Daniel in Exile Part 16

All right we are going to pray and we will get started. Lord Jesus again as we open your word we ask your holy spirit to help us to rightly 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.

The Pace of Daniel 11–12 and the Antichrist Excursus

Now what I'm going to do here let's see if I can spotlight that for everybody because I think it'll help when I do that. Okay so if you've noticed we've been doing a glacial pace through the last few verses of the book of Daniel chapter 11 and the first few verses of Daniel chapter 12.

We've done an excursus on the concept of the antichrist and you'll note that I'm not engaging in the perennial game of pin the tail on the antichrist. I always like to tell the story that when Barb and I were first married we lived in Seattle and there was a Vietnam veteran who would come in every month when he would get his disability check.

He came back from Vietnam without the use of his legs and so every month he would get a check from the government and he would disappear into a bottle of booze for a month and then resurface in order to cash the next check.

But one particular day he came up and I was a bank teller at the time and I'm cashing his checks and I kid you not he looks at me and goes do you think that Nancy Reagan is the antichrist? And there was no hint of like he was joking or he was looking for a laugh or whatever and I said no.

I hadn't really thought of that and at the time I really didn't know theology much at all but I do find it fascinating that everybody who tries to figure this out they end up looking pretty foolish when they start going according to the dispensationalist or the pre-millennial route in order to figure this out.

And I would note that when I was growing up the book that was the one that everybody needed to read was The Late Great Planet Earth. You guys remember that one? The Late Great Planet Earth, Hal Lindsay?

I can't believe that guy's still around but he is. And you know it was during the 70s that he was claiming that the imminent you know rapture was just around the corner, the antichrist is about to be revealed, yada yada yada.

Well the 70s turned into the 80s and so he wrote a follow-up book called 1980s Countdown to Armageddon and I think the clock is busted you know because the 80s clock has counted down and boy do I miss those days but I don't miss some of the fashions.

I'm just saying big hair was a thing back then and that was not my favorite. Okay you guys remember hair bands and Aquanet. Aquanet there we go yes so those were the days of Aquanet so I don't I don't miss those particular things but all of that being said when we walk through what the bible says about the antichrist you'll note that it's quite sober, it's not sensationalistic, it gives us things that we're to be looking for as far as like traits of the antichrist and the antichrist focuses his work on the church.

The antichrist is not an opponent of democracy, the antichrist is not an opponent of fascism or communism, the antichrist is an opponent of Christ and him crucified for our sins. That's his main focus and you'll note here in talking about the antichrist in this way I'm using an expansive way of talking about the antichrist not talking about the last man of lawlessness who will kind of embody the antichrist but the antichrist is something that has been with us the entire time.

The antichrist will have us take his final form you know like you remember the movie Ghostbusters you know choose the final form he'll come out like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in order to destroy Manhattan.

The antichrist will take his final form for sure in the last days but the antichrist has been with us the entire time from the time of Christ's ascension until today and until Christ returns the antichrist has been with us.

So when we think about the antichrist in that broad sense the sense that this is you know there's a demonic spirit Satan himself behind the antichrist he's been with us in waging war with the church with the saints for the entire time.

So with that we'll kind of finish the excursus that we started last Sunday talking now about you know the kind of finishing up what did the Lutheran Confession say regarding the antichrist and Dr. Steinman notes fifth and finally the antichrist is to endure throughout the church age.

He will only be destroyed at the second coming of Christ thus he will come to his end just before the resurrection on the last day. Many other identifications of the antichrist have been proposed but the papacy is the only one that has continued to exist throughout the church age.

In the early centuries of the Christian era the bishop of Rome did not claim authority over other bishops or over all the churches. He was restrained until the demise of the Roman Empire and this is true.

If you read the writings of the church fathers there were several bishops who had we'll say more notable bishoprics and the bishop of Ephesus, the bishop of Alexandria, the bishop of Rome, the bishop of Antioch.

When you and here's the thing have you noticed that churchmen don't always get along with each other? Have you guys noticed this? It's just a thing. Okay when you read the writings of the early church fathers prior to the fall of the Roman Empire these guys were all called papas.

They were all called papas. In other words that's the word for pope, right? And it wasn't really until the fall of the Roman Empire and then I would say the also the ascension of Islam because if you were to think of it this way there were several very important bishoprics in North Africa and when North Africa falls to Islam then you know those those seats of those bishops they're gone.

