First Thessalonians. This evening, based on our schedule, we are to deal with matters of eschatology, and that just means the study of last things, the study of prophecy. And I'll be frank with you, I don't know I really don't know what everyone's position is here on matters of eschatology. I think I know what Brother Gordon taught and believed, but I don't know what all every individual member believes. But let me begin by saying this, whether or not you're pre-trib or mid-trib or post-trib, and everyone understands that language, pre-tribalational return, mid-trib, post-trib, whether you're pre-meal, post-meal, all-meal. These things are, to me, and understand it when I say it this way, they are secondary issues. They are not matters or tests of fellowship. They're important, and I think it's worthy of study, and I think it's good to Establish a position and figure out who you are and what you believe But there we don't all have to be clones one of another there can be some differences among us. I don't want People so in discord and I haven't experienced that and I don't think that you would I don't want people trying to undermine what I believe but at the same time I Was talking to Mark Maynard yesterday, I think we ought to To use this in Bible language, I think all of us ought to be hard-headed about what we believe. Have a head like a flint. Hard-headed about what you believe. Also, though, having a teachable spirit. Not easily being carried away with every wind of doctrine. Do you understand? But also realizing there may be some things I'm not necessarily right about. And eschatology is one of those things that you can be wrong about a lot of prophetic things still go to heaven You understand you can be wrong about a lot of prophetic things and and that has nothing to do with your salvation And so to me that places it as a secondary issue I have a position. I'm gonna teach my position. I'll teach what I believe I have some very good Friends, preachers, pastors, and laymen, if I use that term, those who are not in the ministry, who hold to a different eschatological or prophetic theology than what I do. And we have fun, you know, we cut up with each other. They give me a hard time, I give them a hard time. And both of us, in some degree, both of us have some questions that are Not easily understood. In the matter of prophecy, there's just some things that are just not easily, in my opinion, just not all that easily discernible. Is it Swiss cheese that has all the holes in it? Is that the one that has all the holes in it? Well, here's how I feel about it. My prophetic position, I cut off a piece of that cheese block that has the least holes in it. Do you understand what I'm saying by that? I don't know, and I believe what I believe, don't misunderstand me, but I don't know that every doctrinal position on matters of eschatology don't have some questions that are a little bit hard to answer. I think all of them have some, but you look at this verse, and I have a little hard time reconciling that. I don't believe that's necessarily because there's any inconsistency with the Bible. I think we just have a hard time fully understanding what God has revealed to us in His Word. But there's some things to me, and I'll just go ahead and say this right out from the beginning. I hold to a pre-trib and pre-millennial return of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is my position. I believe in an imminent, and the best way to remember that is any minute, imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think that will take place prior to the seven years of great tribulation. that Christ himself will come in the air and rapture or call away his saints. Following that, on earth there will be the time of Jacob's trouble. There will be seven years of great tribulation on earth, such as this world has never known. At the end of that, I believe Christ will bodily return to this earth with his saints, Read Revelation 19 and 20, and he will set up his millennial kingdom and rule and reign for a thousand glorious years here on earth. After which, Satan will be loosed for a short season. He'd been cast and thrown into the bottomless pit for a thousand years, and after that, he will be loosed for a short season until finally there's one, if I can even say it this way, because I don't know how much of a battle it'll really be, but one final squirmish between good and evil, God and the devil, and Satan will be bound and cast into the lake of fire. And that, then I believe the Lord will judge all the wicked dead, those that have died without faith in Christ, and death and hell, they will be cast into the lake of fire. That is my prophetic stance. That is my eschatological position. I'm a literalist. As much as possibly can be, when I read God's word, I try to take it literally. if we allegorize or spiritualize parts of the Bible. And folks, I'm going to try to be as honest as I can, but to some extent, all of us allegorize to some extent. We must. Because the Bible itself tells us that some things are given as an allegory or a symbology. If you don't take revelation as literally as it can be taken, you're going to wind up everywhere. I mean just everywhere. When I read about those beasts that come up out of the earth and they have heads like a lion and long women's hair or whatever it is and they bite and sting and I have read after men who claim that those are modern day helicopters. That's the kind of thing that you read after people trying to Throw it all as symbolism and just say that that's what it is, but I'd just rather believe that's what's gonna happen. There's this kind of wild beasts that are shut up for right now that are gonna come up during that