A SUMMARY OF PRE-MILLENNIALISM
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5 WEEK INTRODUCTION TO ESCHATOLOGY
This is the second of 5 sessions summarizing the 3 Orthodox Christian views of eschatology. Premillennialism Postmillennialism and Amillennialism.
This study will not be an in-depth evaluation of each of these positions, but an overview. There are variations within each one, and each one has exegetical strong points and weaknesses. However, each of them is within orthodoxy, because, they affirm a future physical return of Christ, and have legitimate exegetical foundations.
Our Statement of Faith on Eschatology:
Regarding Eschatology, we apply the dictum, “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” We believe that the doctrines regarding personal eschatology, the coming of Christ, and the eternal state are clearly expressed in the Scriptures and are therefore essential. Yet, we hold that the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel and the nature of the millennium are less clear and therefore are non-essentials. Therefore, various corporate eschatological views are free to be discussed and taught side-by-side as long as unity is maintained and love is preeminent.
#eschatology #lastthings #revelation #postminimalism #amillennialism #Premillennialism
- 00:00
- So we have started a series of eschatology. This is the study of the last things, the end times.
- 00:07
- And so we're doing a five week series. And last week we kind of gave a brief overview of the three
- 00:13
- Orthodox perspectives. So we talked about pre -millennialism, we talked about all millennialism and post -millennialism.
- 00:20
- Okay, and so these next three weeks, we're gonna go deeper into those views and something that all these
- 00:26
- Orthodox views that they acknowledge is there is essential things in eschatology that you hold near and dear like Jesus is going to return in the future.
- 00:35
- He's going to return bodily. He's going to restore all things and set up a new heavens and a new earth.
- 00:41
- And he's going to judge the living and the dead. And so we will receive resurrected bodies fit for eternity.
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- That's in this category of essential truths in eschatology. And then there are non -essential truths.
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- It doesn't mean that they're not important. It just means that we can have coffee and talk about these things with one another.
- 00:58
- So we talked last time about how God made certain promises to Israel. Okay, now there's different ways of understanding those promises that God gave to Israel.
- 01:08
- And we kind of talked about covenant theology and dispensationalism tries to harmonize these concepts in scripture and they're
- 01:15
- Orthodox. And so we wanna be loving and we wanna apply charity when we talk about those things. And then we talked about the nature of the millennium.
- 01:24
- Remember we read from Revelation chapter 20 and how you understand that chapter kind of dictates which one of these three
- 01:31
- Orthodox perspectives of eschatology you hold to. And so tonight we're gonna go deeper into premillennialism and I wanna encourage you to write down your questions.
- 01:41
- I know it's gonna be hard to raise your hand and to chime in, but we're gonna go through the entire book of Revelation in one swoop.
- 01:49
- And you may be like, Jeremiah, that is craziness. And it is. So we're gonna have to stay on task and I wanna encourage you once again to take notes and to ask questions.
- 01:59
- So if you would, please open in your copy of God's word to the book of Revelation.
- 02:06
- So within premillennialism, a key feature that we talked about last time is most premillennialists understand the book of Revelation to be chronological, meaning that it's unfolding like a story.
- 02:19
- Okay, so that's gonna be kind of the way that we look at it this evening or we're just gonna kinda let it build on top of itself.
- 02:25
- And next week, Brother Adam's gonna be talking about all millennialism and it's not looking at the book of Revelation chronologically.
- 02:33
- It's actually looking at it in cycles, cyclically, right? So I just want you to have that in the back of your mind. So Revelation 1 .1
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- kicks the whole book off and says, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.
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- He made it known by sending his angel, his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.
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- Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear and keep what is written in it for the time is near.
- 03:08
- Okay, so this is why the book of Revelation is called that because this is the revelation, the apocalypsis.
- 03:15
- This is where we get the word apocalypse, okay? This is the apocalypse of Jesus Christ and his rule and his reign as being king of kings and Lord of lords, okay?
- 03:25
- So this is a revealing. Something is being revealed to the apostle John that we'll see he's here on the island of Patmos.
- 03:31
- In verse three, I just wanna highlight one last time that we talked about last time. This promise is blessing for those that read what's written in this book.
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- This is actually one of the things of the book of Revelation promises at the end. Blessed is the one that obeys the things that are written in this book.
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- And then it tells us, but there's also cursing for someone who tries to add or take away what has been revealed to the apostle
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- John here. So we should be encouraged to study these things. We can, once again, disagree and it's okay as brothers and sisters in Christ.
- 04:03
- And so we shouldn't say, well, that's too confusing. I shouldn't open up the book of Revelation. No, be encouraged.
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- This book probably glorifies Jesus and all of his majesty more than any other book in the
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- Bible, amen? Okay, so verse four, the apostle John says to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is, who was and is to come.
- 04:27
- And from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness and the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom of priests, of God and father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen.
- 04:50
- And so this is kind of setting up the trajectory of the whole book of Revelation. So here,
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- John is writing to seven churches. So he's receiving a vision and now he's about to write to the seven churches of Asia Minor.
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- We're gonna look at each one of these churches coming up in chapters two and three. And so this is putting the eternal glory of the triune
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- God on display. So back in verse four, we see in from the seven spirits who were before his throne.
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- This is a reference to the perfect manifold wisdom of the spirit of God. So this is a reference to the
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- Holy Spirit. And then we see that it's also from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, meaning that when he resurrected, he is preeminent, right?
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- This is a reference to the gospel, right? He is not only preeminent in his resurrection, but he also freed us from our sins by his blood, okay?
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- And then this was to all the priests of God and the father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.
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- So we serve a triune God. This is a Trinitarian gospel. All that the father has chosen, that will come to pass because whoever the father gave to Jesus, he's a perfect savior and he seals them with his blood.
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- And we see that the Holy Spirit seals them to the day of redemption. And so this kind of opens up with the
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- Trinity. And in verse eight, Jesus says, I am the alpha and the omega, says the
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- Lord God, right? He is the one who was, the one who is, and the one who is to come. It's all about Christ.
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- And so skip with me to verse 16. In Jesus, he says in his right hand, he held seven stars from his mouth and a sharp two -edged sword.
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- And his face was shining like the sun, full of strength.
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- When he saw him, the apostle John fell at his feet as though he were dead.
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- But he laid his right hand on me saying, fear not for I'm the first and the last.
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- And so what I believe is being depicted here is the apostle John is being confronted with God incarnate, right?
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- And when you're confronted with God who is holy, holy, holy, you recognize who you are.
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- You are sinful man. What did Isaiah do in the throne room of God? He said, I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
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- And he pronounced woes on himself. So the apostle John in this vision, he's so fearful because of how holy
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- Jesus is. And that's the proper response we should have for sin. And so of course he's fearful, right?
