Now as we begin book 43, we’ll start with the Book of II Thessalonians, a little short letter from the apostle Paul which followed the first letter, probably in a matter of months. Remember, the apostle came into these Gentile cities practically unannounced with no fanfare or advance men or media - no big Madison Avenue ad campaign, and he just simply preached the Gospel. Now that’s all he did, he just simply lifted up Christ crucified, buried and risen again. It’s the same simple message we must believe for eternal life.

And these pagan people who had been worshiping all the gods and goddesses of mythology were suddenly transformed when they believed Paul’s simple Gospel that had been revealed to him for the Gentile world during this Age of Grace. Then the miracle of it is, that in spite of the immediate pressures of persecutions and tribulations they evidently never faltered. And of course after writing the first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul went down to Athens, and then down to Corinth, and was getting kind of concerned. "Are these new believers holding fast? Are they able to withstand the pressure of persecution?" And as I’ve pointed out so often these persecutions weren’t only from the pagan world, but also from the Jewish quarters - they just couldn’t stand Gentiles having a part of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So this second letter is in response to Paul having heard that the Thessalonians were holding fast in spite of their persecutions, and they were not giving in and not giving up. So this letter sort of shows the apostle’s amazement at these folks who were fresh out of paganism, and just freshly aware of the work of Christ and His resurrection, and His coming again. So II Thessalonians, even more than the first, is going to deal with Christ’s soon return. When we get into the letter I’ll come back up to the board again and show that even Paul, early on in his ministry, certainly had no idea that the Church Age or the Age of Grace would go nearly 2000 years, which of course is where we are now.

Paul, along with the prophets and the twelve disciples after His ascension, were all looking for Christ to return in short order. It wasn’t until Paul gets to the end of his ministry that I think he realizes that the Nation of Israel has been set aside for probably longer than he thought it would be, and that the Church Age would not end in his lifetime, but it would continue on for some time. So always get the background to these things. Now remember, too, that the Thessalonians letters are probably the very first letters that the apostle Paul wrote, even though they’re toward the end of his Church epistles in our New Testament, yet they were evidently written first. But at that time I pointed out that Paul’s letters finally ended up in their order in our New Testament exactly the way they belong, not the order they were written, but doctrinally they are exactly where they belong.

We jump in first with the Book of Romans, that great Book of doctrine. Then the two letters to the Corinthians which were written to congregations that needed corrections, because they had a lot of problems. Then the next one was the letter of Galatians, again confronting the fact that we’re not under Law, but rather Grace. Then the next of Paul’s epistles were written from prison in Rome which are toward the end of his life ( probably around 64 – 66 AD), and in these prison epistles he was again taking us to a higher level doctrinally, showing us our position in Christ as redeemed and regenerated members of the Body, Gentiles in the flesh.

Then you come up to the third level in Paul’s writings so far as his doctrines are concerned, and they are the two little letters of Thessalonians which speak of the end time. How the Church is going to be removed from the planet, and how its departure from the earth is completely different from anything that the prophets of the Old Testament, or what we read about in the four gospels had been written about, because it is a separate coming of Christ that has nothing to do with the return of Christ to Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives at the close of the Tribulation. So remember that now the apostle is responding to the good news that the Thessalonians are remaining firm in their faith, and looking for the return of Christ. Now let’s start right in with Chapter 1 and verse 1.

"Paul and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: 2. Grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet (appropriate) because that your faith (not their works so much as their faith) growth exceedingly, and the charity (love) of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;"

Now you see this is the first mark of a salvation experience. People who were unable to love or suddenly able to love. I’ll never forget the testimony of one old fellow that had come out of a rather rough non-spiritual background. He said, "You know Les, since I’ve been saved, people that I could have almost shot between the eyes, I no longer feel that way about them. Oh, they’re not the kind of people that I could go up to and hug, but now instead of hating them, I love them and feel so sorry for them." And isn’t that about it? We are probably not prone to just love these kinds of people, as probably the Lord could love them, because we’re human, but at least we have changed our attitude so that now we do feel so sorry that they are still out in such abject spiritual darkness. So Paul says, "we realize the love you’re showing toward each other." Verse 4.

"So that we ourselves glory in you (Paul was thrilled to hear back from these little Gentile congregations and how they were standing firm in the faith) in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:"

These poor Gentile pagans, now walking the life of a believer, came under intense persecution. Not the kind that we may experience once in a while - theirs was intense. Their lives were threatened, they probably lost their means of livelihood, and yet they never departed from the faith. So this is what he’s saying, "So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure;" It’s never easy!

"Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:" Now here is where we compare Scripture with Scripture. Come back to Romans 8:18. Look at what the apostle Paul writes to these Gentiles at Rome. So that means he’s still writing to us as Gentiles today.

"For I reckon that the sufferings (the kind of sufferings that the Thessalonian believers were going through) of this present time (our journey as believers) are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."

So this is what we have to do. The opposition that we may have to face in this life on earth, we have to put it in comparison to the glory that one day will be revealed to us, and into which we will enter and live for all eternity. Now back to II Thessalonians chapter 1. So Paul says, "you’re counted worthy for the kingdom because you’re suffering for it." Now verse 6, and this is a little bit of comfort because I imagine that every believer that suffers at the hand of a gross unbeliever, it’s our natural tendency to say, "God aren’t you going to pay them back?" Yes He will. Paul says:

"Seeing it is a righteous thing with God (and remember God can’t do anything that is wrong or unfair. God only knows how to do that which is upright and righteous) to recompense (or pay back) tribulation to them that trouble you;"

These people that tormented these Thessalonian believers are not going to get away with it. Oh they may in this physical life, but they still must come before the Great White Throne one day, and remember God is righteous and God won’t forget those things. So we can take comfort in that, even though we can’t strike back ourselves we have the promise that God’s going to do it. Now I’m thinking of a verse in Revelation, and I hope I can find it. I didn’t think of this verse as I was preparing for it, but come back to chapter 18, and let’s just drop in at verse 4. Now this is just a little inkling of what Paul is giving us here in the Thessalonian letter. I hope you all realize that Revelation is the account of the Tribulation that is still future, when the wrath of God is going to be poured out on Christ-rejecting humanity in a way that no one can comprehend. Now this is just another little picture of that.

"And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues, 5. For her sins (this Christ-rejecting world) have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. (these persecuting acts of these unbelieving people) 6. Reward her (this group of people that have been tormenting believers of the Tribulation) even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: (the persecutions that this group promoted upon these believers) in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double." This is what’s coming on the earth during those final 7 years.

"How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, (that is this world system) so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. (Oh but God says, "Yes you will!") 8. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, (at the end of the Tribulation) death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her." Now come on down to where the Lord tells them to go ahead and drink blood. That may be back in chapter 17. Verse 6.

"And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, (the believers whom this group has persecuted) and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration."

Well I still can’t find the verse I really was thinking of where He, in so in many words says, "You’ve always been blood thirsty, so now drink it.!" Remember in Pharaoh’s Egypt the fresh water supply of the world will be dried up, and the Lord will literally tell them they’ve got blood to drink and that’s what they’ve always been thirsty for, so have at it! Well always rest assured that God is just and one day He’s still going to even the score. (Transcriber’s note: I think Les was looking for Revelation 16:6 where it says –)

"For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink;…" Now back to II Thessalonians chapter 1.

"Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you." Remember God’s keeping the record. "And to you who are troubled (to you Thessalonians who are under this intense persecution) rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels." That is the reference to His coming to take the believers out of that situation of intense persecution. Now look at verse 8, and here comes the wrath and the justice and the righteousness of God.

Alright I’ll have to remind all of you here as well as our television audience, you’ll remember in our last month’s taping we chased all the references beginning with Isaiah chapter 2, and came all the way up through the Old Testament, through the four gospels, and then on into the Book of Revelation, and showed you all the graphic descriptions of "The day of the Lord." Do you remember that? The day of the Lord, when it will be dark and gloomy and when there will be such intense wrath of God being poured out on that Christ-rejecting generation which we feel is this one.

I honestly feel that the Lord is going to come in my lifetime, and I haven’t got that many years left. But I’m confident that unless something otherwise happens, my wife and I are not going to have to take that trip to the cemetery. I’m almost confident that we’re going to take that sudden translation up.

