Reasons for the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, Part 2

Transcript

GRM 1254
12/20/2020
Reasons for the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, Part 2
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

Alright, we’ve been doing the book of Romans on Sunday evenings, but we’re taking a break from that because I want to continue the study we’ve been doing on Sunday mornings. We’re talking about the reasons for the pre-tribulation rapture of the church. We talk about the first coming of Christ, His birth, and then His life connected with His ministry on earth, culminating in His death and resurrection. But it’s important we understand this in the context of what God says about His second coming, and that will happen in two phases. He’s coming in the air for the church, then seven years later He’s coming to the earth. If you have the seventy weeks chart, I think most of you have this in mind, but just so you know where we are on the time period. The period of time we’re talking about is right here. The church age ends not with Christ coming to earth to establish His kingdom, it ends with Him coming to call the church to meet Him in the air. We get the word rapture. We noted the Greek word is harpazo; it means to catch up, to snatch away, to remove. So we’re caught up, we meet the Lord in the air. And as John 14 says, He’ll take us to His Father’s house, to a place He’s prepared for us. He doesn’t say He’ll take us into the kingdom, which would have been normal Jewish expectation. Then we looked at the reasons why there is this seventieth week, this last seven-year period. That’s God’s program with the nation Israel.

So the church will be taken to heaven, and we’re looking at reasons why. Because there are some who believe Christ will come before the millennium, and the millennium starts at the second coming of Christ to earth. Millennium means a thousand years. The thousand-year kingdom here, which is the first phase of the eternal kingdom, they believe the rapture will occur there. They’re called post-tribulation pre-millennialists. They come after the seven-year tribulation but before the millennium, and they think Christ will have the rapture not here (before), but right here (after). So believers will be called to meet Christ in the air, then they’ll turn around and come back down to earth and go into the kingdom. We are talking about reasons why the rapture occurs at this point (before) and not at this point (after). Before the last seven-year period as God completes His program with the nation Israel and not here, at the beginning of the millennium. So pre-tribulational rapture; post-tribulational. Christ comes to earth after the tribulation, that’s the name of the seventieth week of Daniel, and before the kingdom. But the rapture occurs at the beginning of the seven years.

Okay, and we started looking at seven points. And again, these are seven points I’ve selected. As I mentioned, there are many more. Walvord’s[RG1] book lists 50 reasons, not all of equal weight, but they’re other reasons that could be brought in. I think these are seven primary reasons for looking at a pre-tribulation rapture. The first was the focus of the seventy weeks of Daniel. It was a focus on the nation Israel. It was God’s program for the nation. Then we looked the second point, the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the church. We’ll pick up on that again, I think at a key passage that we’ll look at in a little bit. But the ministry of the Holy Spirit is unique to this period of time. We looked at passages related to that. Jesus promised He would send the Holy Spirit to carry out a unique ministry that He had not carried out before, baptizing people spiritually to make them part of the body of Christ, which is the church. We looked at these passages Jesus shared, for example, in that last night with His disciples. He said it’s better for you that I go and return to My Father, for then the Holy Spirit will be sent to you. And we noted, the Holy Spirit is omnipresent. He’s God. That’s one of His attributes. So it’s not a matter that He wasn’t present before; but He was sent in the sense of now carrying out a unique and special ministry. He would indwell believers. He was with them, Jesus said, but He will then be in you. That happens after Christ’s resurrection in Acts 1. The Holy Spirit comes on the day of Pentecost.

The third point that we looked at is the absence of the church in Revelation 6-18. We noted, for the first three chapters, the word church is used nineteen times. It’s focused on the church. Chapters 2 and 3 are all about the letters that Christ addresses to seven individual local churches at that point in time in history. They also serve a purpose for us. Those seven were selected out. They’re not the only seven churches in existence. They were selected because Christ’s message to them would be pertinent and applicable to His churches down through history, and true for us today. So you don’t have the church mentioned in chapters 6-18. It’s on earth through the first three chapters, then we see the church in heaven in chapters 4 and 5. It’s identified with the 24 elders, and we didn’t go into the details of why the 24 elders are representative of the church because we did that when we studied the book of Revelation. Then the tribulation begins in chapter 6. That seventieth week of Daniel runs through chapter 18. Then in chapter 19 we have the second coming of Christ to earth, for that seventieth week of Daniel is over. So the church is seen in heaven with Christ, not on earth. The bride of Christ, the marriage of the Lamb has occurred, and now His bride is ready to return to earth for the marriage supper of the Lamb, and blessings are pronounced on those invited to the marriage supper, which is the kingdom that is going to be established. So the absence of the church. It’s an argument from silence, but it fits with the other reasons the church doesn’t belong there. So we’re talking about the seventieth week of Daniel in chapters 6-18. The church is not part of that, so it’s a good reason. It’s in heaven. That’s an important point, I think.

