What is...? The Eschatology of Hope. The Resurrection

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Good afternoon, everyone. This is truth and love. We get that from Ephesians chapter four, verse 15.

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But speaking the truth and love, we are to grow up in all aspects and who is the head, even

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Christ. So that's what we want to do. That's our goal. That's our aim to speak truth and love, grow up in Christ in all aspects.

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One of those aspects is eschatology, and we want to talk some more about eschatology today with Dan.

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Thankful that he is back with me to talk about eschatology. If we can pray for you, please let us know that we could do that.

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We'd love for you to leave a comment. We'd love for you to share, to love it, to help us get the word of God out to our community.

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So today we're going to be talking about the eschatology of hope and part of that eschatology.

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You could be familiar with with some of this language because the language is similar in all the different positions.

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The three major ones, which we did a video on before, is the premillennial dispensational view, which you're probably you may be more familiar with the language.

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Pre -trib or tribulation rapture view. Then you have an aumil view and then you have a postmill view.

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And so you're going to have, of course, it's coming from the same Bible. So we're going to have similar language in all the three different positions, all three different views.

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Today, we're going to look at the resurrection. And what the Bible says about the resurrection and which is tied a little bit to this idea of a rapture or.

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What some would call a secret rapture that is held to in the position of the premillennial dispensation, the pre -trib rapture folks.

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This resurrection has a has a tie in with the resurrection.

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And so a lot of times my mind then goes back to. The premillennial dispensation, dispensational view, just because that that seems to have been the standard in our lifetime.

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And so I go back to that view and try to measure up what

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I believe with that view or I see something in scripture. I'm trying to measure up to that view or coming from a postmill perspective.

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I am trying to combat against that view. And also, since it's probably the the most widely held at this time view, we we seem to mention the premillennial dispensational view and try to fight against it because it's the it's the most widely held.

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Let me ask you this. This question just popped in my head. I know that we've you and I both have held different theologies in the past and then come to a different conclusion because we've read scripture and we were convinced by scripture.

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So. Is someone's mind who who may be holding this premillennial dispensational view, can you ease their mind?

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Is there some encouragement that you can give them to to give us an ear as we look at scripture and we talk about a view that's different than that?

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They will say, well, this this view is the most popular. This view has been held for so long.

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Why do I need to worry about rethinking that view or listening to you talk about a postmillennial view?

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Why is it OK for them to lend an ear to what we have to say? How would you encourage them in that?

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If you remember back to John four, Jesus is talking to the woman at the well, she says, hey, we worship

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God over here. But the Jews say that we need to worship him over there. And Jesus says, well, it's not even really important anymore because there's coming a day and it's coming soon when you're not going to worship over here, over there, but you're going to worship in spirit and in truth.

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A lot of people try to make that into some sort of feelings and knowledge or something, but it means spirit and in truth.

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It means in the power of the Holy Spirit that our spirits will actually yearn out for God. And in truth, truth in our day is something that is like Pilate said, what is truth?

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People talk about speaking their truth or trying to understand things from other people's perspectives in order to gain from their truth.

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They think that there's somehow multiple amounts of truth. But really what you have is you have one reality that is created and run by God.

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So if we're going to listen to truth, what we need to do is to take whatever preconceived notions we have, which is probably going to be just as difficult for someone who's only heard that position as it is for somebody who advocates so strongly for our own.

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We would need to take the time. And if somebody has something to say about scripture, that we take the time to listen to it, to address it, to work through it.

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And if we're wrong, who cares? Because God is the one who is who has made reality and he's created things in a certain way.

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He's doing things his way. And we need to be willing to look at scripture, allow

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God to speak to us through scripture. And then if we're wrong, we need to be willing to change because we worship

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God in spirit and in truth. So whatever is true is what we need to believe, not whatever we want to believe or whatever is convenient for us.

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Yeah, that's right. That's something similar that our pastor preached on this morning. He preached from John chapter eight, thirty one through thirty three.

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And where Jesus is telling them about him, about me, about my word.

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And about the truth and the truth will set you free. And their reply to him was.

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What if we've been slaves? We don't need to be set free. We don't need you.

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And our pastor was was talking about that position of desperation that we've got to come to that.

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We realize that we what we need him throwing away pride, throwing away self -reliance and realizing that we need him and.

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And realizing that we need to abide in him, abide in his truth, abide in his word.

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And then that that word, which is the truth, will set us free. And relinquish that that sense of pride or self -reliance and get back into the word.

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So, yes, somewhat similar word I heard this morning, which is encouraging. I like for you to encourage anybody who may be watching in this way, too.

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I've been seeing this a lot this past couple of weeks, posts on Facebook and even this morning at church where.

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The question is being asked, are you weary of the battle yet? Are you weary of the war?

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Are you. How are you coping? How are you dealing with the struggle in these.

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Rough days that we're going through, you know, the feeling, you know, the question. So where how can we have hope?

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How can we have encouragement when we're weary, when we're fighting the battle and the battle's tough and the battle's hard?

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Our forefathers, how did they look forward? Where did they arrive?

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Grab their hope from to keep them going and moving forward. How can you encourage us or someone who may be weary today?

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Yeah, I was I was mowing the lawn yesterday on my little riding tractor and I came up over a hill and there was a little tree, a little section.