Once the Church is off the scene then the wrath, and vexation of God, the day of the Lord is going to come. I made the comment several programs back that the apostle Paul, almost without exception, does not deal with Old Testament prophecy. But here in II Thessalonians we have the only possible exception as we move on into II Thessalonians chapter 2 and even a few of these statements in chapter 1. Other than that Paul never refers to prophetic things. Paul deals only with the Church during this Age of Grace, and the reason for that is, "There is no prophecy directed to the Body of Christ!" We’re not under any of the Old Testament covenants, we’re not under any of the Old Testament prophecies, those were all directed to the Nation of Israel. So when Paul writes the Church letters from Romans all the way through Philemon, he doesn’t have to deal with prophecy because we don’t have any part with that.

Now of course as we see things getting ready, it’s like getting the stage set for a drama. The drama itself cannot begin until everything is ready behind the curtain. Isn’t that right? You’ve got to have the characters all ready, you’ve got to have the props ready, you’ve got to have the background ready, you’ve got to do the advertising - but the drama itself can never begin until there is that official raising of the curtain. Then the drama begins. Now we’re in that same kind of a situation. We are living in the these days when the stage behind the curtain is being set. All the world’s political leaders, the key players are being put in the right places. All the technology that is absolutely necessary for end-time events is coming on the scene. All the nations of the world are being aligned little by little, getting ready for that final curtain raising.

So this is why I keep saying, there is no prophecy directed to the Church, because we’re living in that opened up period of time that was never prophesied in the Old Testament or the four gospels. It was revealed only to the apostle Paul, and since we’re not in prophecy then it stands to reason that in one way or another we have to be taken out of the way before prophecy begins and becomes the rule of the day. And that’s what we’ll be looking at in the next several programs, and that is the end of the Body of Christ on earth which is not associated with wrath and vexation, and Tribulation, but rather as we pointed out in the last several programs, we leave out of a quiet set of circumstances. There is no attendant of the battle of Armageddon, no attendant of earthquakes and volcanoes and death and famine, but instead it will just be the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, then we’re out of here.

I always like to remember a fellow out in Denver when I think of that term. I’ll never forget a comment he made. He’s got a bunch of hunks that works for him, these young guys 25-30 years old, and some of them are the toughest young men in Denver. This guy has a devotional with them every morning, and this one particular morning he told those guys before they started their various work jobs, "Now look fellows, one of these days, you’re going to see old Jim’s truck right in downtown Denver at a stop light, and he’s out of there!"

That’s exactly the way it’s going to be. Wherever we happen to be as a believer, when that trumpet sounds, we’re out of here! It just thrills me to death that one day it’s going to happen. Now the world can scoff all they want to, but it’s still going to happen! And as I told my class the other night, I was with a group that I’d never been with before, and I just said, now look Paul tells us that we’re going to be changed in a blink of an eye. In a moment which in the Greek is the smallest divisional period of time, which today is probably a millionth of a second. We’re going to be suddenly changed in that split second. And as I told the group, we’ll have to be or otherwise we’ll hit the ceiling, but we’re not going to hit the ceiling, we’re going to slip right on through just like the Lord did in His resurrected body. The Scriptures makes that so plain. He came into the upper room where the disciples were without benefit of a door or window, and all of a sudden there He was. Well Paul comes along and says, "We’re going to have a body exactly like His glorious resurrected body." Which means that if the Lord changes us and we’re in this building when that happens, before we hit the ceiling, we’ll have already changed into that body that can slip through materials with no problem, and always remember Jesus Himself said it, "With God nothing is impossible!"

As most of you know, our whole purpose has just simply been over the years to teach the Word as the Holy Spirit leads, and let the chips fall where they may. I don’t mind you disagreeing with me, but if you do disagree you must do it Scripturally, and not just go by what some denomination may teach.

We have found that we must teach outside the Church environment because everybody has become so denominationally minded that if I were to have a class in a Baptist Church, then no one comes but Baptists. If I have it in a Methodist Church, no one comes but the Methodists so I’ve learned if you’re going to reach across all these various barriers, then you have to stay on neutral ground, and that’s the way I try to keep the program. I want to keep it totally neutral, and simply teach the Word as we feel the Holy Spirit has led us to teach it. We’re finding out from every denominational background imaginable that people know so little of the Scriptures. They are so inept at comparing Scripture with Scripture, and hopefully we’re making a little head way in that regard also.

Now back to II Thessalonians chapter 1, where we left off at verse 8. We discussed at the close of the last lesson how Paul comes the closest to bringing in a little bit of the Old Testament prophecy concerning the wrath and the vexation, or the Day of the Lord as we pointed out several programs back. Remember we went back all the way from Isaiah up through the Old Testament, and all those references using the "Day of the Lord." And the Day of the Lord is awful, the Day of the Lord is the wrath, and the judgment of God upon Christ-rejecting mankind. Upon empires and governments and kings, and presidents and so forth, who have been flaunting the things of God. So here in verse 8 Paul is alluding to that Old Testament format of the Day of the Lord, when He will come and take vengeance on them that don’t know God.

That’s their eternal doom. Now someone just called early this morning before we left home, and their question on the phone was, "Does Paul ever teach Hell fire, or the lake of fire as we see it in Revelation?" No. Paul doesn’t use the term explicitly, but he certainly warns people over and over of their lost estate and the doom that’s awaiting them. Just because he doesn’t use the language, the lake of fire, doesn’t mean that he has now superceded it somehow or other, and here’s a good example of that.

Being separated from the Lord is what is going to make eternity for the lost so awful. It isn’t that they’re going to be singed with the fire, I don’t think that’s it at all, as the Hell fire is just simply the awfulness of totally being separated from God. Now of course don’t get me wrong, they’re going to be tormented. We know that the Scripture is explicit on that. You get just a little window of that back in Luke chapter 16 with the rich man when he was conversing with Abraham, who had Lazarus in his bosom, where the rich man says, "I am tormented in this flame." So definitely there is that aspect that awaits all who go that way. But the greatest part of the torment of the lost that will go into eternity without Christ is that they are separated from the presence of the Lord without hope. Verse 10.

"When he shall come (the second coming now according with prophecy, as that’s what we’re dealing with first) to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (do you see how simple Paul always keeps it. Salvation is to them that believe) (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day."

And after all when Paul came into these pagan cities, and approached these pagan Gentiles with the Gospel. He didn’t come in with a great Madison Avenue format. He didn’t make them jump through hoops, he didn’t put on a dog and pony show, as we like to say. He didn’t do all these things to draw the crowd, Wherever he met a group of people, he just simply presented Christ crucified, and risen from the dead as we find in I Corinthians 15:1-4. And from that simple approach these little cells of believers made up the Body of Christ at Thessalonica. Now I trust that you know that they weren’t by the thousands. None of Paul’s little congregations were thousands of people, they were relatively, small with most of them meeting in homes. But nevertheless the overall result was, as it says in the Book of Acts, "They turned the then-known world upside down." He did that just by simply presenting the Gospel, and that’s all he asked his pagan people to do, "Just believe it, trust it, and when your faith is manifested then God does the work of redemption, a life changing, and so on and so forth." Now then verse 11. I’m in a hurry because I want to get down into chapter 2.

"Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:"

Now listen, when he speaks of power here, he’s not talking about tremendous supernatural miracles. The supernatural miracles were that these pagans could come out of their idolatry and their worship of the gods and goddesses and place their faith in Paul’s Gospel. Now that’s the power that was manifested here, and that wasn’t easy. They probably lost contact with a lot of their friends and relatives because of this new found faith. All of a sudden they had nothing more to do with pagan temple sacrifices, nothing more to do with the gross immorality of those pagan temples, and so it was the work of faith with power. Now here it is in verse 12.

Now these people didn’t deserve God’s Grace any more than you or I do, but it was the Grace of God that was poured out on these pagan Thessalonians in that they became believers and were transformed and became then a tremendous witness and testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we’re going to go into chapter 2, and immediately the apostle brings in something that he’s been leading up to in these earlier verses.

"Now we beseech you, brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, (now the next part of the verse is a direct departure of him alluding to the Second Coming as all of the Old Testament does. Now Christ is coming to something that is only a Pauline revelation and that is that Christ would only come to the air at the Rapture) and by our gathering together unto him,"

Now the other night I used the analogy again, one that I think I’ve used on the program, and I still think it’s a pretty good one, at least it’s enough to make you smile. "We’ve all seen in a movie or television program where one thing or another will lead you out to the old junk yard, or the old salvage yard where they have this huge electric magnet, where they can just swing it over the whole yard. In fact my daughter went to a savage yard here a while back and the guy in that electric magnet just gave her an exhibition of what he could do. She said, "It was amazing. He could take that great big magnet swing it over on a little tiny piece of iron, pick it up and could sling it half way across the salvage yard." Well she got a big kick out of what a man can do when he’s got that kind of expertise. But I think you get the picture. A person using that electric magnet can turn it on, and all that metal that is below it just slides up to that magnet. The force just pulls it up, and that’s the way I like to picture the Rapture. Christ is going to come to the air, and just like a great magnet, He’s going to pull us all up into His presence.

