Brandon Holthaus : Responding to Criticism Concerning End-Time Prophecies with Guest, Todd Hampson

Pre-Trib Rapture, Israel, & the End Times — with Todd Hampson | Tip of the Spear Ministries

Is the pre-tribulation rapture biblical? Why the surge in anti-Semitism—even inside the Church? Brandon sits down with author/illustrator Todd Hampson (Prophecy Pros Podcast) to tackle hot-button questions on dispensationalism, literal hermeneutics, the difference between the Rapture and the Second Coming, spiritual warfare, and how to “occupy till He comes.” They also discuss God’s providence in current events and why Christians should stay engaged, hopeful, and on mission.

In this episode

• Darby/Scofield myths vs. what the Bible actually says
• Why God is not done with Israel (Romans 11) & the rise of anti-Zion rhetoric
• Rapture ≠ Second Coming: side-by-side contrasts (John 14; 1 Thess 4; Rev 19)
• Literal interpretation, symbols, and letting Scripture interpret Scripture
• Spiritual baggage, hostility in prophecy debates, and gracious disagreement
• “Delay the decay”: balancing urgency with courageous cultural engagement

Key Scriptures

Romans 11; John 14:1–3; 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18; 1 Corinthians 15:52; Revelation 3:10; 13:9–10; 14:12–13; 19–20; Daniel 9; 2 Thessalonians 2

Resources & links

• Todd’s books & free mini-course: ToddHampson.com
• Prophecy Pros Podcast (with Jeff Kinley)
• The Non-Prophet’s Guide to the Book of Daniel
• Prophecy Pros Illustrated Guide to Tough Questions About the End Times

#BibleProphecy #PreTribRapture #Dispensationalism #Israel #Antisemitism #EndTimes #Hermeneutics #TipOfTheSpear #ToddHampson #ProphecyPros #Watchmen #OccupyTillHeComes

Responding to Criticism Concerning End-Time Prophecies with Guest, Todd Hampson

Brandon (Host): Hey everybody, welcome to Tip of the Spear Ministries this week. As always, we’re trying to bring things from a biblical perspective and also a prophetic perspective—connecting dots about what’s going on in current events and around the world—so that we understand, as good prophecy students, what’s really happening, what God’s plan and purposes are, and how we prepare. How do we be the best watchmen on the walls for the Lord and do the work He’s called us to do until He calls us home?

As you know, we typically bring on some of the best nationally known speakers from around the world, and this week we’re bringing on Todd Hampson. He’s a good friend of mine, the best-selling author and speaker, an illustrator, and an animation producer. This guy’s very talented. He co-hosts the Prophecy Pros Podcast, and he seeks to help people navigate difficult issues with biblical teaching—obviously with an apologetic bent and prophecy as his expertise. He’s one of the leading voices out there. His resources are phenomenal: The Non-Prophet’s Guide to the Book of Daniel—which you’ve got to pick up—and The Prophecy Pros’ Illustrated Guide to Tough Questions About the End Times. He has a lot of resources he’ll tell you about toward the end of our broadcast and how you can get them. Let’s welcome Todd to the program. Good to have you, my friend.

Todd Hampson: Oh, Brandon, it’s great to join you, man. Always a pleasure when you and I can get together and do this. Thank you for your ministry and what you’re doing, and thanks for having me on.

Brandon: You have been a blessing to me, and I’ve recommended a lot of your resources to people. We’re going to give folks a chance to get those at the end—excellent stuff, Todd. I appreciate the work you and Jeff Kinley are doing. Love your ministry.

Here’s where we’ll go: I want to tap into your insight—your biblical knowledge and understanding of current events—because that’s your forte. The Lord’s blessed you with that. We’re going to do a deep dive.

We’ve seen this anti-Semitic movement surface in the world ever since October 7th, after Israel was attacked brutally by Hamas. We see it on college campuses and in the media—and those are expected places. But here’s what’s catching me, and I want your take: I’m starting to see people in the conservative movement, and even Christians in the West, start attacking Israel—becoming somewhat anti-Semitic in what they say. They’ll claim they’re not anti-Semitic, but I’m seeing this anti-Zion tone. I’m also seeing accusations that people like us—who believe in a pre-tribulational, premillennial view of eschatology (futurism)—are the ones causing problems in U.S. foreign policy with Israel and even domestic policies. The claim is that we were bamboozled by C. I. Scofield and John Nelson Darby, which introduced Zionism into Christendom and undermined the church. I’m like…what? Please, Todd, speak some sanity into that level of accusation from other Christians.

