Many of you have been hanging on the edge of a cliff for seven days now, and I know
that you're anxious to get to the last half of the message regarding the timing of the
rapture of the church.
To do that, I think it might be helpful for us to go back to our little scheme that we
drew out last week, the schedule of events that we talked about.
We're going to divide this line again into the Old Testament and the New Testament and
realize that it is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ that makes the difference.
The covenant of the law prepared us for His coming, and the New Testament, the new covenant
by which we are related to God, is based upon His shed blood.
In the Old Testament, God's people was called Israel.
I was told to write bigger.
Is that big enough?
All right.
I see our resident eye doctor there in the back, so if he shakes his head yes, I guess
we're in good shape.
Is that 20-20?
Israel, and then church, is the New Testament people of God.
We talked about those, defined them, made the distinction between the two in last week.
We said that in the prophet Daniel, Daniel 9, beginning in verse 24, there is a period
of 490 years which is prophesied for the nation of Israel.
483 of those years are now historical.
They weren't for Daniel.
They were still future in his day, but he prophesied that there would be 490 years of
Israel's future.
He says that they would begin when the decree would go out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem,
and that occurred in 445 B.C.
Our exerxes gave the Jews authority to rebuild and restore their city.
And then this period of time, Daniel says, would end when the Messiah would come, present
himself as king, but would be cut off, and would have nothing of the regal glory and
splendor that rightly belongs to him.
Of course, that refers to the cross, and the year is 32 A.D.
Now if you add those up, you may say, well that doesn't come out to 483.
The difference is that this is 483 lunar years.
Lunar years are 360 days.
Solar years are 365 days.
You take that into account, and you'll come up with the right dates here.
That means 483 of these years have already been fulfilled, but there are seven more years
prophesied that have to be fulfilled for Israel.
Israel is now set aside in unbelief.
God is calling out a brand new body, the church.
Those of us who have trusted Christ in this age are a part of this elect group.
But there's a day coming when God is going to again deal with Israel, and he will fulfill
that seven years, and we call that the tribulation period.
Now again, we defined that last week.
We'll talk about it a little bit again this morning.
So that all 490 years will be ultimately fulfilled for the nation of Israel.
This tribulation period will conclude with the second coming of Christ.
That will bring to a conclusion this period, and will initiate, and I'm going to begin
down here.
This line just continues here.
Maybe I should just make a big Z out of it.
Zoro, right?
It begins the 1,000 year reign of Christ, or the millennium we call it.
Now the specific subject that we are discussing together is when does the Lord come back to
receive the church to himself in what we call the rapture.
There are those who believe it is simultaneous with this event.
They say that the second coming of Christ to the world and his coming for the church
are the same thing.
They'll occur at the same time.
There are those who believe it will occur here in the middle of the tribulation period.
Indeed, the tribulation period is divided into halves, three and a half and three and
a half years, or 42 months and 42 months, or 1,260 days, 1,260 days, or as Daniel puts
it, times a time and a half a time.
There are two of those periods totaling seven years.
Some see the Lord coming back for the church in the middle of it.
And then there are those, and I am among them, who believe that the rapture of the church
will occur here before the tribulation takes place.
Now if you would like more information as to what the terms Israel, church, rapture,
second coming, tribulation are all about, I encourage you to get a tape of last week's
message and you can hear what we heard last week and get caught up with us.
Or there are some very fine books that you may read and find this information, and one
of the best of them is the Bible.
I say that because of course we get all this information from the Bible.
Now would you take your Bible please and turn with me to the book of Revelation.
I want to discuss with you today six reasons why I am convinced that the coming of Christ
for his church will precede the beginning of the tribulation period, why we believe
in a pre-tribulational rapture.
You should have some notes before you that list these six reasons.
I try to make the notes complete enough so that you can follow along with me, but not
so complete that you can go to sleep and then wake up after the message and say, well I
didn't need to read it or hear it anyway, I've got it before me.
So the first reason is the relationship of the church to the wrath of God.
It is important to understand that this period of seven years that we're talking about, in
which we call the tribulation, is a time when God's wrath is officially poured out upon
the earth.
