Revelation Series #316: Satan is on Plan D

Two possibilities:
a) we’re raptured early on, and judge Satan, before he is cast to earth, making room for us, or
b) three and a half years into the end times, we’re raptured, and thus Satan is cast to earth, thereby making a place/position for us in heaven.

Now, please, walk both of these possibilities through the confusing scenario that Paul gives us in the Thessalonians letters …

Paul is responding to the Thessalonians turmoil, concerning the Man of Lawlessness, and wheather or not the “parousia” has already occurred; that is, some of them were thinking that it had, and so logically they must be thinking this way, due to misunderstanding something that Paul had priorly told them. That is there must have been something going on in their word, back then, OTHER than the obvious persecutions (which is the common reason used to explain this).

It’s always seemed reasonable to me, that option “b” above is the more logical, even though I’d dearly love for option “a” to be the case … That is, the mere fact of their ongoing persecutions, in no way, really, adequately explains why they would be thinking that they’d been “left behind” They were reacting to something, something other, and more specific, which Paul had told them, concerning events around the appearance of “the Man of Lawlessness.” That is, from Paul’s letters to them (and us, too), there must have been some particular historicl episode in that first century CE …

…And it’s been suggested by Hugo Grotius (in “Opera omnia theologica”), that this underling episode was the “Gaian crisis,” meaning specifically the plan of Gaius to erect a statue of himself as Jupiter in the temple at Jerusalem. Grotius, also, explains “the delayer” in relation to the Syrian governorships of L. Vitellius and Petronius (Publius Petronius replaced Lucius Vitellius).

Petronius marched to Ptolemaus during the campaign season (spring-autumn), with three legions and auxiliaries (30K to 50K men), to install the statue by force, if necesssary, in the following year (Philo, “Embassy to Gaius”). The stature was being constructed at this time in Sidon; this placed Petronius on the coast, not far away from Galilee. Because of the disruptions with the autumnal harvests, Petronius petitioned Gaius to delay the plan (there was yet another petition to Gaius, which helped to delay, by his client Agrippa). This interference stalled the plan (through the winter), of a coastal voyage by the emperor to Alexandria, and Gaius was assassinated in January, in time for this news to overtake his instructions to Petronius , so a firm date can be derived for the events of the preceding year; that is 40CE.

Grotius suggests that the eschatological timetable in Thessalonians 2:3-12 reflects these particular events in certain indelible ways; and if this were the case … the historical facts are certain, the question is how they might relate to Paul’s letters) … then, the Thessalonian’s concerns resulted from the current events they were living in; that is, they were supposeldly watching the “Man of Lawlessness” events unfold, and therefore …if they were intelligently understanding Paul’s previous teachings, this wold mean that the rapture has already occured!

That is, Paul had told them, NOT to look for signs, that the rapture would come quickly, but Paul had also told them about certain events that were to follow the rapture … specifically about the “Man of Lawlessness” and his Temple desecration; therefore since this statue was soon to actually be installed the coming year, then it only stood to reason that the Thessalonians would think of themselves as “left behind.” And this is the reason that Paul wrote them, somehow him knowing that this”Gaian crisis” was not the real case; there would be some future event of this nature; so dont fret …

The above is not only historicaly factual, but logical, and fits easily (without elaborate argument) into what we read in the Thessalonian letters … Therefore, it only seems reasonable that we, too, today should be caught by surprise by the rapture, and only after our departure will the “Man of Lawlessness” come on the scene.

Log in to Reply