Do You Take the Bible Literally? — Shane Idleman

Matthew 24. And as you know, it's going to take quite a while to get through Matthew 24, because there's a lot to talk about. We're talking about what does this apply to, and it's going to take probably a few weeks, if not maybe a few months to get through everything.

And the foundation I want to start with tonight that's going to be the foundation for the whole series is, do you take the Bible literally? So the message is, you don't take the Bible literally, do you?

Because people say, you don't take the Bible literally, Shane, do you? Yes I do. When you're supposed to. And we're going to cover what that looks like. So the title of the message is, you don't take the Bible literally, do you?

I should have probably just titled it, do you take the Bible literally? It would have been much easier. And it's funny, you'll see this a lot. Have you ever watched Bill O 'Reilly? I haven't probably in a few years.

But a lot of those guys on TV, they'll say, when it comes up the Bible, it's like, well you don't take that literally. You don't have to take that literally. And usually the reason people don't want you to take the Bible literally is because they don't like the application.

As soon as they like the application, then you can take it literal. In other words, I was just at a memorial service this afternoon, and everybody's talking about heaven. Even people who aren't Christians, oh heaven's just great.

Heaven, heaven, hell, we'll see you in heaven. I remember when that one movie star, Fast and Furious, guy crashed in Santa Clarita and died. And a lot of people, you know, we'll see you in heaven. But when it comes to hell, no, no, no.

That's all figurative. Sheol, Gehenna, that was all Old Testament. Jesus was talking about a garbage dump on fire, and it really doesn't apply to us today. Well, you can't take heaven literally, and then not take the other side of that literally.

So a lot of people don't want to take the Bible literally when it comes to applying it. When the application challenges their lifestyle, they say, well you can't really take that literally. I just had a couple weeks ago down in, it was I think about an hour from here, I don't remember the exact, maybe Sun Valley, Panorama City.

And I ran into a couple guys, and they were talking, I overheard them, and of course you know me, I kind of chimed in a little bit. But with the whole area with homosexuality and gay marriage, and taking them through Jude and Genesis and Paul's words in Corinthians, and the whole Jesus' discourse on fornication, pornea, and what that looks like.

Just everything goes, well those things you can't really take literally. You can't, I mean Shane, he said shellfish is an abomination, and he says homosexuality is an abomination. Shane, that stuff's not for today, it's not literal.

But then he would use other passages with literal application in order to show that those weren't literal. So we have to have consistency, you take the Bible literally, yes I do. But there are areas where God will use metaphors, similes, allegories, and I hope everybody knows what that is.

Because I didn't know what some of those were until I looked them up. I mean I've heard the word metaphor, you use something to get a point across. A simile, you show something similar to, and then allegory, you use a story, and God uses that through his word.

But for those of us who study the Bible, it's not real confusing. You can tell when it's a literal sense, you can tell when it's not, but then it does get tricky in revelation and different things. So that's what I'm hoping to uncover, and it's an exhausting study.

Because there's just so much. And a lot of it hinges on, you hear the word fundamentalist, taking things literal. Have you ever heard that, have you been called a fundamentalist? No, just me? Fundamentalist means you take, you're not bending on these things, you are a fundamentalist.

You take the Bible literally, these are non-negotiables. And the fundamentalist, there's some books written, 1904, 1905, I've talked about before by R .A. Torrey. They had different theologians come in and talk about the fundamentals.

Christ is the only way, the cross, the inerrancy of scripture, the virgin birth, the resurrection. These things are not negotiable. You can't negotiate these things. So in that sense, we are fundamentalists.

But we're not fundamentalists in blowing up abortion clinics, and picketing funerals of servicemen, saying that they're going to go to hell because they were in the army. We all get lumped into the fundamentalist camp, and I don't like that.

But we do adhere to what the Bible clearly outlines as truth, and truth is literal. All of God's truth is literal. There's literal application, everything that God says in His word is literal in regard to application.