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I was going up the hill and a wheel caught in and the whole tractor spun and it sent me down over this hill and sent me down over there kind of sideways.

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And the tractor ended up flipping, jumped out from underneath it.

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I was OK. But there was a split second there where I thought there is absolutely no way

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I'm getting out of this alive. I've got three large blades spinning above my head. This tractor weighs about a thousand pounds.

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Like, there is no way I'm going to make it out of this. Wow. My kids are outside. I'm hoping they don't see me get crushed to death by this tractor.

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And then somehow I jump off of it and run away and everything is completely fine.

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I say that because sometimes we live in that split second, that moment where we think there is no way

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I'm going to get out of this alive. There is no way that anything is going to end up well for me.

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And in those moments, we have to realize who our God is and what he's promised to us. And when you asked me this question earlier, this is exactly what popped into my head.

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It says, who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?

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As is written, we're being killed all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. We're living in that moment where the tractor is about to fall on us and crush us and chop a leg off or something.

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And what does he say? Verse 37, he says, no. In all these things.

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So we see famine and nakedness and peril and sword and the tractor falling on us.

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It is in that moment where he says this, in all these things, we are more than conquerors.

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It's one word meaning super conquerors in the Greek, which I just think is cool. But it's one word.

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We are more than conquerors through him who loved us. So how?

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What do we do when it looks like the world's falling in on us? That's part of his plan.

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That it looks like things are going poorly. But really, when we understand sin, when we understand the enemy, we realize that sin and the enemy are self -destructive.

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Christ is always victorious. And he doesn't always do things the way that we would expect him to.

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So when we see all of these things going on, then we need to recognize that this is part of God's plan.

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And he's got something amazing for us. It is in those moments that we are more than conquerors.

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It was in the moment when Christ was hanging on the cross about to breathe his last that sins were being paid for.

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When things looked bleak, when the sun wasn't even shining anymore. When people were scared out of their mind, it was dark.

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It was like three o 'clock in the afternoon. It was dark. People were frightened.

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That was God's plan. That was his plan all along. It was in that moment that we were more than conquerors.

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That's right. That's right. Absolutely. I don't want to say different layers, but there's multiple aspects of God's character, which are encouraging to us in those times.

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And you speak to several of those aspects of his character, his glorious compassion and sovereignty, his gospel, and what

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Christ did for us on the cross. And also you have to include in there, as we continue to study eschatology, our eschatology of hope and his plan for the future.

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We can have hope in these perilous times if we have this understanding from scripture that there is an eschatology and in times, in things, hope of victorious eschatology.

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And so we can derive our strength from this hope, this eschatological hope that God's plan is victorious, is being victorious and will be victorious.

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And so there's a lot of places from God's character that we can derive our hope and strength from.

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So one of those things that we want to talk about today in eschatology, again, is the resurrection.

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And the reason we want to talk about that is because it's a part of eschatology. It's a part of Jesus's message.

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It's a part of his ministry. It's a part of scripture. We want to know about the resurrection. But another reason that we want to talk about the resurrection is because of the different positions that are out there.

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And we want to look at the different positions and we want to look at scripture. And we want to compare the positions to the scripture and see which one the

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Bible tells us we should be looking for. Would you say that's accurate,

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Dan? I think that's the approach that we need to take. And then that will help form what our eschatology should be.

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I would say we should do it maybe a little backwards. Maybe we should look at the Bible first. And then if it looks like one of those eschatological positions, great.

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We should probably start with the Bible and not with theology.

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Absolutely. Not that you can separate them, but start at the right point.

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Absolutely. And that's a great point. We want to look at the scripture. And we've talked about the main three, the pre -meal, the amal, and the post -meal.

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If scripture is telling us that neither one of those are right, it's

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OK for us to dump all of them and go with the Bible. And that's what you were talking about.

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And, yeah, that's the direction that I wanted to go with it as well is that we want whatever we believe to line up with scripture.

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And that's why we hold the position that we hold. So you've got the pre -meal, which many are going to be more familiar with.

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And Dan and I were talking about the different or the thoughts, the understanding of the teaching of the resurrection from the premillennial dispensational view.

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And we're with the understanding that their understanding is that there's going to be two resurrections, maybe three.

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And there's going to be probably a large amount of time in between those resurrections.

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Can you give some explanation to that view? Yeah, the basic scheme, it goes something like this.

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At a certain point in the future, there will be a rapture of the church. In other words, all those who are believers who are living on the earth and those who have been believers living up until this point will be caught up together in the air with God.

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They'll have a marriage supper for about seven years until they come back with him to establish his kingdom upon the earth.

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After a thousand years on the earth, then Satan will launch a little rebellion.

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It will get squashed when Jesus finally puts an end to everything.

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He's going to set up judgments at that point. Everybody who's not been brought back to life at that point will then be brought back to life.

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Some will be brought back to life in order to face judgment at the great white throne judgment.

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And those who have been believers, and this is where the camp splits a little bit.

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Some of them believe that those who were believers will then be resurrected to have a judgment of sorts for reward.

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And some believe that at that time, like I said, this is all over the place.

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Some believe that any other ones, save from the

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Old Testament, they'll also be resurrected and judged on the basis of reward as well.

