ZOLA LEVITT

Zola Levitt is a Hebrew Christian, lecturer, radio talk show host ("Heart of the Matter," KPBC Dallas,) host of Zola Levitt Live on National Christian Television and an author with over forty books in print. He appears in several Christian documentary films and periodically serves as a tour guide in Israel.

Levitt's books and other study materials are available through your local Christian bookstore. You may also use the order form in the back of this book to order directly from the author.

Contents

I.    Jesus' Words

II.    The Rapture

III.    The Antichrist

I. Jesus’ Words

In the several lengthy discourses of our Lord in the Gospel of Matthew, none seem to reach the level of clarity, immediacy and force of the prophecy of the Olivet discourse. The pristine moral lessons of the Sermon on the Mount, and the poetic illustrations of the parables of Chapter 13, show the eloquence and the keen perceptions of our Lord regarding the human condition. But here, in His prophecies, we are struck by the urgency of the message.

Clearly, the disciples were moved, as we still are today, by the vivid descriptions of the Lord of the signs of His coming and of the end of the world.

The Beginning of the End

To set the scene of Matthew 24, Jesus and the disciples are just departing from the Temple following His stunning lament, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem..." (23:37). The Lord had seemed to imply that the Temple of God would be destroyed (23:38). The disciples, as well as the crowd, must have been dumbfounded at this horrifying implication. Only once before in history had the great Temple of Jerusalem fallen, and that was, of course, in the times of the terrible Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Surely, this mild mannered Preacher of Galilee did not intend to condemn the very House of God! Surely, He had been carried away in a metaphor!

But in the first two verses of Chapter 24, the Lord makes it more than clear to His disciples that the days of the Temple of God were numbered. "There shall not be left here one stone upon another...", the Lord reiterated in the clearest terms as He and His men departed the Temple mount.

When they arrived at the Mount of Olives, where the Lord normally preferred to spend His nights while teaching in the Temple, the disciples "came unto Him privately", apparently intending to seize the moment. If the Lord were waxing prophetic, they had some very important questions on their minds. And, as a matter of fact, they put three questions to Jesus at this point:

"And as He sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?" (Matt. 24:3)

Possibly they expected the Lord to answer in highly symbolic terms or to give replies of such profundity that they would still be left wondering. But, on this occasion, Jesus chose to answer at least two of the questions with utmost clarity and precision.

Their first question is not answerable by the Lord (see v. 36), but He more than obliges them on the signs of His coming and of the end of the world. From verse 4 to 28, the Lord gives the general characteristics of the end of the age, and then He continues with the signs of His coming along with several illustrations addressed to the faithful.

It is most fascinating to consider that not a single sign given by the Lord in this entire discourse is in any way unfamiliar to our own generation today. Certainly, we have seen many come in His name, saying "I am Christ" (v. 5). We have heard of the wars and rumors of wars. We have seen nation rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. We have seen the famines, pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places (v. 6-7).

It might be argued that the Lord was simply characterizing the unspiritual nature of man as it always had been and even was in His own day. But, clearly, our generation has some very good arguments as being either the very one to see the most emphatic of these signs, or one quite close to the end.

There have been false prophets throughout the ages, of course, before Christ and after Him. But few could utter with any meaning, "I am Christ". Few men could have said, "I am the Anointed One, the Saviour of the world", and have been prepared to deliver on that. However, in this day and time, we are seeing such phrases uttered by "Christs" from all over. Rev. Moon is the Messiah and intends to save the world and bring in the Kingdom of God. Maharaj Ji calls himself "The Perfect Messiah" and dispenses the "Divine Light"; he, too, intends to save the world. The Guru of Transcendental Meditation has solutions to world problems on the international level, as does the Guru of the Hare Krishna movement. UFO cultists claim world saviours to descend from outer space, and Satanists describe a coming age of new world enlightenment via their peculiar spiritism. Broadway recently promised a new "Age of Aquarius", which is in effect a world salvation and a new order of things. The world will at least be more fun, according to this optimistic philosophy.

Our age is the one with communications media, the interest in the bizarre, and the desperation of the world at large to provide a listening audience to these various false christs. They are more than false prophets, of course, to whom the Lord will refer further on in the chapter.

And just as emphatically, our wars and rumors of wars, our nations rising against nations, and our famines, pestilences and earthquakes, exceed those of the past. And curiously, this should not be. After all, we are the most technologically advanced people who ever operated the earth. Why should there be famine now, when we have seemed to reach a peak of agricultural production and economic organization? Why should we suffer pestilence in an age when medical science has advanced the life span of man to more than double what it was in the time of Christ? It is fact that we are experiencing more earthquakes in this generation than we did in the two or three before when earthquakes were carefully tabulated and codified; but why?

