The Great Tribulation and God’s Wrath: according to the prewrath rapture view, the Great Tribulation is nowhere called God’s wrath. Hence, it is Satan’s wrath, not God’s.
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The Great Tribulation is NEVER referred to as God’s wrath against believers (contra pretrib). Only when the Great Tribulation is cut short with the Lord’s return will God’s eschatological wrath begin—never before (contra posttrib). ~ Dr. Alan Kurschner (Bold mine)
The Great Tribulation is never referred to as Antichrist’s Great Tribulation, yet prewrathers label it as such—likely appealing to Rev 12:12. However, this idea presumes that God’s wrath and Satan’s wrath cannot coexist. Note that Dr. Kurschner uses the term God’s eschatological wrath. This may be because expressions of wrath in the Old Testament do not conform to the prewrath scheme (see next section). But nowhere is the term used in the Bible, and nowhere does it push a distinction between NT and OT expressions.
That pesky 4th Seal
And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth. Rev 6:8
Interestingly, Marvin Rosenthal placed the 4th seal in the first half of the 70th week, while Van Kampen and other PW proponents have it following the Abomination of Desolation. Moreover, many recent prewrathers assert that this seal is only directed at Israel and believers.
What does the OT say about these?
Ezekiel 5 references the four judgments in the 4th seal. Throughout the chapter they’re called God’s judgment, anger (aph) and fury (chemah).
So it will be a reproach, a reviling, a warning and an object of horror to the nations who surround you when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath and raging rebukes. I, the LORD, have spoken. Ezek 5:15
So I will send against you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken Ezek 5:17
Furthermore, in Ezek 7:3-19 we again find God’s anger (aph), fury (chemah) and wrath (ebrah) associated with famine, sword and pestilence (v 15) and this time in context to the Day of the Lord’s wrath (v 19).
For more, see God’s Wrath in the 4th & 5th Seals
God uses Satan
For a Reformed high view of God’s sovereignty in His use of Satan and the nations, see Terry L. Johnson’s The Identity and Attributes of God:
The apostle Paul refers to Satan as the ‘god of this world’ who blinds ‘the minds of unbelievers’ (2 Cor. 4:4). Yet elsewhere he attributes this blinding activity to God, saying, ‘Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false’ (2 Thess. 2:11); see also Matt 13:14-15) [compare with Luke 8:10]. ~ (pp 126-127)
John Calvin noted:
Moreover, that the ministry of Satan is employed to instigate the reprobate, whenever the Lord, in the course of his providence, has any purpose to accomplish in them, will sufficiently appear from a single passage. It is repeatedly said in the First Book of Samuel, that an evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul, and troubled him (1 Sam. 16:14; 18:10; 19:9). (Bold mine)
Missing Resurrection
Finally, when a word or expression is missing from a passage or chapter, it does not automatically follow that the concept isn’t there. It isn’t a good argument.
A classic example from the PW view is the absence of a resurrection in Matt 24:31, which it deems to be the rapture. And the Great Multitude of Revelation 7 which is alleged to be the raptured church. Prewrathers will undoubtedly bring up context and assert that the resurrection is implied in those passages.
Likewise, we pretribbers go back to the OT and note that God uses Satan as an instrument of wrath, and that the elements of the 4th seal are stated to be His wrath in Ezekiel.
Therefore there is no valid reason to deny that the Great Tribulation contains God’s wrath.
Maranatha!
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