“Can you explain what pre-tribulation, pre-millennial, OSAS is and why I should care? I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God – He is my Lord and Savior – the only way to salvation (John 14:6).”

On our facebook page we define gracethrufaith.com as a pre-tribulation, pre-millennial, OSAS believing, literal reading Bible study website. We included this summary of our beliefs to let people know what we teach so they would know what to expect when they come to our page.

Recently, someone sent me the above message and although I’ve received comments like it before, for some reason this one struck me because it represents the attitude of a great many born again Christians. Largely because of the way the Church approaches Christian education, they think getting saved is all that matters.

They don’t realize that getting saved is really no more than passing the entrance exam into Christianity. It doesn’t prepare us to live a Christian life on Earth (or an eternal life in Heaven) any more than passing the entrance exam into medical school would prepare us to treat patients as a doctor.

And just like no med school candidate would expect to become a doctor without ever consulting a textbook, no Christian should expect to live a meaningful Christian life without ever consulting the Bible.

And yet according to the American Bible Society’s “State of the Bible 2013″ study, while 66 percent of Americans agreed that “the Bible contains everything a person needs to know to live a meaningful life,” 58 percent say they don’t want wisdom and advice from the Bible, and 57 percent say they read the Bible fewer than five times per year.

Even among those who read it more often, many skip over most of the Old Testament and anything having to do with prophecy in the New Testament. And even though they read parts of the Gospels and Paul’s Epistles, very few have a grasp of what it means to live a victorious Christian life.

How well do you think our hypothetical med student would fare with that attitude about his or her primary textbook?

My point here is that almost 30% of the Bible is composed of prophecies; statements God has made that at the time He made them were in the future. Some of them have since been fulfilled while others are for our future, but it’s important to be familiar with both kinds.

The fulfilled prophecies tell us that God can see the future and has often informed His people of things to come. He has done this so when they happen we will remember that He told us in advance (Isaiah 48:5-6). His track record for promising and then performing is so flawless that Biblical prophecy is described by many as being “history, written in advance.” We who have taken the time to study prophecy have proved to ourselves that He knows the end from the beginning. This adds substance to our faith, making us more certain that the God we worship is Who He claims to be. You might say prophecy is His way of authenticating Himself to us.

And that brings us to the unfulfilled prophecies. Knowing His accuracy in fulfilling past prophecies gives us more certainty that what He has said about the future will come to pass as well.

Those who haven’t studied prophecy can’t fully comprehend the basis for our faith and why it’s different from the faith people of other religions have in their gods. For them it’s just “something we believe” as people have often described Christianity to me.  They don’t realize that ours is the only God who has proven His existence to His people (Isaiah 46:8-10).

According to a recent Barna Group poll 41% of Americans in general and an astonishing 77% of Evangelical Christians said they believe the Biblical end times are here. And yet many of them are not able to give even a cursory description of the “end times”. They’re like the person who wrote the comment we began with. They aren’t familiar with end times terminology and don’t know why it should be important to them.

So let’s take a moment to review the terms I used to define gracethrufaith.com and recall why it’s important to understand what they mean.

Pre-Tribulation

What is it?  Pre-Tribulation literally means “before the tribulation” and refers to the rapture of the Church. The Bible says there’s a seven year period of time coming upon the Earth when the Lord will first turn His attention once again to Israel and then bring a series of judgments upon the world to completely destroy all the nations among which His people have been scattered over the centuries (Jeremiah 30:5-11). Jesus called the last half of this period the Great Tribulation and said it will be the worst time of judgment the world has ever seen or ever will see (Matt. 24:21). The Bible calls this seven years the time of God’s wrath (Rev. 6:15-17) but many scholars call it the tribulation period.

Before this seven year period begins, the Lord will take all true believers away from the world in an event called the rapture (catching away) of the Church (1 Thes. 4:16-17). He will do this to remove us from the time and place of His wrath (Romans 5:9, 1 Thes. 1:10), because the judgments are not intended for the Church (1 Thes. 5:9).  So the Pre-Tribulation rapture of the Church is the catching away of all living believers before the end times judgments begin. Believers who have died during the Church Age will be resurrected and receive new bodies at the same time (1 Cor. 15:51-52) and together we’ll go to our eternal home to begin our new life with Jesus (John 14:2-3).

Why Should I Care?  Understanding the Pre-Tribulation rapture is important because it’s a promise from the Lord that the Church will not have to endure the end times judgments, but can have hope that as we see the time approaching we’ll know our departure is drawing near (Luke 21:31). In addition, it alerts us to the fact that if we feel the Lord calling us to do something for him, the time for doing it is growing short.

