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Series Code: PU
Program Code: PU000002S
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00:01 What do the mysterious images of Daniel and Revelation mean? When
00:07 will the anti-Christ appear and make his final moves. How can I 00:13 be ready for final events of earth's history. You'll be 00:17 amazed and encouraged by what the Bible reveals. Join us as 00:21 Pastor Brian McMahon leads out in Prophecy Unsealed. 00:30 Welcome again everyone. Thank you for joining us here today. 00:32 Our subject for tonight is A Thief in the Night. The Federal 00:37 Bureau of Engraving holds seminars a number of times every 00:41 year for a specific purpose. They want to help people 00:44 identify counterfeit money. The vast majority of counterfeit 00:48 American money actually exists outside of the United States. 00:51 But the purpose of the seminar is to enable bank tellers, law 00:54 enforcement officials and other professionals how to discern or 00:58 detect what counterfeit money looks like. But here's the 01:01 interesting thing. For however long the seminar goes they focus 01:05 primarily on the genuine money. Because they know if they really 01:08 understand what genuine money looks like and feels like and 01:11 maybe even smells like. If anything other than the genuine 01:14 comes along they would instantly be able to recognize it as a 01:18 fake or a counterfeit. Now that very principle is helping us with 01:23 our subject tonight. There are a lot of false ideas about the 01:28 second coming. So tonight we're going to study primarily what 01:33 the genuine second coming is all about. And therefore if anything 01:37 other than that is before us we're going to know it to be a 01:40 counterfeit. Most often when people talk about the second 01:42 coming today they use the word rapture. Now I must tell right 01:45 off the bat, the Bible doesn't use the word rapture. It's 01:48 similar to the word millennium. The principle is in the Bible 01:52 but the word itself is not in the Bible. Long ago in heaven 01:57 highest ranking angel known as Lucifer who later became known 02:01 as Satan wanted to try and rule as only God can rule. He wanted 02:04 to be like God and reign over others. He wouldn't submit to 02:07 God's authority anymore. Now there can only be one God and so 02:11 war broke out in heaven and the angels that joined him in that 02:14 rebellion were cast out of heaven along with Lucifer. 02:17 Unfortunately that rebellion spread down here on earth. When 02:21 Lucifer came to Eve in the form of a serpent he fooled her into 02:26 thinking that she could obey her own authority and not God's 02:30 anymore. And so he offers a counterfeit happiness. Satan 02:35 offers us a counterfeit salvation, a counterfeit worship 02:38 and counterfeit Messiahs. Everything that God has ever 02:42 created Satan tries to counterfeit it for us. But his 02:45 masterpiece counterfeit lies still ahead when Satan tries to 02:49 duplicate or fool us on the second coming of Jesus. He will 02:54 masquerade as Jesus himself before the Lord's true return. 02:57 And Jesus realized that when he came to this earth and therefore 03:00 when his disciples asked him Lord what will be the sign of 03:03 thy coming and the end of the world the first thing Jesus said 03:06 was Take heed that no man deceive you. Now that's good 03:09 advice for us today friends. The modern day paraphrase of that 03:13 would be let's be sure that no man fools us. Let's be sure that 03:17 what we believe comes right from the word of God. In John 03:22 chapter 14 and verse 1 we read these words: Let not your heart 03:24 be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my 03:28 Father's house are many mansions If it were not so, I would have 03:31 told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and 03:34 prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto 03:37 myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. Did you know 03:42 friends that in over 1500 places in the Bible it speaks about the 03:45 second coming of Jesus. In fact, it is said that on average one 03:48 out of every 25 verses in the New Testament also speaks about 03:52 the great return of Jesus making it therefore one of the most 03:56 important topics we could ever study in the Bible. Maybe you 03:59 came in here discouraged tonight I want you to know that God 04:02 loves you very much and not only did he send his Son to die for 04:05 you but to give us a promise that he's coming back for us. 04:07 That's the blessed hope that we hold as Christians. So if you 04:12 look at this passage friends, it doesn't say that Jesus is going 04:15 to go up and make a mansion for us and have us join him up there 04:19 He's saying no, he will return and he will come and get us here 04:23 Now keep that in mind as we go into this topic. Two thousand 04:27 years ago the vast majority of people in Jesus' day had access 04:32 to the same Old Testament scriptures that we have access 04:36 to tonight and in those scriptures there's a lot of 04:41 information about the Messiah. There's information about when 04:43 the Messiah would come and where the Messiah would come, 04:46 and what work Messiah would do when he came and yet with all of 04:49 that information they missed recognizing in Jesus the Christ 04:53 or the Savior of the world. Now how could they miss it? There 04:57 are two basic answers to that question friends. Number 1: The 05:01 religious people of the day the average person of the day was 05:04 not reading the scriptures for themself. They were relying on 05:08 the religious leadership to tell them what the scriptures said. 05:11 So there's a great danger there. And then number 2: The religious 05:15 leadership had taken certain texts out of their proper 05:17 context and they developed a certain theory or belief that 05:21 basically went like this. They said when the Messiah comes he's 05:24 going to come as a great conquering king. He's going to 05:26 do away with those hated Romans that are ruling over us. 05:29 Israel's going to be set free and everything's going to be 05:31 wonderful. Now it sounded good but the problem was it wasn't 05:35 according to scripture. They had taken certain texts out of 05:38 their proper context and had made a theory that fit their own 05:41 pet belief. When they expected the Messiah to come as a great 05:46 conquering king or as a rod of iron with warlike authority. He 05:49 came as what? A sacrificial Lamb When they wanted to be free 05:52 from the Romans, he came to set them free from their sins. Satan 05:57 was so successful at deceiving the people in Jesus' day because 06:00 they weren't reading the scriptures for themself. And so 06:04 when a false theory is brought in by the religious leadership 06:07 the people accepted it. Jesus said unto them at the time, You 06:10 do ere not knowing the scriptures or the power of God. 06:14 Let's be sure we get our teaching right from the Bible 06:16 tonight. Folks that's why I say over and over, I don't want you 06:19 to believe it because I say it. I want you to believe it because 06:22 the Bible teaches it. We're going to get a lot of verses 06:24 tonight. Revelation chapter 12 says the devil has great anger 06:29 because he knows that he has but a short time. Now think about it 06:32 with me friends. If the devil tried so hard to get people to 06:35 be deceived about the first coming of Jesus, don't you think 06:38 he's going to try and try again to get people to be deceived 06:41 about the second coming of Jesus Why would he attempt it so hard? 06:45 Because every time there is falsehood it leads people away 06:49 from Jesus. When it's truth it leads us toward Jesus. So he 06:53 wants to get us to believe something that is not biblical. 06:56 So Jesus gave us a very solemn warning here about his second 06:59 coming. We find it in Matthew chapter 24 and in verse 24. 