Look Again: Revealing the Truth of the Last Days

~Dedication~

This study guide is dedicated to those students of the Word of God who, like the Bereans, will search the Scriptures daily to see if these things are so.

May your search bring you joy as Apostolic Truth is manifested to you.

~Thanks~

My first thanks belong to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Without Your anointing, I would be nothing. Thank you for calling and choosing me and filling me with Your Holy Spirit.

As of the writing of this study guide, my bride has remained by my side for over sixteen years. Without your loving support Shannon I would not be complete. Thanks for being the absolute BEST; I love you more than words.

Braxton – you’re growing in the Lord and becoming a fine young man. I love you and always will. Thanks for being a blessing to your dad.

Brooklyn – you’ve promised that you’ll always be daddy’s little girl, even if you get married. I’m holding you to this. I love you baby girl.

The following men of God aided in understanding the revelation contained in this study guide. Their commitment to truth is impeccable! These remain steadfast, immovable, always abounding in their work knowing that their labor is not in vain in the Lord! It is my privilege to know them:

David Sutherland, Jerry Hamilton, Thomas Donaldson, Roland Belanger, Galen Thompson, Don Siple, Jeff Marchand, Jonathan Markworth, Charles Johnson, Jeremy Wheeler, Stephen Burns, and Jason Hood

The following team edited this study guide; their labor and time is appreciated beyond words:

Jonathan Sanders – you’re passion to proclaim God encourages me.

Jackie Farris – you’re critique challenged me to do it right.

Melody Burns – you’re editing skills are second to none.

Erica Raymond – you’re service to God is edifying.

Contents

~Foreword~

Introduction

What every believer wants to know about the last days

1. The Last Days

2. When is Jesus Coming Back?

3. Is the Return of Jesus Christ Imminent?

4. How Long is the Tribulation?

The Role of the Jews in the last days:

5. The True Israel of God

6. Who is Mystery Babylon?

7. The Veil is Gone

8. The Olive Tree

Eschatology & Apostolic Truth - are they linked?

9. Post-Tribulation Eschatology is Apostolic Truth

10. Hearing and Doing

11. Jesus’ Teaching in John 8

The BIG Question - who will go?

12. The Resurrection of the Saints at the Lord’s Coming

13. Worthy to Escape

14. Who Falls Away?

15. The Righteous Remnant

What to look for as our redemption draws near:

16. Signs of the Times

17. What to Expect in the Last Days

18. We Will Not Fear

19. God’s Plan of Redemption

 ~Foreword~

John 16:13 (KJV)

13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

Myron Powell, a man of God called by Christ, has been my pastor since June 4, 2000, and has also been a great friend. This study guide on apostolic eschatology he has written is very timely: for I believe these are the last days and we must know the truth of God’s Word for this hour in which we are living.

With much prayer and study, and through the revealing of the Holy Spirit, Myron has a fresh understanding of the true Israel of God and the events associated with the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

If you have an appetite for truth, as stated in 2 Timothy 2:15 then, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." This study guide will not only help you in your understanding of end-time Biblical truth, but it also exposes many false doctrines and fallacies that have become accepted in the Church we know today.

What I appreciate about Myron is he has not written his opinions but uses Scripture to prove Scripture making this study guide worthy of any Christian’s library and ready to be taught at home or to the congregation.

~ David Sutherland

Introduction

• In November of 2002, I knelt in my office and asked God to give me direction on the subject of the last days. I was confused by what I had been taught compared to what the Scriptures taught. That quest has taken me on a journey and the product is this study guide.

• Study each chapter sufficiently. Do not attempt to eat the whole loaf at once. Instead, break bread a little a time. Read the chapters in order as each one links to the next; you may miss something if you read otherwise.

• In this introduction, I have included information and links to resources that expose dispensationalism as unbiblical. The men noted as founders of these false doctrines are:

1. John Nelson Darby

2. Clarence Larkin

3. C.I. Scofield

Changing the Word of God:

• Darby and Scofield inserted doctrines into the footnotes of their respective study Bibles perpetrating a lie on Christianity. Connect to the link below for more information.

• http://www.libertytothecaptives.net/darby_scofield_day_christ.html

The trinity is supported by Dispensationalism & Pre-Trib Rapture Theory:

• According to the following article, the trinity is only explained through dispensationalism and pre-tribulation rapture theory by John Delbert DeHann on his radio program on 12-1-1992:

• "I confess proudly, that Dispensationalism is the true interpretation of Bible prophecy. First, because it teaches the doctrine of the Trinity, without which it would certainly collapse. Second, because it proves the Father and the Son are two separate persons and have two separate programs in the earth and eternity.

