Prophecy Update | February 2022 | The Rapture - Brett Meador

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 uh this evening um a lot of stuff to uh to talk about really tonight um i 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 uh 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 and be watchmen on the wall and and that's kind of you know what we've been doing you know here uh at eighty on these once a month deals but um a lot of the things yes praise the lord i agree well good a little singer to the lord um that's great so so one of the things that um i've noticed though however is um 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 going to happen and so i'm going to spend a little time on that tonight we you know we really could talk about the the houthis uh and you know abu dhabi and the invasion there what does that mean um there's some you know what about ukraine uh and and putin and all that that's pretty simple honestly uh 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's that is kind of a precursor to him becoming more and more powerful in the middle east which would lead to ezekiel 38 and you know so i think you guys can do the the math on a lot of these things that are happening around the world and um the craziness of um uh you know some of the the things they're trying to force us to do and the decline of america i mean we could talk about all kinds of things um but um but i wanted to uh remind us of a couple things and 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 um and so you could maybe jot these down i think don't you think if god says the words hey you guys of all the things you're not supposed to be dumb about um and then he gives you a list shouldn't we kind of take take note i mean 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 it's oftentimes our dimmest areas are these six things that um 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 hey whatever you do don't be dumb or ignorant the you know the greek word it comes kind of from that same latin that you know the ogonosco or to not know uh sort of to be agnostic if you would as kind of the idea there um and so don't be agonoscope or or ignorant um by the way what is it agonoscope in the greek in the latin it's uh ignoramus uh that that's that's literally the translation uh for you studious types so when people say i'm agnostic um do you realize what you're saying uh 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 i put the word gift there but we have to put the the word gift uh 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 any talks 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 because 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 pneumatica in the greek which is or pneumaticos which means things pertaining to the holy spirit and the reason why the word gifts is inappropriate is do you have the gift of you know 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 um if you're benny hen saying i don't have the holy gift of healing you are wrong and you need to comb your hair differently but anyway um no i'm just just messing around but no seriously we we've got to um understand that don't be ignorant about things of the holy spirit and man the church you know whether it's the cessationists who say well the spirit is not for today and you know all those those things listed in first corinthians 12 that's not for today though that's wrong but then you got our you know charismaniac and i'm somewhat of a charismatic but but what's the difference between a charismatic and a charismatic the charismatic has a safety belt uh we call it the bible uh 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 like that's 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 that's one of the things you and i are called in the scriptures not to be ignorant of that's first corinthians 1 1 the second one on the list concerning things of typology um there it says in first corinthians 10 1 through 4 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 it says and these things are all examples or types typos in the greek is that 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's kind of boring but if you read the bible the way it's meant to be read with the typology and that the you know when you're reading about the tabernacle in the old testament the tabernacle is a picture of jesus christ and it's it's an amazing picture or joseph himself the you know the son of jacob is an amazing portrait of jesus christ uh and and there's there's pictures all throughout we go on and on but that's one of the things you're not supposed to be ignorant of uh sadly the church neglects that by and large um 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 uh they're ignorant toward what the bible says of that um number three on the list is a big one we're not supposed to be ignorant concerning satan's devices you know second corinthians 2 11 less 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 it's uh that's what we should be doing as well not being ignorant concerning satan's tactics or devices um that's that now those are the first three the next three have something in common and let's see if you can figure it out uh number four on the list or what are we remember what is this number four um the mystery concerning israel uh romans 11 25-27 for i would not brethren that you should be ignorant of this mystery um 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 um 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 the messiah no jesus was a jew and god said that 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 or 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 uh 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 it has been that way for the last you know 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 um and it's exactly what god said would happen remember the bones and 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 going to come but one of the things we're reminded of is to not be arrogant or you know as it says you're wise in your own conceits as gentiles don't be don't be thinking you're bigger or better than them isn't it interesting that um you know that's what the church has done by the way that's that's one of the topics if i were doing more um current events today i i think i'd probably camp out on some of the anti-semitism that's happening right now because it's reaching a feverish pitch right now the the anti-semitism around the world and you know if you don't think whoopi goldberg's comments have something to do with anti-semitism it really does um again the babylon bee nails it uh 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 um by the way um i'm gonna say something that you know probably could get me canceled uh um now but but you want me cancel that um uh so um here's the thing which one's worse