Bible Survey - 1, 2 Thessalonians

First and second Thessalonians, really interesting. These letters were written not long after Paul was there. The time at Thessalonica was shortened by the behavior of the Jews and it was also a very intense time. But what's interesting is the Apostle Paul is writing to a very young church But he also writes repeatedly, you know this, you know that. So what that says is once these people became believers, they were rather intensive with their teaching.

And I think that's something for us to take a look at. I think a lot of times when someone becomes a believer, we just kind of, you know, figure it out, just kind of blend in, or figure out what they need to do. And what it appears is that Apostle Paul is very deliberate in what he's delivered to them and what they already know at being weeks and months old in the Lord. So I think that's probably something for us to give some real thought to in terms of how we deal with new believers. It is not at all uncommon for believers to end up going through years of stumbling and struggling and things of that sort. And what we see here is a good example of Paul being very deliberate and is a good model for how do we treat young believers.

So it's Paul and Timothy and Silas or Silvanus as he's also called. Silas is kind of a nickname. I've been to Thessalonica. It was about 51 AD. This is Paul's second missionary journey. His first stop on the European continent was Philippi. So then he goes on this Ignatian way to the west and actually seems to bypass, as far as we can tell, a couple of other cities and then stops at Thessalonica. So what we have there is first Thessalonians, is to answer some questions and get things straightened out, and then some apparent confusion and actually misrepresentation by somebody. Paul writes about a letter as if from Paul. So somebody is writing phony letters. So Paul wants to clear that up. So wait a minute, you know, I didn't write that. And let's get this straight here. So we have a graphical outline.

And the graphical outline, I think, you know, breaks it up pretty well for first Thessalonians there. A lot of what he's looking at is growth, strengthening the church, but also getting something real clear about essentially the rapture. Every chapter in First Thessalonians in some way addresses the rapture, the taking up of the church. And then in Second Thessalonians, as we'll see, the second chapter is the one that tries to address what had been misunderstood and even misconstrued, you know, falsely put out there. The printer did odd things with the outline, so I apologize for that. But we email it to the printer, and then it decides how it wants to format it. Sorry about the jagged print there. Let's take a look at the top of page two in your handout.

So here are some highlights of First Thessalonians, and one of them is the day of the Lord is an expression that comes out here and if you look at scripture the day of the Lord is an expression from the Old Testament that carries on into the new and by the way there are about a couple of dozen different terms that are similar in meaning the day of Jacob's trouble things like that and those come out of the Old Testament in great part Now, so we have the Day of the Lord is used about 20 times in the Bible from Isaiah 13.6 to 2 Peter 3.10.

It's used variously from the time of the beginning of the tribulation period to Christ's return and reign to the end of the present heavens and earth. And that's how it shows up in 2 Peter. So the Day of the Lord is not just a day, right? The Day of the Lord essentially encompasses 1,007 years. So that's something to remember. If you see the phrase, it isn't referring to just one particular time.

It refers to everything starting with the beginning of the tribulation period to the end of the present heavens and earth. So Acts 1, 6, and 7. And this is something Christians seem to get messed up on. Acts 1, 6, and 7. So when they had come together, they were asking Him, Jesus, saying, Lord, is it at this time that you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?

He said to them, it is not for you to know times and epochs which the Father has fixed by his own authority. So then you have guys like Harold Camping come along and try to nail the date. The apostles were not even told. But somehow, Harold Camping was. People again and again and again keep messing this up.

But this times and epics is a phrase that actually those same words show up in the book of Daniel. So 1 Thessalonians 5, 1-3, Now as to the times and epics, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. That is, I know that you have already been taught this. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night." That thief in the night phrase is used a lot throughout the New Testament, and here's why.

People would be in their houses and they would have the front door as kind of a cross board put in there to make sure the front door is secure. And so you'd be in there with your family. Everybody's bedded down and so then the thief would commonly come in and dig underneath a wall of the house and undermine a section of the wall and then when that collapsed he would run in grab things and run out and It wasn't a crime And that's something yeah, you are responsible for for protecting your own property and stuff.

And it's not a criminal issue. It's a civil matter. And you're responsible for protecting your stuff. So what people were concerned about is a thief in the night because I'm vulnerable. They didn't have insurance. And there was no, you know, police necessarily trying to, you know, stop that or stop the guy or catch him. It's your job. So a thief in the night is something that has your attention.

