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Let's pray. Lord Jesus, again, as we open up your word, we ask that through your Holy Spirit that you would help us to understand what you have revealed there so that we may properly believe, confess, and do according to your Holy Word, we ask in Jesus' name.
Amen. Okay, so a question did come in via email, and I'll let you know that, you know, sometimes you'll note that oftentimes I'm not having a lot of time to answer questions during class that come in via text.
I do try to make a point of answering some of them, but many of them end up going unanswered. If you are persistent and you email secretary at kongsofingerchurch .org, you know, but you have to email it in a Minnesota accent.
Okay, if you email it to kongsofingerchurch .org, secretary at kongsofingerchurch .org, you betcha don't you know. No, answer the question. Yeah, that's it. And, you know, that's a good way because my wife, you know, she has high priority for email questions, and she makes sure that they get to the top of my pile.
But before I answer the question, you're going to note something here. As we've been working our way through the book of Daniel and the eschatological portions of it, the pieces dealing with the end of the world, have you noticed anything in those texts relating to a pre-trib rapture?
No. A what now? A what now? Right. And there's a reason for that. The pre-trib rapture as a doctrine is not historically what the church has believed, taught, and confessed. That is a Johnny-come-lately doctrine that was really made popular first by the Darbyites, then that their eschatology of the Darbyites in the 1800s got put into what's called the Schofield Study Bible.
If you don't have one of these, I have one in my Defense Against the Dark Arts section, along with something called Dake's Annotated Study Bible. If you haven't seen Dake's Annotated Study Bible, that thing will give you nightmares, is the best way I can put it.
It's crazy-go-nuts kind of stuff. But over and again, this doctrine of a pre-trib rapture, which has become the predominant view within evangelicalism, ultimately is not a biblical view. So the church historically has understood the thousands years.
Note the language that I use. The thousands years is a type, it's not a literal thousands years, although it could be if you just pay attention to the Greek. That's not talking about some future reign of Christ.
The thousands years, again, I noticed the plural, is referencing the time from Christ's ascension until his return. So what people who call themselves pre-millennial, they believe in something called the coming millennium.
But the issue is that there's so many problematic things as it relates to the so-called thousands years. I'll show you the most obvious. There's only one text that talks this way, and it's this one. Then I saw an angel, this is Revelation chapter 20, an angel coming down.
Did I hit the record button? I better hit record, hang on. I'm recording, good, okay. I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit, and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil, and Satan bound him for, and here, this is an interesting is an interesting phrase.
It says for a thousand years in your English Bible, but here's the thing. In the Greek, it says, Hylia, which is the neuter plural accusative. So let me translate it. Bound him for a thousands years. How long is Satan bound?
Well, so there are, well, 1000. That's not what the Greek says. The Greek says thousands years. And the reason why your English translators are going to translate it as a thousand is because you'll note that the noun is Anarthur.
It doesn't have a definite article. He was bound for the thousands years. It doesn't say that. It's he was bound for a thousands years. Now, I don't do math. Math and I don't get along, but I would note in order for there to be a plural, as it relates to thousands years, you have to have more than 1000.
Okay. Correct me if I'm wrong. Those of you who do math. Okay. But if I only had 1000 years, that would be a thousand. But if I had more than 1000 years, maybe two millennia or more, I would at least need two thousands in order for there to be thousands.
Okay. So the idea, huh? As opposed to separate. Right. Right. So I would note that this binding of Satan, the way, the way the, the pre-millennialists work this out is that seven literal years before Jesus returns, he invisibly returns and raptures the church.
Then you have seven years of all hell breaking loose, uh, called the great tribulation. And then once Jesus returns, uh, then Satan is bound and then Jesus rains physically on planet earth for a literal 1000 years.
Okay. Because it says a thousand years, right? But it's in the Greek, it's for a thousands years. Yeah. There's ways of saying, but you're going to note here that the way the Greek language works, when you have a plural noun, it's understood as being a plural.
Okay. So when I would talk to a saint, I would talk to somebody who is a Hagios, but if I'm talking to the saints, I'm talking to the Hagi oil. If I meant a thousand years, then the word should be different than what it is because right now it's plural.
Okay. So everything hinges on this. And I would note, um, I almost am tempted to do this, but I got to wait until my Greek students get to this point, my current crop of Greek students. I'm very tempted to go off the grammar.
Once we get to about week 20 or 20, between 20 and 25 and do just a few weeks in the book of revelation, because when you see how revelations Greek works, holy guacamole. Okay. It, uh, the best way I can describe it is like this was we've all seen classic portraits, classic paintings, right?
And all the fine brushwork that goes into it. And then along came the impressionists. Okay. Now believe me in the, in the, in art history, impressionists were not keenly looked at originally. And the reason why is because they weren't in there with those little fine brushstrokes, getting all those little details, what the impressionists would basically do.
They go, all right, landscape done. Okay. You know, they would use broad brushstrokes and just kind of get things out kind of almost in an abstract kind of way. The whole book of revelation is like, it's like that.
Okay. And the grammar is horrifying. Okay. And, and, and so, but it's super easy to translate.
