Rapture Sermon Series 46 - Explaining & Refuting Pre-Wrath, Pt. 5. 1 Thess. 4:18. Dr. Andy Woods.

let's uh open a word of prayer and we'll get started father we're grateful for uh today and grateful for the opportunity to fellowship and learn uh of your truth and i just ask that you'll the holy spirit will be with us this morning we ask for the illuminating ministry of the spirit we'd ask that you remove anything in our personal lives by way of distraction or unconfessed sin that might hinder what you would be seeking to do in your church today through your holy spirit and we'll take just a moment of private silence to make any necessary confession of sin that we might have we praise you for the promise of first john chapter 1 verse 9 that if we confess our sins you're faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness and we do ask lord that today the spirit would have unfettered access to our lives and our minds as we seek to learn of you worship you and glorify you which is really the purpose for which you made us we'll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory we ask these things in jesus name and god's people said amen all right well if you could take your and open them to the book of first thessalonians chapter 4 and verse 18. first thessalonians chapter 4 verse 18 and as you know we're continuing on with our study on the doctrine of the rapture sort of at a point in the study where we're diagnosing the views that contradict the view that we teach here the view we teach here is called pre-tribulationalism that the church will be raptured to heaven before the tribulation period transpires and you can see from this chart here that there are many other competing voices that don't want you to believe our view which we think is the bible's view it's not our view it's in the bible um and and thus it becomes our view amen but there's other views mid-trib post-trib we've been looking at those and what they're saying and what their problems are and we're right in the middle of taking a look at pre-wrath rapturism you'll see pre-wrath rapturism as an alternative position down at the very bottom of the screen and basically pre-wrath rapturism is the idea that the god's wrath really doesn't start until roughly the final 25 of the tribulation and these folks call that the day of the lord and everything that precedes in the tribulation period whether it's the beginning of god's wrath or excuse me the beginning of sorrows first half of the tribulation then the great tribulation which is the first part of the second half of the tribulation see how confusing this gets the beginning of sorrows and the great tribulation according to their view is not god's wrath wrath doesn't start until the final 25 roughly so therefore uh we're going to be here for the first half of the tribulation period and we're going to be here for probably close to half of the second half of the tribulation and we don't have the hope of being raptured until the final 25 of the tribulation so this is a view that you'll find in the works of marvin rosenthal this is a chart that comes directly from his book he used to not believe this he used to be a pre-tribulationalist and then he switched his view and sort of came out with this novel approach and so what we've been going through are six problems with their view and i kind of put these in the same order that i presented the evidence for pre-tribulationalism i had given you earlier in the study several reasons for pre-tribulationalism and the arguments against pre-wrath follow that same chronology and i'm just trying to show you how their view we think is incorrect on these points that you already know concerning why we believe in pre-tribulationalism so number one they placed the church in the 70th week of daniel in fact the church is going to be here for three quarters roughly of the 70th week of daniel and that's a problem because the 70th week of daniel concerns who israel is given to daniel's people in daniel city israel and jerusalem number two it fails to acknowledge the concept of the missing church um you know when you get into revelation 4 through the end of the book the word church is not used at all except when john is sort of signing off at the end and says teach these things in the churches so that is proof that the church can't be here during that terrible time period the pre-wrath rapture crowd does not accept that they try to find the church in revelation 6 and in some cases revelation 7 and there's no evidence that the church is there so we talk through that and where their view is really the most vulnerable is this idea that it confines god's wrath to a quarter roughly of the tribulation we think that's incorrect as we've tried to explain in prior studies we think the whole seven year tribulation period is god's wrath and so we kind of went into detail dealing with that subject the last few sundays a fourth problem with pre-wrath rapturism it denies the idea that jesus can come back today it denies what we call imminency in fact all of these views whether it's mid-trib post-trib pre-wrath rapturism if you actually pin down the proponents and say can jesus christ come back to the can he come back today the answer is no and we believe that the evidence of the new testament as we've tried to explain is that jesus can come back in the next split second there