{"id":18848,"date":"2017-04-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-04-30T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\/"},"modified":"2022-02-01T20:06:30","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T02:06:30","slug":"one-minute-after-the-rapture","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\/","title":{"rendered":"One Minute After the Rapture"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[146],"series_event":[518],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[478],"class_list":["post-18848","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-none","series_event-guest-speaker","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-j-b-hixson","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"One Minute After the Rapture","sermon_date":"20170430","sermon_month":"04","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":"","sermon_slides":"","sermon_mp3":4615,"sermon_id":"43017102431","series_or_event":518,"service_type":[472],"speaker":478,"books_of_the_bible":146,"chapter_and_verse":"","sermon_transcript":"J. B. Hixson\r\n\r\nOne Minute After the Rapture\r\n\r\nSLBC, 4-30-17\r\n\r\nBoy, this weather is beautiful, I don\u2019t remember weather like this when I lived in Houston, this is something.\u00a0 We live in Colorado now and we call weather like this a harsh summer.\u00a0 We live down in Southern San Juan wilderness where we got nine inches of snow this week so that\u2019s kind of our world but it\u2019s awesome to be\u00a0 with you.\u00a0 I love that last song we sang; my favorite line is \u201cwhen our traveling days are over\u201d because my family and I travel a lot; we travel about 200-250 days a year for the last eight years and you get to meet some awesome folks like you; many of you we\u2019ve met before but many of you we\u2019re meeting for the first time.\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot more I could say but I\u2019ve got a message that\u2019s kind of heavy on my heart and one that I\u2019m really looking forward to kind of working through with you here over the remaining time together.\u00a0 This was originally presented at the Pre-trib research group this past December, a few months ago, and I had a little bit longer there so I won\u2019t be able to get all of the slides in but if you\u2019re interested or if you feel like this is something that could be used in an evangelistic endeavor and maybe give to someone after the service you can pick up the full DVD of the whole message and the DVD also includes a Q&A at the end that\u2019s on the DVD when I first gave this message.\r\n\r\nBut One Minute After the Rapture.\u00a0 The Genesis for this was\u2026 you know, as someone who loves eschatology and many of you are like that, it\u2019s one of your favorite subjects, it\u2019s one of my favorite subjects, I\u2019ve studied it for years.\u00a0 I first fell in love with it because my grandfather, who was a Bible preacher, was really into eschatology so I can remember just as a young teenager sitting in his house in Austin, Texas and talking about the rapture and the tribulation and the second coming, the millennium and all types of end-times related topics.\u00a0 I\u2019ve studied it for many years but sometimes when we study end times theology, especially those of us from a traditional dispensational pre-tribulational perspective it can become more theoretical, more scientific, more focused on the details and we sort of distance ourselves, in advertently, from the reality of it.\r\n\r\nAnd the reality is that indeed the rapture could happen at any moment.\u00a0 How many of you would be okay if the rapture happened today, right now?\u00a0 Good, praise God for that.\u00a0 It\u2019s something that every day we ought to wake up and think it could be today and it really ought to impact the way that we live.\u00a0 If we believe what we say we believe then it ought to be a reality.\u00a0 So I started asking myself, what are some things that will be true, according to Scripture, one minute after the rapture.\u00a0 And I came up with seven things that will be true one minute after the rapture for those of us who are caught up to meet the Lord in the air, but then there are ten things from the Scripture that will be true for those who are left behind.\u00a0 So it\u2019s kind of a heavy message on the backend because we\u2019re going to talk about what will be true one minute after the rapture for those who don\u2019t know the Lord but we want to start with seven things that will be true for those who do know the Lord.\r\n\r\nSo let\u2019s dive in and let me kind of set the stage by just a general introduction to the topic of the rapture.\u00a0 The verse that we read as our Scripture reading this morning is the key passage on the doctrine of the rapture. [1 Thessalonians 4:16]\u00a0 \u201cFor the LORD Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel and the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.\u00a0 [17] Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the LORD in the air.\u00a0 And thus we shall always be with the Lord.\u201d]\r\n\r\nNow sometimes those who don\u2019t believe in the biblical doctrine of the rapture will say to me when I\u2019m at Bible prophecy conferences and places like that, speaking, they\u2019ll say you know, the word \u201crapture\u201d is not found in the Bible.\u00a0 Well, that is patently untrue!\u00a0 It is found in the Bible.\u00a0 First of all we need to recognize the Bible was not written originally in English.\u00a0 How many of you know the Bible was not written in English?\u00a0 Okay, good, just wanted to make sure, I thought so with Dr. Woods, my good friend, I love Dr. Woods by the way, many of you weren\u2019t here for Sunday School or Wednesday night but he and I go way back, we speak at conferences together all the time, in fact, we were just together in February and he\u2019s number one on my speed dial list.\u00a0 He\u2019s who I call first when I have a theological question.\u00a0 So I sure appreciate Andy and Ann.\r\n\r\nBut absolutely the word rapture is used in the Bible, not the English word because as it happens knowing this word that was\u00a0 used in the original text of Scripture because it wasn\u2019t written in English, but the word \u201crapture\u201d is an English translation of this word that I\u2019ve highlighted in red there, \u201ccaught up.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s actually the Greek word, <em>harpazo<\/em>, which in its broadest sense simply means to snatch or take away.\u00a0 And <em>harpazo<\/em>, the original Greek word, when the Bible was translated into Latin was translated using the Latin word <em>rapiere<\/em>, which is where we get the English word rapture.\u00a0 So there you go; the word \u201crapture\u201d is found in the Bible.\u00a0 But <em>harpazo<\/em> in the original New Testament is used thirteen times and the New King James variously translates it \u201ccaught up\u201d or \u201ccaught away\u201d or \u201csnatched away\u201d or \u201cpulled out\u201d or \u201ctake by force.\u201d\u00a0 One of the other occurrences of it, for example, is in Acts 8, the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch; when they came up out of the water the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away; that\u2019s the word <em>harpazo<\/em>.\r\n\r\nNow when it comes to the doctrine of the rapture and words are always defined in context, not by a lexicon, we have to look at the context to determine the specific meaning in that context but I thought it was interesting that one of the standard Greek dictionaries in academia today, the standard lexicon id BDAG, and this was one of the possible range of meanings for <em>harpazo<\/em>: to rescue from threatening danger, and I want to submit to you that I think that\u2019s the best translation for <em>harpazo<\/em> as it relates to the rapture.\u00a0 We know for sure that <em>harpazo <\/em>is used this way one of the other thirteen times that it\u2019s used, in Jude 23, where it says, \u201cAnd others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire\u2026.\u201d but as it relates to our primary text on the rapture, this idea of being caught up, I think refers to the sudden, quick, urgent rescue of the body of Christ, believers, from this present evil age, as Paul calls it in Galatians 1:4.\u00a0 [Galatians 1:4, \u201cwho gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father\u201d]\r\n\r\nNow the best word picture I can think of is to imagine a young child playing in the street, or maybe playing in the front yard and wanders out into the street and nobody notices and there this child is, maybe two, three years old, just sitting in the middle of the busy street playing with a ball and all of a sudden a big, say Ford F350 is barreling around the corner heading straight for this child and disaster looms, and fortunately maybe a good Samaritan, a jogger or somebody passing by notices it and just in the split second, in the nick of time, reaches out and grabs that child by the back of the collar and yanks it out of harm\u2019s way as the truck goes speeding by.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the idea of <em>harpazo<\/em> and I submit that\u2019s the idea of the rapture, that before the great and terrible day of the Lord, what the Bible calls Daniel\u2019s\u00a0 70<sup>th<\/sup> week, we\u2019ll talk more about this in a moment, that final seven year tribulation period called the time of Jacob\u2019s trouble or the overflowing scourge or the tribulation period, before the outpouring of God\u2019s wrath on earth in perfect justice God is going to rescue the bride of Christ, the body of Christ, from this present evil age.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s going to happen in the twinkling of an eye, literally the blink of an eye Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15.\u00a0 And when it does happen the world as we know it will change forever.\u00a0 When it happens the dispensation of the present church age comes to an end and God begins to work out His plan of the ages, as we move into the end time.\u00a0 You see, the Bible comes full circle from Genesis to Revelation; from the pre-fall Edenic state of sinless perfection in the Garden to once again a sinless perfection in the new heavens and the new earth.\r\n\r\nWhat I\u2019d like to do this morning is to look at one minute after the rapture from the perspective of those who are caught up and from the perspective of those who are left behind.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at those who are caught up first.\u00a0 Those who are caught up one minute after the rapture will experience first of all a long awaited return\u2026 a long awaited return.\u00a0 For 2,000 years Christians have been waiting for the Lord to fulfill His promise to come back and to take us to be where He is.\u00a0 If you look at human history the first ever reference on planet earth to this mystery of the rapture, the first time it\u2019s ever referenced, was on Thursday night of Passion Week when our Lord Jesus was in the Upper Room with His disciples and He said these words: \u201cIf I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to Myself.\u201d\u00a0 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.\u00a0 [John 14:3, \u201cIf I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.\u201d]\u00a0 That was in 33 A.D.\r\n\r\nAnd it\u2019s important to know here that Jesus does not say that the purpose of this future coming that He\u2019s talking about here was to receive believers so that He can be where they are on the earth.\u00a0 If you read it carefully He says so that we can be where He is in heaven.