Pseudo Ephraem and the Pretrib Rapture. To P.E. or not to P.E., that is the question! Years ago Grant Jeffrey excitedly announced that he'd found a pre-Darby pretribulational statement in Pseudo Ephraem (P.E.). My eschatological life began as a posttribber. In some ways I'm still wired to be skeptical about … [Read more...]
The Two Witnesses of Revelation
The Two Witnesses of Revelation have been the subject of a lot of prophetic speculation. Who are they, or what are they? When do they appear? Is it during the last three-and-a-half years before Christ returns, or before? And what do they do? Right from the beginning I want to say that I don't have definitive answers … [Read more...]
Revelation 3:10 Rapture Redux
Revelation 3:10 Rapture Redux: It has been around a year since I last touched upon this much contested topic. So here we are again. As far back as I can remember, Revelation 3:10 has been used as one of the supports for the pretrib rapture. Times have changed, apparently. If you're really bored and have nothing … [Read more...]
The Church is Not Israel
The Church is not Israel. The church is not Israel! The church is NOT Israel. True Israel is NOT the church! The church is NOT True Israel. The church is not Israel - spiritual, national or otherwise... No, I haven't flipped out like writer Jack Torrance in the book-movie The Shining. He typed pages and pages of: … [Read more...]
Antichrist, Nations and God’s Sovereignty
Is there a connection between the Antichrist, nations and God's Sovereignty? Does the future Antichrist appear of his own volition? What about the nations and God's sovereignty? In his seminal book on the rapture Marvin Rosenthal asserted that, "To attribute the emergence of the Antichrist to God is … [Read more...]
A note from Renald Showers
Dr Renald Showers went home to be with the Lord this year (1935-2019). He was involved with the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry and the author of many books. In 2015 Dr. Showers sent a note to a friend, who recently passed me the information. I was granted permission to comment. So, here are my thoughts on a note … [Read more...]
God, Sovereignty and Revelation’s Seals
Are there any limitations to God's sovereignty in Revelation six? Some time ago a scholarly friend wrote a series on getting the rapture right on his blog. While I didn't agree with everything, I liked that he wasn't dogmatic. He came to his pretribulational conclusion in logical and humble fashion. You can rarely … [Read more...]
Pre-Trib Rapture Defense Offense (Part Three)
This is Part Three of my series: Pre-Trib Rapture Defense Offense. See Part One and Part Two. Pretribulationism is a lie! Last time I talked about bad old John Darby who caused havoc by inventing the pretrib rapture. The goes that Darby influenced Scofield, who wrote a contagious Study Bible. Thus pretrib spread … [Read more...]
Pre-Trib Rapture Defense Offense (Part Two)
This is Part Two of my series: Pre-Trib Rapture Defense Offense. That no-good John Darby... In the first installment of this series I mentioned prewrath in several places. I'm not just picking on the view. There are good reasons for engaging it. In my experience the prewrath camp has been at the forefront of … [Read more...]
Pre-Trib Rapture Defense Offense
Many years ago I heard a wrestler say that the best defense was an offense. Well, I'm not so sure about that. Nevertheless, I want to provide some defense for the Pre-Trib rapture, and to some degree also go on the offense. There's good reasoning for this... Some criticisms of pretribulationism are … [Read more...]
