Welcome to the December, 2006, edition of Strong Tower Publishing's e-newsletter.

IN THIS ISSUE:

* Prewrath Testimonials
* 25% Christmas Discounts on Strong Tower Publishing Titles

PREWRATH TESTIMONIALS

In this issue, we will conclude the prewrath testimonials begun in the September, 2006, issue. If you have a testimony you'd like to share, please email it to us at strongtowerpubs@aol.com.


I am an associate pastor at a very conservative Southern Baptist church in Georgia. I graduated from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1996 and have been in the ministry (primarily youth ministry) for over 10 years. My first brush with the prewrath view came down in Orlando, Florida, when my wife and I visited the Holy Land Experience. There in the book store, I saw many books by Marv Rosenthal and others on this view.

Being a die-hard pretribber and having never heard of the prewrath view, I became curious. Upon returning to my office soon thereafter, I did a "prewrath" word search on the Internet and came across your Web site. I read some of your articles, ordered some of your recommended books, and on my next vacation, read through several of them. My wife got an earful that week as many of the questions I had regarding pretrib were being answered by prewrath.

Not only was I convinced, but my wife also! I shared my findings with my pastor, who also had questions that the pretrib view doesn't answer. He hasn't had much time to research it yet, but I look forward to the day when he can so that he, too, can see what scripture clearly teaches!

Thanks for wedging me outside of my theological pretrib box and into the scriptures!

Erik Palmberg
Savannah, GA


After being indoctrinated for 10 years that all Christians will escape the Great Tribulation, I searched and searched my Bible to substantiate this belief. I couldn't find it! While reading the Word and meditating, I asked God to please show me the truth. He did!

While reading Rev 7:9-17, God put in my heart that "the great multitude in white robes" are those who have been raptured-taken out of the world before His wrath is poured out, not before the tribulation. The fact that we will witness the tribulation is further shown in 2 Thess. 2:1-3, where we are told that the coming of the Lord and our being gathered WILL NOT HAPPEN until the Antichrist is revealed. To me, it is so simple, plain, and clear.

I fear for those that are waiting to escape the world. I'm afraid that there will be a great falling away when they are caught in the tribulation.

God bless you for your work. May God open the hearts of those being deceived.

Ginger Vosburg
Onalaska, WA


I didn't grow up in the church with a preconceived idea of anything, including the end times and the rapture. There were not a lot of teachings on the book of Revelation when I first became a believer in Jesus Christ, but by the time I did hear that we would be raptured before the tribulation, I had read a good part of the Bible. So, the pretrib view just didn't sit well with what I had read so far.

I am still in the process of learning about the prewrath view, but this seems to be more in line with what the scriptures say than any other view of the end times.

It is better for a person to read the Bible first to allow the Holy Spirit to teach them about when Christ will return. Then if you'd like to see what others believe or receive help from what others have written, always do it with the Bible at hand.

Lana
New Mexico


My mother sent me off to Sunday School when I was I kid. I went, right away, to the local hang out for the morning. I grew up knowing nothing about the Bible or Christ, and it stayed that way for 44 years. I did get involved in New Age pretty deeply, though.

It was from that teaching that I realized that something was going to happen at some point in the future and that we, in the New Age, would be whisked away in a spaceship and “saved” from it all! I also read a book called “The Last Stand” by Steven King, and for some reason, that book made me aware that Christ was coming, though I still didn't know it.

Then a book called “The Return” by (I think) Dave Hunt really brought it home to me, but I didn't get saved until a few years later when I was on a camping trip and fell out of my in-law's trailer (drunk) and sprained my ankle. When I got back from the hospital, I fell to my knees and asked Him into my life (I had read how to do it in “The Return.”)

When I was first saved, I read and listened to Hal Lindsey and that group a lot. Because of my New Age background, I was very interested in what was going to happen when those enlightened beings came to get us or, as I finally learned later, at Jesus' return to get us.

It only took about six months for me to realize that something wasn't right about their teaching. I found Marv Rosenthal's book “The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church,” and after reading it, I just knew he was right. I spent the next four or five years studying that view. I think he and Robert Van Kampen got it right, and I think that they are so close that I can “take it to the bank,” so to speak. I only look for the signs now.

Arlene


I had only heard about the pretrib, midtrib and posttrib positions. Sensational movies and the like didn't interest me, but I read and reread all I could of the Bible passages on the end times. I remember someone saying that their view of Revelation was right because they had read the Book of Revelation 50 times, and I thought I had read it more than that. I read Matthew 24 over and over, trying to determine when events would happen, knowing that everything is not always in chronological order.

