Pathway to Victory

Speaker 1

Hey podcast listeners, thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's word through the most effective media available, like this podcast.

To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org/podcast and click the Donate button or follow the link in our show notes.

Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Speaker 2

This is Robert Jeffress. In response to the horrific attack on.

Speaker 3

Israel, I've written a brand new book called Are We Living in the End times? Go to ptv.org to order your copy.

Speaker 2

The Church age. That's the age we are clearly in right now. The next event that we're awaiting, the next event is the Rapture of the Church.

What happens after the Rapture? The church age. The time of the Gentiles is over. God is now ready to finish his dealings with Israel during a period of time we call the Tribulation.

Speaker 1

Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress.

If someone challenged you to list the events of the end times in the correct order, could you do it? Well, if the answer is no, you're not alone. Many Christians are confused by the chronology of Bible prophecy today.

On Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress outlines the major events of the end times and explains why they're important.

Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message: Dr. Jeffress.

Speaker 3

Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. This coming June 15th through 22nd, Amy and I will be hosting a once-in-a-lifetime tour to the magnificent Great Frontier. I'm referring, of course, to Alaska. Now, you might assume that taking a one-week vacation on a luxury cruise liner is out of your reach. Actually, it's reasonably priced to include everyone. All your meals are prepared for you and included in the price. And you can select the cabin space that's just right for you. I promise you'll never regret joining us on the Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska. Again, the dates are June 15-22.

We'll be joined by some special friends, including musicians Michael O'Brien and Rebecca St. James. My friend comedian Dennis Swanberg will entertain us with his humor, and we'll study God's word together as well. I can't wait for you to see God's glorious creation on display. To reserve your spot, go to ptv.org.

If you've been listening to Pathway to Victory this week, then you know that I'm presenting a brand new teaching series. In this study, I'm answering a question that seems to be on everyone's heart and mind: Are we living in the End Times? Well, in light of the pressing nature of this question, I wrote a book for you as well, and I'm prepared to send you a copy today when you give a generous gift to support Pathway to Victory.

In my new book, *Are We Living in the End Times?*, I tackle seven questions about Bible prophecy, including the one I'll speak about on today's program. We'll share more details about my new book and other resources later in today's program. But right now, let's discover the future events recorded in the Bible that give us clues about our place in Bible prophecy.

Right now, I titled today's message: What are the Major Events in the End Times?

Speaker 2

Maps can be very useful when you're traveling in an unfamiliar territory. I found that out the hard way some years ago. A friend of mine had invited me to come preach at his church in Canada, and since I had been there before, I was happy to accept the invitation. So one Friday morning, I left DFW and went to Minneapolis, changed planes, and went on to Winnipeg, Manitoba. The service was going to be that Friday night, and I got there in time at about 4 PM to have a leisurely supper, I thought, and then preach. But I got my bags at the airport, went outside to wait for the pastor, and I waited and waited and waited. He never showed up.

So I thought, obviously something's wrong; I need to call him. I retrieved his invitation letter, looking for his phone number, and as I did, I noticed that the return address is not where I was. He had been in Winnipeg, Manitoba the last time I was there. I just assumed that's where he was, but that wasn't the return address. I went to the airport counter and said, "You know, I made a mistake. I came to the wrong place. I see here it's Vancouver, British Columbia. Is there a bus I can take to get there in 30 minutes?" They laughed and said, "Obviously, you don't know Canada; you're 1500 miles away." But you've got luck. There is a plane we've got leaving right now for Vancouver, and if you run fast enough, you can catch the plane.

So I ran like O.J. Simpson—remember him?—ran down, got to the gate, and the ticket agent took my ticket. Apparently, word had traveled down to the gate. He handed me a map of Canada and said, "Read this; it might help you the next time you come to Canada." Maps really can be helpful when you're in a foreign territory, and the subject of the end times is foreign territory to most people. For most people, it's a confusing topic. They can't make heads or tails of it. Well, we're going to try to solve that problem today because, as we consider our series, "Are we living in the end times?" I thought it would be helpful today to talk about the major events that will categorize the end times.

If you have your Bibles, turn to Romans, chapter 11. We've seen so far in our study that we are not technically living in the period of time the Bible calls the end times. Instead, we're living in the period that precedes the end times, called the last days. We've actually been in the last days for 2,000 years, ever since Christ ascended into heaven. But the end times do not begin until the event we're going to talk about in just a few moments. Nevertheless, it'd be helpful for us to get an overview of where we are in our study of the last days and the end times.