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- Jesus' face is shining like the sun. This reminds me back at the Mount of Transfiguration.
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- Remember Jesus was talking with Moses and Elijah and there his face was shining like the sun.
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- And who else was there? Peter, James and John. John wrote this, right? So I bet this was fresh in his mind because he saw a glimpse of that second coming glory and here in this vision, he is seeing it again.
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- And so verse 19, this is gonna be very important for the rest of our look at the book of Revelation because like I said last week, pre -millennialism, there's different kinds.
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- As you study these things, there's differing views, differing views. And so we look for those unifying principles. But most pre -millennialism sees the book of Revelation unfolding chronologically, right?
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- It's almost like you have a beginning point, you have a middle point and then you have an end like a story.
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- And so perhaps verse 19 is giving us those bullet points where Jesus is telling
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- John, right therefore the things that you have seen, so think past, those that are and those things that will take place after this.
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- Okay, so I think this sets up in the pre -millennial paradigm a good way to understand the book of Revelation, right?
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- The things that have taken place here in chapter one, John received a vision, right?
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- Of this apocalypsis, this apocalypse of Christ, the things which are. And so we're gonna look at chapters two and three of this kind of church age.
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- This is something that we present tense share with the apostle John because he was also in the church age. And then chapter four kind of kicks off and says, and after these things take place, and then you get this vision into the throne room of heaven, okay?
- 09:05
- So as we move into chapter two, the first church that we look at that John is writing these visions or giving these visions to is the church at Ephesus, okay?
- 09:15
- So these are seven historical churches that existed in the first century, but we're gonna see principles that still are lasting today.
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- So when you're attending a church, you should be asking which kind of church does this fall into in principle, okay?
- 09:30
- So this first church is the church of Ephesus. This is a cold Orthodox church.
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- They have a lot of good doctrine. They can discern who are good teachers or false teachers, but their heart doesn't love
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- Christ. I believe that comes out in verse four. Jesus is saying, but I have this against you.
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- Earlier, he says that you're able to call people who are apostles and who are not apostles or found them to be false.
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- And he says, but I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love that you first had, okay?
- 10:02
- Those churches exist everywhere. A lot of these churches have really good sounding doctrine, but no fellowship, right?
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- I remember Pastor Nathan talked about having a gospel culture, right?
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- Somewhere where you have good orthodoxy, but also good orthopraxy, okay?
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- And so you need both of those things to flourish in your sanctification and your walk with Christ.
- 10:26
- And so this first church is the church of Ephesus, a cold Orthodox church. Verse eight, we see the church of Smyrna.
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- This is the persecuted church. And so verse 10 says, do not fear what you are about to suffer.
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- Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested. And for 10 days, you will have tribulation.
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- Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life, okay?
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- There are persecuted churches all over the world and praise God, right? And once we are aware of those churches that are being persecuted, we too need to pray for them, okay?
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- And so the next church is the church at Pergamum. This is referred to as the worldly church.
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- Those churches that don't really care what the Bible says, even though they claim to be followers of Jesus.
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- Verse 16, Jesus says, repent, if not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth, okay?
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- So that's not good when Jesus says, I will make war with you, right? This is almost like James 4 .4
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- that says, if you're a friend of the world, then you are an enemy of God, okay?
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- There's those churches that try to really appeal to the culture, right? And not stand on biblical truth.
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- And so the next church on our list is the church of Thyatira. So this is the church that tolerates sin, okay?
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- So look at verse 20. Jesus says, but I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman
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- Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing many servants to practice sexual morality and to eat food sacrifice to idols.
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- And so I won't spend a ton of time here, but there are churches that tolerate sin. It's kind of like, hey, we're not really trying to get involved with your life.
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- And they wouldn't say this, but these churches are like country clubs where it's kind of just whatever goes, okay?
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- And so, like I said, these are, we're talking about seven churches that historically existed, but we can see principles that come from this.
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- And within the premillennial scope, this is what John is saying, the things that are, right?
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- He is saying that there's going to be a church age until these future things come about. So next on our list in chapter three is the church in Sardis.
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- This is referred to as the dead church. Now, I believe that a dead church is one that is very traditional, right?
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- Or maybe living in the glory days and they're kind of used to that same old, same old mentality, and there's no vision.
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- There's no vision of how to equip the saints and to evangelize the world with the great commission.
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- And so there's a lot of churches like that. They're essentially dead, right? They had this reputation of being a church, but when you walk in, there's nothing new happening, nothing new under the sun, really.
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- And so this brings us to the Church of Philadelphia. Now, this is the faithful church. This is a healthy church that not only has a love for one another, but that's grounded in a love for Christ.
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- And so verse 10 says this, because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth.
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- And so at the very least, there's a promise given to the Philadelphia church that God will keep you, right?
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- Everything around you may be falling, may be in turmoil, but it's okay. I will keep you through all of it.
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- And so lastly, we come to the Church of Laodicea. This is really referred to as the apostate church.
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- And so this is the church that Jesus says, I know your works, you are neither hot nor cold, and I wish you were either hot or cold.
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- So because you are lukewarm and you are neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
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- Now, this is a church that, like Jesus is saying here, is lukewarm. There's no benefit for the kingdom.
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- And a lot of people will say, well, I'm just being a lukewarm Christian in my life.
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- And they're kind of appealing to this verse. And the idea here is this is not someone who is saved. This is someone who is not beneficial.
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- This is somebody that God says, I'll spit you out of my mouth, right? So there's really not any such thing as a lukewarm
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- Christian who is actually in Christ. That's just code for someone who doesn't really know Christ. They're just kind of going through the motions.
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- And so another verse that's kind of taken out of context here is verse 20. Behold, I stand at the door and knock, okay?
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- Not gonna go into how Jesus is a weak beggar just trying to knock on the door of your heart. And if you would just let him in.
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- No, Jesus is a conquering king. If he wants to come in, he's gonna rip open that door. Amen? But the point is
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- Jesus is outside the church here, right? This is the apostate church, right?
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- They're not resting in Christ. He's on the outside, okay? And so kind of recap, John is writing his vision to these seven churches in Asia Minor, okay?
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- Now within premillennialism, there's typically a hard distinction between the church and Israel, okay?
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- And the reason why I bring this up is we're not going to see the church for many chapters until later in the book of Revelation, like around 19, you see the bride and you don't see the word churches until the last chapter of the book of Revelation, okay?
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- So something's going to happen here. So in chapter four, we now get a peek into the throne room of heaven.
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- So remember last time I said, within premillennialism, you have to talk about the rapture, right?
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- Have y 'all seen the movies? What am I talking about? The Left Behind series. I told you, I think about clothes kind of flying everywhere.
