Living in Anticipation of the Rapture

Transcript

GRM 1263
01/30/2022
Living in Anticipation of the Rapture
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

We are talking about future things as we often do at the turn of the year. We move into a new year, it’s good to be reminded of what the Lord has planned for us as His people in future days. So, we’ve been looking at the subject of the Rapture of the Church. That period in the future, how far in the future, today, tomorrow, a week, a month, a year, we don’t know. We often refer to the verse that Paul used in his letter to the Romans, now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed. Two thousand years have gone by and we move nearer. But whether death takes us and we’re transformed into the immediate presence of the Lord or at the Rapture which we all anticipate and are to be living in light of. It puts everything in perspective. You know, you watch the news and things change and there is turmoil and you get frustrated. Then you come back and say, everything is under control. We’re looking for the Rapture. We’re looking for the time when Christ will come in the air, call us as His people to meet Him in the air and take us to the glorious place He has prepared for us, in the presence of His Father. That puts everything in perspective. So, just want to review with you a little bit. Then draw these seven points to a conclusion, on the pre-tribulation rapture of the church.

Put up the seventy weeks of Daniel to start this, the chart, the seventy weeks of Daniel. Basically it’s seventy sevens. Seventy sevens, you have to determine what. If you want to turn to Daniel, we won’t be there long, but Daniel 9:24 says, seventy weeks, and that word translated weeks, is really the word seven. “Seventy sevens have been decreed for your people and your holy city.” And it tells the things that well be accomplished in that four hundred and ninety year period. It’s seventy seven year periods. It’s a week of years, not a week of days. So, it’s literally, and you have it in, if you’re using a New American Standard Bible, seventy units of seven. It’s literally seventy sevens. You’ll note, its broken down, we won’t go through it, we’ve done this, but the first sixty-nine weeks, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, for a total of sixty-nine weeks. That’s all we’re looking at right now.

Bring us to the coming of the Messiah, after the sixty-ninth week, He is cut off. Verse 26, “after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah will be cut off.” Which are after the seven weeks. So, you have to be careful that you’re reading from verse 24 on, seven weeks, then sixty-two weeks. So, when he says after the sixty-two weeks, which was after the seventh, so after a total of sixty-nine weeks, four hundred and eighty-three years, the Messiah will be cut off. And if you’ve figured that out, that gives you the starting point 440 BC, and you put in the leap years and so on. You come down to just about a week before Christ was crucified. And we’re told that “after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off,” in verse 26 of Daniel 9. Well, “after sixty-nine total weeks the Messiah will be cut off.” It doesn’t say, in the seventieth week the Messiah will be cut off. You say, well, wonder why it didn’t say that? Because the seventieth week, there is a break there. Verse 27 tells us, he will make a firm covenant, the Prince who is to come, the Antichrist, we looked at this. So, really we’ve had the whole church age in here. The period of time in which we live. We are not part of the seventy weeks of Daniel. After the sixty-ninth week, you have the Messiah cut off. The seventieth week, verse 27, “he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week,” one seven year period. So, that’s yet future.

So, even though the church is not revealed in the Old Testament, there are indications there, that there is a period of time. And there is seven years left in God’s program for the nation Israel. So, after the Messiah is cut off, shortly after, fifty days after we have the feast of Pentecost in Acts 2… In Acts 1, Jesus appeared to the disciples and told them the Spirit would come shortly. He ascends to heaven in Acts 1. In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit comes, they speak with other languages. We have the beginning of the church. We have the church age in the tan color on the chart that we have on display. That’s the church age. That will end with the rapture of the church. We’re looking at events associated with the rapture of the church, where the church is caught up to meet Christ in the air. And then taken to the place that He has prepared for us in the presence of His Father. John 14, in My Fathers house are many dwelling places, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place, I will come and take you to that place. But we still have seven years for Israel. Then after the seven years, Christ will return to the earth. And I was reading again, I was going to bring you, but I figured it wouldn’t be helpful maybe to read a lot of quotes. But there is an agreement, we understand the prophetic portion of scripture should be interpreted the same way we take prior scripture. The way we take scripture that has been fulfilled, we take it literally. I was reading again, people of different persuasions, claim to believe the bible, but they believe future prophecy should not be taken literally. But they admit, if you take it literally, which they don’t agree with, then you will have like the chart we have, seven years yet coming and then a thousand year earthly, first phase of the eternal kingdom. And then you move into eternity. And we just take it the way it unfolds. So, even believers, bible believers who disagree with us about this, agree if you take the bible literally, this is what you will end up with. You can read that, stop in Sound Words, pick up a book or two, they’ll give you some information.

