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During my drive time, I occasionally listen to a podcast called Radio Lab. It’s an excellently produced piece of story-telling/investigative radio done for NPR by some really talented people. For me, it’s a great window into current modes of thought (and I learn a lot from it too). The other day I listened to an episode called “Haunted” about a guy who lost both his parents in his thirties, moved in to their house to remodel and sell it, and then started having dreams about them non stop. After a few friends said they felt a “presence” in the house, he agreed to have a “Paranormal Investigation Team” come and see if there were any spirits in the house. They used partially unscrewed flashlights to communicate with the spirits, which were supposed to turn the lights on and off to answer questions yes or no. During this team’s visit Dennis believed he had an experience where he communicated with his dead parents. Not long after that, however, Dennis (who describes himself as a skeptic who doesn’t believe in ghosts) learned the explanation of how the lights turned on and off (metal in the lights heating and expanding and then cooling, which caused intermittent contact on the circuit, causing them to flash). He stopped believing he had spoken to his dead parents–but only kind of. The episode ends with a discussion between two of the show’s producers, Andy and Robert, about how Dennis now describes his experience.  It offers some pretty profound insight into where so many people are at in our culture. Here’s what they said:

Dennis: “I know that the way the way that the world works is the way that the world works. People don’t come back from the dead. People don’t talk to you through flashlights.”

Andy: “But he also said that he’s not going to let go of that experience. He wants to have it both ways.”

Dennis: “I guess so. I guess I want to have both yes this didn’t happen and yes this absolutely happened.

Robert: “I understand that.”

Andy: “Yeah. Cause even if you are the world’s biggest skeptic–you don’t believe in Ghosts– there really aren’t that many ways to talk about these sorts of things, these sorts of things that we all feel–you know, guilt for the things that we’ve done in our past, the loss of those who we’ve loved that like Ghosts stories kind of seem to stick around because they are an experience, albeit, like a metaphorical experience, but an experience that lets us talk about these things that we can’t adequately talk about, you know, that feeling of being haunted.

I was surprised to hear the producers of the show move into this realm of universal human experience in explaining why Dennis wants to hold on to this experience with Ghosts even though he doesn’t really believe it. If you didn’t catch it, they say that we can all kind of understand, since everyone knows that we all have some things that “haunt” us, and which we don’t really have ways of talking about:

1. Guilt over things we’ve done
2. The loss of people we love

You’re probably already making the obvious connections in your mind. These are two of the central things the Gospel of Christ addresses. All we Christians do is talk about how to deal with your guilt, and people being raised to life after they die. It is our message, in a unique way, that not only gives people ways to talk and think about these things, but actually deals with the problems, and changes the situation, for everyone who believes. Through the cross of Christ we proclaim real washing away of guilt, real forgiveness and a new status of righteousness, and through the resurrection of Christ we proclaim the possibility for everyone to “come back” after they die.

Of course, the worldview Dennis holds prevents him from having any of these thought categories. “I know that the way the way that the world works is the way that the world works,” he says. “People don’t come back from the dead.” Now, because he is right about the next thing he says–“People don’t talk to you through flashlights”–it makes it even harder for him to see the error in his declaration about life and death.

Like so many around us, it doesn’t occur to Dennis, or Andy, or Robert, that maybe the inescapable, universal (in their own judgment) feelings of guilt and loss we all experience actually point to, not fantasy or wishful thinking, but reality. Maybe the guilt and loss that haunt us are supposed to make us question whether we really do understand “the way the world works.”

Because if once, someone really did “come back from the dead,” then Dennis can no longer bank on his understanding of the world. And if that resurrected man proclaimed that the fact of guilt and the terror of death were completely intertwined, that in fact, the solution to death was the solution to guilt–we would do well to listen to him.

People so quickly dismiss the message of Christ, but then spend their lives unsuccessfully trying to get rid of the very things Christ came to deal with.

Dennis–why this skepticism? And then why the admission that, when the chips are down, you’d rather believe in ghosts then your own skepticism? Why not embrace reality, even the reality contained in your own soul?

Why not let these things lead you to the one who has conquered sin and death?

Why believe in ghosts over the Christ?

Last night we continued our study of what the Bible says about the end times by looking at the next event after the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ: The final Judgment. Here are the notes:

First, let’s look at: Rev 20:11-15

• v. 11 The dissolution of the Old Creation: See 2 Peter 3:7, 10-11. 
• v. 12-13 “The Dead.” These are all killed in 20:9, and “the rest of the dead” mentioned in 20:5. Since “dead” Christians have already been raised and stood before Christ’s judgment seat (see Romans 14:8-9 and 2 Corinthians 5:8-11)
  “the books” provide the basis of judgment for each individual. They are judged “according to” their works.
• v.14 The end of death. See 2 Corinthians 15:20-28
• v.15     “The book of life” corroborates “the books” of works. See Philippians 4:3 where Paul says “the rest of my fellow workers…names are in the Book of Life” and see also these verses in Revelation: 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 21:27, 22:19. The Book of life records those appointed to life: i.e., those who have trusted Christ and received. All who are judged according to works and not found written are thrown in lake of fire.

The Meaning of this Judgment:

1. It’s Part of the Christian Proclamation
It’s been an essential part of the Christian message since the Apostles first began preaching. See verses like these in Acts:
In Acts 10:42-43 Peter says, “He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”
In Acts 17:30-31 Paul says: “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

By including the truth about the final judgment in our sharing of the gospel, we remind the world of what they have forgotten about God’s judgment on sin, and we continue what Jesus preached, and we proclaim him as Lord. (John 5:24-29, 12:48)

2. It vindicates the claims of Christ
He claimed to be judge of all men. He claimed to have all authority over all people. He claimed that everyone would finally be judged by how they oriented themselves towards him. The final judgment fulfills all these claims.

