Editor's Introduction

"For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ," (1 Thessalonians 5:9)

A new theory called the Pre-Wrath Rapture has surfaced in the last decade. Marvin Rosenthal and his adherents have asserted that the future wrath of God in the book of Revelation is not poured out until the seventh seal and that the first 6 seals are merely the wrath of man. So, if the Lord does not tarry, present day believers will experience the first 6 seals of the Tribulation. But are the wrath of God and the wrath of Man 2 separate and autonomous entities? To determine the validity of this theory, it is essential to understand how God sovereignly exercises his wrath and the nature of man's wrath in light of the Word. A fantastic Biblical word and concept study follows.

This substantial article (about 14 pages) is the transcript of a home church Bible study taught by John Baron. He is a dear personal friend and the most humble and gifted Bible teacher I have had the privilege to know. To that John might say, "what do I have that hasn't been given to me by God." The meeting transcript is as follows (except for subtitles).

The Right Approach

That God can and may sovereignly overrule and bless us when we operate on a wrong basis or even in those times when we work upon the wrong commission is true. It should not be taken as a sanction of that approach. Nor does it even begin to suggest what might have been had we followed the divine directives faithfully in the first place. Let's not let God's "in spite of" be confused with his "because of." In other words, if we do what we are told to do by our apostolic authority, we will surely do better than if we borrow piecemeal from here and from there. Then God has to intercede and intervene and somehow bring a testimony out of the mess we're making by grabbing things from all over the Bible. It would be better if we'd deal with the homogenized program that we are actually in.

That addresses something of what we are going to be talking about tonight: the confusion of the timing of the Rapture with respect to whether it is Prewrath, Pretrib, Midtrib, Posttrib, Postmillennial or Amillennial. Where are we going to put this? Or is there a Rapture at all? We get all kinds of different points of view. Of course, the reason why we get those is, primarily, because people have not seen the distinctive ministry of Paul. To the degree that they do not acknowledge and hold to the distinctive ministry that Paul was given and his distinctive revelation and when I say distinctive I mean distinct from the twelve, and certainly distinct from the Law of Moses in the Old Testament. But to the degree that we see that he has a distinctive ministry and hold to that, then we can avoid a lot of the confusion that comes up with this issue of where the wrath will be poured out and what part will we, as believers in this present period of time, and what relationship will we have to that outpouring of wrath.

Defining Wrath

Let's take a look at, first of all, the Greek words for wrath. There are two main words that are used quite often. If you have a Septuagint, you can look these up, in the Greek version of the Old Testament and find that these same two Greek words are used over and over again. The two Greek words that we are going to be looking at are the words for "wrath" (orge) and "fierce wrath" or "fury" (thumos). There are other words for wrath and fury, but the two that appear most often are these two. Let's look at a couple of places in which those two words occur together. Look at Ezekiel 14:19. He talks about pouring out His fury and the word there in the Septuagint is thumos. I'm not going to deal with this 14th chapter just yet but I wanted to jump in here and show you some of places where these words come up. And in Ezekiel 5:13, 15, 17, God talks about His anger and His wrath being accomplished and these words are "orge" and "thumos." Then we have Isaiah 13, this is the one we want to look at extensively.

The Day of the Lord

In this 13th chapter of Isaiah, I wanted to look at it in particular because of the reference in verse 6 to the "Day of the Lord." Which, by the way, is the terminology that does not necessarily always apply to the Day of the Lord at the time of the end. The Day of the Lord is a terminology that has been used in the Old Testament sometimes to refer to any day when the Lord does an exceptional work of judgement upon His people. It has, as we have seen so often in Old Testament prophecy, a near fulfillment which can be a partial fulfillment and it has a far fulfillment which is often the ultimate and final fulfillment. So we need to be clear on the Day of the Lord. It isn't always talking about the time of the end. It may be, it may not be, the context will help you to see whether it is. The Day of the Lord is a day (time period) of the outpouring of God's wrath, or His fury, or His Indignation or to bring tribulation upon His people as a disciplinary action and it may not necessarily imply the time of the very end. It can be any period of time in which He does that and it will have it's ultimate fulfillment in the Time of the End in a lot of these references.

This 13th chapter of Isaiah refers to the burden of Babylon. The word "burden" in Old Testament prophecy often means a heavy weight, a word which is like a heavy weight which is dropped upon a nation, or a person, or a city and heavy because of the desolation or destruction that is going to be brought upon that place or that person. And God does not want that destruction to come upon them, He is not eager for that to come upon them and its usually given by the prophet as a warning in order to try to turn the people, or the city, or the nation from their evil ways so that He might show mercy to them. But if they refuse that mercy, then, of course, there is nothing left but a measured pouring out of that response. So in verse 6 we see the term come up,

"6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. 7 Therefore (for this reason) shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt: 8 And they shall be afraid: pangs (birth pangs) and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. 9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath (thumos) and fierce anger (orge), [If you noticed here the words are in reverse order, here the translators have put wrath as the first word and fierce anger as the second word, actually if you take the root meaning of the words, orge is bad and thumos is worse, the translators would have done well to put thumos with anger rather than wrath in keeping with the two words in that order] to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it." (Isaiah 13)

