The Timing of the Rapture, Part 1

Transcript

GRM 1000
03/09/2008
The Timing of the Rapture, Part 1
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

We've been studying I Corinthians together, and we're going to begin in I Corinthians 15 today. We will not be limiting ourselves to the study of one passage, but we're going to start where we were in our last study in I Corinthians 15 and then move on from there.

What Paul has been doing in I Corinthians 15 is demonstrating the reality of the resurrection of the dead body of the believer in Jesus Christ. And the fact that Christ was resurrected from the dead is a demonstration and proof that believers in Christ will also experience bodily resurrection. I Corinthians 15 hasn't dealt with the subject broadly, Paul's focus has been narrow. He is just concerned with the issue of the resurrection of the bodies of believers who are part of the church of Jesus Christ. Other passages of scripture deal with other areas of resurrection—the resurrection of Israel, the resurrection of unbelievers, the resurrection of tribulation saints and so on.

In verse 50 Paul makes a transition in I Corinthians 15. Through verse 49 he has talked about the resurrection of the bodies of those who have died. Then in verse 50 he said, now this I say brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. That is a summary and it is a lead into what he has to say next. We noted you have to keep in mind with this verse the ones to whom Paul is writing. He is writing to the church of God which is at Corinth. Verse 50 has to do with those of us who are part of the church of Jesus Christ. There will be people who will go into the kingdom that Christ will establish on the earth, in their physical bodies. So when Paul says flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor the perishable the imperishable, he is talking about the church and the role we have to play and to fulfill. No one who is part of the church will go into the kingdom that Christ will establish on this earth in an unglorified body. Now there will be people who will go into the kingdom in unglorified bodies, but they won't be part of the church. They won't be people from the period of time in which we live.

He goes on to say, behold I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, this mortal must put on immortality. There is going to come a point in time, an instant of time. This is a mystery, something that had not before been revealed in scripture. Not everyone is going to die, but we are all going to be changed. Again, we're talking about the church, new revelation for the church. Not every believer is going to die, but every believer is going to undergo a change. This change will come about in an instant of time, a moment, an atom, quicker than your eyes blink. A trumpet will sound, the bodies of dead believers will be raised from the dead, and those who are alive will undergo an instantaneous change. And we will go from having a perishable body to having an imperishable body.

Turn over to I Thessalonians 4, which is where we were when we left off with our last study together. The book of I Thessalonians, the book written to the Thessalonians, was written four years before the letter to the Corinthians, four or five years. And Paul addresses the same subject with the Thessalonians. The letter to the Thessalonians, I believe, is probably Paul's earliest letter and they were concerned—what about believers who have died? What will happen to them? We've studied in I Corinthians 15, Paul talked about what happened to the bodies of Christians who died, what will happen at the resurrection. Paul is elaborating on that now with the Thessalonians. We do not want you, I Thessalonians 4:13, to be uninformed brethren, about those who are asleep so that you do not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. So you see the group he is talking about, those who have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and believed it, those who are part of the church. He's talking about a matter that is particularly relating to the church.

For we say this 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 there is an order. Paul says when Christ comes, those who are alive on the earth will not precede, go before, those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel and 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 always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. You'll note what happens here. Christ will descend in the air, in the clouds, there will be a series of events with the shout, the voice of the archangel, the sounding of the trumpet. And the bodies of believers who have died will come out of the grave. Now you'll note, when Christ returns He will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. And they will move back into these bodies that have been resurrected, because they have been in heaven without their physical bodies. Because to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Physical death occurs when a person leaves their body. And for a believer in Jesus Christ, upon leaving their physical body, they are immediately in the presence of the Lord in glory.

Now this event, when Christ descends in the air, He'll bring with Him those who have died. And when their bodies are called up from the grave, they'll move back into those bodies which are now glorified, no longer perishable. And immediately following that, all believers who are alive on the earth at that time will be caught up to meet Christ in the air.

Now we are talking about the fact that this event is called the rapture of the church. And we noted the word rapture does not appear in our English Bibles. The word rapture comes from a Latin word that we've carried over into English. And it comes part of our terminology when talking about this event because when they translate it, verse 17, then we who are alive and remain will be caught up. The Latin translation of that, it was the word rapture. We will be raptured. We noted the Greek word is harpazo. So people say the rapture is not talked about in the Bible. Yes it is. The word is not used because our Bibles were written in Greek originally. When it was translated into Latin they used the basic word rapture. We've picked it up in English. You can talk about the harpazo of the church, the catching up of the church, the snatching away of the church.

