If you are a Pretribulationist King James Version Only Advocate this post may be disturbing news. Today when I was examining a facsimile of the original King James Version — the actual 1611 edition — I was looking at instances of textual variant notes found in the King James Version; there are 2,193 instances. (Yes, the 17th century Anglican King James translators made textual critical choices when they translated it.)
During my research of textual variant notes, I came across something else that is very interesting. As you know, pretribulationists assert that Matthew 24 does not describe the event of the rapture/resurrection. They claim that Matthew 24:31 describing the “gathering of the elect” is referring to some group of believing Jews and not the rapture/resurrection of the Church. This is to avoid the implication of the rapture/resurrection following after the Antichrist’s Great Tribulation; and in the pretrib system they cannot have the Church being persecuted during this time — it would, as well, undermine their doctrine of imminency since it would have the rapture following after prophesied events.
Observe the asterisk at the beginning of verse 31 and the two verses it cross-references to in the margin: 1 Cor 15:52 and 1 Thess. 4:16. The former verse is the twinkling of an eye rapture/resurrection passage, and the latter is the classic rapture/resurrection passage! Here the KJV translators understand that Matthew 24:31 is describing the same event of the rapture/resurrection, contra pretribulationism.
So for those pretribbers who invest ultimate authority into the textual critical decisions of 17th century Anglican churchmen, I thought I would highlight that these translators’ understanding of Matthew 24:31 agrees with Prewrath — and negates the notion of Pretribulationism.
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Category:
Pretribulationism
Jacob’s Trouble – Jeremiah 30:7
written by Alan Kurschner
The following is from the Parousia Newsletter, Spring of 2001,
Jeremiah 30:7 also speaks of a “troubler of Israel.” This passage is perhaps the most often quoted text by pretribulationists to defend their supposition that Daniel’s Seventieth Week pertains to Israel and not the church. Jeremiah writes, “Alas!” For that day is great, there is none like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he will be saved from it.” Does this prophecy automatically exclude the church from the “tribulation?” Who is he that is the eschatological troubler of Israel? Whose wrath will Jacob be saved from? These and other questions require a careful look at Jeremiah 30:7 and its context.
Pretribulationists are quick to offer their opinions concerning the meaning and significance of Jeremiah 30:7. However, few offer exegetical details to support their claims. What is offered is a litany of less than cogent arguments without explicit scriptural basis. The fundamental flaw in the thinking of pretribulationists is their insistence that Daniel’s Seventieth Week is (1) Jewish in focus and (2) seven years of tribulation (God’s wrath in varying degrees). Both points are supported with arguments of scriptural silence instead of explicit scriptural statements….
To read this entire seminal article by Charles Cooper, click here for download.
Mark Biltz and myself have had some email exchanges this past week. He has also posted a response of qualifications and clarifications of what he believes, so in all fairness here is his article. I want to say a couple of things and I will leave it at that. I do think there are some inconsistencies between his clarification article and the interview he did for “Prophecy in the News.” But I will let the readers be the judge of that.
I just find it difficult that now Biltz is saying that he is not concerned with the timing of the Second Coming of Christ or the rapture, but in the interview, there was this exchange:
J. R. Church: This we are going to see in 2015 on the first day of the first month and again on the first day of the seventh month
Mark Biltz: Exactly
Church: which is the Jewish New Year; and that concludes, it is Tishri 1 that concludes the Sabbatical year
Biltz: yes
Church: wow
Biltz: yes
Church: it’s time for the Messiah to show up, right?
Biltz: yes! [an emphatic “yes” at that]
If anyone thinks I am taking that out of context then they can view the video for themselves.
Biltz says now in his article, “IF these eclipses in 2015 are what the Lord was referring to, then 2015 would look like a possible year for His feet to land on the Mt of Olives.” One would have only desired to see such a stress of qualification in the interview with the pretrib interviewers.
It is difficult as well to watch the interview and think that Biltz is “neutral” and only “providing data.”
Watching the interview one does not get the sense that Biltz is just the messenger providing the data, and they can take the data and do with it however they want with it. In the interview one observes an excited Biltz agreeing with the interviewers Gary Stearman, and J. R. Church — there is no disagreement or meaningful disclaimers in that interview. The last folks that you would want to share such information with is pretrib sensationalists.
Ron Wallace has written an extensive and thorough refutation to Fruchtenbaum’s review of Prewrath. Wallace writes,
“In 1991, Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum of Arial Ministries wrote a review and refutation of Marvin Rosenthal’s book, “The Pre-Wrath Rapture of The Church.” The purpose of this article is to defend the PreWrath rapture of the church as it is challenged by Fruchtenbaum in his review….”
A Response to Mark Biltz — Second Coming, Blood Moon Eclipses, Solar Eclipses, 5775 Sabbatical Year (2014, 2015)
written by Alan Kurschner
[Update: Biltz replied to this article. I have responded here.]
Many of you are aware of Mark Biltz’s recent discovery; and if you are not, then you will soon hear about it. From what I can tell, Biltz is pretribulational. I do not know if he has considered the Prewrath position. I have already had folks ask me what I think about his discovery. Right at the outset I want to make it clear that this article is not about parsing out the significance of his discovery vis-à-vis Biblical prophecy.