I think I shared on the program, and I did again the other night in one of our classes, and it was just for a smile, that we know the earth is round, and if the Lord comes from our perspective, the people on the other part of the globe are going to have to go a little further. They’re going to have come around the edges, but nevertheless we’re all going to meet the Lord in the air wherever it is, and this is what Paul is talking about. He’s not talking about when Christ comes to the Mount of Olives. See, that’s what you have to notice in Scripture, is the change in language. We’re also not talking about Christ coming in wrath and attending judgment, but instead for us. It’s just simply a gathering together to meet Him in the air as Paul tells us in I Thessalonians chapter 4 as we saw a few weeks back. Now reading verse 1 again.

"Now we beseech you, brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him." Now that’s the language I want you to keep in your computer." ...our gathering together unto him." Now verse 2.

"That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, (small ‘s’ so by their own spirit or an outside spirit, it’s not the Holy Spirit) nor by word, nor by letter as from us, (now what does that indicate? Among all the other things that Paul had to constantly deal with, there were people forging his name, and sending these forged letters to his congregations to confuse the issue. So Paul had to put up with that, so he’s telling these Thessalonians, "Don’t pay any attention to a forged letter as from us) as that the day of (the Lord) Christ is at hand."

Now you’re going to say, "Well my Bible says, "the day of Christ is at hand." Well I’ll probably get some mail on this, but everybody that I’ve ever read has all agreed that this is one place where our King James has an error. But I always have to remind folks remember, the King James is not the original manuscript. The original manuscript had no errors in it, but the King James is still a translation, and there can be an error, and here is probably one of the most profound, because all are agreed that in light of all the language around it, this should be, "the Day of the Lord." Remember we pointed them all out coming up through the Old Testament. The Day of the Lord is the day of wrath, and vexation and judgments and the horrors of the Tribulation, ending with Christ’s Second Coming to the Mount of Olives, Whereas the "Day of Christ" is what we call the Rapture, the resurrection day for the Church.

So regardless of how somebody may oppose that, I’m going to stick to my guns, that in light of all that surrounds this verse, this should have been the "Day of the Lord." So Paul says, "be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled," What is Paul implying here? Paul is implying that due to the tremendous amount of pressure and persecution that these new believers were coming under, and in light of his teaching, which we’ll see in a few minutes, he covered the whole nine years in those first 3 or 4 weeks that he was with them, and so they understood this coming day of wrath, they knew there was a Tribulation period of time coming, and what do you suppose they were beginning to think. That they were in it! And evidently some of these forged letters, and some of these false teachers were coming in and telling them that. "Well listen, the reason you’re suffering so much is we’re in the Tribulation." And these forged letters would come in and tell them "Bear up because after all this is the wrath and vexation of the Day of the Lord."

But Paul says, "Don’t you buy that, don’t you believe any of that stuff, because we’re not in the Day of the Lord. You haven’t missed the Rapture!" You know I think every believer at one time or other in his life, that understands the Rapture, and has probably happened to all of us, but you come home and expect the family to be there, but they’re all gone, nobody’s home. What’s the first thought that hits you? The Lord came. Well the Thessalonians were in this same situation, they thought the Lord had come, and they’d missed the Rapture. So Paul is writing now to comfort them, "That no, you haven’t missed it, this isn’t the Tribulation, this is not the Day of the Lord." Now look at the next verse.

Don’t let someone come along and tell you that the Day of Christ has already happened, and you’re in the Day of the Lord. Because Paul says, "The Day of the Lord cannot happen until:

"…for that day (those 7 years of Tribulation) shall not come except (and what’s the except or until?) there come a falling away (or departure) first,…"

That day of judgment cannot come until the departure happens. Now the word ‘apostasy’ is the Greek word from which our King James, and other translations have gotten the term "the falling away" which of course is appropriate, but there’s another Greek word, and I’m not a Greek scholar, so I’m going to have to look as I have written it down, the cognate verb of the word apostasy is "aphistaymi" and that is translated in several other places in the New Testament as, "departing from one place to another." I’ve mentioned it before on the program that the earlier translation before the 1611 King James, such as the Tyndale, and Geneva, and a couple of earlier translations did use the word departure instead of falling away as plain as day.

"That this day of the Lord cannot come until there is the departure comes first." Also the Greek word ‘aphistaymi’ has the little Greek letter ahead of it that indicates the article "the." So the Greek implies "The Departure." Now again I think it’s just like we can change some of our words by just adding an "ly." In other words you can have the verb happy and it’s a verb, as someone is happy. Then you just simply add an ‘ly’ and you make it an adverb, and the word becomes ‘happily.’ Do you see that? Well it’s the same way with this Greek word, it’s so closely related, that you’re not doing any injustice to the Greek or anything else to use the translation, "The departure."

"Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day (of the Lord, the Day of Judgment the Day of Wrath. See that’s why the Day of Christ doesn’t fit up there in verse 2) shall not come, except (or until) there come the departure first,…"

Now this fits with everything else that Paul writes. Remember we saw last month in our four programs that back in I Thessalonians Paul told us we’re not appointed to wrath.

We’re not appointed to the judgments and vexation, we’ve been saved out of all that. So you have to keep everything in context, so Paul is absolutely right here saying that the Day of Judgment cannot begin until the departure first." And then what happens?

Now let’s go over to I John chapter 2, one of the little epistles of John to the right in your Bible. Now I believe, as far as I can tell, this is the only place in Scripture where this man of sin is called, "the antichrist." I always have to qualify the word ‘antichrist,’ it does not mean the man who is against Christ, as that is our normal interpretation. But the term antichrist means the "counterfeit Christ, and the world is going to buy that. The world and especially Israel is going to buy that, as immediately when they see what this man does, by bringing peace to the Middle East are going to acclaim him as the Christ. That’s why we’ll see in a little bit in Revelation 6:1, he appears riding on a white horse. Well according to symbolism, who is really going to come on the white horse? The True Christ! So this man of sin, the antichrist will not be an opposer per se, but rather a counterfeit.

"Little children, (remember John like Peter writes primarily to Jews who will be in the Tribulation. So John is writing appropriately) it is the last time: (absolutely it is) and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time."

Now remember he’s writing to Jews specifically, I feel, who will be feasting on these little verses from I, II, and III John during the Tribulation in particular. Now flip over to chapter 4:3.

The spirit of antichrist has been here ever since the beginning of the Garden experience, because after all who is behind the antichrist? Well Satan is! It’s satanic power, and so the antichrist is consequently then called these other terms, and as we see in the last verse we studied in II Thessalonians chapter 2, he’s also called, "the son of perdition."

Now there’s only one other person in all of human history that was called that, and who was it? Judas, one of the twelve was called, "the son of perdition, " and you know what he was? He was indwelt by Satan, and so will this man be. Not the first 3 1/2 years, but the second 3 1/2 he will be indwelt by Satan the same as Judas was. Now in order to establish our foundation for teaching these things, come back to the Book of Daniel with me in the two minutes we have left. We can’t just pull these things out of the woodwork, and you just can’t hopscotch through Scripture, but if you’ll come back to Daniel, who the Lord Jesus Himself, called a prophet.

Now why would I make a point of that? Because there are so many, especially of higher criticism, who maintain that Daniel is a forgery. Due to the explicit accuracy of Daniel’s prophet utterances, it must have been written after the fact, and then forged. Now that’s what the higher critics like to do. They like to take away all the inspiration, and they like to take away the supernatural idea of our Scriptures and that’s one way they can do it. But the Lord Jesus Himself said in Matthew 24:15 –

And if you can’t believe the words of the Lord Jesus, then we might as well take this Book, throw it away and go home, because after all He’s the author of the whole thing, and He called Daniel a prophet. So in our next program we will go back and see from the prophet Daniel the very first portion of Scripture that delineates one man as becoming the great world ruler, the man of sin.