And of course the thief wants to surprise you. He's not going to say, hey at 3 o'clock this morning I'm going to come in and break into your house and get things. So anyway, that phrase, thief in the night, shows up a number of times in the New Testament. So, the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.

While they are saying peace and safety, then destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains with a woman and child, and they will not escape. Why all the they and them statements in here, in 1 Thessalonians 5, 1-3? The day of the Lord starts with the beginning of the tribulation period, right?

Will we be here? No. We'll be taken out beforehand. And the use of the they and the them fits right along with that. This is about them, not about us. And that's one of the things the Apostle Paul is trying to get across, is we will be taken out beforehand.

So that's one key point to look at, the Day of the Lord. The next thing is wrath and rapture. And this book in the first and last chapters, brings up this wrath issue. So the Old Testament prophets wrote that the coming tribulation period would be a time of wrath, the wrath of God. And I've given several references, and I put et cetera because there's a lot more. So this tribulation period is the time of the wrath of God. And that is confirmed in Revelation. We give Revelation chapter 6, the very first chapter of the tribulation period.

It talks about the wrath of God and the wrath of the Lamb. But 1 Thessalonians indicates a key promise to the church, the body of Christ, not contained in the Old Testament because the church was not revealed in the Old Testament. It is a mystery in the biblical use of the term, that is, something not previously revealed, now revealed. So 1 Thessalonians 1, 9, and 10, ending up the first chapter, For they themselves report about us what kind of reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is, Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come." 1 Thessalonians 5, 9 and 11.

For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep... What does he mean by awake or asleep? Living or dead, right? Awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore, encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.

So you can see Romans 5.9, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. So from Romans to these two passages in 1 Thessalonians, it says Jesus will save us from the wrath, the wrath that's going to begin the very first chapter of the tribulation period, Revelation chapter 6. And it continues on through the tribulation period. So we will be saved by being caught up.

I didn't use the term rapture there because the 1 Thessalonians, as we'll see shortly, It has this word harpazo, caught up, is what it refers to. Okay, now let's take a look at page 3. So here is a passage where Paul explains to them The picture that we get is some of the Thessalonians were being distraught about resurrection and understanding that.

And one of the reasons why is because think of what was the pagan idea about the afterlife? Did they believe in an afterlife? Yes, they did. However, did the gods of paganism love you? Now, did you get to go be with the gods who loved you and blessed you and gave you a heavenly citizenship? No. And so they're coming out of paganism and he's trying to get them to have a biblical understanding, a Christian understanding of what this afterlife is about, right?

And so he explains, and this is I think a key thing, the Apostle Paul is given to explain what we call the rapture. Rapture is simply the Latin term for being caught up. So here's 1 Thessalonians 4, 13-18. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep. And again, he uses asleep as a euphemism for those who have died. So that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. Who are the rest who have no hope? The pagans, the unbelievers. They really don't have a hope. You know, in the pagan world, they did believe in an afterlife, but it could turn out bad. And the people who were still living had to do all the right things to make sure things didn't turn out bad for their loved ones.

So, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, is he doubting that? Why does he say if? It's if and we do and he's wanting them to think through the logic Which is why I put the if there not to cast doubt on whether we believe Another example of that if meaning more like since. Yeah, I think we have to be careful about jumping to the conclusion, because it doesn't always. But yes, in this case, the reason for the if is to have us think through this. So if, as a logical thinking through process, we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and what do you have to believe to be saved?

The gospel. That Jesus died and rose again, right? Okay. even as God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 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." And when he says, we who are alive and remain, what does that imply? There will be people who are alive. Right, there will be people who are alive.

And he uses, he doesn't talk about they, he talks about we. So it means that it was possible even in his own time. It was possible even in his own time. And that was one of the major misconceptions that he had to address later. Yes, yes, exactly that. Because he was worried that it hadn't happened. Yeah, yeah, wait a minute, I thought, so yeah, the miscommunication and misunderstanding.

So, I have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, We are writing scripture, the word of the Lord, and that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words." Yeah, Morgan. So when it says, ah, I should have marked it. Oh, fall asleep in Jesus. That means that they physically died as believers. Physically died. Right. Yep. That a believer, this is a believer who has physically died. Right?

