A while ago someone asked to friend me on Facebook. This individual had a reputation for social media outbursts against dispensationalism and pretribulationism. Still, I accepted the "friend request." It lasted a whole 24 hours. This person posted multiple times a day and took a scorched-earth view of pretribulationism - apparently
"a dangerous heresy which needed to be stamped out."
Incidentally, I've been Facebook "un-friended" on occasion because I'm taking more of a blunt stand on these matters. My intention isn't to deliberately offend. Perhaps those who choose to go out on eschatological trolling crusades ought to develop tougher hides. Mind you, I accept that I can get pretty ornery at times. I guess I'm still a work-in-progress.
Now, I've met pretribbers with a take-no-prisoner mentality - "anything other than pretrib is a heresy." We recently evicted one from a pretrib Facebook group. I'm happy to report that most of my pretrib friends don't think that way. No one should. It isn't an essential doctrine.
Unfortunately, individuals who evoke the pretrib-dangerous-deception canard flourish in non-pretrib communities. People like my ex Facebook friend don't get corrected within their echo-chambers. This is because rapture timing for non-pretribbers is almost an essential doctrine. It's overwhelmingly assumed by these non-pretrib folk that the employment of a proper "biblical-exegetical" study of Scripture should lead one to the view they hold.
The following examples come from individuals in leadership positions. Perhaps this is why some people behave the way they do:
The pretrib position has “impossible-to-resolve problems” (p.197) and “insurmountable exegetical” difficulties (p.147). Worse, pretribulationalism leads to “calamitous” consequences and “a spiritual catastrophe” which is in reality “a satanically planned sneak attack” (p. 281-282). ~ Marv Rosenthal (
The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church)
In
The Rapture Question Answered, Van Kampen suggested a link between Darby and the "heretical" Edward Irving. He then wrote that at the time of the development of pretribulationism, new cults also emerged: e.g., Mormonism, Christian Science, Unitarianism and the Jehovah’s Witnesses. There just has to be a clear connection, right?
In
Shadows of the Beast, Jacob Prasch warns about “dangers in the Pre-Tribulation position.” He asserts that the rapture-resurrection can’t occur until believers identify the two Beasts of Revelation, and ominously warns: "The popular myth asserting the contrary as if it were an exegetical fact is a dangerous myth which must be debunked as a deception perpetrated against the Elect."
One has to wonder how much hand-wringing and outrage we'd see if these comments were directed at a particular non-pretrib view. Pass the boxes of tissues around?
