Benny Hinn and the Rapture

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and Host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, comments on Benny Hinn’s misuse of Scripture in “7 Reasons for the Rapture.”[ https://www.bennyhinn.org/podcast/7-reasons-for-the-rapture/] Hinn cites Christ’s words in John 14:3 as teaching a secret pretribulational rapture: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (KJV). In Hinn’s paradigm, the church is raptured into a safe place and then all hell breaks loose on earth—two-thirds of all Jewish people on earth die in an unfathomably brutal tribulation. Hinn also cites Paul’s great and glorious passage on resurrection in 1 Thessalonians 4 as teaching a secret pretribulational rapture. In reality, these passages do not imply, let alone clearly teach, a pretribulational rapture. There just is no biblical basis for the notion that Jesus is coming secretly to rapture the church seven years prior to His second appearing. In fact, our Lord’s own words negate the very notion: “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned” (John 5:28–29 NIV). This event does not happen at the time of an imagined secret rapture but at the time of Christ’s second appearing. Some people are not raptured at one time and others at another time. No, all of humanity will rise in resurrection simultaneously. We ought not to be inventing theology in the 21st century (or 19th century when this whole notion originated)—reading our own odd predilections into the text. Rather, we ought to draw out of the biblical text only that which is in the text. We ought to interpret the Bible in the sense in which it was intended by the original authors (who wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) and understood throughout church history. We ought not to innovate—we ought to perpetuate. For further study, see Hank Hanegraaff, The Apocalypse Code: Find Out What the Bible Really Says about the End Times and Why It Matters Today [https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-the-apocalypse-code-det/]