Reasons for the Pre-Tribulation Rapture – 1

Transcript

GR 1997
03/19/2017
Reasons for the Pretribulation Rapture-1
Revelation: Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

What a glorious future we have as God’s people. What a privilege to serve Him and tell others in these days. We’re studying the greatest of all prophetic books, the bible, and probably the greatest of all prophetic portions of the bible when we come to the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ to His servant John. Greatest in that it is the climax of biblical revelation. It’s awesome to consider when God is going to conclude what He has to say to His people and to His churches. It is the most detailed unfolding so we’ve been studying the Book of Revelation and we’ve moved through the first three chapters.

Now we get ready to move into matters relating to future events. Chapters 4 and 5, remember, will take us into the realm of heaven itself and then chapter 6 will bring us back to earth and from chapters 6 to 19 we will have the unfolding of events that will take place in the seven years climaxing with the return of Christ to earth. In chapter 19 and then the concluding events of the kingdom, so we have taken a pause because chapters 3 and 4 address the church, specifically individual local churches. Before we move into the prophetic portions of the book, I thought it would be good for us to get things in perspective, where we are.

In our last study, we talked about biblical interpretation and they’ve given you a summary of that in your newsletter so you might read over that. It’s not exhaustive by any means but it gives you some of the principles that we follow in what we call literal interpretation; historical, grammatical interpretation and it’s not very difficult because it’s normal communication. It’s how we talk to each other, how we read the newspaper and other literature like that. We recognize there are figures of speech and symbols used but we communicate in a normal way. That’s why we can communicate today. We talk to people, we understand.

There are certain things we do have to do. The bible was written at a different time so we’ve talked about we have to become familiar with the historical time and setting so we can appreciate something of Egypt and Israel being enslaved in Egypt and the Pharaohs and other nations that come. Some that we aren’t as familiar with like the Assyrians. Then we meet the Babylonians and some of those nations so the historical setting of course is important. Things like who were the Pharisees who are on the scene when Jesus walked the earth and the Sadducees so that’s the historical setting and the rules of grammar we talked about that, so if you read through this and we follow what is called literal interpretation and sometimes to bring confusion, scholars begin to redefine words. I’ve put some quotes from non-dispensationalists, those who would not agree with us in interpreting the bible literally but they understand what is met by literal interpretation of prophecy so we don’t want to get side tracked so if you were here you can read that as a refresher. If you weren’t maybe that’ll help you. They listed five principals of interpreting what we interpret literally, so that will be a good review for you.

What I want to talk about today is not found in the Book of Revelation but it’s important to understand where we are when we come to the next chapters in the Book of Revelation. I want to talk about the Rapture of the church. That is an exciting event, which is in our future as the church of Jesus Christ, and explain a little bit about what the Rapture is, where it fits in God’s program and some of the reasons why we believe in the Rapture the way we do. Why it is consistent with what we call literal interpretation of Scripture.

First, maybe we ought to tell you something about the Rapture itself. I was hoping to get this in in one message but we’re not going to do that so we’ll get it in in two, three, or four; we’ll get it in. Sometimes we talk about the Rapture of the Church and people say well the word “rapture” is not in the bible. Well there are a-lot-of words not in the bible. The word “faith” is not in the bible because faith is an English word. We have the Greek word that we translate faith. The word rapture comes from a Latin word, which translated a Greek word, and since Latin became prominent and the translations often have been moved in from Greek into Latin, some of our words pick up the concept of a Rapture. We are talking about that time when God will call all believers in the Church of Jesus Christ to meet Him in the air and He will take us to heaven.

Come to 1 Thessalonians. First, we’ll mention the word “rapture”. It’s translated a couple of ways in our bible. In 1 Thessalonians 4, this is one of the major Rapture passages, it tells that we will be caught up from the earth to meet Christ in the air. So Paul tells them in verse 13 of 1 Thessalonians four. “ I do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep.” Now evidently there was some concern in the church at Thessalonica, what about fellow believers who die? What happens to them? Paul says I don’t want you to be concerned. “Asleep” is the word used to refer to the death of a believer; it’s not soul sleep. The Bible tells us when the spirit leaves the body, the body is dead. For a believer we can talk about his body is temporally inactive like when he is sleeping.

