When eschatology becomes annoying: This annoyance occurs when individuals think they’re right and persist in trolling those they differ with.
Whenever I write on this topic I feel like the blustery, axe-wielding dwarf Gimli from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. So here I am sharpening my axe again. Call me Gimli.
Some personal history on trolling
Over the years I’ve encountered my share of persistent preterists and non-premillennialists who indulge in trolling prophecy social media forums. The same goes for a smattering of busy Seventh-day Adventists who hold to Historicism.
My pro-Israel, pretrib blog attracted trolling. These two highly-contentious subjects (Israel and the rapture) are like honey to bees. The most common troll comments came from Historic Premils, and Classic and Neo Posttribulationists.
I tried various ways of addressing the issue. I moderated comments, switched the option off, deleted lots of them etc. Note that most of what I deleted was either repetitive, or inanely suggesting I Google something scandalous about Dr. Tommy Ice etc.
Finally I became somewhat mercenary. Rightly or wrongly, I went after the trolls. One fellow ignored all my questions and simply kept posting. I discovered later that he and his friends were notorious for trolling pretrib blogs and that he was a prewrather (neo-posttribber).
Staying Humble
Annoying comments I’ve seen regarding eschatology:
“If you don’t agree with me you’re unbiblical.” “Read your Bible; don’t listen to a man-made doctrine.” “You arrive at your view via eisegesis as opposed to exegesis (like I do).” “Give me one verse which….” “You should be more humble.”
Appealing to humility is an annoying tactic people occasionally use. It doesn’t solely apply to differences about eschatology either. The Woke Folk have adopted it.
Those who resort to this appeal regard themselves as having arrived at their conclusions through honest, humble assessment of a given position. Unlike you. So, if their opponents practiced humility they would agree with them. Makes perfect sense!
Why troll?
Why do people troll? That’s a whole other broad topic. I can only guess at motivation. They enjoy it. Makes them feel special in some way – whatever. When it comes to rapture timing trolls, I’m going to be blunt. The most frequent offenders, in my experience, come from the neo-posttrib camp.
I have been in forums where no pretribber can safely post without someone constantly correcting them using the same formulas, often in essay-length commentaries. Sadly it’s usually a rinse and repeat, never-ending process.
In these cases, the best response is to ignore. This isn’t because pretribulationists don’t have valid responses – it’s because some people can’t tear themselves away from their favorite hobby horse. It’s like an addiction.
Pretribbers inevitably get preparedness homilies fired at them. I don’t buy into the spin. In fact I suspect in many cases it’s an excuse to bicker and appear pious. Do drop me a line to tell me how you prepare for tribulation.
Help – not Jesus first!
I often see examples which leave me scratching my head. Recently I read where an individual engaged with a pretribber and found it difficult to respond to an argument. They scurried back to their non-pretrib group for affirmation…and breathed a sigh of relief!
Seriously – think about that for a few moments. If I was posttrib I’d hopefully be happy to be corrected. I like the idea that the Lord might return for His church at any time before, rather than after the Great Tribulation. How invested can someone be in a particular rapture timing position?
I mean: ‘What a relief that the Antichrist comes before Christ. Whew!”
What am I missing?
Must convert the others…
Then there’s the example of a neo-posttrib pastor in a predominantly pretrib church. He asked for encouragement in his goal to convert his colleagues. Why would he do that and what do you think might happen in the process?
This case reminded me of Marvin Rosenthal and The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. Rosenthal was touted as heroic for being evicted because his co-workers couldn’t handle his “truth.”
Yet imagine an organization where prewrath is the dominant view and a pretribber insists on foisting his view on the rest. Marv received a lengthy response from Renald Showers challenging his adopted view, and he didn’t like it. That’s it!
On a scale on one to ten, how important is it for the above pastor to influence his pretrib co-pastors? I’m sure if I engaged him I’d eventually get platitudes about preparedness. Someone once remarked that pretrib pastors will one day have to answer to God for not preparing their flock for the Antichrist. Now that’s a lamentable position to take!
Sadly, this attitude dominates the neo-posttrib camp. Even those who believe that the elect cannot lose their salvation constantly harp on this. At its core it’s myopic, annoying and borders on cultic behavior.
Prophecy is important but…
The whole counsel of God as found in Scripture is important, including eschatology. The correct view of Israel and the church, and the biblical covenants are very important. These should lead to the belief in a future restoration of Israel (the fulfillment of God’s promises) and premillennialism. But I’m not going to bicker about it on social media.
Rapture timing is a deductive process. I came to the pretribulational view after considering other positions. I might be wrong. There’s no “single text” supporting any timing position. And I have little interest in imposing my view onto someone who differs with me. It fosters destructive division. And it’s annoying.
In this sickly, dying world there are bigger fish to fry.
Maranatha!
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