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Red Cows, Life in the Dead Sea, 3 Strange Biblical Events Spark End of the

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World Speculations. Is this the end of the world? Are you supposed to know when and how the world ends?

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Here it comes. Catastrophe. This is what has always been predicted. This is what always has been prophesied about.

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And what we do is we brace for impact. Is that how the Bible teaches us to act? To create YouTube videos and websites and blogs and write books to crack the code of the end times?

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If your answer is yes, please put your finger on where specifically in the

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Bible that you are taught this, because my answer is no. Today, we're looking at a conversation between Tim Poole and Dr.

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Taylor Marshall, who's a Catholic podcaster, teacher, and author. They're talking about red heifers in Israel.

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They're talking about serpents crawling out of the Western Wall. They're even talking about life sprouting up at the banks of the

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Dead Sea. What? We're going to get into it, and as always, see what the Bible says about all of this. Look, I'm going to be real with you.

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This video is going to make a number of you upset with me. I might step on your toes in this video, but my goal is not to upset you, okay?

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I have a different concern altogether, and I hope that we can get on the same page when it comes to my concern.

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We're going to get into that in just a moment. If you're new here, welcome to Wise Disciple. My name is Nate, and I'm helping you become the effective Christian that you were meant to be.

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Before I jumped into this ministry, I was a pastor and a debate teacher, and it is from that unique experience that I make these videos.

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Did you know that the vast majority of my viewers are not subscribed? Can we just fix that right now? Can you like and subscribe to the channel?

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forward slash wise disciple. The link for that is below. Let's talk about what really matters. What really matters as we move on to the end of portion of the show, red cows, life in the

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Dead Sea, three strange biblical events spark end of the world speculations.

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So this is a story from last October. They say you have the birth of the red cow in Israel, where there's actually a bunch of red cows in Israel right now.

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Life found in the Dead Sea is a contrary to expectations. Life has been discovered in the sinkholes, the

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Dead Sea, an environment known for its extreme salinity that typically cannot sustain life. So to be honest,

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I'm probably not going to do a whole lot of videos on eschatology. My channel is just not focused on end time speculation.

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You know, there's a lot of other channels for that. I'm here to help you live out the ideal that Jesus said in Matthew 10 16, which is to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

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Why? Well, because we're all being sent out as sheep in the midst of wolves. So when

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Jesus returns, whenever that is, may he find us doing the work of our Father.

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Amen? But okay, let's get into it a bit here. Is this the end of the world? Are you supposed to know when and how the world ends?

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I think the Bible gives us an answer to these things, and we'll get into that in a moment. For now, let's...so

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Tim Pool is referencing an article. Let's go ahead and look at this article together.

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So the article is called Red Cow Life in Dead Sea, Three Strange Biblical Events Spark End of the

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World Speculations. It says conspiracy theorists in the Middle East have taken note of three events that many believe may be linked to biblical prophecies about the end of the world.

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Conspiracy theorists. What a way to frame the article already, just right out of the gate.

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You know what I mean? The speculation started. The Mirror published an article recently.

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The first event that has raised eyebrows involves the birth of a red cow in Israel after 2 ,000 years.

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In both Christianity and Judaism, this red cow holds significance in relation to the last days. Jewish tradition dictates that the construction of the third temple in Jerusalem is preceded by the birth and sacrifice of a red cow.

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According to Orthodox Judaism, the rebuilding of this new temple signifies the imminent arrival of the

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Jewish Messiah. Expert rabbis conducted an extensive examination of the cow, confirming it to be a viable candidate for the biblical red cow.

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Okay. So a red cow was born in Israel for the first time in 2 ,000 years. Except wait a minute.

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Got an article here written about six years ago. It says prophecy fulfilled after red cow is born at the

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Temple of Israel. Okay. It's the end of the world as we know it.

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An all red heifer was born at the Temple of Israel on September 4th. This is 2018.

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Fulfilling a biblical prophecy to reinstate purity to the world and the rebuilding of the Holy Temple. Okay. So already we're off on the wrong foot because the claim that red heifers have not been born for 2 ,000 years is not true.

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As it turns out, it looks like red cows are born, you know, every now and then in Israel.