As a result of it. Really easy. Yes. So you brought this up before where things are correct. Are you saying that the writing for the publishing companies aren't being.
Completely honest with it? No, no, no. I'm not saying that they're not being honest. You're going to note that the ESV is put together by a translation committee and they try to get people across the spectrum of the theologies to work on the ESV.
And so, you know, if I were sitting on the committee that was translating the book of revelation, I'd sit there and go, he, Leah is, is, is, that's not singular. That's plural. But, but, but, but, but, but that would mess up everybody's theology.
That I don't know. No, no, no, no, no, no. It's either, you know, you're going to note. So one of the reasons why a pastor needs to know the biblical languages is because here's the thing. Everybody brings their biases to the text.
There's no way around it. And so where some of those biases pop out, I like to go back to the originals and go, hmm, you know, the original says something a little bit different, but here's the thing.
All of my Greek students know this now with certainty because they've translated enough biblical texts and realize how this goes. There are always compromises you have to make when you pull Greek into English, because English as the receiving language doesn't have all the tools necessary to pull Greek into it.
And so there's always nuances that get left on the table. Always. And so this is one of those ones where, yeah, there's a big debate about this, but the reality is, is that I, I fault the ESV for not at least putting a footnote here saying that thousands is plural.
Okay. Cause it makes a difference in this particular case. So the devil is bound for a thousand, for a thousand years. It's bad English, but that's what the Greek reads. Threw him into the pit, shut it, sealed it over him so that he might deceive the nations any longer until the thousands years were ended.
After that, he must be released for a little while. Now, let me give you a cross reference on this so that you see how this works. The cross reference is actually in second Thessalonians and I need a Greek text.
Hang on a second here. I got all these Hebrew texts. There we go. Okay. So if I go to second Thessalonians chapter two, three, hang on a second here. I'm on one Thessalonians, two Thessalonians, two. All right.
Watch 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 or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.
Let no one deceive you in any way for that day will not come unless the apostasia, the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God proclaiming himself to be God.
This fellow is going to show up in Daniel. He already has. Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things and you know what is restraining him when? Noon. Now. So the best way to put it is that the church has historically understood it this way.
Is that with Christ's death, burial, resurrection and ascension. Remember in the book of Daniel, we saw what happened when Jesus arrived on the day of the ascension. That's in the book of Daniel of all places.
That from that time Christ is presently ruling and reigning and in the interim Satan has been bound. His ability to deceive the nations has been curtailed. But as we get closer and closer to the end of the world and Jesus's return, Satan is being unbound and the power that he had prior to the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ to deceive the nations.
That curtailment is going to be back with a raging raging ferocity at the end of the world. And so the way the church has historically, I'm not notice I didn't say Lutherans. The way the church has historically understood this is that we have been in the millennium from the time of Christ's ascension and the millennium ends with the return of Christ.
Now we get named then, we who hold to the historic view of the Christian church, we get called amillennialists. Because what is amillennial means? No millennium. And I sit there and go, that's silly. I believe in the thousands years.
Because it's been a couple. Have you noticed that? Okay, there's at least been two. And what does that mean for us? Jesus can come back at any time. That's the point. But the idea then in 2 Thessalonians is that Jesus's return will not precede, will not happen until after the apostasy, after the man of lawlessness is revealed, and after Satan is unrestrained.
So 2 Thessalonians 2 works together then with Revelation 20. And people get always mad at me. They basically say, this is crazy. This is nuts, right? And I basically sit there and go, no, it's not. It's not crazy.
It's not nuts. This is what the church has historically believed. Okay, there's a general rule in theology. And the rule goes something like this. If the doctrine is new, it's untrue. Okay, so we have a question from the floor.
So what is the catching up then? Okay, glad you asked. I know a guy. There's a 20 in your mailbox. It's okay. All right. What a well-timed question. Okay, we're going to look at two passages, Matthew 24.
But let me come back to 2 Thessalonians 2. And let's take a look at what's going on here. Let's finish this up and then we'll cross-reference it with Matthew 24 and you'll see it. So then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.
The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan. So note here, we have particular signs we're supposed to be looking forward to that are going to tell us that the lawless one is near. Okay, and you'll note that the lawless one is acting by what?
The activity of Satan with all power and pseudosemean, false signs. Now, I want you to pay attention to this. So in my sermon today, I mentioned leg lengthening, right? And I likened it to my wonderful miracle of being able to do this.
Okay, when I do this with the kids, they always want to have my finger. And I'm like, nope, you can't have it. But I want to see it. Nope, you can't see it. I cannot let you investigate because then the gig will be up, right?
Okay, but all that being said, if I were to say this is a miracle, is that a true miracle or a false miracle? False. If somebody's engaging in leg lengthening, and believe me when I tell you, it's like there are so many churches who think this is such a legitimate miracle, that there are 10s of 1000s of charismatic churches in this country and hundreds of 1000s around the world practicing this very technique to this day.
