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[0:00] Well, thank you all for being with us this morning, and thanks again to Chris and Shirley for the wonderful meal that we enjoyed. I didn't do anything but worse dishes, that's all.

[0:11] She did the cooking. Well, anyway, it takes two, and we're glad, so thank you for the gracious provision that you've made for us. We've enjoyed it immensely. Lastly, I've distributed a sheet that I have found embarrassing, because this is the third time in what?

[0:31] I guess we would say about 14 or 15 months, because we didn't do anything during the COVID thing, hardly we didn't even meet. But it's been well over a year ago since we distributed this the first time, and we didn't get into it.

[0:46] And then I distributed it the second time, and we still didn't get into it. So you're wondering, why is he doing this? Because he never studied it. But this morning, I am determined that we are going to, and it deals with two aspects of our Lord's coming.

[1:02] And we're going to examine both of them in the next few sessions that we have together. So we are, I think, enjoying a heightened interest in second coming issues, simply because of what is happening on the local and the world stage today.

[1:23] Things are developing with great rapidity right here in our own country, and sometimes it makes your head swim and you wonder, good grief, what next? Just a year or two ago, we never thought we would be dealing with the issues like we are dealing with now.

[1:38] But trust me, I think there is more to follow. And if this be true, then the time of the Lord catching us away may be a lot sooner than we think.

[1:52] And you know very well that I have strongly advised against any kind of date-sitting in the past, and so I still do.

[2:03] But based on what's happening now, it really makes me wonder, and the things we're going to consider may be very, very near. Or they may still be a hundred years off.

[2:15] I don't know. But I do know that we are encouraged to be students of our society and students of the Scripture and try to prepare ourselves as best we can for what is coming.

[2:29] We are encouraged to always be looking for our Lord's return. And in connection with that, and by the way, Kay brought in a book just yesterday, a recent publication from one of my favorite authors, Dr. Lutzer.

[2:46] And I shared with us last night the table of contents to the folks who were here. And because of the subject matter we're dealing with, I thought that I would do so again. Dr. Lutzer, for many years, was pastor of Moody Memorial Church in Chicago.

[3:01] He is now retired from that and is doing Bible conference work and kind of speaking around the country. But he's authored a number of books, and he's a man that's held in great esteem.

[3:14] And in his latest, which is entitled, We Will Not Be Silenced, I just want to share with you the titles of the chapters that he deals with in this recently released book.

[3:28] This is from the table of contents, chapter number one, How We Got Here. That in itself is interesting. And then, Rewrite the Past to Control the Future.

[3:46] You see anything like that taking place? And how about this? Use diversity to divide and destroy. Freedom of speech for me, but not for thee.

[4:04] Sell it as a noble cause. That is, how propaganda is used to shape a population's perception of reality, so they will not change their minds even when confronted by compelling counter-evidence.

[4:21] Wow. Sexualize the children. How school curricula and popular culture are leading our children into sexual confusion and warped ideas of personal identity.

[4:41] Children as young as five are being declared victims of sexual dysphoria. And they're actually planning to undergo a physical, a series of physical operations with the intent of changing their sex.

[5:03] And the thinking is, they have the mind of one sex and the body of another. Isn't that terrible?

[5:15] What we need to do is coordinate those. Because we can't change the mindset, the brain, so we change the other organs and make them whatever.

[5:27] And I've been giving a lot of thought to this, and as I've been telling you as a congregation for quite some time, that one of the greatest consequences of the fall of Adam, wherein the entire human race was brought down as it were, one of the chief consequences is that our thinking apparatus and our ability to reach logical conclusions is also fallen and impaired.

[5:59] And this is the principal reason that God has given us His word. It is to allow us to see and understand what God's position is on so many of these important issues that He set forth in His word, and how it counters the thinking of man.

[6:17] And I do not think that in my lifetime there has been any greater demonstration of distorted thinking and logic as what has occurred over the past 10 or 20 years.

[6:31] It's remarkable. I mean, I remember, I well remember when the gay issue really hit the fan, and that was in the 1960s, when a committee of homosexuals confronted and literally broke into, uninvited, a meeting of the American Psychiatric Association and insisted that they remove homosexuality from their official list of human illnesses and abnormalities.

[7:10] And they did. They did. And it has been downhill ever since. That coupled with taking God out of our schools and prayer out of our schools, and you wonder how much further it can go.