what happened to the jews in the holocaust or historically the the racism against the jews or racism in slavery in america well let me explain before you answer that question um one which group one 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 going to enslave them and it wasn't as much of a global situation although you could make that argument with slavery um but there's been slaves of all kinds of people throughout all the ages throughout all history um but we've seen that but but it's a different thing to enslave someone that's bad enough i'm not arguing you know 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 for you know whoopi to make those comments that's why so many people were just stunned because that's just not really getting the the memo uh not really having a clue uh when it comes to what has happened historically jews six million jews at least in the holocaust uh put in gas chambers like it's it's profound but you'll notice there's this there's this thing being talked about all over the world how the holocaust never really happened college professors at these you know ivy league schools are saying it's not really what happened man i'll tell you mom and 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 second one best one's probably in jerusalem the odd 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 there going yes that was awesome uh you walk out of the the holocaust museums like somebody you know kicked you in the gut it's a brutal experience but i i think everyone should know the reality of what actually happened there and you know people like this uh that say these things um it's 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 um you know the the things that we should not be ignorant of um the mystery concerning israel that god has a plan and a purpose for the jews uh number five um god's timing uh it says but beloved there in second peter chapter 3 verse 8 9 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 word not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance so one of the things the bible says don't be ignored about is the timing uh and now the context of ii peter 3 is all about you know the the second coming of christ and all the way even to when god ultimately does away with this whole world uh and and creates a new heaven and 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 um and and the reason lord hasn't come back is because he wants no one to perish he's been patient in long suffering uh great truth about god's timing when it comes to the rapture some people say well if god is love why does he fix all the problems of the world he will but when he does that part of the problem is he's going to fix some of the people that are saying that fix the problem you're the problem god's going to fix that but god is saying i don't want to 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 um 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 um lastly on our list the rapture of the church um check it out it says in first thessalonians chapter 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 them um now by the way i'm not even going to get into soul sleep some of you guys maybe came from different backgrounds where you believe that you you 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 um i don't believe that this is a um this is a sort of an idiom of the bible when it says those that are asleep or those who passed on before us or died before us um 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 bodies to be present with the lord two is the thief that hung on the cross jesus didn't say um you know in about a thousand two thousand 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 um for you know a couple thousand years so um there's that's just a couple 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 you know 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 um we'll maybe look into those things in a second but notice that the the last three items on our list of things not to be ignored 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 uh bible prophecy isn't it funny that three and you might even say satan's devices you could you could put that one in there too as a maybe a fourth but the point is um of all the things we're not supposed to be ignorant about isn't it funny that so much of the church just says yeah bible prophecy you know i don't know about all that and so it's so uh divisive they say um 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 going to go over that and so there's a great ignorance when it comes to israel the rapture of the church um you know uh it's it's sad to me to see that um you know the timing of the lord that you know the days of the thousands people just don't really care about that stuff so um why is it that the church tends to be ignorant concerning these things i think i think that there's a lot of reasons people avoid the topic partially because the rapture well um it's a little weird i'll admit it that we believe that there's going to be a time where there's a massive disappearance you know what's interesting though to me about this is um 25 30 years ago yeah people like you believe there's gonna be a massive disappearance in the world and god's going to 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 there's entire groups that aren't even christians are saying yeah it's going to 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 uh it's funny to the new age your guess who's 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 uh ii thessalonians that the church is holding back this coming in of a new age it's just not going to be the age of aquarius it's going to 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 uh you know karma that zapped us all out because we were the problem or whatever um 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 um but it is in the bible and and by the way um you know the bible's sensational when you read about moses and the children of israel the red sea and moses sticking 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 in the very different times diverse times and places the rapture of the church is going to be one of those massive moments where the world is going to see god intervening on behalf of his church so that's kind of the thing i want to do is is i want to talk about the rapture a little bit and i also want to 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 um isn't it interesting we're seeing churches who once believed in a 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 and there's this this desire to sort of make people that are pre-tribulational viewed uh rapture people um there's there's sort of a desire to make everybody that's in that camp look kind of crazy um and they're working hard at that so i want to get sort of remind us sharpen ourselves a