Strong Tower Publishing, who publishes prewrath books and on other topics, has recently upgraded their website.
They maintain a directory of prewrath churches here. There are many more prewrath churches out there than is listed in that directory. So if you know of prewrath pastors, ask them to submit their church to the directory to help build up the church listings. One of the most common requests that we receive is, “Do you know of a prewrath church in XYZ city?” It would be good to refer them to a robust directory. It should go without saying that we think that a church affirming prewrath should not be your sufficient reason for attending that church, since there are other important doctrines and practices that should also be prayerfully considered. But a prewrath directory is a good starting point to research churches.
Monthly Archives
December 2010
It has been well documented that Jesus and Paul teach on the exact same Parousia of Christ.
I would like to draw your attention to another parallel:
[we ask you, brothers and sisters] not to be easily shaken from your composure or disturbed (throeō) by any kind of spirit or message or letter allegedly from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. (2 Thess 2:2)
Paul learns that the Thessalonians had believed that the Day of the Lord had already commenced. This jolts Paul into pleading with them not to be “easily shaken from your composure or disturbed.” This expression covers the intellectual and the emotional aspects of a person. It is interesting to observe that the only other time in the New Testament that the verb “disturbed” (throeō) occurs is in a strikingly similar context from the Olivet Discourse:
For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will mislead many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Make sure that you are not alarmed (throeō), for this must happen, but the end is still to come (Matt 24:5-6; cf. Mark 13:7).
The significance of this parallel is that (1) both Jesus and Paul warn their listeners not to be deceived as to think that the Lord has already come when certain events transpire, (2) they both reference false christ(s) who will claim authority, and (3) they state that these events must occur before his Return.
Twelve years ago Tim LaHaye wrote the following words:
“I doubt [Marvin Rosenthal] will live long enough to find Pre-Wrath rapture the recognized position…after the first blush of fadism passes, it will likely be forgotten.” 1998, Rapture Under Attack, p 102
Fast forward to today. Zondervan, the largest Christian publisher, today has published a second edition to the most popular rapture book, Three Views on the Rapture: Pretribulation, Prewrath, or Posttribulation. (This new edition now includes the prewrath perspective.) This will certainly catapult the prewrath position to its already increasing numbers. Coop and myself are interested in evaluating Alan Hultberg’s prewrath argumentation and will post a review in the near future.
Trust me folks, pretrib teachers have not wanted to see this type of book published. They have done everything (mostly the sensational types) in the past twenty years to try to discredit the prewrath position to prevent its deserved platform: personal attacks, malign, misrepresent, ignore, etc. So the publication of this book is good news in that it will provide the prewrath position a larger platform to make its biblical case for God’s people in the rapture discussion.
Once again a pretrib teacher is forced to eat his words. Please understand that we are not boasting or gloating – rather, we just wanted to point out another failed prophecy of a pretribulationist.
I conclude with a quote from Marvin Rosenthal’s from his 1990 book, The Prewrath Rapture of the Church:
“If God pleases, within fifteen years it will become a major position of the believing church.”
Pretribulationism’s Secret Rapture is So Secret that Even the Bible Does not Mention it!
written by Alan Kurschner
I am often baffled that there are some believers who will place pretribulationism on the level of certainty with, for example, the deity of Christ, or the virgin birth. I find it alarming, actually. Such an imbalance of biblical evidence reveals a Tradition at work.
Pretribulationism asserts that the secret rapture will take place before the Antichrist’s Great Tribulation. And yet, when we examine all three major biblical passages on the Antichrist’s Great Tribulation, they have to assume that the rapture has occurred before it. What do I mean by this?
First, take the Olivet Discourse. They will insist that the rapture occurs in Matthew 24 sometime before verse 8. When asked to point us to the rapture, they will admit there is no reference to the rapture; instead, we have to take their word for it.
Second, take Paul’s teaching in 2 Thessalonians 2. They will insist that the rapture occurs before verse 3. We ask, where does Paul say that the rapture occurs before Antichrist? We have to take their word for it, again.
Third, take the book of Revelation. We are told to assume that all those references throughout the book about “saints” and “those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus” are not part of the Church. They tell us that these individuals are “tribulation saints.” So where is the rapture in Revelation, we ask them. How did you guess? “Just trust us, the Church is raptured sometime between chapter three and the opening of chapter 4.”
One begins to get the feeling that the pretribulational secret rapture is so secret that it cannot even be found in the Bible.
Newer Posts