Commentary By: Gordon King
What is black and white and read all over? It’s a newspaper! And most newspapers today cannot be trusted, most are twisting the truth, and most are filled with worldly opinions and biases!
It’s becoming more and more difficult these days to find a news source that is truthful, honest, and reliable. More and more sources are full of lies and deceit, and it makes a person wonder just what in the world is going on!
It is very difficult for a godly person to find truthful and conservative news that supports the values of God Almighty. Most news sources are deceptive in their practices, most are twisting the truth, and most are not actually reporting on the truth but giving their biased opinions instead of just stating the facts! Fox News used to be a reliable source for conservative news, but not any more!
The point my friends is that the world is so full of lies and deceptions that a person can hardly make a sound decision in this life without being led down the wrong path! And that’s the grand plan of the evil one, the sinister plan of Satan! His is to confuse, to cause chaos and mayhem, to steal, kill, and destroy!
Those of the world believe that they are on the right side of time, that their thoughts and opinions are inline with the universe, whatever that means! But they are deceived, deceived into believing lies and untruths, deceived into being led down the wrong path, deceived into supporting things which are unrighteous, unholy, and ungodly!
But these things are to be expected of the world, to believe lies and untruths, to be led down the wrong path, for we ourselves were at one time just as they are now! However, what is very disturbing are Christians who believe the same things that the world does, Christians who have fallen away from the truth and believe the lies of the world, this is very disturbing but very telling at the same time my friends!
This great deception, this falling away was told to us thousands of years ago and that it would happen in the end times before the return of Christ, before the rapture of the church! This my friends is the great apostasy of the church!
The apostle Paul told us in 2 Thessalonians what would happen before our glorious meeting together with the Lord in the air (the rapture of the church).
2 Thessalonians 2:1-4
“Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not 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 Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.“
The apostle is comforting those in the church to not be troubled by what they may have heard regarding Christ already coming for the church.
“Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not 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 Christ had come.“
He then tells them not to be deceived by anyone! Then he tells them that there must be a falling away first, the apostasy of the church!
“Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first,”
He goes on to say that the man of sin (Antichrist) will be revealed, but he goes on further to explain this, that the church will be removed from the earth before this happens! He is giving an explanation of just who this man is by telling us what he will do in the future after the beginning of the Tribulation period, actually in the middle of it, during the Great Tribulation period spoken of by Jesus in Matthew 24.
“and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.“
2 Thessalonians 2:6-8
“And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.“
The man of sin will not be revealed until He who now restrains is taken out of the way. And just who is He who now restrains? The Holy Spirit filled church, who else could it be?! The apostle Paul is telling us that when we (the Holy Spirit filled church) are removed (gathered together with Christ), then the man of sin will be revealed in his time. This is what 2 Thessalonians 2 is all about, explaining to us when the rapture will occur, just as spoken to us in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18.
Let not ourselves be deceived my friends, let us not be led down the wrong path nor turn away from the truth! Let us not fall away into apostasy, for ours is not of this world but of the kingdom of God Almighty up above!
Scripture is clear if we read it and study it correctly, if we seek the Lord in wisdom and understanding, if we seek the truth! However, if we don’t read and study it correctly, if we don’t seek the Lord’s wisdom and understanding, if we interpret scripture of our own opinions and beliefs, then we can be led astray, then we can be deceived by our own doing, by the workings of the flesh!
The good Lord is loud and clear on these very things, deception in the last days, the days just prior to the rapture of the church and His second coming will be great! There will be a great falling away in the church just prior to the rapture of the church! And I believe that the bible clearly states that the rapture of the church will happen before the Tribulation period begins!
We are not appointed to God’s wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9) “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ”, (Revelation 3:10) “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.”
The Tribulation period is all a time of God’s judgements upon the world, the unbelieving world, not the believing church, not His bride! Whoever tells you that the first half of the Tribulation period will not be bad then you better read and study the book of Revelation my friends!!! Of course the first half will be bad, very, very bad indeed, just take a look at the Seal and Trumpet Judgements!
Deception is running rampant in this world my friends, but not only in the world but in the church also! These are times to be discerning of the truth and lies, of right from wrong, good from bad! They are times that we must be vigilant in knowing the truth and in spreading the truth, in standing firm on the Rock of our salvation, Jesus Christ!
