THE RESTRAINER OF THE LAWLESS ONE

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“For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one (Antichrist) is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” 2 Thessalonians 7-12

Many interpreters understand the Restrainer mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2:6–8 as the Holy Spirit, Satan, or the government. There are good reasons, however, to view the Restrainer as Michael, the Archangel.

1. Contemporary Jewish literature during Paul’s time viewed the characteristics of Michael having eschatological pre-eminence as the chief opponent of Satan and Restrainer of God’s people.

2. Michael is viewed as a celestial restrainer of God’s people in Daniel 10–12, the passage serving as the source for Paul’s exposition in 2 Thessalonians 2:3–8.

3. Daniel’s use of the Hebrew term ʿmd comports with the ceasing activity of the restrainer in 2 Thessalonians 2:6–7.

4. The Greek term parerchomai in Daniel 12:1 of the Septuagint (LXX) means, “to pass by,” which corresponds with the ceasing of restraint in 2 Thessalonians 2:6–7.

5. Early Rabbinic interpretation of Daniel 12:1 perceived Michael as “passing aside” or “withdrawing” just after Antichrist’s establishment near or at the temple mount (Dan 11:45), and just before the eschatological unequaled tribulation against God’s people (Dan 12:1).

6. Revelation 12:7–17 supports viewing Michael as the Restrainer because it links the cessation of Michael’s war against the dragon with the unprecedented persecution of God’s people, which is consistent with 2 Thessalonians 2:6–7 and Daniel 11:45–12:1.

Given these reasons the only candidate which can explain the Restrainer being removed is Michael. Other proposals for the Restrainer are hard-pressed to comport with those roles. Thus, the apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:6–7 is very likely referring to Michael the archangel as the Restrainer, whose ministry ceases and causes the eschatological temple to be desolated by Antichrist, ensued by his great tribulation against God’s people.

The Michael interpretation is not a new, since there has been about a dozen theologians and scholars over the last hundred years who have taken this position, even Robert Van Kampen a pioneer of the pewrath position held to this view.

But it was not until the year 2000 that a young Thessalonian scholar by the name of Colin R. Nicholl who came along that would, for many scholars, put the nail in the coffin on the Restrainer debate.

In the April 2000 volume of The Journal of Theological Studies, Colin R. Nicholl published the seminal article, “Michael, The Restrainer Removed (2 Thess. 2:6-7),” arguing strongly that Michael is the Restrainer. After his journal article was published Nicholl published it as an appendix in his important monograph (which was his dissertation) From Hope to Despair in Thessalonica: Situating 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Alan Kurschner of Eschatos Ministries has just put up a new website devoted to this topic therestrainer.com. Alan is known for his defence of the PreWrath Rapture position which I support. This is his article on the identity of the Restrainer.

CHAOS IN AMERICA: HOW DID WE GET HERE?

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This article is largely by David Lane. He is the founder of American Renewal Project. We differ in that David is hopeful of a good outcome.

Whereas George Floyd’s tragic death and the sinfulness of racism are inexcusable from any point of view, they cannot and should not be used as an excuse for the massive, wanton and indiscriminate destruction and calculated anarchy that is currently taking place. And neither can the brutality and lawlessness be justified by the fact that America’s founding was established upon address of grievances and the right for public demonstrations.

In wondering where the support for revolution and terror in the streets of America is coming from, there is no question that the rioters have access to essential resources, including organization, know-how and funding … nationwide.

While we might assume that an independent news media and press would be eager to investigate who is inciting political and social turmoil in America, they, alas, seem to be complicit in wanting to remove at any price the 45th president of the United States on Nov. 3, 2020.

How did America get here?

The short answer is that secularism’s devoted priesthood imbued America’s youth with an ungodly set of beliefs through 100 years of public education, while the church remained idle and quiescent. The full extent of this iniquitous shift will come to light when we compare early American education textbooks and curricula, which concentrated on the development of virtue and character, with contemporary education’s focus on a godless origin of the universe and a resultant exaltation and normalisation of sin.

