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Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church

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with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and

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faith. And today, I want you to think through the issue of the blessed hope of the Christian,

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that is Christ's return, or the parousia. Now, parousia is a Greek word that means the coming

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of someone in personal presence. And the Bible calls Christ's return, the parousia. Now,

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while this return forms material for endless jokes and poking fun by the world, right? The

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Christian looks eagerly for it. And he looks for it with the eyes of faith and a heart of hope.

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The one he waits for is the same one who came in the first century, our Savior, the one we love

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because he first loved us and gave his life as an atoning sacrifice for us, as Paul says. And who,

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on our behalf, Paul says, God made sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness

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of God. And because we have thus been made acceptable to God now, reconciled to him, united

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with God the Father in Christ the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit, we always keep one eye on the

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horizon looking for Christ's return. Jesus left this earth in great glory, being lifted up in the air,

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surrounded by clouds of glory, and in the presence of myriads of angels. That's why, figuratively

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speaking, we keep one eye on the horizon. One of the angels said to those apostles standing there

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with bugged out eyes and their jaws on the ground and awe and wonder, he said, men of Galilee, why do you

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stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way

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as you saw him go into heaven. Unquote. Why, being here in the first place, did Christ leave? Why didn't

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Christ just kick butt and take names right then and there and collect all those who believed in him and start

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to rule then and there? That's the way that any human might have done it, the way any Caesar, Napoleon,

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Stalin would have done it. But God does not establish his kingdom in ways familiar to men. He operates on

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different principles. Jesus himself said, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away,

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the helper will not come to you. That helper is the Holy Spirit. Jesus goes on to say, but if I go,

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I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness

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and judgment. Unquote. This is the aspect of God's kingdom that necessitated his departure. The

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invisible omnipresent ministry of the Holy Spirit had yet to apply to all the benefits of redemption

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to all of the saints throughout history until, as Paul says, we are joined together, grown into a

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holy temple in the Lord. In him, you are also being built together into a dwelling place for God

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by the Spirit. Unquote. From Ephesians chapter two, that's the apostle Paul. This, the Holy Spirit does

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in a way that the personal corporal presence of Christ could never do. The Holy Spirit, the invisible

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omnipresent third person of the Godhead, the Trinity, has been at work on this holy temple from the

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earliest days of the world. God deliberately designed our incorporation into this body, this

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temple, this city called Zion, the new Jerusalem. He designed this to be done by faith, an invisible

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thing to the world, but blazingly evident to the invisible realm of the Spirit. You do not climb high

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mountains or cross wide rivers or slay mighty dragons to become a Christian. You do not do great and humble

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works like Mother Teresa or the Good Samaritan to qualify for entrance into this life and company of

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the church. No. Just being a good person, a good neighbor, church member, tither, not committing some

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heinous crime. None of these things is sufficient to mint a membership card into the kingdom of God,

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if we might put it that way. Paul says, by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your

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own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast, unquote. So when

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this happens, when you are thus birthed into the kingdom of God and you come alive to the realm of

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the Spirit, when your spiritual eyes are open and your spiritual ears become unstopped, you eagerly devour

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the things of the kingdom of God. The Bible comes alive and means something, and prayer becomes the

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conversation of heaven. Then you also eagerly look forward to your Savior's return, like waiting at an

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airport for a long-lost friend or long-departed spouse or child. You scan the horizon on a regular basis for

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the first signs of their arrival, the return of the beloved one, the one who will renew all things and

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recreate you in his image when he does return. This is what the Apostle Paul calls our blessed hope, the appearing

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of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is what is next, dear listener. Jesus has

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gone from this visible realm into heaven where he sits at the right hand of the Father till his enemies are

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made his footstool, as the Bible calls it. He has promised that I go to prepare a place for you, and I

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will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also, unquote. What will his

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return be like then when he does return, when he does come back, his parousia? One of the clearest

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portions of the Bible is found in 1 Thessalonians 4, 13 to 18. Here we see that Paul is reassuring the

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Thessalonians that those who have preceded them in death will miss nothing of his glorious return.

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They seem to be worried that loved ones would either be left out of his return or maybe not

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share in a bodily resurrection as the pagans believed. Oh, Paul writes, but we do not want you

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to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as those who have no hope.