\u00a0 And then, of course, it wasn\u2019t until after the crucifixion which happened the next day, the resurrection which happened on Sunday, forty days of post-resurrection appearances, the birthday of the church ten days later and then into the church age when the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Spirit begins to unveil for us the biblical doctrine of the rapture in many of his epistles, most notably 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians and Titus.\u00a0 But this long awaited return, Jesus promised it then and here we are waiting for it 2,000 years later, looking for this blessed hope, this glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.\r\n\r\nNow let\u2019s look at the end times chart, one of our charts from our chart book and you\u2019re familiar with this, obviously a well taught congregation here at Sugar Land Bible Church but here on this chart you\u2019ve got the church age on the far left, followed by the rapture and then there\u2019s some unspecified link of time between the rapture and the official start of the tribulation.\u00a0 We know that simply by logical deduction because the tribulation begins when the antichrist signs the peace treaty with Israel according to Daniel 9:27, the rapture is a separate event.\u00a0 So you have two separate events in time, they must necessarily be separated by some length of time.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know how long that is, I tend to think it was a matter of months, some scholars, like Arnold Fruchtenbaum thinks it could be years.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know, I don\u2019t know whether Dr. Woods would agree more with Arnie Fruchtenbaum or whether he would agree with me and Jesus on this point [laughter] but one way or the other I\u2019m sure it\u2019s some length of time in there.\r\n\r\nThen this peace treaty is signed which marks out for us who the antichrist is and that will be the completion of Daniel\u2019s 490 year plan, the first 483 years have already occurred in the past and we\u2019re now living in that gap of time that Daniel himself talked about in Daniel 9:24-27.\r\n\r\n[Daniel 9:24-27, American Standard Version.\u00a0 \u201cSeventy weeks are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. \u00a0[25] Know therefore and discern, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the anointed one, the prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: it shall be built again, with street and moat, even in troublous times. \u00a0[26] And after the threescore and two weeks shall the anointed one be cut off, and shall have nothing: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and even unto the end shall be war; desolations are determined. \u00a0[27] And he shall make a firm covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease; and upon the wing of abominations\u2019 shall come one that maketh desolate; and even unto the full end, and that determined, shall wrath be poured out upon the desolate.\u201d]\r\n\r\nThe first three and a half years of that tribulation period, which both Daniel and Jesus talk about, Jesus actually quotes Daniel by name in the Olivet Discourse, will be relative protection for Israel though the wrath of God will be being poured out over the whole earth during that time as well as the wrath of Satan.\u00a0 Then at the midpoint the antichrist sets himself up as god, demands worship in an event called the abomination of desolation and then he sets his sights on Israel and the last three and a half years of the tribulation are an intense persecution for Israel.\u00a0 Then of course the tribulation climaxes with the battle of Armageddon and the return of Christ to establish His long awaited Messianic kingdom; we read about that in Revelation 19.\r\n\r\nThen Daniel 12 tells us there is a seventy-five day interval between the return of Christ to earth\u2026 by the way, we\u2019ll be coming back with Him riding on white horses to help Him rule and reign in the kingdom, between the second coming of Christ and the official commencement of the Messianic\u00a0 kingdom.\u00a0 The first 1,000 years of the Messianic kingdom will be on the old earth, we call that the Millennium, of course Dr. Woods has just written an outstanding book, many of you have read it, I recommended it or blurbed it at the beginning, I sell it, we actually normally sell it everywhere we go.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t sell it here because I didn\u2019t think there was a market for it here, you guys already have it, I think you get it free actually.\r\n\r\nBut it\u2019s an outstanding book about the kingdom and the kingdom is not just a thousand years, it goes on in perpetuity throughout the new heavens and the new earth.\u00a0 So if we look at this chart the return of Christ, His long awaited return is right here; it puts an end to the tribulation period.\u00a0 Now I want you to go back in your mind\u2019s eye to that first century time of Christ, as if you were one of the disciples and you were traveling with Christ, listening to Him talk, walking with Him, and Christ\u2019s ministry, as Dr. Woods has so excellently taught in His book, was all about the kingdom.\r\n\r\nHe starts it by \u201cthe kingdom of heaven is at hand\u201d and He ends it with the Olivet Discourse, by talking about signs that will relate to His second coming and everywhere in between.\u00a0 So it\u2019s understandable that the disciples would be fixated on the kingdom.\u00a0 Throughout three and a half\u00a0 years Jesus taught things like the disciples would rule and sit on twelve thrones with Him in the kingdom.\u00a0 The disciples often asked who\u2019s going to be greatest in the kingdom, that was one of Peter\u2019s questions\u2026 remember that?\u00a0 One of the disciple\u2019s moms asked if her sons could sit on either side of Christ in the kingdom.\u00a0 You see the parables of the kingdom in Matthew 13, all references to a literal earthly kingdom; you get no hints whatsoever anywhere in Scripture that the kingdom is anything other than literal physical brick and mortar kingdom with boundaries and a throne and a temple.\u00a0 And so it\u2019s understandable then, even though Jesus also taught, also in fulfillment of the Old Testament, in the suffering servant aspect the fact that the cross must come before the crown, that he\u2019s got to go pay\u2026 be the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, that was all part of it.\r\n\r\nThe disciples were clearly fixated on the kingdom aspect and you see this most vividly in Luke 19 on the day before the triumphal entry. So here there are, nearing the end of Christ\u2019s earthly ministry, they\u2019re on the outskirts of Jerusalem and Luke tells us something fascinating in Luke 19.\u00a0 He says,\r\n\r\n\u201cNow as they heard these things\u201d that\u2019s the disciples, \u201cHe spoke another parable because He was near Jerusalem\u201d and watch this, \u201cthey thought,\u201d\u00a0 the disciples thought \u201cthe kingdom of God would appear immediately.\u201d\u00a0 [Luke 19:11, \u201cAnd as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was immediately to appear.\u201d]\r\n\r\nFascinating; not often do we get a glimpse inside the minds of the listeners when Jesus tells a parable but here we do.\u00a0 Under the inspiration of the Spirit Luke tells us precisely why Jesus told the parable that follows, which, of course, is the parable of the minas, in which Jesus explains that He\u2019s going to go away for a while to receive the kingdom, while He\u2019s gone the disciples need to be busy about the work of spreading the gospel and then He\u2019s going to come back and they\u2019re going to give an account for what they did while He was gone and then He\u2019ll inaugurate the kingdom. So it\u2019s a real\u2026 definitely applicable to the church and a real hint of the coming interadvent age.\r\n\r\nBut Luke tells us that the disciples essentially thought Jesus Christ was going to ride into Jerusalem the next morning on the back of a donkey, throw off the shackles of Rome and usher in the Millennial kingdom right then.\u00a0 That\u2019s what they wanted and that\u2019s what they expected.\u00a0 So here they were living in the church age, as it were, or the time of Christ I guess for the disciples at this time but their minds were over here on the kingdom.\u00a0 They did not understand, even though they should have, that there were a lot of things that needed to happen between the time of Christ and the coming of the kingdom, things that up to this point have lasted 2,000 years, but even other things prophetically related to the end times that will take place after the present church age.\r\n\r\nBut anyway, they soon found out, of course, what was going to unfold in the days to come.\u00a0 Jesus goes into Jerusalem, of course He curses the fig tree, He overturned the tables of the money\u00adchangers, He rejects the Jewish national leaders of Israel, He responds to the disciples question about what will be the sign of Your coming, remember that was kind of an interesting little interchange there, Matthew 23 and then into the Olivet Discourse in 24 and 25.\u00a0 Again, the disciples still\u2026 this is only three days later, from Sunday to Wednesday, four days maybe, and they\u2019re still fixated on the kingdom and here Jesus has just said not one stone will be left upon another.\r\n\r\nActually it\u2019s even better than that if we go back one conversation earlier, at the end of chapter 23 Jesus says to the nation of Israel, \u201cYou will not see me again until you cry,\u00a0 \u2018Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,\u201d\u2019 the fulfillment of Psalm 118.\u00a0\u00a0 [Matthew 23:39, \u201cFor I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say \u2018Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.\u201d\u2019 Psalm 118:26, \u201cBlessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you.<sup>\u2019\u201d<\/sup>]\r\n\r\nAnd the disciples were thinking well, what\u2019s that about?\u00a0 We just tried that?\u00a0 Well, no, a few, a remnant tried it but the vast majority would soon cry out \u201ccrucify Him, crucify Him,\u201d within a couple of days.\u00a0 So the disciples are a little puzzled, they\u2019re starting to say hmmm, this isn\u2019t going the way we planned.\u00a0 So the Bible tells us they began to point out to Jesus the beauty of the temple, and it was kind of one of those nervous conversations that I think they were having, like Lord, isn\u2019t this temple beautiful as if to say isn\u2019t it going to be awesome when you take the throne here momentarily.\u00a0 And then Jesus, wanting to make it as blunt as He can, that\u2019s when He says listen, I tell you not one stone will be left upon another.\u00a0 Now He\u2019s got their attention.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So then they ask, rather excitedly, well Lord, what will be the sign of Your coming, and the end of this age and the coming kingdom, tell us, tell us!\r\n\r\nAnd then the Olivet Discourse is the single greatest blow by blow outline of the end times found anywhere in one spot in the Bible as Jesus begins to explain the signs of the second coming.\u00a0 The Olivet Discourse, of course, is all about Israel, it\u2019s not anything to do with the church.\u00a0 As we said the first reference historically ever in humankind of the rapture is the next day in the Upper Room.\u00a0 This is Wednesday, the Olivet Discourse is Wednesday, it wasn\u2019t until Thursday night in the Upper Room that He mentions the rapture.\u00a0 So this is totally about Israel and Jesus begins to outline for them things about His Second Coming.\r\n\r\nSo then, of course, that\u2019s Wednesday; Thursday He\u2019s betrayed by Judas, arrested, tried, crucified, rises again Sunday and then he appears to hundreds for forty days.