April 28, 2008

Prewrath Story
Coming to the Prewrath Position Naturally

Michael Rogers explains,

I accepted Jesus Christ in 1979 and entered the Baptist Denomination where I served the Lord for eighteen years. I was trained very well in the study of God's Word and I have always hungered for truth no matter what the topic. I found myself some years later in the Pentecostal church where I served as an elder for many years. I answered God's call on my life and after finishing bible college I started a church in Bellefontaine Ohio. While I was under my former pastor we would often sit in his office and discuss the may topics of Scripture that the church struggled with, such as eternal security, tithing, etc. One day he asked me what I believed concerning the Rapture. My response was simple, I believed in the Rapture and believed it could occur at any moment. I had never heard of the prewrath rapture position nor of the authors who have written on the subject. My pastor, instead of enlightening me on the subject challenged me to study the topic out starting with Matthew 24. At the time I did not know he was a prewrath advocate. I took the challenge and spent a year searching the subject out using Matthew 24 as my spring board. It wasn't long before I connected all the dots and what I found both excited me and scared me. I was afraid to share my findings with my pastor for fear I would be rejected. But, I entered his office one day and told him I had concluded my study and shared with him my new found belief. I explained to him that I saw the Rapture as "Prewrath" and that the church would enter Daniel's 70th week and suffer persecution by Antichrist after which the church would be raptured. Without saying a word he just smiled at me, got up from his chair, pulled a book from his book case and handed it to me. It was the Prewrath Rapture of the Church by Marvin Rosenthal. I was shocked that not only did the doctrine exist but books existed on the subject. I took the book and read it through two times. Though my findings was vague in comparison to Marvin Rosenthal's book my study matched his exactly. This confirmed that I had discovered truth. That was eight years ago, and I have been studying the prewrath rapture ever since and teaching it wherever I can. At this time I am not pastoring a church and I am finding it difficult to get the message out. I fear that the churches lethargic attitude concerning the Second Coming of Jesus is only setting the church up for the Apostasy. Pray with me and for me as I want to do my part to get the truth of God's Word out. If there is anything I can do to be apart of this movement please let me know.

April 27, 2008

Amazing on Amazing Grace...

April 26, 2008

The Colossal Statue and The Four Beasts in Daniel

Update: I have learned that the chart does not work in the IE browser. If you have Firefox it works in that. I will just have to convert this to an image so it works in all browsers when I find time. Thanks.

Daniel 2: The Colossal Statue

Theme            Liberal Critics              Amillennial                 Premillennial
                        (e.g. Driver)                (e.g. Young)              (e.g. Gaebelein)

Gold Head           Babylon                    Babylon                       Babylon

Silver Torso          Media                       Medo-Persia               Medo-Persia

Bronze Thighs      Persia                       Greece                        Greece

Iron Legs,             Greece                      Rome              Rome/Revived Rome
Iron Clay Feet                                     

Daniel 7: The Four Beasts

Theme             Liberal Critics               Amillennial                  Premillennial

Lion                    Babylon                       Babylon                       Babylon

Bear                    Media                         Medo-Persia                Medo-Persia

Leopard              Persia                          Greece                         Greece

Beast w/              Greece                        Rome               Rome/Revived Rome
Iron Teeth                                                 
& 10 Horns                                                
Little Horn         Antiochus IV                Antichrist                    Antichrist
                            Epiphanes

Question: Why don't liberal critics recognize Rome in these two dreams in Daniel? Answer: They reject a sixth century dating of Daniel (Babylonian period) because their anti-supernatural bias forces them to see the visions as interpretations of the past and not revelations of the future. In short, they reject predictive prophecy (i.e., the visions could not predict the coming of the kingdoms of Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome).  So they date Daniel to the second century during the days of Antiochus Epiphanes (165/164 BC) and thus they view the fourth kingdom as Greece. There are other reasons why liberal critics will reject a sixth century dating but understand that their deep-seated bias against predictive prophecy is what really drives their argumentation.

(Source for the Chart: Lecture notes from Dr. J.J. Niehaus, Old Testament Prophetical Books)

April 15, 2008

The ESV Study Bible -- Mostly Good News...and Some Bad News

As many of you may know, the much touted ESV Study Bible will be launched this year (October 15). It will be a superb study bible indeed looking over the list of the contributors.

I am very pleased to see that they chose Colin Nicholl to write the 1 and 2 Thessalonians' study notes. I look forward to reading them. Dr. Nicholl has a new approach to the traditional outline of Thessalonians. Having studied under him, I was persuaded that he is correct. As far as I know, his view of the outline will be reflected in the notes.