In the book of Revelation, his wrath is poured out initially with the opening of seals on
a scroll.
The seventh seal opens up to seven trumpets that sound from heaven, and more wrath is
poured out.
Many Bible scholars see those judgments poured out upon the earth as in the first half of
the tribulation.
And then the seventh trumpet is blown and it opens the way for seven bowls, vessels
of God's wrath to be poured out upon the earth.
And that probably pictures the last half of the tribulation, which will certainly be intensified.
In fact it's called the great tribulation.
The intense period of suffering will be the last half of it.
Now the tribulation will be a difficult time for those who will be saved in that period.
Satan will bring great pressure and persecution against believers.
Antichrist will be at war with the saints of God.
But the period of the tribulation is most noted, not for the suffering caused by Satan,
but for the fact that God's wrath is poured out upon the Christ-rejecting world.
It is that which produces the suffering and trial of the tribulation.
Turn in Revelation to chapter 6, for example, and look at verse 17.
We'll back up just a couple of verses to get the context.
Revelation chapter 6 verse 15 says, Then the kings of the earth and the princes, the generals,
the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the
rocks of the mountains.
They called to the mountains and the rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of him
who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the land.
For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?
Again turn over to chapter 14.
In the last part of this chapter we see the tribulation of this period called the harvest
of the earth.
That harvest is pictured two ways.
First is the harvest of grain and then is the harvest of grapes.
Now in that latter metaphor or picture verse 17 says, Another angel came out of the temple
of heaven and he too had a sharp sickle.
Still another angel who had charge of the fire came from the altar and called in the
loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, Take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters
of grapes from the earth's vine, because its grapes are ripe.
The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great wine
press of God's wrath.
And then just a page or two over to chapter 16 verse 17.
And here we have the pouring out of the seventh bowl of God's judgment.
The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air and out of the temple came a loud
voice from the throne saying, It is done.
Then there came flashes of lightnings, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake.
No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth.
So tremendous was the quake.
The great city split into three parts and the cities of the nations collapsed.
God remembered Babylon the Great and Babylon the Great is described in chapter 17 and 18.
It says, God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine
of the fury of his wrath.
And so the tribulation is a period when God's wrath is poured out.
This is not just in the New Testament revealed.
This is revealed throughout many of the prophets of the Old Testament as well.
We don't have time to read it, but I simply mention a couple of passages, Isaiah 2 verses
10 to 12 and verses 20 to 22.
We'll give you an idea that even the Old Testament prophets saw this day of the Lord as it's
called, initiated by a time of severe judgment upon the world.
It is a retribution from the justice of God for the iniquities of the world.
Now the reason I believe that the church will be taken out before that time is because of
the relationship the Bible describes between the church and the wrath of God.
And we see this in the New Testament in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1.
Please turn there to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 and we'll begin reading in the middle of
verse 9.
The apostle is writing to these beloved Christians in Thessalonica from whom he had been taken
so quickly after having been there for only a short time.
And he reports about the news he had heard from others concerning their faith.
He says, They tell us how you turn to God from idols, to serve the living and true God,
and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues
us from the coming wrath.
Now it may be that this wrath is talking about the eternal fires of hell.
That certainly is God's wrath upon sin and wickedness.
But so is the tribulation period.
It seems to me that whether the wrath is eternal wrath or it's the wrath of this tribulation
period, that what is promised here is that the church will be rescued or saved from God's
wrath that is coming upon the world.
Then again in chapter 5 we see the same truth.
He says in verse 8, But since we, believers, belong to the day, that is, we are not a part
of the moral darkness in the world, since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled,
putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.
For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord
Jesus Christ.
He died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.
Verse 10, obviously the rapture is in view.
The Lord's coming.
And verse 9 seems to build right into that.
He says that we are not appointed to wrath, that is, to the day of the Lord.
We're not appointed to suffer God's punishment upon sin.
Why?
Well, verse 10 explains it.
Jesus died for us.
All of God's wrath for our sin has already been poured out upon Christ.
