Evidence for the Pre-Trib Rapture – Part 2

Transcript

GRM 968
8/6/2006
Evidence for the Pre-Trib Rapture, Part 2
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh


The rapture of the church, we’re going to continue what we were talking about earlier today on some of the biblical evidences for a pretribulation rapture. A literal interpretation of prophecy indicates that Jesus Christ will be returning to earth before the earthly millennium, the earthly kingdom. And it is at His return that the kingdom will be established. The Bible also indicates that there is a 7-year period left in God’s program with the nation Israel. That’s called the 70th week of Daniel. And we were looking at biblical reasons why we can expect that the rapture of the church will occur before that 7-year period. And note that it’s not the rapture of the church that begins that 7-year period, but following the rapture of the church, it is the signing of the covenant by the Roman antichrist, according to Daniel 9, that marks the beginning. So there may be a lapse of time there. Wouldn’t be years, I wouldn’t think, but it could be a period of weeks or whatever in there as adjustments are made and that takes place.

The two major views of the rapture among believers are the pretribulation view and the post-tribulation view. Post-tribulation view thinks that the return of Christ to earth to establish His kingdom and the rapture are one event that occur at the same time. In other words, those who are post-tribulation, after the tribulation, but premillennial, believe that at the Second Coming of Christ to earth He’ll call believers to meet Him in the air. They’ll be glorified and then they will continue down to earth with Him to establish His kingdom. That has some problems, some of which we will deal with in our study together tonight.

1. The first reason for evidence we looked at for a pretribulation rapture, or rapture before the 7-year tribulation, was the focus of the 70 weeks of Daniel. That is 490 years determined for the Jews and Jerusalem. The church is not part of that and we noted that the church did not begin until after the 69th week was over. And there is a gap between the 69th and 70th week. We know everybody has to hold that, everybody doesn’t, but if you take a literal interpretation of prophecy you do, because Christ hasn’t returned yet. And the culmination, the climax, of the 70th week will be the return of Christ to earth to establish His kingdom. And we were told after the 69th week Messiah was cut off. Unless you’re going to spiritualize the rest of prophecy, you have to agree Christ hasn’t returned. And even the preterists who believe that He returned in 70 A.D. doesn’t fit, because from the time of His crucifixion until 70 A.D. would be more than 7 years. So the focus of the 70th week of Daniel was our first reason.

2. The second reason we looked at was the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the church. We looked in John 14-16, concerning Jesus’ promise to send the Holy Spirit to minister in and through His people, as a result of His death, resurrection and ascension to heaven. And that is a unique ministry of the Spirit through the church in the world. And we connected that with II Thessalonians 2:7-8, where it is the work of the restrainer to hold back lawlessness and the manifestation of the antichrist until it is the right time in God’s program. And then when the restrainer is removed, then the rest of the 7-year program with Israel will come about, connected with the rule of the man of lawlessness, the antichrist. We noted the restrainer in II Thessalonians 2 is the Holy Spirit, He’s the one who is holding back evil. So this time of the church when God is dealing with Gentiles primarily, is a time when the Spirit of God through the church in the world is restraining evil, and holding back events. And when the rapture of the church occurs, then that restraint will be gone, satan’s man, the man of lawlessness, will be unveiled, and the final 7 years will move along.

3. The third evidence I would note for a pretribulation rapture is the absence of the church on earth in Revelation 6-19. The church is mentioned repeatedly, 19 times, in the first 3 chapters of Revelation. The focus is on the local church, 7 particular local churches in Asia. In chapters 2-3 Christ addresses a letter to each of the 7 churches in that region of Asia, which would encompass a large area of Turkey today. Then you come to Revelation 4-5, and why don’t you turn to Revelation 4-5. The beginning of the first verse of Revelation 4 John is brought to heaven and He is taken to heaven to see things going on in heaven. And part of what He sees in heaven are the 24 elders. And I would understand that the 24 elders are representative of the church in heaven. We don’t have time to go through the reasons, we’ve done that in other studies. But if you look in Revelation 4:4, the 24 elders are clothed in white garments and have golden crowns on their heads. And being clothed in white garments, as we’ll see in a little bit when we look at Revelation 19, is indicative of the righteous acts of the saints. And they have crowns on their heads. So the indication here, these are believers who have been judged at the Bema seat and been rewarded. The crowns here are stephanos crowns—two kind of Greek crowns, diadems and stephanos—and stephanos is the victor’s crown. You never find angels wearing stephanos crowns, you don’t find angels wearing crown. So the indication here, I take it, of the 24 elders are representative of the church as it has been judged at the Bema seat and is now enthroned in heaven.