3. It vindicates God’s justice
The final judgment displays the full verdict on all evil. This is the final explanation for how God can allow evil in the world—in the end, he doesn’t. Its existence is temporary. Also, the justice of God is shown by the fact that the judge is the One who walked in our skin (Jesus, both God and Man). He is fully aware of our condition, and can judge on the basis of a shared experience. The final judgment is also God’s final vindication of his followers who have suffered evil at the hands of opponents. (This is a major theme in Revelation, see 6:9-11; 11:15-18, 17:6, 18:20, 24.) 

4. It shows the true significance of all history.
Everything that happens matters, and has significance, whether for good or evil. From the standpoint of God’s kingdom, everything that is evil ultimately undoes itself and dissolves into insignificance. What has significance in the kingdom is that which is written in the Lamb’s book of life.

5. It validates the meaning and significance of each life, and of all actions
Every action of every individual life matters, and has significance, whether for good or evil. In fact, since nothing we do can be undone, every act has eternal significance. When a life has sin and evil in it, which is all written in the books, it taints and ruins everything else. Everyone is judged in line with the things they do, which show they were far from God and had not accepted his offer of Mercy through the death of Christ. So since every action is all significant, they suffer the consequences, and in that sense, their lives become meaningless in terms of the kingdom. In the lamb’s book of life though, good actions are gathered up and given a significance and meaning that endures forever in terms of the Kingdom. This is what the New Testament calls “rewards.”

My friends, today I want to share something that hit me very hard when I read it–the sort of thing we should all stop and consider for a few minutes before rushing on to the rest of our life. It concerns the level and flavor of sin permeating our culture, and what it’s really doing to those around us who are involved in it. Furthermore, it should search any of us who are personally mixed up in any of these things. As Paul writes, “We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God!”

It’s an article that’s sort of off the beaten track, from a Catholic author I’m not familiar with (hence his references to Catholic church life), but his observations about part of the tragedy going on in our culture right now are astute and biblical. He writes from Canada, but his observations apply to Americans as well. He writes in the first person (“we”) to refer to all of us as a cultural block.  I have relayed what I think are the most important parts of the article–the parts that made me feel afresh part of the tragedy of sin. I hope it moves you similarly:

What They Will Never Know
by Anthony Esolen

In recent days, the Canadian Christian television show, 100 Huntley Street, has been uncharacteristically aggressive in its denunciation of the anticulture about us.  The topic is teenagers and smut—sometimes it is good to return to direct and morally charged words.

Their guest has been Josh McDowell, who has spent his whole adult life bringing Christ to young people.  About five years ago he began to notice a change in his audience.  One might say he began to sniff the sour tang of a cesspool; or he caught sight of a film over their minds, like scum floating atop stagnant water.  That was when he discovered how many of them had been wallowing in the smut, which they ushered into their lives with terrible ease.  If a young person has a hand-held internet device or a computer in his bedroom, only a fool would bet against it.

So one of the crew of 100 Huntley Street set out to interview young people about sex—meaning, these days, not the rich mystery of being male or female, but habits of copulation.  One comment struck me especially.  A young man said that a “couple” he knew would view pornographic videos as “education,” and would then try out for themselves what they had seen.

Education, “the great Mumbo-Jumbo and fraud of the age,” as [Malcolm] Muggeridge so memorably called it, education justifies everything.  How can anyone oppose curiosity?  How can anyone wish to prevent people from learning things?  Well, even a contemporary moron might blanch at what one young girl has boasted about learning.  She strangled another girl and wrote about it on Facebook.  Oh, she was nervous at first, but when it was a-doing, there was nothing like it!  LOL.

Desperately do we need to recover the wisdom [of Scripture]…  Evil darkens the mind.  Evil causes ignorance…

Jesus heals the blind man, then rebukes the stubborn Pharisees for their blindness.  If they knew they were blind, they could be healed, but because they say they see, their sin remains (Jn. 9:41).  Saint Paul says that men could have known God, but gave themselves up instead to their empty imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened (Rom. 1:21).  Isaiah even uses as a symbol the central object of education, the book, and prophesies that they who have turned from God will become as a literate man before a book that is sealed, or as a man who cannot read at all (Is. 29:11-12)…

So our teenagers are learning things.  We their parents learned a few of the same things too.  Now perhaps it is time to consider what they have not learned, and what they will never know.

Love, says Christopher Marlowe, is not gentle, but cruel when it means to prey.  Our young people are becoming experts in the cruelty of lust; no surprise that some of them cross over to the lust of cruelty.  But such “experts” forgo the knowledge born of meekness and delicacy.  A person of the other sex, the one I cannot easily fold into my own ego, is a world of mysterious possibilities.  What does it mean to be such a person?  What is it like, to beget a child one cannot bear?  What is it like to bear a child?  What does he long for, in his manhood?  What does she long for, in her womanhood?  What does he fear?  What does she fear?

Our teenagers who know so much about the mechanics of copulation miss the sweetness of simple humanity.  People used to sing merrily about holding a girl’s hand while walking home from the dance—holding a hand.  With that touch, they knew the thrill, perhaps for the first time, of being deemed worthy of love.  What is it like, to be a boy or a girl who could be made dizzyingly happy by so simple a touch?  We will never know.

No one opens an operator’s manual with reverence and trembling.  A vacuum cleaner is not an object of love.  But a human being is not a tool.  What is it like, to be growing into an adult body, with one’s innocence (so far as it is possible for a sinner) preserved?  What is it like for a girl to look upon a handsome young man and be fascinated by his face—the set of his eyes, his smile, the turn of his head, the person in body and soul shining through?  What is it like for a boy to look upon a beautiful young woman and be swept away by the grace and goodness of her actions, from the way she plays with a small child, to the way she sings to herself, as if summing up in one all the beauty of the world about her?  We will never know.