The fourth point that we were just arriving at, the church is promised deliverance from God’s wrath. We call that seventieth week of Daniel, that seven-year period after the rapture of the church and before leading up to the second coming of Christ to earth, the tribulation, because it is a time of wrath. The time of God’s wrath and anger on an unbelieving world. Go to Revelation 6. This is the start of that period as John unfolds it, and this is the fullest detail of that seven-year period we have in all the Bible. We’ll jump back and look back at just one or two passages in the Old Testament because it is referred to and it’s always referred to as a time of judgement, a time of God’s wrath, a time of terrible suffering. But Revelation 6-18 is the fullest development of that period of time. Look at verse 15 of Revelation 6. “Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.’” It seems like a contradiction to talk about the wrath of the Lamb. We think of the lamb as a meek, mild creature, but here we’re experiencing the wrath of the Lamb, that sacrificial Lamb of God. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is the way John the Baptist introduced Him to the nation. It is a time of wrath. “For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” This is the greatest time of judgement the world has ever seen. Billions of people will die, as we studied the book of Revelation. We get numbers on how many people die. Worldwide catastrophes. Jesus said that if He didn’t intervene at the end of seven years, there wouldn’t be a person left alive on the face of the earth, in Matthew 24.

Come back to Isaiah 13:6. In chapter 13 of Isaiah, we’ll pick up with verse 6. This is an oracle, verse 1 says, concerning Babylon. When you get to Revelation 17, you’ll get some full information about Babylon, as it’s pertinent in the tribulation. Here, note verse 6 of Isaiah 13.” Wail, for the day of the Lord is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt. They will be terrified, pains and anguish will take hold of them; they will writhe like a woman in labor.” Jesus picks up that very expression and analogy in Matthew 24 in describing this period. They will writhe like a woman in labor, the pain associated with that. “They will look at each other in astonishment, their faces aflame. Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel, with fury and burning anger, to make the land a desolation; and He will exterminate its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light; the sun will be dark when it rises and the moon will not shed its light. Thus I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity.” Verse 12,” I will make mortal men scarcer than pure gold and mankind than the gold of Ophir.” We noted that gold of Ophir was viewed as the purest, most valuable gold. Human beings will be more scarce than that. The judgement will have been so worldwide and so devastating. Verse 13, “Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken from its place at the fury of the Lord of hosts in the day of His burning anger.”

We talk about the love of God, and we should, but you appreciate the love of God and the greatness of that love in providing salvation. You understand He is a God of wrath, a God of anger, and because He delays His judgement, so to speak, the people of the world think we’re fine, nothing’s happened. All things continue as they were from the beginning of creation, we’ve just evolved further along. But as we read in Romans 2, people are storing up wrath for the day of wrath. We talked about why God told Abraham his descendants couldn’t go into the land, it’d be 400 years. Why? Well, because the iniquity of the people living in the land of Canaan was not yet ripe. So when you see what’s going on in the world, we shouldn’t be surprised, as believers, as the world is ripening for judgement. It’s not that God is slack or that God is overlooking things, He is allowing. We look and say, boy, how long can this go on? Is God ever going to do anything? Yes, He is. This is what we’re talking about with the coming seven-year tribulation. And you see the description, and the reality of it will be worse than the description. How do you imagine this? And we went through Revelation 6-18.

So this describes it. You want to stop at Daniel on your way. We’re just going to look at one verse, if you want to wait and I will read it to you. We’re talking about what happens in the tribulation there. Daniel 12:1, “Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands over the sons of your people,” Michael the archangel is chiefly the angel of Israel. He stands guard over the sons of your people. “He will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time.” And in connection with that, that happens in the middle of the tribulation. We looked into that when we studied Revelation chapter 12. You’ll note verse 2, “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.” At the second coming of Christ, at the end of that tribulation, remember that the church was resurrected and raptured at the beginning of those seven years. At the end of the seven years, those who were not part of the church but were believers will be raised. So David is not raised at the rapture of the church, at the beginning of the tribulation, he’s part of Israel. He will be resurrected, his body will be resurrected, after the seven years, in preparation to go into the kingdom because the kingdom was what was prophesied to the Jews. David will rule in that kingdom, as we looked at in some passages in the Old Testament. Then you go on to have the promise they’ll shine brightly in the kingdom. Remember there is a resurrection of life and there is a resurrection of destruction, death. Jesus talked about that in John 5. The unbeliever will get ultimately resurrected too at the end of the millennium. So there are times in the unfolding of God’s plan. They are resurrected in bodies that will never die. They are not glorified because they are not prepared for glory in God’s presence. They are prepared to suffer for eternity in hell. So we have to understand the different resurrections that there are in scripture. The church’s resurrection is before the tribulation. Israel and Old Testament saints and tribulation saints, because some people will be saved and martyred during that seven year period. They will be resurrected at the end of the tribulation, so that is what is touched on here.

