Dear Prewrath Rapture Dot Com:
I am writing you to let you know how much I appreciate the information on your website. I am no expert and am limited in Bible knowledge and theology as a layman. I am an engineer which requires me to be logical and analytical. I have studied several books and many articles on eschatology over the past 35 years. All come from a Pre-millennial perspective. I was brought up in a fundamental Pre-Trib environment since childhood in New England. I remember early on reading all about the Pre-Trib Rapture and thought it was great. But then I would read the passages of scripture dealing with the end-times in my Bible reading and something kept bothering me about exactly how the Pre-Trib scenario wasn’t that clear. There were too many assumptions and interpretations made elsewhere to make it work. I couldn’t put my finger on it, so I trusted the Bible scholars knew what they were talking about. In the early years I thought this was the only view. But the feeling of my wife was that why would God want to remove us during the entire tribulation when our witness would be needed most.
Because of my career in the Air Force and then the aerospace/defense industry, we moved around the country often and have been associated with many Baptist and Bible churches. Two had pastors with a Post-Tribulational view which started making us aware of the problems with the Pre-Trib view.
We were introduced to the Pre-Wrath view in the mid-90s by reading the writings of and listening to taped Bible studies of Marv Rosenthal who my parents loved to hear at Moody-Keswick Bible Conference in St. Petersburg, Florida, back in the 80s-90s until he was disinvited. I then obtained books by Robert Van Kampen and it was his The Rapture Question Answered that really convinced me that Pre-Wrath made the most sense. In the past few months I’ve been reaffirming this position by reading the writings and listening to the lectures of Charles Cooper and others at Prewrathrapture dot com and a few other linked sites. You have written excellent articles in defense of the Pre-Wrath view.
The problem I see with the Western Evangelical Church today is that the people do not want to hear such hard teaching or break from there comfortable “orthodox” beliefs. Pre-Wrath does not “tickle their ears”, but Pre-Trib does. They want positive things that will help them deal with life and not worry about having to go through much of the 70th week. But we are commanded to not worry, but to trust Him to help us overcome and be faithful to the end of the age regardless of the circumstances. Christians 50+ (the majority now) like tradition. And all the favorite Bible teachers on radio and TV push Pre-Trib. To question that is “heresy”. And 9 times out of 10 they never heard of Pre-Wrath, especially here in the Dallas Fort Worth area which is a Pre-Trib stronghold including Southern Baptist churches (where we now worship) even though SBC doctrinal statement allows for different views. The situation I hear Marv talking about in his 2008 Pre-Wrath conference address is very true. Churches and organizations can’t change once they stipulate Pre-Trib in their doctrine. That creates all sorts of problems. Change in view will have to come from the bottom up – the grass roots. I am sharing the Pre-Wrath view with Christian friends at work and by e-mail with a few from the past. But I’m finding it very difficult at church and have to be careful. The pastor’s mentor was the late Dr. W.A. Criswell known for his Pre-Trib views. But the Lord lead us to this church for other reasons.
In His Service,
Chuck