Last Things, page 3

The blessed hope, the pre-tribulational rapture, and where the story ends.

52 questions answered, showing 16 on page 3 of 3. About this doctrine · All topics

• Whosoever WillWhat is the tribulation? How long is it?The tribulation is a seven-year period of God's judgment on the earth and discipline of Israel, the seventieth week of Daniel 9, culminating in the return of Christ. Jesus called its second half "great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world" (Matt 24:21).
• With Chuck SmithWhat kind of body will we have in heaven?Chuck Smith, Comfort for Those Who Mourn, chapter 3: God has promised that, eternally, we will dwell with Him in His glorious Kingdom. We don't know what the environmental conditions of heaven are but there is no doubt that they are different from the conditions here; no doubt far superior. God could outfit us with space suits and let us clomp clumsily around heaven, or He could give us totally new bodies designed to take us anywhere in the universe. God has wisely opted for the latter. He has prepared a mansion for me, a building of God not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. From Chuck Smith's books, used by permission of The Word For Today.
• Whosoever WillWhen is the rapture, pre-tribulation, mid, or post?Before the tribulation (pre-tribulational). The church is promised to be kept "from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world" (Rev 3:10), and Paul says God "hath not appointed us to wrath" (1 Thess 5:9). The tribulation is that wrath; the church is removed before it.
• With Chuck SmithWhere did Old Testament believers go when they died?Chuck Smith, What the World Is Coming To, chapter 11: When Jesus died He descended into Hades and preached, according to Peter, to those souls in prison (1 Peter 3:19). According to Paul, when Jesus ascended He led these captives from their captivity (Ephesians 4:8). He emptied that portion of Hades where the faithful with Abraham had waited for God to fulfill His promises. Speaking of Abraham and all these people of faith in the Old Testament period, the Bible says, "For these all died in faith, not having received the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made complete" (Hebrews 11:39-40). They could not come into the heavenly scene until the blood of Jesus Christ had been shed for the sins of the world. The Old Testament sacrifice had covered their sin. Their faith that God would send the Messiah brought them salvation. God imputed their faith in Christ for righteousness. But they couldn't be brought into the heavenly scene until Jesus descended and led them out of prison. Scripture, King James Version: 1 Peter 3:19, "By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;"; Ephesians 4:8, "Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men."; Hebrews 11:39-40, "And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.". From Chuck Smith's books, used by permission of The Word For Today.
• With Chuck SmithWhich interpretation of Revelation is correct?Chuck Smith, What the World Is Coming To, chapter 3: There is also the spiritual interpretation which confuses things so completely that nobody understands what is what. This interpretation spiritualizes everything so nothing means what it says. Everything is interpreted as a spiritual allegory. When you spiritualize the Scriptures you remove any authority or teaching from them, because every man is free to interpret the spiritual allegory as he desires. Then there is the futurist interpretation of the book of Revelation. I personally feel that the futurist view is the correct view. With the futurist view you can read the book and believe that it meant what it said, and it said what it meant. You don't have to start twisting things to make them fit here and there, and changing them to fit some scheme. The futurist view takes the Revelation just as it says, to be understood just as it is. From Chuck Smith's books, used by permission of The Word For Today.
• With Chuck SmithWho are the 144,000? Are Christians "spiritual Israel"?Chuck Smith took the tribe list at face value and asked the spiritualizer a plain question: "Well, what spiritual tribe are you from?" The text names the sealed as "of all the tribes of the children of Israel" (Revelation 7:4). Read Chuck on 1 John 4:1 in the reader. Chuck Smith commentary used by permission of The Word For Today.
• With Chuck SmithWho are the elect gathered in Matthew 24:31?Chuck Smith read the gathering in Matthew 24:31 through the prophets: "those elect that God will be gathering together from the four winds of the earth are actually the nation Israel, not the church." The elect here are the gathered nation, not a soteriological category. Read Chuck on Zechariah 2:5 in the reader. Chuck Smith commentary used by permission of The Word For Today.
• Whosoever WillWho are the two witnesses in Revelation 11?Two prophets God raises during the tribulation to testify in Jerusalem for 1,260 days, with power to shut heaven and turn water to blood, killed by the beast and raised after three and a half days (Rev 11:3-12). Their identity is debated; the signs point to Moses and Elijah figures.
• Whosoever WillWho is the antichrist?The antichrist is a coming world ruler, "that man of sin... the son of perdition" (2 Thess 2:3), who confirms a covenant with Israel, breaks it at the tribulation's midpoint, and demands worship, before Christ destroys him at His coming.