My purpose in this article it to make some comments and observations of how Pretribulational teachers including Biltz are understanding this discovery and to point out their inconsistencies.
It is true that the four spring feasts of the Lord were fulfilled prophetically during the First Coming of Christ. And Prewrath teaches that the three remaining fall feasts will be fulfilled during Christ’s Second Coming (Rosenthal articulates this well in his book The Feasts of the Lord; Van Kampen’s The Sign has a detailed discussion as well). And the Bible clearly teaches that a particular cluster of cosmic disturbances including the sun and moon will be a sign of the Second Coming. That we can be sure of.
Pastor Mark Biltz went on NASA’s U.S. Government website to see if he could discover any solar eclipse or lunar eclipse that might be significant for Biblical prophecy. He was surprised to discover a rare and uncanny cluster of four lunar eclipses and two solar eclipses around the Jewish Sabbatical Year of 2014/2015. Further, he found that they all landed on important Jewish holy days.
I am not going to delineate the specifics here. But you can read it here and here (It should be a foregone conclusion that we do not endorse the content of these pretrib sites that I am linking to.)
Also, Biltz did a popular interview. This is part one of the interview which is where he discusses the main issues; part two is not as significant. Here is the interview: DSL Video 56K Video Audio DLS Mac
My observations:
First, in the interview, Mark Biltz, Gary Stearman, and J. R. Church indicate that the cosmic disturbances of Matthew 24 and Revelation 6 are describing the same event (Prewrathers do the same). And they indicate that the Second Coming happens in conjunction during these cosmic disturbances (again, so far so good).
But then they assumed that this sixth seal cosmic event found in Revelation 6 happens at the close of the 70th week of Daniel. Here is the problem: what do they do with the trumpet and bowl judgments that follow after the seals? The fifth trumpet judgment itself is five months in duration! (Post-tribbers have this problem as well). Further, in their pretrib scheme they cannot place the cosmic disturbances before the 70th week concludes since they would also have to do that with the Second Coming, which would nullify what is definitional of pretribulationism.
(Many pretribbers try to get around this obvious problem by simply asserting that the sixth seal cosmic disturbance is not describing the same event in Matthew 24:29-30. This is untenable since the parallels and context between these two passages are undoubtedly depicting the same event.)
Here is where the Prewrath position solves this difficulty naturally and Biblically. We cannot assume that the Second Coming/Cosmic Disturbances happen at the completion of the 70th week of Daniel since Jesus himself places this dual event sometime after the midpoint of the 70th week of Daniel at the time when the Antichrist’s Great Tribulation (not the 70th week of Daniel itself) is “cut short” (Matthew 24:22). And thus, after the Great Tribulation is cut short with the Second Coming, the Day of the Lord’s wrath (trumpet and bowl judgments) will follow and unfold for the remaining part of the 70th week.
In short, the godly will be raptured when the Antichrist’s Great Tribulation is cut short, then God will pour out his subsequent Day of the Lord’s wrath upon the ungodly.
Second observation, notice that the theory places the Second Coming in the year 2015 (which is what the whole theory is predicated on); this then would necessitate, as they indicate from their pretrib view, a subtraction of seven years taking us to this fall of 2008 for the rapture, covenant with Israel, and the subsequent seven year “Tribulation Period” to begin.
In other words, this (pretrib) theory in essence is saying that the rapture will take place in the fall of 2008 — i.e., the church has about four months left on earth.
In the interview, Biltz tries not to be dogmatic (he is trying to avoid being a date-setter), but that is the whole point of the interview and the purpose of the theory. Of course, as in most cases of date-setting, even if they are implied, once the date elapses, the individual will “reinterpret” it in some new significance. To be sure, when pretribbers mishandle Scripture such as in this case, it does not invalidate the relationship of these astronomical facts with the Biblical calendar, if there is any import in that relationship.
As an aside, Hal Lindsey was asked about Biltz’s discovery and he said that he has not heard of Biltz’s theory, and called it “pure speculation.” How does one call a theory “pure speculation” when he has not heard of it? We are not told (Not that I am defending Biltz’s schema). Second, who would want to lend credibility to Lindsey’s opinion on this since he has no credibility left after his failed prediction of Christ’s Second Coming in 1988. For those who are not old enough to remember: Hal Lindsey wrote a popular book in the 70’s titled The Late Great Planet Earth. In it he claimed that the Biblical “fig tree” was Israel and a Biblical generation equaled forty years; then he added forty years from the time when Israel became a state in 1948, which would take it to 1988, the supposed year of Christ’s Second Coming. And in the pretrib scheme he disconnected the rapture from the Second Coming by seven years, accordingly, the rapture in 1981.
In short, Hal Lindsey is an unrepentant false prophet who has been showered with royalties since then (false prophets in the Bible were showered with stones).
Reader, understand this: regardless of any significance of these astronomical events and their supposed correspondence to the Biblical calendar, the fact that Jesus is coming soon should spur us to sober holy living. Christ’s Return will materialize — and we must take heed to be found “blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
As we look at the world around us and observe the moral madness of humanity, the nations, and their unbridled hatred toward God, it is indeed difficult to think that the Lord will tarry much longer.