[7:25] So now we've got same-sex marriage. And if that isn't enough, there is the effort about to change one's sex from whatever they were born with biologically to what they think they ought to be.

[7:44] And I can well understand young people and maybe older folks thinking that this thing called life is just not working all that well for them.

[7:58] And it may be that actually I'm not what I think I am. Or I'm not what I appear to be. I appear to be a male.

[8:11] But I feel so much like a female. That's what's wrong with me. And for somebody who is sorely, deeply dissatisfied with their life and with their lot, it may be that they are not finding the satisfaction and fulfillment in the sex that they have biologically.

[8:34] And that's because that's not what they really are. They really are the opposite sex. So, you set about to change it. Now, a generation or two ago, that was considered harebrained, ridiculous, unthinkable, but not anymore.

[8:51] And now, I think we're seeing more and more examples of the skewed logic and warped thinking that has come as a part of the fall. And, I don't know if this is a harbinger of what is to come prophetically or not, but, I would say it may appear to be so.

[9:10] And if that's the case, hold on to your seats because you haven't seen anything yet. It's going to get more and more bizarre. And as it becomes more and more bizarre, it will become the new norm and accept it as such.

[9:29] We are already accepting things that a generation ago would have been dubbed totally unacceptable. But there is a huge, huge national shift underway that is moving us from different things into areas that we never thought were possible before.

[9:54] And information has got everything to do with it because people act on the basis of the information they're given. Whether it's true or whether it isn't, we tend to act on it. And that's what is so dangerous about information.

[10:08] People tend to implement it. They tend to act on what they hear, whether it's right or whether it's wrong. So, Dr. Lutzer continues with, Sap capitalism is the disease, socialism is the cure.

[10:23] And eight, join with radical Islam to destroy America. Nine, vilify, vilify, vilify. You can shame, embarrass, and ruin, literally ruin, people in positions of authority who don't agree with you.

[10:43] And you can actually ruin their lives and neutralize their effect. And it's going on all the time. And the last chapter is wake up, strengthen what remains.

[10:55] So, I would like you to take the sheet that we're going to be working from and look, if you will, let's just read that first paragraph.

[11:06] There are certain similarities between the rapture passages. And by the way, I don't want to bore you with this, but for the benefit of those who are not with us, and this is being recorded, I'm going to just read this, and you can follow along, and as they listen, they won't be so much in the dark as they would otherwise.

[11:24] There are certain similarities between the rapture passages and the second coming passages, since they both refer to future events relating to our Lord's return. but similarity does not mean they are referring to the same event.

[11:40] Pre-tribulationists believe that there are enough substantial differences between the two aspects of Christ's coming so as to render them as two separate and distinct events.

[11:53] The distinction between these two phases of the second coming is substantiated by the contrast between those passages that refer to our Lord's coming for His church and those referring to His coming to judge the unbelieving world.

[12:12] Thomas Ice has provided the following list to identify those distinctions. And you'll note in the margin here that this article is excerpted from the book entitled The Return by Thomas Ice and Timothy Demme.

[12:26] So I think these passages that are here before us are well illustrated and will be shown to be what they are but what I would like you to do is just briefly and I realize we don't have a lot of time but I want you to just scan over the rapture passages the second coming passages will not take time to turn to all of them except the two in particular that deal with the rapture but I want you to notice if you will as you look at the rapture on the left second coming passages on the right is there anything that strikes you as peculiar?

[13:04] Now I can't really tell you what it is that you're looking for because if I do I'll give it away but at any rate I want you to just kind of glance over it and see if you notice anything if anything jumps out at you because what we are looking here yes I'm sorry the rapture passages are in the New Testament okay a lot of the second coming passages are in alright the rapture passages are in the New Testament and the Old Testament some of the second coming passages anything else that you might note?

