Welcome to the September, 2005, edition of Strong Tower Publishing's e-newsletter. In this issue:

* New book offers alternative understanding of Daniel's 69 weeks
* H. L. Nigro interviewed by The Centre Daily Times
* Reader questions - Prewrath persecution and Antichrist's origin
* Online discussion group update - Was C. I. Scofield a posttribber?

NEW TITLE: "KNOW THEREFORE AND UNDERSTAND: A BIBLICAL EXPLICATION OF THE FIRST 69 WEEKS OF DANIEL 9"

Most Christians accept the belief that the first 69 Weeks of Daniel's 70 Weeks prophecy (Daniel 9) started around 445 B.C. and ended with Jesus Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. But the Bible itself declares that the start to the 69 weeks is Cyrus' decree for the Jews to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, which occurred in 538 BC. And yet, if we add 69 biblical "weeks" (or periods of seven years) to this date, we end up with a date that is way too early to point to Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of this prophecy. Or do we?

Whether most Christians realize it or not, this is the motivation for moving up the date to 445 BC to coincide with letters written by Persian king Artaxerxes Longimanus, even though this is not the decree identified by the Bible itself as the start of these 69 weeks. This is called "working backwards to prove a desired conclusion," but is it necessary to maintain consistency between the biblical terminus a quo (starting point) for the 69 weeks and the record of history?

Author T. T. Schlegel says "no." Building on the research of 19th century scholar Dr. Nathaniel West, Schlegel builds a case for the 538 BC decree of Cyrus as the starting point for the 69 weeks, while determining the end point - not at Jesus' triumphal entry - but at His birth. This understanding, which is both biblically and historically defensible, can be a very powerful tool for sharing the gospel with biblically knowledgeable Jews, who currently reject evangelical Christians' interpretation of the first 69 weeks.

For more information on "Know Therefore and Understand: A Biblical Explication of the First 69 Weeks of Daniel 9," visit www.strongtowerpublishing.com/knowtherefore.htm.

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H. L. NIGRO INTERVIEWED BY THE CENTRE DAILY TIMES

On Sunday, September 4, 2005, H. L. Nigro, founder of Strong Tower Publishing and author of Before God's Wrath: The Bible's Answer to the Timing of the Rapture, shared her story with the readers of Centre County, PA's The Centre Daily Times. 

The article profiles Nigro's life turnaround, from secular writer living on New York's Long Island to a Christian publisher in Bellefonte, PA. How did she become interested in the timing of the rapture? The path will be familiar to many believers: "I noticed a difference between what I read in scripture as it related to the second coming and what I was hearing on TV and the radio and in books, and that really disturbed me."

Her tools for determining the truth about the rapture? A Bible, "the basic tools of analysis and good logic," and a concordance of Greek and Hebrew words, just for good measure.

"Many believers feel that you need to have specialized knowledge in order to study the Bible," says Nigro, commenting on the article. "But the Bible itself says that this just isn't true. Addressing all believers, 1 John 2:27 says: 'You do not need that anyone teach you, but as the same anointing [of the Holy Spirit] teaches you concerning all things.' Also, in 2 Tim. 2:15, it says, 'Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker that does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.' Paul isn't telling Timothy that the meaning of God's Word is hidden between the lines for only scholars to find. Rather, he is suggesting that with diligence, all believers can understand the truths that God is communicating."

For more, see The Centre Daily Times website at www.centredaily.com/.

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READER QUESTIONS

Q: For the past year and a half, I have been attending a course on the Book of Revelation as presented by "Kay Arthur's Precept Upon Precept Bible Study." During this time, I began to question many of her interpretations regarding:

* Matthew 24 (Olivet Discourse) as applying to Israel only
* 7th trumpet as being the middle of the 70th week
* Two witnesses testifying at the beginning of the 70th week
* Equating the Great Tribulation with the Day of the Lord
* Never fully explaining the Great Multitude from the Great Tribulation (Rev 7:9-17)
* Never explaining the 75 extra days of Daniel 12

And so on and so forth.

As a consequence, I began surfing the 'Net for answers, and at this time I came across a copy of "The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church" by Marvin Rosenthal. Voila! It seemed that while I was reading this book, all my questions were answered and in a way that made perfect sense. I couldn't get enough of this concept, so I purchased and read the Robert Van Kampen books "The Sign" and "The Rapture Question Answered." I followed this up with your book, "Before God's Wrath," and Dave Bussard's "Who Will Be Left Behind and When?"

I downloaded and read all the articles on your Web Site and Sola Scriptura, plus other websites as I encountered them.

However, I have found that when I relate my new beliefs, I'm considered somewhat of a mild heretic and I get responses that go something like this: "Oh yes, just another Revelation interpretation. Stick with the men of theology who have the education to interpret scriptures."

So my dilemma is this - I would like to find a church where this concept is accepted and taught. I live in the Houston, Texas, area. I thought that you might have some leads to a local church or a church in the area.

A: I'm sorry you are experiencing this reaction from your brothers and sisters in Christ, but unfortunately, I can't say that it's unusual. I have a few suggestions for you.