Okay? Right? Is that a false sign? Or is it a true sign? It's false. And by the way, the way there's several different ways in which you can pull this parlor trick off. And if you want to want to debunk, just go to YouTube and, you know, and type in leg lengthening miracle and you'll see how it's actually done.
Okay? In fact, it takes more skill to do this than it does to do leg lengthening. It legitimately does. Okay. But all that being said, that's a false sign, false wonder when Benny Hinn gets on stage and takes his coat and does this and knocks people over in the Holy Spirit.
Is that a true sign or is that a false sign? False. When Catherine Kuhlman declares somebody cured of cancer and they're not and they die six days later. Is that a true sign or a false sign? When Todd Bentley kicks an old lady in the face with his biker boots because he says the Holy Spirit told him to do that so that she can be cured of cancer.
Is that a false sign or is it a true sign? It's a salt, right? It's a salt and it's a false sign, right? So, note then that we are to the point in history where this prophecy is being fulfilled in spades.
Just watch Christian television. Okay? And you'll note the coming of the lawless ones by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders and with wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved.
Therefore, God sends them what? A strong delusion. Why are people falling for this nonsense? It's judgment of God. God has put them under a strong delusion. Why? So that they may believe what is false in order that they may all be condemned who did not believe the truth but who had pleasure in unrighteousness.
One of the things I'm gearing up for is a big fight coming up in March of this year. And you're saying, what fight are you gearing up for? There is a movie coming out in the middle of March of this year that will be released in thousands of theaters in the United States and the whole premise of the movie is that Christians can be possessed by demons.
Okay? And the people who are putting this out, they call themselves demon slayers. And in their rhetoric, they legitimately say any pastor who opposes this type of deliverance ministry is himself possessed by a demon.
Okay? By the way, Rachel, I don't remember the exact name of it. It's put out by Greg Locke. Okay? But you can find out about it on the Demon Slayers podcast on YouTube. All right? These guys get together regularly on the Demon Slayers podcast.
And you know what their whole theology is based upon? Personal experience and twisted texts. Okay? So we're ramping up for this. But this is going to be, I fear this is going to be like a big cresting wave of nonsense that's coming, that's going to be sweeping through the church this year.
I'm hoping that it won't be, but based upon what these people are doing to try to get the word out that Christians need to have demons exercised from them, it's going to be a mess. So in the weeks ahead, I'll be kind of preempting all of this by doing a very long episode showing that their teaching on Christian demon possession actually contradicts the scriptures.
But their arguments are slick. Their arguments are very, very different than the arguments put forward several decades ago with the people who wrote Pigs in the Parlor. All right? If you've ever seen Bob Larson, that guy's a sad old man who's made a career of casting out demons from crisis actors.
Okay? And that's actually been proven. He hires crisis actors to pretend that they're demon possessed. And the awkward thing is that those same actors will show up not only in Bob Larson's videos, but they'll show up in a few weeks over at Catherine Crick's, you know, demon casting out show.
And these demon slayer people think that Bob Larson's legit. Okay? He's as phony as a Bill Clinton $3 bill. I mean, seriously. Oh yeah. And he's constantly talking to the demons and nonsense like this.
It's like, if the movie The Exorcist were an A-level movie, this is like D, F. Okay? It's just, it's really bad, you know? But all that being said, you'll note then that you sit there and go, why are these people so foolish?
Why do people believe things like Ken Copeland can blow away COVID? Right? Because God has sent a strong delusion so that they'll believe what is false in order that they may be condemned to do not believe the truth, but who had pleasure in unrighteousness.
And then 1 Thessalonians 5 is going to be one of our texts that we're going to take a look at as it relates to answering your question. Okay? So watch the series of events. Okay? You guys ever seen like one of those like military movies, like Force 10 from Navarone.
All right. Great, great movie. Right? By the way, you ever seen the Guns of Navarone? Movie night. We have to have a movie night. Yeah. Okay. Make a note here. We need to have a movie night. Two movies that are mandatory watching for dudes.
Guns of Navarone, Force 10 from Navarone, the most important movies ever. Okay. They're really good. Okay. World War II era. Nevermind. All right. All that being said, we've all seen like you've got the special ops guys are getting ready to go into a mission.
And what does the first thing they do before they jump out of the helicopter or go on the mission? They synchronize their watches. Right? Everybody's on this exact same time. Ready? There you go. They have the second hand at the exact same place.
That's important. We're going to note here when it comes to the return of Christ and people being caught up in the air, there are a series of things, at least three, that you can sync these passages together.
Okay. And we'll note how this works. Concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
While people are saying there is peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman and they will not escape. So one of the things we know is before the return of Christ and now put Daniel into the mix.
Okay. Put Daniel front loaded. What are we looking for? A global government. With the establishing of this global government, this idea of peace and security for all, we're never going to have conflict ever again.
World wars are a thing of the past. We can destroy all of our nukes. It's going to be heaven here on earth. Right? Okay. One united planet. And we all get to eat bugs. Okay. Yay. But notice he says there, then labor pains will come on them suddenly.
There's going to be a suddenly. Okay. And as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. Now note here.