Why don’t we look at the points on the Rapture, to distinguish it from the second coming to earth. The second coming to earth does not occur until the end of the thousand year millennium. Then Christ will return to the earth. So, the rapture is where Christ calls believers to meet Him in the air, and then He takes them to the place He has prepared in the presence of His Father. I take it that would be the new Jerusalem. So, the rapture, Christ meets believers in the air. The bodies of believers are glorified. We are transformed, and that includes the living and the dead, are both transformed in their condition. So, those who have died, this is 1 Thessalonians 4, we don’t despair, there is sorrow, there is grief, there is a separation, but its temporary. So, when Christ comes in the air, He’ll call those bodies back to life, and the spirits of those believers who had been with the Lord (for to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord the scripture tells us) they will move back into those glorified bodies. They will be raised in a glorified state, conformed to the body that Christ had after His resurrection from the dead. Immediately following that, we who are alive at the coming of Christ will be translated and caught up to meet Christ in the air. In an atom of time, literally, it says in 1 Thessalonians 4. We will be transformed. We’re here and we’ll be gone. In an instant of time we will meet Christ in the air with all those believers in the church age from Acts 2 on, who have believed in Christ, who have their glorified bodies. We have glorified bodies and then He’ll take us to the place He has prepared for us in the presence of His Father. So, Christ meets believers in the air. The bodies of believers are glorified, believers are taken to heaven. That’s the rapture.

Now look at the second coming to the earth, which will occur seven years, after Christ returns to the earth in great glory. And this is recorded in Revelation 19. Heaven opens, He comes. And believers come with Him in their glorified bodies. He destroys His enemies. That’s what happens, to set up His kingdom. All unbelievers are destroyed. So that when the kingdom begins, He only takes believers into the kingdom. In physical bodies and in glorified bodies. Those who have died will be in their glorified bodies. Those who are alive and have believed in Him in that seven year period, so we have that seventieth week of Daniel, that one seven year block of time. Preceding that, the rapture of the church occurs. Every believer gets a glorified body. But during this seven year period, there will be many, in particularly the focus again will be on Israel, will become believers. Many will be martyred, but some will live and survive till the end. They’ll go into the millennium, the thousand years, in their physical bodies. And I take it, they will never die. Because at the end of the thousand years, the unbelievers are sorted out of the kingdom, we go on into eternity. Those in physical bodies will still have children, we will be there in glorified bodies and so on.

So, we’re talking about some of the evidences, and let me mention again, John Walvoord’s book, its an older book, published in 1950’s. At the end of the book in the appendix, he has fifty reasons for a pre-tribulation rapture. We are just sticking with seven pre-trib points. The pre-trib rapture of the church. Let’s just review. We’ve looked at the first four. The focus of the seventy weeks of Daniel point to a pre-tribulation rapture, because seventy weeks, seventy sevens, four hundred and ninety total years are determined for your people and your holy city. And after the sixty-ninth week, four hundred and eighty three years, the Messiah will be cut off. The seventieth week doesn’t begin until the Antichrist signs his covenant with the nation for one seven-year period. That’s the end of Daniel 9.

Secondly, the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the church, particularly Christ talked about that in the book of John, as He prepared the disciples on that last night with Him for His departure. He says, it’s necessary I depart because I have to send the Holy Spirit to you, in John 14 and John 15.

Point three, these are points we’ve looked at in our previous study. The absence of the church in Revelation 6 to 18. What Revelation 6 to 18 does, I could really start with chapter 4, but chapter 4 and 5 of Revelation talk about heaven and the heavenly scene, and we’ll be there. But we noted that the church is not mentioned. It’s mentioned, I think nineteen times in the first three chapters. And then it’s not mentioned on earth until we get to chapter 19, and it’s returning with Christ after the seventieth week of Daniel. So, that’s significant, the absence of the church in Revelation 6 to 18, after it’s been mentioned repeatedly and the seven churches of Asia Minor in Revelation 2 and 3 talk about that. Then the church is promised deliverance from coming wrath. The tribulation will be a time of wrath. It’s a time of God pouring out His wrath upon the earth. So, we are promised deliverance from that time of coming wrath.

