I am continuing my response to Pastor Bob DeWaay.
He asserts that Prewrathers use a “Psychological Argument” for their position. He says that we believe that “if we do not think we are going to be martyred, we will not be prepared.” That is true, since how can someone prepare for persecution, if they think they will be exempt from it?
And he asserts: “No Christian is prepared for martyrdom on the grounds he or she thinks it will happen.”
He misses the point since he discusses this on the psychological level, not the spiritual level. Somewhere (not in any primary prewrath literature) he was told that prewrathers believe that if you just propositionally understand that believers will encounter the Antichrist, then you are somehow prepared for it. That is a blatant strawman, a gross misrepresentation. Prewrath does not believe that it is a psychological state that prepares a believer’s heart—but a spiritual state.
I would like to point DeWaay to some primary material such as this book by Charles Cooper: Fight, Flight, or Faith: How to Survive the Great Tribulation.
Notice the book is not titled: Fight, Flight, or Assent to a Proposition: How to Survive the Great Tribulation.
How does he explain Jesus and Paul’s warning of persecution to stay faithful during the Antichrist’s persecution? Is Jesus and Paul making psychological arguments?
There is a real connection between the warning to be prepared and one’s faith. This is called God’s means to prepare the believer. What other possible purpose was there of Jesus’ warnings if not to prepare them for what lies ahead? We are not told by DeWaay.
I do not believe that a pretribulational believer who affirms that we will be raptured out of here in bed’s of ease will be “just as prepared” for the Antichrist’s Great Tribulation as a prewrather who prepares his body, mind, and soul, and has studied and taken heed to Jesus’ teaching in the Olivet Discourse.
After John describes the threat that Christians will undergo by Antichrist in Revelation 13, he warns:
“This requires the steadfast endurance of the saints—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to their faith in Jesus.” (Rev 14:12).
How does DeWaay negate that this warning is real? Someone can ignore this warning and be “equally prepared”? I don’t accept that.
To blunt these specific warnings, DeWaay says: “People have been martyred throughout church history.” So how is that relevant to the specific warnings given by Jesus, Paul, and John? We are not told. He also says that “everybody [in Church history] who has ever been martyred was given grace by God.” That is not the point. How many in Church history denied the Lord? How many of them did not take Peter’s warnings of persecution seriously? (1 Peter 4:12-19)
Next, he asserts:
“If Christians find themselves alive during the great tribulation, God will give them grace despite what view of the rapture they had.”
Never mind the fact that the grace of God was revealed in Biblical truth to believers in Scripture, warning them that this day would come. Theology does matter. He says that it does not really matter what rapture view one has. So if I am a pretribber who rejects the Olivet Discourse, which includes the parables of the Ten Virgins and all the other “Be Ready” parables,” God is going to bless that? There will be this peanut butter grace spread evenly among all Christians at this time? So why the vigilance? Can one really read 2 Thessalonians and come to the conclusion that “it really does not matter what you believe about this”?
In conclusion, the prewrath position prepares the believer for the persecution of Antichrist. Not because we assent to the proposition “prewrath is correct” as DeWaay would have you think. Instead, the prewrath position teaches with exhortation. The pretrib position cannot teach with exhortation because they believe they will be raptured out of here before Antichrist. The Prewrath position takes the warnings of Christ, Paul, and John as real and applicable to the Church.
Incidentally, if someone says that either position is “possible,” it still blunts the warnings in the Bible—for what believer is really going to discern Biblical authority in a faint-hearted maybe.