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- It's like, oh no, what's going on? Cars are crashing and all these things. That comes from this idea that the faithful Philadelphia church is gonna be raptured up, okay?
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- And so the rapture says, okay, but when are these things going to take place?
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- Is it gonna happen right before the seven year tribulation? Is it gonna happen in the middle or is it gonna happen at the end?
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- I'm supposed to be unbiased here. So I wanna tell you a few arguments of each one.
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- And so the pre -trib rapture says the rapture happens right in between verse 22 of chapter three and in the white space of chapter four, verse one.
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- So it's not there, but it's inferred that everything is about to be tested on the world, this time of tribulation.
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- And so last week we kind of touched on, in Daniel chapter nine, God is going to deal with Israel 490 years, right?
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- 70 years times seven. And when you have a particular interpretation of Daniel nine then you see there's a last seven years that's called the tribulation.
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- And we have this chart up here and the seven year tribulation typically has been understood to have the first half and the second half, three and a half years and then the great tribulation with the second half.
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- And so one argument for a pre -tribulational rapture is you had the church on earth in chapters two and three.
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- And now we see these seven lampstands, which are the churches that are now burning with fire, like just really in tune with the
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- Holy Spirit and the throne of heaven in chapters four and five. And so the idea is wait, so the church was on earth and now it's in heaven, what happened?
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- Well, a rapture would seem to kind of piece the dots there. And if you remember back to the
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- Philadelphia church, there was a promise, I will keep you from the hour of trial that's about to come upon the whole world, okay?
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- So this kind of makes sense, right? This would be an argument for a pre -tribulational rapture view.
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- And so in chapter four, the apostle John says, after this, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven and he saw a voice and this angel was telling him to come up there.
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- And then eventually he met these 24 elders in verse four around the throne, 24 elders were seated on the thrones and there were 24 elders clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their heads.
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- And from the throne came flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder. And before the throne were burning seven torches or lamps of fire, okay?
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- And so this is really neat because this does seem to articulate some type of blessing, promise to the 24 elders, right?
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- At the end, you might ask me, well, who I think the 24 elders are. There's a lot of views there, right? This could be a reference to the church because you have elders in the church body and you do have elders in the
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- Old Testament. But the key here is that the elders, whoever they represent, they are given golden crowns on their heads.
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- And so kind of all the eschatologies understand there's going to be rewards for those that live for Christ, right?
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- Our works did not help us in any way for our justification, but as we live our lives to the glory of God, we are promised rewards and blessings.
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- And I've always thought that was odd. Like why would I work for a reward, right? Why would I work for a crown?
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- Well, look at verse 10. The 24 elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever.
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- And they cast their crowns before the throne saying, worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created.
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- Oh, so now it comes full circle. Whatever rewards that I'm given for living my life for Christ, it's going to go right back to the lamb, right?
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- Isn't that cool, right? And honestly, we're going to be giving our rewards back thinking I wish I could give so much more. And so it's a beautiful circle.
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- And so chapter five continues in this vision in the throne room of heaven. John says, and then
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- I saw in the right hand of him who is seated on the throne, a scroll written within and on the back seven or sealed seven with seven seals.
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- And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals.
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- Okay, and so John in this vision, he's starting to weep because no one's worthy, right?
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- He's looking at the angels. He's looking at other people in the throne room of heaven. No one's worthy, right?
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- So it says he begins to weep. And one of the elders said to me, John said in verse five, weep no more behold the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.
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- Okay, and so the idea is this scroll is the promise deed to the entire universe, the covenant of redemption,
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- God's plan of redemption. Everything is working to a particular end. God is putting his glory on display and he is redeeming a people for his own glory.
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- And so John is saying no one is worthy. And then he learns that there is one worthy and it's
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- Jesus Christ. Okay, so look with me at verse seven.
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- Oh, in verse six. And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out to all the earth.
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- And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. Now this is beautiful, right?
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- This is imagery saying that Jesus Christ, he is the only one worthy.
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- And remember, this is a, he is the second person of the Trinity, right? This world was created with purpose.
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- It's for God's glory to be put on display and for his redemptive will to unfold. Verse nine, and they sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and by your blood, you ransomed a people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.
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- Okay, and so verse 12, we keep on saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who is slain to receive power, to wealth, wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.
- 22:32
- Okay, and so this is a wonderful vision that John has in the throne room of heaven. Okay, so chapter six, we're about to see judgment upon judgment happen on the earth, okay?
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- So remember, pre -millennialism, we're seeing this unfold like a story and we saw the church on earth, one argument says we saw it in heaven and now we're about to get a glimpse of what's gonna happen back on earth.
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- And so John says now, chapter six, verse one, now I watched when the lamb opened one of the seven seals and I heard one of the four living creatures say with the voice of thunder, come.
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- And I looked and behold a white horse and its rider had a bow and a crown was given to him and he came out conquering and to conquer.
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- And so we're gonna look at a number of these. We see the four horsemen of the apocalypse being depicted here and each one are a judgment, each one is a judgment.
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- And so a lot of commentators say, if you look at the rider here with the bow, he doesn't have any arrows.
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- So maybe this symbolizes a type of peace. He's coming to conquer, but he's not gonna do it violently.
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- Do you have that chart still handy? Because a lot of commentators will say, this is where the first three and a half years of this tribulation period is going to be a false peace.
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- And a pre -tribulational rapture view says the church is not gonna be around for this. And so what does this mean?
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- The second half, the great tribulation, it's gonna be very, very intense. And so this first white horse rider, he's one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse and he comes to set up false peace.
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- A lot of people believe this is the Antichrist, right, a singular figure that will do this.
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- And so verse three is the second seal judgment. I heard the second living creature say come and there came a horse in bright red, okay.
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- And so he breaks this false peace, right. War is beginning to start.
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- Verse five, the next seal, the black horse rider represents the famine that then takes place.
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- So if you have, the idea is if you have war and you have famine, then there's about to be a lot of death, okay.
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- So the fourth seal judgment in verse seven says, and I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say come and I looked behold a pale horse, right.
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- And he's just scooping up people because this is death, okay. And so it's just,
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- I want you to be aware of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. A lot of people have called this. And so the fifth seal refers to the martyrs, the tears of the martyrs, right.
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- They're saying how long are these things going to continue? Christ says, oh man, I have a plan, right.
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- And so this next judgment represents the martyrs that happen during this time. The sixth seal represents overpowering fear, okay.
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- Because it's about to get bad and then a whole lot worse. Verse 15 says, and the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, everyone slave and free hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks and the mountains.
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- And they were screaming out, they were calling to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne.
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- And from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of their wrath has come who can stand, right.
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- At the very least think, oh man, this is about to get bad. And so then there's a brief pause in chapter seven because there's going to be some protection happening, right.
