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Weimar University

Don Mackintosh

Why Christ Hasn’t Come - The First and Last Delay

I'm coming again, and especially in Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians, every chapter, like we mentioned last night, ends with a picture of the second coming, a cameo shot of the second coming.

And leading up to those snapshots of the Second Coming are the way you prepare for the Second Coming.

We looked at the reality of the Second Coming and how to prepare for the Second Coming.

But today we ask the question, as many in Thessalonica may have asked, because it was 1 of the first books written in the New Testament.

James was the first, 1 Thessalonians was the second book ever off the press, long before Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John.

And it came off the press and the whole focus of that book was he's coming again, he's coming again, he's coming again, 5 times he's coming again in 1st Thessalonians.

But when we get to 2nd Thessalonians, what happens?

Do not be soon shaken in mind or be troubled by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand, or it's already come, or that it's near.

There's a bunch of things on the internet.

There's a lot of stuff that we haven't been able to screen for you And you're looking at all the stuff on the internet and you believe Christ is coming soon, in fact maybe he already came, people had different ideas.

And he said this, no, let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and that that man of sin may reveal the son of perdition." So he says, look, the second coming is not going to come until there's a falling away that comes.

There is a falling away of, and that word falling away is interesting, it means apostasia, apostasy.

There's going to be an apostasy And the man of sin, hamartia, that means to wander from the law of God, violate God's law.

There's gonna be a man of sin that violates God's law that comes along in history.

And so you have to see that develop before Christ comes and it will be revealed, apocalypto, it will be made manifest, fully developed.

So Right there in the language we can see that we need to say, well, where's this coming from?

A little horn that would come up, and a little horn would come up and be, well, just look at Daniel 7 for a minute to remind yourselves of this.

You may know it quite well, but maybe some that are viewing or some that are here even have not looked at the sequence or maybe recently and in Daniel 7 it follows the same sequence of Daniel 2 where you have 4 kingdoms and they're pictured here as beasts in Daniel 7, 4 great beasts, which are nations or kingdoms that come up, and there's a lion, Babylon, there's a bear, Medo-Persia, kind of raised up on 1 side, the Medes and the Persians.

There's a leopard, and then there is, that's Greece, and then there's a fourth beast, nondescript, but then it goes to describe it, that has all kinds of moving parts, but especially iron teeth, right?

Just like the iron legs of Daniel 2's statue.

And I was considering, verse 8, the horns, and there came up a little horn.

So there was all those horns, huge iron teeth, and then 10 horns.

I don't know if it says 10 horns, but there were 10 toes, so we kind of extrapolate that.

And I was looking there at the horns, and a little horn, verse 8, came up among them, before whom 3 of the first horns were plucked out at the roots.

And there in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous or great things.

So sometime after the Roman Empire, which fell in 476, this man of sin was to come up and you had Babylon, you had Medo-Persia, you had Greece, you had Rome, and then you had this little horn power.

Rome falls, at least Western Rome in 476.

And then there's a consolidation that happens as a transition from pagan Rome to papal Rome.

And this verse describes it further down in verse 25 more fully.

What are the pompous words that this little horn would speak after it subdues 3 kings, verse 24?

He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, he shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law, and the saints will be given into his hand for a time, times, and a half a times." So, Paul actually in writing, and then Christ's coming will occur.

Who opposeth, verse 4, and exalted himself all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he as God, sitting in the temple of God, shows himself that he is God.

Corinthians tells us that the temple is the church.

So this power would come up into the church and what would happen?

In fact, it would be so bad that they would start turning against each other.

There was 1 in Italy, there was 1 in Germany, and there was 1 in France.

And guess what they started calling each other?

So this is back in the 1400s and you know, when did Luther come along?

They agreed with the Popes who were calling each other the Antichrist.

And they said, you know, you're onto something there.

You are Antichrist, and the reason you are is because you're against the law of God.

Did you realize that all the reformers had a strong preaching of the 10 Commandments?

Huss actually handed out copies of the 10 Commandments as he was going to Constance.

And then later, 100 years later, Luther, the 10 Commandments, and they said the papacy is against the 10 Commandments.

Of course, another thing, you know, when those 3 horns were plucked up, they happened to be, they happened to be Sabbatarian.

The horns that were plucked up were actually Sabbatarian, so they were, Roman Catholicism or the papacy when it came up was actually anti-Gnomian, but especially anti-Jewish and anti-Sabbath.

I don't want to get into the prophecy too much because that's not the point of my sermon today.

This is the reason, however, for the delay, because these things had to develop.

Remember Yee-Nah, verse 5, back to 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 5, When I was yet with you that I told you these things, and now you know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way.

I guess someone that leteth, lets, old English, what does this mean?

He who lets, not letters, spellchecker did not, I guess it probably put in letters, it goes, what are you writing?

He who lets or restrains or detains will be taken out of the way.

We've already seen sometime after 476, and then consolidating the papacy which we just talked about.

Did it oppose and exalt himself above all which is called God?

Yeah, it actually defines everything it did in Daniel chapter 8.

It prophetically and specifically shows the counterfeits of everything in the Church of God.

I don't have time to go through that with you, but it's right there.

So all these things were supposed to do what?

They were supposed to happen before what?

So this explains the delay of that time period.

The wicked will be revealed whom the Lord will consume with the spirit of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming.

So don't worry, there is a second coming, but all these things are gonna happen.

Be faithful just like you were described in 1st Thessalonians chapter 1 2 3 4 & 5 But recognize the second coming won't come until the year on the day of atonement That's 2300 days of atonement or 1 a year 2300 years you don't have to go to Daniel 9 to figure out Daniel 8 2, 000 day 2, 300 days of atonement 5th century BC and 23 minus 5 would take you to what?

1800s right So sometime in the 1800s would be the end of that prophecy and you can specify it when you put Daniel 9 with it It actually comes down to the 1840s and Daniel chapter 2 verse 44 said in the days of these kings God will set up a kingdom and this kingdom is alluded to by not only a cleansed sanctuary, but by a cleansed people who follow by faith what Jesus is doing in the sanctuary, and they by faith are cleansing their own body temples on earth.

So as they were studying, as they figured this all out, the Advent movement figured this out, they said, wait a minute.

First of all, they set the wrong date and the wrong idea about what the cleansing meant, but then when they figured it out, you know what?

They said, what this means is he's cleansing things upstairs and we need to cleanse things downstairs.

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

What are all the passages about cleansing?

They weren't doing that, so they washed each other's feet.

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Why Christ Hasn’t Come - The First and Last Delay

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