Again, I always point this out when we talk about eschatology. I had nightmares when I was required to watch that movie Thief in the Night with that stupid song, life was filled with guns and wars and everyone got trampled on the floor.
I wish we'd all been ready. Right? I had to watch that. And as a junior higher, it gave me nightmares. Okay. But you're not in the darkness for that day to surprise you like a thief. Do Christians have anything to feel like, whoa, I did not see Jesus coming.
How did he show up? Okay. How did that happen? No, the whole point that he's making is, is that it's not like him appearing like a thief for Christians. For you are all children of light, children of the day.
We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. Those who sleep, sleep at night. If they don't have insomnia and those who get drunk, they're drunk at night.
But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love for a helmet and hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with him.
Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up as you are doing. Okay. And so you get the idea. This doesn't come like a thief here. Now, let's see here. I'm going to look for a word. Trumpet.
All right. And I'm going to look in the epistles real quick. All right. 1 Corinthians 15, 1 Thessalonians 4. Now, let me back up. Okay. So 1 Thessalonians 4. I need... So we saw the forward context. Let's go backwards here.
And here we go. Coming of the Lord. We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep. And what do we mean by asleep? They're dead. Okay. Christians who die in Christ, their bodies are sleeping.
Jesus is going to wake them up. That's the point. So that you may not grieve as others do. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have what?
Fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord. Now, note here Paul is speaking through his apostolic authority. Paul can say, this is a revelation of Jesus. That we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
This verse by itself rules out a pre-trib rapture. Okay? Because if the pre-trib rapture were true, the living will precede the dead. Right? But he says that the living at the time of Christ's return will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven, watch this, with a cry of command, the voice of an archangel, with the sound of the trumpet. There's your three things you can synchronize your watch to.
Okay? Cry of command, voice of the archangel, sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then, then, notice the word then. Then, we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And so we will always be with the Lord. When do Christians get caught up into the air with Jesus? On the day he returns. And Jesus is coming back. We're going, oh my goodness, that's Jesus. Then we look to the Kongsvinger graveyard and all of a sudden people are popping up.
Okay, Aunt Gertrude, Ayla, I hadn't, you know, it's been a while since we've seen you, you know, right? Okay. Okay. We can finally get her donuts back, right? Okay. But we're going to see Ayla and Arden and we're going to see, we're going to see all your, all your relatives here that we've been burying for how long, right?
They're all going to be popping out of the grave and they're going to be looking great. Now, if I die before that, I'll come out and I'll be skinny. It's going to be okay. And I won't have Santa Claus beard anymore.
It's going to be awesome, right? But the idea then is, is that the dead rise first. Now, by the way, if everyone were popping out of their graves, would that count as a secret rapture? Okay. I'm pretty sure like in town in Grand Forks.
Okay. We have several large cemeteries, right? Okay. Ginormous. Do you think anyone would notice if anybody were popping out of their graves, dead raising going on like crazy, right? Yeah. Right. You betcha.
Okay. So you'll know that the whole pre-trib rapture undoes what Paul prophesied here. And he referenced this and said, this is from a word from the Lord. Jesus is speaking here. Those who are alive will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
And when Christ returns the dead rise first, and that's going to be noticed, right? Yes. Yeah. But your body is going to be just like Christ. Did Christ have flesh and bones? Yes.
Okay. It is our bodies, but think of it like glorified body. Okay. Okay. So right now,.
Your body, weak, corruptible, falling apart. Mine too, by the way, I'm not picking on you. Okay. Right. I did notice that. Okay. And you're a little, you're a little ahead of me in years, not too far, but enough ahead of me that the chances are pretty good.
I'm going to be burying you. Okay. And once you're buried, you're going to decompose. Okay. So it's, it's, it's, it's sown in dishonor, but when it's raised, it's raised in glory. And our bodies are going to be the same type of body that Jesus has.
It's a physical body has flesh and bones. You can touch it. Jesus has scars and stuff, but it's a glorified body and it's immortal. It is incapable of being sick. It is incapable of dying. You get the idea.
Yeah. He's the firstborn of the dead. Okay. So our bodies are going to be just like his now it's read in first Corinthians 15. It's described as a spiritual body, but that doesn't mean you're a spirit.
Okay. So you're not going to be, notice it says spiritual Soma body, body. Okay. So we're not, we're not going to sing that song. I ain't got no body. Right. So we are in spirit with Christ when we die.
Right. Yeah. So during the interim, yeah. During the intermediate state. So from the time, if you die before Christ returns, your body ends up out here and your soul is with Christ until his return. He brings you back with him.
Okay. And he reunites you with your resurrection body. See first Corinthians 15 for the distinction. But the thing is, is that I don't think we can comprehend what the changes are really going to be. Okay.
Not, not at all. All I know is I will no longer be overweight. That's all I care about right now. Okay. Amen. Okay. Yeah. And once I get used to that, I'll look forward to being able to run again. Okay.
To, you know, to maybe do some of the activities I am no longer able to do because of age and weight. But all that being said, we're going to be raised from the dead. So you'll note the dead in Christ rise first, then we who are left are caught up with him.
