The Second Coming of Christ

The Second Coming of Christ. So, actually, we're getting down toward the end, I think as Hal mentioned, and all these last chapters are end-time events, and there's just really some neat stuff, and there's just a lot of material. There's a lot of material here.

I want to thank Hal. Hal was gracious enough to call me a week and a half ago and say, well, I have some stuff already sort of in this. Actually, it was wonderful he did that, because this week, with my daughter's accident, I was up until Wednesday night at the hospital until 2 a.m., checking her out, make sure she's okay. So there's no way I would have gotten hardly anything done on this thing. So it was the Lord provided, so it's neat.

Okay, so let's look at a couple of questions that we might think about. In terms of his second coming, are there distinctions about his second coming? Before we answer those questions, I was going to go back up a question. Were there distinctions about his first coming? Can you think of how maybe the Jews got confused in his first coming, right? There were distinctions, prophecies in the Old Testament about his first coming.

And there are distinctions about his second coming. As I think about these questions here, there are distinctions about both and it's important that we make distinctions. Otherwise, just like the Jews, just like the Israelites, They said, well, the Messiah's going to come and set up his kingdom. You're not doing that. So they threw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak, from a human perspective, right? Well, he's not the Messiah. Well, no, he is the Messiah.

So there's distinctions about his second coming. And so we're going to look at those distinctions. And we've somewhat touched on this before, but I think it's important that we go back and look at it again about Christ coming for his saints, the rapture, and Christ coming with his saints. Sometimes it's called coming in power and great glory. Hal has the term revelation, which I like. He's being revealed, who he is.

So we're going to see those distinctions, and that's kind of what we're going to do in this lesson, kind of march to those distinctions. So this basically is a chart from last week that we kind of adapted for this week. And here's the tribulation period kind of shown below with all the different judgments, the sealed judgments, the trumpet judgments, the bowl judgments. And then bracketing that, we have his coming for his saints, the rapture, at the beginning of this time period. And we're going to contrast that with Christ coming with his saints at the end of the tribulation period. And we're going to see that both of these events were foretold. Now, here again, we have some aspects that were not foretold.

The rapture was a mystery, as Scripture calls it, something not revealed previously until the New Testament. So, the Old Testament is silent about the rapture, but it's not silent about His coming in power and great glory with His saints. There's quite a bit about that. In terms of the New Testament, Christ talked about His his coming, the rapture. We're going to look at some verses there, and Paul did too. And then in the New Testament, Christ talked about in Matthew 24 about his coming in power and great glory. And then in Revelation, that is spoken about as well. So we see that both these events were spoken of in Scripture before they happened. And they haven't happened yet, so I've got to be careful.

Okay. All right, so what I'm going to do here, this is sort of the big picture. We'll probably come back to this maybe as we go through the different points. And let me just show you a chart here. I kind of took the 12 points and I kind of looked at them and kind of grouped them into some groups. 12 points that we want to go over.

The prophecy about the rapture and His coming in power and great glory. There's prophecy about that. There's a purpose. I mean both those are really critical and then there's a group of things that are sort of I'll call them maybe Mechanics but but Distinctions. Yeah, it's play.

Thank you places the place the manner the visibility the journey of the Saints And then there's some just other really significant facts, you know related resurrections, the translation, the Holy Spirit, conditions on the earth, the nations, and the very last one is really important too, the timing of His coming.

So I kind of grouped them in that grouping, these 12 points. And we probably won't get through these 12 points, I mean, just looking at what... I think, you know, we'll see how it goes. So I want to start with the prophecies and kind of go through that. We'll look at the prophecies and the purpose I think is really important. There's some just really neat, you know, as I went through here, Just some really neat verses, just some real gems in these verses, and I'd like to kind of point some of those things out. And then also we had some fun this week between PowerPoint and Word, so I have a Word version of the charts that you have, so it might look a little bit different.

So let's go ahead and we're going to look at the first point, the prophecies concerning the rapture and the second coming. What's that? I'm not, as they say. Okay, so let's look at... So under prophecy, let's look at what the Lord Jesus said about that. Okay, so let's turn to John chapter 14. And can I get someone to read verses 1, 2, and 3 in John 14? I'll read. Okay, Hal. Thank you.

Let not your heart be troubled. If ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions, and were it not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will send again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Okay.

