Today I want to talk about 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 7, which I've often been shown
by those who believe in the pre-trib rapture, and this is a verse that they believe is very
clear evidence that the rapture comes before the tribulation.
Let me read it for you and you can be the judge.
The Bible says in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 7, for the mystery of iniquity doth
already work, only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way.
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.
Well there you have it folks, crystal clear right?
I mean that verse just teaches a pre-trib rapture.
I don't understand how you don't see it viewer.
Well actually I'm just kidding, I don't see it either because it's not there.
The Bible says he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way.
That's a pretty vague verse for these pre-tribbers to be resting their entire doctrine upon.
Now you say Pastor Anderson, how do they even get a pre-trib rapture out of that verse?
Well it's easy, they get it from Scofield's notes.
In the Scofield reference Bible he explains that he who now letteth is the Holy Spirit,
and the Holy Spirit has to be taken out of the way before the Antichrist can be revealed,
and since the Holy Spirit lives inside believers, that means believers have to be taken from
this earth in order for the Holy Spirit to be removed, then the Antichrist can be revealed.
And so the Holy Spirit is restraining the Antichrist and so believers have to be removed.
Now look, let me explain to you why this is completely unbiblical and blasphemous and
false doctrine.
First of all, the Holy Spirit is God.
You cannot just take God out of the way.
He's God, he's everywhere.
The Bible says that if we ascend into heaven, he's there.
If we make our bed in hell, he's there.
If we go down to the depths of the sea, the Bible says the Spirit of God is there, the
Spirit of God is everywhere, the Spirit of God is God.
Now you can't take him out of the way, he's God.
And so to say, well believers are going to be taken because the Holy Spirit's got to
be taken, that's a big, big stretch and it's also blasphemous to say you're going to take
God out of the way, and it's also just not in the verse at all.
There's no mention of the Holy Spirit.
And that leads me to my next point.
The pronoun he there is taking the place of a noun.
Pronouns take the place of a noun.
And every pronoun has what's called an antecedent, a word that comes before it to tell us what
that pronoun is.
You see, if you just start using the word he with someone and you haven't told them
who you're talking about, you're going to confuse whoever you're talking to.
First you mention the person's name.
I might say, I have a friend named Dave.
He is a computer programmer.
But I'm not just going to walk up to someone and say, he is a computer programmer, unless
I'm pointing to that person or I have mentioned them previously, which is known as the antecedent.
Well here's the problem.
The Holy Spirit is never mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 1 or 1 Thessalonians 2 up to this point.
There's been no mention of the Holy Spirit.
So how can we just assume that the word he is referring to the Holy Spirit when the Holy
Spirit's never been mentioned in this passage whatsoever?
Now the man of sin has been mentioned and that's actually who the he is referring to,
the he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way.
It's talking about the man of sin being killed because he receives a deadly wound and if
you remember, his deadly wound is healed.
But the Bible says he's wounded to death and in Revelation 17 it says that he ascends out
of the bottomless pit.
And of course, that's a whole other sermon and I've preached on that and explained that
many times.
But the bottom line is, the Holy Spirit's not mentioned.
The man of sin is.
And so the he in verse 7 cannot be referring to the Holy Spirit because he's not mentioned,
number one.
And number two, the Holy Spirit can't be taken out of the way because he's God.
Man can be taken out of the way, but God can't.
And so this is a very, very weak proof of a pre-trib rapture.
In fact, it's no proof at all.
But these are the kind of things that pre-tribbers have to use because there's so little scripture
that they can even twist to support their doctrine.
This is the best they can do, folks.
Here's the best they can do for a clear scripture.
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth will let until he
be taken out of the way.
Of course, those who believe in post-trib rapture have crystal clear scriptures in Matthew
24, Mark 13, Luke 17, Luke 21, and on and on and on.