This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, 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 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.

We are going to talk a little bit about it. Oh, a little prophecy here and there. Tonight will be mainly about what’s going on in the Middle East, but this morning I just want to go over a few things that can help our understanding. Why so many people try to take the church and put us into the middle of the tribulation period? You ought to see the stuff that they put up on the internet. And all of these are got DVDs after their name and PhDs and IOUs and all that, you know.

But as we’ve said before, time is an island in the sea of God’s eternity. That’s why I like I get all this here. It’s time in the sea of God’s eternity. I heard Dr. Mark Cameron say that. So I liked it. I’m not an original. I just copy, copy, copy. There’s no sense wasting my life trying to be an original win. If it’s new, it must not be true. If it’s there, it’s always been there. Nothing new under the sun.

So we’re teaching things that’s always been. But we’re always curious about what’s going to happen in the future. Most people are. I’m one of them. I like to study prophecy. But I want you to take your Bible. your Bible and turn to the book of Luke in chapter 17, Luke chapter 17. Now very seldom we go to the book of Luke, we always go to the book of Matthew in chapter 24 and we’ll get over there. But to understand there’s some things that are said by Jesus when he was here that tells what’s going to happen in the future and it kind of lays that out and gives us an order of events.

Now we call this the dispensations of the ages. Some people was writing on Facebook on the Grace Theological Facebook page or something and says they were talking about dispensations and one guy comes on and he says, I think you ain’t the Arnold the dispensationalist. Yes I am. And a fundamentalist and a biblicist. So there is a position of truth. See, each one of these, we call a dispensation, each one of these. And it’s a period of time and how God deals with man concerning a certain responsibility and the consequences, the results of it.

So he told Adam and Eve not to eat that fruit. All right. That was the time when they were innocent. But then they weren’t innocent no more than men can develop a conscience of right and wrong. And so every one of these, then you have humanism. And this is where I got to joke them on tell it later on in church. But if I tell you now, you don’t tell them. the Solomon keep all of his wives. Tower of Babel.

And y’all will get that after a while. That’s where they had the confusion of tongues. Anyway, I thought that was good. Yes, they’ll get it. They get it, you know. They’ve got to have a little humor here and there. And so then we have where God made a promise to Abraham and he made the promise, then the law was added to the promise. You can’t add law to grace, but the law was to show everybody that they’re condemned because the promise was that God’s going to save everybody by grace.

So even in your testament, they were saved by grace. Nobody’s ever been saved by works. I told you in the old everything God said and did. Mankind’s always been saved the same way. And so in the Old Testament, see they look forward to the cross. New Testament, we look back to the cross, but we’re both saved because of the cross. And so they were looking forward and we were looking back to what already been done. And so these dispensations, so when Christ was born, so He was under the law.

So He had to fulfill the law. And as he fulfilled the law, he never broke the law. So he was the perfect one of all of mankind to make a payment for sins. That’s why we have this in red and all the way back here. All this is red. Why? Because from the beginning to end, it’s only by the death of Christ that anybody gets saved. And in every dispensation for bike race, are you saved through faith? I like it.

It’s just fitting there. It’s just so perfect. Isn’t it nice? I saw that when I did that. Hey, that’s good. That’s what I put it in. So we are saved by grace every dispensation. So you never have to worry about how were they saved in the Old Testament. Same way. Now when we get down here to the New Testament, this is where we are. But Jesus in the book of Luke in chapter 17 and also in chapter 19, and in Matthew 24 is when Christ is right before the cross, right before His crucifixion.

And He tells them things are going to happen in the future. But remember, this period of time right here, the church age was not known in the Old Testament. So if we could take this church age and just take it out of there, like a parenthetical expression in a sentence, then all of this could slide right up to this, and it would flow right into this. So when you were studying what he says in the book of Matthew and Mark and Luke, you’ll find out the scripture runs into here, and then over to here.

