The Central Issue  

     Not our birthday. Not the next election. Not who wins the game.

     The central issue from creation to now is our relationship with God. Do we love him? Or do we disregard him, his Word...the truth. 

     In his letters to the Thessalonians, Paul sets aside instructions about faith in order to address false teaching that the church has heard about the "day of the Lord." The Lord had to have given Paul this forecast. There is no other way he could have known these troubles to come. 

     Chapter 2 of the second letter teaches that those who have heard the truth but failed to love and follow, will be given a "powerful delusion." They will be forever "doomed in the power of darkness." 

     There will be salvation during this "tribulation" offered to those who never had opportunity to know the truth. There will be "servants of God," 144,000 from the tribes of Israel (12,000 from each tribe), Revelation 7:4-8, along with two "witnesses" and angels, proclaiming the gospel across the earth.  

     The church (those who were not taken up by Christ - the rapture before the tribulation) will be guilty of apostasy. They will be condemned, having chosen falsehood. 

     The "day of the Lord" having begun, the "man of lawlessness," the antichrist, will be in power, and evil will be progressively unrestrained. 

Next: Who can oppose the all-powerful man?