December 30, AD2011

One of Newsmax magazine’s most read issues in recent years is “The Jesus Question: Will He Ever Return?” Published in April 2010, it continues to sell well as a back copy and as a gotta-have gift to hook new subscribers.

I have not consulted that issue of the magazine, so I don’t know how its writers answer the question. However, as a keen observer of world conditions and the visible Church, and as student of the Bible for many years, I have been persuaded to address the question posed by Newsmax in this lengthy, though certainly not exhaustive, essay. In it, I share compelling insights germane to that question—insights which have been granted to all of us who love the truth of God’s Word.

Who is asking the question?
Why the issue’s popularity? Simply because many of our brethren ask the same rhetorical question. You see, they look for an imminent return of Christ Jesus to rapture (gather to Himself) His Church out of these difficult times in a godless and lawless world that hates Christians, and is racing toward its destiny of doom and distruction.

With the year 2011 fading into history, those pretribulationalists, or “pre-tribbers” among us who look for an imminent rapture will continue to do so in 2012. And to them, the sooner they are raptured, the better, because things are getting pretty bad down here.

It seems as if the very intellectual, economic, political, and religious pillars of the whole world are being violently shaken. And the cracks in those columns are widening, lengthening, and deepening.

The organization of National Babylon and Global Babylon under the Antichrist
In the last days, when the world becomes more godlessness and lawlessness, and the pillars of civilization crack and start to crumble because of lies, deceptions and fantasies, Satan will give the Antichrist “his power and his throne and great authority” (Revelation 13:2).
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The Intellectual Pillar
Worldly education and mass communications are more and purveying godless and lawless propaganda.

The Economic Pillar
America’s economy—indeed, the world economy—is on the brink of disaster. Fear of a global apocalypse is in the air. Many are disturbed by dire prophecies of the ancients that are said will converge to bring an end of the world on December 21, 2012. Some see parallels with the economic collapse of Mystery Babylon the Great in Revelation 18.

The Political/Governmental Pillar
Rumors abound that the Antichrist has come or will soon be revealed. Some believe Barack Obama is—or will become—the Antichrist who rises to power through the nation of Babylon (a symbolic name) and aspires to become king of global Babylon (see Revelation 17:10, 11, in context of the entire chapter). Many others still contend the Antichrist will rise through a revived Roman Empire in Europe. And, still others latch on to a new speculation that says the Antichrist will be a Muslim Imam, who will establish a global caliphate.

The Religious/Moral Pillar
Godless humanism and lawlessness in America and around the world are escalating at a rapid pace. (All lawlessness is ultimately directed at God (see Psalms 51:4). Time Magazine named “The Protester” as Man of the Year. Indeed, worldwide lawlessness, rebellion, wars and rumors of wars are rampant. Governments are being toppled. Nations are being torn apart. Even in America, some want the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution retired to the dusty archives of history.

Persecution of Christians is intensifying in America and around the world.

Apostasy is on the rise—not only in the pews but behind pulpits—as a growing proliferation of false religions and false prophets seek to deceive impressionable Christians to turn away from faith in God’s Word and to believe their false teachings.

The Thessalonian deception
Many Christians are of the belief that the Church will get raptured before the Antichrist is revealed and before the ‘great tribulation’ that Jesus prophesied will come. But why hasn’t He come for us? they ask. And so they wonder: “Will Jesus Return in 2012?”

In the first century, Christians in Thessalonica were subject to severe persecution. In the midst of their difficult times, they received word from someone that Jesus had already returned and they had missed it! That was shattering news to the Thessalonians because they feared they had missed the rapture—being gathered by Jesus and taken to heaven to escape mounting persecution.

Paul’s correction and clarification
So, they sought input from a leading authority of the time on such things—the Apostle Paul, who had started their church in the city.

What about it, Paul? What did you write in that letter to those confused and anxious Thessalonians who feared they had been left behind—and what does your letter say to today’s Christians who look for the imminent return of Christ?

Let’s take a look at Paul’s letter (2 Thessalonians 2):

1. Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to Him,
   
   
2. that you may not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.
   
   
3. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it [“our gathering” in “the day of the Lord] will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,
   
   
4. who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
   
   
5. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?
   
   
6. And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he may be revealed.

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.

I’ll pause here to summarize some of his key points thus far:

The Thessalonians had been deceived into believing the “gathering” or rapture had already taken place, and that they were left behind. Paul sought to calm their troubled hearts by exposing the deception with the truth: The “gathering”—an event in the “day of the Lord” had not yet taken place and would not arrive until after the “apostasy” and “the man of lawlessness [i.e., the Antichrist] is revealed.”

Paul continued: “Do you not remember that while I was with you, I was telling you these things? And you know what restrains him [the man of lawlessness] ... (verses 5-6a).” “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way” (verse 7).

Encapsulated in those verses are words and concepts that, for centuries, have given Bible scholars fits. Notice Paul wrote that the revelation of the man of lawlessness was being restrained by a restrainer he identified as “what” (verse 6) and “he” (verse 7).

But what is “what” and who is “he”?

