1st Thessalonians 4,5 & 2nd Thessalonians 2
David Berg
—The Post–Trib Public Rapture!DFO 151513/4/81
1. PTL! HALLELUJAH! TYJ! AMEN! LORD, BLESS THIS VIDEO & help this little Family here & this team that are helping make it possible. Bless our study of Thy Word tonight‚ Lord, that it may search our hearts & our minds & clarify our thoughts so that we can understand these things‚ that we may study to show ourselves good workmen approved unto God, workmen that need not to be ashamed‚ rightly dividing the Word of Truth." (2Ti.2:15.) So we do ask Thee, in Jesus' name, to help us as we study Thy Word, Lord‚ to understand it, & to help these understand it, about these Last Days, in Jesus' name. Amen. PTL! TYJ! Amen!
2. WELL‚ OUR LAST STUDY WAS ON, AS YOU RECALL, THE 4TH CHAPTER OF 1ST THESSALONIANS, in which we were describing the coming of the Lord, or the Apostle was describing it, Paul, as he writes to the Thessalonicans—Thessalonians as it's called in the Bible—today's Salonica to the North of Athens, Greece, the church there, & telling them how the Lord is going to come.
3. AND I WENT OUT OF MY WAY PARTICULARLY TO EMPHASISE THE FACT THAT WHEN HE COMES HE IS NOT GOING TO BE COMING SECRETLY BY ANY MEANS, but that the whole World is going to know it! For He will come with a lot of noise‚ a lot of light! It will be like lightning shining from the East even unto the West, like continuous lightning! The whole sky is going to be lit up! And there are going to be several big noises! For it said there in Thessalonians that 4th chapter, that the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, & with the voice of the archangel!—There's two big noises! And the trump of God shall sound, there's the third!
4. NOW, I DON'T SEE HOW YOU CAN HAVE THE WHOLE SKIES LIGHT UP, Jesus Himself descending from Heaven with a shout & the voice of the archangel & the trumpet of God & not have the whole World know it! In fact, John later over in the first Chapter of Revelation tells us, 7th verse, "Behold, He cometh with clouds, & every eye shall see Him, & they also which pierced Him"—meaning the Jews. "And all kindreds of the Earth shall wail because of Him."
5. DOESN'T SOUND VERY MUCH LIKE A SECRET RAPTURE, DOES IT?—A secret coming? But that's what the false prophets teach, "a secret Rapture before the Tribulation to whisk you silently, secretly & unobserved out of this World! You just suddenly disappear & nobody knows where you went!" Well, it's just not going to happen that way! Because every place in the Bible that you read about the coming of the Lord, there's a lot of commotion going on, lots of light, a regular light show!—Stars falling from the heavens, sun & moon darkened & whatnot!—Big noises, earthquakes, voice of the Archangel, shout of the Lord, trump of God, all kinds of things!
6. AND THE GRAVES OPEN & THE SAINTS ARISING FROM THE DEAD! All these bodies coming out of the graves!—Not ghosts, mind you now this time, not just spirits, but actual bodies, the new bodies of the resurrected. And we Saints who are alive & remain shall be caught up together with them in the air, right in front of the eyes of the whole World!
7. NOW WHY SHOULD GOD WANT TO MAKE THAT A SECRET? Why should He want to hide that great final triumph of His Bride & His Church as she rises in victory?—Finally out of reach of her enemies in great triumph in the bridal march to Heaven to join her Bridegroom! Why should He want to hush it all up & make it a secret & hide it for some reason? Is He ashamed of it? Is He ashamed of His coming? Is He ashamed of His Bride? Is He ashamed that He's rescuing her right in front of all of His enemies & their enemies? Of course not!
8. THIS IDEA OF THE SECRET RAPTURE BEFORE THE TRIBULATION IS SOMETHING THAT WAS ONLY COOKED UP BY SOME FALSE PROPHETS ABOUT 200 YEARS AGO! Up until that time the Church had never heard of a secret Rapture, never even dreamed of a Rapture before the Tribulation! The Catholic Bible & all the Bibles...
