Welcome, it's good to see you tonight. All right. Well, let's get to it. You already probably maybe have discerned what the topic is this evening. A lot of stuff to talk about really tonight. I really did pray about You know, with these prophecy updates, there's so many directions you can go and so many things going on in the world. And sometimes I wonder, you know, because part of my objective in doing this once a month is to sort of equip people to say, hey, this is how you kind of discern the times because we're supposed to watch, be ready, be sober, be vigilant. So kind of wanting to show people how to be vigilant and how to discern what's going on in the world and how might that play into future events. And we don't, really want to be dogmatic about, you know, like some people have made the mistake of saying, well, this thing is absolutely going to be the mark of the beast, or this is absolutely going to be the antichrist. That's always a bad idea to sort of be dogmatic, but we are told to watch and be watchmen on the wall. And that's kind of, you know, what we've been doing, you know, here at Atheon, these once a month deals. But a lot of the things, yes, praise the Lord. I agree. A little singer to the Lord. That's great. So one of the things that I've noticed though, however, is while I feel like we've been getting caught up on some of those kinds of notions, I've noticed that in general terms, there's been some things about what we believe about Bible prophecy that might be needing to be strengthened. And not as much world events as much as the actual biblical narrative of what's gonna happen. And so I'm gonna spend a little time on that tonight. We really could talk about the Houthis and Abu Dhabi and the invasion there. What does that mean? There's some, what about Ukraine and Putin and all that? That's pretty simple, honestly. I don't see the Ukrainian issue being a big Bible prophecy thing as much, as much as I see Putin flexing his muscles and seeing what he can get away with. And that is kind of a precursor to him becoming more and more powerful in the Middle East, which would lead to Ezekiel 38. So I think you guys can do the math on a lot of these things that are happening around the world. the craziness of some of the things they're trying to force us to do and the decline of America. I mean, we can talk about all kinds of things. But I wanted to remind us of a couple things and zero in on the rapture itself. But let's start with this. Do you remember the Bible says that we're not supposed to be ignorant concerning several things. Let me just remind you, there's actually six main things the Bible says specifically that we're not supposed to be ignorant of. And so you can maybe jot these down. I think, don't you think if God says, hey, you guys, of all the things you're not supposed to be dumb about, And then he gives you a list. Shouldn't we kind of take note? I mean, shouldn't we say, okay, Lord, I don't want to be dumb about these things. Here's what I want you to observe as we go through these six things real quick, is how the church is divided and disagreeing. And it seems like it's oftentimes our dimmest areas are these six things that the Lord lists in his word. And so we don't want to be falling to that mistake of just neglecting the things the Lord says in his word. Whatever you do, don't be dumb or ignorant. You know, the Greek word, it comes kind of from that same Latin, you know, the agnosco, or to not know, sort of to be agnostic, if you would, is kind of the idea there. And so don't be agnosco, or ignorant. By the way, what is it? Agnosco in the Greek, in the Latin, it's ignoramus. That's literally the translation for you studious types. So when people say, I'm agnostic, do you realize what you're saying? You're saying in Latin, you're an ignoramus. Anyway, don't be ignorant. concerning these things. So the first one on the list is the things that are dealing with spiritual gifts. Now, I put the word gift there, but we have to put the word gift in italics when you look at it. It says, now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Now, that little verse there, see the word gift there? In your Bible, it's also in italics. It's not just us who did that. In your Bible, it's in italics, because the word, when you ever see a word that's in italics in your Bible, it means it wasn't there in the original text. Now in the defense of the translators, they're trying to help the text along, you know, cause sometimes the Greek sentences just come out differently than what we would say in the English. So you understand why they add a word or two once in a while, but there are times like this one where it's done a real disservice to the text. It really should say now concerning spiritual things or just spiritual. That's what the original text says, concerning pneumatika in the Greek, which is, or pneumatikos, which means things pertaining to the Holy Spirit. The reason why the word gifts is inappropriate is do you have the gift of healing? Well, the Lord might give you a gift of healing for a person at any given time. And any one of us can have that at any time. I hope you understand that. If you're Benny Hensley, I have the holy gift of healing, you are wrong and you need to comb your hair differently. But anyway. No, I'm just messing around. But no, seriously, we've got to understand that don't be ignorant about things of the Holy Spirit. And man, the church, whether it's the cessationists who say, well, the Spirit is not for today, and all those things listed in 1 Corinthians 12, that's not for today. Well, that's wrong. But then you got our charismaniac, and I'm somewhat of a charismatic, but what's the difference between a charismatic and a charismaniac? The charismatic has a safety belt. We call it the Bible. And I believe in the things of the Holy Spirit, and they are for today, and they're to be used in the church, but used very carefully and rightfully and biblically. That's the main thing there. But you know, there's some churches where they're swinging from the chandeliers, flopping in the aisles, handling snakes and passing them around. That's the charismaniac that I would say, they're going outside of scripture. And so there's ignorance when it comes to clamping down on the Holy Spirit and quenching the Spirit versus being hyper charismatic and making stuff up as you go and being weird about it. There's a sweet spot and that's one of the things you and I are called in the scriptures not to be ignorant of. That's first Corinthians 12, one. The second one on the list concerning things of typology. There it says in first Corinthians 10, one through four. And moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant. that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And did all eat the same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. And then it goes on in that same chapter and says, and these things are all examples or types, typos in the Greek. That's where that word typology comes from. That the Old Testament is a picture book of New Testament truths. And it's so, it brings the Bible to life. If you just read the Bible in sort of a one-dimensional way, the Old Testament, just a bunch of old stories of literature, then the Bible is kind of boring. But if you read the Bible the way it's meant to be read with the typology, and when you're reading about the tabernacle in the Old Testament, the tabernacle is a picture of Jesus Christ, and it's an amazing picture. Or Joseph himself, the son of Jacob, is an amazing portrait of Jesus Christ. And there's pictures all throughout, we can go on and on. But that's one of the things you're not supposed to be ignorant of. Sadly, the church neglects that by and large. And we like to do little sermons from the New Testament and some of these pastors saying, let's unhitch ourselves from the Old Testament. They're the ones that have missed it. And they're ignorant toward what the Bible says of that. Number three on the list is a big one. We're not supposed to be ignorant concerning Satan's devices. You know, 2 Corinthians 2.11, lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. Now that's Paul saying, we're not ignorant, but that implication, as you read that whole passage contextually, that's what we should be doing as well, not being ignorant concerning Satan's tactics or devices. Now, those are the first three. The next three have something in common, and let's see if you can figure it out. Number four on the list, or what are we on? What is this, number four. The mystery concerning Israel. Romans 11, 25 through 27. For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits. that blinders in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles become in. And so all Israel shall be saved. As it is written, there shall come out of Zion, the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins. Man, what a beautiful thing on number four here that we're supposed to know that God is not done with the Jews. He's got a plan for Israel. And again, this is one where the church historically has been profoundly off on. when I talk about replacement theology all the time, where the church, you know, the Catholics and so many others, you know, some of the biggest denominations for centuries have just said, yeah, God's done with the Jews and the church has replaced Israel and God's forsaken the Jews because they murdered Jesus. No, Jesus was a Jew. And God said that his people would be in rebellion and that they would do all the stuff we've seen them do. But read Romans 9, 10, and 11. Those three chapters remind us that we're to be humble as Gentiles and say, man, right now blindness in part has happened to Jews. And we see that even to this day. It's an amazing day you and I are living in. We're living in a day where we're seeing the regathering of Israel, and it has been that way for the last 150, 200 years, just like the Bible said, but they're doing it in unbelief. It's such an amazing thing. We're watching the Jews gather in unbelief right now. And it's exactly what God said would happen. Remember the bones in the Valley of Dry Bones? We've seen the bones come together. We just haven't seen the breath of life in them yet. That's gonna come. But one of the things we're reminded of is to not be arrogant, or as it says, you're wise in your own conceits. As Gentiles, don't be thinking you're bigger or better than them. Isn't it interesting that that's what the church has done? By the way, that's one of the topics, if I were doing more current events today, I think I'd probably camp out on some of the antisemitism that's happening right now, because it's reaching a feverish pitch right now, the antisemitism around the world. And if you don't think Whoopi Goldberg's comments have something to do with antisemitism, it really does. Again, the Babylon Bee nails it. This one here, did you see this one? while watching The View in Hell, Hitler surprised to learn that Holocaust wasn't about race. I thought that was pretty good. Can you believe that someone would say, I mean, like, it's just shocking that someone would actually say, yeah, the Holocaust wasn't really about race. By