The signs are all around us my brothers and sisters in Christ! The signs of the closeness of Christ’s return, not only His second coming but also His return for His Bride the church, and that means us!!!
God bless my friends! Maranatha!
End Time Bible Prophecy 
Thank you Gordon. Your post is timely for me today, I am growing so weary and seem to be coming under a barrage of attacks of the enemy using those who are close to me to accuse me and harass, those who I am close to and whom I try to help, rage against me.
It is true that in the end times that brother will rise against brother and there will be such persecution of those who seek to serve and stand firm in Jesus. The whole world is turning against us now and even more significant that even amongst those who call themselves Christian. and even amongst our own families. I know that is whatever happens the Lord uses it to transform us and make us ready, we must keep our eyes on the hope of our calling so we do not become discouraged with the way we are treated here.
God bless you brother, it is a comfort to me to know you are there and standing strong in The Lord.
Maranatha!
Christine
Reblogged this on God's Enduring Love and commented:
If you believe 1 Thess 5:9 and Rev 3:10, THEN the two ‘He’s’ in 2 Thess 2:6-8 will make great sense to you. But if you’re waiting for the Anti-Christ to appear first, sorry, you would have missed the blessed hope event!
I think that believers will actually see the very beginning of the times of trouble, but not the greatest time of trouble. Many days I wonder if the beginning of the time of trouble isn’t already here. But. We’ll know for sure when it all happens, won’t we!
Boldness this post caused me to have about a hundred random thoughts. Good writing!
Thanks for your comment Christine!
I feel what you are going through sister, I understand your pain. We must all wait upon the Lord for and in all things, Amen!
Isaiah 40:31
“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
In the midst of our tribulation we must always remain focused upon the Lord, He is our comfort and our strength. Everything in this world is passing away, none of it will last forever, and one day soon we shall be together with the Lord in the air! Remember, all that we are now going through in this world is leading up to the return of Jesus Christ for the rapture of us, His bride!
God bless sister! Time is short. Maranatha!
Thanks for your comment Shofar/Liz!
And if you believe that Revelation 4:1-2 is a representation of the rapture of the church, then you will also believe in a “Pre” Tribulation rapture, just as I believe that 2 Thessalonians 2 is telling us as well. Both passages compliment each other to a “T”! As believers in Jesus Christ we shouldn’t be waiting for the Antichrist to appear but for Jesus Christ to appear! The Antichrist will not appear until after Jesus Christ has come and raptured the church, do you still want to be here after the Antichrist has been revealed?! What would that then mean for you? Think about it.
God bless! Maranatha!
Thanks for your comment Alive and Well!
By “times of trouble” do you mean the Tribulation period? After the Antichrist has been revealed? Then you also believe that God will pour out His judgment and wrath upon born-again believers in Jesus Christ? You don’t seem to be too sure if we are already in it or not, but if we were then the Antichrist would have already been revealed as spoken of in 2 Thessalonians 2 and Daniel 9:27. None of the Tribulation period is going to be good, it’s all God’s judgment, it’s all going to be a very, very bad time to be alive on earth.
The world will continue to get worse and worse, more and more wicked and evil as we approach the beginning of the Tribulation period, but this is not the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, this will not begin until the Antichrist has first been revealed, this is what marks the beginning of the seven year Tribulation period.
As an idea of how bad things will get in this world before the Tribulation period begins we merely need to take a look at Matthew 24:36-44 which I believe Jesus is speaking about the rapture of the church, not His second coming. He likens the days to the days of Noah, and what was happening during the days of Noah? People were living their lives as usual, but they were also very wicked and evil times, times when the good Lord was sorry that He even created man kind! So that means that the times before the rapture of the church will also be very wicked and evil, and as we already see the world become a much darker place day by day, say it isn’t so, and it’s only going to get worse according to scripture.
These verses in Matthew describe an event that is of an unknown time, at least the day and the hour, but the second coming of Christ will be known to all people, we can count the number of days, everyone will see Him coming in the clouds, there will be many visible and audible signs of His appearing at His second coming. Then He says that one taken one left, what other event will this occur other than the rapture of the church? At the second coming of Christ His first agenda will be to defeat the armies of the world at the battle of Armageddon, to cast the beast and the false prophet into the lake of fire, and to bind Satan for one thousand years. I believe that He will then divide the sheep from the goats, believers from the unbelievers. And He will reign on earth for one thousand years with the believers!
