Transcript

John Barnett here and welcome to our Thessalonian study. We're still on the road. We're in this final month in Asia. We've finished up our six weeks in Europe, and I'm sitting here with my Bible and you all having my small group time. I can't wait to launch the Thessalonian chapters that are coming, but the introduction is so important and I just want to cover that with you today.

First of all, the Thessalonian epistles. Now, for those of you that this might be your very first time coming to this class Bonnie and I are traveling, and my wonderful wife, Bonnie, you can't see her, she's on the other side of the camera, she's recording this. We're traveling this last lap of our ministry after pastoral ministry for three plus decades in America. The last decade we were sent out by our wonderful saints at Calvary Bible Church to be full-time, teaching missionaries at no cost to those people that we were serving. And we are in our ninth year of doing that and have traveled, I don't know, to over 60 countries and served thousands and thousands of next generation students and frontline missionaries all over the world.

But what we're doing is we've started a small group online class doing the courses that we're doing with the students. We're recording them separately and sharing them with you. Because I've always had a small group and I need this time, and so actually in this small group, it's Bonnie and me because we're in Asia. We're, as you can see, we're in a borrowed home that someone has provided, and we're recording this.

But the Thessalonian epistles. God's blueprint for Rapture ready living during the Last Days. And what I mean by that is the concept of the Rapture only occurs here in the Word of God, and it's the Greek word, harpadzo, translated into the Latin word by Jerome when he made the Vulgate which is rapturo, the snatching away. Now, that doctrine I didn't invent and it wasn't invented by Darby or any of the early prophetic teachers of the 19th century or even 18th century, it was invented by God. The Holy Spirit of God inspired Paul to use these words. And let me just show you what I mean and what the Bible says.

My challenge to you is, are you looking for a study that confronts what we're all facing in 21st century life? Do you want your soul anchored in unshakeable hope? Well, my recipe then is to anchor yourself by getting immersed into 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Those are Paul's powerful letters, penned to people just like US saints in a church that literally the book of Acts says turned the world upside down. Actually, the book of Acts records that the people of Thessalonian accused Paul, of turning the world upside down in the ancient Roman city of Thessaloniki. The two books, these epistles, provide God's essential instructions needed to navigate a world just rushing toward its end. And here's what 1 Thessalonians does, it urges us toward renewing our dedication every day with the Lord and growing in our expectation of Christ any moment return.

So, let me just start this class because Bonnie and I have already been to Europe for six weeks, and one of our stops when we're in Europe is we alternate between teaching in Greece and Italy in France and sometimes all three. But when we're in Greece, we flew from Athens to Thessalonica. Thessaloniki, you see there on the screen. It's the second largest city. It's kind of the commercial manufacturing headquarters, whereas Athens more the political and the cultural capital, but the hardworking Thessaloniki citizens are living on top of the ruins of the biblical world.

So let me take you for a moment to the Rotunda. And the Rotunda is right in the center of Modern Day Thessalonica. It's downtown, and it was built by Galerius and it was supposed to be his mausoleum, kind of like the Pantheon, kind of like the Castel San Angelo, Hadrian's tomb. It looks like the Pantheon that Hadrian built, and it looks like the Mausoleum that Hadian built, but this is Galerius a hundred years later. And look at the lesson, right under that picture. The only way to be guilt free and assured you're going to Heaven. Now for the next nine minutes, this is a class I just taught in Thessalonica. This is a field trip. I took the students right there. In fact, I'm going to be standing on the other side of that building and you're going to see it behind me the big wall there. But watch this for the next nine minutes and just let this little clip stir your heart for what is ahead as we go through each of the eight chapters, five chapters of 1 Thessalonians and three chapters of 2 Thessalonians, and as we go through that the Rapture ready living starts with being guilt free and assured you're going to Heaven. So, join me for this incredible time with the students.

I am standing right here in Thessalonica, in Greece. We're talking about Act 17. We're talking about Paul's second missionary journey, but we're talking about the history of the Church. Behind me is the Rotunda that is, was going to be the tomb of Galerius. To my right is the Galarian arch that marks the Ignatian Way as the Ducamanas, and then the road up to the Danube being the Cardo Maximus of this whole beautiful Roman city. Gallius was the son-in-law of the Emperor Diocletian. And so that kind of gives you a geographic and historic context.

But now, a word study from 1 Thessalonians chapter three. I'd like to read to you the 13th verse, and as I read this, you can look in your Bible and maybe circle this word In your Bible, it says, so that he may establish your hearts blameless and holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints. Paul was saying he wanted the saints and Thessaloniki to be blameless awaiting Jesus return. But now comes the word study in your Bible, in verse 13, the word blameless in holiness is the Greek word, amemptos is a fascinating word. It means unblemished, unaccused. It means with no fault.

What it means is the Apostle Paul taught the Thessalonian believers two very special doctrines. The first one is a doctrine of justification. Justification is that this is me with all of my sins and Jesus came, took all of my sins on Himself, and took away the penalty of my sins and the record of my sins. But that's not all salvation does. It puts onto me His righteousness. That's how I can be blameless. I'm not accused because God accuses Jesus for my sins and punishes him. I am righteous, not because I'm perfect in myself, but because of Christ's righteousness. So that word that has to do with justification and being very aware of Jesus Christ, work for me when He returns. So, I am not ashamed, really went into the hearts of the Thessalonians. This is how we know.

Directly north of me, the French archeologist in the World War I period, as they were battling the French troops here, their archeologists were working up here excavating a cemetery. And it's probably the most touching story I know from the history of archeology that touches the Bible that I've ever heard. Here's how it goes. They were excavating. They got in the Necropolis, that's a word, Necropolis, that means City of the Dead. That's where the Romans were buried. It was a city of dead people. When Christianity started, Jesus said, Lazarus is not dead. He's sleeping. Greek word koimaó. Soon Christians began to bury their dead in cemeteries. They said they're not really dead. They're sleeping, awaiting the Resurrection. And so that began to be a tradition so that there would be a pagan Necropolis and a Christian cemetery.

Well, the French were in the Necropolis and they were excavating, and all of a sudden they realized they had crossed the line into a Christian early first and second century cemetery. Sleeping place of the dead, those who are awaiting Christ sleeping. And so, the archeologist said, we made a discovery and they found the first headstone and they took it out carefully and carried it to the tent and cleaned it all off, and they recorded their first find. And as they brushed it off, they said there is an inscription. And they read the inscription on that tombstone was written a Amemptos, so they recorded in their journal, we just found someone by the name of a Amemptos in this cemetery. They kept excavating and all of a sudden they had another gravestone and they took it out and recorded it and brought it in the tent and cleaned it all off. And they said there is another name. And it was the word Amemptos. Inscribed on the gravestone. Gravestone after gravestone. They said it's the whole family. Then they said they all have the same inscription.

You see, the believers of Thessaloniki were so taken with the doctrine of justification and the truth of Christ's return because do you remember what it says in verse 10? That you may be unbelievable and holiness at the coming of Jesus Christ for His saints, we stand unashamed and confident that Christ is returning. We are a Amemptos. We are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus and God declares us to be saints. Someone said, only saints go to Heaven. And so that's why only a few people are canonized by the Church and become Saint So and So. They got the part right about only saints go to Heaven, but you have to be a saint on Earth in order to get to Heaven. What do I mean by that? A saint is someone who has been sanctified by Jesus Christ, who has been justified, who has been forgiven, who has become a temple of God, and these Thessalonians believed.

The Gospel they heard that was written down in that epistle, and they believed that they could be unblameable in the sight of God. The hymn writer put it this way, no condemnation now I dread. Jesus in Him, alive. In Him, my living Head. I'm robed in His righteousness. That's the hope we have in Jesus Christ.

That's a little word study from the Scriptures from 1 Thessalonians 3:13. Do you know what chapter five says the same word again? It's the second time the Thessalonians got it. It says to the end, He may establish your hearts unblameable and holiness and the very God of peace sanctify you holy. And I pray, God, your whole spirit and soul and body be Amemptos. They believed it through life and they believed it enough to have it inscribed on their tombstone.

Let me ask you, do you remember the ad for a while here in America? What do you want on your Tombstone pizza? What kind of topping? Made me think, what do you want on your tombstone? The summary of your life? Would you like the world to know you are Amemptos? That you are blameless, not perfect, forgiven, justified, awaiting Jesus Christ return.

That's what we learn right here at the Rotunda. Galerius the persecutor of Christianity's Mausoleum. By the way, he never got to be buried there. He died up in Croatia and is buried up there. This became a church. His giant arch became a reminder of the greatest persecution the church ever knew, and the epistle Paul wrote to this place became a beacon of hope for that generation and for 2000 years as we wait for the son of God, I hope you're waiting for the Son of God. And I hope that if the time comes for you to go and meet our Savior through death, that you'll have as a record of your life, I am blameless in God's sight. I'm forgiven. And that you'll have the same hope that they had here in Thessalonica that I have, that all who are in Christ have. That's our lesson as we go through the Life and Letters of Paul, right here studying each of his 13 epistles. As we study 1 Thessalonians in Thessalonica, I hope these truths transform your heart.

Wow. I can still see the looks on their faces as I was teaching this class, but let's continue on from the Rotunda to for just a second, why are Bonnie and I teaching the next generation about prophecy, and why are we teaching them about this Rapture? Well. It's because Paul did. This is Paul. The epistles to the Thessalonians were Paul's first two letters to a local church. Now, he wrote Galatians to a group of churches, but it was basically confronting, after the Jerusalem Council, all the errors and the attacks on salvation. But after that, Paul in his missionary journeys on his second missionary journey goes to Thessalonica, and immediately after planting this church and being persecuted right out of the city, moves on to Corinth where he bases for 18 months. And one of his first efforts there in Corinth was to write back to the Saints in Thessalonica.

And what did he write to them about? Rapture ready living. Why? Because they were living in what looked like the end of the world emperor worship, an emperor claiming to be God the emperor, putting his face on all the money kind of controlling the world in a very strong way. Just what Paul had taught the end of the world look like. And so many of them were alarmed and they didn't know what they were supposed to do. So, Paul systematically trains them about, look, what to do when the world around you looks like it's rushing toward the end.

Now let's talk about what God says the world looks like. At the end. Now, Revelation 6, see in the left side of that slide. Revelation 6-8 talks about the seven sealed scroll and notice the first, second, third, and fourth seals. We know them as the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. Notice what? What's there? The white horse of deception conquering the world. The Red horse of warfare and death spilling blood. The black horse of scarcity, famine, water shortage. The green horse, chlóros is actually the Greek word. Chlóros, like chlorine, gas and Clorox, the cleaner for the laundry or whatever. It's green. That speaks of disease and death.

Now, if I was just to, well, like I do in Revelation. One of the classes that I'm already prepping up for when we get back from Asia, it'll be December, and then I'll have January and February and starting in March I'm doing prophetic conferences in Florida. In fact, I'm going to be doing a shortened version of this. And any of you that love prophecy and want to come and sit in a big auditorium with about a thousand people and in person go through the Thessalonian epistles. I'm going to be teaching at Word of Life Florida. Hudson, Florida. It's online, just look up, I think it's called Pine Coast, but Word of Life Florida. Hudson, Florida. You'll see it and you can actually they have the schedule there. They have a hotel, they have all kinds of facilities, and you can come for the whole week. In fact, if you came for the whole week, I'd love to meet you. I love meeting those of you that are on the other side of Bonnie on the camera, that distracts me when I see her around there.

If you want to come and have lunch or talk after a meeting or just be in the live question and answer, look up Word of Life Florida. We're there in March and I'm doing, Lord willing, the Thessalonian epistles and it's a prophetic conference. I can't wait. But then of course after that, I'm teaching for 20 hours at the Word of Life Bible Institute in Florida and the Word of Life Bible Institute in New York. Two weeks and two weeks. So, a whole month of the book of Revelation, the latest prophetic studies that, that I've been doing since last year. So, I have 12 months of prophetic studies, so I'm going to be kind of condensing into this study of every verse and every chapter, all 404 verses and 22 chapters of the book of Revelation. But what I'm going to tell the students is if you preview the four horsemen of the Great Tribulation you see four things: deceptions, wars, scarcities, and diseases. Those are the previews.

So, let's just talk about deception because in Revelation chapter 14, and let me read you that if I get there with you, Revelation 14:6. And I saw another angel flying directly overhead with the eternal Gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on Earth to every nation, tribe and language, and people. So, the Tribulation gets so bad, it's so deceived, so confusing that God has to intervene by sending first, in chapter seven, the 144,000 witnesses, and then in chapter 11, the two witnesses, and now you know those are humans.

Now God puts in an angel, a mighty angel, and he flies all the way around the world to clarify because of the deception. The deception is so complete that God doesn't trust any. You can't trust anything anymore. No printed or beamed or digital, anything. It's all corrupted by the Anti-christ. So, God sends a voice after the 144,000 have preached and the two witnesses have been executed and taken back to Heaven. God sends this angel and look how he clarifies the deception about the Gospel starting in verse seven, and he said, with a loud voice, fear God and give Him glory because the hour of judgment has come and here's what salvation is, fearing God and worshiping Him.

So, salvation is to worship the true God, who is the true God, Him who made Heaven and Earth, the sea and the springs of water. Creation evangelism. Worship the Creator. Why? Because the deception that the Anti-christ is bringing is Creator denial. What did the Creator create? He created the first thing about humanity is He created them male and female created He them in His image. The image of God was to create mankind reflecting God, and part of that reflection was the order of God. And God created male and from male, He made the female to correspond to him.

And so, do you know what the Anti-christ is going to do? There's going to be male female confusion. Now there's something to look for in the news. Are we going through the greatest, the most widespread confusion about gender specific roles and gender dysphoria? All of these terms, gender identity, gender everything. And then marriage is going to be corrupted. We've never been in a time more corrupted than right now. It's like marriage is not even on the horizon. It's not even on the map for most people. All it is sexual desires and what is going on is that God is his order. His rules are sought to be erased by the Anti-christ, and it's happening right now in our time. So, there's going to be male and female confusion as a part of the deception and Creator denial, marriage corruption, creation denial, Lord Jesus Christ, of course, denial because He's the Creator.

Now, all the rest of these horsemen are warning not only of the deception, but of the diseases, the warming, the water shortages, the foods, those are the scarcities, the wars, that's the conflicts, the hatred and the global tracking. Now, let's just, how is this going around this? Have you noticed this? Now? I haven't done a prophetic update in quite a while, so let me just do a short, prophetic update on these topics, from here in Asia from our Asia missions trip. Look at that headline on the left, examples of products that contain harmful chemicals. Phthalates and binos on the left. Your toothbrush is poisonous. Your pharmaceuticals, your toys, your lotions, building materials, nail polish, clothing and tablecloths, those are just a few. This is from the US Food and Drug Administration and from the Washington State Department of Health. This is not from some wacko person trying to scare people.

What the government is finding is that in our consumer products, we have all these chemicals that are leaching into the air from particles and into our bodies from particles, nanoparticles plastic food containers on the right, car parts like that steering wheel you might be holding because you're listening to this as a podcast, metal cans, sodas are acidic and they're eating into that aluminum. If there wasn't this coating and the coating is so valuable because that's how we can package these products. But guess what? The coating is leaching into our bodies and they have no idea of the long-term impact, but we are seeing cancer rates rising and a lot of other things rising in our society. Thermal receipts, food packaging, drink containers, all that stuff.

How about this? We're all this warming of our climate and the wild weather we're going through. Well, we have solar geoengineering going on and in the wrong hands now. Now again, this is just I'm clipping and some of these are European, English versions of European news, but that's a headline from the last four weeks. Solar geoengineering in the wrong hands could wreak climate havoc. Blocking the sun may reduce global heating, but rogue actors could cause drought or more hurricanes this report finds. That's ominous.

And how about what's going on in America? New DHS regulatory proposal would allow CBP and ICE to collect biometrics from children under the age of 14 collecting biometrics from individuals. What is that? That's all part of and by the way, it's a part of this unstoppable drive that Satan is leading to digitalize our world so that there can be global identity and global tracking.

All these things that we see in Revelation. Look what one of the major American and global financiers, the BlackRock, the huge investment fund and company and hedge fund and all that. Larry Fink says, we're at the beginning of the tokenization of all assets. What's that? The necessity of Digital ID so that we can identify the true owner, we can weed out the fakes, we can protect the assets. We can have people have confidence that what they're buying, I mean, they're finding that gold coins are not gold coins, but gold coded, unprecious metals or semi-precious metals. And the same thing has happened with silver and with diamonds and, and with art and with, of course, currency is being counterfeited and everything else. And then, people are stealing their digital wallets of Bitcoin, all that stuff.

So, what are we going to do? We need security. See, that's what the Anti-christ brings peace and safety. He brings the world security. How does he do it? Well, just what you're seeing in these headlines through all this security measures for our finances and for our assets. And if you want to know what's going to happen in America, just watch the other English-speaking world, the whole British Empire. Every adult in the UK will soon be required. This is September 25th. Now, that's a long time ago, and they're still debating it in Parliament and going up and down, but they're going to have a digital Brit card ID to prove who you are. Wow. And you know where that leads.

Oh, never feel comfortable as long as we have, what's going on in Russia? There's Putin and on the left, Putin tests an unstoppable underwater weapon that can cause radioactive tsunamis. So, there it is. On the left, there's the torpedo. Now look at Putin, announcing this Putin fires the Poseidon nuclear torpedo in a second Armageddon test days after his flying Chernobyl missile sparked Trump's fury. Remember they and in my prophetic update, I'll cover all these, but they have a nuclear reactor drone missile that can just fly kind of indefinitely and kind of keep a nuclear warhead always flying around and it's unstoppable. And what is Putin doing? He's reminding us that Russia's in the Bible and Russia leads the charge against Israel joining with Iran prompting what we would call the devastations of what's going to happen in Ezekiel 38 and 39, but that's for another course.

Now, what about this? I thought this was fascinating. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, AMOC. That's if you follow it there, warm water travels north from number one as it reaches the North Atlantic. It cools down and comes down. Number three, it becomes dense as it cools, forcing to sink to bottom of the ocean. It comes around to number four. The water then flows south before warming, rising back to the surface. And then, the whole process. It just starts over again, and what we're seeing is that's breaking down. And that could be part of what we see in the book of Revelation.

So why are we studying the Thessalonian epistles? What is this Rapture ready living? Well, if you join this course and we're at the 20-minute mark of another introduction, I'm hoping because we're traveling, I want to capture the entire chapter by chapter study. So, I'm trying to get all the introductory stuff out of the way ahead of time. And that's why I gave you that Rotunda video. I have another one for you, one of my favorites coming right up after this.

But 1 Thessalonians chapter one is How to Know You're Waiting For Jesus. That's the assurance, how to unleash God's powerful word. That's one of my favorite verses, for this cause, also, thank we God without ceasing, that when you receive the Word of God, which you heard from us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth. The Word of God that effectually works also in you that believe so true believers have the Word of God unleashed in their lives. That's how to prepare for the Rapture. That's how to wait for Jesus.

And look at this second line of the title, the Best Life Possible. Wherever you live in the world, we're teaching in Asia right now and all the pressures on these Asian students, their parents in this culture, the parents depend on the children that when they get old, the children take care of them. And so, you've got to educate and push your children to have a good job so that they can provide for their family themselves, their family, and their parents. And so, there's so many pressures on these. How do you have the best life possible wherever you are, any point in history? That's the super cultural timeless relevance of the Word of God. And 1 Thessalonians. Let me back up there, and I want to read. Bonnie reminds me that sometimes I read or I quote these verses too fast. 2:13, 1 Thessalonians 2:13, and we also thank God constantly for this. That when you received the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as what it really is the Word of God, which is at work, in you that believe.

That's how you know that you're saved. God's word is unleashed in your life. It works the truth of the Word of God. It worked in my life today. I was facing there, there are constant challenges in language barriers, cultural barriers, teaching barriers, all of the travel, the food, the time zones, medical needs. I ran out of one of my prescriptions and trying to get that in a faraway place and praise the Lord for help in that. The pharmacist finally understood what I was talking about and helped me. Thankfully I don't take anything that's too difficult to get anywhere in the world for medication-wise. And so, we were taken care of yesterday but praise the Lord.

But before it all, I had anxiety. See, when we are not trusting in the Lord, we trust in ourself and we just get anxious. In fact, you know what anxiety is? It's meditating on our problems. Do you know what God wants us to meditate? On His promises, His truth, the Word of God, and as soon as we do, it's powerful. First, He gives us peace and joy and hope and calmness because He's in control and then He works it out in a way we would never have thought possible ourselves.

Chapter three is how to be Anchored to Christ. Chapter four is How to Please God Till Christ Returns. And Chapter five has 15 imperatives. I call this the Rapture Ready Commands. If you want to be ready, wait till we get to chapter 15, How to Live for Christ Through the End of Days. And it works anywhere at any time. And we're going to cover each of those and it's the most closely packed together set of little, short commands. Remember, these people didn't get a copy of the Bible to buy and take home with them. They had to listen. And so, Paul, as the letter was being read to the Thessalonians that he wrote in Corinth and sent to them, they could hear these short little commands and they could hold them and remember them and act on them. Oh, we should be so thankful we have everything right here and we should spend time studying and working on this.

Well, now we're at the 25-minute mark plus the nine minutes, so 34 minutes. In here is one of my favorite spots. You can see it right there. That's the St. Demetrius Church and it's built over old Roman ruins that had underground tunnels and catacombs where the early believers were and the title of it is Being Faithful to the End like the Thessalonian Saints. So, for the next three minutes and 20 seconds, I'm going to take you through that door and downstairs I'm going to talk to you about one of the early saints, a centurion, Demetrius, who was martyred because he wouldn't deny Christ. And that's what's headed our way as the world coalesces into darkness. If we only have the persecution that has been around outside of the Tribulation, just throughout all the centuries of Christianity through the last 20 centuries, if we only have the persecution at that level then we're. Demetrius wasn't in the Great Tribulation. He was just in a world that was against God. That's what we're in right now, and he had to make a choice to follow Christ or to save his skin. And he gloriously followed Christ. Let's watch this video.

I am down here in the Roman bath complex ruins. It's right underneath the Demetrius Church. The Demetrius Church is a reminder of St. Demetrius, who was martyred right here in this area, captured and killed for his faith in Christ. We're in Thessalonica. We're underneath modern Thessalonica. We're actually in the Roman period. And what I'd like to talk to you about is the time period when Demetrius died. It was the height of the persecution of the Church. Diocletian, and we'll do a lesson about him at another time, had brought the Church the closest it's ever been to extinction and what kept them going is what I'm going to read to you from 1 Thessalonians.

This is the epistle Paul wrote to the saints that believed so much what God's Word said that they were willing to die for their faith. Paul said, you became examples to all in Macedonian Achaia from you. The Word of the Lord sounded forth. This is 1 Thessalonians 1:8. Not only in Macedonian Achaia, but in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so we don't need to say anything. They were talking about their faith in Christ. They were sharing and living the faith of Christ. And it says, the people that hear you, they themselves declare concerning us what matter of entry we had and how you turn from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from Heaven, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Demetrius believed the Word of God. He believed the Gospel. He believed Jesus had delivered him from the wrath to come, and he was waiting for the Son of God and he waited for Him, faithful unto death. This is so much like many of the catacombs scattered around the Roman world, where Christians found refuge, where they were in the last days of their life, where they waited for the Son of God. It says in 1 Thessalonians, that's what characterized the Thessalonian church, and that's what the Lord wants from us even today, to be faithful to Him, to live life waiting for the Son of God. 1 Thessalonians written by Paul from Corinth to right here, this church on the second missionary journey, a source of encouragement for us even being faithful to death.

Amen. Okay, 2 Thessalonians, the rise of Satan's Anti-christ. Now, I put Demetrius before this because I don't want you to think that martyrdom is only going to be during the Tribulation. Many Christians are facing horrible persecution and martyrdom right now in many parts of the world. In fact, some of the doctors that we address at the medical conferences that are for the closed country church planting, medical missionaries they're seeing horrific persecution.

But now let's talk about the Tribulation. 2 Thessalonians chronicles the rise of Satan's Anti-christ. In fact, Paul connects together what Jesus said in Matthew 24 and what Daniel said. And he puts it together and teaches it to the local church. And we're going to see that. But here are the three chapters that's going to be primarily in chapter two of 2 Thessalonians, but Christ coming is going to right all wrongs. That's why it says here, this is a verse we're going to learn when the Lord Jesus is revealed from Heaven. This is 2 Thessalonians 1:7 inflaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ coming is going to right all wrongs.

Number two. The second chapter says, only truth lovers are saved. And so that's the vital message of 2 Thessalonians, that true salvation is because we have received from God a love of the truth and we pursue the truth, and that's Bonnie's testimony over there behind the camera. She had this intense longing to know the truth, and she searched through the cults and through the religions, and finally when she was at her most desperate hour, she took a Bible that had been given to her by her aunt at the bottom of her backpack in her knapsack. She reached down in there and pulled out that little, tiny New Testament, opened it up, read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in one night. That's one third of the New Testament, so it takes about six hours. So, she spent six hours reading the four Gospels. Just it was sitting because God had given her love the truth. And she was convicted of her sin and saved. Okay. Whoa. That's going to be great to cover in chapter two. And then God is faithful to bless His Word and what does His Word tell us? His Word tells us about what's ahead.

And that's where the book of 1 and the book of 2 Thessalonians, those epistles completely mesh with the book of Revelation. Here's the book of Revelation. If you watch me very long, you've seen this. The book of Revelation starts with us, the Church on Earth, then God's promises are fulfilled. He takes, as Jesus promised in John 14, in Luke 24, and in Acts 1, and as Paul illustrates in 1 Corinthians 15, and right here in 1 Thessalonians 4, and again, John says in Revelation 3, the Church on Earth is raptured to Heaven. What for? Because of what 1 Corinthians says, the Church in Heaven is going to give an account for whether or not we lived for the Rapture ready imperatives. And then of course, we're not here, but we're watching from above.

All the events of the Tribulation unfold, so that's why getting us right back to where we started, the Thessalonian epistles are God's blueprint for Rapture ready living during the Last Days. And I can assure you we're in the Last Days. Do you know why? Because it says it in the Bible, remember what it says in Hebrews? God, who at various times and in various manners has spoken, time passed on the fathers by the prophets, has in these Last Days spoken unto us. The Last Days began at the time of Christ death, burial, and resurrection, and the birth of the Church that began the Last Days. And boy we're 2000 years into the Last Days, so Rapture ready living, taught by the Apostle Paul.

And where did Paul learn it? Paul was trained in the Arabian Desert, the Nabataean Desert. Think Jordan and Petra. He was trained by Christ for that time in the desert. And then he just launches from that into his Bible teaching ministry and what he taught to all the churches. He writes in the epistles what Paul taught in Corinth. He wrote in Romans what Paul answered the questions from those he taught in Corinth. He wrote in the Corinthian epistles what Paul taught in Thessaloniki. He wrote from Corinth to the Thessalonians, and that's what we're studying, the Thessalonian epistles. And what do the Thessalonian epistles contain? God's blueprint for Rapture Ready Living during the Last Days.

So, what am I going to encourage you to do? Well, you need to get a journal. See over there on the left side. This is, I've already done this study and I'm just going to be one week at a time sharing with you how I found all these truths and showing them to you in the text, but devotional. That's what this journal is for, to capture your devotional thoughts and lessons and truths and principles that you find how to Wait for Jesus summary. Paul arrived in town, Thessaloniki recovering from the beating in Philippi. That's Acts 16 after walking from Philippi to Amphi. From Philippi to Amphi. That's 30 miles. Then to Apollonia, that's 30 more miles. And then to Thessalonica, that's 37 miles. So, Paul and Silas were scabbed and striped and sore on the outside but overflowing within. How do you like that? That's my summary. That's what I wrote after reading chapter one. So that's my journal, and I'm going to challenge you and teach you how to do that when we start the chapters. I'm going to give you a lesson on how to do all this.

What I encourage everyone to do to be Rapture ready is to get protected and you get protected by, on the left, a systematic theology. You say, oh, I don't like, I read your notes. You say, oh, he's so Reformed, Uhhuh. He is. Wayne Gruden on the left is very Reformed, so is John MacArthur on the right.

But John MacArthur's already been perfected. He is in Heaven and what he left behind was his sanctified heart, lifelong study of the Word of God. That's what's on the right. So, I hardly recommend to you if you're going to go through this Thessalonian study that you hop onto Amazon and find the MacArthur Study Bible or anywhere else you want to get it. I mean, you can buy it. I used to have a link and have people doing the study, and then I got criticized. So, I don't promote the link anymore. I mean, I saw that the 2000 MacArthur study Bibles were bought with that link and I think that. Amazon gave me 75 cents or something. I don't know what they gave me for everyone, so don't use my link. Okay? Because I don't want you to think I am pushing those so that you buy them from Amazon. But I would encourage you if you want to be protected for the End of Days, you need a study Bible that is non-digital. You need a paper copy so that if the, some solar flare, all these auroras that you know the big pictures of the auroras in the news, that's because of a solar storm and one of these solar storms. One day is going to make the internet blink a little bit and your cloud. Stuff and your digitalized stuff might not be accessible for a while, and you need a solid paper copy you can take with you wherever you go. So, a study Bible.

That study Bible has 31,000 footnotes, or no, 25,000 footnotes on the 31,000 verses of the Bible. John MacArthur almost has one comment on every verse of the whole Bible, and what he does is he explains to us orthodox doctrine, evangelical, solid doctrine. Now, what does Wayne Gruden do on the left systematic theology? He takes all the doctrines of the whole Bible, puts them in a blender and kind of puts them in order. They're not in biblical order. They are biblical, but they're not in biblical order. They're in systematic theological order. And then within that, he divides him into these nine divisions on the left traditional Roman Catholic theology. Roman Catholic Post Vatican II theology. Then Anglican, AKA, Episcopalian Arminian, AKA, Wesleyan or Methodist, Baptist, Dispensational, Lutheran, Reformed, or Presbyterian. That's the John Knox denomination and Renewal or Charismatic Pentecostal, those nine different areas. Do you know what those nine different areas are? Every one of you, if you're born again. In some way have been influenced by the, if you have not been influenced by one of those, then you were totally uninfluenced by your culture because that's the Christian culture around the world. So maybe if you're in Asia and from a Buddhist culture and we're totally saved by reading the Bible, you wouldn't have any of those influences. But all the people in the English-speaking world have had some. Exposure to those. What's important about that? Within all of those, there are godly Anglicans, godly Armenians, godly Baptist, godly Dispensationalist, godly Lutherans, godly Reformed, and godly Renewal, as well as godly Roman Catholics.

You say what? Yes. It wasn't till the Council of Trent that Rome systematized their doctrine in such a way that they said, if you believe the Gospel, the evangelical Gospel, you're anathema, it was at that point that it became clear cut that Roman Catholicism was wrong. There was always errors and there's errors in every denomination, but Rome's errors of the work salvation are deadly. Deadly. All errors are deadly, but salvation errors are the deadliest because if you get the Gospel wrong you have nothing. So, what I'm saying is that there are godly believers in all of these denominations.