Right. Okay. So when does that getting caught up bit happen? On the last day. Okay. And no, there is the cry of command. There is the voice of an archangel. There's the sound of a trumpet. Does any of that sound secret to you?
Okay. Yeah. No. In fact, it's so loud that not even the dead can ignore it. Right. Okay. Now, when you take a look then at Matthew 24, we're going to kind of look at this again in a long piece. And I love the fact that we keep walking through these on with some regularity over the past six, seven months, because repetition helps.
Okay. Now watch. So Jesus is standing at the, he's on the Mount of Olives and he's looking at the, the temple complex. All right. And he, so he left the temple was going away. His disciples came and point to the buildings of the temple.
He said, you see all 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. Now the disciples always. And again, so there's a funny thing that happens.
People, there are people out there who call themselves a post-millennial. Okay. And they believe that this particular passage only deals with things that were fulfilled by 70 AD. And they look at me and they go, are you stupid or something?
Cause you sound like a futurist. Okay. No, I'm not stupid because I understand how proleptic prophecy works. There are aspects of this prophecy that will relate to 70 AD for sure. But proleptic prophecies are those that have something that occurs in the foreground.
And then there's a remainder that's left until another time. I would point to the story, to the story of Ahaz, when he was asked to ask God for a sign that God would deliver him. And he said, I won't, I won't put God to the test.
He says, fine, the Lord himself will give you a sign. The Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and you shall call his name, Emmanuel. Right? That that's a classic example of a proleptic prophecy here on in the Olivet discourse.
We have another clear example of a proleptic prophecy. There are bits clearly that are related to 70 AD. And then there are parts that talk about the end of the world. It is unmistakable. Okay. So as Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us, when will these things be?
What will be the sign of your coming? What will be the end of the age? Now, wait a second here. They were asking about the fact that Jesus says that the temple is going to be destroyed. So watch their questions.
When will these things be? What will be the sign of your coming and the what? End of the age. Has Jesus come back yet? Have we experienced the end of the age? So note their disciples are assuming the destruction of temple equals end of the world.
Okay. And Jesus, rather than sit there and go, oh, okay. But rather than do that, he takes their questions and just balls them together, gives one long answer and bits of it relate to the destruction of the temple.
Other bits relate to the end of the world. And even the destruction of the temple then becomes a type and shadow of what? The end of the world. Okay. First thing, see that no one leads you astray. That is the first thing.
And you got to note this. In the ancient world, before they had some of the improvements in language that we have, for instance, if you want to emphasize something nowadays, there's ways that you would emphasize it.
You would emphasize it by using bold or italics or underline, or as the kids nowadays who have lost all hope of ever learning real grammar, they just put things in all caps. Okay. And then you put emojis next to it.
We've gone back to hieroglyphics. Okay. Right. But in Jesus's day, if you, whatever is the first thing that comes out of your mouth in answer to a question, that is the one that is bold, underlined and italicized.
That one gets the focus as the big thing to pay attention to. See that no one leads you astray. Now we just read in second Thessalonians that in the time immediately before the return of Christ, that there would be what?
An apostasy in the church. And the church would be filled with people who are performing false signs and false wonders. And they are the predecessors of what? The antichrist, the man of lawlessness. So no, Jesus is in complete agreement here.
And what we read in Daniel in the previous weeks, in the days before the return of Christ, what's going to happen? You're going to have this man of lawlessness, this thing that causes desolation, this man that causes desolation.
He's going to wage war against the saints. He's going to wear them out. He's going to defeat them. Right. What a great day to be a Christian. Right. So no, see to it that no one leads you astray. Many.
And by the way, I looked this up in the Greek. Many means many. Okay. Many will come in my name. Have you noticed that the false teachers in the church do not say, I come to you in the name of Satan. Okay.
They come to us claiming to be Christians. Many will come in my name saying, I am the Messiah, Christos. By the way, Christos and Messiah are synonymous words. I am the Christ. And they will lead how many?
Many astray. You'll hear of wars and rumors of wars. You know, Russia, Ukraine, all that kind of stuff. It says, see that you're not alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. So anyone who sits there and goes, Hey, you know that war in Russia and you were between Russia and Ukraine, that is a pre that was prophesied by Jesus.
Yeah. Jesus said, that's going to happen. He said, that's not the point. Ignore that stuff. Right. Wars, rumors of wars. Okay. Who cares? Nation will rise against nation kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
All of these are just the beginning of the birth pains. Okay. So yeah, those, those are considered to be birth pains, but you'll, if any of you women who've given birth, when you begin to have your birth pains, is that, is that as, is it as intense as when you're at the end?
No. Okay. I know this for a fact because my wife has had three kids and when she was pregnant with Josh and she was in labor, I made the foolish, foolish statement. I was looking at the Richter scale.
I call it the Richter scale. They put this thing on her to measure her contractions. And I noticed this weird thing that would happen. And that is, is that I knew her contractions were coming before she did.
And I kind of saw the rhythm of them. It was like watching Mount Fuji being, you know, made by the stupid Richter scale thing. Right. And you know, it would go up and up and then it would come down. Okay.