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Seems like a regular occurrence as a matter of fact. But wait a second. I mean, like, what's this idea that heifers, that red heifers are like this

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Christian concept? Like where is that coming from? When I was taught in school to get my theology degree,

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I never heard that. I never engaged this idea in any commentaries when I would preach from the pulpit, right?

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I've never heard about this concept until just this year when everyone started going on and on about it.

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So how is this a Christian concept? Maybe what this article means is that some

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Christians who hold to a very specific eschatological view believe in this idea.

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By the way, this specific eschatological view happens to get the most press right now in our culture.

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But how many Christians actually hold to this view? You know, have you ever asked that question? Like, can we see some statistics on this?

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You see what I'm saying? Like, what if I told you that all scientists believe in the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics, which is just not true, by the way.

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Many hold to Bohmian mechanics or some other interpretation of quantum physics. The point is, we would be talking about a very specific esoteric view that not every scientist holds to, that not every scientist is even spending time thinking about.

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The same is true here. How many Christians really believe that the birth of a red heifer is going to bring about the end of the world?

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It sounds to me like this is a subset of the church, of people who are probably taken with one particular interpretation of Revelation, and that is the pre -millennial dispensationalist view.

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But the point is, that's not the only interpretation of Revelation, and this interpretation is certainly not free of liability either.

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As a matter of fact, there are multiple interpretations of Revelation and of the end times, and none of them are free of liability.

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Okay, so maybe we can get more into that in a little bit. And also, a snake emerged from the Western Wall. So, stories like this keep popping up.

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There was one recently about Nostradamus. Wait, by the way, so I missed the other two.

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So, you have a snake, right, coming out of the Western Wall, and then you have life emerging on the banks of the

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Dead Sea. So, this life on the banks of the

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Dead Sea thing is likely coming out of Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 47, the prophet has a vision of a new temple and of this new temple's influence.

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This purpose for the new temple is to reestablish Eden. If you read all the way through, you know, and really the vision goes all the way back to chapter 40, okay, and then it extends way past chapter 47 as well.

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You'll see that God is reestablishing Eden through this new temple in his vision.

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And by the way, it's a wonderful vision, okay, wonderful picture of God and his activity. I highly encourage all of us

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Christians to read the vision that Ezekiel had and consider what it is describing, okay? But here's the part about life at the banks of the

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Dead Sea. Verse 7, as I went back, I saw on the bank of the river, very many trees on the one side and on the other.

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And he said to me, this water flows toward the Eastern region and goes down into the Araba and enters the sea.

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Now, that's the Dead Sea, okay? Oh, you can't see that. And when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh.

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Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there that the waters of the sea may become fresh.

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So everything will live where the river goes. Fishermen will stand beside the sea from En Gedi to En Aglaim.

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It will be a place for the spreading of nets. Its fish will be a very many kinds like the fish of the great sea, but its swamps and marshes will not become fresh.

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They are to be left for salt. And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food.

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Now here it is, pay attention. The trees, their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month because the water for them flows from where?

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Flows from the temple. This new temple in Ezekiel's vision flows from the sanctuary.

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Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing. Okay. By the way, the person explaining all of this to Ezekiel, it's unclear, but it's probably an angel or one of God's divine counsel.

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The point is, it is not the view of all Christians that Ezekiel's vision will literally come true.

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That there will be a literal temple where water will flow out of it and literal trees will sprout up that defy the seasons, by the way, and just produce fruit all year round.

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And oh, by the way, this fruit will literally heal people. Right? Now, the question is, why don't all

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Christians believe it? Well, it's because of something that Jesus said in John chapter seven. So I'm going to try to refrain, you know, from going too far down this rabbit hole, but I think this is important.

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And then we'll get back to the video. So Jesus in John chapter seven, he goes, he attends the feast of booths or the feast of tabernacles.

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And on the last day of the feast, the Bible says there is a water ceremony taking place where Jesus stands up and he says this, verse 37, on the last day of the feast, the great day,

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Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

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Okay? Now, a good Bible study question to ask is, what is this water ceremony?

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Right? Well, it basically involves the high priest taking a golden container and walking down to the pool of Siloam, filling up the container with water in order to carry it back to the temple.

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Okay. This was a slow procession that everyone sort of gathered around and watched together.

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As the high priest did this, there would be several blasts from the shofar. Okay. And there would be singing as well.

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During the part of this ceremony, people would hold up a leaf in their left hand and they would shake it.