Todd: That’s really astute, Brandon. Your ministry is called Tip of the Spear, and you notice trends early on. I’ve been noticing the hatred of the pre-trib Rapture and the hatred of dispensational teaching climbing—growing from within the church, so to speak. I got an email just the other day from a guy coming at me really strong, saying I was deceiving people and believing doctrines of Satan.

What’s wild: in the end times, with eschatology, there’s this collision of spiritual warfare and real-world conflict. In “real” warfare, you can tell where the shots are coming from. But when it comes from surprising places, that’s an indicator of spiritual warfare. I’m not saying these people aren’t believers, but I will say they’re being deceived.

Bottom line: the John Nelson Darby argument has been blown out of the water historically so many times, I’m surprised people still use it. Because it’s in a few books, they still use it—though most believers aren’t familiar with who that is or what it even means. That argument has been debunked many times. There were early church fathers who held to imminency. They didn’t have the doctrine formalized like Darby did, but no doctrine was fully formalized in the first century. They were gathering it. The basic understanding of imminency—that the Rapture could happen at any moment—goes way back.

But here’s where the rubber meets the road—and this really all that matters: What does the Bible say? I’ve noticed a lot of people coming at us from a conservative theological or political standpoint who are now being anti-Semitic. I think it’s spiritual warfare. Satan is a student of Bible prophecy; he sees what we see and has been studying it longer. He doesn’t have the insight of the Holy Spirit like we do, but the open spiritual warfare—even coming from within the camp—tips the enemy’s hand. He knows his time is near and he’s greasing the skids for what we read about in the tribulation period, when he goes after the Jewish people—when God’s attention returns to them after the church is out of here.

They also don’t know their Bibles and are twisting Scripture. I grew up unchurched; I thought the Bible was fairy tales. What convinced me it’s God’s Word was fulfilled Bible prophecy. From that point forward, my intent has been to be a futurist and a literalist—let Scripture speak for itself. When you do that, it’s crystal clear: God’s not done with the Jewish people. It’s crystal clear there are different dispensations (we can argue how many). Paul used that phrase and talked about the current dispensation and the previous dispensation.

Dispensationalism—especially in American life in the early 1900s—rescued the church from liberal theology. It pointed people back to the inerrancy, sufficiency, and authority of Scripture, and it let Scripture speak for itself. Now it’s being attacked because of spiritual warfare. If you’re a dispensationalist, you see that God is not done with the Jewish people: the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants are unconditional and permanent. Paul says in Romans chapter 11 that one day all Israel will be saved, and that God’s gifts and calling are irrevocable. It couldn’t be more clear—so the blindness has to be spiritual.

Brandon: Let me ask you this. When you got saved—like me—did you know anything about Darby?

Todd: Not a thing. Never heard of him.

Brandon: Exactly. So how did you arrive at a dispensational view—pre-tribulational Rapture, premillennialism? Was it because of the C. I. Scofield Bible or Darby’s teaching? How did you arrive at what we call dispensationalism?

Todd: Brandon, I was just dumb enough to take the Bible at face value. The thing that grabbed me was fulfilled prophecy—literally fulfilled. I concluded the future will be fulfilled literally too.

You cannot read John 14, 1 Corinthians 15:52, 1 Corinthians 41 13- 18, and Revelation 3:10 at face value—unless you come with a predetermined view you’re forcing on the text—and get away from a pre-trib Rapture. There are many verses that are crystal clear. The Bible may not map it all out in one chart, but the plain language gives you the big brushstrokes—including that God’s not done with the Jewish people.

Brandon: Same here. People ask how I arrived at a pre-trib, premillennial view, and I say, “I read the Bible.” We often use the term “literal” in theology. Speak to that as a hermeneutic—how you read Revelation, Daniel, etc.

Todd: Great question. A hermeneutic is just a Bible study method. We use a literal hermeneutic—take the text at face value while allowing for symbolism and poetry. Symbols mean something, and Scripture interprets Scripture. In Revelation, roughly half the symbols are defined in the book itself, and the other half find meaning in the Old Testament. It forces you to cross-reference.