So you don't take the Bible literally. Yes I do, here's why. God uses metaphors often. John 10, 9. If you have your Bibles in the future, you can look at these. I believe that's where Jesus is referring to, I probably should have wrote down the exact passage here.

But where He's referring to Himself being the gate for the sheep. I am the gate for the sheep. Is Jesus really a gate? No, He's showing the entrance. I am the only way walking through the gate. Or a simile in Job 41, 24, where He talks about, I believe it was one of the large creatures there, having a heart like flint, or heart like stone.

Well obviously His heart isn't stone, but it's showing, it's comparing to show the magnitude of what they're trying to express. Or allegories, like in Isaiah 5, 1, where God was talking about His vineyard.

He planted a vineyard, a beautiful vineyard. He tilled the soil, He watered it, this beautiful vineyard. But then it becomes a vineyard that is repulsive. That is just, weeds have grown up. And He shows how that is the nation of Israel.

That God planted them, and then people destroyed that vineyard. So He'll use stories to convey truth. There's nothing wrong with that. So here's a good explanation of what we should take literal. Because you're probably wondering, well Shane, how do we know what's true, what's not?

Well, a couple things. Let's read the words of Dr. David Cooper. He's the founder of the Bible Research Society. When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense. Therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning, unless the facts of the immediate context studied in light of relative passages and fundamental truths indicate clearly otherwise.

Some people have said, if the plain sense makes good sense, seek no other sense, lest it result in nonsense. And that's what you can do with the Bible. And a lot of the groups that knock on your door, take some of it and twist it around to fit their theology.

That's why a couple things are important in this study on Matthew 24. The Old Testament is vital in understanding eschatology. Eschatology is the study of end times. The end is coming, Jesus is coming, judgment is coming, the end times.

That whole study is called eschatology. And to properly understand it, you need to understand the Old Testament. The imagery, the moons darkening, the sun losing its light. There's Old Testament imagery that all the writers of the Bible would use throughout and even into the New Testament.

Also, there's something called the Law of First Mention. So how something is used first in the Bible, you would use that application or that definition throughout the course of Scripture, unless the passage clearly indicates otherwise.

So something is first mentioned, lampstands would be a good example in Exodus. And then we see lampstands again in Revelation and what that lampstand means. So hopefully this will help. Take the Bible literal, just like what this gentleman said, but I'm going to break it down first.

Take the Bible literal, take a passage literal, unless the literal interpretation contradicts self-evident and fundamental truths. He said axiomatic, but who knows what that means, so I had to look it up too.

It means self-evident, self-evident. So you take the Bible literally, unless the literal interpretation contradicts self-evident and fundamental truths. You want an example of that? Here's a good example.

The Bible often talks about the right hand of God. Are we going to take that literally? Does God have a right hand? No, because there are other truths that are self-evident. Jesus said God is not a person, He's a spirit.

And those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. God doesn't have a right hand and a left eye and a foot. So you don't take that literal because that's why you need to know your Bible. Because some people say, oh yeah, God's right hand.

Actually, I believe it's the Mormons who teach that God was once like us, and that we will be like God someday. I just, I'm scared to say that, let alone teach it. God was once like me? Oh, help us. I mean, but He would have a physical body.

So the theology can get twisted, but we learn, especially in the Old Testament, God's spirit, you don't see, you'll see Him manifest Himself through Jesus Christ, or different things, but God doesn't have a right hand.

So that, you wouldn't take that literally. Take the Bible literally unless the context shows that it cannot be taken literally. Here's a good example. If anyone hears my voice, Jesus says, and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him.

Well, is He talking about me opening a door and Jesus is going to come into me and have dinner? Somehow He's in my heart eating, who's going to pass the, you know, bread? No, you don't take that literal.

Why? Because the context shows it can't be taken literally. Jesus is talking to a church, by the way, rebuking the church, and saying, open the door. If anybody knocks, if anybody opens that door as I'm knocking, I'm knocking on your door, open your heart.