Why don’t you look at Revelation 3, this is where we left off, we looked at this and then we’re ready for point 5. But in Revelation 3:10, this is a message to one of the seven churches, the church at Philadelphia. Remember the seven churches are somewhat (seven, the number of completion) sort of pictures the churches that exist. And I take it, all seven churches are in existence, and in one place of the world they are undergoing persecution. In another place they are doing fine. But those seven churches you can find yourself and your church there. In the seven churches and in verse 10, the promise is given to the church at Philadelphia, “Because you have kept the word of my perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.” And again, each of these seven churches have promises given to them. And we can claim those promises, because we are part of the church as it exists in the world today. And you can go and review these seven churches, and which one do we seem more like, and all seven are probably in existence in this city as well as in the country and in the world. But the promise to the churches, I’ll keep you from the hour of testing, it’s going to come upon the whole world. And that’s the rapture, that’s the promise of deliverance from God’s anger, His wrath.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 talks about the rapture of the church. Then in chapter 5:1-11, we talk about the coming tribulation, the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is primarily talking about the time of tribulation that will come upon the whole earth. So, verse 18 of chapter 4 of 1 Thessalonians says, “comfort one another with these words.” What? That we as believers, are going to be caught up to meet, so we have pain, we have sorrow, loved ones die. But that’s sort of like, I used to use the example, my parents were living in New Jersey. We’d go back and visit them, we’d all cry when we were leaving. Oh, this is so sad. But we’d get over it. Then the next year, we’d go back. and they we’d go through the same thing again. We’d have a great time, then we’d cry, then we’d leave, then we’d get over it. Well, that’s the way it is. You know, the loved ones that are in the Lord, die, but that’s a temporary separation. So, “comfort one another with these words,” is the way he ends that. That the dead in Christ will rise first, verse 16, and then we who are alive and remain. So, there’s sorrow, temporary separation that causes sorrow. But it’s temporary. Now it’s been some time, but it’s temporary. And at death, if the Lord hasn’t come, my spirit will leave my body and I’ll meet my loved ones who have died and been in the glorious presence of God. If I’m alive when He comes, nothing is lost, I just skip death. My body gets translated and transformed and I meet them in the air.

Then chapter 5 opens up, now is the time and epochs and you know full well that verse 2, the day of the Lord will come. Ant that day of the Lord refers to that seven year period in the tribulation that comes and the disaster that comes on the earth. But verse 9 of chapter 5, encourages the church, “God has not destined us for wrath but for obtaining salvation, through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another, build up one another, just as you, also are doing” Takes us back to remind us of verses 13-18, even physical death will be temporary for those of us who are believers. So, the church is promised deliverance from the wrath of God.

Alright, we’re ready for point 5 of these seven reasons for the pre-tribulation rapture of the church. There must be a gap between the rapture and the second coming. Now, there must be a gap if you’re going to take future, unfulfilled prophecy literally. And again, I don’t think there is a disagreement on this as I read the various views of those who don’t hold to the view that we’re holding. They’ll say, well, if you’re going to take it literally, these future events, yes, there has to be a seven year period and there has to be a millennium, but we don’t think that’s the way you take it. So, I think its important that you understand, why do we have this difference? Because the tendency is just to overlook. Well, at least we believe that Christ died on the cross, was buried, was raised from the dead, we’re going to heaven, the rest of it, I’m willing to leave with the Lord. But the Lord has spoken, He told us that we are to comfort one another with these words, the words that He has given. We are to encourage one another, chapter 5:11, build one another up with these words. So, it’s important that we understand it and we understand it correctly.

