(Here is Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)
Finally, Wayne Brindle states in his fourth criterion for pretrib imminence:
- The passage speaks of Christ’s return as giving hope without relating it to God’s judgment of unbelievers.[1]
This last criterion that pretribulationists use to argue for imminence is not only odd but simply mistaken. It is mistaken because standard pretrib interpretation affirms that the rapture is followed immediately by God’s judgment upon unbelievers on the same day.[2] First Thessalonians 4–5 is an explicit text that relates the hope of Christ’s return to God’s judgment of unbelievers. Second Thessalonians 1:3–12 clearly shows the hope that God’s people will be given relief from their tribulations on the same day that God’s judgment begins for unbelievers. Therefore, Brindle’s fourth criterion for imminence is demonstrably mistaken. We can also add Matt 24 and Rev 7–8 that associate Jesus’s return for his people with the subsequent eschatological wrath of God. Given the selective criteria by pretrib interpreters, however, these last two passages would not be allowed for consideration, because they mention a tribulation period before Jesus’s return! Thus, this last pretrib criterion is flawed because the Bible consistently depicts back-to-back realities of hope for believers at Christ’s return followed by judgment for unbelievers.
In summary, this four part series on the criteria for imminence has revealed that the interpretive foundation for pretribulationism is flawed, selective, and circular. The hermeneutic system is constructed with preconceived ideas that determine in advance the desired outcome for imminence. Interpretive criteria instead should allow the widest range of evidence, lest it results in a prejudicial conclusion. They should not be crafted so narrowly to exclude biblical evidence that may contradict one’s theological system of imminence. But Brindle’s set of criteria demonstrates the predetermined biased nature inherently found in the pretribulational method of biblical interpretation.
[1] Wayne A. Brindle. “Biblical Evidence for the Imminence of the Rapture.” BSac 158 (2001): 139
[2] For example, pretribulation author Robert L. Thomas states, “Only if the rapture coincides with the beginning of the day of the Lord can both be imminent and the salvation of those in Christ coincide with the coming of wrath to the rest (1 Thess 5:9) (Thomas, “1, 2 Thessalonians,” 281 emphasis mine). Also Kevin D. Zuber states, “Since the rapture will take all living saints to be with the Lord at the same time that the day of the Lord commences, no believer need fear that he will be found in the day of the Lord” (Zuber, “Paul and the Rapture,” 164).
