The Simple Truth About the Rapture | Paul Wilkinson | Prophecy Watchers
It is difficult to see how Paul Wilkinson expects discerning viewers to take his contribution seriously when he chooses to appear as a guest on Prophecy Watchers with Gary Stearman. The ministry has accumulated substantial criticism: its heavy commercialisation, its constant product‑driven framing, its acquisition of a former TBN studio, and its self‑promotion through associations with networks like TBN, Daystar, CTN, and Cornerstone. Prophecy Watchers itself highlights these network connections as ministry “breakthroughs", presenting the TBN building purchase and Daystar acceptance as divine endorsements rather than routine media expansion. The platform is also widely perceived as excessively commercial, with nearly every teaching segment tied to DVDs, books, bundles, subscriptions, or “ministry support” packages, creating a closed loop where theological claims feed product sales. External observers echo this perception, describing the ministry as a money‑making scheme with paywall‑adjacent practices.1 In addition, Prophecy Watchers regularly features teachers whose doctrines are considered highly questionable in many conservative theological circles. Wilkinson’s appearance suggests that, for him, alignment on pretribulation eschatology overrides concerns about commercialisation, doctrinal instability, or platform credibility.
Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:1-10)Wilkinson: "Paul is giving comfort to God's people, which is why Paul says in verse 18 at the very end, 'encourage one another. Comfort one another with these words'. Not 'scare the living daylights out of each other' as many in the church are doing with their tribulationism, but 'comfort, encourage one another.'"
It is the duty of every responsible interpreter to warn believers about the coming tribulation, not to give them emotional platitudes and false hope. We comfort one another with our ultimate hope, but there will be tribulation, both in the general sense and also in the ultimate sense, before the day of the Lord. Pretrib interpreters fail to prepare believers for this difficult time.
Wilkinson: "I believe this is pertinent to the church with all the talk of tribulationalism. 'You are going to go halfway through it, you are going to five-sevenths of the way through it, you are going to go all the way through it.. or there is no rapture.. we are in it now.' 'But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity (ἁπλότης) that is in Christ' (2 Corinthians 11:3 NKJV). What does Satan want to do? He wants to complicate, he wants to confuse.."
Scripture explicitly places the rapture after the breaking of the sixth seal. (Revelation 6:17; Matthew 24:29–31). This is not an invention of prewrath interpreters, nor is it speculation. It is the plain sequence given in the text. Wilkinson doesn't engage in any technical discussion with the prewrath position; he simply lobs ad hominem attacks and mocks the word of God.
But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure (ἁπλότης) devotion to Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:3).
The Greek noun ἁπλότης is translated in several ways across the lexicons. Although the NKJV and some other versions render it as “simplicity", the term does not mean simplicity in the sense of something reduced, basic, or intellectually minimal. According to Strong’s, it derives from ἁπλοῦς and carries the sense of singleness — subjectively, sincerity without duplicity or self‑interest; objectively, generosity expressed in open‑handed giving.2 The core idea is an undivided, straightforward purpose that manifests as transparent sincerity and liberal generosity, not a call to simplistic thinking.
Wilkinson’s appeal to the “simplicity of the rapture", combined with his claim that he wrote his book for the Gypsy church because they are largely uneducated, effectively positions a vulnerable group as the ideal target for his false teaching. The same dynamic is evident among Prophecy Watchers viewers, who are similarly susceptible and lack discernment. He directs his doctrinal claims toward those he assumes cannot test or critically evaluate them. (1 John 4:1). Scripture repeatedly warns believers not to remain simple‑minded but to pursue understanding (Proverbs 8:5; 9:4, 2 Timothy 2:15, etc.). Peter explicitly acknowledges that some of Paul’s writings are hard to understand and are twisted by the ignorant and unstable to their own destruction (2 Peter 3:16). In other words, not everything is simple, and responsible interpretation requires effort, study, and discernment. This does not require academic training, but it does require a deliberate willingness to seek understanding from the Lord — a request He answers when believers genuinely desire discernment. Wilkinson’s model bypasses this biblical expectation and instead treats doctrinal “simplicity” as a virtue, though scripture never does. Scripture teaches that spiritual truth is spiritually discerned, but this does not create an intellectual hierarchy or endorse a passive, unquestioning faith. It means the Spirit grants understanding as believers engage, examine, and think. No group is exempt from this responsibility, whether educated or not. Wilkinson’s attempt to present the pretribulation rapture as a “simple” doctrine for an allegedly vulnerable audience does not protect them; it exposes them to error with serious consequences.
Wilkinson says, “The rapture is not about a doctrine as such; it is about a Person… the Person of the rapture.” He is correct in principle, yet it is striking that when the disciples asked Jesus about the signs of His coming and the end of the age, His first response was a warning: See that no one leads you astray. (Matthew 24:4). In other words, devotion to the Person does not negate the need for doctrinal clarity or vigilance against deception.
In technical terms, the rapture occurs between the sixth and seventh seals of Revelation. Since no one knows the day or the hour, this is the closest approximation scripture allows us to make at present. To dismiss or mock what God has explicitly stated regarding the timing of the rapture is not a trivial matter, and Wilkinson will ultimately be held accountable for dismissing this clear biblical assertion with such contempt. As I have argued many times previously, those who fail to heed the explicit warnings in the scriptures will be bewildered and unprepared to face the persecution of the Antichrist. I see teachers like Wilkinson as Hananiah figures, i.e. false prophets who do not rightly divide the word of truth, leading believers into false hope. (2 Timothy 2:15; Jeremiah 15:1-16).
Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? (2 Thessalonians 2:1-5).
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