It’s the picture but the spirit is with the Lord so what about those who have died? “We don’t want you to grieve as those who are without hope.” It didn’t say you can’t grieve when loved ones die but you don’t have that grief of despair and hopelessness when a loved one who is a believer dies. You know you will see them again. “If we believe that Jesus died and rose, again” . . . you believe the truth of the gospel . . . “even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus so you see to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” Paul wrote about this in 2 Corinthians 5 and also, in his letter to the Philippians. “ For this, we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep” so we’re going to get an order here basically, new material that will help clarify things.

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall ever be with the Lord.” Now in verse 17 “we who are alive and remain will be “caught up” that’s the word rapture. In Greek, the word is harpazo, which transliterated over h-a-r-p-a-z-o, harpazo. It was translated into Latin. It went into something like rapere and then we get rapture from the Latin but the word is here. To be “caught up” means to be snatched away, to be caught away so you see what he is saying. When the Lord descends in heaven you’ll note here, He doesn’t come to earth. We are “caught up to meet Him in the air.” The dead bodies of believers been buried turned to dust whatever their spirits have been with the Lord. It says the Lord will bring them with Him. He brings those who are with Him, their bodies raised up in a glorified state, they move back into their body.

Immediately following the resurrection of the body of believers who have died during the church age we who are alive will be immediately transformed and caught up to meet them in the air. So if the Rapture would occur right now every believer in this auditorium would disappear and in that instant of time we’d be caught up and meet Jesus Christ in the air and join together with friends and loved ones who were believers in Christ who had just previously experienced the transformation in reuniting with their body. That’s what we’re talking about with the Rapture.

This word “caught up” - snatched away - used 15 times in our New Testament the Greek word harpazo. I just want to look at three of them with you so you get the idea. Come back to Acts chapter eight. Now they’re not talking about the Rapture of the church here but you get the idea of the word and what it means to be caught up to be snatched away. In Acts, chapter eight you have Philip who is serving the Lord and bringing the gospel here to an Ethiopian eunuch. Then you’ll see in verse 39--after Philip has led this man to Christ, he baptizes him. “When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him but Philip found himself at Azotus.” That word “snatched” is the same word “caught up” our word harpazo. The Spirit of the Lord “caught away” Philip, caught up Philip snatched him away. You see he’s there, all of a sudden, he’s gone and the next thing you know he’s in a totally different place. It’s that idea of the word to be caught away caught up.

Look over in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse two. Paul is talking about he is going to go on to tell the Corinthians about visions and revelations that God gave him so they can understand how he came to this knowledge of the truth and how trustworthy this truth is. He speaks in the third person here, verse two. “I know a man” . . . and he’s talking about himself but he sort of steps outside to relate this. “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago--whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows.” Even to this point, as Paul writes, he doesn’t know whether this really bodily happened to him or it was just a vision that was given to him. God never clarified that to him. “Such a man was caught up to the third heaven.” There’s our word, “caught up” raptured, harpazo. You see what happened to Paul. He was caught up from the earth. It may have been bodily and he finds himself in heaven. It may have been just in a vision but that picture of being removed from this one spot to another here from earth to heaven just that quickly. We talk about how many lightyears this and that is away. No problem from God. We have an instant of time a translation.

You come over to Revelation chapter 12 and here we’ll get to this but we’re talking about Christ being born in the nation Israel. We’ll fill in the symbolism used here when we study this but you’ll see down in verse five of Revelation 12. “And she” the woman here being Israel “gave birth to a Son a male child who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron and her child was” and here’s our word, “caught up” to heaven to God and His throne.” Remember Acts chapter one, Christ met with His disciples on earth for the final time and then He ascends to heaven. He’s “caught up” from earth to heaven. That’s what’s related here now, those three examples just show the use of the word that we had in 1 Thessalonians chapter four where we will be caught up, raptured, removed from the earth to meet Christ in heaven.