A boy used to have to pay court to a girl, to win her love.  They did so in view of parents and kin, and, if they were Catholic, in the haven of the Church and her sacraments.  That meant that they entered a vast field of meaning, both earthly and heavenly.  What might it be like, to be invited to attend Mass with the girl’s family for the first time?  To kneel beside her to receive Communion?  Then to return to her home, with brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and cousins?  To enjoy a meal together, after the meal?  To be welcome, into a whole history?  To see one’s love in relation to all those other bonds of love?  To know, without having to express it in words, that the flutter in the pulse that you feel when she smiles upon you, is a part of the symphony of love that God has ordained?  To know that there is nothing you need to hide from all these others, that you are still as harmless as the playful little brothers and sisters with smudges of ice cream on their shirts?

What is it like, to grow in wisdom and understanding of love?  To do so in a long approach to the altar of God—an approach sometimes stately, sometimes merry, sometimes fraught with self-doubt, sometimes soaring with joy?  What is it like to make the solemn vow before God and man, without having implicitly and mendaciously made it in a cheap motel room or in a basement or on the back seat of a car?…  How may we describe the decision to board that adventurous ship?…

We are a generation of the dull, blank, listless, hopeless; a generation of youth without mirth, age without wisdom.  Even our eros is pallid and nerveless.  The words of Isaiah again:

“It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite” (Is. 29:8).

But what can an old prophet tell us?

Last night we continued our study of what the Bible says about the end times by looking at what the Bible says about the kingdom Christ will establish after he returns. If you’d like further details about this time period, see this post. Here are the notes:

Recapping where we’ve been so far:

1. God has promised that he will fix the world by destroying sin and evil, and establish an everlasting kingdom.
2. God has promised to do it through the people known as Israel.
   a. Abrahamic Covenant: this becomes the promise of global healing
   b. Davidic Covenant: this becomes the messianic promise
   c. New Covenant: this includes forgiveness of the root of sin
3. Jesus presented himself as this king God would use to fulfill all these promises.
4. He accomplished part of that work in his first coming: the sacrifice for and forgiveness of sins.
5. He promised to come back and finish fulfilling everything that had been promised.
6. At any time, this process could begin: The Day of the Lord will set in like the first contraction of labor. Over a seven-year period, God will judge the world’s evil, finally sweeping it away in advance of the inauguration of his kingdom.
7. Those who believe in Christ will be spared this time period, having been rescued before the Day of the Lord begins.
8. During this time period Israel takes center stage as a nation again. Through this period they are prepared as a people to be the center of the fulfillment of the promises—in other words, they are readied to receive the fulfillment of the covenants God made. They will turn to Christ and thus receive the Holy Spirit (Rom 11.) As they see the New Covenant fulfilled in them as a nation, they will then be readied to receive the fulfillment of the other covenants: their King from David’s line restoring their kingdom, and the restoration of their central status as a source of blessing to the whole earth. (see Revelation 12:6, 12:13-17)
9. The climax of this period is when Jesus personally returns to the earth to win God’s victory. (see Revelation 19:11-21.)
10. He had foretold this event many times. And taught on what would happen then (see Matthew 24:31 & 25:31-34). People who have come to faith in Christ (mainly the nation of Israel?) enter the kingdom.

The Millennium (see Revelation 20)

1. Revelation 20 simply clarifies and adds some detail to what the Old Testament, and Jesus, had already predicted.

• This returning ruler is Jesus Christ, coming as the messiah who was promised. (Dan 7:13-14)
• The throne he takes up is the throne of David (Is 9:6-7)
• He re-gathers Israel (Acts 1:8, Isaiah 49:5-6)
• From his throne in Jerusalem, he extends his rule over the entire earth.

In other words, we already know what to expect when Jesus returns from the Old Testament prophecies of the coming of the Lord: Global healing, all the nations brought under God’s rule, Israel re-gathered, and Jerusalem as the center of world blessing. This happens on our planet, as the culmination of history. This is exactly what John sees in his vision, with much less detail. Evidently he expects us to supply detail from the older prophecies.

2. The new information Revelation supplies:

• This time period will last 1000 years.
• Satan will be bound and shut away during this time period. His influence will be gone.
• Those who are Christ’s will share his rule over the earth. (Rev 19:14, Rev 5:10, Rev 2:26, Dan 7:27)
• Those who trusted Christ during the Day of the Lord (the tribulation) and suffered martyrdom will be resurrected and share in the rule with those who came with Christ. (20:4-6)
• It ends with a Satanically inspired rebellion and final victory for Christ (20:7-10)
• It is followed by the final judgment. (20:11-15)

Some Applications :

1. God will fix everything and rule the world his way.
2. God’s way is not to do things without people, or without humanity.
3. God keeps his promises. He’ll keep them to Israel, and by keeping those promises to Israel, He’ll bless the nations. Since we have the guarantee that he’s going keep his promises to Israel, we can trust him to keep his promises to us (that is, those of us who are gentiles). Therefore, we can trust him to keep his promises to us individually.

This is part 2 of a multi-part series of posts responding to Justin Taylor & John Piper’s article “9 Reasons We Can Be Confident Christians Won’t Be Raptured Before the Tribulation.” You can read the introduction to the series and read all nine reasons here.

