F4F | Eschatology 101

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseborough. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

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This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. Now you notice, no headphones today.

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I'm going to actually be doing a little bit of biblical teaching. There have been a lot of questions coming in on the comments as well as on email regarding eschatology and how

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I view the biblical text regarding eschatology. And since there's a lot of misinformation out there circulating from a particular group,

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I thought maybe what would be a good idea to do is to just take a little bit of time and we'll walk through some biblical text together.

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And along the way, I'm going to show you from the biblical text itself, from Matthew 24 verse 24, that it's impossible for John MacArthur to actually be the fulfillment of Matthew 24, 24 from the text itself.

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You'll see this. But in doing this, we're going to have to be spending some time understanding how we apply the rules of biblical exegesis when it comes to eschatology and how does somebody like myself, who self -identifies as being amillennial, and by the way, that does not mean that we don't believe

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Jesus is coming back or that we take all the eschatological texts and we don't interpret them literally.

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That's silly. That's not how that works. So let me pull up my desktop, go to here, and we're going to just give you a couple of ground rules.

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If you want to follow along in your Bible, we'll eventually get into Matthew 24, 2

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Thessalonians chapter 2, maybe a little bit of 2 Peter.

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We'll throw in a little Daniel 9 just for some reference. And also, if you want to take a look, Old Testament text, you want to get ready, is going to be

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Deuteronomy chapter 28. I know that seems like a weird text to go to for eschatology, but it helps us understand something that's going on in Matthew 24.

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So all of that being said, Eschatology 101, and by the way, don't take my word for it.

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You don't need to listen to me with an open mind. Listen with an open Bible. And if you disagree with a particular point, then, you know, send me an email.

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My email, by the way, I don't normally advertise this, and I should. My email address is talkbackatfightingforthefaith .com.

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So let's kind of take a look at the rules of sound biblical exegesis, especially as it relates to eschatology, things related to the last days.

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Here's the bit. Clear passages always, and I mean always govern unclear.

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This is just sound exegesis to begin with. And you'll note, when it comes to the end of the world, biblical passages, some of them are very clear.

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Some of them are really tough to figure out. So your clear passages are going to govern your unclear.

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So that's rule number one. Literal texts govern symbolic or apocalyptic texts.

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And you're going to note something here is that when we look at the book of Revelation, it is apocalyptic.

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And there are word pictures in there. There are symbols in there. And so the idea here is you don't want to take your symbols literally.

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You want to take your literal text literally and then govern your symbols based upon your literal text.

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So let me give you an example. So one of the things that often comes up, you are millennials, don't believe that the thousand years is literal, to which

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I would say, of course not. And you premillennials out there, you would readily recognize that the 70 weeks given by the angel

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Gabriel as a prophecy to Daniel were not 70 literal weeks.

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Their fulfillment took over 400 years. If it were a literal 70 weeks, what's that, a year and a half, a year and a third?

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Yeah, you get the point. So the 70 weeks, they were a symbolic period of time.

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And so when you look at the book of Revelation, you look at the thousand years, you look at the time, time, half a times, the three and a half years, the seven years.

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These are all symbolic numbers in the same way that Daniel's 70 weeks were symbolic.

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But the idea then is this, is that literal text, so your literal text would be

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Matthew 24, 1 Thessalonians 5, 2 Thessalonians 2, 2

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Peter. These are literal texts. They are not symbolic. There's nothing in the genre there or how they're being laid out that you should take them symbolically.

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So literal texts always are going to govern your symbolic texts. And the idea then here is this, by letting your literal texts govern your symbolic texts, it keeps you from these weird flights of fancy and coming up with some really bizarre interpretations of what's going on in the apocalyptic text.

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You have to have governing passages and always those are the clear ones. So as I've already listed out then, your literal texts are

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Matthew 24, 1 Thessalonians 5, 2 Thessalonians 2, 2 Peter. These are literal.

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All right, they are not symbolic, you know, with just like tiny little exceptions and you can see it in the text themselves.

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And then symbolic and apocalyptic texts, these are Book of Revelation, parts of the

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Book of Ezekiel as they relate to the end of the world. These are again symbolic texts, or apocalyptic texts, and they have to be interpreted through the literal.

