End Times Ping
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Maranatha!
PING!
I’m a great admirer of Ja Markel and Olivetree Ministries.
The wolves have indeed infiltrated the Church.
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In 2 Thessalonians, Paul is writing shortly before the Jewish-Roman War begins in 67 AD[1] And we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of our gathering together unto him: [2] That you be not easily moved from your sense, nor be terrified, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by epistle, as sent from us, as if the day of the Lord were at hand. [3] Let no man deceive you by any means, for unless there come a revolt first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, [4] Who opposeth, and is lifted up above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself as if he were God. [5] Remember you not, that when I was yet with you, I told you these things?The REVOLT - the Jewish revolt in 67 AD. The Man of Sin - Nero. And then Nero's statue in the temple.
[6] And now you know what withholdeth, that he may be revealed in his time. [7] For the mystery of iniquity already worketh; only that he who now holdeth, do hold, until he be taken out of the way. [8] And then that wicked one shall be revealed whom the Lord Jesus shall kill with the spirit of his mouth; and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, him, [9] Whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying wonders, [10] And in all seduction of iniquity to them that perish; because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Therefore God shall send them the operation of error, to believe lying:Rapturists make the false claim that Christians had been secretly raptured 3.5 years before the Temple worship was corrupted
But this is deceptive and FALSE. Paul wrote Thessalonians to encourage a group of Christians who were afraid they had been "left behind" yet he explicitly does NOT speak of the "blessed hope of the rapture" to comfort the worried Thessalonians. NOWHERE in this passage is there even a message of the rapture. In this passage the rapture is missing in action.
The reason Paul does not mention the rapture as occuring before the appearance of the antichrist and before the second coming is simple: it never entered into his mind that anyone would believe Christ would rapture His Church before the final eschaton
The kingdom of God is in the here and now, present in and through the Church. Yet it is a mixed reality that will only be perfectly realized at the end of history. This current “mixed” state can be seen as the Church on earth which now grows in the field of the world with both weeds and wheat until the harvest when Christ says he will “tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned. But gather the wheat into my barn” (Matt 13:30).
Here Jesus wasn’t predicting the end of the world. When read in context, this statement referred to the events leading up to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in A.D. 70.
Or in the Olivet Discourse, when Jesus describes the coming events and says, “And then they will see the Son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds” (Mark 13:26-27).
Since Jesus will return from heaven at the end of the world (Acts 1:11), many have understood this as a reference to the Second Coming. And, because prophecy can have more than one fulfillment, it may point to the Second Coming. However, this wasn’t what it referred to in the events leading up to the destruction of the temple.
Josephus, who was an eyewitness of the events, reported that God gave great signs in the heavens to show that the temple would soon be destroyed. These included a star that resembled a sword hanging over the city, unexplained light shining around the temple and its altar, chariots and soldiers fighting in the clouds, and heavenly voices saying “we are departing” from the temple (Jewish War 6:3:5[288-310]). The same signs are mentioned by the Roman historian Tacitus (Histories 5:13).
Note the statement that Jesus makes to the high priest Caiaphas. When asked if he is the Christ, the Son of God, Jesus replies: “I am; and you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:62). Jesus is not prophesying that the Second Coming will occur during Caiaphas’s lifetime. His statement reflects Daniel 7:13-14, where the Son of Man is brought before God in heaven to receive his kingdom. The prophecy thus refers to Jesus ascending into heaven (Acts 1:9), where he received his kingdom (7:55-56) and where he now reigns (1 Cor. 15:24-26).
A final statement that should be considered is, “There are some standing here who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power” (Mark 9:1; cf. Matt. 16:28; Luke 9:27).
This is not about the end of the world, for “the kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (Luke 17:21), and some of Jesus’ disciples were about to see it manifested in a powerful way. In each Synoptic Gospel (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), the Transfiguration immediately follows Jesus’ announcement (Matt. 17:1-9; Mark 9:2-10; Luke 9:28-36). Jesus takes three of the disciples—Peter, James, and John—up a mountain. His clothing becomes dazzlingly bright, Moses and Elijah appear beside him, everyone is enveloped in a cloud, and God the Father speaks from heaven, identifying Jesus as his Son and his Chosen, and declaring, “Hear him!”
This manifestation is the coming of the kingdom “with power” that Jesus referred to, and the text of each Gospel suggests that this is the way the evangelists understood it. Not only does the Transfiguration happen right after the announcement, but each Gospel says it was about a week later (Matt. 17:1, Mark 9:1, Luke 9:28) - Peter, James, and John thus were the three who did not taste death before they saw the kingdom coming with power