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For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with

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him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we

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who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

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For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with a voice of an archangel,

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and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive,

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who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we

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will always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words." Unquote from the

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Apostle Paul. Encourage, indeed. We will be reunited with the Savior. The end of all things here,

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the final wrap-up, the conclusion of God's plan as he comes to claim his own. Note with me these

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features about this passage. Note, first, those who have died and gone on before will miss out on

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nothing. In fact, they will precede those of us alive at the time of his parousia, his rapture. Note the

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sights and sounds, too, of this event when Christ returns. Note with me, first of all, Jesus himself

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will descend, glistening in his glory, visually stunning with a company of angels, clothed in

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billowing clouds, and here implicit is fire and light and rainbow, as it was in the Old Testament

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with the prophets when they saw a vision of the Lord. And secondly, he will come with a cry of

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command. And this is a military term. It was barked loudly, ordering the dead to rise. And then thirdly,

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there's also the voice of an archangel. In the Old Testament, it was loud enough to shake

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mountains. And then fourthly, note with me the sound of the trumpet of God, the trumpet of God.

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And it evokes the earth-shattering volume of Mount Sinai when God appeared to Moses in Israel. We see

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from Exodus, I quote, now, on the morning of the third day, there were thunders and lightnings and a

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thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.

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Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it

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went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the

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trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. Can you imagine the

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sights and sounds of that day when Christ returns? It will be like this. The return of the Lord will be

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a deafening, blinding, earth-shattering thing, impossible to ignore those of you who believe

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in a secret rapture. Paul goes on to say in chapter five that all the world will be saying peace and

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security, but that that's the very moment at which sudden destruction will fall upon them when the

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judgment of Revelation 19 will crush them. The day of the rapture will be a day of glory, salvation,

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and transformation for the believer, and a day of awful destruction and judgment for the unbeliever.

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For those of you unfamiliar with the biblical notion of the rapture, when is this generally

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thought to happen by most of the Revelation Red Heifer rapture teachers? Oh, you have been told by the

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authors of the Left Behind series and Hal Lindsey of the late great planet Earth and John Walvoord of

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Israel oil in the Middle East, for example. You have been told by these Revelation Red Heifer

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rapture teachers that this rapture will occur just before the tribulation, and then Jesus will come

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again a third time at the end of the tribulation. And in your excitement to see prophecy happen before

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your eyes, and in your thrill to be able to predict the future and set your prophetic watch by end-time

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events, have you bothered to compare what is being taught by these things with the Bible? Compare

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what is being taught with the Bible, dear listener. I have five points to make in this regard. Number

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one, in passage after passage, Christ teaches that He came the first time to redeem us and will come

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again a second time to claim us. There's no evidence for a third parousia, which is taught by those who

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hold to a pre-tribulational rapture. The New Testament terms for His parousia, that is coming, are all

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synonyms, and they describe the same event. Behold, I come quickly, right? Erkali is the Greek word used

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there. As in the days of Noah, Jesus said, so shall be this coming, this parousia of the Lord. We are

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waiting for the coming, the apocalypsis of the Lord, as Titus says, looking for the blessed hope and the

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glorious appearing, the epiphania of the great God and Savior. All of these Greek terms are synonyms for

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the one and same event, His parousia, to redeem and vindicate His own, and then judge the world.

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Secondly, I want you to remember, there's no evidence that the parousia will occur before the

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tribulation. None. Look, examine, search the scriptures. The positioning of the parousia before

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the tribulation is something that is inferred by dispensational teachers on the grounds of other

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questionable theological reasons. No direct biblical evidence. There's not a scintilla of evidence that

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this catching up of the church to meet Christ will occur before the tribulation. The context, in fact,

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for 1 Thessalonians 4, 15 to 17, indicates, if anything, that it will happen at the close of time

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in history. That is, one parousia, one day of the Lord, one coming. When Christ comes to defeat His enemies,

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that is, when sudden destruction will come upon them, as Paul says, and when He comes to catch us up with

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Him, that we might always be with the Lord, as Paul says. Thirdly, note with me as well, this doctrine of the

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pre-tribulational raptures, teachers, is that this rapture for His saints will be a secret rapture.

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Yes, a secret rapture, known only to the church, which is taken out of the world.

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Why? Hal Lindsey says, as well as does the Left Behind series, says this,

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imagine getting up some morning and your wife is not there, and you call for her, but there is no

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answer. You go downstairs, but she's not there. The rest of mankind wakes up to the nightmare of a

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world gone mad. Driverless cars crash, pilotless planes collide, and universal panic sweeps over the

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globe as a final apocalyptic period called the Tribulation is ushered in. In the midst of an

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unimaginable chaos, the mysterious Nicolai Carpathia, representing the Antichrist, rises to world

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leadership with promises of peace, and on and on these kinds of things go. But it all flies in the

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face of what we've just read, that it will be the loudest, brightest, most universally public event in

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history, not a secret rapture. Fourthly, note with me too, this doctrine of the pre-tribulational

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rapture teaches that there will be a second chance for those who do not place their faith in Christ.

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Yes, a second chance. After Christ comes again, a definitive sign which men demand of God before

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they will believe. Then they will believe. I can't tell you how many men and women I've talked to

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who don't have a clue as to what the Bible actually teaches, but they've read the Left Behind series,

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or they've heard a preacher or a friend tell them about the rapture and the time that follows.