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Basically, you have three different resurrections. Although they don't usually call the rapture a resurrection, it ends up acting and looking like one.

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You have the rapture where believers are caught up in the air with Christ, either from the grave or from the earth.

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Then you have the final resurrections where people are judged either at the great white throne, or they're judged on the basis of their works for reward as believers who came usually out of the tribulation in the millennial period.

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This is going to be my perspective, and I want to see what your thoughts are and if you can explain it probably better than I could.

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But of course, Dan and I, we're coming from a different eschatological perspective than the one he just described.

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And so from what I see, this is going to be one of the aspects of that position where you're not necessarily getting those events and those timeframes from a specific verse.

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You're getting those events, the timeframe, you're getting them from a chart that you have to make up and create places for those events to happen.

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And you just have to squeeze things in a chart because you hold certain positions like this secret rapture position.

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And this seven -year tribulation position. And so you've got to put things in different places on a chart to make it all fit and work out as opposed to consistent scriptural interpretation.

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Can you explain that any better? I know you can. Do you see where I'm going with that? Yeah, I think what you're trying to say is it appears that the dispensational position is one where you have to assume some things when you're coming to a text.

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And then when you ask, where do you get that? They have a text that they go to, but there's other things that have to be assumed when you read that text in order to put those pieces together.

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So it's almost like you continually chase yourself around these different texts until you have a pattern that unfolds in which you can make deductions.

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And then when you chart it all out, it ends up looking like the dispensational charts that you see.

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And I know dispensationalists will not agree, but it feels to me like kind of like trying to nail jello to the wall where you're trying to find a specific text.

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They say, well, you have to understand that there's going to be a rapture. Where do you get a rapture?

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And it'll take you to say 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5 and say, well, I don't see that. Where do you get that there's going to be a period of time?

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And then they'll jump you back to Daniel where they look at, you know, a period of seven years that there's supposedly a gap.

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And then there's seven final years. And then, yes. Well, where do you get that? And then they'll take you somewhere else where and it just seems like you're chasing yourself.

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I think that's what that's what you're getting at. So it appears to be that there's there's definitely a scriptural.

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There's an attempt to be to be biblical with it. And I don't think anybody's trying to just make something up off the top of their heads.

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But it seems like it's a bit squishy.

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I don't know if that's a good word for it or not. I think you did use a good word, assumptions that have to be made.

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And there's a lot of everyone does. But we need to make sure that our presuppositions and our assumptions are solidly based on Scripture.

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That if that if we have a three pronged assumption that all three of those can be found clearly laid out and not have to be deduced from something along the way.

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Yeah. Well, with that position, it seems like there's a lot more theological hoops that you have to jump through.

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That there's a lot more dot connecting that you have to make as opposed to a consistent.

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Reading a consistent interpretation throughout the entire book where everything ties together, making more sense, being more fluid.

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Instead of doing all the hoop jumping and dot connecting that you were you were talking about.

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Well, we have to go here and we have to go here and we have to go here. So I think and I can probably speak for Dan on this because it was probably a similar experience for him as it was for me.

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When you're looking at the when you're looking at these theological positions and you can read a verse and that particular verse.

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You know, just the verse itself. Not necessarily the interpretation of the verse, but the verse that you look at a plain reading of the text.

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Is is like it will pull the rug out from underneath a theological position and you can't ignore it.

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You're like that position will not hold water. The rug has just been pulled out from underneath that position just by this

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Bible verse. So I've got to follow where scripture leads. So let's let's do that.

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Let's let's follow where scripture leads. Do you want to add anything? Yeah, what you're getting at is that when we see something that comes against what we believe.

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We need to we need to look to understand and exegete that text properly and cause it to harmonize with what we believe in.

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Unless it will not harmonize. But there's no reason why we should.

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Why we should try to why in our if we're looking at a text we should not be trying to make our.

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We shouldn't have to do our exegesis or our understanding of the text or interpretation in such a way where it makes what the verse says say what we're trying to make it say.

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What we do is if we do not explain away the clear meaning of a text in order to make it fit our system.

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Now we may have to look at it and see well, okay, this is what I believe in. This is what it says and know is there a way to understand and if there is then great and if not back to the drawing board, let's start over again.

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But we always want to make sure that our we're looking at the text as a standard and not our theological position first because that's easy for anybody to do.

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Especially when you think you've got a handle on something. It's really easy to go out and say and just assume things that you've learned.

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And I mean, that'd be really easy for us to do as post -millennial is just because we think we've got a handle on it.

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But we still have to take the time go through the steps. Make sure we do our exegesis or interpretation correctly. Make sure we're not trying to take that text and just tweak it just a little bit to where it makes us feel better about our position.

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Yeah, exactly. I think that's what you're getting at. I just it's always real important to bring that up again.

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Absolutely. And just to use the analogy that you were talking about before. When we when we want to look at and what we're going to do, we're going to look at the resurrection.

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And we want to we want our beginning point and our destination to be as straight as possible.

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We want it to be consistent. We want to have a consistent interpretation.

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And the example that Dan was given a while ago was trying to connect a lot of dots.

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And so instead of there being a straight line with the with the other position where you have we have the rapture.

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Well, for there to be a rapture, there has to be a gap. And so instead of going straight,

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I've got to come over here and find it somewhere in the Bible.