Students who take the Lord at His Word tend to take the "signs" of Matthew 24 very seriously in these modern times.

Verse 8 is one of the saddest in all the gospels. "All these are the beginning of sorrows," the Lord tells the already stricken disciples. If they were listening at all, they must have been in deep lament over what the Lord was plainly stating about the conditions of the world at the end—and yet now He pauses to say that worse is yet to come.

Indeed the Lord now indicates that the believers will be delivered up to be afflicted and killed. Biblical analysts tend to apply scriptures like verse 9 in several ways. Is the Lord talking to His disciples as Christian believers, as Jews, or as Israelites? They qualify as all three, of course, but there would be an important difference of application to modern men. In truth, this verse and all the others in this chapter may be reasonably taken in all of those ways. The gospel makes no difference between Jews and Gentiles who are in Christ. If we regard the disciples as Christian believers, we can see the affliction going on in today's world. The Russians persecute the Christian church. In Mozambique it has been proposed as federal law that Christianity be outlawed (the first such case of Christianity being made literally illegal). Christians have most certainly been killed for their faith throughout the age of the church. If the disciples are being spoken to simply as Jewish people, the prophecy of affliction and murder equally applies. And finally, if they are being regarded by the Lord as Israelites—simply citizens of the Promised Land—then clearly the horror of being "hated of all nations" again equally applies. We should realize that we are looking in on the King of the Jews talking to His subjects. The words of the Lord to believing and unbelieving Israel have application to us all, as believers or unbelievers, when we read the gospel.

The Lord's continuing talk of many being offended ("and shall betray one another and shall hate one another") seems again to describe our present age, or one yet to come where these unfortunate prophecies are still more intensified. The alienation of our young people and the general description of our culture as a "big rip-off" indicates that human relations today might well be described in the Lord's very words.

In verse 11, the Lord certifies the false prophets that shall arise, and here we have something different than those who say, "I am Christ". A false prophet would be someone more like Jeanne Dixon, the wizards and palm readers who haunt our avenues, or those who make up astrological forecasts for a fee. Again, we have always had false prophets, but the point may be fairly taken that our generation is seeing a great upsurge in this occult activity.

Verse 12 might refer to our pornography or divorce statistics; "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." It can certainly be fairly argued that human society has never before seen so much divorce—never has the love of many waxed so cold. And our media, again, have been utilized to enhance an obscene culture which cheapens and makes synthetic God's purest intentions for human love.

"But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” Some have utilized this remark to indicate that a certain level of purity must be maintained on the part of the saints in order to preserve their own salvation throughout the times of these evil signs. But again if we'll apply the rule of the King of the Jews instructing his subjects, we will see that the verse applies appropriately to unredeemed Israel. Those Jews who endure entirely until the return of the Lord—who simply survive in whatever spiritual condition—will be those who "look upon Him whom they have pierced" (Zech. 12:10), and "mourn for Him as for an only son" (Zech. 12:10). The net result of this atonement on the part of surviving Israel is found in Paul's exaltation in Romans 11 :26:

"And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob."

The fact that the gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world, "unto all nations" (v. 14), before the Lord returns gives us pause. Surely we have not preached the gospel throughout all of the world at this point, nor shall we in the very near future. The Wycliffe Bible translators, who really do go to the uttermost parts of the earth, estimate that they have some 2,000 languages left to learn if they are to truly translate the New Testament into all of the world's tongues! There are obviously vast groups of mankind who have never heard the gospel, due to circumstances or lack of industry by the church. Certainly the multitudes of Communist China and Russia, the bushman and islanders of the world, and the Jews of every nation have been largely omitted by Christian witnesses. Some missions make some efforts, of course, but it is hard to say just how much effort will satisfy the Lord's designation of "all the world" (v. 14). The Lord interestingly ties this sign to the very end, continuing in the same breath "and then the end shall come". It would seem, as Christians have felt for centuries, that if we would make certain that the gospel were heard throughout the world, the Lord would be satisfied with the extent of our testimony and would draw this age to a close.

In verse 15, a new thought enters the Lord's discourse and a set of specific instructions follows. Verses 15 and 16 are worthy of careful study:

"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 Judea flee into the mountains." (Italics added)

Daniel spoke of this "abomination of desolation" in Daniel 9:27, in reference to the Antichrist. Prophecy analysts connect this reference to the entry of the Antichrist into the rebuilt Temple of God in Jerusalem, as outlined by Paul in II Thess. 2:3,4. Obviously, the incredible trespass of the Antichrist into the central shrine of world Judaism will cause an emergency situation in Israel. The Lord hardly understates the matter in His dramatic warnings:

"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" (Matt. 24:21,22).