Come over to the book of Thessalonians. We’ll do 1 Thessalonians first. Now if you’ve got 1 Thessalonians put your finger there or one of your bible markers, stick something there and come back to Revelation chapter 3, verse 10. We’ll spend most of our time in the Thessalonian passages but there is one verse in Revelation chapter 3. Remember these are messages to the churches. Churches that were in existence at that time. But the messages to those churches not only pertained to those churches but they carried far beyond that. For example, there’s a promise in the letters to the churches that they will rule and reign with Christ in His kingdom. Obviously that has not happened yet but it’s a promise and it’s true for all believers in the Church. We will rule and reign with Him. In Revelation chapter 3 He’s addressing the church at Philadelphia beginning at verse 7 and He gives the messages there. We’re just going to pick up with verse 10 here, “Because you have kept the word of My perseverance.” They are a church that had suffered but they had been faithful. They had demonstrated the reality of their faith. They had persevered. “I will keep you from the hour testing. That which is about to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth.” Now that is a message given to the church at Philadelphia but its ultimate realization is what? For the churches to remember what the time of God’s wrath that will test the whole earth? He’s going to talk about that beginning at chapter 6 of Revelation. So here’s a reminder. The churches are promised deliverance from the coming wrath, just like they are promised to rule and reign with Christ. Every one of these is not repeated. You are familiar with the context that there are promises given to the overcomer and so on, to each of these churches, but what is promised to one church is applicable to them all. All the Church will rule and reign with Christ. And here in this promise there is a promise that we will be delivered from the wrath which is to come. What is the wrath which is to come in the context of Revelation? Well start reading in chapter 6. We are promised deliverance from that wrath. It is to bring judgment on those who are on the earth and also bring discipline on the nation Israel for their unbelief. But it is a salvation discipline, not to destroy Israel. By the time we get to the end of the seven years there will be a remnant that survive and place their faith in and cry out for the Messiah to come. Then He comes from heaven to rescue them at the point when it looks like their destruction is about to occur. So the Church is promised deliverance from wrath to come. This promise to Philadelphia goes on to the overcomer who will be in the New Jerusalem and so on. So those are messages that are pertinent to all believers in the Church Age.

Come back now to 1 Thessalonians and look at chapter 1. He talks about the gospel coming to the Thessalonians. Paul brought the gospel there. It came in the power of the Holy Spirit, in verse 5, and they were convicted by the Holy Spirit and they believed. Remember part of what the Holy Spirit would be doing was convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment in John’s gospel, chapter 15. Convicting the world when He comes. Remember prior, where was the work of God in salvation? Remember we read in Matthew 10 the apostles were not to go to the Gentiles, only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But then in those chapters in John, particularly John 15, Jesus says when the Spirit comes He will convict the world. I think we are in John 15 there. Those chapters there of sin, righteousness, and judgment. So you see the Spirit’s ministry. Paul here is a testimony. Thessalonica is a Greek city. Paul carried the gospel there. The Spirit brought His convicting ministry to that part of the world, Gentiles, and they were saved. They turned from their idols to serve a living and true God. When God truly saves a person, they don’t stay in their paganism. The light comes on. They see the truth of the living God and the worship of Him and they leave their idols. That’s what the Thessalonians did. And what are they doing, verse 10? “To wait for His Son from heaven whom He raised from the dead, Jesus who rescues us from the wrath to come.” Prophecy is important! In our day, in the church, well those things are of third tier importance. They are not on the major level. Biblically they are of major importance. God didn’t ask us to be His editor and prioritize these things. Paul says here’s what is great about the Thessalonians, that they are looking for Christ. Waiting for His Son from heaven. He doesn’t say, waiting for the kingdom to be established. Why didn’t he say that if that’s what we are doing? In the Old Testament the Jews were looking for the kingdom, for the Messiah to establish the kingdom. In the gospels what was the announcement? “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” But with the rejection of the Messiah, His crucifixion, and resurrection and ascension into heaven, the Church has begun. The Church will end up in the kingdom, but we’re not looking for the kingdom. We’re looking for the return of Christ from heaven to take us to heaven, to the place He’s prepared for us. That’s our priority. He rescues us from wrath to come. Even though these churches suffered persecution Paul had taught them the worse is yet to come.

Come over to chapter 5 of 1 Thessalonians. Now remember the order, at the end of chapter 4 Paul talks to them about the rapture. We looked at this passage. “I don’t want you to be uninformed brethren about those who are asleep.” He’s talking about believers in the church, their bodies are asleep. Their persons, their spirit has left their body. “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” But the body now is laying there like it’s not used. As we talked about, that it’s like it was asleep. Then he gave instructions about the order. This additional revelation that we get from God always adds something. It doesn’t change prior revelation. So, what about believers who have died? Well, there’s going to be an order in the resurrection of believers. Those who have died and are in the grave, their bodies will be raised first. Because the Thessalonians were wondering, well, our loved ones have died. Will we ever see them again? What about them? Are they going to miss out on things? No. No. They’re with the Lord but their bodies will be raised. God created us as human beings with physical bodies. These are part of His eternal purpose for us. Now sin has brought death but every person ever born is eternal. Their physical body will be eternal. These bodies will be raised. Even the unbelievers, as I mentioned earlier. They will be raised to the resurrection of death when they will be cast body and soul into eternal hell. We will be raised, these bodies. Now that doesn’t mean well, I better take good care of it. You can’t salvage it, because we’re going to die, dust to dust, but God can. Now we don’t indulge in sinful practices because this physical body has become a temple for the Holy Spirit, but it has nothing to do with what you eat. I’m not saying you should eat everything but what you put in your mouth doesn’t defile the body. We will leave it there.

Alright, we’re on the rapture. Verse 16 and 17, “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven. The voice of the archangel, the trumpet will sound, the dead in Christ will rise first then we who are alive and remain will be caught up.” There’s our word, harpazo. We will be raptured “together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” You see this is not about His coming to earth and going into the kingdom. What did He say in John 14? I’ll come and get you and take you to the place I’ve prepared for you in My Father’s house, that’s heaven. Now later, we will come to earth with Him, in Revelation 19, as the Bride of Christ, but we’ve been with Him for seven years in heaven as His Bride dwelling in the place He has prepared for us. I take it that is the New Jerusalem which ultimately, in the new heavens and new earth, will come and reside on earth.

