Sunday School - Rupture

Prayer for the Morning Gathering

All right, church, let's pray. Well, God, we do come before you thankful, Lord, for the opportunity you've given us to meet this morning. Lord, thank you for the extra hour of sleep. But Lord, we don't look forward to less light in the evening.

But Father, we do give thanks to you that every good gift comes from thy bountiful hand. We pray, Lord, your blessing over our teaching and our time together. We pray these things in Christ's name, amen.

Introducing the Eschatology Detour

All right, so we've been doing this back to basic series. I'm gonna take a quick detour. Not really a detour, but I noticed I didn't have anything on eschatology. Now, I recognize I may have shared this with you a while back, I can't remember.

But either way, I think it'd be a good refresher. Did I ever do a rapture teaching with you guys? Yeah, I did, right? Well, this is gonna be a good recap. And it's gonna be a good kind of segue into the study of eschatology.

Anyone know, and you guys know me already, I love eschatology. It's a fun topic for me. Anyone know what eschatology means? Study of end times. Eschaton means end. And then ology obviously means study of, like Scientology or anything that has a tology at the end just means a study.

And so eschatology is a study of end times. Now, what's probably the most popular view of the end times in America today among Christians? Pre-tribulation rapture. Have you guys ever read the book by, yeah, Left Behind series by LaHaye or others, and then you've got those movies, Left Behind series with Kirk Cameron.

So when I became a Christian, this was kind of like the de facto eschatological view amongst most Christians and churches. So I kind of adopted it just because it was what everyone was talking about in teaching, but I never really felt comfortable with it too much because I always thought it to be really strange, that there's gonna be a secret rapture and there's gonna be a seven-year tribulation period.

I'm like, okay, but that sounds cool and all, but where is that in the Bible? Like, give me a text where I can sink my teeth in and say, oh, there's a seven-year tribulation, then there's a antichrist, and then there's all these things that happen and the rapture, but there's no text that teaches any of those things.

And so over time, my eschatology began to evolve and change and I began to study more in-depthly, and I've taken many different sides on this issue. I went from dispensationalist, historic pre-millennial, and being post-tribulation rapture to now being all-millennial.

And I was at ReformCon last weekend with a bunch of Reformed Baptists, but their flavor of eschatology was post-mill, so they told me, okay, you're almost there. You're almost there to post-millennialism.

And I said, I don't think so. I'm pretty convinced in my eschatology for good reasons, some of which I will share with you this morning. But eschatology is simply the study of the last things, study of last times.

And when we discuss eschatology, inevitably we have to talk about the rapture. Now, the rapture is what? What is the rapture? Yeah. Yeah, so it literally comes from the Greek word harpazo, which means to seize or to snatch away, right?

And so it's a seizing, it's a snatching away. It's almost like, think of the word like kidnap. It's almost like what that word means. It's like, is it being taken? And that's what the word, and we get the word rapture from the Greek translation of harpazo, which is raptura.

That's the English word rapture in English. Now, you'll notice that the word rapture in itself is not in any translation of the Bible. It is, again, it's kind of a transliteration of the Greek and Latin terms.

But what you do see is you do see the term caught up numerous times in the scriptures. Now, the view that teaches a pre-tribulation rapture is called what? What's the eschatological title for that view?

Search of a D. Dispensationalism. Dispensationalism, okay. Now, dispensationalism teaches that there are seven dispensations or seven epochs of history. And they break it up by like, you know, there's creation, there's the Noahic age, there's the Abrahamic age, then there's the Mosaic age, then there's the age of the judges and the kings, and then you've got the intertestamental period, and then you get the New Testament age or the age of the church.

And then ultimately, we're gonna have a 1 ,000-year age and then an eternal state. And so they have seven different epochs or ages. And dispensationalism, to some regard, you can kind of see those ages.

They're not necessarily a bad thing to break it up systematically like that. But there is a problem with that view. There is a problem with that view to say that there are seven ages. And do you know why there's a problem with that?

