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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s Word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Well, you know, Dr. Lindstrom started, must have been 30 years ago and more, writing these little articles. And I remember I used to come down here and speak for him. He had these articles. But a lot of people got them and use them and they got a lot of good information on them. And he also has them on our Bibleline ministry’s website, so our people can go on there and know, download those things and read and study them and they help a lot of people.

And I would probably say over 9% of them, 95, I agree right down the line, I’m in the hand here just right there. And I’m thankful for all the work that he’s done. And if you need something special, man, I just go on there and I get it and send it to somebody. And sometimes people go on there and they click them and they read them and they send me a couple emails wanting to know why I hold that I wish I had Hank Lynchland’s email address because some of the people that write me are…

are trying to straighten out Dr. Lindstrom, and he’s not even here. I got one from a guy named Armstrong, and he was very upset. And Armstrong is a, I mean, he’s well known all over the world. Something about world tomorrow or some program he has. And anyway, he read one of the articles on there about Armstrongism and what they believe and all that. And buddy, he called me up one day and he was chewing me out. And then he sent me a letter one day and he was going to sue me.

And I thought, I don’t even know what he’s talking about. And I found out after about three phone calls and so forth and the little messages he’d leave on the machine, He’s talking about an article Dr. Lindstrom wrote. And he has it up on there. And so I went and I looked and I searched and I said, that ain’t that bad. I ain’t nothing wrong with that. So they wanted me to take it down and threaten the lawsuit against me.

And he was going to contact the police in the county here in Hillsboro and come up with him. I mean, you’d be surprised some of the things that happens. Well, here’s another little article that Hank wrote, Who me in the rapture? It’s on the wall right back there. Contrast rapture in the Second Coming. The rapture of all believers, Second Coming, no rapture at all. Well, you would think this is laid out pretty simple. Anybody can understand this. But anyway, the rapture is this right here.

And the revelation, and then over here you have the Second Coming, which is Christ in Revelation. So the Rapture in Revelation, two different things. Well, some people don’t believe that the Rapture is different from the Revelation. They just believe it’s the same thing. So the Rapture, they say, isn’t no such thing. Is it, there’s just the second coming to Christ here, and there is no Rapture. So we’re just coming across here in time, and we’re gonna go right into the tribulation period.

So instead of us looking for what we call the blessed hope, we should be looking for the blessed tribulation. Well, and if this is gonna happen before Christ comes back, we don’t even have to look for Christ to come back. All we gotta do is look for the antichrist. That changes the whole thing about what we’re looking for. And so the Antichrist could be imminent at any time. So Hank believed that this is the Rapture, and Hank believed that this is the revelation, that there’s two phases of the Second Coming.

Well lo and behold, that’s what I believe too. So this guy wrote me a letter. It’s done with a very simple little email, and this is what he said. Good to see your website. I wonder why you hold to the belief that the Rapture is to occur before the Tribulation. This is a serious error that was prompted or promoted by JN Darby in the 19th century, but refuted by scholars such as B.W. Newton and Greek scholar Tre jealous. see and he gives me a place to go for a complete and convincing biblical refuting of the secret rapture theory.

May the Lord abundantly bless and guide you in your study of his word sincerely Paul from a place in England. So we know where it’s from. I emailed him back. I thought I’ll just keep a quick short simple little statement because I have a few things that I work on and I can’t write a dissertation for every person to ask a question. I wrote back, I hold to the rapture before the tribulation because of my study of the word of God.

I do not hold views based on who does or who doesn’t. I state my position but I do not debate my position. Thank you, Ralph Yankee Arnold. Now wasn’t that sweet? Just straight to the point, no beating around the bush, just straight, no accusations, nothing made. Well then I got a letter back. I’m going to send this one to Hank. He says, Dear Ralph, with great respect, That’s enough to scare you right at the beginning. With great respect, you remind me of the ostrich who buries his head in the sand.

Now this is all in Christian love. How easily we can all do that at times. That made me feel better. So now I know that he does it too sometimes. But may I gently remind you that the child of God should be humble, seeking guidance from the Lord, ready to hear His word. Well, I thought I was. I mean, I thought I was. Anyway, he says, let me assure you, you do not hold those views because of your study of the Word of God.

Well, I thought I did. it? He already knows why I hold the views. You hold those views because you have been indoctrinated in the pre-tribulation rapture theory which rests on a system of theology known as dispensationalism. Well, I thought none of that is interesting. So he doesn’t believe in the dispensations taught in the Bible, as though it’s not in the Bible. Do me a favor. Take your Bible and turn to the book of Ephesians in chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3, it is an assumption that I hold my view not because of my personal study of the Bible, but because I’m simply believing what somebody told me.

Now he admits that he used to hold this view until somebody explained it to him the other way, and so now he holds the other view. And don’t see why I don’t change along with him. Ephesians chapter three, look there in verse one, For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for eugene titles. If you have heard of the dispensation and he’s upset with me because I believe in dispensations. The Bible says there are dispensations. He says, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which has given me toward you.