07:04 Here's what the Bible says: For there shall arise false Christs, 07:08 and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; 07:11 insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the 07:14 very elect. So we know there's danger here don't we, of the 07:17 very elect being deceived, and then Jesus spells out two things 07:20 to be careful and to watch out for. He says in verse 25: Behold 07:24 I have told you before. What that means is I'm telling you 07:27 ahead of time so you do not have to be deceived by these 07:31 falsehoods. And then in verse Wherefore if they shall say 07:35 unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: now that's 07:41 the first great deception that's going to be in the world, that 07:44 the Messiah is already here, you can go out and see him. That 07:46 somehow he is walking the earth and he has already come. What 07:50 if you had a spouse that was very ill and even threatening 07:54 death and you heard that this person called the Messiah was 07:57 working miracles. Then would you be tempted to go out? There are 08:00 many, many people that have said that they were the Messiah. Some 08:03 hit the news and maybe become more famous. This one of course 08:05 was from the Heaven's Gate cult back in 1997. Led many people to 08:10 their death. Revelation 16 and verse 14 says this to us: For 08:13 they are the spirits of devils, working (what folks?) miracles, 08:18 which go forth unto the king of the earth and of the whole world 08:21 So someone will say well if they are working miracles I want to 08:24 go because the devil can't work miracles. Don't be deceived 08:25 friends. The devils can work certain kinds of miracles. Now 08:29 of course, God works miracles too doesn't he? But certain kind 08:31 of counterfeit miracles are achievable through the demonic 08:36 spirits and of course they deceive. Jesus said when they're 08:39 talking about my coming and they say I'm coming again and they 08:43 say there's a secrecy aspect to it he's saying don't you believe 08:46 it. Now are you listening, friends? One deception is for 08:49 those outside of the Christian church and the devil has another 08:53 deception for those inside the Christian church. And of course 08:55 Jesus, being divine, he knew what to alert us to didn't he? 08:59 And so two great deceptions. Now that tells us something, 09:01 Jesus was warning his disciples Let me ask you, friends, are 09:07 there people out there today that are teaching that there's 09:09 something kind of secrecy involved in the second coming. 09:10 There are. Maybe you have even believed it. Maybe you have 09:14 taught it but what I want you to see tonight is what the Bible 09:17 actually says. What will prevent the righteous from being 09:20 deceived? The Bible gives clear information about the second 09:24 coming event and just as people studied genuine money so they 09:27 know what the counterfeit was, we're going to study the genuine 09:29 second coming right now. Let's go to our first text about how 09:35 Jesus is going to come by going to Acts chapter 1. Jesus has 09:36 risen from the grave. He spent some time with his disciples and 09:40 now he's going to leave them and ascend back to heaven and we 09:42 pick it up in Acts 1 and verse 9 And here it says: And when he 09:46 had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; 09:48 and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they 09:53 looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men 09:56 stood by them in white apparel; Now these are actually angels 10:00 friends the Bible speaks about them as men but really they are 10:03 angels who have held back to give these words to the 10:06 disciples. Which also said, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye 10:10 gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from 10:14 you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen 10:18 him go into heaven. So notice the phraseology here friends. It 10:21 says as they beheld him he was taken up out of their sight. 10:23 This was an actual real event. Now why is that so important? 10:28 Because there are people today that will tell you that the 10:32 second coming is not an actual real event but it's just a 10:36 spiritual event where Jesus manifested himself around the 10:39 world in a symbolic way and it happened back in 1914 and you 10:43 know it's a fairly large group of people but that's what they 10:45 tell you, folks, the creation of this world was an actual literal 10:50 event and Jesus' coming born in Bethlehem was an actually literal 10:54 event and Jesus' second coming is going to be an actual literal 10:58 event. So it's literal and it's personal. The Bible says this 11:03 same Jesus, not a different Jesus, aren't you glad for that? 11:05 Aren't you glad it's the same Jesus that's going to be coming 11:07 back for us? I am. More than just a warm loving feeling in 11:11 the heart. Jesus' coming is personal, he is going to return 11:14 to this earth. And so our third fact is number 3, Jesus' coming 11:20 is visible. The Bible teaches it's not only going to be 11:23 literal but it's going to be visible. Every person is going 11:25 be able to see it take place. Let's go here to Revelation 11:29 chapter 1 and verse 7. It says: Behold, he comes with clouds; 11:32 and every eye shall see him. Why is it friends that you do not 11:36 have to go out into the desert? Because every eye is going to 11:39 see him and you're going to know And they also which pierced him: 11:42 and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even 11:44 so, Amen. So you can see that there's going to be the 11:47 righteous and the wicked on the earth when Jesus comes. So what 11:52 do we know? We know he's going to come with the clouds. We know 11:55 everyone is going to see him. Let's get some more verses on 11:58 that, shall we. So we're going to go to Matthew 24 and verse 12:01 30 here. And it says: And then shall appear the sign of the Son 12:04 of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth 12:07 mourn (that's the wicked) and they shall see the Son of man 12:10 coming in the clouds of heaven with power, and what? Great 12:14 glory. He's not going to say we can see him in one place and not 12:17 see him in another place when it comes to the second coming. 12:21 2 Thessalonians 1 and verse 7: And to you who are troubled 12:24 rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from 12:27 heaven with his mighty angels... It is a revealing event, it's 12:30 never a concealing event when it comes to the second coming. 12:33 It goes on: In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that 12:37 know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus 12:40 Christ:...Folks the devil is a master counterfeiter but here's 12:45 something he cannot counterfeit, which is the second coming of 12:47 Jesus which is why he has to come up with these alternate 12:49 viewpoints that one you can go out and see the Messiah or two 12:53 the secrecy aspect to it. Certainly, Satan could come as a 12:58 dazzling being in one of the major cities of the earth, New 13:01 York, Los Angeles, Chicago or Tokyo or one of these cities but 13:04 he can't manifest himself all over the world in a way that 13:06 every eye could see him. 2 Corinthians 11 verse 14 says: 13:10 And no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of 13:14 light. So Satan will have the ability to come as a dazzling 13:18 being and people without the information that we're studying 13:20 tonight they're going to be fooled by that. We know he's 13:22 coming visibly and our next fact is he's coming audibly which 13:26 means you're going to be able to hear it take place. That fact 13:29 is found in our very next verse, verse 31 of Matthew 24. It says: 13:34 and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet 13:37 remember that, and they shall gather together his elect from 13:40 the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. The four 13:44 winds friends simply means the north, the south, the east, the 13:46 west, from all over the world will God gather in his church. 13:50 Jesus came quietly once didn't he? Other than some shepherds 13:54 watching over their flock at night and some Wiseman from the 13:57 east that came to see the birth of the Messiah, the world missed 14:01 it friends, but the second coming he's coming in glory and 14:03 the world will not miss it. He's going to come as lightening from 14:07 one end of the earth to the other in great glory. Let's go 14:10 to now 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and in verse 15. For this we 14:15 say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive 14:17 and remains unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent (that 14:20 word prevent means precede) them which are asleep. Now the word 14:23 coming there is the word the Parousia and you don't have to 14:26 be a Greek student but there are sometimes when I'm going to 14:29 bring out an original word to help you understand a major 14:33 point and that's going to be tonight. So this word coming 14:36 that we see in the English is the word the Parousia in the 14:40 Greek. You're going to see it again tonight. So verse 16: For 14:44 the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with 14:47 the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and dead 14:49 in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain 14:52 shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the 14:55 Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Folks, 15:00 we're meeting him in the air. We're not meeting him in secret. 