So we comfort one another with these words. That’s the encouragement as we face death. It’s painful. It causes grief when we lose a loved one, but we don’t grieve as those who have no hope, the end of verse 13 told us. That doesn’t mean it’s wrong to cry at the death of loved one, of course we do. And we miss them, and it takes time to get over that and our life adjusts. But that’s alright, it’s temporary. It’s just like some of you are going to leave us and go south for a couple of months. Well, we’ll miss you but we are looking forward to when you’ll come back in the spring. That will be fun. Well, heaven is like that.

Now note where we go in chapter 5. Now as to the times and epochs, “but concerning the times and epochs, brethren,” fellow believers, “you have no need of anything to be written to you.” You know about this. You know full well, here we go, what’s the expression? “The day of the Lord.” What do we see in Isaiah 13? The day of the Lord will come with fury and wrath. The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, while they are saying peace and safety destruction will come upon them. Here’s our analogy. Remember from Isaiah? Like labor pains upon a woman with child, they will not escape, “but you brethren, are not in darkness that the day would overtake you like a thief. You are sons of light, sons of day,” we are not of night or darkness. “So then let us not sleep as others do,” let’s be alert and sober. See this is why the devil wants to always push even believers. Don’t get all worked up over future things. We can disagree on that. It’s not that important. Well don’t tell God what is important. Let God tell us what is important. Who am I that I would tell God that’s not important? The very fact that God speaks, that’s important. What makes it important is who is speaking! God’s speaking but you don’t have to pay attention to this because what He’s going to say is not that important. I wouldn’t put it that way. Well you did! This is to impact us. We ought to be alert, sober. You know what happens? Christians get caught up in the affairs of this world and think we are part of improving the world and dealing with racial injustices and social inequities and forget about looking for the Lord. We’ve got to try to clean up the mess here. You can’t clean it up. It’s getting worse. That’s one of the criticisms of those who don’t take a literal interpretation of prophecy. You have such a negative view.

If I have time in our discussion time I’ll read you some comments of other evangelical Christians. “That’s the problem with pre-tribulationalist, they have such a negative view, so they are not help in fixing the world in dealing with its problems.” Because they can’t be fixed! “How do you know?” God told us. When everybody’s done the best that they can do we have seven years God’s going to destroy it all. Does that not get through to us? The others are sleeping. The unbeliever lives in the realm of darkness. Verse 7, “Those who sleep do their sleeping at night. Those who get drunk, get drunk at night but we are of the day. Be sober. Put on the breastplate of faith and love, the helmet of salvation.” Why? Look at verse 9, “for God has not destined us for wrath.” What did he say in chapter 1 verse 10? Christ comes to rescue us from wrath to come but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, what’s the context here? What wrath has he just talked about? Verse 2, the day of the Lord. I don’t have to be wondering, are we in it? We’re going to talk about it in a moment. In his second letter he’ll tell them no, you are not in the day of the Lord. So here you see he’s not appointed us for wrath. He comes to rescue us from wrath. Why? Verse 9, “He has not destined us for wrath but for salvation so whether we are awake or asleep we will live together with Him. Encourage one another and build one another up.” We are not caught up in this mess. I know we are infected by it. If you lose your job in the pandemic, if the country becomes Marxists it is going to impact us but we’re not caught up in it. We’re not citizens here, remember? Our citizenship is in heaven.

Now, I respect the order that God has established and the country He has put me in. We want to be good citizens in that sense, but my ultimate citizenship is in heaven. I’m not rooted here, I’m not planted here. Everything I have here is temporal. The world doesn’t know that. I was going through and looking at different people who have mansions, earthly mansions. They buy and sell them. They are millions of dollars and I sit and think, what do they have? They bought this one, they sold that one. What do you do with your money? Now I have millions, and then I don’t have millions I have billions, so I’ll buy more of them. But you can’t stop the aging process. I was looking at a close-up picture of some of those who had become billionaires. A couple had become billionaires during my lifetime. Boy, you can tell they are getting old. Their money doesn’t keep them from that does it? They still get wrinkles. You can say they are not young anymore. I hadn’t seen a picture of them for a while. Wow! It doesn’t matter. Why do we as believers…see this what happens when eschatology, prophecy—well, we don’t get into those things. Ask some of your friends that go to other churches. Where is your church on biblical prophecy? What do they believe? I’m not running down the other churches. Some of them may say, oh yeah, we’ve been studying that. Isn’t that exciting? And you can talk together. But you’ll find some of them will say we really don’t talk a lot about that. We trust the Lord will work it out but we are more concerned about how we live today. Paul says if you don’t believe this you won’t be concerned about how you live today. That’s why he instructs in light of these things how you live today. We don’t make it up as we go. We are people living on the edge all the time. Not the edge of the tribulation, the edge of the rapture, the coming of the Lord to rescue us from wrath to come.

So in that order. Remember the bible when it was originally written was written as a letter. It did not have chapter divisions, it did not have verses. So, when you read the end of chapter 4 as we have it, it just flowed into chapter 5. So, you have the order, the rapture of the church in verses 13-18 and then the first eleven verses of chapter 5 are talking about the day of the Lord. And he picks up where he promised them in chapter 1 verse 9, “He’ll rescue us from wrath to come.” Then he tells them about how the rescue will take place. Someday Christ is going to call us from this earth then the day of the Lord will be poured out, but we don’t have to be concerned about that. Okay, Matthew 24. Jesus talks about that. He uses the same picture in Matthew 24, verse 8, about labor pains of the woman picturing that time. We are not going to take time to go there.