What we see in here is a lot of things in this section. I want to look at them first before we look at some other places. Because this will help you to see something. One of the things that is mentioned here is the idea of birth pangs as a woman with child that is a common Old Testament terminology that is used in connection with the Day of the Lord or a time of Tribulation upon Israel. If you would turn to Jeremiah 30, you would see a very similar statement in respect to the time of Jacob's Trouble. Just keep your finger here (Isaiah 13) and we'll jump there for a second. Verse 3 of Jeremiah 30 starts out this way:

"3 For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again (bring back from) the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. 4 And these are the words that the LORD spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah. 5 For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. 6 Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? 7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it." (Jeremiah 30)

I want you to look at what it says and I want you to look at what it does not say. I'm going to read it two times wrong and then I'm going to read it right again. Abraham's trouble, I didn't get it right so we'll try again, Isaac's trouble, say it again. OK! it's "Jacob's trouble." Why pick Jacob out of the fathers like that, why set on him that way. Does God throw names around for no reason? Or has He particularly chosen Jacob for a reason? Keep that in mind as we are looking at this kind of thing. Because there is only one of the three that made a rash vow. And only one of the three really that put himself under a conditional covenant. And only one of the three that caused Israel to come under the law. And that was Jacob in Genesis 28. He put God on an if-then basis. And promised that if God would do such-and-such and so-and-so that he would do such-and-such and so-and-so, and he began a conditional relationship with God. God changed his name to Israel and the children of, not Abraham, not Isaac, but the children of Israel were later given the Law on that basis. I think you can make a very strong case for that! And as a result, their performance under that conditional covenant has always been less than admirable, hasn't it? Because we don't do well under a conditional covenant. Why? Because we don't keep vows very well. Our sin nature militates against it. But Israel, both Jacob and Israel the nation, had to learn that! And when they made this vow that they would do what God had said, that they would keep the Law perfectly, that they would perform all that he had said, that they would observe and do, those are the two key words of the Law, if you want to put it in a nutshell, observe and do. When they promised to observe and do, and put themselves on a conditional basis with Him, He promised them blessings if they would obey, but He also promised them curses if they disobeyed. There was implicit in that covenant room for an outpouring of wrath, indignation, ire - whatever other adjectives you want to multiply - if they don't keep their end of the bargain. Where as under a grace covenant, you don't come into that kind of a situation, because God is the only covenantor, He is always able to perform what He promises. It's only when you get under a conditional basis that you have a problem. That's a very important point here.

Now back to our situation in Isaiah 13:9,"Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate:" That's another important word here in addition to the idea of a woman travailing with child, this is the idea that this is a period of desolation and the next clause, "and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it" (a time of destruction)." He is giving a clear indication as to why this will all come about here. He says also:

"10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. 11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. 12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. 13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger." (Isaiah 13:10-13)

God's Cup of Wrath

Once again, in the Septuagint, both of those places, verses 9 and verse 13, in both of those places the words are thumos and orge. Why make a big deal out of that? Isaiah 51:17 speaks of a situation that Jerusalem needs to be aware of, and they are not aware of it. They are basically asleep. "Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD..." It is like someone shaking somebody who has fallen down and is in a drunken stupor, who's unconscious and the prophet is coming and shaking this individual, which in this case is the city of Jerusalem, which is the capitol of Israel, and saying "Wake up, wake up, Stand up on your feet. Why are you laying in this position? Because you have" . . .

"...drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out. [Licked them out, went right down to the bottom and drank the whole thing] 18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up. 19 These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, [Desolation and destruction! There are some other things that have come upon Jerusalem] and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee? 20 Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God. 21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: 22 Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:" (Isaiah 51)

Now I want to look at this carefully, because this cup is an important cup. Did you notice the order of it? Who drank of it first? Jerusalem drank of it first, because God will judge His people. It's an Old Testament promise, that goes clear back to Deuteronomy 32 , he basically gave them the Song of Moses and pre-told them their history. [Comment: Isaiah 13, even though it's the world's problem, the remnant of Israel is God's primary focus.] God's focus is always going to be His people. I want to give you the pillars, if you will, that we're going to build the case on. The fact of the wrath we know. The fact of the wrath, we've already proven, is an Old Testament concept. It's not something that comes up for the first time in the Book of Revelation. I don't thing that anybody thinks that it is. I don't think that anyone is making a case for that. I just want to go back and show you some of the main thoughts here that this case, if you're going to try to determine what the Wrath is, who does it apply to, and when is it poured out? You need to have these pillars in place. So what you saw here was that the Lord through the prophet Isaiah is speaking of Israel as having drunk from the cup of His Fury, the cup of His Indignation, the cup of His Wrath and now she, having drunk, is being awaken from that drunken stupor and is being told that cup is being handed from her, she will not drink of it again, and is being handed to the nations.