Paul indicates he had revealed those identities to the Thessalonians previously and that they should recall his teachings. But what about today’s reader? What is “what” and who is “he” who restrains the appearance of the Antichrist? Are we left in the lurch on our own to speculate over what Paul had taught the Thessalonians?

A sequence of conditions and events
Paul wrote of a sequence of events and conditions that will take place before the appearance of the Antichrist. He first pointed out the deception of the Thessalonians, a topic he returns to further on in his letter. Next to come is apostasy, then removal of the restrainer, and revelation of the man of lawlessness. All of those are to take place before the Second Coming of Jesus. Any notion of the rapture before those things is absent from Paul’s letter of correction and clarification.

With regard to the Thessalonians’ deception, Paul wrote that the man of lawlessness is “the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved” (verses 9 and 10).

Paul goes on to mention a “deluding influence” sent by God.

What? God Himself is sending a “deluding influence”? To whom?

Paul’s letter answers that question. God will send a deluding influence on those who previously “did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.”

Notice, by the way, a striking contrast with those not saved. In verse 13, Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: “God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.”

Believe it or not, that’s what Paul wrote. Read verses 9, 10, 13 out of your own Bible. God chooses some to be saved and withholds salvation from others.

Preservation of the elect (chosen ones)
In ancient times there were remarkable periods of wide-spread wickedness. In the days of Noah God shook the pillars of civilization with the great flood. And in the days of Lot He shook Sodom and Gomorrah by destroying it and all of its lawless inhabitants. God denied salvation to them all. Except that, in both instances, God chose a very few to be saved—the families of righteous Noah and Lot were the saved remnants of humanity in their day.

Note that God did not rapture Noah and Lot, but preserved them in the midst of all of that tribulation and shaking.

As for today, Jesus is preserving us, and we are to persevere in love and faith, in the truth of His Word.

With regard to the coming Great Tribulation, God will, for a final time, again shake the pillars of civilization. Jesus said of that coming day, in one of His messages to the churches: “Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth” (Revelation 3:10). The thought behind “keep” is to preserve unto Himself, not to exempt from sharing in His sufferings.

Paul wrote of this in his letter to the Romans:

For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor death, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:36-39).

The mystery of lawlessness

Paul wrote to the Thessalonians that the “mystery of lawlessness is already at work” (verse 7). And it is getting worse. Even in churches. Paul wrote of this in his second letter to Timothy:

From chapter three:

1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal haters of good,

4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these.

From chapter four:

3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires;

4 and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.

Jesus had earlier prophesied:

“For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now; nor ever shall. And unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect, those days shall be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘There He is,’ do not believe them. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:22-24).

The Apostle John wrote: “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen; from this we know it is the last hour” (1 John 2:18). Those antichrists are but warm-up acts for history’s final Antichrist (I capitalize “A” to make the distinction).

So, will Jesus return in 2012?
Those who believe in His imminent return are constrained by their theology to anticipate that possibility. But such theology is irreconcilable with Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians.

What we can expect to see in 2012 is more activity of Satan, an increase in false Christs and false prophets, more antichrists, escalating apostasy, and the intensification of wickedness in the world.

God is in complete control
God knows what is going on; indeed, He permits it in order to accomplish His purposes (see Revelation 17:17 in context of the entire chapter).

The apostasy of 2 Thessalonians 2 will take place when God wants it to, He will send a deluding influence upon the unsaved when He wants to, and He therefore will allow the appearance of the Antichrist when He wants to.

Ultimately, God is the restrainer. However, Paul may be referring to intermediaries—both an impersonal “what” and personal “he” through which God restrains the man of lawlessness. "What" restrains may refer to the Antichrist's not having a worldly throne and its authority and power (Revelation 13:2). "He" who restrains may refer to Satan as the restrainer, in that God has not yet granted him permission to give his power, worldly throne and its great authority to the Antichrist.

Why won’t Jesus just come to rapture us? Why will God allow us to remain here to experience such terrible conditions?

Peter answers our questions (1 Peter 4:12-19):

12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;

13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation.

14 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

15 By no means let any of you suffer as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a trouble-some meddler;

16 but if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed, but in that name let him glorify God.

17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

18 And if it is with difficulty that the righteous is saved, what will become of the godless man and the sinner?

19 Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.”

The promises of Jesus to His chosen ones
Jesus promised: “lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20b). When will this “age” end? At the end of the Great Tribulation, at the time of His Second Coming. He did not promise to rapture us before the end of the age, before the Great Tribulation, or before His Second Coming.

Jesus prophesied: “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other” (Matthew 24:29-31).

Paul provided more details: “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. 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. Therefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18).

Who will be “caught up”? The elect who are alive and remain. Note that Paul included himself and the Thessalonians among the elect. They are among the “dead in Christ” who will be raised when Jesus returns.

When will all of this take place? Jesus said: “immediately after the tribulation” He will return with His angels “and He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect.”

So, as we enter the new Year of Our Lord 2012, let us remember that God has said: “‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.’ ... since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:26, 28; see also Exodus 19:18).
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Read more:

"Is Barak Obama the Antichrist?"

"The World Vs. God's Kingdom"

"Frankly Speaking" Index of articles by Frank Allnutt
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Quotes from Scripture are from the New American Standard Version of the Bible unless otherwise indicated.
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