They are legitimately gone. They do not exist anymore and as a result of that it left a power vacuum and it's into that that these were then the claims that were coming up that the bishop of Rome needs to have quote the primacy and the arguments for and against the primacy of the bishop of Rome from that era still exist.

Gregory the Great who was one of the bishops of Rome he argued against the primacy of the pope. Gregory the Great legitimately said if you make the pope primary then you're creating the office of the antichrist.

That was Gregory's argument and he was a pope and so I would note here that that's kind of a fascinating thing, okay? So in the early centuries of the Christian era the bishop of Rome did not claim authority all the other bishops or over all the churches.

He was restrained until the demise of the Roman Empire in the 5th century. Subsequently the bishop of Rome claimed authority over all of Christendom and began to promote false doctrines and practices openly, okay?

Now I'll give you another example of an antichrist, smaller one, would be like Ken Copeland, Kenneth Hagen, Joyce Meyer, Rick Warren. People like this are people who are promoting false doctrines and doing so openly, false practices openly.

It's not just doctrine, it's also praxis and so in many respects that abuse of power continues to this day not only in Rome but I would note that the antichrist is well at work within pretty much every denomination that claims allegiance to Christ and Missouri Synod is under attack from forces similar and I would note that even the ALC is under attack from forces that are similar and each generation of pastors and leaders that come up through the church and take their place in positions of service within the congregation, each generation has to hold their line, hold the line against these assaults and attacks.

We are not allowed to create Christianity 2 .0 and the thing is is there's so many people out there who are pastors or bishops or church leaders or whatever who claim the right and prerogative to change what the church's doctrine and practices are and we do these to our own demise.

That's the function of the antichrist. So those omissions suggest that the confessors were not seeking to thoroughly analyze and comprehensively include all of the biblical evidence from all of the passages and scriptures that speak about the antichrist that could be left to exegetes or dogmaticians writing other kinds of works besides the confessions.

Instead the confessors work, confessors thought it sufficient to cite only one representative verse and enough biblical evidence to make a convincing case for the opinion that the papacy fulfills the primary marks of the antichrist as he is described in scripture.

So the judgment of the Lutheran confessions that the office of the papacy is the antichrist is a historical one. That is there is no passage in scripture that explicitly equates the papal office and the system in the Roman Catholic church with the antichrist.

Instead this equation remains a judgment that the portrait of the antichrist in scripture fits the events of history subsequent to the writing of the books of the Bible involving the teachings of the pontiff of the Roman Catholic church.

Thus this identification is not the unassailable and explicit teaching of scripture, rather it is a conclusion based on scripture and subsequent history. This commentary concurs with that conclusion which is based in part on the book of Daniel.

The confessors identification of the papacy as the antichrist is often dismissed as a reformation era anti-catholic polemic. However a sensitive reading of the confessions reveals that the confessors felt compelled to make this identification because of the testimony of scripture themselves.

Moreover the confessors did not seek to overthrow or abolish the Roman Catholic church or the papacy, but to reform the church calling for it to return to biblical teaching and practice. They desired to remain within it only after they were expelled did they form a separate church body.

It's kind of important the Lutherans didn't set out to start a Lutheran church. The pope said enough get out of here Luther and excommunicated him, right? Their identification of the papacy as the antichrist is actually intended as a constructive criticism for the Roman Catholic church in at least two ways.

First by identifying the papacy as a mortal threat to the Christian faith, and it is. The confessions are seeking to warn brothers and sisters in Christ of the grave danger that they face from the tyranny of papal rule.

Far from being an anti-catholic polemic the motivation is Christian love and concern for fellow believers and for the good of the church as a whole. To use an analogy, God's love and human compassion would move us to be concerned about our fellow citizens if our state or country were seized by a ruthless and abusive tyrant.

We would speak out against him and take action to save others from his tyranny, to alleviate his oppression of others as well as of ourselves. So the confessions were concerned about the papal abuses that oppressed people redeemed by Christ, abuses that in many cases continue today unabated in the Roman Catholic church.

Second, by acknowledging that the scriptures teach that the antichrist will arise within the church, the confessions implicitly acknowledge that the pope and the Roman Catholic church are part of the one holy Christian and apostolic church.