However, all my reading was worthwhile because when my son gave me a copy of "The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church," everything all fit together. Matthew 24 WAS chronological. Sometimes, it's just hearing the truth and clearing up a few misconceptions that can open up much more understanding.

Jerrilyn Forsyth



Several years ago, I was a member of the [denomination] church. I was devout, but we were not encouraged to read the Bible. I was working as a real estate saleslady back then and met an older client who sort of took me under her wing and gently coaxed me into attending some Christian meetings in other churches. I felt a tremendous feeling of guilt because that was strictly forbidden. I even hid it from my husband.

To make a long story short, I started hearing about this thing called the rapture. I had never heard of such a thing, so I started reading the scriptures pertaining to the rapture. WOW! Was I ever raptured just learning about it. The more I studied, the more I wanted to learn, and I searched the scriptures constantly. I have come to the prewrath belief through study and a lot of prayer.

That was years ago, and since then, I have pulled out of the [denomination] church. Recently, I was talking to a relative whom I had not seen in years and I mentioned the rapture. She is still [denomination] and did not know what I was talking about. I was shocked to learn they are still in darkness about this. I started telling her about it and it was like coaxing a little baby. She was quite surprised, just like I was.

Unsigned


As a young wife and mother in the early 70's, I was active in my husband's ministry at many levels. So when people in the church we were serving asked for a study on the end times, he requested my help. Although we knew the basics, neither of us had done a lot of study on this topic. We began doing research, most of it from the prevailing pretrib perspective.

Both of us felt uncomfortable with this doctrine from the start. I remember reading the Olivet Discourse over and over, trying to make it fit the pretrib perspective--to no avail. When Jesus spoke of God sending His angels to "gather His elect from the four winds" (Matthew 24:31), and then said that "two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding . . . one will be taken and the other left" (Matthew 24:40-41), it seemed like a clear portrait of the rapture. And yet, chronologically, these passages clearly occurred well into the 70th week of Daniel (which some also call the “tribulation period”).

In spite of our reservations, we taught the class and incorporated the pretrib doctrine. But our discomfort with the pretrib view was so great that it would be more than 20 years before either of us taught on this topic again.

My husband's first love has always been ministry, so he took the approach that it will play out however it will, and in the meantime, we should be about the Father's business. While I have always supported his ministry wholeheartedly, I could not so easily put this issue aside. I continued to read books from every perspective, including pre-, mid-, and post-trib-- even post- and amillennial. There were merits in every view, but none of them could reconcile all of the scripture passages. I became resigned to the fact that I was never going to resolve this issue.

Then in the early 90's, the members of an adult Sunday school class I was teaching asked me to teach on the Book of Revelation. I heaved a huge sigh and said okay, I'd give it a shot. Then I went out and bought a few more books. One of them was Robert Van Kampen's "The Sign."

I didn't read it through at first. When the class I was teaching got to the sixth seal in Revelation, with the huge crowd that appeared suddenly in heaven (Revelation 7:9-17), I couldn't find any explanation for this that was tenable, and so I picked up "The Sign" and read ahead to Van Kampen's explanation of that passage. It was one of those rare epiphanies when everything came together in a flash, and I remember saying out loud, "This guy has nailed it!"

Only the prewrath view explains the cosmic disturbances that are talked about by the Old Testament prophets, Jesus, and John, and demonstrates that they must come before the Day of the Lord and His wrath. And they don't occur until after the mid-point of the 70th week! Following the disturbances in the Book of Revelation, the huge crowd appears in heaven; in Jesus' Olivet Discourse, immediately after the disturbances, "one is taken and one is left." That's the rapture, and not before. It is completely consistent! The rapture doesn't occur until sometime after the mid-point, following a time of terrible persecution for both Christians and Jews.

I love this view because it allows for complete integrity in following the Bible as God's wholly reliable and trustworthy Word. I also believe that it is foolish to tell Christians that they have a free ticket out of trouble. Jesus Himself said that in this world we WILL have tribulation, and today more Christians are suffering persecution than at any other time in the history of the church.

