Should Pretribbers Give Up Their Argument Amid Signs of the Times?

Premillennial Dispensationalism is the dominant end times view among American Protestants today, thanks to the Scofield Bible, Billy Graham, most non-reformed churches and popular books and movies like “Left Behind.”

But the Church was not always “pre-mill” and one criticism of pre-millennialism by its opponents is that it has given up on the culture and essentially left it for Satan while Christians retreat to live in caves, waiting for the Lord’s return.

That description is part caricature, but there was a rather telling admission by a premillennialist and Baptist pastor after the Supreme Court’s ruling last month making homosexual marriage a “constitutional right,” one that seemed to validate my caricature of premillennialists. Thecripplegate.com author and Baptist pastor Clint Arthur wrote:

“It isn’t easy for Christians to identify a silver lining to (June 26th’s) ruling that is worth celebration; unless you’re a premillennialist.”

“Whereas postmillennialism believes that Christ will return to earth when the gospel has triumphed over unbelief and conquered the globe, premillennialists aren’t holding their breath. Premills teach that the world will slide from bad to worse until it is so irrecoverably bad that only Jesus can fix it. That will be his cue to return and establish a rule of peace, righteousness, and sanity in the courts.”

“So, it is on days like this that I read with relish passages that others may dismiss as pessimistic. I prefer to see regress in society as a welcome sign that the Bible is accurate, and that Jesus is coming soon.”

“Friday’s ruling is yet another harbinger of what the Bible predicts will happen. The world will slide into a miry cesspool that no human can restore. And then Jesus will return to make all things new. Every SCOTUS faux pas is a step closer to that great day.”

In an article entitled “Eschatology Matters,” The American Vision, a Calvinist website that is not premillennial, said this about the article by Rev. Arthur:

“Every once in a while you get someone who just comes out and says it…premillennialism logically entails cultural surrender, and when cultural defeats happen, premillennialists secretly love it… “The embrace of, and near-celebration of cultural defeat is explicit on the lips and in the hearts of standard, conservative, Bible-believing, Christian premillennial leaders… They expect to lose the pro-life cause. They expect to lose the marriage fight. They expect to lose all our freedoms and biblical values in society. They expect to lose private property and free enterprise. They expect to lose the second amendment. They expect to lose the tenth amendment. They expect to lose the first amendment.”

What did Jesus mean when He said in a parable, “Occupy (engage in business) until I come?”

As Christians are now sent to jail for holding to the very beliefs this government was founded upon, it is a crucial debate. Should we rejoice that what was once a Christian nation is now what it is?

I leave you with quotes from both sides of this argument, from the website Christian Civilization.

For cultural abandonment:

“You don’t polish brass on a sinking ship.” —J. Vernon McGee

“God sent us to be fishers of men, not to clean up the fish bowl.” —Hal Lindsey

“I just can’t buy their [postmillennialists’] basic presupposition that we can do anything significant to change the world. And you can waste an awful lot of time trying.” —Harold Hoehner of Dallas Theological Seminary.

For cultural redemption:

“David was not a believer in the theory that the world will grow worse and worse, and that the dispensation will wind up with general darkness and idolatry… It would be easy to show that at our present rate of progress the kingdoms of this world never could become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.

Indeed, many in the Church are giving up the idea of it except on the occasion of the advent of Christ, which, as it chimes in with our own idleness, is likely to be a popular doctrine. I myself believe that King Jesus will reign and idols be utterly abolished; but I expect the same power which turned the world upside down once will continue to do it. The Holy Ghost would not suffer the imputation to rest upon His holy name that He was not able to convert the world.”  —Charles Spurgeon 

Dale Hurd is a senior reporter at CBN.