So there’s things that he talks about concerning him coming back. Well in the Old Testament he’s talking about when he comes back here in Pyrene-Greg glory. Even Enoch talked about he shall come with ten thousands of saints. So that’s what he’s going to do. But the rapture has types in the Old Testament but it doesn’t really talk about the rapture. And so we know that Christ is going to come back for us but this is where we call it the rapture versus the revelation.

We talked about the second coming of Christ. We just believe that it’s in two phases. One, two. You have four quarters in a football game, it’s only one game, but there’s different quarters. And so we believe that this year is the first phase, second phase. The Christ is coming back. So we can say, yes, Christ is coming back. We believe in the second coming of Christ. But He comes here for his saints and here he comes back with his saints.

Here he comes only in the air and here he comes all the way to the earth and they cannot be the same thing because we’re caught out of this world and taken to heaven and that’s where we’ll stand at the judgments of the Christ. So this is going on up in heaven. Now there’s things that God tells us is going to happen during this seven-year tribulation period. And we call this a transition from the law and grace because it was overlapping in a period of time.

And so these people lived in the ends of the ages, ends of this dispensation and this dispensation. And so this period of time is where they had the sign gifts. And the sign gifts were given until the word of God was complete. So when the word of God was complete, they no longer needed the sign gifts. They don’t have them. And so that’s when the apostles ended their ministry. But the church age, that’s where we are. And so you think about this, it’s been almost 2,000 years.

That’s how long it’s been so far. But let me just show you that we know that the millennial reign is a thousand years, 1,000 years. And he tells us in the book of Peter, it says one day is a thousand years and a thousand years is a day. Well in a week you got seven days. Seventh day, it ought to be the day of rest. But you have from the matinee to the flood was two thousand years and from the flood into a crisis two thousand years.

We already know this is a thousand years. So here we have two thousand years. But remember it doesn’t start with the birth of Christ. We go back to the death of Christ. So when you read in the book of Daniel in chapter 9, it says that he was cut off. And it was so many days up until that period of time. Well, see, it didn’t go to the birth of Christ. It goes to the death of Christ, which would have been around 30 AD.

So it’ll be about 2,000 years from that coming up in a few years. If Yankee algae has any value to it at all, am I a date setter? No, but I like to hit close. I’m like, take pot shots at it. But I believe that we’re living in it very interesting and exciting time because see that seven-year tribulation has to be added into this period of time. So it doesn’t talk about here 2000 years. There’s seven years added onto what we already have.

So it’s interesting because we’re always looking for the Lord of the Lord of the God. When my father-in-law used to tell me about the rapture, then when I went to Florida Bible God they talked about the rapture. Ray had us so geared up that we just knew he was going to come back before we could finish the days class. And everybody wanted to just get out of there and try to win the world before it was too late because we wanted to get our share.

There’s a harvest. We want to re-power share. And well, that was 50 years ago. In 1968, I graduated and here it is, 2018 is exactly 50 years ago, I graduated in May. So am I looking forward to the Lord to come back? Yes, I am. And so this is called the blessed hope. That’s supposed to be the next thing that we look for. Well, some people try to take this blessed hope of Christ coming for us and move it over into the tree relation period for like three and a half years.

And then some say, now it comes at the end. Well, we believe it comes over here. And that’s the next thing to happen, according to God’s timetable. Now we’ll talk a little bit more about that tonight with what’s going on in the Middle East and with Syria and Russia. Boy, is this thing aligning up. Just like the Bible says it’s gonna line up. And they’re choosing sides, just like it said, it’s going to two sides. But you know before the tribulation and all that stuff gets in here, there has to come a man on the scene.

That will promise peace and safety and so forth. and that he is so good that he could even deceive the very elect. That means, I believe, the believers from his period of time. Because we’re already going to be caught up. Now everybody loves what Donald Trump is doing, mostly. If you know the Bible and you want freedom and things like that and you want peace around the world, I haven’t seen anybody come on the scene just done a better job than what he is doing.

