Friday, June 16, 2017

The Significant Issues With Bill Salus' 'Gap Theory'

Depiction of the Seven Seals Scroll of Revelation 5:1

16 June 2017:
 Is there something in the water? One has to wonder when a growing number of prophecy teachers slide into teaching things which the Holy Spirit immediately recoils from as being inconsistent with the discernment He has always provided. The bottom line here is that, and this is said in the brotherly love of Christ Jesus: such teaching is man-made and is not of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, in prayerful dealing with this issue I was led by the Spirit to 1 Peter 4: 7-11.


The issue at the head here is that our brother Bill Salus has been teaching things which are contrary to the above linked passage from Peter, and contrary, in my view, to Revelation 22:18-19. 

A recent advertisement heralded across the web by Bill Salus "Revealed Tonight on National TV - The Nation Discovers What The Bible Reveals is the True Content of the False Covenant Between Israel and the Harlot of Mystery Babylon." The program was a pre-recorded discussion between Gary Stearman and Bill Salus on Gary's half-hour Prophecy Watchers program. 

In all actuality the program is a discussion on Bill's beliefs (i.e. "I believe") in which the unstated details require the reader to purchase Bill's most recent book in order to read about them. We are asked up front to accept as fact that what is stated by Bill is correct exegesis, even though he acknowledges that our likely reaction to the theory he puts forward is a rather lengthy stretch from proper hermeneutic of the various prophecies discussed. The YouTube version of half-hour program is linked above.

Readers who've long been visiting Eschatology Today know there are two types of prophetic interpretation and they are diametrically opposed to each other. The two types are (1) proper exegesis, which solidly rests upon careful, objective study as well as one or more gifts of the Holy Spirit for discernment, and (2) eisegesis, which is based on a very subjective personal reading of the prophetic text in which the author intends to lead the reader into the conclusion, or interpretation he has drawn. We know well the result of when the infallible Holy Spirit leads, and when the fallible man leads. The former is proper hermeneutic exegesis in communion with Scripture and the latter is personal eisegesis.

Three key points of what Salus teaches in this video are as follows. 

A) Bill Salus is teaching that there is an undetermined amount of additional time between the Harpazo of the bride of Christ and the start of the 70th Week (i.e. the confirming of the covenant among many by the Antichrist per Daniel 9:27). This is Salus' so-called 'Gap Theory' which theorizes an additional dispensation of time between the current Church Age and Israel's 70th Week.

B) Bill Salus is teaching that Jesus opens the first five of the Seven Seals prior to the start of the 70th Week; that the four horsemen of the apocalypse, (i.e Divine judgment), are loosed upon the world prior to the start of the 70th Week. This teaching also includes opening of the Fifth Seal which martyrs who have died for their faith in Christ Jesus prior to the advent of the 70th Week. This teaching destroys the integrity of the 70 Weeks prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27.

C) Bill Salus is teaching that it is the Harlot of Revelation 17 and the rider of the fourth pale horse, ridden by Death and followed by Hades (Sheol), are "the many" who Israel makes a covenant with that is confirmed by the Antichrist for 7 years.

These three are primary points and are directly linked to other points, as mentioned before, which are not discussed at length in the video, and do require a monetary remittance in order to learn of them in the newest Bill Salus' book. I strongly disagree with our brethren having to pay for that which God has ostensibly revealed to us through Bill Salus' theory because it is an eisegesis until proven to be hermeneutic exegesis.

Here, in a nutshell - because this is a blog and not a book - is the problem with this teaching. Right from the start this teaching grossly violates the integrity of the God-breathed 70 Weeks prophecy (Daniel 9:24-27). I'm going to concentrate on this issue for the moment. 

The violation is that prior to the sequential string of Jesus' judgments on the earth (Seals, Trumpets, Bowls per Revelation 6, 8, 11 and 16) during the of 70th Week, according to Salus, our Lord Jesus cuts loose the Antichrist who immediately goes out conquering an to conquer; the red horse whose release triggers a world war; the black horse which is rampant monetary inflation and/or price gouging from the scarcity of commodities due to of global warfare and the interruption of global trade and commerce; and, finally the pale horse ridden by Death and followed by Hades, which are the results of the global war, starvation and death that consumes a quarter of the earth.

