{"id":812,"date":"2011-03-13T22:44:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-14T02:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/faculty.bbc.edu\/mstallard\/?p=812"},"modified":"2011-03-13T22:44:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-14T02:44:00","slug":"are-pre-trib-rapturists-no-good-for-this-world-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/are-pre-trib-rapturists-no-good-for-this-world-part-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Pre-trib Rapturists No Good for this World? Part 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\"\"<\/a>In earlier posts, I mentioned Tom Krattenmaker\u2019s article \u201cWhat if the end isn\u2019t near?\u201d\u00a0 (USA Today in August 2010).\u00a0 It is largely a criticism of the pretrib view of the rapture and the alleged motivation such a view is toward inaction on the part of the Christian in the world to engage social problems, etc.\u00a0 In my first post, I listed some concerns which I began to flesh out briefly in other posts.\u00a0 I have provided them below.\u00a0 In this post, I want to finalize my initial analysis.<\/p>\n

\u00a01.\u00a0 How many pre-trib Christians hold different views of nuclear weapons and environmentalism from the author\u2019s because of factors other than biblical views of the end times;
\n2.\u00a0 The generous use of overstatement throughout the article;
\n3.\u00a0 Unwarranted assumptions and limited options that are sometimes given (why are there only two futures?\u00a0 why not 3 or 4? are we really dealing with all the possibilities?);
\n4.\u00a0 The false charge of fatalism in light of the true nature of the doctrine of imminency;
\n5.\u00a0 The use of fringe views or minority views instead of scholarly and thoughtful presentations of the pre-trib perspective;
\n6.\u00a0 As a corollary to # 5, the futurism of the pre-trib view which does not allow for predictions of the future in a true pre-trib perspective.\u00a0 In other words, the article seems to be unaware that it is being critical of historicist misrepresentations of the pre-trib perspective rather than the pre-trib perspective itself.
\n7.\u00a0 As a corollary to # 1, the idea that the article (may) assume that current political environmentalism is what the Bible teaches about care for the created order.<\/p>\n

To begin, I want to make some remarks about unwarranted assumptions and limited options that are given in Krattenmaker\u2019s article.\u00a0 This is demonstrated at the very outset of the article.\u00a0 Citing Tyler Wigg-Stevenson (favorably), Krattenmaker says \u201che sees two futures.\u00a0 In one, the world has rid itself of nuclear weapons.\u00a0 In the other, the world has been destroyed by them.\u201d\u00a0 These two options appear to be the thrust of the title of Wigg-Stevenson\u2019s organization the Two Futures Project.\u00a0 It is quite appropriate for someone to voice his view of the dangers of nuclear weapons.\u00a0 I have absolutely no problem with that.\u00a0 All wars are to be avoided if at all possible, not just nuclear ones.\u00a0 However, is the opinion that these are the only two options (world-wide destruction or no nukes exist) a wise one to possess on such a critical issue? Is there no middle position that is possible?\u00a0 Why craft the issue in these stark terms?\u00a0 One must live in reality not in a dream world.\u00a0 It is not at all a sure conclusion that the world will destroy itself with nuclear weapons if they are allowed to exist.\u00a0 It is certainly a theoretical possibility.\u00a0 However, it is not an inevitable one.\u00a0 One cannot assume the world-wide catastrophic end when the next nuke is used (although some pretribs do hold this view).\u00a0 \u00a0Of course, this view could be seen as playing it safe to prevent the catastrophe.\u00a0 Unfortunately, in a fallen world this may not be appropriate.\u00a0 If evangelicals rose up to be against nuclear weapons and helped lead America to unilaterally destroy all their nuclear weapons, it is not at all assured that the same would be true of other parts of the world. \u00a0A wise use of nuclear weapons as deterrents has been quite effective for decades in preventing catastrophe and\/or servitude.<\/p>\n

