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The Cost of Unpreparedness?

The Cost of Unpreparedness?
By Jack Kinsella

Next week, the Pre-Trib Research Center will be holding its 19th annual Study Group Conference in Dallas, Texas. Ever since I’ve mentioned our intention to attend the conference, I’ve been inundated with emails from folks wanting to correct my theology.

Over the years, I’ve noted that almost all my critics on the issue of pre-Trib Dispensationalism share the same opinion, which is that I am a false teacher deliberately spreading error. I’ve never been quite certain how best to respond to such a charge.

I’ve considered, “Oh yeah? I know you are but what am I?” but I’m not sure that is any more reasonable than their position.

After all, I have no way of knowing if my critics are, as they accuse me, diabolical characters secretly working to advance Satan’s agenda.

I like to think that it is at least possible that my critics honestly believe that their position is the correct one and that is why they hold it. But (speaking from my experience), they evidently also believe anyone who doesn’t agree with them is a Satanic tool.

I am not sure what message that sends, but allow me to say for the record that I don’t believe that a pre-Wrath teacher is an automatic tool of Satan because he believes differently than I.

And I don’t understand for the life of me why they would automatically assume the absolute worst of me.

Nobody gets saved by believing in the timing of the Rapture and nobody will be lost by being wrong about it. Consequently, I don’t understand why opponents of pretribulational Dispensationalism get so worked up about it.

I believe it is absolutely necessary to rightly dividing the Word when it comes to Bible prophecy, but I don’t believe it is necessary to one’s salvation or even to one’s ability to lead an exemplary Christian life.

I’ve been sent more than one link to an article authored by Robert Van Kampen and Rev. Roger Best bearing the woefully inaccurate title, “Questions for a Pretribulationist.”

Typical of most such efforts, the questions are rhetorical, relying instead a number of declarative statements that, if true, make the questions unnecessary.

“First of all, pretribulationism didn’t exist before 1830 and there is considerable documentary proof that it was initially introduced in England by Edward Irving, the father of the charismatic Apostolic Church and not John Darby.”

One scarcely knows where to begin to respond to this statement. It is an article of faith for pre-Wrath apologists that pre-Trib Dispensationalism began with a Scottish peasant girl named Margaret McDonald.

As they tell it, in 1830, she had a vision about the end of the world and when she came out from under her trance, she wrote it down. This account also attracted the attention of Edward Irving and his church later claimed Margaret as one of their own prophetesses.

Irving also had an interest in prophecy and held prophetic conferences.The historian of Irving’s church claimed that Margaret was the first person to teach a two-stage second coming of Christ.Then, according to the legend, John Darby traveled to Scotland to visit the MacDonald home.

John Darby was a lawyer until a year after his conversion when he was ordained a deacon in the Church of England. Soon after entering the ministry he became disillusioned with the institutional church and started the Brethren movement in Plymouth, England.

To his critics, Darby was known as the ‘father’ of Dispensationalism, “the first eschatology to incorporate the ‘prophecy’ of Margaret MacDonald”.

Robert van Kampen and his followers argue that the title of “father of Dispensationalism” should be shared with Edward Irving.

But in either version of the story, nobody ever heard of it before 1800.

Assessment

It would seem reasonable to assume that the title of “Father of Dispensationalism” would belong to the first teacher to teach it, would it not?

“That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him.” (Ephesians 1:10)

“If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:” (Ephesians 3:2)

“Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God…” Colossians 1:25)

“For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.” (1 Corinthians 9:17)

If that is the standard, then the Apostle Paul beat John Darby and Edward Irving to the title of “father of Dispensationalism” by some 1800 years.

The van Kampen piece goes on to ask, “Does Pretrib Have a Solid Scriptural Basis?” before answering its own question;

“Second, pretribulationism has no clear biblical basis of support, only problem passages such as 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8 (which is ignored) and Matthew 24:15-31 (which is ascribed to unsaved Israel).

“By comparison, the prewrath position can be clearly argued from the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, and the Book of Revelation, with absolute consistency and no contradictions, letting the student of God’s Word compare Scripture with Scripture without fear of contradiction, finding instead perfect harmony in all that is recorded in the New Testament.”

This makes sense only if the Tribulation has no purpose. But the Tribulation has two purposes. The first is to effect the national redemption of Israel. The second is to judge a Christ-rejecting world.