Because in Matthew 12, Jesus says there's two ages, this age and the age to come. That's what Jesus said, right? And so the problem with making a doctrinal system where you're slicing biblical eras into all these extra things is that Jesus taught us plainly that there's only two ages.

And so who are we gonna go with, John Derby, or are we gonna go with Jesus Christ? So Jesus is authoritative and we can trust him to deliver us the word of God and the truth about the ages since he himself plainly spoke of it.

And this is what I like to call a clean eschatology. A clean eschatology isn't one that we have to like, you ever seen those crazy charts? How about that meme where that guy's drawing on the wall and he's making the connections?

And that's what every dispensationalist looks like to me. They've got these charts of all these crazy things and Daniel's vision and all these dates on the wall. And to me, it's just nonsense. It doesn't, it's not very compelling.

So dispensationalism teaches, again, that there's seven ages. And one of the conclusions of the age of the church is that there's gonna be a secret rapture and that's gonna happen at the beginning of a seven-year tribulation period, okay?

So there's gonna be a seven-year tribulation period where the Antichrist is gonna show up. Different guesses for the Antichrist over the last 50 years has been Henry Kissinger, JFK. When JFK got shot in the head, they thought that he was gonna be raised from the dead and become the Antichrist.

A lot of the crazy dispensationalists believe that. Ronald Reagan. Now, Ronald Reagan was an interesting one. You know why? Because Ronald Wilson Reagan, this is Ronald Reagan's name, each letter or each name, Ronald Wilson Reagan, has six letters, 666, okay?

Oh, we've got it, we've got it, we've uncovered it. And then, of course, when it wasn't Reagan, it was Barack Obama. But most dispensationalists don't use Trump as an Antichrist, which is interesting.

They put him more like the Messiah than Antichrist, which probably means he probably is the Antichrist, if that's the case. But you see a lot of times where evangelicals, dispensationalists, will just continue to make conspiracies and make wrong predictions.

The Pope as Antichrist and the Little Horn of Daniel

The Antichrist, according to historic Reform Baptist views, is the Pope. I'm actually very convinced of that. I have no reason to believe that it's anyone other than the Pope. And do you want me to give you some reasons why?

Yeah. Okay. It's really fun, actually. And so the Pope is the Antichrist. Why do I say that and why do I believe that? Well, there's a historic argument. All the Reformers, all the early Reformers, believed that to be the case, believed it to be true.

Calvin, Luther, Edwards, Spurgeon, everyone believed universally within the Protestant Reformation the Pope was the Antichrist. Charles Spurgeon went so far as to say, if the Pope of Rome is not the Antichrist, then no other person could be the Antichrist because he fits every single criteria.

One of the criterias, according to Scripture, for the Antichrist in Daniel 7 and Daniel 9 is that the Antichrist will spring from Rome, okay? And so that's why everyone, a lot of dispensationalists over the years have looked to Rome as to, okay, like there's gonna be a political figure and he's gonna do all these things.

But it never transpires because they're not looking at the Pope. Because a lot of evangelicals today kind of made their peace with the Pope. And there's almost like an alliance that's forming between evangelicalism in America and Rome, which is very dangerous.

And it's apostasy to return to the roots of Rome. But Daniel talks about this beast. So remember, Daniel gives us visions of these four terrible beasts, all representing nations. The last beast is one that's indescribable.

It almost looks like a dinosaur probably. And this beast has many horns. And out of this beast arises a little horn, okay? That's the son of perdition. That's the biblical antichrist, if we're gonna use that term.

And the little horn rises from Rome and he speaks blasphemous words and he has the power to change times and seasons. He changes laws and he changes times and seasons. Well, who else could that be? Who, and the little horn, as it says, has blasphemous words and he speaks as if he's God, okay?

And that's why in 2 Thessalonians chapter two, when Paul talks about the son of lawlessness or the man of lawlessness, the antichrist, he says the man of lawlessness will sit in God's temple and claim to be God, okay?