Today I want to begin responding to their second and (the first half of their) third points. They both hinge on the same issue. Here they are:

2. The wording of 2 Thessalonians 1:5-7, when read carefully, shows that Paul expects to attain rest from suffering at the same time and in the same event that he expects the unbelievers to receive punishment, namely, at the revelation of Jesus with mighty angels in flaming fire. This revelation is not the pre-tribulational rapture but the glorious second coming. Which means that Paul did not expect an event at which he and the other believers would be given rest seven years before the glorious appearing of Christ in flaming fire. Vengeance on unbelievers and rest for the persecuted church come on the same day in the same event.
3. The wording of 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2suggests that the “assembling to meet him” is the same as “the day of the Lord” about which they are confused. But the assembling is the “rapture” and “the day of the Lord” is the glorious second coming. They appear to be one event.

Here are the texts in question, with additional verses for the sake of the discussion:

2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 “…that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer; ⁶ since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, ⁷ and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, ⁸ in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, ¹⁰ when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you,² not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. ³ Let no one deceive you by any means; for [that Day will not come] unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, ⁴ who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

In both of these points, Piper and Taylor (from here on out I’ll just say “Taylor”) assert that the rapture and the second coming are simultaneous, one and the same event. This is, of course, the issue in question, because if they are the same event, then the “catching up” of believers Paul describes in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 cannot happen before the trouble (tribulation) which precedes his final appearing and descent to earth.

Here’s a short version of the answer I’m about to write out in detail—Taylor’s argument could be diagrammed this way:

1. The Rapture=The Day of the Lord, and…
2. The Day of the Lord=Second coming, so…
3. Therefore the Rapture = The Second Coming

This is not the case, for the simple reason that we must define the phrase “Day of the Lord” the way Paul evidently did—by using the definition supplied in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, the Day of the Lord is a whole series of events, which lead up to and climax in the appearing of God. But it is not, simply and only, the appearing itself. (In other words, we can see that #2 is incorrect, and therefore we can question the correctness of #1, and thus also #3.)

Here’s the long version:

Let’s look at the second passage Taylor mentions first (Point #3). In 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul is comforting the church, who is troubled that “the day of the Lord had come.” The verb he uses for “had come” (in the NKJV) is a verb which means “is present” (enesteken). This is why ESV translates it “has come” and NIV has “has already come.” This is the same word Paul uses in Romans 8:38 for “things present” verses “things to come.” To bring out the nuance of the word, we might translate this, “the day of the Lord is here,” or “The day of the Lord is present.”

So the thing troubling the Thessalonians church was that, in Paul’s absence, someone had taught them that they had entered into the time period they knew as “the Day of the Lord.” Right here I think we run in to a problem with Taylor’s way of reading the verse. He says, “the day of the Lord is the glorious second coming.” In other words, Taylor believes that when Paul writes “the day of the Lord” he is referring to a single event—the moment when Christ appears in the sky in order to descend and set up his kingdom. But can we be sure that this is actually Paul’s the definition for “the day of the Lord”?

I would say no, for two reasons.

First, we can discern what Paul meant by using this phrase by looking at his prior teaching on the subject. We know Paul had taught the church about this “Day” because he explicitly refers to it in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11. If you read that passage, he tells the church that they already know how the Day begins—it starts like labor pains for a pregnant woman. This is a reference to Isaiah 13:8, in which the Day of the Lord is likened to the pains of labor. In other words, when Paul used the term “day of the Lord” for the Thessalonians, he hadn’t made it up himself, or made up a definition. Instead, he was using a term which already had a long history of use and definition in the Old Testament (as evidenced by his use of Isaiah’s writing).

For details on what the Old Testament says about this time period, see this post and this post. Suffice it to say that the Old Testament is clear that this time period includes a whole series of events (armies mustering, battles, geo-political upheaval, a powerful ruler who takes center stage, divine judgments being poured out) and finally culminates with the appearing of the Lord himself. The Apostles picked this up in the New Testament and explained that this appearing of the Lord was the appearing of Jesus Christ himself. But the entire series of events was referred to as one unified occurrence known as “the Day of the Lord.”

Second, we can see from the context 2 Thessalonians 2 that this “Day of the Lord” must be a series of events (or better yet, a single complex of many events), rather than one singular event, because the church was afraid that they had entered into it. If they had been taught that the Day of the Lord was one singular event (the appearing of Christ in the sky to descend), they would not have been troubled that it had come, they would have rejoiced! Or, if someone did tell them it had come, all they would have had to do was check the sky: No Jesus up there, no Day of the Lord.

Instead, after hearing from Paul about the time period known as “the Day of the Lord,” someone had come and troubled them with the thought that that time was currently underway. It “was present” and they were in it! Paul’s answer is to tell them that they can know they are not currently living in the Day of the Lord since there are discernible realities that will mark that time off. He lists two: the “falling away” (which comes “first” of the two things he lists) and the revealing of “the man of sin.” This seems to be his shorthand way of referring to the things just explained above, that the Day of the Lord includes a series of recognizable events.

Now, notice verse 3. In the NKJV the words “that day will not come” are in italics, because they are not in the Greek text, but supplied by the translators because the sentence is incomplete in English if it is translated without those words. But the words we supply to finish Paul’s thought bear directly on our question of whether the rapture and second coming are one event. Since Paul didn’t write that part of the sentence himself, the simplest thing to assume is that he expected us to use the next closest verb to figure out what he was referring to. That verb is the “is present” from verse 2. This means that he meant us to understand verse three as something like, “that Day is not present unless” the two things he mentions are also happening. So he does not seem to be saying, as it may sound in some translations, that those two things must happen before the Day of the Lord comes, but (to reiterate) that those realities will mark the time period of the Day of the Lord.

