By Rev. Charles Cooper
Pretribulation or Prewrath?
For those who are truly interested in the Scriptures and are willing to search them, I offer the following response to Ron Graff’s article that appears on his website. After several individuals approached our ministry about responding to Graff’s article, I took a closer look at his arguments only to be disappointed again. His attempt to refute the prewrath position is nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction so typical of pretribulationists who speak loudly, but say very little that has explicit scriptural support.
Graff begins his assessment of the Prewrath position by offering his view of Problems With The Pre-Wrath View. Based on Mr. Graff’s writings in this article, I am not convinced that he read the works of Robert Van Kampen before offering a word of advice to others. He repeatedly misrepresents Mr. Van Kampen’s position. Anyone who reads Mr. Graff’s work and does not check the original sources, certainly would not be included in the camp of the Bereans who checked Paul’s teachings against the Scriptures.
Under Graff’s heading: 1A – Antichrist will persecute the Church, He writes,
After carefully studying both of Van Kampen’s books (The Sign, and The Rapture Question Answered), I believe that this statement of the “core truth” of the prewrath view really does represent the key differences between their position and the pretribulation position. It identifies several questionable elements of their theology. These debatable assumptions are:
1A – Antichrist will persecute the Church.
2A – Satan’s wrath ends at the Rapture and then God’s wrath begins.
3A – The Rapture takes place when Christ returns in great glory.
Cooper responds:
Graff makes a blatant error. Pretribulationists insist on describing the Rapture and the Second Coming as two different events. “When Christ returns in great glory” is a pretribber’s way of referring to the Lord’s return at Armageddon. Van Kampen does not use such language. Graff is combining pretrib language with Van Kampen’s position and is misrepresenting Van Kampen in the process. Pretribulationists describe the Lord’s return at Armageddon as coming in great glory down to earth. However, Scripture does not make such an explicit distinction. Show us the Scriptures, Mr. Graff.
Point 3A above should say, The Rapture takes place when Christ cuts short the persecution of Satan/Antichrist and initiates the Day-of-the-Lord’s-wrath. Van Kampen teaches at least a six-month gap between the Rapture and Armageddon (Dan. 12:11 and Rev. 9:5). No one really knows how much time will elapse between the Rapture and Armageddon. However, it must be long enough to allow for the salvation of Israel at the end of Daniel’s Seventieth Week (Dan. 9:24 and Rom. 11:24-26) and those Gentiles who enter the kingdom of God following the sheep and goat judgment in Matthew 25:31ff.
Graff either has not read Van Kampen’s works or is purposely attempting to distort the record for personal advantage.
Graff writes,
The prewrath position does acknowledge the separate existence of Israel and special treatment by God during the Tribulation when she is driven into the wilderness (Rev. 12), but it assumes that they are not saved until the very end, when they think the 144,000 are sealed
