Originally published in "The Lord's Coming Herald & Wesleyan Bible Prophecy Advocate," Winter Edition 2005
The Shocking Bible End-time
What does the Bible honestly teach about
the end-time?
It teaches that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in
the night (I Thess. 5:2; II Peter 3:10). This means suddenness and
unexpectedness. The applicable point of the metaphor is that the thief strikes
when least expected.
Now obviously the fact of Christ coming suddenly and
unexpectedly, like a thief in the night, implies the need for careful holy
living and watchfulness. Yet how can one rationally and intelligently watch for
a thing, unless one knows specifically what one is supposed to be looking for?
So what exactly are we supposed to be looking for?
Why, the any-moment secret pretribulation rapture of the
church, of course! Surely everybody knows that!
A lot of people do think that, friend, but just because a lot
of folks think that doesn't mean it's true. Let's deal with our assumptions, and
think again.
We'll start by examining the two key passages of I
Thessalonians 5:2 and II Peter 3:10, where the "thief in the night" metaphor is
used. What do these texts themselves actually say?
They say that DESTRUCTION is what comes as a thief in the
night, not some imagined removal of the church before some assumed seven year
great tribulation time-frame period-a construction that is nowhere taught in the
New Testament. Where does either I Thessalonians chapter five, or II Peter
chapter three, say anything about seven years? And without any tribulation
time-frame being stated in the texts themselves, how do we know that the rapture
is "pre" anything in these passages?
Not some secret pretribulation rapture, but JUDGMENT is what
comes suddenly and unexpectedly, like a thief in the night, friends, and that
judgment of the great and terrible day of the Lord is preeminently an event of
fire. That is what the text of II Peter 3:10, itself, actually says!
Notice further that "sudden destruction" is what directly
follows the saying of peace and safety in I Thessalonians 5:3, not
three-and-a-half more years of false peace under one-world-ruler Antichrist! And
in Revelation chapter eighteen we read that Babylon is destroyed by fire. This
is also the judgment of the end-time that comes momentarily, like a thief in the
night (note the "in one hour is thy judgment come" expression used in verses 8,
10, 17, and 19).
No future seven year end-time prophetic time-frame is
required for last days Bible prophecy to be fulfilled. No Roman Antichrist
making and breaking a peace deal with the Jews is required, either. What is
required, rather, is the "hating of the whore" (Rev. 17:16). What is required,
rather, is the division of the world in such a way as to isolate that entity,
called the great whore Babylon, so that she, in God's perfect timing, may be
fatefully destroyed.
Darbyism teaches that at the end-time the world will come
together under one-world-ruler personal Antichrist. The Bible teaches, to the
contrary, that antinomianism, which means lawlessness, will cause the world to
be divided and fall apart. Discerning readers will understand that we are
talking about a deep-structure paradigm shift in end-time Bible prophecy motifs.
The application of it to our present day--in view of us as "Babylon" about to
fall--provides the ideology for a major reformation of fundamental Christianity
in modern times. Darbyism has filled the evangelical church-world with
antinomianism. Only its overthrow by the sword of truth can avert our
destruction.
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