So, no, we do not see from 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2 that the day of the Lord is the same as the “assembling to meet him,” otherwise known as the Rapture. Instead, Paul refers to the Rapture because he had taught them to expect it before the Day of the Lord, and then immediately moves to address the troubling teaching that they were in the time period the “assembling” was supposed to rescue them from.

It is worth spending all that time on the third point, since it makes understanding Taylor’s second point much easier.

That’s where we’ll focus in the next post.

Pastor Joe’s been recommending Jim Cymbala’s new book Storm for a few weeks now. I finished it the other night, and I too recommend it to you as a good overview of the current church situation in the West, and a fresh call to the kinds of things we’re pursuing together (here at CC Philly) on Sunday nights. In the book Cymbala shares this story from his childhood, which found particularly inspiring:

For a boy who spent summers playing on a hot concrete playgrounds and finding shade in the shadows of the surrounding Brooklyn apartment buildings, nothing was more exciting than a visit to the country. Each summer I would spend a few weeks with my cousins in Milford, Connecticut. This is where Uncle Ed and Aunt May lived. Driving up the gravel road that led to their house on the hill felt as foreign to me as the Northwest Passage. As much as I enjoyed myself, the whole experience was so different from what i knew growing up in Brooklyn.

At Night I slept on a cot in their spacious garage. We didn’t have garages where I lived in Brooklyn. I also wasn’t used to the smell of fresh country air and the feeling of the early morning dew when I walked barefoot on the grass. The rash I developed after playing gin the vast wooded areas that surrounded their property was completely foreign to me. How was i supposed to know what poison ivy is? It wasn’t a problem on the cement pavement of Parkside Avenue in Brooklyn.

However, I was used to going to church on Sunday, and my aunt and uncle took mew faithfully to their small church in Milford. There they sang some of the same hymns, an offering was collected, and a sermon was preached, just as at parents’ church.

One Sunday night there was a very special service in that little church. I can’t recall the sermon preached, but toward the end of the meeting the alter area was opened for the people to come forward to worship, sing, and pray. Sitting in the pew, I couldn’t see what was happening, but suddenly I felt something that seemed to fill the room. Even my ornery little heart knew something unusual was taking place, and though it was  real.

After a few minutes, I whispered to my Aunt May, who sat in the pew next to me, “What’s happening?”

“Oh, Jimmy, that’s the presence of the Lord,” she said. “Sometimes he comes quietly; sometimes he stirs us to praise out loud. It’s never the same, but what you’re feeling is the presence of God.”

As soon as she said it, I knew that what she was saying was true, No one could manufacture or whip up what I was sensing. Though I couldn’t use my five senses to touch him, God’s presence was palpably real in that moment. Time seemed to stop while I basked in the sweetness of Jesus and the greatness of God.

I was young at the time, but decades later as I write these words, I vividly remember that Holy Spirit-filled moment.

This story has stayed in my mind since I read it. I want to pray for this to be more and more of a normal experience for us, whether we’re speaking about church gatherings or personal devotional time–and even the rest of our daily lives. I want my family, my wife and my kids, to experience this together in prayer and worship. And I want more and more of us to gather on Sunday nights to join what (honestly) we’re already beginning to experience together. Will you consider coming?  (Hint: you can join most of the young adults who come on the right side of the sanctuary, if you’re looking at Pastor Joe.) Hope to see you soon.

On Monday nighty we continued our look at what the Bible says about the end times by studying a rough chronology and description of the seven-year “Day of the Lord” period often called “The Tribulation.” Here are the notes:

What happens during the Tribulation

Dan 7:1-8, 15-25 The Rise of a new global superpower
Dan 8:23-24 The rise of an individual leader of that power
Dan 9:27 This leader initiates a seven year covenant with Israel
Rev 6:1-8 Divine Judgments in the form of political and sociological upheaval
Rev 11:1-13 God has two witnesses
Rev 13:1-17 This leader is an economic dictator and religious head
2 Thess 2:3-12 This ruler is the Man of Sin
Rev 8:6-13 Divine judgments in the form of signs and wonders are poured out
Rev 9:20-21 Many do not repent
Rev 7:9-17 Many do repent
Rev 7:1-4 Israel Center Stage
Rev 14:6-8 Angelic preaching
Rev 16:12-16 Demonic activity, armies gathering for battle
Dan 11:36-12:1 Wars with the world leader
Joel 3:9-14 nations gathering
Zech 14:2-4 All nations gathered, the Lord comes
Mat 24:29-31 Jesus comes back
Rev 19:11-21 Jesus defeats all the armies

The Second Coming: The Great hope of all Mankind

See Ps 96:10-13, Ps 98; 2 Peter 3:1-9, 14-15

What’s the point?

1. The Bible predicts the future. Prophecy is a verifier of the truth of scriptural claims.
(See Isaiah 41:21-24, 46:9-10, 48:3-5)
2. We may look at current events to see if they are leading in the direction prophecy points. Now, it is very common for people to express disdain or boredom with those who watch current events to line up with prophecy. Of course, this may be done wrongly. People may get more excited about news feeds than the bible. But we should ask ourselves this question: If the things the bible predicted were really going to happen, and if we were getting close to those things occurring, we would expect to see global events “positioning” themselves in the direction they’d need to go if the prophecies were going to come true, right? So, do we currently see…
• the world ripe for, and already experiencing, major social upheavals…
• conditions needed for the existence of a world-wide state being prepared…
• a global yearning for strong, capable leadership to deal with the world’s problems…
• geo-political lines and alliances being drawn up according to what the bible says…
• increasing interest in the demonic (whether explicit or implicit), and actual demonic activity…
• increasing animosity towards Christ…
• Israel in the land, in possession of Jerusalem…
• Heightened animosity towards Israel, such that they would welcome a peace treaty and someone with the power to enforce it…?