[13:40] John there's a whole lot in here on Thessalonians 1st and 2nd Thessalonians okay 1st Thessalonians and we'll be looking at that shortly okay okay well that that okay and that that is key to what we are talking about and this is to my estimation this is another sterling illustration of why these are divided as they are and our author here for whom I have a great deal of respect Tommy Ice and Timothy Deming they have distinguished themselves as leading lights in the subject of eschatology they're both very well learned very well respected men but that doesn't mean that we cannot differ with them from time to time about minor points and I'm sure they'd be the first to understand that but the thing that I want to point out to you which I feel is really very important and that it is an ignoring of this principle that more than anything else has led to the division that exists in Christendom and by the division

[15:02] I mean between Catholic and Protestant and the things that separate us and between Protestant and Protestant and the things that separate us because that which is generally considered to be adherence to the cause of Christ are so keenly divided and separated that it has the effect of our impact being sorely limited you can imagine or can you what might happen if all of Christendom was on the same page I mean Catholic and Protestant and so on we all know the great schism that took place under Martin Luther back in the 1500s and there has never been a sufficient recovery of that and what we've got here before us with these rapture passages and second coming passages in a very real way illustrates what I'm talking about because not only is there a distinction between

[16:08] Roman Catholics and Protestants particularly as regards the future and things like that but there is also a distinction that exists within Protestantism and who is at the center of it Paul Paul Paul the apostle if you will look at the rapture passages and the second coming passages you will see that all of the rapture passages that are listed are peculiar to the body of Christ which is peculiar to the ministry of Paul which is to be separated from the gospel of the kingdom because this today is

[17:19] Paul's gospel which is the gospel of the grace of God it is a good news or a gospel that transcends that of the kingdom message and our author here of course has included things that Paul did not write into other passages like for instance the very first one John 14 1 through 3 that is generally assigned as it is here to be a rapture passage it is speaking of the coming of Christ for his church and we might want to look at that and examine it a little bit further and you might have some questions about it but my contention is simply this everything that is part and parcel of the rapture of the church the translation of the church the catching away of the bride of Christ everything in connection with that is limited to the writings of Paul like it or not why because

[18:32] Paul was the only one to whom God revealed what is called the mystery the other apostles bless their heart they were doing their own thing with the commission they had with the information they were given and they were right on track but it was a different track from what Paul was on because Paul's ministry was exclusively to convey the mystery and the only place you will find the mystery that is spoken of is in Paul's writings and all I'm saying is this this is just one more example of the things that divide us here in the rapture passages they begin with John 14 1-3 and if you look in the second column under rapture passages they have Hebrews and James and 1- John and they are all included as rapture passages whereas there's some similarity between the rapture and the second coming and I can easily understand how people confuse the two because

[19:35] I too entered into that confusion years ago before I understood anything about the mystery and how it is separate from all the rest so I can fully understand they're doing that but all I'm saying is and the thing that I want you to focus on and the thing I want you to challenge if you don't agree is what I've said because I am not coming from any position of what shall I say infallibility or inerrancy or anything of the kind so what I teach always is subject to investigation confirmation and questioning I feel much better knowing that you have that liberty because my shoulders are not broad enough to be able to tell you that everything I say you can take to the bank

[20:35] I long since learned that that's not true because you know as well as I do those of you who have been here at grace for any time long period of time you know I've had to reverse myself on some things I've even had to apologize to the congregation you before and so say I now again every preacher has two great fears and his first fear is that people will not believe what he says and his second fear is that people will believe what he says and let me tell you I am not sufficient for that and I know it so this is one reason why I not only give permission I encourage you to challenge me I promise I will not be offended or insulted so you feel free to do that and if you've got what you think is a valid point and it turns out to be a valid point you owe it to me I want it because if we are really in a quest for truth like we say we are it doesn't matter whether it comes from the pulpit or the congregation the objective is to be true so keep that in mind

[21:56] I just have you look at these passages but first let's go to the scripture that relate the rapture more clearly perhaps than anything else and of course it's in Paul's writings 1 Corinthians chapter 15 Paul says now in verse 50 I say this brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable behold I tell you a mystery in other words he's saying this is how it's going to work I tell you a mystery and we've defined that word and given it a synonym that I think expresses better the idea than does even the word mystery and that is secret secret a secret is something that is not known and cannot be known unless it is divulged unless it is told to someone everyone here everyone here has secrets in their own mind and heart and there isn't another person at these tables that knows what your secret is but once you tell them it's not a secret any longer then it's open and

[23:19] God had a secret that he hadn't told anyone it was tucked away according to Ephesians 3 it was tucked away in God's heart and mind and just reserved there for the right time and the right time came in God's estimation when Saul of Tarsus came on the scene and God gloriously converted him on the Damascus road and then began a series and we don't know how many and we don't know over what period of time but Paul referred to them as an abundance of revelations information that was not known before and it's important to understand this is information that was not known to or by the original twelve apostles whom Christ chose they didn't have a clue about this new information it was revealed exclusively to