• With Chuck SmithWho is the restrainer in 2 Thessalonians 2?Chuck Smith identified the restrainer as "the Spirit of God within the church of Jesus Christ," and said the man of sin "can't be revealed until the hindering force is removed." Paul: "only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way" (2 Thessalonians 2:7). Read Chuck on Revelation 6:1 in the reader. Chuck Smith commentary used by permission of The Word For Today.
• With Chuck SmithWho is the rider on the white horse in Revelation 6?Chuck Smith, What the World Is Coming To, chapter 8: There are some who teach that the white horse rider is none other than Jesus Christ. I personally believe that the white horse rider is the Antichrist. I believe that the moment Jesus takes the church out of the world the hindering force of the Holy Spirit will be removed - and then that man of sin shall be revealed, the son of perdition (2 Thessalonians 2:3,7-8). The power of God's Spirit working in the church is hindering the Antichrist from taking over the world today. Once the church is raptured, there'll be no hindering force whatsoever and the Antichrist will move in. I also do not believe that this is the second coming of Jesus Christ because it is followed by wars, famines, and death. The coming of Jesus Christ will usher in the glorious era of peace - God's millennial age upon the earth. In addition, this white horse rider appears at the very beginning of the Tribulation period; I cannot see this as the coming of Jesus Christ. Scripture, King James Version: 2 Thessalonians 2:3, "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;"; 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8, "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:". From Chuck Smith's books, used by permission of The Word For Today.
• With Chuck SmithWho is the woman clothed with the sun in Revelation 12?Chuck Smith tied the sign to Joseph's dream: "The woman of the twelfth chapter of the book of Revelation is identified by this dream to be the nation Israel." Compare "the sun and the moon and the eleven stars" (Genesis 37:9) with "a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars" (Revelation 12:1). Read Chuck on Genesis 37:9 in the reader. Chuck Smith commentary used by permission of The Word For Today.
• Whosoever WillWho was John Nelson Darby?Whosoever Will, The Man They Could Not Bury: In October 1827, John Nelson Darby was thrown from a horse. The accident was serious enough to require a three-month convalescence at his sister's home in Dublin. He was twenty-six years old, already a deacon in the Church of Ireland, already dissatisfied with the institutional church's distance from the New Testament pattern. During those three months, he read his Bible. Darby made two important discoveries: first, that "the Christian, having his place in Christ in heaven, has nothing to wait for save the coming of the Saviour," and second, that, according to Isaiah 32, "there was still an economy to come when Christ would reign as King upon the earth."
• With Chuck SmithWill Christians go through the Great Tribulation?Chuck Smith's reason was the nature of the period: it is wrath, and "we have not been appointed unto wrath." Paul: "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:9). Read Chuck on Revelation 6:15 in the reader. Chuck Smith commentary used by permission of The Word For Today.
• With Chuck SmithWill Jesus' return take Christians by surprise like a thief in the night?Chuck Smith, Answers for Today, chapter 1: Jesus Christ never intended for His people to be taken by surprise at His coming. He intends for you to be totally aware of the time of His return, so that you would be watching, waiting, and ready when He comes again. Scriptures that refer to His coming again as “a thief in the night” do not refer to the way the church will experience His return, but to the way the world will see it. The coming of Christ will take the world totally by surprise—but not the Christian. Paul said, “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of the light” (1 Thessalonians 5:4, 5). Scripture, King James Version: 1 Thessalonians 5:4, "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief."; 1 Thessalonians 5:5, "Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.". From Chuck Smith's books, used by permission of The Word For Today.
• Whosoever WillWill there be nations in the new earth (Revelation 21:24)?Whosoever Will, The Names on the Walls: “And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it” Nations, plural. Kings, plural. In the new earth, walking into the city. “In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life... and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” Nations, again, plural, being healed, not dissolved. So the eternal state has Israel by name, the church by name, and the nations by name, all in one city, all walking in one light: “the Lamb is the light thereof” (21:23). What is gone is the curse (22:3), the sea (21:1), death and sorrow (21:4). What is kept is every people God ever named, and every promise He ever made to them. Jesus said the same thing from the other direction: men from east and west shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of God (Matt 8:11; Luke 13:28-29). With them. Not instead of them, not apart from them. That is the answer to the question. Distinction is not segregation. A wall with two sets of names on it is not a wall down the middle of the city. It is a city that remembers who it was built for. Scripture, King James Version: Matthew 8:11, "And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven."; Luke 13:28-29, "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God."; Revelation 21:24, "And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it."; Revelation 22:2, "In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.".