You see there that first of all, I marked for your consideration the church age. That's the age we are clearly in right now. Now here's the definition of the church age: The church age is that period of time from Pentecost until the Rapture, during which Gentiles are invited to participate in the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant. Now that's a mouthful. So let me illustrate it simply for you. Just imagine you're a parent and you'd like to have a lavish birthday party for your 10-year-old son. You send out the invitations to your closest friends, relatives, and neighbors. You rent a bounce house, you order ice cream desserts, and you have a clown there perhaps to help. It's going to be a big bash.

But the day before the party, you start getting all of these RSVPs with people declining. They've got every excuse in the world for not coming, and you realize your son's gonna be disappointed. So what do you do? Do you cancel the party? Of course not. Instead, you extend the invitation list. You start asking relatives you haven't seen in 10 years, neighbors you've never met, and other people you can't stand just to get a crowd at your son's birthday party so he's not disappointed. Now that's exactly an illustration of the church age, or as the Bible calls it, the time of the Gentiles.

Jesus used a similar illustration in Matthew chapter 22. He said the kingdom of God can be compared to a king who wanted to throw a banquet for his son. The invitations went out, but people excused themselves. Why? They couldn't come. So the king, not wanting to disappoint his son, told his servants to go out into the highways and the byways and compel people to come to the party. It was an illustration of what God was doing with the Abrahamic covenant. Remember, we saw that God made an offer to the descendants of Abraham of a land, a nation, and a blessing. But to receive that blessing, they had to accept it; they had to believe. Instead of accepting Messiah, they rejected Messiah.

So did God cancel the kingdom, the party? No, not at all. He extended the invitation list. Instead, he invited Gentiles—people like you and me, people not physically related to Abraham—to share in the party, the kingdom of God. Now, has Israel rejected God forever? Not at all. It is only a temporary rejection, and that's what Romans 11:1 says. Paul said, "Has God not rejected his people? Has he? May it never be, for I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin." Then skip down to verse 25. "So I don't want you brethren to be uninformed of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own estimation."

Mystery? Is he talking about Agatha Christie? What does he mean here? Mystery. Here it is: The mystery is that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Paul was given this mystery to reveal. He's the one who understood it—that Israel would temporarily reject Christ, and Gentiles would benefit from that rejection because they would be invited to the party, the kingdom of God. God's not through with Israel yet, but there's a temporary hardening that has come to their hearts. And it's during that time that we're living right now, the time of the Gentiles.

When the time of the Gentiles, the church age, is over, when the last Gentile who has been chosen has been saved, then God will turn his attention back toward Israel for one final period of seven years that we will look at in just a moment. Now, that is the church age. The next event that we're awaiting is the rapture of the church. Now, people object to the idea of the rapture. They say things like, "It's just you dispensationalists who have made this rapture idea up in the last hundred years. It's nowhere in the Bible." The Old Testament prophets never spoke of it. True, Jesus never spoke of it—maybe one time, John 14, possibly. But it's true; Jesus didn't teach extensively.

It's true in Matthew 24:25, when the disciples said, "Lord, what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?" Jesus said not one word about the Rapture. It started with the tribulation, which is very clear when you understand why the Rapture is not for the Jewish people, not the nation as a whole. It is for the church age. It is a mystery that the prophets never talked about, and Jesus rarely talked about. It was Paul who was explaining the church age, who was chosen to explain the end of the church age, which was the rapture of the Church.

What is the Rapture? Here's the definition: The rapture of the Church is the snatching away to heaven of all Christians from the time of Pentecost until the tribulation. Now, people say, "Well, the word rapture is never found in the Bible." Wrong and wrong again. Let me show you where it's in the Bible. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17. Paul is writing to a group of Christians who were concerned that the Lord had not come back yet. They were concerned about their loved ones who had died. "Are they going to miss out on the coming of the Lord?" Not at all. He talks about the rapture beginning in verse 16.

"For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up." There it is, arpazo in Greek, raptured, snatched away together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord, where? In the air. The rapture is not about his coming to earth; it's our going up to meet him in the air. And we shall always be with the Lord.