is absolutely no prophetic sign that has to materialize first before the rapture can occur now there are a ton of signs that have to materialize before the second advent can occur when he comes back in violent judgment to set up his kingdom in fact the whole seven year tribulation period has to transpire first before the second advent can occur but when you look at the rapture passages there's never a sign that's given that look for a b c and d before the rapture can occur and mid-trib post-trib pre-wrath rapturism as long as they may try to you know sing and dance and twirl on it but the truth of the matter is that's basically what they're saying they're putting signs that have to happen before the rapture and we think that denies imminency and it denies the teaching and the focus of the new testament particularly the epistles so the whole focus of the epistles is we're looking for and we're waiting for jesus who's not coming soon but he's coming what he's coming next so we went into some detail about that and this takes us now to point number five in terms of a problem with pre-wrath rapturism and here's where we pick up with new material pre-wrath rapturism and this is true with all the other views competing with pre-trib as well it fails to explain how the rapture is a comfort to the believer a lot of people are very very afraid of end times teaching in fact i remember once that i was in dallas and i was at one of those half-price bookstores and eschatology or the study of the end has always been sort of a hobby of mine i guess you could say and i had all these books at the checkout counter on the end times and the lady that's kind of running the stuff through the electronic cash register or whatever it is was looking at all my titles you know rapture mark of the beast the antichrist the coming of uh world government and all these kinds of things and and finally she's looking at all these titles and she says you know this stuff really scares the daylights out of me and i said well it doesn't scare me at all because it's set up in the bible as a comfort so if you're looking at end times material and your heart is gripped with fear that's a sign that you probably don't fully understand what god is saying to the church concerning the end times because this material was never designed to terrify the christian it was designed to be a comfort to the christian so you'll notice here in john chapter 14 verse 1 and we've argued that this is the first time that the rapture is introduced anywhere in the bible jesus says this or prefaces his comments on the rapture with this statement do not let your heart be troubled and then he goes on and he describes the rapture believe in god believe also in me and my father's house are many dwelling places if it were not so i would have told you for i go to prepare a place for you if i go to prepare a place for you i will come again and receive you to myself that where i am you may be also and you know the way where i am going and you'll find this pattern everywhere where the rapture is introduced almost everywhere where there's some kind of exhortation to comfort before rapture teaching is unfolded and that's why i had you open up to first thessalonians chapter 4 verse 18 which is as we've talked about probably the clearest rapture statement that we have in the whole bible uh this is where he says verse 17 then we who are alive and remain will be caught up that's the rapture together with them in the clouds to meet the lord in the air and so we shall always be with the lord and and what's so interesting is people will study that so in depth and will tell you everything there is to know about that paragraph and give almost no commentary on verse 18. verse 18 comes right after verse 17 amen and what does he say here at at the end of this tremendous in-depth rapture statement paul says therefore comfort one another with these words the whole point of the doctrine is to comfort the christian jesus said it in the upper room paul is repeating it and then we have the famous titus 2 13 passage which we think is also a statement about the rapture and it says looking for the blessed what hope well what's the blessed hope the appearing of the glory of our great god and savior christ jesus so you'll notice that again the rapture is the blessed hope the hope of the christian is not turning the united states around and making it a godly country again now i basically support patriots that are trying to do that but the fact of the matter is as much progress or as little progress as made there that's a completely different issue that's not our hope our hope is in the soon return of our lord jesus christ to rescue us from this world and this is how you can live with sanity in a world that's going from bad to worse the hope of the soon return of jesus is there and so you see it in john 14 verse 1 comfort 1 thessalonians 4 verse 18 comfort titus 2 verse 13 comfort and which of these views comforts you at the end of the day i think i'm pretty comforted by the top view there if you're going to tell me i've got to go into the tribulation period and eyeball it with the antichrist satan's man of the hour and may maybe if my head is not cut off i have a hope of being raptured three quarters into the tribulation while all of the seals bowls and trumpet judgments are taking place that's their doctrine