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And for that to take place, I've got to find something else. And I've got to divert into another dot.

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What we want to do is we want to take out all those all those stopping points and follow a straight line of interpretation to get from point

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A to point B. Instead of. Finding finding verses to fit our theology, we want our we want to find the verses and then understand our theology from those verses.

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And so. The first verse that Dan brought up was first that first Thessalonians four.

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We can look at that together. Starting in verse 13, it says, but we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.

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For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring him bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

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For this, we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the

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Lord. Shall not perceive those who have fallen asleep. For the

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Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of our angel with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first.

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Then we who are alive and remain will be called up to get to meet him or together with him in the clouds to meet the

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Lord in the air and thus shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. So there's going to be a time when the dead in Christ will rise first.

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And then after that, those who are alive and remain will be caught up. And that's where they they get this word rapture, which

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I think comes from the Latin. They get this idea of a rapture.

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To meet the Lord in the air. And so you have kind of all both things happening here that we have to look at and understand correctly.

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One of the things that jumps out to me, jumped out to me before, is that the order of of such events is that you have in the pre -millennial view, you have the rapture happening and then the resurrection happening.

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But here in this verse, you have the resurrection happening first. It's undeniable.

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You can use different language. You can use some linguistic manipulation if you want to.

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But when when a dead person is raised from the dead, that's what we call a resurrection.

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And so the resurrection here happens first. And then you have the rapture. Well, the dispensationalists will say that those two events are the same, the same thing.

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It's called the rapture. That the catching up of the live and dead saints of the time is one event called the rapture.

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They will make a distinction that basically what Paul was was getting at is have those who have died missed out on the blessings of the eternal state, like they're not around and Jesus isn't back yet.

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Are they going to know? Are they in trouble? Are they missing out on anything? He's like, no, no, no. They're going to rise first and meet us up there.

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Like we get up there in the air with Jesus. They'll be there already. And so it's kind of a case of trying to make it say too much, because as much as I've said that they will that there will be a time where believers alive and dead will be raised up, will be with Christ and will be with him forever.

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Every single eschatological position of the main four, historical, premillennial, dispensational, premillennial, all millennial, postmillennial, all of them agree with that, that I've said.

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It's just that the dispensational premillennialists will then say, well, look, this is a rapture that happens before a seven year period and then before a thousand year period.

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And they'll go to this text as proof of that. But it doesn't say all that.

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What it does say is that there's a time coming when those who have fallen asleep, who have died in Christ will be raised up and will be reunited, resurrected and reunited with living saints and Christ himself and will be with him forever.

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That's just what it's getting at. Yeah. Well, for me, the rug that got pulled out for me was.

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Yeah, I understand what you're talking about, where the dispensational say, well, this is the same event. We're not talking about a resurrection and a rapture.

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We're talking about this. This is the rapture where the the dead and the alive both meet him.

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But for them to for them to hold that position.

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There has to be. There has to be this tribulation, the seven year tribulation that has this gap in prophecy.

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And so. When you go to Daniel, they want to put that in Daniel.

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It's just not there. I think Daniel chapter nine, it's just not there. So. I would encourage everyone.

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You know. If you're if you're a pastor or so, if you're your pastor is brave enough or if you're brave enough to listen to a series of messages when you have time to do that or or if your pastor is brave enough to to tackle in times or eschatology.

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I would encourage you to listen, take time to investigate, to be a student of God's word.

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And look, because when you ask the questions and go try to find the answers, you may be surprised that the theology that you thought you should hold on to that you were taught may not be the one the

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Bible is teaching you at that time. Because when

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I go back to Daniel and I go back to Daniel chapter nine and I try to find that. I try to find anybody in scripture talking about a prophetic gap where prophecy ends and then we'll start later on.

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Or if I try to find this seven year tribulation period. We're supposed to happen in the future.

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You just don't you don't find it. You really do not find scripture teaching that.

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And so. That particular interpretation where you have the secret rapture and a resurrection happening at the same time.

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Before seven year tribulation. It just kind of crumbles and falls apart.

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Now, how would you how would you and I then interpret this first Thessalonians chapter four?

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First, the way I would interpret it is this is a source of great hope for people who have ever lost someone that they know knows the

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Lord. Because that's that's the point of what he's getting at. He says, I don't want you to be uninformed about those who have died so that you may not grieve as those who do not have hope.

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The whole purpose of this particular portion of scripture is that if you know someone who was in the

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Lord, who loved Christ, who then died, why do you grieve?

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The only reason you grieve is because you don't get to see them for a time. You don't have a grief that they are paying for their sins.

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You don't have a grief that they are that you're never going to see them again. You don't have a grief that they have come to the end of something and cease to be.

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You have a great hope that one day Christ who entered into the grave himself and arose who resurrected from the dead will one day take your deceased loved one and raise them from the dead as well.

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And if you die, he'll raise you up too. And if you're still around when he comes back and he raises people up from the dead, you're not going to get left behind here either.

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You're going to get caught up with them. And everyone that God has saved, everyone that he has brought to himself will be finally caught up and glorified and with Christ forever.

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The gospel hope is one that extends past now and into eternity for everyone who alive and who's passed on.

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And I'd say that that is the interpretation of this passage. That's all it's trying to say.

