April 27, 2007

My Favorite Prewrath Resource

The short book, The Prewrath Rapture Position Explained: Plain and Simple is my favorite Prewrath resource to give to believers who are interested in eschatology. It is a very short book that can be read in one or two days--and we sell it for only $2.00! Because it is a bare bones, straightforward, lucid explanation of the Prewrath position, it introduces people to the basics of what Prewrath teaches.

Given the conciseness and the inexpensiveness of the book I have often carried twenty copies of it in my car to hand out to folks who I have engaged in discussions on the Second Coming.

So if you are the type of person who strikes up discussions with other believers on this subject, purchase 5, 10, or even 20 and keep them in your car for when the occasion arises. Further, if you are a pastor, teacher, or small group leader who teaches Prewrath in your church, the book can be used as a guide or supplement to your lessons.

Also, if you have a staunch pretribulational friend or relative, I would suggest the more expanded book, The Rapture Question Answered: Plain and Simple (Which we offer as well for purchase). This book covers the same material as the first one mentioned but it goes more in depth in refuting pretribulational arguments.

At this time I would like to announce a sneak preview to a new feature that we are launching for our blog in less than a few weeks. Besides selling books, we are adding two more product categories to our Shopping Cart: Downloadable MP3 Prewrath lectures; and a category of "Free Prewrath Resources" which will include selected audio, past issues of the Parousia newsletter, Powerpoint Presentations, and more--all of which will be downloadable. I will make an official announcement once it is launched. Stay Tuned!

April 20, 2007

Rapture Debate Now Available For Audio Download!

Rapture Debate Held on October 9, 1999 at Irving Bible Church, Irving, Texas. About 600-700 in Attendance. Moderator: Kirby Anderson.

My observations about the debate are below. But if I were to sum up the debate right now, I would say: Send it to all of your pretrib friends!

This is the first time that this Rapture debate has been made available on the internet. The following are the four parts of the debate with a rebuttal period following after each one. Click here to be taken to the audio files.

Part 1: Pretribulationism - Mal Couch and Yaacov Ramsel

Part 2: Prewrath - Charles Cooper and Roger Best

Part 3: Postribulationism - Ken Kline and Monte Judah

Part 4: Question & Answer

A few of my observations from the debate:

1. Mal Couch's pretrib presentation was actually not a presentation at all. He made assertions about Matthew 24 but with no support to back up his assertions, except for an odd reference to Deuteronomy, which Roger Best pointed out the inconsistency.

Further, rather than Couch arguing for his position during his time to do so, he became fixated on personalities such as Van Kampen and Rosenthal. There is a reason why pretribs cannot make a positive presentation of their view: there simply are not any Biblical texts that teach that the rapture happens before the Antichrist's Great Tribulation. And therefore, their recourse is to argue against other positions, as if that is a meaningful argument for their own view.

2. After Charles Cooper gave his excellent Prewrath presentation, it was time for the rebuttal from the others. Mal Couch was the first to respond. Would he respond Biblically and rebut (hence, rebuttal period) the points that Cooper made in his presentation? Nope. He completely blundered. As is consistent in pretribulational books writing against prewrath, Couch would make a personal attack on Cooper with his very first remark saying something along the lines of he would make a good salesman.

Immediately after this ad hominem from Couch, he began to respond in a conspicuous almost angry-hostile manner. It was obvious that the success of Cooper's presentation and the positive effect it had on the audience put Couch in this posture. At this point, in my opinion, the debate was over. But there was more.

3. In the Part 3 post-trib presentation the speaker began saying, "I am not so much post-trib as I am prewrath"! Wow...I knew that prewrath and postrib had affinities, but this was great to hear.

4. Further, in the Post-trib rebuttal, Cooper pointed out some important inconsistencies within the Postrib view concerning the sheep and goats judgment and their timing of the rapture. In addition, toward the end of this rebuttal Cooper corrected the Pretrib Mal Couch on his errors by demonstrating that the Day of the Lord's wrath indeed is announced by the sixth seal cosmic disturbances.

5. After the debate was over, Mal Couch unhappily exited the building choosing not to take questions--and Charles Cooper and Roger Best received applause and a warm welcome after the debate with people gathering around them wanting to learn more about the Prewrath position (including the post-trib participant!).

6. I am convinced that when the Prewrath and Pretrib position is examined side-by-side, or they are cross-examined in a public moderated debate, the Prewrath will be shown to be the Biblical position.

Though I am not a big fan of multiple party debates, and though there was no formal cross-examination in this debate, I thought it went well given the amount of time with some important points that Cooper and Best made in support of key Prewrath issues. In addition, I was pleased to listen to them demonstrate inconsistencies in the opposing views, in particular the Pretrib position.

