Next, Wayne Brindle states in his third criterion for pretrib imminence:
- The passage speaks of Christ’s return as something that gives believers hope and encouragement, without indicating that these believers will suffer tribulation.[1]
Brindle’s third criterion indicates that the pretribulation notion of hope of Christ’s return is that Christians will not have to experience suffering through tribulation. What he means by this is that if a passage speaks both about Christ’s return and believers suffering at the hands of the Antichrist’s great tribulation, the passage in question is not referring to the rapture. Rather, the passage is said to be speaking about the supposed future return of Christ seven years later at the end of the seven-year period. This criterion is also a stacked deck, a pre-determined conclusion that only allows certain evidence to be considered. Brindle indicates that if a passage mentions suffering in tribulation before Jesus’s coming, it is de facto precluded from referring to what will happen before the rapture. The circular reasoning is self-evident. He is essentially saying, “I will choose only those passages that do not mention suffering in tribulation, and those passages that do mention tribulation do not apply to the church.” He begins with his preconceived conclusion and then determines his selective passages based on that conclusion. So again his criterion will not allow any evidence against the pretrib position because his presuppositional definition for what constitutes evidence only allows for his conclusion. Moreover, the false dichotomy he makes between having hope and experiencing tribulation is incredibly misguided and unbiblical. (Pretribulationism equates “tribulation” with the day of the Lord’s wrath.) Passages where Christians are exhorted to have hope during the Antichrist’s great tribulation are automatically excluded for consideration. This pattern of selective criteria for pretribulation imminence results in an invalid, unfalsifiable theory. It is constructed in such a fashion so as not to allow any theoretical evidence to be even considered. In short, only that which supports the pre-determined conclusion of imminence will be allowed.
[1] Wayne A. Brindle. “Biblical Evidence for the Imminence of the Rapture.” BSac 158 (2001): 139
