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Welcome to the August, 2007, edition of Strong Tower
Publishing's e-newsletter.
IN THIS ISSUE:
* New Prewrath Church Added to the List
* Is the Day of the Lord 12 Hours?
* Responses to Reader Questions
* “Going to Zero Inventory” Sale: 50% Off Selected Titles
NEW PREWRATH CHURCH ADDED TO OUR LIST:
Thanks for continuing to provide us with new
“prewrath-friendly” and prewrath-teaching churches for our
running list found at www.strongtowerpublishing.com/prewrath_churches.htm.
We now have listings in 13 states, including Alabama, Arizona,
California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi,
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington. We even
have one listing in India!
Please keep those church listings coming.
Pastor H. Frederick Drye
New Life Alliance Church
PO Box 1155
3529 High Street
Logansport, IN 46947
Website: www.newlifealliance.net
IS THE DAY OF THE LORD 12 HOURS?
Every now and then, we'll hear people argue that the
prewrath rapture cannot be the teaching of scripture because the
Day of the Lord is only 12 or 24 hours long and therefore cannot
extend through the trumpets and the bowls of Revelation. Here is
a short defense of the “Day of the Lord as a span of time”
position by Ron Wallace of Bible Fragrances and co-moderator of
the Prewrath Only Discussion Group:
The argument that the Day of the Lord spans a period of time,
rather than being 12 or 24 hours long, is based, in part, on
Zechariah 14:6,7: “On that day there will be no light, no cold
or frost. It will be a unique day, without daytime or
nighttime-a day known to the LORD. When evening comes, there
will be light.” This argument is also bolstered by the fact that
the "day" of God's wrath is also called God's “year of
redemption" (Isaiah 63:1-6) and “a year of recompense for the
cause of Zion" (Isaiah 34:1-10). Moreover, there are just too
many events that have to occur for it to be merely a day.
Not to add fuel to the fire, but the Zechariah 14;6,7 argument
revolves, not just around the use of the word "day" to describe
the Day of the Lord, but the fact that it is framed by "evening
and morning," creating the sense -- when this scripture is
viewed in isolation, from an Anglo-Saxon, 20th Century
perspective -- that it is referring to a 12-hour day.
But as I think most of us know, the word "day," or the Hebrew "yom,"
can have many meanings, including a long period of time. In
Zechariah 14, the difficulty for “span of time” adherents is
that the writer uses the references of evening and morning. The
same problem arises in Genesis 1, creating the impression among
some that the Earth was created in seven 24-hour periods.
The resolution of both verses is the same. There is more than
one creation account in the scriptures. I believe there are 10
or 11 of them all told (including those in the Psalms), and when
we take them together, it becomes clear that the 24-hour day
interpretation is not the most satisfactory. So here in
Zechariah, where we have another example of the use of the word
"day" (yom), framed by evening and morning, and yet it does not
mean a 12-hour day.
My discussions with others on this subject have indicated that
the use of the phrase "evening and morning," like the word
"day," have multiple meanings in ancient Hebrew. In some
contexts, such as those here, they serve as literary
constructions to create a sense of completeness. For example, in
Genesis 1, the seventh day has a morning but no evening. Why?
Because we are still in the seventh day. It will not have its
"evening" until the Messiah sits upon the throne of David.
There is such a delicate balance between taking the Bible
literally to the greatest extent possible and understanding the
culture, literary constructions, and customs of the times. Such
things can make things difficult for us English-speaking, 20th
century myopics!
RESPONSES TO READER QUESTIONS:
Q: A pastor friend of mine from Cuba visited last December
and returned with your book and Van Kampen's short version
explanation of prewrath. He says he has been a pretribber all
his life but sees some in consistencies in it. All says that
"pre-ira" has good points, but he is not totally convinced yet.
He has two questions:
1. From a prewrath position, how can you best explain the
following verse from Revelation 11:1? “And there was given me a
reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and
measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship
therein.” Does it have to do with the end of the Gentiles' rule
? Why the need to measure the temple with a reed? [face value
interpretation vs. metaphor ?]
2. Where can we place the two witnesses? Before the first half
or after the second half of Daniel's 70th week?
A: Your friend is a pretribber, right? Ask him what this
has to do with prewrath. How does this impact a prewrath vs.
pretrib discussion? I'm not sure how to answer him because I'm
not sure what he's getting at here. I don't see the relevance to
the debate.
As far as I know, prewrath and pretrib hold the same view
regarding the temple. Both hold that the trodding underfoot of
the Gentiles coincides with the Antichrist's committing of the
Abomination of Desolation at the midpoint of the 70th Week. The
desecration of the temple by “treading” is then brought to an
end at the conclusion of the 70th Week. Unless there are some
unusual interpretations that I am not aware of, both pretrib and
prewrath hold the same view on this.
As for the reed, I'm assuming that this is an ancient measuring
technique. I'm just guessing, but from the reeds along waterways
that I've seen, they all grow to exactly the same height - about
three feet. So my guess is that, in ancient Israel, reeds were
used as a measuring tool out of convenience. A good Bible
dictionary or commentary should answer this question fairly
easily.
Now, for the placement of the two witnesses. Prewrath holds that
the witnesses appear at the midpoint of the 70th Week,
coinciding with the appearance of the Antichrist. At the time
that God allows the appearance of the ungodly Antichrist, He
also brings about the appearance of a godly counterpart-the
witnesses. God may allow evil, but He always balances it with
righteousness, so at the same time that the AC is given
authority, it makes sense that the witnesses appear, too.
