Not Afraid of the Antichrist , livre ebook

Cover
Endorsements
“Filled with hard-hitting, thought-provoking information on what the Bible says about the end times, this book will challenge and encourage you to understand what the future holds for believers.”
Mike Bickle, founder, International House of Prayer, Kansas City
“For the past thirty years, I have taught a course on 1 Thessalonians—the only book of the Bible to use the word translated “rapture” ( harpazō ). In the fourth chapter, the apostle Paul expresses the sequence of events associated with the return of Christ: (1) The Lord shall descend from heaven, (2) the dead in Christ will rise, and (3) believers who are alive shall be “caught up” (raptured) to meet the Lord in the air. The million-dollar question is, What happens next? Will believers accompany the Lord to the earth where He will begin His reign (the post-Tribulation view)? Or will believers remain with Christ in heaven while God pours out His wrath on the earth (the pre-Tribulation view)? Paul’s answer: “We will always be with the Lord!” The issue of the Rapture is a very difficult question and must be answered by inference from the collected testimony of many passages of Scripture. Brown and Keener have put together a well-articulated case for the post-Tribulational position, and they have done so with grace. This book deserves a very careful reading.”
Clinton E. Arnold, dean and professor of New Testament language and literature, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University
“Like the authors of this remarkable book, I was raised believing that the only biblical perspective on the Tribulation was that I need not worry about it, that Jesus would remove me from this earth before the sufferings of that time began. I, too, was nurtured and even encouraged by Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth , and later educated at a seminary known for its dispensational, pre-Tribulational theology. But I came to see what Brown and Keener so eloquently demonstrate in this book, namely, that the promise of Christ to His Church is not deliverance from suffering via a pre-Tribulation Rapture but His faithfulness in preserving us in the midst of it. This is, quite simply, the best and most informative book available on this subject. Highly recommended!”
Sam Storms, senior pastor, Bridgeway Church, Oklahoma City; past president, Evangelical Theological Society
“I couldn’t wait to read Not Afraid of the Antichrist , and I was not disappointed! Two of my favorite theologians and authors have come together to write the best book I’ve encountered addressing Pre-Tribulation Rapture theology. Dr. Michael Brown and Dr. Craig Keener have managed to treat the subject with scholarly precision, while keeping it highly readable and even entertaining. I highly recommend this book.”
Daniel Kolenda, president and CEO, Christ for All Nations
“It is so refreshing and encouraging to hear Dr. Keener’s and Dr. Brown’s views of the Christian life. It is in fact about a Person, and pure and simple devotion to Him above all else. Nothing that God allows to happen in this world can take away our life in Him, who has become to us everything we need. May this book center you on Him and His Kingdom more than ever!”
Dr. Rolland Baker, founder, Iris Global
Half Title Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2019 by Craig S. Keener and Michael L. Brown
Published by Chosen Books
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
www.chosenbooks.com
Chosen Books is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
Ebook edition created 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-1739-1
All Scripture translations, except where specified otherwise, are the authors’ own.
Scripture quotations labeled ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2016
Scripture quotations labeled HCSB are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
Scripture quotations labeled NASB are from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org
Scripture quotations labeled NET are from the NET Bible®, copyright © 1996–2016 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
Scripture quotations labeled NKJV are from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled NLT are from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled N R S V are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled T L V are from the Tree of Life Version. © 2015 by the Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society. Used by permission of the Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.
Cover design by Rob Williams, InsideOutCreativeArts
Dedication
To our friends and colleagues around the world who have suffered, or even died, for their faith in Jesus, without denying His name.
Contents
Cover 1
Endorsements 2
Half Title Page 3
Title Page 5
Copyright Page 6
Dedication 7
Foreword by Craig L. Blomberg 11
Acknowledgments 13
Preface 14
Introduction: Christians Face Tribulation 17
Part I: Why Many Doubt “Left Behind” Theology 27
1. Some Questions to Consider 29
2. How We Left Behind Our “Left Behind” Theology 37
3. Pre-Pre-Trib: Views about the End throughout the History of the Church 54
4. Shall We Dispense with Dispensationalism? 68
Part II: What Does the Bible Say? 79
5. Does the Old Testament Support a Pre-Trib Rapture? 81
6. There Is Only One Second Coming 100
7. Evaluating Some Pre-Trib Arguments 123
8. Post-Tribulational Passages: Jesus Returns for His Followers Only after the Tribulation 142
Part III: Implications for Us Today 159
9. What Is the Tribulation? 161
10. How to Live in Light of Post-Tribulationalism 179
11. A Practical Message 200
12. Hope Beyond Tribulation 210
Notes 227
Scripture Index 232
About the Authors 237
Back Ad 238
Back Cover 239
Foreword
A generation ago, baby boomers and some of their parents were captivated by the end-times prophecies of Scripture. Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth became the bestselling nonfiction book in the U.S. during the 1970s. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, those same boomers and some of their children were titillated by the L E F T B E H I N D series from Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, which was clearly touted as fiction but not always treated as such. What these authors shared theologically was the staunch conviction that a pre-Tribulational, premillennial eschatology was the one correct interpretation of Scripture on the events of the last days. Their effects ranged far beyond churches and denominations that already held that perspective. I was invited to teach Revelation in a large adult Sunday school class in a Christian Reformed Church in the Denver metropolitan area shortly before the frenzy over the Y2K crisis that was going to turn the world into chaos on New Year’s Day 2000. Except for one elderly gentleman, no one could articulate Calvin’s view of the end times or amillennial eschatology, which is what the CRC has historically held, but they were all familiar with Lindsey, LaHaye and Jenkins.
As we near the end of the second decade of the 2000s, the scene is quite different. Many Gen Xers and most millennials care very little about eschatology. Often it is an overreaction to their parents’ overreaction in the opposite direction, but often, too, it is a failure to grasp its practical relevance to a world of deep personal and social injustice. Especially if they are reacting against pre-Tribulationism, they recognize the escapist potential and would prefer to concentrate on helping meet people’s needs in the present.
Keener and Brown have crucial things to say both to those who overemphasize and to those who underemphasize biblical eschatology. For the avid pre-Tribulationists, they make a compelling case for post-Tribulationism, both by surveying all the relevant Scriptures and by highlighting the amount of suffering that Christians in many parts of the world have already had to endure, making hopes or promises of escaping the worst of human suffering ring fairly hollow. For the apathetic panmillennialists (it will all just pan out in the end), they stress the need for Western Christians, who have had to make few sacrifices for their faith, to be much better prepared in case hard-core persecution and martyrdom should come their way. For all readers, they put the issues in sound, hist