Rapture Sermon Series 44 - Explaining & Refuting Pre-Wrath, Pt. 3. Rev. 6:16-17. Dr. Andy Woods - YouTube
Part 3 of Andy Woods' onslaught against the prewrath rapture did not add anything new to the subject. This video consists of repeated accusations against the prewrath position. Much of this content has already been addressed in my previous two posts. {1}
Andy Woods brought up Alan Kurschner's prewrath chart below which correlates the birth pains in Matthew 24 with the seal judgements of Revelation 6-7:
Andy Woods confirms the prewrath view that the "beginning of birth pains" will precede the Day of the Lord as either Satan's wrath or man's wrath. His objection to the above chart is that the third seal is described as "famine" rather than "famine and earthquakes". Matthew is the only gospel that links famines and earthquakes, and Revelation 6:5-6 omits earthquakes altogether. Mark and Luke apply earthquakes in a general sense to the beginning of birth pains. I am not sure if there is a strict necessity to apply famines and earthquakes exclusively to the third seal as there may be some overlap.
For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. (Matthew 24:7).
For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains. (Mark 13:8).
Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.(Luke 21:10-11) .
I am confident that no-one within the prewrath camp have overlooked, or would attempt to deny, that Jesus Christ facilitates the release of the Antichrist. (Revelation 5:9). The scriptures indicate that a significant increase in earthquakes will occur subsequent to the arrival of the Antichrist. Paul uses the birth pains metaphor to describe the present subjection of all creation to travail (ὠδίνω) ~ For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. (Romans 8:22 cf. Romans 8:19-21; Genesis 3:17; Job 9:6). The breaking of the first seal i.e. the arrival of the Antichrist, is the catalyst that precipitates the breaking of the subsequent seals, beginning with wars and famine. As such, the Antichrist is the agent that God will use to fulfil His ultimate purposes. The metaphor "the beginning of birth pains" expresses travail and pain. To insist on anything more than that is to go beyond what is written. (1 Corinthians 4:6).
The period the scriptures designate as the Day of the Lord/the Day of His wrath begins specifically when the seventh seal is broken. After the seventh seal is broken, God's wrath is orchestrated directly from heaven itself against the wicked. (Revelation 8:6-13). The scriptures apply the designation the Day of the Lord to unprecedented wrath (orgé), not previously known on the earth, and never to be repeated.
..a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations. (Joel 2:2).
A major problem for those who do not follow the biblical distinctions, the beginning of birth pains, tribulation and wrath are the fifth seal martyrs.
And when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony they had upheld. And they cried out in a loud voice, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You avenge our blood and judge those who dwell upon the earth?” Then each of them was given a white robe and told to rest a little while longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers, were killed, just as they had been killed. (Revelation 6:9-11 cf. Revelation 12:17).
According to pre-trib reasoning, the fifth seal martyrs will experience God's wrath. The fifth seal specifically addresses the martyrdom of faithful believers killed under the persecution of the Antichrist. (Daniel 7:25; Matthew 24:9). This cannot possibly be God's wrath. Those under the altar ask how long it will be before God avenges their blood and judges the earth dwellers. This is a reference to the wrath which will begin after the great tribulation. Furthermore, Revelation 6:17 confirms "the great day of Their wrath has come (ηλθεν/ēlthen)."
Revelation 6:17 and the aorist indicative verb ēlthen
Andy Woods repeats the skewed translation of ἦλθεν (ēlthen) as a past action. This translation does not fit the context of the previous six seals, but rather the wicked realize that God's wrath has arrived, or rather, it is/has become imminent. As much as Andy Woods quotes pre-trib scholars Robert L Thomas and Gerald B Stanton, there are many more Greek scholars who disagree with them. {2}
The examples below demonstrate that context is the key to ἦλθεν/ēlthen.
It is enough; the hour has come (ἦλθεν/ēlthen). The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. (Mark 14:41).
Swing Your sickle and reap, because the time has come (ἦλθεν/ēlthen) to harvest; for the crop of the earth is ripe. (Revelation 14:15).
A further problem is that there is no indication that believers will be exempted from seal four:
sword, famine, plague, and the beasts of the earth. As Andy Woods indicates, a quarter of the worlds population will perish during this period. (Revelation 6:8). If this is wrath, then there is a contradiction with 1 Thessalonians 5:9. While there are similarities with Ezekiel 5:5-17, Ezekiel 7:14-15 and Ezekiel 14:21, the context of these passages is not eschatological, i.e. these OT passages refer to the desolation of Jerusalem/Israel, not to the 70th week of Daniel.
Andy Woods quoted a saying of Tim LaHaye regarding "specialists". Frankly I would not embarrass myself by quoting novelist Tim LaHaye (Left Behind). LaHaye's involvement with, and support of, messiah claimant Sun Myung Moon (Moonies) means that we can write him off as a person of integrity! {3}
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