January 12, 2007

Happy New Year Prewrathers!

This will be an exciting year for the Prewrath Rapture, so let me get right to it and list the events and news that you can expect.

1st Annual National Prewrath Conference - Orlando, 2008

That's right... A national conference on the Prewrath Rapture position. All are invited, including Prewrath pastors, teachers, and students.

Details on venue, accommodations, exact days, registration, and speakers (including the keynote speaker) are forthcoming. What we can tell you at this time is that we are planning to have the annual conferences in Orlando Florida every January. So the first annual national Prewrath conference will be in Orlando of January 2008 (a year from now).

As many of you know, the Prewrath position is picking up a lot of steam in recent years and has established itself as a viable (Biblical in our opinion) among Evangelicalism. The annual national conference, we trust, will help coalesce prewrathers into even more of an effective voice in articulating the Prewrath position. Again, stay tuned for official details and registration on the national conference.

Prewrath Rapture Dot Com

This is the new name of the blog. By the way, if you have not seen the new tweak of the header graphic above, refresh our homepage to view it.

We have changed the name to "Prewrath Rapture Dot Com" for two reasons:

1) "Dot Com" is easy for people to remember; and therefore, if you do not have it saved in your bookmarks, it is an easy address to type in.

2) More importantly, although it is encouraging that the Prewrath position is becoming more accepted and popular every day, it has been observed that every Tom, Dick, and Harry want to appropriate the term "Prewrath" for their idiosyncratic prophecy views.

Not only does this have the potential of confusing people, but it is dishonest. The "Prewrath Rapture" is a technical label denoting the classical Premillennial Prewrath position articulated by Robert Van Kampen and Marvin Rosenthal in their seminal books.

In the past six months alone, I have come across about ten individuals (on the internet) that label their views "prewrath," but they do not resemble prewrath as we know it. One of those individuals was even a pretribber! I have seen midtribbers and postribbers do the same.

Why is this important? Because we believe in clarity and consistency. God's people are not benefited when accepted terms and definitions are wrongly used, which create obfuscation for sincere people searching for answers.

We (and other genuine Prewrath ministries) hope to be a beacon and a portal for classical prewrath literature, resources, and news.

This of course, is not to say that we stop learning new insights into God's Word and entrench ourselves in some tradition--may it never be.

But we do firmly believe that there are fundamentals that define classical Prewrath rapturism, which sets our position in distinction from other views. Indeed, one of our main purposes is to defend these pillars, yet continue to refine that which the Holy Spirit continues to teach us.

Thessalonian Nuggets

At the beginning of February, I will begin a series on the Thessalonian epistles. This will not be a verse-by-verse commentary series. Rather, my intention is two-fold: (1) To examine in this series important points in Thessalonians research that have never been published previously in any Prewrath literature. These exegetical essays will enable the serious Prewrath student to bolster conclusions on a much deeper exegetical level.

(2) To highlight current Thessalonians research in Evangelical scholarship. This will be instructive for those who are eager to learn what the most eminent Thessalonian scholars think on particular texts; and how should their conclusions be seen from a Prewrath perspective.

Prewrath Books and Small Group Material

There are two (possibly three) pivotal Prewrath books that will be published in 2007. One in particular will catapult, in my estimation, the Prewrath Rapture as a household name among Evangelicals in the near future. I will be sure to post on its publication once it comes to fruition, as well as the others.

One of our priorities this year is to begin Prewrath small group Bible study material. Yes, we know...it is well over due. It is in its embryonic stage, but we will keep you posted this year more on that endeavor.

Tangible Support

If you believe in what we are doing here and would like to see this Prewrath ministry expand and optimize its resources so it can be even more effective, we encourage you to support us.

Those who are presently supporting this ministry, we thank you. We trust that the articles and information on this site and the ministry have been profitable. This coming year will be much more productive as we provide the above mentioned services and material; further, it will only continue to become more active as more readers discover this ministry.

Blessings,
Alan Kurschner