little bit tonight and give us sort of the the defense of what we see the bible saying and why we believe that it's true um the rapture of the church is important in the bible um and there are so many different views out there uh um that and and by the way pre-tribbers we are not the majority and we haven't been for a long long time um 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 um and then there's all kinds of views uh in between there uh 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 a.d 70 when jerusalem was crushed by the romans and they they believe that the bible prophecy is done now to seal it up and it's delivered because of what happened in jerusalem in a.d 70. um that's an embarrassing position because if you just read those stories of what the lord says is going to happen it's not just one little city in the world that's going to be crushed by the romans it's it's global in scope and it's futuristic and 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 it's a it's really quite an amazing construct the the full preterist is 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 a.d 70 and there's still some prophecies perhaps that are going to happen like the rapture of the church and that's and they believe the rapture is gonna happen at the same time as the second coming um 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 um but the preterits uh 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 um the big question the big argument is at what point in time um you know where where's the rapture fit in god's timeline now remember that there's a side note here anybody that claims they know the day or the hour of the rapture of the church you know their wacko right are we all square on that um i'm not talking about knowing the day or the hour i once in a while i'll hear a critic say pastor brett's always predicting when the rapture is going to 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 going to happen but we can try to discern at what point of god's timeline is it going to happen and that's where some big debate uh takes place and when when is the rapture going to happen as it relates to the millennial kingdom thousand-year rule and reign of jesus um and so there's there's different views the the the one i believe is pre-tribulation that i believe the rapture is going to happen where the church is taken up out of this world before the tribulation before the seven year period called the tribulation in the bible the second view i might bring in is the mid-trib there's some mid-trippers probably even in this room if you made me shift from pre-trib and you said 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 i mean it makes sense it but still it's problematic in my mind um and uh we we've um talked a little bit about that in previous times but it's it's a view where the rapture of the church is going to happen somewhere before the great tribulation the last three and a half years uh 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 is going to happen at the end of the tribulation period at the second coming of christ and then there's a fourth view um pan tribulation that's all just going to pan out so who cares actually don't write that fourth one down that's just um me being a nerd um can i just say about the pan trib view though um there's a lot of people that take this goofy um and i hope you're no none of you are that i i doubt it's you because you're here at a friday night prophecy update um but there are people like yeah it's all going to pan out so whatever we don't care when the rapture is going to happen uh you know i've heard people say i'm going to pray for pre prepare for post um you're gonna do what uh it's almost like some people just don't really wanna care even though i believe it's 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 don't be the pan tribulational viewer it's only gonna pan out whatever um so all that to say now there are some that would say okay so i'm not going to defend uh any of those views except for the one i actually believe and and there's plenty of material out there you can find on any one of those views and there's even entire books that are that'll take those four views and compare them you know uh parallel comparisons uh it's not hard to find all that um so i'm not gonna spend any time defending any of those that i don't believe um but the pre-trib rapture view is what i believe um 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 uh a couple hundred years ago and a bunch of kooky people uh came up with this hair brained idea that you'll 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 um and what they'll say is uh you know 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 um because he was coming up with a new uh ask out a lot have you guys heard of the crazy woman he 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 that the the concept of the rapture being talked about in the church was and i'll give it to the argument that um 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 or just hold the idea of the rapture in general uh that you're a darbyist and then um the the final guy and this is somebody i actually really appreciate uh ci scofield and he as an american theologian you know he's responsible with the scofield bible reference how many guys have the scofield bible i figured there'd be some of you guys here at the prophecy update um how many of us have the old school-filled bible oh yeah uh how many have the new school-filled bible okay yeah interesting so just just fyi's the old school football bible is awesome it was so awesome that they stopped printing it and people had a they flipped out and uh and they started they had to um start reprinting the old school field because the old school notes had things about the rapture of the church and like all the pre-trib rapture views kind of summed up in the old school-filled bible's reference notes and what have you the new school filled they took all that out uh still good stuff in there but it just took out all the rapture stuff and uh end time stuff so um if you're looking for a bible that has uh like a study bible the old school filled reference is one that's worth worth looking at if you want to kind of see uh what the bible says about pre-trib rapture and stuff like that so when it comes to eschatology most christians throughout history have been on 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 um and it's all brand new now um here's the thing that we have to kind of be careful about this first of all i'll give it to him 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 always they want to 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 that 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 um 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 uh that's putting it nicely another