We might call this double jeopardy here in human terms.
It would not be just for God to pour out upon the Church his wrath, because our wrath has
been already paid for by the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And so because of these verses and their indication that the Church is not appointed to God's
wrath, I believe that we must therefore be taken out of the world before the tribulation
period.
Now there's a second reason I believe this.
And since we're in Thessalonians, let's turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
The reason is the relationship of the restrainer to the man of lawlessness.
In 2 Thessalonians 2, beginning in verse 1, it says, concerning the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, that's the rapture.
He says, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy,
report, or letter supposedly to have come from us.
Some forgery had taken place.
And in the name of Paul, someone was saying that the day of the Lord had already come.
You see, the Thessalonians were going through suffering.
And so they thought, and someone began to teach them, that they were already in the
tribulation.
And Paul says, no.
He goes on to say, verse 3, don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will
not come until the rebellion occurs or the apostasy occurs, and the man of lawlessness
is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.
That man, of course, is Antichrist, as he is called elsewhere, or the beast of Revelation
chapter 13, the first part of the chapter.
He says, before that man can come, there has to come first the departure, the falling away,
the apostasy.
Now, some Bible scholars say that this word for rebellion in the NIV, or departure, or
falling away, or apostasy, and that's really close to the Greek word, refers to the rapture
of the church.
It does not have to mean a religious falling away, as we usually take it, but the word
apostasia in its verb form basically does mean a departure.
And so there are some that say this is an explicit statement that says, before Antichrist
can come, the church will depart.
I think that that may be a little weak to argue it that way, but there are some who
feel that way about it, and I wanted to mention it.
Now, he goes on to say in verse 4 that when Antichrist comes, he opposes and exalts himself
over everything that's called God, or is worshiped, and even sets himself up in God's
temple proclaiming himself to be God.
This is that abomination of desolations that Daniel talked about, and Jesus talked about
in Matthew 24.
It's when Antichrist will establish himself as deity and demand worship.
This will occur approximately halfway into the tribulation period.
To that point, he appears to be outwardly a man of peace, a man of goodwill, a man who
has all the answers to the world's problems, economic, social, etc.
At the midpoint of the tribulation, he will reveal himself as being a Satan-possessed
man, literally a Satan-possessed individual, the tool, the puppet of Satan, and he will
establish himself in the temple in Jerusalem as God.
Now, verse 5, don't you remember that when I was with you, I used to tell you these things?
And now you know what is holding him back.
And this is the main point I'm coming to.
You know what is holding him back so that he may be revealed at the proper time.
For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who now holds it back
will continue to do so until he is taken out of the way and then the lawless one will be
revealed.
So, clearly in this scripture, the apostle is saying that now there is something holding
back Satan's full plan to bring Antichrist on the scene.
The question is, what is this restrainer?
Now, there are various interpretations.
There are some people, primarily early Bible writers, Bible students rather, and writers
who said that the restrainer is the Roman Empire itself with its law and order.
Others said, no, it's the Roman emperors.
And yet one can hardly look at them and say that they restrain lawlessness.
Others said, no, it refers to Paul, that he is the one who is restraining Antichrist.
And still others said, no, it's the saints in Jerusalem that are withholding the Antichrist
from coming.
They are the restrainers.
It seems to me that all of these on the face fall short of fulfilling the passage here.
What is it that withholds and restrains lawlessness from performing all that it would like to?
Well, I would have you notice in the first place that in verse 7, whatever it is, it's
called he.
He till he is taken out of the way.
It's a person or a personality, masculine there.
However, in verse 6, he is described by what?
And now you know what is holding him back.
When there the word is not masculine, it's neuter in the Greek language.
There is no sex implied.
Makes it very difficult for us to think of this restrainer described in masculine and
in neuter as being a human being, a mere human being.
You would expect that both times he would be referred to in the masculine gender, but
not so.
So whatever it is can be called a person, but it's not merely a person, if you get
my point.
I believe the best interpretation is that this restraining force is the Holy Spirit.
Now we don't have time again to read the passages, but I want to mention them to you
in John chapter 14, verses 16 and 17.
