The reason why this conference is so important is that there's so much false teaching out there.
The pre-trip stuff abounds, all the TV preachers are doing it, all the big publishing houses are promoting it.
And so there's really a lack of good teaching on this subject, line upon line, precept upon precept,
that uses a lot of Bible and just goes with what the Bible says and just tells it like it is.
But I think the most important part of this conference is to realize that there are so many other people out there who believe right on this.
You're not alone. And as preachers, we're not alone.
Now, before I ever even preached my first sermon, before anyone had ever even thought of the movie After the Tribulation,
I guarantee you that virtually every Baptist church in America already had people in it that did not believe in the pre-trip rapture.
I guarantee it. Because there are plenty of people who just picked up their Bible, they read Matthew 24, they read Mark 13, they read 2 Thessalonians chapter 2,
and it was just as plain as the nose on your face that there's no pre-trip rapture.
And so we didn't invent this. There's nothing new about it. It's always been around.
But I'll tell you what's new is preachers getting up behind the pulpit and boldly and loudly preaching against the pre-trip rapture.
And the reason that that hasn't been happening is simply because people are afraid to take a stand on this because it's such a hot button issue.
Now, I for the life of me cannot understand why this issue is so emotional for people.
It's certainly never been emotional for me. It's not emotional for me right now.
I mean, I get around people that are pre-trip. I don't have this visceral reaction, but they do.
It's very strange. It's not a salvation issue.
You'd think that it would be something that we could just talk about as Bible prophecy.
We see through a glass darkly. It's off in the distance and just have a reasonable discussion about it.
I'm not saying it's an unclear doctrine. It's crystal clear that it's after the tribulation.
There's nothing unclear about it, but it's not the most important thing.
And yet when you talk to those who are pre-trip to them, it is the most important thing, which is very strange.
Now, I think that there are a couple of reasons for this. Number one, this doctrine of the pre-trip rapture must be very important to the devil.
Because he must have just put a lot of energy into pushing this and creating this unnatural atmosphere where you can't even question it.
And if you question it, you're blackballed, you're hated, you're thrown out.
I think that for some reason, the devil has just really pushed this pre-trip rapture through his TV.
And we know all the TV preachers are of the devil.
I mean, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the Kenneth Copelands and the Joel Osteens and the Rick Warrens are all bought and paid for by Lucifer himself.
But we see that there's this atmosphere over the last many decades that says you're pre-trip or you're out of the group, you're out of the club.
And it's because of the fact that this doctrine of the pre-trip rapture cannot stand up to scrutiny.
If it's examined, if it's discussed, if the scriptures are open, it falls on its face.
So the only way to keep the pre-trip rapture alive is through fear, intimidation, shutting down any kind of discussion, shutting down any kind of opposition.
And so we need a conference like this to let people know you're not alone.
Don't give in to the fear and intimidation.
Your church is probably filled with people who don't believe in the pre-trip rapture just like you.
And I guarantee you that this country is filled with preachers, hundreds of preachers who know that the pre-trip rapture is a joke.
We're not the only ones.
And a conference like this, it will embolden people to step forward, especially the preachers, to step forward and take the stand that needs to be made here and come out and say that the emperor is not wearing any clothes when it comes to this doctrine of the pre-trip rapture.
And that's what we're seeing happening.
It's like dominoes every single week almost now, preachers are contacting us and saying, I'm just about to come out and preach this in my pulpit.
Pray for me. Pray for me.
Because they don't know what the reaction is going to be.
But the true story is that the reaction usually ends up being that everybody in the pew is fine.
These pastors get up, they preach, they're nervous they're going to lose people.
They don't lose anybody. They lose friends outside the church, other preachers, Bible colleges, fundamental cardinals and popes is who they lose.
And I remember when I first came out with this doctrine from my pulpit in May of 2006, I was nervous because I only had 20 people in the church at that time.
It was just a brand new church and you want everybody to stay when you're only running 20.
And I remember being nervous the first time I got up and preached it and I said, you know, am I going to lose people?
I can't afford to lose people.
And I'm not talking about financially because I wasn't getting paid anyway.
But, you know, I thought to myself, you know, this could really do damage when I'm only running 20.
But I thought to myself, you know, what else am I going to not preach?
If I censor this, if I trim the message, what else am I going to trim out of the message?
And so I just decided that I have to preach the whole counsel of God and I preached it.
And there was one guy that I was in particular worried that he would pull his family out of the church.
He walked up to me afterward. You know what he said? I knew it.
He said, I've been trying to tell my wife that it's not pre-trimmed.
And I knew it. I'm like, yes, I didn't lose this guy.
My one soul winning partner back then. I didn't lose him.
And other preachers are finding out the same thing.
So we need to stand up, stand tall, let our voice be heard and not be on the defense.
Let's go on the offense. This conference is about taking it to them.
And asking them to be responsible to show us in the Bible where this pre-trimmed fraud is found.
So we're taking them to task this week and we're loving every minute of it.
Let's sing another song.