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So those are your rules of exegesis. But all that being said, basic eschatology, if you want the shape of it, you have to use your literal texts.

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Now, when I was in seminary, one of my seminary professors put it this way. He said that we go to Matthew 24, 2

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Thessalonians 2, 2 Peter, 1 Thessalonians 5, and if you were to think of eschatology as a car, then what happens is that those texts, the literal texts, give us the shape of the car, you know, what the car does, all of this stuff.

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And then the Book of Revelation is the really cool, wicked paint job that gets put onto this thing.

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That's the right way of looking at it. And a lot of people, they err when they go to Revelation first and then try to force, you know, the clear passages, the literal passages, the literal text, they force, try to force an interpretation of those texts based upon them starting in Revelation.

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You don't start there. You start with a clear text and then you go to Revelation. That's the idea. So if you were to understand amillennialism, what is it closest to eschatologically?

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And I don't want to push this too hard, but if you're familiar with the eschatology known as post -tribulationism, the idea then is that in the premillennial view, post -tribulationism believes that Christians are going to be on planet

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Earth all the way up until the return of Christ. And so that, you know, the

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Church isn't going to be raptured, or there isn't a secret second coming of Jesus where the

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Church gets raptured. Instead the Church is here for the entirety of the

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Church Age, from Christ's, you know, death, resurrection, ascension, the giving of the

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Holy Spirit at Pentecost, you know, that's on the one end, all the way until the visible return of Christ on the second end, on the other end of it.

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And so that's the closest, so amillennialists are closest to post -tribulationists.

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Now where the big difference is going to be is in our understanding of the millennium and what is

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Christ presently doing. And so we can have a discussion on that at a later time, but if you really want to understand what are we closest to, you could make a case, well, there's significant differences, but closest would be post -tribulationism, that's the basic idea.

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So we, you know, amillennialists believe that things are going to get really wickedly awful, terrible, right before the return of Christ.

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Some Lutheran scholars have referred to it, rather than the Great Tribulation, as the

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Devil's Little Season. And the reason why they don't call it the Great Tribulation is because when you, like, read

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Revelation chapter 1, John makes it clear that he's already a partner in the Tribulation. And so the

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Tribulation has been going on since the giving of the

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Holy Spirit and the beginning of the Church Age. So instead, we refer to it as the

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Devil's Little Season, and all I can say is, buckle up, it's going to be really bad. So all that being said, then, how then are we going to examine basic eschatology?

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We'll begin with what I believe is the central and clearest text regarding the end of the world, and that's found in Matthew 24.

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Matthew 24. In fact, let me do this, I'm going to lessen this just a little bit so I don't have so much light from my laptop on my face.

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And so let's take a look at the text. And you're going to note here, by the way, eschatologically, there is another view that's very popular among certain people in the

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Reformed camp. There's two alternative eschatologies that are quite popular in the Reformed camp that are very different than amillennialism or premillennialism, and that's going to be your

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Preterist view, and also a view called postmillennial. And so I am neither, and this is where the fight is, by the way, it's

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Matthew 24, how to understand it. So I'll walk you through how somebody who's amillennial understands this text.

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Number one, it's literal, it's not figurative, this is a literal text. And so we'll note where the eschatological differences are and how we read it.

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So here's what it says. Jesus left the temple and was going away when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple, but he answered them, do you see all these?

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Do you not? Truly I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.

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So as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?

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Now, this is where the, you know, I would say historic amillennialists would see this as two different questions.

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And Jesus doesn't tease out which he's talking about. So the disciples want to know when is the destruction of the temple and also what will be the sign of Christ's coming and of the end of the age, which is still, you know, still not here yet.

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Okay. The end of the age has not occurred. So all that being said, the disciples are thinking it's the end of the world.

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And so you'll know Jesus then is going to give a prophecy that will have as parts of it details regarding the destruction of the temple in 70

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AD. And the details of the destruction of the temple in 70 AD are going to correlate then with the final curses of the

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Mosaic covenant from Deuteronomy 28. And there's just a clear historic fulfillment of that.

