Here I would like to pick up again my critique of an article by Tom Kratttenmaker in August 2010 entitled “What if the end isn’t near?” His article is a criticism of Christians who hold to a pre-trib rapture. Those of us who hold that view, according to Krattenmaker (as well as others), are too focused on the future and not willing to work on problem-solving in the present world. So we are not good for this world — that is the way I am saying what he means.
The particular issue I want to raise in this post is the tendency of overstatement that I found in a few cases in the article. One particular statement that needs to be highlighted is the following:
Those enraptured by the rapture tend to view current events through the lens of biblical prophesy [sic], reading everything from the Obama election to the oil disaster in the Gulf Coast as fulfillment of one or another cryptic passage from Revelation.
It is not clear what he means by “those enraptured by the rapture.” Does he mean all pre-tribs? The gist of the article gives that impression. If this assessment is correct, then he is saying that the pre-trib camp on the whole interprets all things, including current political events through prophecy. I certrainly have run across pre-trib folks who do this. However, such sensationalists do not mark the movement as a whole. You will find very few, if any, professors in the schools that train pastors for pre-trib churches that would hold and teach such an approach. As I speak in pre-trib churches across the country, most of them under-dose on prophecy and end times. They are interested in Bible teaching about other things such as financial freedom and how to have godly marriages (certainly good things).
The final reference in the statement mentions reliance upon cryptic passages in the book of Revelation. But the book of Revelation says a lot more about the coming tribulation period than it does the rapture of the Church. The word cryptic no doubt is meant to suggest that it is impossible to understand passages in the book, something that in my opinion is overstated. No one suggests everything in the book is crystal clear. However, if you follow a literal interpretation, texts are easier to handle. All in all, the words of Krattenmaker appear to be overstated. The portrait of pre-trib believers as overly fascinated by current events in light of prophecy does not describe the reality that exists in the average pre-trib church.
