Eschatology
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The second coming of Christ will consist of two phases, one for the
saints (the Rapture) and the other with the saints (the Revelation of
Christ), and the intervening period between the two is the time when the
world will experience the Great Tribulation, involving the reign of
Antichrist and the outpouring of God’s wrath on the wicked |
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Here
is what the Assemblies of God teaches about the second coming of Christ: ‘A
comparison of passages of Scripture relating to the Second Coming shows that
some speak of a visible event seen by all mankind and involving the judgement
of sinners. Others describe a coming known only to believers and resulting in
their deliverance from earth. The latter is referred to among evangelicals as
the Rapture. …. Passages which pertain to the Rapture describe the coming of
the Lord for His people. Passages which refer to the revelation of Christ
describe the coming of the Lord with His saints. …. Since Scripture does not
contradict itself, it seems reasonable to conclude that the passages
describing Christ’s coming for the saints and with the saints indicate two
phases of His coming. We believe it is scripturally correct to assume that
the intervening period between the two is the time when the world will
experience the Great Tribulation, involving the reign of Antichrist and the
outpouring of God’s wrath on the wicked …. Although God’s people may endure
severe trials before the Lord comes, the Church will be raptured before the
period called the Great Tribulation’ (The
Rapture of the Church, General Council of the Assemblies of God, August
14, 1979. From. www.ag.org). |
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The
above mentioned teaching, according to which the Church will be caught up to
heaven before the reign of the antichrist (called also ‘the man of sin’ or
‘lawless one’), is held by most of the Trinitarian Pentecostals and many
other Evangelicals. It is held also by the |
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The
Rapture doctrine appeared in the early part of the 1800’s in |
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Confutation |
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The
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for His saints (our gathering together to Him,
which is known also as ‘rapture’) and the coming of the Lord with His saints
(the revelation of Christ) are two events which will take place on the same
day (made of 24 hours), which is called the day of Christ or the day of the
Lord, and that day will come after the antichrist is revealed. Therefore the
saints will be persecuted to death by the antichrist, that is to say, the
saints will go through the great tribulation. When I say that the coming of
Christ for His saints and the coming of Christ with His saints are two events
which will take place on the same day, I mean this: when Jesus is revealed
from heaven, He will raise up the dead in Christ first, then He will change
the saints who are alive at His coming, and they will be caught up together
with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Immediately after He
will come with His saints to earth to punish the lawless one and those who do
not know God, and to establish the millennium reign, which is a thousand-year
reign during which He will reign on the earth with His saints. So, the coming
of our Jesus Christ comprises the following events: the appearing of Christ
from heaven, the resurrection of the dead in Christ, the change of the saints
who are alive at His coming, and our gathering together to Him, and the
destruction of the antichrist and of those who do not know God, and His
coming with His saints to earth. All these events – I say it again – will
take place on the same day, which is called the day of Christ or the day of
the Lord. Our gathering together to Christ and the coming of Christ will not
occur at different times – as pre-tribolationists affirm – but on the same
day. Now I will show you from the Holy Scripture what I have just said. |
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Let
us see what John wrote in the book of Revelation about the glorious coming of
Christ from heaven: “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and
he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he
doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head
were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a
vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And
the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in
fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that
with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of
iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty
God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF
KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he
cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven,
Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye
may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of
mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the
flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the
beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to
make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the
beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before
him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and
them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of
fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were
slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded
out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh” (Revelation
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Having
established this, we need to establish when the man of sin – of whom Paul
speaks to the Thessalonians – will be revealed, that is, whether he will be
revealed before the Church is caught up to heaven or after. Let us see then
what Paul says to the Thessalonians about the time the lawless one will be revealed:
“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by
our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be
troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that
the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that
day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of
sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God
sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these
things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his
time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth
will let, until he be taken out of the way” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-7). No doubt
Paul states that the man of sin will be revealed while the saints are still
on the earth. We deduce this from the fact that he says “that day shall not
come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be
revealed, the son of perdition ….”. Therefore, the
falling away and the man of sin must come first, then the day of Christ will
come– on which the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the change of the
saints who are alive will take place, and their
gathering together to Christ. Someone will ask me then: ‘Could Paul not
refer, when he spoke of the day of Christ, to the coming of Christ from
heaven with His saints who by that time will have already been with Him for
some years (seven or three and a half)? No, because if we read carefully the
above mentioned words of Paul, we can see that when he speaks of the day of
Christ - which will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man
of sin is revealed – he refers to “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and
our gathering together to Him” (2 Thessalonians 2:1 – NKJV). Notice that Paul
– concerning the coming of the Lord and our gathering together to Him - first
urged the saints not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit
or by word or by any false epistle, as though the day of Christ was imminent
or at hand, then he explained them why they must not think that the day of
Christ was imminent or at hand: “For that day shall not come, except there
come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed.” Therefore, the
day of which Paul speaks is the day on which Christ will come and we will be
gathered together to Him. Thus Paul implicitly affirms that when the lawless
one is revealed the saints are still on earth, for the lawless one will be
destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming. Consequently, since we know
that the antichrist will persecute to death the saints, we affirm that the
saints will go through the great tribulation. |
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That
the saints must go through the tribulation which will precede the appearing
of Christ is evident also from the following words spoken by Jesus Christ: “Take
heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am
Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of
wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass,
but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom
against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and
earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the
beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and
shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And
then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one
another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And
because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that
shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the
kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a
witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. When ye therefore
shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet,
stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on
the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let
him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give
suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be
not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great
tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no,
nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no
flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then
if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For
there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great
signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the
very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto
you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret
chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and
shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For
wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Immediately
after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon
shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the
powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the
Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and
they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and
great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet,
and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of
heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:4-31). As you can see, Jesus foretold His
disciples that His coming will occur after the tribulation of those days – during
which many believers will be deceived by false prophets, while many others
will be killed for their faith -, and also that at His coming He will gather His
elect to Him from the four winds. So our gathering together to Him will take
place at the end of the great tribulation |
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In
the light of what the Scripture teaches, therefore, the pre-tribolationist
view, according to which there will be a secret, invisible return of Jesus in
the sky where the saints will be translated secretly before the beginning of
the reign of the antichrist (thus, before the beginning of the tribulation),
must be rejected for it is inconsistent with the Scripture, which clearly
teaches that Christ will appear to gather His saints to Him after the reign
of the antichrist is established on earth, that is, at the end of the
tribulation. |
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Brothers,
I conclude by saying to you what Paul said to the Thessalonians many
centuries ago: “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 ….”
(2 Thessalonians 2:3 – NKJV). |