Many times I've heard Greg Laurie, Billy Graham, other people use it, and I used to use it many times too. But really, that's not a call to the sinner in the context of that verse. The context of that verse is calling the church who has backslidden to come back.

Jesus is saying, I'm knocking at your door. I'm knocking, I'm wanting you to return to your first love. Open the door. Now, if somebody uses that as an overreaching application to reach somebody who's lost, that truth can still be validated.

Why? Because God is convicting, God is drawing. Theoretically, there's a knocking, there's a convicting, and the person needs to open their heart to receive. So take the Bible literally also, unless the literal sense does not make sense in light of relative passages.

So you take the Bible literal unless it doesn't make sense when you combine it with all the other passages. Here's another, here's a good example. Jesus said, remember therefore from where you have fallen.

Did they fall? No. Did their heart fall? Yes. Repent and do the first works or else I will come to you quickly and I will remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. So is there a big lampstand about seven foot tall and Jesus is going to come and grab that lampstand and take it away and now we're going to cry because he took our lampstand?

No, so you don't take that literally in light of the passage. The passage is he's warning churches. He says that the churches are the lampstand and if you don't return to your first works, if you don't return to your first love, if you don't rebuke that prophetess among you that's leading the people astray, if you don't, lukewarm church, if you don't return to me, I'm going to remove that lampstand.

You look at Exodus to see when it was first used, in Exodus 20 I believe it was, talking about the tabernacle. It was right before the holy of holies, the lampstand was in the holy place. It was made of pure gold and it was a reflection, it was actually a foreshadowing of Christ if we had time.

So removing that lampstand, what is the church's purpose? Not to sit here, to be the light up on a hill, to shine that we come in here, we get energized, we get charged up and we go out. We're filled with the spirit of God.

When Jesus removes influence from a church it will die or it will turn into a social gathering and look just like the world. The music looks like the world. I could preach a very good worldly message.

God wants to bless you. As you're leaving, if you drop $100 in that box, no, no, this is serious stuff. You're going to get it, God's going to bless you a hundredfold. God just wants you to be wealthy and if you're not, we could just really, when God's influence leaves, the church will either die or resemble the world.

There's no more holiness, there's no more conviction. You can go out and do good things. We can feed the homeless, we can paint the neighborhoods, we can do good things, but the conviction is gone. I like what A .W. Tozer said, if the Holy Spirit was removed in the early church, 90 of the work would have ceased.

If the Holy Spirit was removed from our church today, 90 of the work would continue. It shows that a lot of the church is driven. That's why we don't want to start a ministry just to start a ministry.

There's not a week that goes by and somebody says, you should start this. And I say, you want to? No, no, no, the church should do it. No, no, no, you should do it if God's truly called you to do that.

Because when God starts a ministry, yeah, there will be challenging, it will flourish, there will be fruit. So we want investing into the kids or investing into the children's ministry or this other campus we prayed about for seven months.

Lord, are you in it? Are you in it? That's a big question. Are you in it? Oh, Shane, it's going to be difficult. We never saw you in Leona Valley. It's going to be challenging. A lot of people from the country up there, it's not going to work.

God, are you in it? God, are you in it? I laugh every time. Shane, that's country folk. I love Hank Williams, Jr. Country boy can't survive. I can sing you all those lines. I can run a trout line. I can skin a buck.

I've got a 12 gauge. Okay. I was born that way too. I used to dove hunt in Rancho Vista before there was Rancho Vista Boulevard. But people, if God's in it, you just hold on for the ride. So back to this literal sense.

A good reminder. You know what? While I'm talking about this removing your lamp stand, this is a good reminder. Jesus spoke to seven churches in Revelation 2, Revelation 3. These are actually not churches in Jerusalem.

They're up higher in Asia Minor. Churches in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea. And Jesus, see these were literal churches, but they had spiritual significance when he would talk about the lamp stand and different things.