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- So the caption of chapter seven in my Bible says the 144 ,000 of Israel sealed, okay.
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- So if you look in verse two, the apostle John says, I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun with the seal of the living
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- God. And then verse four talks about the 144 ,000 will be sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel.
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- So remember within pre -millennial scope, there's a hard distinction between the church and Israel because now we're going to see a whole lot of Israel between chapters four and 18, and we're not going to see the word church anywhere, okay.
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- So the idea is while all this judgment is happening on earth, God reveals himself to Israel.
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- They finally look back on the one whom they've pierced, Jesus, and said, oh yeah, that guy we crucified many years ago, well now we're going to look to him in faith.
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- And so what this particular view says, okay, there's going to be some type of sealing, a protection on Israel during the great tribulation.
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- So chapter eight goes back to the seventh seal. So this actually is about to open up the next set of judgments.
- 27:16
- When the lamb opened the seventh seal, chapter eight, verse one, there was a silence in heaven for about half an hour.
- 27:23
- Now this is interesting because what's happening in heaven right now, worship, worship, and then
- 27:29
- Jesus opens the seventh seal, and then what happens? There's silence for about half an hour.
- 27:34
- It means the worship stopped briefly. And I believe it's because of what's about to happen next on the earth.
- 27:42
- And so verse six, we see the seven trumpet judgments. Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.
- 27:50
- The first angel blew his trumpet and there followed hail and fire mixed with blood, and there were thrown upon the earth.
- 27:58
- A third of the earth was burned up and a third of the trees were burned up and all the green grass was burned up.
- 28:05
- So this is a judgment on vegetation, right? God is judging the earth and imagine if a third of the vegetation was being burned up, that's gonna affect everything, right?
- 28:14
- That would even affect our oxygen right within this view. And so the next one, the second judgment is a third of the sea became blood.
- 28:23
- This reminds me of the plagues back in Ephesus. And like I said, it's just getting worse and worse.
- 28:28
- The next judgment in verse 10 is a judgment on fresh water. In verse 12, the fourth angel blew his trumpet and this is a judgment on the sun.
- 28:37
- A third of the sun was struck and so now daylight, nighttime, how we operate from our day to day is now being a type of judgment, right?
- 28:46
- And so it's getting bad, it's getting bad and look at verse 13. Then I heard an angel crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead.
- 28:54
- Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth and the blast of the trumpets that the three angels are about to blow.
- 29:02
- If you caught that, this angel said, it's about to get a whole lot worse. If you think it was bad, you're not even ready.
- 29:09
- And so this is wild. Chapter nine is heavily disputed. Very interesting chapter. The fifth angel blew his trumpet and he says,
- 29:17
- I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth and he was given a key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.
- 29:23
- Some commentators say this fallen star is probably Satan, right? Isaiah chapter 14 talks about Lucifer or O fallen star or son of the morning depicts him.
- 29:35
- Jesus said, I saw him fall from heaven like lightning, okay? And so this shows us within pre -millennialism that there is authority given to Satan to release a demonic horde from the pit, okay?
- 29:49
- So I was thinking about this. If all the prisoners on earth in jail and in prison were released, that's kind of scary, right?
- 29:58
- Imagine if all the demons from the pit that aren't already on the earth, they were released to cause havoc.
- 30:04
- That's the picture that's being painted, which kind of raises another question. Why are these demons bound in a pit?
- 30:10
- How did they get there? Well, if you've been around for our Jude series, we spent some time talking about the angels that left their proper abode and we went back to Genesis chapter six with the sons of God.
- 30:20
- So a lot of people try to piece all this together. It's a good theory, right? And so the idea is it's not good.
- 30:28
- Listen to the imagery in verse three. So these locusts is how they're described, but it's really demonic.
- 30:36
- They're locusts on the earth. They were given power like the power of scorpions on the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, right?
- 30:44
- So this is not a judgment on the earth anymore. It's a judgment on people. In verse five, they were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them.
- 30:54
- And so verse six says, in those days, people will seek death and they will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.
- 31:02
- Wow, right? These demons are meant to torment people and they can't die. They're actually wanting death to happen and they can't find it.
- 31:11
- Verse 12 says, the first woe has passed. Behold, two more woes are still to come.
- 31:17
- Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, release the four angels who are bound in the great river
- 31:31
- Euphrates. So these aren't holy angels, right? These are powerful, wicked demons.
- 31:38
- And verse 15 says, so the four angels who had been prepared for the hour, the day and month and the year were released to kill a third of mankind, okay?
- 31:49
- And so verse 20 kind of depicts everything that's going on. The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of their works, the works of their hands, nor give up the worshiping of demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood.
- 32:04
- And they could not see, hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders, nor their sorceries, nor their sexual immorality, nor their thefts.
- 32:13
- And so the message being communicated here is even in the midst of all this judgment, which these people know in their heart of hearts, this is coming from the creator, they still would not repent.
- 32:25
- Wow, that puts man's depravity on display, I believe. And so we take a brief pause here in the flow of the book of Revelation.
- 32:33
- Chapters 10 and 11 kind of give us back to John's perspective. It says in verse two that he was given a little scroll to open in his hand and to set his foot on the sea and his left foot on the land.
- 32:47
- And he called out with a loud voice like a roaring lion. And he who called out the seven thunders sounded.
- 32:53
- And the seven thunders had sounded as he was about to write, the apostle John. But I heard a voice from heaven saying, seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down.
- 33:06
- So like I said, there's a lot of imagery. Every eschatology is gonna have to look at symbolism and figure out what is meant to be taken literally here.
- 33:15
- And so one commentary said, what was communicated to John by God or these thundering voices was too great for him to write down.
- 33:24
- Perhaps that's the next judgments that are about to pour out on the earth, which is interesting.
- 33:31
- Verse 10, he says, and I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it, he consumed it.
- 33:36
- And it was sweet as honey in the mouth. But when I had eaten it in my stomach, it was bitter. So maybe the sweetness is
- 33:44
- God putting his glory on display. Jesus is worthy to open the scroll, right?
- 33:49
- And God's plan is being fulfilled, but it's bitter because of all the judgment that people would not repent and turn from their sin and look to Christ.
- 33:58
- And so chapter 11, then talks about two witnesses, okay? There's a lot of theories that try to speculate.
- 34:07
- I can't wait to hear Adam next week on the two witnesses. I hope you cover that. But within the pre -millennial view, there's a lot of ideas of who are these two witnesses?
- 34:15
- What are they doing? Well, in verse three, it says, there was two witnesses and they were granted authority to prophesy for 1 ,260 days and they were clothed in sackcloth.
- 34:28
- They're like two olive trees, two lampstands that stand before the Lord and the earth. And if anyone tried to harm them, they would pour fire from their mouth and consume their foes.