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And then they would hold up a piece of fruit in their right hand and everyone would cry out, give thanks to the

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Lord, right? Give thanks to the Lord. They would say it three times. And then the high priest would pour out the water from the golden container at the temple.

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Okay. Guess what all of this was meant to look ahead to? The fulfillment of Ezekiel in chapter 47.

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I mean, you know, there are multiple things going on in this ceremony, but it definitely looked ahead to the fulfillment of Ezekiel's vision of a temple, a new temple where out of it flows water that provides life and healing.

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Okay. That's what Ezekiel saw. These trees producing leaves and fruit for healing.

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But wait a second. So now picture this. Jesus stands up and interrupts this ceremony to say that he's the source of this water.

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He is the true source. And if any would believe in him, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water as well.

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That means that Jesus is identifying himself as this new temple. Can you see that?

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The new temple that Ezekiel saw in his vision that produces the water that will give life and healing for the people.

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Jesus is that temple. This is how a lot of Christians read the text and understand it. Okay. This, by the way, is how

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I read the text and understand it. In other words, it's not literal. It is fulfilled in the person of Jesus.

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As a matter of fact, it is understood by many biblical scholars that visions, particularly apocalyptic ones, particularly eschatological ones like this one in Ezekiel, they're highly symbolic and not to be understood literally.

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Okay. The book of Revelation is a perfect example of this. Right. So that's all a long way of saying to point out that there's evidence of life at the banks of the dead sea is to start off already with very specific presuppositions about the literal nature of Ezekiel's vision and the nature and meaning of end times related passages in the

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Bible. Your starting point determines how you receive this news. That's all

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I'm trying to point out right now. Okay. They found another prediction. The world is ending.

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But I don't know. Dr. Marshall, is the world ending? Well, we're moving towards the end, but our

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Lord Jesus Christ, as you know, not the day or the hour. So, you know, you can always play the game and be the prophet, but so far, the odds are always against you.

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So there are, you know, there's people talking about the signs of the times and all that. And the red cow thing is super popular right now.

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The red heifer. And a lot of people think it goes back to, you know, when Moses went up on the mountain for the

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Ten Commandments, his brother Aaron, the high priest made a golden cow and everybody worshiped it. So I think it has something kind of related to that story.

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But in reality, it goes back to Levitical law. And in order to consecrate the temple, you need a pure red heifer.

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Right. This is found in Numbers chapter 19, verse one. Now the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron saying, this is the statute of the law that the

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Lord has commanded. Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish and on which a yoke has never come.

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And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest and it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him. And a man who was clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place.

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And they shall be kept for the water for impurity for the congregation of the people of Israel.

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It is a sin offering. Okay. So this is a purification right that God commanded for the Israelites so they could offer sacrifices to him.

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Now, the question is, where in the Bible is it taught that red heifers need to be born in Israel particularly after some long period of time in order to bring about the return of the temple and the sign of the end?

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I think that's a legitimate question to ask. And the answer is, it's not explicitly taught anywhere.

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Now, hear me on this friend. Some of you are getting upset right now. Okay. I'm just trying to be a little bit, uh, just more precise in my words here.

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So I'm trying to be careful. This concept is pieced together by interpreting other passages of scripture that have nothing to do with red heifers, but actually have to do with believing that there will be a functional sacrificial temple in Israel in the future.

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That Ezekiel's vision in Ezekiel 47 is about a literal temple that will flow literal water out and all the rest.

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Okay. All of this trades on a very specific interpretation of the scripture, particularly of Jesus in Matthew 24, right?

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The Olivet Discourse of Daniel chapter nine, right? Of the book of Revelation.

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And then after establishing this sort of expectation of a future temple, going back to numbers, and then connecting the instructions about red heifers to the belief that this future temple will one day come.

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Again, that really only works if this very specific interpretation of eschatology is correct.

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If you're seeing that, you know, the headlines pop up everywhere about red heifers and the end of the world.

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I mean, Dr. Marshall's right. Like, this is everywhere right now, you know? That's because of this one specific interpretation of eschatology.

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And this one specific interpretation is getting the most press right now. Which by the way,

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I don't hold to myself and I'm not the only one. Okay. Let me also say this.