So this first point is talking about the Lord Jesus, when he was here, talking about the fact that he's going to go away. Telling us, let not your heart be troubled. I go to prepare a place for you, and then in verse 3 he says, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. So this verse is talking about the Lord Jesus coming again and receiving us unto himself.

To me, that's a picture of what happens when we meet the Lord in the air. There's a meeting there in the air between the saints and the Lord Jesus. So that's one. one particular prophecy. And then, actually I don't want to cover it right now, but in 1 Thessalonians, it's the verse on being caught up to meet the Lord in the air. We're going to cover that in just a minute here, but in more detail. But then kind of contrasted with that, we see, let's turn over to Matthew 24. Matthew 24. And in Matthew 24, starting in 27, and I'll just go ahead and read this here.

It says, for just as lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so shall the Son of Man, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. Whatever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.

I'll just stop right there. So, it's a different picture. This picture on the rapture is focused upon this, believers being united with the Lord. This one is focused on the Lord coming to empower in great glory. He's going to render judgment upon the earth. It's a culmination of the tribulation period. So there's a different picture in view here of what's going on.

And the other thing is, it says back here in verse 29, but immediately after the tribulation of those days. And then also, if you go back up to verse 3, it talks about when the disciples were questioning him, he says, what will be the sign of your coming? And he says, at the end of the age, in my translation, or actually, better might be the consummation of the age, So it's the end of the tribulation period, whereas the other one is the beginning of the tribulation period. So we're kind of contrasting the events at the beginning and the end of the tribulation period.

So that's kind of the first part of that with the Lord Jesus. And then there's more in terms of other passages in the New Testament. And I wanted to look at the one in 1 Thessalonians. So now, other passages in the New Testament, we're looking at sort of the movement What's happening here?

With the rapture, we have the dead in Christ and the alive in Christ are caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Whereas over here, the Lord returns to pour out judgment, to make war upon the nations, to rule them. So He's coming down to execute judgment and He's going to rule with a rod of iron. There's a different picture and view here. So let's just look at the First Thessalonians for a second here. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Can I get someone to read maybe verses 16 and 17, or actually 16, 17, 18 in 1 Thessalonians 4. Yeah, Sue?

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel So, you know, the words that are spoken here are to be a comfort that Paul tells us. They're to be comforting. They're to reassure us of what's going to happen.

And, you know, the idea of being caught up And I kind of looked at that a little bit. It's the idea to snatch away. And it's actually the idea that it's done forcibly. It's a snatching away forcibly. And it's actually not exactly a parallel passage, but a similar use of that word, which I thought was interesting, in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. If you turn over there just for a second. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. The same word is used as catching away or snatched away. And it's used in terms of Paul in this case, 2 Corinthians chapter 12. And let me just read here verse 2. 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 2. It says, I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, whether in the body I do not know or out of the body I do not know, God knows, such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And he goes on.

Similar catching away, a forceful catching away. The idea is, did Paul have any choice in this matter? He didn't say, Lord, catch me away, snatch me away. No. He just was caught away. When the Lord comes for us, he doesn't ask us, or permission to take us. He doesn't say, can I come and take you? We say, oh yeah, I guess I want to come. I don't want to hang out here.

He snatches away forcibly. He gets us out of here. I'm out of here. time you can really apply that expression. Anyway, so a different picture than we see in, and let's look at the Revelation passage here, contrasting that with coming with his saints. He's coming with a, the motivation is totally different. Actually, before we do that, I just got to have myself here.

Let me just point one more thing out there. That catching away, you know, we have two groups of people in view. We have the dead in Christ are in view. They have died in Christ. And sort of the picture is that they go up first and we kind of come, zooming in at the last moment, I don't know if I have this right, we kind of come, so we meet together. So the dead in Christ rise and we come together and it says, together with them in the clouds we meet the Lord, basically.

Actually, that word in the air, I had one translated, so the lower atmosphere. I'm not exactly sure where they got that from, But it was interesting, the lower atmosphere is how they described in the air. And the idea to meet is to come in the presence of, that word, to meet.

So we're coming into the presence of the Lord in the lower atmosphere. That was kind of a neat picture. Caught away, we're not asked, we're not given a choice. He just comes and takes his own and we're gone. So the movement there is toward heaven to meet the Lord in the air. The movement in coming with his saints He's coming down. It's a procession. It's something that happens over time.

