Doctrine of the Last Things Part 3: The Day of the Lord | William Lane Craig

we are talking about eschatology or the doctrine of the last things and the last time we met we broached the question as to whether there will be a single return of Christ to the earth or multiple returns of Christ and we began to look at one of the most prominent in evangelical circles at least multiple views namely the rapture view which says that prior to Christ's final Advent to establish his kingdom and judge the world there will be an invisible return of Christ to snatch away out of the world his elect and take them to be with him in heaven and I argued that this view is very difficult to square with the scriptural teachings on the second coming of Christ that when you look at the passages especially the Olivet discourse given by Jesus but also paul's thessalonians correspondence there's simply no reason to think that there is such an event as a rapture prior to the second coming of christ certainly one can read these things into the text but i don't think one will naturally read them out of the text we want to read out of the text what the text says that's exegesis if you read things into the text that's ice of Jesus that's a reading between the lines and before you can read between the lines you've got to learn to read the lines and I don't think that there's any good reason to think that in any of these discussions Paul is referring to a rapture event now let's continue our discussion of this from last time last time some persons suggested that in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 there is at least implicitly the teaching of a rapture based upon what the heretics were saying to the Thessalonians so let's turn to second Thessalonians chapter 2 and look again at this passage 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 and there Paul says now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to meet him we beg you brethren not to be quickly shaken in mind or excited either by spirit or by word or by letter purporting to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come and then Paul goes on to explain that that day will not yet come until a quite a number of things take place first now we face here a methodological problem in that it is very difficult to reconstruct the teaching of Paul's opponents we don't have the writings of these opponents and very rarely have even quotations from them and so it's difficult to know exactly what it was that Paul's opponents were teaching for example in Corinth there's a great deal of discussion among New Testament scholars as to exactly who the opponents of Paul were in Corinth and what it was that they were teaching and therefore any attempt to reconstruct the teaching of the persons that Paul is opposing is by its very nature speculative it's it's going to be conjectural and the question here that we face is what is meant by this expression the day of the Lord where Paul says don't be shaken or excited from anyone telling you that the day of the Lord has come now whatever the Old Testament meaning of this expression may have been it's clear that Paul interprets this expression Krista logically that is to say Paul takes the day of the Lord to be the day of Christ's return it will be on that day that Christ returns the dead are raised the dead are judged and particularly the wicked or unrighteous dead are judged now in saying this Paul is following again the teaching of Jesus as given in the Olivet discourse turn to matthew chapter 24 verses 42 to 44 matthew chapter 24 verses 42 to 44 in Matthews version of the Olivet discourse we have this saying of Jesus Matthew 24:42 and following watch therefore for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming but know this that if the householder had known in what part of the night the thief was coming he would have watched and would not have let his house be broken into therefore you also must be ready for the Son of Man is coming in an hour that you do not expect here he is talking about the coming of the Son of Man which will be a visible worldwide event to gather the elect and take them into his kingdom and Jesus says it's going to come like a thief in the night now turn over to Paul says alone Ian's correspondence first Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 2 and 4 and you can see how Paul echoes this phraseology of Jesus 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 2 & 4 he says but as to the times and the seasons brethren you have no need to have anything written to you for you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night here Paul refers to the day of the Lord in the same sort of a way that Jesus did is coming like a thief in the night and then in verse 4 but you are not in darkness brethren for that day to surprise you like a thief here Paul is echoing the teaching of Jesus with respect to his second coming now turn over to 2nd Thessalonians in check after one verses 9 and 10 Paul refers to this day again 1st Thessalonians 1 verses 9 and 10 talking about the unrighteous he says they shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might when he comes on that day to be glorified in his Saints and to be marveled at in all who have believed so here Paul is again referring to that day when Christ will come again he will inflict vengeance upon the unrighteous dead and be marveled out and glorified in his church then in chapter 2 of 2nd Thessalonians Paul goes on to say now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to meet him we beg you brethren not to be quickly shaken in mind or excited either by spirit or by word or letter purporting to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come so here it is consistent that Paul is talking about that day of the Lord as being the return of Christ the second advent of Christ and this is the same way that Paul uses the expression in other letters for example in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verses 7 & 8 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verses 7 and 8 he says you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing that's the other word we saw that's often used instead of parousia the coming the revealing apocalypsis of our Lord Jesus Christ who will