Eric Douma is a pretribulational pastor in the Twin Cities. He has taught against prewrath for a couple of years now. I have read his articles and listened to his teachings and, until now, I have not had the time to respond to his teachings. In a recent sermon he gave on the Day of the Lord, it became my conviction that his exposition of the Scriptures is flawed. And it is my hope that he will reconsider his conclusions in light of the critique I am offering him.
Category:
Pretribulationism
Pretribulationism’s Secret Rapture is So Secret that Even the Bible Does not Mention it!
written by Alan Kurschner
I am often baffled that there are some believers who will place pretribulationism on the level of certainty with, for example, the deity of Christ, or the virgin birth. I find it alarming, actually. Such an imbalance of biblical evidence reveals a Tradition at work.
Pretribulationism asserts that the secret rapture will take place before the Antichrist’s Great Tribulation. And yet, when we examine all three major biblical passages on the Antichrist’s Great Tribulation, they have to assume that the rapture has occurred before it. What do I mean by this?
First, take the Olivet Discourse. They will insist that the rapture occurs in Matthew 24 sometime before verse 8. When asked to point us to the rapture, they will admit there is no reference to the rapture; instead, we have to take their word for it.
Second, take Paul’s teaching in 2 Thessalonians 2. They will insist that the rapture occurs before verse 3. We ask, where does Paul say that the rapture occurs before Antichrist? We have to take their word for it, again.
Third, take the book of Revelation. We are told to assume that all those references throughout the book about “saints” and “those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus” are not part of the Church. They tell us that these individuals are “tribulation saints.” So where is the rapture in Revelation, we ask them. How did you guess? “Just trust us, the Church is raptured sometime between chapter three and the opening of chapter 4.”
One begins to get the feeling that the pretribulational secret rapture is so secret that it cannot even be found in the Bible.
Pretribulational John Walvoord writes:
John Calvin, the great reformer, likewise looked for the imminent return of Christ. In commenting on 1 John 2:18, Calvin writes, “But the Apostle not only fortifies the faithful, lest they should falter, but turns the whole to a contrary purpose; for he reminds them that the last time had already come, . . . In the same way it behoves us to comfort ourselves at this day, and to see by faith the near advent of Christ, . . . nothing more now remained but that Christ should appear for the redemption of the world.” Even though Calvin did not follow premillennial truth, he nevertheless did believe in the imminency of the Lord’s return” (“Christ’s Olivet Discourse on the Time of the End: How Near is the Lord’s Return?,” p. 81, Bibliotheca Sacra, January 1972, John F. Walvoord).
What Walvoord fails to tell the reader is that Calvin believed in the imminent return of Christ, not because he thought the Church was raptured before Antichrist, rather Calvin believed the Antichrist was the papacy—hence, the reason Calvin believed that Christ could come back at any moment.
Here is the context of what Calvin continued to say in his commentary of 1 John 2:18, which was left out by Walvoord:
As ye have heard that antichrist will come. He speaks as of a thing well known. We may hence conclude that the faithful had been taught and warned from the beginning respecting the future disorder of the Church, in order that they might, carefully keep themselves in the faith they professed, and also instruct posterity in the duty of watchfulness. For it was God’s will that his Church should be thus tried, lest any one knowingly and willingly should be deceived, and that there might be no excuse for ignorance. But we see that almost the whole world has been miserably deceived, as though not a word had been said about Antichrist.
Moreover, under the Papacy there is nothing more notorious and common than the future coming of Antichrist [i.e., they did not recognize that he was already present]; and yet they are so stupid, that they perceive not that his tyranny is exercised over them. Indeed, the same thing happens altogether to them as to the Jews; for though they hold the promises respecting the Messiah, they are yet further away from Christ than if they had never heard his name; for the imaginary Messiah, whom they have invented for themselves, turns them wholly aside from the Son of God; and were any one to shew Christ to them from the Law and the Prophets, he would only spend his labor in vain. The Popes have imagined an Antichrist, who for three years and a half is to harass the Church. All the marks by which the Spirit of God has pointed out Antichrist, clearly appear in the Pope; but the triennial Antichrist lays fast hold on the foolish Papists, so that seeing they do not see. Let us then remember, that Antichrist has not only been announced by the Spirit of God, but that also the marks by which he may be distinguished have been mentioned.
This is consistent with the Prewrath position. When Antichrist appears and persecutes the Church, then Christ’s Return will be imminent! (but prewrath does not believe the pope is the Antichrist).
5 Views on the Antichrist to Avoid
written by Alan Kurschner
Pretribulationism: The Antichrist is a literal future man, but this view sees the Church being raptured before his Revelation and persecution.
Preterism: The Antichrist was fulfilled in the first century, so there is no future Antichrist.
Historicism: The Antichrist is manifested in oppressive leaders throughout Church history, so there is no future Antichrist.
Spiritualism: The Antichrist is not literal, instead, he is symbolic of an evil principle in the Church age, so there is no future Antichrist.
Skepticism: God does not want us to know if the Church will encounter the Antichrist, therefore, don’t teach that the Church will encounter the Antichrist.
The prewrath position teaches though that the Church will encounter the Antichrist’s persecution in the future. It is the only view that has the natural reading of Paul’s words:
“Now regarding the arrival of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to be with him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, (2) not to be easily shaken from your composure or disturbed by any kind of spirit or message or letter allegedly from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. (3) Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not arrive until the rebellion comes and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. (4) He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, and as a result he takes his seat in God’s temple, displaying himself as God. (5) Surely you recall that I used to tell you these things while I was still with you. (6) And so you know what holds him back, so that he will be revealed in his own time. (7) For the hidden power of lawlessness is already at work. However, the one who holds him back will do so until he is taken out of the way, (8) and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will destroy by the breath of his mouth and wipe out by the manifestation of his arrival. (9) The arrival of the lawless one will be by Satan’s working with all kinds of miracles and signs and false wonders, (10) and with every kind of evil deception directed against those who are perishing, because they found no place in their hearts for the truth so as to be saved.” (2 Thess 2:1-10.