thing that you'll see in churches today that you know hook line and sacrament they fell for it infant baptism uh and uh it's kind of cute isn't it good um 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 um repentance is always associated with baptism that there's a person who made a decision to follow christ now some of you i've got to 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 who and father who said we want to make sure to check the box 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 um i could go on and on the institution of the state church like the anglican church or you know the catholic church has been a state church um a church of england and you know the idea of a state church that's something the bible uh it doesn't say anything about that um and and here's the here's the bottom line this is where we have to remember um 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 well um by the way when we look at church history and i think a a healthy thing for a bible prophecy buff to do is to also study church history um you can learn a ton studying church history um but we one thing you learned 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 you know most carefully and prayerfully precisely defined after god appointed the church to focus on that doctrinal area um by the way there's a long list of these things second uh through the fourth centuries um after the church was you know 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 of inerrant perfect scripture and they took the words of paul and realized wow the scripture all scripture is god breathe and it took them a while to realize the infallibility of scripture in the 4th 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 5th century the doctrine of christ the the 5th through the 7th centuries the doctrine of man and how what our relationship to god really has got more dialed in 16th and 17th centuries the doctrine of salvation was really promoted and started we started to understand better and the 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 um you know now that we're in the you know 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 um the the end times theology you should know this 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 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 astana saying i didn't understand anything i just wrote um that's what the book of daniel's like and then it says um at the end of the book of revelation it says now do not seal up the words of this book and and really think about it a.d 70 speaking of that day that's when the jews were crushed by the romans scattered all over the world and scattered for two thousand 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 they said what are you guys talking about the jews haven't been a nation for hundreds of years in fact you know they could have said that by the 1500s they've been they've been uh not a nation for a millennia and a half so of course we're not going to take bible prophecy literally of course we're not going to believe all these things but 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've got to rethink bible prophecy all together now because there's a literal israel and it's 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 um we shouldn't be surprised that god chose to have the church focus on this area of doctrine um 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 anti-semitic 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 anti-semitic because he was a guy who's 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 um but what what happened um is because of that even adolf hitler used some of martin luther's writings to defend his own thing so all this to say uh yeah here's the thing that i would challenge my friends that say brett you guys are believing some new uh 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 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 um when i see people with that activities accusation this new teaching from the 19th century it makes me think their biblical art argument tends to be a little weak and it usually is if their only argument is well i just believe what martin luther believed 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 and 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 secret rapture no you'll never hear like i've i never heard that until i was in a like a a little cordial uh debate with a the guys like well you guys believe in a secret rapture i'm like what what do we believe a secret um 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 um their their about their favored end time scenario um the idea of a secret rapper is just sort of diminish like it's some weird little thing that we believe it's it's only a secret to us um and it's not in the that's the argument it's not in the bible anywhere in the bible the whole word rapture is not in the bible um i always laugh at that one when people say the word rapture is not even in the bible um the word bible is not even in the bible um the word trinity is not did you know christianity is not in the bible the word christianity the word trinity is not about like we could go on and on at things that aren't worded like that in the bible but we know them to be biblical concepts so don't let that those arguments uh 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 want to break this down a little bit just just before we kind of get into some of the reasons i believe in a pre-trib rapture and i'll i'll we'll see how far we can get tonight but um the first thing here is um it says lord what's up will descend from heaven with a shout voice and with the trump of god um one of the things that causes great confusion is this trump it's not a um you know you got to get the right trump is it a trump of god is it the trump of an angel is it donald trump which one is it um well this the rapture of the church according to first corinthian first thessalonians 4 the rapture of the church is when the trump of god is blown now just i'm doing a really fast uh version of this but some of our mid-trib friends or pre-wrath guys they'll say see the trumpets are blown they're in the tribulation revelation 6-19 and that's where you find the trump being blown but the problem that you need to understand is this that's not the trump of god those are trumpets blown by angels and there's there's seven of them this is a singular trump of god that's going to 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 uh 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 um 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 um so those people are with the lord even right now the dead in christ shall rise first and the ideas 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 um i think that's kind of cool that he was along with the other uh you know apostles they