\u00a0 I want you to fast forward forty days to the Mount of Ascension.\u00a0 Now you would think at this point the disciples would be more sensitive, they would begin to understand the whole notion of Christ\u2019s coming both as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world and the victorious warrior to strike the nations with the sword and so forth.\u00a0 You\u2019d think they\u2019d begin to connect the dots by now, surely.\u00a0 But no, here they are on the Mount of Ascension and what do they do?\u00a0 Once again they return to their favorite subject, the kingdom.\u00a0 I can\u2019t prove this but it\u2019s kind of like they\u2019re saying something like this: Lord, boy, we\u2019re so sorry we didn\u2019t understand the whole part about the Via Delarosa, Golgotha and that cross thing and thank You for that Lord, by the way, thank\u00a0 You for saving us from our sins Lord, but Lord do You mind now if we get on to more pressing matters; what about this kingdom.\u00a0 And they say Lord, are you at this time going to restore Your kingdom to Israel.\r\n\r\nThis would have been the perfect opportunity for Jesus to dispel the notion of a literal kingdom if indeed, as so many teach today, it was nothing but a figure of His spiritualized kingdom in our hearts.\u00a0 But He didn\u2019t do that!\u00a0 He did not rebuke them for their question, in fact, He affirmed the literalness of the kingdom in His answer when He says look, \u201cit is not for you to know the times,\u201d times there his <em>chronos<\/em>, He\u2019s talking about length or duration, \u201cor the seasons,\u201d the word \u201cseasons\u201d is <em>chairos<\/em>, meaning the exact date which the Father has put in His own authority.\r\n\r\nIn other words, He says the same thing that He said in parabolic form a few days earlier, or a few weeks earlier at this point, on the outskirts of Jerusalem before the triumphal entry when He said look, the King is going to go away for a while, take your mina and be busy.\u00a0 And He says the same thing here.\u00a0 Well, He ascends up, out of their sight, at the right hand of the throne of God in heaven, they stand their looking up, these men in white raiment come and say to them look, \u201cthis same Jesus,\u201d \u201cthis same Jesus will come again in like manner,\u201d a long-awaited return.\u00a0 [Acts 1:11, \u201cwho also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? this Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven.\u201d]\r\n\r\nYou almost get the idea that the disciples thought He was going to run up, grab the keys to the kingdom and come right back down and unlock the kingdom.\u00a0 And so the men in white raiment said no, go back to Jerusalem and be busy.\u00a0 And then of course they go back to Jerusalem, later in Acts 1 the first order of business when they get there is what?\u00a0 To replace Judas; they cast lots for Matthias.\u00a0 Again I think this is because they thought about the imminency of the return of the Lord, they thought about the\u00a0 urgency of the kingdom and they knew Jesus had said that they would sit on twelve thrones when He comes back and they didn\u2019t want that twelfth throne to be empty, we\u2019ve got to have someone to sit there.\u00a0 So they were fixated on the kingdom.\r\n\r\nAnd here we are, 2,000 years later, and I can\u2019t be too hard on the disciples because it shows that they understood the teaching of God\u2019s Word about the kingdom.\u00a0 They expected it.\u00a0 Would we have stood there looking up, waiting for Him to come right back?\u00a0 We\u2019re certainly not doing that 2,000 years later, at least with any degree of consistency.\u00a0 But one minute after the rapture we will finally experience the long awaited return of our Lord.\u00a0 And you know, critics of the doctrine of the rapture, who don\u2019t interpret Scripture the way we do, in its literal grammatical historical perspective, they often like to point out you know people have been talking about the rapture for millennia, for 2,000 years they\u2019ve been talking about it and it\u2019s never happened.\u00a0 To which I say that\u2019s right but one time it will and why not us.\u00a0 Someday it\u2019s got to happen and why not us?\u00a0 Why not us!\u00a0 And one minute after it happens we will experience that long-awaited return.\r\n\r\nNumber two, one minute after the rapture those that are caught up will experience a timely rescue\u2026 a timely rescue.\u00a0 Again, going back to that idea of <em>harpazo,<\/em> again Galatians 1:4 says, He will deliver us or rescue us from this present evil age.\u00a0 [Galatians 1:4, \u201cwho gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father\u201d].\u00a0 So the rapture rescues us from this world.\u00a0 And it\u2019s an ever worsening world; it\u2019s an ever worsening world!\r\n\r\nAnd one of the things that is often mistakenly taught is people will characterize those of us who believe what the Bible teaches about the rapture as teaching that Christians will escape this old world before things get too bad.\u00a0 Ever heard that?\u00a0 Whenever I hear someone say this I just want to punch them\u2026 but I don\u2019t, just to be clear, but I want to, because I don\u2019t know of any reputable dispensational scholars who teach that, and the idea certainly doesn\u2019t come from the Bible that somehow those that believe in the rapture teach that we\u2019re just going to be going along, everything is going to be great and then the rapture will rescue us before it gets too bad.\u00a0 And it shows utter ignorance of history too, by the way.\r\n\r\nAnd even of the world as we know it today, I mean stop and think about it, for millions of Christians right now, today, at this very moment, the world is a very bad place.\u00a0 Ask the Coptic Christians if they think the rapture is going to happen before it gets too bad.\u00a0 I wonder if believers that were slaughtered by Stalin or Hitler thought the rapture would happen before it got too bad?\u00a0 History tells the tragic tale of the persecution and torture of Christians century after century.\u00a0 The rapture rescues us from this ever worsening world but we are not promised that we\u2019re going to be unscathed.\r\n\r\nIf we go back to our chart, here\u2019s the last days, here\u2019s the present church age, the Bible makes that clear, and these are the end times, and what God\u2019s Word says is that we\u2019re going to be rescued before the great and terrible day of the Lord.\u00a0 Things are getting worse and worse and they\u2019re going to reach unprecedented evil during that tribulation period, deception.\u00a0 We\u2019ll talk about that in a second.\r\n\r\nBut the last days is the present church age, you can see this clearly if you just look at God\u2019s plan of the ages.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got this transitional period between the church and the kingdom, but here we are living in the present church age and as you see on the chart there it really is the last days before the kingdom age.\u00a0\u00a0 It really is the last days.\u00a0 The only major age to come is the fruition, the inauguration of the kingdom.\u00a0 And so the rapture rescues us from this present evil age as things are getting worse and worse.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a timely rescue. Sometimes our optimistic though misguided reconstructionist brothers, those who think that things are getting better and better and better and if we can just elect enough Christians and be good enough then we will hurtle the world into this Messianic Kingdom and Christ will come back when things get good enough.\r\n\r\nWe totally reject that because the Bible doesn\u2019t teach us that but what they forget is one very important principle and that is that depravity is a degenerative disease.\u00a0 Depravity does not self-correct, it doesn\u2019t get better over time.\u00a0 Sure, there are always seasons of blessing everywhere you go on planet earth, revivals here and there, and praise God for it.\u00a0 The Spirit of God is alive and well and moving and we should always be working to win the lost and spread the gospel and make a difference in this fallen world.\u00a0 But overall, taken as a\u00a0 whole, the world is getting worse and worse and worse.\u00a0 And it will not get better until the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, until the Prince of Peace Himself comes back and takes the throne.\r\n\r\nThat\u2019s what the Bible teaches; it doesn\u2019t teach that everything is going to be great and we\u2019re going to be rescued before it gets bad.\u00a0 It just teaches that we\u2019re going to be rescued before the great and terrible day of the Lord.\u00a0 See, the Bible says that evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse and worse.\u00a0 Paul said that in 67 A.D.\u00a0 If it was true then imagine how much more true it is today.\u00a0 [2 Timothy 3:13, \u201cBut evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.\u201d ASV]\u00a0 We are more deceived today than we were yesterday, we will be more deceived tomorrow than we are today; deception is getting worse and worse and worse.\r\n\r\nIf you go back to our plan of the ages, when sin entered the world in the garden, from that point on things began getting worse and worse and worse and worse and worse!\u00a0 And it\u2019s getting worse during the present church age and will reach unprecedented heights after the rapture, during the great and terrible day of the Lord, the tribulation period.\u00a0 We know that this world is getting worse because this whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one; this is truly the devil\u2019s playground.\u00a0 Remember the conversation the Lord had with Satan in Job, chapter 1.\u00a0 The Lord said where do you come from?\u00a0 And Satan says from going to and fro on the earth, from walking back and forth on it.\u00a0 [Job 1:7, \u201cAnd Jehovah said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered Jehovah, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.\u201d]\r\n\r\nThis earth is the devil\u2019s playground, and the rapture will rescue us before this cosmic struggle.\u00a0 How many of you believe the devil is trying to take over the world.\u00a0 Do you believe that?\u00a0 Absolutely, he\u2019s been trying to do that since he was kicked out of heaven.\u00a0 He started when he approached Eve and he hasn\u2019t given up yet.\u00a0 And this is a spiritual battle against the principalities, and powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age.\u00a0 [Ephesians 6:12, \u201cFor our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.\u201d ASV]\u00a0 And that cosmic struggle will reach its pinnacle after the rapture, during this tribulation period.\r\n\r\nHas it ever occurred to you that there are only two times in human history, according to the biblical record, only two times in human history when Satan himself, the prince of demons, Satan is a fallen angel, a demon, and demons can indwell unbelievers, and according to the Scripture there are two times when Satan himself indwells a human being and both of them relate to the coming of Christ.\u00a0 At the first advent Satan indwells Judas according to Luke 1:22.\u00a0 [Luke 1:22, \u201cAnd Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.\u201d]\u00a0 And in conjunction with the second advent he\u2019s going to indwell the antichrist, according to Daniel 8 and 2 Thessalonians 2.