Also, we read about the witnesses' return to life at the same
time that the "kingdoms of this world have become those of His
Christ," at the end of the 70th Week. so if the end of their
ministry is at the end of the 70th Week, then the beginning of
their ministry is at the midpoint.
Q. Hello from Georgia (just outside of Savannah). I have
been at this church for eight years. What book could you
recommend that serves as a commentary on the book of Revelation
from the prewrath standpoint? Also, where can I find information
on the stance of church history in regards to the timing of the
rapture? I have read that we have 1800 years of church history
on our side in regards to believing the Church will go through
some portion of the Tribulation. Which church fathers wrote on
this and is pre-trib mentioned anywhere in church history before
1830's? Thanks so much and for all you do!
A. I would recommend Don Salerno's Revelation Unsealed.
I've only had a chance to read the first few chapters, but it
was excellent, and all of the reviews I've heard from other
prewrathers indicate that it is a solid, very useful volume.
Salerno is also a member of the prewrath discussion group, in
and out. (For a full review of this book, as well as Strong
Tower Publishing reviews of other prophecy titles, visit
www.strongtowerpublishing.com/bookreviews.htm.)
As for church history, the challenge is that, until the last
century, we didn't really have names for the various positions.
The writers simply wrote what they believed, and it wasn't until
the 1900s that the views really congealed into coherent,
well-argued positions. Thus, it's very difficult to really nail
down who believed what when. The writings of the church fathers,
for example, weren't defenses but rather usually secondary
illustrations to a larger point. Therefore, their discusses of
the end times would fit the historicist or posttrib views as
well as they do prewrath.
Unless someone recently has sat down to objectively outline the
history of the rapture positions, I think it's been up to the
rest of us to sort through the best we can. The closest I've
seen is Gary Vaterlaus' history of amillennialism in Sola
Scriptura magazine [no longer published], which I pulled
from to create a brief history of the rapture views in Before
God's Wrath. But it is only a short history framed as a way
to provide insight into how pretrib could have taken hold at the
time that it did. It is not intended to be comprehensive.
Sorry I can't help on this one, but unless someone has written a
text that I'm not aware of, this one is still up for grabs.
Q: I have a question about the resurrection. If both
pre-trib and pre-wrath believe in a rapture that occurs prior to
the Lord coming back to establish His throne, how do you account
for Revelation 20:4-6 where the "first" resurrection is
mentioned? If there is a resurrection of the dead that precedes
the living at the rapture, and then if there is a resurrection
of all those who died during the great tribulation (or after the
rapture), that would be a double resurrection. And the
Revelation 20:4-6 clearly says that those who come through the
great tribulation were part of the "first" resurrection.
The Bible clearly does not teach a two-part resurrection. Can
you help with this?
A: This is a problematic verse for prewrath, there is no
doubt about it. Some believe that the first resurrection occurs
in stages - with Jesus being the first, then those who were
resurrected immediately after His resurrection in the first
century, then those at the rapture, and then those after
Armageddon. Another possibility is that, since the Great
Tribulation is ended just before the rapture (Matt. 24:22, 29),
and God's wrath will not be poured out upon believers during the
Day of the Lord, there are no believers who will die during the
DOL. Thus, no further resurrection of the just is necessary.
Posttrib ties this up nicely, with a single resurrection after
the DOL. However, posttrib requires an overlap of the seals,
trumpets, and bowls, to make Rev. 6:12-13 occur at Armageddon,
and since there are so many textual indicators within Revelation
that seem to point strongly to the consecutive nature of these
events, I can't make the timing work out. There are those in the
posttrib camp who feel that they can do this based on
similarities between events. I see this as subjective and not
strong enough evidence to override what I believe to be strong
internal textual evidence to their consecutive nature.
Therefore, despite how neatly posttrib ties up the "first
resurrection," I can't justify abandoning a prewrath position
based on this verse. Whatever problems Rev. 20:4 may create, I
have adopted a position of grace and humility that perhaps I am
wrong, or perhaps posttrib is wrong, or perhaps we are all
wrong, and things will not work out exactly as we all think they
will.
INVENTORY REDUCTION SALE:
“THE HOPE OF CHRIST'S SECOND COMING”
Due to changes recently made by Strong Tower Publishing's
printer, we are now moving to a zero-inventory model (all books
are printed as they are ordered and shipped directly from the
printer). Some books, such as Before God's Wrath, are
already at zero inventory. To clean off the rest of the shelves,
we are offering a 30% discount on remaining titles, including:
Who Will Be Left Behind and When?
http://www.strongtowerpublishing.com/leftbehind.htm
Prophecy's Architecture: How to Build an End-Times Doctrine
http://www.strongtowerpublishing.com/architecture.htm
Touching the Soul, a book of poetry by prewrath pastor R.
g. Wallace
http://www.strongtowerpublishing.com/touchingsoul.htm
Antes de la Ira de Dios, the Spanish translation of
“Before God's Wrath”
http://www.strongtowerpublishing.com/before-spanish.htm
The Hope of Christ's Second Coming: How Is It Taught in
Scripture and Why? (19th century classic by Samuel P.
Tregelles)
http://www.strongtowerpublishing.com/Hope_Christ_Coming.htm
This discount will not be reflected on the Strong Tower
Publishing website and the number of copies is limited. If you
would like to take advantage of this offer, please contact
Strong Tower Publishing directly at strongtowerpubs@aol.com to
reserve your copies and make shipping and payment arrangements.
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