by the way that's the doctrine of mid-trib it's the doctrine of post-trib it's the doctrine of pre-wrath rapturism how does that even fit with the blessed hope or comfort one another with these words or do not let your heart be troubled i mean it doesn't fit at all and so one of the reasons i'm pre-trib is the the pre-trip view is the only view that makes any sense of the comfort passages the other views have you going into a scenario where the lamb of god himself is opening a seven sealed scroll emptying the contents of his judgment on the church and to me there's no comfort in that at all because jesus paid the penalty for our sins past present and future and therefore we are spared from the wrath to come and therefore there is no condemnation for those that are in christ jesus so whatever view you take on rapture or really any other subject for that matter it's got to harmonize with the totality of biblical data so if you're coming up with some kind of interpretation that goes against other passages then it's time to rethink your position on something and that exhortation is particularly true with pre-wrath rapturism pre-wrath rapturism says we're going to go we're going to pass through the beginning of sorrows and the great tribulation and we're going to be here for the seal judgments which are horrific those sealed judgments in and of themselves destroy one-fourth of the world's population that jesus himself is causing by opening a seven sealed scroll so my basic problem with pre-wrath rapturism is the same problem i have with mid-tribulationalism or post-tribulationalism it almost makes a mockery of the comfort passages now here's a statement from a famous preacher of a prior era named donald gray barnhouse he was one of the greats in his time i have his commentary on romans which is like i think five volumes and he spent like 14 years in his church going through the book of romans people kind of complain that my series lasts too long i mean we did romans here i don't remember it being 14 years and this is what he says concerning the comfort that the rapture brings he says jesus may come today glad day glad day i will see my friend dangers and troubles end if jesus should come today glad day glad day is it the crowning day i'll live for today nor anxious be jesus my lord i shouldn't i soon shall see glad day glad day is at the crowning day i think that's the right perspective and then barnhouse said you know he was i guess a pretty witty guy he said how would a post-tribulationalist sing that song how would a mid-tribulationalist sing that song now he doesn't say how would a pre-wrath is sing that song because pre-wrath rapturism hadn't been developed yet in his day but it fits and he says by way of parody or here's an introductory comment by way of parody dr barnhouse also pointed out that if the mid-trib or post-trib or pre-wrath ab pre-wrath rapture advocates saying this song it would sti it would instead have to say as follows jesus can't come today sad day sad day i won't see my friend dangers and troubles won't end because jesus can't come today sad day sad day today is not the crowning day i won't live for today and anxious i'll be why is that because the beast and the false prophet i should i soon shall see sad day sad day today is not the crowning day now logical consistency requires that that's the way the song has to be sung if you're pre-wrath mid-trib post-trib and that version of the song has no harmony with what jesus said in the upper room nor what paul said comfort one another with these words nor what it says in the book of titus the blessed hope and i have to be completely honest with you people look at gosh you're doing 46 lessons thus far we're not even finished yet on the rapture you know are you really you know what you know the criticism that comes against people like myself is you're majoring on the minors you know rodney king theology can't we all just get along and the truth of the matter is it does matter i would not say your belief in the timing of the rapture is a heaven or hell issue the only heaven or hell issue that i know of in the bible is have you placed your faith in the savior or not but at the same time ideas have consequences and it has an impact on your mental outlook and how you live your life and how you go through your life and apparently the lord wants us to be concerned about things like that because the bible talks a lot about joy you know walking in the joy of the lord the peace that surpasses all understanding and therefore i think the rapture is a big deal i think it's worth 46 lessons and more who knows how long this series is going to last i'm just praying it will end before the rapture itself occurs so what i've tried to do here is simply explain how pre-wrath rapturism doesn't fit with comfort let me take you to a sixth problem with pre-wrath rapturism and it has to do with what they're doing with the restrainer so you might find second thessalonians chapter 2 in your bible verses 6 and 7. we have covered this issue in lesson number 10. so if you want to go back and get the non-reader's digest version which i'm going to give you right now i would encourage you to read lesson number 10 but we actually have a view on the restrainer and how your a right view on the restrainer actually contributes to pre-tribulationalism so you might remember