The Church is neither in need of redemption or under judgment for sin. It has no role to play during the Tribulation. To argue otherwise is more than a little inconsistent with the message of salvation.

No other group of Christians were judged en masse for sin in all Church history. But according to the Pre-Wrath view, one generation will be.

Pre-Wrath apologists attempt to blunt the sharp edge of confusion raised by that position by arguing the Church is removed before God’s Wrath is poured out, (as if the first five judgments are somebody else’s wrath — or that the subsequent fifteen judgments are more wrathful. Or something).

But according to Revelation 6:1-6, one quarter of the earth’s population (1,750,000,000 people!) will be killed by the first five judgments, including, according to van Kampen, the Blood-bought Church.

(And THEN God gets mad?)

There is much more to van Kampen’s argument, but I see no real need to waste the effort. According to van Kampen, “the doctrine of imminency is nowhere taught in the Bible.” So ignore Luke 21:28 because when these things begin to come to pass, your redemption evidently is NOT nigh.

About the only other point in the van Kampen piece worth commenting on is under the heading, “Is the Church At Risk?”

Van Kampen’s answer to the question is more than a little confusing.

“Those who teach pretribulationism run a big risk by telling believers that this does not concern them…We are upset about what is being taught because the teaching of Christ is so clear concerning the persecution the Church will undergo before Christ returns, and the cost will be so high to those who are unprepared.”

Unprepared for what? What ‘cost’ is he babbling about? Here is the HUGE hole in their argument. Did the Holy Spirit indwell the early Church? Does He indwell me today?

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will never leave or forsake me but will “abide in me forever.” Or maybe I am reading it wrong?

Assuming Van Kampen is right, will He continue to indwell me during the first half of the Tribulation? Will He continue to guide me into all truth, revealing the things to come, even during the Tribulation?

If the Holy Spirit continues to abide in me, guiding me in all truth, right up until the Rapture, then what van Kampen claims to fear is impossible. The cost of being unprepared was paid at the Cross, and the preparedness for persecution is the responsibility of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

If it is up to me, I am already lost. If it will be up to me apart from the Holy Spirit during the Tribulation Period, there is no amount of preparation that will be sufficient.

If I have to go through the Tribulation Period, then there is no real need for me to even seek salvation until after the Tribulation begins. There isn’t any need for anybody else to, either.

Instead of looking for signs of the Lord’s return, they could simply watch for the revelation of the antichrist. He will be easy enough to spot.

He’ll be the European leader that confirms a seven year covenant with Israel, at about the same time that a world-side economic depression, world war, and global famine kills 1.75 BILLION people.

He will be the guy that installs a religious leader that will impose a religious requirement that everybody swear allegiance to him as a god.

In order to tell who is who, those who swear allegiance to a European leader as a god will agree to be marked with a symbol somehow connected with 666, without which, they will be unable to buy or sell.

According to Robert Van Kampen, if you are a Christian that believes in a pre-Trib Rapture, then you won’t be able to figure out any of this and will blindly accept the Mark of the Beast.

And God, Who knew you used to be a Christian, will write you off as a moron, dropping you like a hot rock and blotting your name out of the Book of Life.

HOWEVER, if you, like van Kampen and his buddies, are prepared for all that by believing that the promises to the Church expire on the first day of the Tribulation and that after that, you are on your own, then you, under your own power, will be able to face down the antichrist and cheerfully accept martyrdom.

But if you, like me, are trusting in the promise that salvation is a product of grace through faith and that the Holy Spirit will indwell you until the Lord comes for you as He promised, then you will either not recognize the antichrist or you will be too weak to resist because you trusted Jesus instead of preparing yourself for the antichrist.

Because in the end, there are four possible views of the Rapture. The first view, that of pre-Trib, puts the responsibility for keeping you saved until Jesus comes on the Holy Spirit.

Pre-Wrath, Mid-Trib and post-Trib put it on you.

So in a sense, van Kampen is right. If the Holy Spirit abandons me to face the antichrist alone, then I certainly WILL be unprepared. If I am responsible for maintaining my salvation, then I readily concede that I may well lose my nerve (and my salvation) when facing the antichrist.

But that also means that if van Kampen’s argument against pre-Trib Dispensationalism is right, then I have been trusting in the wrong Savior.

I should have more faith in myself.

Note: Originally Published in December 2011.

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