“…God did not appoint us to SUFFER WRATH but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thess. 5:9) The wrath of God must be poured out on ALL SIN, and “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). For the Christian the full force of God’s wrath was poured out ON CHRIST INSTEAD OF ON US. He was punished in our stead. He was made sin for us. He shed His blood on our account. The wrath of God was poured out IN FULLEST MEASURE ON CHRIST so that your sin and mine could be forgiven BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH IN HIM.
“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. And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the MYSTERY OF LAWLESSNESS is already at work; only HE WHO NOW RESTRAINS (holds back or inhibits) will do so until He is TAKEN OUT OF THE WAY. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.” (2 Thess. 2:3-8) The Holy Spirit in believers, who make up God’s church, is what is holding back the mystery of lawlessness. At the “catching away” (THE RAPTURE) the appointed time will come for God’s wrath to be poured out in full measure on a Christ-rejecting sinful world that did not believe in Him- a future time that is called ‘the time of Jacob’s trouble‘ – the great tribulation – and it takes place in the 70th week of Daniel’s great end-times prophecy. We must be ready!!!
-Bill Stockham