• One of the greatest mysteries of all ages is the blessed Trinity. Although it is not found in the Bible, we accept it by faith, because the Church cannot explain the relationships of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, any other way. It was not until the Church discovered Plato and his pluralistic unity in the oneness of the cosmic soul, that the Church discovered a way to clearly explain the relationship of the three separate persons in the holy Trinity. The three persons in the Godhead are separate and distinct, but they are one God in unity as the cosmos is many but one. God the Son is the person of the Trinity who is now getting his bride-Church out of the earth. God the Father has his program with Israel now on hold until God the Son gets his wife out of the way. Israel is the wife of God the Father and the Church is the wife of God the Son. Do not despair my beloved, God the Holy Spirit will get his wife in a new creation.

• Should you meet any who believe the Post Tribulation doctrine, do not receive them. They deny the mystery of the Trinity and are thus antichrist. They are not mainstream Evangelical Protestants. Any literature or books containing anti-Jewish teachings should be given to an agency that monitors anti-Semitic behavior, such as the Simon Wisenthal Center. Some local police departments have hate-crime sections that should be notified of hate literature and these groups. You will be doing God a service. The greatest sin of all is to be silent about anyone who denies the Trinity. Anyone who teaches or believes the doctrine of the Post Tribulation coming of Christ, is antichrist! They deny that the Father and the Son, are working in unity to fulfill the two Covenants in Dispensational Truth. God bless you my beloved."

The John Nelson Darby Story – Hero or Heretic? by Pastor Michael Brigmond – Kissimmee, Florida

• Before we examine the life of John Nelson Darby, let us peer back through the corridors of time to the early 1800’s, and a little before. This period saw many changes taking place in religious circles as birth was given to new denominations and many splinter groups were formulated. One such change was occurring in a young man named Edward Irving. Irving was Scottish by birth. He was also a compelling preacher in a Presbyterian church in London.

• Irving was profoundly affected by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Mr. Coleridge was not the best influence a young preacher could have. A brilliant and charming conversationalist, a poet and a writer of prose, Coleridge exerted a profound influence upon a younger generation. However his influence was tainted by Gnosticism. Coleridge himself was a Cambridge dropout who spent a short time in the army and, for a few years, made plans to become a Unitarian minister. Part of Coleridge’s religious makeup included his belief in pantheism, the foundational structure on which the modern New Age Movement and Witchcraft (Wicca) are built. He also had a long and tragic struggle with an opium addiction (mixed with alcohol). He finally turned back to the Church of England where he spent his last 20 years, mostly as a recluse.

• Coleridge held the belief that Christian faith is the perfection of human intelligence (Gnosticism) and carried through the thought that Christianity and reason are linked together and faith is but an outgrowth of Perfected Reason. He did not hold the Bible as the absolute authority and inspiration as Christians ought to, but believed God could reach him in any number of writings. He believed Reason to be an inward beholding, the eye of the spirit by which we perceive religious truths. This, too, was evidence of his Gnosticism and pantheistic philosophy.

• Edward Irving played a key role in the formation of the pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine. Irving gained much of his revelation from a manuscript written by a Jesuit priest, Manuel De Lacunza (1731–1801). This manuscript was originally written in Spanish and titled, La Venida del Mesías en Gloria y Magestad (The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty), under the pen name of Juan Josafa Ben-Ezra about 1791. Irving was so taken by the concepts presented by Lacunza, that he studied and mastered Spanish in order to translate the work into English.

• But, it was another who put legs on the heresy and allowed it to run rampant around the globe. The year was 1800. A time when many felt the dark days of the past were forever gone and a bright future lay just ahead. The Renaissance had brought light and life to a world that had endured the Dark Ages.

• The Protestant Reformation, now almost 200 years in the making had opened the doors to restored truth. Truth like Baptism by Immersion, an acceptance of Speaking in Tongues as the sign one had been filled with the Holy Ghost, and the necessity of living a Holy, Separated life unto Jesus Christ.

• Unfortunately it also created a breeding ground for error and false doctrine. Little did the people of the new century realize a child was about to be born that would bring darkness again to the Church.

• In the country of Ireland, on that fateful day, Mr. Darby stood by as his wife travailed and clenched her fists to relieve the pain. Mrs. Darby groaned in her agony as a male child was being birthed into the world. No doubt they shared the same hopes and aspirations as other parents around the globe that their new son, John Nelson Darby, would bring joy, prosperity and happiness to their world. Indeed she did give birth that day to one who would make his mark in the world of religion. Darby would go on to formalize a system unknown to the Apostles of the early church. He would one day travel with his illustrations and doctrine to convince people from Europe to America to New Zealand to accept his new system of belief.

