The Economy Will Boom Before The Rapture!

ETERNITY



26 "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 "It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29 But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. Luke 17: 26-29

Today, I want to continue teaching on the Rapture of the Church. I know that this teaching has been challenging your thinking in many ways. I have gotten a plethora of response. I pray that you will open your mind and heart to the Great Teacher and allow him to unveil the Word to you. This teaching is really good news because the Word says comfort one another with these words regarding the rapture. Too many see this message as doom and gloom but boy, are the wrong! There is actually going to be a time of great economic prosperity leading right up to the rapture. People will be buying and selling and building like mad as our text in Luke 17: 28 has said. That is why I believe that the present economic crisis is only temporary. The real crisis will hit during the Great Tribulation! The good news is that we will get to enjoy the boom leading up to the rapture and leave before the wrath of God is poured out because God has not appointed us unto wrath.
Let's continue our study today of the Greek to gain a deeper understanding of this vital topic. I am greatly indebted to Dr. Thomas Ice, whom the Lord has used to confirm my convictions and I will lean heavily upon his excellent writing during this lesson.


THE DEFINITE ARTICLE
It is important to note that Paul uses a definite article with the noun apostasia. What does this mean? Davey notes the following:
Since the Greek language does not need an article to make the noun definite, it becomes clear that with the usage of the article reference is being made to something in particular. In 2 Thessalonians 2:3 the word apostasia is prefaced by the definite article which means that Paul is pointing to a particular type of departure clearly known to the Thessalonian church.Dr. Lewis provides a likely answer when he notes that the definite article serves to make a word distinct and draw attention to it. In this instance he believes that its purpose is "to denote a previous reference." "The departure Paul previously referred to was 'our being gathered to him' (v. 1) and our being 'caught up' with the Lord and the raptured dead in the clouds (1 Thessalonians 4:17)," notes Dr. Lewis. The "departure" was something that Paul and his readers clearly had a mutual understanding about. Paul says in verse 5, "Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?"

A PHYSICAL DEPARTURE
The use of the definite article would also support the notion that Paul spoke of a clear, discernable event. A physical departure, like the rapture would fit just such a notion. However, the New Testament teaches that apostasy had already arrived in the first century (cf. Acts 20:27-32; 1 Timothy 4:1-5; 2 Timothy 3:1-9; 2 Peter 2:1-3; Jude 3-4, 17-21) and thus, such a process would not denote a clear event as demanded by the language of this passage. Understanding departure as the rapture would satisfy the nuance of this text. E. Schuyler English explains as follows:
Again, how would the Thessalonians, or Christians in any century since, be qualified to recognize the apostasy when it should come, assuming, simply for the sake of this inquiry, that the Church might be on earth when it does come? There has been apostasy from God, rebellion against Him, since time began.

Whatever Paul is referring to in his reference to "the departure," was something that both the Thessalonian believers and he had discussed in-depth previously. When we examine Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, he never mentions the doctrine of apostasy, however, virtually every chapter in that epistle speaks of the rapture (cf. 1:9-10; 2:19; probably 3:13; 4:13-17; 5:1-11). In these passages, Paul has used a variety of Greek terms to describe the rapture. It should not be surprising that he uses another term to reference the rapture in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. Dr. House tells us:


COMFORT ONE ANOTHER WITH THESE WORDS
Remember, the Thessalonians had been led astray by the false teaching (2:2-3) that the Day of the Lord had already come. This was confusing because Paul offered great hope, in the first letter, of a departure to be with Christ and a rescue from God's wrath. Now a letter purporting to be from Paul seems to say that they would first have to go through the Day of the Lord. Paul then clarified his prior teaching by emphasizing that they had no need to worry. They could again be comforted because the departure he had discussed in his first letter, and in his teaching while with them, was still the truth. The departure of Christians to be with Christ, and the subsequent revelation of the lawless one, Paul argues, is proof that the Day of the Lord had not begun as they had thought. This understanding of apostasia makes much more sense than the view that they are to be comforted (v. 2) because a defection from the faith must precede the Day of the Lord.

Now I am no genius, but here is some food for thought. Why would people falling away from the Lord be used to comfort one another? No, it is not the falling away as even I was taught in bible College, but it is the hope that we will be taken or caught away before the Great Tribulation that comforts us all. The entire second chapter (as well as 1 Thessalonians 4:18; 5:11) serves to comfort (see vv. 2, 3, 17), supplied by a reassurance of Christ's coming as taught in his first letter.


In Him,
Bernard