Let’s not forget that politics is downstream from culture, and that culture, in the words of Joseph Boot, is the public manifestation of religion.

Christians surrendered their biblical responsibility of rearing and educating their children to pagan secularists over the last century, which amounts to an inauspicious lack of observance to fulfil Genesis 18:19 (GW): “I have chosen him so that he will direct his children and his family after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. In this way I, the Lord, will do what I have promised Abraham.”

Returning to the question how America got here, an additional answer came last week in the form of a Wall Street Journal opinion piece by Van Gordon Sauter. The former two-time president of CBS News, a forward-looking liberal married to former California Treasurer Kathleen Brown, the sister and daughter of former California governors Jerry Brown and Pat Brown, provided an indictment of “the ‘liberal leaning’ media” as having “passed its tipping point: A return to balance would be commercially nonviable. The best solution may be an honest embrace of bias.”

Unfortunately, his accurate analysis didn’t provide a proposal how to correct or repair the situation, so we will offer one:

With his 30-year background in consulting, business and non-profit, Dr. Lance Wallnau puts the matter in perspective: “Listen, you guys who are Christians have an insider advantage on all of this chaos because there’s a system to how the world works.

“We wrestle not with flesh and blood but principalities and powers. That doesn’t mean that people aren’t involved; it means that there are devils and demons working through people, behind people and energizing systems. What Christians have never really understood, because we think that everything can be solved with a local church, a conversion, and the gospel being preached … well, it doesn’t work that way. Because at some point China was taken over by the Mao Revolution, and [they] killed all the Christians; same thing with Stalin.

“Now we’ve got enough churches, and enough Christian television and Christian books, TBN, DayStar … it’s not as though we don’t have enough talking, it’s just that we have very little impact. If you want to be very honest about it, the LGBTQ crowd, the race organizations, the ‘Borderless-America’ organizations, the anti-Israel organizations, they’ve done a better job of making disciples than Christians have, because we’re just kind of holding our own, and the other groups are converting.

“They’re institutional, they’re academia, they are in media, they are in Hollywood, they’re in government, in the courts, in law, and already they are in our churches pushing gay marriage and the LGBTQ agenda.

In summary, Wallnau’s assessment comes down to Jesus’ kingdom assignment as found in Matthew 16:18, His ekklesia, involving societal transformation as the major thrust of the Great Commission to disciple nations.

Two distinct religions are vying for control of America’s public square: eternal and immutable Christianity versus transient and mutable secularism. What’s happening is spiritual—two distinct religions cannot coexist as one will ultimately end in the destruction of the other.

God be praised that Gideons and Rahabs are entering the public square in the form of elected officials to local office: city council, school board, parks and recreation and so on. Will societal transformation occur over the next 20 to 30 years? David Lane is hopeful, but God’s word tells us “For then there will be great tribulation such as has not been seen since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.” Matthew 24:21-22

PLAGUES OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS

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David Beasley is the executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, and he recently stated that we are heading directly into “the worst humanitarian crisis since World War Two.” Hunger is rapidly rising all over the globe, and he believes that if dramatic intervention does not happen quickly we could see an astounding death toll.

According to Beasley, we could soon see 300,000 people around the world starve to death every single day, and that figure doesn’t even factor in the effect of this coronavirus pandemic:

“If we can’t reach these people with the life-saving assistance they need, our analysis shows that 300,000 people could starve to death every single day over a three-month period,” he upheld. “This does not include the increase of starvation due to COVID-19.

Even before COVID-19 became the biggest public health crisis to hit the globe in decades, enormous swarms of locusts the size of major cities were devouring crops throughout eastern Africa, across the Middle East and even in some parts of Asia. Now a new generation that officials are describing as “20 times bigger” has emerged, and the devastation that this new generation of locusts is causing is extremely alarming. These colossal locust swarms can travel up to 90 miles a day, and as you will see below, when they descend upon a field they can literally eat everything there in as little as 30 seconds. This new generation of locusts has been spotted as far south as Congo, as far north as Iran and as far east as India. In other words, the food supplies of billions of people are at risk.