Where people get into trouble is allegorizing or spiritualizing Scripture because it’s hard to believe. For example, Revelation 20 mentions a thousand years six times in six verses. Some say that’s symbolic of the church age—but you can’t back that with Scripture. So: take the plain sense unless context indicates otherwise. Let the symbols be explained by the immediate or broader biblical context. Don’t spiritualize verses to fit your paradigm.

I took a history of doctrine class and traced theology through the centuries. When you get to eschatology, after the Middle Ages and even post-Reformation, you see some giants of the faith did not understand eschatology and forced it into what they were seeing. Out of that came a return to literalism—schools like DTS were set up to get back strictly to the Word in a literal sense, allowing for poetic language. When Scripture says God will cover us with His feathers like a mother hen, we know He doesn’t have wings. That’s plainly poetic. But don’t spiritualize where Scripture doesn’t.

Brandon: People ask, “Why is pre-trib/premillennial ‘so recent’?” Explain what the Catholic Church did using Augustinianism in the Middle Ages—why we had the Dark Ages and why eschatology wasn’t developed.

Todd: I’m not a historian, but I love theological history. Augustine rejected the extreme allegorical Alexandrian system, but since Israel had been destroyed in A.D. 70 and scattered, he took a literal hermeneutic until eschatology. Because Israel wasn’t there anymore, he concluded those prophecies must mean something else. The Catholic Church grabbed that, codified it, and allowed no dissent—that became the official stance for roughly 1,200 years, until the Reformation.

The Reformation returned the church to a literal hermeneutic in soteriology—saved by grace through faith. After the Reformation, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and others were trying to survive massive upheaval; nobody was systematizing eschatology. Also, the Enlightenment in the 1700s is when systematic categorizing really took off. Universities and seminaries began to formalize doctrines. So the formalization of eschatology in the 1800s makes sense historically. There are logical reasons for it.

Brandon: Great summary. The Catholic Church, through Augustinianism, suppressed literal interpretation. After the Reformation, people began reading the Bible for themselves and seeing that God’s not done with Israel.

Another accusation: “There’s no distinction between the Rapture and the Second Coming—it’s all one and the same.” Forget church history—just from the Bible, why do we say there’s a distinction? Why two phases?

Todd: Every believer should do this study for themselves. Don’t even take our word for it. Make two columns: Rapture facts and Second Coming facts.

In John 14, Jesus comforts the disciples: He’s going away to the Father’s house, but will come again and receive them to Himself. That’s Jewish wedding language. Compare that with Revelation 19, where He returns with a sword, to judge and make war—He’s not receiving the church; He’s waging righteous war and preparing the kingdom. When you list the details passage by passage, you’ll see two distinct events.

Brandon: Anyone can do that. You don’t need seminary for it. Another accusation: “You pre-trib folks believe in a ‘secret Rapture.’ You have an escapist mentality; you want to avoid persecution—so you created the doctrine of a secret Rapture. You don’t get politically active; you’re not salt and light; you put on white sheets on your rooftops waiting for Jesus, and you’ve caused us to lose the culture.” How do you respond?

Todd: First, it’s not a secret Rapture. It will be the biggest supernatural event in church history—millions of believers suddenly gone. It’s the domino that sets tribulation events in motion.

Am I an escapist? I absolutely want to avoid the seven-year tribulation. But that’s not why I believe it—I believe it because of what Scripture says. Also, believers are already persecuted worldwide. Thank God we haven’t faced that level yet—we may—but this isn’t about avoiding persecution; it’s about biblical truth.

As for laziness: read second Thessalonians 2. Paul thought the Lord might return in his lifetime, yet he traveled by foot and boat planting churches. He told people to work—“If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” In our country, we’re blessed to vote; believers should vote. Some are called to politics—if that’s your lane, lean into it. The “escapism makes you lazy” line is a hollow argument.

Brandon: I’ve debated folks on other eschatology positions. After long exchanges, some finally admit: “I deserve to be punished; I want to be punished. That’s why I believed a view that takes me into the tribulation—I need to be punished for my sins.” Not everyone, but I’ve heard that many times. It’s a spiritual issue. Have you experienced that?