I want to look at just a couple of passages with you where they use this word caught up as we have it in verse 17. Come back to Acts 8:39. The context here is Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. And Philip has been directed by the Spirit of God to a certain place, there he meets an Ethiopian eunuch who was reading Isaiah 53. And Philip explains Isaiah 53, and its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Then he baptizes the Ethiopian eunuch who believes the message. And then in verse 39, when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip. That verb snatched away is our verb harpazo. He harpazoed Philip away, he carried him away, he raptured him, if you will. The eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus. So you see the Spirit of God just immediately carried him to another place. He was caught away. That's what we're talking about with the rapture.

Look over in II Corinthians 12. Some people will say, I don't believe in the rapture. Everybody who believes in the Bible believes in the rapture. Now you may not believe it exactly the same way someone else does, but the Bible talks about the rapture of the church, the harpazo of the church, the catching up. It's like the doctrine of election. People say, I don't believe in the doctrine of election. Well the Bible talks about it numerous times. Now you may believe differently than someone else does, your understanding of what the scripture says on it may be different than someone else. But you can't say I don't believe in the doctrine of election, because the Bible talks about it. You can't say I don't believe in the rapture, because the Bible talks about it. We just want to attempt our best to understand what the Bible means when it talks about it.

In II Corinthians 12 Paul is talking about his own experience. He says in verse 2, 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. Paul doesn't know whether this happened to him physically or it was something that happened to him in a vision. Such a man was caught up to the third heaven. That verb caught up is our verb again, harpazo, rapture, caught up. So you see what it is. He was snatched up, caught up, transported to heaven. That's what we're talking about with the rapture of the church. In Revelation 12:5 it's used of Christ in His ascension to heaven. The even is recorded in Acts 2, but in Revelation 12:5 we are told He was caught up to heaven.

So you come back to I Thessalonians 4. When it says we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So we shall always be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. There will be a meeting in the air. The dead have come back with Christ and their bodies have been raised and they now live in those again. We who are alive have been transformed and we've been caught up. So here is the comfort. When a loved one who is a believer in Jesus Christ dies, there is sorrow. But we don't grieve as the rest who have no hope, as the end of verse 13 says. Because they have no hope of seeing them again. But in Christ we know we'll see them again. It's a temporary separation.

I want to talk about this matter of the rapture of the church, and particularly when it will occur. I believe the rapture of the church is different and distinct from the Second Coming of Christ to earth. Let me say something about interpreting the Bible. People say they sometimes wonder, why do people have so many different views about the Bible. I mean, it must be a hard book to understand. Well, it's not hard, it's impossible apart from the work of the Holy Spirit who enlightens our minds to give us understanding. In I Corinthians 2 Paul says that the natural man does not know the things of the Spirit of God, can't understand them, the soulish man, the man apart from the Spirit. But the man with the Spirit understands all things. So if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God has come and taken up residence in your life. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him, Romans 8 says. Now why don't all of us who have the Spirit agree? Well it's a good question. The real problem comes when we come to interpret the Bible we sometimes lose our way and we become inconsistent. I'm talking about believers in Jesus Christ now. We interpret the Bible historically and grammatically, literally. By literally we mean just like you read the paper this morning or you read it this afternoon. You read it at face value. You read it, understand it in its historical context and the context of what it said with principles of grammar. And generally all of us would read it and we'd come up with the basic same understanding. When we read the political section, what's going on, who won in this state and who lost, and we all understand that. Why? Because we all read it and took it literally.

Now there is general agreement among Bible-believing Christians on interpreting the history of the Bible and things up until the first coming of Christ. But then people change and they think prophecy that has not yet been fulfilled should not be interpreted literally. Why we should make the change, they have all kinds of reasons, but I don't think there is any valid reason for making that distinction. We can look at prophecies that have been fulfilled, they have been fulfilled literally, historically grammatically. Christ would be born of a virgin, He would be born in the little town of Bethlehem, He would be rejected, He would be crucified, He would be raised from the dead. All happened just as the Bible said it would, literally. He will return to the earth again and establish His kingdom, the first phase of which will be 1000 years. There is all kind of disagreement, I don't know why. Let's interpret what has not been fulfilled the same way we interpret what has been fulfilled. So in an oversimplified way, that's where the differences come.