First, check out the Prewrath Only discussion group on Yahoo. I moderate the group, along with Pastor Ron Wallace, and it's a great place of fellowship. There are lots of prewrathers out there, but we just aren't organized very well, so it's easy to feel alone. You can go to www.yahoo.com, then click on "groups," and then type in PrewrathOnly and look for my byline in the messages to ensure you're in the right group. It's just a great place for fellowship, and often, people will post questions about local churches on the board. You never know - someone may live in your area.

The other suggestion is to look for churches that do not have pretrib in their doctrinal statements. Pentecostal and charismatic churches almost universally hold to pretrib, not just as a doctrine, but as part of their doctrinal statements, so they hold to pretrib like they do the deity of Christ, the resurrection, and the blood atonement. In churches like these, you aren't going to get much support for your views.

However, there are denominations that hold to premillennialism (the belief in a literal thousand-year reign that is yet future) but that accept all rapture positions. We attend an Evangelical Free church, and our pastor holds to premil but does not espouse one view over the other. Before that, we attended a Free Methodist (very different from Methodist) church, which also accepts a variety of rapture views.

I don't remember all of the different denominations that fall into this category, but you can post the question on the prewrath only board and you'll get a variety of responses.

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Q: In your opinion, do you think that our current situation in the Middle East (I'm not saying it's in bible prophecy) will lead to major future conflicts? And, supposedly the AC is a person that "once was, now is not and is yet to come." Could it mean that he may come out of the current European Union / rebirth of the old "Roman Empire"? Or could he be of Arab descent?

A: Potentially, yes, to both.

First, whether our current situation in Iraq could lead to future conflicts. I think that we've stirred the pot, and while there was hatred against the U.S. already, our actions have intensified it and focused it in a new and purposeful way.

As for whether the Antichrist could come out of the current European Union / rebirth of the old "Roman Empire," on the Strong Tower Publishing website, I have an article detailing the scriptures that indicate that the Antichrist will be from the old "Roman Empire," but specifically from that portion of it that used to be Ancient Greece. The details can be found in the "Talkin' Rapture" column called "The End-Times Prophecies of the Prophet Daniel" (http://www.strongtowerpublishing.com/daniel.htm).

Whether or not the Antichrist is of Arab descent is not in scripture, just the location of his origin. Today, however, you can be from a certain country, but not of its national origin. I'm open to the possibility that he has Jewish blood - probably the tribe of Judah - because he will be accepted by at least some Jews. If he's mistaken as the Messiah, then this lineage would be a requirement. I'm also open to the possibility that while his bloodline may include Jewish blood, he is a Muslim by faith, since he's accepted by the Arab countries.

Somehow, I believe the Antichrist will straddle both cultures and religions, so there is likely, in my view, some sort of blend in him that makes him uniquely appealing and uniquely reprehensible at the same time, depending on your point of view.

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ONLINE DISCUSSION GROUP UPDATE

One of the most intriguing discussions in recent weeks has been the thread regarding the rapture views of C. I. Scofield. Scofield is universally equated with the pretribulation rapture position through his notes in the Scofield Reference Bible, which was almost single-handedly (so to speak) responsible for introducing the pretribulation rapture view to believers in the United States.

However, a close reading of Scofield's classic work "Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth" reveals that, at least in his early works, Scofield associated the rapture of the Church with the bodily return of Jesus Christ, as described in 1 Thess. 4:16-17.

Under the section "The Two Advents, Scofield references John 14:1-3, which pretribulationists universally hold refers to the rapture. Of this passage, Scofield writes: "Here the Lord speaks of His coming again in precisely the same terms as of His departure. The latter was, we know, personal and bodily. If we say that the former is impersonal and 'spiritual,' surely we ought to be constrained to such a forced interpretation of simple language by the most imperative and unqualified Scripture elsewhere. But no such passage exists."

One paragraph later, he writes: "In the very moment of our Lord's disappearance from the sign of his disciples, 'two men stood by them in white apparel'; Which also said, 'Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.' Acts 1:11. To the same purport is 1 Thess. 4:16, 17."

Tying the one and only bodily return of Christ to the rapture is a very un-pretrib-like behavior, for it is consistent only with the posttribulation, mid-tribulation, and prewrath viewpoints. Mid-trib and prewrath were not formally developed theories at the time of this writing - originally in 1888 - so this leaves us with posttribulationism. Could Scofield have been an accidental posttribulationist?

This quandary is potentially resolved by the fact that Scofield had only been a believer for a few years when he wrote "Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth," and the Niagara Bible Conferences that helped to form the basis for the modern proof texts of pretribulationism did not occur until more than a decade later - at the turn of the century.

Could it be that Scofield's original understanding of the scriptures was correct? That the "plain as the nose on your face" interpretation of the scriptures on this point was forgotten more than a decade later during the rapture conferences? And the disconnect between Scofield's early understanding and the pretribulation position he took in the Scofield Reference Bible, published in 1909, was overlooked?

For more on the development of the rapture positions, see "Where Did Pretrib Come From?", Before God's Wrath, Chapter 9. For more on the Scofield discussion, see the Yahoo! Prewrath Only Discussion Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/prewrathonly/).

For those who would like to share the prewrath belief with their Spanish-speaking friends, "Before God's Wrath" is now available in a Spanish edition (http://www.strongtowerpublishing.com/before-spanish.htm).

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