Will Christians see the Antichrist, or will the rapture occur before then?

IN the interval between the rapture of the saints and the appearing of Christ, the earth will be the scene of some of the most awful events which the world has ever witnessed. Among these will be the apostasy—the open abandonment of all profession of Christianity, yea, the denial both of the Father and the Son (1 John 2:22), and the appearance of the man of sin, the son of perdition, or the antichrist. Paul has given us most distinct and precise instruction upon these subjects. False teachers had sought to disturb the minds of the Thessalonian believers by alleging that the day of the Lord was already come. It was to meet this error that he wrote, "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand (the day of the Lord is present).* Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he himself (the words "as God" should be omitted) sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." (2 Thess. 2:1‑4.) We are therefore plainly warned that "the falling away" (the apostasy), and the man of sin, will be seen in the interval between the rapture of the saints and the day of the Lord. For the apostle grounds his exhortation to these believers on the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto Him. As another has explained this scripture: "Their gathering together unto Christ in the air was a demonstration of the impossibility of the day of the Lord being already come. Moreover with regard to this last he presents two considerations: first, the day could not be already come, since Christians were not yet gathered to the Lord, and they were to come with Him; second, the wicked one who was then to be judged had not yet appeared, so that the judgment could not be executed."

Here the mistake corrected in the First Epistle is mixed up with the error which the Second dispels. They are quite distinct. The first was not restlessness in expecting the day of the Lord, but was unintelligent sorrow over departed brethren, because they were supposed by death to lose their place in the train of His glory. This gave occasion to the fresh revelation in 1 Thess. 4 of the Lord's causing the dead in Christ to rise first, while it is also shown that both dead and living saints are to be caught up together into the air to meet the Lord; and thus shall we ever be with the Lord. After the removal of their needless grief, disturbing alarm befell the saints by the unfounded rumour that the day of the Lord was actually there, in all probability confounded with their sore trials and persecution from their worldly countrymen and the unbelieving Jews, embittered by envy against the gospel and all who had received it. This the apostle clears away by setting before them the true nature of that day, which will display their enemies as the objects of retributive punishment, and Himself glorified in His saints and marvelled at in all that believed. He next beseeches them, by their bright hope of His presence and their gathering together to Him, not to be shaken quickly from their mind, nor yet troubled by this false report; and then he proceeds to prove that there must be the apostasy first, and the man of sin revealed, not before the Lord comes to receive His own, but before they come with Him from heaven to accomplish that tremendous day (2 Thess. 2).

In the Epistles, it is beyond doubt that the church is continually addressed as if there were no understood, necessary, revealed hindrances to the rapture at the coming of the Lord. How could this be if the church be the same body as those saints who are described in Daniel, the Psalms, etc., as being destined to certain fiery trials still future from a little Horn which is to wax greater to the highest degree, and his satellites who are yet to appear? How comes it that the apostle Paul, when he speaks of the coming of the Lord, never hints at this tribulation, as one through which the church must pass; but always presents His presence as an immediate hope which might occur at one unknown moment to another? That this inspired man understood the just application of these prophecies, better than any since his day, is that which few Christians will question. They were scriptures long revealed and familiar to Jews; and the Lord Jesus in Matt. 24 had very significantly linked His fresh revelations upon that occasion with the predictions of Daniel. Yet the Holy Ghost, in His constant allusions throughout the writings apostolic to the future hopes of the church, never once refers to those terrible circumstances as a future scene wherein the church is to enact a part. On the contrary, the way in which the coming of the Lord is put before the saints, as a thing to be constantly looked for, seems incompatible with it. We have examined the only statement in the Epistles which might appear to interpose such a barrier; and we have seen that, so far from contradicting the thought of immediateness, the apostle seeks to relieve the Thessalonian saints from all uneasiness about the day of the Lord and its troubles, by the blessed hope of His coming and their gathering unto Him, two things in his mind indissolubly bound together. It is a gathering unto Him, which must be before He appears to the world for its judgment, because He and they are to appear together. It is certain moreover, that there must arrive the apostacy and the revelation of the man of sin, not before the coming, but before the day, of the Lord. His coming will gather the saints on high; His day will judge the world here below.