what paul said to the thessalonians he was talking about the antichrist or the man of sin and paul says you know what restrains him now so that in his time he re he will be revealed for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work that's a very important line right there before the man of sin or the man of lawlessness comes in the world there will already be the spirit of lawlessness john in his little epistle first john 4 around verse 3 talks about how the antichrist is coming but before the antichrist comes there will be i would call them miniature antichrists or baby antichrists so the spirit of antichrist in the world will precede the antichrist himself the spirit of lawlessness in the world will precede the man of lawless lawlessness himself for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work well then if it's that bad why isn't the antichrist here yet well the answer is something is restraining him something is holding him back well what is that paul verse 7 only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way now we believe and i'll explain why in just a couple of seconds that the restrainer is the holy spirit through the church and as the church is removed via the rapture there will be no handcuffs left on satan and he'll be able to bring forth his man of the hour that is not how pre-wrath rapturists understand the restrainer they believe that the restrainer is michael the archangel here is marvin rosenthal commenting on 2 thessalonians 2 verses 6 and 7 and he says of paramount importance is the identification of the one who restrains or hinders the antichrist let's see it says restraints there doesn't it i love technology you see your errors and you just hit backspace and it disappears isn't that cool i just don't want to hit from the beginning or we'll go back to the beginning of the slides and most of you didn't even know i made that mistake did you i gave myself away by correcting it of paramount importance is the identification of the one who restrains or hinders the antichrist until he the restrainer is taken out of the way the restrainer marvin rosenthal pre-wrath advocate says is neither the holy spirit nor human government now i believe it's not human government there's no way human government can be the restrainer since human government basically causes most of the problems in the world there's a concept by a professor at the university of hawaii and his name escapes me but he wrote a book called oh my goodness i forgot the title of it but it basically documents the fact that most people in human history have not died from heart attacks or strokes or cancer or tsunamis or earthquakes or malnutrition i mean he documents in the book that most people in human history have died at the hands of their own government and he said if you stacked up every single body and you assume that each person is about five foot tall which is pretty short at least by my standards and you you line them up head to foot he says in this book that the number of bodies would circle the earth six times that's the number of people that have been killed by their own government in human history so the restrainer can't be government because government is the source of problems if it's not kept in check and gosh dare i go this direction i mean this is one of the reasons that our country right now is falling apart at the seams because the government has exceeded the limits given to it by our founding fathers so don't get me going there or we may never get out of here so the ant so the restrainer can't be human government and then rosenthal says the restrainer is not the holy spirit evidence is strained to support either of those contentions there is however substantial evidence to identify the restrainer he who restraints now gosh is that my mistake or his mistake maybe it's supposed to be restraints to me it should say restrains yeah can you bring it up thank you well i love this technology um no i don't think that's the right one that's a tom clancy novel there oh there we go here it is r.j rummel thank you death by government and so let's give a hand to my help mate here [Laughter] i mean she's better than vanna remember vanna bob barker and vanna would change the anyway sorry about that actually it was tom alea that pulled that down so nice deflecting there anyway where was i there is however substantial evidence to identify the restrainer he who restrains until he is taken out of the way is michael the archangel so basically they do not believe that the restrainer is the holy spirit what they believe is that the restrainer pre-wrath rapturous is michael the archangel so this is how they keep the church on the earth for three quarters of the tribulation period during a time period when the restrainer has been removed already pre-tribulationalism will not allow you to do that because we believe that the restrainer and its removal is the rapture itself so they reject our interpretation that the restrainer is the holy spirit through the church we believe that the antichrist cannot even come to power right now as long as the restrainer i.e the holy spirit through the church is here then how does pre-wrath rapturism get the church on the earth for three quarters of the tribulation well they just wave a magic wand and the restrainer is no longer the holy spirit through the church the restrainer