How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote it for in few words, whereby when you read you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages or other time periods. Was not made known under the sons of men as it is now revealed. So there have been different periods of time. Certain knowledge has been revealed that was not revealed before. So a dispensation is a period of time in which God deals with man concerning a responsibility and consequences if failure to meet that responsibility.

So as we study the word of God, we realize that there are different ways in which God dealt with people in different periods of time. And He has not dealt with man all the time in the same way. Now God’s character never changes. Man’s character hasn’t changed. But God tries a different economy, according to most. a different dispensation or a dispensing of various truth or message or responsibilities that God gives to different individuals. For example, we call these up here dispensations.

This is a dispensation, a period of time. This is another period of time. These are different ages, different periods of time, and how God dealt with man. Now God told Adam and Eve they could freely eat of the trees of the garden but not one tree. And if you eat the fruit of that tree you shall surely die. Well my name is an Adam, my wife’s name is an Eve. I do not live in the garden of Eden. I’ve never lived in the Garden of Eden, and therefore he didn’t tell me that.

He told them that. I don’t even know where the Garden of Eden is. I don’t know where the true is. I don’t even know what kind of fruit it was. Must have been a banana because they had appeal. So I don’t know, but there were consequences, and that was a period of time, and the result was you shall surely die, and they were cast out of the garden. So you see, you can’t say that what he told him to do, he told everybody to do.

No, he didn’t. And then when you come on down and you talk about the flood, he told Noah to build a boat because of people were so wicked and he was going to end that period of time by destroying and everybody in the world except eight people that happen to be in the boat. The ark. My name is not Noah. He didn’t tell me to build a boat. Why don’t you go build a boat? Why don’t you go build a boat?

Because he didn’t tell us to build a boat. He told them to build a boat. And whatever he told them doesn’t mean that’s what he told me to do. So there’s different responsibilities that God has given and why a man can deny that is beyond me. It’s in the book and it’s what it says. There’s things that God says to those that were under the law and for 1500 years the law was given to Moses on Mount Sinai, given to the children of Israel and the consequences was at the conclusion of the law, Christ was crucified and they’re supposed to keep the law and the only one that did they killed.

And then in 70 AD the temple fell and they were scattered upon the face of the earth. Now that is a period of time. And for the Apostle Paul to say that there is another period of time because the church was born on the day of Pentecost which is the birth of the church, the Holy Spirit came and baptized Jews in Acts 2. That ties Gentiles, Acts 10, and put Jew and Gentile together in one body, and God gave to the Apostle Paul messages for the church.

And therefore Paul had special revelation given to him that applies to us during this period of time. But this period of time will not last forever. And the reason we know this is a different period of time because this is the 70th week of Daniel and the 70th week of Daniel in reality belongs to the 69th week where Christ was cut off. So if you were to take this out and slid this over here, see then it all fits in all the prophecy Old Testament all runs right into the tribulation.

They knew nothing about this in the Old Testament, but they did know about this in the Old Testament and they knew about Christ coming back in power. In the Old Testament. And this is all in the Old Testament. This isn’t. And that’s why he says this is special knowledge given him. Look there in verse five, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.

What is it? What is this mystery? In verse six that the Jesus is the Son of God. Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. So he says in verse 8 unto me, Who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given that I should preach Christ, or among the Gentiles, the insertible riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of world have been hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ.

But now it is revealed. It was hidden and now revealed. So not everything was known in previous times or periods of time. So the Bible talks about dispensations. So if you understand this, it helps you to know where to to put scripture. Take your Bible while you’re right there looking Colossians in chapter 1. The book of Colossians in chapter 1. And look for what he says in verse 25. Verse 25, it makes this statement verse 25, we’re of I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you.”

Now in the military they had a dispensary where they would go to sick bay and they would dispense medicine or shots or whatever else you needed. So you can dispense. It means they receive something and they’re giving something. So in the dispensation of grace we have received grace, we dispense grace. We received it, we give it. That’s why we live by grace and that’s why this is called the grace age or the church age or the body age. It’s all the same thing but it’s a period of time so it has a beginning and it has an ending.

Every dispensation does and it calls this a dispensation. So it’s taught in the Word of God and shouldn’t be a question about that or a problem. But evidently it is a problem. Let me just give you this. He says, I am not asking you to debate your position. I am simply stating the truth in the hope and prayer that the Lord may open your eyes on this matter. There is not a shred of evidence in the Word of God to support the pre-trib theory.

It means that we believe that Christ comes pre before, before the tribulation. Post-trib means we believe that Christ is coming back after the tribulation. So, or we believe here, He comes back pre-millennial. So we have those views. We are pre-trib pre-millennial. We believe Christ will come back before the tribulation and before the Millennium. See, not everybody believes that. There’s all Millennials. That means they don’t believe there is any such thing at all. And as some people believe, see, that we are going to bring in the Kingdom.