Some of you come from Roman Catholic background, some of you come from Lutheran background, some of your come from Presbyterian backgrounds, and those are basically amillenial, believe in no future earthly kingdom. They believe the kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, it exists on earth now just in the hearts of men, exists with the church as the kingdom. Well that's a spiritualizing or an allegorizing and not taking the Bible literally. It says 1000 years but it doesn't mean 1000 years. It means just a long period of time. It says that Christ will rule on this earth and all these other things that we've looked at. But it doesn't mean that literally. We're in the kingdom now. I say wait a minute, let's just take it at face value. Then they say, you are a literalist and you are guilty of being overly literal. I just want to take it all the same way. And so that's how we come to different positions.

I believe that the Bible is clear, if we take it literally, there is a distinction between the rapture and the Second Coming to earth. If you have your chart on the resurrection pull it out. Just a reminder, the cross of Christ that starts on your far left, that's when Christ was crucified, shortly after that His ascension and the establishing of the church in Acts 2. So that period of time from the cross, basically, Acts 2, down to what I've called the first stage of the Second Coming. That's where I think the rapture occurs. We'll talk more about that in a moment. Then there is the 7-year tribulation. I think at the end of that 7-year tribulation Christ will return to earth and establish His kingdom on the earth, the first phase of which is 1000 years, as we've seen in Revelation 20. Then we move into the rest of the kingdom that goes through eternity.

Let me say something about the difference between the rapture and the Second Coming of Christ to earth. Go to Matthew 13. As I've shown you on the chart, the rapture, the catching up of the church, occurs seven years before the Second Coming of Christ to earth to establish His kingdom. At the rapture as we've read, Christ calls us to meet Him in the air. The bodies of all believers in the church, whether they have died or whether they are alive at that time, they all undergo a change. They are glorified, they are no longer perishable bodies. Then believers are taken to heaven by the Lord. That's the rapture of the church. At the Second Coming Christ will return to this earth in glory. All His enemies will be removed and believers alive at that time will go into the kingdom.

Look at Matthew 13 and pick up with verse 36. We won't read all of this, these are the parables that Christ told. And beginning with verse 36 you have the explanation of the parables of the tares. And remember the parable that a man went out and sowed good seed in his field, then an enemy came and sowed weeds, sowed tares. And tares, darnell, it looks like wheat but it's worthless. And so he's brought confusion. The one who sows good seed, verse 36, is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seed are the sons of the kingdom, the tares are the sons of the evil one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, the reapers are the angels. So here is the setting. So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send forth His angels and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness and will throw them into the furnace of fire. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Now you see the distinction? When Christ returns to earth to set up His kingdom, the angels will come and gather all the wicked and remove them, and the righteous will be left to go into the kingdom. At the rapture all the righteous were called to meet Christ in the air, they were gathered out from the earth and taken to heaven. Really, opposite events occurring. At the rapture the righteous are being gathered and removed from the earth and they'll be taken to heaven. At the Second Coming to earth, the wicked are gathered and removed from the earth, cast into hell. And the righteous are left to go into the kingdom.

Down still in Matthew 13, look at verse 47, another parable making the same point. Here is fishing with a large net. The kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, gathering fish of every kind. Then they separate the good from the bad, verse 48. Verse 49, so it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth and take the wicked out from among the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire. You see at the rapture of the church the righteous are gathered. The Lord will descend in the air, raise the bodies of the righteous, call the living righteous to meet Him in the air, then taken to His Father's house. At the Second Coming to earth Christ comes to earth, the angels gather the wicked out and remove them and leave the righteous. So they are two distinct events.

