the statement is made that the day of the Lord (His visible
manifestation) cannot come till there be first the apostasy and the Man
of Sin, the son of perdition (the Antichrist) be revealed. It is
during the last seven years that both of these conditions are reached.
But the apostle also states that there is One who hinders the complete
apostasy and its leader, the Antichrist. Something is in the way which
keeps back the full manifestation of the mystery of lawlessness. This
hindering One must be first taken out of the way. The hindering One is
the Holy Spirit. He dwells in the body of Christ, the church. As long
as He is here on earth in and with the true church the two conditions
necessary for the final seven years of this age cannot be fulfilled.
Before the tribulation can come the church must have been called away
to her heavenly abode.

3. If the church were to pass through the tribulation period all the
exhortations to wait for the Coming of the Lord, to watch for Him, to
be ready, would have no meaning. It would be more correct to exhort to
wait for the coming of the beast. The blessed hope to meet Him, would
lose its blessedness. Instead of being a bright outlook to be with
Christ in glory, it would be the worst pessimism, for believers would
not face immediate glory, but tribulation, judgments, and the
persecutions of the beast from the pit. Everything in Scripture is
against this teaching, which has been accepted by not a few, that the
church must pass through the tribulation, and after all it is an
important truth for the spiritual life of a believer. If the Lord
cannot come for His Saints till the Roman empire is again in existence,
and the two beasts have made their appearance to do their work, if He
cannot come till the Jews are back in Palestine and have rebuilt their
temple, then the real power of that blessed hope in the daily life of a
Christian is gone. The danger then is to say, "My Lord delays His
Coming," and with it drift into worldly ways.

[1] See "Exposition of Daniel," by A. C. G.

[2] See chapter on "The Conversion of the World."

[3] In Rev. vii a multitude is seen coming out of the great
tribulation. This multitude is often identified with the church. But
it is not the church, but those who believe the final testimony, the
Gospel of the kingdom and are saved to enter the earth by the Kingdom
of Christ.

THE TEN VIRGINS

or

THE MIDNIGHT CRY

Matthew xxv:1