In addition, another plague of “biblical proportions” has been killing off pigs in unprecedented numbers.

It is hard to believe that African Swine Fever has already killed off half the pigs in China and one-fourth of all the pigs in the entire world but this quote comes directly from New Scientist:

“A quarter of the world’s domestic pigs have died this year as a virus rampages across Eurasia, and that may be just the start. Half the pigs in China – which last year numbered 440 million, some 50 percent of the world’s pigs – have either died of African swine fever (ASF) or been killed to stamp out the virus.

ASF comes from East Africa. In 2007, it reached Georgia in the Caucasus in contaminated meat, and in infected wild boar. Now, it is all over Russia and eastern Europe and infected wild boar have turned up as far west as Belgium. It is also spreading in east Asia, killing many pigs in Vietnam and elsewhere.”

Never before have we seen so many catastrophic threats to the global food supply emerge at the same time. It appears that “the perfect storm” is now upon us, and I anticipate that global events will continue to accelerate in the months ahead.

Even in the West, in countries where famine is inconceivable, we are seeing reports that are of concern: Farmers all over America are seeing their hard work go to waste because broken supply chains have made it impossible to sell what they have produced. One industry expert is actually claiming that “billions” of dollars worth of crops have gone to waste as a result of this crisis:

Crops planted months before based on pre-pandemic demand spoiled without buyers. Billions of dollars’ worth of produce went to waste, much of it tilled back into the soil, said Cathy Burns, CEO of the Produce Marketing Assn., which represents produce companies. She said, I have a feeling that eventually we will greatly regret allowing so much good food to go to waste.

Australia, which made a rare purchase of Canadian wheat in the current marketing year, is expected to continue buying more wheat in the 2019-20 marketing year (October-September), as weather conditions remain difficult in key states, market analysts say.

The once pristine Kangaroo Island is barren following fires at the weekend
Before and after fire devastation in Australia

Australia’s wheat output dropped 45.6% to 17.3 million mt in the 2018-19 marketing year from a record high of 31.8 million mt in 2016-17, owing to prolonged drought conditions, data from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics shows. This forced the country to import wheat for the first time in 12 years.

We still have quite a way to go before we get to the type of famines described in the Scriptures, but it certainly looks like the stage is being set for severe hunger on a global scale.

But Jesus didn’t warn us about these things so that we would live in fear. God knew about all of this in advance, He is in control and He has a plan.

Unfortunately, most of the world doesn’t want anything to do with the God of the Bible or His plan, and so they will be facing what is to come all by themselves. What about you and your church group?

God wants to involve you in getting the good news of the Gospel to your immediate family, friends and certainly your workplace, maybe even beyond. Are you spending time in the Word and prayer. Scripture clearly tells us, He is at the door knocking, will you let Him in and allow Him to reveal what it is He would like to involve you in, to achieve His plan?

A NEW TEMPLE WILL BE BUILT IN JERUSALEM BUT WHERE?

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When people visit Jerusalem’s Old City, they may believe it’s the same place King David set up as his capital more than 3,000 years ago. But that’s not the case. Archaeologists are uncovering the original city and telling others its amazing story.

As seen in the graphic, we can see several important geographical features, including the Mount of Olives, the traditional Temple Mount, the Kidron Valley, the Central Valley, the Gihon Spring, and the current site for the city of David.

Anarina Heymann serves as the outreach coordinator for the City of David.

“Welcome to the City of David,” Heymann told CBN News. “It’s the home to the ancient biblical Jerusalem and up until 150 years ago, everybody thought that the ancient biblical Jerusalem lies within the confines of the Old City right behind you in the wall—within the walls there. So the question is, what happened 150 years ago, and where is the ancient biblical Jerusalem?”