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But all of that being said, Jesus is also going to give information regarding the end of the world.

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And so they kind of all get smooshed together. And so Lutheran theologians refer to prophecies of this type as being proleptic, which means they have, if you would, kind of a twin fulfillment.

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There's parts of it that are fulfilled in the immediate term, and then there's a part of it that has a remainder that hasn't yet been fulfilled.

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So we would say Matthew 24, Jesus gives a proleptic prophecy, part of it has been fulfilled in the destruction of the temple in 70

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AD, there's a remainder that still has yet to be fulfilled regarding the coming of Christ at the end of the age.

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So that's how we look at this, again, literal, not symbolic. So watch what Jesus says, and he notes that, and so this is kind of the first thing out of the chute, and in Jesus's time, this is a standard way of looking at these things, is the first thing you say is the most important thing to pay attention to.

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So note that Jesus says, see to it that no one leads you astray. And you'll note deception is going to be the hallmark of the end of the age.

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Deception is going to be the hallmark of the end of the age. And this will be consistent also then in 2

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Peter, as well as in 2 Thessalonians. So note this, there's a consistent theme here regarding the end of the age, and it has everything to do with the coming apostasy, which

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I think we can begin to say, we can already say that in many aspects, the apostasy has already begun, it's just ramping up in intensity.

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So Jesus then says, many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and you can translate this, ego imi hachristas, you can also translate that,

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I am an anointed one, or I am the anointed one. And so when you hear in the NAR people claiming to have a special anointing, well, they're claiming to be little

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Christs, and I think that part of the fulfillment of what Jesus is referring to here is found in people claiming anointings of that nature.

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So saying, I am the Christ, and note this, they're going to come in Jesus' name, which means where are they going to come from, where are they going to be, well, in the church.

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So Jesus is warning and predicting 2 ,000 years ago of deceivers who come in the name of Jesus in the church, and saying that they are anointed ones, or that they're the

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Christ, and note what he says, they will lead many astray. That's for real what's going to happen.

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So then you hear of wars and rumors of wars, see to it that you're not alarmed, this must take place, but the end is not yet.

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So you'll note the wars and rumors of wars, this has been going on since Christ's ascension, and Jesus kind of basically says, yeah, that's not the thing to pay attention to.

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Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, there will be famines, earthquakes in various places, and this is what he says, all these are but the beginning of birth pains.

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And there's your major metaphor, and one to consider here, those of you who are married and have children, whether you yourself have given birth to children, or you are the spouse of somebody who's given birth to a child or to children, we all know how this goes down.

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So one night your wife says, honey, I think it's time, maybe her water is broke, or the contractions have really started kind of coming in stronger than normal, you grab your suitcase, you head off to the hospital, and you get hooked up to the machines and stuff like that, and at first it's uncomfortable, but clearly you're in labor, 10 hours later there's sweat dripping off of your wife, and she's cursing the day that she married you.

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Because at this point the labor has gotten super intense, and so the idea then here is that wars, rumors, wars, famines, these are all just part of the beginnings of the birth pains.

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Hard labor is going to be something very different, and so your metaphor then is that as the world progresses, as the world progresses, the things that will be the true harbingers of the return of Christ, the deceptions, false

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Christ, false prophets, false apostles, the deception, false signs, false wonders, all of these things will increase in intensity over time as we get closer and closer to Christ's return, in the same way then that labor pains increase in intensity the closer you get to actually giving birth.

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That's your major metaphor here, and Jesus isn't the only one who uses this metaphor, and you'll see that.

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And then it says this, they will deliver you up to tribulation, they will put you to death. Yay! Yeah, you're going to be hated, and note that it says by all nations, not some, by all nations for my name's sake.

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So buckle up, this is what we get to look forward to, tribulation and being hated by everyone, yay!

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And then note this, that with that despising of Christians by all nations, many will fall away, many will betray one another and hate one another, many false prophets will arise and lead many astray, yep, and then because of lawlessness, because of lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

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Makes you wonder, are we not seeing fulfillments of this now in our time? I think you can make an argument for that.