the way, I'm gonna say something that, you know, probably could get me canceled now, but you want me canceled that bad? So here's the thing, which one's worse, what happened to the Jews in the Holocaust or historically the racism against the Jews or racism in slavery in America? Well, let me explain before you answer that question. One group was declared, we need to wipe them off the face of the earth so they never exist ever again. The other group said, we're gonna enslave them. And it wasn't as much of a global situation, although you could make that argument with slavery. But there's been slaves of all kinds of people throughout all the ages, throughout all history. But we've seen that. But it's a different thing to enslave someone, that's bad enough. I'm not arguing that slavery is not a horrible thing. I'm just saying, which one's worse, to make a people group slaves or to make a people group extinct? That's what happened in the Holocaust. So for Whoopi to make those comments, that's why so many people were just stunned, because that's just not really getting the memo, not really having a clue when it comes to what has happened historically to Jews. Six million Jews, at least, in the Holocaust put in gas chambers. It's profound. But you'll notice there's this thing being talked about all over the world, how the Holocaust never really happened. College professors at these Ivy League schools are saying, It's not really what happened. Man, I'll tell you, mom, dad, if you ever go to Washington DC, you've got to go to the Holocaust Museum there. It's probably the best one in the world. The second one, best one's probably in Jerusalem, the Yad Vashem Museum. If you've never been to either one of those, it's worth the trip just for that alone. It's not like you walk out of there going, yes, that was awesome. You walk out of the Holocaust museums like somebody kicked you in the gut. It's a brutal experience, but I think everyone should know the reality of what actually happened there. People like this that say these things, it's just part of the anti-Semitism. It's diminishing what the Jews have been through, and it's also diminishing who the people are. So be that as it may, number four on our list of the things that we should not be ignorant of, the mystery concerning Israel, that God has a plan and a purpose for the Jews. Number five, God's timing. It says, but beloved there in 2 Peter 3, verse eight and nine, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness, but is long suffering to us. We're not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So one of the things the Bible says, don't be ignorant about is the timing. And now the context of 2 Peter 3 is all about, you know, the second coming of Christ and all the way even to when God ultimately does away with this whole world and creates a new heaven, a new earth. Like Peter's talking about the whole end time scenario from beginning to end. He says, don't be ignorant. One day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. And the reason the Lord hasn't come back is because he wants no one to perish. He's been patient in long suffering. Great truth about God's timing when it comes to the rapture. Some people say, well, if God is love, why doesn't he fix all the problems of the world? He will. But when he does that, part of the problem is he's gonna fix some of the people that are saying that. Fix the problem. You're the problem. God's gonna fix that. But God is saying, I don't wanna do that yet. I'd rather see you repent and be saved and come to a knowledge of the Lord. And that's why the Lord is patient. So you've got, you know, the last, the one before that, you know, the mystery of Israel, God's timing concerning the end times. And then lastly on our list, the rapture of the church. Check it out, it says in 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 13 through 18. You guys know this well. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. Now, by the way, I'm not even gonna get into soul sleep. Some of you guys maybe came from different backgrounds where you believe that when you die, you just kind of go to sleep and then someday you'll be resurrected and you're just kind of in a snooze mode. I don't believe that. This is sort of an idiom of the Bible when it says those that are asleep are those who passed on before us or died before us. And there's many reasons why I believe, and I've done old teachings on why I don't agree with the whole concept of soul sleep. One is to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Two is the thief that hung on the cross. Jesus didn't say, you know, in about a thousand, 2000 years, you'll be with me in paradise. He didn't say that. He said, today, you will be with me in paradise, not sawing logs in the dirt for a couple thousand years. So that's just a couple of quickies. There's a lot of other reasons I would argue soul sleep is not right. So this language, don't be confused by this. So it says, verse 14, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them which also sleep in Jesus will God bring with them. 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 them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, 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. This is a key passage about the rapture of the church. This is maybe our main, we might even call this the main text when it comes to the idea of the rapture of the church. There's a few others in the Bible that talk about it, but we'll maybe look into those things in a second. But notice that the last three items on our list of things not to be ignorant, did you guys see the common thread? What were they? Anybody? Right, they're all things that deal with the last days, the end times, Bible prophecy. Isn't it funny that three, and you might even say Satan's devices, you could put that one in there too as maybe a fourth. But the point is, of all the things we're not supposed to be ignorant about, isn't it funny that And so much of the church just says, yeah, Bible prophecy, you know, I don't know about all that. And so it's so divisive, they say, we're not gonna talk about that in our churches. Even though it's more than one fourth of the Bible, people just say, yeah, we're not gonna go over that. And so there's a great ignorance when it comes to Israel, the rapture of the church, you know, it's sad to me to see that. you know, the timing of the Lord, that, you know, the days of the thousand years, people just don't really care about that stuff. So why is it that the church tends to be ignorant concerning these things? I think that there's a lot of reasons people avoid the topic, partially because the rapture, well, It's a little weird, I'll admit it, that we believe that there's gonna be a time where there's a massive disappearance. You know what's interesting though to me about this is 25, 30 years ago, yeah, people were like, you believe there's gonna be a massive disappearance in the world and God's gonna take a bunch of people out of the world and you say yes, and they think you've been drinking your bath water. But isn't it interesting now with all the movies and the conditioning that's been happening the last 20, 30 years, the idea of a massive disappearance, there's entire groups that aren't even Christians are saying, yeah, it's gonna happen. Some of the new agers have a whole theory about the age of Aquarius being brought in by the removal of a bunch of people that are problematic. And it's funny to the new age, your guess is problematic. We are, and we're holding back. And isn't that funny? The Bible says that, doesn't it? That we're holding back there in 2 Thessalonians, that the church is holding back this coming in of a new age. It's just not gonna be the age of Aquarius. It's gonna be the age of Antichrist. And we're holding those things back. So isn't it amazing that even the secular world is kind of like, yeah, we're on board with this idea of a massive disappearance. And the movies that we have now out there, it's almost conditioned people to where you can almost see it happening and people going, yep, That's kind of what we all thought was going to happen, whether it was aliens that took us away or, you know, maybe, you know, karma that zapped us all out because we were the problem or whatever. So, so all that to say, you know, this idea of the rapture of the church is, is by a lot of people, they don't want to talk about it because it's, it's kind of a sensational topic. But it is in the Bible. And by the way, you know, the Bible's sensational. When you read about Moses and the children of Israel at the Red Sea and Moses taking out a staff over the water and the whole Red Sea parting and people going down, you know, like to me, that's a sensational story. But God's kind of into that stuff. God does reveal himself to humanity in the very different times, diverse times and places. The rapture of the church is gonna be one of those massive moments where the world is gonna see God intervening on behalf of his church. So that's kind of the thing I wanna do is I wanna talk about the rapture a little bit. And I also wanna give a defense for a pre-trib rapture. And the reason I think this is important is because I'm finding so many people bailing off of the rapture bandwagon lately. Isn't it interesting? We're seeing churches who once believed in a rapture, even a pre-trib, pre-millennial sort of situation. A lot of them are bailing off right now because it's not a popular topic. And there's this desire to sort of make people that are pre-tribulational viewed rapture people. There's sort of a desire to make everybody that's in that camp look kind of crazy. And they're working hard at that. So I wanna sort of remind us, sharpen ourselves a little bit tonight and give us sort of the defense of what we see the Bible saying and why we believe that it's true. The rapture of the church is important in the Bible. And there are so many different views out there. And by the way, pre-Tribbers, we are not the majority. And we haven't been for a long, long time. You might say the end times people, maybe the majority has been the amillennial view, where there's no literal millennial kingdom, no literal rapture. And then there's all kinds of views in between there, the preterist. that believes, it depends on which kind of preterist you are. If you're a full preterist, you believe that all Bible prophecy, book of Revelation, Matthew 24, all the Bible prophecy took place in AD 70 when Jerusalem was crushed by the Romans. And they believe that the Bible prophecy is done now. Seal it up and it's delivered because of what happened in Jerusalem in AD 70. That's an embarrassing position because if you just read those stories of what the Lord says is gonna happen, it's not just one little city in the world that's gonna be crushed by the Romans, it's global in scope and it's futuristic. And the book of Revelation, it takes work to try to associate the book of Revelation with what happened in AD 70. And it's really quite an amazing construct. The full preterist is kind of hard to really even take seriously, honestly. But then there's a partial preterist who sort of believes