She then helped answer that question by explaining how the City of David lay hidden for nearly 2,000 years until a British archaeologist began a discovery that continues to this day.

“Chris, we’re standing at a magical place right now,” Heymann continued. “This is the place when Charles Warren came through the fascia that he found. He saw something. And when Charles Warren saw this, he knew that he rediscovered the ancient biblical Jerusalem.”

Asked if this Warren’s work was the beginning of the unveiling of the City of David in modern times, she responded, “Exactly, because we’re speaking of a 2,000- year period where nobody knew where the ancient city was. Most people thought when they—when they came—that what they saw in the Old City, that was ancient biblical Jerusalem. It’s only when he found this that they discovered … the ancient Jerusalem lies outside of what we call today the Old City.”

The discovery of the tunnel system known as Warren’s Shaft visually tells how King David captured the city and brings the Bible to life.

Gihon Springs - Jerusalem 101

“When we saw this, we suddenly saw exactly how the picture came together,” Heymann continued. “And many times when we do excavations, we also don’t know what we’re looking at and then we have to go to the Bible and that starts explaining it. So it’s the Bible and then the excavations and the excavations and the Bible coming together, giving us the full picture of ancient Jerusalem.”

Anointing Israel’s Kings

Further down, archaeologists found where men became kings.

“Most of the kings of Israel were anointed where we’re standing right now. We are standing at the place of anointing. And Isaiah says you will draw forth water with joy from the springs of salvation,” she said.

In fact, the City of David echoes with the people of the Bible.

“Abraham, when he met Melchizedek, but then we get to David, to Solomon, we get to Isaiah when he was giving his prophecies on these very walls here,” she said. “Jeremiah, afterwards, when he had to speak about the destruction that was looming over Jerusalem … all those things happening exactly where we’re standing right now.”

More than 10 years ago, archaeologists uncovered another biblical site, the Pool of Siloam, which was fed by the nearby Gihon Spring. It’s the place where Jesus healed the blind man and also where the Jewish people would gather for the Feasts of the Lord.

“Three times a year, all the men had to come to the mikvah [ritual bath] in the pool and from there get ready to go to Temple Mount and this is the walk, the final ascent, that all the pilgrims can do again when they come to Jerusalem,” she explained.

Heymann sees this final ascent as a merger between archaeology and prophecy.

Opening a Door to the Future

“Something amazing is happening because you see that we are now excavating this road and again prophecy is being fulfilled because it says in Isaiah ‘build up, build up the road,’ the highway. And it says remove the stones for my people’s return,” she said.

One ongoing excavation is the tunnel leading from the Pool of Siloam to the Temple Mount. Heymann says it reveals the past and opens a door to the future.

One of the City of David’s most ambitious projects is an excavation called the Givati, where the entire history of Jerusalem is being revealed as if the rocks are crying out.

“You can see exactly how she [Jerusalem)] slowly disappeared from civilisation because one city was built upon the other, and you could see how probably the city could have lost hope, thinking ‘Who’s ever going to discover me again? Until God says, but in a time of favour, nothing can stop it and that’s what we see in Givati. Jerusalem is slowly being revealed,” she said.

She sees prophecy unfolding.

“We’re starting to see in the last decade, the blueprint. She’s starting to share what she looked like to us again. So you can see how prophecy is speeding up as we go. It’s said [Hebrew] ‘shake off your dust, arise, take your rightful place, Jerusalem.’ If you see the excavations here on a daily basis, you can see the buckets flying. You can see the dust literally flying about, how she’s shaking off her dust.”

Heymann considers her role in the City of David a privilege.

“I call myself the luckiest person in the world—the luckiest girl in the world—because I have the opportunity to take what we see here and tell the people about the City of David, about the ancient Jerusalem, and every person that is passionate about Jerusalem and serious about biblical prophecy needs to know this,” she said.