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But the one who endures to the end will be saved. So how does one endure? You know, I always like to point out, when

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I was growing up, one of the bands I listened to in the 70s and 80s, yeah, those were kind of my decades, was

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Journey, and I say they had a prophetic song, and the name of the song was Don't Stop Believing.

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And so how does one endure? By continuing to believe, to trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins.

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So the one who endures to the end will be saved, and then what he says, the gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

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Full stop, alright? So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken by the prophet

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Daniel standing in the holy place, and I would argue starting here in verse 15, Jesus is going to steer into details as it pertains to the fall of Jerusalem in 70

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AD, and events leading up to that. And so one of the emperors, I think it was

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Claudius, in the years leading up to the full rebellion of the Jews and ultimately the sending of the armies of Rome, that I think it was the emperor

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Claudius, I may be wrong on the actual one, but one of the emperors immediately before the full -on rebellion of the

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Jews, he had erected in the temple itself an idol, an image to him, his own image, his own likeness set up in the temple.

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So I think that's the fulfillment of this, is that that image set up by the Roman emperor set up in the temple long after Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension, and in the immediate term before the rebellion of the

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Jews. So this is the abomination of desolation. So then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let the one who is on the housetop not go down, take what is in his house.

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And you'll note that when you read Eusebius' ecclesiastical history, that the Christians who were alive at this time in Jerusalem, as they saw these things that Jesus warned about beginning to take place,

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Christians up and skedaddled, they left town, and the Christians survived the sack of Jerusalem.

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They were not caught up in the siege. They listened to Jesus and left town, just as Christ told them to.

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So no one is on the housetop, go down, take what is in his house, let the one who is in the field not turn back and take his cloak.

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And alas for women who are pregnant and for those nursing infants in those days. Now this is probably one of the most dark bits that Jesus is making reference to, and your reference then for this and why he's saying these words is found all the way back in,

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I am looking specifically for Deuteronomy 28.

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So let me explain this. When you read the book of Deuteronomy, which is the second law, that's kind of the retelling of the

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Mosaic Covenant. In Deuteronomy 28, you have the blessings and curses of the Mosaic Covenant, which nobody is under anymore, it's been fulfilled by Christ.

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But in the blessing and curses of the Mosaic Covenant, the curses, you'll note what ends up happening is that God is saying, and this is part of the fine details, and Israel agreed to this, that if they did not abide by the commands of God and heed his words, then there would be punishments and curses, according to the

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Mosaic Covenant, that would increase in intensity. And there's an aspect to this that we're going to take a look at, but I want to show you this in context.

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So back in Deuteronomy 28, it says, but if you will not obey the voice of Yahweh your God or be careful to do all of his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.

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Curse shall you be in the city, curse shall you be in the field, curse shall be your basket and your kneading bowl, curse shall be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds, the young of your flock, curse shall be you when you come in and curse shall you be when you go out.

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These are the curses of not obeying the Mosaic Covenant. And that's a contract with God that they had.

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So you'll note that God says that Yahweh will send on you curses and confusion, frustration, and all that you undertake to do until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds because you have forsaken me.

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Yahweh will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of.

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You get the idea. And these curses increase with intensity and will kind of pick up at 28 as they're really starting to ramp up the threats that God is making.

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So Yahweh will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind. You shall grope at noonday as the blind gropes in the darkness.

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You shall not prosper in your ways. And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually.

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There shall be no one to help you. You shall betroth a wife, yet another man shall ravish her. You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it.

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You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruits. Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it.

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Your donkey shall be seized before your face, but shall not be restored to you. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and there shall be no one to help you.

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Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all the day long.

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But you shall be helpless. A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be oppressed and crushed continually so that you are driven mad by the sights that your eyes see.

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Yahweh will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed. From the sole of your foot to the crown of your head,

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Yahweh will bring on you and your king whom you set over you, a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known.

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And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone. So you'll note here in verse 36, that's a prophecy regarding the

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Babylonian captivity. But there is a specific prophecy in the curses related to the

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Roman Empire. I'll show you that as we keep reading. So you shall become a horror, a proverb, a byword among all the peoples where Yahweh will lead you away.