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When they figure this is the fallen fleshly mind, when they figure that they will have at least another

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seven years during the time of the Great Tribulation, as it's represented, that they'll

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have this time to repent and believe. But they insist on waiting until the rapture. I can't tell you how

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many people I've encountered who think this way. And they, like the Pharisees of old, who demanded

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a sign of Jesus before they would believe, these are deceived because the Bible is very clear. It

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says, it is appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgment, no second chances. There will be no

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more signs than the sign of Jonah, as Jesus said. Jonah, like Christ, lay three days in the belly of

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the whale. That is Christ in the grave as well. And then he came forth, even as Christ rose from

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the dead. This is the sign. In other words, there will be no more signs like a pre-tribulational

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rapture, except the one already given. That is, Christ has risen from the dead. Christ has risen

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from the dead. This is the sign we have. What further proof do you need? If you do not believe this,

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you will not believe a pre-tribulational rapture, even if it were to happen. And it will not happen

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like pre-trib rapture teachers tell us. Fifthly, then also, Christians are being deceived into

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thinking that they will be taken out of the world in order not to face persecution and

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tribulation. Paul does say, God has not appointed us unto wrath, but to obtain salvation through

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Jesus Christ. But this is a far cry from the destructive escapism that's nurtured by pre-tribulational

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rapture teachers. The wrath spoken of here in 1 Thessalonians 5 is that wrath which falls upon

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the lost in the final cataclysm when Christ returns to judge the world. Of course, we will

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be saved from this, but it has always been the course and privilege of the saints of God to endure

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persecution, tribulation for the sake of the gospel. Instead of deceiving the church with false promises

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of escape, the church should be strengthening, encouraging those suffering, even as they are

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in Islam lands today. Encourage our fellow brothers and sisters who are suffering under Islam, for

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example, with strong medicine of patient endurance. Paul says, count it all joy, or James says, count it

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all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith

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produces steadfastness. Well then, from where in the world has come the teaching of the revelation

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red heifer rapture teachers? Whence? What are its origins? If it isn't from the Bible, then from where

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does it come? Well, the doctrine of Christ coming in three separate stages rather than two, that is his

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first advent chronicled in the New Testament gospels, and then a secret pre-tribulational rapture, and then a

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third coming at the end of the tribulation. These three advents have never existed in the life of

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the church for over 1800 years. Not a whisper, not a hint, not a word. The church has consistently

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and faithfully taught that Christ's return will be single and glorious. It will be cataclysmic and

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final. It will be full of inexpressible joy for the believer and unmitigated horror for the

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unbeliever. There are two advents, not three. The doctrine of three advents of Christ first

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surfaces in the teaching of a fiery preacher in England in the 1830s, a man by the name of Edward

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Irving. Irving began his journey into prophecy by studying an old Catholic Jesuit priest, a Spaniard

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named Manuel Lacunza. At the behest of the papacy, Lacunza tried to figure out an eschatology, which we

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haven't inherited, by the way. Lacunza tried to figure out an eschatology that would relieve the Pope from

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the stinging criticism of being the Antichrist, which the Protestants were calling him. The Reformers

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had been successfully using this label, the Antichrist, as an argument against the papal authority for

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centuries. Now, Lacunza hit upon the idea of throwing all the prophecy concerning the end times

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into the future. This is where we get pre-tribulational rapture teachers, including the coming of an

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Antichrist, so that obviously if the Antichrist had not yet appeared, then the Pope couldn't be the

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Antichrist. So he was successful in crafting a theology to save the Pope. It went over very well in Rome,

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and soon Lacunza's commentary on Revelation fell into the hands of Edward Irving in England,

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the instigator of the pre-tribulational rapture. Irving began preaching it in a series of prophetic

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meetings in Plymouth and Bristol and London back in the 1830s, although the idea of three

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Advents for Christ had not yet quite come fully to either Lacunza or Irving. However, the focus on

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in times had a very popular appeal, as it always does. It's a pagan superstitious feeling that all fallen

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men and women have. Everyone liked to think that they were living in the last times. Everyone began

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seeing signs that it was indeed true that they were the last generation before Christ's return.

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That was generations ago in the 19th century. Irving's church and many of his followers began

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practicing the charismatic gifts in this meeting too, a thing that he encouraged. It was in one of

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these meetings, a charismatic meeting in which visions and tongues and supernatural knowledge

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were ostensibly present, where we first meet the idea of a secret rapture. A young woman named Margaret

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McDonald, in the ecstasy of a prophetic utterance, reveals that Christ's second coming will actually

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be in two stages. And this is where we get this teaching. As Reverend Robert Norton notes in his

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book, The History and Doctrines of Irvingism, he says, here we first see the distinction between that

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final stage of the Lord's coming when every eye shall see him and his prior appearing in glory

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to them that look for him. Unquote. That is the secret rapture. And one of the men who was a leader of

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these conferences and became instrumental in propagating their doctrines was a man called John

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Nelson Darby. Darby traveled extensively and tirelessly throughout England and America,

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peddling these doctrines, spreading and refining these teachings in his writings. And as he established

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little groups of believers who met together to worship and become known as Plymouth Brethren.

