We are starting a Prewrath "testimony" feature on the blog. I believe this will be an encouragement to other Prewrathers when they read the story of how others have come to the Biblical position of our Lord’s return. I invite others to send in their prewrath "testimony" as well for posting. The following is our first story,
30 years ago this fall, at age 23, my husband and I left our mid-west roots and headed to Texas in quest of a ThM for him, from Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS). Having been raised in a church that never taught from the book of Revelation, nor spoke of a ‘rapture’, I was clueless on the subject of eschatology when we arrived. Also, I was a relatively new believer and knew nothing of the Bereans or of being one.
Putting all these pieces together, it wasn’t long before I became totally fascinated with the subject of prophecy and the end times. Along with the Bible, I started reading Hal Lindsay and John Walvoord and wholeheartedly accepted DTS’s “position” on the subject, having no idea that there even was any other “position”.
Being a full fledged ‘Pretriber’ with little understanding, I reasoned, “This is a seminary, filled with godly men and women who love God’s Word and have been studying it for years. They know the truth. They teach the truth. Who am I? What do I know?” Besides, their stand on the subject was comfortable, safe and popular.
Continuing on with my interest and branching out in my reading, I was shocked to find out that not everyone held to the ‘Pretribulational’ view. Mid-Trib? Post-Trib? “What’s up with this?” I wondered. “Is the Bible vague on this topic? Is it just too hard to understand?” “Am I missing something?” Wanting everything to be black and white in those early days, I became frustrated.
So one day I put down all the books, except the Bible. “Lord”, I said, “You gave me Your Spirit when I became Your child. You said that He would be my Teacher and Guide. I’m going to trust You and let You teach me the truth about the end time events.” With that, I put up a good sized piece of poster board, drew a line through the middle of it representing the 70th week of Daniel, and said to myself, “O.K., Carolin. What is it that you know for sure?”
According to Daniel 9:27, the Antichrist gets the final 7 years started by making a “firm covenant with the many”, (1st entry on my poster board). 3 1/2 years later, he breaks that agreement desecrating the temple and claiming to be god (2nd entry).
The next big question for me was about the ‘Day of the Lord’. What is it exactly? What happens during that time? Are Christians involved? So I started a topical Bible search. Zephaniah 1:14-18 taught me that “the Day of the Lord” is also known as “the day of the Lord’s wrath”, among other things. And 1Thessalonians 5:9, 1Thessalonians 1:10, and Romans 5:9 encouraged me that one of the benefits of being a child of God is that He will deliver me “from the wrath to come”. Just like in the days of Noah and Lot, the righteous were delivered before God’s judgment came. (Luke 17:26-30)
For me, finding out when the Day of the Lord begins was going to help answer a lot of questions. And that’s when I came upon 2Thessalonians 2: 1-12. Verses 1 and 2 told me that the Day of the Lord included at least two other specific events: “The coming of our Lord” and “Our gathering together to Him”.
Just when I thought it couldn’t get much better, verse 3 showed me that 2 specific events had to take place before the Day of the Lord could happen. The great apostasy and the revealing of the Antichrist. Therefore, the Day of the Lord (His coming, our gathering together to Him, and His wrath) will begin sometime after the mid-point of the 70th week of Daniel.
Now I realize that I’m not a theologian. But my simple chart and these few passages convinced me that none of the three rapture ‘positions’ that I had read about worked. My personally found position had no name that I was aware of, but that was all right with me.
Some years later my brother and nephew, (knowing I was interested in eschatology), handed me a book that they had read, The Sign. I hadn’t read any extra-curricular material on the subject for some time. Starting out somewhat skeptical, I was soon ecstatic to find that Robert Van Kampen had come to the same conclusion I had. Better yet, he fleshed out my simple understanding and put together a time line that worked with all the random pieces I was still holding on to. And now it had a name – The Prewrath Rapture!
I am so appreciative for the Lord’s faithfulness to lead and teach me, for Robert Van Kampen and all his hours of study, The Sign, and the Sign Ministries. I am also thankful to Dallas Theological Seminary. I learned a lot during those 4 years about God’s Word – Particularly, who the Bereans were and how to be one! (Acts 17:10-11)
Carolin Logan
West Des Moines, Iowa
