So You Want To Be Left Behind

Some ax grinding. I find it cathartic at times...

So you want to be Left Behind? You see no value in the escapist rapture? Warning: there may be the occasional sarcasm and ax grinding ahead.

The Left Behind books created by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins drew no small criticism from bloggers when they first came out. While there was criticism of Jenkins’ popular style of writing, the real offense was the pretribulational rapture.

LaHaye quickly became the whipping boy of non-pretrib premil bloggers. Previously it was Hal Lindsey. One popular blogger emailed LaHaye with a bunch of “gotcha” questions – and followed up with his own book. If I had a dollar for every protest email sent to a pretrib teacher I’d be a wealthy man....keep reading

Unger Responds to Piper & Taylor on the Rapture

I guess after William Lane Craig's comments were aired, others thought they'd throw their hats into the rapture-bashing ring. Anyhow, hat tip to Dan Phillips for this one:

A few days ago, I had an article passed on to me called Nine Reasons We Can Be Confident Christians Won’t Be Raptured Before The Tribulation from Justin Taylor’s blog, in which he was summarizing the teaching of John Piper.  A bunch of folks got worked up (on the internet?  What?), but my superiors asked me to respond and so I agreed to write a response.  Now I’m no stranger to disagreement and my various theological positions that have essentially made me the sweaty asthmatic nerd on the playground of Evangelicalism (nobody likes an outspoken cessationist who is Calvinistic and dispensational), so I’ve basically got nothing to lose!...keep reading

Addendum:

Unger has amended his article to present a softened stance. Perhaps some sensitive soul was offended. That was commendable of him, though I liked the first edition. I like some of the following observations:

Now I celebrate the life and ministry of both John Piper (who gave me my wife) and Justin Taylor (who’s done wonderful work at Crossway).  I understand that they’re not on the same page as me when it comes to hermeneutics and, as a result, eschatology.  I also know that many who have left pre-tribulational circles (as well as other circles that people love to hate) tend to have had painful encounters with two guys who seem to be elders at a whole lot of churches.

I get that.  I know that there’s bad defenders of pre-tribulationalism out there, and I get that there’s obnoxious arguments and graceless “end times evangelists” who teach ideas about the end times that are laughable.

That being said, I also get the idea from a lot of ex-pre-trib fellows that a majority of their understanding of pre-tribulationalism comes from crabby elders and silly extra-biblical ideas that they rejected in their youth (I too was caused to suffer through Jack Van Impe videos).  When I have conversations with ex-pre-tribs, I regularly learn that many of them haven’t done much serious reading of pre-tribulationalism in their recent adult years, and generally assume that the theological convictions they reached when they were young are mature and settled, although they wouldn’t ever say that about any other point in their theology.

Fact is that obnoxious arguments and lack of grace aren't limited to curmudgeonly old pretribbers whose Scofield Bibles may only be prised from their cold dead hands. Unger mentions Hal Lindsey (I don't know Impe) in a less than favorable light. I kinda get that too, sort of. But I thought that was a weak ending to his response. It was unnecessary.

I don't think Hal's a great representative of dispensationalism, but he doesn't deserve the cheap shots that get fired off at him by non-pretribulational critics. I find many of them are quick to cry foul at any hint of criticism of their own views. In that respect I've found that Hal has broader shoulders and more class than many of his detractors.

False Prophet?

I’ve been accused of attacking other belief systems on this blog so I’m just going to re-iterate what I’ve stated before. It’s relatively common for individuals to regularly criticize either dispensationalism and/or pretribulationism. Yet whenever there’s a response, these critics often cry foul.

That said; a friend, who maintains a prophecy website and daily briefing service, announced that he was attending the 2011 Pre-Trib Conference. It seems that some readers felt inclined to label him a false prophet on the basis of his pretribulationism. In contrast, my friend has never attacked others for entertaining different eschatological viewpoints.

Anyway, they - very thoughtfully - sent him a link to another website in order to set him straight. That link is to a page called “Questions for a Pretribulationist”. As irony would have it, it was one of the first web pages I found when I began studying that particular rapture doctrine.