that some of that was fulfilled in AD 70. And there's still some prophecies perhaps that are going to happen like the rapture of the church. And they believe the rapture is going to happen at the same time as the second coming. that we're gonna go out and meet the Lord, and then we're gonna come back, and we'll talk about that in a minute. But the preterists don't take a lot of Bible prophecy literally, it's all figurative, and there's no literal this or that, that's kind of their position. But when it comes to people that believe in a literal rapture, The big question, the big argument is, at what point in time, where does the rapture fit in God's timeline? Now, remember, there's a side note here. Anybody that claims they know the day or the hour of the rapture of the church, you know they're wacko, right? Are we all square on that? I'm not talking about knowing the day or the hour. Once in a while, I'll hear a critic say, Pastor Brett's always predicting when the rapture is gonna happen. I'm like, when did I do that? I have never predicted when the rapture, but I might say things like it could be soon, could be tomorrow, you know, but that's the way I believe we're supposed to live with that absolute expectation that the rapture is going to come. And I just, none of us know when it's gonna happen, but we can try to discern at what point of God's timeline is it gonna happen? And that's where some big debate takes place. And when is the rapture gonna happen as it relates to the millennial kingdom, thousand year rule and reign of Jesus? And so there's different views. The one I believe is pre-tribulation, that I believe the rapture is gonna happen where the church is taken up out of this world before the tribulation, the seven-year period called the tribulation in the Bible. The second view I might bring in is mid-trib. There's some mid-tribbers probably even in this room. If you made me shift from pre-trib and you said, but you can't do that anymore. You have to think of something else. There is a sort of a concept of the pre-wrath that, I mean, it makes sense, but still it's problematic in my mind. And we've, Talked a little bit about that in previous times, but it's a view where the rapture of the church is gonna happen somewhere before the great tribulation in the last three and a half years comes down. And there's a lot of different variations of mid-trib, by the way, the pre-wrath and mid-trib can be various views. Then there's the post-trib view, that the rapture's gonna happen at the end of the tribulation period, at the second coming of Christ. And then there's a fourth view, pan-tribulation, that it's all just gonna pan out, so who cares? Actually, don't write that fourth one down. That's just me being a nerd. Can I just say about the pan-tribute though? There's a lot of people that take this goofy, and I hope none of you are that. I doubt it's you because you're here on a Friday night prophecy update. But there are people like, yeah, it's all gonna pan out, so whatever. We don't care when the rapture's gonna happen. I've heard people say, I'm gonna pray for pre, prepare for post. You're gonna do what? It's almost like some people just don't really wanna care. Even though I believe it's worth the discussion to know what the Bible actually teaches. And some people say, yeah, forget studying the Bible. It's just gonna happen. God's gonna do whatever he's gonna do. So forget about it. Is that a real responsible biblical approach? Don't be the pan-tribulational view where it's only gonna pan out, whatever. So all that to say, now, there are some that would say, okay, so I'm not gonna defend any of those views except for the one I actually believe. And there's plenty of material out there you can find on any one of those views. And there's even entire books that'll take those four views and compare them, you know, parallel comparisons. It's not hard to find all that. So I'm not gonna spend any time defending any of those that I don't believe. But the pre-trib rapture view is what I believe. But let me start with some of the probably the biggest critique of the pre-trib rapture view. And that is that some who hold that eschatological view that the rapture is an invention of the past 200 years. that it's a brand new eschatological view. Nobody was talking about the rapture of the church until a couple hundred years ago, and a bunch of kooky people came up with this harebrained idea. You'll bump into this argument all the time. This is their number one argument, that the rapture of the church is a modern, invention. And what they'll say is, you know, it was taught or believed, you know, in the 19th century, an invention of a Jesuit priest named Lacunza. Some people say he was the first guy who came up with it. And that's why he's holding his head. He's got a headache. because he was coming up with a new Eschatolah. Have you guys heard of the crazy woman named Margaret McDonald? Some people will say the rapture of the church started with this girl when she was a teenager and she had this crazy idea. There's this real attempt to sort of minimize the idea of the rapture of the church by putting it on these crazy people. Now, I can't really defend those first two people as much, but it is true. The concept of the rapture being talked about in the church was, and I'll give it to them, the argument, that we really didn't see much talk about the rapture of the church before these guys, but some of the guys put them on the map. Like for example, John Nelson Darby goes down as a guy who really wrote clearly about the rapture. In fact, some people say, you know, you're a Darby follower if you're a pre-tribulation rapture believer. or just hold the idea of the rapture in general, that you're a Darbyist. And then the final guy, and this is somebody I actually really appreciate, C.I. Schofield. And he, as an American theologian, he's responsible with the Schofield Bible, reference Bible. How many of you guys have the Schofield Bible? I figured there'd be some of you guys here at the Prophecy Update. How many of you guys have the old Schofield Bible? Oh yeah, how many of us have the new Schofield Bible? Okay, yeah. Interesting, so just FYI, the old Schofield Bible is awesome. It was so awesome that they stopped printing it and people had, they flipped out. And they started, they had to, start reprinting the old Schofield. Because the old Schofield notes had things about the rapture of the church and like all the pre-trib rapture views kind of summed up in the old Schofield Bible's reference notes and what have you. The new Schofield, they took all that out. Still good stuff in there. but it just took out all the rapture stuff and end time stuff. So if you're looking for a Bible that has like a study Bible, the old Schofield references is one that's worth looking at if you wanna kind of see what the Bible says about pre-trib rapture and stuff like that. So when it comes to eschatology, most Christians throughout history have been all millennial or post-millennial, not pre-millennial. That is a pre-millennial, pre-trib rapture. And so there's a bunch of people that would say, you guys are followers of these people in the last couple hundred years, and it's all brand new. Now, here's the thing that we have to kind of be careful about this. First of all, I'll give it to them generally speaking. and say, yeah, the church really didn't talk about the rapture like this, like we do today for the longest of time. But one of the things we have to recognize is they wanna lean on their church history and what people were talking about. Is that a great thing to base your theology on is church history? The problem with church history, listen, this is important. The problem with church history is I can't defend a lot of things that happened in church history. The church believed a lot of harebrained ideas. And just because they believed it for thousands of years, there's some things they still believe that are kind of shocking. Most Christians throughout history, for example, they approved the idea of the veneration of Mary. Is that a good biblical theme? The Catholic church to this day has this real strange, view, something that Jesus never wanted us to do, to sort of put Mary up on this massive pedestal, to say the least. That's putting it nicely. Another thing that you'll see in churches today that, you know, hook, line, and sinker, man, they fell for it, infant baptism. And it's kind of cute, isn't it? But where in the Bible does it say that an infant is to be baptized? It's nowhere in Scripture. You don't see it anywhere. Repentance is always associated with baptism, that there's a person who made a decision to follow Christ. Now, some of you, I gotta always do the disclaimer. You say, Brett, I wasn't baptized as an infant. Well, what that means is you had a well-meaning mother or father and father who said, we wanna make sure and check the box that our child is baptized. Even though they were a little misguided by the priest or whoever, the Bible doesn't say anything about that. And I would really recommend that you would think about getting baptized as an adult, because that's what you always see in the Bible. Repent and be baptized. It was a choice that people made. I could go on and on. The institution of the state church. like the Anglican Church, or the Catholic Church has been a state church, the Church of England, and the idea of a state church, that's something the Bible, it doesn't say anything about that. And here's the bottom line, this is where we have to remember, church history, we could just go on and on with the list of things that are kind of wacko. So just because they weren't talking about the rapture of the church for those few thousand years, does it mean that it's wrong? Either we believe in sola scriptura or we do not. Do we believe in the Bible? By the way, when we look at church history, and I think a healthy thing for a Bible prophecy buff to do is to also study church history. You can learn a ton studying church history. But one thing you learn when you kind of look at church history is you can see that God has successively sort of had the church focus on specific areas of doctrine throughout different time periods. And it's really kind of amazing how the church, it took us millennia really to dial in our understanding of the scriptures and doctrine. And our present understanding of many biblical teachings were, most carefully and prayerfully, precisely defined after God, appointed the church to focus on that doctrinal area. By the way, there's a long list of these things. Second, through the fourth centuries, after the church was formed by Jesus, and then the Apostle Paul and Peter and the gang, and the gospel started to share, it was in the second, through the fourth centuries, the church started to focus on the doctrine of inherent perfect scripture. And they took the words of Paul and realized, wow, the scripture, all scripture is God-breathed. And it took them a while to realize the infallibility of scripture. In the fourth century, the doctrine of the Trinity was dialed in a little better. And it took a lot of work for them to realize what the Bible