"23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over. 1 Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments,..." (Isaiah 51-52)

So now you can see that Jerusalem is waking but the nations are about to receive retribution. Now why would they receive retribution? Anybody, off the top of their head, whose read the Old Testament even once, could probably give me a good reason. Why would the nations receive the rebuke of God? [Response: Cause they've aided the judgement of Israel.] Bingo! They have been used as the mechanism to punishment of His people and quite often they have gone beyond what God would have intended, like in using the nations as a switch to spank His people with. Quite often we are told by the prophets that they have not only done what God wanted but they have thrust it even further. I want to look at one more place about the cup. Here, He is talking about the wicked lifting up the horn,

"4 I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn: 5 Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck. 6 For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. 7 But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another. 8 For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them." (Psalm 75)

Picture a cup full of the Wrath of God. He pours out of it. Has He been pouring out historically, from that cup? All through history, on Israel from time to time? Let's keep a sequence going here! Let's take the book of Judges, for instance. They've just been in the land briefly. Let's read what it says about them in Chapter 2:

"1 And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. 2 And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? 3 Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you. 4 And it came to pass, when the angel of the LORD spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept.[At this point they basically apologize to the Lord, they repent and change their mind. Verse 7 says:] 7 And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that he did for Israel. 8 And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old. 10 And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. 11 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim: 12 And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger. 13 And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtoreth. 14 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. (Judges 2)

Sovereign Delegation of Authority

How does God discipline his people? What is God doing here? God, the hand, is using a foreign nation, the glove, to deal with His people. We're just getting started here. I'm going to show you some powerful examples of this that are so specific, so that this is not some extrapolation we are making here. This is a principle which permeates the Old Testament. The anger of the Lord, being hot against them, is poured out upon Israel by God causing the surrounding nations to come against them until they repent. Now watch how this works.

"14 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. 15 Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil,..." (Judges 2)

There's a verse in Amos 3:6,"Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?" In other words, is there any kind of natural disaster or a war or a famine or a pestilence and God somehow was on vacation that when he comes up, "Oh man, look what's happened! I didn't know that was going to go down!" Has that ever happened? Is there anything that transpires in history that is not under the sovereign control of God? And any view that would say that somehow God's wrath or God's anger is one thing, but that somehow the wrath of man or any other kind of retribution that would come upon the people of God can somehow come about without God's direct influence in the matter, is crazy. That cuts at the sovereignty of God, doesn't it? God is always affecting His will.

The story of Job is classic for this! Job is not an isolated circumstance and other things that happen in the world, happen totally different than that. Job is a pattern. There is a lot at work in the book of Job. Number one, God has purpose in Job's life. Job, as far as other men could see, was in position A. But God saw something He wanted to work in Job. He wanted to move Job from position A to position B. That was God's purposes. Now we turn the page! Satan is looking at Job sees Job in position A. He has something he also wants to accomplish, but it ain't what God wants to accomplish. He wants to sock God in the eye and he wants to use Job as the mechanism to do it. He wants to prove God unjust or unfair or in some way unworthy to rule solely in this universe and he wants to share in the rulership of the universe so he's going to use Job as a case in point to try to disprove what God has said or change what God is doing. He comes in and he's got a personal agenda. And he is just about to use Job to accomplish his end. So we've already got two wills at work and Job doesn't even know that those things are happening as he got up that morning. We've got one will over here that is going to do some improving on Job, and we've got one will over there that would love to destroy Job and what God is doing, and we've got Job over here who is doing the best he can to try to be a man that is pleasing to God and beneficial to his fellow man. There is a lot at work in Job. And as you read that story you see how all kinds of things play out here through Job's tribulation. And you see how the purpose of God in the end is accomplished. And yet God used, number one, the Adversary to accomplish His will. Did the Adversary accomplish the Adversary's will? By the time the story is over, no! But he was used as a tool in the sovereign hand of God to accomplish God's will even against his own will. Job's friends also had a viewpoint and, in the end, their viewpoint is rebuked.

There is a whole bunch of stuff we can look at here. The key issue, the base issue, that I think we should look at tonight is the sovereignty of God issue. It cannot be undercut in any of these examinations. [Question: So you say that everything that happened to Job was from the hand of God?] Absolutely, it happens from either the sovereign directive will or the sovereign permissive will of God. [Comment: It would be like David, being a type of Christ, where there are so many instances in his life, where he would be wrathful with somebody and being King he wouldn't take direct measures, like chopping a guy's head off or punishing them, but he would have his underlings do it, dispense his wrath. But it would still be considered David's sovereign wrath even though he wasn't directly involved.] Absolutely, a classic example would be the death of Uriah. David is clear back home. He says to one of his guys 'I want Uriah out of here, because I want his wife for my wife. Put him on the front lines, in the hottest part of the battle and when it gets going, everybody just take off from him.' What happens? What do you think happens? Uriah gets killed in that battle. Who does God say is responsible? The enemy that pierced him? The captain that put Uriah in the front line? No, God holds David accountable for him. It is pretty much a good example of what we are seeing right there. God is in charge of this universe. There is no such thing then as the wrath of men divorced from the wrath of God. There can't be!

Let's look at that again in detail. "Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed" (Judges 2:15). By the way, when it says "as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn unto them," what is he referring to back to? The curses, in Deuteronomy 28.

