Greetings and thank you once again for the opportunity to come to you and spend these few moments with you in the word and prayer. This week, we are talking about the rapture of the church and looking at various passages that tell us the church will be taken out of the way before the seven years of tribulation. The Lord will come for us, His church. We are going to look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verses 1 through 8, remember the apostle Paul he writes 1 and 2 Thessalonians and one of the things written in both these epistles is the coming of the Lord, the rapture of the church, why the Lord will come and some of the things that will happen in connection to that. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, the apostle Paul writes this, ‘Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him(that is the rapture of the church which he described in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, repeated that in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5), we ask you, 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 (don’t think it is over, it is out in the future). Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first (there is going to be a lot of people walking away from the faith), and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition (the book of Revelation refers to him as the antichrist), 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 (this is what Daniel refers to as the abomination of desolation, Daniel chapter 7,8 and 9). Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.’ He says there is one thing that is holding back the manifestation of this man of perdition, the antichrist, verse 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. 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.’ Verses 7 and 8 give us the secret, only the one who restrains is now holding/ restraining the antichrist from being revealed and when he is taken out of the way, then the lawless one will be manifested. So, the big question is who is this ‘he’? There are two options to consider, either the Holy Spirit or the church. The church can be referenced with the male pronoun because it is the body of Christ. What we see in the book of Revelation is that the Holy Spriit is still functioning here on earth, so the ‘he’ that is referred to here in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 7 could only be the church which is in line with what Paul has already described. So, when the church is taken out of the way, then the man of sin is revealed. The Holy Spirit continues to operate here on earth anointing the people who are being saved, so the work of the Holy Spirit continues here on earth but the church is taken out of the way. So, another fruit for us that the rapture of the church will take place before the tribulation/ man of sin is revealed. Let’s pray, Father, we thank you for all the insights you have given to us in the word. Thank you for that moment, our gathering together with the Lord in the air. Thank you for the work you have given us to do, to finish now before that moment comes, help us to be faithful and do it, in Jesus’s name, Amen.

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