great tribulation. So eschatology is a big study. I'm concerned that in our day and age, there are people who are far more interested in eschatology than they should be. If that makes sense to you, I hope you understand. We should have an interest in end things. But not an undue interest. Not an interest so that it overwhelms other things. There are men that I know of and men that I love and respect who devote themselves to end time theology. And that's okay, but you cannot neglect where you live right now. There's something to be said for just walking by faith and God's gonna take care of things. There's something to be said for that. I mentioned to you, and it hasn't changed, I posted a sermon, oh, I don't know, something on death and hereafter, some kind of sermon I preached here. And everybody's interested in eschatology, you know, people have listened to that one hundreds, or not hundreds, but dozens and dozens of times, and you know, good old gospel message, people skip right past that. And that's unnatural, and it isn't, and it shouldn't be that way. I think God would have us know some things. And in fact, when we read this text that we're gonna read here in a few minutes, God just says, I don't want you to be ignorant about some things. There's some things I want you to know, not to be unawares. There's some things that you need to know. But the balance, to keep our lives in balance, we need to understand that first and foremost is salvation and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. And these things are secondary issues, they are. And if I have, A good friend of mine that I preach with at conferences, he is post-trib. About every time we get together, we end up talking on eschatology. And now listen, there's some people you can talk with and there's others you can't. I'm not one of those people, if you want to argue and fight, I'm just not going to do it. have a good, open conversation, I'll sit down and talk with anybody, that's fine. But some people get mad. They just flat out get mad. You can't talk to them, and I'm not going to argue with them. To me, it's a secondary issue. But it's good for anybody. He holds to a post-trip position, and about every time I see him, I say, well, I hope that when the Lord rings that trump, or the angel rings that trump of God, that I'm standing right beside you, because I'm going to look at you in your eyeballs and say, do you want to stay or do you want to go? And we were able to do that, though. He believes what he believes. He believes that it is the cut with the least holes. That's what he believes. I just can't get past a Christian's great calling to be looking for Jesus. I just can't get past that. That's the greatest hurdle that I have. in changing any eschatological position, prophetic position, is I just think a child of God ought to be looking for Jesus. I just think y'all ought to be looking for Jesus. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Let's read a little bit here, and I know that you're familiar with this portion, but 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 13, and I believe this speaks of the rapture. You're not going to find the word, quote, rapture in our King James Bibles. You're just not going to find it, but there is that language of a snatching away, a calling away. That is in our text, though it's not It's not just like you won't find the word Trinity in the Bible, but you find the teaching of the word Trinity in the Bible. Same thing with this. 1 Thessalonians 4, 13, But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord. You notice that? By the word. We're saying what we've been taught. This is what the Lord taught us. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent, and that's an old English word that the meaning of it has actually changed over the years. We do no disservice by saying proceed, that we which are alive and remain shall not go before or will not precede them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. What I'm interested in This is an incredible little portion of Scripture I have myself, and I know that Brother Gordon has a red disc standing at the graveside of many of God's saints. It's a great word of comfort of a coming resurrection, a glorious day when those saints who have passed on, who are now, in that beautiful Bible language, asleep in Christ, that those bodies will one of these days be resurrected in glorious power. They will come up out of there and then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up with him. Those bodies that are buried will be brought up out of the ground whether they are six feet under or whether they are lost at sea or whatever the case is. And I'll deal with this because I've been asked to deal with this sometime in the future, but even the remains of those that have been cremated who I believe were saved I believe will be gathered up together. And then we which are alive and remain will be caught up with Him. Their bodies will come up and then at the rapture, at the snatching away, which I believe could come at any time, at any moment, we'll be caught up and meet the Lord in the air. And we will go with Him. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. One of the main reasons why I hold to a pre-trib position is that it fits so well to my estimation of the overwhelming tenure of Scripture. In other words, we know that Christ is coming back to this earth. Acts chapter one says that Christ is coming back to this earth, and when he comes in, every eye will see him, and that he will bodily return. Acts chapter one says, in like manner, and I believe he'll even set his foot down on the Mount of Olives. That is a distinct and different coming, if I can say it this way, than that of the rapture of the saints. I believe that those, and however you want to say it, people say, well, you have two comings, and you have three comings. You have the Lord coming the first time, and you have the Lord coming the second time in the rapture, and then the third time when He comes bodily to the earth. And I say, well, you have a yo-yo theology. You're up and down, and up and down. So there's some difficulties perhaps either way. I believe that rapture's gonna, he's gonna come snatch us away. Seven years will transpire before he comes back down to this earth. There are a great number of things, and we'll get into some of this at a later point, but there's a great number of things that'll take place on earth and in heaven during that time. I think that that's when, my personal opinion, that's when we'll stand before the judgment seat of the Lord Jesus Christ. That we will, at that time, give an account for the things that we have done in the flesh. God, the Lord will, God will in the person of his son, the Lord will hand out reward or there will be loss of reward for service done for the glory of his kingdom. I don't want to get into all that now, but there'll be, to me, there'll be the marriage supper of the Lamb. There'll be the A ceremony between Christ and His bride, that marriage supper will take place, and then Christ will then come. God will turn to Him, in my opinion, essentially, and say to Him, go lay claim to this earth. You redeemed it. The earth is groaning, waiting for your return. And then Christ will come, and I believe that's, in my personal opinion, that's when the Battle of Armageddon will take place at the end of that seven years, when Israel's backed up in a corner. I don't want to get into all this, God's not done with Israel. He'll yet again turn His eye on His beloved nation and Christ will come back. But there's a lot of things that have to happen. Why pre-trib? Because I can't reconcile. I cannot reconcile the fact that I know 1 Thessalonians 4 declares that there's going to be a snatching away. Snatching away of the saints. I cannot get a solid post-trib answer from someone when I ask them, do you believe in the rapture? And they say, well, yes. Well, then what about the second coming? What about when Christ comes back to this earth and sets his foot down on the Mount of Olives? They say, well, we think that's going to happen at the same time, that he'll come up and rapture us and then he'll come back down. And that's what I call the yo-yo eschatology, up and down, up and down. It just doesn't fit to me. It doesn't fit. There are events that take place that have to, in my opinion, have to take place. There are some other good friends of mine who believe that a great deal of prophecy was fulfilled in AD 70 when Titus destroyed Jerusalem. Don't believe, and I have good friends who don't believe in a literal tribulation period, who don't believe. There's a lot of things I can understand. I can understand a post-trib position easier than I can understand someone who would blanketly deny seven years of great tribulation. I don't know what you'd do with a book of Revelation without the seven years of tribulation. I don't know what you'd do with those. I mean, you'd have to throw away three-fourths of the book. I don't understand an all-millennial position. I know some good men who hold to an all-meal, no-millennial rank. I know some good, but I don't know what you do when I sit there and read again that the Lord will reign for a thousand years and I read that over and over and over again. I just don't understand that. There's a lot of things I don't understand. I'll admit there's a lot of things about prophecy I can't give a good answer to. And the truth is, if you want my humble opinion on this, I think the Lord was just as clear about it as he intended to be clear about it. I really do. Folks, it's good that not everything's just as plain and black and white and easy for us, because it makes us study God's word. It makes us get in there and dig. I don't know about you, but I'm a little bit on the lazy side, and I'd rather just say black and white, pretty tree, if that's what I'm coming, and there it is. That'd be nice, wouldn't it? But that's not what God gave us. I believe God intends for us to study His Word. When I look at the comparison, and this is it. At the rapture, we know that there's a snatching away of the saints, a calling away, a calling out of Every saved person, but you also, we must also understand that's going to happen in a moment. In the twinkling of an eye, 1 Corinthians 15, ain't that what it says? Bell, I want to show you a mystery. We should not all sleep, but we should all be changed. At the last trump. And there's some difficulty with that. It says at the last trump. I think it's the last trump of this age. That's just my personal opinion on that. I really don't think it has anything to do with the seven trumpets of Revelation. That's just my opinion. But in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we will be changed. How can that be the same or occur at the same time, as some would insist, when the Lord comes and the Bible says every eye shall see Him? You understand, there has to be two distinct events, two distinct occasions. One where we'll be snatched away just like that. I don't know how fast the twinkling of an eye is, but that's pretty doggone quick, isn't it? Just like that, we're gone. And I think and I believe that there's gonna be cars that one minute somebody's sitting in and driving, the next minute they're gone. There's going to be people sitting on an airplane, and they'll be gone. There'll be some be laying in the bed, and they'll get up and go wake their