It’s so good to have our son Todd and his wife Kim, and their four precious children, ages 3-8, with us today. The kids are home schooled, and Todd helps with the ranch, and also does wood working, making custom-made hand-hewn chairs on the side for extra income, because you can’t make a living on cows alone. If you’ve ever called the ministry, more than likely, if you didn’t talk to Iris or myself, then you’ve talked to Kim. She started helping with the ministry just when we need help so badly. She’s a whiz on the computer and can put out more work in half day then most people can in a week. So they are, as are the rest of our children, such a blessing, and we’re just tickled to death to have all the kids real close and they all help in the ministry. We’re just a family operation, and all the kids are involved in the ministry in one way or another.

Now back to where we left off in the last lesson and then we’ll go right back to where we were in the Book of Daniel. So II Thessalonians chapter 2 where Paul makes it so plain that the Day of the Lord, the Day of Wrath and vexations, and judgment cannot come until there is a departure first of the Church Age believers.

"Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come except there come a falling away (departure) first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;"

Right there in one verse, Paul uses two of this fellow’s titles, if you want to call them that. He calls him "the man of sin and the son of perdition," and then in the last lesson we also found he’s also called the anti-Christ, the great counterfeiter, but most of the time in Scripture he’s referred to as "the beast." And of course the main reason for that is, he will be so heartless, he will be so bestial in his power because he’s getting his power from Satan. So always remember that these terms all apply to this great world political ruler that is going to come on the scene. Personally I think he’s already alive, and probably in some government in Western Europe even as we speak. But whatever, these are the Scriptural terms for this leader to come. Now if you’ll go back to Daniel 9 again where we were when we left off in the last lesson we find Daniel refers to him as the prince, small letter ‘p.’

If the Bible says he’s going to come, then you’d better believe that it’s going to happen, because he’s going to arrive on the scene! So let’s begin our study in verse 24. I realize the daily listeners were in Revelation not too many months ago, but I’m going to spend a certain amount of time in prophecy here in II Thessalonians chapter 2, because in the overall format you see we’ve covered a lot of the Bible since we studied prophecy in Revelation and Daniel. Daniel by inspiration is writing, and God tells Daniel to say-

"Seventy weeks (of years, or 490 years) are determined (or already established in God’s program) upon thy people…"

Now it’s interesting that when Israel is in the good graces of God, He refers to them as what? My people. But when they’re out of His good Grace, He calls them, "your people" whether He was speaking to Moses or Daniel. Now you want to realize that at the time God is speaking to Daniel, Israel is in captivity in Babylon which means they are out of the place of blessing in Jerusalem. They have no temple, they have no priesthood - consequently what are they? They’re not God’s people, but rather they’re your people Daniel. Now when Christ returns and Israel once again becomes God’s covenant people, then God will say, "You will be My people, and I will be your God!" But at this writing He says to Daniel –

"Seventy weeks (of years, or 490 years) are determined upon thy people…"

It’s interesting, and I’ve made these points before, and I’m going to keep repeating them, that whenever God deals with Israel with regards to prophetic statements, almost without exceptions, because somebody may find an exception, but almost without exception, God puts that prophetic statement in a time frame. For example when He called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees what time frame did He give to Abram? 430 years! After that time Israel would become a nation, and come out of Egypt. There would be 430 years go by from the call of Abram until Moses would lead them out of Egypt. Then the next predetermined period of time was from the day Joshua took over the leadership of Israel until King Saul made the first king of Israel, was 490 years.

Then from the time King Saul was commissioned as king of Israel until Nebuchadnezzar came in from Babylon and put the Israelites under servitude was another 490 years. God always deals with Israel in specific time frames. In between you have the Babylonian captivity in which Daniel is writing, and long before it happened, what did God tell Israel? "You’re going to spend 70 years outside the land." The purpose for this was to restore the sabbatical years. So again for 490 years Israel had forgotten the sabbatical year, they didn’t keep it. God had told them to let the land rest 1 out of 7 years. So divide 7 into 490 years, how long did Israel have to go into captivity in Babylon? 70 years.

And while they were in captivity God said, "the land of Israel will now get it’s rest that it should have had all along." So you see everything that God does with Israel is in a prescribed time frame. Now when you go back to Daniel chapter 2 and Nebuchadnezzar’s dream concerning the Gentile empires that would be coming down the pike one right after the other. And if you remember he saw the head of God which would be his own Babylon Empire followed by the chest of silver which would be the Medes and Persians. Next he saw the Belly of brass, which represented the Greek Empire, and the legs of iron, the Roman Empire.

Now with these empires there is no definitive time frame. In other words God didn’t say, "Babylon you’re going to rule 400 years. Then I’m going to let the Medes and Persians rule for 300 years." No God doesn’t do that, but rather all God is saying is, "one Gentile empire will be followed by another." But when He makes prophetic statements concerning Israel it’s always in a time frame. Now I hope I’m making my point. Now this time frame here in Daniel is more interesting than the others because God, through the prophet Daniel, puts two breaks in this time frame. The first one after 49 years. Now it wasn’t a great lapse of time, it was just simply at the end of the 49 years of this prophecy, Israel dedicated the rebuilt temple put up by Ezra and Nehemiah and those that went back to Jerusalem with them from Babylon. That’s all it was, but it was a time break. Then you go on for another 434 years and again there’s another little time break, and that is at the crucifixion. Because remember Daniel’s prophecy says –

"Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous time. 26. And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off…"

At the crucifixion, this is all delineated. This is prophecy. At the crucifixion that would conclude 483 years of the 490 years that God had declared on the nation of Israel. That 483 years took place from the decree to Ezra from Artaxerxes the king of the Medes and Persians to go back and rebuild the city walls until Palm Sunday which was just a few days before the crucifixion, and archeology has substantiated it. Now that’s how meticulous God is with His time frame with Israel. Now the whole prophecy on Israel was 490 years and after 483 of those years were complete we have a break which means there’s 7 years that still must take place. Now as we are looking at it 2000 years later we can see so clearly that after this 7 years takes place it will conclude with the return of Christ at His Second Coming, and the setting up of His kingdom here on the earth. Now let’s look at just a little bit more of this in Daniel as this is foundational, and let’s begin with verse 26.

"And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, (He was crucified. Now that includes of course the 7 weeks mentioned earlier or for a total of 483 years) but not for himself: (He didn’t die for anything He had done, but rather He died for the sins of the world.) and the people (now here comes the secret to our end time prophecy as we are now looking at it) of the prince that shall come…"

In other words this prince, this man of sin, is going to come out of the people that destroys the city of Jerusalem and sanctuary - and we know that was Titus the Roman general, and he did that in 70 AD. Now all that is telling us that from Daniel’s perspective, the city of Jerusalem would be completely destroyed including the temple, and we know that the Romans did that. But so far as we’re concerned the important part of this prophecy is, that out of that same empire that destroyed Jerusalem would come some day this man anti-Christ, the man of sin, the wicked one, the son of perdition, will come out of the empire that destroyed Jerusalem.

Now I’ve got to put my timeline back up here again, and I’m going to do like we’ve been doing a lot lately. I’m going to come back to the Old Testament timeline which comes up through all the Old Testament prophecies concerning Christ’s first coming, and it’s all to the Jew. This line is dealing with Israel, the Jew only with a few exceptions. Now the Old Testament format beginning in Psalms chapter 2 and all the Old Testament prophecies spoke of Christ’s first coming, He would be rejected, and then according to the prophecies the next thing that was to come after His ascending back to glory as we see in Psalms 110:

Now that was the call of Christ back to glory after His death, burial, and resurrection. After that was to come the wrath and vexation of God for that final 7 years that we saw with all those terrible things that was attendant with the Day of the Lord we studied about in book 42. Notice there’s not a word about the Church, not a word about this Age of Grace, but rather everything is based on prophecies made with Israel in this 490 year time frame that begin back in 454 BC. So at the cross 483 years of that prophecy was completed, and immediately on the timeline was to come those final 7 years that would culminate then with Christ coming back and finishing the 490 years. Does that make sense to everyone? Alright then everything in prophecy was looking forward to His crucifixion, His ascension, and then would come then wrath and vexation, the out pouring of God’s judgment "the Day of the Lord." Then He would return as Psalm chapter 2 says He will.