is michael the archangel and so they believe that michael will stop restraining during the first half of the second half of the tribulation so michael will stop restraining during the events of what they call the great tribulation there are a lot of problems with this again i would encourage you to go back and review lesson number 10 as to why we think the restrainer is the holy spirit through the church but what are the problems associated with making the restrainer michael the archangel as pre-wrath rapturists do the main problem is the antichrist is satan's man of the hour in fact his title man of lawlessness son of perdition is used of only one other character in the bible does anybody know who that character is judas what do judas and what do the antichrist have in common both men were possessed not by a demon but by satan himself for to do the final deed so in john 13 verse 27 it says when judas was getting ready to leave the upper room and betray christ it says satan entered him satan went into judas and i believe the same thing is going to happen to the antichrist he will be personally indwelt by the devil himself during the second half of the tribulation period and yet who is the one that is restraining this satanic masterpiece it can't be michael why not because of jude verse 9. see pre-wrath rapturous they want you to go all over the bible and they want you to look at all this extra biblical literature to prove their thesis that the restrainer is michael the archangel but they don't want you to look at jude 9. because jude verse 9 makes it very clear that michael could not be the restrainer for the simple reason that michael an archangel does not like to go out and openly contest satan whoever the restrainer is he wages an open contest on satan because satan rather the man of lawlessness is satan's man of the hour so jude verse 9 says but michael the archangel when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of moses did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment but said the lord rebuke you so it's interesting you have christians today that want to bind satan and rebuke satan and yet michael himself doesn't even want to do that michael's no slouch by the way he's not just an angel he's an archangel and he does not want to go out and openly rebuke satan he doesn't want to go out and openly contest satan because satan also a fallen angel michael an unfallen angel satan a fallen angel is more powerful because satan was created ezekiel 28 verses 12 through 17 as the covering cherub the anointed cherub a high-ranking angel and so michael does not like to fight satan he does not like to resist satan he does not like to contest satan he just says concerning satan the lord rebuke you you see how that's a problem for pre-wrath rapturism because they've turned the restrainer into michael the archangel who is right now resisting satan's man of the hour that doesn't fit at all with jude verse 9. why would michael resist the satanically energized and satanically controlled antichrist so what does michael do then here's what michael does do michael is not currently restraining the antichrist from coming forward michael has a particular job where he is protecting the nation of israel it says in daniel 12 verse 1 now at that time michael the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people israel will arise and there will be a time of distress such has never occurred since there was a nation until that time and at that time your at that time your people everyone who is found written in the book will be rescued so you wonder how is it that the nation of israel continues to survive despite multiple attempts to obliterate them from the face of the earth for the last 2000 years even going back into biblical history and the answer is michael michael has some sort of role protecting the nation of israel that is very different than the restrainer the restrainer has a different job description the restrainer according to 2 thessalonians 2 verses 6 and 7 is not protecting israel the restrainer is doing a different job he is holding back the man of lawlessness so what you have in pre-wrath rapturism is a confusion of what michael is doing the scripture says he's protecting israel pre-wrath rapturism says no he's restraining the antichrist and they do so with no biblical data michael jude verse 9 does not like to contest satan pre-wrath rapturism puts michael the archangel right now in a position where he's currently contesting satan's man of the hour and that doesn't fit with jude verse 9. so the restrainer prevents the antichrist from making his global debut now it's also sort of strange what they're doing with michael the archangel pre-wrath rapture advocates because you'll notice from 2 thessalonians 2 verses 6 and 7 that the restrainer restrains until he is taken out of the way so the restrainer has a role of holding back satan's man of the hour a man that satan himself will possess but then that time of restraint leaves that's the rapture we believe and so the restrainer restrains one day and the next day he doesn't restrain anymore now again that movement from restraint to removal does not fit michael the archangel because daniel chapter 12 verse 1 nowhere says that michael protects israel for a while he always protects israel there's never any description here concerning michael