Now, the pope is the pope of the Holy Roman See and he sits in the church, the temple of God, and he claims to be God. Within the Catholic catechism, official dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, the vicar of Christ, the pope, is the earthly incarnate representation of God on earth.

That's a quote. He is God on earth. That's Roman Catholic teaching, okay? And that's why he's called the vicar of Christ, okay? So he claims to be God, then he changed times and seasons. Yes, what calendar do we use today?

It's called the Gregorian calendar, named after Pope Gregory, okay? Our calendar is a solar calendar. The biblical calendar is a lunar calendar. Ours is a solar calendar that was chosen by the pope in the 1400s and we've been using the same calendar ever since, okay?

Changed times and seasons. We also know that he is the little horn of Daniel because Daniel says that this little horn will rise from the final beast, which is Rome, and he'll have influence over many nations.

Every time a president is elected, what is one of the things that they go do? They go to the pope and they kiss his ring and he has power and influence over the nations, okay? And he's still very influential.

He's the pope of over a billion people on the earth. And what's interesting is that the little horn seems to also be a nation. You know what's the smallest nation in the world today? It's the Vatican.

You know where the Vatican is? It's in the city of Seven Hills, which is ancient Rome. The ancient capital of Rome is the Vatican today. Now, one of the things about the Vatican that you should be aware of, you know when there's a new pope, they have like all these people come to what's called St. Peter's Basilica, and there's like an obelisk in the middle, okay?

You know, St. Peter was martyred by Nero on that very spot, by the emperor Nero, okay? And the obelisk was actually erected by Nero, and it is the center of the seat of the Holy Roman Empire of the pope.

And so the very place where Peter was martyred and Nero's statue went up, this is the very same place of power that the pope reigns from today. It just makes total sense. He fits every single mark of the Antichrist.

And so that's why Spurgeon, I think, rightfully said, if the pope was not the Antichrist, then no one else could be the Antichrist. Does that make sense? Any thoughts or questions on that? And one of these days, I'll give you a more in-depth teaching on that, and I'll give you all the scripture references, but Daniel chapter seven and nine are really good scripture references.

Second Thessalonians chapter two, and also Revelation chapter 13 all talks about the beast, the Antichrist, and all those things fit perfectly. You know, what Revelation 13 tells us is that he will make war on the saints, he'll conquer them.

He's gonna spill the blood of saints and martyrs. There's been no greater opponent of Christians in the world than the Roman Catholic Church. Roman Catholic Church is responsible for the blood of more martyrs than any other group, okay?

And so the Bible says that the Antichrist is gonna make war with the saints. It's exactly what has happened in church history. The Roman Catholic Church burned people at the stake for reading the Bible, okay?

Burned people at the stake, tortured them in inquisitions. And so when people talk about the Dark Ages and how Christians were ruling the world, well, no, it was quite literally the rule of the Antichrist, and it was the rule of Rome, of the Pope.

So I'm pretty convinced that that's the case, which is why, when a lot of Christians talk about the rapture, and they talk about this seven-year tribulation period, I don't know what they're talking about, because it's not scriptural.

It's not scriptural. They're getting it, actually, from Daniel 9. Why don't you turn to it real quick, to Daniel 9, verses 24 to 27. Now, this is where they get the seven-year tribulation period, but they're very wrong, and I'll explain to you why, okay?

Daniel's Seventy Weeks and the Messiah's Covenant

Starting verse 24, 70 weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city to finish the transgression. So notice what's said here right away, Daniel 9, 24. 70 weeks are decreed, so we have a timetable, okay?

Keep that in mind. Here's what's gonna happen within that timetable. 70 weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city. That's the Jewish people who are in captivity in Babylon, and the holy city being Jerusalem.

And here's what's gonna happen. To finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place, okay?

So you have 70 weeks, and these are the things that's gonna happen. They're concerning the people of the Jewish people, the holy city of Jerusalem. It's gonna put an end to sin. It's gonna make an offering for transgression.