Is it possible that God could allow him, this one man who just happens to be, well, seven years old, you won’t find seven of the other three in the importance in the Bible will you? And he is able to, I mean, stand against such criticism. I can stand that. I mean, that man has criticism every day, every hour. I don’t know what he decides. He can’t do anything right. But at the same time, he is getting a few things done that could prolong our peace and tranquility, but he does need to have prayer for him.

And everybody in Washington, they all need it. Because their decisions affect our lives. And whether or not we can stay a free country, not. There’s things that are going on right now where they’re saying that the Bible is being, not cannot be used because the Bible, well, it’s got all kind of things in here about, you know, it’s very biased. And Prejudice, it’s a book only for the Jews and they’re the chosen one, so that eliminates everybody else. And so you can’t teach the Bible because it’s prejudice.

Well, Israel is going to be the greatest nation in the world. Well, that’s prejudice. It’s prejudging. And so it’s gonna be a lot of bad stuff happen. But here in the book of Luke, look there in verse 20. Verse 20, and when he was demanded of the Pharisees, Luke chapter 17 verse 20. And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come. He answered them and said, the kingdom of God come if not with observations.

In other words, you can’t see it. You cannot see the kingdom of God. Remember he said to Nicodemus in the book of John chapter 3, and Nicodemus, a rule of the Jews came to Jesus and says, now what a teacher come from God and made a couple of statements and Jesus says, you must be born again. You cannot see the kingdom of God or enter into the kingdom of God. So the kingdom of God we believe is the spiritual realm of those who are born in.

You have to know Christ as Savior to be born into God’s kingdom. So that means that you cannot see the new birth. It’s not observable. And so you can be saved, but you can’t tell it because I can’t see your birth. I can see your physical birth. I see your first one, but I can’t see your second one. But then he says this, neither shall they say, lo, here or lo, there, for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

It’s a new birth that I believe that takes place. But now eventually there is going to be a kingdom of God. So we believe that good possibility. The kingdom of God is from one end to the other and all those who trust Christ is Savior in the kingdom of God. Now the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is a The specific period of time is when the king comes from heaven and sets up his kingdom upon the earth.

This is why it’s called the kingdom of heaven. So when you study the book of Matthew, over and over again says, as it was concerned in the verses and so on and so on, the kingdom of heaven is like an unto. The kingdom of heaven is like an unto. You get into some of the parables and so forth in the 13th chapter as the kingdom of God, kingdom of God, and mainly referring to the kingdom of heaven. I believe there are two things.

One is physical, the other spiritual. Now I’m not saying I’m totally right, but it’s helped to keep some of these things straight in my mind because he said, Jesus, to Nicki, name us, unless you’re born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God or enter into the kingdom. So it’s a spiritual thing and it’s a new birth from within. So anyway, look there in verse 22 now. And he said into the disciples, the days will come when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and ye shall not see it.

Because these people were rejecting Jesus Christ as their Messiah. And so he says, just like people in the Old Testament, he says in the book of Matthew 13, he says, many desired to see the things that those people that were there when he was here desired to see. But they didn’t get a chance to see it because it was not in their time.

I am glad that I’m living at the time that I’m living, which is right over here, because if I don’t live back here or here or here or here, I’d be dead, wouldn’t I? I like living in the time that I’m alive. And during the time that I may never die, because this is why it says, “‘Behold, I show you a mystery.” A mystery means it’s a truth that was hidden in times past, now revealed for the first time.

It’s not like a murder mystery. No, it’s a truth that was hidden in times past, but now revealed for the first time. So that means that in the Old Testament, it could not have been talking about the church, though there’s times. And it can also, it cannot mean that when Jesus was talking, he was talking about the rapture because that was revealed to the apostle Paul. He said, I’ll show you a mystery. there’s certain things that God revealed after Jesus are his boat.