Now let’s look at three additional passages that talk about the Rapture. Come to John chapter 14. Jesus is here this is His last night with His disciples. The crucifixion will happen shortly. He’s given them His final instructions and in chapter 14 verse one He says to them, “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.” Now note here. “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places.” Obviously, He’s talking about heaven where the throne of God is, where God dwells. “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” You see what He’s talking about here. Now the Jews and His disciples are looking for Him to come to this earth and establish a kingdom. He’s talking about preparing a place for them in heaven, then coming, getting them, and taking them to heaven where He has prepared a place. They don’t understand this at this point.

The truth of being with Christ where He is but this concept as used here is still looking for the earthly kingdom. This is the last thing they’ll ask Him in Acts chapter one before He ascends to heaven. “Will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” But here He tells them “I’m going to prepare a place for you in heaven then at the appropriate time I’ll come get you and take you to the place I’ve prepared for you where My Father dwells that you’ll be there with Me.” So this is, if you will, new truth that will have to be clarified and it’s clarified for example what we read in 1 Thessalonians chapter four when Christ will come in the air and meet believers and take them to heaven.

Come to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This is the greatest chapter in the whole bible on the resurrection of the body and our resurrection is guaranteed by Christ’s resurrection. A bodily resurrection not just a spiritual transformation, a resurrection of these physical bodies and a transformation of these bodies into what can be called “glorified” but when you come to the end of this chapter Paul says, “now I say this brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” Now he’s writing to the church at Corinth. Important to keep that clear, the context remember we talked about principles of interpretation, the context, the context of this letter. To whom is he writing? Church believers cannot go into the kingdom in their physical bodies but there will be people go into the kingdom in their physical bodies but not those who are part of the church. We’ll say more about the church in a little bit.

Well what’s going to happen? “ I tell you a mystery.” A mystery in the bible is not something confusing or difficult to understand. A mystery is something that cannot be known apart from revelation from God and now he’s telling us I have revelation from God for you so the Rapture is not found in the Old Testament. This truth, it is something revealed like here with Paul. “I tell you a mystery we will not all sleep.” Remember that word is used of the death of a believer. Not every believer is going to experience physical death but we will all be changed. Every believer will undergo this bodily transformation; that’s encouraging. We will not all have to experience physical death. I hope I’m one of those. I hope you’re one of those and since I’m older than most of you I’m probably hoping more than you but if the Rapture would occur today, no physical death, no cancer, no heart attack, no dying from old age, whatever it is. We don’t all have to die. There’ll come a generation of believers who will be transformed and transported to heaven without ever experiencing physical death. That is what he is saying.

“We will not all sleep but we will all be changed.” How will this change occur? “In a moment” in an atom of time “in the twinkling of an eye” more instant than when you blink your eye. It’s like how do I explain this, this atom of time, this twinkling of an eye. God doesn’t need these extended periods of time to bring about this it (snap fingers) that quickly. If the Rapture would occur now it’s quicker than you can blink your eye. You’d be meeting Christ in the glory of the clouds and our loved ones who have died would be there who were believers. That’s what he is saying. “ In a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet the trumpet will sound the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed."

Now you see the same order that we had in 1 Thessalonians 4. “The dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” 1 Thessalonians 4 helped us understand that as well. “For this perishable must put on the imperishable, this mortal must put on immortality and that’s when death will be swallowed up in victory because death is the last enemy we face.” When we as believers pass through physical death, all the battles, all the enemies are dealt with but when the Rapture occurs, believers who are alive won’t have to face that enemy because we’ll experience that bodily transformation without going through the process of physical dying. That’s why we can talk about “the blessed hope, even the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” as Paul wrote to Titus.

Come over to Philippians chapter three verse 20. “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior ,the Lord Jesus; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” So you see the transformation and our citizenship is in heaven. Now he’s talking about again what? “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; I’m preparing a place there for you.” Our citizenship is in heaven. We’re looking for when He comes for us as the Church to take us to heaven and we will see the Church in heaven in chapters four and five when we move into that in the Book of Revelation and then later through the Book of Revelation as well. So that transformation of the body, that’s what we’re looking for. This is new material coming new information.

