The Imminent Pre-wrath Rapture of the Church

I found this online book some time ago and am slowly going through it. While I disagree with many of the author's conclusions and I'm always right ;-), he does make some good points in certain areas.

Read it HERE.

The author also has also written a book called "What the Bible Says About the Future" which can be read online HERE, and has a new book pending called "The Olivet Discourse".

This resource page is helpful. In some instances, I think Mr Smith should have been more thorough e.g. the day of the Lord v the wrath of God in light of OT passages etc. In fact there is strong evidence that the dotL includes the 6th seal and the grammar of Rev 6:17 is OFTEN in the past. There are very good reasons for believing God's wrath is contained within the seals and the 5th seal martyrs are not an obstacle to this view - as has been discussed before. Unfortunately, he only gives this a cursory treatment.

He implies that many (most?) pretribbers take the apostasy of 2 Thess 2 to be the rapture. Although Dr Ice is one of these, most pre-trib scholars do not believe this to be true. Even if it were so, the apostasy/rapture view is not helpful to pretribulationism.

But, while I have some issues, Mr Smith does provide a lot of good food for thought.

Pre-trib easy believism?

Recently, on a website, someone made a remark to the effect that he doesn’t believe a pretribulationist who affirms that we will be raptured out of here in “bed’s of ease” (sic) would be as prepared as a (------) who expects tribulation and therefore prepares his “body, mind and soul”. He also stated that believing otherwise minimized Jesus’ warnings to be ready.

Exactly what does it mean to be ready? I previously posted a link to an article by Fred DeRuvo as I think he adequately addresses that point, along with other misconceptions. You can find it HERE.

What really piqued my interest was the idea that someone could train their body in preparation for the tribulation as I’d never come across that deal before. Maybe I can incorporate some of this training in my own workouts. Unfortunately, the author didn’t elaborate on that point and I do think he’s kidding himself. Would this mean the elderly and infirm will be less prepared than the physically active? Ironically, this same website has argued that pretribulationists also exaggerate the gravity of the seal judgments. A potential problem?

Not too long ago I was fairly certain the Church would still be here when the Lord put His foot in Jerusalem again. Was I better prepared then, than I am now, because I now think that that may not be the case? I actually think I’m better prepared now simply because my faith in God has grown.

It’s nonsensical to believe in the pre-trib rapture just for a desire to escape or that most pretribbers do so for that reason. We are told to expect tribulation in this world. But it isn’t wrong to want to escape The Tribulation. Does anyone seriously look forward to it? A pretribber who expects any moment death or tribulation and also considers the chance of any moment rapture should be preparing for that possibility daily. In such a case the prewrather and posttribber has no advantage.

Websites such as the one I referred to earlier expend a large amount of resources in attacking pretribulationism and various pretribulationists on the premise that it leaves unsuspecting believers unprepared for the great tribulation. Yet these sites hardly ever confront Preterists, Postmillennialists, Amillennialists or the Emergent types. Sadly, this tells me that the problem really is a personal bias against pretribulationism.

The rapture issue should be purely an academic one. Those who judge and question, wholesale, the pretribulationists’ real motives for believing such, probably have character issues of their own that they need to deal with.

If the PreTrib Rapture Creates Spiritually Immature Christians, then What Does the Possibility of Your Last Day on Earth Do?

The PreTrib Rapture, and Being (Allegedly) Unprepared

I am Amazed at the Division Eschatology Creates!