The Purposes of the Tribulation; The
Rapture vs. the Second Coming
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your
own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your
path," Proverbs 3:5-6. "They that wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall
mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not grow weary, they shall
walk and not faint," Isaiah 40:31. "Fear thou not; for I am
with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will
help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My
righteousness," Isaiah 41:10. "Be anxious for nothing, but in
everything through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests
be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all
comprehension, shall defend your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus,"
Philippians 4:6-7. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is
stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee," Isaiah 26:3. "For the
grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God shall stand
forever." Isaiah 40:8
Before we get
started we will have a few moments of silent prayer so you can make sure you
are in fellowship, ready to study the Word. As we live in the Christian life we
are to live on the basis of the power of the Holy Spirit, walking by the
Spirit. But when we sin that is lost and we recover it simply through
confession of sin. So we have a few moments of silent prayer to give you the
opportunity to make sure you are in fellowship then I will open in prayer.
Let's pray. Our Father, it is a great privilege we have to come together to
study Your Word and to recognize that as God the Holy Spirit has led us through
the understanding of Your Word, we know we are standing upon the shoulders of many
who have gone before us. We are so thankful for their guidance, their
direction, the way in which they have supported Your Word and defended its
inerrancy and infallibility. And Father, we are so thankful that as we continue
this study that we come to understand that history is not something that is
comprised of accidents, but that You oversee history, guide and direct it
toward a future culmination and future goal that culminates in Your
glorification among all of Your creatures, among Your angels, among mankind.
And Father, as we continue our study, we pray that You'd help us to see how we
fit in as individual believers in the church age, and how Your plan for us is
distinct from all other dispensations and all other groups of those who are
saved at other periods of time. And we pray this in Christ's Name, Amen.
We are still looking
at the doctrine of the Rapture. We are still focusing on what the Bible teaches
about the Rapture. Now for a lot of us who have grown-up in dispensational
teaching churches and haven't been exposed much to what goes on outside
dispensational churches, we are the minority. We are an oppressed minority. We
are the whipping child of everybody who holds a
different view. In fact, as we know from our study that one of the consequences
of dispensationalism is the understanding of the distinction between Israel and
the church and that God has a plan and purpose for Israel based upon the
unconditional covenants of the Old Testament. There are many people who are not
self-conscious consistent dispensationalists, but they hold to many
dispensational distinctives even though they may not be well versed in
theology. One of those principles that you see held by many Americans is the
importance of Israel. Last week I pointed out that at a meeting there was a
news report of a group that's supposed purpose was to support the Christians in
the Middle East. Ted Cruz was the keynote speaker; and Ted Cruz came out
talking about the importance of supporting Christians and supporting Israel
because of those who are antagonistic to Christians are also antagonistic to
Israel. He received a lot of push back from Arab Christians who were in the
audience. This is typical because, as I pointed out Thursday night when I
talked about this, that this is so typical of people who hold to replacement
theology. They don't understand the distinction.
When you get into some areas of the world that have quote "Christian"
populations, they are not Biblical Christians. Their Christianity is not based
on a consistent understanding of Biblical truth.
They are sort of cultural denominational type Christians and they may never
emphasize the gospel or regeneration or the importance of personal individual
faith in Christ; and so they are Christians in "name" only. And then
you have another group of Christians that you have in the United States and
evangelicals as well. They come out of a different tradition; and about 20% of
evangelicals in the United States are not out of background that emphasizes a
consistent literal hermeneutic and therefore, a distinction between Israel and
the church and that is usually among reformed churches. I gather all that to
say I got an email this morning and the title was "The Cruzification
of America", a little play on Ted Cruz's name. It was written
by an advocate of Reformed theology, and he is going after Ted Cruz and
how horrible everything was that he said because this comes from this kind of
what he calls a "false view Christianity." So this battle is very real and it
impacts what is out there in terms of what happens in the political sphere and
what you can read about in the papers every now and then.
I am going to
continue tonight talking about what the Bible says is related to the purposes
of the Tribulation and how we understand that that means that the church is not
present in the Tribulation. That is important for establishing why we believe
that the Rapture occurs before the Tribulation and also the distinction between
the Rapture and the Second Coming. Here is our dispensational chart: Old
Testament ages of the Gentiles and Israel, the dispensation of perfect
environment, conscience, and human government in the age of the Gentiles, the
dispensation of patriarchs and the Mosaic Law and the messianic age during the
age of Israel, which ends at the cross, and then the church age begins at the
day of Pentecost. We've got that transition period between the cross and
Pentecost, 50 days. The church age ends with the Rapture and the Tribulation
begins, as we will see from Daniel 9:23, and following that the Tribulation
begins with the signing of this covenant between the prince who is to come and
Israel. There is a gap. We do not know how long that gap is, but there is at
least one precedent that we can point to of a gap between the cross and
Pentecost. So there are these transition periods that occur in-between these
dispensations.
So I am looking at
the topic of "Why I Believe in a Tribulation Rapture", and last time
I talked about the second point:
2. The purposes of the
Tribulation do not relate late to the church. So I covered this and in a quick
review:
The purpose of the Tribulation is to execute judgment on wicked nations who have rejected Christ.
The purpose shows the inability of Satan to rule the planet.
The purpose of the Tribulation is to provide time for millions to be saved. God's grace is very much present during the Tribulation period.