It's going away. Right. And then as it would start to go up, I would notice that it was coming up. And one time I said this, I said, Ooh, this one looks like a big one. And she wanted to kill me. I can't imagine why I didn't.
I was just pointing out what the Richter scale was showing. You're lucky to be alive, Don. I am so glad that he survived that. My mother-in-law was about ready to kick me out of the labor room when I said that.
So just so you know. All right. All right. So note the beginning of birth pains. So war in Ukraine, that's sure it's, it's a birth pain, but where are we at? We're at like one sonometer. Whoop-dee-doo.
You can still walk. You can, you can. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's an actual birth pain. Right? Then pay attention. They will deliver you up to tribulation and they will put you to death. All right. I, excuse me.
I got the Joel Osteen package when I came to Christianity and I'm here for my best life now. Oh, I'm sorry. You were sold a bill of goods. All right. They will put, they will bring you a delivery to tribulation.
They will put you to death. You'll be hated by all the nations for my name's sake. How many of them? Every one of them. Then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.
If it were, if we were not at this point in history, do you think we could be playing prophecy bingo right now? Okay. I still feel bad about the fact we had to have a memorial service for Queen Ebola because she got kicked off of YouTube for scamming people out of money.
Alas, she was too, it was too soon for her. But you'll note many false prophets, not, not some, many will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.
That sounds like today too. But watch the one who endures to the end will be saved. I always point this out and use the same exact analogy. In order to endure to the end and to be saved, you need to listen to that prophetic band from the 1970s and early 80s journey.
And you need to don't stop believing. Okay. Keep on believing. All right. Yes. Yeah. And I would say not only in the church and like all of society, has, um, have you noticed that things are a little crazy on Twitter?
Okay. Holy waka moly. Have things gotten better now that Elon Musk has taken over? No. Okay. Every time I want to post something on Twitter, I like, I don't, I don't even want to read the tweets anymore that are in my own feed.
Because if you want to, if you want to get a real feel for the rift that occurs, not just in the United States, but globally now, just read Twitter. Okay. It'll make you depressed because you'll know that there is no love on Twitter.
There isn't an ounce of it. Did they free the bee? No, they did free the bee. Okay. So the Babylon bee has been freed, but they still have not freed my friend, Phil Johnson, who works for John MacArthur.
He's still, he's in, he's now 97 days into Twitter jail. So, all right. So this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Now, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place, let the reader understand. So note, Christ references Daniel. Abomination of desolation. And here's where it gets a little bit interesting because the abomination of desolation is in part talking about, and you'll see this when we get to the other parts of Daniel, is in part talking about the armies of Titus who are going to come in and destroy the temple.
Okay. So this isn't a, so there's an abomination, the Gentile armies coming in, and what are they going to do? They're going to make desolate the temple. They're going to bring the sacrifices to a screeching halt.
Have there been any sacrifices in Judaism for real since the destruction of the temple in 70 AD? No. Biblical Judaism has not existed on planet earth since 70 AD. Okay. So then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
Let the one who is in the housetop not go down and take what is in his house, and let the one who is in the field not turn back and take his cloak. Important note here. When Titus's armies showed up, when the Roman legions showed up, and they were getting close to Jerusalem, you know what the Christians did?
They became refugees quickly. They grabbed what little they had and skedaddled, and they lived. What happened to the Jews who stayed in Jerusalem? They died. And if you really want to get an idea of just how horrible it was for them under the siege by the Romans, read Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History.
He points out that the curses from the book of Deuteronomy, the final curses if they broke the covenant, were then being inflicted on them. And Eusebius gives very graphic accounts that he gets from Josephus of women eating their own children in order to survive the siege.
That's how bad it is. And that's exactly what God threatened to punish them with. And alas for women who are pregnant, and for those who are nursing infants in those days. Why? Because they would end up eating them.
That's what Deuteronomy prophesied, and that's what happened. Pray that your flight may not be in the winter or on a Sabbath, for then there will be great tribulation such as not been from the beginning of the world until now and never will be.
And here's the transition here. So the preterist, or somebody who's a future, a non-futurist who thinks that this has all been fulfilled, they'll say, see the great tribulation occurred in 70 AD. No, this is a transition.
Okay, what happened in Jerusalem is a picture of the great tribulation at the end of the age. And you'll note here, has there been greater tribulation on planet earth since 70 AD? Yes, I would argue that the Holocaust would be a great example of that, right?
Okay, we're talking about the tribulation that is coming on the earth immediately before the return of Christ. If those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. I always point this out, and I will continue to point this out.
In the Garden of Eden, Satan's plan was to murder humanity. That's what Jesus says. He was a liar and a murderer from the beginning. The plan was to murder humanity and make God the murder weapon. That was the goal.
That didn't work. And so now when Satan is finally released and all hell breaks loose on planet earth, the next best thing is the suicide of the human race. So if things continued unabated, the end of this all would result in every single human being on planet earth ceasing to exist.
The suicide of humanity. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. In other words, it won't be allowed to go to its full conclusion. Then if anyone says to you, here's the Christ. Here's the Messiah.