Why is this a problem? It is a problem because these are Jesus judgments occurring prior to the 70th Week. How did the angel Gabriel explain to Daniel what the specific purpose of the 70 Weeks was? Daniel 9:24. So how can there be judgment prior to the 70th Week. 69 weeks were completed, and leaves but one week, the 70th to fulfill the purpose of 70 Weeks, not 70 Weeks plus a year, or two years, three, four or more. 70 Weeks. This is how Bill Salus' current eisegesis attempts to destroy the God-breathed sanctity of the 70th Week. it is a horrendous thing to do in my opinion.

So here, according to Bill Salus, are 5 of 7 Seal Judgments occurring outside of and prior to the 70th Week. Then the Lamb of God opens the 6th and 7th Seals within the 70th Week. Continuity here, anyone? No, there is no continuity here. There is no integrity. Five seals of judgment upon the earth opened by the Lamb of God prior to, and two within along with the remainder of sequential Trumpet and Bowl judgments which occur uninterrupted. 

Then we have the problem of the 5th Seal occurring after the Rapture and prior to the 70th Week according to Bill Salus theory. In this aspect of his gap theory the Harpazo, {a/k/a the Rapture, and also known in Hebrew as the Laqach, i.e. the LORD God's taking of Enoch and Elijah} of the dead and living Bride of Christ has occurred. The physically dead in Christ have been raised to life in their new, immortal bodies and those alive on the earth were changed to their immortal bodies in the twinkling of an eye. In a microsecond of time all of the saints are now with Christ forever more. But wait... here prior to the 70th Week there's suddenly another group of martyred souls under the altar who've been murdered, martyred, for the word of God and their testimony. 

How can this be? The dead in Christ were raised to incorruptible bodies just prior to this point in the future, so who has murdered these redeemed Christian brethren enmasse because they've preached the word of God as their testimony? The cannot be the 144,000 as they've not yet been selected from the 12 tribes of Israel, nor can they be those 70th Week saints who are martyred for Christ during the 70th Week. So, who are these saints? Bill Salus has no answer for this equally critical flaw in his gap theory. Get that? A flawed theory. Since when does the Holy Spirit reveal flawed prophetic theories or interpretations to men? Simple answer brothers and sisters: He doesn't reveal flawed anything; His word and testimony are inerrant.

Another item. The 70th Week comes in two halves. 1,260 days each, for a total of precisely 2,520 days, which we are also told by Bible prophecy will be shortened in order that the 70th Week does not become a 7-year long extinction level event for human life on the earth. And by the way, there is a gap, two gaps in fact, but they both occur after the 70th Week has taken place. Gabriel also informed Daniel (Daniel 12:11-12) there would be an additional gap of 30 days (one additional month) followed by another gap of 15 more days, for a total gap of 45 days following the 70th Week. So, there's a 45-day gap at the end of the 70th Week according to the angel Gabriel. 
Here's something else that I find to be a problem with Salus' gap theory. He says the first five seals are opened before the 70th Week begins. Where in the God-breathed text of Revelation 5 or 6 is this stated with the certitude of Salus' assertion?
In Revelation 5 (read this carefully!) the scroll is seen by John in the right hand of God. This scroll is written on both sides of its surface. This means the entire scroll is one continuous document which is sealed with seven (also obviously visible to John) seals along its outer leading edge (see the image above).
The Lamb of God takes this sealed scroll from the right hand of God the Father who is seated on His throne. The 24 elders - who are redeemed men - then fall down in worship. 
Jesus the Lamb of God was worthy to look at, recieve and open the seven seals on the scroll upon His ascension into Heaven. 
John sees each Seal being opened by the Lamb, and as each of the first four Seals is opened each of the four living creatures tells John in sequence, "Come and see." And immediately John sees a vision of what is within the text of that Seal.  
The 5th and 6th Seals are revealed straight away to John, and they are, as the first four are, FUTURE EVENTS which take place during the 70th Week and NOT PRIOR TO IT! 
Also, there is Revelation 7:1-3 where all of the aforementioned Seals are held from occurring until AFTER the 144,000 of all Israel have had the Seal of God placed upon their forehead. 
This completes my refutation of Bill Salus' "gap theory."

