The Time of Jacob's Trouble
Page 22
John said that “the Antichrist” is coming, setting this figure apart from others by using the definite article “the,” thus pointing to the one and only Antichrist. Notice that he said many such antichrists have appeared, or false teachers who deceive others about the person of Christ (1 John 2:22; 4:2-3; Jude). It is the appearing of these antichrists (false teachers) on the scene that led John to write, “From this we know that the last hour has come” (NLT).
John becomes more specific about the “many such antichrists” in 1 John 2:19: “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.” John is writing to the church when he says, “They went out from us.” People who had once been in church began to twist and pervert the Word of God, setting themselves up against Christ; in this sense they became antichrists. Pastor Jim Cymbala says,
John says, “many antichrists, plural, have come.” This is how we know it’s the last hour. Notice that as he talks about these antichrists, that he identifies them as people who had once been in the church. How do we know who doesn’t belong to the body of Christ? They don’t stay. If they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us, but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.5
Paul warned the early believers that “fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:29-30 ESV).
In the days of the apostles, there were already many so-called believers who had “gone out” from the body of Christ, rejecting Him, and twisting and perverting His gospel of truth. How many more are there today?
The apostles knew they were living in the last days. They knew that things were looking up and they anticipated the return of their Savior. When Christ ascended to heaven, angels told the disciples that He would return just as He ascended, in the clouds (Acts 2:11). From that time onward, the disciples and the early church eagerly looked for and waited for Christ’s return. Are we?
WHERE IN THE WORD?
AN OUTLINE TO FOLLOW
The book of Revelation has a clear outline that we can follow. In chapter 1, Jesus tells John, “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later” (Revelation 1:19). He told John to write:
1. “What you have seen”—what John saw of Jesus in heaven—chapter 1. (I encourage you to ask the Spirit of God to help you as you read Revelation 1.)
2. “What is now”—the present time—Christ’s letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor, chapters 2–3. (Again, ask God’s Spirit to help as you read chapters 2 and 3.) These letters were delivered to each church at the time of their writing. In a moment, we’ll see how these churches represent the church age.
3. “What will take place later”—the future—this includes the tribulation (chapters 4–19), the millennial reign of Christ for 1,000 years (chapter 20), and the new heavens and new earth (chapters 21–22). When time allows, ask for God’s Spirit to lead and teach you as you read these remaining chapters.
WHERE IS THE CHURCH?
The word translated “church” is the Greek word ekklesia. Consider these facts about the uses of the word:
•used 19 times in Revelation chapters 1–3
•there is no appearance of the word “church” (ekklesia) in the next 15 chapters, during the time of the tribulation
•is mentioned again in Revelation’s final chapter (22:16)
•the words “church” or “churches” are used 92 times in the New Testament
•no familiar references or appearance of the word “church” (ekklesia) after the church age (Revelation chapters 2–3)
The disappearance of the words “church” and “churches” in chapters 4 to 18 gives encouraging support that the church will not be on Earth during the tribulation. We do see the word “saints” used thirteen times in Revelation. There are Old Testament and church-age saints in the Bible, and in Revelation we see that there are tribulation-era saints, those who come to Christ during the tribulation period.
There is exciting evidence that we do see a picture of the church in heaven beginning in Revelation 4:4: “Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.” Beginning with the formation of the church in Acts, we see the word translated “elder” take on a different meaning from someone who is of advanced age, or a member of the great council or Sanhedrin, to someone who presided over the churches.
Elders still preside over many churches today. The twenty-four elders in Revelation are seated on thrones, and Jesus tells us that those who are in Christ will have the right to “sit with me on my throne” (Revelation 3:21). The elders in Revelation 4:4 are dressed in white like the bride of Christ (Revelation 3:5, 18; 19:7-8) and they are wearing crowns (Greek, stephanos, which refers to a victor’s crown, symbolic of award and honor). All those who are in Christ will receive crowns (1 Corinthians 9:25; 2 Timothy 4:8; James 1:12; 1 Peter 5:4; Revelation 2:10; 3:11). In Scripture, angels are never represented as wearing crowns, and we see that they encircle the throne and the elders in heaven, distinguishing them from the elders themselves (Revelation 5:11; 7:11).