Ephesus. Jesus said, you have forsaken your first love, and you need to return. And I felt strongly about bringing these seven points up, because it hits every one of us in this room. These seven churches are what we deal with often.

Leaving our first love. Forsaking our first love. A good example to ask is, is the word of God in your belly like a fire anymore? Is your prayer time, is your devotional, are you in love with the Lord?

That sounds weird to say. No it doesn't. We're in love with everything else. Everything else we're in love with. But are we truly in love with the Lord? Is there a passionate relationship, or have we drifted?

So Jesus says, always says, come back before I remove your lamp stand. Come back before I remove your influence. Come back to me, you've lost your first love. That was Ephesus. And then Smyrna was suffering persecution.

And Jesus encouraged them. Pergamum has been infected by the world. It happened in, look at this. This happened 2 ,000 years ago. It's still happening today. So once the world infects us, and we have no call to holiness, no call to purity, we look just like the world.

That's why I often say, look at your Facebook posts. Does it resemble the world or the word of God? Well, Shane, I'm not sure. Well, sipping a margarita on the beaches of Cancun with a 12-pack of Corona next to you, having a selfie is not, that's what I'm talking about.

I can get real on application here. So we know when we're affected by the world, do our lusts and our passions line up with the world or the word of God? Everybody's going, oh, that sounds good. See? See?

The flesh is dominating many times. Thyatira. It's a church where they let a false prophetess into the church, and they deceived the people. They're just getting all, it reminds me today of those who just dreams and visions, and what the prophets say, and they're getting it all worked up in these things.

Now, do I believe that God is the same yesterday, today, forevermore? I've seen him warn people in dreams. I've seen him confirm things in dreams. I've seen people speak boldly into the lives of people through prophetic type or words of wisdom.

I have nothing against that. But we've got to be careful because that should not consist in the church, be the full focus of the church. Hearing about dreams and visions every week, I had a dream and this and a dream, this and a dream.

Well, be careful because Abraham went 10 years on one dream. We don't need to go every week and get this. I had a dream of this and a dream of that. And sometimes he might do that, but I'm saying be careful because I've noticed, please don't get offended, I don't know of anybody in this room, but I've noticed that those who get into that hyper-spirituality with tons of dreams, tons of visions, tons of this, get off into never-never land.

Come back. Come back. Let's see what the word, God told me, let's get into the word. What does that say? God will confirm it through his word. And the reason I promote that a lot is because that's the foundation, that's for grounding.

I mean, I remember a guy, I've said this before, it was a pastor locally, I went to hear the speaker on an invitation, and it was before we went to war with Iraq. And he said, if we go to war with Iraq, God has showed me in a vision that America will not have enough body bags.

So about a year later, or six months later, I asked that pastor, I said, well, I hate to burst your bubble, but I don't know what the casualty was. Even one death is sad. But it was, I don't remember, some of you might tell me after the service, 2 ,000 or something, and you compare it to 40 million in World War I.

And I told the pastor, and he goes, well, not all prophecy is accurate. It's just, he's like, well, we can't have it both ways. You can't say the Lord told me this, and this is what's going to happen, that doesn't happen, well, I missed that one.

Well, you missed the other one, you missed this one. But then they live in that culture of what are the prophets saying, what are the dreams saying, what is this? And they go off of those things, and there's not enough grounding.

There's not enough foundation there. So he's warning the church, don't be seduced away from the Word of God. And I've seen people, in God's Word, praying and fasting, that God will give them a dream of something, he'll put a dream in their heart, and they'll say, that's what he's calling me to the ministry for.

That's what he wants me to do. It confirms what's already going on in their heart. But they don't live off that dream, and then they have another dream of cockroaches in their basement, and then they think, oh, God's trying to clean my soul out of this.

And then they see a vision of this, and an airplane crashing, and oh, God, somebody's about ready to wreck their life. And then they just walk around each week on these visions and dreams, and that's not healthy.