Thinking cap time. As the prophet Isaiah wrote, "Come now, and let us reason together." Would not Gabriel have given Daniel detailed prophetic instruction from the LORD God of any gap of time (days, weeks, months or years)  to exist after the Harpazo but prior to the 70th Week? Would the angel Gabriel have withheld this kind of detail when such exquisite detail about the week and its immediate 45-day day aftermath were given?  And why, oh why, did the Holy Spirit speaking through Paul in II Thessalonians 2:3 not mention even a single word about a gap of time containing five Seal Judgments of the Lord Jesus Christ along with a Great Apostasy and full revealing of Antichrist in his own time? 

If you are like me, and many other of our brethren, the believing in and teaching of this kind of eschatology is very problematic, and we have strong objections to it. Aside of the above stated issues, my objection is centered first and foremost upon the sum of this erroneous teaching, taken from Revelation 5, 6, 7 and 17, and it is contrary to the warning given in Revelation 22:18-19. I do not intend to belabor this issue further, and would prefer to dust off my sandals and move forward in my own labors,. I prefer to allow the reader to determine what they will about this. 

5 comments:

  1. Blogger Sean Osborne said...
    In II Thessalonians 2 Paul reassures believers that they've not missed the Harpazo. Paul's two Spirit-filled great signs of proof are the revealing of the Antichrist and a great apostasy.

    Isn't it intetesting that Paul mades no mention of a pre-70th Week gap of time for the four horsemen of the apocalypse - who are loosed by Jesus' opening of the first four seals - to begin running amok over the earth as a sign preceeding Antichrist and the Great Apostasy.

    June 12, 2017 at 2:42 PM Delete
    Blogger jmoll106 said...
    In 1Thess 5 Paul tells the believers that the Day of the Lord (70th week) will come when they (the unbelievers) are saying peace and safety (security) then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a woman, and they shall not escape. They cannot escape because the escape route out of the 70th week has happened.The harpazo!
    The peace and safety in 1Thess 5 must be the confirming of the covenant the a/c makes with the many.

    June 13, 2017 at 4:00 PM Delete
    Blogger Great Grany 5 said...
    Sean,
    As I clicked on your link 1Peter 4 I knew that passage had a very familiar ring to it and sure enough, looking me in the face was one of my favorite passages from my beginning Born Anew lifetime. Especially this portion " If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God." Now some people have a very rudimentary understanding of that phrase but to me it is more than just words. It is a clear WARNING from God Himself to everyone of us to never assume that what we think or believe ascends to the hight and lifted up position of being an Oracle of God!

    To me, Bill started going down a slippery slope after his first book was published and he fell into the category of Merchandizing the Anointing of God. We have many so called religious prophets doing the same thing and it is much more than correct to call them out on it. We are told to be Watchmen on the Walls and if no one thinks so, then pray tell, why did the Apostle Paul, John, James and Peter elaborate on the deception that was being practiced during their ministries? Their behavior was shown to be the leadership that is required of true leaders of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and all of His ministering revealed after Anointing in the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

    I loved the response that Jmoll106 just posted previous to my comment. EXACTLY and we must never forget it. No sign of any peace and safety at this time anywhere, quite the contrary world wide.

    GG5/SHALOM

    June 15, 2017 at 12:29 PM Delete
    Blogger Sean Osborne said...
    GG5,

    As you can probably see with my comment above, I believe my work is done in refuting the Salus "gap theory."

    Sandals being dusted off and movin' on to the next station on the Marana'tha Express!

    June 15, 2017 at 2:31 PM Delete

    ReplyDelete
  2. Blogger Great Grany 5 said...
    Sean,

    One more Holy Spirit reminder to keep in front of all of this discussion and it just came to me. Starting this off with a deliberate question but more like a reminder: Why was John seeing all of this and where was he seeing it?