The Old Testament, the Jews and Israel, they’re looking for a kingdom, an earthly kingdom to be established through the gospels and the earthly ministry of Christ. They’re basically looking for an earthly kingdom. Even as we move into the Book of Acts, it will take time. Remember progressive revelation and new revelation does not change older revelation, prior revelation. It can clarify it, it can add to it but it doesn’t change it but now we’re in a new realm that has not been revealed before. We’re in the realm of the Church and what happens to the Church. The Church doesn’t appear in the Old Testament, as we will see, so what were Jews looking for when Christ came to earth? What did John the Baptist come preaching? Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. We looked at some of these matters in our previous study and they were looking for the coming of the Messiah to establish the kingdom. They didn’t understand the first coming and a second coming of Christ. Now as we look back into the prophets we can see that this applied to the first coming of Christ, this applied to the second. Isaiah never new anything about two comings of Christ he just prophesized about the coming of Christ. That’s why Peter said in his letter remember they couldn’t sort things out about the suffering and death of the Messiah and the ruling and reigning of Messiah because these things weren’t put in order and laid out.

Now we’ve got an area revealed that has not been revealed before. The Jews were looking for the coming of Christ to earth to establish a kingdom. Now we know He would come the first time to suffer and die providing redemption. He will come to earth a second time to establish His kingdom but the Rapture and the second coming are two distinct events. I’ll say more about his along the way but at the Rapture, Christ meets believers in the air. The bodies of believers have been glorified to meet Christ in the air and believers are taken to heaven to be with the Lord. That’s what happens at the Rapture. At the second coming of Christ to earth, Christ returns to the earth in power and great glory. We’re told every eye will see Him, all the peoples on the earth. He destroys His enemies and He sets up a kingdom on the earth and believers in physical bodies will go into that kingdom so there are two separate distinct events and there are many things that could be drawn out on the distinction but that just gives you three things in each that are distinct and unique.

Now I want to talk about some of the support for what we call a Pretribulational Rapture. Let’s go to Daniel chapter nine and we’ll put this in place. I’m going to give you and we’re not going to get them all today but seven reasons why I believe in a Pretrib Rapture. These are not exhaustive. I’ve mentioned before John Walvoord, former president of Dallas Seminary, wrote a book on the Pretribulation Rapture. At the end of that book if you want an extensive list he gives fifty reasons for a Pretribulation Rapture and I thought we could just do a year’s sermons, take one a week, but I picked seven because it’s the number of completion so I think that’ll be enough.

The first reason I’m going to give and we’ll list these in a moment but for right now, we want to focus on the seventieth week of Daniel so here’s where we get the seventy weeks of Daniel verse 24. “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city . . . Now here Gabriel, the angel from God, is bringing this information to Daniel. Seventy weeks or literally seventy sevens as we’ve studied Daniel on other occasions and we’ll get into this as we move into the Book of Revelation. These are seventy seven-year periods and so they’re weeks of years not weeks of days. We know that because other passages will divide it into two segments, half of it being 42 months well 42 months is half of a seven-year period things like that. So seventy sevens, seventy seven-year periods have been decreed. Note who it’s for; “for your people.” Daniel is a Jew; he’s talking about your people Daniel, the Jews and your holy city. Of course we know the holy city, Jerusalem.

Six things will be accomplished in that 490-year period. That’s why we have at the top of the chart seventy weeks, (70 x 7) and they’re seven years so that gives us 490 years. In that, God will complete His plan for Israel and their redemption and the establishing of the kingdom . . .” to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place.” That lays out the time line for God’s program for Israel to get them to the kingdom, 490 years.