Through Revelation the church is never mentioned on earth after chapter 3. And so when you do see the 24 elders, which represent the church, through the book of Revelation they are in heaven. Look in Revelation 7:11, and all the angels were standing around the throne and the elders. The elders would be the ones referred to in preceding chapters, the 24 elders. You’ll note they are in heaven around the throne. And it’s in this context of chapter 7 that you saw the 144,000 Jews on earth sealed to preserve them during the time of tribulation. God has resumed His program with Israel, the church has been taken to heaven. In Revelation 7:13 the same thing, one of the elders answered to me saying, identifying a certain group present in heaven. In Revelation 11:16 as the 7th trumpet sounds and there is an anticipation of the coming kingdom on earth in verse 16, the 24 elders who sit on their throne before God fell on their faces and worshipped God. ???????we get a glimpse into heaven repeatedly and the 24 elders are there in the presence of God in heaven, indicating the presence of the church there. Revelation 14:3, they sang a new song before the throne and before the living creatures, and the elders….. Those elders again before the throne. And then you come to Revelation 19:4, and the 24 elders and the 4 living creatures fell down and worshipped God who sits on the throne.

So strong emphasis in the first three chapters on the church and its ministry on earth. And then the events that will unfold on the earth beginning in chapter 6, the details of the 70th week of Daniel, the church is not seen on earth. It is seen in heaven in chapters 4-5 and in those glimpses through the subsequent chapters.

When you come to chapter 19 and events associated with the return of Christ, look at verse7. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come. Or you could translated that, aorist, has occurred, and 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. Then He said to me, write blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Then verse 11, I saw heaven opened and the white horse, as Christ now begins His move to earth. But you see the church is already in heaven, we’re the bride, we’re there, we’re already clothed in fine linen, white and clean. We have been judged for our faithfulness and rewarded accordingly. So we’ll say more about this event in a moment. But you’ll note the church is in heaven. You get to Revelation 19, now we are ready for the Second Coming. The church is already in heaven. So they celebrate the preparation for Christ to descend from heaven to earth, the church is already there. And when heaven opens in verse 11, the bride has already been prepared. We’re told about her in verses 7-9.

So the absence of the church on earth in Revelation 6-19 is another indication that the church is in heaven during this time, and not on earth. We’ve seen Israel on earth during this time in those verses, but the attention now is not on the church on earth as it was in the opening chapters.

4. The fourth evidence for a pretribulation rapture—the church is promised deliverance from God’s wrath. The 70th week of Daniel is a time of wrath being poured out on the earth. There are many passages that would refer to this, but go back to Revelation 6. Revelation 6 begins to unfold the events of this final 70th week of Daniel that will climax with the return of Christ in chapter 19. It is a time of wrath. Let me say how some get around this before I say anything further. Some try to say well there are different kinds of wrath in the book of Revelation—there is man’s wrath, there is nature’s wrath, there is satan’s wrath, there is God’s wrath. And so this isn’t all God’s wrath. It all comes from God. Just like in the plagues on Egypt, God can use what we call natural events. Locust plagues happened in different parts of the world just like they do today. In Egypt God was using the locust plague to pour out His wrath on Egypt. The fact that He used something natural ??????? artificial distinctions. It is the Lamb, you’ll note in Revelation 6:1, I saw when the Lamb broke 1 of the 7 seals, it is the Lamb who has authority over all that is happening here, none other than the Son of God. These come from Him. He alone is the one who has authority to bring these events upon the earth, and then bring its final salvation with His return.

