George Mueller: Opponent of the Pre-Trib Rapture

George Mueller was a wonderful man of God. He was an evangelist and Director of the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol, England. He cared for over 10,000 orphans in his life. He also established 117 schools which offered Christian education to over 120,000 children, many of them being orphans. And, of course, there were the Bible and tract distribution societies, etc.

He was also a founding member of the Plymouth Brethren movement. As such, he was well acquainted with John Darby.

And, George Mueller was an early opponent of Darby's pre-tribulation Rapture.

When Mueller read the Bible in Revelation 20:4-5, it said that the FIRST resurrection would occur after the Tribulation period, just prior to the thousand year reign of Christ:

"And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection."

But Darby's pre-tribulation Rapture had a resurrection of the saints happening before this one!

Mueller asked, "Can there be a resurrection before the first one?"

Also, when Mueller read 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, he saw that the Rapture occurred at the last trump. The last trump mentioned in the Bible is found after the Tribulation!

But Darby taught that the last trump of the Bible would occur after the last trump of the Rapture!

Mueller asked, "Can there be a trump after the last one?"

I Corinthians 15:51-52, "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, ⁵²In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."

Matthew 24:29-31, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."

The pre-tribulation Rapture predicates a last trump before the last trump! It postulates a resurrection of the saints before the first resurrection! It contends for a Second Coming before the Second Coming!

“The Scripture declares plainly that the Lord Jesus will not come until

the apostacy shall have taken place,

and the man of sin … shall have been revealed…”
George Mueller

(Thank you, George. I couldn't have said it better myself!)