Two Comings – One Rapture

Enough was known about Satan's nature and his scurrilous temptations to warn Adam and Eve about his deceptive threats. God sent angels to educate them regarding the risk of any submissive encounters.

"Heavenly messengers opened to them the history of Satan's fall and his plots for their destruction, unfolding more fully the nature of the divine government, which the prince of evil was trying to overthrow.... The angels warned them to be on their guard against the devices of Satan, for his efforts to ensnare them would be unwearied."[1]

Their intriguing awareness came from long observations of Lucifer's deceitful work in heaven and God's dealing with those terrible emergencies. Lucifer's rebellion eventually led to war, culminating with him and one third of the "stars of heaven" being driven out of that heavenly Paradise (Revelation 12:4, 7-9). 

We must assume that the minds of those first two human beings were massive in their capabilities. They undoubtedly had perfect memories, power to reason and calculate, love and be grateful. But there was another special power of thinking that was subject to abuse – the area of moral choice. 

• Woefully, when Eve was confronted with moral alternatives, she submitted to Satan and distrusted God. He beguiled her into sin (II Corinthians 11:4). Eve willfully chose a behavior contrary to God's wishes.

• Communication in an unexpected way [curiosity stimulated], words that titillated selfish desires [she moved to gratify self] – a few minutes only – and the course of mankind was changed. 

For awhile the act was perceived as right, exciting and justified. Just as Satan was successful in heaven with thousands of angels, his deceit [taking advantage of a surprise event] careened the first woman into rebellion! 

The Dynamic of Self 

The origination of sin in heaven – the "uncaused cause" – came from a crave to exalt self. "Lucifer, then covering cherub, desired to be first in heaven. He sought to gain control of heavenly beings, to draw them away from their Creator, and to win their homage to himself."[2] 

• In a vast kingdom of harmony and loyalties – how could that happen?

• Only through idolizing self, then chicaney and artifice against self.

• The moral center of Lucifer's mind willfully chose steps at variance with God's character.

• As in all rebellion, the sinner constantly seeks followers. Satan's skills matured as he exercised revengeful tactics against Christ – his perceived adversary. Millions followed because those devices appealed to the honor of self. 

So successful was this type of strategy, Jesus warned the four disciples in His end-time discourse, before any other issue: "Take heed that no man deceive you" (Matthew 24:4). 

• "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High" (Isaiah 14:12-14).

• What kind of subterfuge did Lucifer/Satan devise to deepen his tenacious told on the evil angels

• Misrepresentation of God. How?

• Blame God for the negative attributes Satan was exhibiting

• God was cast into a new light the heavenly host had not before entertained:[3]
  

 "With his own evil characteristics he sought to invest the loving Creator."[4] 

• Darkness settled into the minds of innumerable angels.  

• Then night came to the earth,

• God was misunderstood, then mistrusted. 

Satan perfected his craft. All he had to do was appeal to the "self of man" and man would be at war against God. 

• For those who resisted, it would be all-out hatred to harm, hurt and destroy.

• Satan came as an angel of light to a weakened fasting Christ in the wilderness.

• Many of the temptations were logical, administrative and provided a short circuit out of His anticipated trying ministry and death.

• But – they were each self-serving.

• Christ rejected that premise on every count. 

If Satan could be defeated when he appeared, not as a serpent but as an angel of dazzling brightness, he was in trouble. Christ won. Satan lost. 

• "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15).
• "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (II Corinthians 5:21). 

"In taking upon Himself man's nature in its fallen condition, Christ did not in the least participate in its sin. He was subject to the infirmities and weaknesses by which man is encompassed.... He was touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and was in all points tempted like as we are. And yet He ‘knew no sin.' He was the lamb ‘without blemish and without spot.' Could Satan in the least particular have tempted Christ to sin, he would have bruised the Saviour's head. As it was, he could only touch His heel. Had the head of Christ been touched, the hope of the human race would have perished. Divine wrath would have come upon Christ as it came upon Adam. Christ and the church would have been without hope."[5] 

In Christ self was not an idol. He exercised continuously that higher center of the mind to please God. Honoring self took second place to honoring God. 

• "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me" (John 5:38). 

"When Christ died on Calvary's cross, he exclaimed in his expiring agony, ‘It is finished;' and Satan knew that he had been defeated in his purpose to overthrow the plan of salvation. When the Son of God came forth from Joseph's sepulcher, a triumphant conqueror over death, and broke the fetters of the tomb, he led forth the captives that Satan had bound in the grave. He presented to the world a sample of the great resurrection day, when all who have fallen asleep in Jesus shall be raised to a glorious immortality. They shall come forth from their graves at the trump of God, and shall ascend to the city of God, and see the King in his beauty."[6] 

The 2000-Year Clock 

In spite of his failure with Christ, the devil knew that he had time yet to ensnare the world because of Daniel's prophecy of the 2300 evening and morning atonement years.