Have you guys been paying attention to what's been happening in Jerusalem? The Jews are claiming that the Messiah has showed up. You can google it. You can read it. Of course, the Messiah wears reading glasses.
There's pictures of this guy. Forget his name. But you got a bunch of rabbis in Jerusalem saying this guy is the Messiah. Neat. Okay. And that's a new development since Yom Kippur. So keep that in mind.
All right. Look, here's the Christ. There he is. What does Jesus say? Do not believe it. For false Christs, again, Christoi and Messiah are synonymous. False Messiahs, false prophets will arise. And in the last days, they will not only perform false signs, but watch what Jesus says, they will perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect see I've told you beforehand.
Okay. So there is a group of people coming that unlike Todd White, they will not lengthen people's legs. They will legitimately be able to call fire out of heaven and it'll fall. Todd White would sell his mother into slavery for that kind of power.
So would Patricia King, right? So no, what's coming is not only false signs and wonders. That's the warm-up act. Okay. When the headliner band shows up, they're going to actually perform verifiable signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.
But the elect, having read Jesus's words here, will say, no, Jesus told us about that beforehand. We don't need to believe, right? So if they say to you, look, he's in the wilderness, don't go out. If they say, look, he's in the inner rooms, don't believe it.
For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the son of man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures gather. Now, let me kind of put this into the context.
Add Daniel into the mix here. With the rising of the lawless one, with the rising of a global government, with the growing hostility towards Christians, right? Where Christians are legitimately losing their lives.
Here's basically what's going to happen. Yahoos who claim that God is speaking to their heart are going to rise up and say, I'm the Messiah. I'm here to deliver the Christians. I'm here. I'm here. The end is now.
We're done with all of this persecution. They're just a bunch of delusional Yahoos, right? All of this is nonsense. Then immediately after the tribulation of those days, now watch this sequence. The sun will be darkened.
The moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. I'm pretty sure the James Webb telescope would catch all this, right? So note the sequence of events.
Great tribulation, false signs, false wonders, hated by all, people being martyred for the Christian faith, real signs and real wonders by false prophets and false Christs. And then all of a sudden you wake up one morning and at seven in the morning the sun isn't really shining.
It looks like it's barely giving off any light at all. And you're thinking maybe there's a fire in Canada. What's going on out here, right? And it's legitimately darkened. You turn on your television or you flip on your computer and all the news agencies have astronomers on their shows talking about what are we going to do because the sun has been darkened.
It's been verified by NASA. It's been verified by JPL. All the astronomers are saying we're hosed. If you're going to survive, we're not going to be able to grow food and people are in a full-on panic.
Oh and what happened to the stars? We have no idea what happened to the stars. They just all poosh, they're gone, right? Does that sound like a secret to you? Nope, okay. Powers of the heavens will be shaken and then will appear in heaven.
You got to think in space itself. A sign, the sign of the son of man. So, the stars all disappear with one exception, one big sign. And I like to think it's probably just the cross, okay? You look up in space, all the stars are gone except for that one really large cross, okay?
The sign of the son of man and then all the tribes of the earth will what? They will mourn and then they will see the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory and he will send out his angels, watch, here's the synchronization, with a loud trumpet call.
This synchronizes with 1 Thessalonians 4. And they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heaven to the others. 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.
So, also when you see all these things, you know that he is near at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation, the one that sees these signs, will not pass away until these things take place.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Now, concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the son, but the father only. 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 Noah entered the ark. By the way, did anyone, was anyone allowed to like ignore the flood on the day that it showed up?
Okay. Was the flood a secret? Okay. Right. Okay. So, note the analogy here. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and then swept them all away.
So will be the coming of the son of man. Then two men will be in the field. One will be taken, one will be left. Isn't that the rapture passage? Yes, it is. Okay. But note the sequence. The sun is gone, the stars are gone, the moon doesn't give its light, and there's a big old cross in outer space.
That's my speculation on that last bit, right? Okay. That being the case here, that everyone's mourning, everyone's freaking out, no one's escaping this, none of this is a secret. Then Jesus shows up, the angels blow their trumpet, and now people are being gathered up, right?
It's the day of the great harvest. Two women will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken, one will be left. Therefore, stay awake. You don't know on the day what day your Lord is coming, but know this.
If the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have had let his house be broken into. Therefore, also, you must be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour when you do not expect, right?
So you'll note this being caught up thing. Oh yeah, that happens. I always like to say we Lutherans believe in the rapture. By the rapture, you mean being caught up with Jesus on the day that he returns and the dead rise first, okay?
And then we're caught up together in the clouds with them, okay? Because the living do not precede the dead, right? Sure, we believe in the rapture if that's what you mean. No, no, we're talking about that secret thing that Jesus does before the tribulation.
No. Is there anything in here that makes it sound like Christians get to opt out of the tribulation? Not a thing, right? Okay, now a little bit of a note here. So coming back, I got to get to the question, okay?
All of that was just prep work for the TFBO to answer the question. It's a good question. All right, okay. So, Pastor Roseberg, I've been listening to your studies on the book of Daniel. I think they're very good.