Many things to think about, consider, and pray upon.
God bless! Maranatha!
Thank you Alive and Well!
We must meditate upon God’s word, we must allow it to soak into our soul. God’s word is alive and powerful! It is the truth and the light, and we must know the truth from lies. Amen.
God bless! Maranatha!
Thank you for the information! I’ll look into those verses. I’m really still digging into the Bible on all this. There are many opinions out there, and I don’t feel that any opinion would cost our salvation. I’m actually just using the Bible as my definitive source.
I’ll tell you this for sure: something is in the works. God is speaking to the hearts of believers and nonbelievers. It’s amazing to watch. Prophecies are falling into place.
I’ve seen Christians harassed for being Christian. I’ve seen good called evil and evil called good.
Just wow. Something is definitely in the works.
Thanks for your comment Alive and Well!
Things are happening, bible prophecy is happening! Christians will be persecuted more and more as time goes on my friend, it’s happening more around the world and even here in America. And along with Christian persecution will be the increased persecution of Jews as well. Actually, the Tribulation period is called “The Time of Jacob’s Trouble”, it’s a time for the Jews (Israel) not the church. It will be a time of another Holocaust, and I believe that it will be much worse under the Antichrist than it was under Adolph Hitler and that time was horrific! It’s a time for the Jews to wake up and see who their real Messiah is, a time for a remnant of Jews to come to repentance and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and they will in the end, but it will take the Tribulation Period to wake them up and come to their senses.
Many of our beliefs do not have any bearing on our salvation, however, some do! But, God did give us all of this knowledge for us to know certain things, He wants us to know the truth for a reason or else He would never have told us these things in the first place. It’s very important for us in God’s eyes to know and understand the truth of what He told us, and we should do whatever we can to do it. If we incorrectly understand scripture then we can incorrectly understand salvation, we can misunderstand who God is and what His purpose is for us, on what we should be doing now and how to do it, on how we should be treating His chosen people and nation, and we can miss out on some eternal blessings as well, He’s doing it for our good! The very sad thing to me is just how much of the church does not study bible prophecy or even care to, including most pastors!
I am giving you information my friend, but this information is not my opinion but God’s word. All of the things that I told you now and in my comment to you before are written in scripture, they are not my opinions but God’s word and I am merely sharing it with you, you can look all of it up in the bible and confirm it for yourself, and I strongly urge you to do so! Many believers will not agree with what I am sharing but it is from God not me, I am merely delivering a message. The bible is also my definitive source, the information I gave you is directly from the bible.
Things in this world are getting very evil and wicked, but just wait until President Trump is no longer president, perhaps at the end of this term or the next, things in America will get much, much darker, and it will be a nightmare for faithful Christians.
I may come off as offensive and argumentative at times, but I can assure you that I in no way whatsoever mean to belittle, degrade, or offend you my friend! I get excited about the word of God, I feel very strongly about it, and I have the urge to share it and I do. People can agree with me or not, it makes no difference to me, however it does matter to me what God thinks! And what really matters to me is rightly dividing the word of God because this is what matters to God. The more I study and meditate upon God’s word the more I understand it, and to me that is very exciting! I can see things falling into place as you have stated, and it absolutely amazes me. God’s word is alive and powerful, and it stirs my spirit and my soul, all of us should continue to study, learn, understand, and apply to our lives more and more of His word, this is His will for us.
God bless! Maranatha!
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Are 21st century believers to look for signs?
Thanks for your comment consideringthebibletogether!
Jesus hasn’t come back for the church yet, He told us to watch for His coming because we don’t know the day or the hour, He comes as a thief in the night.
Jesus said in Matthew 24:42
“Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.”
Jesus wasn’t just speaking to His apostles but to us also! We are commanded by Jesus to be watching and be ready for His return for us.
The bible is replete with passages telling us to watch for things which have not yet happened after two thousand or more years. How could anyone else be watching for these things if they were not still alive? Yes, we who are alive are commanded to be looking and watching for the signs of Christ’s return, both for the rapture and His second coming. This is one of the main reasons God gave us bible prophecy.
God bless! Maranatha!
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