[24:23] Paul to communicate to others and if you want to see that with the greatest clarity I think can be provided it's in Galatians chapters one and two if you read those two chapters you'll get an understanding of how Paul's revelation differed from that of the twelve and understand this now nobody is suggesting and this is one that sometimes is labeled against the grace position nobody is saying at all that the twelve were stupid or were out of line or that somehow missed the boat the twelve functioned with what they had and the information that Christ gave them but Christ didn't give them the information that he gave to Paul that's where the difference comes in so what we have with the Pauline revelation is an update everybody who has a computer knows what an update is or information for a new program that doesn't mean the old program was wrong it means the old program has been provided with something that improves it or that makes it new and different and the idea of course is supposed to be improvement and let me tell you nothing was an improvement like what was given to

[25:48] Paul because it was the gospel of the grace of God which was not just for Jews but for Jews Gentiles bond free male female you name it it was available and open and offered to everybody so that whosoever will may come that was new twelve never preached that no and they weren't supposed to the twelve were supposed to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and confine your ministry to them and they were right in what they did they carried out their orders but their orders did not include the orders that God gave to Paul that's the difference so what we've got is an update and the sad thing about it is so much of Christendom has not stepped into the update they're still with the ministry that was given to the twelve and you know what that included it included an abundance of miracles physical miracles and one might legitimately ask where are they today our

[26:56] Pentecostal friends and some of the faith healers and blabbit grabbit what do you call them they try to make these things happen they you know the miracles and everything because and you know what I think that most of these do so out of a sincere heart because their thinking is the only reason that we are not performing the miracles today and causing people to stand on their ear and praise God is because we just don't have the faith that those early apostles and disciples had and if we had the faith that they had we'd be able to do the same thing so shame on us and the whole idea is to try to jack people up in their spirituality and their doing and everything so that we can do those miracles and we're not supposed to be doing those miracles because the miracles were principally provided to authenticate the claim of

[27:59] Jesus being the Messiah of Israel and the Jewish people had every right to say to Jesus alright you're the Messiah you're the King of Israel prove it and that's exactly what the miracles were primarily all about in addition to alleviating human suffering and pain of course our Lord had great compassion and that entered into it too but that was not his primary purpose so here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 I tell you a mystery I tell you something that had not been revealed before we shall not all sleep now the sleep of course is a euphemism here and we understand it to be a euphemism for death he's talking about dying physically and the secret about it is not that death is real that's not a secret everybody knows that but he goes on to tell us that we shall not all die well what do you mean everybody is going to die no that's what

[29:08] Paul is saying is something different not everybody is going to die physically what is going to happen is we shall all be changed now most of the people of whom Paul is speaking here are going to die the likelihood is everybody at these tables are probably not for certain probably going to die physically however that can be changed before I finish the next sentence that can be changed so that we will not die but we will come into the second category that is mentioned here but we shall all be changed I think I might have told you this before but I thought it was kind of cute to walk into a church nursery and see the sign posted on the wall says we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed that's not what

[30:15] Paul had in mind but it's a cute take off on that we shall all be changed in a moment this is going to happen instantaneously in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed will have put on immortality.

[31:08] Then will come about the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? This is the way Paul is taunting death.

[31:19] He is mocking death, making fun of death. O death, where is your victory now? O grave, where is your sting? Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[31:30] Now, let's come over quickly. I'm tempted to stay there, but we must not. Let's come over to 1 Thessalonians. The passage that also deals with this.

[31:43] And you know, perhaps, maybe I'm repeating something that is already solidly known, but the passage that we have just read from 1 Corinthians, that we're going to buttress with this passage from 1 Thessalonians, teaches what we believe to be a precious truth that most, understand me, most of Christendom does not believe.

[32:13] They just don't accept it. They just do not see the validity of it. We call it the rapture, the catching away. And it is only a minority of Christendom.

[32:29] Let me put it this way. It is a minority of Protestantism that embraces what I just shared with you, and the totality of Roman Catholicism rejects it.

[32:42] Because these passages, for them, fall under the category of, well, replacement theology.

[32:56] It is part and parcel of the replacement theology thing that we'll not go into, and I think we've explained satisfactorily in the past. But this is just one more element that separates believers.