Reprinted with permission from CBN.com. Copyright The Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc., All rights reserved

TRUTH ABOUT CORONA VIRUS AND VACCINES

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This will shake your faith in governments and media. It is hard to dispute the information given by Dr Buttar. Check out his website and the videos on vaccines. When I put this information along with data I looked at recently on the USA, National Security Agency (NSA) it gives me goose bumps.  NSA has a budget of 10 to 15 billion dollars a year and its main goal is population control. Anything governments can do to get total control it seems they will do. Ultimately, chips inserted into individuals will seem desirable. The Bible tells us that in the “end times” that unless people take the mark of the Antichrist, they will not be able to buy and trade. It seems we are rapidly moving towards the last days before Jesus returns.

GREATEST BIBLE PROPHECY EVER

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Seems like an outrageous claim, but it is hard to discount the case made by Nelson Walters, a friend and a man I greatly admire. I am confident you will agree this is another great video from Nelson. It’s on an amazing prophecy which reveals that we are living in Biblical end times with Jesus return less than 100 years distant. Nelson mentions the early church father, Barnabus, but I would include Justin Martyr, Irenaeus and Lactantius. They all held to the sexta-septamillennial construct which is that the days of creation are prophetically one thousand years (with the Lord one day is as a thousand years). Hence, six thousand years of earths history is followed by the Millennial Reign of Jesus Christ. At the end of which will be the destruction of this earth, the second resurrection and the White Throne Judgement. The new heaven and new earth will then herald the start of the eighth thousand year of man’s history and eternity with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

This Scripture from 2 Peter is such an important “end times” pointer.

“That you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” For this they wilfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men.
But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” 2 Peter 3:2-8

 

MILLIONS AT RISK AS FAMINE GRIPS THREE AFRICAN NATIONS

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Revelation 6:5 -6
“When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.”

It almost appears that we can hear the galloping of the black horse of the book of Revelation as we learn of new reports that over 16 million people are at risk of dying of famine in three African Nations.  “We are living a horrible drought and a difficult time,” said Shukurow, a Somali mother of a malnourished child. “We hardly have enough to get by, let alone to think of our future.”

The UN humanitarian chief, Stephen O’Brien, says the world is facing “the largest humanitarian crisis since the creation of the United Nations” and says the organisation needs urgent resources to avert the famine crisis.

Across the Horn of Africa, people are starving. A catastrophic combination of conflict, high food prices and drought has left more than 11 million people in desperate need. The United Nations has been sounding the alert for months. We have resisted using the “f-word” — famine — but on Wednesday we officially recognised the fast-evolving reality. There is famine in parts of Somalia. And it is spreading.

This is a wake-up call we cannot ignore. Everyday, I hear the most harrowing reports from our UN teams on the ground. Somali refugees, their cattle and goats dead from thirst, walking for weeks to find help in Kenya and Ethiopia. Orphans who arrive alone, their parents dead, terrified and malnourished, in a foreign land.

We must also recognise that Kenya and Ethiopia, which have generously kept their borders open, face enormous challenges of their own. The largest refugee camp in the world, Dadaab, is already dangerously over-crowded with some 380,000 refugees. Many thousands more are waiting to be registered. In neighbouring Ethiopia, 2,000 people a day are arriving at the Dolo refugee camp – also struggling to keep pace. This compounds a food crisis faced by almost 7 million Kenyans and Ethiopians at home. In Djibouti and Eritrea, tens of thousands of people are also in need — and potentially many more.

Imagine the catastrophe ahead for theses nations. Many, already with deficient immune systems, without access to adequate health services (ventilators – unlikely) will die due to the Corona virus.

southsudanafricanchildhungeras

 

DO YOU BELIEVE JESUS WILL RETURN IN YOUR LIFETIME?

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THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT A MAJORITY OF EVANGELICAL BLACK PASTORS IN THE USA DO

Most pastors serving at evangelical and historically black churches see some current events lining up with what Jesus said would happen shortly before His second coming, according to a new poll on Christian eschatology from LifeWay Research.

