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“That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled” (vs. 2).
The reason for this admonition is that someone has been telling them that the
first resurrection was SPIRITUAL, so they have missed it. It was “Hymenaeus
and Alexander” in 1 Timothy 1:20 who taught this heresy (2 Tim. 2:17). All
five-point Calvinists from 1600–1950 taught it, and most of them still do today.
We call these heretics “Amillennialists.” Amillennialism means “no 1,000-year
reign of Christ on earth,” though it is mentioned six times in one chapter (Rev.
20).
The idea is that Revelation 20:1–7 is not literal; therefore, the REIGNING
on THRONES is not literal. “The first resurrection,” according to all of these
apostates was the SPIRITUAL resurrection found in Ephesians 2:5–6.
Now, along with this heresy would come the heresy that the Second Advent
is about to take place (“at hand”), so they have missed the Rapture, which Paul
described to them in 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18.
We call this heresy the “post-Tribulation Rapture heresy,” which confounds
the rapture of Tribulation saints in Matthew 24:31; Psalm 50:2–5; Isaiah 26:19–
21; and Revelation 11:15 with the Rapture of the Body of Christ (1 Thess. 4; 1
Cor. 15). Rosenthal fell sucker for this “pitch” and stuffed the Body of Christ
into the Great Tribulation, but not “all the way”—just twenty-two months in, out
of forty-two. He called his hobby horse “fancy” the “Pre-Wrath Rapture.” It left
no time for the Judgment Seat of Christ or the Wedding of the Lamb (1 Cor. 3;
Rev. 19) and, eventually, caused him to erase the entire Millennial reign of
Revelation 20, for he equated “the day of the Lord” in 2 Peter 3:10 with the
Second Advent (Armageddon) instead of the White Throne Judgment, which
takes place AFTER the Millennium.
See how that Book is written? It is a “HOLY” Book. You cannot mess with
it without “cuttin’ yo’self to de bone.”
The source of all the weeping, wailing, division, diversity of expositions, and
plain ignorance is one simple little phrase of four words, “the DAY of Christ.”
That will “do the job.”
Those four words are enough to sidetrack ten generations of Christian
scholars so they become absolutely “incoherent” when they try to exegete the
passage.
So before attempting to do anything with the “falling away” and the “man
of sin” and when he is to be revealed, let us do something novel and
revolutionary, if not downright shocking. Let us take a look at the verses in a
King James 1611 Authorized Version.
Here is the first “missing link.”
The term “day of the Lord,” as Paul’s “THAT day” (2 Tim. 4:8, 1:18), is a
reference to seven different periods of time in the Old Testament which are 3,800
years apart......"
2 Timothy 2:15
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
[excerpt from 1 and 2 THESSALONIANS,
PHILEMON
By Peter S. Ruckman
B.A., B.D., M.A., Th.M., Ph.D.
President and Founder of Pensacola Bible Institute
Copyright © 2005 by Peter S. Ruckman
All rights reserved
(PRINT) ISBN 1-58026-059-4
BB BOOKSTORE
P.O. Box 7135 Pensacola, FL 32534]