It’s also important to understand this because some people don’t accept what the Bible says about the rapture and try to convince others that either the rapture will take place after the judgments, or won’t take place at all. People who haven’t done their homework can be confused or misled by this and their faith can be shaken. We should not only know what we believe but why we believe it so we can defend our position when called upon to do so.

Pre-Millennial

What is it?  Pre-Millennial means before the Millennium. The Millennium is the Lord’s 1,000 year reign on Earth (Rev. 20:4). The time in which we live is called pre-millennial because the Millennium begins after the 2nd Coming and ends at the beginning of what theologians call man’s eternal state. During this 1,000 years Israel will receive all the blessings promised by God. For this reason, it’s also referred to as Israel’s Kingdom Age, and is why most of what we know about the Millennium comes from the Old Testament.

At the 2nd Coming the Earth will be restored to the condition it was in when God created it (Acts 3:21), and Israel will live there with Him (Ezekiel 43:7). The curse that has plagued the world since Adam and Eve sinned will be lifted (Rev. 22:3), and Earth will once again be the Edenic Garden it was in the beginning.

Why Should I Care?  It’s important to us because our friends and family who are not believers will miss the rapture, but many of them will become believers during the seven years of judgments. They’ll help repopulate the Earth during the Millennium and will live there, too. They might not be able to visit us in our eternal home (Rev. 21:27), but we’ll be able to visit them on Earth.

As with the rapture some people don’t believe in a literal 1,000 year reign by the Lord on Earth. They either believe that God’s promises to Israel have been inherited by the Church and are allegorical, not factual, or they believe the Millennium has already taken place in heaven. Hearing false teaching like this can be confusing or misleading to those who don’t know the facts.

OSAS

What is it?  OSAS stands for “once saved always saved” and is the popular name for the doctrine of eternal security. It’s not considered to be in the realm of prophecy, but it does have a profound effect on how we view the future. People who believe this doctrine believe that once we have asked for and received our salvation there’s nothing anyone including we ourselves can do to reverse it. It’s based on two of the clearest verses in the New Testament on this issue, Ephesians 1:13-14 and 2 Cor. 1:21-22. They both say that when we heard the gospel of our salvation and believed it, God sent us His Spirit as a seal to guarantee our inheritance. In 2 Cor. 1:21-22 Paul went even further saying that it’s God himself who makes us stand firm in Christ by setting His seal of ownership on us and placing His spirit in our heart. All this happened when we believed the Gospel, before we had any opportunity to either do good things to qualify for it or bad things to disqualify ourselves.

Why Should I Care?  Along with knowing we’re saved it’s important to understand the durability of our salvation.  As we saw above, the Bible is very clear in saying that having been saved, our eternal life with the Lord is assured and we no longer have to worry about it. Jesus said the only work God requires of us is to believe in the one He sent (John 6:28-29) and that it’s God’s will that every one who looks to the Son and believes in Him will not be lost but will have eternal life (John 6:37-40). He also said that once we’re in His and His Father’s hands no one can snatch us out of them (John 10:27-30).

It’s especially important to know this because false teachers abound, telling us that if we ever sin after being saved our salvation will be revoked and we’ll never be able to get it back. Some of them say Jesus only died for the sins we committed up till the time we were saved. After that it’s up to us to keep ourselves sin free. Others teach that salvation is a combination of God’s grace and our good works, and if we don’t do our part right to the end we’ll be lost. If we don’t know the truth, the joy of our salvation can easily be turned into the fear of losing it.

Literal Reading

What is it?  Dr. David L. Cooper defined it this way. “When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise.”

This has come to be known as the golden rule of interpretation because of its importance in correctly interpreting Scripture. People who violate this rule can make the Bible say almost anything. I think there’s another rule that should be considered with it. That one says we should always use the clearest verses on a topic to help us understand verses that aren’t so clear. The Bible, being the Word of God (2 Tim. 3:16) cannot contradict itself. It can’t say something in one place, and something different in another place. Whenever we think it does, we’ve violated one of these rules.

Why Should I Care?  After 30 years of nearly full time study of the Bible, I’ve concluded that every argument against the positions I’ve described above has its foundation in a violation of one or both of these rules. People take verses out of context, develop allegorical interpretations where literal meanings are clear, and actually reinterpret verses to make them say something different from what the Lord intended, to support their mistaken opinions. Those who aren’t Biblically literate are fair game for these folks.

Obviously there are lots of other important things in the Bible that a serious Christian should know. I picked these for inclusion in our summary statement because they tell people right away what we believe. And in becoming more familiar with these, one necessarily has to touch on Salvation, Grace, the Great Tribulation, the 2nd Coming, Eternity, and of course prophecy in general.

Knowing for yourself what the Bible says about these things is much better than taking someone else’s word for it or worse, ignoring it altogether. It’s not only the best defense against false teaching. It’s also the best way to increase your faith in the promises of God.

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ(Romans 10:17).

Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed (2 Thes 2:5-8).

It seems like every time I post anything having to do with the restrainer, I get a bunch of questions about who or what the restrainer is, or as the NIV translates it “the one who now holds it (the secret power of lawlessness) back”. The word “restrainer” is a translation of the Greek word katecho (ka-te’-kho) which can also mean “to hold back” or “hinder”.

Down through the years there have been several different views on the identity of the restrainer.  Some of the most popular have been the State of Israel, the Roman Empire, the general principle of law and government, the Archangel Michael, and the Holy Spirit.

The general idea of 2 Thes. 2:5-8 is that some force or being is preventing the full power of lawlessness from being released upon the Earth and will continue to do so until he is taken out of the way. From the context we know that this “power of lawlessness” will ultimately reside in the anti-Christ, called the man of lawlessness in 2 Thes. 2:3,8.

When speaking about the power holding the anti-Christ back in verse 6, the Greek word Paul used is in the neuter gender. But in verse 7 he used personal pronouns of the masculine gender to describe the one exercising the power. By this we conclude that whoever is restraining the appearance of the anti-Christ has to be a living entity, not a thing.  And he has to be very powerful since according to verse 9 the anti-Christ’s appearance is a work of Satan.

Suddenly this living entity will be taken out of the place where the anti-Christ is trying to appear (Planet Earth), freeing him to make his appearance.  And from that point on, the power of the anti-Christ will be unrestrained, allowing him to do Satan’s worst.

Some question whether the word “taken” in the phrase “taken out of the way” is an accurate translation of the Greek word “ginomai”. They correctly claim that the most common translation of ginomai in the Bible is “to be, or become”.  But you have to put the word in the context of 2 Thes. 2:7 to understand where the restrainer is “to be”.  The Greek words that follow ginomai are “ek”, which means “out of” and implies both time and place, and “mesos” which means “middle, or midst”.

Put the whole thought together and you see the restrainer has “to be out of the midst” of the time and place he’s currently in before the lawless one can be revealed.  400 years ago the King James translators decided that the English phrase “taken out of the way”  while not a literal translation, best conveyed Paul’s intent.  Most modern translations agree.

I think everyone wishes that Paul had simply disclosed who the restrainer is instead of just describing what He is doing. But notice what he did say.

Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time (2 Thes. 2:6).

He had obviously identified at least the restraining power, if not the restrainer himself, in a prior teaching. Otherwise he couldn’t have expected them to know about it/him. And if he knew he was writing to the entire Church (as I believe) and not just 1st Century Thessalonians, then we would expect to find the answer somewhere else in his letters to us. So let’s review our list of popular candidates; the State of Israel, the Roman Empire, the general principle of law and government, the Archangel Michael, and the Holy Spirit, and see if any of them qualify.

The State Of Israel
Paul knew Israel was in its last days, and would be absent for most of the Church Age. If he didn’t learn it from his time with the Lord in Arabia (Galatians 1:11-24) he certainly knew it from his attendance at the council in Jerusalem. There, James disclosed that Israel was being set aside until the Lord took from among the Gentiles a people for Himself (Acts 15:13-18). And Jesus said that when the anti-Christ makes his appearance many in Israel will accept him, thinking he’s the Messiah (Isaiah 28:15, John 5:43). Besides, Israel is a nation, not a being. For these reasons I would disqualify Israel as a candidate.

The Roman Empire
The Roman Empire is the candidate preferred by those who believe all end times prophecies were fulfilled by 70 AD. This is interesting to me because their candidate for the anti-Christ is the Roman Emperor Nero. So rather than restraining the man of lawlessness, the Roman Empire was responsible for bringing their anti-Christ to power, and rather than being taken out of the way so Nero could be revealed, they made him their leader. Many who believe in the future fulfillment of end times prophecies see this chain of events repeating itself with a revived Roman Empire and the real anti-Christ. Also, like Israel the Roman Empire was a political entity, not a being.