Now there are different views on when the rapture occurs. I'm just limiting myself to those who are pre-millennial. If you are pre-millennial, you believe that Christ will return before the millennial. Pre-millennium, millennium means 1000 years, there is another one of our Latin words. Revelation talks about 1000 years, carry over the Greek word, chiliasm. Means 1000 years. Pre-millennial means Christ will return pre-millennium. A post-millennialist believes He will return after the 1000 years. We're not going to talk about those other views, we're limiting ourselves to those who are pre-millennial. You not only can be pre-millennial, you can be pre-millennial, pre-tribulational. Now each of these on the tribulation will obviously be pre-millennial. If you are pre-tribulational, you mean that you believe that the rapture will occur pre-tribulation, before that 7 years. That's how I have it set up on your chart. There are some people who believe that Christ will rapture the church mid-tribulation. That's 3½ years in. And then there are some Christians who believe that Christ will rapture the church post-tribulational but pre-millennial. Post-tribulation, after the tribulation, but pre-millennial, before the millennium.

I believe Christ will rapture the church before the 7-year tribulation. So seven years approximately before Christ returns to earth to establish His kingdom on the earth, Christ will descend in the air, raise the bodies of church saints who have died from the grave, and believers who have been in glory awaiting this time will move back into their bodies. Instantly following, we who are alive will be caught up and meet Christ in the air, our bodies will be transformed. We'll have that meeting in the air, we'll be with the Lord forever from that point on.

Okay, I want to look at some of the reasons why I believe the pre-tribulation rapture is more consistent with the scripture. It's not based particularly on one verse of scripture that says Jesus Christ will return in the air to rapture His church just before the 7-year tribulation begins. If it said it that clearly, there wouldn't be any other views. I think it's almost that clear, but not quite. So I'm just going to walk you through some reasons. Now if you want a complete list, let me recommend to you a book entitled The Rapture Question by John Walvoord, a book that's been in print for 30-some years, at least. But we have it in the bookstore, a medium-sized paperback book. You don't even have to read the whole book, you can go to the end, and you know what he does at the end? He gives you a summary. He lists 50 arguments for the pre-trib rapture, and you can be thankful, I'm not going to give you all 50. But I have selected, since the pre-trib rapture is the biblical view and 7 is the number of perfection, we will have 7. But we won't even get all 7 this morning. So we will do some of them this morning and some of them in our next study.

All right, some of the reasons why I believe the pre-trib rapture is the biblical view. 1. The focus of the 70 weeks of Daniel. On your chart that 7-year period divided into two 3½ -year segments, because the Bible makes that division, is known as the tribulation or the 70th week of Daniel. So you could write that in there—the tribulation, the 70th week of Daniel.

All right, come back to Daniel 9, and Daniel has been praying at the beginning of chapter 9. He has come to understand. You understand Daniel was carried into captivity when the Babylonians took the southern kingdom of Israel into captivity. Daniel was one of those carted away into captivity. And in his captivity as he studied the writings of Jeremiah the prophet, Daniel came to understand that God had said through Jeremiah that the Babylonian captivity would last 70 years. That's in Daniel 9:2. Then Daniel began to pray and repent, repent over the sins of his people, Israel, that required God to bring judgment on the nation, the Babylonian captivity. In verse 5, we have sinned, we've committed iniquity, we've acted wickedly, we've turned aside from your commandments and ordinances. We didn't listen to your servants, the prophets. On he goes, and he's praying and he's seeking. He'd like to know, where do we go from here. And so Gabriel the angel is sent to bring revelation to Daniel regarding the future for the nation Israel.

And we pick this up in verse 24. Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city. Now most of you have been here, we've done this passage many times. The seventy weeks or seventy sevens are weeks of years. In other words they are 7-year periods and not 7-day periods. And we've gone through the biblical evidence for that, and I believe it is overwhelmingly conclusive. We're talking about seventy 7-year periods. So 70 x 7 is 490 years, seventy sevens, 490 years have been decreed for your people and your holy city. Now note what this seventy 7-year period is focused on, the 490 years. It's for your people, Daniel. The Jews, Israel. That's what Daniel's concern has been in chapter 9, what he's been praying about. And your holy city, Jerusalem. Understand, Daniel has been carried away, he's a captive living in Babylon. What a tragedy for a Jew, carried away as a young man and now as an older man removed from the land, removed from the city so precious. Four hundred ninety years are the total of my plan and six things will be accomplished within that 490 years, or by the time we get to the end of the 490 years—finish the transgression, make an end of sin, make atonement for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up the vision and prophecy, anoint the most holy place. By the time we finish the 490 years we will be ready to move into the kingdom, basically that's what he says.

