Quote:
Originally Posted by Nell
Please include your theory of Witness Lee's theory. :-)
Nell
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OK I will try my best. Of course we all understand that Lee drew a lot of his doctrines from the Plymouth brethren, and went from there. So he was biased to believe in a pre-trib rapture of "overcomers".
1) I place the vision in Rev 14 as occurring between the second coming and the 7 bowls of God's wrath. Yes, the 144000 are described as "firstfruits", but what Lee calls the "harvest" at the end of the chapter describes the wrathful judgement of those who remain on the earth after the second coming. I cannot read these verses as describing a general harvest of believers apart from the firstfruits. Lee sees the fact that the 144000 are described as being in heaven is evidence of a pre-trib rapture. I obviously differ with him on this point.
2) The Man-Child in chapter 12... I do NOT accept Lee's assertion that this entity symbolizes the "overcomers" or the 144,000. The dragon in this vision has seven crowns, which places the time of this vision during the Roman empire. The Man-Child, then is Jesus Himself:
5 And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. (Rev*12:5*NAU)
The woman is Judea. who was chased out of her land and nurtured in the 'wilderness'. These events have already happened. Only Christ has ascended into heaven before the Tribulation.
More on this later... if there is interest.
I will also try to elaborate the 144,000 in a future post