That said, I believe though the most effective format for debate are two individuals with opposing views each having time periods of an opening, rebuttals, cross-examination, and closing. Just to emphasize, you cannot have a real debate without cross-examination; it is the soul of the debate. Otherwise, all you will really have is two monologues, not a dialogue. Further, the moderator is very important to a debate in managaing and enforcing the protocol. If a debate functions as such, I believe that God's people are edified by witnessing a genuine engagment and accountability between theological perspectives. And most of all, God is glorified in this effective manner of communication and seeking Biblical truth.

We have contacted and challenged national noted pretrib speakers such as Thomas Ice, Dave Hunt, and others, but they have all turned down the challenge to defend their position under cross-examination in a public moderated debate.

April 14, 2007

A Few Quick Announcements...

Greetings,

1) By the end of this month, the registration form, date, schedule, accommodations, etc., will be available here on the blog for the "1st Annual National Prewrath Conference" hosted in Orlando, Fl, January, of '08. I will post it immediately when that is ready.

2) New: The Prewrath Program! At the beginning of summer we are starting the Prewrath Program (a kind of Webcast, although it will not be a live show); it will be available for download in MP3 format. You will be able to listen to it either manually by coming to the blog and downloading the program; or, we are going to have the audio in the convenient Podcast format for those who like to have their programs downloaded automatically when the audio programs are posted on the blog.

Though our written blog posts will continue to be the staple of our website, the audio Prewrath Program will be a nice added feature to the ministry because it will allow us to do interviews, talk about Prewrath subjects, respond to other radio or audio programs, and other functions as well.

I'll say more about the Prewrath Program in due course as the summer draws near.

3) Some of you have asked about the progress of the Prewrath debate audio files. I have great news. Because the debate was not professional recorded very well, we have had a professional clean up the audio, so I am pleased at the quality that it turned out to be.

The debate is all ready to be uploaded, but I am working on some FTP issues and hope to have them up by the end of next week. We look forward to making the "Pretrib-Prewrath-Postrib" debate available. It is the first time, if I am not mistaken, that it will be offered on the Internet.

When I post the debate in MP3, I will have my commentary about the debate following after the links. All I will say now is: Send this debate to all your pretrib friends! Charles Cooper did a brilliant job in presenting and defending the Prewrath position given the limited amount of time. As far as the pretrib proponent, Mal Couch, well...let’s just say that he is not going to be too fond to learn that this debate is available for all to listen to.

This debate only underscores my conviction that when Prewrath and Pretrib are set side-by-side, especially when there is interaction between the two, the Prewrath will win hands down every time.

4) For those who are new readers to the blog, I want to inform you that there are two ways for you to be updated on new blog posts:

1) If you want to be updated via your email, then over to your right you will see in red font "Subscribe Updates." Just enter your email in the box below and follow the easy two-step process to get signed up.

2) Here is the other option to be notified automatically of new posts: if you follow a handful of blogs or websites everyday and use an RSS Reader Aggregator such as the popular web-based Bloglines, then you can add our RSS link to your RSS Reader, which is over to your right as well, or just click here for it.

5) Recently, we have received Prewrath "testimonials" or stories from pastors and other believers. If you have a Prewrath "story,” feel free to send us it and we just may post it on the blog. It is encouraging for many to read these, particularly those who are prewrath believers in pretrib circles; we understand that you enjoy the blessings and encouragement from reading them.

6) If the Prewrath position is a passion of yours and you believe in this ministry and want to help us with our plans of expansion of Prewrath materials, conferences, etc., we would appreciate any tangible support from you. We are convinced that believers are increasingly becoming interested in other prophecy viewpoints other than pretribulationsim and postribulationism, and we are noticing that we are being considered--and even embraced--as a legitimate Biblical position. We thank those who have, and do support our ministry.

That should do it for now. As I said, I'll have that debate up on the blog within the week, Lord willing. Also, stay tuned for the registration form and details for the National Prewrath Conference.

Blessings,
Alan

p.s. I slowed down on the "Thessalonian Nuggets" series, but will start it up again soon.

April 12, 2007

Another Prewrath Story...

Al Hotchkiss says,

It was church summer camp in Colorado and I was 12 years old. The speaker that afternoon shared with us the promise that, as Christians, we would be taken up to meet the Lord in the air when he came back to earth. Well, I was not about to be the only kid left behind if Jesus decided to return that night or even the next day. As I sat among the trees, I made the decision to ask Christ into my life and to make him my Savior.

It was suggested that we select a verse that would best characterize our heart and our relationship with Jesus. The rapture of the church was at the forefront of my mind and so I chose I Thessalonians 4:17 as the verse for my life. I had no idea at the time that the rapture and eschatology would become a lifelong interest.