If the rapture occurred at the second coming, remember the chart, if when Christ returns to the earth… We hold to a pre-tribulation rapture, its going to happen before the seventieth week of Daniel, the seven-year tribulation. There are those who are post-tribulational premillennial. They believe after the rapture, but before the millennium, I take it there will be a earthly kingdom, Christ is going to come. But we have a problem, everybody is getting glorified at the return of Christ. If we’re just going to meet Him in the air, then we’re going to come to earth, everybody is in glorified bodies. Everybody in glorified bodies do not have children. Jesus said we’ll be like the angels, we will be without sexual desires and drives. Now, wait a minute, but then we find that when Christ returns to earth, he destroys all the wicked. And only those in glorified bodies are going into the millennium, there aren’t any children. Well, then who? If you want to turn to Revelation 20, and there are many other verses, but Revelation 20:7, “When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth.” And the end of verse 8, “the number of them is like the sand of the seashore.” Where do they come from? “They came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Well, that’s a thousand years. Where are all these people that there are so many you can’t number them? Because we’d had a thousand years of Christ’s perfect, righteous rule. There has been no pain in childbirth. There’d been a thousand years and nobody dying except under the judgement of God. But there had been many who underneath had been seething. I don’t agree with it, but I’m going along, I don’t believe it. But its growing. By the end of the thousand years, Satan is released from his prison, so he hasn’t been there, so its just been the old nature. Where did it come from? Well, those who had been in physical bodies, were saved during the seven years, Israel in particular, they’re going to have children, because they are going into the millennium. We, in glorified bodies, won’t have children. So, there’s got to be a gap between the rapture and the second coming to earth. For first of all, during the seven years, there are believers. So, we have this problem, we have seven years, if everybody got a glorified body at the beginning of this seven years, where do these people that are going to rebel against Christ at the coming of the Lord at the end of chapter 19… Then if it’s at the end of the millennium, you know, pretty soon you have to decide, well, this is just talking generally about what’s happening today. So, most of those who claim to believe the bible but don’t take future prophecy literally.

All prophecy that has been fulfilled has been fulfilled literally. We looked at just some little bit of that, Christ was born at Bethlehem, just like the Old Testament prophesied. He suffered and died, just like the Old Testament prophesied and so on. Well, where do we stop? Well, all that is yet to be fulfilled is just spiritualized. So, you go anywhere from… there are post-tribulational premillennial, where they believe there’s going to be a earthly kingdom, but the tribulation and the seven years, I guess we just wash out. The first sixty-nine weeks were literal. The seventieth week of Daniel, now some would say, well, they go through a tribulation, but all believers have tribulation. But not like this seventieth week of Daniel. And the promise to the church at Philadelphia in Revelation 3:10 was, you won’t see, you won’t go through that. Well, that church back then maybe. Well, then wait a minute, do you want to just take the break? If we just take the bible as it is. So, in Revelation 19, Christ comes back, there are unbelievers on the face of the earth. The believers who are there, they have children. Those who are saved during that seven-year period. And during the thousand years with no death except for the intervention of God, because open sin is not tolerated. We won’t go back to Isaiah 65 and some of the other passages, but well, then yes, people are going to have children. They’re saved in the seven-year tribulation, now they are going into the kingdom. So, there must be a gap between the rapture and the second coming. Believers are going to be judged.

Back up to Revelation 19, look at verse 7, “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come and His bride has made herself ready.” Now, we’ve got the marriage of the Lamb and then you have the marriage supper. We have this following the oriental wedding, and we do this to a certain extent, not with the same breakdown, but marriage of the Lamb has come, has occurred, His bride has made herself ready. “It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” So, we’ve had the judgement of the church take place, the bride of Christ is the church. Now if that’s every believer, well, I guess now we’re not talking literally anymore. We’re just talking about a second coming. “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Well, where did these come from? If the rapture occurs at the end of the seven-year period, so we go up, meet Christ in the air, we all get glorified bodies, those who have died and those who are alive. We looked at that in 1 Thessalonians 4, we get glorified bodies. We turn around and come back to earth with Christ immediately, it all happens after, well, then only believers in glorified bodies are going into the kingdom. Because verse 11, all the unbelievers and following, are destroyed. Then we have the thousand years.

Wait a minute here, we’re missing something. Well, we’re not taking it literally any longer. So, that’s where people get into trouble, and you can read commentary after commentary and some of them, they’re just making up stuff in the book of Revelation. Let’s just take it like it is. There are symbols there, but we use symbols all the time, symbolic language and that, but that has a literal foundation. So, verse 20, when the angel comes down and binds Satan, in verses 2 and 3, for a thousand years. Then verse 4, I saw a throne, those who sat upon them, and I saw the souls of those had been beheaded, they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. I take it, those who have died in the Old Testament, those in Israel as well as those who have died in the seven years, been martyred, because its going to be anybody who claims to be a believer they are going to attempt to put to death. I don’t know, I read. and I re-read this and I think, well just take it like it is. Just take it for what it says.