Now he breaks it down and you’ll look in verse 25 so we stay on track here. “You are to know and discern from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; . . . and that’s why we have here on the chart as you can see it up here 69 weeks are 483 years. He says there are seven and then there are sixty-two. We don’t need to go into the details we’ve done that on other occasions. That will bring us to Messiah the Prince, to the Messiah of Israel so the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and I put the date on here 444 B.C. there it is that’s the date of the decree so all we have to do is get 483 years and we will come to the Messiah and that 483 years ends about a week before Christ is crucified. It’s close enough for now for us so you see that’s until Messiah the Prince so we knew when Christ was going to come. The Jews had a timeline if they were keeping track and there’s material you can get at the bookstore if you want someone who works it out because they take into account the leap years and all of that and it brings us down to the date. You’ll note verse 26. “Then after the sixty two weeks the Messiah will be cut off . . . Now note here, the sixty two weeks are after the seven weeks so when he says then after the 62 weeks-- because he just previously said, seven weeks plus sixty-two weeks so after a total of sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off. That’s why I say just after those 69 weeks are completed literally within days Christ will be crucified, He’ll be cut off, he’ll have nothing, no kingdom.

Now note here, there’s an indication of something that’s not clearly revealed yet. After the sixty-two weeks, he doesn’t say in the seventieth week Messiah will be cut off. He says after 69 weeks “Messiah will be cut off have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.” That happened in 70 A.D. so here we have prophesied the Messiah being executed and the city and the temple destroyed. This happened in 70 A.D. and you’ll note here there’s another implication, and the people of the prince who is to come . . . key person, you should have that underlined the prince who is to come will destroy the city. We’re told a couple of things here. The Romans we know destroyed the city and there is a coming prince, who evidently will be Roman, because the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Well the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 70 A.D. so we’re told here this coming prince will be a Roman. It’s my understanding of it and I think for many. Sometimes we hear well maybe the antichrist, this is the antichrist as we know him the little horn, the lawless one many names for him. I believe he will be a Roman not a Jew because the Romans destroyed the city in 70 A.D, not from one of the Muslim countries because the Romans destroyed the city and that’s my understanding here. The people of the prince who will come will destroy city.

Then you’ll note, this prince who is to come verse 27, “he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week” . . . one seven. So you see, we were told after the 69th week Messiah will be cut off, we get from what we know later, then the city, and the temple will be destroyed. There’s at least a gap of 70 years there because we know when that happened. You know once these events have been fulfilled in prophecy you can see how literally they were fulfilled but then this coming prince the prince who is to come, “he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week.” Now we get an indication after the 69th week with the completion of that you hit the pause button for Israel. God’s program with Israel and His work in focusing His work in the world and His work of salvation in the nation Israel goes on hold. You hit the resume button when this prince who is to come makes a firm covenant with the many, referring to Israel as it does on other occasions as well, for one seven year period and then you get that seven year period broken down into two. In the middle of the seven, he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offerings and so on, so we have the focus of the seventieth week. This is for Israel.

We get the indication of some kind of gap because the seventieth week doesn’t just flow after the 69th week because after the 69th week Messiah dies, Jerusalem is destroyed and the prince who is to come makes a covenant for one seven years. You can see how it’s marked off as separate. If you look at the chart, you can see we go from the coming of Christ and then just after the 69th week He is executed. Then we have that period we call the church age that period in there that is nowhere revealed in the Old Testament; nowhere, the Church is not revealed. The Old Testament prophets jump from the first coming of Christ his suffering death and resurrection providing redemption and they jump down to the seventieth week. That’s what basically has happened here. You just get an indication certain things are going to happen in the context of Israel, which shows that God has shut down the program with Israel. Their Messiah dies, doesn’t establish a kingdom. Their city and temple are destroyed.

The next thing, we pick up the man who signs a covenant so we put the Rapture at the end of the church age. That’s not what begins the seventieth week of Daniel. The seventieth week of Daniel begins with the signing of this covenant. How long after the Rapture? The next day while the Rapture occurs he’s signing a—I don’t know, there can be a gap there. It could weeks, whatever, but that time-period after the Rapture, then he’ll sign a covenant and we start this seventieth week, so this period called the church age is unique.