• That hiatus was part of a "tarrying time" (Habakkuk 2:2-3).

• Satan Finally, two distinct timing periods were to be activated right at the end. These would place Satan on high alert. Once they begin – the intensity of wrong would accelerate. 

1. One generation (40 years) – calamity-driven (Matthew 24:34, Mark 13:30, Luke 21:28-32)

2. Three and a half year period – human event-driven (Daniel 12:7; Revelation 11:2-3, 12:14, 13:5) 

When Satan would see those begin, he (and we) would know the end was near. He "knoweth that he hath a short time" (Revelation 12:12). That is a distinct knowledge-based statement. He knows how to tell time. 

• The Greek suggests that the devil is aware when his opportunities to deceive become limited.

• He is a diligent Bible student. He knows when his time is short, and then seeks at every point to counteract the work of God upon this earth.[7] 

Paul declares that the second coming of Christ will be preceded by "the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (II Thessalonians 2:12). 

Satan Prepares for His Coming – He will Appear 

Satan and his influences are seen as darkness, without light. Under inspiration Paul asked: "what communion hath light with darkness?" (II Corinthians 6:14). The redemptive plan calls for man to come into the "kingdom of light." 

• "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son" (Colossians 1:13).
• "To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me" (Acts 26:18). 

Later in a provocative discourse to the Thessalonian believers Paul passionately conveyed: "Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness" (I Thessalonians 5:5). 

Though these issues may seem "black and white" – easy to discern, God has another opinion: "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition" (II Thessalonians 2:3). "And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived" (Luke 21:8). 

This counsel would have been unnecessary if man could recognize any delusion. Part of God's grace is to alert, advise and warn. Man's mind has impaired discernment from admission to sin. Prophecy is part of His Mayday system. It helps to set spiritual priorities. 

What might be the tactics Satan could use to ensnare the world's final loyalty? 

There are two master end-time deceptions that we find in God's Word: 

1.  Appear as if he represents light.

2.  Cause the Christian world to misconstrue prophecy. 

The first comes in a singular warning from the Apostle Paul. 

• "And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light" (II Corinthians 11:14).

• Though this is an allusion that falsehood will appear to the unwary as "light," there is a more sinister meaning.

"There is a limit beyond which Satan cannot go, and here he calls deception to his aid and counterfeits the work which he has not power actually to perform. In the last days he will appear in such a manner as to make men believe him to be Christ come the second time into the world. He will indeed transform himself into an angel of light. But while he will bear the appearance of Christ in every particular, so far as mere appearance goes, it will deceive none but those who, like Pharaoh, are seeking to resist the truth.–5T 698 (1889)."[8] 

"Satan is striving to gain every advantage. He desires to secure, not only students, but teachers. He has his plans laid. Disguised as an angel of light, he will walk the earth as a wonder-worker. In beautiful language he will present lofty sentiments. Good words will be spoken by him, and good deeds performed. Christ will be personified, but on one point there will be a marked distinction. Satan will turn the people from the law of God. Notwithstanding this, so well will he counterfeit righteousness, that if it were possible, he would deceive the very elect. Crowned heads, presidents, rulers in high places, will bow to his false theories. Instead of giving place to criticism, division, jealousy, and rivalry, those in our schools should be one in Christ. Only thus can they resist the temptations of the arch-deceiver."[9] 

The second apocalyptic stratagem is to misappropriate God's prophetic intensions. The deceiver met with satisfying success using this technique in Christ's day. The Jewish people had awaited the Messiah's arrival for over a thousand years. "Upon this event they had rested their brightest hopes."[10] 

• Yet – "He came unto his own, and his own received him not" (John 1:11).

• Also – the Jewish leaders had skewed Messianic events so severely they taught that the arrival would herald an earthly kingdom.

• Misinterpretation of first-advent prophecy was based on selfish desire. 

So it will be at the end – at the second advent. 

• Between 1300 and 1800 A.D. a growing number of voices, including the Protestant Reformers, saw the antichrist, Daniel's little horn, the Revelator's sea beast, the harlot and Babylon correctly as the papacy.[11] But this changed. Altering prophecy began in earnest in the 1500's during the Counter Reformation. 

Revisionist Prophecy 

All "earthly kingdom" dogmas had its roots with those Jewish leaders. 