- 34:39
- If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. So John is talking about two witnesses during this time and you couldn't get close to them without being burned up in fire, okay?
- 34:52
- And so verse six says, they had the power to shut the sky that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying.
- 35:00
- And they have power over the waters to turn them into blood. And so if we were gonna speculate a little bit, there's some good guesses out there.
- 35:07
- Some people have said, well, there was only two men in the whole Bible that never died, right?
- 35:13
- And so I think it's Hebrews 9 .27 says, well, it's appointed for every man to die once. So Enoch didn't die,
- 35:20
- Elijah didn't die. So maybe, spoiler alert, these are about to die here in just a second, right?
- 35:26
- And so maybe it's them too. And so they actually died, okay? Well, it's a theory. Another theory says, well, it sounds a lot like Moses and Elijah, right?
- 35:37
- They were on the Mount of Transfiguration. So maybe these two, the prophets and the law are witnessing against these people during these end times.
- 35:45
- You know what? I love trying to understand the scripture, but we don't know, it doesn't tell us.
- 35:51
- And so that's where we ultimately rest here. And so, like I said, these two witnesses, they die and it's at the hands of the beast.
- 36:01
- Verse seven says, and when they had finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them.
- 36:11
- A lot of people say this beast is the Antichrist. Maybe he is. Maybe the Antichrist is a particular person.
- 36:17
- That's not the only view. Some people say Antichrist is kind of the spirit of the age.
- 36:24
- Okay? Any ideology that rivals the things of God, okay? But maybe this is a particular person.
- 36:31
- And so verse 14 says, the second woe has passed. Behold, the third woe is soon to come.
- 36:38
- And so this is verse 15 starts the seventh trumpet. Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet and there were loud voices in heaven and the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our
- 36:50
- Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever. And so we've talked a little bit about the pre -tribulational view where the church is raptured before the tribulation happens.
- 37:02
- So this is actually the verse where mid -tribulation view, some people have a mid -tribulational view.
- 37:10
- And how they do this is there's kind of two rapture passages in the epistles, 1
- 37:15
- Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15. And so in 1 Corinthians 15, maybe verse 52, it talks about we'll be changed in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet.
- 37:27
- And so some people say, okay, you got a last trumpet and then we got a last trumpet right here. So maybe the church has been around for the first part of the tribulation and a big part of the early parts of the great tribulation, but they're gonna be raptured right before things get a whole lot worse, okay?
- 37:45
- Me trying to be unbiased, love you. That's my beautiful wife and baby back there.
- 37:51
- I love you. So this would be kind of the me being unbiased saying this would be a point for a mid -tribulation rapture view, okay?
- 38:04
- So chapter 12, continuing on, we get a depiction of war that's unfolding here in this trumpet, okay?
- 38:13
- And I believe this is kind of the understanding of Armageddon, okay? Some of us are aware of that terminology.
- 38:20
- And so chapter 12 talks about the woman, the dragon, and the child. And so there's a lot of symbolism going on in chapter 12.
- 38:28
- I believe the woman is a reference to Israel because the Messiah, the child, comes forth from Israel, right, the long prophesied
- 38:37
- Messiah. And the dragon would be Satan. And so in verse four, this is a reference to Satan.
- 38:42
- His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that when she bore the child, he might devour it.
- 38:54
- Like I said, a lot of symbolism. And one theory is that during this time of Armageddon, this great war, or getting ready for Armageddon where the
- 39:02
- Antichrist is coming in, there's intense persecution on Israel. Remember the 144 ,000?
- 39:09
- This kind of represents 12 ,000 from each tribe of Israel. And God is going to protect them.
- 39:16
- That doesn't necessarily mean that no one's going to die. In fact, within this view, they would say, oh, there's going to be martyrs going on all over during this time.
- 39:26
- And then verse seven talks about Satan being thrown down to earth. Verse nine says, and the great dragon was thrown down, the ancient serpent who is called the devil, and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, he was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him.
- 39:41
- And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now the salvation and the power of the kingdom of God, of our
- 39:47
- God, and the authority of Christ has come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before God.
- 39:56
- Now, this is interesting because in the Old Testament, you had the story of Job, where Satan was roaming to and fro on the earth, and he would go with the sons of God before the throne room and accuse
- 40:08
- Job, right? Well, Job does all these things because you had this hedge of protection around him. And so the premillennial view says, well, it seems like this battle happens, and then
- 40:19
- Satan be able to go to the throne room of heaven, doesn't happen anymore, he can't accuse the brethren.
- 40:25
- So that's interesting. And so, like I said, there's this massive war where Satan is starting to band together with the
- 40:32
- Antichrist and really attacking the woman, which would be kind of representative for Israel.
- 40:38
- And so verse 17 says, the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring.
- 40:45
- And so chapter 13 kind of brings up Antichrist again, talks about the first beast.
- 40:51
- In verse 11, then talks about another beast, okay? And so this is interesting. You have
- 40:56
- Satan, you have the Antichrist, and then you have the false prophet, okay?
- 41:03
- You kind of have this unholy trinity working about. And so if you look at verse 18,
- 41:08
- I have to make a reference to this. You have the mark of the beast, right? Verse 16 kind of starts the context.
- 41:15
- So during this context, it causes both great and small, both rich and poor, free and slave to be marked on the right hand or on the forehead so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark of the name of the beast or the number of its name.
- 41:32
- And this calls for wisdom. Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of man and his number is 666.
- 41:42
- That's all we're told. And so there's tons of speculation about what that is. If you have a question of my theory, write it down and we'll talk about it at the end.
- 41:51
- So chapter 14 kind of pictures victory in heaven.
- 41:56
- And so in verse 14 of chapter 14, and then it kind of switches gears and talks about the judgment happening on earth.
- 42:04
- If you look at verse 14, and I looked and behold a white cloud and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man with a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle coming out of his hand.
- 42:16
- So this phrase son of man is mentioned a number of times in the book of Revelation and it's quoting Daniel chapter seven, verses 13 and 14.
- 42:23
- Right, Jesus, this was his favorite title to give himself that he is the son of man. Not only does he have a human nature, but he is from the origin of the ancient of days.
- 42:33
- This is a prophecy. And the book of Revelation saying, this is talking about Jesus because he is a conquering king.
- 42:40
- So chapter 15, we see the song of Moses, something that we see back in Exodus chapter 15.
- 42:47
- There's praises going on in heaven while there's also judgment happening on earth.
- 42:52
- And so chapter 16, real interesting chapter because now we're about to see the seven bowls of God's wrath.
- 43:00
- Verse one says, then I heard a loud voice from the temple of the seven angels. Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.
- 43:10
- Okay, so we'll kind of just go through these quickly. The first angel poured the bowl that had sores, these painful sores.