The Holy Spirit is referred to in a neuter sense.
That's appropriate because the Holy Spirit is Spirit.
And so it's appropriate to refer to the Holy Spirit in a neutral sense.
And He is there in that passage.
But just a couple of chapters later in chapter 16, verses 13 and 14, Jesus refers to the
Holy Spirit as He, as a person.
So in comparing the language, it seems to me that the Holy Spirit is the one who is
meant.
He is able to fulfill the language requirements of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
Likewise, in Genesis chapter 6, God says that the Spirit strives with men.
The idea is to restrain the sinfulness of man in those days before the flood.
So it does appear that the Holy Spirit is the restrainer referred to here.
Now what's going to happen?
Well He says that now He's holding back Antichrist, this man of lawlessness, and He will continue
to do so, verse 7, till He is taken out of the way.
Notice it does not say that He's taken out of the world.
The Holy Spirit will not be withdrawn from the world as though there were a vacuum of
His presence.
But it says that He's taken out of the way and the suggestion is that something is removed
so that something else can come in.
There is a particular and special sense in which the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost.
He was here before.
He had a ministry in the Old Testament, but in a very special way He came at Pentecost.
And His presence was seen by the flame of fire that was over the disciples' heads.
He was heard because of the sound of the wind and they were given to speak in other tongues.
In a special sense the Holy Spirit came that day and indwelt the church, a brand new act
on His part.
And He's continued to indwelt every believer in this whole age, the moment we're saved.
I believe that the inference here is that the Holy Spirit, resident in the church, will
be withdrawn and then the Antichrist will come.
In other words, the rapture will occur before Antichrist can come on the scene.
The Holy Spirit will still be here ministering in the world, but He will be taken out of
the way as you and I are removed through the rapture.
To put it a different way, I think that right now the Holy Spirit working in your life and
in mine is what restrains sin.
Satan would love to do so much more right now, if only he could, but he cannot because
you are here.
And your life makes an impact upon the world for righteousness.
That restrains lawlessness, so it cannot bring forth its full work.
But when we who are part of the church are taken out, and the Holy Spirit pulls back
as it were, is taken out of the way, then the man of sin will come on the scene.
Now it may be that we will have some idea as to who this man will be before we're
taken out, but we may not too.
It won't bother me a great deal if I don't.
So that's the second reason that I believe that the church will be taken out before the
tribulation, because of the relationship of the restrainer to the man of lawlessness.
Reason number three, the relationship between Israel and the church.
Folks we must forever keep in mind that there is a distinction between Israel and the church.
The church is not Israel and Israel is not the church.
They are two entities.
It is true that we are all saved through faith by God's grace.
We are saved through the faith in God's promise of salvation.
We are all called saints of God.
We are all called God's elect, both Israel and the church.
But that does not mean that we are the same thing.
Israel is different from the church, and we see that even suggested in 1 Corinthians,
the passage we looked at some weeks ago in chapter 10, verse 32, where he says, Do not
cause anyone to stumble whether Jews, Greeks, or the church of God.
In other words, as the apostle looks at mankind, he sees man in three groups.
There are the Jews, Israel.
There are the Gentiles, the pagans, the non-Jews.
And then there is the church in a completely separate category from Israel, or from the
Gentiles for that matter.
The church is made up of both Jew and Gentile, and it doesn't make any difference which
one is anymore.
There's another suggestion in the New Testament regarding that, but I'm going to let that
pass because the time is going quick.
The church is called in the New Testament the virtuous bride of Jesus Christ.
Isn't that right?
This is Valentine's Day.
Happy Valentine's Day, by the way.
This is the day we think about love.
The greatest love story in the world is the love story of Jesus Christ for his bride,
the church.
And in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 2, the apostle says, I have espoused you as a
pure virgin to Jesus Christ.
That language is never used of Israel.
Israel is called the wife of Jehovah, not the bride of Christ.
Furthermore, she is called the adulterous bride of Jehovah.