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Okay. Some of you, right? You're getting ready to unsubscribe. I could be wrong about my interpretation of the end times and of Revelation of Daniel nine of Matthew 24.

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Okay. So let me go ahead and put that out there. It could be the case that my understanding of eschatology is incorrect.

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And those who believe in a future temple, they're correct. Okay. But the reverse is also true.

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Like I could be right and these folks could be wrong. The fact is there has been an in -house disagreement about how to properly understand the end times since way before all of us were born.

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And I don't think we appreciate that. Christians have not been in agreement about this.

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And the fact is all of us that take these various interpretations, we can make strong biblical cases for our various views that we hold.

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So what are we supposed to do about this? The answer is we need to let the Bible instruct us about what to do in light of the end times, about how we should be engaging the end times so that we can figure out how to live our lives in today's world.

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And we're going to get into that in just a moment. Boy, thank you so much for watching this video. Did you know that the majority of people who do watch are not subscribed to the channel?

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If this video is blessing you, would you do me a favor and like and subscribe to the channel? It just really helps me to get the word out about this ministry.

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I greatly appreciate it. Let's start at the beginning. So we've heard that they've bred several and imported several red heifers.

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And it is speculated now that they may have a pure red heifer, meaning no blemishes.

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It is a pure red heifer, which you're saying they can use it to consecrate the ground. But what does that signify?

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Why would that be a sign of the end of days? So the temple in Jerusalem is the epicenter of Old Testament religion.

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And Christ, when he comes to Jerusalem, he prophesies that within one generation, it will be torn down.

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So he died in 33 AD. Some people say 30. But the temple in Jerusalem was torn down in AD 70, the year 70, by the

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Romans. So Christians for all of these centuries have always said, well, there you go.

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Christ said within a generation, this will be torn down. And the Bible of generations, 40 years. So within 37 to 40 years, it was torn down.

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That's true. So for those of you that didn't know this, Jesus prophesied that the temple would be destroyed within the same generation of his own day.

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Matthew 24, verse one, Jesus left the temple. He was going away when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple.

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But he answered them, You see all of these, 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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Now that statement right there, that just sticks in the disciples' craw. Can I speak like a

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Southerner right now? I live in Nashville now, so maybe I can't. This just gets stuck right in their craw.

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And so they asked Jesus, look at this, verse three, tell us, when will these things be?

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And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And Jesus begins to answer their question and teach them about what to expect when this happens.

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Two things to note here about this, what they call the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24.

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And by the way, you should read the whole thing. Okay. So don't just take my word for it. Fact check me, go back and take a look at it yourself.

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But first Jesus looks directly at his disciples and he says, these things are going to happen to you.

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The second person pronouns are very clear about who he's referring to. He's talking to the disciples and he's saying all of these things are going to happen to you.

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But the other thing he says is this, truly I, verse 34, truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

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Okay. And that's exactly what happened. Jerusalem fell at the hands of the Romans and the temple was destroyed in 70

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AD. Dr. Marshall was correct. The same generation that Jesus spoke to experienced all of these things.

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Jesus was 100 % correct. As a matter of fact, it is said that when the Romans surrounded Jerusalem, the

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Christians in the city remembered Jesus' Olivet Discourse here. And they took the opportunity to flee to the mountains.

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And by the time the soldiers eventually advanced on Jerusalem, there was not one Christian left in the city.

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In my research, I wrote a book called Antichrist and Apocalypse. All the early Christian church fathers, all of them say that the rebuilding of the temple will be a sign of the apocalypse because the

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Antichrist will want to re -inhabit a temple and declare himself as God in Jerusalem.

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So anytime you start to see the temple being rebuilt, that means you're getting close to the end time.

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So that tradition has been passed down for 2000 years now. That's only, okay. It's not all the church fathers.

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That is a representation of some church fathers that held to the premillennial view.

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And even then arguably it was a historic premill view. It wasn't the premill dispensational view that's very popular today.

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But I mean, if you're talking about Eusebius, Athanasius, Augustine, arguably they did not appear to to the premill view, particularly as it connects to the gospel going out into the whole world, which actually sounds a lot more like they were post -millennial perhaps, but not premillennial.

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This point of clarification is key. You want to know why? Because for some of us, if we're not careful and intentional, we're going to be seeing these headlines and thinking, uh -oh, here it comes.