And let's talk about the, you know, first those who have died and then those who are alive. Why that sequence? Why does that matter? He talks about those who are asleep, those who have died physically, and those who are alive and remain when the Lord, you know, catches them up, the ones who have died will precede those who are alive when the Lord takes them up. Why does that matter?

Well, and I, you know, here, you know, it was the end of 2006, how Malloy went home to be with the Lord. And we say, well, he's home with the Lord now. Well, if the rapture says that those who are asleep, those who have died, are going to be taken up preceding those who are alive, but together we'll all be with the Lord. How does that work?

Okay, one thing is God is outside of time, is God limited by the time tunnel that we're in? No. I've thought this thing through because you look at the various passages, you know, to be separated from the body, you know, is to be home with the Lord, right? And then you see passages like this.

The way I would explain it is God is not limited to time, but He takes those who have died and brings them forward in time, to the time of the rapture and the twinkling of an eye. So, therefore, those who are brought forward, they precede those who are alive and remain. So, for example, the rapture does not just include those who are alive when the Lord takes us all home.

The rapture includes all believers of the entire church age. That's part one. That's what you get out of here. All believers of the entire church age. So if you know of a believer who has died, you can say, they'll be raptured too. They'll be raptured too. You didn't miss the rapture. No believer is going to miss the rapture. Isn't this also the point where we receive our glorified body? Yes. And that's another thing. If I do a graveside service, I say, remember this is temporary. This is temporary. People try to do things honorably and honor the body and all that, but just remember it's temporary. This isn't permanent.

But the explanation that to me makes sense of all the scripture passages is that those who have died, here's the Apostle Paul, here is John some decades later, on into believers throughout the centuries, and then even those we have known who have died as believers, all those are brought forward in time to that moment of the rapture. And so, let's take the example of Hal, who went home to be with the Lord at the end of 2006. He closes his eyes here, and the next thing he knows is he's being raptured. The next thing he knows, he's being raptured. Yeah?

Explain the laborers before the church age. Okay, now those are dealt with differently because it doesn't describe their resurrection as a rapture. You could look at Daniel chapter 12, first couple of verses, and so there is a separate resurrection for them.

Paradise, does it include that concept? Yeah, paradise is the word that Jesus uses when he talks to the thief on the cross. Today you'll be with me in paradise. But it's a separate resurrection, and those Old Testament saints, they will be resurrected, but it won't be within this rapture description that we see.

So when Paul said he's torn between staying here with the church or being with Christ, wasn't he saying he was going to be with Christ and die before the rapture? Well, that's a part of what I was saying in terms of being brought forward in time. Think about it. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, right? And how does the Lord resolve that and make this consistent with a rapture? where the Lord comes for all of us, both those who have died and those who are alive and remain. I think the description from our time perspective is those people are brought forward in time to the moment of the rapture.

Where's hell now? It doesn't exist in consciousness? Our concept of time, in other words, we're trying to say, okay, where's hell right at this moment? Our concept of time doesn't fit. Hal, when he died, I would say, was brought forward to the time of the rapture. And so our trying to put it in right now is irrelevant. He basically bypassed this time. It's like the description that God has used in the Bible throughout, and Jesus picked it up too. What time relates to God, and it always is, I am. God is the God of now, no matter where we see it in our picture of chronological sequence of events.

Is that consistent with the idea that we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies? Yeah, right now, I look at it and say, wait a minute, I'm here, I'm seated in the pew, if I'm not standing. But, so physically, we're here. I'm just saying spiritually, we're already seated with Christ. We'll be catching up to what's already spiritually true, right? Yeah, we're trying to apply the physical realities that we know as spiritual. Yeah, we're stuck in a time tunnel.

One of the analogies that I've used, and hopefully it's not too boring and tiresome, Look at this pen as, you know, here is the end of time, here's the beginning of time, you know, here's Christ and the cross and his burial and resurrection and ascension. And God looks at time from outside of it. And the way to say it is, as Jesus put it, before Abraham was born, not I was, but I am. God sees all times as present and is not limited by time.

Right? Not limited by time. And so we want to get explanations that are based on our time tunnel perspective. God's not foretelling the future. Right? When he writes in scripture, this or that is going to happen. He's not foretelling the future. He is describing the now from his perspective and to people who are inside the time tunnel and haven't been there yet. So God's not foretelling the future, God is telling us the future from our perspective that he sees now. So a different time perspective.