\r\n\r\nIn other words, think about it; from Satan\u2019s perspective he\u2019s trying to take over the world, he\u2019s engaged in this battle, he thinks he\u2019s going to win even though we know the rest of the story and we know he isn\u2019t, and God, the eternal Creator of the universe, God the Son leaves the realm of eternity, comes to the realm of time, space and matter, puts on human flesh (too redeem mankind by the way) comes to the earth and Satan says aha, He\u2019s in my territory now, He\u2019s in my playground now, now\u2019s my chance; He\u2019s made Himself vulnerable.\u00a0 And Satan says there\u2019s no way I\u2019m going to delegate this to one of my demons, I\u2019m going to handle this one myself.\u00a0 So he indwells Judas, Judas betrays Christ, Christ is crucified, Satan thinks he\u2019s won.\u00a0 Of course, three days later he found out at Christ\u2019s resurrection that he had not won.\r\n\r\nBut then I think according to Daniel 8, 2 Thessalonians 2 that he\u2019s also going to indwell the future man of sin, the antichrist.\u00a0 Once again in conjunction with a time when he knows Christ is coming back.\u00a0 He\u2019s read the Scripture, he understands end times prophecy better than many Christians do so he knows God\u2019s timetable as it relates to the tribulation.\u00a0 And so when he sees the rapture happen, he\u2019s going to (I think) indwell the antichrist and then the antichrist is going to, hopefully from Satan\u2019s perspective try to win this cosmic struggle.\u00a0 But it is a spiritual battle and it\u2019s going to get worse and worse during the tribulation.\r\n\r\nSo the rapture rescues us from this ever worsening role, but it also rescues us from the wrath to come.\u00a0 As bad as things are now and as bad as they may get prior to the rapture they will be much worse during the tribulation.\u00a0 This is called the great day of the Lord\u2019s wrath, that seven year period.\u00a0 Paul reminds us sin 1 Thessalonians twice that we will not as the church have to endure the wrath.\u00a0 We will be delivered from the wrath to come, we will be rescued before the great and terrible day of the Lord.\u00a0 He says it again in chapter 5, verse 9, and he says God has not appointed us for wrath but to obtain salvation.\u00a0 [1 Thessalonians 5:9, \u201cFor God appointed us not into wrath, but unto the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,\u201d]\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s not just the wrath of God but the wrath of Satan will be poured out during that final seven year climactic event of the tribulation.\u00a0 We see the wrath of Satan in passages like Revelation 12:12, when he says, he\u2019s coming down to you in \u201cgreat wrath.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 12:12, \u201cTherefore rejoice, O heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe for the earth and for the sea: because the devil is gone down unto you, having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time.\u201d]\u00a0 The word \u201cwrath\u201d there is the Greek word <em>thumos<\/em>, it\u2019s the same word that\u2019s used of the wrath of God seven times in the book of Revelation.\u00a0 He talks about how the dragon, at the end of the tribulation will concentrate his evil on the Israelites.\u00a0 The dragon was enraged with the woman, that\u2019s the Greek word <em>orgiso<\/em> and he\u2019s going to focus it on the Israelites during the tribulation.\u00a0 [Revelation 12:17, \u201cSo the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.\u201d]\r\n\r\nSo you\u2019d better believe that one minute after the rapture we will be thanking the Lord for this timely, timely rescue.\r\n\r\nAnd then thirdly, our physical renewal\u2026 our physical renewal.\u00a0 Remember Paul said that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom. [1 Corinthians 15:50, \u201cNow this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.\u201d]\u00a0 We all have to be changed, \u201cin a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 15:52]\r\n\r\nWhy?\u00a0 Because\u00a0 \u201cFor this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.\u201d\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 15:53]\r\n\r\nIn 2 Corinthians 5 Paul talks about how we groan earnestly in our current tent, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation, which is from heaven.\u00a0 He says it again in Romans chapter 8, He says that \u201ceven we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly awaiting for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.\u201d \u00a0[Romans 8:23]\u00a0 The older I get, I just turned 49, I know that\u2019s shocking, you say man, he doesn\u2019t look a day over 29\u2026 well thank you, thank you for that.\u00a0 But I just turned 49 and the older I get the harder it gets to even do simple things, like bend over and tie my shoes.\u00a0 My four younger kids, and our kids were so spread out I feel bad, my younger 9 year old, I can\u2019t do any of the things that I used to do with my older ones, like throw her up to touch the ceiling and do all those fun things.\u00a0 And she comes to me and says daddy, can you throw me up to touch the ceiling, and\u2026 go get one of your brothers, you know, I\u2019m just too old for this anymore.\u00a0 I feel bad for her, she\u2019s getting the raw end of the deal.\u00a0 Now her older siblings would say she\u2019s spoiled so she\u2019s getting the good end of the deal.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know, we\u2019ll find out in heaven who was right.\r\n\r\nBut if you don\u2019t think your bodies are deteriorating then try this little experiment.\u00a0 I want you to go home and get your wedding picture and then I want you to pull out your driver\u2019s license and I want\u00a0 you to compare them; you\u2019ll notice right away how your bodies are deteriorating.\u00a0 So we\u2019ll experience that physical renewal and hallelujah for that.\r\n\r\nThen there will be also a corresponding resurrection body one minute after the rapture.\u00a0 At the same time that living believers are receiving our glorified bodies those believers who have gone before us, who \u201cabsent from the body but present with the Lord\u201d Paul says, will be resurrected to receive their glorified body because remember, in our text in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 it\u2019s \u201cthe dead in Christ\u201d who will arise first.\u00a0 Everyone who\u2019s died from the time of the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 to the present, up to the time of the rapture, as far as the church, and it doesn\u2019t matter whether they were burned up or buried or lost at sea, the very atoms of those physical bodies will be reconstituted, glorified and given their glorified body to go into heaven.\r\n\r\nWe have a chart in our chart book on when will our bodies be resurrected, I won\u2019t take the time to go through all of it, but it takes people from every different era of believers and unbelievers and it shows you biblically when they will receive their glorified or resurrected body in the case of unbelievers.\r\n\r\nNumber five, those who are caught up one minute after the rapture will experience that joyful reunion.\u00a0 Earlier in 1 Thessalonians 4 the whole context of this teaching was that these Thessalonians had some loved ones that were believers who had died and he says concerning \u201cthose who have fallen asleep,\u201d a euphemism for death,\u00a0 he says I don\u2019t want you to sorrow as others \u201cwho have no hope.\u201d\u00a0 When we lose a loved one who knows the Lord we sorrow but it\u2019s not like that sorrow of unbelief; we sorrow maybe over the separation or maybe those other loved ones that are left behind in the case of if a parent dies and you sorrow for the child, that kind of thing.\u00a0 But we know that we will see them again in that great reunion in the sky.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because Paul says God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.\r\n\r\nAnd what a joyous reunion that will be to see my grandfather again, see my grandmother.\u00a0 And not only our loved ones who have gone before us but with the ONE who took our place on the cross, the one who paid my debt, saved me from the penalty of sin.\u00a0 What an awesome thing it will be to see Jesus face to face as we meet Him in the clouds.\u00a0 And by the way, as much as we long to see Him and I hope you long to see Him, Paul says there\u2019s a special crown for those who long for His appearance, but as much as we long to see Him do you know He longs to see you as well?\u00a0 Go back to the Upper Room and his high priestly prayer in John 17, Jesus says I desire that they also who You gave Me may be with Me where I am.\u00a0 [John 17:24, \u201cFather, I desire that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.\u201d ASV]\u00a0 He wants us to be with Him; He can\u2019t wait either.\r\n\r\nAnd then there will be a personal reward, one of the last things Scripture records is Jesus, \u201cBehold, I am coming quickly and My reward is with Me\u00a0 to give to everyone according to His work.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 22:12]\u00a0 That can\u2019t be salvation because salvation is not by works\u2026 not by works!\u00a0 So He\u2019s talking there about reward; we know we are going to be rewarded some day when He comes back.\u00a0 That\u2019s why, when John tells us \u201cabide in Him,\u201d stay in close fellowship with Him, walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh, [Gal5:16] walk in fellowship with Him so you\u2019ll have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.\u00a0 Whatever we do we should do it heartily as unto the Lord, [Colossians 3:23] Paul says, knowing that from the Lord we will receive the reward, [Colossians 3:24] because \u201cwe must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.\u201d\u00a0 [2 Corinthians 5:10]\r\n\r\nAnd finally, a glorious rejoicing\u2026 a glorious rejoicing.\u00a0 Remember Paul says it\u2019s a blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, [looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ;\u201d] and he says \u201cComfort one another with these words.\u201d\u00a0 [1 Thessalonians 4:18]\r\n\r\nI like what my friend, Dave Regan says, we speak at different conferences together, I pick up a lot of good doctrine and good statements from these great speakers, like Dr. Woods, for example, but Dave Regan said you know, every time the rapture, or I pointed out that every time the rapture is taught there\u2019s always this message of comfort and exhortation at the end, and encouragement.\u00a0 But this is really a strong implicit proof for the pretrib rapture, isn\u2019t it, because what kind of a statement would it be to say something like this: now listen, church, you\u2019re going to have to go through the tribulation, there\u2019s going to be seals, trumpets, bowl judgments, there\u2019s going to be locusts and boils and there\u2019s going to be a third of the earth dying, a quarter of the earth dying, it\u2019s going to be utter devastation, the two witnesses are going to be killed, there\u2019s going to be earthquakes like never before seen on planet earth.\u00a0 It\u2019s going to be devastating and terrible and overflowing scourge, therefore \u201ccomfort one another with these words.\u201d\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t make any sense.\u00a0 The comfort of the rapture is that we are going to be rescued before the great and terrible day of the Lord.\r\n\r\nAll right, now I\u2019ve got to get through the ten things that will be true for those that are left behind.\u00a0 And I hope if you\u2019re here this morning and you don\u2019t know the Lord, or if you don\u2019t know if you don\u2019t know the Lord, there\u2019s never been a time in your life when you trusted in Jesus Christ and Him alone as the only one that can give you the gift of eternal life; He said, \u201cI am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but by Me.