- 43:20
- And I think something that happens a little bit differently from the early judgments is only a third of the world was being judged, right, affected.
- 43:28
- And then now we're gonna kind of see holistically the whole world's going to be affected. And so verse three, the second angel poured out his bowl into the sea and it became like blood of a corpse and every living thing died that was in the sea.
- 43:44
- So it's not just a third anymore, but it's everything. The third judgment is a judgment on all the fresh water.
- 43:51
- Verse eight, the fourth angel poured out his bowl and this was a judgment on the sun.
- 43:56
- Okay, so now it's just pure darkness. Think about the chaos that this would cause. And so the fifth angel poured out of his bowl on the throne of the beast and his kingdom was plunged into darkness, people gnawing, gnawing their tongues in anguish.
- 44:13
- And they cursed God, the God of heavens, for their pain and their sores. They did not repent of their deeds.
- 44:21
- Okay, so I just want you to see the depravity of man here. All this wickedness and sin and judgment's happening and they still curse
- 44:28
- God. And so in my note here, so this next, the sixth bowl of judgment is really where kind of Armageddon starts to take place.
- 44:38
- I was saying earlier, it really comes out right here. So the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river
- 44:44
- Euphrates and the water dried up to prepare the way for the kings of the east. And I saw coming out of the dragon, which was
- 44:52
- Satan, and out of the mouth of the beast, Antichrist, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs.
- 45:00
- For they are demonic spirits performing signs who go abroad to the kings of the world to assemble them for battle on the great day of God, the
- 45:11
- Almighty. So and then verse 16, they assembled them, when they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called
- 45:18
- Armageddon. Okay, so you see it, it's a big war is about to happen and so much judgment has taken place.
- 45:26
- And then verse 17, you have the seventh angel pouring out this judgment and says, it is done.
- 45:32
- There was flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and the great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth.
- 45:39
- So great was that earthquake. Verse 21 says, and great hailstones, about 100 pounds each, fell from heaven on the people and they cursed
- 45:49
- God for the plague of the hell because the plague was so severe. Wow, right?
- 45:56
- And I know this is a lot of imagery, but we can't help but be overwhelmed. Wow, man, this is a lot of judgment that God is pouring out on the earth.
- 46:04
- And yet they're getting ready for the great battle of Armageddon. Okay, and so chapters 17 and 18, kind of take a pause and say, you wanna know what religion looked like in the world at this time?
- 46:16
- Great Babylon, everybody was binding together in religion, trying to unify in their hatred against the one true
- 46:24
- God. That's chapter 17, false religion. And if the church is referred to as a bride, then what would false religion be depicted as, you think?
- 46:32
- A prostitute, a harlot. And so verse 16, it says, and the 10 horns that you saw and the beast will hate the prostitute.
- 46:42
- They will make their desolate and lay naked and devour her flesh and be burned up with fire.
- 46:48
- So even though the great harlot, the false religion of the world, they're gonna try their best, but it's gonna be crushed by King Jesus.
- 46:57
- And so chapter 18 talks about the fall of Babylon, right? This false unified religion against God in Armageddon.
- 47:06
- But chapter 18 also talks about the fallen economy. Everything is just kind of spun out of whack.
- 47:12
- No more trading goes on, it's just absolute chaos, okay? And so chapter 19, well, towards the end, let's, yeah, let's look real quick at the end of 18.
- 47:22
- Look at verse 22. So in this broken economy, there's no more joy.
- 47:28
- There's no more sounds of harpist and musicians or flute players or trumpeteers will be heard during this time, no more.
- 47:36
- No more craftsmanship, no more artwork, no more things like that. And the light of a lamp will shine in you no more.
- 47:44
- And the voice of the bridegroom and the bride will be heard in you no more for your merchants and the great ones of the earth and all the nations who were deceived by your sorcery.
- 47:54
- Right, so this is broken economy. But chapter 19, we see hallelujah in verse one.
- 48:01
- Verse two, we see hallelujah again. Verse four, hallelujah, right? Because Jesus is about to come back and rule and reign and it's a time of rejoicing for those that are in Christ.
- 48:14
- And so verse six, we see a reference in verse seven to the marriage supper of the lamb.
- 48:20
- So the bride has made herself ready. Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage of supper of the lamb.
- 48:26
- And so verse 10 says, then I fell down, John says, at his feet to worship him. So I guess this is before an angel, but the angel said, you must not do that for I'm a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold the testimony of Jesus.
- 48:40
- Worship God. I love that because even another angel says, no, no, no, I'm a part of this created order just like you.
- 48:46
- Right, but bless John's heart. He is just getting all these visions and he doesn't really know which way is up anymore, right?
- 48:53
- And so verse 11, we get the rider on a white horse. This is Jesus Christ.
- 48:59
- Remember, we're talking about premillennialism. So this next passage kind of depicts the second coming in chapter 19.
- 49:07
- And then this comes before the millennial reign of Christ in chapter 20. That's the argument that a premillennial view would make.
- 49:14
- Verse 11 says, and I saw heaven open and behold, a white horse. He is called faithful and true and righteousness.
- 49:22
- He judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire and on his head are many diadems.
- 49:28
- And he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood and the name by which he is called the word of God.
- 49:38
- Verse 14, and the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure were following him on white horses.
- 49:44
- And from his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron.
- 49:52
- And he will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. And so all this just kind of pictures
- 49:59
- Armageddon. Remember, they were getting ready earlier, right? It was all this darkness. And then you had the saints coming marching in with Jesus riding on a white horse and he just lays all of his enemies at his feet.
- 50:11
- They didn't stand a chance, did they? I don't know about you, but I want to be with King Jesus when this happens.
- 50:18
- And so we look at chapter 20 and I know we're kind of winding down probably on time. Oh yeah, we got to have some time for questions.
- 50:24
- Chapter 20, we talked about last week. You have the thousand year reign and within the thousand year reign, you see that somebody is bound, right?
- 50:33
- In a pit, it's Satan, okay? And so there's a lot of debate about what this binding means is he literally bound and is he bound for this literal thousand years and he can't do anything?
- 50:44
- That's how the pre -millennials would argue, right? That he is bound, not on planet earth, deceiving the nations anymore, but there's still sin.
- 50:53
- So where would that come from? Man's depravity, man's sinful nature. And then towards the end, it says he'll be released for a second time and then he gets squashed again with everybody that lived during the thousand year reign and then still rejected
- 51:06
- Christ seeing him in person, which just blows my mind, okay? And so we've talked about the rapture.
- 51:11
- Remember, you got a pre -tribulation rapture view, a mid -tribulation rapture, and you also have what's called a post -tribulation rapture view.