She was married purely to the Lord at Mount Sinai, but as the years came on, she got involved
in idolatry, and God has accused Israel of spiritual adultery.
And consequently, Israel is now set aside, and God is dealing with the church, a group
of people he's calling out to be a pure bride for Jesus Christ.
Now I say that because the tribulation period, and I'm going to go back to the projector
here, and also to wake some of you up, because it's kind of warm in here, and you're tired,
I think.
This period of the tribulation is uniquely Israel.
It is the fulfillment of the last seven years that Daniel prophesied for the people.
It is not a time for the church.
It is a time when God will deal with this adulterous wife of his.
He will judge her.
She will repent of her spiritual adultery and be restored to the Lord.
That is what happens to Israel in that time of the tribulation.
It is not a time which deals with the church.
That's important to keep that distinction in mind, else we become confused.
There are some other ways that we know that the tribulation is a time for Israel.
In Jeremiah it's called a time of Jacob's trouble, not the church's trouble, but Jacob's
trouble.
In Revelation chapter 7, there are 144,000 Jews that are sealed as God's servants as
the tribulation period begins.
For those of you that are not familiar with Revelation chapters 6 through 19 are an outline,
generally, of the tribulation period.
As that period begins, there are 144,000 Jews, 12 from each of 12 tribes or families, that
are sealed by God as his messengers.
And so the church is the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You and I who are saved now are a part of that body.
This is reflected in a poem by Martha Snell Nicholson entitled, I Come Quickly.
Sickened with slaughter and weary of war, torn by bereavement and pain, daily our eyes
are searching the skies for signs of his coming again.
Longing we pray at dawning of day, Lord, wilt thou come before noon?
Imploring him yet in the fading sunset, O blessed Lord Jesus, come soon.
Precious the word, the ear of faith heard, Lo, I come quickly, my bride.
This longing of thine is not greater than mine, To have thee at last by my side.
A blessed truth that we are the bride of Jesus Christ and one day we will be at his side.
Now there's a fourth reason I believe that the rapture of the church will be before the
tribulation and that is because of the principle of deliverance before judgment.
Would you turn to the book of Revelation, please, or chapter 3.
Revelation chapter 3, and we're going to look at verse 10.
This is in the middle of the letter that the Lord writes to the church at Philadelphia.
In chapters 2 and 3 there are seven letters addressed to seven literal churches in Asia
Minor in that day.
They're written from the Lord through John to them.
They are more, however, than just historic churches.
Bible scholars see the seven letters here as a general outline of the flow of church
history.
The church at Philadelphia is usually identified as a symbol of the church, the faithful church
in the last day.
The Laodicean church being the unfaithful church in the last day, the worldly apostate
church.
But here we have the church at Philadelphia, a church that's reviving, a church that has
no word of condemnation written to it.
And in verse 10 it says, since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also
keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those
who live on the earth.
That's a promise that was given to Philadelphia, but is it just for that church 1900 years
ago?
If you look at the language, I don't see how a person can say that this has no future
significance.
It talks about a trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live
on the earth.
Obviously, it seems to me that's talking about the tribulation period.
And the promise given to this church representing the church of Christ in the last days is,
I will keep you from the hour of trial.
He does not say I will keep you safe through it.
He says I will keep you from it.
And the preposition is very clear in the original language.
He does not say I will keep you from the trial of that hour, but he says I will keep you
from that hour, that period of trial and tribulation that will come upon the earth.
So I think we have here a rather explicit word regarding the Lord's plan for the church.
It's interesting that in chapter 4 and chapter 5 the scene switches to heaven, and then chapter
6 is back down to the earth where judgment begins.
And once that starts, there is no word about the church in the world, not a word.
The word church is not used.
There's no indication that the church is in the world all the way through chapter 19 when
the tribulation ends.
But at the end of the book of Revelation the church is seen living in the city that the
Lord has prepared for her, the New Jerusalem.
Now why is the book of Revelation silent about the church in those chapters in the middle
of the book?
Well it seems to me the answer is clear.
The church is not on the earth where the tribulation takes place.