\u201d\u00a0 [John 14:6]\u00a0 Either He\u2019s telling the truth of He\u2019s lying; I choose to believe He\u2019s telling the truth, He\u2019s the Son of God.\u00a0 And the only way to heaven is through faith alone in Him.\u00a0 And there are ten things in Scripture, we\u2019ll go through quickly here, that will be true one minute after the rapture for those who are left behind.\r\n\r\nThe first thing that we\u2019ll notice on earth is a global confusion\u2026 a global confusion.\u00a0 The sudden disappearance of millions of people will certainly create a global sense of bewilderment.\u00a0 It will be one of those end of the world as we know it type scenarios for those that are left behind.\u00a0 They\u2019ll be thinking what in the world is going on?\u00a0 I tried to think of an illustration of what would come closes to that type of feeling that will not doubt be pervasive across the globe one minute after the rapture and millions of people have disappeared, and I\u2019m not even sure it\u2019s the best illustration but it\u2019s the only one I can think of that really might begin to approximate what it might be like in that day.\u00a0 And it\u2019s the illustration of 9-11, we all remember that, everybody can remember where it was.\r\n\r\nEverybody has their 9-11 story, I\u2019m sure you all got yours, but ours was a pretty harrowing story because my cousin live in Battery Park, he\u2019s an attorney in New York city and we\u2019ve been in their home, and so when all of this began to happen I\u2019m wondering, I\u2019ll never forget it, I was teaching at the College of Biblical Studies, got up, headed into class, turned on the TV and then stayed glued there the rest of the day as we all did, most of us, watching things unfold.\u00a0 And remember we didn\u2019t know what was going on, we didn\u2019t know how many planes there were, we didn\u2019t know what the next target was going to be.\u00a0 People in Houston, a major city with oil refineries, we thought maybe this is a target.\r\n\r\nAnd it was total and utter chaos and confusion but for us it was very personal because we wanted to reach them and see\u2026 I mean, you know, they live literally in Battery Park, we\u2019d been in their home, their high rise condo, you look out one window of their living room and you would see the twin towers, right there; and you look out the other window and you could see the Statue of Liberty in the harbor.\u00a0 And we didn\u2019t know, we couldn\u2019t reach them, all the phone lines were tied up and\u00a0 you couldn\u2019t get through and we didn\u2019t know, and it wasn\u2019t until late that evening that we were finally able to connect with them and hear their harrowing story.\u00a0 It was subsequently written up in a couple of magazines but these pictures I\u2019m going to show you are from Jeff, he took these pictures as he kind of tells his story.\r\n\r\nBut think about what it will be like one minute after the rapture when something similarly only exponentially worse happens in terms of the confusion.\u00a0 These are his pictures, there\u2019s the north tower and the south tower; there\u2019s another picture there.\u00a0 This is Jeff and Paula\u2019s building, right there, these are pictures.\u00a0 So as they tell the story they had just dropped the kids off at PS whatever the number was, one of the public schools right down the road , and was headed to his office, they walk everywhere down there, and he and Paula were walking together and they heard the first plane hit and he said the first comment I made to my wife was hmm, I wonder what movie they\u2019re filming today.\u00a0 That\u2019s what he thought, because that happens all the time down there, from his perspective as a resident in Lower Manhattan.\u00a0 But then of course when the second plane hit they knew something very wrong was happening.\u00a0 So they turned and went back to get their kids, they got their kids.\u00a0 No sooner had they gotten their kids out than the first tower exploded and you\u2019ve seen this on TV, and that debris was coming down the alley right behind them, they looked over their shoulder and people were running and screaming everywhere, he said we ducked behind a car and we knew we were going to die.\u00a0 We just huddled up with the kids, we thought we\u2019re going to die.\r\n\r\nWell, they didn\u2019t, they managed to escape to the edge, the railing there, if you\u2019ve been to the Statue of Liberty and the harbor there in Battery Park you kind of know where I\u2019m talking about, and this is from the other side after they\u2019d caught a ferry, this is their building, right there in the middle of the screen, the debris went over them and they all became covered with dust but as it passed they were able to get up and make their way to the harbor.\u00a0 They caught one of the tourist ferries that was turned into a makeshift rescue ferry on that day, but here\u2019s just some pictures of them; you can see the looks in their eyes.\u00a0 Here\u2019s some more pictures that we took.\u00a0 You can see the stuff over the concrete, there on the ground.\u00a0 This is on the ferry itself.\u00a0 This is looking back at that area with both towers having collapsed.\u00a0 And then they didn\u2019t get back to their building until December 1<sup>st<\/sup>, and even then they were only allowed to go back in for a few hours to collect a few things and they had to leave again, and this is a picture he took on December 1<sup>st<\/sup> from the top of his building of Ground Zero, utter and total confusion\u2026. One minute after the rapture!\r\n\r\nNumber two, there will be a false explanation\u2026 a false explanation. Soon on the heels of this they have to give some explanation, they\u2019re certainly not going to say hey, listen, the Bible is true, God just rescued millions of Christians from this present evil world.\u00a0 NO, they\u2019re going to come up with a deceptive explanation, remember the devil is a liar and the father of lies.\u00a0 There\u2019s no shortage of things that we could concede that they might use to explain this terrible disappearance, mysterious disappearance of millions of people.\u00a0 But there will be a false explanation no doubt.\r\n\r\nOne possible scenario, who knows if it will play out, but project Blue Beam is a project developed by NASA in coordination with the CIA, there\u2019s been a lot of misinformation and stuff out there on the internet about it but there\u2019s no doubt that it exists; we can see the declassified documents, but basically the project Blue Beam was created\u2026 it was created for the military, really, as a means of war where they could create holographic images in warfare to use as weapons to be able to say, for example, say they were at war with a Muslim nation, they could create a holographic image of Mohammed and have him say \u201clay down your weapons\u201d and things like that.\u00a0 So that was the idea behind it and perhaps they will do something similar with that to explain in some bizarre fashion, maybe aliens or something.\u00a0 Hollywood certainly, the propaganda out of Hollywood is setting people\u2019s minds for this type of scenario to happen.\r\n\r\nBut there\u2019s going to be some type of false explanation one minute after the rapture.\u00a0 And then an unprecedented deception\u2026 an unprecedented deception.\u00a0 Remember the devil is alive and the father of lies and Paul says the deception is getting worse and worse, people are more easily deceived today than ever before, and this false explanation is going to have to rely on people\u2019s willingness to buy the story to be deceived.\u00a0 Remember, John said that someday the antichrist is coming but even now many antichrists have come.\u00a0 And this deception will reach an all-time high after the rapture.\u00a0 It\u2019s getting worse and worse but if you read Jesus\u2019 Olivet Discourse, and by the way, we have a free eight part video series, we have about sixty to seventy videos on our website of different biblical teachings, but we have an eight part series, each one of them is 30-45 minutes, totally free on our website, it makes a great small group study or just watch them on your own, or our Youtube channel all about the Olivet Discourse, verse by verse through the Olivet Discourse.\u00a0 But when you read the Olivet Discourse the very first thing Jesus says in answer to the disciple\u2019s questions, remember we talked about this, what will be the signs of Your coming?\u00a0 The first thing He says is take heed that no one deceives you.\r\n\r\nSee, that future Tribulational generation that will be alive in the nation of Israel is going to be even more susceptible to deception than they were the first time around.\u00a0 Throughout the Olivet Discourse He constantly says don\u2019t be deceived, watch out, many false Christs are going to come and deceive many, many false prophets will deceive many.\u00a0 In fact, there\u2019s going to be such great signs and wonders that even the elect would be deceived if it were possible.\u00a0 And we are already seeing the runoff to this massive global deception today, in the present age, with various huge lies that are almost universally believed.\u00a0 And in our book, <em>The Great Last Days Deception<\/em> we have a chapter in there, chapter 8, listing the top ten lies that people believe today.\u00a0 And we have a DVD on that as well.\u00a0 But it\u2019s unbelievable how easy it is to deceive people.\u00a0 Hitler famously said the principle, which is quite true in itself, is that in the big light there\u2019s always a certain force of credibility.\u00a0 You see this again and again sort of paraphrased or misquoted as \u201cthe bigger the lie the more it will be believed.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s comes from this quote but this is actually what he said, but that\u2019s essentially true, \u201cthe bigger the lie the more it will be believed.\u201d\r\n\r\nI mean, just imagine the very simple fact that right now 7.5 billion people on the earth, the vast majority of them believe that you and you and I evolved over 65 million years from a wet rock when nothing exploded 65 million years ago and our ancestors are gorillas and monkeys.\u00a0\u00a0 People believe that.\u00a0 Just imagine if you were in\u2026 say the 1400\u2019s, and you were having coffee at Starbucks with one of your friends, and you said hey, you know, I just had a weird thought, do you think someday that everyone on earth will believe that we all evolved over 65 million years and that our ancestors are monkeys?\u00a0 The guy would have spit his coffee and said you\u2019re nuts, that\u2019s the greatest thing I\u2019ve ever heard, no one would ever believe that.\u00a0 And yet here it is.\r\n\r\nOf course we\u2019ve been aided and abetted by the compulsory government schooling program, which by the way was designed just a little over a hundred years ago, at least in our own country for the express of promoting Darwinian theory.\u00a0 That\u2019s the reason it started, if you don\u2019t believe that just read Charlotte Iserbyt\u2019s <em>The Deliberate Drumming Down of America<\/em>, she was Ronald Reagan\u2019s Under Secretary of Education in the Department of Education and was fired for blowing the whistle on the real agenda behind the compulsory government schooling system.\u00a0 Lenin put it this way: A lie told often enough becomes the truth.\u00a0 And then that great theologian, Mark Twain, put it this way:\u00a0 \u201cIt is easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled.\u201d\u00a0 And that\u2019s the age we\u2019re living in right now.