of his role over israel being temporary in fact that is what is going to allow israel to survive the second half of the tribulation israel is going to survive the second half of the tribulation with two-thirds of her nation being cut off in unbelief but that third zechariah 13 verses 8 and 9 that third that's purified and brought through will survive why because of the role of michael who never stops restraining so basically what i'm trying to do here is simply to stack up the evidence as to why the restrainer cannot be michael the archangel well if the restraint oh here's a real quick tony kessinger makes this point in his critique of pre-wrath rapturism he says the pre-wrath view holds to the rather inventive idea that michael the archangel is the restrainer this concept fails to take into consideration michael's special protective ministry towards israel why cannot the restrainer be michael the archangel number one michael doesn't like to restrain satan number two michael is acting as a restrainer or protector of israel not holding back the man of sin the antichrist and number three there's nothing in the bible that indicates that michael's role is temporary what you have in terms of a discussion of the restrainer in 2 thessalonians 2 verses 6 and 7 is a temporary role so the evidence doesn't fit that michael the archangel equals the restrainer and if michael the archangel doesn't equal the restrainer then pre-wrath rapturism collapses well then who is the restrainer the restrainer is none other than the holy spirit the eternally existent third member of the trinity that's who the restrainer is and by way of review why do we believe that the holy spirit is the restrainer three reasons number one the holy spirit is omnipotent meaning all what powerful he has to be because he's part of the godhead and only an all powerful being god himself you know if you want evidence that the holy spirit is deity read acts 5 i think it's around verses 3 and four where it's the slaying of ananias and sapphira who were slain in the holy spirit do we understand that being slain in the holy spirit is not a good thing the holy spirit brought maximum divine discipline on them and peter says it was the holy spirit that killed them because they lied to the spirit and they lied to god so acts 5 verses 1 through 11 roughly i think it's specifically in around verses 3 and 4 it says that the holy spirit is god and only god can hold back satan and god has to hold back satan because the antichrist is satan's masterpiece just as much a masterpiece as was judas who betrayed christ so the holy spirit is omnipotent and he's qualified to hold back satan's man of the hour also and this is what also gets left out in the discussion is restrainer in greek is a participle and in greek genders are very very important and the participle restrainer is neuter in 2 thessalonians 2 verses 6 and 7 but then it becomes masculine in the very next verse so it goes from neuter to masculine and that is a wonderful description of the holy spirit because pneuma the greek noun for spirit is a neuter noun and yet jesus over and over again in the upper room referred to the spirit as he masculine so sometimes the spirit is pneuma neuter sometimes he's called he you'll see that many places in the upper room so understanding the holy spirit as the restrainer handles very well the switch in gender from 2 thessalonians 2 verse 6 to 2 thessalonians chapter 2 verse 7. the third reason we believe that the holy spirit is the restrainer is because what is being described here in second thessalonians 2 verses 6 and 7 is a ministry that the holy spirit has in the world one of the things to understand about the holy spirit is he doesn't just have ministries in the church there's a lot of things the holy spirit is doing in the church one of the things he's doing is the distribution of spiritual gifts as they're given as god wills but the holy spirit's ministry does not stop in the church he has ministries that he is doing in the entire world as i speak one of the things that he was doing is he was striving with man in the days of noah amongst the whole world genesis 6 3. and as i speak he is convicting every single unbeliever of sin righteousness and judgment john 16 verses 7 through 11 sin because they do not believe and that's why we try to tailor our evangelism according to what the holy spirit is doing as he is convicting which means trying to persuade unbelievers he is not trying to morally reform unbelievers he has not tried him trying to get them to stop using bad language see a lot of times we evangelize the wrong way and we see an unbeliever you know using bad language and we give them a big lecture on boy you shouldn't use profanity and we try to convict them of something that the holy spirit is currently not convicting them of the holy spirit though is convicting them of the only sin that they can commit that will send them to hell which is unbelief and so when you evangelize the loss that's what you try to focus on you try to focus on believe or unbelieve believe or non belief you either trust in christ and are saved or you don't trust in christ and you die in that condition and you're on your way to hell well g pastor you sound like you're in favor of people using bad language no not in favor of that at all because believe me i know from personal experience that