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You shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather in little, for the locust shall consume it.

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And you shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them.

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You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, and you shall not anoint yourself with oil, for your olives shall drop off.

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You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity.

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The cricket shall possess all the trees of the fruit of your ground. The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower.

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He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

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All the curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of Yahweh your

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God to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you. They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring, because you did not serve

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Yahweh your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart because of the abundance of all the things.

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Therefore, you shall serve your enemies whom Yahweh will send against you in hunger and thirst and nakedness and lacking everything, and he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.

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And Yahweh will bring a nation against you. Watch this part. A nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle.

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What was the mascot of the Roman Empire? Yeah, the Roman eagle. So this is a prophecy regarding the

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Roman Empire, and this is the part that we have to pay attention to because this is why Jesus says, alas for women who are nursing or have children in those days.

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Swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand, a hard -faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young.

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It shall eat the offspring of your cattle, the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed. It also shall not leave you grain or wine or oil, increase of your herds, of your young, of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.

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They shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout all your land, and they shall besiege you in your own towns throughout all your land which

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Yahweh your God has given you, and you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters whom

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Yahweh your God has given to you, given you in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you.

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And so you'll note here a terrible prophecy, and this is a part of the curses of the

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Mosaic Covenant, and this finds its fulfillment then in what

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Christ is prophesying when He said, coming back to what He said, and alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days, and the reason why

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He says alas, because what's coming upon them is the fulfillment of Deuteronomy 28, 53.

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Now historically, we'll note that in Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, this is from Book 3,

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Chapter 6, Eusebius is quoting the Jewish historian

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Josephus here, but he gives us some of the really horrifying details of what happened, the siege of Jerusalem in 70

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AD. And so here's what Eusebius says in his Ecclesiastical History. In Book 6, he writes thus, this is talking about Josephus, So life in the siege, if you were in Jerusalem and you didn't flee because you didn't believe

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Jesus' words, the siege created such a scarcity of food, now if anybody had anything that they could eat, they are fighting to the death, each other, your own friends, your own family.

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And so you'll note that he goes on to say, necessity brought all things to men's teeth, and they collected and brought themselves to eat things that are unfit even for the filthiest of irrational beasts.

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Finally, they did not refrain even from girdles and shoes, and they stripped the hides from their shields and chewed them.

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Wisps of old hay were sustenance for some since they gathered stubble and sold small portions of four -attic drachma.

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And then here's the part that's the terrible part. I'm not going to read out the actual words, but I'll take you right up to them and you can read the rest.

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Talking about a woman by the name of Mary. And so a woman by the name of Mary who was in Jerusalem for the siege of Jerusalem, it says this, she seized her child, she had a boy at the breast, and said, wretched child, for what do

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I protect you in war, famine, and rebellion? Even if we live among them as slaves to the

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Romans, famine anticipates slavery, and the rioters are worse than both. Come be my nourishment and avenging fury to the rioters and a byword to the world.

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And the only account still lacking to the calamities of the dews, as she said this, she killed her son.

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And then you can read that for yourself. This is why

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Jesus said, alas, let me come back to Jesus's words, where Jesus said, and alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days.

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And Jesus foresaw what was going to take place, and all of this was prophesied by Moses in Deuteronomy 28.

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So now you kind of get this. So this part here clearly has its fulfillment in 70

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AD. That means that there's still parts of Matthew 24 that have yet to be fulfilled, but you get the idea.

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So then Jesus says, pray that your flight may not be in the winter or on a Sabbath. This only makes sense, only makes sense in the context of 70

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AD. For then there shall be such great tribulation such as not been from the beginning of the world until now, and never will be.

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And I would argue this is where Jesus is going to start beginning to weave out of, steer away from 70

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AD towards things that are still yet to be fulfilled, you know, the devil's little season that is coming up.

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And so you'll note he steers right into 70 AD, details that have already been fulfilled, and you'll note then that the end of the world becomes kind of a type and shadow, the destruction of the temple becomes a little bit of a type and shadow of the travail and the tribulation of the end of the world.

