If you have been reading here for any length of time, you have heard me state on more than one occasion that I am NOT...on ‘rapture watch’.

What do I mean when I say that?

Well for starters, I sense no compelling to spend any time writing about and addressing the topic. That is not to say I don’t believe in what most have commonly have been taught is the ‘rapture’, or the ‘catching away of the saints’.

Truth be told, you can only find about 3 references to this ‘event’ where Paul alludes to this being ‘caught up together...in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air’. (1 Thess. 4:17). So I guess it’s safe to say this event won’t happen on a day that is clear and sunny?

I can tell you that Paul spends a whole lot more time admonishing the ‘saints’ to making sure their hearts are right and that ‘having these promises...beloved...let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God’. (2 Cor. 7:1). [When you read that word ‘cleanse’, did it remind you of yesterday’s message?]

And while he also alludes to this ‘twinkling of an eye moment...at the sound of the last trumpet’, in 1 Cor. 15:52, he spends little time elsewhere addressing it in his letters. There is one more reference to it in his second letter to the Thessalonians which we will get to shortly. And to the best of my knowledge, I see nowhere in Peter or John’s writings any talk of a coming ‘rapture’ event.

Yet today, it is a reoccurring subject that many sincere believers focus on, especially when troublesome times begin to arise. (the pandemic and when war broke out in the Middle East, in Israel)... and there is usually a flurry of postings in social media by these folks expressing thanks and relief that they will be ‘out of here’ long before things get really ‘bad’. I’ve even seen comments that this rapture could happen at ‘any minute’. Could it? Well sure it could...God can do whatever He wants whenever He wants. I’ve even had people advise or suggest I spend more time addressing this topic of the rapture in my writings here.

Let me share with you what I sense my ‘calling’ at this time has centered around. -While multitudes are ‘gathering on the corner waiting for a rapture bus to whisk them off this planet’, my writings have been centered more around making sure we are ‘in the ark’.

And when I say ‘in the ark’, I mean we better make sure we are ‘in Christ’, and not just saying words that would hint at that. To be ‘in Christ’ means we are a ‘new creation’, and that ‘old things have passed away (our ‘old man’, perhaps? Gal. 5:24; Rom. 6:6) and that ‘all things have become new’. (2 Cor. 5:17)

To be ‘in Christ’ means we are keeping His commandments, and His love has been perfected in us, and we are ‘walking just as He walked.” (1 John 2:3-6; 4:12,17). Yes, you can go look that up in your Bible to make sure that is in there. Then note 2 Cor. 13:5 and be reminded how Paul exhorts us to ‘examine ourselves to make sure we are ‘in the faith and that Jesus Christ is in us’.

So why do I use the phrase about making sure people are ‘in the ark (Christ)’? Because Jesus said that His return would be similar to the days of Noah and that a flood was coming and it was only those who were ‘in the ark’ that were ‘saved’. (Matt. 24:36-39). And Jesus does not allude to this idea of ‘if’ a flood comes, He states ‘when’...the flood comes. (Matt. 7:24-27)

So now I would like to direct your attention to Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians, and if you would take a moment, please read the first 14 verses there in chapter 2. (I’ll wait)

Paul felt a need to put at rest a growing concern that some feared they had ‘missed it’, this ‘gathering to Him’, that is. (1). It seems that rumors had spread and that the ‘day of the Lord’ had come already, (2). Then Paul admonishes the readers, with a statement we hear repeatedly throughout the NT – “Let no one deceive you by any means.” (3)

Since Paul, along with other writers continued to warn the ‘brethren’ to ‘be not deceived’, would it be ok to consider that it is possible that ‘brethren’ can be...deceived? Look again at some of these warnings – [Matt. 24:4-5; James 1:16; 2 Cor. 11:3; Eph. 5:6;; 1 John 3:7]

Paul continues on there in 2 Thess. 2....saying/implying - ‘that Day’...will not come ‘unless the falling away comes first’...(3). The Greek text here uses the word [apostasia- apostasy] which means a rebellion, revolt, or defection. People have been known to do this. (John 6:66)

He then adds that ‘the man of sin, or lawlessness, is revealed’, (prior to the gathering) to which many assume is the ‘anti-Christ’ we hear so much speculation about with folks trying to figure out who ‘he’ is. Paul lists some characteristics here describing what this ‘man of sin’ exhibits where he ‘exalts himself above all that is called God...and he ‘sits as God in the temple of God...showing himself that he is God’.