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He's trying to give hope to those who have lost loved ones. They didn't know. So what gives?

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I thought Jesus was coming back real soon and he's not back yet. What about these? Well, they have nothing to worry about.

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Christ will raise them up as well. Yeah. So this is more of an encouragement passage than a prophetic passage.

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Even though you and I would have a place on the timeline for this passage, you're telling me that Paul is actually just using this as an encouragement to them instead of a prophetic utterance.

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In fact, if you're a believer, and I'm open to correction, but I believe this to be true.

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If you're a believer, every single time the end times is mentioned, it's a cause for hope.

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It's a cause for positive, for joy. Now, for those who are not believers, it's not that.

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It's a time for, like the Bible says, for fearful judgment. There's not really anything where we look towards the end times and say, man,

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I hope I'm not around when that takes place. It's like, no, I don't really want to be there. This is going to be awesome. That's kind of the vibe you get from, it's probably not a good way to put it, but that's the idea you get when you read the scriptures.

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When it mentions eschatology and the believer, it's always in an attitude of hope.

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Well, and that just seems to, I want to look at both of those things that you just mentioned.

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And I think we can, looking at these next two passages of Scripture, 1 Corinthians 15 and John 6.

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And I think we can look at both of those things that you just talked about. But going back to the distinctives between the different positions, one position is more of a pessimistic position.

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And you've got movies and you've got books to prove it. They are looking for worse times.

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They are looking for bad things to happen. They are looking for us to go through trials and tribulations.

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But when we read Scripture like you're talking about, and we see the message of end times, we see the message of eschatology.

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We see a message of hope that there's a resurrection. There's victory.

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All these good things that Christ mentions, and we'll see that promise, that encouragement, even from Jesus himself in John 6.

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But looking at, right before we get there, 1 Corinthians 15, 23 through 26, it says, but each one in his own order.

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So we have like an order here of the resurrection of Christ.

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The first fruit, after those who are Christ at his coming, then comes the end.

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When he delivered the kingdom to God, to God the Father, when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.

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For he must reign till all his enemies are put under his feet, and the last enemy will be death. And then 1

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Corinthians 15, 52 through 54, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, the trumpet will sound.

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And the dead will be raised incorruptible, and shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

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So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the same that is written, death has swallowed up into victory.

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So I think one of the points in this passage is Christ is the first fruits.

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Christ was raised first to prove, one of the people it proved to was the

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Sadducees that didn't believe in the resurrection. Proof that Christ was his work, his life, his death, it was accepted by God.

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He was raised from the dead, and he would then be the first fruits of those who would believe in him that will be resurrected.

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And then the order of events, then after that, there's going to be a resurrection later for those who are dead.

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For those who belong to Christ? For those who belong to Christ. Right, and then what happens right after those who belong to Christ are raised?

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Those who don't belong to Christ. Well, right after those who belong to Christ in verse 24 says, and verse 23 says, then it is coming, those who belong to Christ, that's when they'll be raised up.

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And then comes the end. Not and then comes a seven year tribulation.

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Right. Not then comes a thousand year reign upon the earth. Right. It's when he comes back and he raises up the saints, then comes the end.

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Right. That's it. And that's why careful, that's why careful reading of the verses is so important that you don't, you don't miss points like that.

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No. The Corinthians, Paul in Corinthians gives us here a timeline.

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Christ is our first fruits. And then there's then later there's going to be a resurrection of the dead.

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And I'm trying to find it. This is this is supposed to be part of what we're supposed to look at.

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John, chapter five, the hours coming in, in which all who are in the graves.

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So you have you. That's another part you don't want to miss when you're interpreting scripture. All who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth.

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Not not half of them. Not just the believers, not just the unbelievers. But in that hour, all who are in the grave will hear his voice.

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Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. So you have this resurrect resurrection.

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And as Dan said, pointing out in first Corinthians, 15, 24, after this resurrection and who's going to be resurrected in this hour, both those who did good and those who did evil.

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The righteous and the unrighteous in that same hour, there's not going to be one here.

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Thousand years later, a different resurrection in the same hour. And then the end.

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And I think that was excellent to point out. And Jesus makes two points. He makes two two parables.

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One, he says that there's there's a wheat field. There's wheat and tares that grow up amongst it.

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And at the end, there's a great harvest. And then he separates the wheat from the tares. Actually, there's three.

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He also says that it's like gathering up a whole bunch of livestock. He's going to separate them, the sheep and the goats.

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There's also the parable of the dragnet where you take. He goes fishing, basically, and gathers up all the fish of the ocean, brings them in.

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All those who are good are put on one side. All those who are not are put on the other.

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These are all pictures of the one resurrection at the end. The one judgment at the end where things are separated.

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And then comes the end. That's it. So that's the event.

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That's the hopeful event that we're going to be looking for. Of course, if you're found in him, it's going to be a hopeful event.

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And it's going to be a terrible, terrifying event if you're not found in him. So we want to position ourselves now so that we can look forward to and enjoy that time to come in the future.

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Let me reiterate that point that Dan just made because that helps us so much to not create stopping points, not create theological loopholes and hoops to jump through that are not there.

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When you read 1 Corinthians 15 and it says you have the resurrection and then the end, that's pretty clear.