Look down in verse 15, as you’ve had the first 6 seals. You are aware there are a series of 7 seals, 7 trumpets, 7 bowl judgments, and they move along sequentially through the tribulation. With the pouring out of these 6 seals we are told in verse 15 the impact on the earth. Then the kings of the earth, the great men, the commanders, the rich, the strong, every slave, every free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks and the mountains. They said to the mountains and to the rocks, fall on us, hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand? In these events the peoples of the earth see the hand of God and His wrath being poured out upon them, and they are completely unnerved. So there is a recognition, this is a time of wrath—the wrath of the Lamb, the wrath of His Father. It is their wrath, verse 17, that has come upon the earth, in these seals and it’s only going to get worse. So chapters 6-19 unfold the wrath of the Lamb and His Father.

Now in Revelation 3:10 the message to the church at Philadelphia, and remember these churches, literal churches of the time but selected by Christ because of their significance for the churches down through history and His message to them and promises to them. And one of the promises given to the church at Philadelphia, verse 10, because you have kept the word of my perseverance, I will also 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. But you’ll be kept from it. In the context of the book of Revelation there’s no doubt what we’re talking about, we’re talking about the events of chapters 6-19. So it would indicate the rapture will remove the church from that event.

Back up to I Thessalonians 1. Paul is commending the Thessalonians for their response to the gospel when they heard it, and that the Word of God came to them in the power of the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. And they responded in faith and at the end of verse 9, you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. And I take it he’s talking primarily here about the wrath of the 70th week of Daniel.

Look over in I Thessalonians 5:9, for 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. You’ll note that context here, whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Now this is in the context of being promised deliverance from wrath. Put this in the broader context. Remember I Thessalonians 4:13-18 are about what? The rapture of the church, the church being caught up to meet the Lord in the air. And what is the distinction made? Those who have fallen asleep will rise first, then we who are alive will be caught up to meet them in the air. Therefore comfort one another with these words, verse 18. Then chapter 5 begins, now as to the times. And that expression that begins, we have it translated now as—but concerning the times and epochs. It’s an expression, but concerning, pare de, Greek two words that indicate a change to a new subject but one which is related to what preceded. So this isn’t the rapture in chapter 5, but it’s related to those events. Because following the rapture we come now, Paul says, to the times and epochs, brethren, and you don’t have any need to have these things written about. For you yourselves know full well that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. So he had to tell them more details about the rapture, because remember there was no revelation of the details of the rapture until it was given through Paul. But there is a lot of information on the Day of the Lord in the Old Testament prophets. Paul had instructed them on that. Now he clarifies matters on the rapture. Then he goes on now, you yourselves know 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 suddenly, like labor pains on a woman with child. And on down, that day won’t overtake you like a thief, you are all sons of light, not of night or darkness. On we go down to verse 9, God has not destined us for wrath, but obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we’ll live together with Him. We’re not looking to the Day of the Lord, that’s not our destiny, and the wrath of that day. Doesn’t matter whether you are awake or asleep, the believer in Jesus Christ, if you have died you’ll be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. That’s the rapture. If you’re alive when that event occurs, you’ll be caught up to meet the Lord. The Lord hasn’t destined us to wrath. So just the order as you read through it in it’s context—first the rapture, then the Day of the Lord. And what he says about not being destined for wrath, because whether we’re awake or asleep when the rapture comes, we’ll be caught up to meet the Lord. We’re not destined for wrath. So a clear unfolding.

Note in verse 3, when they are saying peace and safety, then destruction will come upon them like labor pains. Now go back to Matthew 24. Jesus uses the same picture of the events of the tribulation. Matthew 24:8, but all these things are the beginning of birth pangs. That word translated birth pangs, the same word translated labor pains, oden is the Greek word. Same exact word, just translated labor pains in one passage and birth pangs in the other. Means the same thing. As labor pains can come upon a woman suddenly, so the events of God’s judgment following the rapture of the church and the signing of the covenant. The restraint is off, lawlessness can now break forth at a level that has never been seen before, the judgments of God under which billions of people on the earth are going to die begin immediately—the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse under the opening seals of Revelation 6. So in that same context as Jesus goes on to talk about the events of the 70th week of Daniel climaxing with His return to earth in Matthew, same picture that Paul picks up here—like the labor pains of a woman.