Krattenmaker shows this all or nothing approach (the two futures approach) at the end of the article: \u201c[Christians] can bet on a supernatural rescue for themselves and their kind and wait for the cataclysm.\u00a0 Or they can dedicate themselves to compassionate action to alleviate suffering and injustice, to creating a better world.\u201d\u00a0 Here he is broader in the \u201ctwo ends\u201d approach.\u00a0 The problem from his viewpoint is that evangelicals who believe in the pre-trib rapture simply want to sit on their hands and let the world blow itself up because they know that God will jerk them out of the world before that happens.\u00a0 However, this is theologically deficient because the pre-trib rapturist knows the Bible never says that the world will be destroyed until after the millennium (and many believe that is a recreation not annihilation).\u00a0 In addition, it puts forward a false dichotomy.\u00a0 Is it not possible to work for a better world and alleviate suffering and injustice while also believing that the next act of God\u2019s prophetic timetable is the rapture of the church?\u00a0 In asking, as Krattenmaker does, \u201cWhich would their savior have them do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0The reason I believe it is possible is that belief in the pre-trib rapture is not inherently fatalistic.\u00a0 Some pretribs have become fatalistic and they should be fairly criticized for it.\u00a0 However, the position itself is not fatalistic in the sense of rejecting any improvement at all within the present order.\u00a0 Some have turned imminency into immediacy.\u00a0 Immediacy means soon.\u00a0 It is certainly possible that the rapture will be soon.\u00a0 However, imminency means that it can happen at any moment.\u00a0 This includes tomorrow.\u00a0 It also includes within it the possibility that it is 3000 years from now.\u00a0 Within this proper view of imminency there is plenty of room for the Christian who believes in the pretrib rapture also to believe in helping the poor and needy and to alleviate suffering in the world.<\/p>\n

Such thinking also relates to a discussion of futurism versus historicism.\u00a0 The pretrib position or dispensationalism is biblically futurist.\u00a0 All of the events given in the Bible such as the coming tribulation and kingdom are future in this understanding.\u00a0 Technically, the pretrib position cannot map current events to biblical passages.\u00a0 Virtually all future events in the Bible can happen after the rapture of the Church.\u00a0 When a pretrib rapturist starts to map biblical prophecy to current events, he is acting like a historicist who believes he is living within the time of fulfillment.\u00a0 However, the best we can say is that we could be living in the setup for the end time days.\u00a0 We will know when we get there.\u00a0 It is quite all right to live in hope that we are near the end.\u00a0 The fact that Israel is back in the land among other things gives such hope since Israel must be in the land for the end time events to occur.\u00a0 However, as Joel Rosenberg once said at a banquet I attended, \u201cGod can kick the can [of history] down the road fifty years.\u201d\u00a0 Understanding this from a fully biblical view helps us to realize that there is no reason to avoid social engagement as it is biblically appropriate.\u00a0 Pretribs who live and talk as historicists actually fuel the criticisms of Krattenmaker and others.<\/p>\n

Finally, in an earlier post, I had noted that my views on nuclear weapons (which I mention above) and environmentalism stem from factors other than my view of end time days.\u00a0 I voiced my simple disagreement with Al Gore as an example.\u00a0 I want to extend that particular discussion by noting that current environmental concerns for planet earth do not necessarily match what the Bible teaches about care for the created order.\u00a0 It is hardly necessary to remind the reader of the doomsday scenarios of the environmentalists with rather bizarre predictions.\u00a0 We were told our raping of the planet in the 1960s would lead to us running out of petroleum in the 1990s.\u00a0 They were wrong.\u00a0 \u00a0I was taught in college in the 1970s the catastrophe of global cooling.\u00a0 They were wrong then.\u00a0 It is easy to believe they are wrong now.\u00a0 The wild array of prophecies uttered in the name of environmentalism is just as extreme as anything a Christian has said about the end of the world.\u00a0 The Bible gives a more balanced treatment of creation care than the glimpse of things often coming out of the environmental movement.<\/p>\n

All in all, Krattenmaker\u2019s article was a hard one for a pretrib to read.\u00a0 It came across as extreme and going to the edges to make its criticisms.\u00a0 However, it is important for pretribs to see how others view their position and reading such an article is helpful in that light.\u00a0 Pretribs need to do a better job responding to such charges.\u00a0 I sense a book brewing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In earlier posts, I mentioned Tom Krattenmaker\u2019s article \u201cWhat if the end isn\u2019t near?\u201d\u00a0 (USA Today in August 2010).\u00a0 It is largely a criticism of the pretrib view of the rapture and the alleged motivation such a view is toward inaction on the part of the Christian in the world to engage social problems, etc.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}