Law And Government
The general principle of law and government has been a restrainer of sorts by establishing rules for acceptable behavior among people. This is especially true in cases where legal systems have been based on Judeo-Christian principles. But as we are increasingly coming to realize, a system of law and government is powerless unless the subjects of the system are voluntarily obedient. And once again we don’t use masculine personal pronouns in reference to a system.

The Archangel Michael
That brings us to the Archangel Michael. In the Book of Daniel, Michael is seen as Israel’s protector (Daniel 10:21, 12:1). But Paul never spoke of him at all, and in the entire New Testament he’s only mentioned twice, once when he was disputing with Satan for the body of Moses (Jude 1:9), and once in his expulsion of Satan from Heaven just before the beginning of the Great Tribulation (Rev. 12:7-9).

According to Daniel 12:1 Michael will arise to protect the believing remnant of Israel at the same time. That means having just expelled Satan from heaven, Michael would have to rush to defend the remnant of Israel against him as Satan unleashes his full fury against God’s people on Earth (Rev. 12:13-17).

So here are the major problems I have seeing Michael as the restrainer. First, how could Paul have expected us to know he was referring to Michael as the restrainer if in all his writings he never once mentioned Michael in any context at all? If Paul had told the Thessalonians that Michael is the restrainer would he have failed to mention it in any of his letters? I don’t think so. And second, how could Michael stand aside to permit Satan’s power to be unleashed without restraint while at the same time standing up to protect Israel from the very thing he has just enabled Satan to let loose upon them. It doesn’t make sense to me.

The Holy Spirit
That leaves the Holy Spirit Himself and there happens to be Biblical precedent for both His restraining influence and His abrupt withdrawal before a world wide judgment. In support of His restraining influence, John 16:8 has the Lord saying the role of the Holy Spirit is to convict the world of guilt in regard to sin, and righteousness, and judgment. Notice the Lord didn’t say He would convict only believers, but the world, believers or not. The Greek word John used there is “kosmos”, which means the whole world.

Just as everyone intuitively knows there’s a God (Romans 1:18-20), everyone intuitively knows right from wrong. Paul said even those who don’t have the law will do things the law requires by nature because the requirements of the law are written on our hearts, and our consciences will accuse or defend our actions accordingly (Romans 2:14-15). I believe the “guilty conscience” that even unbelievers experience when they do wrong is the Holy Spirit convicting them in regard to sin, righteousness, and judgment. Throughout the Church Age this conviction has been a major restraining force against evil in the world.

In 1 Tim. 4:1-2 Paul wrote,  “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.” (In Paul’s time applying a fire-heated piece of metal to a wound was an accepted way to help stop the bleeding and close the wound. It’s called cauterization, an extremely painful process that left a hideous scar.)

This tells us the current trend of making good appear to be evil and vice versa is a sign that the end is near. Hypocritical liars from inside and outside the church have been causing a gigantic paradigm shift in the world. They intuitively know the things they are trying to teach us are wrong and the conviction of the Holy Spirit has wounded their consciences. By repeatedly suppressing the guilt they feel they’ve effectively “cauterized” their consciences to close the wound. This has left their consciences hideously scarred, but allows them to continue spreading their lies without feeling the guilt.

In the process they’ve also destroyed their powers of discernment which means that each succeeding lie is easier to accept and repeat than the one before it.  We’ve seen the proof of this as things our parents’ generation would have abhorred are now being celebrated in ours.

As for the Holy Spirit being temporarily taken out of the way, Genesis 6:1-3 tells of the time before the Great Flood when certain angels rebelled against God, exchanged their angelic form for human form and began having children with human women. Genesis 6:4 calls these children the Nephilim. They apparently had incredible skills and abilities and eventually led the whole world astray. Before long the entire creation had been irreparably corrupted.

Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years” (Genesis 6:3)

Noah and his family had not been genetically corrupted by this hybrid invasion. The Lord commissioned him and his sons to build an ark to preserve themselves, their wives, and selected animals and 120 years after His pronouncement He destroyed the whole world in the Great Flood.

The Hebrew word translated “contend” in Genesis 6:3 means “to act as a judge”. In other words the role of the Holy Spirit in pre-flood times was to convict the world of guilt in regard to sin, and righteousness, and judgment just like He’s doing in our time (John 16:8). And before the flood God said there would come a time when His Spirit would step aside and allow a time of judgment to proceed, just like Paul said the restrainer would do at the end of the age.

So The Holy Spirit has been holding back the secret power of lawlessness and will continue to do so until He is taken out of the way. All things considered, I believe the Bible makes a compelling case in support of the Holy Spirit being the restrainer Paul spoke of in 2nd Thessalonians.