Come over to Ephesians chapter three. Here we’re told by Paul and the church was not revealed in the Old Testament and that’s why we talked about interpreting the bible literally and progressive revelation doesn’t give you the right to go back and reinterpret the Old Testament. You can go back and you’ll understand things more clearly like passages on the suffering and death of Christ and passages on His ruling and reigning in glory. Now I understand that the way Isaiah couldn’t. I know something there are 2000 years, there are two comings to earth. The Old Testament just sandwiched it and mixed it all up. They weren’t wrong in anything they said they just never gave a timeline.

Ephesians chapter three, Paul says he’s writing to the Gentiles and he’s in prison when he writes during his first Roman imprisonment. He says “if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace, which was given to me for you;” . . . A special responsibility was entrusted to Paul in gifting him as an apostle to what? The Gentiles, so it’s for the sake of you Gentiles. “You’ve heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery. “ Remember a mystery is something you can’t know without God revealing it and this is new material so you understand how I (Paul) know this material. God revealed it to me it wasn’t revealed before so we figure it out well I don’t find that in the Old Testament. No you won’t, this is new revelation. It doesn’t change anything in the Old Testament nor is it found in the Old Testament. That “by revelation there was made know to me the mystery and I wrote before to you about this briefly and by referring to this you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,” which is what? “Which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men” so people might say well how does Paul know that? God revealed it to me. This is new revelation. It’s being revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit. Paul’s not the only one that will get revelation on this the Book of Revelation given to John for the churches will even expand on this for example.

Verse six. What is this mystery? That “the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, fellow partakers of the promise of Jesus Christ through the gospel” so verse eight, “to me, the least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, to bring to light, what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies.” Even angelic beings are learning something here. God is revealing something He had kept reserved for Himself and He talked about this at the end of chapter two of Ephesians as well that in this day Jews and Gentiles are being brought together in the body of Christ the Church. There is an outreach in ministry to Gentiles. You know there’s no missionary evangelism program in the Old Testament. You go into Canaan to destroy the wicked not to evangelize them. In fact, God kept His people out of the land of Canaan for over 400 years until their wickedness was ripe. He didn’t send them in there to evangelize them for 400 years. He says I kept you out for 400 years then I’ll send you in to wipe them out because there’s talk about Gentiles being converted in the Old Testament but it’s in the context of Israel. God’s work in the world focused on a chosen nation and there was only one, Israel.

This is something new so it fits with the seventy weeks and when God is doing this new thing, it’s a new program. Understand it that way. It hasn’t cancelled His program with Israel. The Book of Romans talks about this. “God has not rejected His people, has He?” (megenoito) Such a thought is inconceivable but He has put them on a sidetrack until He’s done giving the Gentiles opportunity to experience His salvation and then we’ll have the salvation of Israel. We go back to the completion of the program at the end of those seventy weeks. One of the purposes of the seventy weeks is to bring Israel to faith in their Messiah; then we will be ready to move into the kingdom. Ok, we have to get one more point in. I have seven. The first point that we looked at is the focus of the seventy weeks of Daniel. They don’t include the church; the church is not revealed in the Old Testament.

Secondly the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the church. When Christ was preparing His disciples—come back to John 16. The reason we have to get this in is I got it in in the previous hour. I like to keep you together. In John, chapters 13 and following, Jesus is preparing His disciples on that last night He had with them for His impending crucifixion and He tells them about the Holy Spirit He would send from heaven in chapter 14. In chapter 15 verse 26 of chapter 15. “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me.” Then you come down into chapter 16. Note what He says in verse seven. “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away, the Helper . . . the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter . . . will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” Now note what He says here “and He, when He comes, will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment.” Now that’s something new.