teaches. The fifth century, the doctrine of Christ. The fifth through the seventh century is the doctrine of man and how, what our relationship to God really is got more dialed in. 16th and 17th century is the doctrine of salvation. was really promoted and we started to understand better. And the 19th and 20th centuries, we're starting to see more of a honing in on the doctrine of the last things or eschatology, Christ's return. Now you might say, well, we're coming a little late to the party, aren't we? Now that we're in the almost 2000 years from Christ, shouldn't we have figured this out earlier? Well, of all the doctrines of the Bible, which one makes the most sense that we haven't figured it out yet? The end times theology, you should know this, and this is part of this defense. When they say, the rapture of the church is a new doctrine that people are just now making up in the last 200 years, give it to them and say, yeah, but isn't it interesting that the Bible kind of talks about prophecy, how it would be sealed up until the time of the end. I remember Daniel was told in one of the greatest prophecy books of the Bible, Daniel said, seal up the words of this book. It's not for you, Daniel. And Daniel walked away astonished saying, I didn't understand anything I just wrote. That's what the book of Daniel is like. And then it says, at the end of the book of Revelation, it says, now do not seal up the words of this book. And really think about it, AD 70, speaking of that day, that's when the Jews were crushed by the Romans, scattered all over the world, and scattered for 2,000 years. If you read Bible prophecy, it includes the nation Israel, literally, and this powerful nation that would be hated by the world. But all the people in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh century, they said, what are you guys talking about? The Jews haven't been a nation for hundreds of years. In fact, they could have said that by the 1500s, they've been not a nation for a millennia and a half. So of course, we're not gonna take Bible prophecy literally. Of course, we're not gonna believe all these things. But then the Lord, his word prophetically started to come to pass, the Zionist movement, the regathering of the Jews, and then the nation. May 14th, 1948, that should have been the moment people said, wait a minute, They should have said, wow, we got to rethink Bible prophecy altogether now because there's a literal Israel and it's being fulfilled exactly like the Bible said prophetically. That's when people should have taken another look at it and said, wait a minute. And so because of the way prophecy is, but just by its nature, we shouldn't be surprised that God chose to have the church focus on this area of doctrine. toward the end, and we don't apologize for us having a newer understanding. Martin Luther, man, when he was around 500 years ago, he thought the Jews were just a horrible people. The last book he wrote was horrifyingly antisemitic. How many guys have read from that book? Any of you guys read some of Martin Luther's writings? They've done a good job hiding it. You can't find the book anywhere. I don't think it was ever translated in English. And that's why a lot of us haven't really read much of it, but it's profound. Why was Martin Luther so antisemitic? Because he was a guy who was the ultimate replacement theologian. The Jews were done, God's chosen people were evil, they killed the Messiah, and he hated the Jews. It was profound. But what happened is because of that, even Adolf Hitler used some of Martin Luther's writings to defend his own thing. So all this to say, yeah, Here's the thing that I would challenge my friends that say, Brett, you guys are believing some new view on Bible prophecy, a new view concerning the rapture of the church. This is only a few hundred years old. Then I would say, you're arguing on the basis of historical Christianity, church history, but let's just forget that for a second. And let's try to make a biblical argument one way or the other. I believe that we need to make our case from scripture, not from church history. When I see people with that accusation, this new teaching from the 19th century, it makes me think their biblical argument tends to be a little weak, and it usually is. If their only argument is, well, I just believe what Martin Luther believed, well, when it comes to Bible prophecy, that means you're kind of lazy, and you haven't really done the research to figure out why this idea of the rapture of the church End times prophecy has sort of been changed as we get closer to the time of the Lord. By the way, there's a bunch of signs of weak arguments. Can I just tell you that when you're talking to people? Have you guys ever heard of the term secret rapture? Here's the question. Have you ever heard a pre-trib Bible prophecy person who believes in the rapture ever use the term secret rapture? No, you'll never hear like, I never heard that until I was in like a little cordial debate with the guys like, well, you guys believe in a secret rapture. I'm like, what, what do we believe? A secret? And there's this whole thing, you know, their use of the term secret rapture tells me more about them and the strength of their argument than it does about their favored end time scenario. The idea of a secret rapture is just sort of diminished, like it's some weird little thing that we believe it's only a secret to us. And it's not in the, that's their argument, it's not in the Bible, anywhere in the Bible, the whole word rapture is not in the Bible. I always laugh at that one when people say the word rapture is not even in the Bible. The word Bible is not even in the Bible. The word Trinity is not, did you know Christianity is not in the Bible? The word Christianity, the word Trinity is not, like we could go on and on at things that are worded like that in the Bible, but we know them to be biblical concepts. So don't let those arguments, if they're doing those arguments, you know that they're probably pretty weak on their Bible prophecy if they're already using those arguments. So let's go back to the text that we looked at here just a minute ago. And I wanna break this down a little bit. Just before we kind of get into some of the reasons I believe in a pre-trib rapture, and we'll see how far we can get tonight. But the first thing here is it says, the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, voice and with the trump of God. One of the things that causes great confusion is this Trump. It's not a, you know, you gotta get the right Trump. Is it a Trump of God? Is it a Trump of an angel? Is it Donald Trump? Which one is it? Well, the rapture of the church, according to 1 Thessalonians 4, the rapture of the church is when the Trump of God is blown. Now, just I'm doing a really fast version of this, but some of our mid-trib friends or pre-wrath guys, they'll say, See, the trumpets are blown there in the tribulation, Revelation 6 through 19, and that's where you find the trump being blown. But the problem that you need to understand is that's not the trump of God. Those are trumpets blown by angels, and there's seven of them. This is a singular trump of God that's gonna happen when the dead in Christ shall rise first. Now, What does that mean? The dead in Christ shall rise first. People get stumped by this. There's a lot of kind of mysterious statements in this section of scripture. This is active, present, indicative. The idea is the dead in Christ are rising first. Those who died before us, guess what's happening. When they die, like Jesus told the thief on the cross, today you'll be with me in paradise. And then after that, Jesus led captivity captive. You guys follow me on this one? When he first descended, then he ascended, and then he ushered those people that were in the paradise side of Abraham's bosom, ushered them into heaven. So those people are with the Lord, even right now. The dead in Christ shall rise first. And the idea is, and they continually do that. And they are rising first is the idea. Then we which are alive and remain, anyone who's not died, shall be caught up. Now, notice the we here. Paul the apostle uses the term we. And I think that's kind of cool that he was along with the other apostles, they believed that it could be them being caught up in the rapture. So when they say John Darby was the first one who talked about the rapture, Well, I always say, wait a minute, Paul was one of the first guys, Paul the apostle. He talked about it in 1 Thessalonians chapter four. Now I'll give it to him, there's a big gap from Paul all the way to Darby, but it's still my defense is scripture, not church history or the understanding of the church concerning the rapture of the church. I'm gonna use scripture every time. So here it is, Paul's saying the dead in Christ shall rise first and they are. Just like he said, then we, which are alive, we, including Paul, he's talking about the church, even of his time, he knew it was possible that it could happen in his day. That was the point. We, which are alive and reign shall be, and then you guys know, key word there, caught up. Caught up. And that's where we get the word rapture. Harpazo in the Greek. The Latin is where it was rapturo, where we get our word rapture. So those people that are trying to say the word rapture is not in the Bible. Well, that's disingenuous. It's actually there. Call it whatever you want. Rapture, caught up, harpazo. I don't care what you call it, but The word caught up, harpazo, the Greek word, means literally to be snatched up and taken away. Like almost like picked up by hand and pulled out. That's what the Lord's gonna do together with them in the clouds. So my little artwork theme here tonight is clouds because I always look out the door every day, is it cloudy? Because if it's a cloudy day, and I think maybe Portland, we've got all kinds of chances for the rapture. Because it's gonna be cloudy. But anyway, we're gonna meet the Lord in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So that's that word rapture caught up. And we're gonna meet the Lord in the air, but notice it's not just the Lord, we're gonna come together with them. Who are the them there? They're the people of the dead in Christ that rose first. We're gonna meet in the air of the Lord with our loved ones who've died before us. What a glorious, greeting or meeting the rapture of the church is gonna be. We're gonna meet the Lord in the air and all of our loved ones who've died before us. That's part of them. We're gonna be with them and meet the Lord in the air. And then it says, so shall we ever be with the Lord. Once the rapture of the church happens, we get to be like our loved ones that have gone on before us because those dead in Christ, they rose and they are with the Lord. That's why we say, when a person we know who is a Christian dies, we say, he went to be with home with the Lord. And that's what we believe. But when the rapture happens, we get to be with them and we get to be with the Lord forever and ever. Wherever Jesus is, that's where we get to be from that day forward. And then it says, wherefore comfort one another with these words. This is a very clear description of what's gonna happen. And it's powerful. Now, you say, okay, Brett, so this is the rapture and it's gonna happen, but how do we know and what's our defense that it's gonna be before the tribulation instead of after? Now, some of you again say, I don't care, either way, as long as I get raptured. Well, the Bible cares and the Bible talks about this. And let me give you, we'll see how much time we have tonight, how many I can get through, because I've got about 100. reasons I believe in a pre-trib rapture. Let's start with number one, Revelation, the divine outline. Would you turn to Revelation with me real quick? I wanna show you something. Revelation chapter one. And this is a good thing. The reason some of you might say, yeah, I know about this, but make sure you really know it enough to be able to share it and defend what you believe. That's why I think it's good we're going through this again is just, repetition is the mother of all learning. So if it's an old thing to you, man, if it's new, man, take note, this is a big deal. The book of Revelation, have you ever heard people say, oh man, it's so difficult. I've got pastor friends that say, man, I can't believe you taught through the book of Revelation. I'm like, isn't it weird that the church is afraid of the book of Revelation? In fact, by the way, the book of Revelation is the only book of the Bible that comes with a blessing. Look at Revelation chapter one, verse three. Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy. and keep those things that were written therein for the time is at hand. It's the book of the Bible says, churches will be blessed. You will be blessed if you read the book of Revelation. Man, every time we've gone through the, we've been through the book of Revelation a couple times over the years. One time just in our through the Bible study, but also I did it a few years back where we just kind of went through it on Friday nights, went through the book of Revelation. because it's, and every time we've just been hugely blessed, that has been proven true. But of the book of Revelation, one of the reasons people get all confused and why it's hard for them is because if you hold any other view eschatologically than the pre-trib rapture view, it becomes this jumbled mess. It makes no sense at all. You have to jump around from different chapters to different chapters, and you kind of have to sort of juggle it all to make it sort of fit your narrative. The pre-trib rapture view is the only view that just takes the book of Revelation as it's laid out for us perfectly. And you say, well, how do we know that's important? Some of the books of the Bible aren't laid out chronologically or in any given order. Yeah, but the book of Revelation, it actually says this of itself. Revelation chapter one, look at verse 19. You know, John receives a revelation from Jesus and sees Jesus sort of in the past condition, Jesus, glorified savior. And this is what he tells John, verse 19, Revelation 119. He says, write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. That's the outline. That's the divine outline given to John about the book of Revelation. It's a threefold outline. Write the things thou hast seen, past, things which are, present, and then the things which shall be hereafter. The word hereafter, note, is the Greek word metatauta. the things which shall be hereafter. And then if you just kind of follow the outline, so the first thing that he wrote was chapter one, the things which have been Jesus in his glorified state. If you read the whole chapter one, it's Jesus glorified, that's past, it's already a done deal. Then write the things, secondly, which are, that is Revelation chapter two, three, and four, and five. Chapter two and three are the messages to the what? Seven churches, we are living in the church age right now. And man, the letters to the seven churches are one of the funnest things to teach in the Bible because it's so multi-layered, multi-faceted. You can talk about the actual churches in Asia minor there in Turkey and talk about the churches that Jesus was addressing. But you can also see a panorama of church history spelled out in those seven churches. That's a fascinating study of church history when you read about it. And then, you know, there's so many different applications of the seven churches. But, and let me just show you a few highlights from the seven churches. Like Jesus even talks about sort of the tribulation period to these seven churches. Look at chapter two, verse 21. It says concerning the church at Thyatira. It says about this horrible church that was committing fornication sin. It says in verse 21, it says 221, and I gave her the church space to repent of her fornication and she repented not. Look at verse 22, behold, I will cast her into a bed and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation. except they repent of their deeds. Here's a part of the church that was so awful, unless you repent as a church, you're gonna be the church, and this is speaking prophetically, that's gonna be so fornicated with the world that you're not even gonna be raptured or taken up, you're gonna be thrown into great tribulation. Are there churches that'll be left behind when the rapture happens? Sadly, yes. There's churches that have gotten so off the rails, they don't even have the basics of salvation. And that's like the church at Thyatira. There's gonna be a faithful church. Let's fast forward to Philadelphia, Revelation chapter three, verse 10. Speaking to that church of brotherly love, it says, because verse 10, thou has kept the word of my patience, I will keep thee from the hour of temptation or literally tribulation, which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. There was two churches that didn't get a sort of a spanking. One was Smyrna because they were, They were the persecuted church and the Lord says, I'm gonna bless your socks off. The other one was Philadelphia. And because they kept the word of God, the Lord says, I'm gonna keep you from tribulation period, even though the whole world's gonna go through that. So even in the messages to the churches, Jesus is sort of saying, here's what's gonna happen through the church ages is the idea there. And then now go to chapter four. This is where it gets really interesting. John sees the things, you know, which are, and the things that have been, past, the things that are, church age, chapter two and three, but now we're gonna see the word that should kick off something. Look at verse one of chapter four. It says, after this, and the word there in the Greek is meditata, same word as 119, the things that shall be hereafter. So I think I misspoke when I said chapters two, three, four, and five, but four and five is after what? The church age. What's gonna be the end of the church age, if you're a pre-Truman? The rapture of the church. Let's see what happens. After John finishes dealing with the church, then he writes the things which shall be hereafter. Metatauta, verse one. After this, I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet, interesting trumpet, talking with me, which said, come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be Metatauta, hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit and behold, the throne was set in heaven, one that sat on the throne. And then the description of the throne and the four and 20 elders and the seats there. But then it goes on and explains this heavenly scene. Look at chapter five, continuing this heavenly scene. Check out who's in heaven. It says in chapter five, verse nine, it says, and they sung a new song saying thou are worthy to take the book and open the seals thereof for thou was slain and has redeemed us. to God by the blood out of every kindred tongue and people and nation, and hath made us unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. What are we seeing here? We see kind of a picture of the rapture of the church. Heaven's opened up, the trumpet sounds, John hears the voice, come up hither. And John, boom, he's in heaven. And he sees the heavenly scene in the throne room. And then he sees these people saying, you have redeemed us. That's the church. They're in heaven, seen right here. This is just taking the book of Revelation as it lays out. You got the things which were Jesus in his glorified form, things which are the church age right now. Even in John's time, when he wrote it, the church had already started. From there to now, we're living in the church age. The next thing is Metatauta after these things, the rapture of the church, we'll be in heaven. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the things that shall be here after back at earth, you get to see what's gonna happen. Revelation chapter six through 19 is the definition of the tribulation period. And you know, it gets brutal, you know, and it starts off, you know, some people will say, well, the first half of the tribulation is not gonna be that bad. It's not gonna be as bad as the second half, that's true. It's still going to be bad because right out of the gate, you're going to see the horsemen coming that, you know, are pretty brutal there in chapter six, you know, the famine and death and, you know, the warfare along with this Antichrist character. He's going to come on the scene there in chapter six. But at the end of chapter six, excuse me, verse 15, It says that the kings of the earth and great men, rich men, chief captains, mighty men, every bond man and every free man hid themselves in dens in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand? If you know your Bible and read like the book of Jeremiah and other places, the time of God's wrath or the time of Jacob's trouble, Israel's trouble, is gonna be that tribulation period. It's where God pours out his wrath on a Christ-rejecting sinful world. That's the tribulation period. But one of the things as we read chapter six through 19, one of the things you'll find mysteriously lacking there is any description of the church. We already saw the church safely tucked away in heaven in Revelation four and five. Where's the church during the tribulation in Revelation six through nine? It's not there. Well, Brett, there's people that are saved running around in the tribulation. That's us. No, those are what we fondly call the tribulation saints. Do you realize there's gonna be, I believe millions of people saved during the tribulation period. They're not part of the church. They're called the tribulation saints. And that's gonna be comprised of Jews and Gentiles who are gonna come to the Lord and be saved during the tribulation period. Now, if you read the whole thing, it's gonna cost them. To be saved in the tribulation period will cost you your life. And the Bible talks about how you'll have to be faced with this decision of taking the mark of the beast. And if you don't, they'll end up persecuting you, you won't be able to buy or sell or do anything with this mark of the beast unless you have it. You get your mark of the beast passport so you can go into Costco or whatever. They won't let you in without the mark of the beast. Now, this is