It may be pointed out that those who follow the "rapture" teaching have a spirit that is not teachable, a spirit that becomes extremely upset and angry when its beliefs are questioned, a spirit that expresses itself in reasonings and conjectures rather than in the clear exposition of Scriptures, and a spirit that definitely does not lead to the growth of Christ in the individual, to righteous, holy behavior.

Because of the evil fruit of the spirit of the rapture teaching we have come to view it as more than an innocent alternative understanding of the events of the last days. We view it is a spirit of blindness that has been put on the Christian churches to prevent their growth, to prevent their understanding of the Scriptures, to prevent the believers from preparing themselves to stand in the coming days of judgment, to keep the Christians looking to eternal life in the spirit Paradise rather than eternal life in a transformed personality, and to prevent the Spirit of wisdom and revelation from unfolding to the believer the Person, will, and eternal purpose of God set forth in the Old Testament.

Is there an explanation of the removal of the hindrance from the path of Antichrist that is found in the Old Testament, that does not destroy righteous behavior, or do away with the concept of the converging of spiritual Israel with natural Israel, or remove the coming of the Kingdom of God from Christian thinking, or introduce confusion into the understanding of the Hebrew Prophets?

Yes, there is; and the explanation is set forth in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The removal of that which is preventing the full revelation of the man of lawlessness is produced by the overcoming of the saints by Antichrist. This is the manner in which the restraining power, the testimony of the Holy Spirit, will be removed from the path of Antichrist.

While there are saints who are filled with God's Spirit praying and proclaiming God's Word in power in the cities of the world it is not possible for the man of sin to be revealed. But when God lifts the power of the end-time witness, and gives authority to Antichrist, the Spirit-filled testimony will be driven from the cities. The saints will be weakened: some by the temptations of the devil, some by vicious persecution, some by economic pressures. The overcoming of the Spirit-filled saints, the driving of them from all places of influence in the world, will make possible the revelation of the man of sin.

We can see this pattern operating in the wealthy nations of today. The Christian churches have in time past exerted strong moral pressure on the governments of the nations. But as the believers have been overcome by the love of money the convicting power of the Holy Spirit has been withdrawn. A strong Spirit-filled word of righteousness is not proceeding from the Christian assemblies. The result is the vanishing of the fear of God from society and the rise of the Antichrist spirit in the various world governments.

To be continued.