once the holy spirit is inside of you now that you are saved and you start to use what paul calls silly talk or filthy talk or course speech the holy spirit inside of you will bother you about that but that's not what he's doing with unbelievers because he has ministries in the believer in the church and he has ministries in the whole world and one of the ministries that the holy spirit is doing right now over the whole planet is he is preventing the antichrist from coming forward so the holy spirit is omnipotent the holy spirit handles well the switch from the neuter to the masculine and it fits with what we know of the spirit who has ministries over all of the earth so the restrainer is holding back the antichrist the restrainer is the omnipotent holy spirit can i ask you a question now where is the holy spirit living it's very clear john 14 verse 16 romans 8 verse 9 that the holy spirit is permanently indwelling all christians jesus in the upper room hinting of the church age that was coming said to the disciples the holy spirit would not be on you as it was in old testament times he will be in you for how long forever and you'll find that in john 14 verses 16 and following so the restrainer is holding back the antichrist the restrainer is the omnipotent holy spirit the holy spirit permanently and dwells all christians so therefore all spirit in dwelt christians and that's the only kind of christian you can have must be removed from the earth before the antichrist can even come forward that's what second thessalonians 2 verses 6 and 7 is saying so little o me and little o you are presence in the world because you might look at your life and say my life doesn't count i'm not significant but the truth of the matter is your presence in the world as one of god's people is preventing the antichrist from coming forward and if all of that is true that becomes a powerful argument for pre-tribulationalism because the church itself i mean if god is doing that today through the church the church itself has to be taken out of the way before the antichrist can come forward and believe me once the antichrist comes forward you don't want to be here why because if this world is in the condition it's in now with the restrainer here can you imagine what it's going to be like with the restrainer gone um a lot of people ask me well if if things are going to go from bad to worse where does voting fit in where does political activism fit in because a lot of people when they go out and are politically active in the culture they do it i think because they think they're bringing in the kingdom of god and that is biblically inaccurate does that mean that there's no place for voting there's no place for being informed about candidates there's no place for candidate research absolutely not because of your role as the restrainer when you understand that your role as the restrainer is holding back the antichrist then i think you ought to vote in every single election and you ought to vote not one party or the other you ought to open your bible and vote god's priorities as best you can do it and you ought to get behind and support people that support god's priorities because that's what god wants you to do in the world because after all you are the restrainer and i think this gets lost in a lot of politically active groups because you hear him talk about we're bringing in the kingdom no you're not going to prank in the kingdom doing that i mean bringing in the kingdom are you kidding me we couldn't even do you realize that the puritans came from europe and set up a christian civilization on the east coast and that's where all of the ivy league institutions came from harvard yale princeton all of them were god-fearing institutions designed to train ministers and roger let's see not roger john winthrop called it a shining city on a hill america and within one generation or two generations the whole thing was lost you know you think there's a lot of godliness coming out of harvard and yale today so obviously the church coming over here and setting up those institutions was not bringing in the kingdom or else whatever they set up over there would have lasted so we're not setting up any kingdom what we're doing is we're thwarting our presence on the earth is thwarting it's like a monkey wrench in the progress of evil and that's why there's a war on christians around the world that's why christians are being slaughtered and martyred all around the world as i speak this is why this pastor in canada you know is thrown into a maximum security prison are you kidding me because he dared to have a church service in violation of coveted restrictions and then he was released from his maximum security prison and he goes back to his family and he starts up his church again and they build a chain link fence around his church i mean is is that bigotry against christianity of course it is why is it christians are always targeted and persecuted even here in america you know the the ground is changing why is that because of what god says here concerning our role as holding back satan's man of the hour god is using the church to hold back satan's man of the hour so satan has declared war on the church so the restrainer is not michael the archangel the restrainer is the holy spirit through the church try to give you the reasons for that pre-wrath