This is a very quick... Some of the things we're going to see in a little more detail as we get into this. So let's look at Revelation 19 here for a second. Revelation 19. I'm just going to read a portion here for the interest of time. Let me start in verse 11.

And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and wages war. And his eyes are a flame of fire, and upon his head are many diadems. He has a name written upon him, which no one knows except himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses." So here's the picture. So here's the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen.

Who do you think that's speaking of? What's that? Good. Good. I think so too. I agree. I think it's... Let's talk about believers. So, they're clothed in fine linen. That kind of speaks of... They've been cleansed. They've been made acceptable. And they're following him on white horses. So, they're following the Lord and they're coming with him. So, it's a different... There's no meeting involved. They're already with him. And they're coming with him.

And in 15 it says, from his mouth comes a sharp sword so that With it, he may smite the nations. He will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty, and so on. So, he's coming to pour out God's judgment on this earth. And the movement is to earth. And the armies of heaven are coming with him.

So, different things in view here. Okay. Now the third point is, okay, in terms of the rapture, there's nothing in the Old Testament that talks about that. But there is, I thought it was interesting, a passage here that, let's just, I'll just read, let's look at, actually, your paper has it right.

It's 1 Corinthians 15.51. You have it correct on your, First Corinthians 1551. And here it kind of makes it explicit. It says, Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed. Actually, we're going to look at it a little more in detail here in a little bit about how we're going to be changed. Okay, so it's a mystery.

It's something that's not revealed in the Old Testament. So contrasted with that, the Lord's coming and power and great glory, His second coming, is something that there is a lot of information about that. It's something that is well documented by Scripture. There's a lot of Scripture in the Old Testament about that event.

And again, we have that it wasn't seen as two events. It wasn't seen that there's going to be a... Actually, this is talking about what I kind of mentioned before. In the Old Testament, they didn't realize that His suffering and His glory were two separate events.

I thought it was a good passage and 1 Peter about that. 1 Peter chapter 1. If you look in verse Verse 10, and it says, and this is a kind of, verse 10 kind of starts, it refers back to the previous verses talking about our salvation. It says, As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating, as he predicted You can predict something here, predicting two things, the suffering of Christ and the glories to follow. So, Scripture recognized that there's the sufferings of Christ and the glories of Christ. In the Old Testament, that distinction was not understood.

Okay. Now I want to do one more verse here in this section, in Zechariah 14. Let's look at that just for a second. Zechariah 14. Zechariah 14, verses 4 and 5. And this is a very clear passage on the Lord Jesus coming in power and great glory and what's going to happen. Actually, back in verse 1 in chapter 14 of Zechariah, it says, Behold, a day is coming for the Lord, when the spoils taken from you will be divided among you.

For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle. So it's talking about this time when there's going to be a battle, there's going to be conflict. And then down in verse And he says, in that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. So the Lord is going to come and physically stand on the Mount of Olives. And that was prophesied. So this whole section is talking about prophecy. What was prophesied in terms of Christ and Paul and Zachariah, New Testament, Old Testament. So that kind of talks about prophecies. That's one of...

So as you see here, we haven't made a whole lot of progress so far. We've covered one of the twelve so far. So now let's look at the purpose. What's the purpose of the rapture and the second coming? And there's a different purpose. Okay, so this is kind of interesting. What's the purpose?

In terms of the rapture, basically to complete God's plan of salvation, can someone tell me about the different aspects of our salvation? There are three aspects that we talk a lot about in terms of salvation. This talks about the third aspect, salvation from the presence of sin. Can you think about the other ones that we mentioned? In terms of that, it's a package deal, so to speak. We get three.

Okay, so when's that in force? Is that already completed, done? Not to worry about that? Right, right. And that's something that's ongoing, right? We're being delivered, you know, continually. Right? As we walk by faith, as we abide in Him, we're being delivered from the power of sin.

What about the other one? There's one more? Something that's already accomplished? May I'm making it hard here. Sometimes I'll allusion something if I don't explain it well. Say again? Okay, there's one more. All right, yay! They're all P words. Delivered from the penalty of sin, from the power of sin, from the presence of sin. Kind of easy. I mean, it's like a... Yeah, they're all P. There's a word for that when you make them all the same. I don't know. I always say acrostic, but that's not right. Anyway, they make them all the same letter.