That's not healthy. It's called hyper-Pentecostalism, hyper-charismaticism. And I'm not making fun, because if you look at the word charismatic, bestowing spiritual gifts, I would fall in that camp.

You're either charismatic and thinking that the spiritual gifts are for today, or you're not. And I want to embrace all that God has, but it's grounded, it has to be grounded in his Word. And sometimes those who are the most chasing after, you could call them fake signs or wonders or fake, they're all into all this stuff, are not grounded in the Word at all.

So we have to be careful in that area as well. Sardis had fallen asleep, if you can believe it. Jesus says, I see your good works, I see you're doing this and this and this, but guess what, you're asleep, you're dead.

Stop all this working, working, working, and return to your first love. And this is, as we get older, I'm seeing this in my own life, but especially those who are even older, the older we get, the easier we can fall into this camp.

Because we have theology, we know what to do, we can point out the false teachers, we can do this, but we lose that first love. And Jesus is telling us to return. Philadelphia, they had patient endurance.

And then Laodicea, many of you know Laodicea, that's a famous church where Jesus said, hey, please be either cold or hot, but you're lukewarm and I'm going to vomit you out of my mouth. Take that literally?

No. Right? What's the context showing? That this lukewarm church is displeasing to God. And I often remind people, we think we can live lukewarm and still please God, we can't. We're either all into God's camp, or if we're trying to hold a fence, we're in this camp.

And again, nobody can live perfectly, but we can have a heart that says, Lord, I don't want anything to do with lukewarm living, I don't want anything to do with the worldly influence, there's so many areas I need your help in, God, remove these things.

And then we start to make lifestyle decisions and changes to promote this lifestyle, this being set apart for God. And that's what the whole lukewarm church is. A lukewarm church, basically, is just no power.

No spiritual power, no conviction. I remember I saw a YouTube posting of one big church, I don't even know where it's at, but for worship they did a Michael Jackson video thing, and the guys danced and did a Michael Jackson song.

And I remember another guy, another big church, on Easter, they had the worship team doing, ACDC, I'm on a highway to hell. You know that song? I'm on a highway to hell. But his thing, wow, I'm just showing the people, it's about Easter and what hell looks like, well, you don't have to do it that way.

I mean, come on. Who would even think of that? Hey, Brant, before you break out into Old Rugged Cross, I want to hear Ozzy Osbourne. And just show that, I mean, it just... But then there's also no conviction.

The sermon's not convicting. It's popular. It's what everybody wants to hear. It's, oh, that just felt great, and it's pleasing the masses in the church. There's no heartfelt ministry taking place. It's all superficial.

That's what the lukewarm church is. And it's so funny when I read this. We can all agree that Jesus loved us very much, and loves us, doesn't he? So why does he rebuke us? Because he loves us. See, we should take rebuke sometimes from the word of God as a loving father.

No, a rebuke is never for our harm. It's always for our good. So when Jesus says, I love you, and those I love, I rebuke, and I chase, and come back, come back. So you'll see often from preaching, a preaching should help to draw the people back to God and convict them.

So again, back to the literal sense. When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense. Therefore we have to take every word as primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning, unless the facts indicate otherwise.

So that's the foundation for Matthew 24. I'll read Matthew 24. This is one of the most... You know what, let me just read what D .A. Carson said. If you don't know D .A. Carson, he's a New Testament scholar, very well versed in a lot of different areas.

He said about Matthew 24, what we're about ready to read, few chapters of the Bible have called forth more disagreement among interpreters than Matthew 24 and its parallels in Mark 13 and Luke 21 than any other passage of the Bible.

The history of interpretation of this chapter is immensely complex. And in a nutshell, here's why. One group says a lot of what we're about ready to read, one group says it already took place. The other group says it's coming.

It's coming. Earthquakes. False signs. Antichrist. The abomination of desolation standing where he ought not. Read or beware, the Bible says. The Antichrist. The Great Tribulation. It's all coming. A large segment of Christian people say it's already happened.