sustain you to the end guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ here you see his christological interpretation of the phrase the day of the Lord it's not just the day of the Lord it's the day of our Lord Jesus Christ and similarly over in 1st Corinthians 5:5 1st Corinthians 5:5 five he talks here about a man who's he's put under discipline in the Church of Corinth because of the immoral lifestyle he was leading and what Paul says is that when you are assembled and my spirit is present with the power of the Lord Jesus you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit might be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus that's that day when Christ will be revealed when he will come again so I think that when Paul uses his expression the day of the Lord and wants to assure the Thessalonians it's not yet come he's talking about the second advent of Christ the return of Christ now ask yourself do we have in the New Testament anywhere references to people who were teaching that the day of the Lord had come that the second coming of Christ had already occurred or is there any place in the New Testament like that well yes there is and I alluded to it last week second Timothy chapter two verses 15 to 19 second Timothy chapter 2 and verses 15 to 19 there Paul talks about these persons that are teaching godlessness and unsound doctrine and he says in verse 17 among them are hymenaeus and philetus who have swerved from the truth by holding that the resurrection is passed already and they are upsetting the faith of some so here are people who taught this bizarre doctrine that the resurrection has already passed and since the day of the resurrection is the day of Christ's return in effect they were saying the second Advent has already occurred the resurrection is past already now obviously they couldn't have this in a literal sense that the graves would be emptied if the resurrection were passed already there wouldn't be any corpses so they must have meant this in some sort of a spiritualizing sense we know that Gnosticism was a threat in the early church a greek doctrine which depreciated the value of the material and exalted the value of the spiritual and it could very well be that there are some kind of gnostic teachers here that are saying that the the resurrection is not a physical bodily event but it's a sort of spiritual event and it's already passed and we know from Paul's letter to the Corinthians that in Corinth there were people who objected to this idea of a physical resurrection and therefore Paul goes to great lengths in chapter 15 to answer the question with what kind of a body do people who are raised from the dead come what what sort of body is it that that they have because for the Greek mentality the idea of the resurrection of the body was disgusting and revolting it was the spirit or the soul that was to be preserved and be immortal so it could be it could be that what Paul is confronting here in Thessalonica would be something similar some kind of Gnostic teaching that the resurrection that the day of the Lord has already passed and what he wants to say to them is that this is not true a lot has to happen yet before the day of the Lord will occur and I see no reason to think that the Thessalonians had feared that say the rapture had already occurred and they had missed it there just isn't anything in this passage to suggest that the problem here is either that the rapture occurred and they were left behind or that it didn't occur as they had expected and now they were in the last days if the rapture actually occurred Paul would be gone not writing to them they would know that the graves are empty so I just don't see any reason to read into this any sort of rapture doctrine now having said that again as I say this is conjectural we don't know what Paul's opponents in Thessalonica were saying but it's possible that they were not saying that the second advent of Christ and the resurrection have already occurred it might mean by this expression that it's present that is to say the greek word here which is exsisting me oops ex histah me means to be present to arrive and it could be that what the Thessalonians era tix were saying is that the day of the Lord is present it has arrived or this word ex system II can even mean be imminent so that they're saying the day of the Lord is imminent it's almost upon us and what Paul is saying is no no that's not right it's still a good ways off a lot has got to happen first but perhaps they thought that the day of the Lord was just around the corner it was imminent and that they were therefore living in the last days and Paul wants to correct that error but there's nothing in the passage to suggest that they thought that the the rapture was near or that it was past or that had failed to take place now whatever Paul's opponents were teaching in Thessalonica whether they were saying that the return of Christ has already passed or whether they were saying it's about to happen it's imminent Paul's teaching at least is clear if we don't know what his opponents taught clearly we do know what Paul taught and what Paul says is Christ's return is still a good way off a lot of things have got to happen first and therefore the day of the Lord the return of Christ is neither past nor imminent it's still lies some time into the future now I say all that in response to the discussion with which we ended the class last time let me now reopen that discussion and invite you to give your response or questions or whatever and while we're getting the mic to Don let me just say I was greatly helped by reading your comments from last week in the transcript and if you've not availed yourself of the transcript on the reasonable faith website this is a great tool because when things are spoken orally they go by so quickly but I was able to read and reread several times Carol and Bob's comments and help me to better understand what they were saying and so I would encourage you to have a look at these transcripts if you're interested so Don go ahead okay is there not reference in the book of Acts to the actual day of Christ's crucifixion when it says the temple curtain was torn in two there was a great earthquake and grace were opened and people were raised