Over half believe Christ will return during their lifetimes. These sentiments were expressed in January before the prospect of a global pandemic became known.”

On Tuesday, the Southern Baptist polling research firm released results from from a phone survey, conducted between Jan. 24 and Feb. 11, of 1,000 senior pastors, ministers or priests who were randomly called from a list of evangelical and historically black churches in the United States.

90% of pastors see at least some current events “matching those Jesus said would occur shortly before He returns to Earth.”

56% of pastors either strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement: “I expect Jesus to return in my lifetime.”

24% said they were “not sure,” while 20 % either strongly or somewhat disagreed with the statement

97% of pastors said they believe Christ will return to Earth again.

The respondent pastors were asked to identify from a list whether they see certain “types of current events” as the “birth pains” that Jesus referred to when He was asked by His disciples when he would return. 

79% of pastors surveyed agreed that one birth pain of Christ’s return is “traditional morals becoming less accepted.”

75 percent of pastors said that “the number of people abandoning their Christian faith” is a birth pain.

81 percent agreed that “the love of many believers growing cold” is also a birth pain of Christ’s return.

78 percent of pastors said “wars and national conflicts” are also a birth pain

76 percent agreed that “earthquakes and other natural disasters” are indicators of the second coming. 

70 percent of pastors surveyed said that “famines” are another birth pain

The fear that the historic locust infestation taking place in East Africa right now could cause severe hunger and potential famine due to the destruction of crops is a good indicator this prophesied event is underway.

63 percent of pastors surveyed said that “worldwide anti-Semitism” is another indicator that Christ’s return might be near. 

83% of pastors surveyed agreed that the “rise of false prophets and false teachings” is a birth pain.

69% percent of pastors surveyed somewhat agreed that the “modern rebirth of the State of Israel and the re-gathering of millions of Jewish people show Christ’s return is closer.” Sadly, 27% indicated they either strongly or somewhat disagreed with that statement. 

Eighty-six percent of pastors surveyed said they attended Bible college or seminary. 

60 % of pastors surveyed said they believe the ideas of “premillennialism” best describe their views on the millennium described in Revelation 20, where it is said that Christ shall reign “a thousand years following His second coming.”

21% said that they believe more in the idea of “amillennialism” — the view that the “millennium is a symbolic way of describing the period between Christ’s ascension and second coming where Christ is reigning spiritually.”

9% said their beliefs align more with the theory of “postmillennialism,” which is the belief that the “the millennium is not a literal 1,000 years, but an era in which the world will gradually grow more Christian and just ending with Christ’s second coming.”

73% believe “Christ will return and reign in Jerusalem in fulfilment of God’s prophecies to King David.”

60% of pastors surveyed said they believe that teaching on Revelation and Old Testament prophecies is “important.” Meanwhile, 89 percent said that communicating the “urgency of Christ’s return” is also important. 

“For too long many pastors have shied away from teaching on birth pains and events leading up to the second coming,” bestselling evangelical author Joel Rosenberg said in a statement. “But the current pandemic demonstrates the need for solid, non-sensational preaching done in a biblical manner.”

The LifeWay survey was sponsored by Chosen People Ministries, Alliance for the Peace of Jerusalem, Rich and Judy Hastings and the Hendricks Center at Dallas Theological Seminary. The research has a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points. 

TIMING OF THE RAPTURE AND THE DAY OF THE LORD’S WRATH

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The Rapture initiates Jesus second coming, not to earth, but to receive the risen saints in the air and to take them to heaven. The same day that the rapture occurs will be the same day that The Day of the Lord’s Wrath will begin.