rapturism rejects the whole thing because they've got to put the church on the earth during a time period when the restrainer has removed his hand and so they wave a magic wand and the restrainer is no longer the holy spirit through the church the restrainer becomes michael the archangel and as my professor dr two saints used to say that dog won't hunt so why do we reject pre-wrath rapturism six reasons number one it places the church in the 70th week of daniel number two it fails to acknowledge the concept of the missing church number three it confines god's wrath to only a portion of the tribulation period second half number four it denies eminency number five it denies comfort number six it misinterprets the restrainer as michael the archangel so i tried to give you those reasons in harmony with the list i already gave you concerning the reasons why we are pre-trib so we're done with pre-wrath rapturism right no because i found four other problems that don't fit the list that's a problem with having an ocd pastor so let me give you one of these and i can do this very fast i think and coming from me that's not much of a promise is it an additional problem with pre-wrath rapturism it is it imposes an artificial construct on daniel's 70th week when we study daniel's 70th week and we've done it in this church in our series on daniel and we've gone into depth about it we were in the 70 weeks prophecy longer than daniel was you discover that the tribulation period daniel chapter 9 verse 27 will last seven years what will begin that tribulation period is the peace treaty between antichrist and unbelieving israel obviously something that has to happen after the restrainer has been removed exactly three and a half years later that same antichrist will betray the nation of israel politicians don't betray people do they i mean this is the ultimate political move he guarantees israel's existence and then halfway through he desecrates their temple and that's what opens their eyes and daniel puts that prophecy right in the middle of the tribulation period smack dab in the middle three and a half years into into it and then from that point in time there's only three and a half years left until jesus yeshua touches down on planet earth through the second advent so you'll notice that we have a very clear articulation of seven years two equal three and a half year parts and you have a clear articulation of what's going to happen right in the middle now once you get that down then suddenly bible prophecy becomes very easy because you'll start looking at subsequent passages and it will draw your attention to one half or the other see the holy spirit has expected us to already have understood daniel 9 verse 27 before you move into other areas of bible prophecy with greater specificity so sometimes it will draw your attention to one half by calling it 42 months and there's the scripture verses on the screen sometimes it will draw your attention to one half of it by calling it 1260 days which is also three and a half years sometimes it will call your attention to one part of the week or the other by calling it a time times and a half a time a time jewish year times two jewish years half a time half a jewish year you see you didn't know that studying the bible involved math did you so one plus two plus a half equals three and a half you guys are very good this is like good we're a homeschooling family as you can probably tell so we'll have a snack for you at recess in just a minute so it's a seven year period it's divided into two daniel 9 27 tells us that and now one passages call your attention to one part or the other when they're trying to make a point about it by calling it these using these synonyms the book of revelation builds on this structure in other words given to us by daniel now it's not just the book of revelation and daniel that divided into two jesus also did matthew 24 verse 15 says jesus speaking to future israel therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken through the prophet daniel standing in the holy place let the reader understand let those who are in judea flee to the mountains but pray that your flight will not take place on the winter or on a sabbath so there jesus is calling attention to the second half of the tribulation period so you see how the bible works because god can't lie jesus doesn't show up and say daniel had it wrong daniel gives you the structure the rest of the bible is just calling your attention to one half or the other depending on what prophetic point it's trying to emphasize so what you have in normal bible reading is a two-part structure but not according to pre-wrath rapturism they don't have two parts they've got three beginning of sorrows part one great tribulation part two the day of the lord part three and that point in and of itself should cause a warning bell or two to go off in your head telling you that these people don't have it right

Channel: Andy Woods

Views: 9,088

Rating: 4.8914728 out of 5

Keywords: bible study, Andy Woods, Revelation, prophecy, Pastors point of view, dispensationalism, Rapture, Kingdom, Millennium, coming kingdom, sugar land bible, church and state, salvation, christian, bible, verse by verse, Jesus, end times, worldview, PPOV

Id: d_jkKkFWuFA

Length: 59min 36sec (3576 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 25 2021