Verse 6, “Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.” So, then that includes those who were raptured, those at the second coming to earth after the seventieth week of Daniel, those after the rapture who are resurrected, are all part of the first resurrection. It’s a quality, it’s a resurrection to life. Jesus talked about that in John’s gospel, chapter 12, resurrection to life, resurrection to death, separation from God. They will reign with Him. “When the thousand years are completed,” from verse 7 of chapter 20. Then we have eternity. We have the final rebellion, and then we move into eternity. And in eternity, there will still be people in their physical bodies, because they believed in Christ during the seven-year tribulation. They survived the tribulation, went into the millennium, and they are believers, so they survive the thousand years, and that’s why in chapter 22, of Revelation, verse 2, “in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding it’s fruit in every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing” or the health “of the nations.” There is no longer any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it. His bond servants will serve Him. We’re back to the opening chapters of the bible, in the opening chapters of Genesis, and we find, yes, now God completes what He stated, the way He started.

So, there must be a gap between the rapture and the second coming, so that believers can be rewarded and all that goes on. Revelation 19, Revelation 20.

A sixth point. Again, I encourage you, if you haven’t got Walvoord’s book, and the fifty reasons, because I picked out seven. They are all good. The departure in 2 Thessalonians 2 and 3, you want to turn back there. 2 Thessalonians 2, chapter 2 begins, “we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him.” I take it, he’s talking about the rapture that he talked about to them in the first letter. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, he talked about the coming of the Lord and our gathering together to Him. Because the persecution has gotten so intense, there are some who thought that they were in the day of the Lord, they were in that final seventieth week of Daniel. Because he says in verse 2, “that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostacy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.” So, he can’t be in the day of the Lord. Now, the persecution and in places and places in the world today, it may be very intense. And those people will re-read again and saying, boy, you think the rapture is after? No, in the day of the Lord, it will be worldwide. The Antichrist will rule the world, particularly during the last three and a half years. There will be no place to hide. It will take the special preservation of God to preserve people. So, verse 1 of chapter 2 of 2 Thessalonians, regards to the coming of our Lord Jesus and our gathering together to Him. That’s 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, the Lord will descend, he’ll catch us up. So, we comfort one another with these words. Down in chapter 5:9, the Lord has not destined us for wrath. So, this is a time of wrath, it’s a day of judgement. But God hasn’t destined us for that. So, we’re not in the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord hasn’t come. Then verse 3, let no one deceive you, it will not come unless the apostasy comes first.

Now, that word ‘apostasy’, we use it, and its generally used as a departure from the faith. When you depart from biblical truth, you’ve apostatized. But the word basically means a departure. Now, we’re going to talk about a noun and a verb. And if you don’t remember what they are, it doesn’t matter, just remember we’re talking about two different parts of speech. A noun, a person, place or thing. A verb, is the action, it tells you what its doing. But the noun only appears one other time, it appears here, ‘unless the apostasy’ comes first, and it appears in Acts 2:21, we won’t turn there, in fact in the margin of the bible of your New American Standard, it says falling away from the faith, but I think that is a possible meaning, where you use it that way, but the apostasy is talking about the departure. In Acts 21:21, he’s talking about a departure from Moses, you departed from Moses, you’re no longer believing what Moses said. Now, the verb, that this comes from is used fifteen times in the New Testament. Let me read them to you for time. Acts 12:10, the angel departed from him, the angel departed from him, it left him. So, it means a departure. In 2 Corinthians 12:8, Paul prayed that the demonic spirit might depart from me, might leave me, go away, depart. And Luke 4:13, it says he left him. So, those are just examples of a verb can mean he just departs, he leaves. I think that when Paul says, the departure comes first, he’s talking about the rapture of the church. That’s the departure, if we had translated the word instead of transliterated it, the Greek word is’ apostasia,’ apostasy, we just carry it over, we’ve transliterated it over into English, apostasia, apostasy, from Greek to English. But we haven’t translated it, the translation would be, a departure or a disappearance. So, the definite article, he’s talking about ‘the’ departure. Unless the departure comes first, what? The day of the Lord will not come unless the departure comes first. What departure has he talked about in writing to these Thessalonians? Back to chapter 4 of his first letter as we have it, verses 13-18, verse 16-17 in particular, where 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.” That’s every believer, the dead and the living. That’s the departure he’s talked about.