It's gonna usher in everlasting righteousness, and it's going to seal both vision and prophet. Verse 25, know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of the anointed one, that's a prince, there shall be seven weeks.

Anointed one means what? What is it? Anointed one means, starts with an M. Messiah, okay? And a prince there shall be seven weeks. Then, so here's how, so you see there's a seven-week period there. Then for 62 weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.

And after the 62 weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off. So you have 62 weeks, and at that 62-week mark, there's gonna be an anointed one, the Messiah, shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.

Its end will come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week. And for half of the week, he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering.

And on the wing of abomination shall come the one who makes desolate until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator. Now, admittedly, this is kind of a hard text to decipher to some degree. There's a lot of ambiguity here, and there's a lot of things that you may not understand right away.

Anyone know what the 70 weeks represent? What do the 70 weeks represent? How much time is that actually, biblically? Is it literally 70 weeks, or is it representative of something else? So there is a interpretive rule that the Bible gives us in the book of Numbers.

And it's that when the Lord gives us a timetable, you take a day for a year. 70 weeks would then be 490 years. When does this 490-year countdown begin? What does the text tell us in verse 25? Actually, you know what, in, yeah, in verse 25.

What's the timetable? When does the 490 years begin to tick? There's a what? No. Know therefore, understand, that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem. Remember, at this point, when Daniel's writing this, they're in captivity in Babylon.

The city's been destroyed, the temple's destroyed. And so he says, once you guys get the word, and this word is gonna come actually from King Cyrus, okay, we know that. And he said, and so when you get this word, know that when that word in the decree to rebuild Jerusalem happens, there's gonna be 490 years between the rebuilding of the temple and the appearing of the Messiah and the ushering of everlasting righteousness.

This is a messianic prophecy. It's about Jesus, okay? It's pointing us towards Jesus. How do we know that? Because it says, going out to the word, restore and build Jerusalem, to the coming of an anointed one, that's the Messiah, Mashiach in the Hebrew, a prince, there shall be seven weeks, okay?

Seven weeks being seven years, okay? Now, the Messiah is called a prince here, remember that, that's very important to this. And then after 62 weeks, an anointed one should be cut off. So basically, there's gonna be a 62-week period that's gonna be very important.

So here's what that looks like. So this begins to be counted down in the year 457 BC, okay? 457 BC, because that's the year where they got the decree to rebuild Jerusalem. And it says that they're gonna rebuild the temple, but it's gonna take a long time, and it's gonna be very troubling times in the history of the nations.

Because around that time, you had the fall of three empires, actually two empires and the rise of one. You had the fall, actually three, yeah, because you had the fall of the Babylonians, then you had the Assyrians rise, and then they fell, and then you had the Greeks rise, and then they fell, and then you had the final kingdom come, which was the Roman Empire, which is the time which Jesus was born in, right?

Jesus was born in the time of the reign of the Roman Empire. And so, if you do the math on this, from 457 BC, you get 62 weeks. 62 weeks would lead us all the way, remember, a day for a year, all the way to the year AD 27, which is the year in which our Lord was baptized by John the Baptist, okay?

It's very important. And he says that there's gonna be another week, a final week there, between the Messiah appearing, his cutting off, and there's gonna be a covenant made, and it's gonna be broken.

So, let's read what that, again, it says in verse 26. And after 62 weeks, the anointed one shall be cut off, and shall have nothing, so the Messiah's gonna die. That's what Daniel's telling us. This is a great prophecy, because if you're talking to a Jewish person who doesn't believe the Messiah's gonna die, well, what do you do with this text?

Literally, it says the Messiah will die. And so, the Messiah will be cut off, shall have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city. Now, this is where the dispensationalists say, that's the Antichrist.

The Antichrist is gonna show up on the last week, which is seven years. This is where they get the seven-year tribulation period. He's gonna show up in the seven-year tribulation period, and he's gonna make a covenant with the Jews.