The Lord's term, "great tribulation", has thus been applied to the time just preceding the second coming. Apparently the evil in the world and the oppression of Israel will have reached a maximum, so that "there should no flesh be saved". The reference must certainly be to Armageddon, that last final calamity of mankind and the world as we now know it, when the very threat of the annihilation of the human race looms possible. The Lord plainly indicates that "those days shall be shortened" or there would simply be nothing left of mankind.

And now, beginning with verse 24, the Lord reviews once again the vital point that "there shall arise false Christs and false prophets" as if to underline the importance of salvation by the authentic Saviour only. At such times of panic as the Lord has described, we can well imagine many false deliverers coming forth with inadequate solutions to the global dilemma.

Finally, in verse 29, the Lord describes the signs of His coming. He has concluded His reply to the disciples' question of the signs of the end of the world (or the end of the church age), and now moves on to describe His return in glory.

Verses 29 through 31 picture the celestial wonders, the mourning of all the tribes of the earth, angels with a great trumpet and the gathering together of the Lord's elect "from one end of heaven to the other" . The tribes of the earth mourn at the return of the Lord, of course, because they have been up to the evil work which He has just described and were obviously caught unaware. They believed the false Christs and false prophets, or they were too busy at the bloody work of Armageddon to anticipate in faith the coming of the King.

“Watch, Therefore"

The disciples must have been more than gratified as the Lord went on, because He far exceeded their original inquiries. Had He left off at verse 31 with the description of His coming, their questions would have been dealt with fully. But now the Lord amplifies His signs and warnings with decisive instructions to those who await His return. For the rest of chapter 24, and all of 25, the Lord presents definitive illustrations of behavior for the faithful and unmistakable characteristics of His return and the establishment of His Kingdom.

First, the Lord says, "Now learn a parable of the fig tree".

And in verses 32 to 35, He indicates the utter reliability of the signs and warnings He has given. As surely as summer follows the budding of the fig tree, the return of the Lord follows the illustrations He has presented. This little parable must certainly have been effective on the agrarian society of ancient Israel, where the signs of nature guided those who tilled the land. The Lord concludes this little section with one of those statements that establish beyond all doubt what sort of authority He claims:

"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" (Matt. 24:35).

Now the Lord gives his illustration of "the days of Noah". He indicates here the suddenness of His return and the fact that "of that day and hour knoweth no man". Just as the people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, in the days of Noah, the Lord teaches, people will be carrying on business as usual when the calamities come and the King returns. The disciples are being warned, as Noah was warned, so that they might be ready (24:36-39).

Then the Lord takes just two verses to illustrate very plainly the selectivity by which He will establish the Kingdom. People working side by side in a field or at a mill will be divided: "The one shall be taken and the other left" . The Lord knows exactly who His sheep are.

Watchfulness is the theme of verses 42-44. The "goodman of the house" must be watchful for the thief. Here the Lord makes the statement that embraces all of His illustrations:

"Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh" (v. 44).

The next illustration involves the wise servant who is occupied with the Lord's work at the time of the return of the King (v. 45-51). We are to be as faithful servants of the Lord, busy at our appointed tasks, when He comes:

"Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing" (v. 46).

As chapter 25 begins, the Lord continues with His exhaustive illustrations of the characteristics of the believers. The chapter is divided into three major sections: There is first the parable of the ten virgins, demonstrating readiness to receive the Lord; then the parable of the talents, demonstrating resourcefulness with the gifts given by the Lord; and finally the acts of faith which mark out the true believers in the Lord at the time of His coming.

The parable of the ten virgins (v. 1-13) has been applied variously by commentators and is somewhat cryptic. But a knowledge of the wedding customs in Israel at the time of Jesus makes the matter much more clear. Those with oil in their lamps go with the Lord, and those who have no oil must remain. The wedding customs of Israel are described more fully in "A Christian Love Story, " another book in this series, but suffice it here to say that the mark of a faithful Jewish bride was her oil lamp—trimmed and ready to use. Once a marriage contract was established, the bridegroom would leave his bride and return to his father's house (saying, "I go to prepare a place for you"; John 14:1-3). The groom would remain at his father's house, building a little mansion for the upcoming "honeymoon"; in effect, a bridal chamber. The bridesmaids who wanted to attend the wedding were obliged to wait for his return. As he tended to come at midnight (to purposely surprise them and see if they were really ready), the oil lamp was essential. One would not have attempted to walk the rocky hills and fields of ancient Israel without a lantern at midnight. Thus the point is clear:

Those who really expect the return of the bridegroom are ready to travel, and those who feel he isn't really coming may have a lamp just for the sake of tradition, but no oil. They do not think they will be obliged to light that lamp and suddenly go with their bridegroom, and so, when they finally try to buy oil and join the wedding party, they are too late:

"And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.

Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not" (Matt. 25:10-12).

We might point out that all of the Lord's illustrations in this section continually demonstrate the same characteristics of distinction between believer and unbeliever. The virgins without the oil are not really ready for the return of the bridegroom. The unwise servant who does not really expect his master is busy at a drunken party when the Lord comes (v. 48-49). The goodman of the house allows the thief to enter since he did not really believe anyone would come. The workers in the field and the grinding mill are of different beliefs regarding the Lord, even though they work side by side. The unbelievers who go on as usual "as in the days of Noah" do not foresee a coming judgment, and finally the planting season sneaks up on the farmer who fails to watch the blossoming of the fig tree.

Clearly the Lord leaves no room for error. In parable after parable, He insinuates the lesson of watchfulness.

Now we come to the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30), in which a traveling man entrusts his servants with various amounts of money to utilize during his absence. When he returns, he finds different levels of resourcefulness among his associates. Two of the servants have managed to earn interest on the funds they were entrusted with (v. 20; v. 22), and the Lord commends them:

"His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord" (v. 23).

The third servant was far too conservative, arguing that his master is "an hard man". He hid the money in the earth and earned nothing with it. The master is not impressed. He orders the money taken from this servant and given to the one which earned the most (v. 28). And then comes the Lord's difficult pronouncement:

"For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath" (v. 29).

Obviously, the point being made is that we all have gifts and the interest we are able to earn on them, by dint of effort (good works, salvations, the spreading of the gospel) will be considered by the Lord. There are those, we gather, with an empty faith, just as there were virgins with empty lamps. They have earned the Lord nothing (hid their light under a basket, to use another of the Lord's images) and their master is not pleased. The Lord concludes this parable quite frankly: "there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (v. 30).

And now the Lord proceeds by delineating certain acts of faith by which He will judge the nations when He returns.

The scene is set as a huge court of inquiry, when all the nations will gather before the Lord and He will separate His followers from the unbelievers and mere professors of faith:

"When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory:

And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats" (v. 31-32).

The Lord will stipulate certain acts of faith by which the righteous shall justify their faith in the gospel:

"For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me" (v. 35-36).

It will be found that some of those present demonstrated these virtues because of their faith in the Lord's teachings, and some did not:

"And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily

I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (v. 40).

"Then shall He answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me" (v. 45).

And the Lord concludes this final lesson on the signs of His coming and the end of the world with one awesome statement:

"And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal" (v. 46).

"Let No Man Deceive You"

To review the vitally important chapters Matthew 24 and 25, then, we see the Lord responding in very exacting terms to His disciples' questions. He gives clear prophecies, and parables to illustrate the prophecies, as well as a host of objective facts to be taken as words to the wise.

The section began with the Lord's horrifying prophecy about the destruction of the Temple, and then the disciples' questions as they took quick advantage of what appeared to be His prophetic mood of the time. The disciples' three questions are questions we all have, undoubtedly, and the Lord dealt with two of them very fully. He was not able to tell them the time of His coming, but He certainly gave them the signs of His coming and of the end of the world.

The major theme of the signs is "Let no man deceive you". There will be troubled time just preceding the return of the King, and false prophets and false christs will go about deceiving many.

The ultimate signs of the Lord's coming will be wonders in the heavens, the mourning of the nations of the earth and the gathering together of the Lord's elect.

The stories of the fig tree, the days of Noah, the ten virgins and so forth which follow, each illustrate a principle about the return of the Lord. We have seen that the parables teach that the Lord's signs are reliable, that the return comes suddenly, that the Lord shall select out His believers, that we must be watchful, occupied with His work, resourceful with our gifts and always ready to perform those acts of faith appropriate to the gospel.

The Olivet discourse, addressed to Israel but having manifest application to the church as well, is one of those gospel passages which has taken on more and more urgency as time goes on.

The ultimate verse to remember:

"Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh " (Matt. 25:13).