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Jesus just mushes them all together, and you can see the details that relate to both. And so I think at this point

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Jesus is going to start steering out and talking about the things still to come. If those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved, and that's clearly talking about the end of the world.

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But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. So then if someone says to you, look, here is the Christ, or there he is, don't believe it.

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And so, you know, I read Matthew 24 verse 23, and I hate to say it, but I can almost see it happening, where there's a day when

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TBN goes wall to wall, and God TV goes wall to wall with reports coming out of Africa that Jesus has appeared, you know, somewhere in the interior of Africa.

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They send a news crew out, and he's going to appear at 5 p .m. eastern time and show the world that he's here.

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And TBN, I think, would go for it. It's kind of how I see this going down, but that's all speculation.

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But you got the idea. Jesus says, if anyone says, look, here's the Christ, or there he is, do not believe it.

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You know, if I'm alive when this begins to transpire, I can see myself putting a

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YouTube video together saying, that guy in Africa, or Asia, or off in the wilderness of Siberia, that ain't

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Jesus. And I can see the comments coming in now, you're such a hater, you're just a Pharisee, you're a rose brew, you just see it happening.

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Anyway, so if Jesus says, if they say, don't believe it, don't believe it. And then, here's the part that I think is funny, because there's a particular group that we've been mentioning a lot about lately who claims that John MacArthur is the super secret agent of the

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Antichrist, sent to deceive the elect if possible. But notice the details here in Matthew 24 -24.

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There's no way that John MacArthur can fulfill this. Let me just read it out. He says, false Christ and false prophets will arise, and they will perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

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Now, last time I checked, John MacArthur is a cessationist, and I have yet to see John MacArthur performing great signs and wonders.

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When you look at the cross -reference to what this is referring to in the book of Revelation, it hints at the idea of, in the last days, immediately before Christ, you know, kind of during the devil's little season, that the false prophets would be able to call fire down from heaven.

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That's the idea. So, you'll note that Matthew 24 -24 says, false Christ and false prophets will arise, and they will perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

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That means John MacArthur can't be the fulfillment of this. He neither claims to be a prophet, he doesn't claim to be a

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Christ, and he definitely doesn't perform any signs and wonders. So, sorry, but, you know,

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John MacArthur can't possibly be the fulfillment of Matthew 24 -24.

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Neither can I, neither can Doreen Virtue. I know you Prashites out there are really sad by this fact, but that's just how the exegesis works.

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So, okay, false Christ, false prophets will arise, perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

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Jesus says, see, I've told you beforehand. So if they say to you, look, he's in the wilderness, don't go out.

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Or if they say, look, he's in the inner rooms, don't believe it. For as lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the

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Son of Man. In other words, it's going to be obvious, okay, when lightning shines and, you know, crashes and goes from east to west.

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Is that done secretly? No. See, if there's ever a time where you sit there going, you know,

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I wonder if that's Jesus. You know it's not. All right, that's just how that works.

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So wherever the corpse is there, the vultures will gather. It's going to be obvious. And now here's the part where we'll pay attention to then.

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So immediately after the tribulation of those days, so with the increasing of the apostasy, the appearance of false prophets and false

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Christ who can perform signs and wonders to deceive the elect, if possible, immediately after the tribulation of those days, here's the next series of events.

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And again, this is literal. The sun will be darkened. The moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from heaven.

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The powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man and all the tribes of the earth will mourn.

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They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

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In fact, let's just kind of put it this way, you know, immediately before the return of Christ, you're going to notice something about, well, the daytime and the nighttime sky.

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The sun has stopped giving its light. The moon has practically disappeared. All the stars have wished gone, fallen.

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They're gone. And there's going to be some sign up in the heavens of the return of Christ. I like to think of it as a cross.

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I think everybody would recognize who's coming if there was a big cross up in the heavens. You get the idea.

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And all of this is before the gathering of everybody. So you see this is going on. So then will appear the sign of the

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Son of Man. All the tribes of the earth, they will mourn, every one of them. And they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

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And then he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call. They will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heaven to the other.

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And so you're going to note here that Christ talking about sending out the angels. This is the last day.

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This is the gathering of everybody. And a good cross reference then to this, if you would, is going to be in Matthew 13.