15:05 We're not meeting him in the desert, we're not even meeting 15:07 him in the streets of this city. We're meeting Jesus where? In 15:12 the air. So what a glorious truth. I know we just read about 15:15 the gathering up of the church, the gathering of the redeemed, 15:18 but notice it happens when one the archangel shouts. When two 15:21 the trumpet blows, three the dead in Christ are rising. Four, 15:25 we're caught up to meet the Lord in the air. That is simple 15:27 glorious truth friends, absolutely beautiful. Now the 15:32 word voice here where it says the voice of the archangel 15:34 That word voice in the original Greek is the word phone. It's 15:37 where we get our English word the telephone from. Now there 15:41 are many that would teach you that that voice is silent, that 15:43 you're not going to be able to hear it. Now voices are made and 15:46 phones are made to communicate sound aren't they? So the idea 15:49 that this voice is silent simply doesn't make any sense. In fact, 15:53 this whole passage has been called the noisiest passage in 15:57 all of the Bible. The King James also uses the word shout and 16:00 other Bibles use the word loud command. The Bible tells us that 16:04 the shouting is going on, the command is going on, the 16:08 instruments are playing. Now folks the trumpet which is 16:11 talked about here, a trumpet is noisy, let's face it. A trumpet 16:15 is probably got the most penetrating of all the sounds of 16:18 the musical instruments. I mean when a trumpet sounds you know 16:21 it, isn't that right? And so when it says the trumpet there's 16:25 no question friends that it is going to be a sound that is 16:29 heard. In fact in 1 Corinthians 15 Paul says, and we're going to 16:34 look at this on a night to come, Paul says the trumpet shall 16:38 sound. So for people to say that this passage is secret or this 16:46 passage is silent it not only goes against the Bible, it goes 16:49 against common sense. Truth is logical. If it doesn't make 16:53 sense it probably is not at all true. There's going to be a 16:57 worldwide resurrection of the faithful from every land, from 17:03 every generation. Not only will the living hear his voice when 17:06 he comes but the dead will hear his voice, Praise the Lord. If 17:10 someone claims to be Christ take them out to a local grave yard 17:14 show them how all of those graves are still sealed shut 17:16 and give them a reality check. Amen? The Bible says that when 17:19 Jesus comes the dead in Christ will rise. Satan could never 17:25 duplicate that. Satan can trick, he can deceive, he can 17:29 impersonate but he cannot bring life. Only God can bring life. 17:33 So you might ask yourself this question-How could there be a 17:36 worldwide resurrection if the dead are already in heaven? 17:40 Right? Many religious teacher teach that. So how are they 17:44 going to rise if they're already in heaven? Are they going to 17:46 rise down? Are they going to rise up? What direction are they 17:48 going to come from? We know Jesus is coming personally, he's 17:51 coming visibly, he's coming audibly and there's going to be 17:55 a resurrection and the next fact is this: That when Jesus comes 17:58 he's going to come gloriously. Our text for that is Psalm 50 18:02 and verse 3. And here is says: Our God shall come, and shall 18:07 not keep silence: it says, a fire shall devour before him, 18:10 and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. Another verse 18:14 here from 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 8: And then shall that 18:17 Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the 18:21 spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of 18:25 his coming. Folks when Jesus came the first time he veiled 18:27 his glory so he could live among men and we would not be 18:30 destroyed. The second time it's glory unveiled. A wicked person 18:33 whose sins are not covered by the blood of Jesus cannot stand 18:36 in the presence of an almighty God. And so when Jesus comes 18:42 it says that the wicked will be destroyed with the brightness of 18:44 his coming. Matthew 25 verse 31 says this to us: When the Son of 18:48 man shall come in his glory, and how many of the holy angels? 18:53 All the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the 18:57 throne of his glory. The Bible tells us Jesus is going to come 19:00 in all his glory and the glory of all the angels. In Revelation 19:04 5 and verse 11 it says there are 10 thousand times 10 thousand 19:08 and thousands and thousands of angels. Now multiply that out, 19:12 that means there's over a 100 million angels. The Bible tells 19:15 us that when Jesus resurrected from the grave, an angel came 19:18 from heaven with so much glory that the Roman soldiers fell 19:21 over like dead men. They could not stand in the presence of 19:24 one holy angel. There's another story in the Bible in 2 Kings 19:28 chapter 19 where God sent an angel from heaven and in one 19:32 night a 185,000 wicked Assyrian soldiers were slain. Now folks 19:38 think about it with me. If one angel had that much power and 19:42 that much glory what is it going to be like when Jesus returns 19:46 with over 100 million of them. I have read that there's going 19:49 be a secret coming or a secret rapture. Have you ever heard 19:53 that? When Jesus comes the archangel is shouting, the 19:57 trumpet is blowing. It says the dead in Christ are rising and 20:00 we're caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Does that sound 20:03 secret? Now people will say doesn't the Bible say that we're 20:07 changed in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Yes it does 20:10 mention that 1 Corinthians chapter 15: We're going to be 20:11 looking at that text as well. But that means our change from 20:16 the mortal body to the immortal body, from the corruptible body 20:19 to the incorruptible body. That change will occur in a moment 20:22 in the twinkling of an eye but not the overall second coming. 20:24 Folks, there's an old saying: If the plain sense makes good sense 20:28 then seek no other sense lest you follow nonsense. It is not 20:33 good sense to look at these passages and think that somehow 20:36 all of that is going to happen secretly, silently, and invisibly 20:40 Now let me remind you of something right? Remember the 20:43 word rapture is not found in the Bible. It simply means to be 20:47 carried away, but a secret, silent, invisible carrying away 20:51 is absolutely, positively nowhere found in the Bible. 20:56 You remember what Jesus said? If they say he's in the secret 21:00 chambers, believe it what? Not. English evolves like all 21:04 languages do and after a while they just dropped off the word 21:06 secret and they just started calling it the rapture. So when 21:09 someone uses the word rapture you have to ask them, what do 21:12 you mean by that? What is the teaching that you use behind 21:15 that word. So let's discuss this tonight because the idea of a 21:19 secret rapture theory is that Jesus is going to come invisibly 21:23 and silently take his church off the earth. Then there's going to 21:27 be seven more years of tribulation and then Jesus will 21:29 come in power and glory and then the millennium will follow. Now 21:33 again folks just because something is taught doesn't mean 21:35 that it's true. If a billion people believe a lie, it's still 21:39 a lie. Jesus warned us to make sure that no man deceives us 21:43 and it's especially important when it come to the second 21:46 coming of Jesus. People are believing things and even 21:49 teaching things that are just nothing more than pleasing 21:53 theories that come from religious leaders and they are 21:55 not found anywhere in the Bible. And many fine Christians believe 21:59 these theories and they find comfort in the fact that many 22:02 other people believe it so they say well their safe. But folks 22:05 again if a billion people believe a lie it's still a lie 22:08 and the sad things seems to be that so many people want to 22:11 believe it regardless of what the Bible has to say. And folks 22:14 if you believed any other way friend of mine, I'm not trying 22:17 to anger you but I'm simply trying to share with you what 22:20 the truth is when it comes to this subject. It's not hard to 22:25 learn truth from the Bible but what can be hard is to unlearn 22:28 error that we've been brought up with and programmed with. So, 22:32 how did this false theory of a secret silent rapture come into 22:38 the church? There are several men that are primarily 22:41 responsible for this. One was a man named John Nelson Darby. 