II. The Rapture

The Rapture of the church is our reward for faithfulness. It is almost the whole point of Christianity, representing our deliverance into eternal life. What we have here on earth at this time is so terribly pale in comparison to that which is promised to us.

Our lives now are not superior to the existence of the unbeliever and are made even more complicated by the cross we bear. True we have our spiritual fellowship here on earth with other believers, and we take great satisfaction in our service of the Lord. But all this is a mere shadow of the magnificent things to come. We suffer now a very real degree, but all that will change now with the coming of our King.

There is quite a bit of confusion as to the Rapture of the church. The non-biblical churches are not counting on it and simply think it won't happen. Those who study the Bible are somewhat divided in their view of just when the Lord will come back for the Church, and everyone wonders in his private heart whether he really will be included.

Such differences are natural among people living in the world, and we cannot put them entirely to rest in this short space. But we can give the scriptures that highlight the coming of the Lord, and a reasonable argument for the time of His coming, relative to the prophetic schedule of events.

"I Will Come Again"

First of all, we should put to rest the notion that the Lord has finished his work with the Church and that we will not be seeing Him again. This is simply not Christianity.

On a very critical night the Lord Himself made the following promise:

"Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:1-3).

We should appreciate that the disciples were very nervous that night. Their leader had indicated that He was soon to leave them (John 12:23). What were they to do? After all they were not spiritual giants, and without the remarkable Carpenter of Galilee walking before them, they felt they had little power. We can tell by various responses among the disciples that they were truly losing their grip.

Before that night was over, Peter was to deny that he even knew the Lord three times over, in accordance with Jesus' own words. Judas, of course, sold Him out altogether. Thomas was not to believe the resurrection until He would place his fingers in the Lord's wounds, and Philip had the audacity to say, "Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us," (John 14:8). This last request shows the true panic among the disciples. What the faithful Noah had not seen, what Abraham had not seen, what the mighty kings David and Solomon had never seen, the Lord was to produce in that upper room. Philip felt that Almighty God should make an appearance to calm the fears of the fishermen and tax collectors of rustic Galilee.

Thus it was that the Lord made His important promise at a crucial moment. He would be coming back, He said. And further, He would not leave them leaderless:

"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you" (John 14:16-18).

After His resurrection the Lord continued to teach the disciples "the things pertaining to the kingdom of God,"

(Acts 1:3). The disciples were still pressing Him to reveal the time of His return and the setting up of the promised kingdom on the earth:

"When they therefore were come together, they asked of Him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6)

But the Lord demurred as to the time of His return, instead giving the disciples some rather prodigious instructions:

"And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:7-8).

And now came one of the most stupendous moments in all scripture as the Lord ascended to His Father. The disciples were still mulling over that tremendous assignment He had just uttered. They were to receive the Holy Spirit and somehow take the doctrine of Jesus Christ not just to Israel, which He had indicated previously (Matthew 10:5-6), but all over the world. And now as they stood dumbfounded, their Master went up into Heaven:

"And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight" (Acts 1:9).

The Father seemed to realize what the reaction would be to this incredible ascension of the Lord, and He sent angels to tell the disciples an important message:

"And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel: which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven" (Acts 1:10-11).

The verse above gives an important detail concerning the Rapture of the Church. The Lord will indeed descend from heaven, as we shall see presently, in His return for the believers.

It should be appreciated that many false doctrines about the Messiah are being taught today. The Lord is said to be among us now in some guise (The Unification Church), or that He will alight from a UFO, or that He is within us all and is not going to make an actual, physical return (universalist churches and all those denominations that have thrown their Bibles away). But the angels have clearly specified the passage above that the Lord will come back from heaven in just the manner that the men of Galilee saw Him go into heaven. Corroborating that miracle Paul wrote the following:

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (I Thess. 4:16-17).

This the ultimate proof text, the clearest announcement of the Rapture of the Church to be found in the Bible. The very word Rapture is taken from the expression "caught up," "rapture" being a cognate of the Latin for "caught up." We learn in the above scripture that one does not have to be living at the time of the return of the Lord to go in the Rapture. In fact, "the dead in Christ will rise first." Obviously, believers, dating from the time of the cross, will be translated to heaven just as the Lord Himself was. All believers of the church age are to be resurrected to a heavenly meeting with the Lord.

We learn more of this Christian hope from Paul's writing in I Corinthians 15. Paul indicates that the resurrection of Christ entitles us all to an equal resurrection, "every man in his own order":

"But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

But every man in his order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming" (I Cor. 15:20-23).

The ideal of every man ascending in his own order certainly dovetails with the fact that the dead in Christ shall rise first.