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In addition to his new doctrines concerning the end times, Darby also taught that there were no more

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true churches, that all of them were unfaithful and corrupt, and that true believers were to come out

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of the organized church and just simply meet together as brethren in the Lord until Christ returned

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sometime in their generation, too, at the rapture. Oh, dear leaders, dear believers, dear listeners.

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In his travels to America, Darby met and had a profound influence upon a man named C.I. Schofield.

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Are you beginning to make some connections here? Are bells going off for you? Darby met and profoundly

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influenced C.I. Schofield, who, of course, is the author of the Schofield Reference Bible.

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And here we find, in an accessible, readable form, the new system, a brand new system of doctrine and

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eschatology, first conceded in the fevered conferences of charismatic England. C.I. Schofield,

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however, edited out the supernatural gifts and revelations, which were integral to Irving and his church.

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A lot of fundamentalists do not know this. And from here, we can trace a direct line from Schofieldism

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to men like Dwight L. Moody, the Moody Bible Institute, and a whole variety of prophetic conferences

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in the 40s and 50s, many other influential men and institutions, too, like Lewis Sperry Chafer,

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founder of Dallas Theological Seminary. Bingo! We're home now, right? To the Revelation Red Heifer

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Rapture Teachers at Dallas Theological Seminary. These, in turn, produced what you probably have

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on your bookshelf. Hal Lindsey's Late Great Planet Earth, perhaps, or John Walvoord's Israel Oil and the

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Middle East, maybe. Or most recently, Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye's Left Behind series that just

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goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. That series didn't get left

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behind, did it? And the cumulative effect of all of these books and teachers over the past few

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decades has pushed out the church's consistent biblical doctrine of last things, including the

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simple two advents of our Lord, in which he will return not to signal a series of prophetic events

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to thrill and titillate the appetite to discern and control the future, no, but quite simply to redeem

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in great glory and power you, his people, dear church. And Christ will bring all of history and

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creation to its full consummation in Christ at that time. So, do not be deceived, dear listener.

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The day of the Lord, the day of his parousia, is one. It will be when the Lord Jesus is revealed from

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heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, as Paul says, inflicting vengeance on those who do not

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know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment

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of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might when he comes

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on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed, unquote.

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Christian, the church until recently has always taught two advents of Christ, not three. There indeed

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is coming a terrible leaving behind when Christ returns. However, it will be all the more terrible

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when those who have been deceived into thinking there is yet a further chance to delay repentance

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and faith to a period of the tribulation. And when they find instead that all of it was a lie,

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illusion, and hoax, many as well will be left behind when they find to their dismay that they

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have been so consumed with arranging prophetic tables and events with reading volumes of carnal

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fiction instead of their Bibles that they have utterly lost the passion and preoccupation with Christ

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and the consummation of all things in the believer's life. That is in your life, dear listener,

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and in the life of the church. Calvin said of this day,

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whence then is our body's restoration to be hoped for? From heaven at Christ's coming. Hence,

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there is no part of us that ought not to aspire after heaven with undivided affection.

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Dear listener, do you indeed aspire after heaven with undivided affection, the affection of Christ,

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the love of Christ, dear listener? Christian, dear listener, I urge you to set your mind on things

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above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above,

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not on things that are on earth. Unquote. Paul exhorts us in Colossians 3. There is your hope in

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heaven with the Savior. Your Savior is there, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is in heaven. There he is,

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and there Christ is ready to descend at the appointed time to take you to himself, and you will be with

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him thereafter. This is what is our blessed hope, as the Bible calls it, our blessed hope. The

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appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Embrace this. Aspire to it, dear

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believer, dear listener. It is your blessed hope, and I hope you long for it like I do. I hope you long

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for it like our church does. I hope you long for it like other believers do as well. This has been

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Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. New Geneva is a church of the Orthodox

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Presbyterian Church, and we meet on Sundays at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street, and it's on the corner of

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4th and Boulevard. I urge you, perhaps you have been in the shadows for a while, you've been listening for

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a while, it's time to come out and to meet us, to come to one of our lovely summer worship services.

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Doors open, windows open, and it's just beautiful breezes, and we love the summertime at New

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Geneva, and we urge you to join us on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of

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4th and Boulevard, and you can reach us at 523-0196. Call us for feedback and perhaps some more

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information at 523-0196.