    John heard the Lord tell him "COME UP HERE!!" And in a twinkling of an eye he was in the Heavenly presence of Jesus Christ who was the Lamb that was slain. What John was seeing is what he was allowed to see while he was presently there, as the Apostle but also, seeing things as they were to be and hearing things that were in the future. John was a first hand witness to the reality of what Jesus Christ was delivering to the Body of Christ to come and to the ones who were already witnesses to the first hand testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

    I don't want to muddy up what the Holy Spirit just shared with me but it is so plain now and the messages was so simple. John was the witness to what was to come and why it was coming. God is not the author of confusion and He is the very deliberate in our development to be that Glorious Body of Christ when this now present Age is coming to a close. We are to understand just as Daniel did when he was in bondage. We have to see it through the eyes that God Almighty has given us in The Revelation and in the order that he deliberately gave to keep us from falling for false doctrine and merchants of the Anointing.

    I started to say Merchants of Deception and the letters would not fall into place correctly and I heard the Holy Spirit say, "Anointing". That is what the authors are trying to do, corrupt the Anointing. We stay put and keep on digging because God isn't finished with our education yet.

    GG5/SHALOM
    P.S. Dust off the sandals and walk on those Streets of Gold barefooted.

    June 15, 2017 at 9:50 PM Delete
    Blogger Sean Osborne said...
    GG5,

    Amen!

    June 16, 2017 at 3:02 AM Delete
    Blogger jmoll106 said...
    This is why I thank God for the internet. The church can find resourses to grow in our faith, we can search out a matter as it was intented, we can read both views, we can pray for wisdom.
    Sean, bringing out error is not a task most will do but to those who a freed from a false belief will only grow bearing more fruit.
    Much appreciated!

    June 16, 2017 at 7:25 AM Delete
    Blogger Sean Osborne said...
    jmoll,

    True honesty requires that error be identified and corrected regardless of the who the human author may be. I cannot be neutral or passive in the face of teaching error. Titus 1:9

    I've kept to this principle before on Eschatology Today with the Islamic Antichrist eisegesis and now in defending the integrity of the 70 Weeks prophecy. To use current language, this is how I roll.


    June 16, 2017 at 7:59 AM Delete
    Blogger Kenneth Moore said...
    I have found information and prophecy posted here by Sean truthful, relievent
    and Biblical. Keep up the great work Sean and may God Bless those that read
    this truth in teaching.

    June 16, 2017 at 2:17 PM Delete
    Blogger Sean Osborne said...
    Thank you Ken.

    On a side note... I'm going to split this post into two posts.

    The original 'Fresh Look Rev. 13/17" post will retain its title.

    The critique of Salus' current teaching will be retitled and reposted as its own topic.

    Comments -- I'll have to figure out how to transfer them later.

    June 16, 2017 at 6:12 PM Delete

    ReplyDelete
  3. The above are rough cut posts; I could do better, but time permitting this was most expedient.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sean, i don't know what happened to the deleted comments, but i know that i had such issues with facebook. Comments would appear and then disappear as if they were hidden or deleted, and then they would reappear, and then sometimes it would be hidden from me but other people could see them. I would then comment like 3 or 4 times because I didn't realize they were posted and then I would see them posted a few days later. Very aggravating. That's why I don't trust Facebook anymore I'm not sure if you ever had those kind of issues.
    Anyway, just a couple of things that I wanted to say.
    1) I am very disappointed when teachers that i trust start putting out ridiculous stuff. Bill salus brought to the forefront many prophecies that were overlooked and as a result many prophecy experts are taking a second look at these prophecies. He did a great work and it pains me to see him putting out this kind of garbage that he is now putting out. Hopefully our brother will get back on track.
    2) concerning the "gap", even though I reject the idea of a significant amount of time between the catching away and the start of the time of Jacobs trouble, do you think that there might be a few weeks in there, or do think the confirming of the covenant will happen immediately after the catching away?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hartdawg,

    Comments weren't deleted, just moved to the proper post.

    I don't have any eschatological problem with a small amount of time between Harpazo and 70th Week. A couple months, probably less I think. Now way to know for sure. But what I'm absoluely against is teaching first 5 Seals happen prior to the 70th Week. That's just plain nonsense from the mind of a man.

    ReplyDelete

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