believed that it could be them being caught up in the rapture um they 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 uh he talked about in first thessalonians chapter four now i'll give it to him there's a big gap from paul all the way to darby but but still my defense is scripture not church history or the understanding of the church concerning the rapture of the church i'm going to 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 that was the point we which are alive and rain shall be and then the you guys know key key uh word they're caught up caught up and that's where we get the word rapture love harpanzo in the greek uh the latin is where it was wrapped to row where we get our word rapture um so those people that are trying to say the word rapture is not the bible well that's disingenuous it's actually there um call it whatever you want rapture caught up our podzo'd um i don't care what you call it but uh the the word caught up harpanzo 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 uh little artworm our artwork theme here tonight is clouds because um i always look out the door every day is it cloudy because if it's a cloudy day and um i think maybe um portland we've got all kinds of chances for the rapture uh because it's gonna be cloudy um but anyway we're going to meet the lord in the clouds to meet the lord in the air um so that's that word rapture caught up um and and we're going to meet the lord in the air but notice it's not just the lord we're going to come together with them who are the them there they're the people the dead in christ that rose first we're going to meet in the air the lord with our loved ones who have died before us what a glorious greeting or meeting the rapture of the church is going to be we're going to meet the lord in the air and all of our loved ones who've died before us that's part of them we're going to be with them and meet the lord in there 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 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's with with these words this is a very clear description of what's gonna happen um and it's powerful um now um you say okay brett so this is the rapture and it's gonna happen but is how do we know and what's our defense that it's going to 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 um and let me give you a let's see how much time we have tonight uh how many i can get through because i've got about a hundred um reasons i believe in a pre-trib rapture uh let's start with number one revelation the divine outline would you turn to revelation with me real quick i want to 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 is just you know repetition is the mother of all learning so if there's an old thing to you uh man if it's new man take note this is a big deal um the book of revelation have you ever heard people say oh man it's so difficult i've got pastor friends 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 um in fact um by the way um the the book of revelation is the only book of the bible that comes with a blessing look at revelation chapter 1 verse 3 blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things that are 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 and 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 it's and every time we've just been hugely blessed that that has been proven true but um 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 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 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 1 look at verse 19. you know john receives a revelation from jesus and sees jesus sort of in the past uh condition jesus glorified savior and this is what he tells john verse 19 revelation 1 19. he says write the things which thou has seen and the things which are and the things which shall be hereafter that's the outline that's the the divine outline given to john about the book of revelation it's a three-fold outline write the things out a scene 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 of 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 um the the chapter two and three are the messages to the what seven churches we are living in the church age right now and man the the letters to the seven churches are one of the funnest things to teach in the bible because it's so multi-layered multifaceted you can talk about the actual churches uh 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 it's a fascinating study of church history when you read about it and um and then you know you there's so many different applications of the seven churches but um 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 2 verse 21 it says concerning the church at thyatira um it says about this horrible church that was committing fornication uh sin it says in verse 21 um 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 off lord says unless you you repent as a church you're going to be the church and this is speaking prophetically that's going to be so fornicated with the world that you're not even going to be raptured or taken up you're going to be thrown into great tribulation are there churches that will be left behind when the rapture happens sadly yes there's 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 of thyatira there's going to be a faithful church let's fast forward to philadelphia revelation chapter 3 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 the all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth um the the there was two churches that didn't get a sort of a spanking um one was smyrna that because they were they were the persecuted church and the lord says i'm going to bless your socks off the other one was philadelphia and because they kept the word of god the lord says i'm going to keep you from tribulation period even though the whole world's going to go through that so even in the messages to the churches jesus is sort of saying here's what's going to happen through the church ages is the idea there um 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 or the things that have been passed the things that are church age chapter two and three but now we're gonna 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 meta tauto same word as 1 19 the things that shall be hereafter so so i 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 going to be the end of the church age as if you're a pre-triber 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 meta tauto verse 1. 