The apostle Paul links the return of Christ with The Day of the Lord’s wrath (1 Thessalonians 4:13–5:9). Paul teaches that when Christ returns to pour out His wrath upon the wicked, His return will be like a thief, and it will occur suddenly like a woman in labour pangs:

“For you know quite well that The Day of the Lord will come in the same way as a thief in the night. Now when they are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction comes on them, like labour pains on a pregnant woman, and they will surely not escape.” 1 Thessalonians 5:2–3

Before the battle of Armageddon occurs, the world will have been devastatingly pummelled by The Day of the Lord trumpets and bowls judgements. The wicked will clearly know that the judgements are from God (see Revelation 6:14–17; 9:20–21; 11:3–19; 14:6–11; 16:9–11, 21; 17:14 cf. Luke 21:25–28). By the time the divine trumpets and bowls have been poured out, the battle of Armageddon will not be a surprise! It climaxes the period of God’s wrath, not initiates it. Paul clearly teaches that the wrath of God will not begin until the second coming of Christ at the Rapture, which will catch the wicked off guard as a thief with sudden destruction as a woman in hard labour. Therefore, Armageddon cannot be considered the beginning of the second coming.

Jesus taught the exact same point that sudden destruction will occur when the second coming begins, using five parables/illustrations: 1. Noah and the flood, one taken and one left, 2. the thief in the night, 3. the master of the household, 4. the ten virgins, and 5. the talents (Matthew 24:37–25:30; cf. Luke 17:28–30).

Peter also draws the “thief” motif from Jesus’s Olivet Discourse illustrating the sudden destruction when the parousia begins (2 Peter 3:10–12).

Jesus, Paul, and Peter are consistent in their message that the second coming of Christ at The Rapture will begin like a thief catching the wicked off guard in their oblivious state.

Since the battle of Armageddon occurs at the end of God’s wrath, the second coming does not begin with Armageddon, because that would remove the surprise element—the whole point of invoking the thief metaphor!

The resurrection and rapture, followed by the trumpets and bowls judgements, will occur at a much earlier point than the climax of God’s wrath at the battle of Armageddon and Jesus second coming to earth to rescue Israel.

The following explanation of the parenthetical exhortation that seems arbitrarily placed in Revelation 16:14-16 is extracted and abbreviated from Alan Kurschner’s post “The Day of the Lord’s Wrath Begins before Armageddon” Eschatos Ministries.

Revelation 16:14–16 begins at the 6th Bowl judgement just before the 7th and last Bowl judgement which precedes the Battle of Armageddon

“For they are the spirits of the demons performing signs who go out to the kings of the earth to bring them together for the battle that will take place on the great day of God, the All-Powerful. (Look ! I will come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays alert and does not lose his clothes so that he will not have to walk around naked and his shameful condition be seen.) Now the spirits gathered the kings and their armies to the place that is called Armageddon in Hebrew.” Revelation 16:14–16

This parenthetical exhortation in Revelation 16:15 is not intended to give a temporal indicator to when the Lord will return, as is often interpreted. It does not mean that his parousia has not occurred up to this point with the church still on earth. Nor does it mean that his parousia will begin at Armageddon. it makes no sense to say that Jesus is coming back as a “thief” after the world just experienced his previous earth-destroying judgements.

So then how should we understand this parenthetical statement that seems to be arbitrarily placed at this point. As it is placed at the culmination of God’s wrath, the likely meaning is that the warning represents the unified complex-whole of the day of the Lord’s wrath. And what are the implications of this statement? There are basically three interpretations but the one I believe it means is; the one who does not stay alert is a false believer (the many nominal Christians in our churches today), who will be left on earth and on the receiving end of God’s wrath.

BIBLE REVEALS ANTICHRIST ORIGIN AND TIMING

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Nelson does a great job of unpacking Scripture to reveal what the Bible shows us about end times events and what we are seeing and reading in the media of current events in the Middle East.

I doubt you will hear this message in your local church and the Bible tells us that much of the church will be asleep and even more tragic much of it will fall away and compromise with the world and its values. Hence, God brings on catastrophes to refine/test His church.

“Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested,” Revelation 2:10 (Church at Smyrna – persecuted church)

‘” I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.” Revelation 3:1-3 (Church at Sardis- dead church)