Penalty, power, and presence. So this is talking about deliverance, and so what's going to happen is, right, we meet the Lord in the air, we're delivered from the presence of sin. So let's look at some of the mechanics of that. I thought this was really, really neat.

Well, I won't turn to it, but in Romans, one of the verses is Romans 8, 29, it talks about the fact that we're conformed to the image of His Son, And 1 Peter 1.5, it talks about the fact that protected for a salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. And then the second part, that's the A part of that. So we're, to complete the plan of salvation, we're delivered from the presence of sin. The second part, part B, is salvation of our bodies.

Our bodies are not going to be the same bodies. And this is really neat. Okay, let's look at Philippians. Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. I'll just go ahead and read this. It says in verse 20, Philippians chapter 3, verse 20. For our citizenship is in heaven. from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself." So, verse 21 says, "...who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory. So our body is going to be changed.

And there's a really neat word here. This idea of conformity is this word, ginomai. And this word is used of the Lord Jesus Christ in John 14, where it says, He became man. He became a man. He was God. He became a man. This is the same word, ginomai, to come into a new state of being that was used in John 14, the Lord Jesus, to become a man.

This word says we're going to be conformed to His, let's say conformed, the humble state in conformity with the body of His glory. So we're going to become like Him. We're going to come into a new state of being that we never were before. We're going to become like our Savior.

To me, that was just really neat. And it's this word, ginome, to come into a new state of being. Actually, it's one of the ones that's coming up in our Greek class. It's on like the fourth page of a handout. So for all you Greek students, look for the fourth page. Ginome is in there. So it's a neat one. It's in the infinitive form, and I was scratching my head last night about twelfth day. Infinitive form? We haven't got to that yet.

So, anyway, I think I'm correct on this. It might be a... But it's the word, get on me. I know that for sure. So, I thought that was neat. We're going to come into a new state of being. When we meet the Lord in the air, we'll be changed into the body of his glory. Okay, so, all right. Okay, then over here again. A different picture.

The purpose. What's the purpose? The purpose here is to complete the plan of salvation. Our body to be changed, to be like His body. That's the purpose over here. What's the purpose for His coming in power and great glory? It's to do all these, there's about seven or eight things in here. To judge, make war, smite the nations, to bind Satan, to sit on the throne of David, to judge the nations, to restore Israel. This is a neat one right here. I want to look at Zachariah, you know, all those different things. This one is just really outstanding. Zachariah 8.

And it's so different than where the world is today. You know, the world today, I was listening to a radio program and they were saying, well, the world's against the U.S. for going into Iraq or this or that. And they said, you think that's bad? Think what the Israelites feel like. The world's against them. morning, noon, and night.

There's never a time when the world says, you know, Israel is always under the, always the target, right? I mean, constantly. There's hardly ever a time when Israel is not. But here's the time that's going to happen when people are going to say, wow, Israel, that's a cool place. I want to be just like them because they know God. What a difference. I can't even find Zachariah here. I can't talk. My wife accuses me of not being able to do two things at one time. I can't do it. She says, all women have to be able to do two things at one time. Roger, you can't do that. So, anyway.

Okay, let's look at Zechariah chapter 8. Yeah, this is Zechariah chapter 8, and I'll start reading in verse 20. It says, Thus says the Lord of hosts, It will yet be the peoples will come, even the inhabitants of many cities. And the inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the Lord, and seek the Lord of hosts. I will go also. So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek the Lord of the hosts in Jerusalem to entreat the favor of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garments of a Jew, saying, Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."

I mean, that is a stark difference between today and today. Just 180 different. I mean, they're going to say, God is with you. I want to go there. I want to be there. I mean, it's just incredible. So that day, that's the complete God's plan for the nation of Israel. So a different purpose than His coming in power and great glory. Okay.

So now we're down to number three, the place of His coming. And some of these we've already kind of talked about a little bit. It's obviously in the air, in the lower atmosphere. I found that one word description of in the air, in the lower atmosphere. That's going to be the place of our meeting.