22:46 He had an associate named Cyrus Ingerson Scofield and Darby 22:51 began to preach this theory and then his minister, his associate 22:54 Scofield began to take of Darby's words, write them into 22:56 certain notes that became published along with the Bible 22:58 in a very famous Scofield Reference Bible. But more 23:03 recently in the last 50 years there was a man who authored a 23:04 book entitle The Late Great Planet Earth which really 23:07 brought this idea into modern day Christianity popularized it 23:14 Many people read this book. It sold by the millions and people 23:15 often have said, that was my first Bible. I read The Late 23:18 Great Planet Earth and now I knew what was going to go on. 23:20 So they used a novel or a man's theory to try to understand 23:26 scripture. Since that book was written, many others have been 23:28 written. Here's one: 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could Be in 1988 23:31 We know that didn't happen. Are you Ready for the Rapture? Jesus 23:33 is coming on October 28, 1992. All these falsehoods came in. 23:37 And then here's one from 1994, same thing, predicting the day. 23:41 Same man put up billboards all across America. I found these 23:45 when I was driving in the year 2011. Judgment Day May 21. 23:49 When it didn't happen then he predicted October. But the Left 23:53 Behind Series came on and then they made a movie of course of 23:57 it and that really sent this theory into orbit. It was 24:01 promoted in Christian book stores as the great biblical 24:04 epic of Revelation. And that title can easily mislead sincere 24:10 Christians into thinking that those novels are an accurate 24:14 representations of the events of Revelation. But folks those 24:19 novels are in the fiction section of the book store. 24:22 What section did I say? The fiction section. In other words, 24:26 it is not true. The problem with the Left Behind Series they talk 24:31 about fiction as if it was true and because they use certain 24:34 Bible terminology many innocent sincere Christians think that 24:39 this is really what the Bible has to say. So of course movies 24:43 have been made on it and here's one Left Behind The Movie. This 24:45 was the first one. Then another one came along just recently. 24:48 They remade it, Nicholas Cage. These movies only continue to 24:51 promote this fallacious teaching. The Late Great Planet Earth book 24:55 now keep in mind I am not judging any author's personal 24:59 walk with Jesus or their experience with the Lord. We're 25:03 only judging truth versus error here. And he says in this book 25:07 Jesus said that this, meaning Israel becoming a nation in 1948 25:10 would indicate that He was "at the door," ready to return. Then 25:14 He said, "Truly I say unto you, this generation will not pass 25:17 away till all these things take place." What generation? 25:21 Obviously, in context, the generation that would see the 25:23 signs-chief among them the rebirth of Israel. A generation 25:26 in the Bible is like forty years If this is the correct deduction 25:29 then within forty years or so of 1948, all these things could 25:33 take place. Many scholars who have studied the Bible prophecy 25:35 all their lives believe that this is so." Folks you know that 25:40 the predictions of the Late Great Planet Earth have 25:44 completely flopped. I think God is trying to say something to 25:48 all of us Christians and that is let's get our eyes off of man's 25:52 opinion. Let's go back to the Bible. Now friends I believe 25:56 that God has allowed these things to happen for a reason. 25:59 And that is, let's get our eyes off of man's opinion. Let's get 26:03 it back on the Bible. Let's use the Bible as our final analysis 26:07 for truth and let's stop believing in these predictions 26:11 of people that have no idea of what the scriptures really say. 26:14 Let's go back to the Bible. Let's make sure that the word of 26:18 God is giving us our information And may I say friends that any 26:21 sincere-hearted Christian, man or woman, with the Bible in 26:25 their hand could kneel down in all humanity and say Dear God, 26:29 show me the truth of this subject and in one hour you 26:32 could know it for yourself. So what happens when your 26:34 prophecies fail a second time? You write another book. One of 26:39 the authors of The Left Behind Series named Tim LaHaye, in this 26:44 book No Fear of the Storm he says this: "One objection to the 26:48 pre-tribulation rapture is that no one passage of scripture 26:51 teaches the two aspects of His Second Coming separated by the 26:54 tribulation." Also in the book he says: "No single verse 26:57 specifically states 'Christ will come before the tribulation.'" 27:01 Now this is a very candid admission. Here's a man that 27:03 teaches there's two aspects and he teaches Christ will come 27:07 before the tribulation but he says no single verse teaches it. 27:10 Wow! Time Magazine the Left Behind books were really big. 27:14 They wrote their own article, "The End: How it Got That Way" 27:17 How did we get with this prominent understanding of the 27:19 Christian churches today? Not all of them, but many of them. 27:21 They say: "The man with the plan was an Anglican priest turned 27:26 traveling evangelical preacher named John Nelson Darby...now 27:28 remember that name, we're going to see it several times...who 27:31 arrived in the United States in 1862 for the first of seven 27:34 visits, bearing a radical new eschatology. Eschatology means 27:39 the study of end-time events. Most theologians understood it, 27:43 speaking of the rapture, as part of the resurrection at time's 27:45 very end. Darby repositioned it at the apocalypse's very 27:50 beginning, a small shift with large implications.(The Scofield 27:56 Bible can still be found in churches across the country.) 27:57 "Darby and minister Cyrus Scofield, who would expand the 28:01 evangelist's idea in the vastly influential Scofield Reference 28:04 Bible..." So they're simply saying that Scofield took 28:07 Darby's, he wrote it as notes which were published along with 28:13 scripture and people read it and began to read the Bible and the 28:16 Scofield notes and began to think that what the notes were 28:18 just as inspired as what the Bible said and they just took it 28:22 as truth, and nothing could be further from the truth. Now 28:25 Newsweek did their own article two years later, 2004, and 28:28 notice what they had to say. The Title is "Visionaries: Changing 28:31 the Forecast" meaning that they changed what was commonly 28:35 understood about the second coming. Speaking of John Nelson 28:38 Darby: It said: the English evangelist arrived in America 28:40 and began preaching his own brand of End Times prophecy... 28:44 Darby's interpretations-such as the rapture-were disseminated 28:47 through Bible conferences and later by the influential 28:50 Scofield Reference Bible." Now they said "His (meaning the 28:54 co-author of Tim LaHaye's, Jerry Jenkins) his favorite novelist is 28:57 Stephen King, whom some evangelicals refuse to read 29:00 because of his demonic supernaturalism." And I would 29:03 refuse to read it too and I hope you refuse to read it. If I was 29:06 going to be writing on Christian themes, the last thing I'd want 29:09 to do is to be feeding on Stephen King's horror movies for 29:12 inspiration, right? Well I wouldn't want to go near it. 29:16 They go on. "The other principal critique comes from some of 29:20 Jenkin's and LaHaye's fellow Christians, who find the books 29:23 more interested in God's wrath than God's love-as well as 29:26 scripturally questionable." 