“The promise. ‘The hour of trial’ was ahead, but Philadelphia was to be kept from it. Not saved through it, but kept from it....
“That Hour. (1) It is the ‘hour of trial’ with emphasis on ‘the’. (2) It is the ‘hour of trial’ with emphasis on ‘trial’, for it is ‘to try them that dwell upon the earth.’ (4) It is yet future; ‘to come upon the whole world.’ Nothing has since occurred in history filling out this picture.... (5) the Philadelphia type of saints will escape.... Those who keep his word are of the Philadelphia type of saints. The church that is true to the word is a church of the Philadelphian type and can lay claim to this same promise.”
John wrote seven letters, dictated by the Lord, to seven churches in Asia; the church at Philadelphia was one of these churches. The Lord made a definite promise to the church at Philadelphia. Naturally the members of that church would understand that the promise was to them; but that church long ago ceased to exist. And yet we are told that the promise made to those brethren is yet future. If that be so, then that promise was not for those brethren at all! They are all dead; was that the way the Lord was going to keep them from the hour of trial? No, no; according to the foregoing quotation, the promise was not meant for the church at Philadelphia at all, but for the churches of the Philadelphian type! Such juggling with the record is both taking away from and adding to the words of the book. The promise was not made to the “Philadelphian type of saints”, but to the church at Philadelphia. It is true that some promises, general in their nature, though not to one individual or group of individuals, are to be enjoyed by all who fulfill the conditions; but certainly the ones to whom the promise is directly made are included in the promise! But, strange to say, according to the foregoing quotation, the church at Philadelphia to whom the promise was made was not included in the promise made directly to them! That promise is yet future, so we are told.
But the implication of the quotation is that the promise was made to the Philadelphian type of churches, and that it is to be fulfilled in “the rapture.” And what is it that a person cannot prove, if he is allowed to juggle words to suit his theory? If the hour of trial is yet future, the Lord kept Philadelphia from it by deferring it till all those saints died. But he conjures up a peculiar method of escape for those saints who long ago died: (7) “The method of escape is found in such passages as 1 Thess. 4:16, 17. It is often called the rapture, and properly so, from the expression ‘caught up,’ which rapture means.” But would not the saints of Philadelphia escape that supposed three and a half years of tribulation if they should remain in their graves?