A host without
number is depicted in Revelation 7 before the throne of God. So there will be
innumerable people who are saved; and I think many of them will be saved
because of tracks, because of things that are on the internet, the ministries;
so many ministries have material up on the internet that will all be here after
the Rapture occurs and I think that there will be a number of people. It is at
that time, not long after the Tribulation begins that 144,000 Jews who are
saved. That is not the limit of Jews that are saved. Some people teach that or
have taught that or at least that misinformation is out there that Christians
believe. There will be 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes saved who go forth
as evangelists and many millions more will be saved as a result of them being
saved.
There are millions who are saved and then Israel through their ministry will be prepared to receive the Messiah and His kingdom.
1. Also we see
during this time that it is a time of preparation for Israel's restoration and
conversion. It specifically related to Israel.
2. It is called the
time of Jacob's trouble in Jeremiah 30:7.
3. The church
currently expresses tribulations and will not experience "The"
Tribulation.
4. The church is
mentioned nineteen times in Revelation 1-3, but in Revelation 4-19 the church
is not mentioned at all. That is the period of "The" Tribulation.
Various names are
used emphasizing the Jewish nature:
It is a time of Jacob's trouble in Jeremiah 30:7.
It is a time of judgment on Israel according to Ezekiel 20:37.
It is a time for Daniel's people, judgment on Daniel's people in Daniel 12:1.
This is the period described as Daniel's 70th week, which we will get into I hope before too much longer.
3. The third point
that we looked at was that the church is never the object of the wrath of God.
So God is not
focusing on this.
A couple of passages
were: 1 Thessalonians 5:9;
1 Thessalonians 1:10.
Revelation
3:9-10.
And then we get this
term "The Great Tribulation" in Matthew 24:21. I described that last
time that this time of "Great Tribulation" is not a technical term, I
don't believe, for the second half of the Tribulation, but it is a specific
term for the increased adversity, the increased horrors of the second half of
the Tribulation. That brought us up to the next point, the fourth point, where
I stopped last time.
4. The Imminency of
the Rapture.
Imminency is an
important doctrine. This is almost a cornerstone for the Rapture. In fact,
there are some people who will state that this is the strongest argument for
the Rapture. I think everybody has his favorite view and this is certainly a
strong one. We have to understand what imminence means.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary: something is imminent if it is "hanging overhead; if it is constantly ready to befall or overtake one; if it could take place at any moment. It is at hand." There is nothing that is required to take place before this takes place. It is very, very close, but not necessarily in time. You always have to be ready for it. So what we learn about the coming of Christ for the church is that it is certain. He is coming. The time it will take place though is uncertain. It is not contingent upon anything else. I emphasize this again because it is sort of a corrective for some of the ways we have been taught. The idea that no prophecy is going to take place is going to be fulfilled before the Rapture occurs – that is not a true statement. There is prophecy related to the Rapture, which shows that nothing must take place in order for the Rapture to take place. It is not contingent upon anything. There is no event that must transpire in order for the Rapture to take place. That is why it is imminent. There is nothing between now and the Rapture that must be there. But that doesn't mean that some prophecy couldn't be fulfilled that relates to things afterwards, setting things up for what will take place following the Tribulation.
Clarence Larkin
wrote a book in 1920 called The Greatest Book on Dispensational Truth in the World. Have some of
you have read it? It is a classic on dispensationalism. Clarence Larkin believed
that if the Rapture had occurred in his day that 70-80 years would have to go
by before the Tribulation could begin because so many things had to take place
to set things up. A temple would have to be rebuilt. Jews would have to be
regathered to the land. A nation would have to be established. Many other things that he thought needed to be in place before the
Tribulation could begin. His opinion a hundred years ago was that if the
Rapture occurred in his day 60-70 years would be necessary to make the
transition before the Tribulation could begin. Today we see many of those
things take place. Some people believe that the return of so many Jews in
unbelief is a fulfillment of prophecy. Others would say, well, we won't use
that terminology, but it is clearly prophetically significant. But whatever we
say, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the timing of the Rapture. That is
the important point. The Rapture is not contingent upon these things happening
first.
This was the belief
in the early church: that the coming of Christ was imminent. It could take
place at any time. Here is a quote from Clement. Clement of Rome was a pastor
in Rome the last part of the first century and he wrote a letter, an epistle,
to the Corinthian church. He wrote in that letter, "Of the truth, soon and suddenly shall His
will be accomplished, as the Scripture also bears witness, saying,
"Speedily will He come and will not tarry;" and, "The Lord shall
suddenly come to His temple, even the Holy One, for whom ye look." Now
Clement is writing probably before the Canon is closed, very close to the end
of the first century, but not before the closing of the Canon. His life
overlapped the end of the apostolic period, so sometime in the 80s or early 90s
was when he wrote this. He believed that Jesus could return for the church at
any moment. It was speedily. It could be very quick! He expected it as Paul
did, as many of the writers of Scripture did, that it would take place in their
lifetime.
