Rapture: Is It Real or is it Memorex?

Archived on April. 2001

I am pressed to cover this again. The majority of Christians in today's churches are being taught of a "Rapture at any moment". This Any-Moment doctrine, teaches that Jesus will return at any given moment to receive His children. That "good" Christians will all of a sudden disappear from their cars, their jobs, their lives on Earth. This doctrine also teaches that the church will be flown away when the "Anti-Christ" arrives. There is a big problem with this though. The Word of God does not teach this, quite to the contrary, Christians will be here on Earth when Anti-Christ comes, for that is why he is coming, to test us as children of God. We are going to The second letter to the Thessalonians, in Chapter two, because this chapter lays out the occurrence of Christ's Return and what must happen before Jesus does in fact return. Paul is writing to the Thessalonians who after reading his first letter, misinterpreted that letter and began thinking that Jesus would return any moment. Let's pick it up in verse three:

2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
Here in 2nd Thessalonians, we are told the two conditions that must happen before Jesus returns First, is the falling away, which is that great apostasy as it is called, a defection from the truth, already happening AND the second condition: that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. That man of sin, that man of lawlessness he will be revealed before Christ returns. We have a clue of who he is, being the son of perdition. Perdition meaning ruin, loss, hell. The son of hell, son of ruin, he is the only one already condemned to die, which can only be satan, as it is written in Ezekiel Chapter 28. He is called the Prince of Tyre there and it shows how he was created, and his downfall, and the condemnation of him from the mouth of our Father. This is that second Beast of Revelation Chapter 13.

So, how will this man of sin, the son of perdition be revealed? Let's read on and we'll find out:

2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
In other words, he will out himself above any other god that anyone might claim, including the our God, the on true God. Sit in that temple of God, in Jerusalem, pretending to be the actual God. Pretending to be Jesus.

2:5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
Paul had told him these things before, in the first letter to the Thessalonians, but they had forgotten it, just the same as the churches of today, the religious community has forgotten it. So as followers, true followers, disciples of Jesus, we should and must dig into the Word and seek out the treasure within for ourselves.

2:6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
Paul is saying, now you know what going to happen, and what to expect before Jesus comes, so that this man of sin can be revealed to you, and you won't fall down and worship a fake messiah.

2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
At the time of Paul writing this letter through the Holy Spirit, satan was already and had already been working towards this goal. Even now, he works through his children, to try and deceive those who will be deceived. Michael will war with satan in heaven(Revelation 12:7) but then he will be cast down to the earth, here in body, de facto, and pretend to be God as we saw in verse 4.

Now remember, we are seeing that second condition being followed through with. He must be revealed for who he really is. he is sitting there on the throne, with a one world political and religious system, deddecieving folks into thinking he is the true Messiah. That he is Jesus back to claim his children. So how will he finally be revealed?

2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
Here we have it in a nutshell, an "any moment rapture" cannot happen, will not happen, the scripture here plainly states: That wicked one will be revealed by the Lord, who will do so in two ways.
1) He will consume him with the spirit of his mouth: Do you know what the Spirit of His mouth is? Let me ask you this way, who is satan? He is the Father of Lies, only lies come from his mouth. So our Lord being opposite, would bring forth only truth. This spirit of his mouth, is his true Word. That sword of the Spirit as written in Ephesians chapter 6.
2) He will destroy his works by the brightness of His coming: The Lord will descend from heaven with a shout and satan will fall down, Every eye will see our Savior returning, and then those who have been bowing down to the false one, will run for the rocks. Those who have kept true, will gladly bow down to him and greet him in the Spirit(1st Thessalonians Chapter 4).

So this is how that man of sin is revealed, before Christ's return, the Holy Spirit will reveal it. In verse 9, it clearly states that Christ comes after the workings of satan, not before. When satan's short time is up, our Lord and Saviour will return, oh what a dark day that will be for those who have gone after the false messiah. If you go into the Greek here in this verse, you will find that satan will be doing things similar to what Jesus did while walking in the flesh. Revelation Chapter 13 also shows some things, in which he deceives the world. Why does God give him this power?

2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
The people did not love the Truth(Jesus) enough to seek Him out. God's plan for us, was to be a personal one. If we truly love Him, we should diligently search His Word for all truth and work out our salvation. Those who do not, will be deceived and fall for satan's works, thinking it is Jesus returning to gather his children. Jesus will return, but not before these two conditions are met. So, there cannot be a rapture at any given moment, because these conditions have not been met yet, and will not until satan sits in Jerusalem, claiming to be God and deceiving people. There are seven trumpets in revelation, satan comes in the sixth. As it is written, that will last for a five month period, then Christ will return at the seventh trumpet, the last trumpet
(1st Corinthians 15:52, 1st Thessalonians 4:16) and satan will be revealed and thrown into the pit!

In Christ's love,
Carl Towns.

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