One final note: my husband and I started our church in 1990, and our goal was to reach people who aren't Christians rather than to pull Christians from other churches. Most of the people in our church came to Christ under our ministry; others have some Christian background but little Bible study. In other words, there was little--if any--indoctrination in the pretrib view for most of the members of our church prior to coming to the church. Since 1992, I have taught the Book of Revelation--with my husband's enthusiastic support and blessing--six times to various groups, and the response has been interesting.

People who have no indoctrination in the pretrib viewpoint--who are, for the most part, studying the rapture and the Second Coming for the first time--respond very positively and grasp almost immediately the logic and the clarity of this view from scripture. In addition, after studying the prewrath view and then looking at the pretrib view, they find by comparison that the pretrib perspective is strained and unbiblical, something that has been forced onto the Bible rather than gleaned from an honest, open reading of the Word.

This is not an indictment on the sincerity or faith of people who believe in the pretrib rapture. On the contrary, I know many of the adherents of this view to be entirely sincere in their convictions and they love the Lord very much. But I have come to believe that, on this point, they are mistaken. God will one day remove His people from this earth, and it will be a time of unspeakable joy. But prior to that there will be some very dark and trying days, and Jesus Himself made that very clear. We need to be about the business of preparing His church for what's ahead.

Anne Follis
Edwards, IL


I came to the Lord about twenty eight years ago after a difficult two- to three-year period in my life. About three months after being saved, the pastor and his wife pressured me to teach the junior high class. The Lord, in His wisdom [and sense of humor], gave me a class of kids that had minds like razor blades.

I would study one hour for the new lesson and two hours to answer questions from the last session. After three months, the class pressured me into teaching the Book of Revelation. The pastor was leaving for health reasons. I read the books he left and the new pastor's books on the subject. As a technically trained person in reading scientific research,
I was amazed at the poor quality of proof texts used in all the
prevailing positions. I became determined to solve the problem on my own.

It took me fourteen years to arrive at what I thought was the rapture timing sequence. I was unsure of myself because of what appeared to me to be conflicts. Unknown to me, another man was also spending his fifteen years on that same question [Robert Van Kampen]. After reading Marv Rosenthal's 1991 Zion's Fire article, I muttered, "FINALLY, someone has put it together.”

I have taught the position and am looking for an opportunity to help teach it again.

George Bernhard
California


Like many others, I read Hal Lindsey's book, "The Late Great Planet Earth." Prior to this, I had not given a whole lot of thought to end-times prophecy. I was, as the saying goes, a panologist. I thought it would “all pan out in the end.” The one thing, however, that I took away from "LGPE" was the feeling in my soul that Christ was coming back soon, maybe in my lifetime. The other thing that was abundantly clear was that I was not ready to face a Holy God. This was a wake-up call to me that I took very seriously.

For a while, I went along with the pretrib position that I had been exposed to by Hal and others. But as I thought about it, I had many unanswered questions regarding this secret rapture. I could not understand how this great multitude would unexplainably disappear in an instant without anyone knowing, among other things. So I began to have questions and doubts that I could not reconcile. It caused my interest to focus in the area of end-times events. Problem was, most pastors and teachers did not go there. The exception was the ones who held to the pretrib position and allegorized much of these prophetic passages.

My first exposure to the prewrath position came when I attended a prophecy lecture at a local church given by Roger Best of The Sign Ministries. I knew after this that I needed to read the book, "The Sign." As the old saying goes, the rest is history. I knew that I now had something that reconciled everything that I had questioned. I read this book and also read Marvin Rosenthal's "The Prewrath Rapture of the Church." This gave me the insight and framework that I needed to study God's Word to find out if it was true. To my delight, I harmonized these with the Word of God.

I now have this burning desire to share this with other believers and with my church. In my zeal, I thought there would be many avenues and opportunities to do this. I must admit, however, that I have mostly encountered yawners and opposition from pretribbers not even willing to consider this position. So it boils down mainly to two camps: (1) lack of interest and (2) easy escapism (don't rock the boat).

I am not deterred. There is coming a time, very soon I believe, when we will have a great opportunity to speak with others to prepare them for what must soon take place.

Even so come, Lord Jesus.

Unsigned


I , like many others, came to prewrath from pretrib. I had always been a firm believer in getting "exited outta here" before all the bad stuff started. However, the more I read, the more certain things started to make less sense. I read in Matthew 24 where Christ said, "Immediately AFTER the tribulation..." A very wise pastor I listened to on tape put it in an easy-to-understand way. Then I got Marv's book “The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church” and, as many others have said, "it all fell into place.”

Scott
Yucca Valley, CA


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