You all know those verses, and this was the Old Testament format. Now when Peter was preaching on the day of Pentecost, he had no idea that God was going to postpone that 7 years, and bring in the Church Age with the apostle Paul. Remember Peter and the twelve were part and parcel with the nation of Israel. So Peter on the day of Pentecost says everything that the Jews had seen up until that time including the presence of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was what Joel had prophesied. So Peter goes on in Acts chapter 2 and quotes Joel’s prophecy.

Peter also included these 7 years of wrath and vexation that will happen during the Tribulation in verses 19 and 20, because Peter thought the Tribulation was ready to begin, and after that Christ would set up His kingdom on the earth, and Peter and the eleven would then rule over the twelve tribes of Israel as the Lord had told them they would in Matthew 19:27-28. So always remember, anyone who mixes the Second Coming of Christ with the end of the Tribulation, and places the Church Age in the Tribulation, does not separate the Scripture correctly.

In this Old Testament timeline there is not even a hint of God setting Israel aside as we see in the last chapter of Acts, blinding them Spiritually, and turning to the Gentiles. Not a word until we get to the apostle Paul. Now then the apostle Paul can help us understand that all of this 7 years of wrath and vexation was postponed. In other words, it isn’t that God’s program fell apart, but rather it’s just simply that God opened up this timeline where the 7 years of wrath and vexation were supposed to have happened and God has set Israel aside for a season, and for the past 1900 + years God has been saving Gentiles with a few Jewish exceptions during this Church Age. Now that 7 years that has been postponed will still come about when God is finished with the Church Age.

Now I would like to make this comment. "When Israel is out of the place of blessing, like they were in that 70 years of captivity in Babylon, God’s time clock on the nation stopped. God doesn’t count those years that He has decreed on Israel when they are out of the land." In fact, that confused the chronologies for a long time in the Old Testament chronology. They were always getting gummed up for years until some of the smart ones realized that whenever Israel was out of the place of blessing, God didn’t count those years. Just as soon as God opened this timeline and sent Israel into a dispersion, permitted her temple to be destroyed in 70 AD, the priesthood dismantled, and He goes to the Gentiles, God’s time clock stopped. It’s not ticking today.

Just like with the Gentile empires back in Nebuchadnezzar’s day and following, God did not put them in a time frame so also with the Gentiles Church Age we are not in a time frame. Do you follow me? So God’s clock does not tick when He’s dealing with Gentiles or when Israel is out of the place of blessing. That makes sense doesn’t it? But just as soon as God has finished His time with the Gentiles, and the Church is complete and removed at the Rapture then yes, God is still going to fulfill those final 7 years which the Bible always splits in half, 3 1/2 and 3 1/2. And yes, Christ is still going to return to the Mount of Olives, and yes, Christ is still going to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but God in His Sovereignty has opened the timeline, and nobody in that Old Testament format could see it, as Peter couldn’t on the Day of Pentecost.

In fact, here I like to use some verses in I Peter chapter 1, and this says it all. Probably 90% of church members, even Bible studying church members do not know these verses are here. These verses are just sort of hidden away, but oh they’re so graphic. All of the Old Testament writers (Jesus in His earthly ministry, Peter on the Day of Pentecost) were all looking forward to this progressive timeline. After Christ was crucified, and ascended, in would come the wrath and vexation, then Christ would return, and yet set up His kingdom. Now that’s all the Old Testament knew. Now look why I can say that here in I Peter chapter 1 - and Peter is writing to Jews.

"Of which salvation the prophets (the Old Testament writers) have inquired and searched diligently, (these same writers) who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:" But they couldn’t understand it. They just couldn’t put the whole picture together. Now verse 11.

"Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them (the Holy Spirit that was in them as He inspired these Old Testament writers to write) did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow."

Now here it is. They could see that there had to be a suffering Saviour. They knew Psalms 110:1. They knew that Christ would go back to glory somehow or other and be seated at the Father’s right hand, but they just couldn’t put it all together. They also knew that not only would He suffer, not only would He bring in wrath and vexation, but that the glory that should follow was still to come.

None of the Old Testament prophets had any idea of it. The twelve disciples had no idea of it. We know Jesus never betrayed the secret of it. And when Paul comes on the scene and is sent to the Gentiles by our Lord, then the Church Age, this age of Grace, this calling out of the Body of Christ begins. But I don’t think Paul had any idea it would go on now for 2000 years. He was probably even of the mindset that it would be either in his lifetime, or shortly thereafter that the Rapture of the Church would happen, and then God would pick up and finish the Old Testament format. Now in II Thessalonians let’s continue on with what Paul refers to as the Day of the Lord up there in verse 2. Then let’s see what he says in verse 3.

"Who opposeth (in other words he opposes the things of God) and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped:…"

At the end of the word worshipped in verse 4 you have a semi-colon so that covers the first half of this 7 years. This man of sin will come in (and by flattery Daniel said), and he’s going to usurp this worldwide consortium of governments which will be headed up primarily in Western Europe. The European union I think is already the format for a revived Roman Empire. He’s going to come in and he’s going to just wow the world with his promises of peace and prosperity, and he’s going to bring peace to the Middle-east. And in that 7-year treaty, as we’ll see back in Daniel in just a moment, he’s going to somehow or other get the Moslem world to permit Israel to re-establish temple worship.

Now today that is almost a ridiculous thought. But as I’ve said over and over as I teach prophecy, remember that at the minute that the curtain lifts on this final 7 years of human history, the supernatural becomes an everyday occurrence. Now when I talk about supernatural I’m talking about things that you and I could never imagine happening today. Who could ever imagine a peace treaty concerning Israel and Jerusalem, and the Moslems that would give the Jews permission to rebuild a temple. Now that doesn’t mean it’s going to be a great big glorious temple like Solomon’s or even like the second temple that was remodeled by King Herod the great. But it will be something that will be functional, whereby they can re-establish their priesthood, and their sacrificial worship. Now that’s going to happen according to Daniel! Now that will be miraculous. That’s super-super-natural because God is again entering into the everyday affairs, especially of the nation of Israel.

Now back to the text. So there has to be a departure of the Body of Christ so God can pick up where He left off with His dealing with the covenant people Israel, then the anti-Christ, the son of perdition, the prince that shall come according to Daniel or as Paul refers to him down in verse 8 the wicked one shall be revealed. Those are all names that are applied to this man of sin that will be coming on the world scene. Now verse 4 again.

This anti-Christ is going to be the god of this world, and the world is going to acclaim him as such. They’re going to call him their messiah. Even Israel will be taken in by this man. Even Israel, since this guy has been able to negotiate the re-establishment of temple worship, the Jews are going to acclaim him as their messiah, as God. Now both Paul and Daniel tell us that when this man gets that big headed, when he gets that ignorant, that he can claim that he is God, that he is the Messiah, then all of a sudden he let’s his power get away with him, and he goes to the temple in Jerusalem, and defiles it, and will not agree to temple worship of Israel’s God of Abraham. But rather he’s going to demand worship of himself. Alright look at it again in the last half of verse 4.

"…so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself (to the whole world) that he is God."

Now let’s go back to Daniel chapter 9 once again and just keep picking this up verse by verse comparing one with the other. Remember the prince that shall come is going to come out of the area of the old Roman Empire, and so Bible scholars already a hundred years or so ago, when they began to see all of these things coming on the scene, put the term on it, "the revived Roman Empire." Now we know the Roman Empire died and disappeared from human history between 300 and 400 AD. It just disappeared, it rotted away from within. There was no outside force that defeated them, they just rotted away, they just imploded. Now as we approach the end times there has to be a Roman Empire back on the scene, but it won’t be the old empire of the Caesars of course, but rather it’s a revived Roman Empire.

The amazing thing is, that ever since World War II ended and the original ten nations of Western Europe got together and decided there in the late 40’s and early 50’s at least somewhere in that area that they were going to set up a Untied States of Europe. Now listen none of these men had any inkling that they were fulfilling Bible prophecy, or that they were setting the stage for it as I’ve put it. So they put together a system with these major ten nations of Western Europe (which we still call the Western European Union), and everything they’re doing is re-establishing politically, economically, and yes even spiritually a revival of that old Roman Empire.

This same consortium of nations is now wanting to establish a NATO like organization that will include all the nations along both sides of the Mediterranean, out across the Middle-east including India, and part of China. Well what are they talking about? Well that’s the exact border of the old Roman Empire. So everything these men are doing in that Western European setup is just setting the stage rapidly so that the Roman Empire as we knew it at the time of Christ is suddenly back on the scene. Oh it’s not the Caeser's or a Latin speaking empire, and I don’t think they will necessarily put up their capitol in Rome, but whatever their political influence, their economic treaties, and so forth will encompass the same geographical area as the old Roman Empire. So out of that revived Roman Empire, and I think out of one of those ten nations of Western Europe will come this man, the prince that shall come. Now let’s drop down to verse 27, and here Daniel picks him specifically.