So I take it in I Thessalonians 5:9, God has not destined us for wrath, that’s the same wrath as we have in I Thessalonians 1:10. Christ Jesus is the one who rescues us from wrath to come. And we’ll see how Paul picks this up in his second letter to the Thessalonians in a moment.

5. But let me take you to a fifth evidence for the pretribulation rapture of the church. There has to be a gap between the rapture and the Second Coming. In other words, a post-tribulation rapture, a rapture at the end of the 70th week of Daniel, where the church is just caught up to meet Christ in the air, gets its glorified body and then just comes back down to earth with Him to establish the kingdom, will not work. If the rapture occurs in the context of the return of Christ to the earth to establish His kingdom, so the church goes through the 70th week of Daniel, then Christ is descending from heaven (we’ve already seen some of the problems because the church is already in heaven and going to return with Him before heaven ever opens). But let’s just give the post-tribs a moment of peace and say okay, it’s going to happen that way. You know what happens? Every believer on earth goes up to meet Christ in the air and receives a glorified body. Right? I Corinthians 15, in an atom of time, a twinkling of an eye we’re changed. So then we all come back down to earth in glorified bodies. Who is going to populate the millennium? Not glorified saints, they neither marry nor are given in marriage. There are going to be children born in the millennium.

Go back to Isaiah 65, in fact go to Isaiah 2. Isaiah has so much to say about the kingdom, about the 70th week of Daniel, but about the kingdom as well. Isaiah 2:2, now it will come about in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains. And a mountain refers to a kingdom. Remember in Daniel 2 the image of the man which represents the empires of the world, and then it is struck on the feet by a boulder and that becomes a great kingdom. That’s Christ’s kingdom, a mountain symbolizes a kingdom. The mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills. And all the nations will stream to it. That fits, remember? Israel will be the central people, Jerusalem will be the capital of the world. Many peoples will come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us concerning His ways. That we may walk in His paths, for the law will go forth from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations, will render decisions for many people. They will hammer their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war. This verse on the United Nations building in New York is not working, it can’t work until the Prince of Peace comes and establishes it by His authority.

So you see something of that kingdom. Isaiah 11 talks about it, and the lion and the lamb lie down together, and a child plays on the hole of a poisonous snake. Come over to Isaiah 65. Talking about the coming kingdom, just break into it here. Verse 19, I will also rejoice in Jerusalem, be glad in my people. There will no longer be heard in her the voice of weeping, the sound of crying. This is a future event. You watch the news? It’s a sad time in Israel today, and the worst is yet to come. No longer, now note this, no longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his days. The youth will die at the age of 100, the one who does not reach the age of 100 will be thought accursed. In the millennium the only cause of death will be the intervention of Christ to kill the ones who would openly rebel or openly sin.

They will build houses, inhabit them, plan vineyards, eat their fruit. Down to verse 22, as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of my people. My chosen ones will wear out the work of their hands. They will not labor in vain or bear children for calamity. We’re repeating what was said in Isaiah11 in verse 25, the wolf and the lamb will graze together, the lion will eat straw like the ox. Dust will be the serpent’s food. They will do no evil or harm in all my holy mountain, says the Lord. No where in the whole kingdom that encompasses the whole earth will anyone do evil or harm. But you’ll note here, there are children, and will be those who die under judgment. If he’s only 100 and drops dead, he must have had evil plans in his heart. And the King of Kings would not allow that rebellion to be expressed.

Where would that come from if everyone has glorified bodies? I mean where are these children coming from, who is going to have the children? They will no labor in vain or bear children for calamity. Glorified saints don’t bear children, they are like the angels in heaven. That dimension of life is over in our glorified body. But it’s going to happen in the millennium.