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And so if you have people teaching you that there's a rapture and then the seven year tribulation and then a thousand year reign and then the end, it doesn't match up.

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It doesn't match with 1 Corinthians 15, 24. Right. It says that the resurrection then comes the end and the end is when he hands the kingdom over.

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It's not when he establishes the kingdom. It's when it's finished. He hands it over and then it says for or because in this way it'll happen.

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He must reign now until all of his enemies have been put under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

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It's after the subjection of his enemies to himself that he then takes the kingdom.

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The thing that started off as a little bitty mustard seed and grew to all the birds could sit in it.

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It started off as a little bitty bit of yeast in a lump until it leavened the whole loaf. He's going to take that kingdom that started so small and grew.

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When he comes back, raise his saints, raise his church, raise his kingdom from the dead, take those who are alive on the earth and present it to the father.

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Here is my finished work. Here is what your gospel has accomplished in the earth. It has saved everyone that you have given to me.

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Everyone that you have called to me, everyone that has heard from the father has come to me and I've raised them up at the last day.

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I'm glad you brought up those two verses about how Jesus describes the kingdom, the mustard seed and the leaven.

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This hit me the other day as I was thinking about that and how when it comes to eschatology, we so often continue to think like the

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Jews did. Instead of thinking like the Bible does. The Jews still think this way as looking for Messiah.

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They were looking for Messiah to come that was going to just be this military leader and take over.

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They were going to come behind him and follow him. He was going to be this earthly king that he was just going to conquer and take over.

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That's not how Jesus looked back at the

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Old Testament and explained to them, this is not what you were to be looking for. This is not what my kingdom is. It's in this world, it's not of this world.

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It's not that kind of kingdom. They didn't expect their king to be a suffering servant.

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They didn't see that in Isaiah 53. They just didn't see what Jesus, who he really was and what he was prophesied to be.

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Many are still looking for that particular Messiah instead of the one that the

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Old Testament prophesied that he would be. They expected him to be this conquering king and he came the first time to be this suffering servant,

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Isaiah 53. How I think we still think that way is that we're looking at end times in eschatology and scripture.

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I think Doug Wilson calls it the B -52 bombing.

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We're not looking for Jesus to come as the...

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He gives some kind of military analogy where they come in and just bomb everything and blow it up.

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It happens quickly and it's a very large event.

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That's what many are looking for because of the Left Behind series and the movies and the books.

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They're looking for these huge, major, quick events to happen where you have the rapture.

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Then you have this military campaign where you have bombs and fires going everywhere.

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You have the mark of the beast and you can't buy and sell goods. You have this tribulation and then people are getting their heads cut off because they're not getting the mark of the beast.

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You have all this stuff going on that people are looking for and expecting these huge, huge events.

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But that's not how Jesus explains his kingdom. He explains his kingdom to be growing as a mustard seed, as leaven.

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It starts out small and gets big. It grows slowly over time as Jesus is putting to death his enemies and the last enemy is going to be death.

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I know that was a long rabbit trail there. To me,

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I see the similarity in our misthinking about his first coming and how we think about his second coming.

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Does that make sense at all? A little bit? Let's wrap this up as we look at John 6.

50:26

We can be encouraged with Jesus' words here. Just as Dan was talking about how this is an eschatology of hope, we can look at eschatology.

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When it's talked about in Scripture, it's talked about in a hopeful way. Jesus is starting in verse 26.

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He's telling, You've got the multitude there following Jesus. He's looking at their heart, correcting their heart, trying to address the situation.

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Within that, he's giving them this message. If my computer and everything suddenly goes off, it's because our cat has unplugged it.

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He's in here and he's trying to tackle all the wires that are out here. Let's look at some of the things that Jesus says during his message.

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He's trying to teach them about the kingdom of God, about salvation, about what it looks like.

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It's not about them. Starting in verse 35, he says, I am the bread of life, who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.

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But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe.

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All that the Father gives to me shall come to me, and the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out.

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So much theology and so much encouragement in Jesus' message here. Then he says in verse 38,

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For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that all that he has given me,

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I lose nothing. But raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my

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Father, that everyone who beholds a son and believes in him may have eternal life.

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And I myself will raise him up on the last day. And then just skipping down, look at a few other places where he says this.

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Verse 44, No one can come to me unless the Father who has sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.

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And then, what does he say it again? Verse 54, He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

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So this message here of Christ teaching them about salvation, teaching them about the kingdom of God, and then teaching them about eschatology.

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From point A, from point B, from beginning to end, Jesus is teaching them about the sovereignty of God, that it's not about them, they can't earn a work for their salvation, that it's

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God, that Jesus is the one whom he sent, you can believe in him, you can trust in him, and then there's hope, because on the last day, for those that will believe,

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I will raise him up. Do you have any thoughts on John 6? John 6 is incredible.

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When you look at it at the beginning, he says, you're looking after me because you got your belly filled, basically.

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We know from elsewhere in the New Testament that at one point after one of these miracles, they seized him and tried to make him king.

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He ran away. He's like, no, that's not what I'm here for. I'm not here to be a political messiah. I'm here to start my kingdom, but I'm not going to overthrow political kingdoms in a political way.

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I'm going to overthrow them by changing the hearts of men. And that's what he's getting at, because he says right here, you want food, you think my economy is better because I can just make fish and loaves, and just poof up out of nowhere.

