WRANGLING OVER WRATH

by Dave MacPherson

      End-time wrath in the Bible is hardly my favourites topic. But since it is there, my earlier work entitled "The Incredible Cover-Up" will be happy to share the following thoughts about it:

     Pretribs teach that the church will never experience God's wrath (the various rapture views heartily agree) and quote verses like John 5:24, Romans 5:9 and 8:1, and also quote I Thessalonians 1:10 and 5:9 to try to prove the church's exemption from the tribulation.

     Do these verses really teach a pretrib escape?

     John 5:24 speaks of the "condemnation" that never comes to one who passes "from death unto life."

     Romans 5:9 tells of being "saved from wrath" - the wrath that one escapes when he or she is "justified by his blood."

     Romans 8:1 assure those "in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" that they are no longer under "condemnation."

     I Thessalonians 1:10 refers to "Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." Any wrath from which Jesus delivers, such as second coming wrath on the ungodly or eternal wrath of Hell, is not the Satanic wrath which gives the tribulation its bad reputation.

     Even tribulation saints in the middle of persecution can stand on this verse and rest assured that a much greater wrath will eventually overtake their persecutors - a wrath that no one can withstand.

     I Thessalonians 5:9 says that "God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." If I wanted to reverse this text, I could say that Satan hasn't appointed us to salvation, but to obtain wrath. The opposite of salvation is not merely a time of tribulational testing, but the eternal wrath of God.

     Even E. Schuyler English in his pretrib book "Re-Thinking the Rapture," pp. 56-7, admits that the last clause of I Thessalonians 1:10 is better rendered "who is delivering us from the wrath to come." He adds that this verse doesn't prove the pretrib view.

     Most of the pretrib leaders do know the difference between Satanic and godly wrath. But if their followers don't know the difference, they can easily be convinced of a pretrib rapture with verses like I Thessalonians 1:10.

     If the tribulation is primarily Satanic wrath (from which no believer is ever immune), pretrib promoters can best succeed in getting followers by giving the false impression that all tribulational wrath is divine wrath.

     Indeed, in "The Rapture Question" (billed as a "comprehensive" biblical study) John Walvoord omits any mention of Revelation 12:12 which says that "the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath...."

     Even if all tribulation wrath were exclusively divine wrath (which it isn't), God would have no more difficulty in distinguishing between the bad guys and the good guys than  He had when He visited Egypt with plagues.

     Actually, posttrib authors like Ladd, Payne, and Gundry (and others whose end-times views are similar) can see divine wrath commencing at the end of the tribulation - certainly not at or near the start of the tribulation, as pretribs would like to claim.

     Payne's "The Imminent Appearing of Christ," p. 172, contains a chart showing that all of the trumpet and bowl judgments (which seem to mark the commencement of God's wrath) immediately preceding the appearing of Christ could happen in as little as fifteen minutes. And these judgments are directed only towards the ungodly - never at God's holy people.

     Well, this is my brief take on the subject of wrath. What's yours?