So when you ask where's how now, God's not stuck in the now. Let's take a look here. I want to move down to suffering, love, holy living, and working. So also are woven in messages about suffering, love for the brethren, holy living, and believers working, and not burdening the church body.

One of the things that happened, and it's reported in Acts 17, They hear the Apostle Paul went to Thessalonica, and after a few Sabbaths in the synagogue, boy, the Jews just lit on fire. And their way of trying to get some trouble stirred up without getting themselves in trouble was to report that these guys are talking about another king but Caesar, and that kind of thing, and get them in trouble with the Romans. with those kinds of charges. And that way then the Romans would come in and start enforcing things. So that was their way of causing trouble and that's what they did. But they got Paul out of Thessalonica first. Snuck him out in the night.

And so a fellow by the name of Jason, a believer by the name of Jason, and of course remember all these are young believers, was the one that they grabbed and he had to post bond and things of that sort. But the Jews were continuing to cause trouble in Thessalonica for the believers. Many of whom were Jews and many of whom were Gentiles. So that's the source of the suffering. And just think about it. You're a Christian. You're a young Christian.

And all of a sudden you get all this turbulence from the Jews and being turned over falsely, basically, to the authorities. And it was a pretty difficult time for them. What could you imagine would be some of the consequences from the Jews turning them over to the Roman authorities?

Yeah, I mean, possibly, you know, this thing could turn into death. You may be doing some, you know, time in jail and court and everything else. Confiscation of property. Yeah, confiscation of property would be another one. And your job would be affected oftentimes. Yeah, job or business. Yeah, livelihood frequently affected. So, yeah, this was serious.

So these are young believers. Some of the things that come out here, he talks about suffering, love for the brethren. What would love for the brethren look like with these young believers here? Let's take it for instance. Here we've got a young, small church body, and one of them goes into jail.

Yeah, food and care and that kind of thing. Frequently, the jails were so poor in those days and in the Roman Empire, it was so poor a place to be that if you didn't have a friend or relative from the outside, there's a good chance you're going to die. Just because, you know, food, clean clothes, you know, who cares?

Just like Paul said, tell them to bring the cloak with them to Rome. Yeah, bring this, bring that. Yeah, if you didn't have a friend on the outside helping you out, it was not good. Because they might beat you. They would do beatings just as a standard means of interrogation. Get the truth out of you, just beat you up a bunch.

Do we have any idea at this point how old Paul would have been, roughly? Let's see. This would have been about 51. And so in his mid-40s. Yeah, mid-40s. Yeah. So yeah, love for the brethren would show itself up in practical ways to those who have been subject to this persecution. would be supported, whether they were in prison, whether they had things confiscated. So, that would be one practical way that it would show up. Another thing is holy living. Why the focus on holy living?

Well, back again to your thing about they're coming out of a pagan culture that doesn't have the moral standards or the concept of ethics. The pagan deities had no connection with morality. The pagan deities were often themselves immoral. So here you have Zeus hiding himself in a cloud so he can commit adultery and not have his wife find out. So the pagan deities had no moral connection.

Yes. So he writes them, you know, first Thessalonians, you know, this is the will of God that you abstain from immorality. And because it had only been weeks before, that that was just fine. So the focus on, hey, you're a believer now, and you have a God who loves you and blesses you, but this is a God who's different from any other God you've ever known. Because morality matters. Yeah, holy living, additionally, because you wouldn't want the Jews coming at you with some claim.

The believers working, and he wrote about that in both 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. So what that's telling us is there were some believers who were trying to just live off everybody else. In 2nd Thessalonians he gets even a little bit more emphatic about this. If they don't work, they don't eat. And then not burdening the church body. So those are some key themes there. In 2 Thessalonians, we see that there are basically three chapters.

He gives thanks for their growth. And again, one of the patterns is, I thank God. For this and that you know not thanking somebody directly because in the culture that was a calling down a curse You don't you didn't say thank you to somebody directly that was like you must hate me right because you're calling down a curse So thanking the Lord for them Encouragement as the persecution continues right these Jews are keeping it up and then the prayer for for a blessing It's in chapter 2 that he gets into further explanation of the Day of the Lord.

Let's turn to page 4, and again the outline got all jagged for some strange reason. the book Second Thessalonians, I want to focus on the Day of the Lord and the Rapture, which starts about in the middle of page four. So Paul returns to the Day of the Lord topic because somebody has come to them with the idea that the Day of the Lord has already begun. Wait a minute, we're still here and the Day of the Lord has begun.