29:29 You know what another way of saying scripturally questionable 29:30 is. It doesn't go by the Bible. "It's pulp fiction, based on a 29:36 particular reading of the Bible," says Randall Balmer, 29:39 chair of the religion department at Barnard College."...According 29:41 to Tyndale's research, more Jews agnostics and atheists read the 29:45 series than mainline Protestants and back in 2000 even the 29:49 president of the Lutheran church's conservative Missouri 29:52 Synod denounced the "Left Behind" series as "an unbiblical 29:56 flight of fancy." It goes on. He even stands up for the Harry 30:00 Potter books, which much of the evangelical world-including 30:03 LaHaye-calls propaganda for black magic." Again if you're 30:09 going to be writing on Christian themes and saying this is what 30:12 the Bible says I wouldn't be wanting to read Harry Potter 30:14 which is sorcery. Now here's an article that came out from CNN 30:18 It says, "Can you speak Christian?" Each religion and 30:23 even each church has their own language. But they go on and 30:25 they say "...People who speak Christian aren't just mangling 30:28 religious terminology, he says, They're also inventing 30:31 counterfeit Christian terms such as 'the rapture' as if they were 30:34 a part of essential church teaching. The rapture, a phrase 30:38 used to describe the sudden transport of true Christians to 30:41 heaven while the rest of humanity is left behind (That's 30:44 where you get the term left behind from) to suffer, actually 30:47 contradicts historic Christian teaching, Borg says. The rapture 30:52 is a recent invention." Stop right there. The rapture is what 30:56 friends? It is a recent invention. Keep that in mind. 30:59 It goes on: "Nobody had thought of what is now known as the 31:02 Rapture until about 1850," says Borg, canon theologian at 31:04 Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon...And when 31:09 Christians forget what their faith means, they get duped by 31:11 trendy terms such as the rapture that have little to do with 31:14 historical Christianity, he says The rapture has become an 31:17 accepted part of the Christian vocabulary with the publication 31:20 of the mega-selling "Left Behind" novels and a heavily publicized 31:23 prediction earlier this year by a Christian radio broadcaster 31:26 that the rapture would occur in May. But the notion that 31:30 Christians will abandon the earth to meet Jesus in the 31:31 clouds while others are left behind to suffer is not 31:35 traditional Christian teaching, Borg says. He says it was first 31:39 proclaimed by John Nelson Darby, a 19th century British 31:43 evangelist, who thought of it after reading a New Testament 31:45 passage in the first book of Thessalonians that described 31:50 true believers being "caught up in the clouds together" with 31:52 Jesus" Now again, Here's one from CNN. Here it says even 31:57 Jesus wouldn't buy 'the rapture' Quite a title isn't it? It says: 32:01 "...The famous 'Left Behind' series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry 32:03 B. Jenkins was already out there It consisted of 16 best-selling 32:06 novels on the same premise, and it's about to come to the big 32:09 screen again, in a film starring Nicholas Cage. But what about 32:13 the theology behind this industry? The rapture notion 32:17 goes like this: Jesus is coming back, and when he does, he will 32:20 first return before a time of so-called tribulation begins, 32:24 calling up into the clouds with him those who are 'saved.' 32:26 Before John Nelson Darby imagined this scenario in the 32:29 clouds, no Christian had ever heard of the rapture. The idea 32:33 was popularized by Cyrus I Scofield, an American minister 32:38 published a famous reference Bible in 1908, one that 32:41 developed the idea of an elaborate series of final 32:44 periods in history known as dispensations...It's a problem, 32:47 however, for rapture-minded Christians that the word 32:49 "rapture" doesn't appear anywhere in the Bible, unless 32:51 you're willing to think in broadly metaphorical terms... 32:54 Yet it's amazing how scriptures get misused, and relatively new 32:59 theological ideas-such as the rapture-get deeply embedded 33:03 in certain circles. The rapture is really a plot device for 33:08 popular entertainment and a bizarre theological teaching 33:11 in fundamentalist circles, where it functions in a variety of 33:14 ways. But it's bad theology,(bad theology means it doesn't go 33:18 by the Bible) and Jesus himself would have been astonished to 33:21 learn that thousands of years after him there were such 33:24 notions afloat." Wow. In 2 Thessalonians 1 and verse 9 33:29 we read this: Who shall be punished with everlasting 33:31 destruction from the presence of the Lord. (The word presence is 33:34 the Parousia again. You'll see why that's important) and from 33:37 the glory of his power. Oswald Smith wrote: Tribulation or 33:40 Rapture-Which? He says I have been taught that the Greek word 33:43 'Parousia' always referred to the rapture and that other words 33:47 were used for the coming of Christ in glory...but I found 33:49 that this is not true...We might go through all the writers of 33:52 the New Testament and we would fail to discover any indication 33:56 of the so-called 'two stages' of our Lord's coming...That theory 34:00 had to be invented by man. Search and see. There is no 34:05 verse in the Bible that even mentions it." Wow. Quite the 34:09 condemnation. Now I have found that when it comes to talking 34:13 with people that believe the rapture there are always two 34:17 verses or two passages that they bring up. So we're going to take 34:21 those two passages now. What about Christ's coming as a thief 34:24 This whole secret rapture theory they talk about it over and over 34:28 Jesus says he's coming as a thief in the night. So have you 34:32 every heard that? Have you ever wondered what that passage 34:34 really means. You know why I think that most people that 34:36 quote that people don't even know where it is in the Bible. 34:39 Because if they knew where it was in the Bible they would know 34:43 that when they read it in context totally contradicts what 34:46 they're saying about that passage. So let's go look it up 34:48 For ourselves today. What about Christ's coming as a thief? When 34:51 Christ says he's coming as a thief, he's not talking about how 34:56 he comes, he's talking about when he comes. He's saying his 35:00 coming is going to be unexpected It's a surprise to those that 35:03 are unprepared for his coming. The fact is that Jesus himself 35:07 clearly explained what it means for his coming as a thief. Let's 35:11 go to Matthew chapter 24 and verse 42. It says: Watch 35:16 therefore: for you now not what hour your Lord does come. But 35:20 know this, that if the good man of the house had known what 35:22 watch the thief would come, he would have watched. He would not 35:24 have suffered his house to be (suffered-that means allowed) 35:28 broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as 35:32 you think not the Son of man comes. Now here it is folks. 35:36 So plain and so simple we cannot miss it. If a thief came to your 35:40 home he would want to come when you're not ready for him, isn't 35:43 that right? But he won't come necessarily secretly, silently 35:47 and invisibly. Sometimes thieves do their work with great 35:50 violence. Sometimes they do their work with great noise. 35:52 But if you want to get a really good understanding here it is in 35:56 2 Peter 3 verse 10. Here's how many pastors read this passage. 