So know and discern from the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince will be 7 weeks and 62 weeks, a total of 69 weeks, or 483 years. Remember these are weeks of years and not weeks of days, 7-year periods. So there will be 7 years, that's when the decree was given, or seven 7-year periods, 49 weeks from the time the decree is given to rebuild Jerusalem until the walls are rebuilt. That will be 49 years. And then we have 62 more weeks, so for a total of 483 years. That will bring us to Messiah the Prince. Well we know Christ was born. You can get materials in the bookstore, little booklets and pamphlets on the 70 weeks of Daniel. Some have done the work on this and some of them have figured out that it ends when what we're celebrating next Sunday—Palm Sunday. One week before the crucifixion we come to the conclusion of the first 69-week segment, 483 years.

What happens then? Verse 26, after 62 weeks, which remember was after the 7 weeks. We had 7 weeks, then 62 weeks, then after the 62 weeks for a total of 69 weeks Messiah will be cut off. Four hundred eighty-three years end, one week later Jesus Christ is dead, has been crucified. What I want you to note here. It doesn't say He's crucified in the 70th week, it says He is crucified after the 69th week. There is an indication here there is a gap, the gap is not clearly explained to Daniel or laid out, but now we know there is a gap between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel.

Verse 26 goes on, He will have nothing. There was no kingdom, frustrating for even His followers. They thought He came to set up the kingdom. You know what happened after 69 weeks? He was executed, no kingdom. The people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. In 70 A.D. Jerusalem is destroyed, the temple is destroyed. And there is an indication here, there is a prince who is to come, He will be a Roman. Because he is part of the people who destroyed the city in 70 A.D., he is the prince who will come.

Verse 27, and he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week. You know what begins that last 7-year period? When the prince who is to come signs an agreement with Israel, then the clock starts again. So what you had is the 69th week ended, now for Israel, if you will, the clock stopped. It starts again when the antichrist, the prince who is to come, signs an agreement with the nation Israel. That will mark the beginning of that last 7-year segment. For one week, one 7-year period. In the middle of that 7-year period, that week of years, he'll put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering. That's why we have that 7-year period divided into two 3½ -year segments. Now you'll note, he puts a stop to sacrifice and grain offering. You know what that indicates? The temple will have been rebuilt sometime by that time. The sacrificial will have been reinstituted in Israel. But now things change and this ruler, Roman ruler, now turns against Israel. And for the last 3½ years all attempts are made to annihilate the Jews from the face of the earth.

On the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even complete destruction, one that is decreed and poured out on the one who makes desolate. Remember Jesus said in Matthew 24, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, then don't even go back down into the house to get a coat. You just take off for the wilderness, because persecution will break out that quickly.

Now the 70 weeks of Daniel, they all pertain to Israel and Jerusalem. There is one 7-year period left. I take it, it's a literal 7-year period. You know the first 483 years were literal. You get one of the booklets and see how they lay it out, they account for the leap years, they know when it begins, they know when the decree was given by a secular ruler to rebuild Jerusalem. Four hundred eighty-three years brings you right up to Christ. I take it the last 7-year period will be just as literal. You know what happens? Many in the church say well, that's just the general time of the church age, it's a time of tribulation and suffering. Jesus said, in the world you have tribulation, be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. The church has always had tribulation, we just live in times of tribulation, times worse in certain parts of the world than others. No, no it has to be a literal 7-year period like the first 69 sevens were. That's why I say we just can't bail out now and say the first 69 sevens, they were literal, 483 years. The last 7-year period, that's just figurative for a long period of time. What kind of interpretation is that? He said 490 sevens, so there is one 7-year period left. It will begin when the antichrist signs the agreement. Now you'll note, Christ was crucified after the 69th week, but not in the 70th. You know when the church began—after the 69th week, it began in Acts 2. We are after the 69th week, but the 70th week hadn't begun.

Come to Romans 11:25. Chapters 9-11 Paul has been talking about how Israel fits into God's plan and program. I mean, we have the church now. Israel has been set aside, Israel is under judgment. Is God done with Israel? Chapter 11 opened up, I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! Magnoito, such a thought is not conceivable, that's not even one of the possible answers. Paul says I'm an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Now you take the scripture literally, I find that pretty clear. Is God done with Israel? May it never be! Why do you say that? God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. What people is he talking about? The Jews, like Paul, who was a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. And yet there are people today saying God is done with the nation Israel, the church has replaced Israel. It's called replacement theology, the church has replaced Israel, there is no future for physical Israel. That's why I say you have to take the scripture literally. I don't know how much clearer it can be.