[Comment about David using others to execute judgment.] What you are getting at there is the principle of delegation. And delegation, especially when you are dealing about the Sovereignty of God, is an interesting study, in fact we've had some pretty heated studies among some of us in the thing. The principle of delegation, especially when you are dealing with God, because on one hand you got a holy God and on the other hand, you've got a God who is obviously, for a time, allowing evil to exist in His universe. So how does a holy God not only allow evil to exist in His universe but actually work within the framework of it and apparently use it sometimes as judgement on His people and yet remain Himself holy and absolutely inculpable. And you can get into some real nasty arguments with some people over that kind of a concept. But I think the fact of the matter is that you do have, if simplified, at least the spoken will of God, the directive will of God that is spoken, and you have the permissive will of God. There are things that He permits that He does not necessarily say outright, He advocates, obviously. He permits Satan to run amok for at least seven thousand years. He does not advocate that Satan rule in this universe. So the fact that God permits some thing to happen for a time and will judge what is done by that being or that individual during that period of time, leaves God in tact as to his holiness. He's not saying I permit this ultimately and always, I permit it for a time and, boy, how it will be judged when the time is over. That's a whole different thing than up shining it on! Let me make the case here, because we have a short time and a long way to go.

Now Judges 2:16,"Nevertheless, the LORD raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them..." By the way the word judges is probably not the best translation. It would mean more like a deliverer. Yet they judged Israel in respect to telling them to get right with their God. That was part of their job, but they also delivered them as to military deliverance, kind of like a messiah, almost a sub-messiah type figure in that he comes not only to relieve their problems with the nations, but he is coming to turn them to their God. So that is why I think the word judges was used there. It's someone who can mediate, can take both sides and get them back on a good basis. So what we have here is a series of flip-flops. Israel will go wrong, after things are going pretty good. God will give them into the hand of their enemies. Their enemies will cause them such stress and strain that they will finally cry out to God. God will send them a judge or deliverer. Then that deliverer will get them back on a good basis and things will go smooth for a while again. And then because things are going smooth again, then they will apostatize again. It's a series of flip-flops like that. I will continue through the times of the judges up until the times of the Kings. Let me give you a brief vignette:

"17 Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the LORD; they did not do so. 18 And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the LORD because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them. 19 And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way. 20 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice; 21 I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died: 22 That through them I may prove Israel,..." (Judges 2)

God's Wrath through Nations

Key point right there that through these surrounding nations which will be raised up from time to time as enemies I may prove Israel. Prove her in what respect? With respect to is her heart fully toward Me or not. Quickly turn to Romans 13, because we are moving on in the case we are trying to build here. The concept of any world power that is raised up in any age, it doesn't matter that it is a wicked world power, they all have been, remember since the garden we have not had man submissive to the directive will of God and God has not been directly ruling over man with a kingdom on this earth. We have the over-ruling kingdom of God in the heavenlies, but we don't have an on-this-earth kingdom which is totally dedicated to the service of God, even Israel which was supposed to be, never really fully carried it out. So what we've got is a series of clearly anti-God governments, from Babylon in the days of Zedekiah when the last king of Judah was hauled out of Jerusalem, then Nebuchadnezzar comes in to take over Babylon. From that time on for the southern kingdom, Judah, you have a series of anti-God governments: Babylon, Medeo-Persia, Greece, Rome and of course this will end in the revived Roman Empire. Almost at the same time, maybe a little earlier, you have the northern kingdom of Israel hauled out of their land by the Assyrian Empire.

I want to look at them in a second, but first look at Romans 13. Because Paul here gives us some insight as to civil authority. In any dispensation, and particularly, of course, Paul is telling about his attitude toward how we are to respond to civil authority in the dispensation in which we're in. But this principle that he is laying down here is really interdispensational. Take a look at it. Paul says, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power [that is no civil authority] but of God" (Romans 13:1). Does Babylon come in to position because Babylon decides they going to rule the word? No! I'll prove it to you. Does Assyria come into power because they say, 'I think I take over the world!' Some hotshot leader over there decides they going to take over the world and lo and behold they get lucky and they start winning battles. Does that concept square with scripture? And with the facts repeatedly told in scripture. Look at Isaiah 10, with respect to the Assyrian. Because what is told about the Assyrian and how he came to power is true of every other leader that's ever come to power or ever will, and that includes the Anti-Christ. Which is, by the way, where this is going to head up. The Anti-Christ cannot come to power apart from the sovereign permissive will, and obviously, the directive will of God, because He got to direct a whole lot of things to make it come into being.

"1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power (there exists no civil authority, except by God's will) but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. 2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power (civil authority), resisteth the ordinance of God: [Wrath of man, wrath of God, two separate things here? Keep reading the word wrath will come up in this very context.] and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation (judgement, condemnation). [Judgement, in the sense of judgement by a magistrate or civil authority.] 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: 4 For he is [Watch this! Remember the Hand and Glove thing] the minister of God . . ." (Romans 13)

Wait a minute! Paul is talking about the Roman Empire, which crucified the Lord Jesus Christ, which could care less about doing the will of God, vis-a-vis, anything Israel ever had with respect to their Law, and certainly with respect to Christians. They had no interest in promoting it. Take the pinch of incense, and burn it to Caesar and you won't have to go out and be a torch there in the games while the rest of your brothers fight with lions. This Roman power he's talking about here. God has allowed this power to come into being in His sovereign will and for His own purposes.