\u00a0 It is much, much easier to deceive people than to convince them they\u2019ve been fooled.\u00a0\u00a0 And the antichrist, in that future tribulation period after the rapture, is going to use all kinds of powers and signs and lying wonders to deceive with unrighteous deception.\r\n\r\nAnd then there will be an intense lamentation.\u00a0 For many of those left behind there will be a moment of intense regret or panic and horror as they realize in that split second after the rapture that what they had previously heard from a Bible believing gospel preaching friend or preacher was true. Everything they had heard from their Christian friends or their pastors or a book they read or maybe on the radio or TV, everything they heard while channel surfing perhaps, they will realize one minute after the rapture that the gospel is true, the return of Christ is real and they\u2019ve been left behind.\u00a0 And there\u2019ll be this intense lamentation; it will be similar to the lamentation that we read about in Scripture that Israel will experience at the second coming if they haven\u2019t believed in the gospel.\u00a0 They will say Lord, Lord, let us in.\u00a0 Remember the parable of the ten virgins? Jesus talks about that in the Olivet Discourse?\u00a0 \u201cDepart from Me, I never knew you.\u201d\r\n\r\nThen we\u2019ll see the beginnings of a new dispensation, one minute after the rapture the transition will begin.\u00a0 To go back to our plan of the ages chart, remember we\u2019re living right here in the church age and the rapture puts an end to the church age; it closes the parenthesis as it were.\u00a0 And then the tribulation is a transition between the church and the kingdom age.\u00a0 And one minute after the rapture that dispensation begins to shift.\u00a0 Of course \u201cdispensation\u201d is a biblical term, Paul uses it in Ephesians twice, it\u2019s the word <em>oikonomia<\/em>, it means a stewardship order, plan or program.\u00a0 It\u2019s used seven times in the Greek New Testament; four times by Paul and three times by the Lord in His parable of the unjust steward in Luke 16.\u00a0 But we\u2019re going to see this new dispensation.\u00a0 Paul has already said that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in.\u00a0 [Romans 11:25, \u201cFor I would not, brothers, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.\u201d]\r\n\r\nAnd when it does we\u2019ll see the beginning of this shift from the church age into the kingdom age.\u00a0 One minute after the rapture the world begins this shift into a new paradigm, a new stewardship, a new economy on earth.\u00a0 And then we\u2019re going to see a withdrawn protection\u2026 a withdrawn protection one minute after the rapture.\u00a0 You know, right now the Holy Spirit is working in and through the church.\u00a0 However bad the church may be, and we\u2019ve certainly, in fulfillment of end times prophecy we\u2019re seeing a falling away in terms of spiritual falling away, not that the apostasy hasn\u2019t affected us too, I agree with Andy on that, or Andy agrees with me and Jesus I should say.\u00a0 But there\u2019s going to be a departure from the faith in the latter times, Paul says.\u00a0 1 Timothy 4:1, [\u201cBut the Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons,\u201d]\u00a0 But as bad as things are one minute after the rapture, think about it, for a short time not one believer will be present on the earth.\u00a0 In 2 Thessalonians 2 Paul says that the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.\u00a0 \u201cBut he who now restrains will do so until he\u2019s taken out of the way.\u201d\u00a0 \u201c\u2026taken out of the way.\u201d\r\n\r\nYou know, for roughly 2,000 years Satan has been trying to take over this planet and claim it as his own.\u00a0 And it\u2019s pretty easy for us to see in through the annals of history how much evil has been orchestrated.\u00a0 That\u2019s pretty self-evident; we can go back to ancient times and we can talk about pagan nations, we can talk about things like Nebuchadnezzar or even Ahab and we can talk about Herod in the first century.\u00a0 In more modern times we can talk about Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, on and on, there\u2019s no shortage of evil but when you stop and think about it what the pages of history do not reveal, what the pages of history DO NOT record are the number of times that God\u2019s people, the church, under the influence of God\u2019s Spirit, have preempted some dastardly deed or plan.\u00a0 I mean, maybe it was firm ethical word like \u201cChristian\u201d in a corporate meeting behind closed doors.\u00a0 Or perhaps it was a private counsel to a world dictator by a Christian man or woman. Or maybe it was a selfless sacrifice of godly men and women who stood up to evil and prevailed in unsung ways.\r\n\r\nBut without question, the Holy Spirit\u2019s work in and through the church has been a restraining, protective influence on the earth.\u00a0 And one minute after the rapture that protection will be gone; evil will be virtually unchecked.\u00a0 And then there will be an evil revelation as the man of sin is unveiled, going back to 2 Thessalonians 2, \u201cLet no one deceive you by any means,\u201d he says \u201cthat day won\u2019t come for us until the falling away\u201d literally \u201cthe departure comes first and the man of sin is revealed.\u201d\u00a0 As\u00a0 you know, Satan is not omniscient so he can\u2019t see everything, he doesn\u2019t know everything, so he has to have his man of the hour ready at a moment\u2019s notice so that when the rapture happens he can indwell that person and begin to put in place his plan.\r\n\r\nWe won\u2019t know the identity of the antichrist until he confirms the covenant in Daniel chapter 9 but one thing for\u00a0 sure is he\u2019s ready, he\u2019s on standby.\u00a0 People always ask me, do you think the antichrist is alive today.\u00a0 I say yes, if the rapture were to happen today the antichrist is alive today.\u00a0 Now I don\u2019t know when the rapture is going to happen but\u2026 actually I do, it\u2019s amazing, just last night in a bowl of spaghetti it was revealed to me so\u2026 talk to me at the table and for a special fee we will reveal that to you.\u00a0 NO!\u00a0 Nobody knows when the rapture is going to happen and that includes Satan so he has to be ready at a moment\u2019s notice and one minute after the rapture we will begin to see the beginnings of lead-up to that evil revelation.\r\n\r\nBut on a positive note, really the only positive we can say in this segment is there will be also a worldwide conversion\u2026 a worldwide conversion.\u00a0 You see, since there will be no believers on earth after the rapture God has to supernaturally set aside a team of missionaries and He\u2019s marked 144,000 Jewish missionaries.\u00a0 Remember, the tribulation is all about Israel, the church has exited stage left and Israel becomes center stage again in God\u2019s plan of the ages.\u00a0 So 12,000 from each of twelve tribes of Israel, we read about this in Revelation 4, 144,000 witnesses and we don\u2019t know how they\u2019re going to get saved, the Bible is silent on that but somehow they get saved.\u00a0 We know they get saved the same way everybody gets saved, by grace through faith, from Adam forward anybody who wants to go to heaven has to trust in Christ and Him alone for salvation.\u00a0 And so they\u2019re saved somehow, I don\u2019t know if God\u2019s going to drop a plane load of tracts out over them and they\u2019re going to say what\u2019s this and they\u2019re going to get saved, or He\u2019s going to write on the wall or I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 But somehow they believe the gospel and then they\u2019re sealed and protected from death during the tribulation period and they become the initial missionary force.\u00a0 And they\u2019re going to be quite effective.\r\n\r\nAnd we also know that as people begin to respond to the message then they\u2019re going to begin sharing Christ so it\u2019s kind of like that old shampoo commercial, they sold two people and they sold two people and so on and so on.\u00a0 So by the end of the tribulation the Bible tells us there\u2019s a great multitude, which no one can number, of every nation, tribe, tongue and language that gets saved.\u00a0 And who are they?\u00a0 These are those that have come out of the great tribulation.\u00a0 Jesus promised in the Olivet Discourse that the gospel would be preached to the uttermost parts of the earth and then the end will come. Again it\u2019s talking about the tribulation and the second coming.\r\n\r\nSometimes people say to me well, I know the rapture can\u2019t happen today because there\u2019s still unreached people groups and Jesus promised everybody would hear the gospel before he comes back.\u00a0 Yes He did, but He never promised that would be true before the rapture.\u00a0 We hope it\u2019s true and if we\u2019re doing our job it\u2019ll be true, we\u2019re supposed to go into all the world and preach the gospel; we\u2019re supposed to fulfill the great commission, but we have no promise in Scripture that that will be true before the rapture because the rapture is imminent; it\u2019s the next great prophetic event to which the world looks forward.\u00a0 Nothing has to happen before the rapture can happen, it can happen at any moment.\u00a0 That\u2019s what imminency means.\u00a0 It could have happened yesterday, it could have happened a hundred years ago, it could have happened five hundred years ago, it might happen today, it might happen tomorrow, it might not happen for fifty years.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know!\u00a0 But it could happen at any moment.\r\n\r\nBut we do have a promise in Scripture that everyone on planet earth will have heard the gospel by the time Christ comes back.\u00a0 And unfortunately many will reject the gospel and they will be part of the goats that when Christ comes back He separates everybody on earth into one or two categories, the sheep, to whom He will says, \u201cCome ye, blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 25:34, \u201cThen shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:\u201d]\u00a0 Those are those in their physical bodies who survived the tribulation and they\u2019re the ones that populate the kingdom.\r\n\r\nAnd to the goats He will say \u201cDepart from me into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.\u201d\u00a0 [\u201cThen He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;\u201d\u00a0 Matthew 25:41]\u00a0 I can\u2019t think of anything worse someone could ever hear.\u00a0 But one minute after the rapture there will be worldwide conversion.\r\n\r\nAnd then there\u2019s going to be a geopolitical reorganization, a geopolitical [can't understand word].\u00a0 From the chaos and confusion created by the rapture will come a new world order, a one-world government, ultimately headed by Satan himself in the form of the antichrist.\u00a0 And by the way, there\u2019s nothing that precludes us from already being in a one world government, officially, before the rapture happens.\u00a0 The Bible never says the one world government starts with the antichrist, it just says the antichrist takes the helm of the one world government.\u00a0 And a lot of people think we\u2019re De facto in a one world government \u00a0already with all of the globalist principles and policies that are in place.\u00a0 But there\u2019ll be a geopolitical reorganization.\u00a0 Many things will begin to take shape.\r\n\r\nIn our DVD <em>Signs of the Times<\/em>, ten unmistakable signs that we may be in the last of the last days I talk more about the stage setting, Gog and Magog and some of the other things, a ten nation confederacy and so on and so forth.