Christ, "the firstfruits", was the first man permanently resurrected, and we shall all follow in the order in which we came to faith in Him.

Obviously, we cannot arrive in heaven in exactly the form we are in this earthly life. Paul goes on to explain that we will undergo miraculous changes:

"Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality" (I Cor. 15:51-53).

The author once saw the first verse above displayed on the door of a church nursery.

Our corruptible flesh will be outfitted for eternal life when we are taken in the Rapture. Our mortal bodies will become immortal and we are to live in the presence of the Lord forever. Paul went on to exult:

"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" (v. 55)

But When?

People have been guessing at the time of the Rapture virtually since the ascension of the Lord. Books come out all the time giving a date, and then going out of print when the author's theory is not fulfilled.

The Lord, however, made it very plain that the Bride was not to know the date of the wedding. That was Israeli tradition. The bridegroom would call for her by surprise, (see "A Christian Love Story, " another book in this series). After all, this would spoil the idea of faith in things not seen. If we knew the exact date of the Rapture, we would all be packed and ready to go. That's hardly the Christian ideal of faithful waiting upon the Lord and trust in His soon coming. We would not be showing true faith if we merely checked off a date on our calendars and maintained a suitable testimony to that point.

But theologians have tried to relate the Rapture to Tribulation period events (explained in the previous chapter), and this exercise is hopeless. It's true that there are many easily marked events in the seven-year period of tribulation. But none of these are biblically related to the Rapture of the Church. Nothing in prophecy has to happen before the Rapture.

The author supports the pre-tribulation Rapture position where the Lord might come for the church at any moment, even before you finish reading this paragraph.

The most obvious evidence for the pre-tribulation Rapture is the concept of surprise. The Lord will come for His own "in the twinkling of an eye". We are to be ready at all times, since we cannot know the exact moment of the Rapture. Obviously, however, if the Rapture is related to some Tribulation-period event—the appearance of the Antichrist, his blasphemy in the Temple of God, Armageddon, etc.—then we would "schedule" the Lord's return. We would therefore be setting a date and making nonsense of the Lord's steady admonishment, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power," (Acts 1:7). If we are to be truly surprised by the Rapture, it must come before any other identifiable earthly event.

Secondly, it is seen in the scriptures that the Rapture is the reward of the Church for its belief in the Messiah. If the Church were to wait through the tribulation period for the return of the Lord, then our outcome would be no better than that of the unbelieving world. We would suffer under the Antichrist just as those who reject Christ suffer. However, Paul indicates that the Antichrist will appear "that they (the world) might all be judged... but God hath from the beginning chose you to salvation," (see II Thess. 2:9-13). If the world and the church are to be treated the same, then the New Testament doesn't make much sense and there is no reward for faith. However, the Lord Himself said:

"Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth" (Rev. 3:10).

And further, we see in the scriptures that the Holy Spirit will be taken out of the world before the coming of the Antichrist:

"For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming" (II Thess. 2:78).

In this passage "he who now letteth" (restrains or hinders) is the Holy Spirit. It is obviously seen that if the Church were active in the world the Antichrist would hardly get his devilish work started. We can imagine some world dictator trying to come on the scene—making a seven-year peace treaty with Israel (Daniel 9:27)—while the Church, millions strong, in almost every nation, simply stood by. Such a case is unthinkable. If the Antichrist now revealed himself in the United States, for example, the huge community of born-again believers would go shouting in the streets. It just wouldn't work; that Wicked One would have a lot of trouble even getting started. Yet we see in the scriptures that the Antichrist experiences little opposition in setting up his disastrous reign, and thus it's clear that the Church has departed before he is revealed. The Church, of course, is the home of the Holy Spirit on earth who indwells every believer. The Antichrist will have clear sailing when he comes because the Holy Spirit ("he who now letteth") and the Church have gone on to heaven.

The order of the Jewish feasts reveals in symbol that the coming of the Lord for the Church directly follows the last great event of the Church Age, Pentecost. The feasts are given in Leviticus 23, and the Lord has thus far fulfilled them all appropriately and on schedule. He was crucified on Passover, buried on Unleavened Bread, raised on Firstfruits, and He sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The next feast is most suggestive of the Rapture—the Feast of Trumpets. It has never been fulfilled with so momentous an event as those which have gone before, and so we await this inevitable fulfillment by the Rapture of the Church.