Do we understand how God can use a Roman power like that which will persecute Christians and how can somehow be good in the lives of those Christians? No, we don't understand it. But do we have to acknowledge that it's true. Absolutely! Did it take God by surprise that Rome would do that? No! So therefore it's ordained of God and those tribulations which came upon those saints in those days in those arenas are no different really that the tribulations that came upon Job. They were allowed by God. There was, obviously, full awareness on His part that these things were going to come to pass, and He permitted it to be, because He saw what it would work in this one and in that one and what it would work for a testimony to the world. Now was that, however, what went on in those arenas and coliseum, the outpouring of God's wrath upon Christians? Was that the Great Day of His Wrath? No! That was "in the world you shall have tribulation." It's that kind of tribulation but it's not The Great Tribulation! It's not the time of Jacob's Trouble, it's not the Seventieth Week of Daniel. Important point to know here! "For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword [Mark this] in vain:" (Romans 13:4a). He just told you that the sword in the hand of that civil power or in the hand of the empire, is the sword in the hand, technically, of God. Isn't it! There we have one, of what we are about to look at, of four sword judgements that God can use. When He wants to pour out wrath. One of those is the sword. He said here He only pours it out on whom? The guy doing good? The one doing evil. Keep reading!

"...for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. 5 Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake." (Romans 13)

[Comment: If you follow the flow of thought, this person is God's minister of God's wrath. In the same way God establishes the authority of Antichrist to execute His purpose, wrath.] That's where I'm going with this.

Truth and Anti-Truth

We've defined the fact that God does have a wrath and God does have a purpose for that wrath. The Anti-Christ is like these other men throughout history. If we can look at some of these other men throughout history and see how God used them then you can extrapolate that, but we've already got the point pretty well made. Let's look quickly at Romans 1, before we move on to that. God talks about two things here, basically, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ we have the "Righteousness of God made known" and then we have in that Gospel, the "Power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes." The whole issue is you've got the truth, with a capital T. And by the way, I want you to start in your thinking here, especially when we come to that word Truth, I want you to do something with it, unique. Because it something that should be being done with it and you see it throughout scripture. The word, the Truth, is not talking about an isolated or an abstract concept, it's talking about a person. I want you to learn to see that term, the Truth, as a title for Jesus Christ, because that's exactly who He is. I am the Way, I am the Truth, and I am the Life. And He means all three of those in the most literal sense of the word. So when we are talking about, the Truth, we're talking about the whole person and work of Jesus Christ rolled up into a nutshell, that is the Truth.

Using that same concept, there is coming ultimately somebody else who is the antithesis of that. And what is he called? What would be the metaphor for him? We have already given him one name, the Anti-Christ. What would be the metaphor which is the antithesis of that one I used for Jesus Christ? Right, the Lie! You've got the Truth and you've got the Lie. Now keep that in mind. Paul says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;..." (Romans 1:16). Believes what? Believes the Truth. Believes on the Lord Jesus Christ unto the saving of their soul. He that believes on Him does not come unto Judgement but has passed from death into Life. What if you don't believe? What abides upon you? [The Wrath] Bingo!! Now you start to see where all this stuff goes. You are children of disobedience, because you will not obey the Truth. You are children of wrath, by nature. You are totally susceptible to the Lie, unless the Holy Spirit comes in and turns the light on. I'm building the case of why the Wrath comes upon the world. Wrath is not an isolated thing, it comes for a reason. It comes primarily upon an unbelieving and Christ-rejecting world. That's the whole point of it.

"17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;" (Romans 1)

Two things are demonstrated here. Righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, in verse 17 as it is written "the just shall live by faith." The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth, who hold down the truth. It is a rejection of Jesus Christ. It is a trying to obscure the word about Jesus Christ that is the reason for the wrath. Let's go on in the same context. Let's go over to the second chapter in verse four.

"4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? 5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; 6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds: 7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life: 8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,..." (Romans 2, KJV)

Anti-Christ and the Tribulation

How do we obey the Truth according to Paul? The obedience of faith, we have faith in Jesus Christ. If you do not obey the truth, you do not believe in Jesus Christ, then what happens, instead you obey unrighteousness, you believe the Lie. And ultimately, that will end up in accepting the Anti-Christ. If you will not have this man to rule over you, then guess who you get, another will come in his own name, and him you will receive. That very coming of that coming False Messiah is a judgement of God upon men for rejecting Christ. It's not a separate issue, it's an actual judgement. The sending of Anti-Christ is a judgement on men for rejecting Christ and being determined to do so. After a full day [time period] of grace, they have still hardened and hardened and hardened themselves against Christ to the point where God says, "Fine, if you are absolutely adamant you will not have this man to rule over you, here, have this guy! Who'll be many times worse than Hitler!" His very presence, his initial coming on to the world stage is a mark of God's wrathful indignation at the rejection of His son. It's not like God waits three and a half years, playing some video game someplace, and all this stuff is going on in the earth and He hasn't noticed it, He's a happy camper, and all of a sudden 21 months before the end of the Tribulation, He looks down, "Oh man! This stuff makes me mad!" The mechanism for the Anti-Christ coming is the Wrath of God and that starts off the Tribulation period. Again I'm jumping a little bit forward here but take a look at it again.

