Prophecy

7. The Early Church Problem

 

This is the seventh and last "problem" that Kurschner and White address. First of all, I wholeheartedly agree with them that anything that the Church Fathers or later Christians believed about the timing of the Resurrection/Rapture is not authoritative. Only scripture is authoritative.

 

Secondly, they claim that the Early Church believed that the Church would be present during the persecution by the Antichrist, only to be raptured near the end of the last 3 1/2 years. Some points need to be made in response to this:

 

1. Of course, there will be an invisible Church during the last 7 years before the "end of the age" that will face the Jewish Antichrist and his persecution. There will certainly be the perhaps half million saved Jews/Israelis in Israel in those 7 years and also "the rest of her [invisible Israel's] children" (Revelation 12:17), both Jews and Gentiles, that the Holy Spirit saves in other parts of the world in those 7 years. But I am convinced that all of the invisible Church alive before those 7 years begin, perhaps a billion or more of God's chosen ones, will be raptured.

 

2. If any of the Church Fathers or Early Church did write of a rapture during "tribulation," and I am not sure that any did, remember that, in my view, "tribulation" relates to the time period of 1903/4 to 2023/24 when Satan and the demons not active in Noah's day are out of hell and back on the earth "to deceive the nations" and to "steal, kill and destroy." In the last 7 years, 2023/24 to 2030/31, the Jewish Antichrist (resurrected by and possessed by Satan) and the Jewish False Prophet (Jewish High Priest?) are in Jerusalem and doing battle against Moses and Elijah in the first 3 1/2 years and then trampling Jerusalem for the second 3 1/2 years, while persecuting and killing as many true Christians, Jewish or Gentile, as they can. I see these 7 years in their entirety as a time of "great tribulation." See my article on The Revelation Problem, Part 4 of this series, for more on that.

 

3. Also, remember that "he who now restrains" (2 Thessalonians 2:7) must be "taken out of the way" before the Jewish Antichrist is "revealed." I claim that he will be revealed at the very beginning of the last 7 years, when he assassinates Vladimir Putin and takes down 2 other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) rulers and comes against Israel. Pre-Wrathers claim that he will be revealed at the Abomination of Desolation in the middle of the last 7 years, when he claims to be God in the newly-built Temple in Jerusalem. How they put the Resurrection/Rapture after the revelation and not before is a mystery to me.

 

4. I didn't see anything in their documentary or transcript of it that conclusively had an Early Church Father claiming the coincidence of the Church and the Antichrist before the Resurrection/Rapture. Perhaps it exists, I don't know, but it was not presented and remember my point 1 above. The only Early Church document mentioned in this context is the Didache (circa 100 AD) and it is a fairly ambiguous doctrinal statement on eschatology. It mentions "for you do not know when our Lord is coming" (but at the Resurrection/Rapture or the Second Coming?), "And then the Deceiver of the world will appear as a son of God, and will do signs and wonders" (but at what time in connection to the Resurrection/Rapture?) and "the resurrection of the dead" (but at the Resurrection/Rapture or after the Second Coming?) Conceivably, it could intend a Pre-Trib view: that the Lord comes at the Resurrection/Rapture, then the Jewish Antichrist appears and then there is a resurrection after the Second Coming. You be the judge. You can Google it and find it and read it. It is not a clear statement on eschatology.

 

5. I agree with the Pre-Wrathists that the next document covered by Kurschner and White, Pseudo-Ephraem, is not a strong argument for the Pre-Trib view. First off, it is not even from the Early Church, but "from the Middle Ages, and it is almost certainly a forgery," according to them. Frankly, it would be silly for either side to put much stock in this muddled 5-page warning. You can Google it and read it. It seems to have the Antichrist from the tribe of Dan (which may be correct since Dan is not included in the 12 tribes in Revelation) coming after the warring Persian and Roman Empires are gone, the 2 witnesses as Enoch and Elijah (Moses and Elijah, in my view) and the 1260 days (the first 3 1/2 years when Moses and Elijah are prophesying in Jerusalem) conflated with the second 3 1/2 years when Jerusalem is trampled, which the writer wrongly, in my view, sees as the nations flocking to the Antichrist in Jerusalem, rather then the destruction of Jerusalem.

 

Here is the quote (my bolding) that perhaps seems to suggest a Pre-Tribulation Resurrection/Rapture:

 

"Why therefore do we not reject every care of earthly actions and prepare ourselves for the meeting of the Lord Christ, so that he may draw us from the confusion, which overwhelms all the world? Believe you me, dearest brother, because the coming (advent) of the Lord is nigh, believe you me, because the end of the world is at hand, believe me, because it is the very last time. Or do you not believe unless you see with your eyes? See to it that this sentence be not fulfilled among you of the prophet who declares: “Woe to those who desire to see the day of the Lord!” For all the saints and elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken to the Lord lest they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins."

 

However, it has some ambiguity. First, it says that Christ may draw us from the confusion, which the writer especially associates with the Jewish Antichrist, and then it says that this happens prior to the tribulation that is to come ... lest they see the confusion. There is no definition of the tribulation, but it seems logical to assume that the writer associated it with the confusion by the Jewish Antichrist in the last 3 1/2 years, however the writer also writes, "Then Christ shall come and the enemy shall be thrown into confusion."

 

After this quote, there is another (my bolding) that follows:

 

 

It is not clear to me where the writer puts the resurrection of the two prophets, 2 witnesses, Moses and Elijah, in my view. He seems to put it at the end of the last 3 1/2 years, followed by the Second Coming of Christ with great power and much majesty, whereas I put it 3 1/2 days after they are killed by the Jewish Antichrist at the midpoint of the 7 years. They are resurrected 3 1/2 days later to show that they will return in 3 1/2 years with Christ at His Second Coming.

 

Kurschner and White try to make the last bolded sentence to be the Resurrection/Rapture, but this seems unlikely to have been the writer's intent, since it seems to follow the Second Coming of Christ and may include the elect and the reprobate. To me, it seems the writer is talking about the final resurrection of the dead and the final judgment. But again, there is ambiguity, because what follows the bolded sentence is the confusion and destruction of the enemy, presumably the Jewish Antichrist, and all people who do Satan's wishes. One would think that the final resurrection and final judgment would be mentioned after that. Frankly, the bottom line is that this is not a reliable document to provide strong evidence from the Middle Ages for either the Pre-Trib or Pre-Wrath view.

 

I can agree with Kurschner and White that the Pre-Trib quotes from 1586 to 1795 only provide evidence of the belief that the Resurrection/Rapture would happen before the final conflagration or Armageddon, which Pre-Wrathists also believe. I can also agree with them that the Brother Dolcino (died 1307) quote offers no good support for the Resurrection/Rapture happening before the last 7 years, because Brother Dolcino believed that he and his followers would be transferred into Paradise once the Antichrist had come in the last 3 1/2 years. That is much closer to a Pre-Wrath view than to a Pre-Trib view.

 

In summary, I can agree with the Pre-Wrathers that there is little in Church history before the mid-1800s that conclusively presents a Pre-Tribulation Resurrection/Rapture view, i.e., that the Resurrection/Rapture initiates the last 7 years before the "end of the age." However, I would say also that there is little in Church history before the late-1900s that conclusively presents a Pre-Wrath Resurrection/Rapture view, i.e., that the Resurrection/Rapture will occur sometime after the mid-point of the last 7 years.

 

Pre-Wrathers should contend with some of my arguments for a Pre-Tribulation Resurrection/Rapture in my article on this site, titled ARGUMENTS FOR THE RESURRECTION AND RAPTURE IN 2023. I should have written 2023/24, because my guess is that it will occur sometime between Nisan 1 (March 23), 2023 and Nisan 1 (April 9), 2024.