RAPTURE – PART II
TWO COMINGS, NOT THREE
The Mystery is Revealed!
Now, let’s move into 2 Thessalonians to see what else Paul had to teach us about the Rapture/Second Coming of Messiah. Let’s get the context of 2 Thessalonians, from 1:4-10, “so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of Yahweh for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure [notice, you don’t escape from persecution or tribulation], 5which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of Yahweh [persecution and tribulation prove that Judgment Day is coming to the earth!], that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of Yahweh [like you said, we are worthy in Yeshua, and this Kingdom is the one coming to earth], for which you also suffer [suffering is not rapturing]; 6since it is a righteous thing with Yahweh to repay with tribulation those who trouble you [tribulation is also payback to those who persecute the saints], 7and to give you who are troubled rest with us when [second coming] the Master Yeshua is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels [Paul is speaking second coming language again, and get the direction in your thinking, FROM HEAVEN TO EARTH], 8in flaming fire taking vengeance [wrath, judgment] on those who do not know Yahweh, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Master Yeshua HaMashiach. 9These shall be punished with everlasting destruction [double destruction, Jer. 17:18] from the presence of the Master and from the glory of His power, 10when He comes [Second Coming], in that [Judgment] Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.”
We see Judgment Day tied to Yeshua’s second coming here. That’s pretty common knowledge. But as we learned previously, the resurrection and rapture of the saints takes place at the beginning of this Second Coming. And how is Yahweh glorified in the saints? He gives us glorified bodies, just like Yeshua has!! This admiration among the saints begins at our rapturous meet and greet and during the coronation ceremony in Jerusalem during a future Feast of Trumpets, Tishri 1. Notice verse 12, “that the name of our Master Yeshua Messiah may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our Mighty One and the Master Yeshua HaMashiach.” The second coming, which includes the glorification of the saints, is a part of GRACE!! Wow, it’s the culmination of the grace of Yahweh!
2 Thessalonians 2:1-4, “Now, brethren, concerning the [second] coming of our Master Yeshua Messiah and our gathering together [resurrection and rapture, meet and greet] to Him, we ask you, 2not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Messiah had come [and after nearly 2,000 more solar years, still has not come]. 3Let no one deceive you by any means; for that [Judgment] Day will not come unless the falling away comes first [the apostate church emerges], and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition [Antichrist, still has not appeared], 4who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called Yahweh or that is worshiped, so that he sits as Yahweh in the temple of Yahweh, showing himself that he is Yahweh.”
Paul continues his teaching on the second coming, notice that he ties Yeshua’s second coming directly to the rapture and resurrection, and both of these concepts are tied directly to Judgment Day!! They all happen, either at the same instant, or are spread over the few days (weeks) of the Fall Feasts, from Tishri 1, Feast of Trumpets through the Feast of Tabernacles. Today, we see the Church of Yeshua falling away into apostasy. Soon, we will see the Antichrist arise out of Islam (the Beast system from the east), Obama is a prime candidate for this office, in my humble opinion. There are several megalomaniacs in the realm of Islam today that could fulfill this role. Notice the desolation of the Temple is the exact abomination of desolation spoken of by Yeshua and Daniel the prophet. Paul is in complete agreement again with his Master and the Master’s prophet. And notice that these statements presuppose another Temple has to be built for this prophecy to be fulfilled in the last days. And it will be built, the preparations for the building of the next Temple go forward day by day. Even though our world seems to be completely out of control, notice that there is order to the second coming of Messiah.
2 Thessalonians 2:6-9, “And now you know what is restraining, that he [antichrist] may be revealed in his own time. 7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Master will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His [second] coming.” Notice that it is the brightness of Yeshua’s second coming that blows away the darkness and gloominess of the Great Tribulation! Ok, this portion of Scripture is one that the pre-trib rapture folks use to get some of their rapture theory ammunition. Unfortunately, our English translations are not so good here. Some poor deluded translator, with preconceived notions, wanted you to think that Paul is talking about the Holy Spirit here as the one doing the restraining. But look at the phrase above, where Paul says, “what is restraining”, NOT WHO IS RESTRAINING. We’re talking about a thing, or concept, not a person. Looking at the Greek in the two phrases, “He who now restrains” and “He is taken out of the way” we see a verb and adverb in the first phrase, and a verb in the second phrase, but we DO NOT SEE a personal pronoun in either phrase!! The personal pronoun He, IS NOT EVEN IN THE ORIGINAL GREEK TEXT!! In the two verb phrases, the what is restraining in verse 6 and the he who now restrains in verse 7 are the same Greek word, only in verse 6, it is neuter gender, and in verse 7, it is masculine gender. In other words, we must find the SUBJECT for these verbs to be active upon. We must look further up in the verse to see what that subject is. Paul states that the Thessalonians knew what that subject was, the “what is restraining”, or keeping the Antichrist from being revealed. The subject of verse 7 is the word MYSTERY, the Greek word musterion. And in verse 7, the word MYSTERY, Strong’s number 3466 is a NOUN, in the NEUTER gender!! In this passage, Paul is saying that it is the MYSTERY that is restraining and it is the MYSTERY that will be taken out of the way, BEFORE THE ANTICHRIST CAN BE REVEALED TO THE WORLD!