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Here it comes. Catastrophe. This is what has always been predicted. This is what always has been prophesied about.

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And what we do is we brace for impact. Deep down, that's what we're doing. We'll say out loud with our mouths, oh, you know what?

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This is a secondary issue. Eschatology is secondary. It's not primary. It's not salvific.

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But man, in practice, a lot of us don't act like it.

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Man, we don't talk or act like eschatology is a secondary issue. We act like it's a primary issue. And we argue with other

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Christians over this because we act like this is so important that it's a primary issue. And we spend all this time, right, trying to understand eschatology so we can know how and when the world is going to end.

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And I pose the question again, is that how the Bible teaches us to act as Christians?

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Is that what Jesus taught us to do? To create YouTube videos and websites and blogs and write books to crack the code of the end times and create weekend conferences on when and how the end is going to come?

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If your answer is yes, please put your finger on where specifically in the

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Bible that you are taught this, because my answer is no. And I'm going to explain how

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I get there. So stick with me. And now that you have a lot of people saying, hey, we've got a red heifer. And by the way, I'm a small time cattle rancher.

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I have red heifers. I think they're unblemished. They look pretty good. I got good.

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So you are searching for the red heifer? No, I'm not. I'm getting beef. I like steaks. I'm not sending these to Jerusalem.

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But the real question is ribeye or fillet? I'm ribeye. Ribeye? Ribeye. Ribeye, yeah.

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You? Just take a vote. Probably fillet. Okay. Yeah. Tenderloin. I think ribeye. Okay. That's a majority.

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Fat. Everybody says ribeye. Well, I'd say it's more flavorful, right? Yeah, more fat. So getting the perfect red heifer, a lot of the kind of dispensational evangelicals are like, you know, want to get these red heifers.

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And it's a sign that you could begin the architectural project to rebuild the temple on the

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Temple of the Mount where the Dome of the Rock is. And then you would initiate end times prophecy.

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So that's the hype around the red heifer. So once they get it, finally, for the first time in thousands of years.

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Again, I have a red heifer. I think it's kind of an overhyped thing. And there might be some rabbinical traditions about, you know, it can't have one black hair.

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I don't know all that. Yeah. I read, like, it has to be perfect in every way. And they go over every, and they see one discolored hair, not pure.

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But I mean, when they dedicate the temple under Solomon, you know, did they have genetically modified red heifer when they did it?

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I doubt it. They just had a really nice red heifer is my suspicion. Unless they really did.

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Unless they just had a whole amazing breeding program to get that one red heifer. But yeah, it's sort of the, it's the signal for a lot of people that we are entering the end times because the temple will be built.

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It'll bring about the tribulation. The antichrist will emerge and the dominoes will fall.

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So that's the hype about the red heifer. When I was a kid growing up, I went to a church at a time when

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Hal Lindsay's The Late Great Planet Earth had taken the Christian culture by storm. It was a bestseller for years and years.

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I remember there was also a movie series that came out. It was like kind of like a precursor to the

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Left Behind series. One of those movies was A Thief in the Night. That was horrific.

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Like it was very creepy, very terrifying. When I was a kid watching it, there were a number of Christians that were prepping, legit prepping for the end of the world.

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This was back in the early eighties to various degrees. And because of this focus and emphasis on the end times, they were doing all of these things.

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Why? Because many of us back then were not aware that this whole issue of eschatology has been an in -house disagreement between Christians since basically the first century.

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You know what that should tell you? We're not going to figure this out guys. Okay. We're not going to figure this out and that's just fine.

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We can all take a breath now because the work of the church and the job that Jesus has given us does not trade on whether or not you figure this out.

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And then the snake coming out of the wall. I mean, there's snakes in Jerusalem, but it's kind of interesting.

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Yeah. There's a bunch of things that people keep pointing to. There was one, I think it was like a year or two ago where people mentioned

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Venus was passing through Virgo or something and that was in Revelation or something like this. Do you know what that was about or is that, are there any other,

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I mean, not to say that you believe any of this stuff, but are there any other things that you've seen people mention where they're like, this is it, it's happening?

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Yeah. I mean, that's referring to Revelation chapters 12 and 13 about the woman, it's the virgin in the sky and the sun on her head.

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So they're looking for some of these constellations and astronomical lineups to be fulfillment of biblical events.