In the middle of that covenant, three and a half years, he's going to cut off that relationship, and he's gonna turn his back on them, and he's gonna try to destroy them. But that's not what this is saying.

Notice one very important thing about this prophecy. Each week is congruent. Each week is consecutive. It's one week after the other. Here's what dispensationalists, and most people do today, when they read this text, is they take the first 69 weeks, and they see that as consecutive, one after another.

Then they say, but the last week, they cut it off, and they put it all the way in the last day. So, it hasn't happened yet. The last week hasn't happened. They say that we're gonna cut the last week off to the 69.

Who told you to do that? What precedent do you have hermeneutically, exegetically, to cut off a prophetic week that is 70, and now you make it to 69, and you put that last week all the way in the future?

Is there any other precedent for that in Scripture that you're aware of? I don't know of any. It's very strange. It's not a very good interpretive rule. This is not hermeneutically consistent. And so, I don't think there's any good reason to cut off the 70 weeks, and make it 69, and then put the last week at the last days.

I don't think that makes any sense. Here's what you do have, okay? Because here's what has to happen. There needs to be a decree for the people, the Jewish people in the Holy City. There's gonna be a finishing of transgression, verse 24, an end to sin, to atone for iniquity, to bring an everlasting righteousness, and to see a provisional prophet to anoint a most holy place.

So we gotta ask ourselves the question, has this happened? The answer is yes, it has happened. The last week, if we let it be consecutive, without doing what most people do, which is cutting it off and putting it in the future, you go from 27 AD, which is the baptism of Christ.

In the middle of that, three and a half years later, Jesus is crucified, which is exactly what it says in verse 27. It says, and he shall make a strong covenant. Some people say, think that he here is the Antichrist.

It's not, this is the Messiah. He, the Messiah, shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week, he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. How does he do that? Well, because in the half of that week, Jesus is sacrificed, and by his sacrifice, he puts an end to every other sacrifice.

Here's what the dispensationalists would have to say. The dispensationalists say that there's gonna be a future temple. You've heard of this before, right? That the Jews are gonna rebuild the temple, they're gonna re-institute temple sacrifices, and in the middle of that seven-year tribulation period, the Antichrist is gonna come in and make them stop sacrificing, okay?

That's their theory. I think that's, first of all, very unbiblical. If the Jews built another temple, and they began to sacrifice animals, would that be God's temple? Does God delight in sacrifices of bulls and goats?

Would not a sacrifice using animals in temple ritual and worship be an affront to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, right? It would trample on the ransom sacrifice of Jesus. So I don't get it when Christians say, oh, there's gonna be a third temple, and it's gonna be God's temple, and it's gonna be the Jewish temple, and they're gonna start sacrificing, and these are all signs of the end times.

It's like, no, God would never rejoice in using animal sacrifices anymore. We know that from the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter nine says that God put an end to the temple sacrifices by using the blood of Jesus, which speaks to a better word than the blood of goats and bulls, right?

And so if we go back to temple sacrifices, we're neglecting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And so Jesus put an end to the sacrificial system by means of his death on the cross, which happened in the year 31 AD.

Now, okay, so we still have 3 1⁄2 years left. In that 3 1⁄2 years, we know, according to verse 24, we have to see the ushering of everlasting righteousness. Well, did that happen? The answer is yes. In the year 34, 3 1⁄2 years after Christ's death, something significant happened.

Do you remember what that is? It's spoken of in Acts chapter nine. Do you recall what happened 3 1⁄2 years after Jesus' death? Well, he rose on the third day, not 3 1⁄2 years, yeah. But something significant happened after, in the year 34 AD.

There's a man named Saul of Tarsus who was converted to the faith and became the apostle to the nations, ushering in everlasting righteousness to the nations, okay? So Paul is the one who is called to preach the gospel to the nations.

