Rochelle

Chapter 5
The Restraining Force

In 2Thessalonians Paul the apostle wrote to correct an error that had crept into the church. Some false teachers were saying that the day of the Lord had already come. Paul told the Thessalonians that "that day," the second coming of Jesus Christ to reign over the earth, wouldn't take place until there was first a falling away, or departure, and the man of sin, the son of perdition, was revealed. Paul reminded the believers that he had told them these things when he was with them.

In chapter 2 Paul declared, "Now you know what is withholding him that he might be revealed in his time. But the mystery of iniquity is already at work; only he who is restraining will continue to restrain, until he is taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the Spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming."

Who is the "restraining" force holding back the revelation of the Antichrist? I believe that the restraining force is the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through the church. As long as the Spirit-filled church is upon the earth, the unveiling of the Antichrist will be held back. As soon as the church is taken out of the way, nothing will stand in the way of the Antichrist. He'll then take over the governments of the world.

The Holy Spirit will not be removed from the world, for He is omnipresent. However, during this time He will be poured out upon Israel.

Ezekiel 39:29 says that God will put His Spirit upon the nation Israel at the time the Russian army is destroyed. This event will possibly mark the beginning of the final Seven year period determined upon Israel.

I see the whole picture coming together very beautifully. After the church is removed, the Antichrist will be revealed. In Revelation 6, the first event that takes place when the seven-sealed scroll is opened is the white horse coming forth with his rider. This apparently is the Antichrist coming upon the earth. Since the church has been removed and is now rejoicing with the Lord in heaven, nothing restrains this wicked one from moving forward and taking over the world.


Chapter 6
The Trumpets

Those who teach that the church must go through the Great Tribulation and face the wrath of God, which is coming upon the earth, try to identify the last trump of 1Corinthians 15 with the seventh trumpet in the Book of Revelation. I see great difficulties in paralleling these two trumpets.

First of all, the trumpet that sounds at the time of the rapture of the church in 1Thessalonians 4:16 is called the "trump of God." In Revelation the seventh trumpet is the trumpet of the seventh angel.

The trump of 1Corinthians 15 is used to proclaim an event that happens "in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trump."
On the other hand, the seventh trump of the Book of Revelation will cover a period of days. Revelation 10:7 says, "But in the days [plural] of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared to His servants the prophets."

The last trump of 1Corinthians 15 and 1Thessalonians 4 will be a trumpet of glory. We shall be changed and made into His image and caught up to meed the Lord in the air. However, the seventh trumpet of the Book of Revelation is continually referred to as a woe.

In Revelation 8:13 the angel said, "Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!" The angel says this at the end of the fourth trumpet. So, the three woes refer to the fifth, sixth and seventh trumpets. At the end of the fifth trumpet (Revelation 9:12), the angel declares, "One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter." This refers to the sixth and seventh trumpets. In Revelation 11:14 the angel declares, "the second woe is past and, behold, the third woe come quickly."Then we go right into verse 15, the seventh trumpet, which is actually the third woe.

The rapture of the church and being changed into His glorious likeness is far from a woe. It would only be a woe if I didn't go! Thus, I see great difficulty in identifiying the seventh trumpet of Revelation 11 and the last trumpet of 1Corinthians 15 as one and the same, becasue the results and the time factors are so different.

In his New Testament Greek commentary on 1Corinthians 15:52, Dean Henry Alford declares that no reason exists to define the last trump to be the seventh trumpet of Revelation.* He also says that there's no reason to assume that there aren't any trumpets after the last trump of 1Corinthians 15.

*Henry Alford, Alford's Greek Testament (Grand Rapids: Guardian Press)

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