The church is not mentioned again after Chapter 3 in Revelation. “Christianity Today”, is not so Christian in their worldview and is a lousy source.
Pre-trib is Truth.
I happen to believe it, but in the end we’ll all know, and hopefully soon.
I have to say I’m tired. I’d like to go home.
The issue continues to be the reformed theologians total inability to rightly exegete the OT. They cannot interpret the OT without casting it in the light of the NT. They see every prophecy about Israel that wasn't fulfilled as applying to the church ... and where it doesn't make sense ... they pull out the "spiritual sense" interpretation.
The dispensational premillenial position is the natural result of the historical grammatical approach to interpretation coupled with proper theological method. Since both camps would claim to use the historical grammatical approach to interpretation the larger issues are with theological method.
The Dispensational position would use the following theological method when dealing with matters of interpretation:
1. Recognize preunderstanding.
2. Form a Biblical Theology of the OT using a literal interpretation of the OT text.
3. Form a Biblical Theology of the NT using a literal interpretation of the NT text.
4. Synthesize results into a Systematic Theology.
The non-Dispensational method would use the following:
1. Recognize preunderstanding.
2. Form a Biblical Theology of the NT using a literal interpretation of the NT text.
3. Form a Biblical Theology of the OT based upon the NT understanding of the OT text.
4. Synthesize results into a Systematic Theology.
This is the heart of the matter ... they read the NT back into the Old and cannot interpret the OT outside that framework. It is why they must insist that Matt 24 was totally fulfilled in 70 AD.
When I first became a Christian I became a member of Assemblies of God and remained a member for 18 years. Naturally I was Pre-trib, and EXTREMELY interested in Bible prophesy. I was actually brought to the Lord by Hal Lindsey’s book “The 1980’s, Countdown to Armageddon”. Since then I caught him in a clear and intentional lie in one of his books (A prophetical walk through the holy land) but his failing did not shake my faith one iota. Rather, it showed why he, as well as I, needs the salvation offered through the blood of Christ. But I digress...
A very well read member of our large church gave weekly classes on bible prophesy and was, himself, a strong pre-tribulationist and a personal friend. One day my questions about it reached a head during that class and I found myself leaning towards what can be called mid-tribulationism.
My friend discussed it with me and then gave me a white paper he had written on the subject. I was very excited to be convinced of pre-tribulationism again. After all, who wouldn’t want to avoid all that bad stuff in the first 3.5 years. But as I read his paper and examined each individual
“proof”, one by one, every single one was shot down, leaving me with nothing. I found myself not only questioning his interpretations of some scripture, but strongly disagreeing with his conclusions. The more I read the more I was convinced that his own wishful thinking had brought him to this position.
On a side note, I left that church 12 years ago and visited about 8 months ago. When I entered his class, over half of the people there (about 30 of the 60) were people I attended the class with back in the late 90’s. He was teaching the same class I had cycled through at least twice, to the SAME PEOPLE. He would ask the SAME QUESTIONS and they would give the SAME ANSWERS they did in the 1990’s. I just bit my tongue because, by now, I had some VERY different answers and a LOT of research and documentation to support them.
I am now more convinced of Mid-Tribulationism than ever. Don’t get me wrong, it is not a “bullet” doctrine, but I can’t find anything that supports pre-trib other than the “if it is mid trib events would tell us the exact date” argument, which is easily countered.
About a year ago I found this site: http://watchmanbiblestudy.com/BibleStudies/Definitions/Def_Pretrib.htm
It is worth a read.
So what? That's a lousy argument. Since it is a symbolic book, describing spiritual warfare, the identity of the kingdom of light vs. the kingdom of darkness is apparent.