Let no one in
any way deceive or entrap you, for that day will not come unless
the apostasy comes first [that is, the great rebellion, the abandonment of the
faith by professed Christians], and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son
of destruction [the Antichrist, the one who is destined to be destroyed], who
opposes and exalts himself [so proudly and so insolently] above every so-called
god or object of worship, so that he [actually enters and] takes his seat in
the temple of God, publicly proclaiming that he himself is God.
Rainbow Pastor David
10/07/2018
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No one can really answer this question. God’s plans are His own. It is clear from biblical prophecy that we’ve entered the latter days. Israel is back in the Holy Land, embroiled in an international conflict that precisely matches the Scriptural prophecies. We are witnessing growing prominence of the dark occult and demonic schemes. Morality has been clouded by shameless behavior.
For Christians, there is one prophecy that is at the tops them all; this would be the one that shows what MUST take place prior to the Tribulation; “a falling away” must come. This event seems to be in the process of happening at the present time. But we must ask: How much worse must things get before Paul’s prophecy is fulfilled?
To the Modern Church it seems the events taking place today were being described as the latter-day spiritual collapse of society. Shortly after penning his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul sent them a second one. He had to update and clarify the first epistle, which had carefully laid out the doctrine pertaining to the rapture of the church. It dealt with a specific misunderstanding being spread by false teachers of the time.
Certain “teachers” had entered congregations and had begun to point to the ongoing Roman persecution of Jews and Christians along with the developing revolutionary undercurrent, as being signs the prophesies were coming to pass. They were teaching that the Day of the Lord had already arrived persuading believers that the Tribulation had by that time begun, and that they were currently going through it.
Paul made it quite clear these were false teachings, while supporting his original statement that the rapture would come before the Day of the Lord. We believe that this “Day” will begin with seven horrific years of catastrophe.
Like Paul and his early followers, we too live in an increasingly tumultuous world. The constant downpour of new and dramatic anti-Christian developments is a daily reality. The state of Israel has set the stage for a procession of prophetic fulfillments. Bible-believing Christians of our era have honed their anticipation to a fine edge. For decades, we have been searching the Scriptures under the conviction that through them, the Lord will speak words of confidence, comfort and hope in a world that is spinning out of control.
But in a repeat of the way it happened in Paul’s day, there is now an increasing undercurrent of negative teaching, in which some Bible expositors are suggesting that the Day of the Lord will come while Christians are still on the Earth. In fact, many of them are presenting what they interpret as “evidence” of this fact. In other words, the same problem of interpretation that plagued early Christians is alive and well to this day.
Those of us who believe in a pretribulation rapture also live in the moment-by-moment expectation that our “blessed hope” will be realized during our lifetimes. We speak, of course, of our Lord’s promise to come and personally escort us home, as we experience rapture and resurrection. The timing of this event will be a total surprise! This is the doctrine of imminency, taught with great clarity by the Apostle Paul. He believed it, and taught the churches of his own day to live in the light of this blessed expectation … awaiting the Lord’s arrival … which they all believed could come at any moment:
“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” (I Thessalonians 4:16-17).
A Falling Away
This was followed by Paul’s unequivocal statement that Christians won’t experience God’s coming judgment of planet Earth: “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Thessalonians 5:9).Amazingly, these and other assurances written in First Thessalonians weren’t enough for the believers in Thessalonica. Some of them were still being persuaded that the wrath of God had already begun.
In the process of writing his second letter of clarification, Paul gave them (and us) a remarkable clue as to the sequence of events that would come before the Tribulation. Its opening statement is absolutely clear:
“Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.” (II Thessalonians 2:1-3).
In
case you missed day One here is the
link, The Falling Away Day One of Six
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