I thought you told us that I was going to be taken out. So he's correcting this issue. He returns to this topic of the Day of the Lord because some have become confused and someone has even presented a revelation as if from Paul, a letter as if from Paul. Hey, I got this fake letter from Paul that I'm presenting to you. And the problem was that they've been told that the Day of the Lord had already come and why are we still here? And so they're getting upset because of that. So 2 Thessalonians 2, 1-12, I've got some bracketed and bolded things here.

Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together with Him. What's the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together with Him? What's that talking about? What we call briefly the Rapture, right?

You see that word coming, how can you tell the difference between His coming for us and His coming for the second coming? How can you tell the difference? Which one is it? Well, one's in the clouds and one's on the earth. Okay, and one thing is the coming It has a definition in context and here it's our gathering to being gathered together with him So it's the context that helps us know whether that coming is the second coming when we will come to earth with him or this rapture when he comes to take us to be with him and so this and our gathering together to him is the clue here Not that you not be quickly shaken from your composure to 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. And the term for that is called Preterism. It's being taught today. There are degrees of it. The Preterist view as is held by some in Christendom, including Seventh-day Adventists, is that Christ's second coming took place when the Romans invaded Jerusalem, attacked Jerusalem in 70 AD. July 1st, 70 AD, the Romans started their battering rams against the gates and started their attack.

So, that's looked upon by some people as Christ's second coming coming in judgment against the the Jews so that's the teaching verse three let no one in any way deceive you for it will not come unless the apostasy and here's there's a word we need to talk about apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed the son of destruction This word apostasy, all they've done is transliterate the Greek word. And most of the places it's used in the New Testament do not refer to...

What do we think of when we think of apostasy? Pardon? A falling away. The only thing is, most of the times when it's used in the New Testament, it is not, in context, a falling away, you know, doctrinally. Or a falling away in terms of commitment. It is used most of the time as a departure. So, and I've talked with Hal about this before he went home, but I believe that it should be departure as in the rapture. That the rapture comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed. What's the sequence? What are they referring to with the man of lawlessness? Who is that? This is the Antichrist, and by the way, the Jewish term for that is Armilus. That's what the Orthodox Jews call the Antichrist, Armilus. So they identify this Armilus fellow as well.

So what's the sequence? Our being caught up with the Lord and the revelation of the Antichrist. What's going to happen first? This departure happens first, and then the revelation of the Antichrist. Which tells you something else, and that is, is it our job to go around trying to guess who the Antichrist is? Because that's another thing that Christians have got all caught up on, is trying to identify the Antichrist. Guess what?

We're not going to be here. It's going to be, you know, not our focus. You don't have too good of a track, but do you think they'll recognize the Sarmatists? Well, a number of them won't. Which is why they'll set up a treaty and all that. Yeah, a number of them won't.

But at any rate, I see verse 3 is actually a rapture passage. And that fits with the rest of what Paul has written. It's just, this is the first time I've heard this, so it's a little bit awkward, but the idea that that the world would go into a decline and fall into greater and greater sinfulness also fits with this idea that there would be an apostasy where the church gets thinner and thinner. People get sinner and sinner. I don't know. So you have the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction or perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above every god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? So he had actually taken the time to describe and teach these things. And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. What is the restraining force?

The Holy Spirit. 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 by the rapture, when the Christian believers who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit are removed. Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming. That is, the one whose coming is in accordance 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. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence, so that they will believe what is false, in order that they may be judged, and did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness." So most of the focus here, the last part of that passage, is on the description of the Antichrist. He's saying here that this is our gathering together with Him.

Now, let's take a look at one more thing, and I'm sorry for the jagged references at the top of 2 Thessalonians. One of the things you see in chapter 3 is, wait patiently for Christ. Now, why the message, wait patiently for Christ? How about the option of just forgetting about His coming and when He comes, He comes? Is that what we should do? The exhortation has been the same for the 2,000 years, to wait patiently and to observe, as we'll be doing later today, to keep the remembrance, to keep that level of expectation to lose the motivation for the holy living and for the looking forward to his coming.