Next I turn to 2 Thessalonians (p. 42). All Dr. B.'s statements are wrong. Paul insinuates nothing: he refers to false means employed to say, not that the day was at hand or imminent, but then come. The word is always used in the New Testament for 'present,' or 'come' - twice for "things present" in contrast with "things to come." The Thessalonians, excessively pressed by tribulation, were tempted to believe "the day" there - an expression always used for a time of trouble, of darkness and not of light. In chapter I the apostle urges it could not be the day of the Lord; for then His people would have rest, not tribulation, and their enemies the trouble; and then he urges them, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, not to be shaken in mind, as if the day were there. We are to be gathered to Christ first, and before the day of the judgment of evil comes. Next the evil must be there to be judged. The passage therefore largely confirms our thoughts, because we are to be caught up before the Lord appears to bring in the day; and events refer to the day, not to our rapture. Of all this Dr. B. is ignorant. He always confounds the day and Christ's coming for us - which, whatever the interval, are certainly distinct; for when He appears, we shall appear with Him, and thus must be with Him before.

2 Thess. 2:1-2, in no degree sets aside the possible immediateness of the coming of Christ; but, on the contrary, exhorts the saints by the coming of Christ and their gathering unto Him, not to be troubled, as though the day of the Lord were then present. It would seem that false teachers were troubling the Thessalonians with the thought that the day of the Lord was actually come, and they in the midst of tribulation, instead of being caught up to meet Jesus in the air. "No," says the apostle, "I beseech you by His coming and by our gathering unto Him, that ye be not troubled." You have no reason; you will be with Him; you will come along with Him. The day of the Lord (compare 1 Thess. 5:1,) is that part of the coming of the Lord which looks with judgment towards the world. It is associated with vengeance. The presence of the Lord embraces it, it is true, but embraces much more, especially that sweet thought of the Lord's calling the Church to meet Him. This latter is never called the day of the Lord. In this very chapter it is the comfort to the saints against the terrors of that day. And that day shall not come except there come the apostasy first, etc.; that is, certain terrible events were to happen before that day; but not necessarily, so far as revelation informs us, before the Lord's coming or presence. These events might, or might not, be before the Church was taken away, for the Father kept the times and seasons in His own power or authority; but they must be before the day of the Lord.

The denial of this has led to much confusion. Good men teach, what is an unscriptural theory, that the Church will be on earth to the very end of the tribulation period. Some speak of the Church having yet to pass "through a Gethsemane experience." But where is this taught in Scripture? Nowhere. The second chapter of the second Epistle to the Thessalonians shows that the falling away and the man of sin, cannot come as long as there is the hindering One on the earth. That One is the Holy Spirit. He dwells in the true Church, as He dwells in every individual believer, and must be taken out of the way first. He will be taken away in hindering power with the rapture of the Saints. The reason why our Lord said nothing about tribulation to His disciples in the upper room when He first mentioned "that blessed hope," is because the true Church has nothing whatever to do with that period of time. There is no tribulation of a punitive character in store for her, nor any wrath whatever (1 Thess. 1:10). The suffering Saints during the great tribulation are Jews. In the Old Testament it is spoken of as "the time of Jacob's trouble" (Jer. 30:7); and Daniel speaks of it in the same way (Dan. 12:1-2). The scope of the Book of Revelation proves conclusively, that before even the Lord receives the book of judgments and tribulation from God's hands, the Saints must first be brought to glory. Not one of the Epistles has anything to say about that great tribulation. There is a significant silence. It is because the true Church will not be here when that time comes. All true believers will be taken when the Lord comes

But the rise of Antichrist is also adduced as a proof that the church must go through the sorrows that will be brought to pass by his wickedness. We are asked, “Will any one with the Scripture before him say that he there learns that the rise of Antichrist shall not precede the coming of Christ? Will he say that the warnings of the inspired Apostle have no application?” All who believe the Holy Scriptures will admit that when the Lord appears to deal with the condition of things that shall be found on the earth at that day, Antichrist will have arisen, and will have climbed to the height of his infernal ambition. But that is not the question at all. The question is, “Shall Antichrist have arisen before the first stage of that coming has been reached, when the Lord comes into the air, and we rise to meet Him before we appear with Him?” But there are really no warnings given to the church regarding the Antichrist. Christians are informed of his coming, as they are of all other events, whatever they may be. In 2 Thessalonians 2 we are told that the day of the Lord cannot come until the apostasy takes place, and the man of sin is revealed. But as to the fact which above all others should give them assurance that that day had not yet dawned upon the world, he reminds them that we must be gathered to Him in the air before He can appear. But the warnings of Scripture regarding Antichrist do not relate to the personal Antichrist, but to the spirit of Antichrist, and to the many antichrists which are signs that we have reached the last time (1 John 2:18-26; 4:3; 2 John 7). Regarding the personal Antichrist there are no warnings addressed to the church. It will not be on earth in his day.