Now Ignatius was
born, I believe, before the end of the first century, but Ignatius reaches
maturity in the early part of the first century. He is taken to Rome as a
prisoner. On his way he wrote various letters to various churches. So these
would be dated somewhere around AD 120-130. Now we are in the early part of the
second century. He said, "The last times are come upon us, Let us therefore be of reverent
spirit, and fear the longsuffering of God, that it tend not to our
condemnation. For let us either stand in awe of the wrath to come, or show
regard for the grace which is at present displayed – one of two
things." Now this reveals the fact that he is thinking that the end
times are imminent that the time of judgment is upon them, the "last
times."
Irenaeus lived a
little bit later into the midpoint of the second century, around AD 150-160. He
battled a number of different problems that were taking place within the
church; and one of his more famous works is called, Against Heresies. In that he writes, "And
therefore, when in the end the church shall be suddenly caught up from this, it
is said, "There shall be tribulation such as has not been since the
beginning, neither shall be." "And so his use of the term
"suddenly caught up" indicates that it is something that is
unexpected. It is something that is quick. It is something that is imminent. It
is not dependent or contingent upon any other events.
So there are a
number of key passages to understand this discussion about imminency and the
Scripture. One of these is in James 5:7-9. As James is coming to the end of his
Epistle, but closing with his conclusions, he returns to the theme of the
epistle, which is on endurance and patience in times of trial, and so again he
encourages his readers to be patient, to be steadfast, waiting upon the coming
of the Lord. So he says, "Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the
coming of the Lord." He doesn't see anything else coming in between his
time and the coming of the Lord. That is the next thing that is anticipated.
That is why we believe we are waiting for Jesus Christ, not for something else.
We are not waiting for the appearance of the Antichrist; we are not waiting for
the appearance of the 144,000; we are not waiting for any of those events that
take place in the Tribulation. The next thing in the prophetic timetable that
we are looking for is the coming of Christ. So he indicates that. He writes
from that perspective. He uses illustrations of agriculture in James 5:8. He
says, "You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the
Lord is at hand."
There is a reward
promised to those who "love His appearing;" who look forward to His
coming. As believers we should anticipate that. Some of us anticipate it a
little too much sometimes, but I think as people grow
older they yearn for heaven. I see this in many Christians as they mature; they
realize how fleeting this life is and how permanent eternity is going to be.
What we look for is the coming of the Lord. It is at hand. It is near. That
shows their view of imminency. It could happen at any time. What? 1900 years
has gone by since he wrote this, but he anticipated that it would take place in
his lifetime.
1 Thessalonians 1:10
is another of these important verses. Paul said that
we "wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is
Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come." See, he writes this in a
first person plural. "We" are waiting. He is telling the Thessalonian
readers. If Jesus is going to come during their lifetime they are expecting it
to happen at any moment. In
1 Corinthians 1:7 he says to the Corinthians, "so that you are not lacking
in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Now if they thought
that a lot of things had to take place before He could come, why would they be
"eagerly awaiting" for Him? See they expected it at any moment. It
was very real to them. Jesus' coming is around the corner. We just don't know
when it will take place, but it will be very soon! That is what they believed.
It was imminent! They weren't waiting for other things to take place first. Philippians 3:20 Paul says, "For our
citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ."
Do we eagerly wait
for the coming of the Lord? Is that something that is a part of your
consciousness as a believer every single day; that you are eagerly anticipating
the coming of the Lord? If we are suppose to be living today in light of
eternity, if we are supposed to be thinking about how we live each day and our
priorities each day and our mental attitude each day and our focus each day in
terms of how we are going to do at the judgment seat of Christ in preparation
for eternity, then we should be waiting eagerly! This should be a present
consciousness in our mind that Jesus can come at any moment. Are we ready? Are
we focused on the right priorities? Are we living our life in terms of
eternity? It is so easy in our world to be caught up in living our life for
today, for tomorrow, to pay the bills at the end of the month, to get that next
job promotion, to get new cars, to get whatever the things are in life, to
reach retirement, to get a place where we can build a retirement home for the
future; whatever it might be, we are focused on the things now. Are we focused
on them in terms of the present, or are we focused on the things now only in so
far as they relate to our destiny at the judgment seat of Christ? We are to "eagerly wait" for our Savior!
1 Thessalonians 4:15
is another verse that we have gone over in this
section on the Rapture many times. Paul says, "For this we say to you by
the word of the Lord …" That is, Jesus taught it as well. What passage was
that where Jesus taught this? John 14:1-3. "For
this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain
until the coming of the Lord." Notice who he says, "we who are alive,
and remain;" all through this epistle when he uses the word "we"
he is talking about the people. He is not using this in some broad editorial
sense, thinking well this includes all Christians down through the next 2000
years. He is talking to those Thessalonian believers that he knew personally
and he says, "We who are alive, and remain," expecting that he is in
that Rapture generation. And there have been many believers, because of their
sense of expectancy down through the generations, who think that they were in
the Rapture generation, but were not. So that is the focal point there. Paul
comforts them because he sees the nearness of Christ's return and there is no
hint of anything that intervenes between his present time and the coming of the
Lord. So he is not looking for something else.
Titus 2:13, we are
"looking for the blessed hope…." We are not looking for the Rapture.
We are not looking for other events. We are looking for Jesus Christ, not the
Antichrist. So we are "looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of
the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus." 1 Corinthians 16:22 "If anyone does
not love the Lord, let him be accursed. Maranatha," meaning may the Lord
come. And so he is emphasizing here the importance of anticipating the arrival
of the Lord.