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He said, that's not what I'm getting at at all. You're coming to me for the completely wrong reasons. He says, you need to be drawn to me because of the truth of the gospel, that you need your sins forgiven.

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So he says, you've come at me. He says, you don't believe because you don't have the right motives.

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He says in 35, like you said, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

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Which is exactly what they wanted, but they just wanted it in a different way. They wanted it in a political, earthly, in your face, change things now type of solution.

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And he goes on, he says, no, that's not how I am. You're going to be taught of the father. You're going to be drawn to me. Everyone that is drawn to me,

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I will save him, raise him up at the last day. Nobody can come to me unless the father that gives them to me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.

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And then he says in verse 48, I am the bread of life. You were looking for bread.

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You're looking for a political solution to the situation that you're in. I am that solution, and I'm not going to do it the way that you want me to.

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I'm going to do it the way that I want to, the way that he needed to. And so they were, he says, the bread, the sustenance, the riches that he was promising, the food, the livelihood that he was promising, he says, is my flesh.

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And they're like, wait a second. How are we supposed to eat this guy? Like, that's not right. And it's interesting.

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It's just three chapters after Nicodemus. Nicodemus is like, how can I, my mom's not going to go for this.

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Like, I can't go there. Like, that's not, he's like, no, I'm talking about being born of the spirit.

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You must be born of the spirit and of water. He comes here. He's like, you must eat my flesh and drink my blood, or you won't see eternal life.

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And they're like, what do you mean? I can't eat your body and drink your blood. It's like, no, but your sustenance, your very being, everything that makes you tick, that gives you life, needs to be the sacrifice that I'm about to give you.

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It needs to be the drawing of the Father to the Son. It needs to be you looking upon the Son and realizing your sin.

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And it needs to be you taking that perfect broken body and that wonderful, precious life that was sucked from our

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Savior and given to you. And that's why the Lord's Supper is so important, because it's in those times that we are physically nourishing our bodies with bread and wine, when it's symbolic of the actual grace, given to us through the gospel.

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Which is why the Lord's Supper is so incredibly dangerous. It's so incredibly dangerous, because if we take it in an unworthy manner, we're eating and drinking damnation on ourselves, because we're going to the very grace of God on the basis of the blood and body of Jesus Christ.

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And we're saying something that it's completely not. That's why it's so important to look at this.

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The gospel, the Lord's Supper, His kingdom, it's all wrapped up into one.

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The sustenance, the life, the economy that He offered was not an economy that came in a political sense.

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It was an economy that came in the real, true, life -giving sense. The Lord's Supper communion, the

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Eucharist, we're going to take that word back. That's a good word. It is so incredibly wonderful.

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It's almost like a currency of grace. That's a really weird way to look at it. But think of it in contrast to what the

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Jews were expecting of the day. They were expecting money and freedom from the Romans. But what did

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He give them? He didn't give them a way to make money and make bread. He gave them His blood and His body.

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He instituted the supper to show that grace to them as they looked to Him in faith, as they heard the word preached, as they had the

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Father drawing them to the Son, as they had the Son giving those promises.

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That's where His kingdom was grown. His kingdom was grown through the gospel and through the shedding of blood and through the breaking of His body without breaking

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His bones. So for us to look now for a future political kingdom in which

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Jesus Christ sits on the earth and has that sort of rod of iron crush the

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Romans look to Him, it's missing the point. He's putting His enemies down now, and He's doing so through the power of the gospel.

01:00:01

That's right. And I think that's the biggest takeaway

01:00:07

I can have from this. I know I rambled and stuff. I appreciate what you said. It makes sense about the gospel currency and the currency of grace.

01:00:21

Right. A better way would be true riches. The true riches were not a money currency in an economy in a government.

01:00:28

The true riches were the blessedness and grace of Christ that were given to us in salvation. Yeah. It took me right to, to my mind, right to Jesus says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

01:00:45

Go ye therefore, or therefore go based on that. Make disciples of all nations.

01:00:52

So we're to be going after nations, right? But we're not to be going after nations with the sword.

01:00:58

Right. With the physical sword. And we're not to be going after the nations and buying them with physical money.

01:01:05

But the currency that Christ has given us was His flesh and His blood that you're talking about.

01:01:12

We're winning the nations with the gospel. Right. And that's, that's a beautiful picture.

01:01:22

Right. There's a Psalm 2 tells the nations, it says, kiss the sun unless you perish.

01:01:29

It says that God sits in the heavens and laughs at the nations as they devise their schemes. They all think they're going to be kings and princes.

01:01:36

And he says, I've already picked mine. Mine's Jesus. You better kiss his ring or he's going to be angry and you're not going to like the results of it.

01:01:45

And that call for the nations to kiss the sun comes from the church.

01:01:51

It comes from the church's discipling of the nations that, well, first off, repent of your sins and believe the gospel.

01:02:01

And then as we see individuals save, nations change. Now, it may take a while.

01:02:07

It may be a little bit off. May have to go through some, some peril and tribulation and famine and sword.

01:02:14

But in all those things, we're more than conquerors anyway. So let's, let's, let's get it going. Yeah. Expand that out just a little bit more and we'll wrap it up.