Alright, point five. There must be a gap between the rapture and the second coming. The two positions, the two points, the pre-tribulation rapture before the seven years at the end of the shaded period and then at the second coming, those who are post-tribulation believe, and this has become a dominant position. It is in the schools and in the scholarly world of evangelicals. They believe that Christ will come here, and this rapture occurs over here [referring to chart]. So all believers will be caught up to meet Christ in the air. They’ll meet Him here and then they’ll turn around and come right back down with Him. But there’s a real problem with that because we’re going to go into the thousand years here. Now turn to Revelation chapter 20. Now Revelation chapter 20 is the chapter that tells us that the kingdom has two parts. When Christ comes He establishes the kingdom, which is eternal. In other words, He’ll begin His reign and that reign will never end. But the first thousand years of the eternal kingdom are unfolded in chapter 20. Then we can fit some of the Old Testament passages into a time framework because the Old Testament didn’t tell us about the thousand-year phase. But everything it said was true, but we couldn’t see how timewise it would fit out. Just like everything that the Old Testament prophesied about the first coming of Christ, with His birth at Bethlehem and so on, was true and what happened as it was. And everything it said about His ruling and reigning over all the world was true, but it didn’t give us the time setup. So, Isaiah said, “unto us a Child is born, a Son is given, and the government will rest on His shoulders.” Well, the Child was born, the Son was given, but He’s still not ruling and reigning. So between those two statements you really have some two thousand years. Now both are going to be exactly true of that person. That Son will be born, and we know He was born at Bethlehem and so on in accord with other prophecies, but Isaiah didn’t understand that there would be two thousand years in between there. It took later revelation. It didn’t change anything, the Son would be born and the government will rest on His shoulders. So God speaks but He doesn’t always give all the details and the timing.

So that’s what we have with Revelation 20. When Christ comes He’ll rule and reign. The Old Testament didn’t tell us that there would be a thousand-year period. In fact, Revelation chapter 20 is the only place in all the bible that we’re told there is a millennium, a thousand-year phase of the kingdom. Again, I want to be clear, the eternal kingdom begins with the coming of Christ in the sense that He’ll never cease reigning but the first thousand years.

Okay, let’s talk about that. It’s mentioned six times in these first seven verses, a thousand years, a thousand years. Satan will be bound during the thousand years. So, Christ comes. He came in chapter 19, we had Armageddon, and then verse 2 He laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil, and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. Threw him into the abyss. He’s not able to deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years are completed. “After these things” moves us to a new phase. After the thousand years he’ll be released for a short time. We don’t have to go into detail, we are just told this will happen. Then he goes on to talk about what goes on here in the thousand years. Thrones, those who sit on them, they came to life the end of verse 4, and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. That would include Old Testament saints there, their resurrection. Those who died in the tribulation became believers in that seven-year period, and many will, and they are martyred. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. The first resurrection is a quality of resurrection. It includes everyone who is saved. So with the resurrection at the beginning of the millennium, the second coming of Christ to earth, all believers will have received their glorified body. That’s their resurrection. All who have died will have been resurrected. The only resurrection that is left is the resurrection of all unbelievers. That occurs at the end of the thousand years. So again, you’ll see the timing. Jesus said in John chapter 5, there is a resurrection of life and there’s a resurrection of death, but He didn’t break it out. Now we know and we see there’s different resurrections. We have a chart for that but we’re not going to do it now. The resurrection of death will occur after the thousand years. Unbelievers are sentenced to hell.

Alright, “the rest of the dead did not come to life,” verse 5, “until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who has part in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has no power. They will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.” So, there you have the details laid out. When the thousand years are completed Satan will be released from his prison. So, we’ve had a thousand years Satan has not been present on the earth. Not present to deceive people, lure them to sin, and so on. It’s been a perfect world in the sense that Jesus Christ is reigning. Diseases are not taking place, there’s no cancer, there’s no pain in childbirth. Isaiah tells us that if you die at a hundred you’d be considered a child and accursed because the only reason somebody is going to die in that period of time won’t be from disease and that, but no overt sinful actions will be tolerated like murder, those kinds of things. There’ll be some resistance evidenced because Zechariah tells us that if Egypt does not come up for the appointed ceremonies at Jerusalem God will withhold the rain from them during this thousand years. There will be those, someone who dies at a hundred years of age, will be thought of as a child and under judgment. Then you note what happens after the thousand years, Satan will be released from his prison. He comes out to deceive the nations. Now remember, after a thousand years, people not dying in childbirth, there are not being diseases and all the other, the curse has been lifted from creation. How many people have been born? Now these would be people who, where did they come from? We’ve got a great number because he goes out and deceives the nations of the earth in verse 8, and then we are told “the number of them,” at the end of verse 8, “is like the sand on the seashore. And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints, the beloved city,” which is Jerusalem, and fire comes down from heaven. Satan comes out after a thousand years, perfect environment. It’s not the social conditions, it’s not the injustices, it is not the environment, it’s not poverty, that’s not man’s problem. That’s what that thousand years settles because this has been a perfect King and a perfect environment, and after a thousand years of that, when people are given the choice, a multitude like the sand of the sea, which is a way of saying they can’t be counted, chose the devil as their king over Christ. And they come up to surround Jerusalem because the intention is to overthrow Christ and enthrone Satan. If the rapture occurs before the millennium that would mean everyone going into the kingdom, because here we are told at this point all the living who have survived this seven-year period, those who have become believers and unbelievers, are judged. All unbelievers are cast into Hades. Those who became believers during this period of time go into the kingdom in their physical bodies.
Now if the rapture occurs right here and all believers are caught up to meet Christ in the air, then come back down, we start the kingdom. All unbelievers have been cast into hades, only believers are left, and all believers that were alive at this time got glorified bodies. Who is going to rebel against Christ after the thousand years? Those in resurrected bodies do not marry and give in marriage, they will not be having children. Jesus said they are like the angels of heaven, they neither marry nor give in marriage. So resurrected people will not be in marriage, they will not be having sex, having children. Where do these people come from? There’s a lot of them. It’s not just a few snuck by the judgment here, as though that would be possible, and got in that weren’t believers. So that’s why I say it’s an unsurmountable problem here, I haven’t seen an example. Some say well, when He catches them up to meet Him in the air, there could be a period of time here where everybody is meeting each other. Maybe there’s a few days here and that gives time for some people to get saved after the rapture, but some people just flat out say, well not every unbeliever is removed from the earth so some will go in. But that seems to be contrary to the judgments of sifting out unbelieving Jews and unbelieving Gentiles in Matthew 25. So it seems to me if this was the only reason that would be an insurmountable reason for a post-tribulational rapture. I’m re-reading a book I read several years ago because I’m still looking, did I miss something here? What is the answer? I haven’t found it yet. So, what happens when you have a problem like this? Then they begin to adjust their views of the kingdom. And how this is going to play out? You have to be careful, you want to come to the bible and see what the bible says and build your theology on the basis of what the bible says, not build your theology and then come try to fit the bible into it. So, we’re promised deliverance from coming wrath and that’s this time. So, I think that fits the rapture.