Romans 13:11
"And this do, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to
awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we
believed." That is each day we are closer, whether it is going to be our
physical death or the Rapture; each day we are closer to that time when we are
going to be face to face with the Lord. In Romans 13:12 he says, "The night
is almost gone, and the day is at hand." Do we live with this sense of
immediacy; that at any moment Jesus is going to come back and that we need to
be prepared? So that is where he concludes in terms of behavioral challenges in
Romans 13:13-14; that we are to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no
provision for the flesh." Why? Because Jesus is coming back and when He
comes back there is going to be accountability at the judgment seat of Christ.
Now that is not put there as fear to scare people into obedience, but a
realization of reality; that we will be held accountable and we need to live in
light of that future.
Philippians 4:5 Paul
says, "Let your forbearing spirit be known to all
men. The Lord is near." Constantly, He is right around the corner.
1 John 2:28-29 says,
"And now, little children, abide in Him." That is stay in fellowship!
Walk with the Lord. Walk by means of God the Holy Spirit. Walk in the light.
Walk in the truth. He says, "Abide in Him so that when He appears we may
have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming."
There are going to be believers to "shrink away in shame" when Jesus
comes back because they are not prepared. They are the ones who will not have anything
rewardable at the judgment seat of Christ; no gold,
silver, and precious stones.
1 John 3:1-3
"See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be
called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not
know us, because it did no know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and
it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He
appears," at the Rapture, "we shall be like Him, because we shall see
Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies
himself." What is he talking about here? If you understand the Rapture; if you understand its significance, then you are going to
cleanse yourself. That is the concept there, purification, 1 John 1:9 "If
we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us, or to purify us, from all unrighteousness." So he says if you
understand that future expectation; if you understand that hope that we have,
that confident expectation that Jesus is coming, what should characterize us?
Then daily we purify ourselves. We are confessing our sins; we are staying in
fellowship in order to be prepared for His appearance. So that takes us through
the doctrine of imminency.
5. Now I want to get
into this fifth point, which talks about the distinction between the Rapture
and the Second Coming.
There are a lot of
people who think that these passages that about His appearing, His coming. And
they think in general terms and so they say, well these are all just talking
about Jesus' Second Coming when He returns to the earth. If you hold to an
amillennial view of theology, then there is no future Tribulation, there is no
Rapture. We are living in the kingdom. It is a spiritual form of the kingdom.
Jesus is up there in heaven on David's throne in heaven right now. He just
returns to the earth at the end of the age. There will be a judgment and then
we go into eternity. There is no future kingdom according to their view. So for
them all of these passages relate to the same event. They don't understand and
they don't believe in these particular distinctions. So what we are going to
point out here in this section is that the Bible describes different
characteristics for Jesus' coming and they can only be explained under the idea
that there are two different times in which Jesus comes. The Second Coming is
sometimes referred to in books to apply to both, that it has two stages. Stage
one is the Rapture, which occurs before the Tribulation; and stage two is when
Jesus comes all the way to the earth and that is a fine and important
distinction. Jesus comes first to take and remove believers from the earth in
order to fulfill the time of judgment, and it is a purification of the earth in
preparation for His kingdom to bring Israel to that point of belief and
acceptance of Him as Messiah.
So we are going to
draw out these distinctions between the Rapture and the Second Coming:
1. At the Rapture,
the Rapture passages, as we studied in 1 Thessalonians 4, talk about a
translation of believers who are alive.
They are immediately
translated from this mortal, physical, corruptible body into an immortal,
spiritual body, a resurrection body. It takes place instantly, as we studied in
1 Corinthians 15:15 and following. It takes place "in the blinking of an eye,"
literally, less than that, "the twinkling of an eye." But at the
Second Coming there is no mention of a translation of believers at all. There
is none of that. It is completely different. We see the Second Coming is Jesus
coming already with an army with Him. They are already there. Revelation 19
mentions nothing about anybody coming up and joining Him. He comes from heaven
with this army accompanying Him already. An army of angels and an army of
resurrected saints are already there.
2. Second point:
According to the Rapture "translated saints" go to heaven.
We go with the Lord.
We saw this in our study of John 14:1-3. Jesus said, "I go to prepare a
place for you, and where I go I will certainly come again, that where I am you
may be also," which is heaven. So translated saints go to heaven. When the
Rapture occurs we don't come to the earth with Jesus. We go to heaven with
Jesus, but at the Second Coming translated saints return to the earth with
Jesus. So the destiny of translated saints is different in each view. Rapture,
we go to heave; Second Coming, we come to the earth.
3. The earth is not
judged at the Rapture.
When you look at the
Rapture passages they are not accompanied by verses that describe a judgment
upon the earth; but then the Second Coming occurs there is judgment associated
with that. At the end of Revelation 19 we see that the Antichrist and false
prophet are cast into the lake of fire. Satan is taken into the abyss where he
is chained for a thousand years. There is a judgment that takes place there at
the end of the Tribulation with the Second Coming, but there is no mention of a
judgment on the earth at the time of the Rapture.
4. A fourth
distinction that we see is that the Rapture is imminent.