"8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, 9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; 10 But glory, honor, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:" (Romans 2)

Now let's take a look at some of the judgements here, because we've spoken of God repeatedly as Judge and spoken of His judgements. Now I want to look at Matthew 24 in one finger, Revelation 6 in another finger, and Ezekiel 14 if you have any toes left. This sixth chapter of Revelation, by the way, is preceded by the fifth chapter in which we see a seven sealed book in the right hand of Him that sits upon the throne, which is obviously God. This seven sealed scroll is of a nature that individuals cannot even look upon, much less take it out of His hand. They look all over heaven for somebody to be able to take this scroll and to deal with it and notice that the key statement here in verse 2,"And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof (Rev. 5)?" To loose the seals! Very important point. Nobody can even look at it! It's awesome looking! It freaked John out, he cried. Who is going to be able to take control of the earth here and get this situation back in order if no one can take this and open it. Finally the Lamb of God comes forward and He begins loosing these seals. He is able not only to look upon it but take it and begin loosing the seals. The first thing one that He looses, by the way, is this rider on a white horse, the second thing that is going to happen is going to be, a sword - warfare, the third thing that is going to happen is going to be famine, the fourth thing that is going to happen is going to be pestilence. Those are the first four seals.

Now if you would dovetail those things in Revelation 6:1-8 with Matthew 24 starting at verse 4 where Jesus is telling the disciples after they've asked Him what is going to be the sign of your coming, the destruction of the Temple, and the end of the age. He tells them, number one, to be careful, see to it that no one deceives you. Deception is the first thing He talks about. Not Anti-Christ, not wars and rumors of wars, not famines, not pestilence, not the Abomination of Desolation, the first thing He talks about is the deception. Who is the Deceiver? Satan! Just like God has His man, finally in Christ, He finally put a man on earth who was God made flesh. There is coming, ultimately, Satan in the flesh, just like we had the embodiment in Christ of The Truth, we're going to have the embodiment on earth of The Lie, The Deceiver. Where do we read about him? In addition to Matthew 24, what other section of scripture pops into your mind? 2 Thessalonians 2 reads:

"8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, . . ."

Why does the Anti-Christ come? Upon whom does the Anti-Christ come? He comes as a judgement from God upon a Christ-rejecting world, and he is able to deceive those who reject Christ. He is given as an instead-of Christ to those who will not have Christ to rule over them. This is in perfect fulfillment of Psalm 2.

"3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. 5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure."

'You don't want My Son to rule over you!' He's going to be upset with them because of that and He's going to deal with the nations because of that. Now if you would go down the list of these four seals in chapter six of Revelation and you would compare them with the things that you see unfolding up to the middle of the Tribulation period which the Abomination of Desolation marks the point where the Anti-Christ goes in and declares himself to be God. He sits down in the Temple of God displaying himself as being God. We know that the Abomination of Desolation marks the midway point in the seventieth week of Daniel. It's the halfway point. That means that everything prior to that is happening in the first three and a half years. And it's happening prior to the fifth and sixth seal. What are we seeing coming on the earth? We are seeing the wild beast because that is what he is called, in Revelation 13. He is called the wild beast, a therion (wild, dangerous, venomous, beast). A wild beast, or the rider on the white horse, or the Anti-Christ, he is an imitation of Christ. We will see the True Rider on the White Horse in Revelation 21, Jesus Christ returning from Heaven. But we see in Revelation 6 a False Christ coming on the earth, and beginning to conquer and conquering. Following that we will see a Great Sword unleashed on mankind, warfare. This dovetails with Matthew 24, wars and rumors of wars, verse 6, the end is not yet, verse 7, nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, there will be seal number three, famine, and pestilences, the fourth seal.

Now go back to Ezekiel 14:21, and Leviticus 26:22, 25. In chapter 14 verse 1, the whole reason why this conversation is taking place, Ezekiel was the prophet that was chosen by God to basically let everyone know God is leaving, the Glory is leaving Jerusalem. They had had a Glory in the Temple up until this point and now it is left Jerusalem and Ezekiel is the prophet that has been chosen to make known to Israel why God in His Shekinah Presence left Jerusalem and why they have being invaded by Babylon and been taken captive.

"1 Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. 2 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 3 Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired of at all by them? 4 Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols; 5 That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols." (Ezekiel 14)

'They have wandered away from their Husband and they are messing around with other lovers, and I don't like it!' We've got indignation here, we've got wrath, we've got fury of a God who has been left for other Gods. Get that! That is the tone of this chapter. Now look what He says down here as He goes on to describe the House of Israel going astray from Him in verse 11 and polluting His House. He says in verse 13,

13 Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it: 14 Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD. [If there are righteous in it, the righteous will live because of their righteousness, but the wicked will die in these judgements.] 15 If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no man may pass through because of the beasts: 16 Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate. 17 Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off man and beast from it: 18 Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves. 19 Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out . . . [And Pour out what? What are these four judgements pouring out? You know what that word is in the Septuagint, that word fury, thumos, wrath. But that's in the first four seals. Verse 19,] Or if I send a pestilence..." (Ezekiel 14)

He has been describing the four sword judgements which we saw in Revelation 6, and saw in Matthew 24. Read Leviticus 26,

"22 I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate. 25 And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied."