children. The children will be gone, and they'll still be here. There'll be two in the field. One will be grinded, and one will be left. There'll be two in the house. One will be taken, and one will be left. I'm giving you some of the Lord's eschatology on this. We get our mind too narrow because we just think, as American Christians, instead of looking at a global economy and this This great time of eschatology and the tribulation itself is gonna be global. It's not gonna be, don't be so Americanized in your Christianity that you can't see beyond the four walls of our nation. This will be a global affair. When the Lord comes, it may be daytime here and it may be dead in the middle of the night somewhere else on this earth. There'll be some that, you know, you and I may be in the bed. You and I may be wherever we may be at work. You may be sitting there swinging a hammer, Brother Rob, and a rapture comes just like that, and that hammer may or may not hit the nail. Of course, if you're swinging at it, no, I'm just kidding. I cannot get past. There's a mountain that I can't see over, and that mountain is the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't find anywhere in this book. where I'm told to be looking for the Antichrist. I'm to be looking for the Christ. That's who I am to be looking for. Watch ye therefore, for you know not what hour that the Lord doth come. But we are told time and again through parable and through plain teaching that Christ says, I'm leaving, but I'm coming back, and until I come back, stay busy. Look for me. Look for the bridegroom. Look for the bridegroom. Don't be looking for that antichrist who will come. Look for me. And I can't get past that. I have a good friend of mine who we agree on everything. I don't know of anything we disagree on other than pre and post-treatment. And I was sitting in his home. We had a very good conversation. I said, I just can't get past I have a hard time, you know, what do you do with every, I'll see him, and then in a moment, twinkle him an eye. You know, that's one thing I have a hard time dealing with. This, you know, yo-yo up and down. But the biggest thing for me is, you're not looking for Jesus, and I am. I mean, they can say what they want to. They can say, well, we are too. You know, we as post-tribbers, we're looking for Jesus too, but you're not looking for him the same way I am. Now just think for a minute. And I asked him to do this. If the post-trib position is right, and this book can be depended on, I can tell you when the Lord's coming. Did you hear what I just said to you? I can tell you when the rapture will take place. Why are y'all looking at me so curious for it? Think I got some kind of something going? I believe I'm right in the position that I hold to, but without getting a whole lot into this, I believe at the midpoint of the tribulation, the anti-Christ will break the covenant that he made with Israel and will set himself up in that rebuilt temple to be worshipped in 1,200 and three score days. That's 1,260 days, that's three and a half years on a Jewish calendar, exactly. I believe that's when the Lord will come. You could foretell that's when the Lord was gonna come. You could say that's when the Lord's gonna come, if they're right. You understand what I'm saying? If they're right. Because it just very plainly says, when you look at this, at the end of these things, then the Lord will come. And so my friends, how much Bible is there that says no man knows the hour when the Lord's gonna come? How much Bible is there that tells us, you don't know, be looking because you don't know. And one of my problems with the post-reposition is I could tell you, hey, when you see that Antichrist up there break the covenant and you start counting down 1,260 days from now, that's when he would come. You know, I don't know, and there's so much, I know that you all, some of you all have been studying Revelation. Things are gonna get medieval here on this earth. I mean, things are, they're just gonna get nasty here on this earth. I don't know how prominent Bibles are gonna be. I really don't. I don't know that there won't be a great surge, even greater than it is now, to destroy God's Word. And when he who now letteth, the Holy Spirit of God. Amen. When he who now, and there's another one of those old English words that doesn't fit the way we use it today. When he who now letteth and really studied the Word, He who now hinders the work of Antichrist, when he is taken out of the way, and I believe that'll occur at the rapture, when the Lord raptures up His saints, and particularly raptures up His bride, when He, that Holy Spirit, who now hinders the work of Antichrist, is taken out of the way, I just don't know how bad things, and I don't think any of us wanna imagine how bad things will get here on this earth. Are you looking for Jesus? You know, there's the thing. I could say this because I have a relationship with this buddy of mine that I just mentioned to you. I said, man, if I was you, I'd be building an underground bunker. I'm not kidding. If I thought I was going to live through the tribulation, I'd be stocking up canned goods and bottled water and building an underground bunker. He said, well, we walk by faith. I said, yeah, but you also have a family to be responsible for, too. And you ought to try to protect them. If this is your position and you think you're going to face the pouring out of God's wrath without mixture, man, I'd be doing what I could to get ready for it. I'm serious. A couple of years ago, I was really battling in my own heart and in my mind, is this the right position? I think you ought to learn something. You ought to learn and know what you believe