Concerning what the elders are wearing, David M. Levy says,
The crowns and white raiment gives evidence that the elders have already been judged and rewarded by Christ. This is not applicable to angels or Old Testament believers…David divided the Levitical priesthood into 24 courses (1 Chronicles 24) to represent the complete priesthood. In like manner, the 24 elders stand for the completed church, which is identified in Scripture as “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9).1
The completed church represent those who became believers in Christ during the church age, which began on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, when the church was formed. We are still living in the church age. There will come a time when this church age will come to its conclusion, but for now, we are still in the “what is now” portion of Revelation’s outline (chapters 2–3). There are seven churches addressed in Revelation 2–3, and in the Bible, the number seven is said to represent completion or perfection. These seven churches represent the various kinds of churches present on Earth during the entire church age, ending with the church at Laodicea, the lukewarm church.
Peter Marshall, one-time chaplain of the US Senate, said,
Millions of people in America live in moral fogs. The issues are not clear to them. They cannot face the light that makes them black or white. They want grays and neutral tints. They move in a sort of spiritual twilight. Surely, the time has come, because the hour is late, when we must decide. And the choice before us is plain, Jehovah or Baal. Christ or chaos. Conviction or compromise. Discipline or disintegration.2
What’s startling is that Marshall didn’t say that twenty, thirty, or even fifty years ago. He said those words in 1944, and according to his assessment, the church had already been lukewarm for years.
THE END OF THE CHURCH AGE
The conclusion of the church age is at the end of Revelation chapter 3, in which the last of the seven letters is issued to the church at Laodicea. Now notice in the very first verse of chapter 4 that John is called up to heaven in his vision:
After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this” (Revelation 4:1).
A door is open in heaven and a voice like a trumpet says, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” After what? Again, in Revelation 2–3, we’ve been reading the, “what is now” part of the outline: the church age. John is called up to heaven after he documents what will happen during the church age so he can be shown what must take place after this.
So…
•the ch
urch age concludes at the end of Revelation 3
•a door to heaven opens in Revelation 4:1
•a voice says to John, “Come up here”
WHY IS JOHN CALLED TO HEAVEN AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE CHURCH AGE?
Second Thessalonians provides insight. The Thessalonian believers had received some false teaching along the way “concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2). They were shaken and alarmed by this false teaching that had supposedly come from Paul (it hadn’t), telling them that Christ had already come for His believers, which could only mean that they were living in the tribulation period. This would seem true to them because they were being persecuted. Paul calmed their spirits and urged them not to be deceived.
Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 NKJV).
He said, “For that Day [also referred to as the Day of the Lord and anticipated by the Old Testament prophets as a time when God would visit the earth to judge the wicked and to save His people—Ezekiel 30:3; Joel 2:31; Amos 5:20; Zechariah 14:1] will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition” (NKJV). Paul assures the Thessalonian believers that the Day of the Lord had not come because certain things had to happen.
Paul then says,
Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming (2 Thessalonians 2:5-10 NKJV).
Note what Paul asks in verse 5: “Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?” Like us, they probably did remember, but because of the false teaching they had heard, they were now confused. Paul tells the Thessalonians not to be deceived and lists three things that must happen before the Day of the Lord, or the tribulation.
The Timing of the Day of the Lord
The Day of the Lord will not come until…
1. The falling away comes first (verse 3). The Greek word apostasia is used here, meaning “defection, revolt, apostasy.” David Jeremiah says, “The definite article ‘the’ indicates that there will be a specific, unique walking away from the truth people once believed.”3 First Timothy 4:1 says, “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” There’s that definite article “the”—people will abandon “the” faith. Not “a” faith, or faith in general, but “the” faith. Paul wrote and spoke and preached about faith in Christ alone and the tenets of the gospel, and it is this faith, the faith in Christ, that many will abandon in the last days.
Second, Paul said…
2. He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way (verses 6-7). It’s the convicting work of the Holy Spirit within believers that exhorts them to stay away from sin, and it is the Holy Spirit who holds back or restrains the “man of sin,” the “lawless one,” “the man of lawlessness”—all of these are names for the Antichrist.
What the Holy Spirit Does
THE HOLY SPIRIT GUIDES AND HELPS US
Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want (Galatians 5:16-17).