So now you see the confusion. And if you're not saying, I didn't know people believed that, well, I'll tell you why. Because you probably either went to a vineyard, a Calvary Chapel, or what they call dispensationalism, where they believe in the rapture and different things because you grew up in that.

And I grew up in that. And that's what we grew up in. So when we hear this other stuff, like, oh, they're heretical. No, they're not heretical. They're actually closer to historical, biblical Christianity in regard to what the early church fathers believed.

But now we do have more information with the nation of Israel becoming a nation in the mid -1900s, and we see all these things happening. So both sides have a good argument. And I'm just going to tell you up front, I don't take one side or the other dogmatically.

I see some tremendous confirmation on this side that all these things are coming. But this side has a lot of good points as well. And this side would say we have to take the Bible literally, not figuratively.

And then this side would say the same thing, but then they take some things figuratively, which the other side takes literally. So I'm going to try to hopefully unpack that in the weeks to come. But let's read Matthew 24.

See if we can at least get through the first two verses and all be on the same page. Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple. So he was in the temple. He went out and his disciples came up to show him the buildings of the temple, this wondrous temple.

And Jesus said to them, Do you not see all these things? So they're looking at the temple. Assuredly I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down. So it's probably like I haven't been there 15 years, but if you go to Vegas and you see whatever the newest glamorous hotel, and you're like, look at this.

Oh, they're trying to show off Jesus. Jesus, look at this temple. Unbelievable. And he says, I'm telling you the truth, that there's coming a time where not one stone will be left upon another. So both groups agree that this happened in AD 70.

AD 70, what happened? It was so traumatic that a lot of people think that the book of Revelation, when it talks about the judgments, actually happened in AD 70. This is when Jerusalem was sieged. And actually it happened, I believe, five or six years earlier.

There was warfare going on. And finally the city of Jerusalem was taken. The outer wall, the inner wall, the middle wall was taken. They slaughtered the Jewish people all over. There's blood was rolling down the temple stairs.

And it was horrific. This is the time I told you about that the mother cooked her own child and ate that child. And Josephus writes about that. He said the whole city soon rang with this abomination. When people heard of it, they shuddered as though they had done it themselves.

And you can read Josephus. He was a historian at this time. Let me read what he wrote. Throughout the city, people were dying of hunger in large numbers and enduring unspeakable sufferings. In every house, the merest hint of food sparked violence and close relatives fell to blows, snatching from one another pitiful supports of life.

No respect was paid even to the dying. The anti-Roman zealots searched them in case they were concealing food somewhere in their clothes or just pretending to be dead. Gaping with hunger like mad dogs, lawless gangs went staggering and reeling throughout the streets, battering upon doors like drunkards so bewildered that they broke into the same house two or three times an hour.

Need drove the starving and they'd chew to anything. Scraps, which even animals would reject, were collected and turned into food. In the end, they were eating belts and shoes and the leather strips off their own shields.

Why? Because Rome had... When you siege a city, it's a lot different here. Well, you can actually do it here. Terrorists will probably eventually want to go after your water supply and over your grids.

We've got three power grids, I think, mainly overseeing the power throughout the United States. Just three power grids. You see a nice little nuclear bomb right up one of those power grids? You just don't have electricity for many months.

I mean, it's that... So they besieged the city. They surrounded the city. No food, no water. The people were dying. And then they took that city. And that's why Jesus wept 30 years, 40 years earlier. And He said, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, if you would just have known the time of your visitation, you would be spared this destruction.

So that's what He's talking about here in Matthew 24. I don't know of anybody that disagrees with that. Not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down. And that happened in A .D. 70.

So, then we go to verse 3, right? Follows verse 2. Here's where the controversy starts. Your Bible might say above it the signs of the times and the end of the age. Others believe that this is, again, paralleling with what Jesus is talking about happening in A .D. 70.

