KING'S BUSINESS PROPHECY SECTION Edited by Dr. Charles L. Feinberg, Director Talbot Theological Seminary
by Rev. John Linton
Period we shall believe it. What God decrees we shall accept as readily as others. But His Word does not reveal any such thing as we understand it. It calls the appearing of Christ and the rapture which is bound up with it, a blessed hope, a happy expectation, and this is a sheer impossibility if the Great Tribulation comes before it. 3. THE CHURCH WOULD CEASE LOOKING UP FOR THE SON FROM HEAVEN AND BEGIN LOOKING AROUND FOR THE SON OF PERDITION The Thessalonians were waiting for the Son from heaven. Their thoughts were on Christ who might come in their day (1 Thess. 1:10). Paul said of himself and the Philippians, “We look for the Saviour.” He was looking with them for the Saviour who might come in their lifetime. But if Antichrist must first rise and reign, then the thing for the church to do is to look for Antichrist who must precede the true Christ. Stop then looking for the true Christ, and look first and necessarily for the false Christ. Stop looking up for the Saviour, and start looking around for the Beast! Take your eyes from heaven, for Christ cannot come from heaven until Antichrist stalks the earth. No such dismal prospect was ever given to the Bride of Christ before she could meet her Bridegroom. 4. OUR MISSIONARY ACTIVITY WOULD MAKE CERTAIN OUR OWN MARTYRDOM The Bible predicts a world-wide proclamation of the gospel at the end of the age. “ The gospel must first be published among all nations; and then shall the end come” (Mark 13:10). This does not mean that every individual must hear, but that every nation will hear the gospel. How intensive the preaching will be, our Lord does not tell us. He does say the end of the age will see a revival of missionary interest in the church, resulting in a nation-wide proclamation of the gospel. If then our missionary zeal hastens the coming of Christ, and if before His coming for the church we must pass through the judgment plagues from God, the unpar alleled horrors of Antichrist’s reign, then all we do for world evangelization will hasten the coming of the Tribu lation and doom us to massacre by the Beast. I could then announce a missionary offering thus: “ Christian friends, I hope you will give gladly and generously to this offer ing, because every dollar you give, every sacrifice you make for missions, will help hasten the coming of Anti christ and ensure your own martyrdom and the butcher ing of your children.” 5. THE CHURCH WOULD KNOW THE EXACT DAY OF CHRIST’S COMING FOR HIS SAINTS The reign of Antichrist is the latter half of the Tribu lation, a period of three and one-half years, forty-two months, 1260 days (Rev. 13:5). If the church is on earth during the reign of the Beast, all she need to do is to count the days from the unveiling of the man of sin, and at the end of three and one-half years, 1260 days, Christ would descend from the skies! Granted that the
P IT WOULD STIFLE THE PRAYER OF THE CHURCH, “EVEN SO, COME LORD JESUS” This has been the prayer of the church ever since Christ went away. The Bible closes with that prayer. The church longs for His coming as the grandest moment in her his tory. He said He would come and gather His people unto Himself in the heavenly place, and for centuries believers have longed for that wondrous event. But if before Christ comes for us, the Devil must first come down to earth; if before the church is removed, Antichrist must rise and reign; if before the rapture there is to be a world-wide massacre of Christians; if before she can see Christ she must be baptized in the Devil’s wrath, and the blood of her own martyrdom, then who would tell us that such knowledge would not stifle the prayer, “ Even so, come Lord Jesus” ? To pray, “ Come, Lord Jesus” would mean, “ Come, Great Tribulation,” “ Come, wrath of God,” “ Come, wrath of Satan,” “ Come, Antichrist,” “ Come, martyrdom,” “ Come, death.” 2. IT WOULD CHANGE THE BLESSED HOPE INTO A FEARFUL OUTLOOK The word blessed means happy. The coming of Christ for His saints at any moment to remove them to heaven has been looked on for centuries as the hope of the church. “ That blessed hope” is not only that the church will see the glorified Christ, but will experience all that His appearing will mean for believers, both living and dead. The translation of an entire generation of Christians from earth to heaven is an essential part of the blessedness connected with Christ’s appearing. This is the answer to those who deny that the rapture is the blessed hope. Now if before that coming for the church you put the fearful Tribulation, Satanic wrath, bloody persecution, a reign of terror unexampled by all the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition, the fires of Smithfield, the carnage of the Roman arena, then by what process of reasoning can anyone call the coming of Christ a blessed hope for the generation of believers alive on earth at the end time? If we knew for certain that Christ would come in our day, then the coming of Christ would become for every Christian father and mother, not a blessed hope, but a fearful expectation; not a happy outlook, but a dreadful ordeal. Mark you, if the Word teaches that God will put the church into the wrath and anguish of the Tribulation
Rev. John Linton, Evan gelist, conference speaker, and author, will be one of the featured speakers this January 1960 during the Annual B I O L A Torrey Memorial Bible Conference
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OCTOBER, 1959
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