I want to take a second and just make two brief points here for you to consider. The first point has to do with ‘timing’ issues, something we get overly consumed with often. There is much debate, for example, as to ‘when’ the rapture will occur. There are three major camps of belief that has been debated for years- will the ‘rapture’ occur at the beginning of the ‘7 year Tribulation’, or midway...or at the end. But keep in mind, when it comes to ‘timing’, we don’t always get it right. Look where John writes: “Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now...many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.” (1 John 2:18)

John would also note a few pages later that the ‘spirit of the Antichrist is already in the world’. (4:3). Please know that John penned these words some 2000 years ago.

The other point I want to make here is that so many people are looking for a ‘physical man’ to show up on the scene who will charm and deceive the whole world and then set himself up in a physical ‘temple of God’ (which has yet to be built) and claim he is God. Will this all actually take place? I’m not here to argue or deny that. But...are we not told in 1 Cor. 6:19 that ‘we are the temple of the Holy Spirit’? And are we also not told that God ‘no longer dwells in temples made with hands?” (Acts 7:48; 17:24). And did Jesus not say that we cannot serve ‘two masters’? (Matt.6:24).

So if Jesus is not truly ‘Lord of all’ (in your heart/life), then who just might have set themselves up already in your heart/temple ...as ‘God’? How might one even know? Well, Jesus said if we truly loved Him, we’d be doing what He said (keeping the commandments- John 14:15; 1 John 5:3). He even asked some- ‘Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, and not do the things I say?” (Luke 6:46). And let’s not forget Matt.7:21.

All that to say if Jesus is not Lord of all in your life, then who actually is... calling the shots, choosing whether to surrender or not to God’s perfect will in your life? I would even go as far to suggest that an un-surrendered heart is actually being influenced, if not controlled by the ‘spirit of the antichrist’ today. (Eph. 2:1-3; 1 John 5:19). And you will know the difference by the ‘fruit’ being manifested.

Now Paul goes on there in 2 Thess. 2 and uses an interesting phrase, speaking how the ‘mystery of lawlessness is already at work...” (7).

Perhaps you have read in other places that we learn of the ‘mystery of godliness’ that is also at work in the world today, talking of the greatness of this mystery in how God was manifested in the flesh...(1 Tim. 3:16). And this same ‘mystery of godliness’ is mentioned in Col. 2:26-28, a mystery, I might add that was ‘hidden from ages and generations, but now has been revealed to His saints”. (26). What is...this ‘mystery’? Christ is in us – and it should be evident to all as we ‘walk as He walked’ (1 John 2:6) and demonstrate the same love He demonstrated for us. “By this...will all know we are His disciples”. (John 13:34-35)

So IF...the ‘mystery of godliness’ is not at work in us, then could it be the ‘mystery of lawlessness’ that is manifesting in us? And once again, the ‘fruit’ will be the evidence. (Gal. 5:19-21). And what did Jesus say about a tree producing both ‘good and bad fruit’? (Matt. 7:17-18)

And now for the ‘meat’ of what I was wanting to address here, and will obviously need to await until tomorrow, Lord willing. But just to ‘set the table’ for tomorrow’s lesson – this ‘man of lawlessness’ has yet to have been revealed, hence, the reason the ‘gathering’ has yet to take place. And what will be some of the signs of the coming of the lawless one? Take a look at vs. 9-10 where there will be ‘power, signs, and lying wonders’ along with all ‘unrighteous deception’. Who will be those affected by this deception? – Those who are perishing. Now, if you would, let’s finish up today and read who Jesus said would ‘perish’ in Luke 13:3,5, and then who else are the ones ‘perishing’ according to 2 Cor. 4:3-4?

These are the same people who did not have, or share a ‘love of the truth...that they might be saved’. (2 Thess. 2:10) Seems to me that anyone who has a love for truth, would spend much time feeding on it, that they might know more truth and walk in more freedom and in more light.

Join me tomorrow?