Originally published in "The Lord's Coming Herald & Wesleyan Bible Prophecy Advocate," Winter Edition 2007
Jesus Is Coming In Flaming Fire
"And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord
Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angles, In flaming fire
taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ" (II Thess. 7-8).
Dispensationalists say that the above text refers to what happens at the close
of a future seven year great tribulation period before which the church has been
secretly removed.
The problem with that mentality, however, is that Paul does not say anything
about a "seven year" great tribulation period here. The seven year
construction--at the beginning of which the church is presumed to be secretly
raptured out--does not exist in this text. The pervasive dispensational world view/mentality that DOES exist here, friends,
is a fabrication based on a reading into the New Testament preconceptions that
derive solely from the controlling features of Sir Robert Anderson's theory of
interpreting Daniel's prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. And SRA's theory of the
Seventy Weeks, further, you should know, is a demonstrable academic hoax.
(Please see our book Is The Great Tribulation In Daniel 9:27?,
for full academic proof of this profoundly astounding assessment!)
Friends, the text of II Thessalonians 1:7-8 means what it literally says. And what it literally says is that Jesus will be revealed at His return in the "flaming fire" of judgment! No secret pre-seven year great tribulation rapture of the church is either implied, or involved, within that scene.
Obviously, folks influenced by dispensational teaching need to get to the bottom of reality here, and learn the truth! Please pray that the Holy Ghost will implant within them a desire to do just that!
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