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Dick
The need to study prophecy Matthew 24 & 25.
Prophecy occupies one-fifth (20%) of Scripture; and the Second Coming occupies one-third of that one-fifth.
Of the 333 prophecies concerning Christ, only 109 of them were fulfilled in His First Coming, leaving 224 yet to be fulfilled in His Second Coming.
Of the forty-six OT prophets, less than ten of them speak of events in Christ’s First Coming, while 36 of them speak of events connected with His Second Coming.
There are a total of 1,527 OT passages referring to the Second Coming.
There are 7,959 verses in the NT, 330 of which refer directly to the Second Coming (1 out of 25).Next to the subject of faith, the subject of the Second Coming is the most dominant subject in the NT.
For every time the First Coming is mentioned in the Bible, the Second Coming is mentioned 8 times.
For every time the Atonement is mentioned once, the Second Coming is mentioned twice.
The Lord refers to His return 21 times.
Believers are exhorted over 50
7 Reasons for a Pre-Tribulation Rapture
The Nature of the Tribulation.
It will be a time for the wrath of God upon the earth.
Revelation 6:16-17
16 and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;
17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?“
It will be a time of God’s dealing with Israel.
Jer 30:3-7
3 ‘For behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will
restore the fortunes of My people Israel and Judah.’ The Lord
says, ‘I will also bring them back to the land that I gave to their
forefathers and they shall possess it.’”
4 Now these are the words which the Lord spoke concerning
Israel and concerning Judah:
5 “For thus says the Lord,
I have heard a sound of terror,
Of dread, and there is no peace.
6 ‘Ask now, and see
If a male can give birth.
Why do I see every man
With his hands on his loins, as a woman in childbirth?
And why have all faces turned pale?
7 ‘Alas! for that day is great,
There is none like it;
And it is the time of Jacob’s distress,
But he will be saved from it.
The Nature of the Church.
The Church is the object of God’s grace, not His wrath.
1 Thess 5:9-11
9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining
salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep,
we will live together with Him.
11 Therefore encourage one another and build up one another,
just as you also are doing.
1 Thess 1:10
10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.
The Nature of the Millennium.
The Millennium involves earthly people that
procreate and have children.
Those taken in the rapture will be believers who will be given a new “transformed” body which will not procreate.
All unbelievers will be taken in judgment at the Second Coming.
Matt 25:31-34
31 “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.
32 “All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats;
33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world
41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;
If the Rapture and the Second Coming occur at the same time, there are no earthly people left with human bodies to procreate.
So who goes into the millennium??
The Nature of the Chronology.
Marriage of the Lamb. (7)
Clothed in white linen (rewards). (8)
The Church returns with Christ at the Second Coming. (11,14)
Rev 19:7-8,11,14
7 “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory
to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come
and His bride has made herself ready.”
8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine
linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the
righteous acts of the saints.
11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a
white horse, and He who sat on it is called
Faithful and True, and in righteousness He
judges and wages war.
14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in
fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on
white horses.
The Nature of Christ’s Imminency.
We are to look for the Son – not signs.
1 Thess 1:10
10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.
*If a foreshadowing of Tribulational signs occurs they will be general and not specific and so it will be difficult to identify an exact time.
*There are no signs of the times because we are
not in the time of the signs.
Rapture Second Coming
Christ comes for His saints. Christ comes with His saints.
World is unchanged and unjudged. World is judged and changed.
God’s wrath follows. God’s peace follows.
Rapture can occur at any Many signs and events precede
moment – no signs. His coming.
Only revealed in the N.T. Revealed in both O.T. & N.T.
Satan is very active afterward. Satan is bound.
Christ comes as the “Morning Star” Christ comes as the “Son of Righteousness”
Israel is unchanged. All of Israel’s covenants are fulfilled.
His coming is unseen. His coming is seen.