reply to Epistle Online
Dear Epistle Online,
Yes, "that Wicked" is the antichrist.
But "only he who now letteth will let, . . ." can't be the Holy Ghost.
1. There is no "rapture" *before* the dead in Christ are raised. See 1 Cor 15:51-52 and 1 Thess 4:14-17.
2. The dead in Christ are raised at His coming. 1 Cor 15:23
3. The day of Christ won't come until there come a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed 2 Thess 2:2-3.
Therefore, the Church won't leave before the dead in Christ rise at His return and Jesus said that He would never leave us nor forsake us so the Holy Ghost won't leave before we do.
You said, "Not one drop of rain fell until Noah was in the boat and the boat had been sealed."
True. And Christians are *already* in the boat. Jesus Christ is the boat! Scriptures do not say that Christians won't be killed. Christians were killed from the beginning and all through history. And they will be killed during the end-times:
21 I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;
Dan 7:21 (KJV)
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
Rev 13:7 (KJV)
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:4 (KJV)
Yours in Christ,
John Reno