Recently I wrote an article for Zeteo 3:16 addressing the last of seven alleged problems for pretrib which appears in a documentary. This one involved the Early Church Fathers. I've since written an Addendum because at least one person apparently had some issues. I briefly discuss some of these there.
I certainly didn't interact with every single point, and stated so. But if anyone feels they need further clarification on some matter, or are unhappy about something unfair I said, they can leave a BRIEF to-the-point comment here. Long essays will be deleted. I'll have more to say right here later.
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Servus Christi & Jacob Prasch
A two-plus hour video created by Servus Christi (Josh Chavez), called "The Pretrib Rapture Deception: A False Hope" is making the rounds. One ministry (which shared it twice) claims unfamiliarity with him and won't vouch for his other teachings, but that the video is worth watching and sharing.
It's remarkable how folk howl if anyone dares challenge their system, or refers to it as deceptive. Yet they've no qualms about attacking or employing similar derogatory terms. Moreover, if you disagree with these folk it's because of your "eisegesis."
This imperious attitude dates back to Rosenthal's polemic which claimed pretrib was a satanic deception. Yet when his position was critiqued, supporters cried foul. For example, "Their [pretrib critics] argument is not with us, it's with the Word of God." After years of interaction with this system and its proponents I have a different assessment of what's going on.
All this said; Chavez has been a close associate of Jacob Prasch (Moriel Ministries). I'd guess his eschatology likely mirrors Prasch's version of prewrath, the Inter-Seal rapture.
Chavez's video predictably includes the Darby routine. He acknowledges Morgan Edwards but says he's midtrib. As noted HERE, Edwards kept the church out of the last three-and-half years. There was no common idea of a future seven years then. Also, Prasch claims to have arrived at his position before Van Kampen. We might ask Chavez - whoever heard of Inter-Seal before Prasch wrote Harpazo?
And he asserts that all rapture and Second-Advent verses speak of the same event. Yet his system has more than one future arrival of Christ. How does that work? As for the rest, it isn't like Chavez's two-plus-hour video is cutting edge. We've heard this stuff before.
Aside from this, be wary of Chavez and Prasch. They go hand in hand. Their cult-like behavior is dangerous to the church as a body and to individual Christians. For example Prasch's attack on James White was inexcusable. I don't always agree with Justin Peters, Chris Roseborough or Jordan Hall. Nor do I agree with others who use derogatory terms when confronting these men. But their warnings ought to be heeded. Do some homework.
Scan the videos on Servus Christi's YouTube channel; it doesn't take a genius to see red flags. Like Prasch he slanders good men (Justin Peters, James White, Paul Washer, John MacArthur etc). Shouldn't it be negligent for a leading ministry to not issue a strong warning? Then again, Chavez's video does have a catchy title, doesn't it? And stamping out dangerous pretribulationism is the main thing, right?
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The Orange Mailman (Darrin Ball) wrote a review of the "Before the Wrath" documentary. We've exchanged notes on Ladd in the past. I haven't seen the doc. I'm just not interested in watching "prophecy" videos or daily-weekly "prophecy" updates. Therefore I can't fairly comment on his review - except for the last paragraph.
But first; we premils tend to obsess about prophecy. Yeah, yeah it's 25% (whatever) of the Bible. Yeah, it's important. That's no reason for it to virtually dominate our attention. I even saw one comment tying the gospel in with eschatology. Yes, it is by virtue of our redemption and future glorification through the cross. That's it. Don't make a particular eschatological view an essential to divide over.
If you think I've left out the "essential" of "Antichrist's Great Tribulation preparedness" (I've addressed this before) please drop a comment outlining how you prepare for that event. I mean, aside from just expecting to be in it.
Ball wants to promote his view. I get that. He asks why it's OK for Markell to create videos and promote her view, but promoting his view causes division. Well theoretically it shouldn't. He then says, "What about my view makes it Satanic (sic)?" He's referring to Markell, Farag and Tsarfati where they allegedly called prewrath satanic. I discussed it HERE. My article generated hits from a PW Facebook group. It was listed as an example of someone calling PW satanic. I didn't. Whoever shared it didn't pay attention.
As mentioned above, the first PW book on the market labeled pretrib a satanic deception. Don't you people ever see the irony? Stop whining and grow up. Do the hard work of presenting your view (videos, conferences, books etc) without constantly using pejoratives such us "sloppy exegesis" (Ball's last paragraph re God's wrath).
I've read my share of arguments (from both sides) re God's wrath. I don't rely on Jan Markell for theology and have some small issues there. I doubt "Before the Wrath" was intended to address objections to when God's wrath occurs. However I believe pretribulationists (e.g., Showers etc) do better at showing why it is located before the 7th seal. And while I disagree with the PW view on God's wrath, I wouldn't loosely apply the term "sloppy exegesis" to their arguments. That's what I'd call being divisive.
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So this extended post has ended up as somewhere for me to grind my ax. I hadn't intended it to be. Over the last few years my main focus hasn't been prophecy though (obviously) I maintain an interest in it. I'm still an admin of a private pretrib prophecy group though one rarely sees discussion about rapture timing. And from time to time I see stuff which I want to comment on. I may eventually start a fresh post. But for now here are two more gripes.
1) If you're a non-pretrib blogger who gets an email from a pretribber calling you a false prophet for teaching the wrong rapture timing - welcome to the club! It shouldn't happen. But don't dive into the tissues. Nearly every week my friend Jack Kinsella got mail from people calling him a false prophet for being pretrib. I have friends who are close to prominent pretrib ministries. They constantly get hate mail because they're pretrib. Incidentally, we don't tolerate that sort of behavior (pretrib or not) in our group.
2) Using terms such as "self-proclaimed" or "pop-prophecy" teacher is unhelpful and divisive when you're a leading figure and folk re-post your articles. Moreover you know you'd jump at the chance to share a platform with these "pop-prophecy" teachers in order to promote your view. Sadly proponents of your system have had a combative reputation from the beginning.
Quote: Hype up prophesy (sic) events that are taking place before the rapture, while claiming on the other side of their mouth that “the rapture is imminent.”
Really, do I even need to break that down? There's no contradiction. It doesn't take an eschatologist to figure it out. But again this sort of thing does the rounds.