3. Is your life woven into the world system in such a way that you would be lost if it changed or was ruined? (see Gal 1:3-4, 1 Thess 1:9-10)
4. Believers: Is this knowledge in you? see Colossians 3:1-7

The studies on the our last two Monday night have had a lot to do with the time period the bible refers to as “The Day of the Lord.” While reading in Dwight Pentecost’s book Things to Come I found this list of the events that seem to happen in this period based on bible prophecy. If you want to look further into these things, here’s some detail and references for you to look it up and do your own reading.

It will be evident that the events within the Day of the Lord are indeed momentous, and a study of this period must include a study of a great part of the prophetic Scriptures. It will include the prophesied events of the tribulation period, such as:

• The federation of states into a Roman Empire (Daniel 2 & 7)
• The rise of the political ruler of this empire, who makes a covenant with Israel (Daniel 9:27; Revelation 13:1-10)
• The formation of the false religious system under the false prophet (Revelation 13:11-18)
• The pouring out of the judgments under the seals (Revelation 13:11-18)
• The separation of the 144,000 witnesses (Revelation 7)
• The trumpet judgments (Revelation 8-11)
• The rise of God’s witness (Revelation 11)
• The persecution of Israel (Revelation 12)
• The pouring out of the bowl judgments (Revelation 16)
• The overthrow of the false professing church (Revelation 17 & 18)
• The Events of the campaign of Armageddon (Ezekiel 38 & 29; Revelation 16:16; 19:17-21)
• The proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom (Matthew 24:14)
• The prophesied events connected with the second advent, such as: the return of the Lord (Matthew 24:29-30)
• The resurrection of the Old Testament and tribulation saints (John 6:39-40; Revelation 20:4)
• The destruction of the Beast and all his armies and the False Prophet and his followers in the Beast worship (Revelation 19:11-21)
• The Judgment on the nations (Matthew 25:31-46)
• The regathering of Israel (Ezekiel 37:1-14)
• The judgment on living Israel (Ezekiel 20:33-38)
• The restoration of Israel to the land (Amos 9:15)
• The binding of Satan (Revelation 20:2-3)
• It will include all the events of the millennial age, with the final revolt of Satan (Revelation 20:7-10)
• The great white throne judgment (Revelation 20:11-15)
• The purging of earth (2 Peter 3:10-13)

A couple months ago Justin Taylor, a blogger I respect and appreciate, posted an article with this title: 9 Reasons We Can Be Confident Christians Won’t Be Raptured Before the Tribulation. It was basically a distillation of a slightly longer article by another pastor I respect, John Piper, (Titled Definitions and Observations concerning the second coming of Christ). Taylor, true to his word, gives nine reasons (from Piper) why Christians should expect to go through the Tribulation (in some form) and then be raptured simultaneously with the appearing of Jesus Christ in the sky, to immediately return to the earth together with him. Since this directly applies to the current series of teachings we’re working through on Monday nights, and since these two men are intelligent and astute readers of scripture, I thought it would be good to respond to some of the most serious points of difference others in the Church have with how we at Calvary Chapel tend to see the scripture’s teachings on end-times events. As I said at the beginning of our studies on the end times, great Christians–whom we love and admire, with whom we co-labor in the mission of witnessing to Christ in our generation, and with whom we will spend eternity in the Kingdom of God–differ on how to understand these things. So this discussion is “in house” and “among family members” who are committed to each other. Nevertheless, the best families can provide contexts for vigorous debates about important ideas. So here we go.

Here are the nine points from Taylor and Piper. (I’ll respond to the first one in this post, and the rest in a series of future posts.)

1. The word for “meeting” the Lord in the air in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 (apantesin) is used in two other places in the New Testament: Matthew 25:6 and Acts 28:15. In both places it refers to a meeting in which people go out to meet a dignitary and then accompany him in to the place from which they came out. One of these,Matthew 25:6, is even a parable of the second coming and so a strong argument that this is the sense of the meeting here in 1 Thess. 4:17—that we rise to meet the Lord in the air and then welcome him to earth as king.

2. The wording of 2 Thessalonians 1:5-7, when read carefully, shows that Paul expects to attain rest from suffering at the same time and in the same event that he expects the unbelievers to receive punishment, namely, at the revelation of Jesus with mighty angels in flaming fire. This revelation is not the pre-tribulational rapture but the glorious second coming. Which means that Paul did not expect an event at which he and the other believers would be given rest seven years before the glorious appearing of Christ in flaming fire. Vengeance on unbelievers and rest for the persecuted church come on the same day in the same event.

3. The wording of 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2 suggests that the “assembling to meet him” is the same as “the day of the Lord” about which they are confused. But the assembling is the “rapture” and “the day of the Lord” is the glorious second coming. They appear to be one event.

Supporting this is the reference to “gathering” the elect in Matthew 24:31. Here there is a gathering (same word) but it is clearly a post-tribulational context. So there is no need to see the gathering and the day of the Lord in 2 Thessalonians as separate events.

4. If Paul were a pre-tribulationist why did he not simply say in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 that the Christians don’t need to worry that the day of the Lord is here because all the Christians are still here? Instead he talks just the way you would expect a post-tribulational person to do. He tells them that they should not think that the day of the Lord is here because the apostasy and the man of lawlessness have not appeared. . . .

5. When you read Matthew 24 or Mark 13 or Luke 21, which are Jesus’ descriptions of the end times, there is no mention of a rapture removing believers from the events of the end. A normal reading gives no impression of a departure. On the contrary, he talks as if the believing listeners and then the readers would or could experience the things he mentions. See Mt. 24:4, 9, 15, 23, 25f, 33, etc.