"The idea of a Millennial reign proceeded from Judaism; for among the Jews the representation was current that the Messiah would reign a thousand years upon earth.... Such products of Jewish imagination passed over into Christianity."[12] 

The millennial earthly reign concept of Christ matured with Cerinthus, who lived at the time of Apostle John. 

"In Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Chapter 28, is preserved a fragment from the writings of Caius, who lived about the close of the second century, which gives us the following account of Cerinthus's heresy:

"But Cerinthus, too, through revelations written, as he would have us believe, by a great apostle, brings before us marvelous things, which he pretends were shown him by angels; alleging that after the resurrection the kingdom of Christ is to be on earth, and that the flesh dwelling in Jerusalem is again to be subject to desires and pleasures. And being an enemy to the scriptures of God, wishing to deceive men, he says that there is to be space of a thousand years for marriage festivities.... One of the doctrines he taught was, that Christ would have an earthly kingdom."[13] 

Irenaeus, who was born about 120 A.D. and was acquainted with Polycarp, the disciple of John, [Eusebius's Eccl. Hist., V. 24], states that while John was at Ephesus, he entered a bath to wash and found that Cerinthus was within, and refused to bathe in the same bath house, but left the building, and exhorted those with him to do the same, saying, ‘Let us flee, lest the bath fall in, as long as Cerinthus, that enemy of the truth, is within.' – Eusebius's Ecl. Hist., III. 28."[14] 

• Cerinthus believed in an earthly millennial reign of Christ

• That would be centered in Palestine. 

The next millennial advocate was Papias of the first half of the second century.[15] "Church Father" Origen later rejected this reign-on-earth concept – but its momentum deepened. 

As the Roman Empire crumbled, the rise of papal power brought in superstition, suppressive power, loss of the meaning of the Cross and pagan tradition. 

• Religious reformers began to speak out.

• Early names of those who saw the papacy as the antichrist included John Wycliff (1320-1384 A.D.) and John Huss (1372-1415). 

Martin Luther (1483-1546) nailed his 95 theses on the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517. This started the breakup of papal religious control and began the Protestant Reformation.  

• A new religious order, the Society of Jesus, was established in 1534 by Ignatius of Loyola.

• Pope Paul III gave this group Church legitimacy in 1540. They would be known as Jesuits.

Between 1545 and 1563 the Council of Trent convened to develop plans to reassert the RomanCatholic Church's "spiritual authority." The seeds of the Counter Reformation were now ready to grow! Revising Biblical prophetic interpretation to take away all identity of the papacy to the antichrist became a concerted passion.

Changing the Structural Understanding of Prophecy 

The Roman Catholic Church did not like to be branded as the antichrist. Yet, what that church did to counter that label, the Evangelical world has now adopted and has rejected the intense work of the Protestant reformers.

• Jesuit Francisco Ribera was given an assignment to reinterpret the apocalyptic prophecies. In 1590 he came out with a book on Revelation, placing all but the earliest chapters at the end of time.

• That meant that the beast, Babylon and the harlot, especially, were not "contemporary."[16]

• II Thessalonians 2, which describes the "man of sin," was placed outside God's church and explained as an infidel secular antichrist.[17]

• Finally, the last or 70^th week of the Daniel 9 prophecy was assigned to the end, where the antichrist would come in the middle of that week. Then the second coming and an earthly millennial reign would begin.
• This took the papal label away from the little horn prophecies.
• Reassignment of time and meaning of prophetic events were done ingeniously.

For 300 years those views remained Roman Catholic. The Jesuits desperately wanted the Protestants to accept their interpretations. Tragically, their wish finally came true. 

• Dr. Samuel R. Maitland (1792-1866 A.D.), lawyer, Bible scholar, became librarian to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

• He discovered Ribera's commentary, studied and accepted it.

• For ten years he promoted this view in pamphlets which were filled with anti-Reformation rhetoric.

• James H. Todd, professor of Hebrew, University of Dublin, accepted and promoted Maitland's ideas.[18]
• Then one of the world's most articulate voices, Anglican John H. Newman (1801-1890 A.D.), leader of England's Oxford Movement, aimed at absorbing the many churches of England back into Rome. He later became a Catholic, worked his way up to a Cardinal and supported this prophetic revisionism of the papacy.[19]
• Edward Irving (1792-1834 A.D.) not only accepted the "futurist" concepts but successfully introduced the idea of two second comings – secret and open.[20]
• John Nelson Darby (1800-1882 A.D.), lawyer, pastor, theologian and prolific writer, became leader of the Plymouth Brethren. He believed that the world was divided into "dispensations."
  

