00:00Now to look at the mid-trib or the pre-wroth view.
00:04If we go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 1, which I haven't actually put up there.
00:16And 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
00:21It says, Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him,
00:26we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or word or letter,
00:31as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.
00:34Let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come,
00:37unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed,
00:41the son of perdition who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God,
00:45all that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
00:51One of the features of the great tribulation period is the revelation of the man of sin,
00:55also known as the Antichrist.
00:58It appears from my understanding of scripture that he will come out of the general period of chaos,
01:03which we're moving into right now, and some will come up with a solution,
01:08whether he will come up through the United Nations or through America or through Europe.
01:13Remains to be seen, but there will be a great ruler who will come with power,
01:16will take on the control of the nations, perhaps using artificial intelligence,
01:20using all the modern technology to bring in some kind of a control system,
01:26which you read about in the book of Revelation,
01:28and in the process you'll also persecute those who believe in Jesus.
01:32Revelation 13 makes that very clear.
01:35So anyone who comes to faith during this time will face the opposition
01:38and the potential persecution of the Antichrist, even leading to death.
01:44It's said that two Thessalonians implies that, first of all, the falling away will come,
01:51and then the Antichrist, the man of sin, will be revealed,
01:54and that after that the rapture of the church will take place.
01:58One of the major scriptures pointing to the mid-tribulation view
02:02that the rapture comes in the middle of the tribulation.
02:06So this explains who the Antichrist persecutes in the first part of the tribulation,
02:14which is basically Christians like you and me.
02:18The preacher view says that actually there will be a special group of Christians
02:21who will be saved immediately after the tribulation, after the rapture,
02:25as described in Revelation 7, where the 144,000 go out and preach the gospel,
02:30and a great multitude of Gentiles come in as a result.
02:33We also have the question about the word wrath.
02:38The word wrath is used of the tribulation period and used of the bold judgments in particular,
02:43which, if you find in Revelation chapter 16, are the most severe time of judgment
02:47which falls upon the earth, and are described as being the wrath of God,
02:52as opposed to the wrath of Satan, who comes down with great power before this takes place.
02:57And the church is around for the wrath of Satan period,
03:01but not around for the wrath of God period,
03:03so the rapture comes somewhere between the halfway period
03:07and about three-quarters of the way through the final period.
03:12Okay?
03:13Believe me, that's what it says.
03:15Some of you are looking a bit puzzled here.
03:17But that would be the pre-wrath view and the mid-tribulation,
03:21which is allied to the mid-tribulation view.
03:23They're slightly different, but similar.
03:25For the sake of time, I'm not going to go into all the details of that.
03:28I'm not going to go into all the details of that.
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