"And he (this prince that shall come) shall confirm (or make) the covenant with many for one week;…"

Not with just Israel, but with many. I can remember years ago when I used to read a lot of prophecy, and they would always refer to this treaty as between the anti-Christ and Israel. But I don’t agree with that, but rather this treaty is going to encompass all of the nations that are so called enemies of Israel. Let’s go back and look at a passage. I hadn’t intended on doing this, and hopefully I won’t run out of time. Come all the way to Luke’s gospel chapter 1. Keep your hand in Daniel, we’ll be back in a few minutes. See what Israel was expecting out of the Old Testament prophecies, and as God spoke would happen through this priest Zacharias. But we know Israel finally rejected all of this when they crucified Jesus of Nazareth, and everything fell through the cracks, but this is still basically at least what the religious element is still looking for, and I think it’s still appropriate to look at it in this light. This is what they’re still looking for! Let’s just drop down to verse 67. We may have looked at these verses before especially if you’ve been in my Oklahoma classes. Here the father of John the Baptist has now received his voice back miraculously and in verse 67 Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit. In other words everything he says is Spirit inspired. It’s not wishful thinking on the part of a good Jew. This is actually the Word of God to the nation of Israel.

"And his (John the Baptist) father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, (or spoke forth) saying, (now watch the language. Look what it says, and not what you think it should say.) 68. Blessed be the Lord God of (whom?) Israel; (see this is confining, this is exclusive) for he hath visited and redeemed his people, 69. And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; (see that’s all Jewish, there’s not Gentile’s in that.) 70. As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: 71. That we should be saved from our (what?) enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;"

See he’s not talking about being saved from their sins, but rather their enemies. Well for goodness sake, who were Israel’s enemies at the time of Christ? Well the same ones that hate the Jew tonight. Egypt, Syria, the Babylonians at that time, or the middle-eastern people. They hated Israel then just like they do today, and so the whole idea of Christ coming would be that He would save Israel from the hatred of their enemies. Verse 72.

"To perform the mercy promised to our father, and to remember his holy covenant; 73. The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, 74. The he would grant unto us, (the nation of Israel) that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him (the Messiah) without fear, 75. In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life,"

Now that was what Israel was longing for then, and at least the religious element still is tonight. Oh they would like to have somebody to come in that would just simply drive their enemies away from their borders and let them live with peace and prosperity, now that’s their hope. Now come back to Daniel chapter 9, and this is exactly what this man will do. This man will come into power, in fact turn ahead a page or two to chapter 11, and let’s start at verse 21. Now you want to remember that Daniel is always prophesying near term events and they in turn leap the centuries to the end time.

"And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, (now the near term was Antiochus Epiphanes, that general that took over the Greek Empire which included Jerusalem. He was a picture of the anti-Christ because he brought in intense persecution on the Jew. He defiled the temple by offering a hog on the alter, remember that? Alright. Now that’s the first view, but he was also a picture of the end time man of sin, the anti-Christ) to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably and obtain the kingdom by flatteries."

He’s going to be a magnificent politician he’s going to accomplish with political maneuvering what most people would have to use war to do. Now come on over to verse 36, and this is a perfect analogy with what Paul says in II Thessalonians almost word for word.

"And the king (this anti-Christ, this prince that shall come) shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, (see his egotistical personality?) and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, (the One True God) and shall prosper (he’s going to get away with it) till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done."

He will get away with it until those final 7 years are accomplished and then he’s going to meet his doom. Now verse 37. During his rule in these 7 years and especially the last half:

"Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, (so that pretty much tells you what kind of a man he’s going to be.) nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all."

My what an egotist. But you see that’s what it takes. And once an egotist gets a taste of power there’s no limit to their appetite. You know that as we’ve seen it all the way up through human history. I’m always amused when people rehearse to me how it is so easy to have this lust for power triggered. Someone was telling me here while back that he was in a set of circumstances where he just spoke a word and two hundred people almost jumped to attention. He said, "It was an exhilarating feeling that all I had to do was say something and this many people just quit talking and started paying attention."

I told him that I got a little taste of that while I was in basic training. I was just a raw recruit, and I don’t suppose I’d been in the army over 4 or 5 weeks, and we had a reservist who was our cadre, and he was marching us to the post exchange. Well reservists sometimes, as you know, don’t care too much what the book says, and so half way to the post exchange he stopped our whole company and said, "Feldick fall out." So I fell out, and he said, "Now march the men to the post exchange." Well I got just a little glimpse of what it’s like to say, "Attention!" And what happened? 120 men clicked their heels. Then I said, "Forward march," and had 120 men began to march. Well it gives you just a taste of what these politicians get when they get an inkling of power, and the more power they get the more lustful they get for more power, it just consumes them. So don’t ever wonder why these politicians want to run for office. Man I wouldn’t want to be in there, and I don’t think you would, but once they get a taste of it, it consumes them. Alright, now this man is going to be the greatest of all. He’s going to have such a lust for power that it will just consume everyone around him. Then verse 38.

"But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: (military) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things."

So he’s going to be an extreme egotist, and an extreme corrupter of power. Now coming back to chapter 9 and verse 27. Remembering what Paul says, "He will sit in the temple of God," That is that Tribulation temple in Jerusalem that he instrumentally brought about with that 7-year treaty. I hope you can all see that now. That as he brought about this 7-year treaty between Israel and the Moslem world, permitting Israel to re-establish temple worship, which in turn will just make the Jews in a state of euphoria, because they will think, "evidently this man is the Messiah because he’s done what we’ve always wanted," but in the middle of that Tribulation period, Daniel tells us first, and if we have time we’ll see what the Lord also says about it. So in verse 27, he’ll make this treaty for 7 years to fulfill the 490 that we have up here on the top line of our time line, but look what happens at the mid-point of that 7 years.

"…and in the midst of the week (or 7 years) he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,…"

Now listen, all you have to do here is use common sense. If the sacrificial worship is stopped at the mid-point, what happened sometime before? Well it had to start! You can’t stop something that hasn’t been started. Now you know there’s no temple worship tonight! But someplace as this 7-year period begins the anti-Christ will permit sacrificial worship to begin in the temple that will be rebuilt in Jerusalem, and they will establish sacrificial worship. Then in the middle of that 7-year period he will stop that temple worship for the overspreading of abominations, which I’m sure will include sacrificing a hog or sow’s blood or something unclean for the Jew on the altar there at the temple. Now completing the verse.

"…and for the overspreading of the abominations he shall make it (the temple) desolate, even until the consummation,…"

Now turn to Matthew chapter 24. Now here the Lord Jesus Himself puts the frosting on this prophecy. So between Daniel, and The Lord Himself here, and Paul in II Thessalonians chapter 2, and then the other various verses in the Book of Revelation, it all comes together. When this final 7 years is triggered by the signing of 7-year treaty (re-establishing temple worship), the anti-Christ I’m sure will go back to his headquarters in Western Europe, but in the middle of the 7 years he will come and turn on the nation of Israel. Here in Matthew 24 Jesus Himself is speaking to the twelve concerning end-time events. Remember Jesus too is dealing on the top line of this time line. He hasn’t given any hint of a 2000 year hiatus, and look what he says.

Do you see how plain all that is? And above everything else don’t miss the point that Jesus called Daniel a prophet. Now the critics can call him whatever they want to, and they call the Book of Daniel what they want to, but the Author of this Book, the Creator of the universe, the One who programmed everything in the first place, He says, "Daniel the prophet" Then you’d better believe it, and when our Lord said, "When you (Israel) see this man of sin come in and defile the temple," what’s the first word in the next verse say?

That of course is still future, but we’re getting closer and closer everyday!

Remember as I began this series in Thessalonians, I mentioned over and over that the apostle Paul never spends much time on prophecy, because the Church is not tied to the prophetic program. The Church is an interruption, it’s a parenthetical period of time. But here in II Thessalonians, in just these few verses, Paul does let us know that he is in full accord with the prophetic program that comes out of the Old Testament, the four gospels, part of Acts, and the Book of Revelation. And this is what we have been showing, that Paul now, is in full agreement with everything that prophecy has said concerning the final seven years of Daniel’s 490 year prophecy. So, as we move on into verse 4, he speaks of the son of perdition in verse 3, which we described in the last program as the anti-Christ. He is also referred to in Paul’s letter right here as the wicked one. Daniel calls him the prince that shall come. It is all references to this man, anti-Christ, who is going to one day appear on the stage of world events and he is going to become the absolute totalitarian dictator of the world.

