Pete Garcia: The Heresy Of The Pre-Wrath Theory

The Heresy of the Pre-Wrath Theory

By Pete Garcia

Any eschatological view that either puts the church into the 70th Week or denies bible prophecy outright or in part, is heretical in nature. The reason it is heretical is that it purposely argues against what the Scriptures actually teach. Understandably, it is a serious thing to charge a position (or even a promoter of said heresy) with the charge of being heretical. But it’s time to take off the kid-gloves and call things as they are. If something is heretical, we need to simply call it as such.

Regarding biblical Christianity, what is heresy? Second Peter 2:1 says, “There will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.” From this verse, we see that heresy is anything that denies the teaching of Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 11:19, Paul takes the church to task for having heresies among them—heresies that led to schisms in the body. These verses touch on both aspects of what constitutes heresy in the church: denying the doctrines God has given, and dividing the body He has created. Both of these are dangerous, destructive actions that are soundly rebuked by Scripture. See also 1 John 4:1-6; 1 Timothy 1:3-6; 2 Timothy 1:13-14; and Jude 1. (Source)

With that definition, let us set the record straight once and for all, upfront, and in bold font. The Bible teaches only ONE eschatological view of prophecy. Just like the Bible teaches only ONE soteriological view on salvation. Just like the Bible teaches only ONE ecclesiological view on the church. The Bible is NOT a choose-your-own-adventure book. The minute you start treating it as such, you begin encountering a number of problems.

Those who abandon the normal, literal, grammatical, and historical interpretation of Holy Scripture are the very reason WHY we have so many different viewpoints on every major doctrinal position. It is because they follow personal interpretations, dreams, visions, or a “word of knowledge,” and that causes many to depart from what the Word actually says.

I believe this is how most (if not all) cults begin. When one chooses not to accept the Bible for what it says (in context to the surrounding passage) then what you are in effect doing, is creating a choose your own adventure book where your personal interpretation trumps what the text actually says.

Neither are we promoting wooden-literalism, as Hank Hanegraaf (the Bible Answer Man) has often accused us of adhering to. We dispensationalists simply adhere to a common-sense approach to understanding Bible Prophecy. For the record, Mr. Hanegraaf has since eloped from Protestantism into the Eastern Orthodox realm seeking a more visually enlightened experience as it were.

So what is common sense interpretation?

“When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise.” – Dr. David L. Cooper (1886-1965), founder of The Biblical Research Society

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