Furthermore, at the end of the millennium there is going to be a great rebellion. Come to Revelation 20. You know what happens at the rapture of the church, every believer is removed from the earth. There is a period of time there where there is not a believer on the face of the earth, every believer has been removed. You say, well how are people going to get saved? Well think about it. You shared the gospel with someone, they are in the process of considering, am I willing to turn from my sin and trust Christ, and the rapture occurs. They’re not going. Why? Because they have not yet believed, they do not yet belong to Christ. Perhaps the rapture occurs, they don’t know about it yet, they’re in their room reading the portion of scripture you gave them or the tract or whatever. They get on their knees and pray, but the rapture has occurred. They missed it. Praise the Lord, they may be saved now. So there are going to be people getting saved afterward, just like there are people getting saved all over the world right now, as a result of the testimony of God’s people and the work of the Holy Spirit. So at that point in time, every believer at that point will be removed. So there will be in effect no unbeliever, technically speaking, although people can believe 2 minutes after the rapture and not even have known the rapture occurred. They call up their friend to tell them, I trusted Christ like you encouraged me to, and there is no answer on the phone. Where are they? Probably out having ice cream. No, they aren’t coming back. Well these people would, I take it, be saved. And then there will be the work of the Spirit and the presence of the Word of God, and other reasons, but we go on.

At the end of the millennium there is a great rebellion against Christ. Now we know the millennium is the first stage of the eternal kingdom, it’s 1,000 years. As you are aware, in the first 7 verses of Revelation 20 we are told six times that we’re dealing with a 1,000-year period. In spite of that some people say, well it’s not really 1,000 years. Maybe if God had said it seven times, would ten times be enough? I mean six times—verse 2, verse 3, the end of verse 4, verse 5, verse 6, verse 7. And you’ll note verse 7. Now verse 6 tells you, blessed and holy is the one who is part of 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 1,000 years. We know how long this portion is of reigning, just pick that up. When the 1,000 years are completed, satan will be released from prison. Because verse 2 tells us…………chapter 20 is after the return of Christ to the earth in chapter 19. You don’t have to be a scholar, just read through Revelation and take it as it comes, in sequential order.

So now the kingdom is established. At the beginning of the kingdom satan is bound in the abyss. He's not free to roam the earth, not free to deceive people, not free to delude people, any of that. You have 1,000 years of Christ’s perfect righteous reign. There will be people who go into the millennium in their physical bodies. They were alive, we saw those in Matthew 13, for example, when Christ removes the wicked from the earth and then believers go into the kingdom. Matthew 25, the judgment of the sheep and goats, refers to that, where He tells the sheep, enter into the kingdom that has been prepared for you from the foundation of the earth. They go into the kingdom, they are believers, they have physical bodies, they have children. These children are born with a sin nature, they have to believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior to be cleansed and become children of God. During the time of the millennium there will be enforced obedience. No overt rebellion will be tolerated. We saw, they will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, in all my kingdom. So some have to keep their desires under control.

But at the end of the 1,000 years satan is released from his prison. Note verse 8, he went out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war. Now note this, the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. They come up on the broad plain of the earth, surround the camp of the saints, the beloved city. Fire came down from heaven and devoured them, and then satan is cast into hell. Then we’ll have the Great White Throne judgment, the final judgment of sinners. What that 1,000 year period of the first portion of the eternal kingdom is for, it demonstrates that the ultimate problem with man is his own sinfulness. When you remove satan from the picture, when you remove all environmental problems, here are people who are born and grow up and live for hundreds of years in a perfect world under a perfect king, and when given a choice they would rather have satan as their leader and overthrow Christ. So they see an opportunity now to follow satan and gather at Jerusalem to try to overthrow Christ, and they are destroyed. So the millennium demonstrates that man’s problem is not his environment, man’s problem is not the devil. Man’s problem is his own deceived, depraved human heart. That’s what Jesus said in Mark 7, out of the heart proceed, and He lists all kind of sinful things. These are all excuses people use, the devil made me do it, well I was raised this way, or I never…………. Forget it, the problem is the heart, and the millennium will demonstrate that.

But where are these rebellious people going to come from? If everybody got a glorified body that goes into the millennium, you have a real problem. And if glorified saints decide they’re going to follow satan? No. So you have to have time between the rapture and the coming of Christ to earth to establish His kingdom, for people to get saved and be alive on earth in their physical bodies and go into the millennium. Because everybody raptured with the church gets a glorified body.