Look at verse 25. I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery. Remember what a mystery is? Something not before revealed. The church was not revealed anywhere in the Old Testament. That's why we looked at Daniel 9 and you see the 69th and 70th week, and there is an indication there may be a gap between the 69th and 70th week. But you have no way of knowing there will be 2000 years between the ending of the 69th week and the starting of the 70th, as we're about 2000 years beyond that now, however long between the event.

I will tell you a mystery so that you will not be wise in your estimation. You know who he is writing to—Gentile believers. You know the danger? The Gentiles begin to think they are better than the Jews. Some of the Reformers like Luther had a problem with this, so they encouraged the persecution of Jews because they were Christ killers. It was all right to persecute the Jews, they deserved it, God is done with them, they threw away their chance when they crucified their Messiah. Not at all, not at all. So Gentiles, don't get arrogant.

I don't want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until. We live in a time of partial hardening for Israel, there are Jews saved today who come to faith in Christ. Not as many as Gentiles, the church is by and large made up of Gentiles, but there are some Jews saved like Paul. There is a partial hardening. Until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and so all Israel will be saved. Verse 28, from the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, you Gentiles' sake. From the standpoint of God's choice, that word choice is the Greek word election. From the standpoint of God's election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers, for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. I just don't have any way of understanding how people who claim to believe the Bible can also claim that God is done with the nation Israel. Is it not clear the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable? From the standpoint of God's sovereign choice they are beloved because of the promises God made to the fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

People say to me, how come there are differences on this? I don't know, people go looney when they read things that are clear. I can't understand. What happens to a person who thinks clearly up to a point and all of a sudden they are flapping their wings, jumping off a cliff. I don't know how it can be any clearer. You know we live in a time, the end of verse 25, a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. What's the fullness of the Gentiles? It's the church age. That's different than the times of the Gentiles, the times of the Gentiles are marked out as characterized by when Jerusalem is trodden underfoot by the Gentiles. That goes from the Babylonian captivity all the way to the end of the 7-year tribulation. The fullness of the Gentiles is the time of Gentile salvation, where God's work in the world in salvation focuses in the Gentiles. It's the church age as we know it. So the church age began after the 69th week, I take it that it will conclude before the 70th week. Then God resumes His program with Israel, that last week which is determined for your people and our holy city, Daniel. Is God working with Israel today? Of course He is, He works with all nations and Israel has a special place. Even when Israel was under judgment and removed from the land, God was working His purposes. Don't misunderstand. But God's work of salvation today focuses in and through the church, not in and through the nation Israel. You know what happens when the church is raptured, removed from the earth? We will be back to Israel being the focal and center of God's work in the world, and the work of redemption. So you have 144,000 Jews, 12,000 from each tribe sealed. I take it they will be key in the proclamation of truth in the tribulation.

So one of the main reasons I believe the church will be raptured before the tribulation, before the 70th week of Daniel is because it's not part of what God says the purpose of the 70 weeks are. They are for Israel. The 70th week is part of that, this 7-year tribulation is focused on Israel, not on the church.

Okay, a second reason—the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the church. And this one goes with the previous, but I've made it distinct. Come back to John 14. Here we are on Jesus' last night with His disciples. He's preparing them for His leaving them, for His coming crucifixion and the shattering of their confidence that will come about as a result of that. He starts out, do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in Me. 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 to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am there you may be also. I take it He's telling them about the rapture there. That's new material, won't be elaborated, they won't understand it, they don't understand most of what He is saying here anyway. But you'll note, He's going to come and get them and take them to the place He has prepared. When He returns to earth at the Second Coming, those believers who are alive at that time will remain on earth and go into the kingdom. He's talking about a special event here.

But then He tells them down in verse 16, I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever—the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. So here He promises that when He leaves, ultimately at His ascension in Acts 1, He will have the Holy Spirit sent to them. The Father will send the Holy Spirit.