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But it's not like the Bible says, when this happens, this means that. So there's a lot of interpretations.

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And I mean, my study in it, I try to take a very... The other thing is the reason why speculation is so rampant with regard to interpreting

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Revelation is because we Christians largely do not appreciate the original audience that John wrote to.

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You know, when he wrote Revelation, he was writing to a particular audience in the first century. We certainly don't appreciate the

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Jewishness of Revelation, right? The apocalyptic rules of interpretation with regard to Revelation that end up taking you not to today's newspaper to crack the code of understanding, but to the

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Old Testament, to the prophets, you know, to Ezekiel, to Isaiah, to Daniel.

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Why? Well, because that's where John drew from in order to write his letter, in order to capture the vision that God gave him.

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He drew from the Old Testament. He drew from places that his original audience would already be familiar with in order for them to understand what he was saying to them.

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And so instead of wondering how Revelation 12, you know, with the description of a pregnant woman clothed with the sun and with the moon under her feet, and the stars around her head, and then there's like a great dragon that's chasing her to eat her child.

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Instead of trying to connect that to astronomy, or maybe even astrology, like for real, is that what the

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Bible wants us to do? No, we're supposed to connect that back to Micah chapter 4, where the nation of Israel is described as being a pregnant woman running from her enemies.

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And Isaiah 27, when the Lord punishes a great red dragon, right?

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It's described as a twisting, spinning serpent, the great Leviathan. And we're supposed to put these pieces together and recognize a picture of the nation of Israel giving birth to the

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Messiah in keeping with the promise in Genesis chapter 3, and the clash as well that is described in Genesis chapter 3, right?

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We're supposed to recognize the devil attempting to thwart the Savior's birth, you know?

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Virgo and Venus, these are not the connections that we should be making. I'm gonna give it another minute, and then let's get to where the

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Bible teaches us to think about the end times. The sober, traditional, historic understanding of what these

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Bible passages mean, instead of just reading a newspaper or flipping through your phone and then like looking at a

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Right. You know, this is it. I was watching this little mini doc on Revelation, and it said, some believe that it was a description of things that had already happened.

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Yeah, that's called the preterist point of view. So there's three, basically three views of the book of Revelation. There's preterist, which means it was past tense.

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There's futurist, which means it's in the future. I mean, there's a historicist, which means the book of Revelation is unfolding over the centuries, sort of like a slow motion thing.

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And I actually believe all three are true. I think there's multiple. I think you can believe in all of them. And the

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Catholic church is historically kind of in both preterist and futurist. Like, it was fulfilled in the past, but it also points towards a future reality.

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Is it historicist or what? Historicist. Yeah, preterist, historicist, and futurist. What is the historicist?

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I understand the futurist, like it's predictive, right? Right. And preterist is that it already happened. It's descriptive. What is the other one?

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So you have like the seven seals and the seven trumpets and the seven plagues. So they would see this as sort of unfolding over the centuries.

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So like maybe the third seal happened in 400. It's past and future. Yeah. So it's sort of, it's every century seals and trumpets and plagues.

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Like concurrent as time as we move through it. I'm so grateful that Dr. Marshall had the opportunity to expound a bit on the various interpretations.

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This is what I was alluding to earlier. I've not heard someone say they hold to all the interpretations of, you know, they're, that's interesting.

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And, and look, I'm not going to make a, you know, a half hour video and prove a particular interpretation of the end times.

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This takes years. It takes semesters at seminary for people to truly investigate. But clearly

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John had a format that he was using to write revelation. And this format should be understood by looking at previous apocalyptic literature in the

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Bible. Why? Because he was writing to seven churches who knew their scripture and had the wherewithal to fully understand what he was saying when he originally wrote it.

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Again, some of us, you know, we make the mistake of thinking that John addressed this letter to seven churches in history and then confused them because he was really writing for a time thousands of years into the future to a generation that was not even born yet.

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That had nothing to do with the original church. That's not what John was doing. And if it was,

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I mean, golly, that, that sounds incredibly cruel for John to do, in my opinion.

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I think John was communicating to his original audience so that they would understand the whole letter when they originally read it thousands of years ago.

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Okay. There's a, there's a whole lot more to say about all that. Okay. And I even believe that elements of revelation are for our future.