Alright, Paul goes on to explain that this man will oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God. He is going to be an arrogant individual. He is going to have no compunction about telling the world that he is the God that they are looking for.

"Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God, (see how plain that is? He is going to let the world know that he is claiming to be the God that the world is looking for) sitteth in the temple of God, showing (or declaring) himself that he is God."

Now the first place that I think we can go back for an Old Testament reference would be back to Daniel chapter 9, where Daniel refers to him as the ‘prince that shall come.’ Now those of you who have been with me down through this series beginning almost with the Old Testament in Genesis and so forth, Daniel chapter 9, I always refer to, as the very bench mark of the prophetic program. If you want an understanding of prophecy, as it will unfold especially in the end times, you have to know Daniel chapter 9. He begins this prophecy down there in verse 24 where he says that, "70 weeks of years" or some of your newer translations have done the arithmetic for you - 490 years. Now you know that I am always reminding folks over and over that God, with the nation of Israel, would set a prophetic program and tie it in with a time frame.

For example, long before it happened, God, through the prophets, told Israel that they would be spending 70 years in captivity down in Babylon. And the time came when it happened. When the 70 years are expired, miraculously a Persian king made a decree, that the Israelites could go back to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple. A 70-year prophecy, wrapped in a time frame, and it came true.

When Abraham was first called out of Ur of the Chaldees, God told him "430 years would go by before his offspring would come in to the Promised Land." We know now that it was exactly 430 years from the call out of Ur until Joshua took them over the river Jordan. So over and over through the Old Testament, this has been the format. Now here is another one.

Well, we won’t repeat it again, but in this prophecy we realize that 483 of the 490 years were fulfilled at Christ’s first advent. When He was:

"…making an end of sins to make reconciliation for iniquity to bring in everlasting righteousness…."

The work of the cross was His first advent. But that was only 483 years. So there were 7 years that were yet unfulfilled, but which, according to the prophetic program, after Christ had been rejected and had been raised from the dead; had ascended back to glory then, would come the 7 years as Daniel is prophesying. And then Christ would come and set up the kingdom, and Israel would be the light of the nations and evangelize the pagan world. But, Israel didn’t accept the king, Israel didn’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah and consequently God sent them into a spiritual blindness and a dispersion in about 70 A.D. Not that He is through with Israel. I have no time at all for what they call replacement theology, it is a manifestation of the error of men. But rather, Israel has only been set aside. Not forever but for a period of time known only to God Himself. The closest we can come to when that being set aside will end is in Romans 11:25 where God through the apostle Paul says:

The fullness of the Gentiles we feel is the Body of Christ, the Church. And so when the Body of Christ is complete, God is going to pick up His prophetic program where He left off with Israel. And that of course, will be this final 7 years that Daniel spoke of in chapter 9:27. After the 483 years were fulfilled at the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ, then we have in verse 27 the appearance of the prince that shall come, mentioned in verse 26 and now verse 27.

"And he…" (this prince that is coming)

He is going to come out of the geographical area of the old Roman Empire. He will confirm or will make a covenant with many. Now for a long time, I always heard people teach that he would make this treaty with Israel. Well, Israel is certainly going to be involved but not singularly. It is going to involve all the nations, even as we have seen the last few weeks. My, how they are trying to bring peace to the Middle East and that is admirable. We all hate to see the sufferings and the turmoil of war and unrest. But, there will be no peace in the Middle East until this man of sin makes it happen. And he will. But we don’t know when. Alright, so Daniel says it so clearly, that this prince that shall come, who we know as the anti-Christ, the wicked one, the son of perdition.

"And he will confirm the covenant with many for one week; (or seven years) and in the midst of the week (or in the middle of the 7 years, that’s why I’m always dividing the seven year time line, 3 1/2 and 3 1/2. In the middle of the week) he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation (that is the temple worship) to cease,…"

Now I always have to remind people. You can’t stop something unless it’s what? Unless it is going! So this tells us that temple worship is going to be in full blast during this 7-year period. Israel will somehow or other get the temple back. We don’t know if it has to be on Mt. Moriah. It may be in some other area of Jerusalem. But she is going to have temple worship. That is going to be part of the peace agreement. Now that would have never happened a couple of weeks ago, they can’t even agree on what to do with Jerusalem, but this man is going to make an agreement between the Arab world and the Jews, that they can have temple worship. And they are ready, we know that. Whenever we take a tour to Israel we quite often go to the Temple Mount Institute where they have all the ramifications of temple worship ready to go. They have the clothing for the priests hanging on mannequins. They have all the shovels and all the various utensils for the sacrifices all ready. And they are going to be jumping right in, once this treaty gives them permission to rebuild a temple.

But Daniel prophesies that as great as it is going to be for Israel, they are going to be just euphoric to think that once again they not only have the homeland and Jerusalem but they are going to have the temple. But, look what horrible thing happens. In the middle of the week, this man is going to cause all this temple worship to stop.

"…and for the overspreading of the abominations (in other words the horrors that shall follow) he ( the anti-Christ) shall make it (the temple) desolate, (in other words he is going to shut it down. He is going to defile it. And it will stay defiled) even until the consummation (that is until those 7 years have finished) and that determined (in other words everything prophesied) shall be poured upon the desolate." (or desolator, this man anti-Christ)

In other words, all of the horrifying judgements that are prophesied for these final 3 1/2 years will happen. Alright now, flip back with me to the New Testament to Matthew 24. Now these are the words of the Lord Jesus himself. If you have a red letter edition, these words are going to be in red - and let’s just drop down to verse 15. And Jesus is speaking to the twelve, as you see in the beginning of the chapter. Also remember the twelve are the representatives of the nation of Israel:

"When ye (the Jews, the Nation of Israel) therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, (in other words, the horrible defiling of the temple and the stopping of the temple worship) spoken of by Daniel, the prophet…."

Again, I always like to stop and emphasize. Most of you who know anything about Bible study at all, realize that the scoffers ridicule the book of Daniel as authentic scripture, because the prophesies are so accurate, the near and the far, that they say nobody could have written that unless they had seen it happen as a historian. Well you see those men know nothing of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And so Daniel wrote by inspiration, and his prophesies were as accurate as only God can make it. Jesus is putting his stamp of approval on Daniel the prophet. Now looking at verse 15 again.

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (that is in the temple, then) (whosoever readeth, let him understand:) 16. Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains."

And then as we have taught so often this is the calling out of the remnant of Israel. I feel they will go out to the mountains in unbelief. But, they are the surviving remnant, and they will be the seed stock of the nation of Israel going into the thousand year kingdom when Christ finally returns.

Alright, now all of these are references to this verse in II Thessalonians that the man of sin this anti-Christ, will come into the temple in Jerusalem and defile it and not only cause temple worship to stop but also will turn on the Jews with the most horrible persecution that Israel has ever, ever experienced. I always like to make the analogy that the Holocaust was awful and I think anyone that denies the Holocaust is unspeakable. It was a literal event. Millions of Jews were not only put to death, they were martyred. They suffered inexorably, but nothing compared to what they will in this last 3 1/2 years.

Remember a few programs back I went through the "Day of the Lord," all the way up through the Old Testament. It is a horrifying picture of what is coming upon the earth in those final 7 years. But, Israel will be at the very core of the wrath of God. And I always teach from Revelation, it is also going to be the wrath of Satan. Because when he is cast out of heaven at the mid-point and he comes back to the earth, the book of Revelation says he knows that he has but a short time, and so he too, will be pouring out his wrath. I call it a double barrel wrath. The wrath of God, as well as the wrath of Satan, and it is going to be beyond human description.

Alright, so the verse says again that "he’s going to sit in the temple and declare himself as God." Now then, let’s jump back to Daniel once again, and pick up some more of Daniel’s description of this usurper, of this arrogant egotist, of this man who will literally give himself over to Satan. He will be indwelt by Satan even as Judas was. And he is going to be the most despicable human being who has ever ruled this planet. This time let’s turn to chapter 11.

"And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: (because he is so rotten, but he is going to overcome all of that) but he shall come in peaceable and obtain the kingdom by flatteries."