THE HOLY SPIRIT DWELLS WITHIN EACH BELIEVER; WE ARE HIS VEHICLE ON EARTH
•Jesus said in John 14:16-17, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”
•“He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him” (1 Corinthians 6:17 NKJV).
•“Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19 NKJV).
•“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1 Corinthians 3:16).
THE HOLY SPIRIT REVEALS THE NEED FOR SALVATION IN OUR LIVES AND CONVICTS US OF SIN AND OF COMING JUDGMENT
It is believers, with the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us, who share the gospel with people; it is we who reveal to unbelievers that sin separates people from God. In speaking of the Holy Spirit, Jesus told His apostles, “When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned” (John 16:8-11).
Life in the Spirit is an intimate, personal relationship, one that changes us from the inside out. As a result, we become salt and light in the world (Matthew 5:13-16). As salt, our presence in the world adds flavor to the earth. Our presence cleanses and preserves the earth by battling sin and evil, and our presence helps prevent decline and corruption in a decaying, dying world. The Holy Spirit’s presence within those who are in Christ restrains the rise of complete lawlessness, but “He who now restrains” will one day be taken out of the way, when all those who are in Christ are removed, allowing the earth to fall subject to sin without restraint.
Pastor Jeff Kinley has said, “Wherever there are people, there are God’s people and His Spirit working in and through them, impeding sin while advancing His kingdom. John’s words still ring true: ‘Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.’”4
WHO IS “HE WHO RESTRAINS”?
There have been many thoughts throughout the ages of the identity of “He who now restrains” in 2 Thessalonians 2:7 (NKJV). Mark Hitchcock provides four clues to the identity:
•The phrase “what is holding him back” uses a neuter verb, suggesting a principle.
•The phrase “the one who is holding him back” uses a masculine verb, suggesting a person.
•Whatever the restrainer is, he or it must be removable.
•Last, the restrainer must be powerful enough to hold back the outbreak of evil under the Antichrist.
These four clues permit only one satisfactory identification for the restrainer—God Himself. In this case, it is God the Holy Spirit who is the restrainer.5 Again, where does the Holy Spirit dwell? Within us as believers, who experience the power of the Holy Spirit through our prayers, our actions, our influence in culture, and even our influence with God.
While it’s true that “He who now restrains” will be removed, Scripture makes it clear that the Holy Spirit will still be at work on Earth during the tribulation, just as He worked in the Old Testament, and before Pentecost in the New Testament, because He is omnipresent. A void will most certainly be felt during the early days of the tribulation because the church’s fighting against, holding back, and restraining of sin and rebellion will be removed. It’s in the midst of this void that the 144,000 Jewish men will be sealed by Jesus and scattered throughout the world to preach the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit.
So, before the Day of the Lord or the tribulation comes, there will first come a falling away from the faith, and the restrainer will be taken out of the way.
The third thing that must happen is…
3. The man of sin, the son of perdition (verse 3), the lawless one (verse 8), the Antichrist (1 John 2:18), will be revealed.
What is keeping the Antichrist from appearing on the world’s stage? Donald Grey Barnhouse emphatically states,
You are! You and every other member of the body of Christ on earth. True, it is the Holy Spirit who is the real restrainer. But as both First Corinthians 3:16 and 6:19 teach, the Holy Spirit indwells the believer. Put all believers together then, with the Holy Spirit indwelling each of us, and you have a formidable restraining force.6
We live in the church age, the age of grace, where because of the prayers and the actions of the church, sin is somewhat restrained. But the day is coming when lawlessness will overtake the earth, and before that day comes, before the man of lawlessness is revealed, those who are in Christ will be called to “come up here”—just as John was in Revelation 4:1.
While we are still in this age of grace and while things are increasingly looking up, will you pray for ways to sprinkle salt and shine light into your community? This could be the church’s finest hour. Will you pray for boldness to reach out to someone with the gospel of Christ today?
WHERE IN THE WORD?
THE BRIDE OF CHRIST
It’s important to note that there is absolutely no prophecy that has to take place before this great snatching away or catching up (Greek, harpazo) of the bride of Christ occurs. The bride of Christ is a reference to the body of believers who follow Christ: