Daniel's 70th Week and the Harpazo

 

13 July 2011: This time we're back into the "meat and 'taters" of eschatological study. I say "meat and 'taters" because this is some truly heavy fare that will require significant Berean study, commentary, and probably some editing in the process. I am not really teaching anything with this post, but rather I'm as much learning in this process as are those who are reading this for the first time.

To begin with, a verse from Daniel that we should all be quite familiar with. It is this verse which I believe is indicative of both the revealing of the Antichrist and the commencement of Daniel's 70th Week and the imminent Harpazo of the Bride of Christ which meany teach is a signless event.

"Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering." (Daniel 9:27a NKJV)

How does this verse relate to Paul's exhorations to the Thessalonians who were very concerned that Daniel's 70th Week had commenced.

"Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4)

If 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 is definitively referring to the Harpazo of the Bride of Christ, then clearly that event is not signless event with spiritual apostasy and the revealing of the Antichrist being definitive temporal signs that the Harpazo must occur after. As Paul stenuously exhorts - let no one deceive us in any way about this.

So, if I understand this correctly, and I have done my homework here to be sure, what Paul is teaching to the Thessalonians, and to all Christians up to the present time, is that the apostasy (falling away) preceeds the revealing of the Antichrist and the revealing of the Antichrist preceeds the Harpazo.

Here is where I, as a pretribulationist believer, found that I must assume in reading these verses that Paul had taught the Thessalonians about a pretribulation Harpazo. Indeed the assumption is correct because Paul so states in the very next verse (2 Thessalonians 2:5) that he had previously taught the Thessalonians exactly that.

However, in spite of the teaching they had received the Thessalonians thought they were living in the tribulation, during Daniel's 70th Week. They were extremely concerned that they had missed the Harpazo which in turn made Paul's correction to them in these verses absolutely necessary; he had to prove to them in no uncertain terms that the Harpazo had not occured and thus gave them specific signs with with to prove his teaching and alleviate their fears.

But is Paul saying something other than a pretribulational Harpazo for the Bride of Christ? No, I don't believe he is. The defining of when the Antichrist is revealed is in Daniel 9:27a, when he confirms the covenant among many. This event commences Daniel's 70th Week. But it does not necessarily commence the wrath of God upon the earth and the nations, and that is what the Harpazo delivers the Bride of Christ from. There appears to be a transition period here between the revealing of Antichrist and the Harpazo, between the current dispensation of Grace and and the final 7 years when God will turn His full attention to Israel in fulfillment of Zechariah 12:10 and Romans 11:25-27.

http://eschatologytoday.blogspot.com/2011/07/daniels-70th-week-and-harpazo.html