- 51:19
- And it's interesting because in 1 Thessalonians 4, the verse around this rapture passage says the dead and Christ will rise first.
- 51:29
- And so they link that with verse five that says, and this is the first resurrection, okay?
- 51:35
- And so, like I said, I'm being unbiased up here. That's kind of the argument that says, well, a rapture will happen, but it'll happen at the very end when
- 51:43
- Christ comes and then puts all enemies under his feet, okay?
- 51:48
- So you had the tribulation, or you had the rapture in relation to the tribulation. There's views that kind of see it all, beginning all the way to the end.
- 51:57
- But Satan is defeated. And so he is thrown into the lake of fire along with the false prophet and the antichrist and everyone who is not in Christ.
- 52:07
- They did not have their sins forgiven and they will be judged for all eternity for their sin against holy
- 52:13
- God, okay? And they are thrown into the lake of fire, the Gehenna.
- 52:19
- Okay, and so chapter 21 and 22 really depicts the new heavens and the new earth, okay?
- 52:26
- This is where God brings heaven down to earth. And so after this thousand year reign, Jesus transforms all of creation.
- 52:34
- All of creation has been moaning for the sons of glory to be restored.
- 52:39
- This earth has been cursed by sin. All of the orthodox views agree on this unifying principle that Jesus is coming back future bodily to set up an eternal kingdom and to restore this created earth.
- 52:52
- That's a non -negotiable. If you go against that, you're starting to touch our blessed hope and our gospel itself.
- 52:59
- And so chapter 21, wonderful. Look at verse three. Behold the dwelling place of God with man.
- 53:04
- He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be to them as their
- 53:11
- God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away.
- 53:23
- When Jesus was in his earthly ministry, he healed the sick, he did things. And I believe this was a glimpse of what the future will be like where he restores all things.
- 53:33
- It's gonna be beautiful. We're gonna receive resurrected bodies. We're not gonna be cursed by sin.
- 53:38
- There's gonna be no more hurts or pains. And so 21 is beautiful. And we love verses 22 and 23 that talk about the streets of gold.
- 53:48
- Does this mean that the streets will literally be made of gold? This is what I think. It's telling us that what we cherish here on earth, we will be walking on.
- 53:57
- It's gonna be so much better than what you can imagine. Isn't that awesome? And so chapter 22, verse three, no longer will there be anything accursed, right?
- 54:07
- Because this is a new heaven on earth. All things are transformed. But the throne of God and the lamb will be in it for his servants will worship him.
- 54:16
- They will see him face to face and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more for there will be no more need of light of a lamp or sun for the
- 54:26
- Lord God will be their light and they will reign forever and ever. Oh man,
- 54:31
- I get excited about that, right? This is what I can't wait for. This is why when I hear heresy creep in like full preterism, they say, no, no, no, that happened at 70
- 54:41
- AD, right? And I'm like, how dare you, right? Because Jesus is a conquering king, right?
- 54:47
- This evil that we see in this world, they say it's going to continue on into infinity. No, it's not, right?
- 54:54
- Jesus is gonna restore this sin -cursed world and we're going to see him face to face, right?
- 54:59
- We have a relationship with him by faith, but one day that faith will be turned to sight. I cannot wait for that.
- 55:08
- And so we see the last call, verse 17. The spirit and the bride say, come.
- 55:14
- Let everyone who hears come. Let the one who is thirsty come and let the one who desires to take the water of life freely without a price.
- 55:25
- And the verse 20 kind of sums it up. Surely I'm coming soon. Amen, come
- 55:30
- Lord Jesus. I love it. All right, how'd we do? We got through the whole book of Revelation in about 45 minutes, 50 minutes.
- 55:39
- You didn't know how we were gonna do it, did you? I honestly didn't know either. I just said, let's start this thing, see what happens.
- 55:45
- All right, any questions out there? All right, Nathan, no questions.
- 55:50
- We can wrap it up. Just go, go, I see hands now. Interesting how that works. All right, Brother Danny.
- 56:01
- Answer this according to premillennialism. Yeah, so if we can pull that one chart back up.
- 56:12
- So premillennialism says that we are living currently. Remember Revelation 119 says, write the things which have taken place, past, the things which are, and the things that will take place after this.
- 56:24
- This theory says we're living in the things which are, the church age, which we would share with the apostle
- 56:30
- John. He wrote to the seven churches of Asia Minor, right? So you got this church age, and then the church will be raptured in some way, and the church will not be around for all or some part of the tribulation.
- 56:43
- Does that kind of make sense? So we're living in this church age, this age of grace, this age of the
- 56:50
- Great Commission, right? All right, Brother Keith. Hey, you didn't ask any early questions.
- 56:56
- I was - Raptured in some way? Yeah, yeah. You don't know the why? So we'll be transformed from perishable to imperishable.
- 57:04
- That's how we're told. When I say in some way, I'm saying the timing. Oh, well. Well, you ran out of questions.
- 57:10
- You only get one. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Oh! Or if it is cyclical, did he see it cyclical, or did he write it cyclical, or both?
- 57:29
- Man, that is such a loaded question. You're right. Because then I'm gonna ask you, then
- 57:36
- I saw, and after this. So I'm not saying this, it doesn't appear that it's cyclical.
- 57:47
- Well, I appreciate the question. And then I heard a big what in the back. So two things in Keith's question.
- 57:53
- We're gonna take the long way of answering this question, Keith. You're gonna love it. So two big principles. We're asking, is this unfolding like a story chronologically?
- 58:03
- And so pre -meal is built on understanding revelation chronologically. There are other pre -millennial views that don't see it that way.
- 58:10
- To me, that's a harder push. It's like, if you're gonna grant pre -meal, let it unfold like a story, okay?
- 58:16
- Now, Brother Adam's gonna get into all millennialism, and along with, and I'll teach on post -millennialism in a couple weeks.
- 58:23
- It's not chronological. They say these events are happening in cycles. So remember we talked about the seal judgments?
- 58:29
- We talked about the trumpet judgments, and we talked about the bowl judgments, right, Erica? So the cyclical look would say this is all describing the same event.
- 58:38
- It's just using different terminology, right? These are just cycles of talking about the tribulation that happened in the first century.
- 58:45
- That's cyclical, and then you got chronological. And so Keith's question was, okay, what is it again, if it's chronological?
- 58:55
- If it's cyclical, do you see it that way? And that's one view.
- 59:05
- That's the pre -millennial view, right? They don't see it happening cyclically, right? Right? I'm not saying I don't see it.
- 59:11
- I'm saying he didn't write it. Well, you're stepping into the debate, because you literally have to interpret what we think it means by reading, and he saw this.
- 59:21
- So I'm being unbiased in saying that, let me finish real quick, because Adam is gonna be getting into all millennialism, right?