So these scriptures that we look at is talking about here and the seven-year tribulation periods. So Christ will talk about this. Shh! Something over that talks about this. This is like, you know, if he pulled that out. See, all this is in here because they rejected the king. He was the king, he was rejected, so the kingdom was postponed. So God is going to judge Israel and the world because of their rejection of the Messiah. Now we who have believed when the rapture takes place every believer will be taken out of this world and that’s them from the body, present with the Lord, and that’s when those who die, the bodies are in the grave and they’re going to heaven.

So when Christ comes He’s going to bring those people who have died with Him. And then the Bible says the dead in Christ shall rise first. That’s the bodies. And then we which are alive shall be changed in a moment, the twinkling of that caught up to meet the Lord in heaven. So that’s what’s going to happen. But now go back here to verse 23. And they shall say to you, see here or see there, go not after them, nor follow them.

In other words, in the last days, there’ll be people saying, I am the Messiah and I am the Messiah. And he says, you don’t have to worry about that. Well, how are you going to recognize the Messiah? He says, when I come back, he says, the lightening is from the east to the west. He says, it’ll be shown, you’ll see it. You see what he says there? In verse 24, four as the lightening that lightening out of the one part under heaven, shun it unto the other part under heaven.

So shall also the Son of man be in his day.” So whenever he comes back, like here, every eye will see him. He comes down to the earth, his feet will touch upon the Mount of Olives. That’s in the book of Zechariah in chapter 14. So when his feet touch upon the Mount of Olives, the Mount of Olives will cleave and there will be a great river that will run. And we believe the water from the Mediterranean will run right down into the Dead Sea, and the Dead Sea is going to come alive and people are going to fish in the Dead Sea.

Now you’ve got to have an imagination to see all this, but that’s what God said. And so there’s going to be a great big fountain that comes right up into Jerusalem and in the water will come out. There’s going to be a division there. So that’s in the book of Zachariah 14. You can read that. But now notice what he says. In verse 25, but first must he suffer many things and be rejected of this generation. So he’s telling them what they’re going to do to him.

He’s going to be rejected by this generation. That’s why the kingdom upon the earth was postponed, but I didn’t visualize because they rejected the king. Now in verse 26, and as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. Or what was it like in the days of Noah? Well, there was a timeline God had given him so many years and estimated about 120 years and then all of a sudden, it started to rain.

and the water came from above, and the water came from below, and just turned whole earth. And look what he says, what did they do? They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark. And the flood came in, you see those three words destroyed them all. All except those that were in the ark. So those that were in the ark were safe, but all the other ones were destroyed.

You’ll notice also. He says in verse 28, likewise also as it was in the days of Lot they did eat and they drank, they bought, they sold, they’re planted, they built it. There’s nothing wrong with those things. I mean I don’t see anything wrong with that. They were living life, paying it no attention. You know the Mars gonna be just like yesterday. Nothing’s gonna happen. And that’s also mentioned in the book of Peter in chapter 3, where says they just think everything continues as it was from the day of creation.

No big deal, and then all of a sudden boom, boom, boom. Because the flood, boom, it happened and all the people were destroyed. And inside of me, Gomara, everything’s fine. What they were doing, but the homosexuals, men with men, women, that’s all wicked. And so God judged them. And it happened quickly. And look what he says. In verse 29, and the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and see those next three words, destroyed them all.

Now he’s going to move it on up to a period of time that’s beyond us. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is, and see that word revealed, God, I underlined the word revealed. Because that means he is going to be seen. And the Bible tells us in Matthew 24, they will see him coming in clouds of glory. You see, when the raptor takes place, we’re just all of a sudden, boom, we’re gone.

Now, there’s supposed to be a trumpet sound. I wouldn’t mind hearing the trumpet and then having a chance to gather my thoughts here, and this is it. And if there’s anybody standing by, I told you so, I told you so, I told you so. But when he changes us, he changes in the moment the twinkle of an eye. But if he does it, it’s like, great. And we’re out of here. I didn’t get the chance to hear the trumpet.