• After John Nelson Darby’s birth, his parents soon realized he was an intelligent child. He was also a driven young man, full of zeal and enthusiasm. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin Ireland, at the age of 18. His early desire was to study law and eventually become a lawyer. This goal was realized at the age of 22 when he was admitted to the bar.

• Shortly after attaining his goal and status as an attorney, he was converted in the Church of England. He approached his new found faith with the same zeal as his law studies. After one short year he abandoned those studies and directed his full attention to the church. Following his previous track record of study and due diligence, he again succeeded in reaching his goal by being ordained into the ministry of the Church of England.

• He approached his appointment with the extreme excitement. When he received his assignment to his first parish, he performed at his usual high level of energy and attained extraordinary success. History records that at one time Roman Catholics were becoming Protestants at the rate of 600 to 800 a week.

• But Darby was not one to be content with status quo. He wanted more. In the midst of revival he came face to face with the harsh reality of the alliance between the Church of England and the state. He became increasingly dissatisfied with the lack of freedom to exercise independence from the establishment in order to follow the path of reform he believed to be vital to the survival of the church.

• Unknown to him at the time were others who also were dissatisfied with the lack of progress. Although these believers were not rebellious in the general sense of the word, they had already begun private meetings to fellowship and strengthen one another.

• Before long Darby decided he must leave the ministry of the Church of England and look for others who would share his vision of what he thought the church should be, a church that emphasized a more spiritual and intimate communion. He became aware of these secluded meetings and decided to attend. Soon Darby found himself to be the leader of this new group. In the beginning they chose not to adopt any of the traditional denominational names for their assembly, but later became known simply as the Brethren.

• By 1831 he and his group started what they termed as the breaking of bread service. In less than 10 years, by 1840, about 800 or so were attending these breaking of bread services. Many other groups began to appear in Britain and other parts of the world. Darby himself, not content with slow growth, carried his message and helped spread the movement to Germany, Italy, the United States, and New Zealand. He was a separationist and was often attacked because of his Separationist principles and practices.

• He was indeed a driven man, not one to allow anything to interfere with his plans. He methodically removed any opposition by his followers to insure success. He was known as the Pope of the Plymouth Brethren because he excommunicated at will those who disagreed with him and opposed his new Dispensational movement. The early assemblies of the Plymouth Brethren had their share of problems, and Darby himself was largely found in the middle of the disputes.

• Dispensationalists take their name from a belief of history that divides time into distinct periods (usually seven) in which salvation is dispensed in unique ways. The period from the time of Jesus’ death until the Rapture is known as the Church Age in which salvation is by grace, obtained through belief in Jesus Christ. Both before and after this age, salvation is granted differently. Therefore they taught that Scriptures addressed to people in different ages may not apply to our own time. Somewhat like taking a pair of scissors and removing portions of Scripture.

• Likewise, Scripture addressed to the Jews is distinct from Scripture addressed to the church. Sorting all of this out requires a good deal of effort, and many fundamentalists turn for help to the Scofield Reference Bible (1909) or the more recent Ryrie version (1978). Both contain extensive footnotes explaining their own interpretation of various passages of Scripture.

• There is some disagreement among church historians as to whether or not John Nelson Darby was the originator of the Dispensational scheme. Nevertheless, all would agree that he and his Plymouth Brethren had a pivotal position in systematizing and promoting Dispensationalism. They developed it into a defined, though not Apostolic, doctrine.

• In today’s society, such a belief in an upstart group as Darby’s, would have been branded a cult and, perhaps, little more would be known of their doctrine. But life in the 1800’s carried with it a strange openness for new things. There existed a hope and a longing for a brighter future. The industrial revolution created a feeling that nothing was impossible. Yet, in any society, there are always those who desire to hold to the old ways. Week by week, Darby, obsessed with his ploy, continued like a child who understood not the dangers of the viper with which he played: its poison hidden away in the membranous pouches within its jaws.

• History does not record Darby as an evil man, intent on doing harm. It speaks instead of his diligence, his zeal, and desire to spread what he believed to be truth. Yet, herein lies the danger of deception. In the midst of his zeal he overlooked the most obvious point and thus embarked on a spiral journey downward. There were many fatal flaws in Darby’s system of Dispensationalism. First and foremost, his system was not Apostolic. It was not in tune with the teachings of Jesus or His Apostles. Not since the invention of the Trinity doctrine has any heresy had such a damning effect on sincere believers as this system of Dispensationalism.