- 59:29
- And so you have to interpret it. And so you're either gonna land in a pre -millennial view, or in a cyclical view that's gonna be all -mill or post -mill.
- 59:38
- And so if it is cyclical, what is he seeing? He's seeing the same event, and he's describing it over and over and over again with different terminology.
- 59:57
- Right. So the pushback from the pre -millennialists would say, well, it seems like it's unfolding chronologically and not cyclically.
- 01:00:03
- And the all -mill says, hey, I got other arguments to say that it's cyclical. And there's good arguments for both sides.
- 01:00:10
- And so, no, it's a good question, but that's why we apply charity in this conversation. It's a different way of looking at the book of Revelation altogether.
- 01:00:25
- It sees the same event being described over and over and over again. And the all -millennialist view would say, chapter 19 isn't necessarily the second coming of Christ.
- 01:00:34
- It's a picture of Jesus ruling and reigning right now. It's a good view. We all believe that, right?
- 01:00:40
- Jesus is ruling and reigning in some way right now. I see another hand up there, if anybody dares.
- 01:00:46
- I hope we get something from the youth coming up here. I'll let y 'all think on it. Adam, you wanna answer
- 01:00:58
- Keith's question? So my understanding of recapitulation is a cycle, right?
- 01:01:17
- So when I say cycle, I'm not talking about like a downward spiral. Yeah, yeah.
- 01:01:26
- Because in the literature, cyclical is used a lot, and it's described as saying John is seeing this event, and I saw this event, and I saw this event, and he's really describing the event, but just using different terminology.
- 01:01:39
- Is that fair? And that's a strong point from like an all -millennial view is they don't see this chronological, but they go to the
- 01:02:05
- Old Testament, look at phrases and passages and say, this is the meaning that John is saying here. But that's the whole debate, right?
- 01:02:11
- And so we live on one another, don't we? All right, who had a question over here? Aaron, what do you got?
- 01:02:26
- Yes, Ray Comfort, baby. Are you about to ask me who
- 01:02:46
- I think the Antichrist is? Yeah, so I think maybe our viewers heard the question, but talking about potential figures of saying, is so -and -so the
- 01:03:04
- Antichrist, right? I would say right now, no one knows. I think it's fine to try to discern what's going on in the world around us, but I don't think we could possibly know.
- 01:03:16
- I think we will know with certainty when it hits us, right? When you're in the end time, and if the pre -millennial perspective is right, there's gonna be no question about it.
- 01:03:26
- But I don't think we can know, and man, we trust God. One of the things that we camped out on last week was
- 01:03:32
- God's sovereign, right? Perfect love cast out fear, right? But I have no idea who the
- 01:03:39
- Antichrist is, even if there's, I don't even know if there's gonna be a particular person who's gonna be
- 01:03:44
- Antichrist, because other views say it's kind of this general concept that there's the spirit of Antichrist, like in 1
- 01:03:51
- John, right? Interesting.
- 01:04:17
- We will wait and see what happens, won't we? All right, any other questions out there?
- 01:04:24
- So you made the same note.
- 01:04:43
- Right, so this is one of the criticisms towards pre -millennialism. Like, how many comings are there, right?
- 01:04:49
- And so advocates of pre -millennialism would say the snatching away of the bride is not a coming. He's not coming to earth in the context of the coming of the
- 01:04:58
- Son of Man that we see in the Olivet Discourse. They would just push the point that the rapture is not a second coming.
- 01:05:04
- It's a snatching away of the bride, okay? And so I think that's about all
- 01:05:10
- I can say to that. They would just say it's not a second coming, and some people say, well, it sounds like one to me. You know what
- 01:05:16
- I mean? Yeah, because it would make the statement, you know, they're insinuating
- 01:05:23
- I'm ready for the rapture. You're right. Especially here in the South, people are really talking about the rapture more.
- 01:05:29
- I mean, and there's two residues. There's salvation, and then there's the second coming, or there's the, do not marvel at this, but now there's a coming, but it isn't yet.
- 01:05:50
- When all will be resurrected. And I'm not gonna spoil it for Adam, but this is a huge component, like what you're bringing out in John 5, you say, is really a lot of the framework for all millennialism.
- 01:06:01
- It's just one event, and it seems like it has the least amount of moving parts in all millennialism.
- 01:06:07
- So that's my best shot at answering as a pre -millennialist. I have my pre -mill hat on up here.
- 01:06:15
- All right, Josiah, what you got for me? Well, six angel points.
- 01:06:33
- It is funny. I was talking to my dad about this today, and I knew someone would bring this up. I have no idea.
- 01:06:40
- And by the way, because he's like, I don't know, the Euphrates might be drying up, isn't it? Now I'm over here like, there's gotta be a lot more that happens before that, right?
- 01:06:49
- We looked at all the previous judgments. That doesn't seem like it's been happening in pre -mill. So it seems like a future eschatological event happening.
- 01:06:58
- And I told dad, the big caution that I have for pre -millennialists, I think it's orthodox and great if you wanna hold to it, but don't worry yourself to death by trying to keep up with Israel and rebuilding of the temple.
- 01:07:12
- Is the dome of the rock covering where the temple should be, or is it should be rebuilt somewhere else? I think those things are interesting, but don't worry yourself to death about it.
- 01:07:20
- Oh no, is the Euphrates River drying up? Maybe, right? God's got this either way.
- 01:07:25
- So I think there's a healthy balance to observe these things and I'm not saying you're doing this, but I'm just saying that some people can get carried away and live in fear.
- 01:07:35
- All right, I was told one more question. I know there's a bunch of sad faces out there. All right, but concerning the day or the hour, no one knows.
- 01:07:56
- Okay, I also talked about this with my dad today because he's a big pre -mill advocate and so I was asking him questions.
- 01:08:02
- I think what you, in the days of Noah, what's the big event that happened there?
- 01:08:09
- Swift judgment, right? The flood. And so I think that's the unifying principle that the pre -mill and the all mill would share.
- 01:08:17
- It's hard for me to say that for the post -millennialists. I'm sure they would say 70 AD was the swift judgment.
- 01:08:23
- And so that's my take in the moment that what's being referred to there is swift judgment.
- 01:08:30
- We don't know the day or the hour when God is going to exercise them. But pre -millennialists, especially pre -tribulation, rapture people would try to point to Old Testament passages and say, see, there's a rescuing of God's people from the judgment.
- 01:08:44
- So maybe that's typifying the rapture in some way. And I'm like, it's a good theory. You know what I mean? I like it.
- 01:08:50
- That's a good question. That's it, right, Pastor Nathan? All right. Well, let's close in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word.
- 01:08:59
- God, especially the book of Revelation. Lord, just seeing how you will execute judgment and that Jesus, you will rule mightily with a rod of iron.