The Evangelical Free Church raised me to believe that we will be ‘in the mezzanine watching’ when the ‘tribulation period’ begins. In order to pass the Bible Instruction Class, I of course, never questioned what I was being taught. It seemed to make sense that God would not allow us to experience his wrath and the tribulation period was definitely a time of wrath. In fact it was quite comforting to take that position. Looking back I now realize that scripture never promises us that we will not experience tribulation. In fact, Paul actually teaches us that we will experience tribulation and that we are better for the experience. Romans 5:3

Fast forward to dinner one night with friends, the subject of the end times and specifically the timing of the Rapture came up in the conversation. There were a number of questions that were raised that night and I found myself struggling to justify the beliefs that I had been taught. It was strange to hear myself say things out loud and then have my brain say ‘Wait a minute, that doesn’t really make sense based on what you said two minutes ago.’

The host of the dinner party that night shared with me a book that he had recently read and found to be very interesting. It was The PreWrath Rapture of the Church by Marvin Rosenthal. The host was not sure that he bought into this different approach but he definitely found it interesting.

I took the book home and devoured the information that Rosenthal presented. Once I finished reading the book, I immediately re-read it with my Bible open beside me. It was very thrilling to see verses of scripture brought to light and revealing what God has told us will take place at ‘His second coming and the end of the age’. Even more significant was that none of the timing was forced. I have always felt that there are key issues with Pre-Trib where the proponents tend to force their point even though serious questions still remained unanswered.

There was no turning back for me after the third time thru the book. I finally had scriptural answers to my questions that came together effortlessly. I no longer had the warm fuzzy reassurance that Pre-Trib offers, in that I will not be in the mezzanine watching as the seals of Revelation are being opened. However, I do still have the reassurance that I will be kept from the wrath of God. After all, famine, war and pestilence are all events that Christians have endured over the centuries. It is the events that start with the first trumpet that are truly frightening.

God has allowed me a number of great occasions to sit and share with other Christians what scripture says. I do know of one individual who has come on-board and now believes that PreWrath is truly what the scripture teaches. He has also become an advocate and speaks up whenever the opportunity arises.

My heart has a real burden that the church today needs to hear and understand this message. If they do not, they will likely turn from the church and declare the things they have been taught as fraudulent if they witness the confirmation of the covenant with the AntiChrist. I suspect that I would be offended if I had been told that I would be in the mezzanine watching and now I discover that the 70th week of Daniel has begun. I have asked a number of pastors how such an occurrence would effect their congregation and they assure me that it would not matter, that God is in control.

I like the Ben Franklin close:

- If Pre-Trib is wrong and we see that covenant confirmed, there is a great deal of the church at risk since they have been told otherwise for so many years. A pastor may have to answer for the teaching that was incorrect.

- If PreWrath is wrong and Jesus decides to Rapture the church prior to the 70th week, Praise the Lord!

April 10, 2007

A Prewrath Story...

Dr. Thomas R. Steele says,

In seminary we used the book "Things to Come" by Dwight J. Pentecost which, of course, is a very negative approach for attempting to prove the pre-trib rapture by supposedly disproving all other positions. The only problem with the book was that the author never attempted to prove that the Bible taught the pre-trib rapture. That started my journey of ignorance and frustration. Yet, I never had peace about being pre-trib because I simply kept studying the Scripture. The more I studied, the more unanswerable questions arose out of my studies.

When I approached those who were supposed to be the authorities on the subject, they couldn't give me answers. One question I asked was this: "If 1 Corinthians 15:52 is the last trump, then how can it be at the beginning of the week?" The answer I received was that this is the last trump of a series of trumps that we know nothing about. My response was, "Who gives you the authority to add to the scripture like that?"

After nearly 15 years of frustration, I was challenged by a pre-wrath person to prove the pre-trib position with scripture. With tears of frustration, I told him that I couldn't and that I know that God wrote the entire Bible so that we can understand it and why couldn't I understand the book of Revelation for myself? He told me that as long as I was trying to prove the improvable, that I would never understand Revelation. He then told me to study the end times without any presumptions and the rapture will become obvious. Upon taking his challenge, the truth became evident and I fully understood end time events. I had tasted the book that was bitter to the stomach and sweet to the lips. (Rev. 10:9) I soon began to understand the promises of protection and preservation.

Several years later, someone told me about Van Kampen's books and it was with joy that I was reading exactly what the Holy Spirit had shown me in the scriptures. So far, I have challenged at least 6 pre-trib friends to prove the pre-trib position and all of them have become pre-wrath because they are fellow students of the Word.