It could occur at any
moment. There is no sign; there is no prophecy; there is nothing upon which it
is contingent. But the Second Coming follows a definite pattern. There are
predicted signs; there are things to watch for. There is a thing, and it will
come up again I think next month. We are on the edge of the Jewish high holy
days and I believe that we are going to see another couple of blood moons. John
Hagee was the one who popularized that erroneous view about the blood moons
having something to do with the future of Israel. If you want to hear the
critique you can go back and that is a special that is on the Dean Bible
website. So there is no sign. There is a definite set order. The
moon turns red like blood. It does; what we are seeing now is not that; and the
sun is darkened. So these things happen at the same time. It is not just
something that happens with the moon, and there are many other signs that take
place. You can follow them through the book of Revelation: the seal judgments,
the trumpet judgments, and the bowl judgments.
5. The Rapture, we
said we believe, is a church related issue. It is not predicted in the Old Testament.
There is nothing in the Old Testament that predicts the Rapture.
Now I am going to
show that one of the strongest passages I believe for the Rapture is in the Old
Testament, but it is not talking about the Rapture. It is talking about God's
plan for Israel, but the implication is that those last seven years in Daniel's
70th week prophecy, if those last seven years relate to Israel, then
where did the church go? There is no place for the church at that particular
time. So it is not predicted. The Rapture is not predicted in the Old Testament,
but the Second Coming of Christ, the day of the LORD passage are predicted again and again
and again throughout Isaiah and Jeremiah and Joel and Amos and many, many other
passages in the Old Testament. It is predicted many times. They anticipate it.
The reason the Rapture is not mentioned is because the Rapture has to do with
the church and there is no prediction of the church in the Old Testament. The
church isn't mentioned in the Old Testament. So we would not expect the Rapture
to be predicted there.
6. The Rapture is
for believers only.
It is only for those
"in Christ." The dead in Christ will rise first. It is only for
church age believers, not Old Testament saints. So it is the dead in Christ rise
first, but at the Second Coming. This affects all of mankind. It ends the
Tribulation period. There are judgments associated with His coming, the
judgments, as I mentioned a minute ago, of the Antichrist and the false
prophet, abut also judgments of Gentile unbelievers who survive the Tribulation
and Jewish unbelievers who survive the Tribulation. And there is a judgment
upon Satan and the demons as well. Everybody is affected by
the Second Coming, whereas the only people who are impacted by the
Rapture directly would be church age believers.
7. The Rapture takes
place before the day of wrath.
We are saved from
the wrath to come and the wrath to come begins with the first series of seal
judgments as I pointed out last time in Revelation 6 talking about the wrath of
the lamb. We can't fall into the trap of the so-called pre-wrath Rapture view.
That the wrath of God is only a term for what happens in the final bowl
judgments. That is a misconstrued Scripture completely. The wrath of God begins
at the beginning of the Tribulation period. The Second Coming of Christ
concludes the day of wrath. So they are separated by the Tribulation period,
which is the time of God's wrath and the pouring out of His judgment upon the
earth.
8. Satan is not
mentioned at all in any of the Rapture passages. There is no indication. It has
nothing to do with Satan. Whereas, when Jesus returns at the Second Coming
Satan will be bound for a thousand years; again, a major distinction between
the two views.
9. In the Rapture
Christ comes for His own. He comes for us. He comes for the church. At
the Second Coming Christ comes with His own. He comes for the
bride at the Rapture. He comes with His bride at the Second Coming.
10. At the Rapture
Christ comes in the air. He doesn't come to the earth. He comes in the clouds.
"Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together to be with
Him in the air." He comes only in the clouds. He doesn't come all the way
to the earth; whereas, as the Second Coming He comes all the way to the earth
and engages in various battles to destroy the enemies of Israel and the enemies
of God.
11. At the Rapture,
as I indicated earlier, He claims His bride, but His bride comes with Him at
the Second Coming. So this is an important distinction.
12. At the Rapture
only His own see Him.
That is why some people
call it a sort of a secret Rapture. It is not that secret, everybody is going
to feel the impact of it when all the believers are taken out of the earth.
They are going to be missed. Some of them are going to be driving cars, some
flying airplanes, others will be in important key positions as captains of
industry, as military leaders, as political leaders, and their absence will
create a crisis, I believe, of leadership at that particular time.
13. When the Rapture
occurs it sets the stage and after the Rapture the Tribulation begins. After
the Second Coming the messianic kingdom begins. It is an important distinction
between the two.
And so we see that
the Rapture is covered in that last period of Daniel's 70th weeks,
starting from the time that the coming prince signs that peace treaty with
Israel and ends with the return of Christ and it is in the future. This relates
to Daniel's 70th week. Now this is one of the most important
passages to understand and one of the most important prophecies to understand.
So I have about twenty minutes left. I think I can cover this. So we need to
look at this.
This is a remarkable
prophecy. I think of all the prophecies that are taught about and studied that
have been fulfilled, this is one that is the most detailed and the most
extraordinary passage for it gives us a timetable for God's future plan. As we
see here, I am just going to use this slide to give us an overview, just to
summarize what happens in Daniel 9. You might want to turn in your Bibles to
Daniel 9:24 as we go through this particular passage. But earlier in Daniel 9
Daniel is found praying and he has been meditating upon Scripture. He has been
meditating upon prophecies and promises that are in the book of Jeremiah,
specifically in Jeremiah 25:11-12 and in Jeremiah 29:10 predicting that this
judgment that God brought upon Israel, where He removed them from the land,
would last for only 70 years.