about this. As a father, as a husband, I believe I have a duty to my family. If we're going to be here during this great tribulation, don't I have a God-given responsibility to do what I can to protect my loved ones, to prepare for that day? And so I got to really thinking about it. If I was post-trib, is there any comfort in me looking at you and your It's been a long time since I've studied prophecy. It's been a long time other than, you know, looking at it a couple years ago, but I can give you no comfort. And this is another one of those hurdles. It's not the, I guess it's really one of the foothills to the main mountain. I can offer no solace to a child of God. who is battling pain, suffering, disease, by looking at them and telling them it'll be at least three and a half years before the Lord comes. Do you understand what I just said? There are some who hold to a posterior position that think that we're already in, and I don't know how they do it, but believe that we're already in the beginning of the tribulation period. I don't know how they get there, but there are some events, if we take this book literally, there are some events that are going to take place, including that Antichrist entering into a covenant with Israel to which he'll break. Some child of God who is facing a martyr's death, is there any comfort in saying to them, The Lord's not coming for at least another three and a half years. You will die a martyr's death. You know, I think one of the great things that gives us hope every morning when we wake up is Jesus could come today. My body's old, and it's wore out, and it's tired. They're going to take me to the stake and burn me alive, but Christ may yet come and deliver me from that. I find incredible comfort. Isn't that what he says, wherefore comfort one another with these words? I can't find, and I'm not being mean, because I love these brethren that I speak of, but I can't offer any real comfort to a child of God by saying to them, yeah, the Lord is coming, but it's at least a few years away. You see what I mean about that mountain of the imminent return? It does so much. When you hold to a posterior position, it changes. It'll change the way you think. It'll change the way you face tomorrow. It'll change your attitude. I told my good brother, I said, man, how do you not just want to lay down on the floor and cry? If I had to think about those wild beasts going through, flying around through here and biting my children or looking to my family and saying to them, you've got two options. Either be beheaded or take the mark of the beast. There ain't much hope in that. but Jesus is coming and there's a lot of hope in that. So that's the, I love these brethren, I love their position, but I cannot, I just cannot get past that hurdle that we have been called upon to look for Jesus and to live like we expect him to come. The Bible describes to me very plainly the difference. Christ will come in the air. This is what we read about in 1 Thessalonians. He'll come and actually set his foot down on the Mount of Olives, Acts chapter number 1. We find that when the rapture occurs, there's nothing really that takes place that we find in Scripture about the Mount of Olives, but if you'll read Zechariah and you read some of the other minor prophets you'll find when the Lord sets his foot down Oh, man, I just preach all night on Revelation 19 the Lord coming on back Riding on that white horse and setting his foot down on the Mount of Olives when he does that mountain cleaves into at the valley of Megiddo And there's little old Israel backed in to a corner with all the armies of Antichrist and the very Antichrist himself nearly destroying them And then Christ comes and delivers them. My goodness. But anyway, that mountain will cleave into, that's what the book says, that mountain will cleave into when he comes. When the Lord comes in the rapture, it delivers his bride from wrath. Take this for what it's worth. I don't know of a man who loves his bride that would not deliver her from wrath if he could. Pull her from, escape from wrath. You think the Lord loves his bride? You think he will deliver her from wrath? I do. I believe he will. The rapture deals only with the saved. The second coming deals with the saved and with the unsaved. The rapture is described as coming at any time. There's countless verses. I don't have time to run all them. The rapture comes. God again turns His eye to national Israel. The tribulation itself is is primarily will be focused around Israel. I said it's global, and I'm getting into next week's stuff because I'm going to talk about some things next week, Lord willing. The book of Romans talks about God having grafted in a wild branch, and that's us, the Gentiles. We were brought in under that covenant of grace even though we didn't deserve it. But God will yet again restore that natural branch, which is Israel. But He will not do so without a purging. And that seven years of Jacob's trouble, you know, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jacob's name was also Israel. The tribulation really, really focuses on and around Israel. It is God pouring out His fury on national Israel for their rejection of His Son. And then for the purging of the nation. And also for the preparation and for the coming of His Kingdom in power. Right now, God deals mainly with the Gentiles, but that's going to change. I'm not a covenant theologian from the aspect that God only deals with Israel. God's hand is turned from Israel. And I'm not even an expert on dispensational theology and covenant theology. I'm not even an expert on it. The only thing I know is the overwhelming tenor of Scripture tells me, look for Jesus. Look for Him.