Israel is mentioned, the saints of God are mentioned, but nowhere does it refer to the
church, the bride of Jesus Christ, as being a part of that whole scene.
This idea of deliverance before judgment is one that's illustrated in the Old Testament.
For example, in Lot, Lot was a believer, though we would not know it from the Old Testament
text, would we?
He lived in Sodom, an awful den of iniquity.
God said, I'm going to reign judgment, well deserved, upon the cities of the plain, including
Sodom and Gomorrah.
But first he had to deliver Lot, didn't he?
He practically had to drag Lot out of the city.
But God withheld his wrath upon those cities until his child was out, and then the wrath
came.
Seems to me that's an illustration of this principle of deliverance before judgment.
Now there's a fifth reason, and we're going to move very quickly now, and that is that
the coming of Christ is eminent.
That word does not mean that the coming of the Lord is immediate, but it means that it's
the very next thing that could happen, that there's nothing to happen before this.
Turn with me to John chapter 14 as we look at some familiar and beloved verses, often
used at funerals, but certainly not intended to be limited to that.
Jesus says to his disciples, do not let your hearts be troubled, trust in God, trust also
in me.
In my Father's house are many rooms, if it were not so I would have told you.
I am going there to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I
will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am.
Jesus literally meant, I am going away.
He said, I am going to prepare a dwelling place in the Father's house for you, and
if I go away, I am going to come again.
It is only reasonable to think that he's talking literally here.
I am going to come again and take you to be with me.
He does not say, I'm going to come and stay with you on the earth.
He says, I'm going to come and take you to be with me so that we'll be together.
I believe that our Lord here is building on the image of the oriental wedding.
Weddings were different then than today.
The first place they begin with an engagement period is ours do, but usually the bride was
selected by the bridegroom and a price was paid to the bride's father.
Thankfully that isn't done anymore.
But after the engagement period, when the day of the wedding arrived, the bridegroom
would come from his house to the bride's home.
There was great preparation going on in her home for the arrival of the bridegroom.
He would come and would take her out of her home, and together they would go back to his
home.
The wedding started the moment that they started that journey back to his house, and it was
climax there.
And then often they would come back to the bride's home for another party, another celebration.
Do you see the parallel there?
We are now espoused or engaged to Jesus Christ, and there comes a day soon when our bridegroom
will come to our home to take us with himself to his home, then to return with him ultimately
to our home, the earth, and there to have a celebration.
It seems to me that that is in the image here of our Lord's coming.
His coming is imminent.
He says, if I go away, I will come back and take you to be with myself.
The tribulation saints are exhorted to watch for signs.
They're said, look out for false Christ.
They're told, look out for the abomination of desolations.
But the church is never told to look for signs.
The church is told to look for the Savior.
There's a difference.
And then the final reason I believe that our Lord's coming will be before the tribulation,
that is his coming for the church, is because of the events of the Millennial Kingdom.
And I ask you to take your eyes off your Bibles for just a moment and for some of you to open
them and to look up here.
There are some events that are coming in the kingdom, this thousand year reign, that I
think can only happen if the rapture occurs at this point.
For example, when our Lord comes back to the earth, we'll come down here to this line,
comes back to the earth at the conclusion of the tribulation period, there are two judgments
that take place.
One of them is upon the nation of Israel.
The Jews are judged before they enter into the kingdom.
A second judgment takes place, and by the way that judgment is in Ezekiel, a second
judgment takes place and it's the judgment of the Gentiles.
This judgment is found in Matthew 25 and the judgment of the sheep and the goats.
Remember that?
That's a literal judgment that's going to take place.
God is going to discern there who are the sheep and who are the goats.
In other words, the sheep represent those who have believed and the goats represent
those who have not believed, who have rejected Christ.
Those who are lost at that time will be killed and will go into the fire prepared for the
devil and his angels, according to that passage in Matthew 25.
Those who are saved of both Jew and Gentile at this time of judgment will enter into the
kingdom.
Now think with me a moment.
If our Lord's coming was at this point, that is if His coming for the church was at this
point, then all who would be saved would be in brand new bodies, wouldn't they?