Now Daniel can count
and he knows that the 70 years are just about over. So he prays to God that he
would at this time restore the people to the land. And he comes before God and
he confesses their sins of idolatry, their sins for disobedience to Him,
disobedience to the Law, and he is functioning like a priest, as an intercessor
for his people praying this prayer. He calls upon God to deliver them. And God
answers his prayer in a remarkable way and sends an angel to him in order to
explain what God's future plan will be for him. And so this prophecy that
begins in Daniel 9:24. We see a prelude to
that in Daniel 9:20-21 Daniel says, "Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing
my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before
the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God, yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the
beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the
evening offering." So he has been praying all day and is still in the
middle of prayer, and right in the middle he is interrupted
by Gabriel who informs him that he has come in order to give him the skill that
he's asked for and the understanding of prophecy. So this sets up this
particular prophecy.
So Daniel wanted information about the end of the Babylonian captivity and
God gave him an answer that extends all the way to the Second Coming. It is a
timetable for Israel that is so important to understand. It is for Daniel's
people. In Daniel 9:24 Gabriel tells Daniel, "Seventy weeks are determined for your people." Who is that? Israel;
not the church. "And your holy city." That is Jerusalem. So
Daniel wanted this information and God gives him this remarkable timetable and
the subject is Israel and not the church. It is so important to understand
that.
Daniel 9:24 "Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your
holy city to finish…" And we have six purposes given:
So it is 490 years to determine. This gives us the total framework. Daniel 9:25 focuses on the first part,
the first 69 weeks. Daniel 9:26 talks about this gap
between the 69th week, when the Messiah is cut-off, and there is this gap
between the end of the 69th week and the beginning of the 70th week. Now that
is really important to pay attention to that gap because it doesn't tell us how
long that gap is, but it clearly establishes that gap. Then we are introduced to the 70th week, which is described in Daniel 9:27.
Now Daniel 9:24-25, "Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people
and for your holy city." We'll talk about the purposes here in just a
minute. In Daniel 9:25, "So you were to know and discern from the issuing
of the decree to restore and rebuild." That tells us the starting point.
When do we hit the start button on the stopwatch? The start button is when this
decree goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem; and from that point, it is
not from the point of Daniel's getting this revelation. It is not from the
point of their rebuilding of the temple. It is when there is a political decree
to allow the Jews to go back to rebuild and restore Jerusalem. So I will tell you
this, it is not related to just the decree to go back. It has to do
specifically with restoring and rebuilding and those terms have to do with
building a military fortification, so that the city is defensible. So from the
issuing of that decree "until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks
and sixty-two weeks." And so when we look at that and multiply that out,
we see that this comes to, we add them together, 7 and 62, we get 69 weeks.
This comes out to 69 weeks times 7 which comes out to
173,880 days when you work out the whole prophecy related to years. We will get
into the mathematics of this in just a minute.
Daniel 9:26-27 "After the 62 weeks," so you have the seven week
period, which is roughly forty-nine years, and then you have the 62 weeks
period, and then after that "the Messiah is cut-off and has nothing and
the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the
sanctuary." It is not talking about what happened in AD 586 because that is already in
the past. So looking at the next time it indicates a second temple will be
rebuilt and that second temple will be destroyed by a military attack, and the
people who do that, the prince of those people, are the one who will destroy
the city and the sanctuary. That is what occurred in AD 70 when Rome under Titus, as the
General of the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem and burned down the temple. And
Gabriel then says, "And its end will come with a flood; even
to the end there will
be war; desolations are determined."
Zechariah talks about how Jerusalem is always going to be a millstone
around the neck of the nations. This is just something that is a perennial
problem and we see that again and again and again in the news. The fights over
who controls Jerusalem? Who owns Jerusalem? Are we going to go back to the 1967
borders and basically split Jerusalem? What happens if we go back to the 1967
borders is that everything historically that has been known about Jerusalem
goes to the Arabs. When you look at a map and you see the line for the 1967
borders; remember, up until the early part of the 20th century
Jerusalem wasn't very large. It was mostly the old city. Up until the late 19th
century there was no settlement outside the walls of Jerusalem. So East
Jerusalem is the old city. That is what the battle is all about. East Jerusalem
is not what is east of the old city. East Jerusalem is the old city. It is that
whole historical area.
If you go to Jerusalem, and when we go on our trip to Israel, we drive
along and we see the road that was a barricade, where they had the border
before 1967. Before 1967 Jews and Christians were limited in their access to
any of the holy sites, any of the historical sites in the old city because of
Arab control. So this is one of the things that will probably happen again if
they were to give up control. That is why Israel said they are not going to do
that.
So according to our chronology here this is going to be a constant
state of war that will go on in to the future. And then in Daniel 9:27
"And he that is the prince to come will make a firm covenant with the many
for one week." That is one seven-year period. "But in the middle of
the week he will stop to sacrifice and grain offerings; and on the wing of
abominations." This is where we get that term "abomination of
desolation." "On the wing of abominations will come one who makes
desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out
on the one who makes desolate." So the one who makes desolate is the
Antichrist, the prince who is to come, and there will be a complete destruction
of him at the end of this period. So this is the focal point; it is understanding these seventy weeks that have been
prophesied.
So let's look at the chronology. What do we mean by 70 weeks?
