is it important? continued most recent being a posttribula- tional defense from the pen of George Ladd at Fuller. Is there value to all this widespread dis cussion? Meanwhile, churches are being divided. Mission boards and church schools are feeling the heat of the debate. These are important con sequences. Certainly they provide sufficient reason for inquiring into the value of prophetic themes. Where will all this discussion lead us? How dogmatic may one’s con clusion be? Does it matter whether we are pre- or posttribulational? After all, is it important? Significance of Prophecy
ecy (Rev. 1:3; 22:7). Is the book obscure and this blessing unattain able? We dare not so conclude. Furthermore, it is a specific min istry of the Holy Spirit to reveal things to come (John 16:13). Spir it-taught believers are always inter ested in prophecy. Elsewhere, it is plainly declared that we should not be ignorant concerning the rapture (1 Thes. 4:13). The Thessalonians were mere babes in Christ, yet they had been instructed in prophetic themes, some of which they knew perfectly (1 Thes. 5 :1 ,2 ). Even to the world, prophecy is of importance. It confirms the au thority of the Bible and the fact that God speaks with finality con cerning things to come. Prophecy demonstrates the wisdom of our God. It proves the claim that He knows all things from the begin ning. It affirms that He does have a plan for the future. “ . . . I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it” (Isa. 46:11). All the evidence points to one certain conclusion, that prophecy is vitally important and is written for our understanding. The Place of the Rapture All premillennialists agree that the second coming of Christ is of supreme importance. It is one of the two major pillars of history, prewritten to give direction and meaning to human experience. Practically all are agreed that the first phase of Christ’s coming is for the catching up of the saints, gen erally called the “ rapture of the Church.” D isagreement centers over the time of the rapture and its importance to our theology. Posttribulationalists m in im ize the' rapture experience and deny the imminent return of our Lord. To them, even though the Tribula tion were to start today, Christ could not come for yet another seven years. The rapture and the revelation will he synchronous, all “ In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye . . .” (1 Cor. 15:52), the saints being caught up to meet
Christ as He sweeps earthward. But it is more than slightly inconven ient to their system that the saints are raptured at all! Certainly, this view allows little time for the en joyment of the heavenly mansions Christ Himself associated with His coming (John 14:2,3). Alexander Reese, posttribulation- alism’s outstanding exponent, sets forth his conviction that “ It is a sentimental delusion that a secret Rapture, or a pretribulational Rap ture, is the hope of the Church . . . . The Rapture is a mere incident of the Appearing, spoken of in order to show the relation of the sleep ing to the living saints at the one Advent in glory . . . . It is a stupid obsession to make the Rapture the touchstone of everything.” He speaks of the pretribulational hope as a “ rapture craze, fathered by theorists,” and traces the origin of an any moment coming to the “woman-prophets of Irving’s assem bly [who] gave it out in those awful days of demoniac delusion.” These are serious charges! For tunately, they are answered by the plain statements of Scripture. The rapture is the blessed hope of the Church ' (Titus 2:13), but if the Tribulation must come first, death would become our hope (2 Cor. 5:8). The rapture is the comforting hope of the believer (1 Thes. 4:18), but it would be of doubtful comfort to tell suffering saints that worse things were in store! The rapture is also a purifying hope (1 John 3:3), used in Scripture “ to arm the ap peals, to point the arguments, and to enforce the exhortations” (Black- stone) of the entire New Testa ment. What is there more practical in any other doctrine, particularly if Christ may momentarily appear? Does not the removal of the Holy Spirit as Restrainer set the time of the rapture as pretribulational (2 Thes. 2:6-8; John 14:16)? Do not the Scriptures exhort the believer to look, watch, and wait for His appearing, these commands attain ing full significance only if the rapture is imminent? Do not the 24 elders of the Apoc- THE KING'S BUSINESS
Many Christians today are say ing that prophecy is unimportant. “Preach the gospel” is their watch word, for the future will take care of itself. Basically this is the amil- lennial approach (the denial of the millennial kingdom leading inevi tably to a denial of the value of prophecy), but it is strange lan guage when it falls from the lips of a premillennialist. The reasons are obvious. As much as one-third of the Bible was prophetic when first written, with almost 20 of its books given over to prophecy as their primary theme. Both Testaments close with proph ecy, and one of the three major discourses of Christ instructs con cerning things to come. Surely it is not the mind of the Spirit that all of this should be ignored. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable . . .” (2 Tim. 3:16). Premillennialism is rooted in the earnest investigation of prophecy. More than any other, the last book of the Bible is occupied with things to come. This cap-stone of Scripture gives major emphasis to the Tribulation and the outpoured wrath of God. Note that the book is a revelation not an obscuration. It does not hide; it clarifies. More over, it is the only portion of the Word of God with a promise of special blessing upon all who read and keep the sayings of its proph- 12
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