\u00a0 But it\u2019s kind of like what John Lenin dreamt up.\u00a0 Well, he\u2019s going to get his wish someday for a seven year period, when he said \u201cImagine there\u2019s no countries, it isn\u2019t hard to do \u2026 and no religion too, imagine all the people living life in peace\u2026 imagine all the people sharing all the world and the world will live as one.\u201d\r\n\r\nAnd we get into this whole subject in our series Globalism, Luciferianism and A New World Order, if you\u2019re interested.\u00a0 But there is going to be a geopolitical reorganization.\u00a0 Biblically we\u2019re headed toward a one world government one way or the other.\u00a0 Satan\u2019s going to rule it for seven years for the antichrist but ultimately the King of Kings is going to come back, we\u2019re going to come back with Him and He\u2019s going to rule it for eternity.\u00a0 Eternity is a long time; have you ever thought about that?\u00a0 Have you ever tried to calculate how long eternity is?\u00a0 I think that\u2019s part of the new common core, to figure out\u2026 by the way, we\u2019re running a special today only, I thought you might be interested in this, for every purchase at the [can't understand word]\u00a0 research table we\u2019re offering an extra thousand years in heaven.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 And not only that, we\u2019ll even make it better, we\u2019ll let you pick whether you want that to be on the front end or the back end of eternity.\u00a0 Your choice.\r\n\r\nAnd then I\u2019ll close with this, a fearful expectation one minute after the rapture, because you see, one minute after the rapture the countdown begins to the culmination of the wrath of God, one minute after the rapture.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the great day of the Lord\u2019s wrath again, and we\u2019ve already said that we don\u2019t\u2026 as dispensationalist we certainly don\u2019t teach, nor does the Bible teach, that life\u2019s going to be a bed of roses for us and then God\u2019s going to rescue us before it gets (quote) \u201ctoo bad.\u201d\u00a0 But it does say He\u2019s going to rescue us before the great day of the Lord\u2019s wrath.\u00a0 And you know, when the wrath of God is poured out during that time, you know, as bad as things have been now and as bad as things may get and as bad as things are right now in certain parts of the world for God\u2019s people, when the wrath of God is poured out, to borrow the words of that 1970\u2019s rock group, Bachman Turner Overdrive, from their 1974 number one billboard hit,\u00a0 \u201cyou ain\u2019t seen nnnnothin\u2019 yet\u201d because \u201cIt is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God.\u201d\u00a0 [Hebrews 10:31]\r\n\r\nThe Bible tells us that when He comes back He\u2019s not going to be coming as a Lamb to take the sins of the world; He\u2019s going to be coming with a sword with which He will strike the nations and He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron and He Himself will tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. \u00a0[Revelation 19:15, \u201cAnd out of his mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty.\u201d]\r\n\r\nAnd Paul talks about, in Romans chapter 2, speaking unbelievers, that they\u2019re treasuring up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath, talking about this end times wrath.\u00a0 And whenever I read this verse I think of the famous Jonathan Edwards sermon.\u00a0 On July 8:1741 the Great Awakening came to the little New England town of Enfield and the pastor of a congregational church in North Hampton, Massachusetts accepted an invitation to travel 30 miles south along the Connecticut River to be the guest speaker at the Congregational church in Enfield.\u00a0 And [can't understand word] did the traveling preacher know as he arrived in Enfield and [can't understand word] the pulpit to addressed the assembled townspeople that the sermon he was about to deliver would become one of the most famous sermons in the history of Christianity.\u00a0 The preacher, as I said, was Jonathan Edwards, he later became the third President of Princeton University.\u00a0 His subject was the imminent danger of remaining unconverted, of rejecting the gospel, of not believing the good news that Christ died for your sins and rose from the dead.\u00a0 And the sermon was about how they would face God\u2019s furious wrath someday if they don\u2019t receive the free gift.\r\n\r\nSee, if someone ends up in hell they have no one to blame but themselves because in the first place God warned us, before sin ever even entered the world He said look, I love you so much I want you to watch out, there\u2019s one tree that\u2019s kind of bad for\u00a0 you, if you eat it you\u2019ll die, so stay away from it.\u00a0 And what did we do? We marched right over and took a great big bite.\u00a0 And God tried to warn us, right, because He loves us.\u00a0 And then, even though because God is just, and I\u2019m so glad, by the way, that in that moment that God didn\u2019t say to Adam and Eve, oh, you took a bite, oh well, that\u2019s all right, never mind, don\u2019t worry about it, it\u2019s not big deal, everybody makes\u00a0 mistakes, just forget what I said.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad because if He had said the He would have proved Himself to be a fickle, unfaithful, untrustworthy God and\u00a0 you could never believe another word He said.\u00a0 But he\u2019s a just and holy and righteous God and so when we sinned death entered the world.\u00a0 And it was because He loved so much that He then set in motion the plan to rescue us from our own predicament.\u00a0 And that is by sending His Son, His eternal Son, to earth to die in your place and my place on the cross, to pay a penalty He didn\u2019t owe because we owed a penalty we couldn\u2019t pay.\r\n\r\nSee, as much as I might love your or love my wife or love my children I could never pay your penalty for sin.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because my shoulders are already full of my own sins; there\u2019s no room there.\u00a0 So it had to be a perfect man, the God-man, Jesus Christ, who could pay the sins, not only for you and me but for the whole world.\u00a0 And He rose again defeating death, hell and the grave, and then He offers freely to all the gift of eternal life.\u00a0 God says you messed up, you got yourself in this predicament, but I\u2019m here to rescue you.\r\n\r\nBut He\u2019s not going to force it on you because forced love is no love at all. God doesn\u2019t force Himself on anyone. He says, \u201cWhosoever will may come.\u201d\u00a0 Come freely and drink of the water of life.\u00a0 So if anybody faces this wrath that Johnathan Edwards talks about someday, God\u2019s done everything He possibly can to keep them.\r\n\r\nLet me read just a short segment and then we\u2019ll close.\u00a0 Jonathan Edwards says, \u201cThe wrath of God is like great waters that are damned for the present; they increase more and more and rise higher and higher until an outlet is given and the longer the stream is stopped the more rapid and mighty its course when once it is let loose.\u00a0 It is true that judgment against your evil works has not been executed hitherto.\u201d\u00a0 Did you ever worry, you know, think about that as believers, about how so much evil goes unchecked in this world?\u00a0 How unfair an inequitable this world is?\u00a0 That\u2019s what the Tribulation is all about.\r\n\r\nIt is true that judgment against your evil works has not been executed hitherto.\u00a0 The floods of God\u2019s vengeance has been withheld but your guilt in the meantime is constantly increasing and\u00a0 you\u2019re every day treasuring up more wrath.\u00a0 The waters are continually rising and waxing more mighty and there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God that holds the waters back that are unwilling to be stopped and press hard to go forward.\u00a0 If God should only withdraw His hand from the flood gate it would immediately fly open and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God would rush forth with inconceivable fury and would come upon you with omnipotent power.\u00a0 And if your strength were ten thousand times greater than it is, yeah, ten thousand times greater than the sturdiest devil in hell it would be nothing to withstand or endure it.\u00a0 Now listen, the bow of God\u2019s wrath is bent and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow.\u00a0 One minute after the rapture a fearful expectation will set in for those who don\u2019t know the Lord.\r\n\r\nSo we looked at one minute after the rapture from the perspective of those who are caught up and those who are left behind.\u00a0 Those who are caught up will experience this long awaited return that we\u2019ve been waiting two thousand years so far to see, a timely rescue, a physical renewal and corresponding resurrection; a joyful reunion not only with our loved ones but with the Lord Himself, a personal reward and a glorious rejoicing.\r\n\r\nAnd then those who are left behind will see global confusion and a false explanation and unprecedented reception, the intense lamentation, the beginnings of a new dispensation, the protection will be withdrawn.\u00a0 There will be an evil unveiling of the antichrist; a worldwide conversion will take place in the midst of a geopolitical reorganization and a fearful expectation.\r\n\r\nAnd the question for us is, what will your perspective be.\r\n\r\nI\u2019m going to pray and then we\u2019re going to sing a closing song.\u00a0 If you\u2019re here today and you don\u2019t know the Lord or you\u2019ve heard this, maybe it\u2019s the first time you\u2019ve heard any of this and you\u2019re just not certain about where you\u2019ll spend eternity please don\u2019t leave here today without placing\u00a0 your faith in Jesus Christ, the One who died and rose again for your sins.\u00a0 That\u2019s the only way you can be saved.\u00a0 Jesus said, \u201cVerily, verily, I say unto you, whoever believes in Me has\u201d present tense, \u201ceverlasting life.\u201d\u00a0 And if you\u2019d like more information I\u2019m sure you can talk to one of the elders and the pastor here, I\u2019d love to talk with you as well.\u00a0 Let\u2019s pray together.\r\n\r\nFather, thank\u00a0 You so much for Your Word and for this reminder about the great truth of the rapture that\u2019s so neglected today and yet so meaningful and so important in our lives.\u00a0 It gives us hope, it gives us meaning, it allows us to get out of bed because we know if in this life only we have hope we of all men be most pitiful but we look up and are watchful for Your return, looking for that blessed hope.\u00a0 Father, I do pray if there\u2019s one here within the sound of my voice or listening on the internet that does not know you that today, in simple faith, they would trust in You and You alone as the only one who can give them the gift of eternal life.\u00a0 And it\u2019s in Your precious Son\u2019s name we pray.