Also, we looked at Revelation 19, what happens when the rapture of the church occurs, the church is taken to heaven and judged at the Bema seat and rewarded, and the events of the marriage take place. And the pattern of the Oriental wedding, and again we have material on that in the bookstore, we can’t go through it. But we have been betrothed to Christ, Paul says in writing to the Corinthians, and then the pattern that at the appropriate time the groom comes to get his bride and takes her to his father’s house. There the marriage is formalized and that is followed by the great marriage supper in celebration. We still have a similar pattern—we have the engagement and then the marriage ceremony and then the reception which is the dinner or supper or whatever we do. But that kind of idea, a similar pattern. When we get to Revelation 19 the marriage of the Lamb has occurred, we’re ready for the marriage supper. We’re ready now for the groom to come out with his bride and for all the friends and family to see. Remember what John the Baptist said? I’m not the bridegroom, I’m a friend of the bridegroom. ????????? We are the bride of Christ.

So those events have time to take place in heaven for the church as well as the events unfolding on the earth. So it would seem to be clear that there needs to be a gap between the rapture and the Second Coming to handle what the scripture says must take place.

6. All right come to II Thessalonians 2. Now remember Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, he wrote to them about the rapture and he reminded them about the coming day of the Lord. And he told them that God hasn’t appointed us to the wrath of the Day of the Lord, because whether we are awake or asleep, we’d be delivered by Him, as he explained at the end of chapter 4 as we have it, regarding the rapture. Now you come to II Thessalonians 2:1, now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him. What event is He talking about? He doesn’t say with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to establish His kingdom on earth. That would be the Second Coming. But with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, what I wrote you about in I Thessalonians 4:13-18, where we’re caught up to meet the Lord in the air. And Jesus promised in John 14, I go to prepare a place for you. If I go to prepare a place for you I will come and receive you to myself, that where I am there you may be also. So there we’re talking about going to heaven to the place prepared in heaven for us. So here, I’m talking about the rapture. I want to speak to you about the rapture, that you not be so quickly shaken from your composure and disturb you by a spirit or a message or a letter from us to the effect that the Day of the Lord has come. Evidently some were promoting the idea, because of suffering and persecution, that we’re really in the Day of the Lord, we’re in the 70th week of Daniel. Don’t get unsettled by that, you’re not.

Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come, referring to the Day of the Lord, unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness be revealed, the son of destruction. Now he says the apostasy must come first. Now there are two views on this among those who hold to a pretrib rapture, though the pretrib rapture is not dependent on this. There are those who hold that the word apostasy here just refers to the apostasy that will take place in the last days, a great departure from the Lord, some of which is referred to here in chapter 2. And so the word apostasy means just like we would use apostasy, a departure from the faith. However, I think that a better view in light of the word, but in light of the context of chapter 2 also, is that the word translated apostasy……….. We’ve just carried it over from the Greek, apostasia, is the noun here. It’s only used one other time in the New Testament, Acts 21:21. Paul is accused of a departure from Moses, in other words, not being faithful to the things that Moses taught. There it would be a religious apostasy, as we think of it.

However, this noun is taken from a verb ??????? that can mean a departure, a leaving. In fact in classical Greek this noun can be used that way—a departure, a disappearance. The verb that this noun comes from is used 15 times in the New Testament. We’re going to look at 3 of them with you. Acts 12:10. Here you have Peter being delivered by an angel from prison. When they had passed the first and second guards they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself. They went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. That word translated departed is the verb form of the noun that we have translated apostasy in II Thessalonians 2. The meaning here is clear, the angel left him, departed.
Look in II Corinthians 12:8, here Paul is praying that the messenger of satan would leave him. Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me, depart from me. Same verb, to depart from me, referring to an angelic spirit. We won’t go to the third one, Luke 4:13. It says he left him.

When you come back to II Thessalonians 2, I think the context here…….. Verse 3, let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come unless the apostasy, the departure, it could be translated. In fact some have noted that all the English translations up until the King James version translated this verse departure, unless the departure comes first. What is the departure that he is referring to in the context? Well verse 1, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, which he explained in more detail in I Thessalonians 4, where we’re caught up from the earth. We depart from the earth, we go meet Him in the air.