Now, will you notice the four components of the Rapture? The four things that are going to happen. Number one: Christ will descend from heaven. The Lord himself will descend again. He's descending into the clouds, not to the earth. Unlike the second coming, Zechariah 14:4, he comes to earth, but at the Rapture, he comes into the clouds. Now, in verse 15, Paul is describing this event, and he refers to it as the coming, parousia in Greek, the coming of the Lord. The rapture will involve the coming of the Lord.

Now, interestingly, that same word, parousia, is used in Matthew 24:27 to describe the second coming of Jesus seven years later. Parousia, the coming of the Lord. We read that passage just a few moments ago. Now, some people will say, "Well, there's the proof. It's the same thing. The Rapture and the second coming are the same thing." No, just because things are similar doesn't mean they're the same. And I'm going to do something I've never done before: I'm going to preach an entire message on the difference between the Rapture and the second coming of Christ. Both events impact us for very different reasons, and I'm going to talk about why next time.

But here we see the Lord is descending from heaven. Secondly, the Bible says the dead in Christ will be resurrected. That's the second component of the Rapture, the dead in Christ. Who are the dead in Christ? Listen, when a Christian dies, he immediately goes into the presence of Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:8). To be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord, but his body doesn't go to heaven. That's why we have cemeteries. You can go to a cemetery and you'll find the bodies; the decomposed bodies are there now. People ask, "Well, what if you got cremated?" Big deal. That doesn't bother God at all if you get cremated. Because cremation only speeds up the inevitable. Your body's going to turn to dust without any help from anybody. It just is going to become dust one day. Cremation just speeds up the process.

But the point is, you leave your body or the remains of your body behind. It is your spirit that goes into the presence of the Lord the moment you die or at the rapture of the church. However, the bodies that we leave behind, one day they're going to be raised and they're going to be changed, as we'll see in just a moment. It is not the spirit of the dead in Christ who are raised; it is their bodies. The bodies of the dead in Christ will be resurrected first. And then thirdly, all living Christians will be removed from the earth. The dead in Christ shall rise first. Somebody said they get to go first because they have six feet further to travel. I don't know if that's true or not; I just heard somebody say that.

But their bodies are removed first, and then we who are alive and remain shall be—and there's that word—verse 17, caught up, arpazoed to meet the Lord in the air. The fourth component of the Rapture is that our bodies will be transformed. Whether our bodies are being raised from the grave or the crematorium, or whether it is those of us who are alive and are raised to heaven on our way up, we're going to be changed in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Why is that? Because our bodies, whether dead or alive, are not suitable for the next world that God has planned for us. And aren't you grateful for that? Aren't you glad you're not going to have to lug that body of yours right now around for all eternity? You're going to get a brand new body.

And that's what Paul talked about in 1 Corinthians 15:50. He says, "Now I say to this brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable." Your body is suited for this world and is totally unsuitable for the next world. In verse 51, he says, "Therefore, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep." That is, not every Christian is going to die. There will be a group who are alive during the Rapture that will be like Elijah and Enoch. They will not experience physical death. So he says, "We're not all going to sleep." That's a euphemism. The Bible never speaks of the soul as going to sleep. Our spirit is alive always; it is our bodies that are temporarily put to sleep.

"Behold, I tell you a mystery. We're all not going to die, but we all do have to be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead in Christ will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality." As we're going up with the dead bodies of those who've gone on before us, in a twinkling of an eye, we're going to be instantaneously changed into that new body God has planned for us.

And by the way, it says in the twinkling of an eye, not in the blinking of an eye. A blink is pretty quick, but the twinkling of an eye is much quicker. It represents the amount of time it takes for light that has entered your eye through the lens to make it to the retina. That is the twinkling of an eye. It's how quick our change is going to be. That's the rapture of the church. And the one word that describes the Rapture best is imminent. That means it could happen at any moment. There are no prophecies that have to be fulfilled for the Rapture to occur.

Now, there are several prophecies related to the Second Coming seven years later, like the rebuilding of the temple, the regathering of the people in Israel, some of which we've seen take place, some of which are yet to take place. But there are no prophecies that are left unfulfilled for the Rapture. It could happen before we finish the message today. Now, there's an event on your outline that doesn't appear, or I don't think it appears on your outline, but it's one that is important just to mark down: at the end of the Rapture, I believe that is when we experience the judgment seat of Christ.