He’s going to be the smoothest tongued rascal you have ever dreamed of and even though they want to oppose him because of his vileness, yet he is going to overcome all that with his flattery, and his smooth silver tongue oratory. Alright, and then verse 22 in that same chapter,

"And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant."

And then he goes on to say in verse 23 how he "works deceitfully." Now we sometimes think politics are pretty deceitful, but listen, present day politicians know nothing of deceit as this man is going to pull on them. Alright come over to verse 36.

And the king (again in reference to this man anti-Christ, who by this time is the world ruler) shall do according to his will, he shall exalt himself, (see how that fits with what Paul just said) and magnify himself above every god,…"

What did Paul say? He sets himself in the temple as God and declares himself as God. Alright, Daniel is in full agreement and so he is going to put himself as God of gods, and shall prosper until the indignation or this final 3 1/2 years are accomplished. And then just like Jesus said in Matthew 24, once that abomination starts in the middle of the tribulation, it’s going to continue on until it is consummated. Alright, this says the same thing. And yet he shall come to his end and none shall help him.

Well, now let’s go all the way back to the book of Revelation and let’s see how John describes him in this great book of prophecy. Come all the way back to Revelation chapter 13.

Remember now, I am just trying to show parallel references that agree totally with what Paul is writing in II Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 4. Now in Revelation chapter 13 verse 1 John writes.

"And I stood upon the sand of the sea, (which I think is symbolic of the sea of humanity, the masses of people ) and saw a beast (now, not some animal but it’s an empire and an emperor. It’s a two fold meaning here in Revelation. Sometimes it speaks of the empire of the beast and sometimes it speaks of the man himself. But he sees a beast, an empire, a government) rise up out of the sea, (of humanity) having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his head the name of blasphemy." (this anti-God individual who will proclaim himself as God.)

Then the picture of the empire is in verse 2 and it is going to be likened to a compilation of all the great gentile empires beginning with Babylon, the Medes and the Persians, the Greek, the Roman and our present day Western European revived Roman Empire. Alright, now then lets come down to verse 3 and 4. We are still describing this man who will come into the temple in Jerusalem and set himself up as God.

Revelation 13:3

"And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast."

Now here again, I think it is the empire. The revived Roman Empire that is miraculously coming back in the Western European Union. Others feel it’s a reference to the man himself. So, I’m not going to get in any argument over that, but I do feel that here we are talking about the empire, the government.

"And they (the people of the world) worshipped the dragon…"

Now what is that? That’s Satan worship. And we are seeing it come in like a flood. You know I like to remind my American people, back in 1926, if I am not mistaken, somewhere in there, one of the heads of Satanism from Europe, took sail and came to New York with the idea that he was going to start promoting Satan worship in America. After two or three weeks, even in New York City now, believe it or not, he came to the conclusion that he would never get to first base with Satanism in America. Because Christianity and the power of the Spirit was too powerful and he took ship back to Europe. And so, consequently, America was kept free of this onslaught of Satanism and Satan worship, until now recently. Now it is coming in with a flood, it is everywhere you look. Even our rural areas are not immune to it. Alright, so here we have it, that the world is going to worship the dragon. They are going to become Satanists.

"And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemy…"

This man is going to be Satanic from the word go, and will have power. Now you see God is sovereign and God can permit. And God will permit this to happen and so He permits him to have power "to continue 42 months." Well how long is 42 months? Three and one half years! So from the time that he defiles the temple and turns against the nation of Israel, there will be 3 1/2 years to finalize the 7 years of Tribulation.

And as that 7 years is ended with the return of Christ now this man will finally meet his doom. He cannot, he cannot usurp the coming of Christ. Remember, I always like to point out in Matthew chapter 4 when he tempted Christ and said, "Jump down off this mountain and I will give you all the kingdoms of this world. Fall down and worship me." And you know what I am always saying. Were they his to give? Yes, they were his to give. But the Lord isn’t going to have to fall down and worship Satan to get those kingdoms. He will get them by virtue of this Second Coming, when he comes as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and he is going to be the ruler, not only the planet but of the universe!

(Transcriber’s note: In this lesson, Les will make some comments about things he taught in the previous lesson that you did not hear or read about. The reason for that is we had to re-tape that previous program because after viewing it the quality wasn’t good enough. So remember Les had to wait an entire month, and it was hard for him to remember just exactly what he had covered in the previous program. But I’m sure that you will enjoy it just as we do.)

Now, as you study, ask the Lord to enlighten you, because as we constantly stress, unless the Lord opens our heart, this is a closed Book. So as you study with us, you also prayerfully ask the Lord to open the truth to your understanding. Now let’s get back to where we were in II Thessalonians chapter 2. Remember now that Paul is writing to a small group of believers up in the city of Thessalonica, there in predominantly Northern Greece. And, it’s a group that he had only spent a few weeks with and yet it was a group that he had brought so far with their understanding of the Scriptures, that he could say "and you know."

There is more to this than meets the eye. See, when the Apostle Paul brought these people out of paganism, their whole understanding of this was uncluttered. They didn’t have to undo forty or fifty years of false teachings and and false doctrines in order to see the truth. They were virgin territory. And, we have noticed that, even with people who write, that they probably had had almost nothing of a spiritual understanding. Unbelievable, but sometimes in just one program, the Lord totally opens their heart. Well, again, it’s because they haven’t been cluttered with a lot of other things over the years. And so, this is what Paul had here. They were pagans recently converted by Paul’s Gospel. Then he could certainly write, don’t you know these things?

Alright, verse 6 is where we quit in our last study, how that there has to be a restraining force now, beginning at some point in human history to hold everything in check lest things start rolling too fast and the anti-Christ would make his appearance before the right time. I think that is all that is implied here, is that God has instituted a restrainer so that the anti-Christ could not be brought on the scene ahead of time. Hopefully, we made plain that the restrainer is the work of the Holy Spirit, as he indwells you and I as believers.

In closing of the last lesson, I mentioned that even in Israel tonight, with the tremendous chasm between the secular ( how shall I call it), the unbelieving Jews. They take no respect for the Scriptures, the Old Testament, as they are secular. They don’t take God in their lives at all. In fact I was reminded, as I read that little article, when Iris and I were in Israel the very first time. That goes back too many years! We came out of the hotel dining room after dinner and a well dressed, Jewish business man said "You are from America, aren’t you?" We said, "Yes." He said, "What do you think of our little country?" Well we were impressed with how far they had come in just those few years after the Six Day War. So, I just earnestly said, "It’s amazing what God has done here!" Do you know what his answer was? "God didn’t have a thing to do with it. We did it."

Well, see that’s the secular attitude. They think God has nothing to do with it. But you see, on the other hand, you have that percentage in Israel who are still, what we would call religious. They are Orthodox and they are still spending their time in the Old Testament scriptures. But, it’s gotten to the place that the secular part of Israel will be for anything that the religious segment is against. And visa versa. Whether it’s political, economical, moral, whatever. As soon as those Rabbi’s express themselves, the secular world comes up against it.

Well you see, we are in the same situation in America. Not quite to that extreme, but we are up against the same thing. Just as soon as we try to oppose something, then we are just called mean spirited. We are just simply against everything. Well, of course we are. It is our responsibility as believers to stand against these things that we know are Biblically wrong. Yet our nation has become so secular now, that regardless of what the outcome may be, they are going to be counter against us, simply because we are standing on the Scriptures. But, this is our role. This is why God has left us here. We can be used of the Holy Spirit to be a restraining force to hold back these forces of evil. Because we know, that the minute we are out of here (and we are going to see that in the next verse) that the wickedness is going to run rampant across the planet. And, that is what justifies the wrath and vexation of God. Now verse 6.

"And now ye know what withholdeth (or the one who restrains) that he (the anti-Christ) might be revealed in his time. (or not before the time.) 7. For the mystery (or the secret) of iniquity doth already work:…"

Now there is probably a debate, "When does Paul feel this mystery of iniquity began?" Did it begin as soon as he went out among the Gentile world with the Gospel? Possibly, but I prefer to think that this mystery of iniquity actually began at the tower of Babel. And, my reason for thinking that is every false religion, even our modern day cults (and throw them in with the Oriental religions) - they all have their roots going right back to the tower of Babel. Everything false goes back to the tower of Babel. Then if you have done any study at all of these false religions, you will notice that almost all of them, at the core of their belief system, are what they call, the