6. Going through tribulation, even when it is appointed by God, is not contrary to Biblical teaching. See especially 1 Peter 4:17; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-10; Hebrews 12:3-11. But even so, Revelation 9:4 suggests that the saints will be in some measure protected in the time of distress by the seal of God.

7. The commands to “watch” do not lose their meaning if the second coming is not an any-moment one. See Matt. 25:1-13 where all ten maidens are asleep when the Lord returns. Yet the lesson at the end of the parable is, “Watch!” The point is that watching is not gazing up for an any-moment-return of the Lord; it is the moral vigilance that keeps you ready at all times doing your duty—the wise maidens had full lanterns! They were watchful!

Nor does the teaching that the second coming will be unexpected lose its force if post-tribulationism is true. See Luke 12:46 where the point is that if a servant gets drunk thinking that his master is delayed and will not catch him-that very servant will be surprised and taken off guard. But as 1 Thess. 5:1-5 says, “You (believers) are not in darkness for that day to surprise you like a thief.” We still teach that great moral vigilance and watchfulness is necessary lest we be lulled asleep and fall prey to the deceits of the last days and be overtaken in the judgment.

8. The strongest pre-tribulational text, Rev. 3:10, is open to another interpretation without any twisting. It says, “Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell upon the earth.” But to “be kept for the hour of testing” is not necessarily to be taken out of the world during this hour, and thus spared suffering. Compare Gal. 1:4 and Jesus’ prayer for his disciples in John 17:15where to “keep from” does not mean physical removal. And notice the inevitability of martyrdom in Rev. 6:9-11. The promise is to be guarded from the hour in the sense of being guarded from the demoralizing forces of that hour.

9. The second coming does not lose its moral power in post-tribulationism. New Testament moral incentive is not that we should fear being caught doing evil, but that we should so love the appearing of the Lord that we want to be pure as the Lord is pure, for whom we hope, as 1 John 3:1-3 says.

There you have it. Let’s look at the first point today:

1. The word for “meeting” the Lord in the air in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 (apantesin) is used in two other places in the New Testament: Matthew 25:6 and Acts 28:15. In both places it refers to a meeting in which people go out to meet a dignitary and then accompany him in to the place from which they came out. One of these, Matthew 25:6, is even a parable of the second coming and so a strong argument that this is the sense of the meeting here in 1 Thess. 4:17—that we rise to meet the Lord in the air and then welcome him to earth as king.

 This is a common way to understand Paul’s wording in 1 Thessalonians 4:17.

Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. (NKJV)

And it is true, both the other passages Taylor and Piper mention do refer to this “go out and meet to turn around and come back” type of event. But there are several things we can say here.

1. A commenter on the original post at Taylor’s blog makes this point: “This sample size [the two occurrences Piper lists from the New Testament] is far, far too limited. The word “apantesin” is used over 20x in the LXX [The Septuagint, an ancient translation of the Old Testament in to Greek) and has a much more general usage simply to “meet” someone, and on most of these occasions they definitely did not accompany that person or group back to where they came from. ” In other words, we shouldn’t draw too much from the other two uses of the word in the New Testament, since we see from the Old Testament that people (including translators) around the time of Christ saw the word as having a broad meaning (like our English word “meet”), rather than a narrow, technical one. What we do in cases like this, where looking at all the uses of the word doesn’t give us a definitive sense of what part of the word’s meaning is being used in a certain verse, is to let the immediate context be our main guide to the meaning of the word. In other words, we keep reading 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:10 to see what Paul might mean with this word for “meet.”
2. Reading this way immediately shows us that the people Paul refers to in 4:17 are not going out to meet anyone. They are being forcefully snatched away (the meaning of the word translated “caught up”) by the one whom they are going to meet. So we already have a reason to see that this mention of the word for “meet” probably points to something very different than the other two New Testament uses of the word. This is not a procession of people going to meet a visiting dignitary, but something else.
3. New Testament scholar Craig Blaising helps us complete our thoughts here. “The phrase ‘to meet the Lord,’ eis apantesin kyriou [in the Greek], as many have pointed out, was used of a welcoming delegation coming out of a city to receive and accompany an arriving dignitary. The assembling of the saints around the coming Lord surely carries this connotation, but with certain differences. First, it is not actually a delegation that meets him but the whole company of saints, whose previously dead now resurrected and this alive at his coming. Second, they do not ‘go out’ to meet him at their own discretion, but they are ‘snatched up’ by the Lord, who has descended apparently for this very purpose of rapturing them. Third, the text says nothing about their accompanying him on the completion of descent; rather, Paul concludes his description of the event with the assembly in heaven, encouraged by the fact that ‘we will always be with the Lord.’ In other words, while the notions of greeting and accompanying an arriving dignitary are not absent from the image being conveyed here, there is another image at work complicating and dominating the overall saints from death (this is further developed in 1 Corinthians 15), and with them he snatches up living saints, who were described in 1:10 as waiting for him to come from heaven and deliver them from the wrath to come. He raptures them to deliver them from a coming wrath. Once the wrath is completed, we may assume on the basis of the other image that the whole assembly would then accompany him in the completion of his expected return.” (from the book Three Views on the Rapture, (2010) p. 28)
4. In his discussion of the passage, Blaising quotes another scholar, who writes: “Apart from the possible connotation that apantesin [‘meet’] might have for a return to earth, the rest of the imagery (the clouds and being caught up to the Lord) are indicative of an assumption to heaven of the people who belong to Christ. That Paul adds his own definitive statement concerning the significance of this meeting in the clause kai houtos pantote sun kurio esometha (‘and thus we will always be with the Lord’) suggests that both dead and living Christians will return to heaven with the Lord, not only to enjoy continuous fellowship with him, but also in terms of 1:10, to be saved from the coming wrath of God” (Charles A. Wanamaker, The Epistles to the Thessalonians).