And then you have to have a gap in here. You have to have unbelievers going into the kingdom in physical bodies, or you have to have people going in, in physical bodies. Now when believers are having children, only believers go in, and they will re-populate the earth. You’ve got a thousand years with no disease, no sin so, no premature deaths, no murders. Think of the baby boom. And yet sex will still be fun. People will have a perfect environment to raise their children in. And when they get to be teenagers, they won’t drive you crazy, there’s no good reason. It’s all good. So, we will have a multitude here. A thousand years, but you have to have people in physical bodies doing that. So, there has to be a gap that provides the gap here. When you go into the seven year tribulation there is not a believer left on the face of the earth. But you have seven years here where the gospel is being preached. We looked at the two witnesses in Revelation that are raised up by God to declare His truth. There will be a one hundred and four thousand Jews, twelve thousand from every tribe, and evidently they will be testimonies. Because following their identity in Revelation 7, we have martyrs in heaven. So, you see persecution breaks out here, but there will be people alive who become believers here. So, there must be a gap between the rapture and the second coming.

Ok, we’ll jump to point 6, the departure in 2 Thessalonians 2. So, go back to Thessalonians 2. Note what Paul says in chapter 2:1, “Now we request you , brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering to Him.” Now, if it was the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and our entering the kingdom, you could say that. This is the coming of our Lord and our gathering together to Him. We’ve looked in Matthew, Christ will send the angles to gather out of the kingdom, He’s going to establish all unbelievers to bring them to judgement. But at the rapture, it’s our gathering together to Him. This is his second letter to the Thessalonians, how’d they know about this? Well he told them about this in his first letter, 1 Thessalonians 4. 2 Thessalonians 2:2, “That you may 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.” Now, he told them in the first letter that we would be preserved from wrath. But there were false teachers that came. You know in those days letters took a long time to go from one place to another. Not like our today, instant communication, send a text, send an email, it goes right away. So, these teachers would come in, Paul’s in another part of the world, he may not get back here for years. They’re saying well, here’s what Paul really teaches. You’ve misunderstood him. Yeah, we know, and we have a message from the Lord. He says it doesn’t matter who, a spirit or a message, somebody saying they got a letter from me. Well, here, I have a letter, this letter I got from Paul. Here he tells us, wait a minute, that wasn’t a letter from me, that was a lie, any of that stuff. The day of the Lord has not come. Verse 3, “Let no one deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first.” Now, that word apostasy, that’s just a transliteration of the Greek word apostia, and we think of it as religious departure. In fact, in your margin, verse 3 says a falling away, and then they add, from the faith. But the particular noun is only used twice, once a departure from Moses, then the verb is used. I think what he’s talking about here is the rapture. What has he just talked about? He talks about the, if you’re going to translate that word, the departure, unless the departure comes first. What departure did he just talk about in verse 1? “We request you brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to Him.” I take it the departure he’s talking about is not a coming apostasy of the church in some kind of departure from truth. He’s talking about our departure to be gathered together to the Lord. That’s what he talked about in 1 Thessalonians 4. The Lord will descend into heaven, then He’ll call us. So, it comes first and then the man of lawlessness is revealed. That’s another name for, we were told in Daniel 9, the prince who is to come. Who will sign a covenant with the Jews, which marks the beginning of what? The seven year tribulation, the seventieth week of Daniel. So, those two things have to take place. You can’t be in the day of the Lord, the departure. The Departure, the definite article is used in the Greek as well as we have it translated here. What departure has he just talked about? The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him. What he referred to as the harpazo in 1 Thessalonians 4, the rapture. We’re caught up to meet Christ in the air so He can take us to His Father’s house, where He has prepared a dwelling for us, according to John 14.

