July 30, 2009

The Millennium

July 30, 2009

The Millennium

Charles Cooper talks about the Millennium. This presentation was given last October in O'Fallon Missouri at an eschatology forum.

Download as MP3

July 28, 2009

Brother Andrew "God's Smuggler" Endorses How to Survive the Great Tribulation: Fight, Flight, or Faith

Some of you know that Brother Andrew worked with Corrie ten Boom for 25 years. And a little known fact, acknowledged in older copies of The Hiding Place, is when John Sherill interviewed Brother Andrew, he talked about Aunt Corrie so much that it inspired the book The Hiding Place! His ministry is Open Doors and Open Doors Internationally.

Here you can purchase How to Survive the Great Tribulation: Fight, Flight, or Faith.

July 20, 2009

"The Word 'Church' Absent from Most of the Book of Revelation"

One of the first articles I wrote here was refuting what is arguably the most commonly heard pretribulational argument, which can be found here. They will claim that since the word "church" is absent from Revelation 4-21, the Church itself is absent from those events.

Since then I have come up with another handful of refutations for such a surface-level argument. I need to update that article with them. I want to highlight one of them here.

The letter of Revelation is sent to churches. In fact seven of them; hence the reason why the term "church" is mentioned many times, 18 total between chapters 1-3. I ask: why would Jesus have his revelation sent to churches if in fact it did not apply to them? I find that odd.

Now it may be objected why would the church be mentioned at the beginning of Revelation, but not throughout it? I respond by asking, why is it demanded that John must mention the term "church" throughout Revelation if he has already established that this teaching is for the churches?

Further, I challenge these pretribbers to be consistent with other epistles. For example, Paul only mentioned the church once in Galatians chapter 1. If pretribbers want to be consistent in their reasoning, then chapters 2-6 do not apply to the Church since the mere mention of "church" is not found in those chapters. Such absurdity will only convince those shackled to their Tradition. The same can be said of 2 Thessalonians. The term "church" is only mentioned in chapter 1. And in Colossians, the term is mentioned in the first and last chapters of the book. Does not the body of the letter to the Colossians apply to the Church?

Well, you get my point...

July 18, 2009

Prewrath Conference Presentation Slides Available

I want to thank everyone who attended the conference! I enjoyed meeting and fellowshiping with you all. I am eager to upload the audio when it is available, which will be in a couple of weeks.

I said I would upload my presentation slides for those in attendance so here they are below. Please understand that these are only the presentation slides. My explanatory notes and transitions are not included, so some of the transitions and slides may not make sense, especially if you were not in attendance. When I find time, I will add all of my notes to the slides so the complete presentation will be available. Until then, I trust that the content on the slides themselves will be helpful for your review and studies.

1. The Day of the Lord's Wrath (What the Day of the Lord is not, and what it is. As well as introducing the sign to the Day of the Lord).

2. The Antichrist's Great Tribulation (Using Matthew 24 as our base text, and examining the abomination of desolation and the nature of the Great Tribulation).

3. The Rapture Event (Preliminary comments on the rapture and resurrection; and five reasons why the rapture/resurrection is found in Matthew 24).

Click here to see an overview chart of the Pre-Wrath Rapture.

July 12, 2009

Shuttle Schedule Between the Hotel and Church for the Conference

For those staying at the Plaza Hotel and Suites, you can download here the shuttle schedule between the hotel and church during the conference.

The conference is finally here this week! We pray for traveling mercies. For those who have not signed up yet, you are one click away. You can register at the door, but we prefer you register ahead of time. Blessings...and see you all there!

July 1, 2009

Elijah Must Appear Before the Day of the Lord, and thus Before the Rapture

Malachi explicitly states that Elijah will be sent before the Day of the Lord: "Look, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the LORD arrives" (Mal 4:5). How should we understand this in light of the eschatological Day of the Lord? Does not Jesus identify this prophecy as fulfilled already in the coming of John the Baptist, thereby rendering any expectation of a future literal coming of Elijah as unnecessary?: "For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John appeared. And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah, who is to come" (Matt 11:13-14; cf. 17:10-13). We should look at all that Jesus says about this, and keep some other points in mind:

1. There are two phases to the kingdom work of Christ. Jesus inaugurated the kingdom at his first Coming redeeming a people for himself. And he will consummate the kingdom at his Second Coming. Jesus taught this two-phase truth throughout his ministry explicitly, e.g. Matt 24-25. And implicitly, e.g. His synagogue reading of Luke 4:16-21. In this Luke passage, he reads from Isaiah 61:1-2a proclaiming salvation in fulfillment of his first Coming, but stops short of reading Isaiah 61:2bff indicating that the ultimate judgment and blessings of God are yet to be fulfilled.

2. Given that Jesus envisioned his kingdom-ministry in two phases, it makes sense then when he says that Elijah has already come in that John the Baptist functioned as a precursor or a type for Elijah; but he also envisioned a future, literal fulfillment of Elijah when he appears in the future: "He answered, "Elijah does indeed come first and will restore all things. And I tell you that Elijah has already come." (Matt 17:11-12). It should be mentioned that Jesus said this after John the Baptist had died.

3. That John the Baptist does not fulfill the coming of Elijah in a literal sense, but in a typological sense, is confirmed by Gabriel: "And he will go as forerunner before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for him." (Luke 1:17).

4. In John, we are told that when the Jewish leaders asked John the Baptist if he was the Elijah to come, John answered in the exclamatory negative: "So they asked him, "Then who are you? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not!" "Are you the Prophet?" He answered, "No!"" (John 1:21). The only natural way to understand that Elijah has already come, but has not already come, is to view this in Jesus' two-phase Comings: John the Baptist came in the "spirit and power" of Elijah at Christ's first Coming; but the literal fulfillment of Elijah will unfold in proximity to Christ's second Coming, as a sign to the Day of the Lord (Mal 4:5).

5. A strong case can be made that one of the Two Witnesses in Revelation will be Elijah. The powers granted on these witnesses is said to be: "These two have the power to close up the sky so that it does not rain during the time they are prophesying" (Rev 11:6a). This is exactly the power that Elijah possessed (1 Kgs 17:1; Jas 5:17).

6. It should be pointed out that Elijah is one of the few Old Testament figures who did not experience death: "As they were walking along and talking, suddenly a fiery chariot pulled by fiery horses appeared. They went between Elijah and Elisha, and Elijah went up to heaven in a windstorm." (2 Kgs 2:11).

7. In the same context that Jesus tells some of his disciples that Elijah is coming and will restore all things is the very same context of the theophanic Transfiguration in which these disciples witness a preview of Elijah being associated with Christ's Coming in future glory (Matt 16:27-17:13).

So it is maintained that based on this Biblical evidence, there should be a real, future expectation of Elijah before the Day of the Lord. This point is important because on the very same day as the rapture takes place, the Day of the Lord's wrath begins to unfold (Luke 17:22-35; 2 Peter 3:12; 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10) Therefore, if Elijah is said to be a precursor-sign to appear before the Day of the Lord, the logical inference is that he will appear before the rapture. Thereby, the prophecy of Elijah establishes Christ's Coming as expectant, not imminent. This point is often missed in pretribulational literature.