36:00 They'll say: But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the 36:05 night; and then they'll turn to their church and they'll say 36:08 see Jesus is coming secretly, silently and invisible and he's 36:11 going to snatch all these people out of here. Now folks it 36:13 doesn't say that. They don't keep reading. They cut off the 36:17 passage and they don't read the latter part of the verse because 36:19 what the latter part of the verse says contradicts what they 36:21 say about the first part of the verse. So we're going to keep 36:24 reading here. It says: the day of the Lord will come as a thief 36:27 in the night; in the which the heavens (that's the atmospheric 36:30 heaven) shall pass away with a great what folks? Noise. Yes. 36:35 So how can the coming as a thief be secretly and silent, how can 36:41 the coming of thief be secret, silent and invisible when the 36:44 heavens are passing away with a great noise? Obviously, that's 36:47 why they don't read the last half of the text. What Jesus is 36:52 saying here when he says he's coming as a thief in the night 36:54 is he's coming to the wicked as a great surprise. But it says 36:58 nothing here about it being secret but he does emphasize be 37:01 ready. Now the thief in the night illustration is used five 37:05 times. It's used in Matthew 24, it's used in 1 Thessalonians 37:08 chapter 5, it's used in 2 Peter chapter 3, Revelation 3:3, 37:13 and Revelation 16:15 and in every case you should ask 37:16 yourself what is the context of this? What are these verses 37:20 talking about both before and afterward? So let's go take a 37:24 look at another one here in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and 37:30 verse 1. I'm going to ask you to follow along with me closely on 37:34 this. Many times it is said that Jesus is coming as a thief in 37:38 the night for his church. Well let's read this passage together 37:42 and we'll as ourself the question who does Jesus come as 37:46 a thief in the night too? We start in verse 1. It says: But 37:50 of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that 37:53 I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of 37:55 the Lord shall come as a thief in the night. (There's the 37:58 expression) For when they shall say, (That's the wicked) Peace 38:01 and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, as 38:07 travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 38:09 Notice folks, it doesn't say seven more years of probation 38:12 comes upon them, which is what they teach. It says sudden 38:16 destruction comes upon them and then he says in verse 4: But ye, 38:20 brethren are not in darkness, (Now who's he talking to? He's 38:23 talking to the church) are not in darkness, that that day 38:26 should overtake you as a thief. What day does he mean? He means 38:30 that day of Jesus coming as a thief. He says that day won't 38:33 take you as a thief. Did you catch it? So he's saying that 38:37 to the wicked, he will come upon them as a thief but not unto the 38:41 righteous. So the whole secret rapture theory friends that is 38:45 common today doesn't teach as the Bible says, that sudden 38:49 destruction comes upon the wicked but rather that they have 38:52 a second chance of salvation. They go on for seven more years. 38:54 Again, very inconsistent and very unscriptural. So here's the 39:00 question folks. Does Jesus come as a thief in the night to some? 39:03 Yes. Does he come as a thief in the night to everyone. No. When 39:07 Jesus comes it says the elements are going to melt. It says the 39:10 trumpet of victory is going to sound, the dead are going to be 39:13 raised who believe in Jesus. It's obvious that the event is 39:17 not going to be secret to everyone so why does Jesus call 39:20 it a thief in the night? Because a thief does not tell you when 39:26 he's coming. Is anyone going to call you up or send you an email 39:30 and say hey I noticed you're coming out of Walmart the other 39:33 day with that brand new 84 inch beautiful television and I just 39:39 want you to know that when you're at work tomorrow I'm 39:41 going to come over to your house and steal it. Did anyone tell 39:43 you that? Well of course not. Of course not. In fact Jesus 39:48 himself says in Revelation exactly what he means by that 39:52 passage. Revelation 3:3 It says: Remember therefore how thou 39:55 hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If 39:57 therefore thou shalt not watch, (That means be in a state of 40:02 preparation) I will come upon thee as a thief, (there's the 40:04 expression and notice) and thou shalt not know what hour I will 40:11 come upon thee. Now that is about as plain as you can get it 40:14 friends. From Jesus himself saying if you're not prepared 40:18 I will come upon you as a thief and you will not discern the 40:23 time. Now the final time that that expression is used is in 40:25 Revelation 16:15 and here it says: Behold, I come as a thief. 40:28 Blessed is he that watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk 40:32 naked, and they see his shame. This is in the passage of the 40:35 seven last plagues and this is mentioned after six plagues are 40:38 poured out, which is a lot of tribulation. We're going to get 40:40 to that on an upcoming session. But folks, it says nothing here 40:44 about it being secret, silent and invisible. Let's do a little 40:48 comparison shall we? 1 Corinthians 15 was written by 40:51 Paul and so was 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and 5. Notice both 40:55 passages talk about Jesus' coming, and they both talk about 40:58 the dead being asleep which we'll talk about at our very 41:00 next study together. They both talk about the trumpet sounding 41:03 when Jesus comes and the dead being raised. They not only talk 41:06 about the same thing, they talk about it in the exact same order 41:09 The here is another chapter, chapter 24 of Matthew. Now 41:13 Jesus is speaking in Matthew. But notice whether it's Jesus 41:17 speaking in Matthew or Paul speaking in 1 Thessalonians, 41:19 they're talking about the same thing. But here is why this is 41:23 so important. Because those who believe in a secret, silent, 41:26 invisible rapture they agree that Matthew chapter 24 is the 41:29 glorious coming of Jesus. They can't get around it. But they'll 41:32 say, Oh but 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5, that's talking about the 41:35 secret coming, right? Well let's see if they're different. They 41:39 both talk about the coming of Jesus and the word is the same 41:42 in the original language, the Parousia. They both talk about 41:44 Jesus coming in the clouds. They both talk about the trumpet 41:47 blowing. They both talk about the church being gathered up 41:49 together. Jesus said no man knows the day or the hour. Paul 41:53 talks about the times and the seasons. They both talk about 41:55 the thief in the night experience, the wicked being not 41:58 ready. Jesus said to the wicked the flood came and took them all 42:01 away. Paul said sudden destruction is going to come 42:03 upon the wicked and they both end with saying watch and be 42:06 ready. Not only, friends, again how they talk about the same 42:10 thing, they're talking about it in the exact same order. You can 42:14 put these three chapters together, 1 Corinthians 15, 42:16 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5, Matthew chapter 24. There's no question 42:20 it is the same event. Amen? They're not different events. 42:25 Now here's another expression. What about one shall be taken 42:29 and the other left? Have you ever heard that? That's one of 42:31 the most used passages in these Left Behind books. Let's go take 42:34 a look at it in Matthew 24 and in verse 40. It says: Then shall 42:38 two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other 42:40 left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one 42:43 shall be taken and the other left. Watch, therefore: for you 42:46 know not what hour your Lord does come. Verse 50. The Lord 42:49 of that servant shall come in a day when he looks not for him, 42:52 and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him 42:55 asunder. Wow that doesn't sound like seven more years of 42:57 probation does it? And appoint him his portion with the 43:00 hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43:03 Now that is clear. Those that are not saved, those that are 43:05 not taken to heaven in the coming up of the church it says 43:09 they will be cut down and destroyed. Now Luke comments on 43:12 this passage. He makes it even more plain. Here in Luke 17 43:17 verse 34 he said: I tell you, in that night there shall be two 43:20 men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 43:21 Plain expression. Two women shall be grinding together; the 43:24 one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in 43:27 the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 43:29 Now it's amazing what people do in the Bible. Because they 43:31 read it this way. They say one shall and the other left alive 43:34 for seven more years. Now again it doesn't say that but they're 43:37 imposing upon the text what they want it to say. So it goes on 43:42 verse 37: Where are those that are left. It says they answered 43:45 and said unto him where Lord and he said unto them, 43:48 wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be 43:50 gathered together. Now here in Luke, he