I was disappointed though that they chose a non-futurist to write the Revelation notes, amillennialist Dennis Johnson. I think it it safe to say that most of the ESV's readership have a futurist approach to Revelation and not amillennial, so choosing an amillennialist is an enigma to me. Indeed, other contributors have some input in all the books, but don't expect to find distinctive futurist interpretations since they will be overshadowed mostly by the Amill hermeneutic. I could be wrong, but we will find out with its release.

If you use the ESV I would recommend purchasing the study bible, but understand that study notes should not be a replacement for doing in-depth studies yourself as well as reading and referencing actual commentaries on individual books of the Bible.

April 10, 2008

The "Coming" (Parousia) and the "Day of the Lord" are Interchangeable (Co-Referential) Terms

The New Testament writers including Jesus understood that the "Day of the Lord" and the "Coming" (Parousia) denoted the same events at Christ's Return (deliverance of the godly and judgment on the ungodly.) The two terms often emphasize different aspects of Christ's Return -- "Coming" with deliverance, and "Day of the Lord" with the judgment aspect.

Peter provides us with an excellent example in which he freely interchanges these two terms denoting the same event of the conflagration of creation:

(10) But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. (11) Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, (12) looking for and hastening the coming (parousia) of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat. - 2Pet 3:10-12

April 9, 2008

Variant Terms are Employed in the Use of the "Day of the Lord"

Ben asks,

"If you are saying that the Day of the Lord and the Day of Christ are the same event, does that mean that the Day of the Lord is the rapture?"

The "Day of the Lord (or Christ)" commences with the deliverance of the righteous by the rapture followed by God's wrath against the ungodly who remain on the earth.

But a few comments should be made about variant descriptions of our Lord's Return described most commonly as "The Day of the Lord."

First, Paul and other New Testament writers commonly used "Lord" and "Christ" interchangeably in many Christological contexts. Not to mention that they frequently combine the terms throughout the New Testament (e.g. 14 times in the Thessalonians),

"Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." - 2Th 1:1-2

Second, Paul has the freedom to extend the traditional term "Day of the Lord" to "Day of our Lord Jesus Christ" because his Christology teaches him that the Lord is Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament era, Christ was not revealed. In the New Testament apostolic era the apostles have learned that the "Day of the Lord" is a time when Christ will be magnified and vindicated; hence the "Day of Christ" or "Day of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Third, When Paul places an emphasis on our sanctification or the deliverance of the righteous at Christ's Return he has used the term "The Day of Christ" or a variant of it; and when he wants to place emphasis on the judgment aspect of Christ's Return he often employs "The Day of the Lord." But it would be a mistake to confuse these emphases on different aspects of the Coming of our Lord by disconnecting the rapture from its immediate subsequent wrath of God (They are back-to-back events).

Fourth, to begin to appreciate the freedom that the New Testament writers had with the traditional term "Day of the Lord" here is a good sampling of variants:

Pauline: "the day of Christ"; "the day of Jesus Christ"; "the day of our Lord Jesus Christ"; "the day of the Lord"; "the day"; "that day"; "the day of wrath." Non-Pauline: "the days of the Son of Man (Luke 17:22, Noah); "the great day" (Rev. 6.17); "the day of visitation" (1 Peter 2:12); "the last day" (John 6); "the day of judgment" (1 John 4:17)

April 7, 2008

The Law: All 613 Commandments!

Here are all 613 Commandments.

"For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all." - James 2:10

"For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM."" - Gal 3:10

"After glancing through that list of all 613 commandments, I suddenly have a renewed appreciation for Christ's active and passive obedience. No hope of heaven without it. And what a blessing (and a relief) it is to know that because of Christ, God sees me as though I had kept all 613!" - Kim Riddlebarger

April 6, 2008

Old Testament Chronology and the Ancient Near East

Here is a handy chart that lists the Ancient Near Eastern Kings along with the Biblical Kings. HT: Justin Taylor

April 2, 2008

PowerPoint Notes Available on Responding to the Post-Tribulation Position on 1Thessalonians 4:17

One of the sessions of my Thessalonian lectures at this past year's conference was on a response to Post-Tribulationism and their interpretation of 1 Thessalonians 4:17. My PowerPoint is available for download below. Please understand something though. This is a lecture from PowerPoint slides. So smooth transitions from slide to slide are obviously missing as well as explanatory notes on each slide, given the nature of a lecture. However, there are facts and information on each slide that one can learn from on this passage. I also intend to render this information into a blog article in due time.

Ok, here you are: Post-Trib on 1Thess.4.17.ppt Feel free to modify it to your teaching purposes.