All Doves:
I believe that I have noted previously that I have been a student of Bible prophecy since 1967, at the time of the breakout of the Israeli six-day war. I had just finished final exams the week before. I was enjoying the moment of relief after I was done with final exams week. The sun was rising in the southeast Green County, PA and I had decided to cut the grass early before the heat of the muggy day reached its peak. As I was sweeping the grass cuttings from my sidewalk when an older matronly lady from across the street rushed across the street. She was so animated and wanted to know if what happened in Israel was the beginning of Armageddon. She was so excited and animated she could hardly contain herself. My answer was that I did not know. How dumb of me.
Its been nearly fifty years since that June morning. Because I felt so unprepared to answer her question, with an intelligent answer, I vowed to be as informed as possible in the future on the subject of Bible prophecy and I have been studying Bible prophecy, even at times when there was little interest in the subject, and it has been that way since Y2K. I know many pastors and it is rare today to find a colleague with a serious interest in Bible end times. In many ways that is not a big surprise. Mainline Protestant churches do not believe in a Millennial Kingdom, as described in Revelation 20, thus their perplexity and ignorance leads to denial. Over the last twenty years the church has underwent a transition to the point that if you even mention End Times, you are seen as some sort of heretic.
John's closing words in the book of Revelation were these: "Even so, come, Lord Jesus" -(Rev. 22:20). Why did John close the book of Revelation with these words? John had been privileged to catch a vision of the glorious Millennial Kingdom of Christ -(Rev. 20). Even during the Lord's earthly ministry, John was one of a select few who saw the Son of man coming in His Kingdom by means of the Transfiguration event -(Matthew 16:28-17:1-6; 2 Peter 1:16-18). Since John knew so much of the glories of the Kingdom, why did he not close his book with this prayer: "THY KINGDOM COME! LET THY KINGDOM COME!" Compare the words of Matthew 6:10?
When the Lord gave the model prayer of Matthew 6:10, the Kingdom was indeed imminent. This is revealed in (Matthew 3:2; 4:17; 10:7), and indeed, the prayer of the Tribulation Saints will certainly include this petition: "THY KINGDOM COME!" But the aged Apostle John hoped that it might be alive and remaining unto the coming of the Lord according to the Lord's promise in John 21:23-24; what if he (John) tarry until I come?" John was looking for Christ Jesus, not the Kingdom. Rather than look for the Kingdom, he was looking for the King Himself. The book of Revelation was written in 96/97 AD, and not as Preterists teach to be prior to the Temple's destruction in 70 AD. There are extra-Biblical writings, non-canonical, among the early church fathers and historical writings that confirm this to be the case. The historical record is not without its own testimony of this fact, despite it is not promoted by the religious press. But just remember, the deception that was foisted upon the public in 2006 when they republished a corrupt so-called 1599 Geneva Bible, flawed in so many ways that it is a laughing stock among Bible scholars and theologians today.
In 1st Thessalonians 5:9, Church Age believers are told that "God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ," thus as we look to the future we should expect salvation and not wrath. We need to understand what Paul meant when he spoke of WRATH and what did he mean when he spoke of SALVATION.
1. WRATH. Believers are not appointed unto Wrath (Lucifer's or God's). We have been delivered from the wrath that is coming (see 1st Thessalonians 1:10). Although it is true that believers are delivered from the Wrath of God which the ungodly will forever face in the Lake of Fire, Paul's focus in 1st Thessalonians 5 is upon the "Day of the Lord" -(vs. 2-3), a very specific time when God's Wrath will be poured out upon Earth dwellers. This period of Wrath is also described in Revelation, chapters 6-19. It is also known as the greatest time of trouble or tribulation that the world has known or will ever know, for that matter -(Matthew 24:21). God has not appointed us to face this time of Wrath. Instead, we have an appointment to meet the Lord in the Air prior to the unleashing of God's fury upon the Earth.
2. SALVATION. People obtain salvation the moment they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ -(Acts 16:31), bu the SALVATION spoken of by Paul in 1st Thessalonians 5:9 refers to the believer's final salvation when Christ Jesus comes for us to complete the Great Salvation which He began! Thus, instead of facing God's Wrath being poured out on the Earth, we will enjoy the consummation of our so-great Salvation. What a confirming hope -(verse 11 and compare with 1st Thessalonians 4:18)! In 2nd Thessalonians 2:1-8 we learn that the man of sin will not be revealed until the Restrainer is taken out of the way (out of the midst). Who is the Restrainer? In verse 6, He is described in neuter terms: "And now ye know what withholdeth [That which restrains] that He might be revealed in His time." In verse 7 He is described in masculine terms: "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only He who now letteth [restrains] will let [restrain] until He be taken out of the way."
