The Evangelical Free Church of America added the Prewrath position to their “Theological Definitions and Positions” Document.
Does the EFCA have a position on the tribulation or rapture?
Though the EFCA is premillennial, we embrace the breadth of premillennialism, including the various positions of Dispensationalism, Progressive Dispensationalism, and Historic Premillennialism.
The broader view of premillennialism, including the breadth noted above, also has specific nuances of the tribulation including the following views:
pretribulation – the church will be raptured before the seven year tribulation
midtribulation or prewrath – the church will be raptured at the midpoint or sometime after the midpoint of the seven year tribulation
posttribulation – the church will be raptured at the end of the seven year tribulation
This means that the EFCA does not take a position regarding the seven year tribulation that precedes the millennium, thus allowing various views, viz. pretribulation, midtribulation, prewrath and posttribulation. Regardless of one’s views of the tribulation, we are all to live with “constant expectancy.”
This is encouraging, but not surprising since the prewrath position is the fastest growing premillennial position today. One point of clarification above is I am not sure why they placed prewrath in the same sentence as midtrib, since these are two very different positions, which may lead some to be confused thinking that midtrib and prewrath are similar. They did qualify it by stating, “or sometime after the midpoint of the seven year tribulation.” However, there are much more significant differences between prewrath and midtrib than simply a “timing” issue, such as, for example, the nature of the great tribulation, the day of the Lord, and the question of whether the church will face the Antichrist. Nevertheless, it is still an encouraging move in the right direction in that it recognizes prewrath as a major viewpoint to contend with.