thank you okay that's in Matthew yes and it says and some of you have seen them so if there were Matthew reports that they were seen in Jerusalem he's Old Testament Saints that have been raised at the time of the crucifixion so could that not be what Paul was referring to when he said you know it hasn't come yet but the people knew that people had seen people raised from the grave yeah and wouldn't that have given them pause to think oh it's over oh well we don't know the sources of the error in Thessalonica I highly doubt that it's from reports that are peculiar to Matthew's Gospel about the resurrection of these Old Testament Saints I don't think that is referred to anywhere else in the new town estimate so we don't know what prompted the thessalonians to think this I think we just don't have enough information yeah Jim bill just trying to follow the discussion in first Thessalonians 5 1 & 2 Paul tells the Thessalonians that there's no need that he should have to write you for you yourselves know perfectly well that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night I guess that's a reference to the Olivet discourse you know perfectly well because Jesus taught this yeah I think that that's right or he could be reflecting on the fact that he said these things to them I think in is it in 2nd Thessalonians 2 he says in verse 5 do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you this so he could be referring simply to his prior visit to Thessalonica when he preached the gospel to them but I suspect you're right Jim in that these Jesus traditions were passed on and were well known in the church remember what we said about Paul's knowledge that the Last Supper occurred on the night that Jesus was betrayed he knew the historical context of the traditions that he passed on and so it's very likely here I think that the Thessalonians were aware that Jesus had said that his second coming would come like a thief in the night but it's clearly an echo of that saying that I read in Matthew I think thank you and interestingly enough I didn't mention this also appears in 1st Peter 3:10 the same expression let me just read that for you I didn't mention it because Peter isn't one of the writers that we're dealing with here but it does show that this motif was well known first Peter 3:10 yeah 2nd Peter 3:10 sorry but the day of the Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise and the elements will be dissolved with fire in the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up so here again is the final dissolution of this world that will happen when the day of the Lord comes like this thief so this motif of coming like a thief in the night was one that was known not only to Paul but also to other New Testament writers yes Eric from what I understand of the usual pre-trib timetable is that you have the rapture Church is taken away then you get the Antichrist and tribulation and all that but in second Thessalonians it says that you cannot have the day of the Lord until the rebellion comes in the man of lawlessness which would be the Antichrist is revealed so that alone would seem to indicate that this day of the Lord is something that occurs at the end it's apse is after all the tribulation in any Christ in the rest this was one of the things that I was confused about that reading the transcript helped me to understand when I read the condoms by Bob and and others it was clear to me that they don't think the expression the day of the Lord refers to the rapture because otherwise it would be post-trib right it's it's afterwards that the day of the Lord occurs they said the day of the Lord refers to the day of God's wrath it's the tribulation in effect but that is why I spent several moments talking about how does Paul use this expression and I think he uses it to refer to the second coming of Christ and and not to the the tribulation but I think you're right and what that emphasizes Eric I think is this is that he's not talking about the rapture here even by the pre-trib point of view this isn't the rapture this is this is talking about the day of the Lord the coming of Christ when he's going to slay the lawless one and destroy him by his appearing and coming and so the rapture if it occurs has got to be read into this it's not there you've got to say something like what was said last week well what is restraining him is now out of the way maybe that's the church and the church has been yanked out of the world or something it's it's reading it in I think John bill last week you said that Darby had basically started the rapture and he actually got the idea from a 15 year old visionary mystic named Margaret McDonald and he was so taken with that vision that he developed the rapture theologians you also mention that Dallas Theological Seminary has been a source of a lot of teachers and rapture and dispensationalism and dr. John Walvoord was the president of the seminary there for a number of decades and he was a leader in the rapture rapture theology proponents he wrote a book in 1957 called the rapture question and he said in there and I quote the the question of the rapture is determined more by ecclesiology than eschatology in other words it's your view of the church that determines whether you believe in the rapture at all he went on to say that neither Premal only millennialism nor postmillennialism is explicitly taught in Scripture now this was in the first edition of that book it caused such a stir such an uproar in the rapture community that from then on he took it out but this is the this was the leader of the rapture believers that actually said it's not taught in Scripture I'm not familiar with that background John so I take it you're sure of those facts and I was hearing was okay I wonder what he meant when he said your view of ecclesiology determines this what what is he thinking of it's it's your view of the church you if you separate the church from Israel you have to have some way to get the church out of the picture in order for Israel to participate in the thousand-year reign after Christ's second coming which is the you know so it's it's okay it's all intertwined yeah all right I don't want to open that can of words this is replacement theology that the idea here is that all the promises