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 um 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 the the throne and the four and twenty elders and um the seats there but um 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 art worthy to take the book and open the seals thereof for thou a 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 you know 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's and then he sees these people saying you have redeemed us that's the church they're in heaven seen right here now 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 meta talk to after these things the rapture of the church we'll be in heaven meanwhile back on the at the ranch uh the things that shall be here after back at at earth you get to see what's going to happen revelation chapter 6 through 19 is the definition of the tribulation period um and you know it gets brutal uh you know and it starts off you know some people say well the first half of the tribulation is not going to be that bad it's not going to 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 uh that you know are pretty brutal there in chapter six and you know the the the 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 in 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 faith 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 the time of god's wrath or the time of jacob's trouble israel's trouble is going to 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 6 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 4 and 5. where's the church during the tribulation in revelation 6-9 it's not there well bret 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 going to 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 going to be comprised of jews and gentiles who are going to come to the lord and be saved during the tribulation period now if you read the whole thing it's gonna cost them um to be saved in the tribulation period will cost you your life and the bible talks about how you know 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 you know persecuting 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 beat 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 um there's been some you know looney tune people on youtube saying that if you get vaccinated you've taken the mark of the beast that's just dumb a couple 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 going to 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 is already raptured you and i are not going to 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 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're going to the grocery store you know it's like get your groceries and i remember when they were talking about that you know and um yeah that's not going to 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 going to happen during the tribulation so when we talk about that here some might say well why talk about it if we're not even going to 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 going to 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 going to unfold during the tribulation period the gog magog war is kind of a debatable one whether it's going to 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 for the rapture but as you just read the book of revelation it just lays out perfectly in perfect order the events of what's going to happen if you get raptured at the end of the tribulation you have to look for the church in the tribulation 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 um i believe that uh 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 um you got to 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 under wrath the bible says this over and over and over again first thessalonians chapter 5 verse 9-11 for god if not by the way first thessalonians 5 is all about the rapture of the church and the end times and thus knowing the times and the seasons we're living in but it says for god if 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 ourselves together and edify one another even as also you do um we are not appointed under wrath but to obtain salvation the tribulation period is called the time of the wrath of lamb we just read that in revelation 6 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 um it's clear that that is the the tribulation period the wrath of god um also first thessalonians chapter 1 verse 10 it says and to wait for his son from heaven who he raised from the dead even jesus which hath 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 going to 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 um so one of the great arguments you know i believe in in pre-trib uh for pre-trib is that we're not appointed under wrath now some of your post troubles say well the lord will protect us through that time um yeah but here's the problem with that um 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 um so that doesn't sound like very much protection uh it's funny how they try to know the lord will protect us through like and they use the example like the when the egyptians were beginning some of the plagues didn't hit the people of israel only egyptians got and they said that's what's going to happen the bible doesn't say anything about that it just says the lord is going to 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 um 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 um and so you know it goes on talks about 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 going to 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 going to happen is for the jews to be woken or awakened during the tribulation period um well where's the rapture of the church easy anybody want to 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 um uh 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 and to reserve the unjust for the day of judgment so that's the second one sodom and gomorrah lot was um take it up by the way lot never left sonoma 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 or it's a beautiful picture of the rapture of the church because lot was snatched up just like the word um 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 um okay can you guess who in the picture there is shadrach meshach and abednego being thrown in the fire furnace who is that well jesus was there you're right but you're you're ahead of where i'm at what's the type of shadrach meshach and abednego in the fire 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 fire furnace and and they saw jesus there in the furnace and it was they were saved from the furnace by jesus and that's what jesus is going to do with the jews in the tribulation it's a great picture you know 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 have 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 have 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 you know loved ones and then we immediately come back if you read revelation 19 we come back with the lord um i call it bungee eschatology up with the lord back down to the earth what's the point um now i got to 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 you know cancels out your faith um by the way there's there is a hostility by the