Revelation chapter 20 again and begin reading in the first verse. Revelation chapter number 20 beginning in verse number 1. The Bible says, And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled. And after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. On such the second death hath no power. But they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years. And let's have a word of prayer this morning. Dear Heavenly Father, we ask your blessing upon the Sunday School message this morning. We pray that you would guide us in all truth as we seek to better understand these end times prophecies. Father, we pray that you'd give us wisdom and understanding and that your power would rest upon the service. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen. Of course, our text here reveals to us kind of the foundational passage for the millennial reign of Christ. And as we looked at last week, many of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the millennial reign, when it seems that Jesus will come back. In Revelation 19, He destroys the armies of the Antichrist. Revelation 20, He sets up His millennial kingdom. And from the glimpses we see in Scripture, we see this kingdom as being one of really restoring the earth to almost Garden of Eden-like state. If you will, there still certainly will be the potential to choose to not to serve the Lord. The Bible is pretty clear there. But the lion will lay down with the lamb and the poisonous snakes will not be poisonous to us and so forth. It seems from what we can tell from scripture that during the millennial reign there will be many different groups of people on earth. It seems there will be of course us resurrected saints which will be in our glorified bodies and that we will be reigning with Christ on earth. He will literally be in Jerusalem, and He will reign with a rod of iron, and He will enforce His laws of sowing and reaping, I think, very forcefully and quickly. And the Bible says that if those of Egypt don't go up and worship Him at Jerusalem, that no rain will fall upon them and so forth. And so the context is a very clear distinction between right and wrong. This will not stop some people from refusing Him and rebelling against Him. So there'll be resurrected saints on earth. There will be, it seems, believers, of course, that are not in their resurrected bodies. It's hard to really discern whether they will live this whole time period or not. It probably not, but we don't really know how that will work exactly and don't really have any glimpses even of the details of that in scripture so far as I can see. But it seems there will be believers on earth that came through the tribulation and believed on him or maybe that became believers once he returned or were maybe born in the millennium. and therefore became believers through that. It seems there will be unbelievers on the earth at that time. It seems that he destroys his enemies, the Antichrist and his armies in Revelation 19. But it seems there certainly will be unbelievers there, because when the thousand year reign ends, Satan will be loose for a little season and will very quickly gather an army against Jerusalem. And so it seems likely that this is unbelievers that come against Jerusalem at that time. And obviously on the details of this, we're catching just glimpses of it here and there. And so it's not super clear all of the details, but we do believe that he will literally reign for a thousand years on earth. And so we call this the millennial reign of Christ. And when it comes to literalists who take prophecy literally and believe it has literal interpretation, it's pretty straightforward in the Bible. Pretty much any literalist is a premillennialist, as we call that, which is a reference to when Jesus returns. We believe that He will return before the millennial reign and that He will literally reign on earth. And so, there are other groups of might-be believers, and in other words, it's potential that someone could believe in salvation by grace through faith in Christ, but not believe in a literal interpretation of prophetic scripture, and therefore not be a premillennialist, alright? And so there are others, basically two other groups which are very similar. The first group is amillennialists. And amillennialists basically believe that there is no literal thousand-year reign and that that is symbolic in nature. and is intended just to describe the church age, as it's often referred to. Now, there's a lot, a lot of information and background information when you're trying to discern the different beliefs in this area, but basically there's kind of a thought out there or an idea out there of dispensationalism. And extreme dispensationalism believes that basically there's different ages in scripture where God works with man in different ways. And extreme dispensationalism would believe that, for instance, in the Old Testament people got saved by keeping the law. but in the New Testament they get saved by grace through faith. We do not believe this. We are dispensationalists, but not extreme dispensationalists. And so we certainly do not believe in salvation by grace through faith in the New Testament, but not in the Old. The Bible says, no man cometh unto the Father, but by Jesus Christ. And we believe that's always true. An extreme dispensationalist would also believe that in the tribulation period, Man has to keep the law in order to be saved. We would disagree with this as well. We don't believe any man ever has kept the law, nor ever will keep the law. And so, if you had to keep the law to be saved, you'd be condemned to hell for eternity, of course. And so literally no one would get saved if that was the case. And that's true in the Old Testament. The Bible is pretty clear on this, I think. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was seen as righteous in his generation. David said, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute. iniquity, blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven. And Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. And so salvation, in my opinion, has always been by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and will be. And those who get saved in what we refer to as the Tribulation Period will also get saved by putting their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. No man cometh unto the Father but by Him. But if you are an extreme dispensationalist, you might believe in amillennialism, which kind of refers to the New Testament times as a church age. Now, let me just say, I don't really care whether we refer to our present time as that or not. In a sense, we have temporarily, local churches have replaced the nation of Israel as the bearers of the truth, right? And so, but we believe that will eventually revert back for one week of years to the nation of Israel. We won't go into all that right this second. We'll get into that a little bit later. So, if you believe in that church age, well some of those would believe that this millennial reign that is referenced in Revelation 20 simply a symbol, a symbolic way of saying that during the church age Jesus is going to slowly begin to reign on earth more and more by us winning the world to Christ and that eventually the world will be mostly won to Christ and at that time Jesus will return and so they don't hold a to a literal thousand-year reign, but rather they believe that's just symbolic, of course. So amillennialism holds, and amillennialism meaning no, so basically no millennium, holds that while Christ's reign during the millennium is spiritual in nature, at the end of the church age, Christ will return in final judgment and establish a permanent physical reign. But they would see that as Revelation 21 of the new heaven and the new earth. So, interestingly enough, they take it figuratively all the way to Revelation 21, and then they take it literally. There really is a heaven, there really is a hell, and it makes really no sense to take that literally if you haven't taken anything else literally, in my opinion. Then there is a very similar belief system that is called post-millennialism. And this is kind of, you know, it's very similar, really, in a lot of ways, as it still holds, sometimes it holds to a literal millennial reign of a thousand years, but most hold to a figurative term. But the whole point here is that Jesus will not return until after the end of that millennium, so to speak. And so, once again, that we'll win the world to Christ, and then Jesus will return in one way or another. And so, postmillennialism, once again, teaches that the forces of Satan will gradually be defeated by the expansion of the kingdom of God throughout history, up until the second coming of Christ. And this belief, that good will gradually triumph over evil, has led proponents of post-millennialism to label themselves optimillennialists, in other words, for optimism, in contrast to what they would refer to us premillennialists as pessimillennial, all right? Basically saying, we believe the opposite will happen, that eventually we will fail to win the world of Christ, and the salt will have lost its savor, and Jesus will come back, and return to conquer his enemies and to set up his kingdom and he will be the hero of the story and not us, alright. And so basically this is the idea. Many post-millennialists also adopt some form of preterism as we talked about in the past. Preterism is the idea that pretty much all prophecy has already happened in the past, most of it has been fulfilled by 70 AD when Jerusalem was ransacked and destroyed by the Roman Empire. And so they would often view that that was a fulfillment of most prophecies and so forth. And so they often adopt preterism as well. Some do believe in a thousand year reign, but they do believe that Jesus will return after that reign And there'll be a thousand years of basically peace on earth with the kingdom of God conquering all by us winning the world to Christ. And then Jesus will return to reign on earth for eternity. All right? So really when you look at it, amillennialism views the millennium as figurative. Postmillennialism views the millennium as figurative. Premillennialism is the only view that views the millennium as literal. In Revelation 19 and 20, as literally chronological. A literalist must be a futurist and must be a premillennialist. And they pretty much, of course, all are. And let me just say, this kind of false doctrine that we're already living in the millennial reign, because remember, The millennial reign is one with the resurrection of the saints, all right? And so the resurrection having already passed, so to speak, this philosophy that we're living in the millennium right now and that Jesus is reigning on earth right now, this false doctrine has actually been around since New Testament times. It is nothing new. Let's go to 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2 and it is refuted already in scripture 2 Timothy 2 and verse number 16. But shun profane and vain babblings for they will increase unto more ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth a canker, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some. And so here we find, those that said already, the resurrection is past. We've already, the reign of Christ has already begun on earth. And so there's nothing more to hope for, in that sense, to be delivered until the end of time when simply Jesus will enter and begin His eternal kingdom. And so, this view was troubling, as you can imagine. I mean, think about, when you really think about it, what it means is that this earth is going to get no better than it already is. And that's a pretty bleak outlook, if you really think about it. and that in essence the only thing that will change it will be eternity. Let's go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and see another place where this is mentioned. So this belief has been around all this time. 