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Post by melinky on Dec 27, 2004 14:09:58 GMT -5
I have a fairly good idea of these, but not enough to explain it accurately to someone who doesn't know.
Melinda
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Post by Soulfyre on Dec 28, 2004 12:46:48 GMT -5
I have a fairly good idea of these, but not enough to explain it accurately to someone who doesn't know. Melinda First, I'm going to re-post the answers given by rgrove and Kenny to your question within this thread, for a quick reference. Then I will compose my answer and post it for you, just to add a couple of explanatory notes. Excellent question! Matthew (soulfyre)  Pre Tribulation[ists] believes that the rapture will occur before the Antichrist takes power, before he signs the treaty with Israel. This belief is most common because many people think that God will spare us from his wrath, since Christians are saved. Mid Tribulation[ists] believe that 3 1/2 years into the 7 year tribulation period the rapture will occur. This is an important date because this is where all action starts to occur. This is around the time when the 2 witnesses are killed by Antichrist, when the Antichrist is killed and resurected, and this is what God calls the Great Tribulation. So, this view would be more "merciful" than the post trib view because Christians are taken out of the picture right before the rough gets rougher. Post Tribulation[ists] believe that we are raptured at the end of the 7 years. Right when the rough gets easy. Thanks, Kenny! Pre-Tribulationism - The product of a novel, radically new theory called dispensationalism which came into being around 1830. Dispensationalism maintains that God has two separate plans in history, one for Israel and one for the Church. As a result classical dispensationalism rejected the historic understanding that many prophecies are fulfilled in Christ through the church. This resulted in a radically different reading of the Old Testament where all references to Israel, it is maintained, are only references to Israel and not to the church. The church age, it is maintained, was never prophesied in the Old Testament and therefore all prophecies regarding Israel *must* be understood as being fulfilled in a future Israeli state. As a result of radically new way reading of scripture around a secret rapture is required before a seven year Great Tribulation in order to maintain the system's requirement that God deals differently with the Church and Israel at all times. A Second Advent that deals with both at the same time is not possible in the classical form of the system. This belief became popular starting around the turn of the 20th century in Baptist, Independant, and Pentacostal circles. In the mid 1980's a new movement in Dispensational circles began to appear called "Progressive Dispensationalism" which has moved more toward the historic positions of the church, but has maintained the secret rapture theory and other Dispensational distinctives. Mid-Tribulationism - After the appearence of Dispensationionalism in 1830 and it's spread to the U.S. around 1860 some alterations began to be taught. The hermeneutical method of dispensationalism is maintained, but mid-tribulationists assert that the secret rapture happens when "he" (the Anti-Christ in the dispensational view) of Daniel 9:27 stops the "sacrifice and grain offering" in the middle of the last prophectic week. Post-Tribulationism - Many only include historic premillenialists and the handfull of post-trib dispensationalists in this category. But this category actually includes all of the historic millenial views as William E. Anderson aptly points out in his historic premill book "Rapture: Sure... But When?". Historic Premillenialism, Amillenialism and Postmillenialism are all "post-tribulational" when you consider that they all teach a future period of tribulation that the church must go through before being "raptured" at the visible Second Coming of our Lord and Savior. When viewed in this manner, "Post-Tribulationism" is still the vast majority view of the Christian church presently and throughout church history. Good detail. Thanks, Ron! I get the vague impression that you may not be a "dispensationalist"... ;D To be continued... Matthew (soulfyre) |
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Post by rgrove on Dec 28, 2004 13:00:05 GMT -5
Don't understand how that impression might have slipped through...  |
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