The Second Corinthians 5 talks about the Bema seat, as it's called. It's not for non-Christians; it is a judgment of rewards for Christians. And I think that occurs, 2 Corinthians 5:9-10, after the rapture. Now, what happens after that? What happens after the Rapture? The church age, the time of the Gentiles, is over. God is now ready to finish his dealings with Israel during a period of time we call the Tribulation. Here's the definition for you to write down of the Tribulation: It is the seven-year period of time that begins when the Antichrist signs a peace covenant with Israel and ends with Armageddon and the second coming of Christ.

Now, the climax of the Tribulation will be the fourth event, Armageddon and the second coming of Christ. Here's the definition: The war of Armageddon is the final world war that will be fought in Israel and will result in the visible return of Jesus Christ on earth. And then that leads to the millennium, the thousand-year reign of Christ. Here's the definition: The millennium is the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth that will occur after the second coming. And notice one key component of the millennium: During this time of Christ's reign on earth, Satan will be bound.

That will have a great effect on the earth. It will involve a partial renovation and a lifting of the curse against the world. Isaiah 65 describes that time and says, "During that time of the kingdom, no infant will die." There'll be no such thing as infant death. He says, "If anybody doesn't make it to age 100, he will be thought to be accursed." So there'll be a longevity of life. Now, a thinking person would say, "Well, wait a minute, you mean there's going to be birth and death in the millennium? I thought in heaven nobody is born and nobody dies."

We're all in these bodies that don't procreate. Well, that's in heaven, but this is on earth. And this is a partial renovation of the earth. Who is it that is going to be born, and who is it that's going to die? If only Christians enter into the millennium, remember, there will be people. All the saved people in the world will be raptured at the Rapture. But some people will be saved during the Tribulation, though they'll suffer to do so. Some will be executed, but some people will survive the Tribulation and are believers. They will be welcomed into the millennium, but they will be in their natural bodies.

You and I, since we will be receiving our new bodies at the Rapture, will enter the millennium in our resurrected bodies. We don't reproduce. But those Christians who are in their natural bodies will reproduce. They will have children. They will live a long time, but they will die as well. But most importantly, they will have to make a choice. Those children of the Tribulation saints will have to make a choice of whether they're going to serve Christ or not. And that is why the Bible says in Revelation 20:3 that after the millennium, Satan must be released for a short time. Why does Satan have to be released? In order to give those born during the millennium an opportunity to make a choice. Everybody has to choose whether they're going to serve God and His kingdom or not.

Speaker 3

The devil and His Kingdom. The Bible has much more to say on this topic, so please join us for the next edition of Pathway to Victory because we set aside the entire program to answer this important question: What are the major events in the End Times?

Plus, in a moment, David will explain how you can receive this brand new study about Bible prophecy on audio CD and video DVD. That's not all, because I've written a brand new book for you as well. It's also called *Are We Living in the End Times?* This book is fresh off the printing presses and it answers pressing questions such as what role does Israel play in the End Times? And why has God delayed the End Times? You can be among the first to receive and read my book. Requesting one is simple. Just include a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, and I'll be sure to send you a copy of *Are We Living in the End Times* to your home right away.

In closing, I'd like to invite you to become one of our valued Pathway Partners. Pathway Partners are people who understand the darkness of our world and want to shine the light of God's Word in the world's dark places. Right now, we are praying that God would raise up 1,200 new Pathway Partners to join the team.

Why should you take this step? Well, becoming a Pathway Partner enables you to boldly proclaim the Gospel in places you may never physically visit. You choose the amount of your monthly gift, and as a Pathway Partner, God will use you to pierce the darkness with the light of His Word. I look forward to hearing from you today.

Speaker 1

David thanks Dr. Jeffress today. When you give a generous gift to support Pathway to Victory, we'll say thanks by sending you the brand new book by Dr. Jeffress, *Are We Living in the End Times?* Plus, if you make your gift a monthly donation, your generosity will have 12 times the impact over the year, and you'll be helping us reach our goal of 1200 Pathway Partners for the month of January. Just call 866-999-2965 or visit ptv.org now. When you give $75 or more, we'll also send you the brand new teaching series also called *Are We Living in the End Times?* Plus, you'll receive a copy of the *End Times Illustrated*.

One more time, call 866-999-2965 or go online to PTV. You could also send your donation by mail. Write to P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. Again, that's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, TX 75222. I'm David J. Mullins wishing you a great weekend. Then join us next week when the series *Are We Living in the End Times?* continues right here on Pathway to Victory.

Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway Partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in His word.

To become a Pathway Partner, go to ptv.org/podcast and click on the Donate button or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.