where I always like to remind everybody and say, the vaccine is not the mark of the beast. There's been some, you know, Looney Tunes people on YouTube saying that if you get vaccinated, you've taken the mark of the beast. That's just dumb. A couple of reasons. One, when you take the mark of the beast, you'll know you'll be aligning with a single world leader called Antichrist in the Bible. And it's gonna be very clear. You're making a very evil decision to follow him and reject the Lord. Secondly, if you just read your Bible and see the order of events, the church has already raptured. You and I are not gonna see the mark of the beast come into place. And this is again, what I wanted to kind of touch on tonight. When I talk about the signs of the times and the idea of the mark of the beast, the technology is there. Even some of the vaccine technology, I wonder if it's a precursor. Don't misquote me on this. I'm not saying the vaccine is the mark of the beast. But like when you look at the things like the quantum dot tattoo that we've talked about in previous studies and stuff, where you actually get a tattoo, it's like a sticker they stick on you, but it injects stuff in you. And these quantum dots can leave really large amounts of information just under the surface of your skin. Like there's so many bits of technology. I remember when the UBC code first came out and people were like, oh, this is the mark of the beast. You're gonna have little lines on your forehead. And man, you'll go into the grocery store, You know, and it's like, get your groceries. And I remember when they were talking about that, you know, yeah, that's not gonna be the mark of the beast. There's so much high tech stuff today that they could use for that technology, but that's all gonna happen during the tribulation. So when we talk about that here, some might say, well, why talk about it if we're not even gonna be here? because these are the signs of the things that are coming. So we can see that the rapture of the church is coming. Remember my whole argument that you get excited in August when Christmas starts showing up at Costco with the Christmas decorations, because you know, Thanksgiving's coming, right? And the same is true when you see the signs of the mark of the beast coming, you know that the rapture is coming because the rapture is gonna happen before that time where the mark of the beast has truly unfolded. So it is worth talking about. Most of what we talk about at these prophecy updates are the signs of the times of things that are gonna unfold during the tribulation period. The Gog Magog war is kind of a debatable one, whether it's gonna happen before the rapture, during the rapture, after the rapture, we could kick that around. And so that's an interesting one. The Ezekiel prophecy is probably the most pertinent to our time because we're seeing the players of that whole thing line up perfectly. And that's what makes that particularly exciting, the Gog Magog. We're watching Russia, Iran, Turkey on the Northern border of Israel as we speak. Like that's kind of amazing. That could happen before the rapture. It doesn't have to happen before the rapture. But as you just read the book of Revelation, it just lays out perfectly in perfect order, the events of what's gonna happen. If you get raptured at the end of the tribulations, you have to look for the church in the tribulations, it's not there. And you have to find the rapture of the church at the end, like in Revelation 19, and you don't see that there either. I believe that to understand the book of Revelation, it's super simple. It's not a hard book. It's not difficult if you just have the right view. You gotta understand the Bible makes it super simple. Well, that's the first one. Oh man, I'm going way too slowly. Number two. You and I, one reason I believe in a pre-trib rapture is you and I are not appointed unto wrath. The Bible says this over and over and over again. 1 Thessalonians chapter five, verse nine through 11. For God, by the way, 1 Thessalonians five is all about the rapture of the church and the end times and us knowing the times and the seasons we're living in. But it says, for God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us. that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also you do. We are not appointed unto wrath, but to obtain salvation. The tribulation period is called the time of the wrath of Lamb. We just read that in Revelation six, verses 16 and 17. We just read that. Where they said, oh, in verse 17, for great is the day of his wrath that is to come and who shall be able to stand? It's clear. that that is the tribulation period, the wrath of God. Also 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 10, it says, and to wait for his son from heaven, who he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which has delivered us from the wrath to come. People that say that the church has to go through the time of wrath, the tribulation period, it's like we're getting, you know, it's like we're gonna be punished along with the rest of the world for their sins. And the Lord says, you know, I do not destroy the righteous with the wicked. That's a common theme throughout the scriptures. So one of the great arguments, you know, I believe in pre-trib, for pre-trib is that we're not appointed unto wrath. Now, some of your post-tribbers will say, well, the Lord will protect us. through that time. Yeah, but here's the problem with that. How protective is it for you to not be able to buy or sell and starve and then get your head chopped off? Because that's kind of what happens to all the people in the tribulation period. The tribulation saints will be beheaded according to the Bible. So that doesn't sound like very much protection. It's funny how they try to, oh, the Lord will protect us through like, and they use the example like the, when the Egyptians were being given, some of the plagues didn't hit the people of Israel, only Egyptians got it. And they said, that's what's gonna happen. The Bible doesn't say anything about that. It just says the Lord is gonna take up his church out because we're the bride of Christ. Why would God let his bride go through the time of his wrath? That doesn't make sense at all. So number three on our list of reasons why pre-trib rapture makes sense. Look at the Old Testament pictures. Remember, one of the things we're not supposed to be ignorant of is the Old Testament pictures or types. Let's talk about really quickly some of them. Some of my favorites are Noah. Did you know Jesus compared Noah and the end times? In Matthew 24, jotted down in your notes, Matthew 24, 36, but the day and hour, no man knoweth, not even the angel of heaven, but my father only, Jesus says. You guys remember this in Matthew 24? But he says, as the days of Noah were, so shall the coming of the son of man be. And so, you know, it goes on and talks about that they were eating and drinking and marrying and partying down, and then they entered into the ark, and they knew not until the flood came and all of them were taken away, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. It's gonna be a surprise to the world. Now you say, well, Brett, that sounds like Noah. He went through the tribulation, if that's the example of end times. Oh, but don't forget, Noah is a picture of the Jews. Part of the reason the tribulation is gonna happen is for the Jews to be woken or awakened during the tribulation period. Well, where's the rapture of the church? Easy. Anybody wanna say the word? Enoch, Enoch was taken up before the flood. He walked with God and pleased God. So Enoch was taken up in a rapture kind of form. It's a great picture of the church being raptured before the flood, if you would. What about Sodom and Gomorrah? Second Peter chapter two, verse six. Listen to this, Peter gives a similar example. It says, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overflow, making them an example unto those after that should live godly and delivered just lot or righteous lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, for that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds." Listen, the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of the trial or tribulations and to reserve the unjust. for the day of judgment. So that's the second one, Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot was taken up. By the way, Lot never left Sodom and Gomorrah, remember? The angel said, leave, and he didn't. But what did they do? The angel snatched him away. Literally it says, picked him up by the hand and put him outside of the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. It's a beautiful picture of the rapture. of the church because Lot was snatched up just like the word. And then of course there's Daniel. I like this one. When we were in the book of Daniel, I think I mentioned this, but in Daniel chapter three, remember the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? And they were thrown into the fiery furnace. Okay, can you guess who in the picture there is Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being thrown in the fiery furnace? Who is that? Well, Jesus was there, you're right. But you're ahead of where I'm at. What's the type of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace, anybody? The Jews in the tribulation, right? The Jews in the tribulation. When will the Jews see Jesus? in the middle of the fiery furnace, right? During the tribulation period. Remember the abomination of desolation and they'll realize, oh man, we've been duped. And they'll realize that Jesus is the Messiah. Just like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown in the fiery furnace and they saw Jesus there in the furnace and they were saved from the furnace by Jesus. And that's what Jesus is gonna do with the Jews in the tribulation. It's a great picture. Yeah, but where's the rapture of the church? I like to think of it as Daniel. Where in the world is Daniel in the story? Why is Daniel not in that story? I'll tell you, he must've been gone doing some business somewhere else or whatever, but he's the perfect picture of the one that was taken out of the picture altogether and wasn't even there during the time of the wrath of the Babylonian king who threw those guys into the fire furnace. Some people have tried to say, well, Daniel must've bowed down like everybody else. That's dumb, like that's ridiculous. Daniel was thrown into the lion's den. Daniel was a man of great faith and that's ridiculous. I think it's a perfect picture. Daniel is the type of the church who was not even there during the time of the fiery furnace episode. We could go on and on with Old Testament pictures, but you get the point. A lot of the problem with the church not understanding the pre-trib rapture view is they don't understand the Old Testament. It helps to understand the Old Testament and give a deep look at that. Here's another reason why I'm a pre-tribber. What's the whole point of the rapture? The rapture of the church has to serve a purpose. Don't you think? Do you think God would do something for no reason? Why would we be raptured? Like, for example, if