“1 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 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, 4 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.
2Th. 2:5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 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. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
13 But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, 14 to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.” (2Th. 2:1-15)
“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” (1Cor. 15:50)
Our Eschatology (i.e. our Doctrine of Last Things) is intended by God to influence how we approach our Ecclesiology (i.e. our Doctrine of the Church). That means we should devote our ministry as a church to equip all our members to live faithfully in and through whatever we have good reason to believe, in the light of clear Bible prophesy, will eventually happen in the world during our own time. The most likely eschatological event we are likely to see in our day is our own going to be with the Lord through physical death. So we equip our members to have true assurance of their salvation, rather than false assurance. Beyond that there is the rapture of the church. The birthpangs of Christ’s second coming may continue for centuries, or they may bring the consummation of all things upon us during our lifetime.
Our Elders are Classical Pre-millennial in our eschatology. We agree that Christ’s return is imminent and that He may return at any time to rapture His Church out of this world suddenly. All that is needed is for the last of God’s elect to be born again and the last of the His martyrs to die for their faith, both of which could occur at any moment. When these events do happen the Man of Sin will be revealed and will ultimately be destroyed by our Lord at His coming. After Christ returns there does not seem to be any more opportunity for sinners to repent and be saved. Therefore, as a local church we focus our attention on the conversion of everyone and the equipping of everyone to be an effective winner of souls for Jesus Christ. Every congregation should therefore be an urgently evangelistic community.