In one sense there is no real debate about what the early church fathers believed about the timing of the rapture. However those holding to a pretrib rapture position have offered up various theories concerning the Didache, Pseudo Ephraim and a host of other documents which they claim support their view as opposed to the traditional view. I think this discussion is as facilitating as it is frustrating. So join me as I mostly refute the paper by James F. Stitzinger published by the Masters Seminary: https://tms.edu/msj/msj13-2-1/
Reason #1: The 10 kings/kingdoms ruling much of, if not the entire world, must occur before the Antichrist’s arrival on the world stage (Dan:7:24).
This 10 king system will likely take many years to develop, as major geopolitical changes will need to take place first.
The Antichrist is opposed to the 10 king system initially, he defeats 3 of the 10 (Dan 7:8, 20, 24), after which, all 10 pledge loyalty to the Antichrist, receiving royal authority (Rev 17:12, 17), thus changing the system into a theocracy (Rev 13:12, 15), which starts at the midpoint (Dan 11:36-40, Matt 24:15-22, 2 Thess 2:3-12).
Therefore, not only are we awaiting the establishment of the 10 kings/kingdoms, probably located around the Mediterranean Sea (Dan 7:3),
we are also waiting for the Antichrist to conquer that yet future system. And while all those events could take place quickly, it would seem reasonable to assume a decade or more would be needed before even the first events could take place.
Reason #2: Israel is currently not ruled by a world empire.
If you believe that the first 6 heads of the dragon in Rev 13:1-4, 17:3, 7, 9-11, are a picture of Egypt, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome (as many conservative scholars do), then the 7th and final head of the beast, the one with the 10 kings, will need to rule over Israel, because ruling over Israel is arguably the one thing a head of the beast must do, typologically speaking.
Ruling Israel is the thing that connects the other 6 empires in history, Which is almost certainly why they are singled out from other Satanically inspired kingdoms (Dan 2,7, Rev 17:10-11).
Therefore, since the 10 king system is a precursor to the Antichrist (Dan:7:24), it means that Israel will need to be ruled over by the 10 king system significantly before the Antichrist first comes on the scene, and since Israel is currently a sovereign nation, many events will need to take place before these other events can occur.
Reason #3 Contrary to popular belief, the birth pains have not yet begun.
The “birth pains” in Matthew 24:4-8 (false christ’s, wars, famines, earthquakes), as well as the other events in Matthew 24, such as martyrdom (v.9, 21-22), celestial disturbances in the sun, moon, and stars (v.29), and resurrection (v.30-31), seem to be mirrored in the opening of the seals in Rev 6-7: The Antichrist (v.1-2), wars (v.3-4), famine (v.5-6), martyrdom (v.7-11), celestial disturbances (v.12-17), and resurrection (v.7:9-17). All of which seems to line up with the signs that announce the start of the Day of the Lord in the Old Testament (Joel 2:31).
If this is the correct interpretation, then the birth pains can not have been occurring already, as many evangelicals teach, but instead the birth pains are prophecies of specific events, which will occur over a very short time period, probably starting at the beginning of the 7 year period, with the strengthening of the covenant, and the starting of the daily sacrifices (Dan 9:27). This will be directly followed by the Antichrists wars of conquest (Dan 11:40-12:1, Rev 6:3-4, Matt 24:6-7).
Therefore the main argument used by those attempting to prove that we are in the end times (that the birth pains are occurring now), is a bad, and even dangerous interpretation, because if you believe that the first stage of the 10 king system is the Antichrist’s system, when it isn’t (it may be evil, but it will not be ruled by the Antichrist until just before the midpoint), then you will be more likely to cheer the Antichrist as he appears to liberate the world, including Israel from that evil system.
This deception would be especially potent if the AC claims to be the messiah, supposedly fulfilling messianic prophecies, such as Isa 11:14-16, and other such prophecies of messianic conquests, not coincidentally, of the same nations mentioned in Dan 11:40-45
Chris White, with Bible Prophecy Talk Podcast, presents Part 10 of his 11-part series on “The Islamic Antichrist Theory”. Chris is discussing, from the biblical text, why he believes the Islamic Antichrist theory is incompatible with the Bible.
Today, in Part 10, Chris examines the characteristics and actions of the Antichrist as revealed in the Bible, and how the Islamic Antichrist theory fails to explain these actions in a way that is logically consistent.
Chris White, with Bible Prophecy Talk Podcast, presents Part 9 of his 11-part series on “The Islamic Antichrist Theory”. Chris is discussing, from the biblical text, why he believes the Islamic Antichrist theory is inaccurate.
Today, in Part 9, Chris addresses the emphasis of Islamic eschatological belief in views developed by authors such as Joel Richardson in the book “Islamic Antichrist”.
Chris offers a helpful overview of eschatology in Islam, as believed by both Sunni and Shiites, and compares varous similarities & differences betweeen those beliefs, Christian biblical beliefs and other extra-biblical sources.
He concludes by presenting the problems Islamic eschatology presents for Richardson’s view of an “Islamic” antichrist that aligns with the Bible.
Chris White, with Bible Prophecy Talk Podcast, presents Part 8 of his 11-part series on “The Islamic Antichrist Theory”. Chris is discussing, from the biblical text, why he believes the Islamic Antichrist theory is inaccurate.
Today, in Part 8, Chris counters the view that Gog is the Antichrist, as presented in the book “Mideast Beast” by Joel Richardson. This view also argues that Gog is from Turkey, which has a sizeable Muslim population thereby adducing Gog is a Muslim Antichrist.
In this episode, Chris covers a lot of ground by going in depth using important historical resources as well as the biblical text in Exekiel 38 & 39 and Revelation 20.
NOTE: For listeners with a player that supports indexing, you will find this episode divided into 16 chapters for ease of studying along with Chris and reviewing his excellent research on this topic.