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse number 1. Now we beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand." What's the day of Christ? The day of His christening. The day of His commemorating His Kingdom, alright? And so it's when He reigns. So that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or troubled neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. Now there are some who try to use this passage to refute the idea of the imminence of Christ's return. But it's not talking about the rapture here. It is talking about the day of Christ when He reigns and the false doctrine as shown in 2 Timothy was the doctrine that we're already living in the millennial reign and that Jesus is already reigning on earth and that this is the fulfillment of the prophecy of the lion shall lay down with the lamb and there shall be peace on earth and God will rule with a rod of iron. And let me just say this certainly is not that and so we should not be deceived by that This false doctrine has been around since New Testament days. And as I said, when you're a literalist, you have to reject amillennialism and postmillennialism as well. So this is why we are premillennialists. And let me say in Baptist circles in America, at least, there was a time when there were a lot of amillennialists, especially if you go into the 1920s and 30s. in the Southern Baptist Convention, which we as Independent Baptists mainly pulled out of, although some pulled out of American Baptists or others. And so if you go into that, you'll find there was a lot of, matter of fact, if you look at kind of revival meetings and stuff in the 1940s and 50s, there was a lot of them that were pre-millennial conferences, and they would have them all over America. trying to help people understand the millennium. Matter of fact, Lester Roloff, many of you might know the name as a preacher from the past. And he was an amillennialist for many years until these conferences went around. And I read a book a while back where Dr. Jack Hiles, who was heavily involved in the pre-millennialist movement, Dr. John R. Rice and others, They invited Dr. Roloff to a conference, a premillennialist conference, and he said to them, boy, you know, I don't think I can come because I'm not a premillennialist. And they said, well, don't worry about it. We'll just have you come and preach on hell. And so he came and preached on hell. And by the end of the conference he turned to Dr. Rice and he said, I'm a premillennialist now, you know, so it was pretty obvious basically once you began to really look at scripture. But the point is in Baptist circles it was not unusual to have an amillennialist or postmillennialist view from years past, alright. Then, let's see, so once you get to pre-millennialism, once you understand that we need to look at things literally, then you come to the understanding based on Revelation 20 that the millennial reign will happen after Jesus returns in Revelation 19. Well, once you get to this pre-millennial view, then this kind of sets the stage for the rest of the glimpses we see into end times prophecy. Let's go to Matthew chapter 24. Now remember that this millennial reign of Christ, this is what the disciples and apostles were aware of from the Old Testament. I mean, realize and understand that in the Old Testament you really don't see the rapture as we refer to it, and we'll talk about that in a minute. really anywhere clearly in the Old Testament. It's not really even talked about. It's not something that was on their mind. Basically, the prophecies of the Old Testament were all about Jesus returning and setting up His kingdom. And matter of fact, even the glimpses that they've seen of Jesus dying on the cross, Isaiah 53, and the book of Psalms a couple places, and others, it totally went over their head, and they didn't even really comprehend it, even His disciples didn't. It was very difficult to wrap their mind around. And so, instead they seen all of these promises that God would come and reign in Jerusalem and throw off their enemies and give them deliverance. And this is what they were always looking for. Let's go to Matthew 24. And so the millennial reign is really the central thought behind Old Testament prophecies concerning Christ. And this is the main feature that they received. Remember, we've even seen in Acts chapter 1, where when Jesus was about to ascend into heaven, the disciples and apostles said unto him, Wilt thou at this time restore thy kingdom to Israel? They said, hey, are you going to set up your kingdom right now? And he said, it's not for you to know the times or the seasons. but instead that they would be witnesses unto him. So this was their thinking, this was their mentality, this is what they were looking for. Matthew 24 and verse number 1, Jesus went out and departed from the temple and the disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another. that shall not be thrown down. And as He said upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world? Now when they're asking about His coming, they are asking about the millennial reign, His second coming, His end of the world coming, alright? That's what they're asking about here, and when He would set up His kingdom. And verse number 4, And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars. See that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places, all these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you. And ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And thus shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations. And then shall the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, whoso readeth, let him understand. Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house. Neither let him which is in the field return back. to take his clothes, and woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days. But pray that your flight be not in winter, neither on the Sabbath day. For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world, to this time no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved. But for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened. And if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not, for there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before, whereforth they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert, go not forth. Behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." In other words, he's not going to come to earth secretly like he did the first time. It's not going to be in Bethlehem of Judea. and we're not even hardly making a ripple in world history, when He comes again at His second coming to set up His kingdom, every eye shall see Him. There will be no doubt that He's there. And so we don't have to worry about the Jehovah's Witnesses saying He's reigning in the watchtower. He's not. Alright? We don't have to worry about someone saying, you know, Jesus has returned and He's reincarnated in this preacher in Argentina, as recently I read in the news. He's not, all right? This is what this warning is about, all right? Verse 28, For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And there shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with the great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from the one end of heaven to the other. Now learn a parable of the fig tree, when its branches yet tender, and put it forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh. So likewise, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Alright, and so we see this prophecy. Once again you have to keep in mind this prophecy is based on the understanding of the apostles and disciples saying we're talking about your second coming, Revelation 19. We're talking about you setting up your eternal kingdom. We're talking about these things, your millennial reign on earth. And so from the amillennial or postmillennial view, there are no concrete events mentioned in prophecy because most of what is mentioned is meant figuratively or spiritually, right? But for those who adhere to a literal fulfillment of prophecy and are therefore premillennialist, then certain literal events glimpsed at in scripture are to be expected. In this, right now we'll talk about these events and give some of the main scriptures that lead us to believe that these events will take place. So first, you have the Tribulation or Great Tribulation, alright? So what do we mean when we talk about the Tribulation? We've seen in this passage that we talked about the Great Tribulation. Look at verse 15. 15. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, whoso readeth, let him understand. Here's an anchor point, all right? Something that applies to another passage, which we'll see in a moment. And so when that happens, then let them which be in Judea flee to the mountains. And it tells them to go. Why? Because there's going to be some terrible times happening. Verse 21. For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time No, nor ever shall be. And so when we talk about the Great Tribulation, we have an anchor point here that it happens right after the abomination of desolations seen in the book of Daniel. Alright? So there's an anchor point. And there's not a lot of anchor points between passages in prophecy, end time prophecy, and so this is one of the few anchor points, alright? So, to us that are literalists, there will clearly come a future literal time period referred to as the Tribulation Period in the Bible. Jesus mentions it here in our text. We believe that this tribulation period is a seven year period of time around which the Antichrist will be revealed and a one world government will be established. Now let me note this for a second. So, well let's go there. Let's go to Daniel chapter 9. So when I say it's going to be a seven-year period, it's not clear what we really see as the Great Tribulation, but we do understand that there's going to be a portion of that period, at least, that is called that in Matthew 24. Daniel 9 and verse 24, all right. So here's a prophecy to Daniel concerning his people. Verse 24, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city. Now, when the Bible use the word weeks here, a week is just a set of seven, alright, and so it's not a week of days in this particular passage. Instead, it is a week of years. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city. So this is to Daniel's people and to Jerusalem, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. So it seems that this week of years, or these 70 weeks of years, are gonna be the period of time between, that God has set up, between Daniel's time and the time when the Most Holy will be anointed, which is Jesus, it seems. And so when Jesus' millennial reign, these 70 weeks are a time period between them. Now we'll see there's a pause in this, We'll keep reading here, verse 25, Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem until the Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks, the streets shall be built again. and the wall, even in troublous times. And so 69 of those weeks are going to happen, or have already happened in the past, between the going forth of the command to restore and to build Jerusalem, which this has been fleshed out by many people over the years, probably most notably and maybe firstly by a retired Scotland Yard detective, who was a devout Christian and was the head of Scotland Yard at one time. And he wrote a booklet many, many years ago, I think it was in the 1800s, maybe early 1900s, entitled The Coming Prince, in which he established the concept and idea that these 69 weeks were the time from the going forth of the command to restore Jerusalem until Jesus was crucified, which we'll see here in verse 26. After threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, the crucifixion, but not for himself. And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. And in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. So there's one week of years after Jesus was crucified, still yet to be fulfilled. And when that happens, of course, Jesus said it hadn't been fulfilled in His day, of course. It was still yet in the future. And He said, you'll know that that time