoing Deliverance:
    • Some theologians see this as a present spiritual reality: Jesus continually intercedes for believers, shielding them from God’s wrath (Romans 5:9; John 3:36).

Summary:

To be “delivered from the wrath to come” means that through faith in Jesus Christ, Christians are spared from God’s future judgment, whether that’s understood as eternal damnation or a specific time of tribulation. It underscores the Christian hope of salvation, security, and peace with God, even in the face of future judgment.”

End AI answer. I’ll be exploring these ideas in more detail in the next post on “Rethinking The Rapture”.

Rethinking The Rapture: Introduction

Rethinking The Rapture: Questions

Rethinking The Rapture: More Questions

Rethinking The Rapture: N.T. Wright’s ‘Farewell to the Rapture’

Rethinking The Rapture: What 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 Doesn’t Say

Rethinking The Rapture: Millions Of Christians Were Not Delivered From Wrath

Why Must We Pray, Anyway: Part 3

Steve SannLeave a comment

Editors note: the guest article appearing here does not necessarily reflect the views of Bible Rebel editors or other guest authors and contributors. Bible Rebel seeks to present a wide range of ideas and viewpoints in order to fulfill our mission to provide resources for “Curious Fearless Faith”. This is Part 3 in a new series on prayer called ‘Why Must We Pray, Anyway’ by Steve Sann.

Why Must We Pray, Anyway: Part 1
Why Must We Pray, Anyway: Part 2

The newborn baby is but an heir of man’s disaster. At the moment of birth, without the freedom to choose or even to comprehend his circumstance, each child is launched headlong into a world of hurt. As good a person as he or she may try to be or should ever possibly become, at best they will remain citizens of the kingdom of darkness. Literally, each of us is conceived and born in sin, far apart from the spiritual entrée needed to walk and talk with God.

But now, as a result of Christ, mankind regains the authority to bring God back on the scene wherever we are present! We still reside within the borders of Satan’s kingdom, true, but we are no longer citizens. Sure, within his own kingdom, Satan has every legal right to rule his own subjects. However, we now, being the citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20), as God’s people, we are released from Satan’s authority (Colossians 1:13), even while still dwelling within his kingdom. “No one is a firmer believer in the power of prayer than the devil; not that he practices it, but he suffers from it!”

Right here, while still in the Devil’s empire, we have new legal rights! But it is up to each of us to claim them. At any time, we have every right to call upon God, who then may enter into Satan’s kingdom to protect and prosper us! We are His now. God is limited only by our willingness to petition Him on our behalf.

When you call upon God in the name of Jesus Christ, you are literally delegating to Him the authority to enter into this world behind these enemy lines to fight for you. God loves it! At that very moment, God has legal authority to utilize whatever resources are at His disposal to respond to that specific need. The insight of Martin Luther in the 16th century still rings true today: “Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness.”

God’s people are all the time making excuses for the “sovereign” God as to why He did not act, save, or bless when really it is they who did not pray. By their many excuses for God, they are, in effect, blaming God for their own lack of prayer. Those who do pray see His results, tempered only by the weakness to believe. This, then, is why we must pray. And much. The responsibility for God’s good in this troubled world falls back upon us.

Rethinking The Rapture: Millions Of Christians Were Not Delivered From Wrath

Rick TryonLeave a comment

One of the arguments for a Rapture of believers is that God will not allow Christians to go through the ‘wrath to come’, as described in the book of Revelation, but will rescue them out of the world before those purportedly horrific, literal events occur.

But wait a minute, what about all of the other believers who have suffered torture, persecution, burnings, beheadings, skinning and worse throughout the history of the world since the resurrection and ascension of our Lord?

Here’s a brief and general review that barely scratches the surface:

Roman Persecutions (1st–4th centuries) – Early Christians faced brutal persecution under Roman emperors like Nero and Diocletian. Nero blamed Christians for the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64, leading to mass executions, including crucifixions and being burned alive. Diocletian’s persecution (AD 303–311) was one of the most systematic, involving the destruction of churches, scriptures, and widespread martyrdom.

Ottoman Empire Genocides (1910s–1920s) – During World War I, the Ottoman Empire carried out genocides against Christian minorities, including Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians. These events led to the deaths of millions through massacres, forced deportations, and starvation.

Modern-Day Persecution (21st century) – In various parts of the world, Christians continue to face persecution, particularly in regions with strict religious laws. Countries in Africa and Asia have seen imprisonment, violence, and even executions of Christians.

So why are the comparatively very, very few Christians who happen to be of the generation alive at the time of the so-called Rapture the lucky ones?

Well, they say, “Nothing like the coming tribulation has ever happened before and it will be unparalleled in its awfulness for people living on the earth at that time, so God has to rescue His people out of it.”

Come on now, that is absurd, and would be especially so to those Christians who have experienced, and still do, suffering and death in various places at various times. Death and suffering are death and suffering whether it’s in a so-called tribulation period, a 10th Century Caliphate, or a 21st Century gulag.

So what is the meaning of verses like 1 Thessalonians 1:10?
“And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.“

We’ll take a closer look in our next “Rethinking The Rapture” post.

Rethinking The Rapture: Introduction

Rethinking The Rapture: Questions

Rethinking The Rapture: More Questions

Rethinking The Rapture: N.T. Wright’s ‘Farewell to the Rapture’

Rethinking The Rapture: What 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 Doesn’t Say