Finally, as we mentioned above, no prophetic event has to precede the Rapture. It was regarded as an imminent possibility nearly 2,000 years ago. Paul was waiting for the return of the Lord, even advising single people that they might well not think about marriage because the Rapture would certainly change that status anyway (I Cor. 7:29). Titus 2:3 exhorts us to be constantly "looking for that blessed hope." If the Rapture of the Church were to follow the tribulation period, or occur somewhere within it, the apostles were greatly misinformed to be expecting it back then. But actually, considering the pre-tribulation view, they were preaching the best of all possible courses—we are to be in readiness at all times for the return of the Lord.

"Only Believe"

In view of the advanced paganism of these times, the presence of so much false religion, and the disheartening falling away of so many formerly Christian denominations, it is a good feeling to know that the Lord is indeed coming, and coming at any moment. The spiritual poverty of those who have put the Bible away and made their own assumptions about the actions of Jesus Christ is overwhelming. There are huge churches preaching social doctrines—as though good behavior would take one to heaven, and that the idea of Christianity was to be better than the next fellow. It is unfortunately specified in scripture that those not waiting for the Lord and not occupied with His true work simply will not go with Him. The parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1-13 is a clear illustration. Some who constantly cry "Lord, Lord" will not in fact join the Lord at all if the scriptures are to be believed.

As to the rest of us, our great hope day by day, hour by hour, prayer by prayer, work by work, is in His early coming.

Maranatha!

III. The Antichrist

The first thing that should be said about the Antichrist is that we don't know who he is. And that's the end of that.

Many prophecy writers, the author included, have surmised that he is alive today, and there is justification for this. But this should not lead the Body of Christ into guessing games as to his identity. We are not the first people in history to try to select the Antichrist from our midst, of course. The process has been going on since the first century when certain Roman emperors were cited. From the Caesars, through the Popes, through Napoleon and the 19th century dictators, and up to the present (Henry Kissinger, Nelson Rockefeller, etc.) the finger-pointing has gone on.

It should certainly be said that there is no more serious case of judging than this. To call a man the Antichrist is to say that he is in league with the devil—or more so, to say that he is the devil's key man! We are not to judge even our neighbors (Matthew 7:11), and so we should certainly refrain from making public identifications of the Antichrist.

Probably the best theory of recent years involved Adolph Hitler, and due to the Spring 1978 television series, THE HOLOCAUST, people have been comparing that awful tragedy with the coming tribulation period. There was much justification for identifying Hitler with the coming world dictator on the face of it. But, of course, it should serve as an admonition to us that he did not after all turn out to be the one we were looking for.

The Holocaust

The Holocaust did serve as a kind of presage of the tribulation period, it is fair to say. Hitler's reign of terror lasted approximately seven years (though he came to power earlier than the actual beginning of the persecutions). Hitler's personality seemed somewhat like that of the Antichrist, if we look at the biblical descriptions. Hitler was considered a kind of miracle-worker, having virtually supernatural powers and being widely worshipped by a cult of misguided agnostics. In a sense Hitler would have been the Antichrist if he could. He certainly set out to do all that the Antichrist will do—control the world, dictate to all peoples, and massacre the Jews. He had an Antichrist egomania, thinking of himself as some sort of maker of destiny and international savior.

But there the comparison ends, because the coming holocaust—the tribulation period—will bring the world more agony, more bloodshed, and more pillage than even World War

II in Europe. And while Hitler seemed to do his all to equal the heinous deeds of the Antichrist to come, he stopped short of calling himself Almighty God.

The Man Who Would Be God

The key feature of the Antichrist will be his incredible blasphemy that we spoke of above in discussing Matthew 24:15. The Antichrist will declare himself to be the God of Heaven (II Thess. 2:3-4). He will thus be a kind of madman, at least at the peak of his power.

But at the beginning he will apparently be welcomed as a political leader of great skill and a peacemaker. The true clue to his identity will be his seven-year peace plan for the protection of Israel:

"And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate" (Daniel 9:27).

In Daniel's parlance a "week" is equal to seven years (see

Satan in the Sanctuary, by Dr. Thomas S. McCall and the author).

And the Antichrist will come forward with this improved idea to settle what will apparently be a problem of international importance in the Middle East. (Obviously, we have such a problem on our hands today, and we couldn't have said that even ten years ago.)

The Antichrist will apparently be European, coming out of a revised Roman Empire. Daniel identifies Rome, his "fourth kingdom" (Daniel 7:23-24), and thus people have been looking for a power conglomerate to rise out of Europe. Further, the description of the Antichrist in Revelation 13:1-8 concurs with the book of Daniel in describing a beast with ten heads. Thus we come to something like a ten-nation confederacy in Europe and the Mediterranean area; and many analysts have pointed to the Common Market as that very confederacy.