[33:07] Verse 13, We do not want you to be uninformed brethren. Well, a great many still are. About those who are asleep, those who have died and passed on, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope.

[33:26] And emphasis has been laid on this to the extent that Paul is not telling you not to grieve. Grief is very real and proper, and it would be unwise for anyone to try to avoid grief when they've got something legitimate to grieve about.

[33:45] But he is assuring us that our grief isn't like everybody else's grief. Grief among those who have no hope. For we do have hope. And the word hope, as we've translated it before, means absolute confidence.

[34:00] So we have confidence that the world does not have. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

[34:13] When will that be? We'll look at that later. For this we say to you, by the word of the Lord. Now Paul's saying, this is not my idea, folks. I didn't think this up.

[34:24] This is simply one of the abundance of revelations that Paul received over a period of time. And we don't know which or in what order he received these revelations or what the time frame was.

[34:37] All we know is, he said, an abundance of revelations, as he wrote to the Corinthians. The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

[34:56] Then, we who are alive at the time this occurs and remain here in these bodies on this earth shall be caught up.

[35:09] And I've related to you that that word caught up in the Latin, Vulgate, from which this is taken, is the word rapto.

[35:20] R-A-P-T-O. Rapto. And it means, in Latin, it means a breathtaking snatching away. Just like, just as if a great hand moved down from heaven upon an object and just goes whoosh, like that, and just grabs it and snatches it away.

[35:44] And I might have related to you about the book that Hal Lindsey wrote that most of you are familiar with that became the bestseller of the entire decade in the 1970s.

[35:56] Can't believe we're talking about the 1970s. Bestseller of the whole decade of the 1970s was called Late Great Planet Earth. and one of his chapter titles is The Great Snatch.

[36:11] That's exactly what it's going to be. Now, in the series that many of you have read or followed called Left Behind, thank you, Left Behind, there's a depiction in there of people being transferred bodily but leaving their garments behind and airplanes in a passenger seat that's got nothing but the suit that a guy was wearing before.

[36:39] I don't know how this is going to come about. I don't know that that's the case. I don't know that that's an accurate scenario but I don't know that it isn't. I don't know. The jury's still out on that. But the point is there's going to be a catching away and this is going to occur before what is referred to as the tribulation period and that is also Daniel's 70th week.

[37:05] It's a period of seven years where the world is going to be subjected to the complete jurisdiction of the Antichrist and it's going to be a time of great persecution and great onslaught and the church is going to be removed before that comes.

[37:24] Not because we deserve to be removed. Not because we're better than anybody else. But because this increment called the body of Christ which is made up of the spiritual believers in Christ made up of those who have become spiritually regenerated in Christ of which he is a spiritual head are going to be removed and taken out because we've got other business to settle that we'll be looking at later in heaven and this is going to be instantaneous and it is referred to as imminent and all that word imminent means is it can occur at any point and there is nothing that yet must be fulfilled before this catching away can take place.

[38:17] Imminent means it can happen at any moment. So there are those who disagree with this and they are referred to as a different kind of rapturous.

[38:29] There are pre-rapture which is what we embrace and we do not do so with any kind of shall I say absolute certainty because these are the kind of things about which it's very easy to be wrong and we believe that this is the right position but we believed that before about other things and have been proven to be wrong.

[38:54] So as I've often said I don't care who you are if you are a Christian you have some wrinkles in your theology in your doctrine. You don't know where they are.

[39:06] If you did you'd iron them out now but you don't know. So when we get to heaven we'll all get these things ironed out and then we'll have the complete truth. But for right now we just kind of muddle along and we put together what seems to us to be the most accurate scenario and that's what we go with and that's what we teach unless we learn better later on in which case you have to repent.

[39:31] You have to change your mind because new evidence requires that you do that and repentance is not just for unbelievers.

[39:44] You repent every time you change your mind about anything and it doesn't have anything to do with a moral issue. It's just a changed mind.

[39:55] You change your position and the reason you do is because you receive information that you didn't have before and that's what causes you to change your mind. That's not so hard. But so many and so many of the Lord's people cannot get away from the Roman Catholic concept of penance and that's not what we're talking about.