way that um as i'm seeing where there's more youtubers and bloggers are saying you know uh pre-trib rapture is a satanic teaching have you guys seen this stuff it's like suddenly the some of the church is getting belligerent toward you know 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 we all it was a friendly discussion it was an in-house debate but there is a hostility i found lately with some of these churches and it's a real like demeaning one of the pastors locally here who used to be a pre-tribber he gave a sermon he basically said you know people 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 but um it is interesting because rc sprole who is one of my heroes apologetically rc sprole was a great apologist um man you didn't want to debate rc sprole when it came to defending the bible without using the bible he was he was great at that uh a real intellectual but he was also a partial preterist which was unfortunate um and he had a different view but i 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 uh on on the end time stuff and even rc who's so good at making his case did not make a good case um like for example bungie eschatology this one he he used this analogy you know will be raptured because he believes the rapture is going to happen at the same time of the second coming of christ it's all going to be one event up and then come back down that's what he says is going to happen and he says what's the point and he says i don't really know but but when a roman king would come into the cities of bible times the people of the city had to they were they were forced to come out and they'd have to line the streets and celebrate the coming of the king and and so that's really what the rapture does it lines us up in christ coming and we all get up in 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 going to happen um 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 you know in the mishnah kirushin 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 broom the groom would um 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 and then you know he'd give a token for the dowry and and just a gift of some kind just like jesus gave his bride the the holy spirit um and then they would sort of seal their betrothal with the drinking of the cup and they'd 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 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 going to use language just to kind of help you connect the docs he he would go to prepare a place for his bride and he would go there and work and 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 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 the bridegroom and says you you go and you 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 i guess follow 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 bon bons watching soap operas she had to be a bride that was like bruh 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 the grooms would come and 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 um but where was the bride in 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 going to come and get his bride we're going to go to be with him the rapture of the church serves a purpose it's not just bungie especially 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 going to 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 going to be taken up into heaven to be with the lord where we're going to be there for our how long is it going to be on 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 3 um oh i was supposed to click that one long time ago colossians chapter 3 verse 4 when christ who is our life shall appear then shall you uh you also appear with him in glory i'm not you shall appear with him on the earth it doesn't say that when he appears we the church are going to appear with him in glory that's in heaven um 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 you know 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 uh and he's 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 the 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 i to me it makes it doesn't make as much sense as the seven-year time with the lord it's an incredible thing that jesus is going to 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 um i like the idea of going to heaven with the lord oh man i'm almost out of time and only a number five out of 100. uh let's try to hurry through some of these um no man knows the day or hour um 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 um 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've got the second coming which is the rapture you got the third coming revelation 19. here's what you got to 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 uh no man knows the day or the hour this it's the doctrine of imminence i've done whole sermons on this um 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 going to happen but it's the idea of the doctrine of imminence 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 ah the lord delays is coming and uh so we're gonna 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 eminence at any moment of his coming it's not a new doctrine um as some people try to say it's actually old first 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 we should it is it's somewhere up in our nursery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed uh 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 15 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 of the early church fathers and the way they believe that could happen in their time it's not a new doctrine um but uh pre-tribulation view 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 ah millennialists believe in more of a kingdom now dominion theology where now you know there's no literal rapture there's no literal coming uh it's it's it's more of we're going to usher in the kingdom and we've got to fix the world and you know that's why some churches do become very political because and talk all about elections and stuff like that because they believe that we're the ones who are going to usher in the kingdom of god that's not going to happen we don't have anything to do 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 um 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 world view 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've got a lot of work to do no the pre-tribulation view is one that says not only we we believe that things aren't going to get better it's not that we're not trying to fix things and see you know 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 going to 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 so we're looking for jesus uh very important um here's a here's another reason i'd i want to escape the tribulation period pre-tribulation is escapism now this is