Many individual members of the Roman Catholic church are in fact Christians and genuine saving faith in Christ exists among its members. Moreover, it is the institution and office of the papacy specifically as it has mandated false teachings and practices that the confessors identify as the antichrist, not the person of any pope or popes.

Many of the individual popes may well have been Christians justified through faith in Christ as the sole source of salvation and may well be in heaven today. So you'll note that this leads to a very complicated way of looking at this because scripture talks about the spirit of antichrist that is attacking the church and then that spirit of antichrist takes on agents within the visible church to overturn Christian doctrine, to subvert the gospel, to paper over it all together, to change the practices and the way the worship is done in the church, and that's all in league with the spirit of antichrist and so visibly within the church presently we point to the office of the papacy as like a prime example then of an office that is doing the work of the antichrist because the Roman dogmas are not biblical.

So for instance, where in scripture does it teach that Mary was perpetually a virgin after she gave birth to Christ? Where in scripture does it say that we are to pray to dead saints, to pray to the Virgin Mary?

Where does it talk about purgatory? Where does it say that we can purchase an indulgence, a plenary indulgence, right? Where is that taught in scripture? You get the idea here. There's so many of these bizarre doctrines that you just sit there and go this as a whole you can tell the system is corrupted and the papacy defended these doctrines at the point of your own salvation.

You deny these things, that's a mortal sin, right? And so we point to that and say that is the office of the antichrist acting in the church which is changing Christian doctrine and changing Christian practice altogether, okay?

Now that doesn't mean, you know, so you'll know that that doesn't mean that we don't recognize that there are also Christians within Rome, there are, and that there are probably quite a few popes that are in heaven today.

There indeed are, but that doesn't take away from the fact that still you have all of these abuses within Roman Catholicism and I would note those abuses have now come full force into evangelicalism, all right?

With the false doctrines that are being promoted today by the greatest of the false teachers and the false practices that have been brought into to this, okay? And then let's see here. Okay, so Karen Goodwin asks the question, where is it taught that the antichrist will arise from within the church?

The Antichrist in 2 Thessalonians 2 and the Temple of God

And that is found in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and I'll explain it and, you know, because a lot of people that if you come out of like charismatic churches and churches that bought into this idea of the pre-trib rapture, then you'll note that there are some major problems.

Josh, did you see that we're getting people online saying that the audio is very crackly? Crackly, yeah. We're checking the audio, folks, we're going to see if we can do here. All right, so let me show you the text in question and it's 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and in it when you kind of take off your dispensational pre-trib, pre-millennial lenses, then you're able to see it very clearly.

But in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, it says, 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 I would note a New York Times best-selling fiction series or letters seem to be effective, the day of the Lord has already come.

Let no one deceive you in any way that day will not come unless the rebellion, that's the apostasy, 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.

Now dispensationalists will sit there and say, well that means that we have to have a rebuilt third temple in Jerusalem and therefore that's what the Antichrist is going to rise up in. No, in Paul's theology, this is consistent through all of his New Testament theology, the church is the temple of God.

And when you read the book of Hebrews, again a good way to think about the New Testament, the New Testament is the greatest commentary ever written on the Old Testament. It gives you the proper way of understanding how the Old Testament works.

And you'll note that in the book of Hebrews itself, it talks about the fact that the temple is a type and shadow of Christ and that the Mosaic covenant has been literally abrogated, it's been put down, it's done away with, it's passed away.

The official theological term for the state of the Mosaic covenant is the German word kaput. So it is kaput, we do not offer sacrifices in the temple in Jerusalem, that doesn't make sense. All of those sacrifices did nothing to forgive sins, they all pointed to the once for all sacrifice of Christ.

So Moto Z says that the audio just got miraculously better, Josh. It's a miracle. Okay, all right, very good. So the idea then in verse 4 of 2 Thessalonians, the Antichrist opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship in the temple of God.

That is not referring to a Mosaic covenant temple. There is no Mosaic covenant temple. And even if there were one rebuilt, it wouldn't be that because that would be an abomination. We would be going back to the types and shadows.

Instead, the temple of God in Pauline theology throughout the New Testament is the church. The church is the temple of God. Do you all not know that you are the temple of God? And anyone who destroys God's temple, God will destroy.

This is how the Apostle Paul writes. He's not talking about the building that Herod had renovated. He's talking about Christians. So that's how we know that the Antichrist is a churchman. He rises up in the church.