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So I don't want you to hear what I'm not saying. That's a whole rabbit trail. Anyway, let's get into the question of how the

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Bible wants us to engage the end times. Okay. Maybe, maybe we should start here with this question.

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Are we living in the end times? The Bible says, absolutely. First Peter chapter one, verse 20 says, he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest, here it is, in the last times for the sake of you.

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Paul says in first Corinthians 10, verse 11, now these things happen to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction on whom, here it is, the end of the ages has come.

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It's not the only place in the new Testament that describes this particular age or time as latter or last.

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Okay. So the last days or the end of ages, that has already come upon us. But as you can see, it started all the way back in the days of the apostles.

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The apostle John says it like this, 1 John 2, 18, children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.

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Therefore, we know it is the last hour. So he's calling it the last hour and talks about how many antichrists are already present in his own day.

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I suppose you could say then that the moment that Jesus ascended into heaven at the beginning of Acts is when the end times or the last days came upon all

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Christians. You know what this means? We've been living in the end times for the last 2000 years, ladies and gentlemen, and many of our brothers and sisters that came before us have thought that Jesus would return in their own day.

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And that was just not the case. The Lord had more work to do in spreading his kingdom.

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So if we're already living in the end times, how are we supposed to be conducting ourselves?

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Should we be preparing? Should we be looking at news articles? Should we be trying to, you know, get ready and brace for impact?

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You know, the answer is we should be preparing, but not in the way you think.

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You see the apostles, they were asking Jesus this question on a number of occasions. And here's what Jesus had to say,

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Acts chapter one, verse six. So when they came together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

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He said to them, it's not for you to know times or seasons that the father is fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the

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Holy spirit has come upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria into the end of the earth.

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These, so the final comments here, especially right verse eight, right there, these, that is a reiteration of the great commission that Jesus gave his disciples in Matthew 28.

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So again, the great commission, uh, verse 18, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the

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Holy spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

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So Jesus says, you are not to know when the end will really come. It is not for you to know the times or the seasons appointed by God.

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So, so what Jesus is doing is he's reminding them of what

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Ecclesiastes says, right? For everything, there is a time and a season. That's Ecclesiastes 3 .1.

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It also says later in verse 11 in Ecclesiastes that the beginning and the end are a mystery to man on purpose.

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Why is that? Look at this Deuteronomy 29, 29, the secret things belong to the

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Lord, our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

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Not everything is for us to know. That's what Jesus tells his disciples. Don't worry about not knowing.

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As a matter of fact, no one's going to know. Christians are going to be wondering about these things for thousands of years, and that's just fine.

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That's okay. Just focus on fulfilling the great commission. Just focus on being the church and spreading the kingdom of God right now in your own circles of influence.

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Here's how Jesus closed with his own disciples. He said it like this, Matthew 24, 45, who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time.

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Blessed is that servant whom his master, here it is, will find so doing when he comes.

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Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. We are living in the end times and nobody knows when or how the

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Lord will return. So what are we supposed to do? We should be doing the things our

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Lord and master told us to do. And what is that work? Is it prepping for the end of the world?

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Is it being anxious and trying to determine when and how Jesus will come back? No, Jesus said it is not for you to know these things.

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We should be fulfilling the great commission and making disciples. We should be fellowshipping with our brothers and sisters and partaking in the sacraments together in remembrance of Jesus as he told us to.

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We should be so intent on doing all of these things that when our master finally returns, he finds us busy doing the work that he gave us to do.

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Amen? And you know what else? I think we should be very patient with each other and extend a lot of grace to each other on this issue of interpreting eschatological passages of the scripture.

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Why? Because apparently we can't agree on this, guys. Nobody knows who's right. We all think we know, but nobody knows for sure.

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And see, that right there opens the door to say four magical words. I could be wrong.

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You know what that does? When you say those four magical words, it creates a space for grace and mercy and forgiveness to exist between brothers and sisters in the kingdom of God.

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You with me? You tracking me? Well, now it's your turn to sound off.

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Be kind, okay? Be a little gracious with me. Did I make you upset? Do you disagree with me? Are we on the same page?

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Let me know in the comments below. Can we all agree that we should at least be gracious with each other on this issue?

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I hope so, you know. Hey, if you made it this far and you're still not a part of my Patreon community, what else needs to happen before you join?

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