where you can agree with your average you guys that believe in a pre-trib rapture you guys just you know want to get out of the the wrath of the lamb you just want to 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 be counted worthy to escape all of these things um and 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 um oh man we don't have time for this one but i'm going to say it anyway um 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 remember that there are 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 uh the 70 weeks of daniel done a bunch of teaching on this but my main argument i'm not going to revisit that whole thing but there's there's the first 69 weeks and then there's a pause and the the 70th seven-year period has yet to happen and that's still in the future after the messiah comes and the bible talks about how there's going to be a peace treaty with israel and this antichrist character and then that's that 70th week week's gonna be engaged at that point upon israel and jews daniel people um but here's the here's the thing that and um 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 began 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 going to 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 um number nine we'll do maybe a couple more you guys got a couple more in you okay um number nine pre-trib is the only view that is actually comforting do you remember do you remember what we said uh when we read from first last lens four again our text where it says in verse 18 wherefore comfort one another with these words that's that's right there in the scriptures comfort one another with these words now um if i were to say well the rapture of the church is going to happen at the end of the tribulation we're going to have to go through some really bad times and there's going to be 100 pound hailstones pounding the planet there's going to be disease and death and two-thirds of the planet is going to die um but but be comforted like does that really work or is it more comforting to read we're going to be caught up with the lord in that 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 in the next chapter first that's when it's chapter five he reiterated it reiterated it he says for god hath not appointed us to wrath but obtain 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 um man we could talk more about that but uh let's let's do one more number 10 the nature of god it himself if you read your bible is it god's nature to take his chil his children let's just say children first and say i'm going to put my children with the people that i'm going to crush is that god's nature um or 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 um before you get married before the marriage feast i'm going to 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 um happy wedding anniversary or whatever i just it'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 piteth 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 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 um my uncles and all millennials great guy love love my uncle um and he was the first one who brett you know you believe in a brand new eschatology and he and i would sit around and talk about you know eschatology and as a kid i remember thinking wow i've never heard of this on millennialism and then i started looking into all the other views and i've really don't say i got a letter from a gal the other day so and she kind of went into a whole thing about um preterism and how pastor brad 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 um and you know and also amillennialism or you know pre-trib post-trib ah mill 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 you know 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 going to be taken up before the tribulation ever happens and i i you know some people say that's irresponsible what if we go through the tribulation um well we're not that doesn't line up with the bible we're going to be saved and taken up and be with the lord that's what the bible says um and uh 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 council of the bible um don't let people make you think the pre-trib view is a hare-brained unstudied you know ignoramus sort of view um there is there is sort of a notion about that um that's one of the tactics by the way people use to just diminish when they don't have a good argument it's it's a little bit like what we're seeing in the world today with a lot of things um you know they're they're making these doctors who 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 um and they tried to make these doctors look really bad now they're all they're all sort of exonerated at least um some people are acknowledging that they were right um but i think that that's what happens sometimes with with people in the bible too don't let people say oh you're a pre-tribber you're just an idiot you know don't let them do that because um there's some great scholarly people who have believed this and i'm going to 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 i think just being in your word tonight is just just what we needed lord just to be reminded of truth um 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 going to come for your bride and we get to meet you in the air and you're going to take us to be in heaven lord we look forward to that time give us that blessed hope may like first john chapter 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 to faithful servants doing your work in these days lord we pray in jesus name amen

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 159,223

Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship, rapture, church history, pre-wrath, wrath, tribulation, mid-tribulation, post-tribulation, pre-tribulation, amillennialism, ignorance, antichrist, revelation, bride

Id: qQdUQXWIOT4

Length: 89min 48sec (5388 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 04 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Big_Iron_Cowboy]

Pastor Brett Meador of Athey Creek Christian Fellowship gives a sermon on Biblical prophecy the first Friday of every month. In February’s sermon Pastor Meador makes a strong case for a pre-tribulation rapture of the Christian Church.

He does concede however that there is a case to be made as well for a mid-tribulation rapture preceding the dispensation of God’s wrath with the Sounding of the Seventh Trumpet (Revelation 11).

Revelation 7:9 After this I looked, and before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

Revelation 9:14 *And he said, “These are they who come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.”

These verses seem to describe a raptured Christian Church - well into the tribulation.

Do you believe in such a mid-tribulation rapture or a pre-tribulation rapture, or no rapture?