How can the Restrainer be both neuter and masculine? This only makes good sense if the Restrainer be God the Holy Spirit. He is masculine because He is the blessed Third Person of the Triun Godhead. He is neuter because the Greek word for "spirit" ("pneuma") is always neuter in gender. Thus the Bible sometimes describes the Holy Spirit in masculine terms -(see John 16:13-14) and notice how many times the pronoun "He" is used) and sometimes the Holy Spirit in neuter terms -(see Romans 8:16, "the Spirit itself....").
That which is Restraining evil today is the Blessed Person of the Holy Spirit who is now dwelling in a unique and special way in the Church (believers) which is Christ's Body -(Ephesians 2:22; 1 Corinthians 3:16; John 14:17). When the Church is removed (believers) by means of the Rapture, the Spirit of God will be taken out of the way (think of an analogy like, on Black Friday, the sales clerks open the doors at Best Buy or K-Mart and the crazy people pour through the doors and run anyone down that might be in their way). That is, He will no longer be on the Earth in the sense of indwelling a body of believer. Just as He came on the day of Pentecost in a special way, so He will "leave" at the time of the Rapture (though, obviously, He will still be working in the hearts of men during the Tribulation just as He was working in the hearts of men prior to Pentecost). The church must be removed before the man of sin will be revealed when he makes a treaty with Israel -(Daniel 9:27). The folks that continue to tell you the three "He's" in Daniel 9:27 is Christ Jesus, simply have it all wrong.
They are wrong for several reasons: 1. They do not understand the principles of Biblical grammar, and 2. They do not know how the translators erred in the English translations, and 3. They are unaware there is a missing "definitive" article ["the"] of speech, and there is a missing conjunction ["and"], and finally 4. They cannot read Hebrew. That is obvious when one listens to the heresy of Steven "Mark" Wohlberg and those that push the Pre-Wrath rotten apples. I'm not sure whether their persistence is that of plain simple ignorance, or that of intent. They keep taking the reader back to the corrupt Geneva Bible. It does not offer a legitimate understanding of the Daniel 9:24-27 passage. The proof about the Geneva Bible's corruption is found in my 3 posts on comparing the Geneva Bible with the KJV Bible.
You may not understand why this is all that important, however, the book of Daniel is the lynchpin book that ties the Old and New Testament together, providing a coherent theme and making sense of the entire corpus text of the Bible. Daniel 9:24-27 is the "glue" that holds it [the Bible] all together. As I have noted in my posts on "Standing in the Gap", if you can discredit or break the authenticity of Daniel, it can be used to destroy its premises, its message. If one can undermine any aspect of the passage, you undermine Revelation 20, and a host of passages of the New Testament that make for the "three cord strand" of the Word of God in Ecclesiastes 4:9-12. Most believers are not that sophisticated or Bible savvy to recognize why the Pre-Tribulation Rapture is attacked so vehemently. The host of Five Doves is almost daily attacked because the other crowd of legalists say they have been banned from Five Doves to post their pack of deception and lies. Yet, it hasn't stopped them from attacking Five Doves or the Pre-Tribulation Rapture and they continue to still attack our host The book of Daniel is attacked more than any other book of the Bible, even more so than the book of Revelation. Those who attack Daniel the prophet [remember Jesus referred to Daniel the prophet] do so to discredit the truthfulness and credibility of the Biblical message. Those who attack the book of Daniel and the Pre-Trib Rapture position are predominantly Preterists, Pre-Wrath, Mid-Trib, No-Trib, Post-Trib, Sabbatarians, the cultists like the JW's, Mormons, SDA's and those that allegoricalize Scripture. You have to wonder and ask the question, if salvation is not dependent upon what one's position is on the Rapture, why do they relentlessly attack those who believe in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture? It makes no sense, unless.........
The three occurrences of "He" in Daniel 9:27 ALL refer to the Antichrist [the person that signs this "seven" year covenant]. This will mark the beginning of Daniel's 70th week, just prior to or at the beginning of the Tribulation.
Because Daniel 9:24-27 is the most important prophetic passage for our day, the war is on for the hearts and minds of believers. Have you ever thought about the fact that you are both the victim and the prize of Lucifer.