This is to fulfill scripture. If you read in Acts 15, when the Jerusalem council comes together, they quote from, I think, Hosea, and they say that the fact that, through the ministry of the apostle Paul, the nations, the Gentiles are coming to knowledge of God, coming to knowledge of the Messiah, that this was the fulfillment, this was the beginning of the fulfillment of everlasting righteousness in Acts 15, okay?

And so if you leave the 70 weeks to be consecutive, you go from 457 BC all the way to 34 AD, which is when the apostle Paul became the apostle to the nations, and the nations are now being discipled by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Does that make sense? So Daniel chapter nine is really important to understand, because dispensationalists get their whole worldview of a seven-year tribulation period of this antichrist making a covenant and then breaking it in the middle.

And first of all, it doesn't say anything about Jesus breaking a covenant. He says in verse 27, he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week. Did Jesus make a covenant before he left? He did.

He says, this is my body, this is my blood, this is the new covenant in my blood. Do this in remembrance of me, okay? And then it says, and for half of the week, he should put an end to sacrifice and offering.

Well, he did that in 31 AD, which is in the middle of the seven-year period of the last week, and he did so by dying on the cross. He made an end to the sacrificial system. And notice what's gonna happen in the last part of verse 27.

And on the wing of abomination shall come one who makes desolate. Now, that's the antichrist. That's the antichrist. So we don't get to the antichrist until the very last sentence here, until decreed end is poured out on the desolator, okay?

And that's gonna happen. So basically, what Daniel leaves us with in Daniel chapter nine is at the end, after the 70 weeks are completed, the antichrist is gonna reign all the way until the end, okay?

So now for seven years, but until the end of the age. And that's the fact that we see in history through the pope. The pope has been reigning and unbroken succession of popes until the last day when Jesus comes and brings to nothing the son of perdition with the word of his might according to Second Thessalonians chapter two.

So the antichrist is definitely the pope, okay? So I'm sorry it's not as sexy of an answer as it being some politician or some crazy conspiracy, but this is just a biblical fact. So any thoughts or questions on this so far?

On Daniel or the antichrist? Well, let's, yeah, go for it. Dubonoit? Yeah, so Catholicism is interesting because you see the first instance of the use of the word Catholic is in the first century. We have very early church fathers who were, so here's my, here's my, here's what I believe.

I believe the whole Bible, New Testament specifically, was written before the year 70 AD. Most scholars put the New Testament completion around the year 96 to 100 AD. I think they're wrong. They're wrong by a couple decades because the internal evidence of scripture is very consistent and very clear.

And Jesus prophesied the destruction of the temple. This was the crown prophecy of Christ. And if John had been writing in the time of the 90s, he would have certainly looked back in history and looked at the destruction of the temple and said, see, it happened just as Jesus said it would.

But he doesn't do that. Paul certainly doesn't do that because Paul died before the year 70. He died around the year 64 AD. None of the other New Testament writers who maybe lived past 70 AD mentioned, or like the Book of Hebrews, for instance.

Book of Hebrews is a perfect example. Most people put the Book of Hebrews very late. If you don't have a Pauline authorship for Book of Hebrews, you probably, most scholars will put the Book of Hebrews somewhere in the 80s or 90s.

But the problem with that is the Book of Hebrews mentions the temple still standing, which was the Jewish temple, which was as short as 70 AD. So, and Paul, or I think Paul probably wrote Hebrews, but the writer of Hebrews says that they were in a transitional period, that though Jesus made an end to the sacrificial system, that the old covenant was still fading away, which meant that they were still doing sacrifices, there was still temple worship, but it was fading away and it will soon be completely gone, is what Hebrews 7 says.

So clearly, Hebrews is talking about the temple. So I put the whole New Testament before the year 70, and so as a result of that, I forgot your original question. Oh, the Roman Catholic Church. So then the Catholic Church, the first mention of the Catholic Church is around the years 80 or 90 AD.