[40:16] Penance means you do something to try to atone for your own sins. You give money, you light candles, you flagellate yourself and beat yourself so your back is bloody and this is self-infliction of pain and wounds that you are suffering because of your own sin, which of course is atrocious because it suggests that the suffering of Christ was not sufficient.

[40:43] You have to add your suffering to it. It's completely ridiculous. But this is what a lot of people think. And this is brought over into Protestantism too and they think that that means that you have to make promises, you have to do this and do that.

[40:55] And it has nothing to do, it literally means change your mind. That's all. It's got nothing to do even with anything, doesn't have to have anything to do with anything spiritual or religious at all. Change your mind about anything.

[41:07] That's repentance. It means change your mind. And I cannot believe how difficult it has been for me to convey that concept to people who ought to be able to pick up on it. But I'm sure that you've got it and got it adequately.

[41:20] All right, look at this if you will. He talks back to your sheep. He says, Ike's comments that the rapture is characterized in the New Testament as a translation coming in which Christ comes for his church taking her to his father's house.

[41:39] And he's using a passage here in John 14. 3. Now, in my estimation, and we'll look at it if you want to explore it further, I don't think that's a rapture passage at all. I know that's where they've put it.

[41:52] But why do you suppose I don't think it's a rapture passage? It's because John is revealing this. And John was one of the twelve. And John did not have access to this information.

[42:03] And he wasn't supposed to. Don't think we're saying John was out of line or John was stupid. We're just saying John operated on the basis of the information he had and he didn't have this information.

[42:17] And the same is true in Romans 9 and verse 28. And maybe it would be just as well if we took a moment and looked at that. I'm sorry, I said Romans, I meant Hebrews.

[42:30] Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 28. And I would be the first to admit that there are a number of passages that sounds somewhat like the rapture because both of these involve a removal, both of these involve being gathered unto the Lord.

[42:51] But the passage here in Hebrews 9, 28 reads as follows. So Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await him.

[43:16] Alright, now I've talked long enough, I'm going to ask you, what do you think about that passage and how do you see it as opposed to the tribulation or the second coming?

[43:28] What you're thinking about it? Anybody? Yes, Carolyn? It doesn't, it just said he will appear.

[43:40] It doesn't say he touches down. So when I, I've always thought of this as being a rapture passage, but maybe it's not. Well, it is at least partially descriptive of the rapture.

[43:54] There's a similarity there. And they pointed that out in the article in the very first chapter, the very first passage beginning at the top of the page. Similarity does not mean they are referring to the same event.

[44:07] And sometimes it's easy to take it as the same event. Any other thoughts anybody has or questions? Well, it says for salvation. To me, the rapture is not about salvation, but the second coming will be about the salvation.

[44:22] Okay. As far as the, you know, doing away with the hand of Christ and saving the Jews who are... Now, what about those who eagerly await him?

[44:35] Aren't they already gone? Aren't we eagerly awaiting him? But we'll be gone.

[44:46] Who's going to be eagerly awaiting him if the church has already been raptured? So maybe this is rapture. I'm sorry? I think it refers to Israel.

[44:58] So those who are eagerly awaiting him there are Israelis. Ah. Okay. And we won't take time to go there because we don't have time.

[45:10] But I just want to refer you to a very stellar passage regarding this issue. It's in Zechariah 14. I think it's verse 12. When it speaks of Israel as the remnant, and this will be a small congregation, and by small, I mean small compared to the totality of the number of Jews, two-thirds of which will already have been eliminated.

[45:39] Think of that. We are talking millions of people. This thing called the tribulation is going to be so catastrophic worldwide, it's going to make the Holocaust look like a picnic.

[45:59] Jesus described this as tribulation such as the world has never seen before and will never see again.

[46:11] That's what this tribulation is going to be like. And among the survivors of that time will be that small remnant of Jews that I've already given you my opinion, will be sequestered in the southern regions of Jordan in what is commonly known as Petra, in the red rose city of Petra, that will accommodate a remnant of Jewish people who will be engaged in the most intense and extensive Bible study you could ever imagine while they are constantly being threatened by the Antichrist who wants to destroy them because these will be the last vestige of the Jew on earth.

[47:11] And the Antichrist is going to take up the mantle of Adolf Hitler in trying to finish off the Jewish problem.

[47:25] And these who are gathered there will be, and I hope you understand this, they will be supernaturally provided for and protected by God himself in the same way that he protected Israel when they came out of Egypt.