So, unless the departure comes first, then the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. He is the one in Daniel 9 who signs the agreement with Israel for that last seven-year period, the Antichrist as we also refer to him. Pentecost and ‘His Things to Come’, give the whole list of names, referring to the same individual, he is the lawless one, the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction. This is the same thing that said, down in verses 7 and 8, “the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.” The restrainer is taken out of the way. The Holy Spirit, in the way he came in Acts 2, is removed when the church is raptured. So, it is unique, He indwells permanently, every believer. It did not happen. Jesus Christ was bodily present with the disciples during His three years of earthly ministry. But he says the Holy Spirit is with you, but He will be in you. So, even though the Holy Spirit was present, was active and involved, He was involved in the first three verses of Genesis 1, the Holy Spirit brooded over the face of the deep. I mean, He’s been present, He’s God, He’s omnipresent. But the way He came at the day of Pentecost, to permanently indwell every believer, He will now be removed, because the church is removed. So, verse 7, “He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.” I take it, we’re talking about the Holy Spirit. He’s the one who is restraining evil. So, the church can be developed and built among the nations. When the Holy Spirit is removed in that ministry, and we saw that in John 14 and 15, in particular in 15, what the Holy Spirit will do when He comes to indwell you. He’s going to have an added emphasis in His ministry. So, verse 7, now He who restrains, only God restrains evil, God in the person of the Holy Spirit. Then verse 8, “the lawless one will be revealed.” Talking about the Antichrist, the man of lawlessness in verse 3. So, we have a parallel, the restrainer is removed, the Holy Spirit at the rapture of the church, the lawless one is revealed, that’s the revelation of the Antichrist.

So, if you’re alive after the rapture of the church, you’re an unbeliever. And maybe you’ll remember this message that the one representing the western world, who signs that agreement with Israel, is the Antichrist. So, I take it that the departure mentioned in chapter 2:3 of 2 Thessalonians 2, the apostasy, I think he’s talking about the departure, not the departure from the faith, but the departure from this earth. And the man of lawlessness is revealed. Verse 7, and lawlessness at work, and there’s a restraint going on to the lawlessness, until He’s taken out of the way. That’s the Holy Spirit. The one who is restraining evil today. We think, boy, it’s getting bad. Look at our country, it seems to be unraveling. But the Holy Spirit is still here, He’s still restraining evil. When He is removed, well, look at the Gentile world. Before Acts 2, it was primarily Israel and a few Gentiles. And evil was unrestrained, but the Spirit came to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgement when He came. But He’ll be removed in that ministry. So, there will be Gentiles saved during that seven-years, but it’s primarily focused back on Israel. All seventy-sevens, four hundred ninety years are for Jerusalem and the Jews.

Alright, we have to look at point 7. Point 7, the imminent return of Christ for the church. This is the promise and prophecy that Christ can come at any time. If the church has to go through the seventieth week of Daniel, and you’re going to take the day of the Lord, that seventieth week of Daniel literally, we’re going to know we’re in it. Now, the Thessalonians wondered whether they were in it, but it will be worldwide. I mean, we haven’t seen anything like that. It will be a unique time. Imminency, not intimacy, but imminency, it can mean soon, but it doesn’t necessarily mean soon. It means at any time. So, when we talk about the imminent return of Christ for the church, we mean He may come at any time. He could have come a thousand years ago. And what would have happened after His coming? Things would have quickly come together in the form that’s described of the seventieth week of Daniel.

But God has been gracious. But every generation anticipates the coming of the Lord, if they are truly believers. Because the Lord may come. Now, if we’ve got the literal interpretation of scripture, including Revelation 6 through 18, we’re not there yet. Well, we’re not going to take any prophecy that hasn’t been fulfilled literally. Well, then you can make it what you want. But the anchor is literally, I stress this because there is a departure, and again, I read some quotes, but I decided not to bring them, of everybody recognizes it. There is a departure from interpreting the bible consistently literally. I talk to people who were at Indian Hills at one time, not all of them, don’t say I’m putting everybody, but I’m just going to say, you know, I just don’t know, I just leave it with the Lord. Well, wait a minute, if I leave it with the Lord, I come and see what He says. And I want to be careful, because now I’m going to decide how far do I go with the literal interpretation. Well, future prophecy, the book of Revelation, that’s just symbolic to tell us about how we should live today. Well, that may sound nice, but it’s not accurately handling the word of truth. We are to handle accurately the word of truth.