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There's a particular parable that Jesus tells regarding the weeds and the wheat.

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And here's what it says. Jesus put another parable before them saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.

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But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, the weeds appear.

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And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?

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And he said to them, an enemy has done this. And so the servant said to him, well, then do you want us to go and gather them?

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He said, no, lest in gathering the weeds, you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.

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And at the harvest time, I will tell the reapers, gather in the weeds first, and then bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.

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And then Jesus gives us an interpretation of that particular parable. The one who sows the good seed is the son of man.

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That's Jesus. The field is the world. The good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one.

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The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age. The reapers are the angels.

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Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The son of man will send his angels.

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They will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace.

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In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So you'll note then, this fits perfectly with what

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Jesus says in Matthew 24, that at the very end, he sends out his angels, and you'll note that when they show up, he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call.

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That trumpet, by the way, gives you the ability to synchronize 2 Thessalonians and other eschatological texts with what

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Jesus is saying here. That trumpet is a way to sync up texts so that they all work together.

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So he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call. They will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heaven to the other.

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So from the fig tree, learn its lesson. As soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.

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Here in North Dakota, that doesn't occur until like May. It takes a long time.

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Do I sound bitter? Anyway, so also, when you see all of these things, you know that he is near at the very gates.

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See what things? Not merely the false

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Christ and false prophets, but false signs, actual signs and wonders, great signs and wonders performed by the false prophets, people saying everywhere, here's the

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Christ, there's the Christ, when he ain't there, and then the sun, the moon, and the stars all being darkened or fallen, depending, and then the sign.

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So when you see all those things appear, then you know that he's at the very gates. There's nothing secret about this.

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Matthew 24, just straight up literal, and he's giving us the blow by blow as to how this is going to take place.

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So truly, I say to you that this generation, the generation that sees those signs, will not pass away until all things take place.

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Heaven and earth will pass away. My words will not pass away. But concerning that day or hour, no one knows, even the angels of heaven or the sun, only the

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Father. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when

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Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the

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Son of Man. Two men will be in the field, one will be taken, one left. Two women grinding at the mill, one taken, one left.

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Therefore, stay awake. How does one stay awake? Keep believing, trusting in Jesus. You don't know on what day your

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Lord is coming, but know this, that if the master of the house had known what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.

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Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not expect.

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So there you go. That's Matthew 24 in a nutshell. And again, literal text, literal text.

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It's not figurative. This is just how it's going to go down. There's nothing symbolic about this.

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And you'll note woven into that then were details regarding the destruction of the temple in 70 AD and the fulfillment of the final curses of the

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Mosaic covenant from Deuteronomy 28. Now, then consider this, another clear passage, another non -symbolic literal text.

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2 Thessalonians 2 says this, Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, a letter seeming to the effect that the day of the

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Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. That day will not come unless the rebellion.

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And that's the Greek word apostasy, by the way, right there. Apostasia. Until the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself against every so -called

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God or object of worship. So that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be

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God. So you'll note here, Apostle Paul says, yeah, you know, the first century version of the left behind letters.

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Oh, you've been left behind, guys. Sorry, the day of the Lord's already come. Paul says, yeah, nah, not even close.

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Until the man of lawlessness is revealed, the rebellion has taken place, and this man of lawlessness is going to exalt himself above every object of worship, claiming to be

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God, taking his seat in the temple of God. Now, the question is, what is this referring to, the temple of God?

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You'll note that Paul's theology is very consistent in the New Testament. You have to use Paul's theology from other passages to pull in here.

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He's not talking about a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. The temple of God in Paul's theology is the

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Church. So this is why Lutherans, as well as confessional

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Presbyterians and the Reforms, they believe that the office of the papacy is the office of Antichrist, because it's a churchly office that we're looking at here.

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And so that's how they understand it. Now, I understand this is a major difference between people who are premillennial and nonmillennial, is they believe that this is referring to a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem.