Ok, so what is this great mystery that Paul is talking about in verse 7? It is the MYSTERY OF LAWLESSNESS, or WHY HUMANS CHOOSE TO LIVE WITHOUT YAHWEH’S LAW! Why do people have such great contempt for Yahweh’s Law, His Torah, His Book of instructions for living in His Kingdom!! Especially, why do people hate Yahweh’s Law, His Torah, when it is precisely this Law that leads them to forgiveness of sin and salvation in their Messiah? This is truly a mystery!! A better translation of verses 6 and 7 would be, “And now you know the MYSTERY OF LAWLESSNESS is restraining, that the Antichrist may be revealed in his own time. 7For the MYSTERY OF LAWLESSNESS is already at work; only the MYSTERY OF LAWLESSNESS now restraining will do so until the MYSTERY OF LAWLESSNESS is taken out of the way.” In other words, once the people of Yahweh, the Church of Jesus Christ, if you will, repents of its sin of LAWLESSNESS, its rebellion against Yahweh’s LAW, His TORAH, THEN THE ANTICHRIST IS FREE TO BE REVEALED TO THE WORLD. NOW you know why Yeshua HAS NOT BEEN ABLE TO RETURN TO EARTH FOR NEARLY 2,000 YEARS!! His people refuse to obey, follow, hallow, His Torah, they willingly are ignorant of His Word, they willingly violate it! And Yahweh calls this INIQUITY, WICKEDNESS! We, the Church, MUST REPENT TODAY OF OUR WICKEDNESS OF NOT LOVING AND OBEYING YAHWEH’S WHOLE WORD, GENESIS TO REVELATION.
Are you, dear reader, getting this? Paul is saying that IF THE CHURCH OF HIS DAY HAD REPENTED OF THEIR SIN OF LAWLESSNESS, YESHUA MESSIAH WOULD HAVE RETURNED TO EARTH ALMOST 2,000 YEARS AGO!! But oh no, we’ve been f***ing around in sin and foolish religion for another 2,000 years, prolonging Yeshua’s return to earth!! It’s way past time to remove the MYSTERY from the earth!! Repent today of your sin of lawlessness and embrace Yahweh’s whole word like never before. Only then can the Antichrist be revealed and we can get on with Daniel’s last 7 years of his prophesied 490 years and receive our King back to earth permanently!! YAHWEH NEVER INTENDED FOR THERE TO BE A 2,000 YEAR GAP BETWEEN DANIEL’S FIRST 483 YEARS AND THE FINAL 7 YEARS, LEADING TO YESHUA’S RETURN!! But, because Yahweh’s people continued to live in lawlessness and rebellion and refuse to love, honor, lift up, and obey Yahweh’s Law, we have seen the suffering of mankind for an extended 2,000 years of human misery, called the “Christian era” of history. No wonder Yahweh and Yeshua will be angry when they return to earth!! Now we know what Paul means in verse 14, “to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Master Yeshua Messiah.” We obtain the glory of Yahweh through repenting of our sins!! This is what the Fall Feasts of Yahweh are all about!!
Now read chapter 3 of 2 Thessalonians. Then go back and reread both 1 and 2 Thessalonians again, WITH YOUR SPIRITUAL BLINDERS OFF!!
Father, pour out a spirit of repentance upon your people so we will follow your whole counsel, and so we can see the Antichrist revealed, so Yeshua can come back here and really save us!! Please excuse my self-centered prayer, and glorify Yourself and Yeshua!! Amen!
For His Law’s sake,
Gene Benjamin II
September 28, 2012 CE