To sum it all up, the theme of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 is not a triumphant delegation, but a deliverance, a rescue of certain people who then see their rescuer, and those who came with him, in a personal meeting. That is the contextual meaning of the word translated “meet” in this passage. So it does not seem that it can be used to argue that the event Paul describes here must happen simultaneously with the appearing of Christ to reign on the earth (at the end of the tribulation period).

Last night we continued our study of what the Bible teaches about the end times by looking at a corollary to last week’s study–namely, if the Day of the Lord is a defined series of events which happen over certain period of time, how do believers relate to this time of God’s judgment? Here are the notes:

The Rapture: When, What, and Why

WHEN: Before the Day of the Lord, at any time.

1. Before the Day of the Lord
2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 “The day of the Lord” cannot “be present”, because these two things aren’t happening.

1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 “delivered from the wrath to come” (as in Malachi 4)

1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11
4:13-14 — Their problem: fearing that those who had died would miss the coming of the Lord
4:15-17 — Paul’s response: no, when the Lord snatches us away, they will have risen first to be with him.
5:1-2 — But you don’t need me to tell you about when this will happen, since you know this: The day of the Lord is going to come as a surprise. What does he mean by “Day of the Lord”?
5:3 — The Day of the Lord will break on everyone like “labor pains”—unexpectedly. These “labor pains” are exactly how Isaiah describes the Day of the Lord (13:8), and Jesus uses the same imagery (Mt 24:8). In other words, Paul taught the Thessalonians what the Old Testament Prophets and Jesus taught about the Day of the Lord. He expects us to define what he means by “Day of the Lord” by using the definition of it we saw in the OT and Olivet Discourse—a seven year period with a series of events culminating in the appearing of Christ to rule on the earth.

The key? We are speaking here about how this period will begin. It will begin unexpectedly, like the onset of labor pains. (This imagery of “birth” is appropriate—a series of events which culminate in someone’s appearance.) Now notice—

5:3-11 Introduces us to two groups of people:

1. “They” —non-believers who do not escape this sudden onset of a process of God’s wrath being poured out (2, 3). THIS COULD HAPPEN AT ANY TIME.
2. “We” —believers who will not be overtaken by this day and caught up in this wrath. (4, 9, 11) So the beginning of the Day of the Lord introduces a division among these two groups of people—one group who will suddenly enter in to this time of judgment, and one who will not.

How does God make this division?
v. 9 – “salvation” = “deliverance” or “rescue”
v.10 – “living together with him” whether we’re dead or alive
1:10 – “deliverance” from the wrath of the Day of the Lord.

This deliverance must be the same event as the “catching up” described in 4:17.

Therefore, this give us the timing of 4:17’s “Catching up.”  Why? This catching up to be with the Lord happens in order to remove believers in Christ from the world before the onset of the “labor pains” which signal the beginning of the Day of the Lord and the pouring out of his wrath. It is the rescue of his people from a world he is about to judge. This “catching up” is what we usually call the rapture of the church, and here we see that it happens before (or as the first part of) the tribulation.

Paul tells the Thessalonian church that the Day of the Lord will overtake everyone on the earth in a time of outpouring of God’s wrath. They shouldn’t listen to anyone who tells them that they’re in it, or that they’re going to go through it, because there’s a clearly defined pattern with certain unmistakable events which identify the Day of the Lord. This pattern, and these events, were foretold by the prophets and the Lord himself. And Paul is clear that those who trust in Christ won’t be overtaken by these things. Instead, he says, we should be comforted by the expectation that we will be delivered from God’s Day of wrath by the Lord himself, who will descend from heaven to catch us up to be with him forever.

Other Hints: Isaiah 26:19-21, Zephaniah 2:3, Luke 21:29-36, Lot in Sodom.

2. At Any time (Imminent) – Because there is nothing from stopping the day of the Lord from beginning.

WHAT: The Catching up of Believers to meet the Lord in the air, as they are given their new bodies, and commence eternity with the Lord.

1. Believers will be “caught up” to meet Christ. (1 Thessalonians 4:17)
2. Believers will be transformed—given their eternal, resurrection bodies. (1 Corinthians 15:50-52, Phil 3:20-21, 1 John 3:2-3)
3. Believers will then always be with the Lord. (John 14:1-3)

WHY: Removal, Revealing, Reassurance

1. To remove those who are forgiven from the outpouring of God’s wrath on the earth. Since Christ drank the cup of God’s wrath for us, we will not drink any part of it.
2. As a current source of comfort.
3. As a current incentive to holiness.
4. To precipitate the “apostasy” Paul speaks of—to reveal the true state of earth without the “salt” preserving it, thus revealing God’s judgment even more righteous.
5. As a sign of encouragement to those who get saved during the Tribulation: God can defeat evil and raise the dead?

Any prophecy about the second coming of Christ and how it applies to believers is helpful,
since it is all “his coming.”

The Day of the Lord is how God brings in the fulfillment of the three covenants. It includes the purifying of Abraham’s seed, and the sweeping away of all rebellion to his rule, so that David’s son can set up his kingdom in Israel and extend his rule over the whole earth. But those who have taken advantage of the day of salvation get to skip the day of wrath.

Since we have already begun to enter in to the fulfillment of those covenants, we don’t need to go through the preparation the rest of the earth will. We simply experience the complete fulfillment, beginning with our own bodies and our fellowship with Christ, and leading on to our participation in the kingdom.

The good news for those who don’t currently believe in Christ? The coming wrath has an escape hatch. Believe and be saved. (Revelation 22:6-12, Acts 17:30-31)