Also note the parallel, verse 3, let no one deceive you in any way. It will not come unless the apostasy comes first, so the Day of the Lord doesn’t come until you have the apostasy first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed. Now come down to 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. We noted that refers to the Holy Spirit. That would parallel the departure that comes first in verse 3, when the church is caught up to meet the Lord in the air. The Hold Spirit dwells in the church as we’ve seen in our previous considerations. So that would parallel. And then verse 8, then that lawless one will be revealed, and that would parallel verse 3, the man of lawlessness is revealed. So it would seem like the departure in verse 3 is the same thing as the restrainer being removed in verse 7, and the man of lawlessness being revealed in verse 3 is the same thing as the man of lawlessness revealed in verse 8. There are parallel ideas, parallel statements that occur before the Day of the Lord unfolds. Because it’s a manifestation of the man of lawlessness and he becomes clearly recognized when he signs that covenant with Israel for one week. Anyone who knows the scripture, who has come to believe, perhaps in the weeks since the rapture occurred????????????? Perhaps they’ll be in our bookstore. You know there’ll be nobody here and the books will be free. They’ll come in and pick up a book and read it and say, my goodness. They’ll watch the news and say, I just read a booklet, I picked it up at that empty church out there. Nobody in the bookstore, left a note they could call me and tell me what it cost, but I haven’t heard. Whatever.

So it seems what Paul is talking about in II Thessalonians 2 fits exactly what he said in his first letter, and the parallel. The departure will come first, referring to the believers’ departure from the earth and being gathered together to Christ. The man of lawless is revealed. Now we are ready for the unfolding of the tribulation.

7. One final point, I really didn’t work it out this way, I though I would have more but when I got done last night at 2 a.m., I had 7, so I stopped. And this is the imminent return of Christ to the church. If we don’t have a pretribulation rapture you cannot have an imminent return. If Christ is not coming until the end of the 70th week of Daniel, for example, we know He’s not coming today. Because we have the 70th week of Daniel, the covenant hasn’t been signed between the antichrist and Israel. A lot of these events of Revelation 6-18 have occurred. So we don’t have an anticipation of the return of the Lord today. We could say, we’re going through a time of wrath. Have you read Revelation 6-18? I mean I think you ought to be buying land in Wyoming or Montana or someplace and stock a cave, and we ought to get out of here because we have a terrible time coming. But that’s not what the focal point is for us as believers. We are looking for the coming of the Lord.

Go back to Philippians 3:20, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior. Titus 2:13, we are looking for the blessed hope, even the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. We’re not looking for the coming 70th week of Daniel, we’re looking for the return of the Lord. Now keep in mind, the imminent return of the Lord means He can come at any time. That’s not the same thing as the soon coming of the Lord. We may believe He’s coming soon. The Bible doesn’t say He’s coming soon, it says He is coming at any time. In other words, there is nothing and there was nothing in the New Testament times, after the establishing of the church after the death and resurrection of Christ, that has to take place before Christ can come. No events that hindered His coming a hundred years ago. So I say well all the events of the 70th week of Daniel had to get put together. That’s correct, but none of those have to happen before the rapture.

Now what we look at is like Israel, and we say well Israel has to be back in the land in the 70th week of land, Israel has to rebuild their temple during the first 3½ years of the 70th week of Daniel. And we begin to look and see what’s going to take place in the 70th week of Daniel—there will be a 10-nation confederacy in the revived Roman empire, according to Daniel 2, Daniel 7, Revelation 13 that indicates……….. Well we see that the European Union is going to be out from that group as the little horn comes, a Roman who will sign the agreement with Israel. So we look and see things here the Bible says is going to happen in the tribulation. We may be seeing those things come together which heighten our awareness and remind us. We need to be careful because ??????????? the teaching of the Bible on prophecy has been discredited by those people who want to run around and 88 reasons why the Lord is coming in 1988. And some fools never learn. Because you know when the Lord didn’t come in 1988, you what he did? He wrote a follow-up booklet on why I missed it by a year, He’s coming in 1989. I mean I’m not even that dumb, if I missed ’88, I would have said 2015—give myself some space. I mean he just wiped himself out.

So we want to be careful we don’t get carried away and say, oh the Lord has to be coming. Look what is happening to Israel, there’s no doubt He’s coming. I believe the imminent return of the Lord, and when I see some of those things seeming to be coming together, and not just one or two, but a number of things that are talked about, I realize we may be closer than we think. So the imminent return of the Lord, I Thessalonians 1:10 and many other passages would speak to that.

