Good question. This is something I sincerely believe God has called me to do. I’ve been a professing follower of Jesus since my conversion from God-hating atheism in 1985. I’ve been privileged to serve the Lord in many ways over the years. When I was first born-again in Southern California, I soon discovered that there were many groups of people that claimed Jesus as their own, but had very different ideas about who He is. The first one I ran into was from the Baha’i Faith. They told me that Jesus was a manifestation of God just like Krishna, Buddha, Abraham, Moses, and Mohammad, but that God’s most recent manifestation was through a Persian man named Baha’u’llah. But one of the first things I learned about Jesus from His word was a warning, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me,” John 14:6. They were misrepresenting Jesus.

After that I ran into some Mormon missionaries that were trying to convince me that they alone represented the true Church Church of Jesus Christ, that they had living Apostles and a Prophet, and that they had a more recent revelation from God called the Book of Mormon. They also said that I could find out if what they said was true by praying about it, and that God Himself would manifest it to me by a burning in my bosom. Well, I knew I didn’t have to pray about it. God had already revealed Jesus through His word and I didn’t need to pray about it. Why? “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work,” 2 Tim 3:16-17. Also their teaching that men can become God’s through their Church is the same lie that the Serpent used to deceive Eve.

Starting to see a pattern here? I began studying all these various cults and isms. I read the Late Dr. Walter Martin’s book “The Kingdom of The Cults,” and started witnessing to them and warning fellow believers about these and other false teachings. So basically I became a Christian apologist and expert on comparative religion without a college degree, and without the benefit of the Internet to do the research. I had to read a lot of books and rely on God for wisdom and understanding.

In addition, I have taught Bible studies, taught on cults and false religious systems, participated in street evangelism in the heart of Hollywood most Friday nights for a number of years. I have taught the Inductive Bible study method, worked as a volunteer for GoodFight Ministries in it’s early days, creating it’s first website in 1996, and was the Assistant Director for the 6 hour video “Rock&Roll Sorcerers of The New Age Revolution,” available here. I took a hiatus from public ministry to start a family, but continued to serve in the local Church doing audio visual.

My kids are nearly grown now, and my attention has turned back to my original passion. Revelation 2:2-7 is something that the Lord has brought to my heart. Although I still have not answered the question: Why nopretrib? When I was first born-again, after a very short association with a Church that was caught up in the word-faith movement, I ended up at a Calvary Chapel in Southern California. That Church was strong in defending the authority of God’s word and practiced expository teaching. I learned a lot there including pre-tribulationism. I accepted it without really looking at it critically. Most of the pat arguments that I hear today in favor of pre-tribulationism I learned back then in the 80’s.

One night at a Bible study a fellow Christian asked me if I believed in pre-tribulationism, and I said, “Of course I do, why wouldn’t I?” So he asked if he could share a scripture with me and I said, “Sure.” He took me to Revelation 20:4-6 Which reads in part, “Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” So he asked me, “Did these martyrs live through the tribulation?” I said, “Yes, they suffered at the hands of the Anti-Christ and refused to take the mark of the beast, so they would have had to have gone through the tribulation.” We continued to read, “The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection.” So he said, “Which resurrection is this?” I said, “The first.” He asked if we could look at just one more verse and I said, “Sure.” Next we went to 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 which reads, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.” So he asks me, “According to this verse, what comes first, the rapture, or the resurrection?” I said, “The resurrection.” Then he asked me the final question, “If the first resurrection happens to people that die during the tribulation at the hands of the Anti-christ, and this resurrection precedes the rapture, how can the rapture happen before the tribulation?” There was a long silence as I thought about it. The simplicity and the logic of it were inescapable. All the pat arguments were insufficient to answer that question in way other than, “It can’t come before the tribulation.” I have believed in post-tribulationism ever since.

That was over 25 years ago. In that time I have seen the prevalence of pre-tribulationsm grow well beyond what it was back in the 80’s and 90’s, especially with all of the Left Behind books and movies that have been put out. There are Bible teachers out there that have made themselves into millionaires almost exclusively by promoting pre-tribulationism. I believe we are very close to the beginning of the great tribulation. There have been shadows of it in the recent past. Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, and the Cultural Revolution in China. In those countries, pre-tribulationism was taught to them by the British and Americans. Many were ecstatic that they would escape the horrors that they ended up experiencing. When they did not escape, they fell away. Today, as I’m writing this, the scripture is being fulfilled in the Middle East where Muslims are beheading Christians. “…but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.” John 16:2.

God’s word warns of there being a great apostasy, a falling away from the faith. Jesus and the Apostles warned us about it. Corrie ten Boom warned about it, having experienced first hand what happens to believers that are not prepared to face tribulation. Now I’m putting out the warning as well. God help me.