So we got to change the world and make it good enough that Christ will hurry up and come back. So some people believe that Christ comes back at the end of the millennium. They’re all messed up. So there’s all kinds of views. And so you just need to understand that. Let me give you this. He says, I was brought up on the pre-trigulation rapture teaching too. I thank God for the Christian brother who had the courage to point out to me that this is not the teaching of Scripture.

I then did my own study of the Scriptures looking at all the relevant passages, and the Lord enabled me to see that there is only one single public apparent of Christ at his second coming which is taught in the Scriptures. Many believers are coming to see this in these days while others remain deceived on this point. Okay. First Thessalonians, turning to Bible to first Thessalonians. And in first Thessalonians, look in chapter one, the Bible tells us that yes, Christ is coming back and what He wants us to do.

But look in verse 10. And to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. Now, as you study 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, it’s going to tell you about the wrath to come. I don’t believe it’s necessarily talking about just the wrath of hell because we’ve already been saved. That’s not going to happen. But he’s going to promise them, this right here is called the wrath of God.

I used a lot of scriptures last Sunday morning stating about the wrath of God that’s coming upon the earth. and that God says there’s peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon this period of time. It’s called the 70th week of Daniel. It’s also mentioned as the time of Jacob’s trouble in Jeremiah. Also Daniel chapter 12, this is a period of time that God says the worst period of time that the world has ever known. And so as you go through here you’ll see some of this but I want you to take your Bible and look there at another scripture with me, look in chapter 5.

And chapter 5 and verse 9, for God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Now this is the wrath of God. God hath not appointed us to go into this period of time. This is a separate period of time. There’ll be people here that are not going to be able to go here. And there’s people here that won’t be in here. I’ve trusted Christ as my Savior. I’m right here. But when the rapture takes place, I’ll be here.

But I won’t be here. But the lost people that are here will be in here. But if they don’t trust the Lord, they won’t be here. So you’ve got to understand that there’s periods of time and what God says about each one so that you can rightly divide the word of God and put things in its proper place. So He makes a statement that God hath not appointed us to rap, but we’re to wait for the Son from heaven to deliver us from the wrath to come.

So we’re not looking for the blessed tribulation period. told to look for the blessed hope that when Christ comes back in power and great glory. Now look there in chapter 4 and when he talks about the rapture this is a different period of time. Something different happened here. This part of scripture, this is a truth that has not been mentioned before except in 1 Corinthians in chapter 15 where it makes a statement about you shall be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye and be caught up to meet the Lord in the year.

So that time is coming. It’s called the rapture, a catching away caught up. Now you don’t find the word rapture in the Bible. Of course, you don’t find the word Bible in the Bible. You don’t find Trinity in the Bible or Millennium. It’s just that the teaching is there. So he says this in verse 14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. Alright, now let’s say for example we take our beloved brother over here.

Dan, if he dies right now, apps him from the body present with the Lord. His body is asleep, it’s dead. So it’s put into the grave or whatever she wants to do with it. He’s in heaven with the Lord. So the Lord says that when He comes back, He’s going to bring them with Him. And then it says the dead in Christ, that means the body that’s dead is going to raise from the dead. And then we which are alive when He comes will be changed in a moment, the Twinkler love an eye and caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air.

So this is not where Christ comes to the earth, this is where He comes in the air. So you see, here when he comes back, the Bible talks in the Old Testament, his feet would touch upon the Mount of Olives. He’s coming to the earth, sets up a kingdom upon the earth, and there’s the judgment of nations, but none of that in these scriptures take place right here. It’s not there. None of these things are mentioned in the scripture that we’re reading right now.

And yet it says he’s coming back and this is what he says in verse 16. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of the archangel, with a trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up, caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord. Where? To meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

So we’re going to be changed in a moment in the trinkle of an eye, cut up to meet the Lord in the year, and then there is the tribulation paired upon the earth. This seven years is a separate period of time. It belongs to the 70 weeks of Daniel. There were 70 weeks of seven years each, which means a total of 490 years. From the time they went back issued the decree to rebuild the temple and the walls and so forth was supposed to be a certain period of time.

It goes up to 483 years and then the Messiah would be cut off. 483 years. Seven years is missing. There it is. This shoved this out into the future because the king was rejected. the kingdom was postponed and there’s the 70th week of Daniel that still has to belong to that certain period of time. So that period of time is out there and we know how long it is. We are not part of this. So the Lord says in chapter 5, but of the times in the season’s brethren you have no need that I write unto you, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so come and the thief and the knight.

This period of time comes as a thief and the knight. Not this over here. And here’s why. He says in verse 3, for when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction, look up here, when they, so we’re not talking about us, we’re not talking about we, we’re talking about they and them in a different period of time. When they shall say peace and safety, that’s the first three and a half years, then sudden destruction, that’s the last three and a half years.

When they say that, what he says, he says, suddenly destruction cometh upon them. Because see, in the first chapter here, it talks about, We are to wait for our son who is going to save us or deliver us from the wrath to come. We’re not going into that period of time. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. Part 2 of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast.

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Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.