Literally, in the Hebrew this refers to seventy units of seven
"weeks". Literally it says seventy periods of seven. So 70 × 7 is
490. That could be 490 days, 490 weeks, 490 months, or 490 years. Well it does
not fit days, weeks, or months. It only fits if you lay this out over a period
of years. So 70 × 7 = 70 weeks of years or 490 years, from that starting point
of a decree, a political decree for the Jews to return to rebuild the military
defenses of Jerusalem.
The Cause. Why 490 years? 490 years is a multiple of seven. The
argument is that according to Leviticus 26:34-35 and Leviticus 26:43, that
every seventh year was a sabbatical year that was to be observed by the Jews.
They failed to do that and so for a period of the years that they failed to do
that, this was why they had to spend seventy years in captivity to make up for
seventy sabbatical years that they had violated. Now we don't know which ones
those were because there is no historical record. There was sometimes when
apparently they did provide for intent to observe the sabbatical years, but not
all. So most of the time they did not observe those sabbatical years. For those
seventy years that their land was not allowed to rest, they are going to be put
in captivity for seventy years. This is the argument of Jeremiah 25:11 and
Jeremiah 29:10. The context is talking about this seventy-year period, this
unit of seventy, and so it is multiplied by seven to get the
number of sabbatical years that are remaining for Israel's timeline.
Here are the passages: Jeremiah 25:11, God says, "This whole land
shall be desolation, and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of
Babylon seventy years. [12] "Then it will be when seventy years are
completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation." Jeremiah
29:10 "For thus says the LORD, 'When
seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you.' " So that was that seventy year
period. Now we are going to take that same unit of measurement and we are going
to apply it to the future.
Now there are six things that are mentioned; 6 Things that Will be Accomplished:
1. "to finish the transgression"
– that is Israel's rejection of God, their idolatry. So this rebellion of
Israel is going to be completed. This isn't talking about the cross. This is
talking about bringing their sin to an end.
2. "to make an end of sin" –
all of these purposes are related to Israel, not to mankind, not to the church.
3. "to atone for iniquity" –
to deal with this for Israel finally and totally.
4. "to bring in everlasting
righteousness" – this event occurs for all six of these purposes to
be fulfilled. Everlasting righteousness isn't brought in until Christ returns.
So it is at that return of Christ, specifically for Israel, that these things
are realized in Israel's experience.
5. "to seal up vision and prophecy"
– all of these prophecies related to this will be fulfilled and this will
introduce the age of the Messiah, the millennial kingdom.
6. "And to anoint the
most holy place" – and establishing a new temple, which will be the
millennial temple that is described in Ezekiel 40 and following. So this is
what we see emphasized at this time.
So in The First 69 Weeks we just have to look for the starting point.
There are four decrees that take place in relationship to Israel.
1. Decree of Cyrus that we can date to October 29 of 539 BC. It is mentioned in Ezra 1:1-4; Ezra 5:13.
This is the decree for the Jews to return to the land. This takes place in 539 BC.
2. Decree of Darius that occurs in 519/518 BC described in Ezra 6:1-12, which authorizes them to go ahead and finish
rebuilding the temple. It doesn't have anything to do with fortification.
3. Decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus to Ezra. Again it is taking a group
of Jews back to the land from Persia (457 BC).
4. Decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus, same Artaxerxes. This is the decree
Artaxerxes gives to Nehemiah to restore the city walls and gates. This is what
is described in Daniel 9:25 "The streets shall be built again, and the
wall, even in troublesome (or even for troublesome) times." It has to do
with the defenses of the city. So this decree we can date from March 5, 444 BC. That is pretty impressive that we can do that.
The Completion of the 69 Weeks
– When did it end? So it begins at that point
and then it ends historically when Jesus enters into Jerusalem on March 30, AD 33, which is four days before the crucifixion. Jesus enters into
Jerusalem according to Luke 21:38-45. There is a gap
between the 69th and 70th weeks of at least 37 years
between the end of the 69th week, which is the cut-off, when the
Messiah is crucified, and the beginning of the 70th week. How do we
know that? In this gap two specific things take place:
1. The Death of the Messiah. The Messiah is cut-off after the 69th
week and that occurred 4 days after the 69 weeks ended on April 3, AD 33 "and (you will) have nothing", Daniel 9:26a.
2. The second event that has to take place in this gap occurs 37 years
later, from AD 33 in the
crucifixion to the destruction of the temple in AD 70. And so the temple is destroyed in AD 70. Those two things have to take place in this gap, Daniel 9:26b.
After that it is uncertain how long the gap is. Now when we get to
Daniel 9:27 we see that one week of years remains. Is this past or is it
future? Now "preterists," now that is a term to describe theologians
who believe that all this prophecy in Daniel's 70th week, the Olivet
Discourse, everything that occurs between Revelation 4 and Revelation 19, all
of that was just symbolic code language for the destruction of Rome. So all of
that was fulfilled in the past. Preterist means past. They think that all this
prophecy that we think is future occurred in the past. So we will get into this
later. There are three views of prophecy:
one is that all this occurred in the past
one is that it is kind of occurring now, in the present
that is called the historicist view
and then there is the futurist view and we hold to the
futurist view. So we believe that this occurred earlier.
1. So there is a "No Gap" view; that there is really no gap
and everything has already been fulfilled.
