Pre-trib Ignorance or Post-trib Paranoia?

Here at the “Will Not Delay” Blog, we tend to pick on the on the pre-trib rapture folks a bit. All in good humor, right? It’s not that we have anything personal against people that believe this doctrine, let’s face it—they had it coming to them!!! It is the easiest doctrine to poke holes in and it probably is the most popular doctrine among American Christians. Once you understand how Zionism has intended to brainwash this large group of people using this manner of interpretation of scripture so they have millions of loyal subjects for their cause, you can easily see my contention.

Nevertheless, my theological quest for truth has taken me down many other paths, even though it started in the pre-tribulation, pre-millennial form of dispensationalism, (Read my first post, “Quest for Truth in Eschatology Led Me to Preterism”) I also considered myself a post-trib at one time. The post-trib person is a whole different ball o wax, maybe just a little scarier when you get one cornered in a dark alley.

I don’t know who is scarier to tell you the truth. On one hand you have a mob of mind-numb robots with the power to elect anyone that AIPAC tells them to, or a guy in his home-made bunker up in the mountains, calculating his rations for seven years and clutching his hunting rifle with sweaty palms while listening to guys like Steve Quayle on the shortwave radio in silent eagerness for this Armageddon thing get going.

This is an interesting study in psychology, these two very different kinds of Christians are still very similar in they way they view the future. On one hand, you have the group that expects to be vaporized in the rapture before Revelation gets started, and then you have the other group that is a little more in tune with their survival instincts, ready to endure till the end, but equally delusional.

The pre-trib individual is much more evangelistic, much more eager to share their faith and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. I give much credit to them for this, but they feel this is their only primary duty, to bring as many souls to Christ before the rapture. However when it comes right down to it, the pre-trib person usually clams up or becomes “foaming at the mouth mad” when they start talking about Young Earth Creation vs. Evolution to a different point of view. When a pre-trib discusses this subject with an atheist, someone usually ends up unhappily stomping out of the room. These two opposing sides keep butting heads and nobody seems to win!(This is another reason why Preterism appeals more to my intellect, check out Beyond Creation Science)

On the other hand, the post-trib individual is more content with simply taking care of themselves; the time for evangelization has now turned into a time for paranoia and preparation. The post-trib individuals are usually discontent with the pre-trib church that they started at, because they are tired of arguing or they feel arguing is virtually pointless. Therefore, they tend to stick to themselves in small groups and focus on protecting their loved ones in the coming apocalyptic bloodbath.

Now, as a truth-seeking Preterist, I have found that both of these groups hate discussing eschatology with me. This brings me into discussion on what these two groups have in common in their forms of futurism. In my difficulty in discussing these matters with these two peoples, I have found that it is usually the individual’s inability to explore new ideas that contradict their own that hinders them. That is the primary reason, and the other reason is based in their futurism, where they are content with simply waiting on the apocalypse and ignoring dissenting opinions. I’d like to quote Don K. Preston for a bit:

“At the end of the book of Revelation, John is told six times that fulfillment is at hand and that Christ was coming soon. In fact, the fulfillment of the prophecy was so near, so close, that John ws told to say: “Let the wicked remain wicked, let the filthy remain filthy!” (Rev. 22:11) Time for repentance was gone! Judgment was near, so near, that the opportunity for repentance was all but lost!

This statement of urgency is sandwiched between the command for John not to seal the Apocalypse because the time was so near, and Jesus’ statement that he was coming “quickly.” The command not to seal the book is in direct contrast to Daniel, whose vision Revelation repeats, who was told to seal the book because its fulfillment was not near (Daniel 12:4). This temporal contrast must be taken seriously, just as we must honor Jesus’ statement that he was coming quickly. This promise is based on Jesus’ promise from Matthew 16:27 where Jesus said he was coming in judgment in the lifetime of that first century audience.

If the judgment of Revelation, and that includes Armageddon, has not occurred, then the modern church must continue to proclaim, “Let the wicked remain wicked, let the filthy remain filthy!” So, if you do not believe that the modern church should be proclaiming “Let the wicked remain wicked,” you must believe that Armageddon is past!”

You see, both the pre-trib and the post-trib person with their futurism are content with ignoring problems rather than fixing them. An intellectual person is obligated to learn how something can or can’t be right before they say, “that can’t be right.” When confronted with such powerful statements like Don K. Preston’s here, a person is forced to think a little bit. Friends, I am not going to be like Jack Nicholson’s character in that one movie (?) where he says, “You want the TRUTH? You can’t handle the truth!” Sorry, I’m going to take truth and make you eat it. Have a nice day ;)