So there's a lot of things in life that patience is something that the Lord gradually works out. I'm just now learning some of the meanings of patience. Right and and waiting patiently it says it says waiting so there is an anticipation But also not saying well Lord. You got to come in the next couple hours because things are getting pretty bad here, right? so so It is a waiting not giving up But it's also not a demanding Because we don't know the time One of the things we point out from time to time, there is a crown where you're rewarded forever for looking for His coming, which is going to happen in an instant. So looking for His coming, which will happen in an instant, gets an eternal reward. So waiting patiently fits with that.

Now, the next thing is, withdraw from the disorderly. This is where he actually gets more emphatic than he did in 1 Thessalonians, where he actually starts laying out those who are disorderly. And one of the disorderly categories is the ones who will not work, where he actually says, if they won't work, let them not eat.

Now, is that consistent with Christian compassion? You say yes. And how is it consistent with Christian compassion? Well, if we are to express love for our brother and sister, that's also to help them, to restore them, to be protective, to take care of their own cares.

I'm not saying there's a time for assistance, but long-term enablement of being lazy is not love. We've always talked about tough love in a certain concept. You don't really do people a favor if you just offer everything without commitment or without some kind of self-investment in this process. Yeah, to go around and just expect everybody else is going to support you and provide for you and all that. got that mentality in a lot of folks in the culture. Yes, yeah, it's a message the culture is passing along. They owe it to me. They owe it to me.

So Paul's Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians, it clarifies, it underscores some of the same things. And one of the things that comes out is much of what the apostles wrote was to correct error. Much of what they wrote was to correct error. And you look at some of the different books and correcting errors is a key theme. 1 Corinthians particularly correcting error, right? Even 2 Corinthians error. What was the error of the Galatians? Law, right? Yeah, you gotta have the law to be saved. False teaching, so correcting error.

And then you go through 1 and 2 Thessalonians, a significant portion of it, correcting error. So it is a key theme of many of the books of the Old Testament. One Bible college class, the professor assigned to the students in groups, he had small groups that he'd broken the class up into, he says, I want you to come back here and tell me what's the main theme of the New Testament letters. You know what they came back with? Correcting error was a key theme. Why did Timothy get sent to Ephesus? To correct the false teachings. Correct the false teachers and deal with them. So correcting error is a key theme of the New Testament.

And we don't have a problem with that since then, right? Yeah, boy do we have a problem with it. So correcting error is something the apostles committed a lot of time and ink to. And we still need to do that today. That's the reason why these things are here. Any other thoughts, questions? Yes? The Antichrist, does he come at the midpoint of the seven years? The Antichrist shows up early.

In fact, his establishing a treaty, the King James is confirming, but that's not quite correct. His establishing a treaty begins the tribulation period and breaking that treaty at the midpoint is a key signal. So he establishes a treaty and then he breaks it three and a half years later. So that's the timing.

And the Rapture happens before the Antichrist goes and establishes this treaty. But actually it's possible that there's a time gap from the Rapture to the start of the Tribulation period. The Rapture does not start the Tribulation period. The Tribulation period gets started by the Antichrist establishing a treaty that he breaks three and a half years in. And by the way, You know, some of the things that show up in prophecy are fitting a Muslim mold. And how are believers killed during the tribulation period? Beheading, right? And who does beheadings these days? Muslims, okay?

Then, Muhammad established a treaty with the leaders of Mecca, a 10-year treaty he made with them. He broke it part way through because he amassed enough power that he could take them on. So breaking a treaty and beheading are two Muslim characteristics.

So it's real interesting to see that pattern. I think you get in trouble trying to go beyond that, but it's an interesting confluence. So is the breaking of the treaty an effort to eliminate the Jews, to kill them? One of the things you'll see is he breaks the treaty and violates the temple that has been established. And so it basically is an affront to the Jews.

Yes, the third temple. Yeah, and there will be a fourth temple during the millennial kingdom, right? So we've had two temples prior to that, a tabernacle, right? A tabernacle, two temples so far. There'll be a third one during the tribulation period and a fourth one constructed quite differently. described in Ezekiel, a fourth one during the Millennial Kingdom. Okay, any other thoughts, questions? Okay, let's pray.

Lord, thank you for these books which certainly focus on hope for us, and not just hoping as a probability, but having a fixed and certain and absolute hope. And we thank you for that. We thank you also just for the various kinds of moral guidance and likewise the example of how to instruct and care for young believers. And we thank you for that. We pray, Lord, for our learning from these things and taking it to heart. And we do look for that blessed hope. You're coming for us. And we just pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.