In terms of His second coming and power and great glory, it's to the earth, and we read the passage about the Mount of Olives. So that one we can zoom through pretty quickly, the comparison between in the air versus to the earth, the Mount of Olives. And like in the Job passage, let's see, Job passage, Job passage there, later on I got passages written. There's basically a passage that says He will stand on the earth, well, somewhere, I don't have it there, Okay, the manor is coming.

The manor is coming. It's an event that is, there's not a sign, in terms of the rapture, there's not a sign of that happening. It's going to happen. It's going to be a surprise. It talks about like a thief in the night. It talks about, it's, let's see, do I have that here or is it later on? Actually, we'll see that in a minute. It's a surprise, like a thief in the night.

In contrast to that, there are many signs about his second coming. Well, the entire tribulation period from Revelation 4-19 talks about all the events leading up to his second coming, to put down all the nations and to rule with a rod of iron. All that is preceding his second coming. One event is a surprise. There's no sign for that to happen.

Where the other one is, there's a tremendous amount Scripture has to say about everything leading up to His second coming. Okay. Visibility. Believers will know it. The dead in Christ will know it. The ones who are alive. When He comes, we'll know it. But it's unclear.

Scripture doesn't really talk about anyone else viewing this event. Whereas the other one, let's just look at the Revelation passage, Revelation chapter 1. There's going to be tremendous visibility in terms of His second coming and power and great glory. In Revelation chapter 1, It says, Behold, he is coming with clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him, even so, amen. So, every eye will see him. The whole earth will see him, whereas only his own will see this.

Now, the journey of the saints is from earth to heaven. And we looked at the passage in Revelation. They're coming on the white horses. They're with Him. They're proceeding with the Lord. White horses are following him. So one's up to heaven, the other one's down to earth. We've got different directions, different things going on here.

Okay, that one's pretty straightforward. Let's see if I have something else I wanted to... Right, okay. Now, this one's kind of interesting. Now, in 1 Thessalonians, if you just want to turn there again just to look at it, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, it talks about the fact that their eyes shall rise first.

So, those that have died in Christ will be resurrected to be with him. That's contrasted with, in his coming with his saints, there are tribulation martyrs and there's Old Testament believers that are resurrected. And may I just read you just part of some of these passages. In Revelation 20, it talks about these tribulation martyrs came to life and reigned with Christ. And in Daniel 12, it talks about who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake to everlasting life. When he comes with his saints, the tribulation martyrs are resurrected, believers are resurrected. Whereas over here, the church is in view, the dead in Christ are resurrected.

So two different pictures again. This is a translation. Can somebody tell me what the word translation means? I had to look it up, I wasn't sure at first. When I say, if I'm translated now, and if you watch Star Trek, beam me up, Scotty, or whatever, is that what's happening? You get beamed up?

Actually, that's actually right. I'm probably confusing my poor knowledge of Star Trek. So, you're probably right. It's a poor comparison here. Okay, so let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Yes, it's not a – that's right. A transporter versus a – okay. Chapter 15. Actually, we looked at this verse before, I think, actually.

Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. And what's neat here, as you go down, the change will happen in a moment at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will raise imperishable. But it actually says, It repeats it twice here. In 51 and 52, it repeats the phrase kind of twice. It says, but we shall all be in the 51, and then it repeats it again in 52, we shall be changed. So, it's the idea to make something, to change something into another form, to make, to change into another form. So we're going to be, our bodies are going to be changed. We're going to become like his glorified body. We're going to be changed. We're not going to have the same body that we have now.

And then the other thing is that a moment of time, it's an instant of time so small that it cannot be divided into smaller units. And can you think of – when the Greek language – this word in the Greek is actually the word for atom, but that's about splitting the atom. So the word atom is used. So you think, well, wait a minute. It seems like – but the concept is that it's undividable. We know that atom today is dividable, but that's the word they use for, you know, not being able to be divided. So it's the smallest amount of time, you can't time, amount of time.

I found out also the twinkling of an eye is like the blinking of your eye, it's like a star in the sky, that amount of time, or a gnat flapping its wings or something like that, all these little things. Okay, so let's go on. That's translation. Holy Spirit. So a couple of things in view here.

The Holy Spirit, if you look in Psalm 139, it says, Where can I go from thy presence? Where can I flee from thy presence? So there's an aspect of the Holy Spirit that's omnipresent. He's the Godhead, he's God, so he's omnipresent. But the Holy Spirit has... Where's the Holy Spirit in the church age? What's his ministry? Right. So he's here in believers, right? There's a whole bunch of things. In fact, we had a list of the Holy Spirit's ministry. And a lot of it in terms of...