2. And then we have the "Gap" view.
We believe that there is a gap and we are still in the gap before the
70th week takes place, Daniel 9:27.
So here we get to our timeline (Daniel's Seventy "Weeks"
Seventy Periods of Seven, Daniel 9:24-27). The decree to
restore takes place March 5, 444 BC with Artaxerxes' decree, Nehemiah 2:1-3. So we have
our 7 + 62 = 69 weeks. After that the Messiah the Prince is cut-off. On March
30, AD 33 there is a triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, Luke 19:28-40.
This is 173,880 days after Artaxerxes' decree. So the 70 × 7 = 490 years. The
69 × 7 = 483 years or 173,880 days. The point is, where are the last 7 years?
Where are the last 7 years?
Now how do we understand these years? [Rationale for
360-Day Years]. There are synonymous terms or parallel terms used in
different prophetic passages. Daniel 9:27 refers to
half of this 70th week as a half of a week. It is referred to also
as a time (one) times (two), so that gives you three, and a half a time (three
and a half). So that works out 3˝ that is half of seven. It is also called
1,260 days in Revelation 12:6 and Revelation 11:3. Now 1,260 days is also
described in Revelation 11:2 and Revelation 13:5 as 42 months. So 42 months =
1,260 days that is equivalent to time, times, and a half a time, so that means
that according to God's prophetic calendar a month is 30 days. We have a
calendar where we have five months or six months with 31 days. We have one
month with 28 days to even everything out. But according to the Jewish
calendar, which operated on a lunar calendar, a year was 360 days, not 365
days, and each month was 30 days. So we have to figure this according to a
Jewish concept of a linear calendar.
[Explanation of Daniel's 70 Weeks of Years] So 69 × 7 × 360 days =
173,880 days. From March 5, 444 BC to March
30, AD 33 is
173,880 days. You can verify this by taking 444 BC and adding to that 33, which would be 477, but then you subtract a
year because there is no zero and that gives you 476 years. 476 years × our
calendar 365 and a quarter days = 173,855 days + the days between March 5 and
March 30 = another 25 days and that comes to = 173,880 days. It all gets worked
out. It is remarkable the precision of God's timetable.
So we have this: 70 × 7 or 490 years; the 69 ×
7 or 483 years, and then we have to figure out what happens to the last 7
years. (Daniel 9:26) So there is a gap and it is after the 62 weeks two things
have to happen, Messiah is cut off and has nothing and the sanctuary is
destroyed in AD 70. What
happens then is that there is this gap. You have the cross; Messiah is cut-off.
You have the destruction of the temple but the gap continues until we get to
the coming prince and the coming prince will sign a treaty with Israel. The
people of the prince who is to come to destroy the city, that is the Romans, so
that means that the future prince is going to be coming from where? Babylon?
No! Rome, right? It was Romans who destroyed the city.
You hear a lot of stuff today. Joel Rosenberg is big on this Muslim-Arab
Antichrist. I don't get it! We have got to have Bible scholarship and just read
the text! They have an argument for that. They argue that the peoples, the
regions that were used by Vespasian came from the eastern part of the empire,
but they were considered Romans and they considered themselves to be Romans. So
this future time period is that 70th week that is unfulfilled. The
first part was for Israel; the last part is for Israel, not for the church.
One last thing, Daniel 9:27 presupposes three things: 1. A Roman prince. 2. A Jewish nation.
So in order for the start of the 70th week to occur you've
got to have a new political organization with a rise of this powerful political
figure who is then going to sign a covenant with Israel, which means that there
has to be a nation, a government, a people of Israel in the land. So you can't
have the Tribulation start without at least those two things and probably the:
3. Jewish temple.
Although it is possible that the temple doesn't begin construction
until after this covenant is signed. The temple doesn't have to be finished.
Remember, when Jesus was on the earth Herod's revision or rebuilding of the
Zerubbabel temple wasn't complete. It wasn't completed until AD 46. And so all it has to be is sanctified. They can put a mobile home
up there, kind of like the tabernacle. It is sanctified. They can have
sacrifices, and it is sufficient.
We see that this focuses on Israel. The years that have already been
fulfilled were fulfilled literally. That means that the future must be understood
and interpreted on the same basis as the past fulfillment. So this will take
place. Here is a picture on the lower screen of the last remaining restraining
wall known as the western wall.
We will review that a little bit next time and then we will go forward.
I believe that this is one of the strongest arguments for the Rapture. Really
it is an argument that the church won't be present; that the Tribulation is for
Israel. It is not for the not for the church. And therefore, if it is not for
the church, the church doesn't need to be here, and it will be removed.
Father, thank You for this
opportunity for us to go through these things and to understand the scope and plan
and prophecy. Father, we understand that You have a plan for the church; You have a plan for Israel.
Right now Israel is apostate, but there are many Jews that come to Christ, come
to an understanding of the Messiah, who read and believe the prophecies of the
Old Testament, especially passages like Isaiah 53, and understand that they
could have only have been fulfilled in one person and that is Jesus of
Nazareth. Father, we pray for many of our friends who are Jews, that they would
come to a faith and trust in Jesus Christ, that they would come to understand
the truth about who He is and what He has provided for them, and that You can
use us in many ways to bring a clear understanding of the gospel to them.
Father, we pray these things in Christ's Name, Amen.