has come when you see the abomination of desolations. And that's gonna happen in the midst of the last week of years. Because we're literalists, we don't see this literally fulfilled anywhere in the past. We believe this is yet in the future, and that Matthew 24 was mentioning this as well, saying, Then shall be great tribulation, and after the abomination of desolation. So as far as we can tell, There's one week of years left or one group of seven years left yet in the future. Right now we're living in a pause period where God has stopped this prophetic time clock and that one day it'll start again. That that week of years is what the book of Revelation is mainly about. That week of years is what all real prophecy is mainly about. and that that's what Matthew 24 is about as we see that anchor point of the abomination of desolations. Now notice the Bible actually says only in the midst of the week will the abomination of desolations happen and only after the abomination of desolations will be great tribulation. And so if someone wants to get technical, only at most the second half of the 70th week of Daniel is really referred to as the Great Tribulation in the Bible, but often referred to the whole seven years as the time of Jacob's trouble, the Tribulation period, and we would divide it into kind of two categories by Matthew 24, the beginning of sorrows, and then the second half as the Great Tribulation. Now, it's also tied to the book of Revelation. Let's go to Revelation 7. Revelation chapter 7. And this is another reason why it... Doesn't seem possible that it's talking about 70 A.D. here and the destruction of Jerusalem at that time, although that would happen as a type of a future event. But Revelation 7 and beginning of verse number 9, And after this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders, and the four beasts, and fell upon the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen, blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white. the blood of the Lamb. And so you can see now that Matthew 24 is anchored to Daniel chapter 9 through the abomination of desolations. They're both anchored to the book of Revelation through the Great Tribulation period. And so although the Bible says, really refers to it as the 70th week of Daniel, it is often referred to as the Tribulation period. Although technically only the second half is called the Great Tribulation in the Bible, or at most the second half, alright? So you have the Great Tribulation, and that's followed by the coming of Christ, the second coming, if you will, in Revelation 19, followed by the Millennial reign of Christ, and then of course followed by him setting up a new heaven and a new earth, and of course establishing his kingdom for all of eternity. Now the main controversy among pre-millennialists regarding the Tribulation is really not about the 70th week of Daniel itself, but rather about when the rapture happens during the tribulation. And we'll just mention briefly here 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. So we know there's a coming of Christ mentioned in Revelation chapter 19 where he comes and destroys his enemies and sets up his kingdom, alright. But, and of course Matthew 24 references this as well, but there's another mention of a coming of Christ, if you will, in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15, and this does not seem to be the same event, or at least the same exact details here, 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 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, that we which are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord shall not prevent 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, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another, with these words. So, if you are a literalist concerning prophetic scripture, concerning the end times, then this naturally leads you to a position of a futurist, which means many of the events described in scripture prophetically are still yet in the future. They have not been literally fulfilled in the past. Now, once you get to be a futurist and you understand that concept, well this naturally, and a literalist, this naturally leads you to a pre-millennial position, because Revelation 19 and 20 seem very, very obvious that they are chronological. That Jesus returns, destroys the armies of the Antichrist in Revelation 19, and then sets up his kingdom and Revelation number 20. Now once you get to there and you understand that Matthew 24 and Daniel 9 are talking about events leading up to Revelation 19, because it's when leading up to Revelation 20 when Jesus will be anointed and that that's what Daniel 9 was talking about. and that because Daniel 9 was talking about the events leading up to the anointing of the Most Holy, so also Matthew 24 is tied to Daniel 9 by, of course, the mention of the abomination of desolations. And so once you understand that, you basically come to the concept and understanding that there is one seven-year period, yet in the future, that is going to be used of God to prepare the nation of Israel to receive their king and also to prepare God's people everywhere in every nation for the millennial reign of Christ. And so then the controversy kind of begins anew in where the rapture fits into all of this because at the second coming We see Jesus coming with His saints, destroying the armies of the Antichrist, setting up His millennial kingdom. But in 1 Thessalonians we see Him coming in the air and us meeting Him in the air. And it seems a little odd at least that He would come in the air and we'd meet Him in the air and then He would finish coming to earth. You know, why wouldn't we just wait for Him here? at that point, but we'll get into some of the details of why we are a pre-tribulation rapturist as well as pre-millennialist here in the next couple of weeks. So the tribulation period, as it's often referred to, is really the 70th week of Daniel, a seven-year period yet in the future that leads up to the millennial reign of Christ.