So he's primarily a churchman who then becomes a world political leader. Hopefully that all made sense. Now coming back then to Daniel chapter 12, we've kind of done the Antichrist to death here, if you would.

I'm kind of done with him. I'd like to move on. I don't want to think about him too much. So at that time, it's what it says in chapter 12, at that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people.

And there shall be a time of trouble such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time, your people shall be delivered. Everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.

Daniel’s People, the Resurrection, and the Final Judgment

Now I'm going to point this out. This is talking about what we would call as Lutherans, we call it the devil's little season. Other people will call it the great tribulation. The problem about the great tribulation is that language is used in the early part of the book of Revelation and we are all in the great tribulation already.

The great tribulation started with the ascension of Christ and continues to this day. But as we get closer and closer to the return of Christ, the restraints on the Antichrist start to come off and there's a growing increase of satanic activity, demonic activity, anti-Christian activity that comes undone at the very end.

And so Lutheran theologians will call it the devil's little season, where the best way I can put it is all hell breaks loose. And if you're alive as a Christian during that time, you have a really good chance of being martyred.

And the preferred method of execution that we've kind of figured out from the book of Revelation for those Christians during that time is probably going to be beheading, guillotine, something like that because that's what's mentioned in the book of Revelation.

So you'll note then that who are Daniel's people? Here's an exegetical point. You see, today's dispensationalists will say Daniel is a Jew, so Daniel's people are Jews. And they're talking genetics. No, no, no, no.

Watch how this works. There'll be a time of trouble such as never has been since there was a nation, but at that time your people, who are Daniel's people? Everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.

Y 'all are Daniel's people. I is Daniel's people. Anybody who is a Christian today is Daniel's people. It's not talking about genetics. It's talking about the faith of Daniel, those whose names are written in the book.

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. That, my friends, is a reference to hell. It's talking about the resurrection on the last day.

And you'll note here everlasting life, everlasting what? Contempt. How long does everlasting contempt last? Forever. How long does everlasting life last? Okay, let me give you a text on this also, which I think will be super-de-duper helpful.

And yes, super-de-duper is a very important theological term. Everybody uses it in academia today. Super-de-duper. And we are going to take a look at Matthew chapter 25, parallel passage to this. And here's our passage then, the final judgment.

So Christ in Matthew 25 gives this parable, thinly veiled parable, by the way. It's not hard to figure out what is what. When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Now, if you miss this point, you're going to end up in works righteousness.

Everybody's separated by what they is. Sheep over here, goats over there. Get to it, right? So you know, sheep is a set, you know, they will separate one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

He will place the sheep on his right, the goats on his left. The judgment has occurred. Now it's just a matter of where you end up. So then the king will say to those on his right, he talks to the Christians first, come you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

Let that sink in for a second. Have you ever stopped to think that what we're going through right now is not plan B? Have you ever heard of the concept of open theism? It's a terrible theology. The open theism basically teaches that God does not know the future.

He does not know what's coming next. And so when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, the Trinity went, whoa, we didn't see that one coming. Whoa. Surprise. Surprise. You know, you know, could it be Satan?

I had no idea that he was here. Right. That's ridiculous. Yeah. So you'll note here that Christ says to the sheep, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Yes, Marilyn. Okay.

What do they think of creation? How God doesn't know the rest of the story? Okay. So hiding underneath the hood of open theism. Okay. Hiding underneath the hood of open theism is old school Gnosticism.

Okay. And here's the idea, is that old school Gnosticism teaches that everything you see was accidentally created by a demi-urge. Yeah. And just didn't see that coming. Right. It was a complete accident.

That was not what the intent was. And oops, he created matter. Okay. So you'll note that the characteristics of the demi-urge responsible for creating matter is very similar to the deity of open theism.

And so one of the things I have noted is that when you have liberal theologians talking about God in such disparaging ways and try to bust him down so that he is no longer omniscient, all-powerful, all-knowing, all these things, and God just, he's kind of bumbling along, you know, hi, this is the Holy Spirit, you know, when he's bumbling along, that the deity that they are imagining fits the description of the demi-urge that accidentally made the earth.

And so I would note that the people who are engaging in theological attacks like this, my personal belief is that many of them know that they are Gnostics, they just don't want to say it. And so they're trying to say that Gnostic theology is biblical theology without saying the word Gnosticism.