Verse 3, Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, and now you can picture this scene. There's not a lot of room. But now they're sitting up on the Mount. It's called the Olivet Discourse. They're sitting up on the Mount of Olives and they're looking down and they're seeing the temple below them.

They can see it. So, as He's sitting there, disciples came to Him privately saying, Tell us, when will these things be? Well, what will those things be? Not one stone will be left upon another. Tell us when those things will be.

Now, if they would just stop there, that would end a lot of controversy. But they kept on going. And, while you're at it, Jesus, what will be the sign of your coming? Oh, there's another question. And, while you're at it, and what is the end of the age?

So, when will these things be? Where the temple, where these stones will be completely broken down. And, what will be the sign of your coming? And, what will be the sign of the age? So, this group says it's all one question.

They look at it as one event. When is this going to happen? When is this happening? When is the sign of your coming and the end of the age? When is that happening? One event. This group would say, No, there's different events.

The first event already occurred in 80 -70. But, now, we're still waiting for the sign of your coming and the end of the age. Basically, the end of the world when everything comes to an end. Those questions have not been answered yet.

And, the reason some of this is so difficult, I think, when it comes to prophecy, is this. I like what David Gusek said. One reason why prophecy may seem vague or imprecise is because God wants every age to have reason to be ready for Jesus' return.

We should not think of Jesus' return as an event far off on the timetable, but something that has been running parallel since the beginning of the church. And, that's the interesting thing with prophecy.

What's speaking to... I mean, think about when Isaiah prophesied that somebody would come out among them from their people, a Messiah, and the Spirit of God would be upon them. And, it actually happened.

And, then there's other prophecies where it happened and it's going to happen again. And, it's God in His prophetic Word guiding people throughout history. But, that's why He wants the church throughout the whole last 2 ,000 years to always be ready for His return.

It's called the immediate return of Christ. We live knowing that He could come at any time. Number two, others suggest that God's intention was to keep the future somewhat vague and clouded to confound the devil, even as the resurrection of the Messiah was vague in the Old Testament.

So, if it's not real clear, I guess that confounds the devil, is one of the thoughts there. My view on that, maybe. I mean, Paul talks about, had they known, had hell known that it was destroying itself, they would have never led Christ to the cross.

So, in other words, I don't think the enemy saw, the enemy thought He was defeated. I mean, the enemy thought Jesus was defeated on the cross. And, hell was celebrating until hell, death, and the grave were conquered.

So, they were laughing. They were enjoying that. And Jesus, right before His crucifixion, said something interesting. I think the NIV translates it. And it says, that this is your hour when darkness reigns.

Right before. This is your hour, darkness, while you're reigning, while you're in control. But, so had they known they were crucifying the Messiah, the Savior, to do a part of God's plan, they might not have went through with it.

So, that's what he's thinking here. And then, number three, though some prophetic interpretations are different, we are sure of this. He is coming again, and we must be ready. So, here's the key question we're going to talk about in the weeks to come.

You like cliffhangers? Are the abomination that causes desolation, which is the Antichrist, the great tribulation, the coming of the Son of Man, are those all past events, or are they future events? And it really changes everything.

If it's one event, if Jesus was answering one question, talking about AD 70, as one event, that'll change how you view a lot of things. Because this side would not believe in an Antichrist, or a one world government, all those things.

And that's when you go, well, things are sure looking that way. You might want to rethink your position. I mean, I asked a guy a couple weeks ago, I think it was. Now, if you see a one world government, an Antichrist, armies surrounding Jerusalem, would you change your position?

Well, no, not yet, because there's always been a one world governing. Well, what about if you saw the tribulation aspect, and you saw more of that happening? And so they're really caught on this side of all this already happened in AD 70.

And I'm gonna explain that in a little bit. Not tonight, because there wouldn't be enough time. But here's why I do agree with some of what they believe. Because the disciples believe that the time of the end was near, that the Messiah would be announced soon.