says body. Over in 43:54 Matthew it says carcass, right? In the other Bible translations 43:58 many of them, they don't say body, they say a carcass, and 44:01 rather than eagles they use the word vultures. So the picture 44:03 the Bible is describing is a bunch of vultures circulating 44:07 over a bunch of dead people. Not very pretty, but this is what's 44:10 described to us. Verse 26: And as it was in the days of Noah 44:16 so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, 44:19 they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage until 44:21 the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came, and 44:24 destroyed them all. So in the flood did God rapture Noah off 44:29 the earth? No, he put him in an ark of safety and Noah was there 44:32 during the time of tribulation but God faithfully preserved 44:35 the life of his servant and his family while the earth was 44:39 destroyed. Noah wasn't raptured away to some secret place. But 44:42 the Lord's deliverance was there for all to see. Verse 28: 44:46 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they 44:49 drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they buildeth; but 44:51 the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and 44:55 brimstone from heaven, and what did it do, friend? 44:57 Destroyed them all. And then he says to us in verse 30: Even 45:03 thus, now what does even thus mean? Even thus means in the 45:07 same way. It goes on. Shall it be in the day when the Son of 45:11 man is, what's that last word? Revealed. Notice then, it's 45:16 never a concealing event. It's always a revealing event. 45:19 Nothing here's secret, nothing here's silent, nothing here 45:23 invisible about it. You know that Jesus prayed in John 17 and 45:27 verse 15, Jesus said to his disciples: I pray not that thou 45:31 shouldest out of the world but rather that thou should keep 45:35 them from the evil. The word keep them is to guard over, to 45:37 watch over and make sure they're safe. So it wasn't Jesus' desire 45:42 that his church is going to be raptured away but rather that 45:46 they would be kept from injury and loss. It's the same word 45:49 there, keep, that's used in Revelation 3 verse 10. So what 45:53 about two shall be in the field and one shall be taken and the 45:57 other left. In the Bible context Jesus is simply saying that one 46:00 is going to be saved and the other person is going to be lost 46:03 or left for destruction. Just as it was in Noah's day, just as it 46:07 was in Lot's day so it will be when Jesus returns. You know 46:10 strange as it may seem friends this whole counterfeit rapture 46:14 theory is built on a few phrases and repeated over and over again 46:19 to people by those that are popular enough or influential 46:23 enough that innocent Christians start to believe that that's all 46:26 the Bible has to say on it. When they talk about this whole Left 46:30 Behind series, very little Bible is used and when it is used it's 46:34 taken out of context in every case. So people start to read 46:38 into passages this idea of a two phase coming. There's nothing to 46:44 suggest such an idea. And that leads us to this point. What 46:46 about the idea of a seven-year tribulation. Where are they 46:50 getting that idea from. They're taking a passage from the book 46:55 of Daniel chapter 9, removing it from its proper context, we are 46:59 going to study that passage on a later topic in the seminar. 47:02 They're removing it from the passage and they're tossing it 47:06 2000 years into the future and they're saying that the last week of 47:10 years, prophetic week, which means seven years, applies to 47:13 the end-time rule or reign of the antichrist. Now again when 47:18 we get to that we're going to let you decide whether they're 47:20 using it correctly. But folks let me just tell you something 47:23 about the word tribulation. In the New Testament the word 47:26 tribulation is used 22 times. The word tribulations, plural, 47:31 is used four times. So whether you've got tribulation or 47:35 tribulations, that's 26 times. Of those 26 times not once does 47:39 it say seven years of tribulation. You would think 47:41 that if there's going to be seven years of tribulation that 47:45 at least once in the 26 times it would say that, right? But it 47:48 doesn't friends. We ought to be sure of what we believe. Only if 47:52 you try to assume something or predetermine something can you 47:56 possibly read into these texts such an idea of a two-phase 48:00 second coming. Now let's go back to the Bible. We're been here a 48:02 lot tonight. Let's keep going. 1 Peter 1 verse 13. Now Peter 48:06 says: Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, 48:10 and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto 48:14 you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Why would Peter be 48:17 encouraging his church to look for the revelation if they were 48:19 to watch for the rapture? Doesn't make any sense. Paul 48:22 says to Titus: Looking for that blessed hope, the glorious 48:25 appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Why did 48:29 Peter not speak about it? Why did Paul not speak about it? 48:33 Because it isn't true. It isn't true and to show you this look 48:35 at what Jesus had to say in Luke 21 and verse 26 and onward. 48:40 Jesus describes a time; he says: when: Men's hearts are going to 48:42 fail them for fear, and for looking after those things which 48:46 are coming on the earth: Friends, I believe that that 48:47 time has come. 48:49 When you look at the news today and some of these major cities 48:52 and they got iron bars on the windows and iron bars on the 48:55 doors and all kinds of multiple locks and they got burglar alarm 48:58 systems and they got guard dogs Most people are walking these 49:01 streets and even their homes, they're fearful. But it goes on 49:03 and it says for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then 49:07 shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and 49:11 great glory. Why would Jesus say the very next thing that's going 49:16 to happen is they're going to see him coming in glory if there 49:18 was going to be some kind of secret, silent, invisible coming 49:21 taking away the church seven years before the glorious coming 49:24 Certain if that was true, Jesus would mention it. But Jesus 49:28 doesn't mention it. And the reason friends Jesus doesn't 49:30 mention it is because it's not true. It's not in the Bible. 49:34 Now if that wasn't enough look at verse 28. And here it says: 49:38 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and 49:41 lift up your heads; for your what? Redemption draweth nigh. 49:46 Now think about it friends. If people were taken away in some 49:49 kind of invisible rapture and they were in heaven certainly 49:51 that would be redemption, right? Their redemption would be 49:54 complete in the final sense; but no. Jesus is saying that he ties 49:59 in the redemption with his coming in power and glory. You 50:03 say when that event happens then your redemption is there. So 50:07 very, very clearly that sweeps away these preconceived ideas 50:12 that there's some kind of invisible taking away of the 50:15 church. It says in Matthew 24 and verse 27: For as the 50:18 lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west; 50:21 so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. I grew up in the 50:26 west part of British Columbia. We had thunder and lightning, 50:28 it was really no big deal. But then I moved to Maryland and in 50:31 Maryland, they had lightning that forked across the sky in all 50:33 different directions and you knew the thunderclap was coming 50:36 It would go kaboom and when it did it would shake the house. 50:39 You know you could go out in the lightning storm and take your 50:42 fingers and put them over your eyes like this and the lightning 50:44 is so bright you can see the light through the cracks of your 50:47 fingers. Scientists say that the tip of a lightning bolt is about 50:50 three to six times hotter than the surface of the sun. I don't 50:52 know how they arrive at such figures but let me tell that is 50:56 hot and that is bright. And Jesus understanding what 51:00 lightning is he draws the analogy of the lightning and 51:05 then he says here in the New Century Version of the Bible, a 51:10 little more up-to-date version of it, or more paraphrased 51:12 version. It says here: When the Son of man comes, (the word in 51:16 the original Greek is the Parousia, now this is the word 51:18 that people say is secret, right So watch this now. It says: 51:22 He'll be seen by everyone. It will be like lightning flashing 51:24 in the sky that can be seen everywhere. Nothing here about 51:28 secrecy and certainly nothing here about it being invisible. 