Today, I want to talk about the blessed hope.
Scripture that pre-tribulation rapture believers will often turn to is Titus 2 verse 13 where
the Bible says, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God
and our savior, Jesus Christ.
And many will point to this and say, see right there, the blessed hope and the glorious appearing
of Christ are two different things because they say and means that they're two different
things.
Well, that just shows a misunderstanding of the word and in the Bible because the word
and in the Bible is often used to mention the same thing twice.
Let me give you an example.
The Bible often uses the phrase unto God and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So let me ask you this.
Are God and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ two different people or is it just
two ways of saying the same person?
Unto God and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It says in Revelation 1 that God has made us kings and priests unto God and his father,
the father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, God is the father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So when it says God and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ or God and our father, it's
referring to the same person.
So when the Bible says looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great
God and our Savior Jesus Christ, those are both the same thing.
The glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ is the blessed hope.
Just a simple understanding of the grammar of that sentence can tell you that.
But not only that, sometimes the pre-tribulation crowd will look at that verse that says looking
for that blessed hope to say that means it can happen at any moment.
I mean, if we're looking for the blessed hope, that means it can happen at any moment.
Some people say, you know, you're looking for the Antichrist, but we're looking for
the blessed hope.
But you see, the fact that we're looking for the blessed hope does not mean that it can
happen at any moment.
Let me prove that to you.
In 2 Peter chapter 3, we see the exact same wording in verse 12 when the Bible says, looking
for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire
shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
Let me read for you verse number 10.
It says in 2 Peter 3, 10, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in
which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent
heat.
The earth also and the works that are there in shall be burned up.
So the Bible there says that we're looking for the day of the Lord.
We're looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being
on fire shall be dissolved.
Now let me ask you this.
Can the day of the Lord or the day of God happen at any moment?
No.
The Bible says the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the
great and terrible day of the Lord come.
We know that the day of the Lord is not going to happen at any moment.
It has to happen after other things happen.
Well the Bible still says we're looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of
God.
But you see, those who believe in a preacher of rapture, if they were going to be consistent,
they would say that looking for and hasting unto, that means it can happen any day now.
But we know that these events can't happen any day now.
And so why do we think that the blessed hope is going to happen any day now?
When Matthew 24 clearly states that it's going to happen after the tribulation.
When the Bible says after the tribulation, Christ will come in the clouds and the trumpet
will sound.
And so the scripture in Titus 2 that says looking for that blessed hope and the glorious
appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ does not prove a preacher of
rapture or imminence for that matter.
Because Jesus Christ cannot come at any moment.
He will come after the tribulation in the clouds.
And we're looking for it, but we're also looking for the day of the Lord.
We also look for new heavens and a new earth.
New heavens and a new earth aren't coming until after the millennium.
And so don't be confused by that term looking for or looking unto.
And don't be confused by people who don't understand that the word and often in the
Bible refers to two of the same thing, not two different things.