There might have to be a little time in there. I don’t know. And so I have a choir in mind, and I want to know all these things. But I’m hoping that there’s a little time between the time I hear the sound and then to know, this is it. What are we going to be seeing or thinking in our minds when all of a sudden we’re changed in a moment twinkling caught up out of this world? We’re caught up to meet the Lord.

So what happens at the rapture is not the same thing that happens over here at the Revelation. This is called Revelation, the revealing. This is the Son of Man coming back and powering great glory. And that was the title of his kingdom age. The son of man, because he’s the son of man and he had a right to claim the throne of Israel because he was a man. And as the Son of God, see that’s a little different. We trust Christ as our Savior because we believe Jesus is the Son of God.

Son of Man, the Jewish term for the Kingdom. So there is a difference, but if people don’t always get it, it doesn’t really matter too much. I’d just like to try to understand as much as I can about the Scriptures. But now I know what it says here. It says in verse 30, even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. Now get this, in that day, he which shall be upon the house top and his stuff in the house, let him not come down and take it away.

And he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Well, I mean, if it was the rapture, you ain’t got time. Boom, you’re out of there. You ain’t got time to go dizzy and do this. I mean, my hair’s not come. You know, the women got to go get dressed. Oh, I don’t have on my makeup. And the rapture’s fixed and take place. Lord, hold off just a minute and I’m not ready. Here they got time to do things because see this is during this period of time.

Look what else he says. In verse 32 remember Lot’s wife. He said I never knew Lot’s wife. I can never remember Lot’s wife. Remember when they came out of Sodom and Gomorrah? She went with them and the two daughters, and she was told not to do something. What did she do? She looked back. My daughter got a car and she looked back and back into a telephone pole.

No, but you have a woman who turns into a pillar of salt because she disobeyed. He said, don’t look back. You’re supposed to flee into the mountains because you’ve got to have a seepage. So that’s what I believe is the area in Jordan called Petra. The last year was my first time I got a chance to go there. And this time I’m going to go again. And I can’t wait to go. I think Jess is going to enjoy it and you’re going to enjoy it.

And who else is going to go? and the Klaminski’s and so that’s gonna be a wonderful experience. And if you don’t want to walk all the way in there, it’s beautiful just to walk it. And it’s a little slight coming out because it’s a little down here going in and it’s a couple miles and you can’t believe the sides of the walls and so forth and it’s just it’s gorgeous and it’s like what they call it the Rose City, because it’s a rose color and on down in the bottom of it if you ever saw the movie the Indiana Jones was, they had a thing there and you’ll see it.

You’ll be right there. And I think Richard Leinhart is still thereAlternate. Alright now look what he has here in verse 31. Look at verse 31. In that day he which shall be upon the housetop and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away. And he that is in the field, let him not return back. Remember Lot’s wife. And then he says, whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.

I tell you in that night there shall be two men in one bed, one shall be taken the other left. Two women shall be grinding together, one taken the other left. Two men shall be in the field, one taken, one left. Now so So whenever somebody reads it, that’s the rapture. That’s the natural understanding, because when they heard about it, that’s the rapture. So this means the rapture has to take place at the end of the tribulation period. But there’s a problem.

This is not the rapture. And I’ll show you how I know. Are you ready to learn how to live your life as a strong Christian, lead others to Christ, For Excel is a church worker or ministry leader, then look no further, then Florida Bible College of Tampa. With traditional and online classes taught by instructors, with years of experience, Florida Bible College of Tampa can help you grow in your Christian life. Whether taking individual classes or working toward a one-year degree, Florida Bible College of Tampa is here for you.

To learn more, visit online at floridabiblecollege.us or call the Registrar Bob Gilbert at 850227-852-852 5325 that’s 8502275325. Thanks for joining us on Bible Eye. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. 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.

Believe in that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.