But when you overlay the beliefs of Gnosticism over their belief system, it's the same thing. It's just the same thing. All right. But you'll note, Christ says, prepared for you from when? The foundation of the earth.

So before the foundation of the earth was even laid, God had prepared for us a kingdom. This was always God's plan, the whole kit and caboodle. And then he says to the sheep, I was hungry, you gave me food.

I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. And then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when do we see you hungry and feed you?

Or thirsty and give you drink? When do we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you? And when do we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the king will answer them, truly, I say to you, as you did it to the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.

Now, let me do a quick word search here. I am going to look for the word mother. And I'm going to search in the Gospels. I should be looking in Matthew, but I want you to see something here. Okay. All right.

Matthew 12, 46. While Jesus was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside asking to speak with him. Did Jesus have brothers? No. No, that can't be. I thought Mary was a perpetual virgin.

No, she consummated her marriage. Otherwise she would have been a wicked woman. Okay. So, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, who is my mother?

Who are my brothers? So, no, we're in the book of Matthew. So, this is an earlier bit from, you know, 13 chapters earlier. And Christ asks the question, who's my mother? Who's my brothers? So, stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, here are my mother and my brothers.

Whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. So, in our text here, Jesus said, truly, I say to you, as you did it to the least of these, what? My brothers, who are Christ's brothers?

Those who do the will of the father, you did it to me. Now, note, Christ is not saying if you feed the poor and you clothe the naked, which, by the way, are good works. Those are good things to do. You are your brother's keeper.

That that somehow merits salvation. Remember, the judgment took place when they were separated. So, now he's just talking about the details. Then he will say to those on his left, the goats, depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty, you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me. Naked and you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison and you did not visit me.

Then they also will answer, Lord, when do we not see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison or and did not minister to you? Then he will answer them saying, truly I say to you as you did not do it to one of the least of these.

Who is he pointing to? The least of what? The Christians. Those who believe you did not do it to me. You'll note that, you know, heathens are going to heath. That's what they do, right? And as a result of that, heathens, they have no desire to hear the gospel.

They're not going to go visit a Christian who's been thrown in prison. They don't care if a pastor's naked and hungry and can't clothe his children. They don't even care if a trans person guns down their children in a Christian school.

In fact, you'll note, did you guys see the social media? Did you see the media outlets that were basically portraying that trans murderer as the victim? Did you see that? Pay attention. The world is losing its mind, right?

Truly I say to you as you did not do it to the least of these, you did not do it to me. And then these will go away into eternal punishment. But the righteous into eternal life. So you'll note in our Daniel text, we have eternal contempt and eternal life bracketed together.

Here we have eternal punishment and eternal life bracketed together. How long does eternal life last? Forever. Okay. In eternal life, will you ever have less days ahead of you than behind you? No, it is days without end.

How long does eternal punishment last? Forever. Now you might seem to think, well, why are you going on about this? Ah, because in our day, okay, there is an eschatological belief that I likened to flat earthers.

Okay. You know, you're dealing with a bad theology when in order to get to arrive at that bad theology, you first have to go through a conspiracy theory to get there. Okay. You know, you're always dealing with a bad theology.

And the name of this belief is called conditionalism or annihilationism. And here's how the argument goes. Well, the early church, they didn't believe in hell. They didn't believe in eternal punishment, but Rome came in and Rome introduced this new doctrine of hell in order to suppress people and push them under their thumb and to drag them into the darkness.

In fact, it would be unbecoming of God to cause people to suffer for their sins for eternity. So what happens is, that God works out how much their sin would re-equal, sends them into hell, and once they've had the requisite punishment, they burn to death and they cease to exist and they go off into nothingness.

Okay. And it starts with what? A conspiracy theory. No. That is just not how that goes. And I would note, conditionalism is a growing belief among evangelicals. Growing. And I get accused of being a closet Jesuit by that group because I believe in hell.

Okay. Let me look for... Lily says, many Christians believe that there is no judgment and that everyone goes to heaven. Yeah. Thank you, Rob Bell. Rob Bell was the guy who made that very popular among evangelicals.

Remember his book, Love Wins? Okay. Talk about a master class in Bible twisting. Holy smokes, was that terrible. Okay. His argument for everybody goes to heaven was that in the New Jerusalem is described as having gates, the 12 gates, and that the doors of those gates are made of pearl.