So the Roman Catholic Church, or Roman Catholic Church is not the right answer because Roman Catholic Church as an institution is really about a third or fourth century thing. But the usage of the word Catholic is very early.

So Polycarp, Irenaeus, Ignatius, all of the really early church fathers who were right at the time of the first century and second century all used the term Catholic, but they meant it in the sense of it being universal.

It was God's universal church of believers of all across the empire. And then the formulation of a Roman Catholic system of a pope isn't until around the fifth or sixth century where you have the first actual pope.

Now, you've always had bishops, and that's one of the unique things about church history is that you do see this line of bishops. And the Bishop of Rome has always been considered kind of the pope, according to Roman Catholic dogma.

But we don't see that really in stone until fifth century. But the Roman Catholic, the seeds of the Roman Catholic Church have been there, and the apostasy of the Roman Catholic Church has been the church since the first century.

And we know this because in Acts chapter 20, I think it was Paul who said that after we go, there's gonna be ravenous wolves who are gonna come in our midst. And they said they were the ones holding it back, but when they died, they were gonna come in full force.

And so Paul is even alluding to the spirit of Antichrist by doing that. First John, John says that you've heard the Antichrist is coming, but I tell you the Antichrist is already here, and there's many Antichrists, right?

And so John affirms the fact that the spirit of Antichrist, the ministry of the Antichrist, had already been at work in the first century, right? And of course, it takes its final form in the manifestation of the Pope of Rome.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, right.

If you talk to a Roman Catholic, they would say that Peter was the first Pope, which is not true. Peter never refers himself as Pope or anything like that. But there is an unbroken succession of what's called bishops, and specifically the Bishop of Rome, right?

And that's what the Roman Catholic Church believes the Pope is a successor of, starting with Peter, and then going all the way to the guy today. But the institution of the Popery is about fifth century.

Yeah, about fifth century. But again, John makes a point in 1 John that there are many Antichrists already in the world, right? And Antichrist was just someone who, really, an Antichrist is someone who preaches a different Jesus.

That's what the biblical definition of Antichrist is. And so there's no greater Antichrist than the Antichrist of Rome, because they preach a different Jesus. Jesus who doesn't justify by faith, Jesus that is still on the cross.

If you go to a Roman Catholic Church, all the statues of Jesus on the cross, he's not on the cross anymore. Our Lord is risen, he's not on the cross. So, yeah, so I'm glad we were able to go through that a little bit.

The Biblical Rapture at Christ's Return

Let's, the remaining time that we have, let's destroy this false concept of the rapture. So, the main text that's used for the rapture is 1 Thessalonians 4, 13 to 18. I have that there for you. And again, I know we've probably gone through this before.

In fact, I'm positive now that we have gone through this before. It's good to recapture this, though, and to frame it a little differently. And I'm actually teaching you a little bit more things that I didn't have time to do last time.

But just to go over it real quick, 1 Thessalonians 4, 13 to 18 says, we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. What does that mean?

Who are the ones who are asleep? What does that mean to be asleep? Those who have died, right? Paul uses the term sleep to speak of their condition. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

For we declare this to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until when? Who are left until when? The coming of what? The Lord, okay? Will not precede those who have fallen asleep, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive, who are left, so if you read the Left Behind series, you didn't wanna be left. But here, it's actually a good thing. If you're left, what's gonna happen? We'll be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

Therefore, encourage one another with these words. So no Antichrist, no seven-year tribulation, no rapture secretly, no rapture before the coming of Jesus. The rapture, or the caughting up with Christ to meet him in the air, happens when, according to verse 15 and 16.

When does it happen? When are believers caught up? Opening words of verse 16. What does it say? You guys seem like so unsure of yourselves. Are you guys Reformed Baptists, or what? When he descends. When he descends, okay?

Not secretly, not when, you know, seven-year tribulation, none of this nonsense. When he descends, that's when believers are joined to him. Now, when does that happen? Verse 15 tells us. Those who are left until the coming of the Lord.