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End of the Age / Latter Days
Not Appointed unto Wrath
True Christians are not appointed unto wrath, they will be ‘raptured’, just as Noah and his family were given a way to escape the judgment of the flood. Christians will be caught up in the air to meet Jesus in the clouds, just as the angel said in Acts 1.
In the New Testament, Thessalonians gives the most information about the rapture and escaping the next judgment upon the earth. Recall God put a rainbow as a promise to never destroy the earth with a flood again as a form of judgment.
Many teach now the next judgment will be ‘fire’.
Descriptions of those judgments/wrath come in Revelation. We hold fast to 1 Thessalonians 1:10: ‘ …even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.’
Also, 1 Thessalonians 5:9, ‘God did not appoint us to wrath,…’
1 Thessalonians 5:11, ‘…therefore comfort each other and edify one another just as you also are doing.’
1 Thessalonians 4:15-18
15For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
16For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
18Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Points we want to emphasize in this discussion of 2 Thessalonians include (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10):
• God will repay with tribulation those who trouble you.
• God will give those who are troubled rest.
• In flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God.
• They shall be punished when He comes in that day to be glorified with the saints.
2 Thessalonians 1:6-10
6 since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you,
7 and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels,
8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,
10 when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.
2 Thessalonians 2:1 repeats, our Lord is coming and we are gathering to Him.
Further in Verse 7 we read, ‘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.’ The next few verses go on to describe the enemy of us all ‐ the Antichrist.
The third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, ‘who in fills God‘s own’ will be leaving when the church is raptured.
2 Thessalonians 2:1
1Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you,
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