The church (believers) will thus be kept from the hour of testing which will come upon ALL the world, to test them that dwell upon the Earth, according to Revelation 3:10. Another key chapter which focuses upon the Tribulation is Matthew 24. The Church is NOT mentioned in this chapter either. This is significant in a Literal hermeneutic, however, it is of no account in any other interpretation of the Bible. The point is that it is in total consistency with a literal interpretation and a hermeneutic with Dispensationalism.
Revelation 3:10, becomes the single most important passage dealing with the timing of the Rapture. "Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from [out of] the hour of temptation [testing, trial], which shall come upon the world, to try [test] them that dwell upon the earth." The promise is made specifically to the first century Church of Philadelphia in Asia Minor, but students of Bible prophecy recognize that the verse was given for Church Age believers of any age as an encouragement to remain loyal to the Lord in the midst of difficult times. Indeed, the first century believers that made up the assembly in Philadelphia never lived to see the time of trouble that this verse describes. "The hour of testing" spoken of by the Lord would not be fulfilled for some two thousand years, and yet the Lord was true to His Promises to the Philadelphian believers even as He is true to this same promise with respect to the Church Age believers living today.
There is a coming day when the entire world will be on trial. God will be the awesome Judge and all those who dwell on the earth will endure this time of terrible testing. Isaiah describes it as "a consumption [decisive destruction], even determined upon the whole earth." -(Isaiah 28:22). It will be a time of great testing for Israel, described by Jeremiah as "Time of Jacob's Trouble" -(Jeremiah 30:6-7). The Lord Jesus Christ described this time as a unique time of trouble which would be worldwide in scope: "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be" --(Matthew 24:21). It will be a time that will involve the terrible plagues and judgments described graphically in Revelation 6-16.
When I say that "Absence of Proof is NOT Proof of Absence, I am building a premise that is both overt and covertly revealed in the Scriptures. Why should God not challenge us to discover our surety because each of us is to work out our own salvation in "fear and trembling". That expression appears "seven" times in the Word of God, and three of those are used by Paul in 2 Corinthians 7:5; Ephesians 6:5, Philippians 2:12. I have posted enough at this point on Five Doves to show that God hides his "Diamonds and Nuggets" in His Word, sometimes in plain sight, and other times hidden or embedded in the Bible, where we least expect it. It is a call to know the whole counsel of God, not simply proof-text our pet view.
The Lord's Promise is conditional: If you keep My Word: If you keep My Word, I will keep you from the hour of testing. Who are those who keep His Word? Who are those who keep His Command? In Revelation 12:17 and 14:12, we learn that it is the Saints (True believers) who keep God's Word. The same is true of John 8:51: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." The true believer, the one who has eternal life and who never sees death, is here described as the ones who keeps His command, who keeps His Word. That command was two fold: Love God with all of our being, and to love our fellow man with equal essence.
Believers are not always obedient to the Word of their Master. Every believer, if honest, would recognize areas of his or her life where he has not been obedient to God's Word. However, as God views the life of the true believer in its totality, it is a life characterized by obedience. It is a life characterized by keeping His Word: and hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. -(1 John 2:3). The person whose life is characterized by disobedience is the person who does not truly know Christ Jesus in a saving way -(1 John 2:4).
Our Lord's disciples were not always totally obedient to their Master. Peter, for example, seriously denied His Lord and later was rebuked by Paul for not walking uprightly according to the Truth of the Gospel of Grace -(Galatians 2:11-14). And yet, when the Lord Jesus Christ viewed the lives of the disciples, including Peter, He made this amazing statement, "They have kept thy Word" -(John 17:6). Though they had their faults and were at times guilty of disobedience, yet their lives in general were characterized by disobedience. This is a case in point where we need to be aware of how "Legalism" destroys hope and where keeping the letter of the Law was so rigid and prevailed over the "Spirit" of the Law. Christ Jesus condemned the religious of His day repeatedly over this issue.
Thus in Revelation 3:10 those who have kept His Word are those who are Saints, that is, true believers. It does not refer to a bunch of "obedient believers" in contrast to other believers who are "not obedient". If this were the case, then only the "obedient believers" would be "kept from the hour" and removed from the Earth, resulting in a Partial Rapture, but there is no such thing as a Partial Rapture. The Rapture includes all living believers without exception, and that Rapture will be a Pre-Tribulational one as well.
Notice that the Lord promised believers in Revelation 3:10 that they would be kept, not just from the TESTING which would severely test the Earth dwellers, but that they would be kept from the HOUR of testing. They would not only be kept from the testing, but they would be kept from the TIME of testing. "I also will keep thee from the hour [TIME] of temptation [TESTING], which shall come upon all the world, to try [TEST] them that dwell upon the Earth." The ONLY way to be kept from the HOUR of testing is to be removed from the Earth before that "hour" commences.