you're a post-tribber, Why it would be raptured at the end of the tribulation period? Because if we're taken up to be with the Lord, we meet him in the air and meet our loved ones, and then we immediately come back. If you read Revelation 19, we come back with the Lord. I call it bungee eschatology. Up with the Lord, and then back down to the earth. What's the point? Now, I gotta tell you guys, now this is where I could express that, you know, there's a lot of people with different views and we love our brothers and sisters have different views. End times eschatology views are not essential doctrines where it cancels out your faith. By the way, there is a hostility by the way that I'm seeing where there's more YouTubers and bloggers are saying, you know, pre-trib rapture is a satanic teaching. Have you guys seen this stuff? It's like suddenly some of the church is getting belligerent toward this different view of eschatology. That was never the case up until the last 10 years. At least we all agreed to disagree and said, man, when you get raptured, you'll change your notes when we get to heaven, that kind of thing. It was a friendly discussion. It was an in-house debate. But there is a hostility I've found lately with some of these churches, and it's a real demeaning. One of the pastors locally here, who used to be a pre-tribber, he gave a sermon and basically said, you know, people who believe in rapture are a bunch of knuckleheads. And he just went on insulting, you know, there is kind of a hostility and a belligerence toward this. But it is interesting because R.C. Sproul, who is one of my heroes apologetically, R.C. Sproul was a great apologist. Man, you didn't want to debate R.C. Sproul when it came to defending the Bible without using the Bible. He was great at that. A real intellectual. But he was also a partial preterist, which was unfortunate. And he had a different view, but I, you know, because he's such an intellect, I've listened to pretty much everything he has to say or read. I've read his books on the end time stuff. And even R.C. who's so good at making his case did not make a good case. Like for example, Bungie eschatology, this one, he used this analogy, you know, we'll be raptured because he believes the rapture is gonna happen at the same time of the second coming of Christ. It's all gonna be one of that up and then come back down. That's what he says is gonna happen. And he says, what's the point? And he says, I don't really know, but when a Roman king would come into the cities of Bible times, The people of the city, they were forced to come out and they'd have to line the streets and celebrate the coming of the king. And so that's really what the rapture does. It lines us up in Christ's coming and we all get up into the sky and we're part of the welcome committee and then we come back to the world. Here's my problem with that. First of all, we're not Romans and who cares about Roman kings? There's a better example of what is actually gonna happen. And I would compare it to the Jewish wedding. It's more biblical anyway, who cares about Roman analogies and bungee eschatology. Actually the Jewish wedding in the Bible, the church is metaphorically called the bride of Christ. We're not called the Roman celebrator of the king. We're called the bride of Christ. And so what happens when our bridegroom comes? Well, man, I could just go into the, you know, in the Mishnah, Kiddushin, the section of the Talmud dealing with the betrothal. There's some interesting rules and regulations. You know, it specifies that the bride acquired by the groom would leave his father's house and travel to the bride's home. And he would bring her dowry, literally like purchase her for a price. What did our bridegroom do? He purchased us with a price. Then he'd give a token for the dowry and just a gift of some kind, just like Jesus gave his bride the Holy Spirit. And then they would sort of seal their betrothal with the drinking of the cup and they drink the wine together. Isn't that an amazing analogy as we drink the cup of communion with Christ who shed his blood and paid our price. But then you think, oh good, they're betrothed. But that's not really the official end of the wedding. That's just the betrothal. Then the groom would leave, sometimes for long periods of time. What would he go to do? Well, I'm gonna use language just to kind of help you connect the dots. He would go to prepare a place for his bride and he would go there and work. And where was that? Well, if you go to the Middle East, even to this day, the groom would go and prepare a house that would be connected to his father's house. You see, even in the Middle East today, one of the things you'll see, you think they're just kind of lazy in the Middle East, because they don't finish any of their buildings. You drive by all their buildings and there's rebar sticking out of the roof of all their buildings, especially in the country of Jordan. There's like tall buildings with rebar. Why? Because they leave the rebar stubbed out for the next level when one of their sons build the house on top of that. They do the same thing today. So the groom goes to his father's house and starts building a house for his bride before they're even officially married. but the son keeps working on it. But guess what? The son, even the son doesn't know when he gets to go get his bride for marriage. Who is the one who determines when the son gets to go and get his bride? The father. The father approves the bridegroom and says, you go and now you can get your bride. Your house is ready, go get her. And man, they'd have this big trumpet sound in the streets. Are you guys following me here? And the bride was supposed to be ready with the virgins, ready to go. Whenever the groom showed up, they had to be ready. She couldn't be just sitting, eating cherry bonbons, watching soap operas. She had to be a bride that was like brush her tooth, comb her hair, like be all gussied up because who knows when the bridegroom would come. Oh man, I could just go on and on about this, but you know, the grooms would come and then once the bride, they'd take the bride to the wedding ceremony that was, how long? How long was the wedding ceremony? Seven days. But where was the bride and the groom for those seven days? Well, the bride was safely tucked away in the groom's place that he had prepared for her, where they would consummate the marriage, and there was this beautiful celebration. Man, I could go on and on. Just like Jesus is gonna come and get his bride, we're gonna go to be with him. The rapture of the church serves a purpose. It's not just bungee eschatology, us greeting the Roman king and then bringing him back down. No. The rapture of the church is this beautiful picture of Christ who's gonna appear and then take us up with him to glory to the place where he's prepared for us in heaven. There's a purpose for the rapture. We're gonna be taken up into heaven to be with the Lord where we're gonna be there for, how long is it gonna be on the earth? The tribulation, seven years. Could it be that we're in heaven at the marriage feast of the lamb for seven years while the tribulation is going on on earth? Then we return with Christ at his second coming. That's why the pre-trib rapture just makes so much more sense. Colossians chapter three. Oh, I was supposed to click that one long time ago. Colossians chapter three, verse four. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory. Not you shall appear with him on the earth. It doesn't say that. When he appears, we the church are gonna appear with him in glory that's in heaven. This is the most common one. You guys all know this. Jesus made this clear. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions or dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. that where I am, there you may be also. There's a receiving of us. And where is he gonna receive us? In his father's house, where he's been preparing a place for you, his bride. Post-trib rapture leaves no room for any of this. It just ignores this process altogether. Forget the Roman. you know, king coming into the town. The idea of the wedding is exactly what Jesus taught us to believe. The pre-trib view is the only one that has a point given to the rapture. You could maybe make that argument a little bit for the mid-trib, but the seven-year thing, I don't know. To me, it doesn't make as much sense as the seven-year time with the Lord. It's an incredible thing that Jesus is gonna receive the church to himself, and that's amazing. I look so forward to the rapture of the church, and it's not just, oh, here we go, then back down to the earth. That'd be depressing. I like the idea of going to heaven with the Lord. Oh man, I'm almost out of time, and I'm only at number five. Not of a hundred. Let's try to hurry through some of these. No man knows the day or hour. Did you know if you're a post-tribber, you can kind of name the day or hour. Do you guys remember why? There's an event that sets the clock during the middle of the tribulation. You guys remember what that event is? The abomination of desolation. Click three and a half years to the day. is the end of the tribulation period. You can clock it. So the coming of the Lord, as far as, oh, and by the way, there's some language here I need to, some of the critics of the rapture in and of itself, or the pre-trib rapture, is they say, what's with all these comings? You've got the first coming where Jesus was born in Bethlehem. You got the second coming, which is the rapture. You got the third coming, Revelation 19. Here's what you gotta remind them. The rapture is not a coming. The rapture is us going in the air and meeting him where he takes us into heaven. It's not a coming of Christ. The critics make a big deal out of that and they just haven't listened or read the scriptures on that one. But no man knows the day or the hour. It's the doctrine of eminence. I've done whole sermons on this. The rapture can happen at any time and it could happen tonight. It could happen a thousand years from now. We have no idea when the rapture is gonna happen, but it's the idea of the doctrine of eminence. And it's like in Matthew 24, 44, I'm not going to read this whole thing because we don't have enough time. But therefore be he also ready for in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man comes. And then he talks about the faithful servant that's busy doing the work versus the wicked servant saying, oh, the Lord delays his coming. And so we're going to eat, drink, party down, be merry. But then the Lord says that servant's basically going where there's weeping. and wailing and gnashing of teeth. The doctrine of imminence at any moment of his coming, it's not a new doctrine, as some people try to say, it's actually old. 1 Corinthians 15, verses 51 and 52, behold, I show you a mystery that we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. That's a scripture we have up in our nursery. It is, it's somewhere up in our nursery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. But anyway, that's not really what it's all about. It's actually us being changed from our mortal bodies