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 4.9.10 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-image-preview:large\" \/>\n\t<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\/\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"generator\" content=\"All in One SEO (AIOSEO) 4.9.10\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sugar Land Bible Church - Bringing the Bible to Life\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"One Minute After the Rapture - Sugar Land Bible Church\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\/\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.slbc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/22075101\/SLBC-Logo-Square_10pct.jpg\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:image:secure_url\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.slbc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/22075101\/SLBC-Logo-Square_10pct.jpg\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-30T05:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-02T02:06:30+00:00\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/sugarlandbiblechurch\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"One Minute After the Rapture - Sugar Land Bible Church\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.slbc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/22075101\/SLBC-Logo-Square_10pct.jpg\" \/>\n\t\t<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"aioseo-schema\">\n\t\t\t{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/sermon\\\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\\\/#breadcrumblist\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/#listItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/\",\"nextItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/sermon\\\/#listItem\",\"name\":\"Sermons\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/sermon\\\/#listItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sermons\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/sermon\\\/\",\"nextItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/book\\\/none\\\/#listItem\",\"name\":\"None\"},\"previousItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/#listItem\",\"name\":\"Home\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/book\\\/none\\\/#listItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"None\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/book\\\/none\\\/\",\"nextItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/sermon\\\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\\\/#listItem\",\"name\":\"One Minute After the Rapture\"},\"previousItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/sermon\\\/#listItem\",\"name\":\"Sermons\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/sermon\\\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\\\/#listItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"One Minute After the Rapture\",\"previousItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/book\\\/none\\\/#listItem\",\"name\":\"None\"}}]},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Sugar Land Bible Church\",\"description\":\"Bringing the Bible to Life\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/\",\"email\":\"office@slbc.org\",\"telephone\":\"+12814917773\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cdn.slbc.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/14085134\\\/SLBC-Logo-long-Tagged.png\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/sermon\\\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\\\/#organizationLogo\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/sermon\\\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\\\/#organizationLogo\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/facebook.com\\\/sugarlandbiblechurch\",\"https:\\\/\\\/youtube.com\\\/sugarlandbiblechurch\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/company\\\/sugar-land-bible-church\\\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/sermon\\\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\\\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/sermon\\\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\\\/\",\"name\":\"One Minute After the Rapture - Sugar Land Bible Church\",\"inLanguage\":\"es-ES\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/#website\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/sermon\\\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\\\/#breadcrumblist\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-30T00:00:00-05:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-01T20:06:30-06:00\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/\",\"name\":\"Sugar Land Bible Church | slbc.org\",\"alternateName\":\"SLBC\",\"description\":\"Bringing the Bible to Life\",\"inLanguage\":\"es-ES\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/slbc.org\\\/es\\\/#organization\"}}]}\n\t\t<\/script>\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO -->\n\n","aioseo_head_json":{"title":"One Minute After the Rapture - Sugar Land Bible Church","description":"","canonical_url":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\/","robots":"max-image-preview:large","keywords":"","webmasterTools":{"miscellaneous":""},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\/#breadcrumblist","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/#listItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/","nextItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/#listItem","name":"Sermons"}},{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/#listItem","position":2,"name":"Sermons","item":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/","nextItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/book\/none\/#listItem","name":"None"},"previousItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/#listItem","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/book\/none\/#listItem","position":3,"name":"None","item":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/book\/none\/","nextItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\/#listItem","name":"One Minute After the Rapture"},"previousItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/#listItem","name":"Sermons"}},{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\/#listItem","position":4,"name":"One Minute After the Rapture","previousItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/book\/none\/#listItem","name":"None"}}]},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/#organization","name":"Sugar Land Bible Church","description":"Bringing the Bible to Life","url":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/","email":"office@slbc.org","telephone":"+12814917773","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/cdn.slbc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/14085134\/SLBC-Logo-long-Tagged.png","@id":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\/#organizationLogo"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\/#organizationLogo"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/facebook.com\/sugarlandbiblechurch","https:\/\/youtube.com\/sugarlandbiblechurch","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/sugar-land-bible-church\/"]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\/","name":"One Minute After the Rapture - Sugar Land Bible Church","inLanguage":"es-ES","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/#website"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\/#breadcrumblist"},"datePublished":"2017-04-30T00:00:00-05:00","dateModified":"2022-02-01T20:06:30-06:00"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/#website","url":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/","name":"Sugar Land Bible Church | slbc.org","alternateName":"SLBC","description":"Bringing the Bible to Life","inLanguage":"es-ES","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/#organization"}}]},"og:locale":"es_ES","og:site_name":"Sugar Land Bible Church - Bringing the Bible to Life","og:type":"article","og:title":"One Minute After the Rapture - Sugar Land Bible Church","og:url":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\/","og:image":"https:\/\/cdn.slbc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/22075101\/SLBC-Logo-Square_10pct.jpg","og:image:secure_url":"https:\/\/cdn.slbc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/22075101\/SLBC-Logo-Square_10pct.jpg","article:published_time":"2017-04-30T05:00:00+00:00","article:modified_time":"2022-02-02T02:06:30+00:00","article:publisher":"https:\/\/facebook.com\/sugarlandbiblechurch","twitter:card":"summary_large_image","twitter:title":"One Minute After the Rapture - Sugar Land Bible Church","twitter:image":"https:\/\/cdn.slbc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/22075101\/SLBC-Logo-Square_10pct.jpg"},"aioseo_meta_data":{"post_id":"18848","title":null,"description":null,"keywords":null,"keyphrases":null,"primary_term":null,"canonical_url":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"og_object_type":"default","og_image_type":"default","og_image_url":null,"og_image_width":null,"og_image_height":null,"og_image_custom_url":null,"og_image_custom_fields":null,"og_video":null,"og_custom_url":null,"og_article_section":null,"og_article_tags":null,"twitter_use_og":false,"twitter_card":"default","twitter_image_type":"default","twitter_image_url":null,"twitter_image_custom_url":null,"twitter_image_custom_fields":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"schema":{"blockGraphs":[],"customGraphs":[],"default":{"data":{"Article":[],"Course":[],"Dataset":[],"FAQPage":[],"Movie":[],"Person":[],"Product":[],"ProductReview":[],"Car":[],"Recipe":[],"Service":[],"SoftwareApplication":[],"WebPage":[]},"graphName":"","isEnabled":true},"graphs":[]},"schema_type":"default","schema_type_options":null,"pillar_content":false,"robots_default":true,"robots_noindex":false,"robots_noarchive":false,"robots_nosnippet":false,"robots_nofollow":false,"robots_noimageindex":false,"robots_noodp":false,"robots_notranslate":false,"robots_max_snippet":null,"robots_max_videopreview":null,"robots_max_imagepreview":"large","priority":null,"frequency":null,"local_seo":null,"breadcrumb_settings":null,"limit_modified_date":false,"ai":null,"created":"2023-06-20 00:55:37","updated":"2025-06-27 09:01:33","seo_analyzer_scan_date":null},"aioseo_breadcrumb":"<div class=\"aioseo-breadcrumbs\"><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/\" title=\"Home\">Home<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb-separator\">&raquo;<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/\" title=\"Sermons\">Sermons<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb-separator\">&raquo;<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/book\/none\/\" title=\"None\">None<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb-separator\">&raquo;<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\tOne Minute After the Rapture\n\t\t<\/span><\/div>","aioseo_breadcrumb_json":[{"label":"Home","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/"},{"label":"Sermons","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/"},{"label":"None","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/book\/none\/"},{"label":"One Minute After the Rapture","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/one-minute-after-the-rapture\/"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/18848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"acf:term":[{"embeddable":true,"taxonomy":"book","href":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book\/146"},{"embeddable":true,"taxonomy":"speaker","href":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker\/478"},{"embeddable":true,"taxonomy":"sermon_service_type","href":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon_service_type\/472"},{"embeddable":true,"taxonomy":"series_event","href":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series_event\/518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"book","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book?post=18848"},{"taxonomy":"series_event","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series_event?post=18848"},{"taxonomy":"sermon_service_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon_service_type?post=18848"},{"taxonomy":"speaker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker?post=18848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}