The Second World War was a time of trial and trouble for much of the world. Suppose you lived on Earth prior to this Great War, and you were given this promise: "You will be kept from the trial of World War II." This means that you would not face any of the bullets and bombs or battles of war. Perhaps you would be located in a part of the world not directly involved in the conflict. You could still be in the world, but protected from the war. But suppose you were given this promise: "You will be kept from the TIME of World War II." For this to be fulfilled you could not be on Earth during the entire period of years from 1941 to 1945. To be exempt from the time is to be absent at the time when the event takes place.
The expression "kept from" is very important to the believer. It does not mean "preservation through" or "preservation in" but it means "exemption from". The Post-Trib view and the Pre-Wrath view both see the believer staying here on Earth during the Tribulation, or significant parts of it. "Preservation through" would fit their view because they understand that God will preserve the church through the Tribulation or through most of the Tribulation. "Exemption from" best fits the Pre-Tribulation view because the church is not on the Earth at all during the Tribulation and thus the church is "exempt" from the trials and troubles associated with that time. The term "kept from" best fits the idea of Exemption from something."
Back in the days of the military draft, I was classified 1-A until I enlisted in the US Army. My friends that went to college were classified 2-S, which meant they were "exempt from" the draft as long as they were actively enrolled in a college or university.
Literally, this phrase means "to be kept out of" [Greek "ek"] and this little two letter word and its meaning is similar to how we use these terms in English. To be "kept out of jail" means that person will not be behind prison bars. Using the military draft example once more, anyone classified 4-F was "exempt from" the military draft for a health related reason. If a basketball player was kept out of the entire game, it means that he did not get to play at all. He did not see any action. If a sign on a person's property said, 'KEEP OUT!' then this means that the person did not want you on his property at all. Moses was kept out of the Promised Land, which means that he did not enter Palestine at all. To be "KEPT OUT OF THE HOUR OF TRIAL" that will come upon the world means that the person will not enter that time at all. He will not be present on Earth during that time. This is not the proverbial "half full or half empty glass" situation we are speaking of here. Its matter of either or!
The phrase "kept out of" is used by the Apostle John in one other place. It is found in John 17:15, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from [out of] the evil [one]." The Lord's will for His believers of this present age is not to be removed from this world, but to be His witnesses in the world. We are to be in the world but not of the world. The key issue in this verse involves the believer's relationship to the realm of Satan, the evil one. As saved people, are we STILL IN THE realm of Satan, or have we been delivered out of this realm? Does God keep us out of the realm and power of the evil one or are we still in it?
The answer is found in Colossians 1:13 and following: "Who hath delivered us from [out of] the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son." We once were in the realm of the power of darkness, but we have been delivered out of that realm when we were saved through the blood of Jesus Christ. The word "translated" just above in Colossians 1:13 means Raptured.
The Apostle John sets forth this truth in 1 John 5:18, "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not." In harmony with our Lord's prayer in John 17:15, believers are kept from or out of the wicked one so that he (Satan) does not touch them at all. He no longer has any kind of a hold on us. We have been removed totally from his kingdom and from his realm. We now belong to the Son of God Who loved us and gave Himself for us! Yes, we are in the world, but we are kept OUT of the evil one! As far as any of us having Satan for our ruler, we are totally EXEMPT!
Another passage of Scripture written by the Apostle John is significant in understanding Revelation 3:10. It is found in John 12:27, Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from [out of] this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour". Although the verb "to keep" is not used in this verse, it is similar to Revelation 3:10 in that the preposition "out of" [Greek, "ek"] is used as well as the word "hour" when He would bar the sins of the world and be separated from God His Father: Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from me..." -(Luke 22:42). But the Lord Jesus must follow the path of obedience to His Father's will: "But for this cause came I unto this hour.... Nevertheless not My will, but Thine be done." -(John 12:27; Luke 22:42). The Lord Jesus Christ did not want to drink the cup of the wrath of God. He prayed that He might be exempt from that hour; but most of all He wanted to obey His heavenly Father regardless of the cost.
In Revelation 3:10 the Lord promised His Church Age believers that they would be "exempt" from the hour of trial or trouble that would come upon all the world. He did not just promise to keep us out of this time. He will keep us out of this time by removing us from the Earth prior to Daniel's 70th week.
Blessings and keep looking up,
Pastor Bob