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But if you're consistent with Paul's theology, the temple of God is referring to the Church. So he opposes and exalts himself against every so -called

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God or object of worship, so that he takes a seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be

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God. Yeah, the ultimate false Christ, if you would. So do you not remember that when

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I was still with you, I told you these things, and you know what is restraining him? And so here you can see that in Paul's time, he recognized that there was a restraint put upon the devil, because it is

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Satan who is the one who's operative behind the man of lawlessness. And so the idea is that Paul here is referring to some restraints that are in place until the very end.

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This is why amillennialists like myself talk about the devil's little season at the end, when all the restraints are lifted, are taken off.

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So you know what's restraining him, so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness, it's already at work.

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It's already at work in Paul's time. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he's out of the way. So the devil's going to be restrained until.

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And I think maybe an argument can be made that the restraints are kind of let off a little bit at a time, as the signs of the times, the birth pains are getting more and more intense, makes me wonder if the restraints on the devil are being let off like one at a time, you know, over a long period.

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So then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.

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And so the coming then of the lawless one, let me close that, the coming of the lawless one is that by the power and the activity of Satan, with all powerful signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth, and so be saved, therefore

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God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false, and in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

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So yeah, so I would argue that Matthew 24, which we just read out, and 2

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Thessalonians 2 are your clearest texts regarding the end of the world. And again, these are literal, not figurative.

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And so then 2 Peter then also gives us a picture and a glimpse of the end of the world.

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I'll start in chapter 2 so you can see how this plays out. And Peter prophesies, this is his last letter before he's martyred.

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He says, And if he did not spare the ancient world but preserve

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Noah, a herald, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly, and if he rescued righteous lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked, for as that righteous man lived among them day and night, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard, then the

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Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

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So bold and willful they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the

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Lord. But these, like irrational animals and creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for the wrongdoing they count it pleasure to revel in the daytime their blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions while they feast with you.

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They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin.

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They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed, accursed children, forsaking the right way they have gone astray.

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They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Baor, who was a prophet for profit, who loved gain from wrongdoing but was rebuked for his own transgression.

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A speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness. These are waterless springs misdriven by storm.

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For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. For speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error.

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They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.

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For if after they have escaped the defilement of the world, through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

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For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness, and then after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment that was delivered to them.

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What true proverb says has happened. The dog returns to its own vomit. The sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.

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So this is the second time, Peter says, that I am writing to you, beloved, and both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandments of the

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Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing that, first of all, scoffers will come in the last days scoffing, following their own sinful desires.

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And you'll note that there's a particular reference here, the scoffing. The scoffing is going to be basically saying, yeah,

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Jesus isn't coming back, man. You're just silly for thinking that. Okay, so scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.

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They will say, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation, for they deliberately overlook this fact that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.

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But by the same word, the heavens and the earth that now exists are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and the destruction of the ungodly.

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But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day.

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And the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

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But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, the earth and the works that are done in it will be exposed.

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Since these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the day of the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the earthly bodies will melt away as they burn?

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But according to his promise, we are waiting for the new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

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Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found in him without spot or blemish and at peace.

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Count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, as he does in all of his letters when he speaks in them and these things.

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And there are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and the unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures.

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You'll note that Peter thinks that what Paul wrote was scripture. You, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our

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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

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And so, there you have it. That's eschatology 101. Those are your clear governing texts.

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So, we looked at Matthew 24. We looked at 2 Thessalonians 2. We looked at 2

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Peter 2 and 3. And you can see, that's the shape of eschatology. That's the vehicle.

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The book of Revelation is an apocalyptic text, and it's the spray paint. It creates the really wicked, cool paint job that's on there.

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But again, the book of Revelation is written for our comfort. So, that's how

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I understand the biblical text. And again, I don't expect you to take my word for it. And if you disagree with me, you're welcome to do so.

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But if you're going to disagree with me, show me from scriptures where I have erred. This is the basics of the end of the world, and these are your clear passages.

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And the rest that's in the book of Revelation has to be interpreted through these. These are not interpreted through the book of Revelation.

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You err when you flip. That way, you let the unclear passages govern the clear. So, there you go.

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Hopefully, you found this helpful. And if so, all the information on how you can share the video is down below in the description.

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And let me thank you for tuning in. So, share the video. And until next time, may

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God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and His vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.