01:02:23

This will be the call to the gospel. This will be the proclamation of the gospel. So what you're saying is this, this call from the church to kiss the ring of the king, it's, it's, we're not to be beggars.

01:02:38

We're not to be pleaders. We're to be proclaimers. And what you're saying is kiss the ring of the king.

01:02:47

And what we mean by kiss the ring of the king is repent of your sins and put your trust in him.

01:02:52

That's you're saying that's kissing the ring, right? It's, it's recognizing his

01:02:58

Lordship and his sovereign rule, his, his authority in the world that he has.

01:03:06

Which is something we should have been doing as, as a human race ever since the garden of Eden. But we just did not want to do that.

01:03:13

We loved our sin more than the creator and we worshiped everything else. We just didn't want anything to do with them.

01:03:21

We wanted him to go away. We wanted to be the ones in charge. We wanted to determine what's right and what's wrong. And we've made a mess of things.

01:03:31

Our sin has separated us from our God. Our sin has caused incredible damage to the entire universe.

01:03:41

Things fall apart. It breaks. Relationships, physical things break down.

01:03:51

Cancer cells grow. Because sin is in the world.

01:03:58

What we do when we proclaim the gospel to the nations is we proclaim to each and every one out there.

01:04:04

There is a way that God has told us to live our lives. And you need to live your life in that way.

01:04:12

Political rulers, you political rulers need to, need to rule our nation, need to run our nation.

01:04:18

Need to serve the people in your constituency, in your congressional district or whatever.

01:04:23

You need to serve those people as if you're God's representative. Because you've been given your authority by God in order to rule his world in his way.

01:04:34

If you use that authority for anything else, you will fall under his wrath. And that's not just for political rulers.

01:04:42

It's for pastors. It's for school teachers.

01:04:49

It's for moms and dads. You have been called to raise your children to love and nurture, to love and live in God's world with God as king.

01:05:04

If you do not do that, you are in trouble. We must take everything that we do and put it under the lordship of Christ.

01:05:15

And here's the thing, each and every one of us has failed absolutely, completely, miserably in doing those things.

01:05:24

So the call of the gospel to kiss the sun lest you perish is to say that, yeah, you have sinned against the sovereign of the universe.

01:05:33

You deserve to have his wrath poured out upon you. But he has said that if you come to him in repentance and faith, that if you trust in his blood sacrifice upon the cross, that any sin that you have committed can be washed away and made clean.

01:05:49

That you can live rightly with the creator of the universe. That anything that you've ever done, it doesn't matter what.

01:05:56

Like the hymn says, the vilest of sinners who truly believes this moment from Jesus a pardon receives.

01:06:02

It's the message of the gospel that he says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

01:06:10

Therefore, disciple the nations. Each person makes up a part of the nation in which they live, whether they're a garbage collector or a king, it doesn't matter.

01:06:24

You do what you do to the glory of God. And if you're not, turn from your rebellion and trust in Christ.

01:06:33

Believe in him and you'll find him to be a perfect savior. Every single one of those promises of hope in the end times, of Christ coming back to present his kingdom to the father, of eternal bliss, of things going extremely well, the whole of Revelation 21 and 22, the talk about the perfection of the end times promises are yours because they're yours in Christ Jesus.

01:06:59

And so that's that's what we're getting at. That's right. And then the message of John six is saying exactly what you're saying.

01:07:09

Verse 47, truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. Fifty one,

01:07:16

I am the living bread that come down out of heaven. If any if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever.

01:07:23

And the bread also, which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh. So come to Christ, repent of that rebellion and put your faith and trust in him as your savior, as your lord, as your king.

01:07:38

That he currently already already is and is reigning as king.

01:07:45

So we love you and we want you to we want you to be one of those that he is speaking of here in John six that says,

01:07:57

I will raise him up on the last day that he will live forever. And we want you to be a part of that.

01:08:02

So as Dan was saying, repent of your sins and put your trust in Jesus Christ.

01:08:08

Thank you for watching and listening. If you have any questions about this timeline of why we don't believe in the rapture, the gaps that we were talking about, the seven year tribulation, the rain, what it says in Daniel chapter nine, we would love to answer those questions and talk with you about it.

01:08:30

Send us a message and we can chat back and forth about that. Or if we need to do another video and talk in more detail about those things, we'd love to do that as well.

01:08:41

So just send us your questions and we will try to answer them for you. Let me pray for us and we'll we'll get off here.

01:08:51

Father, thank you for the time that you've given us together. We pray that you were honored and glorified as we look at your word and try to hear what you were saying and not what we want your word to say.

01:09:02

Help us to continue to do that forever and ever that we look at your word for what you are saying and not what we wanted to say.

01:09:15

And we we so humbly express our gratitude for the kingship of Christ, salvation that he earned by his death and resurrection and the life that he lived.

01:09:34

He is a land that was slain that is worthy of all praise, glory and honor for who he is, for what he did.

01:09:42

We thank you, Father, that you make this available and that you draw us to your son for salvation.

01:09:50

Thank you for letting us be a part of your kingdom and the work that you're doing in Jesus name we pray. All right.

01:09:56

Thank you guys for watching. Hope you have a good rest of your day. Remember that Jesus is king. Go live in that victory and let's continue to go out there together and proclaim his gospel.