• Although it had been formulated in 1830, it was not until the famed Darby expedition of 1845 that Dispensationalism became an object of intense study and debate. He traveled extensively utilizing charts to explain his theory of dividing the history of man, from the Garden of Eden to the White Throne Judgment, into compartments he called dispensations. This idea was intriguing to some and irritating to others, hence the debates. Darby was pushing two primary teachings in an effort to explain why his view of dispensations was correct.

• The first teaching was one that created an almost immediate division, the belief that the church would be snatched up to be with the Lord BEFORE the coming tribulation period. Until Darby’s escapades, the church world had believed and understood the Apostles and the early church fathers to teach the Lord would come for his Bride, the Church, AFTER the tribulation.

• Historically speaking, the pre-Trib Rapture of the church was a new doctrine that met with an instant love-hate relationship with other church leaders. Human nature compels one to take the easier of two roads. It has been said that the greatest labor saving inventions have been the creation of the world’s laziest people. People are always glad to learn their jobs, or lives, have suddenly become easier.

• It is this very flaw in human nature that get rich quick schemes have flourished from century to century. The Rapture doctrine, the belief that the church would be spared the trials of the tribulation was welcomed by the liberal church world. What a wonderful idea, they thought. Still others resisted the easy out theory because they could find no Scriptural basis for it. But to Darby, it was an essential part of his bogus teaching. If the people could believe in the pre-Trib Rapture, then believing Dispensationalism would be swallowed, hook, line and sinker.

• The second teaching vital to the Dispensational doctrine was the concept that God, during the Tribulation, with the church now absent, would again turn his focus back to the nation of Israel. This, too, was a hard pill for some to swallow. Why would God turn back to a system of law keeping that had failed so miserably and continue to pour his mercy and love down a bottomless pit. For a few thousand years Israel had been in a position to enjoy the benefits of God. Throughout those thousands of years Israel rejected God’s offer and continued to swim into idolatry.

• Many of the ministers of Darby’s day knew the Scriptures that told about God’s divorcing of Israel, calling her his harlot wife. They understood the Scriptures that stated the taking back of an adulterous wife was an abomination to God. It was not easy to believe He would now turn back against His own word and take apostate Israel back again. After all, wasn’t salvation today available to ALL, regardless of nationality? So, the debate continued.

• Darby’s inexhaustible efforts gradually added converts. So, in a world ravaged by war and poverty, men soon grew weary of quirky little doctrines. If only they had known that while they slept, the serpent continued to devour their children.

• The prophetic conferences of the late 1800’s helped to promote Dispensationalism. Although the new belief in Dispensations was not the main theme of the conferences, still hidden just beneath the surface, lurking in the dark shadows, it was gaining acceptance.

• Dispensational theology, like the Jewish Talmud, has never been completed. It continues to evolve as each new generation finds a way to cast new light on it. This evolving of belief is today causing dissension among Dispensationalists to the point some are digging in to hold to Darbyism while others are fighting to expand it to allow the inclusion of more liberalism and prosperity. Along with it comes a sloppy love doctrine and charismatic teachers adept at tickling the ears of the populace.

• John Nelson Darby died in 1882. During his life he wrote 40 volumes of about 600 pages each, including his own Bible, the Darby Translation. This is the man who gave us the theory of a pre-Tribulation Rapture. A theory Jesus and the Apostles did not teach.

• Eventually, Cyrus Ingerson (C.I.) Scofield took up the torch with his Scofield Reference Bible (1909) which became the standard text for American Dispensationalists. In his study Bible, he added a multitude of notes expounding his version of Dispensationalism which today has endured and lies buried in the hearts of the old line religion by compartment believers.

• Adding to the confusion was Clarence Larkin, who drew elaborate charts to explain the Dispensations and end-time events. His charts were a visualization of Darby’s doctrine and Scofield’s notes.

• Dispensationalism received its greatest exposure in the 1970s when Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth reached the mass-market of paperback book shelves across the land. This un-biblical, yet popular, Dispensationalist dissertation sold over 18 million copies. Since then, many men have gotten rich writing about Dispensationalism.

• The most recent is the Tim LaHaye series, Left Behind. Many readers forget, or don’t realize, the Left Behind series is FICTION. Worse yet, it is fiction based on false doctrine, all in all, a heresy.

• Many sincere, God-loving Christians today are unaware of the origin, error and destructive force of Dispensationalism. Many were taught it when they first came to know Christ and have never searched the Scriptures to confirm its existence. If they did, they would discover that Jesus and the Apostles knew the church would go completely through the Tribulation Period and Dispensationalism is not true. Darby taught the church would get a quick ride out of here before the Great Tribulation.

• Jesus and the Apostles taught the Jews were cut off because of unbelief and could be