In verse 22, was wild beasts being sent as a judgement, a chastisement. We see in verse 25, a sword being brought to avenge the quarrel of My covenant, again chastisement. We see pestilence sent in, in verse 25, in order to chastise them for their departure from the Lord of Hosts. And in verse 26, breaking of the staff of bread, that's called famine. These are chastisements or four sword judgements upon their departing wickedly from their God. And He sends these in Ezekiel 14:19 to pour out His, thumos, wrath upon it in blood to cut off from it man and beast. So we have got something very strange going on here. In history, we apparently have God reacting with these things as judgement in wrath, but all of a sudden in some people's view when the Tribulation Period starts, when the Anti-Christ, who is the paramount leader of all the leaders, the composite of Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, go down the list. He is the composite Worst of everybody.
All of a sudden there ain't no wrath involved until 21 months before the end of the Trib [according to the Pre-Wrath Rapture theory of Marvin Rosenthal]? That does not make any sense at all.

God's Wrath through the Wicked

Now I want to look at a couple of guys here to, in particular, to focus in on how does God work through the hands wicked men to accomplish His will. I want to turn to Isaiah 10, first, because there we have the Assyrian who clearly was the leader who was used to haul the Northern Kingdom out of their land. And God gives a real interesting synopsis of how He works through an Evil Ruler who no consciousness of God, who could care less if there was a God of Israel. Turn to Isaiah 10,

"1 Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; 2 To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! 3 And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory? 4 Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. 5 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation."

This verse alone puts to death the concept that somehow the wrath of man is divorced from the wrath of God. He describes the Assyrian. You can do as I did here and take one colored pen that refers to the Assyrian, like green, and anything that refers to him you put in green, and taking yellow and put anything there that refers to God in yellow and watch how that helps explain this chapter. O Assyrian, the rod (that's in green) of mine anger (that's in yellow, that's God's anger, that's actually being brought upon Israel through the Assyrian) the staff (or club) in their hand is mine indignation. Indignation over what? We just read it up above. These guys, the nation, was so rotten that they were taking things away from widows and God was incensed about it. There was no justice in the land. These people, who were supposed to be an example to the rest of the nations, were leaders in wickedness now. And God says, 'I'll show you, I'll bring in a nation from the outside, and they'll whack you! I'll pour out my cup of wrath on you (a part of it not all of it)." Then I will use the Assyrian Army to do it. God says,

"6 I will send him (the Assyrian) against an hypocritical nation (Israel), and against the people of my wrath will I give him (the Assyrian) a charge (a commission), to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire (mud) of the streets. [The Assyrian doesn't think that he doing a job for Me. No, he's got a whole different agenda, remember Satan with Job. Watch this, it is very much the same thing.] 7 Howbeit he (the Assyrian) meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few. [He got to do World Conquest. Because he said,] 8 For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings? 9 Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?" (Isaiah 10)

In other words, can't I just do to Israel what I've done to every other nation. You bet I can, I'm a big boy, I got a big army, I'm going to kick everybody's fanny. That's what he thinks. He says in verse 10,

"10 As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria: 11 Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols? [That's what the Assyrian thinks!] 12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed..."

Here we go! Remember what we saw before, when God gets done disciplining His people, then what does He do to the nation that He used to discipline His people. What did He do to Egypt? He used Egypt to mold and shape His people in a certain way for a certain period of time, then guess what happened to that nation. Ka-plowie!! God dealt with them! Watch what happens to the Assyrian.

"12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout (proud) heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. 13 For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man: 14 And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped. 15 Shall the ax boast itself against him that heweth therewith?" (Isaiah 10)

God is the one who picked up the ax (the Assyrian) and chopped Israel down with it. The fact of the matter is they're just the tool. God is shaping, lovingly, believe it or not, His people. He chastises His people. When you spank your kid, are you doing it because you want to kill your kid? No, you want to shape him, you want to mold him, you want him to be better, you want to improve him. You're not trying to kill him! When God did this with the surrounding nations in the time of Egypt, when God does it in the time of the Judges, when God does it here in the times of the Assyrian, or in the future when God does it with the Anti-Christ, what's the goal? It's a Job thing. It's always a Job thing. Oh sure, Satan's got his plan. He's working with the Assyrian or the ruler of this or that and ultimately with the Anti-Christ for one end, but he will not thwart the purposes of God. From the time that it starts, though, wrath is involved. Man's wrath is involved, you betchya. Satan's wrath is certainly involved. But so is God's and it's measured wrath. It isn't until the end of these things when there is continued resistance that you see the ultimate form, the outpouring, or the dregs of that cup of wrath. This is in harmony, then, with the whole scripture. We're not just pulling stuff out and changing the meaning of a few words. We're looking at an overall pattern here.