What does all this mean? We’ll wrap this up with a couple of verses. Look at I Corinthians 15. You know some people have a view of prophecy, well so what. I just want to live for the Lord today and whatever happens in the future will be fine with me. Well God didn’t put it in here to be ignored, He doesn’t say anything that is not important for us to know. He doesn’t say anything that He does not hold us accountable to know and live in light of. He doesn’t ask me to be His editor and decide what I think is important in what He has said and what I think can be ignored. So we have no choice, and we wouldn’t want to miss out on what He has said for us.

After Paul unfolds further the mystery of the rapture in I Corinthians 15, note what he says in verse 58, therefore my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. I tell you about the resurrection of the body after I explain to you how that will impact us as the church particularly. That ought to encourage you not to get tired, not to grow weary, not to slack off. But pour every ounce of your strength and energy into the work of the Lord, because he is coming and our toil in the Lord is not in vain. This fits how he started the letter. Go back to I Corinthians 1:7. Talks about how they have been enriched as a church by God’s grace in every area. Verse 7, so that you are not lacking in any gift, the gifts of the Spirit to enable the church to function as God intends them to. Awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful and so on.

We are exercising the gifts He has given us to pour life and ministry. We have a number of our adults off with our young boys and Boys of Faith. Why are they doing that? Well they don’t have anything else to do. Of course they do, but what? They want to be involved in pouring their life into the work of the Lord. Some of you have found the summer a very busy time in your various ministries and you’re doing that. We need to be awaiting the coming of the Lord.

Turn over to I John 3:2, beloved we are now children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. Remember we read that at the rapture He’s going to transform the bodies of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory. We will be like Him. Everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Part of the problem with impurity in the church is we’ve lost our focus on the imminent return of Jesus Christ. Would you get involved in that immoral relationship tonight if you really believe in the imminent return of the Lord, that He may come before the evening is over? It’s a purifying hope.

We conclude with Revelation 22. In Revelation 3:11 Jesus says I am coming quickly, this is to the church, remember. Revelation 22:16, I have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches. Churches don’t bother with the book of Revelation, but Jesus said what I’ve told you in this book, this letter is for the churches. Note what He says in verse 7, behold I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book. Verse 12, behold I am coming quickly, my reward is with me to render to every man according to what he has done. A word of warning in verses 18-19, don’t add anything to this book, don’t take anything away. Verse 20, he who testifies to these things says yes, I am coming quickly. Amen, come Lord Jesus. The Spirit and the bride are joined in this time, in verse 17, saying to people, come. Let the one who hears say come. Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. moved to share the truth of Christ and invite men, women and young people to come to Him, partake of His salvation, because He is coming quickly. An imminent return, and when He comes it will be quickly, speedily. And it’s happened, we’re in glory. Can you believe it? The meeting in the air really happened. That’s hope and we live every day, today could be the day that we might see the Lord, that He might call us. That’s the imminent return. Oh they’ve been saying that for 2,000 years. Yes they have. But all that means is now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

I don’t know when the Lord is coming, but I know we’re 2,000 years closer than we were when Paul wrote about it, when John wrote about it. I know we’ve moved quite a ways along. Is He coming in my lifetime? I don’t know. I want to live like He is, I want to live like He’s coming today. We ought to model that for our children as they grow up. Why do we live like we do? Well we believe the Lord may come today. We don’t live like we believe the Lord may come. like we were expecting something. We expect to leave at any time and we’re ready. We want to be about the work of the Lord, because when He calls us into His presence then we will be rewarded for our faithfulness and give and account of our service.

That’s the salvation that Jesus Christ has provided, the culmination of our earthly life will be at the rapture of the church, which will precede the coming conclusion of God’s 7-year program with Israel.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for a salvation that is complete in every way. You have not only planned the beginning, you have planned the end and everything in between. We have the confidence that the one who has begun a good work in us will bring it to perfection in the day of Christ Jesus. Our hearts are thrilled as we study your Word, as we look at your hand at work in the world around us, as we contemplate the imminent return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May that be a strengthening, an invigorating hope that purifies us in all of our service. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.