The Watchman’s Call

Dr. Andy Woods: And we're back here on the Watchman's Call broadcast, dealing with the subject, when is the Rapture? And as you know by now, what we mean by that is when is it relative to the coming seven-year tribulation period? I'm a pre-tribulationist and it's not wishful thinking.

Well, it is wishful thinking in some ways, but it has to do with biblical evidence. And I'm privileged with the opportunity to share some of the evidence with you that has persuaded me that pre-tribulationism is true. We have developed in total in this series seven reasons why pre-tribulationism is true. And we're on number six of our list of seven. And number six is the Antichrist cannot come to power until the church's restraining ministry is removed.

And in our immediately prior show, we talked about how the event which will start the seven-year tribulation period will be the Antichrist entering into a peace treaty of some kind with the nation of Israel. And yet we're told by the Apostle Paul in Second Thessalonians 2, verses 6 and 7, that yes, we are in a world of lawlessness where the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. But the lawless one, the Antichrist, Satan's masterpiece, cannot be unleashed on the world until the restrainer is removed first.

Now, then the question becomes, well, what is the restrainer? And we gave you some other options as to who this restrainer might be according to some of the suggestions, but none of them really stand up to the test of careful analysis. So, who is this restrainer? It's not Rome. It's not Satan, it's not government, it's not Michael the Archangel. Well, who is this restrainer? This restrainer is none other than the Holy Spirit.

Who is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is the eternally existent third member of the Godhead, part of the Triunity of God. Now, why do we think that this restrainer that Paul is talking about in Second Thessalonians 2, verses 6 and 7 is the Holy Spirit? Well, there's a few reasons for that. Number one, whoever this restrainer is, he's got to be all powerful, omnipotent.

Because what he is doing is he is stopping the devil from releasing his final solution, his master plan, the Antichrist himself, who will be a perfect expression of Satan, and will display all sorts of counterfeit signs and wonders. Second Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 9. Paul says of that coming Antichrist, he says there, that is the one whose coming is in accordance with the authority of Satan with all power, signs and false wonders.

Whoever this restrainer is, has got to be stronger than the devil. And of course, God, the Holy Spirit being God, Acts 5, verses 3 and 4, the Holy Spirit is deity. The Holy Spirit would fit that description.

The second reason why we think that the restrainer is the Holy Spirit is you look at Paul and his discussion of the restrainer in Second Thessalonians chapter 2, verses 6 and 7, switches the gender. He uses the participle restrainer twice. But when you look at this in Greek, and gender is a big deal in the Greek language, restrainer, the participle is neuter in verse 6. But then it switches to the masculine, same word, but masculine verse 7.

Neuter verse 6, masculine verse 7. What a great description of the Holy Spirit. The Greek word pneuma for spirit is neuter. But Jesus in the upper room typically used the masculine pronoun he to describe the Holy Spirit. It says in John 14, verse 17, that is the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him, but you know him because he abides with you and will be in you.

So you notice that Jesus, when he describes the Holy Spirit, keeps saying he, he, him, he. And yet the noun pneuma, translated spirit, is neuter. So that handles really well the switch that Paul gives us from the neuter verse 6 to the masculine verse 7.

And there's a third reason why I think that the Holy Spirit is in view here, and this relates to the fact that the Holy Spirit has ministries not just in the Christian, not just in the church, but he has ministries in the world, the world at large. The Holy Spirit is at work. For example, all the way back in Genesis 6, verse 3, we learn that the Spirit was striving with man prior to the flood.

Even now, Genesis 16, verses 7 through 11, we know that the Holy Spirit is convicting the world. It says of sin, righteousness, and judgment. These are ministries that he's executing. These are ministries that he is doing not just per se in the Christian, not just per se in the church, but in the world. And what we have there in Second Thessalonians 2, verses 6 and 7, is another ministry that he is doing.

Right now he is restraining the Antichrist. He is preventing or inhibiting the Antichrist from going forward. Now, with all of that being said, here is the question that we have. Where does the Holy Spirit live today? I mean, if it's the restrainer holding back the Antichrist and this restrainer is the omnipotent Holy Spirit, where is the Holy Spirit living? Well, you know the answer to that. He is living in the child of God forever.

Romans 8, verse 9, Paul says, "However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him." In fact, Jesus in the upper room said the Holy Spirit would come into the child of God forever. John 14, verse 16. It says, "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper that he may be with you forever."

There he is talking about, as you keep reading into verse 17 and down into verse 18, he's not just coming upon people as he did in Old Testament times, but he is coming inside of people forever. And that's a tremendous ministry that he began to execute on the day of Pentecost. So, are you seeing the logic here? The restrainer holds back the Antichrist. The restrainer is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit today indwells all Christians.

In fact, if the Holy Spirit is not in a person, then it doesn't matter what they call themselves, they are really not a Christian. So, one of the things that's very interesting today is the Holy Spirit is actually using the Christian, the containers in which he indwells permanently to hinder the work of the Antichrist. You may not think that your life is very meaningful.