He's involved with the believer here on earth. Well, when the Church is taken out, ministry stops. He leaves in that sense, but he's still present, that he's present everywhere, he's omnipresent. So when the Church is taken out, but then, in the Millennial Kingdom, which is, there'll be beliefs again, his ministry is in view in terms of the, who come to know Christ in the Millennial Kingdom, or actually during the Tribulation Period. So there's a different ages. His ministry, in terms of the Church, comes to an end when the Church is taken to meet the Lord. ministry or a different aspects in view. His omnipresence is always in view, but it changes from the history versus his ministry to believers in the tribulation period.

Let's see, is that right? It might be another aspect I haven't really And actually, just this here, like in the Kingdom of Israel, it says, you know, and sometimes these verses are tried out verses, tried out Ezekiel and Jeremiah. He talks about putting a new heart, putting a new spirit. I will put my spirit within you.

And if you read carefully, that's talking about the house of Israel. So the house of Israel. That's the Ezekiel text. It's talking about the house of Israel. We're given a new heart, a new spirit. I'll put my spirit within you. That's, you know, Israel, not the church. people try to apply that, but that's his ministry to the house of Israel. Okay. Yes, I'm sorry. Sure.

The ones that are interred in tribulation? Correct, that were correct to Jesus. So I'm assuming at that point they're believers. So Jesus is saying that, you know, despite the fact that they're believers, that what we've done here at this point in time is beyond, and they get to care about him. Can you go through where this ends and show me where this is making that claim? Okay, the one on the left here is talking about the history of the Holy Spirit, that there are two aspects at the rapture, right? There's the omnipresence of the Holy Spirit. And that passage right there... Okay, let's just go ahead and look at that passage. OK. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, actually, Greg, you know, Craig, I'm sorry, passage. I looked at that and I said, and I looked at these charts. Anyway, Helen and I shared them. I never looked at that, but anyway. Let me just tell you, without looking at that passage, let me just tell you why I took this go. And we can look at that passage, too.

But what I was comparing here was the fact that the minister in terms of his ministry to the church and his ministry at the end of the tribulation period. What you brought up, and I realize that I hadn't thought about the time period during the tribulation, and I need to look into it. I haven't really thought about what does that mean. Maybe that pastor looked at it.

Go ahead, I'm sorry. Right. Okay, that's good. Okay, I think you have a good point. I think you have a good point. She's basically saying that there's a wonderful new relationship between believers and God. Remember when Christ said, I will come? Right. So here's a wonderful new relationship that we've come into. It comes to an end. So now, what happens is that the Holy Spirit comes for us for a purpose.

And the question is, I haven't really sorted my mind. What, during that time period, does it return to this period like in the Old Testament where he comes to do God's will, like David said. David said, don't take thy Holy Spirit from me. The Holy Spirit would come for a purpose, to accomplish God's purpose. I understand the analogy, I think. Specifically, the martyrs during the tribulation period. Well, what I would like is this claim to back up that the Holy Spirit leaves fears for a period and that his ministry is done.

Well, okay. or is it just talking about the restraining, acting against the restraining? Actually, I don't think it's actually. I mean, the claim being made is he leaves the earth, the administrator is the claimant on the stage, and I don't see that. Well, actually, it's my fault for not, you know, I did not like that passage, and I loved it. I did it a different way, so I apologize for...

And so, going into... you don't have... you only have one belief at a time. And the time, no matter what that is, it's a field, it's a hundred people, it's a thousand people. Right. The moment that the rapture occurs, at least as long as you're at birth, Yeah. Great. Thanks, Al. That's great. OK. OK. Well, anyway, maybe I'll just say that.

Anyway, we have so basically we have there are three options on the earth or conditions on the earth that I guess. So it's actually quite a bit more information, you know, in terms of. Is there anything else I wanted to say here? So basically, we got to the conditions on the earth, the nations, the world, and then the timing of His coming. Okay. So we'll just go ahead and close then. Dear Father, we thank You so much, Lord. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the many blessings we have in the Lord Jesus. We ask it in His name. Amen.