The Antichrist will survive, or be resurrected from, a fatal wound (Rev. 13:13-14), thus counterfeiting the resurrection of our Lord. People have therefore considered such personalities as John F. Kennedy or perhaps Richard Nixon coming miraculously back to power as the Antichrist. What is very clear is that Satan is behind the supernatural power of this remarkable dictator.

"And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?" (Rev. 13:4)

With the backing of the dragon, the Antichrist will establish his personality cult, demanding the worship of the entire human race. Revelation 13:8 specifies that everyone on earth will worship the Antichrist with the exception of those who come to Christ during the tribulation period. The "false prophet" explained in Revelation 16:13 will be the Antichrist's "John the Baptist." He will be a kind of promotion man for the Antichrist, working miracles of his own and deceiving the millions into following Satan.

His economic program will be successful for a time—at least while he keeps the peace. Every person on the earth will have to participate by bearing a number on his right hand or forehead, the number 666. And without this mysterious mark the individual will not be permitted to buy or sell anything (Rev. 13:16-18). We are already seeing buying and selling by number, of course, with credit cards and the like. Recently the process of marking merchandise with a code to be read by computer has come into practice. It's only one more step to "marking" the individual doing the buying.

With his blasphemy in the Temple of God, the Antichrist will have gone a step too far. While he may estimate that he has total world control and that he can, like Hitler, exterminate the Jews (who never bow to dictators), he will have confronted the Power behind the Jews. The God of Israel will not see His House desecrated. And from the point when the Antichrist enters the Temple, the world will absolutely go crazy.

The Jews will "flee unto the hills of Judea" if they take the advice of the Messiah, and the rest of the world will begin to mobilize for Armageddon. Revelation 16:13-14, 16 shows the mobilization of the armies of the world for a war that will make all before it pale by comparison. The Lord Himself with his heavenly army will attend that final battle in that rustic level plain in Israel called Armageddon, and it will be the end of the Antichrist:

"And the beast was taken, and with 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" (Rev. 10-20).

The Spirit of the Antichrist

It is beyond the scope of this little book to give all the facts about the Antichrist, and it's not a very happy topic. In any case it is more important that we attend to what the Scriptures call "the spirit of the Antichrist."

It is not so vital that the church pick out the very personality who will be the Antichrist. We cannot prevent his reign since "it is written." And we really can do little to inform the unbelieving world of the bad ends to come—no more than we could warn a committed Nazi about Hitler's ultimate atrocity. But we can certainly understand the spirit of the Antichrist and recognize it about us; and we can point these important scriptures out to those unbelievers open-minded enough to see the false spirits for what they really are.

Consider the opening of I John 4:

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world" (v. 1-3).

John was saying nearly two thousand years ago that the spirit of the antichrist was very much alive and active in the world. To take him at his word, everyone that does not follow Jesus Christ is to some degree an antichrist. The Lord Himself lamented that those who were not with Him were against Him, and that is just how things are with the Son of God. One either believes or doesn't believe. And the unbeliever represents to us the very spirit of the antichrist:

"Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time" (I John 2:18).

This is the "last time" indeed. John did not foresee the many centuries to come, as the spirit of the antichrist grew more and more intense in the world. In a sense we're in a better position than the apostle to realize the nearly total triumph of evil among the unbelievers. There are antichrists on every side of us today in a very real way, and with the perspective of the ages we can see that things are only growing worse.

The fantastic deception of our society—the "rip-off" system under which we live—has people completely enslaved. The government lies, advertising lies, and a large part of the professing church lies. Deception will be the trademark of the Antichrist; and insofar as deception rules this world, the time of the Antichrist is nearer:

"For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist" (II John 7).

Our admonition in the Scriptures is not so much to look for the Antichrist—to read the papers and try to pick out a personality—but to look to ourselves. We must always take every precaution not to be deceived. We must be especially wary in this time of near-total deception:

"Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we wrought, but that we receive a full reward" (II John 8).

And the apostle has made very clear the difference between one who believes and one who follows the spirit of the antichrist:

"Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son" (II John 9).

It is as if we are choosing up sides for a cosmic game. Satan is making ready with the star of his team—the Antichrist. It is not so important that we find out just who Satan has in mind as it is for us to support our own team and play well. We even have a chance as things progress to bring members of the opposition over to our team, and that is what we should be doing.

Do you really believe that there is a war going on between God and Satan at every moment for every soul?

Then, Godspeed!

Table of Contents

I. Jesus' Words

II. The Rapture

III. The Antichrist