Come down to verse 26, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things. You see that emphasis on the Father is going to send the Holy Spirit when I leave. Doesn't mean the Holy Spirit wasn't present, He was with them, but now He is going to reside within them in a special and unique way.

Over in chapter 15 verse 26, when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me. Chapter 16 verse 7, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage I go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you. And then when He comes He will convict the world concerning sin, concerning righteousness, concerning judgment. That emphasis, the Spirit is going to come, the Spirit is going to come as a result of My leaving.

Come over to II Thessalonians 2. We are talking about the time of the tribulation, that 7-year period, the 70th week of Daniel. Verse 3 talks about the revealing of the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. That relates to what we read in Daniel 9, the prince who shall come, and the one who comes on the wings of abomination, makes desolate the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet. I take it we may have further information on that when he takes his seat in the temple of God displaying himself as being God. You know Paul spent a relatively short time in the city of Thessalonica. We sometimes think, do I need to know all this? But you know what he did with his time? He explained this stuff to them. Because at the end of verse 5, do you not remember that when I was with you I was telling you these things? I mean, he got run out of Thessalonica after a very short stay. But during that short stay he had packed all this information in. And keep in mind, they didn't have Bibles to keep referring back to. Remarkable.

We're down here for verse 6, you know what restrains him now, why this can't all break out and the man of lawlessness, the prince that shall come does not come to the fore. There is a restraint going on. In his time he will be revealed. There is someone restraining. Then that lawless one, verse 6, the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Here is a mystery, now it's being unfolded. We understand what is going on, we are understanding something about the period of time known as the church age that wasn't known before. Only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 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. And on he goes to describe him.

So you see this carries us all the way to the end of that 7-year tribulation when Christ returns to earth to establish His kingdom. But that antichrist, that prince who is to come can't be revealed. You know why? There is Someone who has the power and authority to restrain and hold back lawlessness and wickedness until God's time to unfold the man of lawlessness. I take it this can be none other than the Holy Spirit. And when did the Holy Spirit come in His special way? He came in Acts 2 to establish the church. I take it with the removal of the church, the Holy Spirit is removed in the way that He came. Keep in mind the Holy Spirit has always been present. The opening verses of Genesis tell us that the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep. Jesus told His disciples the Holy Spirit has been with you, but He will be in you. So He came in a unique and special way at Pentecost for a special ministry. I take it He will be removed, and His present ministry in the context of the church and its work in the world in that context is why we haven't had the 70th week of Daniel come sooner. Because He is restraining until the right time for the revealing of that man. The right time will be when He is removed with the church in the way that He came to establish the church. Now we're back on Israel's track, Israel time. And we go from the 483rd year just shortly before Christ was crucified and pick up now on the 484th year and run until we get to 490 and Christ comes to bring that to a conclusion. So the ministry of the Holy Spirit in His coming and in His removal in II Thessalonians 2 indicate to me that the rapture will occur before the seven years of tribulation.

All this is very important to me and should be to you. You know why? That means there is nothing yet to come before the rapture of the church. We talk about events that look to the rapture. All the events the Bible talk about happen in that 7-year period. We look and see, they talk about rebuilding the temple. That's interesting because we know that will take place in the 7-year tribulation. I see no reason, nothing in scripture that would prevent the rapture from occurring right now, from occurring this afternoon. There is nothing in scripture to happen. The rapture is the next event. When the rapture occurs the restraint will be removed, now we are ready for the revelation of the leader of the revived Roman Empire to step forward, ink his agreement with Israel, start that 70th week and move to the climax of this phase of earth's history. So we live in light of the hope of the blessed hope, the returning in glory of the great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And what will He do? He'll come to take us to Himself, and then take us to His Father's house, to the place He has prepared for us. I take it the New Jerusalem will be our dwelling place for eternity, which is described for us in Revelation 21. That's our blessed hope.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your grace. Lord, what a salvation we have and we are reminded that this hope is only for those who have understood and believed the gospel, who have heard their wretched, sinful condition, who have heard that Jesus Christ came and suffered and died to pay the penalty for sin. Lord, as a result of the work of your grace they have turned from their sin, placed their faith in Christ alone, and been cleansed and made new. Lord, now have hope in time and for eternity. Lord, may our lives be shaped in every way, in every action by the hope that we have that Christ may return today. That is our hope. We pray in His name, amen.