Todd: I have. If someone comes at me harshly, I try to set a respectful tone: “If we follow the same Lord, we’re brothers. We don’t need to argue. I’m happy to wrestle with theology in a healthy way.” Sometimes I ignore the email or agree to disagree. Other times, we have fruitful back-and-forth, and their questions sharpen me. Every time, my conviction in the pre-trib Rapture gets deeper.

One gentleman—post-trib—came at me hard. We dialogued. I asked him to address my strongest scriptural arguments—like Revelation 3:10. The Greek ek is “out of.” “I will keep you out of”—I will take you out of the hour, not “see you through.” He never answered that, and shifted to other points. Intuitively, I sensed there was something deeper. I think you’re right: often there’s a spiritual issue—guilt, hurt, baggage—driving the theology. If they’re brothers, we should pray for freedom and assurance: Jesus paid it all.

Brandon: Exactly. I’m not saying I have a corner on truth, but some folks bring spiritual baggage into theological decisions—and then the hostility kicks in.

Switching gears—still on eschatology: the assassination attempt of Donald Trump. That looked providential. The shot grazed his ear; multiple shots were fired. Something providential happened. What’s your conjecture about what God’s up to, knowing prophecy? Is it a warning? Another chance? Or are we about to watch globalists come after him again?

Todd: I wouldn’t call it a miracle like turning water into wine, but it was a providential miracle. If you believe Daniel 22—God raises up and puts down leaders—then God was involved. People, believers and unbelievers, felt that.

What’s the reason? I’m speculating:

1. Prophetic timing. If it’s not God’s time for America to collapse, He’ll hold it back. I pray He’s waiting on the Rapture to pull us out of here—not because America’s special, but because our economy is so interconnected. A sudden collapse would tank the whole planet—what we see in the seal judgments. In my opinion, that doesn’t happen until then. So perhaps God is holding things back for His timetable.

2. Answered prayer. Many believers are praying, “Lord, we deserve judgment; we’re already under Romans 1 judgment, but please preserve us so we can do good and occupy until we’re called out.”

3. Drawing Trump. Like Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel—God drew him repeatedly. I think God is drawing Trump to Himself. He’s surrounded by pastors asking, “Have you bowed your knee to Jesus?” Trump has acknowledged divine intervention. The Lord’s got his attention. What he does with it is between him and the Lord.

Brandon: We’ll see how this plays out after the election—whether we’re on the fast train or the slow train to globalism. Either way, prophecy isn’t stopping. On the political level, it matters to have the slowest train possible so the church has max freedom to do the Lord’s work until the Rapture. How should that affect supporting candidates?

Todd: There’s nowhere in Scripture that tells us to let off the gas when it comes to doing the right thing—including voting for the lesser of two evils. One platform is clearly evil; that makes the choice simpler.

Jesus told us to occupy until He comes. We will stand at the Bema Seat to receive reward—or suffer loss for missed opportunities. We’re deep in the fourth quarter. Do we really want to coast? We are salt and light; the Holy Spirit restrains through the church. We don’t realize how much evil is held back just by our presence.

In eternity, you can’t witness, give, pray for your pastor, serve, or vote. Our job now is to impact eternity with everything we’ve got—sprint to the finish. Think of Schindler’s List: “I could have saved more with this watch…this ring.” We don’t want to say, “I could have led ten more people to the Lord,” or, “I could have stood for righteousness.” Stand up for truth in a winsome way that points people to the Savior and honors God’s Word.

Brandon: Amen. Excellent admonition. Todd, how can people find you and your resources?

Todd: Go to ToddHampson.com. If you sign up there, I’ll send you a free short Bible prophecy course. You’ll find all my books, links to the podcast, and more.

Brandon: Make sure you tap into Todd. He’s got tremendous insight and connects the dots—gold. Make sure he’s in your circle.

Todd, God bless you. Thank you for all you’re doing. Keep fighting the good fight of faith, my friend.

Todd: Likewise, man. I’m in this with you. We’re brothers from another mother, and I can’t wait to see how the Lord plays it all out. Thank you so much.

Brandon: With that, we’ll see you next time on Tip of the Spear Ministries. Keep fighting the good fight of faith and keep discerning the signs of the times. God bless you guys—we’ll see you next time.