"15 Shall the ax boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood." (Isaiah 10)

You can go on and read the rest of it. This is true of the Assyrian. It's also true of a guy named Shishak, I 'm not sure quite how you pronounce it. He was an Egyptian. Later after the initial deliverance from Egypt, who, one of the enemies God raised up, in the days of Hezekiah, He came against Israel. The same thing was said of him, it was 'of the Lord' to deliver them over to Shishak that He might accomplish His fury and pour out His wrath. In 2 Chronicles 12,

2 And it came to pass, that in the fifth year of king Rehoboam Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the LORD, 3 With twelve hundred chariots, and threescore thousand horsemen: and the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt; the Lubims, the Sukkiims, and the Ethiopians. 5 Then came Shemaiah the prophet to Rehoboam, and to the princes of Judah, that were gathered together to Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said unto them, Thus saith the LORD, Ye have forsaken me, and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak. 6 Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves; and they said, The LORD is righteous. 7 And when the LORD saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves; therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance; and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak.

God's Wrath Early in the Tribulation

This cup of wrath is an interdispensational cup which from time to time spills drops out. But there is coming a day when God is going to say that enough is enough and Ka-blewie! He is going to spill a little bit at the beginning of the Tribulation, but he is going to spill more and more and more. We're going to move from seals, to trumpets, to vials. And we're going to see that wrath get increasingly hot. But it's always the cup of the Lord's indignation. This is something that has gone way, way back. This is not a new thing that just starts happening in the last 21 months of the Tribulation period. It is a finishing up of God's wrath. That's what's going on there, not a first time in history appearance of it.

In Revelation 5, we know that the Lamb takes the scroll from Him who sits upon the throne, we know that He begins to unleash these things upon the earth and when the Anti-Christ comes, he is going to start trampling under foot nations. One of the things that I think he is going to, initially do, probably, is take control the computers of the world and bring all things to a screeching halt, except what he wants to run. Life is going to change so rapidly, overnight, as this man grabs the reins. And those who do not cooperate with him once he's got control, are going to be annihilated. Within those first four seals, you see a whole bunch people dying, a fourth of the population of the earth killed. When it tells us in Revelation chapter six, that these people when they see these things pound down on them, that the people start to say,

"16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17 For the great day of his wrath is come;" (Revelation 16)

They're not talking about a future event that's in the last 21 months [according to the Pre-Wrath Rapture theory of Marvin Rosenthal]. They're talking about a sequence of events that begins to transpire with appearance of the false rider on the white horse, the false Christ. As things move along, it gets more and more evident that this is not just some world conquest the wrath going on, that this is indeed the wrath of God. It comes to a point where people are aware of what has been already going on is the Wrath of God. Because we've got it written down here. Some of us are going to be preaching that this is what's happening. They're going to be able to compare what is happening with what's been written and people are going to know there is too much correspondence with what he says with exactly what is unfolding. No one will be able to hide from the fact that this is the wrath of God. Don't forget that when Saul was given to be king, and Saul is clearly a type of Anti-Christ in this respect. How did Saul get chosen as king in the first place? First of all, who was ruling over Israel before that time, before Saul was asked for? Who has always ruled over Israel from the beginning? God. And what happened? Might as well go back and look it. I don't want to make these statements without backing them up. Go back and look at 1 Samuel 8, where Samuel is told to anoint Saul.

"1 And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. 3 And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment. 4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, 5 And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations."

They wanted to look and act like and be like the nations. It's always a tendency and you'll find it in your kids as they grow up, they're going to want to be kids around them. We all have that tendency. And these children of Israel are no different. They want to be like the rest of the nations.

"6 But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. 7 And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." (1 Samuel 8)

Saul the first king is put into place because of a rejection of God's ruling over them. Isn't that interesting. So Saul is clearly even in the way he is chosen a perfect picture of Israel picking Anti-Christ, because they would not have this man to rule over them. Now read what it says about this in Hosea 13. This is a most interesting statement that God makes about that king, when He gave them that king. He says,

"9 O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help. 10 I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes? 11 I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath." (Hosea 13)

Isn't that interesting? [The Septuagint OT Greek words] Orge and thumos again. I gave you this king in my anger and took away in my wrath. Saul is a precursor of the Anti-Christ. When God gives Israel the Anti-Christ, breaks the seal. That's a pretty heavy indication that God is already starting to let His wrath, His anger be made known. 'You don't want my Son to rule over you, fine, you can have another Hitler, and worse than Hitler.'

Editor's Conclusion

After the Rapture, in the 7 year Tribulation, God's wrath is being poured out (through man, nature and angels) from the point that Jesus Christ breaks the first seal. Our Apostle of our dispensation tells us that we are not appointed to this Wrath which is clearly a judgement for unbelievers and Kingdom preparation for the remnant of Israel (Eph. 3; 2 Thes. 1; Dan. 9). We do not go through any of the seals of Revelation. For further information see the other prophecy related articles on the BibleLight homepage and the resources below.

Credits and Search Topics

Transcript of a home church meeting/Bible study taught by John Baron in Salem, OR on 10-29-97. Patiently transcribed by Henry Walker in 10-99. Edited, subtitled and formated by Chad Rudolph.

Bible, Church, Dispensationalism, End Times, Eschatology, Israel, Last Days, Marvin Rosenthal, Midtribulationalism, Posttribulationalism, Premillennialism, Pretribulationalism, PreWrath, Prophecy, Rapture of the Church, Second Advent of the Lord, Second Coming of Jesus Christ, Tribulation, Typology...