Some time ago, an advocate of that same position labeled Hal Lindsey a false prophet and added that false prophets were showered with stones in the Bible. This is an example of the nature of the vitriol leveled against him. But, while one can find areas of disagreement with Hal, he never set dates for the rapture.

Perhaps the real motive for the attack was his pretribulationism. Yet on the same basis that Hal was judged, one can also look to the prognostications of those who thought the ENP was the Antichrist’s covenant.

That same article also erroneously linked Mark Biltz to pretribulationism. A quick fact-check would have indicated otherwise. Biltz is neither a pretribulationist nor a dispensationalist. In fact he is contra-dispensationalism and is one of those so-called teachers who promote Torah observance. It’s a pity so many (pretribbers included) have carelessly promoted this individual because of his “exciting” blood moon theories without checking his other credentials.

Speaking of which; two other people to be wary of are Dewey Bruton and Monte Judah. Bruton gained popularity over his novel Daniel’s Timeline theory but a link on his website leads to another site containing articles by Monte Judah and others who support him. That there may be a direct connection between the two is strongly suggested by the narrative on Bruton’s website. Judah promotes Torah observance; has had past failed date setting issues and believes Hebrews shouldn’t be part of the NT Canon.

Labeling someone a false prophet based on his rapture belief is myopic.

On close examination, advocates of the system promoted by the “Questions for a Pretribulationist” link are in no position to point fingers at pretribulationists.

False Prophets

When I first embarked on a study of eschatology I learned that some people were preterists; some were amillennialists and some were premillennialists etc. At that time I also came across the term dispensationalism. I slowly learned that those who weren’t premillennial or dispensational considered those who were, to be false prophets.

In those days I considered myself mostly post-trib. What excited me was that I might be living in the last days and I strongly doubted that I would be whisked away prior to the proverbial manure hitting the fan. My focus was on premillennialism and I simply skipped over any chapters dealing with the rapture.

My interest in the rapture was first piqued when I visited a certain prophecy website that claimed prophecy was being fulfilled now. On the one hand I was excited that perhaps we really were on the verge of entering into the 70th week of Daniel and that the anti-Christ was about to be revealed - that meant the Lord would be on His way! On the other hand I was a little perturbed by the comments on that site towards pretribulationalists I had been reading. The website owner believed the Church would be here to experience the anti-Christ. I began looking into his rapture view.

As I researched, I discovered a depth of condescension towards pretribulationism and pretribulationists that surprised me. Hal Lindsey was and is one of the favorite whipping boys but Thomas Ice and Tim LaHaye hold honorary places of mention in the pantheon. One layman even wrote a small book that was really a letter to LaHaye. Other than the fact that LaHaye was involved in the Left Behind books, I’m not sure why he got the brunt of that book given there are so many other capable pretribulational/dispensational scholars out there that could have been engaged.

Hal apparently gets special mention as false prophet on the pretext that he allegedly predicted the rapture/second coming would occur in the eighties. While commenting on Lindsey, one person even mentioned that false prophets were stoned in the OT! But what Lindsey actually did was postulate the possibility of everything coming together within that timeframe based on, then, current events and his understanding of Israel and the fig tree. He was wrong - simple as that. On observation, however, I suspect he’s been branded a false prophet for his pre-trib view rather than his failed chronology.

When I started my first blog, I compared Hal with those who fervently believed and practically taught that the signing of the ENP began the seven year Tribulation in Jan 2007, along with identifying the person who could be the AC. We now have less than six months to mid-point and it becomes increasingly unlikely that sacrifices will be established for an anti-Christ to put a stop to, or a Temple built in time for him to defile. Will these people be branded false prophets? I doubt it, and furthermore they shouldn’t be.

Modres has more to say about this false prophet phenomenon HERE

Another thing that intrigues me is that I often read where someone claims the Holy Spirit showed them that the pre-trib rapture is wrong and the rapture view they’ve come to adopt is correct. Here’s the dilemma; I’ve heard that claim from pre-trib, mid-trib, pre-wrath and post-trib believers. Can you see an issue there? Is the Holy Spirit fickle?

Here’s Modres again:

The Holy Spirit Taught Me…