“I doubt [Marvin Rosenthal] will live long enough to find Pre-Wrath rapture the recognized position…after the first blush of fadism passes, it will likely be forgotten.” —Tim LaHaye, 1998, Rapture Under Attack, p 102
Thirteen years ago Tim LaHaye made that prediction—which dismally failed to come to fruition. The prewrath position continues to have a significant groundswell acceptance in many different denominations in evangelicalism today. I can attest to this by the number of letters I receive from pastors and believers from various christian orbits. Moreover, the most popular rapture-debate book published by Zondervan came out with a new edition recently to include the prewrath perspective, Three Views on the Rapture: Pretribulationism, Prewrath, or Posttribulationism. I recommend it. Alan Hultberg is the contributor for the prewrath section of the book and does a very good job in presenting the prewrath position, as well as defending it. So the publication of this book is good news in that it will provide the prewrath position a large platform to make its biblical case for God’s people in the rapture debate.
Evangelicals are beginning to recognize that we are living in very interesting times; accordingly, they are seeking a more sober, biblical view of what the Bible has to say about the church being persecuted, including the Antichrist great tribulation against the church.
So I am encouraged at this groundswell of support for the prewrath position and only see it continuing as we move closer to the Lord’s return.