[47:43] And these people are going to engage in a Bible study, if you will, and I don't know to what extent the 144,000 are going to be involved.

[47:56] They may very well be part of that group because this is going to be a huge number of people. And as a result of their examination of their own scriptures, they are going to come to the ironclad conclusion that their ancestors did indeed contribute to the death of their promised Messiah.

[48:23] And Zechariah says, they will mourn. They will look upon him whom they pierced, they meaning the Jewish people whom they pierced, and they shall mourn.

[48:37] And they shall look for their Messiah, and the Antichrist is right on the verge of finishing the task, and they will be looking for and crying for God to send back the Messiah.

[48:53] Messiah. And that's exactly what's going to happen. And Christ will go forth and fight for those people as he fought in the day of old. He will meet the conflagration that is coming from the north as they have mounted in the plains of Ezdralin, the valley or the Armageddon.

[49:13] And this conflict is going to take place right outside the city of Jerusalem in the valley of Jehoshaphat, also known as the Hinnom Valley. And that's when these things I think are going to take place.

[49:27] And he will come a second time for salvation and it will be for salvation for the word salvation means deliverance. It means rescue. And he will rescue those who are who are taking refuge there in that place in Petra.

[49:45] and they will, you call it eagerly awaiting him, that's certainly what they will be doing. Other thoughts or comments? Our time is almost gone and I haven't allowed enough time for your questions.

[49:56] Brenda? You spoke of the things that need to happen before the rapture has all been done. They're all done. Well, somewhere along the line I was led to believe that the temple still had to be completed before the rapture.

[50:14] So has that happened? Well, that's a really good question. Let's address that for a few moments.

[50:25] There is a group of Jews right now, well I assume they're still active, they were active in 1990 when we were there and spent six weeks in Israel and it was incredible.

[50:40] And we had an opportunity to meet with a group of Jewish people and they were called as far as I know they still are called the Third Temple Mount Faithful.

[50:53] That's their name, that's their official name. The Third Temple Mount Faithful. The first temple was that built by Solomon. The second temple was that built by Zerubbabel.

[51:05] Nehemiah built the wall and Zerubbabel and the others had the responsibility rebuilding the temple that the Babylonians had completely destroyed. That was the second temple and then the Romans destroyed the second temple in 70 AD and it has never been rebuilt.

[51:27] And there is the conviction on the part of many that it is the Muslim mosque that sits on the same geographical location as that which the temple occupied and that they built on it.

[51:43] But it's still a dispute among scholars whether that's the actual place or not. But at any rate, this Third Temple Mount is comprised of Jewish people. I do not know that any of them were Christians.

[51:57] They were just full-fledged Jews, I guess you'd say incomplete Jews. And yet they were referred to as Orthodox and they believed very much that the Messiah is going to come and that they have already provided garments for the high priest.

[52:21] They showed us some of them and items of service for the temple, the basins and all the things that are mentioned by Moses in the Old Testament.

[52:31] They've manufactured all of those things. They have them all ready to go. They were working on items of furniture. They didn't want to talk much about the Ark of the Covenant, what was being done with that. I think that's kind of a testy issue with them, kind of a secret thing.

[52:45] And they are in anticipation of the Messiah returning. And the idea is for the rebuilding of the temple and all that involves that, it is not something that has to occur before the rapture.

[53:07] But it is something, of course, that will occur before the second coming, which is radically different. So during the first three and a half years, and this is as best as I can understand it, during the first three and a half years of the seven years of the tribulation, things aren't going to be all that bad.

[53:27] They're not going to be good by any means, but they're not going to be all that bad. And that which the Bible refers to as the great tribulation is actually the second half of the three and a half years, because what takes place is at the beginning of the seven year period, called the 70th week of Daniel, the Antichrist, who is of course not revealed to be that at all, but he will be in a position of authority that will allow him to enter into a covenant, an agreement, with the leadership of the nation of Israel, and in that covenant, Israel's security will be provided for.

[54:10] They will be guaranteed protection by the forces of the Antichrist, and my estimation is, and this is just a Wiseman opinion, that it will be during that period of time that the temple will be rebuilt, and Israel will be at peace, something that they haven't really enjoyed all that much of, and certainly aren't enjoying it now, but the Antichrist is going to give them pretty much a carte blanche to do what they want in their own land, and the item number one on their list will be rebuild that temple, and they will, during that first three and a half years, and at the end of that three and a half years, Jesus describes a time in Matthew 24, and he says, when you see the abomination of desolation, that means, that's another way of saying, the really wicked one who defiles everything, when you see him stand in the holy place, well, the temple has to be rebuilt in order for the holy place to exist.