into our immortal bodies. In a moment, verse 52, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. Such a belief in imminency marks the pre-millennialism of the early church fathers and the way they believed that could happen in their time. It's not a new doctrine. But pre-tribulation is the only one that really allows for imminence. Everything else, you kind of have to sort of avoid things like the abomination of desolation in the seven years called the tribulation period. Let's go quickly, number six. What are we looking for? The pre-trib rapture is the only one where we're looking for Jesus Christ, not antichrist. If you're a post-tribber or whatever, or even if you have one of these other views, amillennialism, some of the amillennialists, I don't know how they stay getting up in the morning. Like it's so depressing. Because a lot of the amillennialists believe in more of a kingdom now, dominion theology, where now there's no literal rapture, there's no literal coming. It's more of, we're gonna usher in the kingdom, and we've got to fix the world. And that's why some churches do become very political, and talk all about elections and stuff like that, because they believe that we're the ones who are gonna usher in the kingdom of God. That's not gonna happen. We don't have anything to do with it. Remember the kingdom, Daniel chapter two, it was a stone cut without hands. Man has nothing to do with it. Christ is gonna come and set up his kingdom whenever he wants to. But the dominion now or kingdom theology view is basically saying that there's a lot of stuff that has to happen before the second coming of Christ could ever happen. We gotta elect Christian officials. We gotta ban abortion. We gotta get everybody saved. And then once the world's good enough, then Christ is gonna come. That's depressing. We're doing really badly on that stuff, if that's your worldview. That's why I say it'd be hard to get up in the morning if you're thinking, wow, for Christ to come back, we got a lot of work to do. No, the pre-tribulation view is one that says, not only, we believe that things aren't gonna get better. It's not that we're not trying to fix things and see revival and people saved, of course, but we also don't hold our breath for that. We realize that things actually, the Bible says, it's gonna get worse. In the last days, perilous times will come, Paul told Timothy. So what are we looking for? We're looking for Jesus Christ. We're not looking for antichrist or trying to bring in the kingdom or any of that stuff. It's the pre-trib view that looks really only for Christ. The only thing that needs to happen on the next thing on the list for us is the rapture of the church. We're looking for Jesus. Very important. Here's another reason. I want to escape the tribulation period. Pre-tribulation is escapism. This is where you can agree with your, you guys that believe in a pre-trib rapture, you guys just, you know, wanna get out of the wrath of the lamb. You just wanna get out of the tribulation. I always say, that's exactly right. 100%. And Luke 21, jot it down, verse 36, Jesus said, pray that you'd be counted worthy to escape all of these things. And how are you worthy? When you accept Christ and you believe in Jesus and have the work of the cross applied to your life, you will escape the tribulation period. So yes, escapism. Oh man, we don't have time for this one, but I'm gonna say it anyway. The 70 weeks of Daniel. This is probably one of the more airtight defense of a pre-trib rapture. Let me just try to do this really fast. You remember that there's 70 weeks or seven year periods, 77 year periods, 490 years determined on Israel, Jerusalem, Daniel's people. It's real clear. And the first 69 weeks, we've been through this before, and you can look this up, we've done teaching, look it up in Daniel 9, the 70 weeks of Daniel, I've done a bunch of teaching on this. But my main argument, I'm not gonna revisit that whole thing. But there's the first 69 weeks, and then there's a pause, and the 70th seven year period is yet to happen. And that's still in the future after the Messiah comes and the Bible talks about how there's gonna be a peace treaty with Israel and this anti-Christ character. And then that 70th week is gonna be engaged at that point upon Israel and Jews, Daniel people. But here's the thing that, and man, I'm doing a disservice by just rushing through this. But if the church of Jesus Christ was not in the first 69 weeks of Daniel, Why would the church of Jesus Christ be in the 70th week of Daniel? It makes perfect sense. The stopwatch was when the Jews in Jerusalem was destroyed and the church age begun. That was the stopwatch. We're not in the 70 weeks of Daniel. The 70th week is the tribulation period. We're not there. We were not in the first 69. We're not gonna be in this. Does that make sense to you guys? If you know the 70 week prophecy of Daniel, hopefully that makes sense to you. Number nine, we'll do it. Maybe a couple more. You guys got a couple more in you? Okay, number nine, pre-trib is the only view that is actually comforting. Do you remember what we said when we read from 1 Thessalonians 4, again, our text, where it says in verse 18, wherefore, comfort one another with these words. That's right there in the scriptures, comfort one another with these words. Now, if I were to say, well, the rapture of the church is gonna happen at the end of the tribulation, we're gonna have to go through some really bad times and there's gonna be 100 pound hailstones pounding the planet, and there's gonna be disease and death, and two thirds of the planet is gonna die. But be comforted. Like, does that really work? Or is it more comforting to read, we're gonna be caught up with the Lord, with our loved ones in the clouds, and be with the Lord forever. And is that comforting? Of course it is. And it's not just there. In the next chapter, 1 Thessalonians chapter five, he reiterated it. He reiterated it. He says, for God hath not appointed us to wrath, but attained salvation through Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, or alive or dead, We should live together with him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even also as you do. Man, we can talk more about that, but let's do one more. Number 10, the nature of God himself. If you read your Bible, is it God's nature to take his children? Let's just say children first and say, I'm gonna put my children with the people that I'm gonna crush. Is that God's nature? Or even more importantly, like we talked about before, the bride of Christ, is it the nature of the father to take his son who loves deeply and takes his bride and says, yeah, son, before you get married, before the marriage feast, I'm gonna have your wife go through some horrible things where all her loved ones are gonna die and most of the world's gonna be crushed. Happy wedding anniversary or whatever. I just, that's not the nature of God. What is the nature of God? It's all through the Bible. I love Psalm 103. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the East is from the West, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him, for He knows our frame and remembers that we are dust. The Lord has a compassion and a kindness for His people, and that's the beauty of God. That's what God does for us. Man, I could go on and on reasons why I believe in a pre-trib rapture, but you know, I've been doing this for a long time. When I was 18 years old, I had been taught pre-trib rapture as a young kid and I believed it. But then I heard about all these other views. My uncle's an all-Millennials, great guy, loved my uncle. And he was the first one who, you know, you believe in a brand new eschatology. And he and I would sit around and talk about eschatology. And as a kid, I remember thinking, wow, I've never heard of this amillennialism. And then I started looking into all the other views. And I've really, I got a letter from a gal the other day and she kind of went into a whole thing about preterism and how, Pastor Brett, I would encourage you to research the preterist view. And I'm like, I have. I've read all your best books on preterism. I really have. And also amillennialism or pre-trib, post-trib, amill, sawmill. Man, I've read it all. I really have. I've read all the books. So don't send me all your reasons why, because I really have looked at it, but I have to say the older I get, the more absolutely convinced I am that we're gonna be taken up before the tribulation ever happens. And some people say, that's irresponsible. What if we go through the tribulation? Well, we're not. That doesn't line up with the Bible. We're gonna be saved and taken up and be with the Lord. That's what the Bible says. And some people say, well, Brett, you're just leading your flock to really go through horrible times in the tribulation. Well, if that's true, everybody's going through horrible times. Welcome to the club. But I don't believe that and so I will not teach that. I don't encourage people to believe those other views because I think they're off the mark because it's just not in line with the whole full counsel of the Bible. Don't let people make you think the pre-trib view is a harebrained, unstudied, you know, ignoramus sort of view. There is sort of a notion about that. That's one of the tactics, by the way, people use to just diminish, when they don't have a good argument, it's a little bit like what we're seeing in the world today with a lot of things. They're making these doctors who are all now being proven right back in 2020, the things that they said, they're all kind of correct. And yet they were saying, these guys are ignorant, these guys are a bunch of quacks. And they tried to make these doctors look really bad. Now they're all sort of exonerated, at least some people are acknowledging that they were right. But I think that that's what happens sometimes with people and the Bible too. Don't let people say, oh, you're a pre-Tribber, you're just an idiot. Don't let them do that. Because there's some great scholarly people who have believed this, and I'm gonna go down with them. who believed in the rapture of the church pre-Trib, the next thing on the list of things to do is the rapture of the church. So may the Lord give us ears to hear and hearts to believe what the word says, amen? Amen. Lord, we thank you so much for your word and it is living and powerful. And on these prophecy updates, Lord, I think just being in your word tonight is just what we needed, Lord, just to be reminded of truth, that these days we're living, while we do see all the signs of the times out there, Lord, more importantly, we see the validity of your word and the hope of heaven, the fact that you're gonna come for your bride, and we get to meet you in the air, and you're gonna take us to be in heaven. Lord, we look forward to that time. Give us that blessed hope, like 1 John 3, that says, he who has this hope purifies himself. I pray that your church would be purified as we anticipate the imminent rapture of the church. May we be found faithful servants doing your work in these days, Lord, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.