The man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, he’ll be revealed. This may be when some people begin to connect the dots, so to speak. An agreement is signed by the leader of the western world alliance, the revived Roman Empire, that brings Israel peace. We know in that first 3 years, the temple will have been rebuilt, the sacrifices will be reinstituted. So, that will reveal who he is. Whether people recognize it, now you’ll know who the man of lawlessness is. In 2 Thessalonians 2:4, “He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God.” Well, the temple must be rebuilt. We say that in Revelation 13 where they worship. Remember the tower of Babel in Genesis 10? They wanted to have globalism, all the world, so they didn’t want to be scattered. And they had to have a worship center because that’s what the Devil is all about, worship. He’s not anti-religious, he’s after worship. And they built a tower which would be their center of worship and would keep them together. That’s when God divided the world, the nations, into races. That’s part of His purpose and plan. That’s why we have a hard time putting them together. As believers, we have a foundation. And in Christ we recognize the unity we have. But the world doesn’t have any basis, they’re chasing around after themselves because they can’t deal with it. It just gets worse, and they say they’re going to make it better. And the division between the races and everything gets worse, because what happens when they finally come together is it will be around the center of worship, which is the worship of the Devil. So, that happens in the middle of the tribulation. Remember why they should know this is, verse 5, “Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?” So, probably it’s not important. Well, Paul thought it ought to be some of the early things he taught. He taught it when he was at Thessalonica. Verse 6, “And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he may be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.”
We see lawlessness going on in the world. And there are many anti-Christs, small “a” in that sense, in anticipation of the one final “a,” anti-Christ. But there’s a restraining going on. The One is restraining. Lawlessness is at work, but it can’t get to its full bloom. So, the world is going to get worse. We may see preparation getting to that point, but we’re not there yet. And we’re going to have a time of false peace before that comes, after the rapture. The anti-Christ will be able to pull it together. I shared with you the Time magazine article, I think it was from the 1980’s, when they were putting together the European Union, if we could find a man who would unite us, we would we follow him if it was the Devil himself. I saved that article, I still have it. Boy, is that not a prophecy or a fulfillment of a prophecy. Note the restrainer, verse 7, “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. And then that lawless one will be revealed.” Now we looked at the special ministry of the Holy Spirit to the church. Who is restraining the full outbreak of lawlessness and the manifestation of the man of sin, the man of lawlessness in this period of time, the Holy Spirit. He came in Acts 2 to start the church. “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world,” John writes in his first epistle. The Holy Spirit’s ministry in the church is holding back. Well then, shouldn’t we be doing things? I mean, trying to, what? Present the truth, right? We are lights in the darkness, telling them about the coming Lord who is the Savior, who will someday come in judgement. The Lawless one will be revealed after the restrainer is removed. Why? Because then the fullness of the Gentiles, Romans 11, has taken place. Now, all Israel can be saved. Now we can start Israel’s clock again for that last 7-year period, which will culminate in the salvation of the nation Israel. Because that time of God’s wrath, not only to bring judgment on an unbelieving world, but to bring discipline on Israel. So the discipline will be so strong, so severe that by the time we get to the end of it, when it looks like it’s hopeless, the remnant will turn to faith in their Messiah. So, the restrainer here, I take it is the Holy Spirit. He came in a special way, He would not come until Christ ascended to heaven. Then He sent Him. Now His presence holds back the seventieth week of Daniel. Can’t happen while we’re still here. But you look around and see what’s going on and say, it wouldn’t surprise me. I’ll wake up in the morning and read the news. We’ve got things going on, look how quickly things have changed. Things go around. You take all of the believers out of the world, the restrain is gone, Satan is free to go full bore. The restraint is off him in that sense. So, I think the restrainer here is the Holy Spirit. So, he’s talking and it’s kind of clear, the departure will come first. The coming of Christ and our gathering together to Him. So, the departure hasn’t happened. You’ve become caught up, you can’t be in the day of the Lord. Remember you weren’t appointed to wrath. I’ve been through that with you when I was there and wrote you a letter. We’ve been promised deliverance from wrath. So, the departure will occur first. Then the man of lawlessness will be revealed. And that can happen because the restrainer has been removed. Because when the church goes the Holy Spirit goes. And the way that He came in Acts 2, He’ll be present in the world. He was present from the beginning of creation as we went through.

Then he discusses the lawless one. Verse 8, “And then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming.” So now he’s talking about a coming after the day of the Lord. Because the anti-Christ will be destroyed with the second coming of Christ, he and the false prophet are the first two to inhabit the eternal hell, Revelation 19. So, the departure, the word, the verb is used here. You don’t need to turn there, but if you want to write down the verses, Acts 12:10, “the angel departed from him.” That uses the verb form of the noun we have. I’ve translated apostasy in verse 3, “unless the apostasy,” the departure, that’s the noun, the verb form of that aphistemi, is the verb. It means the departure, he uses the verb. So, in Acts 12:10, “the angel departed from him.” In 2 Corinthians 12:8, Paul prayed that that demonic being who was inflicting him, that “it might depart from me.” In Luke 4:13 its translated with the word, left, he left him, he departed from him. So, the word or family of that word, is used of a departure. So, two things mentioned here. I’ll save what else I have. But I want to finish the the rest of this point and then the next one.