I previously have sort of defaulted or at least flirted with rapture theology, but now think that amillennial position is better, more sound, and less likely to set me up to expect something that may not happen.
That's correct. That's a good mindset. I was once on a trip to Israel with the now-deceased Irving Baxter in his end times ministry. In Minnesota, they say Ufta. All right, and I'm skeptical about some of the claims that he made.
So with a bit of that background, you made reference to the modern-day state of Israel in passing during your most recent study. Do you see, or is it right to understand this as a fulfillment of something eschatologically?
Is there some type and shadow near-far fulfillment kind of thing between the return under Cyrus and at the end? I wonder if instead this return falls under a post-millennial type of thinking addressed by the Augsburg Confession, Article 17 condemning Jewish opinions that the godly shall take possession of the kingdom of the world.
Okay, yes. So I do not believe that the re-firing up of the nation-state of Israel has any eschatological significance. Any. In fact, I kind of see it as a big distraction, okay, because I can't point to any prophecy that actually says that the Jews would then return to their land and be able to rebuild the temple and the types and shadows of the Old Testament would be able to come back and supplant the fulfillment by Christ.
So I would note that I see the, you know, the reinstating of Israel as really kind of an annoying distraction because is the current nation-state of Israel a Christian nation? No. It's not even really a Jewish nation.
Right, it's not even really a Jewish nation. Okay, have you seen the Tel Aviv pride parades? Okay, it's really kind of a secular genetically Jewish kind of thing, but it's, and yes, there are a lot of Hasidic Jews and there are Orthodox Jews who are there, but you're going to note here they are very hostile to anybody planting Christian churches there.
I happen to know two missionaries that are working on planting churches there and the extreme lengths that they have to go to to keep their church plants under wraps so that they are not found out is actually terrifying.
The things that they have to do, I mean, this one pastor I know actually travels from the Netherlands and, not the Netherlands, from Scandinavian country to Israel several times a month to work on a house church there that he's planting, and every time he gets on the plane to go to Israel, he gets really interrogated hard and he has, almost like a spy, he has a cover story as to why he's going because he can't tell him I'm going there because I'm pastoring a fledgling congregation.
Okay, so you'll note that I don't see the re-firing up of Israel as anything, and if anything, this idea that they would rebuild the temple on the Temple Mount, holy smokes, that would be a theological hot mess.
Okay, I remember when I debated Jim Staley of the Hebrew Roots Movement and I asked him about this, if they rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem, would you be traveling there for Passover and would you be offering your sacrifices on the Day of Atonement and other things as commanded by the Torah?
He said, absolutely, I'm commanded by God to go and do that. It just wouldn't make for more confusion. So, Stephanie says, I thought the Jewish people will not become Christians until the 144 ,000 will preach to their fellow Jews.
That is a misuse of that text in the book of Revelation. So, you'll note that in the book of Revelation, you have a picture, let me see if I can find it, I think it's Revelation 9, and let's see, where is it?
Hang on, I gotta find it. Here we go. Let me show you why that's not what's going on in Revelation. After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind might blow on the earth or the sea.
And then I saw another angel ascending and rising from the sun with the seal of the living God and he called out with a loud voice to the four angels who have been given power to harm the earth. Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.
And I heard the number of those sealed, 144 ,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel. Here's the thing, read the list, okay? Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin.
Read the list. This is not a standard list of the tribes of Israel, okay? And the discrepancies are to basically indicate that this 144 ,000 is symbolic. This is a number of completeness, if you would.
12 times 12, right? And the idea then, you know, 12 times 12 ,000 is that the next thing that follows and after this, I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation from all the tribes and peoples.
This great multitude that nobody can number is the exact same thing as the sealed 144 ,000. And the only way you can understand that then is when you read Romans chapters 9, 10, and 11, Gentiles are grafted into Israel.
This is not a picture of genetic Jews, this is a picture of spiritual Israel, of those who truly believe in the Son of God and are grafted into Israel. So, and you'll note then also, it doesn't say anything about these 144 ,000 then after the Jews.
That is a completely concocted man-made doctrine that nowhere appears in Scripture.
So, did you have a question? No? Did you have a question, Don? Okay, what's the name of his.
YouTube channel? All right, so remind us next week, and we'll put that into the record. So, Don, he's got a homework assignment to get us the name of this YouTube channel of a guy who went from pre-trib to amillennialism.
Yeah, okay. So, Daniel writes, is it safe to say that with the work of Christ on the cross, the biblical fulfillment of the nation of Israel has been fulfilled? Absolutely. That's absolutely correct. Jesus was Israel squished down to one person.
Okay, and so Israel has served its function. It does not have an eschatological function. You'll see that as we work through Daniel more. There's no, there's not even a hint, either in Daniel or Revelation or in the New Testament, of the nation of Israel, as we know it, playing some significant role in eschatology.
That just is a complete man-made, eisegetical thing inserted into the text, but it's not in the Bible. So, all right, I've got to log off here. Great to see you all. Lord willing, we'll see you next time.