You may not think that God is using you. You may not think that you're very significant, but the truth of the matter is the Holy Spirit is using the church-age believer, the child of God, the container in which the Holy Spirit indwells because our bodies, we're told by Paul in First Corinthians 6, verse 19, I believe it is, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. He's using the Christian or the child of God to frustrate, thwart, hold back, restrain the Antichrist.

Now, the Antichrist can't even come on the scene while this restrainer is at work. The Antichrist can't even enter into the peace treaty with Israel, which starts the seven-year tribulation period, while this restrainer is at work. And if I'm right on all of these things that I have said, that the restrainer is the Spirit and the Spirit indwells the Christian, then what has to happen before the Antichrist can even come on the scene to launch the tribulation period?

The church has to be taken to heaven in the Rapture. Once the church is taken to heaven in the Rapture, the tools that the Holy Spirit is using to restrain the Antichrist, those vessels are gone. And now Satan can move in with his final solution, his final plan to take his hand-picked Antichrist and bring him on the scene to enter into the peace treaty, if you will, with the nation of Israel.

Now, let me clarify something here if I could. Many people ask, "Well, if the Holy Spirit is going to be removed, you know, prior to the events of the Great Tribulation Period, then how do people get saved in the Tribulation Period? I mean, doesn't the Holy Spirit's presence necessitate salvations in the Tribulation Period?" We know there are many salvations in the Tribulation Period. And what I'm saying is the Holy Spirit never permanently disappears from the Earth.

In fact, David in the Psalms, I think it's Psalm 139, you know, verses 7 and 8, says, "Where can I flee from your presence, oh Spirit? If I go anywhere, there you are. Even if I go into Sheol, you're there." The Holy Spirit is omnipresent. So don't get the idea that the Holy Spirit leaves the world. But what does happen is the unique ministry that he's doing right now.

He's doing a lot of ministries that he's never done in prior ages. And he's doing a lot of ministries that are germane to the church age only. And one of those very unique ministries that he's doing is this ministry of restraint. He's using the church and its existence on the Earth to hold back Satan's man of the hour. By the way, that's why the world hates the Christian, because Satan hates the Christian.

Because as long as the Christian is present on planet Earth, the restrainer is here, and he cannot bring in his masterpiece, his final solution, the Antichrist. And so what we're saying is that very special unique ministry will stop. It started at a particular point, it will stop at a particular point. It stops when the church has been taken to heaven in the pre-tribulation rapture of the church.

And then the Antichrist will come forward and enter into this peace treaty with the nation of Israel, which will start the seven-year tribulation period. So here's what the whole thing looks like. The restrainer holds back the Antichrist. Second Thessalonians 2, verses 6 and 7. The restrainer is the omnipotent Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit permanently indwells all Christians. John 14, verses 16 and 17, Romans 8, verse 9.

And that means that all Christians, spirit-indwelt Christians, and that's the only kind of Christian there is, must first be removed, taken to heaven in the pre-tribulational rapture of the church prior to the Antichrist even being able to come forward to start the Tribulation Period. See, right now the devil has handcuffs on him. But at the point of the Rapture, those handcuffs are taken off, and he's free now finally to release his man of the hour and the Tribulation Period begins.

This, by the way, exposes the foolishness of trying to guess who the Antichrist is. Many people devote so much time and attention to that, but if the teaching that I'm doing here is accurate, we can't know who the Antichrist is until post or after the Rapture. Here's something a very early church father wrote named Irenaeus, AD 95. In his Against Heresies, he says, "But if it had been necessary to announce his name, the beast or the Antichrist, plainly, at the present time, it would have been spoken by him who saw the Apocalypse.

For it was not seen long ago, but almost in our day or time at the end of the reign of Domitian." Close quote. Even all the way back in AD 95, the time of Irenaeus, roughly, there were people saying, you know, Nero was the Antichrist, Domitian is the Antichrist, Titus of Rome, you know, could be the Antichrist.

And there are people today that say this constantly. They pick somebody in world history, you know, maybe Hitler could have been the Antichrist, Mussolini could have been the Antichrist, Saddam Hussein. I remember people saying, you know, could be the Antichrist. And what Irenaeus is saying is knock it off. Stop the guesswork, because you can't know who the Antichrist is while the restrainer is here.

The only way you can know who the Antichrist is is the restraint will be removed and Satan will unleash his man of the hour. Now, having said that, Satan doesn't know when the Rapture will happen. So I believe he's always had people kind of waiting in the wings to use, should this generation be the generation of the Rapture. First John 4, verse 3, says, "And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.

This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and now is already at work in the world." Second Thessalonians 2, verse 7 says, "The mystery of lawlessness is already at work, only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way." In other words, long before the man of lawlessness comes, there's a spirit of lawlessness in the world. Long before the Antichrist comes, there's a spirit of Antichrist in the world.