But it says in there that the gates are always open. So, Rob Bell said, because the gates are always open, that means that nobody is excluded from the New Jerusalem and anybody who ends up in hell can just walk right out of it and walk right into the New Jerusalem.

Oh, that's the Quarry's rebellion. Yeah. It goes against a perfectly just God. Now, I would note something that in all of scripture, the person who spoke of hell the most was Jesus. No, there's like nobody who even comes close.

But you'll note then the parallels between what we were just reading and what we see here. Those will go away to eternal punishment, the righteous to eternal life. And we see then in Daniel, many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.

How long does that contempt last? Forever. There's another verse I'll throw into here. Torment. I'm just going to look for the word torment. And I'm not going to look in the word gospels. I'm going to look in the epistles.

I'm going to look in the book of Revelation. Here we go. Revelation 14. Okay, see if this makes any sense. Revelation 14, 11 in particular. All right. Another angel, a third, followed them saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb.

And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image. How long does their torment last? Forever and ever. They get no rest.

It's another argument against conditionalism. And what's really funny is when you point these verses out to the conditionalists, they legitimately sit there and go, well, it doesn't mean that. You're totally twisting that text.

No, we are not. Okay. Let me give you another example. I've got to hunt this down. Now tell them that baptism saves. Okay. Yeah. Aaron Aeus. I want rule of faith. Okay. Aaron Aeus' rule of faith. Let me see if I can find a good copy of it.

Aaron Aeus on the rule of faith. Oh, I'm going to have to end up in a Roman Catholic website. Oh, well. Okay. My apologies. Let's see here. This is like an early copy of the, let's see. I need to see the actual rule of faith.

See how there it is. This is from Schaff. All right. Let's see here. All right. Here we go. All right. So this is a second century document. This is from Aaron Aeus' work called contra heresies or against heresies.

And let me give you Aaron Aeus' pedigree if I can. Okay. Aaron Aeus' pedigree is this, that he was discipled in the Christian faith by a fellow by the name of Polycarp. Polycarp is a fellow who was martyred in his eighties in Smyrna.

And Polycarp was baptized as a child, as an infant by the apostle John in Ephesus. The apostle John became the bishop of the city of Ephesus and actually brought Mary, Jesus's mother with him there. Her tomb, they recently discovered in like less than a decade ago, if I'm not mistaken, not too far from Ephesus.

Yeah. Well, she did not, she did not have a, she did not get assumed up into heaven. And so this work, pedigree from the apostle John to Polycarp to Aaron Aeus, that's what we're talking about. This is when the church is very pristine in its theology.

And Aaron Aeus, his contra heresies was written against the Gnostics. In fact, in the research I've been doing on the Gnostics, they hate Aaron Aeus. The reason why they hate him is because he legitimately cataloged the beliefs and the narratives of the Gnostics, which were not supposed to be published.

They were supposed to be learned through their secret initiations. And so the greatest book that we have that teaches us what the Gnostics of his era believed was written by Aaron Aeus and they hate it because he was an opponent of it.

Okay. And so here you see what's called the rule of faith. And the rule of faith is the measure by which Aaron Aeus will judge whether a group is heretical or whether they are orthodox, whether they are telling the truth biblically or not.

And in this work, we get like a pre-version, an early version of the Nicene Creed. And he claims he was taught this by Polycarp and Polycarp claims he was taught this by John, the apostle. So creeds kind of came into play very early in the Christian church.

So here's how it reads. The church, though dispersed through our whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith. She, the church, believes in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

Does that sound familiar? And the sea and all things that are in them. And in one Christ, Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, the advents and the birth from a virgin and the passion and the resurrection from the dead and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and his future manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father to gather all things in one and to raise up anew all flesh of the human race in order that Christ Jesus, our Lord and God and Savior and King, according to the will of the invisible God, every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth, things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess to him that he should execute just judgment towards all that he may send spiritual wickedness and the angels who transgressed and became apostates together with the ungodly, the unrighteous and wicked and profane among men into everlasting fire, but may in the exercise of his grace confer immortality on the righteous and the holy and those who have kept his commandments and have persevered in his love, some from the beginning of their Christian course and others from the date of their repentance, and may surround them with everlasting glory.