Page 113 - Jesus is coming - Class version

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weakens the nations, exalts his "throne above the stars of
God," and sits "upon the mount of the congregation."
Such, in brief, is the awful picture which Scripture gives
us of this great opponent of Christ. Many think that he
has already been manifested in Antiochus Epiphanes or
the Popes of Rome or Mohammed and his successors, all
of which we regard as erroneous. The Popes have received
their exaltation and power, as the pretended vicars of
Christ, and not as His opponent. It is a great mistake,
therefore, to call them the antichrist, or the opposing one.
Antiochus was doubtless a type of antichrist. And in his
opposition to the worship of Jehovah, his sacrifice of the
hated swine in the temple and his merciless treatment of
the Jews, he has given us a miniature picture of what the
final antichrist will do. But he passed away long before
Paul and John wrote of the antichrist to come. Likewise
Mohammed may be in some sense a type, but that is all.
No, antichrist is still in the future, and he will not be
manifested until the true Church has been taken away, at
13 14
the rapture, as described in 1 Thes. 4. For Paul says,
"We beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto Him,"
that is, by this very fact of the rapture, of which he had
13
previously written them, and which must first occur be-
I will be to meet the Lord in the air ; and
heights of the clouds ;
like the Most High. so shall we ever be with the
15. Yet thou shalt be brought Lord.
down to hell, to the sides of the 18. Wherefore comfort one an-
pit. other with these words.
16. They that see thee shall (14) 2 Thes. 2:1. Now we
narrowly look upon thee, and beseech you, brethren, by the
consider thee, saying, Is this the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
man that made the earth to and by our gathering together
tremble, that did shake king- unto him,
doms. 2. That we be not soon shaken
(13) 1 Thes. 4:16. For the In mind, or be troubled, neither
Lord himself shall descend from by spirit, nor by word, nor by
heaven with a shout, with the letter as from us, as that the
voice of the archangel, and with day of Christ is at hand,
the trump of God : and the dead 7. For the mystery of law-
In Christ shall rise first : tessness doth already work : only
17. Then we which are alive there is one that restraineth now,
and remain shall be caught up until he be taken out of the
together with them in the clouds, way.