I personally, in 1978, I met a Roman Catholic priest in Poland. I delivered 1500 Gospel of Johns to this priest in Poland. He oversaw the Virgin Mary shrine in Poland that hundreds of thousands of people came to and prayed there at this shrine. I came to his house in the middle of the night and delivered 1500 Gospel Johns in multiple languages because he was an evangelist. He was a Roman Catholic priest who had become saved and stayed within the church to evangelize, and he was in charge of that shrine, and he would take and had in his little booth all the different languages that we brought him. And he would talk to people that were there praying and weeping at the Mary shrine and would say, would you like to know what? Would you like to know Jesus personally? I have come to know him personally intimately. I know him. I talked to him this morning. I hear his voice through His Word. Could I give you the Gospel of John? And he shared his testimony and gave away those Bibles. And the next year we had to bring him thousands more.

So, there is a born again Roman Catholic and he is not alone, but he was born again in spite of Roman Catholic doctrine and. He explained to them that Roman Catholic doctrine was wrong in the worship and veneration of Mary and in the salvation by works through the sacraments. So that's why you need a systematic theology to check doctrine and find out where it came from how these different views look at the same doctrines and you'll learn through all of it. So, study Bible. A systematic theology.

So, to be Rapture ready, how do I protect myself from the coming mega-deceptions? Number one, get joyful by getting personally into study and memorization of the Word. And if you join this study, and if you're watching this you're in, okay? Just find it, it's right here on YouTube, and then it comes out later on the Academy. And to go to the Academy, you have to register and you have to give us your email address and your name and tell us what country you're from so we can pray for you and see your progress with the courses. So, if you want to be totally anonymous, go to YouTube. You can see the Thessalonians course. If you want us to pray for you to be in touch and to send you updates, then give us your email address and come through the Academy.

But number one, get joyful by personally studying and memorizing the Word, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God. That's the right-hand verse. Matthew 4:4 on the left, Jeremiah 15:16, Thy Words were found and I did eat them, and Thy Word was to me the joy and rejoice in my heart because I'm called by Your name, oh Lord, God of hosts. One of my favorite verses just quoted that to our class in Korea. They had question, answer time, and they said, what's your favorite verse to Bonnie and to me. And Bonnie shared hers, and that was mine. And I quoted it to him and exhorted them.

Number two, get accountable. Now you can join this small group online and come through this class, but there's nobody that looks you in the eye, and that's what you're responsible for. You need to start a small group. Hebrews 10:24-25 says you should be a part of a local church and within that local church, or from people like-minded that are also believers, you need to find those that you can share what's going on in your life, your struggles. Have them pray for you. Have them listen to you memory verses have them contact you when you're struggling. There's nothing like a real person that will help you get out of the ditch that. I'm from snow country. When you slide into the ditch you need help. I mean, unless you're one of those people that has a long enough winch and cable and a tree nearby, but usually you need help someone to push and someone to rock your car and get you out of the ditch.

And then number three, you get protected. Use a study Bible and systematic theology. 2 Timothy 2:15, study to show yourself to prove unto God.

Now what's ahead? There are 27 New Testament books. James is the first, Galatians the green part, or Paul's epistles was his first epistle about genuine salvation. Now we're in his very first church epistles in the center there written from Corinth. Here are the message, waiting for Jesus, the best life possible, I already shared that with you. And the rise of Satan, Anti-christ as part of God's plan. Then Paul wrote to Corinthian, 1 Corinthians, then he wrote Romans, then he wrote 2 Corinthians. Look what's after this. The Gospel, Matthew, Mark, and Luke and all of that we explain in our Paul's Life and Letters.

We just finished the Romans course. There it is. You can get it at John Barnett Online Teaching on YouTube at DTBM. The Paul's Life and Letter book of Romans course. That's exactly how you're going to see the Thessalonians course come out, and each of the lessons are going to be right there for you on YouTube.

So, God's Blueprint for Rapture Ready Living During the Last Days, and this is a long course and it's time to go, but here I am. In Asia, praying for you launching the Thessalonian course, God's blueprint for Rapture. Ready Living.

Let's pray. Father in Heaven, I thank you for everybody that's joining us by way of these videos. I pray that it would stir their hearts to get into Your Word, to get joyful, to get accountable, and to get protected, to be Rapture ready and how I look forward to walking through these eight chapters of the Thessalonian epistles. Bless our introductory time in the next few weeks as I finish up getting the setting ready, and then I pray that this group will be ready to get the deep impact that these epistles offer that have impacted my life, that have impacted each of the churches that Bonnie and I have had the privilege of pastoring, and now we're impacting these students here in Asia and around the world. Thank you. Bless our time. We look forward to your coming or calling us at any moment. Help us to live pleasing in your sight for Jesus' sake. Amen.

God bless you. See you next week. A little more introduction than in maybe two weeks or three. We're going to jump into chapter one. Bye-bye.