made to Israel and the Old Covenant are now the churches and the church replaces Israel as the chosen people of God and is heir to all the promises whereas others would say no no God still has a plan for Israel Israel remains God's chosen people and and he's not done with them yet and this is an issue that I but rapture theology and dispensationalism go hand in hand that I I grant I understand that but it's a it's an issue that I I think we'd better not open not because it's too controversial we're not afraid of that but simply because it would take us too far astray and and this is on the doctrine of the last things not doctrine of the church all right let's have Dennis here make a comment billon asked last week about the actual passage and whether in Thessalonians and whether it actually says where it says meet him in the air whether the Greek word air is actually used uh-huh and I'm just wondering if you could comment on that and exactly what it does say in the Greek my understanding has always been that Darby misunderstood what was actually written in the original Greek I'm not familiar with what he said about that but this is in 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 17 don't wait a minute no not 5 for 1st Thessalonians 4:17 and the word in the Greek there is IRA which is it just air it's so he says we will meet the Lord in the clouds in the air so you know so so it is air what is there yeah Carol first of all when the rapture does occur and we're all caught up to be with the Lord I'm going to resist the temptation of saying I told you so because I will be perfected and I won't do that so one thing that I would question I did not know that you saw day of the Lord as somehow different in the New Testament than in the old I don't think it is different I think it is the same and I think it almost becomes a technical term it's 26 times spoken of directly in Scripture day of the Lord I will say I agree with you the day of Christ is not the same as the day of the Lord I would differentiate those two that would disagree with me you said I agree with you you know because you said it was the day he came and I agree with you that that I think you're right about that when you read those texts I think that is one thing if if the day of the Lord was the day when Christ returned I do not understand why the Thessalonians would have been upset I see it would seem to me they would rather have rejoiced to think that they were in the day of the Lord Paul has taught them from the beginning that you look up your salvation is near beyond the alert be watchful it's what we are looking for it's called our Blessed hope it's that that which excites us and it spurs I saw to Christian godly living because we have been bought with such a price that when our Redeemer comes oh it's all over and we're together with him I think the day of the Lord is the technical term I believe it starts with the seventh trumpet I think given enough time I could prove it to you in Scripture but it's hard it's really hard to sit here and try to sum up things like the rapture in depth in five minutes I can't do that it is the the totality of Scripture it's looking everywhere that word is used and how it is used it seems to begin when he steps into the temple and declares himself to be God and it seems to be talking about the man of lawlessness the yes and it seems to end as Peter says at the end of the not just the tribulation but the Millennial Kingdom because there will still be judgment meted out I believe it's the word biblical commentary that and certainly sparrows so deities in his in his dictionary of the New Testament he is Greek and he of course in his I love his Greek dictionary but he really goes into a great detail about the day of the Lord and what it means and we have to look at the context and I just that's critical I think we can at least agree on this point is when the interpretation of Scripture it's critical to look at context just came and so when we talk about the day of the Lord in Paul's correspondence we need to look at what Paul meant by how he used it because we know that Paul read the Old Testament through the lenses of Christ look at the way he interprets the Jewish doctrine of the Resurrection now in terms of Christ the firstfruits and then the rest of the harvest coming at the end it's it is the Jewish doctrine of resurrection of the dead but it's seen in christological perspective and he refers to the day of the Lord Jesus he interprets this Krista logically I think but we can at least agree on this point and I think that's a takeaway here is that when we read scripture look first at the immediate context and then the wider context and then how different authors used it and and so forth and if this lesson has been a stimulus for you to do that I think that's a very positive result I'm not asking you to agree with me two points I'll stick with my interpretation that the day of the Lord here refers to the seven-year tribulation period the vast majority of Biblical prophecy comes from the Old Testament not the New Testament and in order to understand this you must understand and Daniel is by far the most important book of prophecy in the Bible Daniel 9:27 talks about that seven years okay now so I believe I would say this also if you're correct and the day of the Lord can also mean Christ cataclysmic judgment on mankind if you can make a good point for that and that's one of the meanings of day of the Lord if that's the meaning here in Thessalonians how in the world could they have missed that when you how in the world could they have missed that if it's like the Lightning going from the left to the right and the buzzards over the kill and all of that how could they have missed it so I think that argues against the idea that that meaning of the day of the Lord is used there however now that's my first point I'm gonna say now point no I'll let you go on but I did respond to that question by means of this heresy that was being taught by hymenaeus and philetus with this but how could they have missed the regardless of who talked what if Christ's return is anything like what he said in the Olivet discourse everybody on earth is going to know it it's going to pay everybody so they would have unless if they had