[55:21] When you see him stand in the holy place, then that's your cue. Get out of Dodge. That's your cue. Head for the hills.

[55:32] And I think the principal place that they're going to head for is Petra. And there they will be received. And the Antichrist will reveal himself at that time to be who and what he is.

[55:47] He will go in to the holy of holies, and he will declare himself. To be deity. And then tribulation, such as the world has never seen, will ensue immediately.

[56:04] And his number one item on his agenda will be the complete elimination of Israel. And that's what he's going to set about. There are a number of things that puzzle me about this.

[56:15] And one is, I don't know why it is, with this increment of Jews probably numbering hundreds of thousands. thousands, how they are going to be sequestered there in Petra.

[56:25] And if you've ever seen pictures of this place, it is enormous. I mean, it is really, really an enormous place. And if you go in on foot, there's only one way in, and the passage is just wide enough for one or two men on horseback.

[56:41] And that's it. But, this is the space age. What's to keep them from, what's to keep them from shelling? What's to keep them from bombing?

[56:53] What's to keep, what, how are they going to be protected? I don't know. I don't know. But I heard somebody just the other day, I don't know who the gentleman was, but he was being interviewed. And he, again, talked about the threat of the EMP, the electromagnetic pulse, and how that, what ought to be, perhaps, our number one agenda item for infrastructure in the United States ought to be our electric grid, because it's in terrible shape.

[57:28] And he went on to explain how it was nothing more than than a limb, a limb falling over an electrical component in the Northeast that shut down the whole Northeast for like a day or a day and a half, something like that.

[57:46] And that's how vulnerable our electrical grid is. And it would take almost nothing to put it out of business, because so much is interrelated, and you can kill the grid here, and it will affect people three or four states away.

[58:05] And he went on to say, and I think the gentleman knew what he was talking about. He went on to say that this thing could have such an impact on this nation that nothing, electrical or electronic would function.

[58:27] You'll not be able to get gasoline, but even if you do, your car won't start anyway, because all the electrical components everywhere are simply fried.

[58:38] And he went on to relate the most disastrous scenario that you can imagine, whereby millions, tens of millions of Americans would die of starvation, you would not be able to get drinkable water, wells wouldn't work, pumps wouldn't work, nothing would work.

[58:57] If this thing is a reality, or if there is a retaliation of the electromagnetic pulse, think of the military implications, because tanks won't operate, planes won't fly, nothing.

[59:10] And you are limited to primitive warfare, and maybe that's where the horses are coming in. Think of that. How could that possibly be?

[59:22] Well, we may be in for a lot of surprises. But anyway, this temple being rebuilt is going to be key to this whole thing, and it's all part of the same scenario. And I'm sorry that our time is already gone.

[59:35] I would really encourage you to read these things, and would you do this for me? I'm sure that there are lingering out there in the minds of people as astute as you are in the scriptures.

[59:47] scriptures. And if you would be so kind, while this object is kind of germinating in your mind, if you would write down, put down on paper, any questions or observations that you want to make, and let's have them next week, and we'll pull them and see what we come up with.

[60:05] I know there's just got to be a ton of good questions out there, and we want to give attention to them. So I would appreciate very much if you would do that, and it would help me immensely.

[60:16] And in the meanwhile, perhaps one of the greatest criticisms that is labeled against our great position is addressed in this little book. And the criticism is, you people make too much of Paul.

[60:31] Paul, I hope you'll read this. It's very, very well written and thoroughly scriptural. I think you'll enjoy it. Yes. You said next week.

[60:41] When do you mean? What did I say? Did I say next week? Okay. Well, I just wanted to see if you were really listening. She was. You weren't, but she was. Okay.

[60:52] What we're talking about is the last Thursday of the month of June. I don't even know what that is, but there's only one of them, so we'll meet here again, and you bring your questions, and if anybody wants to give me questions before that time so we can look at more, that's fine, too.

[61:07]  I'd appreciate that. Thank you so much, and thanks again, Chris, for doing what you did for us this morning. We appreciate it.