If we went back to Matthew 10 (and we don’t have time to do that) in verses five to seven, Jesus instructed His disciples when He sent them out. “Don’t go to the cities of the Samaritians; don’t go to the Gentiles you go evangelize only Jews announcing their kingdom is here.” Now were told “when the Spirit comes He’s going to carry on a ministry beyond and outside the boundaries of Israel. He will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment because of the work of Christ” as He goes on to talk about so in Acts chapter one verse eight Jesus tells the disciples. “You will receive power after that the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” Acts chapter one Christ ascends to the Father. Acts chapter two the Holy Spirit comes and the church begins so you have the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

One other passage and then we’ll stop and pick up next time. Second Thessalonians chapter two and here He’s talking about that prince who will come that we read about in Daniel chapter nine. Here he’s called “the lawless one, the man of lawlessness being revealed the son of destruction” and we didn’t go on to read in chapter nine when this man comes the destruction that comes and so on. This is one of verse four of 2 Thessalonians 2, “he opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, takes his seat in the temple declaring himself to be God.” In a future event we will get to that in Revelation particularly chapter 13 and then you come down to verse seven. The mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Now note this, “only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed.”

See, we have basically the same pattern we read in Daniel 9 but we couldn’t have understood it because the coming of the Holy Spirit and the establishing of the church wasn’t made known. The coming of the Spirit to implement the new covenant but that God’s plan then would be to implement a phase in His ministry on earth that had not been revealed before is New Testament truth. Who is the One who restrains until He is taken out of the way? Then the lawless one will be revealed and we know that hasn’t happen because this lawless one, the prince who is to come, ends with the coming of Christ. The Lord will slay him with the breath of His mouth and He will bring about his end by the appearance of His coming at His second coming so I take it what we’re talking about in verse seven the One who is restraining Him is the Holy Spirit. Now He’ll be taken out of the way.

He came in a unique way. The Holy Spirit has always been present in the world. He is God. We meet Him in the opening verses of Genesis when what? “The Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep” so it’s not that He wasn’t present in the world but He came on the Day of Pentecost in a unique and special way to do what? Establish the church. During this church age the work of the Spirit is restraining and holding back the completion of God’s plan and program for the nation Israel but when you get to the end of the church age the Spirit will be removed. I take it just as the Spirit established the Church at His coming when He is removed in the way He came in Acts 2 the Church is complete and that’s when the Church is removed from the earth because His program with the Church is complete. Now He will resume His program with Israel. That doesn’t mean that during the church age the Jews cannot be saved. Paul said he’s an example of a Jew that was saved but he is now part of the church. Jews that are saved during the church age are a reminder of God’s mercy and grace to the nation Israel but they’re members of the church. Then when the Holy Spirit’s restraining influence is let go because He leaves the earth with the church to meet Christ in the air and go to heaven.

Now, on earth, we are ready for that lawless one to be revealed. What will he do? It makes clear he’ll sign a covenant with Israel. Now the clock’s ticking again in God’s program for Israel. We have seven years and during the first 3½ years, as we’ll be seeing, he acts as a friend to Israel. The temple is rebuilt. Then we’ll move into the last half and it will be hell on earth as the earth is being destroyed, as the devil attempts to destroy Israel and other believers and as God pours out His wrath on an unbelieving world to an extent never before seen. So bad that Jesus said in the Olivet discourse in Matthew 24 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. But for us we’re not looking for that and we have to look at other promises He’s given that make the assurance of a pretribulation a preseventieth week of Daniel Rapture assured. That’s the hope we have as believers. The future of the world is bleak but for us it’s great and we are looking forward. It could happen today. It’ll be a day like every day, all of a sudden, every believer is gone, and we will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Really, no time lapse there because it will be an atom of time, the blinking of an eye, so you must be ready. Have you trusted Christ? If not, you just look around and say where did everybody go? I’m here and, you know, watch, turn on the news. They’ll soon be the report of the signing of an agreement and things are going to get awful but we have a blessed hope.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the promises of Your word. How blessed we are to have a completed revelation so that we can look back over all you have revealed and see how You have put it together for us. Not that we have complete final understanding of everything but You have provided for us to understand everything You have revealed and You intend us to understand it and then to live in light of it. Thank You for Your truth thank You for Your salvation thank You for the hope we have of a coming of Christ to call us to meet Him in the air and Lord may we be faithfully about Your work expecting Him at any time. We pray In Christ’s name. Amen.


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