The following are Robert Van Kampen’s lecture series, The Olivet Discourse: Introduction to End Times. He taught these fourteen lectures at Grace Church of West Ottawa, West Olive, Michigan.
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Olivet Discourse
I am continuing my response to Pastor Bob DeWaay. He states emphatically:
“Prophecy is not given in chronological order in the Bible. You need to know that. [He cites Matthew 24 as a passage that does not give chronology.]”
This is an incredible assertion. The following is a list of Jesus’ chronological language from Matthew 24.
“when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?”” (Matt 24:3).
“See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.” (Matt 24:6).
“All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. (9) “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation…” (Matt 24:8-9a).
“And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.” (Matt 24:10).
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Matt 24:14).
“So when you see the abomination of desolation” (Matt 24:15a).
“then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” (Matt 24:16).
“For then there will be great tribulation,” (Matt 24:21a).
“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it” (Matt 24:23).
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened” (Matt 24:29a).
“Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man” (Matt 24:30a).
“and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn,” (Matt 24:30b).
“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.” (Matt 24:32).
“So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates.” (Matt 24:33).
How could DeWaay or anyone else believe that Jesus intends that his Coming could occur, for example, before the beginning of birth pangs, or before the Great Tribulation. Clearly, Jesus intends for his audience to understand that chronologically his Coming (parousia) occurs when the Great Tribulation is cut short. In the next installments, we will see the explicit chronological language of Paul and Revelation. In addition I will respond to his reasoning why he thinks we cannot discern a chronological element of prophecy in the New Testament.
Church HistoryDanielDay of the LordMid-TribulationismOlivet DiscoursePost-TribulationismPreterismPretribulationismPrewrathRevelationSlide PresentationsThessalonians 1&2
The Rapture in Matthew 24:31
written by Alan Kurschner
Here are my slide presentation notes in pdf format on the rapture in Matthew 24:31. I very much enjoyed the fellowship at the conference.
Pretribulationists believe that “gather his elect” is a reference to the regathering of Israel at the end of the 70th week of Daniel. Preterists, on the other hand, interpret it as the Christian mission beginning in AD 70 to gather in God’s people to the Kingdom through evangelization. I showed, instead, that the Prewrath position is the most natural and consistent reading, demonstrating that this is indeed the rapture.
“As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age? (27) For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (28) Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. (29) “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. (30) Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. (31) And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” (Matt 24:3, 27-31)
I have read scores of commentaries on Matthew 24, and I am always baffled that there are so many different interpretations of this question (preterists have the most strained readings). The most natural reading is that the sign is the lightning, which represents Christ’s Shekinah glory — his divine presence-glory.
“Parousia” (Coming) means presence. Ezekiel sadly witnessed the inverse of the sign of God’s presence departing from the Temple.
“And the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub to the threshold of the house, and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the LORD. Then the glory of the LORD went out from the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim. And the glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain that is on the east side of the city.” (Ezek 10:4, 18; 11:23)
AmillennialismChurch HistoryOlivet DiscoursePost-TribulationismPostmillennialismPremillennialismPreterismPretribulationismPrewrath
The Teaching of the Early Church On the Second Coming of Christ
written by Guest Contributors
Guest Article by Gary Vaterlaus
Many claims have been made by pretribulationists that the early Church believed that Christ would come before the events of the 70th Week of Daniel begin–that is, before the period of tribulation. Dwight D. Pentecost in his book Things to Come uses selected quotes from some of the early church fathers to try to show that they believed in the imminent return of Christ (see pp. 168-169).
More recently, Grant R. Jeffrey in his book Apocalypse: The Coming Judgement of the Nations devotes the entire Appendix to references to early church writings, some which he claims show that they held to an “any moment,” imminent coming of the Lord.
I believe that we should let the Church fathers speak for themselves. Below are lengthy quotes from 12 documents of the early Church fathers from the first four centuries showing that they believed that the Church would be present on the earth during the Great Tribulation of Antichrist. From my review of the early Church writings I would agree with Robert Gundry’s assessment that “…the early Church did not hold to the doctrine of imminence. The very passages cited for imminence (by the pretribulationists) reveal a belief that the Church will pass through the tribulation.” (Robert Gundry, The Church and the Tribulation, p. 179). In fact, in this same book Gundry shows convincingly that the pretribulation theory of the rapture was not known nor widely held until the mid-nineteenth century (see pp. 185-188).
Our sole rule for faith and practice must be Scripture. The teachings of the early Church do not “prove” that pretribulationism is incorrect, only Scripture can do that (and it does). However, as Robert Gundry sates, “…the antiquity of a view weighs in its favor, especially when that antiquity reaches back to the apostolic age. For those who received their doctrine first-hand from the apostles and from those who heard them stood in a better position to judge what was apostolic doctrine than we who are many centuries removed” (The Church and the Tribulation, p. 172).
The prewrath rapture position has its roots in historical premillennialism–the belief that the Church will be persecuted by the Antichrist, delivered at Christ’s coming, and then God’s wrath will be poured out on the wicked who remain, followed by the establishment of Christ’s earthly kingdom. As you can see from the quotes below, this is precisely what the early Church fathers wrote. I quote many of them at length so that the claim of ignoring context cannot be made. I have emphasized the relevant portions.