• He became a major force in support of the 70^th week of Daniel 9 being applied to the end – after the secret rapture.

• Cyrus Ingerson Scofield (1843-1921 A.D.), Kansas lawyer, published the Scofield Reference Bible with notes based mainly on Darby's writings.

• Finally, Hal Linsey's Late Great Planet Earth and later Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins' Left Behind Series spelled out in sensational prose what is now mainly Protestant end-time thought, all in sympathy with Jesuit Francisco Ribera's work of 1590!

It is all a stunning story of Satan's success in skewing truth. 

Graphic View of Evangelical End 

The Protestant dogma of end-time is now an embellished Jesuit-Roman Catholic version of Ribera's original work. 

• This unbiblical posturing is paving the way for Satan's arrival!!
• Evangelical Theory:

• Protestants are looking for a temple to be built on the "Temple Mount" in Jerusalem.
• So the antichrist can appear "sitting in the temple of God" (II Thessalonians 2:4).
• Then comes three and a half years of tribulation.
• This ends with Christ's second coming and earthly reign – "rescue mission." 

The Set-Up 

Since prophecy does reveal a unique timing sequence, Satan can come as Christ, as an "angel of light" and claim that his earthly reign has begun – really at "any time." 

God's many three and a half year periods [42 months, time times half or 1260 days] represent the time of witnessing and tribulation (i.e., Daniel 12:7; Revelation 11:2-3, 13:5). Truth lies close to error. Satan is going to take advantage of that very soon now! 

Biblical Expositor View 

 

"In the last days Satan will appear as an angel of light, with great power and heavenly glory, and claim to be the Lord of the whole earth. He will declare that the Sabbath has been changed from the seventh to the first day of the week; and as lord of the first day of the week he will present this spurious sabbath as a test of loyalty to him. Then will take place the final fulfillment of the Revelator's prophecy. [Rev. 13:4-5: "And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months." – the rest of the chapter quoted]"[21] 

Repeatedly, Satan appeared to Jesus in the wilderness of temptation as an "angel of light." Christ resisted all advances of the devil and came out victorious.[22] 

• The Christian world – now very near the end of time – is expecting a Messianic earthly reign, just like the Jews did at the first advent.
• The appearance of a supernatural being will confirm their terrible misunderstanding.
• "Satan is preparing his deceptions that in his last campaign against the people of God, they may not understand that it is he."[23]
• Only those who know the depth of prophecy will cognitively be able to resist. 

"As the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan himself will personate Christ. The church has long professed to look to the Saviour's advent as the consummation of her hopes. Now the great deceiver will make it appear that Christ has come. In different parts of the earth, Satan will manifest himself among men as a majestic being of dazzling brightness, resembling the description of the Son of God given by John in the Revelation. Revelation 1:13-15. The glory that surrounds him is unsurpassed by anything that mortal eyes have yet beheld. The shout of triumph rings out upon the air: ‘Christ has come! Christ has come!' The people prostrate themselves in adoration before him, while he lifts up his hands and pronounces a blessing upon them, as Christ blessed His disciples when He was upon the earth. His voice is soft and subdued, yet full of melody. In gentle, compassionate tones he presents some of the same gracious, heavenly truths which the Saviour uttered; he heals the diseases of the people, and then, in his assumed character of Christ, he claims to have changed the Sabbath to Sunday, and commands all to hallow the day which he has blessed. He declares that those who persist in keeping holy the seventh day are blaspheming his name by refusing to listen to his angels sent to them with light and truth. This is the strong, almost overmastering delusion. Like the Samaritans who were deceived by Simon Magus, the multitudes, from the least to the greatest, give heed to these sorceries, saying: This is ‘the great power of God.' Acts 8:10."[24] 

The Warning 

Several times in Christ's apocalyptic discourse He warned against false christs. In one dramatic rendition He paints contrasting imagery to how His coming will be. 

• "Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matthew 24:23-27, 30-31).
• "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen" (Revelation 1:7). 

That coming cannot be replicated. There is no Biblical ground for a secret rapture theory. Also, there is no "earthly landing" of Christ at that advent. 

• "Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (I Thessalonians 4:17).

• They ascend to meet Jesus in the clouds (Acts 1:9).

