Church and my rapture view. Please help; my Church won’t teach my rapture view!
I’ve heard this complaint in various forms over the years. The latest example was of someone asking for prayer for a family ostracized in their church for not being pretribulational.
Accordingly, the area is predominantly pretrib and churches hold to the King James Version translation of the Bible. The charge is that these churches mark dissenters if their rapture positions are different.
A few quick thoughts
I dislike saying this; in my experience I’ve noted that people who insist on KJV Onlyism tend to be intolerant of other viewpoints. With that in mind, it’s possible that the rigidness of the complainant’s church might force adherence to an inessential doctrine such as a pretrib rapture belief in its membership.
If true, these pastors are misguided and possibly toxic. Millennial or rapture timing views aren’t essential doctrines to divide over in a fellowship worshiping God. We are united in Christ and the need to preach the gospel to the lost. Forcing a particular eschatological viewpoint on members hinders this and promotes hostility.
That said; there are examples of folk arguing with the larger body over rapture timing. You may have seen pretribbers doing this in your prewrath-posttrib group or church. My experience was different.
Prewrath-posttrib folk once flooded Jack Kinsella’s pretrib Omega Letter Forum attempting to convert pretribbers. I won’t bore you with their excuses—they bordered on gospel fervor. Suffice to say that the level of zealous and relentless argumentation led to expulsions for the sake of peace.
The Rosenthal example
Someone might point to Marvin Rosenthal’s departure from The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry as an example to the complaint above. In his book he came across as someone who was hard done by for questioning his rapture view and changing. Well good for him. Similarly, others claimed they were expelled because they ceased adhering to the pretrib rapture.
This would be wrong on the face of it.
Yet I’ve since heard another side to that story; one with a slightly different slant. Was Rosenthal asked to leave simply because he changed his view on an inessential doctrine? Or did he persist in pushing his view onto the other FOI members? Obviously I wasn’t there in Marvin’s case, so I don’t know for sure.
My advice is this: if you belong to a fellowship which adheres to a different eschatological view than yours, don’t argue with fellow members and pastors. I’ve seen this occur on several platforms. It never ends well. Don’t put your rapture timing view (or any other non-essential doctrine) at the same level as the gospel.
The wise pastor
A wise pastor will nip it in the bud. He will warn and counsel, and if it persists, you will be asked to leave. And that’s the way it ought to be.
If possible, as far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Romans 12:18
Maranatha!
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