4/1/2008 - ANTICHRIST FIRST

2 Thessalonians.ch.2.vs.1-4 Now concerning the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to meet Him, we beg you brethren not to be quickly shaken in mind or excited either by spirit or by word or by letter purporting to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no-one decieve you in any way for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition who opposes and exalts himself against every so called god or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God  proclaiming himself to be God.

In my opinion one of the worse things that can happen in the church of God is that men of great learning and scholarship can come and take the bible or portions of  it or doctrines out of it and bring their [undoubted] scholarship to bear upon the interpretation of it.

The bible however profound or sublime it's content matter is a book simply written to be understood by everyone.

In the nineteenth century when advanced educational achievement was held in such high esteem, even awe, some very intellectual gentlemen betook them selves to the study of  the doctrines of eschatology or "end things" they set themselves to formulate a doctrinal system setting in time sequence the events concerning and leading up to the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ and because their intellectual achievements were held in such high regard their formulations were accepted into the church without question or demur and are still the views held by the overwhelming majority of protestant christians today.

The scripture quoted above if read plainly and simply speaks about one subject and one subject only, the coming again of our Lord Jesus and our assembling to meet Him, THE PAROUSIA or to give it's most popular name THE RAPTURE, the learned gentlemen would have us to believe that St. Paul having opened his mouth to address this most vital subject, and then without so much as stopping to draw breath, in mid-sentence, suddenly changes tack and begins an entirely new and different topic altogether viz-a-viz THE LAST JUDGEMENT which pertains to a completely different time period, the reason they do so is because they had already formulated their own doctrinal stance in regard to DISPENSATIONS and had discovered, to their satisfaction at least that whenever the terms THE DAY OF THE LORD or THAT DAY occurred in scripture the reference was without variation to the last judgement. So now scripture must be made to fit in with their doctrinal position, no matter what wresting or contorting is neccesary to do so, this is ever the way of error.

Next they come upon the word APOSTASE for nineteen centuries taken to be understood as it's most primary meaning REBELLION, but alas this will not fit the dispensational formula, so now they have to stretch it to it's most obscure and secondary meaning to say DEPARTURE, not in the sense departing from the truth but in the sense of the churches departure to meet he Lord at His parousia.

Friends we must get back to plain and simple  reading and understanding of the bible, St. Paul's appeal to the Thessalonians[and therefore christians of every age] is simple, DO NOT BE DECIEVED, but as I listen to christians speak about the rapture I think they have been for the overwhelming majority believe that the Lord may come at any moment, I've heard it billed as the next great world event. But according to the plain and simple reading of St. Paul's teaching this is impossible, first must come the rebellion, we see that happening all around us, people throwing off all restraint, our cities and towns and even rural areas are filled with murder and wickedness and every kind of evil, secondly must come the prince of all this lawlessness ANTICHRIST, this has huge significance for the church for he will come on a  mission to destroy all religion his real target will be the church, he is coming and he is the prince of all those angry voices we hear raised against God and against His people. This is the GREAT TRIBULATION which Jesus warned would preceed His coming again, "you will be hated by all for My name's sake."

Once again the dispensationalists, to make this scripture fit into their doctrinal stance, have attributed to this word tribulation to mean the time of God's wrath but the word tribulation in scripture is only ever used in connection with persecution.

Whether or not the church will go through the entire seven years of Antichrist's reign of terror, of which the nazi persecution of the Jews was a satanic forerun, or whether the rapture will come after the first period of his rule is a matter of debate, but to my mind what is not a matter of debate is the fact that this is what the church, christians of every shade of opinion including the catholic church [for since Antichrist's mission is to destroy ALL RELIGION he cannot possibly religious himself] should be preparing for.