Role: Executive Director of The Pre-Trib Research Center |
Dr. Ice is Executive Director of The Pre-Trib Research Center. He founded The Center in 1994 with Dr. Tim LaHaye to research, teach, and defend the pre-tribulational rapture and related Bible prophecy doctrines.
Dr. Ice has co-authored about 30 books, written hundreds of articles, and is a frequent conference speaker. He has served as a pastor for 15 years. Dr. Ice has a B.A. from Howard Payne University, a Th.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary, a Ph.D. from Tyndale Theological Seminary, and is a Doctoral Candidate at The University of Wales in Church History. Dr. Ice lives in Justin, Texas with his wife Janice and is a member of the Chafer Theological Seminary faculty.
The well-known truism that "ideas have consequences"certainly applies to the issue of how to properly interpret Scripture, especially Bible prophecy. The Book of Proverbs speaks of the end of a matter, in other words, where does one’s viewpoint lead? A good way to examine this issue is to see where interpretative methods have lead in the past...
Recently even more possible pre-Darby (J. N. Darby 1800–1882), pre-trib rapture statements are being brought forward by friend and foe alike. It appears that non-pretribulationist Francis X. Gumerlock will be presenting a possible pre-trib rapture find from the Apocalypse of Elijah in the October 2013 issue of Bibliotheca Sacra, which is a scholarly journal from Dallas Theological Seminary...
Last issue I looked at a possible pre-trib rapture find from the Apocalypse of Elijah. This month I will be surveying the findings of Dr. William Watson and his pre-trib rapture discoveries of the 1600s from the English-speaking world. Dr. Watson has a M.Div. from Talbot Theological Seminary in California and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside in Early Modern British History (16th–18th centuries). Thus, he is well qualified to research the seventeenth century English-speaking world and their writings on biblical prophecy. Watson has been doing just that for the last seven years and has come up with some interesting finds in relation to pretribulationism...
That the New Testament teaches Christ could return at any moment is a strong doctrine supporting the pre-trib rapture doctrine (see 1 Cor. 1:7; 16:22; Phil. 3:20; 4:5; 1 Thess. 1:10; Tit. 2:13; Heb. 9:28; Jam. 5:7- 9; 1 Pet. 1:13; Jude 21: Rev. 3:11; 22:7, 12, 17, 20). Pretribulationists call this the doctrine of imminence. If Christ can return at any-moment, without the necessity of intervening signs or events, then it renders pretribulationism most likely and posttribulationism impossible. Imminence in relation to the rapture has been defined as consisting of three elements:
There are a number of arguments against the doctrine of imminence that were put forth by pre-trib critic Robert Cameron in his book Scriptural Truth About The Lord’s Return. Cameron contends that a proper understanding of the New Testament meant that Christ could not have come at any moment. In this installment, I will evaluate further more of Cameron’s arguments, which have become standard objections against imminence over the years by pre-trib opponents. Cameron attempts to disprove New Testament imminency by showing that certain events must take place either during the lifetime of the Apostles or before the return of Christ could occur...