51:31 It's just the opposite. It says everybody's going to see it. 51:34 So Jesus, as we go through this whole series of texts, let's 51:38 follow the thinking through. First, the disciples came to 51:41 Jesus and they said Lord what will be the sign of your coming 51:43 and the end of the world. And Jesus...said unto them, take 51:46 heed that no man deceive you. That means watch out. When you 51:49 hear those words take heed that no man deceive you, you know 51:53 that there's going to be special deception on that point. So he 51:56 says: Take heed that no man deceive you...and then he says 51:59 in verse 24, it says: There'll be false Christs, there'll be 52:03 false prophets. They'll show great signs and wonders; 52:05 inasmuch that if it were possible they'll deceive the 52:07 very elect. I mean don't be surprised if miracles are even 52:10 performed. And then he says in verse 25: I am telling you ahead 52:14 of time, meaning you're getting this information so you don't 52:16 have to be fooled. And then in verse 26 he's saying two things 52:21 to watch out for. He's saying it's not going to be like this 52:24 You can go out in the desert in order to see him, It's not 52:27 going to be like that, there's somehow secrecy attached to my 52:29 second coming. But he says it's going to be like the lightning 52:34 which comes from the east and shines even unto the west. He 52:37 says that is how I'm going to return. Folks that is so crystal 52:41 clear we cannot miss it. So we go back and review. We find 52:45 Jesus' coming is literal, personal, visible, you'll be 52:48 able to hear it, it's audible. It'll bring a resurrection, 52:50 that's in our very next study together. It's going to be 52:53 glorious. It's going to be as climactic as the lightning and 52:56 the our last point here. We find it in Revelation 22 verse 11. It 53:00 says: He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is 53:03 filthy still, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, 53:06 let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy 53:09 still. And the word still carries the meaning friends for 53:12 eternity, and there's not going to be any changing sides. Verse 53:16 And, behold I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to 53:20 give every man according as his work shall be. In other words 53:23 when Jesus comes, it's going to be decisive friend. In other 53:27 words by that time there'll be no switching sides, no more 53:30 probation. You see this whole theory about a second chance 53:33 it is nowhere taught in the Bible but it's a terrible 53:39 deception friends. Because human nature being what it is, people 53:41 will say well, I might not make it at the first coming of Jesus 53:44 or his second coming but I bet if he comes, I know the Bible 53:50 is true and I know I should get ready and I got seven more years 53:54 to do that. Folks a terrible terrible deception. The Bible 53:57 teaches no such thing. Matthew 24 verse 36: Jesus said: But of 54:02 that day and hour, speaking about his coming, knows no man, 54:06 no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. And then 54:10 this one 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 2: Behold now is the 54:14 accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. Folks in 54:19 this life God gives us many times to get ready, doesn't he? 54:23 Every time we get up in the morning, every time we take 54:26 breath in our lungs is another time to say Lord I want to serve 54:29 you. Lord I want to give my heart to you. I want to live a 54:33 pure life by your grace and that is friends how we are to get 54:37 ready for Jesus' coming. Because Jesus' coming is to be 54:40 the happiest event that we are to look forward to. And the 54:43 purpose of the book of Revelation is to prepare a 54:45 people for that great event folks. In a world that is madly 54:49 rushing along the road of destruction God wants a few more 54:52 for his kingdom. He's looking for people that are open-hearted 54:56 to Bible truth. And speaking of that friends, do you know that 54:59 many people who are about to give up on God have got a 55:04 brochure for this seminar in the mail and they've come out and 55:06 they've said, oh no, this is the kind of God I could love. Well 55:08 we praise the Lord for that. Many people who are about to 55:10 give up on church, they've gone from church to church to church 55:12 and they think you know I'm just getting nothing out of it 55:15 because I'm not being taught the Bible. They come to this seminar 55:18 A friend will invite them and they'll say finally I'm learning 55:20 something, right? And sad as it is many people who are about to 55:23 give up on their life even. You know just when they think 55:26 there's no hope, they'll get an invitation, God will send them 55:31 something and they'll say you know what, let me give it one 55:34 more try and they come and they find out there's a God that 55:37 loves them deeply. I don't know how you got here tonight and I 55:42 don't know how you are watching at home or found out about this 55:45 seminar or how you managed to sit down and you're watching it 55:48 right now, but I do know that if you're watching this right now 55:51 it's not by coincidence. The God of heaven has arranged that you 55:55 would know these things for this time. Folks we're studying about 55:59 going to heaven together, families getting united, no more 56:04 death and no more sorrow. Oh what an amazing time it's going 56:07 to be. Can you imagine when all the graveyards around the world 56:10 thousands upon thousands of them open up and the righteous come 56:13 forth. What a tremendous joy that's going to be. Folks we're 56:18 going to go to heaven together. Now if you're not excited about 56:22 that there's probably a reason for it. And that reason might be 56:25 because you don't feel in your heart, you're ready to meet Jesus 56:27 There are many that I know have already made a decision to give 56:31 your life to him and it's a wonderful thing that you have. 56:33 But if you're watching here tonight, if you are watching 56:37 here today either those of you who are present here in this 56:41 auditorium or those of you who are watching at home, I'd like 56:42 to do something special for you. I'd like to end with a prayer 56:45 and this is a prayer of acceptance of Jesus and the 56:49 reason it's so important is because if you haven't accepted 56:52 Jesus into your heart you not only won't be ready for him but 56:56 you won't be looking forward to him. So those of you who would 56:58 like I'm going to ask you to join me in prayer. Just bow your 57:02 heads right where you're at and just pray along this prayer 57:04 right in your heart as we ask Jesus to come into our souls and 57:08 come into our lives. Heavenly Father, the great hope of the 57:14 world tonight is your coming. This world has little hope 57:18 unless you come. In this audience today either here or 57:21 watching at home we know there are many who have already given 57:24 their lives to you. But for those that are watching and have 57:27 not already given their hearts away will you please touch their 57:30 hearts and help them to surrender right now. Jesus is 57:35 knocking on the door of their mind. Help them to open the 57:37 door and to let him in. We believe that you sent your Son 57:40 to die on Calvary. We believe, dear God, that he died for the 57:45 sins of the world and for our personal sins. We believe that 57:48 he is the Savior, the Messiah that the Old Testament speaks 57:51 about and the New Testament proclaims. But we need help 57:54 dear Lord, we need the Holy Spirit. We need power in our 57:58 life to live right. We're asking for that new birth experience 58:01 conversion experience to be ours right now. And we thank you by 58:07 faith for what you are doing. We praise your name for your 58:12 goodness and your mercy to us. Thank you for giving us a new 58:14 start and a new beginning tonight. And we do look forward 58:18 to your coming and we do have joy and peace right now by faith 58:21 and we look forward to it. In Jesus' name Amen. |
Revised 2024-12-16