• "A meeting in the air is pointless unless the saints continue on to heaven with the Lord who has come out to meet them (Milligan, p. 61). Tradition stemming from Jesus' parting instructions fixes the immediate destination following the meeting, as the Father's house, i.e., heaven (John 14:2, 3) (quoting John Walvoord, The Thessalonian Epistles [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1967], p. 70).[25]
  

  Two Comings 

While Satan is appearing as Christ in different areas, his minions are conducting mayhem against God's people. Satan makes it appear that calamities, economic stress and the moral degeneracy relates to those resisting the new Sabbath of Sunday observance. 

"The world is as much opposed to genuine religion today as it ever has been. The same hatred and hostility toward God which prompted the rejection and crucifixion of Christ, and the persecution of his faithful witnesses, still burns in the hearts of the children of disobedience, and will soon break forth with malignant energy. We read that in the last days, Satan will come down in great wrath, knowing that his time is short, and will work with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish."[26] 

"As the time of the end draws near, Satan's temptations will be brought to bear with greater power upon God's workers. He will employ human agents to mock and revile those who ‘build the wall.'"[27] 

"There are those who will keep God's charge to the very close of time. They will know the fellowship of Christ's sufferings. Satan's malignity will be intensified toward them, as he sees that his time is short. He knows that he is sure of those who are under his delusions, but those who will not be deceived by him, he will persecute until the final rebuke of God is put upon him."[28] 

"The wrath of Satan increases as his time grows short, and his work of deceit and destruction reaches its culmination in the time of trouble."[29]

Satan (deception)  Satan (reality) Visibly – Like Christ Invisibly – Warrior, hater, persecutor, murderer

  

Only those "in the know" will escape the emotional pressure of a supernatural being. But there are many clues to help us. The first coming of a being of light is Satan. He will always be geographically confined. The second being of light – all will see. The wicked won't tolerate the light – and then – we will assuredly know.

 

References:

1. White, Ellen G.; Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 52-53.

2. White, Ellen G.; The Desire of Ages, p. 21.

3. White, Ellen G.; The Desire of Ages, pp. 20-22.

4. Ibid., p. 22.

5. White, Ellen G.; The Faith I Live By, p. 49.

6.  White, Ellen G.; The Signs of the Times, September 23, 1889.

7. White, Ellen G.; Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 16.

8. White, Ellen G.; Last Day Events, p. 163.

9. White, Ellen G.; Fundamentals of Christian Education, p. 471.

10. White, Ellen G.; The Desire of Ages, p. 27.

11. http://www.christiantrumpetsounding.com/Antichrist/Reformation%20Views.htm

12. Neander's History of Christian Dogmas, vol. 1, p. 248, I (1858) as quoted in http://www.archive.org/stream/neandershistory01neanuoft#page/248/mode/2up.

13. http://www.scionofzion.com/ehmt.htm

14. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.viii.xxviii.html

15. Eusebius, The Writings of Papias. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.toc.html 

16. Ladd, George Eldon; The Blessed Hope: A Biblical Study of the Second Advent and the Rapture (Grand Rapids, MI; Eerdmans, 1956), pp. 37-38.

17. Thompson, Ralph; Champions of Christianity in Search of Truth, p. 89).

18. http://books.google.com/books?id=UJqRZXltHrwC&pg=PA127&lpg=PA127&dg= %22james+h+tod%22+university+dublin&source=bl&ots=P6uA_SoLXJ&sig=ymFavbBMnN-xdBC6A2sGmjmhDlc&hl=en&ei=QBB3SoHgFl7ssQPzzJzLDQ&sa=X&oi= book_result&ct=result&resnum=6#v=onepage&q=%22james%20h%20todd%22%20university%20dublin&f=false

19. Guinness, H. Grattan; History Unveiling Prophecy or Time as an Interpreter (New York, Fleming H. Revell Co., 1905), p. 289.

20. MacPherson; The Incredible Cover-Up: Exposing the Origins of Rapture Theories (Omega Publications, Medford, Oregon; 1980).

21. White, Ellen G.; Manuscript Releases, vol. 19, p. 282.

22. White, Ellen G.; The Desire of Ages, pp. 118-119.

23. White, Ellen G.; Messages to Young People, p. 51.

24. White, Ellen G.; The Great Controversy, p. 624.

25. Gaebelein, Frank E.; The Expositor's Bible Commentary, vol. 11 (Zondervan; Grand Rapids, MI), p. 279.

26. White, Ellen G.; The Youth Instructor, May 28, 1884.

27. White, Ellen G.; Conflict and Courage, p. 268.

28. White, Ellen G.; The Review and Herald, September 22, 1896.

29. White, Ellen G.; The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, p. 440.

Franklin S. Fowler, Jr., M.D.; Prophecy Research Initiative © 2009
EndTime Issues…, Number 92, August  18, 2009