All the saved would be caught up and all the lost would be left on the earth.
There would be no need to discern between the saved and the lost because that would
be very, very clear.
All the saved would have been raptured and only the lost would be left on the earth.
So it seems to me because of this period of judgment that takes place at the beginning
of the millennium, there has to be a period of time here between the rapture and our Lord's
return to the earth so that there can be people saved during this period and a judgment discerning
the saved and the lost will have to take place.
Now there's another reason that I believe the Lord's coming has to be at least a few
years before and that is that during the kingdom, the earth is going to be repopulated.
In fact, the greatest population explosion the world has ever seen will occur during
this thousand years.
It will start out with just the saved entering into it, but they will enter into it in natural
bodies, will repopulate the earth, the earth will be cultivated and restored to the beauty
of the Garden of Eden as it were.
If our Lord's coming for the church and the rapture were to take place here at His second
coming, then there would be no saved people to enter into the kingdom in their natural
bodies to repopulate the earth.
Consequently, there would be no population explosion and the prophecies about the kingdom
could not be fulfilled.
If the rapture occurs here, then nobody can enter into the kingdom in their natural bodies,
but they must for the prophecies about the kingdom to be fulfilled.
And so we have to back up the rapture at this point so that there will be saved people to
enter into the millennium who will be in their natural bodies.
Then there's one other event that occurs in the tribulation or rather in the kingdom
that mandates this.
At this period of time when the thousand years has ended, there is a great battle that takes
place called the Battle of Gog and Magog, Revelation chapter 20.
It is the last rebellion.
Where is Satan during this thousand years?
He is chained in the bottomless pit, in the abyss it's called, wherever that is.
But he is released at the end of the thousand years and it says that he goes out to the
four corners of the earth to deceive the nations.
What happens?
Well, as the earth is repopulated, new people born during this time will make a decision
to accept allegiance to Jesus Christ who will be reigning on the earth or reject allegiance
to him.
There will be many who will reject allegiance to Christ.
And so Satan will be released that these people may be gathered together and they will gather
themselves in a great battle to march upon Jerusalem.
And then it says fire will come down from heaven and destroy them and then the final
judgments take place after that.
Now that may be unclear, especially those of you who have not studied much in prophecy.
I encourage you to get some materials that will help you to understand what's coming.
But because of the events that are coming yet in the millennial period, it seems to
me there has to be a period of time before the millennium that the rapture takes place,
indeed before the tribulation too.
Now all of this that we've been studying I hope is a lot more than dry, dusty, theological
gibberish to you.
You see what we're talking about here is that time when we're going to be face to face with
Jesus Christ.
That's pretty significant.
Right now we love him whom we've never seen, but someday folks we're going to see him face
to face.
And that time will be what we call the rapture.
I think that all of us have fantasized maybe the word, trying to imagine where we might
be when the Lord comes back and what that instant will be like as we are caught out
of the world.
A fellow named Gary Kleinpeter wrote a poem that was in Decision magazine several years
ago and it goes like this.
Cruising down the freeway just like any other day, the sky was full of clouds, the road
full of cars.
The radio telegraphed its slogans, its songs, its news to my ignoring ears.
Then the blare of a trumpet reverberated through the car.
My fingers flew to volume control.
The radio was dead, but the trumpet was not.
The car blurred away and was gone.
And there came a swelling in my soul, a rapturous ecstasy.
He's back.
Praise God, Jesus is back.
Well, it may not be on a freeway.
It may be while we're asleep, but I'll tell you one thing.
There's a day coming when that trumpet will sound.
Are you ready for it?
Are you right with God?
Jesus' coming may be today, my friend.
Are you ready to meet Him face to face?
Let's bow together.
Father, I pray that this truth of the Christ's coming, His soon coming, would purify our
lives and motivate us to a holy living.
May it motivate us too to hold fast and to stand firm in the faith and to involve ourselves
fully in the work of the Lord, because our labor is not in vain in the Lord.
I pray that if there are those friends here today who have spiritual need that as a result
of the realization of Christ's soon coming, they will today get those needs met.