In other words, the coming Antichrist will be preceded by baby Antichrists. And I believe that those are hand-picked individuals that Satan has selected where he says to himself, "If this is the generation where the handcuffs are taken off and the restraint is removed, then I will use this individual." And that's why so many people in world history, even today in the political arena, look like they could be the Antichrist.

But the truth of the matter is we don't know until the restrainer is removed. And so my point is the whole Tribulation Period cannot even transpire, it cannot even take place until this restrainer is removed, the pre-tribulational rapture of the church. And that becomes yet another reason why I am a pre-tribulationist. Let me take you to a seventh and final reason why I am a pre-tribulationist.

And it deals with this whole topic of symbolic parallels. Symbolic parallels. Jesus in Luke 17, verses 26 through 30, said this: "And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.

It was the same as happened in the days of Lot. They were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building. But on the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed."

Now, what is being said here by our Lord is if you want to understand the events of the end time, then you have to study two events in biblical history. Those two events are the two times that God has already poured out his wrath on this planet. The first of those times is the global flood. The second of those times is the judgment that happened in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Now, the question is, what do those two time periods have in common? And here's the tie that binds, so to speak. God's people are taken out of harm's way before the judgment hits. Now, we see this with the flood. Before the flood happened, Enoch, Genesis chapter 5, verse 24, was raptured and taken to heaven. We see it also with Noah.

Genesis chapter 7, verses 6 and 7. Noah and his family, they were tucked safely and securely on the ark, and then the flood came. You see a pattern here? Before the flood comes, God gets his people out of harm's way. Now, you see the exact same thing happening in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah because we run into a guy named Lot, who was really not living a very righteous lifestyle, but he was a believer because he's called a righteous man three times in Second Peter 2, verses 7 and 8.

And the angel, you'll recall, came to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, dispatched by God to do so. And the angel said this to Lot, who was dwelling in Sodom and Gomorrah, that city or civilization marked for destruction. The angel said to Lot, Genesis 19, verse 22, "Hurry, escape there, for I cannot." Not, "I will not." "I cannot do anything until you arrive there."

Therefore, the name of the town is called Zoar. The angel says, "I can't destroy the city as long as you, a believer, even though you're in a backslidden state, are living in this city." So only after Lot is taken out of Sodom, does the angel get the green light to destroy the wicked city of Sodom and Gomorrah. So do you see a pattern here? The Sodom and Gomorrah judgment can't happen until Lot, a carnal believer, was taken out of the way.

The Lord did not send the flood until Enoch was taken out of the way, and Noah and his family were safe in the ark, and then the floodwaters hit. And you'll sort of see this described in Second Peter chapter 2, verses 4 through 9. It talks there in a series of if-then statements, "If this is true, if this is true, if this is true, then that has to be true as well."

And over in Second Peter chapter 2 and verses 4 through 9, we read these words. Second Peter chapter 2. I'm looking at verse 4. "For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness." And if God did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness. Verse 6, "And if God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes, et cetera."

Verse 7, "And if he rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men." See all these if clauses? And then you get to verse 9, it says, "Then." What's the point of all of these if clauses? "Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment."

God is really good when he brings judgment in getting his people out of harm's way. That's what he did with Noah and his family. That's what he did with carnal Lot, although he was still a believer. And if God can get carnal Lot out of the way before the judgment hits, and if God can get Noah and his family out of the way before judgment hits, then you know what God is going to do with the church, the believers on the Earth, is he's going to take us out of the way before his judgment manifests itself.

Once the Rapture happens, all the believers will be gone. The next set of believers that you'll see are people that get converted in the Tribulation itself. And this is something that we call symbolic parallels. Jesus himself said, "If you want to understand the end times, you better look at the flood in Noah's day and you better look at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah."

And both situations, you have the wrath of God being poured out. But before the wrath of God is poured out, God gets his own people out of harm's way. So what we have in this series are seven arguments as to why we believe the Rapture will take place before the Tribulation Period begins. Number one, the Tribulation Period concerns Israel, not the church. Number two, there is no biblical reference to the church on Earth during the Tribulation Period.

Number three, the Tribulation Period is an expression of divine wrath. We are promised an exemption from it. Number four, the Rapture is imminent. Number five, the Rapture is a comfort. Only pre-tribulationism handles those concepts well. Number six, the Antichrist, who starts the Tribulation Period, can't even show up while the church is here. And then number seven, symbolic parallels tell us that the Rapture will take place before the Tribulation Period begins.

Those are the seven arguments that I rely upon that build a cumulative case for pre-tribulationism. Well, what about some of the other views? We'll try to interact with those briefly in our next show together. God bless you.

Dr. Andy Woods: You've been listening to The Watchman's Call, exploring the intersection of prophecy and culture. This program is a ministry of Sugarland Bible Church, a place where the Bible is taught and the times are discerned. Visit this Sunday in person or connect with them anytime at s l b c dot o r g. That's s l b c dot o r g. Until next time, may the Lord give you a spirit of discernment in the week ahead.