spiritual eyes dit in this sort of Gnostic way no I'm talking about if they believed what was in the Olivet discourse they would see if they would have an event like that could not go unnoticed by everybody on earth so how in the world could they have missed it okay go ahead and make your SAS my first point now my second point is this if I can't get you to admit the existence of the rapture perhaps I can get you to admit can you speak more directly perhaps I can get you to admit that there's two entirely different operations by Christ here okay let's take the first classic one where he comes to meet out eternal punishment on unbelievers on unregenerate mankind this is shown in Revelation 19 when he is the fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse comes with blood on his robe he kills millions of people's and sentences them to eternal damnation okay that's a now the rapture could not be oh and also he touches down Zachariah 14 says his foot touches the Mount of Olives when he comes for that task for that operation okay now the rapture air he does not touch down there's no evidence given you know that he touches down that's one huge difference okay now the rapture could not be more different in its purpose Hebrews 9:28 says we look for Christ's return who will come to give us his salvation for those he'll bring salvation to those who are looking for him John 14 two and three in my father's house are many mansions I go there to prepare a place for you and I'll come back and take you there with me okay then and and in Thessalonians you know as he's talking about he owe in 1st Corinthians 15 51 and 52 we shall not all sleep sleep being a metaphor for the death of a believer but we will all be changed you know in a twinkling of an eye okay so you see the body of description of this rapture is vastly different from what he's doing so there are many good Bible scholars who agree that the two events occur simultaneously I disagree with that i think i think that the rapture occurs seven years before but you must admit those are two vastly different operations and they must be if you're going to have him do it you must be in the group you must believe that he does that simultaneously then on his second cut I would see them Bob as two sides of the same coin look at 2nd Thessalonians 1:6 and following he says God deems it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant rest with us to you who are afflicted when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire inflicting vengeance upon those who do not know God and upon those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus they shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might when he comes on that day to be glorified in his Saints and to be marveled at in all who have relieved it seems to me that there will be wrath and destruction for the unsaved but there will be salvation for those who are saved so these are two sides of the same coin right and my point is though since they are so far as you say on different sides of the coin there and opposite extremes it would not be implausible to think that they could occur temporarily at a different time they could occur at different times would not be implausible because they are so different okay all right well that will depend I guess on how you read these these passages and I've already spoken on that alright we've got time for a couple more comments Bruce I'll try to be quick the first thing on the error that they that they had talked about Christ's resurrection already occurring they should have known that the only event that kept the rapture from occurring what would be the crucifixion of the Apostle Peter so it's prophesied that he would die the same way before Christ returned so that would be one thing the second thing is I think I agree with Bob on his eschatology and that I think you have to tie the 70th week also with the Feast of Trumpets we're waiting for trumpets in the in the timetable in trumpets is the rapture this is what in the Jewish feast calendar and the last thing is if you're if you reject a a rapture and day of the Lord you have to explain you have to allegorize a lot of the Old Testament as well as revelation but you also have to explain why there is a physical Israel there's no need an anomaly Niall format to have a physical Israel so the fact that there is is evidence that this is fulfilling a timetable God has with the Jews let me just make quickly one comment and again it will be a hermeneutical comment similar to what I said with Carol I have noticed that some folks want to use the controlling factor in this to be prophecy and it seems to me that that's a mistake you should take the didactic portions of Scripture as primary that is to say the doctrinal portions of Scripture where Paul for example is teaching doctrine and then you interpret the prophecies in light of the doctrine you don't take the prophecies as your primary foundation and then try to make the teaching fit it and the reason for that is obvious the prophecies are ambiguous they're they're so difficult to interpret many times look at how the New Testament authors often interpret the Scriptures in the in the Old Testament in very unexpected ways so you've got to begin first with the teaching I think of Jesus and of Paul and then you can look at the prophecies in light of that and how they may have been fulfilled but don't impose the prophecies on the didactic parts of scripture I have to close Bob for Brad because of time so save your comment until next time remember what it is all right we'll see you there next time and next time we'll look at preterism which is the very interesting view that these prophecies far from being in the future they've already been fulfilled

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Keywords: William Lane Craig (Author), Reasonable Faith, Doctrine, Last Things, Eschatology (Literature Subject), Second Coming, Christ (Art Subject), Revelation, Apocalypse, Second Coming of Christ, Christianity, Apologetics, The Bible (Religious Text), Return of Christ, Jesus Christ, God, End of Time, End of the World, Rapture, Rapture of the church, Tribulation

Id: n25g4Cw5YIA

Length: 39min 46sec (2386 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 20 2014