The second Epistle follows the same truth, but particularly to guard from the delusion that the day of the Lord had actually come. Hence they are shown that their persecution was not at all the feature of that day. Then, the Lord shall be revealed from heaven, awarding both tribulation to their troublers and rest to His future saints. It will be the time of His vengeance in flaming fire on the evil; while He shall have come, not to receive the saints to Himself for the Father's house, but to be glorified in His saints and wondered at in all who believed, before the world. Therefore in 2 Thessalonians 2 he begs them for the sake of (or by) His coming and their gathering together to Him, not to be shaken by the false cry that the day of the Lord was present. For before that day (not before His coming for us) two fearful evils must be: the apostasy and the man of sin revealed who is to be annulled by the appearing of His coming in that day. Lastly, in 2 Thessalonians 3 he prays the Lord to direct their hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ. He waits patiently, and so should we.

Mr. E. reasons against his supposed necessary but inadmissible consequence, that the Thessalonians must in such a case have thought that they, and Paul too, had been left behind by Christ at the first act of His coming, and exposed to the horrors of the second. But it is entirely a mistake, and his own solely. The Thessalonians had no adequate light up to this second epistle on the relative order of these events. From 1 Thess. they knew of Christ's coming (1 Thess. 4), and of the day (1 Thess. 5); but they may, till they got the second epistle, have thought, as so many Christians do even in our day, and did in all ages, that the tribulation of the last times precedes the translation of the saints, and that His day therefore accompanies, if it too does not precede, His coming. Even Bengel affirms the whimsical idea, refuted by this very chapter, that the appearing of our Lord's coming may happen before His coming itself. Now the nature of the thing, as well as its accompaniments, bear a testimony exactly opposed. For the Lord might come without appearing to every eye, but He could not appear without coming. Just so we read in the first verse of this chapter that He will come and gather unto Himself the saints; whereas it is not His coming, but the revelation or appearing of His coming, which is to destroy the lawless one or man of sin. Such is the true moral order, and proved by other scriptures also, as Rev. 17:14; 19:14. He first receives His own, His friends, to Himself by His coming or παρουσία; He afterwards executes judgment on His enemies by the appearance of His coming, τῃ ἐπιφανείᾳ τῆς παρουσίας αὐτοῦ. The glorified saints are with Him when He brings in the day, following Him out of heaven as His hosts or armies (Rev. 19:14), before the judgment of the beast and the false prophet, instead of being caught up coincidently with it or after it. Hence, when Christ our life is manifested, it is written that then shall we also be manifested with Him in glory {Col. 3:4} (not translated to heaven then or subsequently).

This helps to render Matt. 24:15-41 perfectly plain. Certainly there is no hint of the church's escaping the tribulation by sudden flight here; for those spoken of are a remnant of converted Jews who will be found in Jerusalem, in connection with the temple and the Sabbath in the latter day. What possible ground is there to predicate this of the Church of God, which is neither Jew nor Gentile, and which, save at its first origin, is found everywhere under heaven? What reason to take it away from the last days of this age, when God will again be savingly at work among the Jews in their land, protecting a remnant from the last fiery tribulation which the Antichrist will occasion, and fitting them as a people for the Lord, when He comes for their deliverance in the clouds of heaven, and the mass being apostate will be filled with terror and mourning and shame at His sudden glory which flashes on the world? That the elect of Matt. 24:31 cannot possibly mean the Church is evident, if it were only from the passage itself; for the sight of the Son of man appals all the tribes before He sends His angels to gather these elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Now if you apply this to the same scene and persons as Col. 3:4, you set one scripture against another — the unerring proof of error. Distinguish between the saints already caught up, to be glorified with Him on high, and these elect gathered from all places of their dispersion here below, to be blessed under His reign here below, and the balance of truth is preserved. No doubt, the gathering of the elect here, then, is after the great tribulation, but it is also after His appearing. It is therefore not the Church which appears with Him when He appears in glory, and which is promised (in Rev. 3:10) exemption not only from the place and circumstances of the great coming temptation, but also from its hour. The signs are, as usual, for the Jewish saints, who were wont to ask such things as evidence of the approaching accomplishment of their hopes.