Two things mentioned would be parallel, so in verse 3 of Chapter 2, while you’re here, you have the restrainer removed, verse 3, the apostasy comes first, the man of lawlessness is revealed. The restrainer is removed, the lawlessness is revealed. The Holy Spirit at the rapture goes, the revelation of the anti-Christ. Verse 2 and 3 are parallel with two ideas, verse 3 and verse 8. These two things have to happen. The restrainer is removed, that’s the Holy Spirit. What do other people say the restrainer is? Some say it’s human government. Well, human government is used of God to punish evil doers, but it can’t hold back the Devil. It’s not a viable option. The lawless one, we have yet to see it. Now, if you’re not going to take prophecy literally, you’re going to get into all kinds of ways to identify current things going on.

The last point we will mention, we’re not going to go into detail on it, is the imminent return of Christ for the church. That’s point 7. We’re to be looking for Christ at any time. We’re to be expecting Him. Well, if we’ve got to go through the seven-year tribulation, you’re going to take that literally, I know He’s not coming. If you don’t believe in the rapture, do you believe in the anti-Christ? We’re obviously not there. So, better dig a shelter. I don’t know, stock food, what do we do to prepare? There’s no preparation for that, the destruction will be so great. So, we believe in the imminent return of the Lord. Imminency doesn’t necessarily mean soon. But He will come, and come quickly. That’s the way the book of Revelation ends. Revelation 22:16, “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches.” So, all of revelation is for the churches. Those seven, and then the rest of the churches down to our churches today. It’s for us. Verse 17, “And the Spirit and the bride say, come. And let the one who hears say, come. And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life.” Verse 20, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” That’s the way we’re to live. It doesn’t say, start cleaning up the world. He’s already told us the world is going to destruction. Oh, you’re such negative people. That’s the problem with dispensationalists, they’re negative. They don’t want to improve the world because they say it’s not improvable. Well, it’s not. It doesn’t mean I don’t cut my lawn. That’s fine if you want to take food to them. We do good things. As much as we have opportunity we want to do good to all men, but we are not on a rescue operation for the world in that sense. We are here to bring the message of salvation to the lost in the world so they can be delivered from wrath to come, and the world can go to hell, literally. The tribulation is as close as they will get to hell on earth and the only thing is, it gets worse after that, the literal hell comes. So we talk about those figurative expressions, but that’s where we, as believers, the church—and this is my concern for the church—is losing it’s focus. I don’t mean our particular church, and every church, but the evangelical church is being swept along by a theology that says we ought to be involved.

I was going to read to you, I may pick up in January with a message or two. We have to clarify what is the gospel. I brought a book I was going to read from to you by a graduate of an evangelical seminary twenty years ago critiquing dispensationalism because they think the salvation of the soul is the only thing that is important. The problem is they’ve done missionary work in places like South America where he is from. He said all they were concerned about was saving souls and they didn’t bring the true gospel, which is save souls but fix the social problems and the racial injustices. And this is where missions today have gone. He quotes the leading missionaries from South America. They are critical of what we call “faith missions.” That those who came with the idea that we are here to bring the message that can save your soul. And that’s accepted as evangelical? This is in a book written, published from an evangelical seminary. This is what we are taught now? So that’s why these things are important. It’s the devil who says, well look, these are secondary, third level. We don’t have to agree on prophecy. We do! We have to agree on the gospel. And now they are telling me it’s not just prophecy, it’s the gospel itself. These are serious matters. This is why we studied Jude. “Certain men have crept in unnoticed.” How did they get in unnoticed? Now evangelicals can write a book telling us we don’t have a complete gospel if you are just focusing on the salvation of a soul to rescue them from hell. That’s not the full gospel and they don’t hold it back. I will read you some of that. I may put a couple of slides up because I read it and reread it and I say, I can’t believe that, that passes as evangelicalism today. No, don’t apologize. We are committed to a literal interpretation of the bible. We believe prophetic truth is foundational truth and once you give that up you are out here doing whatever the world has decided is good things to do while we just try to make the world better. For what? Well, if we are in the kingdom we should be doing kingdom work. And kingdom work is going to be where social things are what they should be. There won’t be racial injustices. Wait a minute! You are denying what the bible says about man’s sin and it all begins to blend together. Pretty soon we have nothing. If the church, which is the pillar and support of the truth, is moved away from the truth where will the truth be presented? It is a beautiful plan of the devil. So that’s why we are concentrating on this.

Let’s have a word of prayer together. Thank you Lord for the riches of Your word. Lord we have a treasure entrusted to us and with that comes serious responsibility to take it seriously. We are to guard the treasure which has been entrusted to us. We are to be faithful to that treasure. We are to take our stand upon it, to defend it, to proclaim it, to claim it as our very life. Lord, as our church we want to stand faithful in these days with other believers in other churches that are standing true to the Word. But these are days when we do experience the pressure, the attacks that sometimes come subtly, sometimes not so subtly, that may cause us to doubt. Are we really doing what we should do? Are we failing? Lord we want Your word to be the measure of that. We are Your slaves. We want to accomplish Your purposes. Bless the week before us, the opportunities, Lord, that come to us to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, the overwhelming importance of His birth, His becoming a man. May that, by Your grace, be days of salvation for many. Bless us wherever we are, whatever we do. We pray in Christ’ name. Amen.


[RG1]Not sure on spelling. 3:17