This is serious business. The imminent return of Christ for the church. We’ve looked at numerous passages. Come back to Philippians 3, Philippians 3:20-21, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble estate into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” How’s He going to do this? Because He’s God. He has the power to subject everything. And it doesn’t matter whether this body is put in the grave, if it turns to dust, God’s going to call it back. And our citizenship is in heaven. And Paul says in verse 20, we eagerly wait for the Savior. That’s the same thing he wrote to the Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 4, we’re going to be caught up to meet Christ in the air. But wait a minute, what about all these people? In our glorified bodies, and we saw in 1 Thessalonians 4, both those who have died and those who are alive, get glorified bodies, and in glorified bodies we’re gong to be like the angels, we neither marry nor given in marriage, we don’t have children. Where are all these rebellious people going to come from? Well, it’s just talking generally about today. Says who? I mean, all of a sudden now, you have to interpret the bible literally. You want to be very careful that you interpret it literally. The gospels and the epistles, but future prophecy, well, you know, there are symbols there. Well, there are symbols in a variety of places. But a symbol is a representative of something that is real. Just all of a sudden, I’m just going to write off future prophecy and just say, it’s all just happening today. And we have those who just say, Christ is going to come, we’re going to go into eternity, that will be it. They claim to be believers in the death, burial and resurrection and all of that, but they are a-millennial. They do not believe in the millennium. Some of you are Lutheran background, it’s the a-millennial view. But wait a minute, who says I’m going to die for the truths of the word? But, those who have yet to be fulfilled, I just think it’s going to be glory and we’ll get there, and that’s all I’m concerned about. Well, wait a minute, you need to back up with that kind of attitude. I’m not saying everybody who has a different view of unfulfilled prophecy is not a believer. The Lord will have to sort that out. But Roman Catholic’s are a-millennial. Now, they’re different than Protestant believers who are a-millennial. But when it comes to prophecy, we’re there, and they’re in it. And they have the Pope who is ‘the’ representative of Christ on earth. And we have the kingdom.

So, pretty soon, and this is what concerns me about the departure from this dispensationalism, and we see it in our day. It grieves me, but it does not disappoint me. Because we’re moving more and more away from the truths of the word. Where will it stop? Well, we won’t take prophetic things literally. Well, you know, we’ve established a pattern. And it’s not in this generation, but it’s the next generation, then the next generation. By the time you get to the next generation, they’re just, yes, I believe the bible, I go to church, but we just take it generally. I don’t believe necessarily in a heaven and a hell. So, want to be careful, we hold the truths because it’s truth. That doesn’t mean we understand everything exactly, precisely, but I want to be careful. I establish a pattern, interpret the bible literally, historically, grammatically, period. I’m going to do that with prophecy that has been fulfilled, prophecy that will be fulfilled. Well, we would agree on prophecy that has been fulfilled, everything regarding the first coming of Christ is fulfilled literally. And then we get a picture of what it’s like living in the world. That might even make good preaching, but it’s not accurate preaching. It's not accurate truth. So, we want to be careful that we hold to the truth.

Well, we’re going to stop there. I have a few summary points, but you’ll get those at another time. We’re looking for the rapture of the church, the coming of the church. Jesus said, we ought to be looking for. When the Holy Spirit will so move, that the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them, in the air, to meet the Lord. And we will forever be with the Lord. And that means when He returns to earth we will be returning with Him, because we’ll be with Him. We’ll rule and reign with Him in that kingdom He’s going to establish. But there will be people in physical bodies. I say, boy, I don’t know, how is this all going to work? I don’t have to know everything, I just have to know what God’s revealed. And then I just take the rest of it, I’ll find out when I get there. I’m sort of anxious. Not so anxious to die, but anxious to see the Lord. But I’ll just hold my breath and go if the Lord doesn’t come, but I’d rather He comes. And I’m sure you would, too. Some of you who are younger have more time. But if He’s coming this afternoon, we’re all going at the same time.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the riches of Your word. Thank you, it’s a true word. Thank you, it was given for us to understand, to comprehend and to live in light of. Thank you, for the encouragement it is, to know that Jesus Christ will come for us in the air, to call us, to meet Him in the air. In an instant of time, the dead in Christ will rise, and then we who are alive will be caught up, transformed for eternity. And then You will complete the promises, the prophecies You’ve given regarding Your people, Israel. The terrible seven years that are going to come upon the whole world. Followed by the return of Christ, the thousand years, which will not change human hearts. And then eternity. We have much to look forward to. We want to be faithful. Pray that we will, in Jesus’s name. Amen.