Okay, we will go through it:
The one problem with using this verse out of its context and the audience to whom it was spoken is that you're once again applying broad brush strokes of application, because Revelation 3:3 states that only those who are NOT watching will not know the hour of His coming.
What that tells us, then, is that your broad brush stroke application of that verse outside of its context and overall hermeneutical rules we should all be following, you're basically pitting one section of God's word against another, and therefore capitalizing on the one aspect by superimposing it over the other.
Revelation 3:10 Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.
So I don't see anywhere in those verses that we can actually know the specific hour.
Please notice that the Lord did not say that He will keep us IN the hour of testing, but rather FROM. Dare we read the Greek from which this was translated, then we see how much more powerfully the original language lends to the removal rather than "keeping within."
Here is what the Thayer's Greek Lexicon has to say about that key word in the Greek as defined by its grammatical construct and its contextual application:
"
Revelation 3:10.
to keep: i. e. not to leave "
Now, I understand that some out there will transpose the language into meaning that the Lord is the One who will not leave, but dare we be honest with the text and its key definitions, His already placing Himself into the text as the One applying the action, and the Church being
object of His action, "to not leave" clearly can only apply to the Church being the object not left in the situation described.
If you or others doubt that, then I recommend you talk with an actual Greek scholar rather than the many arm chair experts out there who have not done the homework necessary to learn the language and the idioms that remain hidden within the weaknesses of our English translations. I personally have had copious access to REAL Greek scholars from various universities, including Cambridge and Oxford.
As to the man of sin, since there is no Pre-Trib rapture, for those who haven't died by that time, we will ALL go through the great tribulation. So think about that - we were actually mentioned in the Bible! WE are those saints that the man of sin is given authority to overcome.
Like I said before, I'm not here to take from you your right to remain here to enjoy the tribulation. If that's what you want, then go for it. Don't be a watchman, don't pray the prayer of Luke 21, and just keep inserting the Church into Revelation chapters 6 through 21, even though it's not there, otherwise known as eisegetical interpretation, and just take your chances. Please, never assume that I wish to take from you the pleasure of what you think is coming your way. I for one will escape with many others, and if you want to be here, then go for it and roll the dice.
My faith is in Christ and His promise to come back for us, exactly as He described to His disciples when He ascended. The angels standing beside the disciples promised that the Lord would return in LIKE MANNER for us, which was His showering us with blessings. In His Second Coming, He will be coming back in wrath, drenching His garment with the blood of His enemies. Those who can't see the glaring contrast in that...well, that's on them, not me or anyone else.
So, relegating the idea that belief in the pre-trib rapture somehow parallels a lack of trust only in Christ, that's just simply bereft of any substance. Revelation of ONLY about Christ, and His revealing to the unbelieving world, the unprepared saints, and the Jews. It serves no purpose for torturing the Church.
MM
