Wednesday Night Bible Study with Jeff Shipley - Revelation 6

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Alright, so, let's review. Let's review for a little bit, okay? Alright guys, what is eschatology?
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What is eschatology? It is the study of end times, okay? That's what eschatology is.
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That's the fancy word for the study of end times. What's the difference between doctrine and theology?
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The difference is doctrine is an absolute cardinal truth found in the word of God that is absolutely crystal clear, i .e.
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grace, i .e. justification. Those are doctrines, okay? And theology is the study from the concept and the paradigm of mankind.
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So I might look at God and I might see A, B, and C, okay? But just because I see that or because I believe, that's just theology.
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It doesn't make it a doctrine. Doctrines are, and I gave you a rule, these are two of seven rules that I use, but these two rules that I use is that doctrines have to be found throughout all of scripture and they could never contradict other doctrines.
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Doctrines have to be from Genesis to Revelation and they have to be in non -contradiction with any other doctrine, okay?
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So that's eschatology, theology, doctrine, okay? Now we're talking about, in the
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Olivet Discourse, we're talking about, in my opinion, theologically, we're talking about what
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I believe is dispensational, premillennial, futurist theology, okay?
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That's just crystal clear. So that's, I just wanted full disclosure, that's what
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I believe. Now, having said that, okay, and I'm also a pre -tribulation, if you want the whole wording, here it goes,
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I'm a pre -tribulationist, dispensational, futurist, premillennialist.
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That's what I am, okay? Now all of that is theology, okay?
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If someone doesn't believe that, or if they're an amillennialist, or they're,
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I personally think they're wrong, but they're still my brothers in Christ because we all believe in the doctrine of the second coming of Jesus, and the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing, and the main thing is
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Jesus, okay? So as we look at things, we're gonna get to heaven, and I'm gonna go, oh man,
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I should have thought, yep, I was wrong on that one, or yeah, oh yeah, no, I was right on, we're gonna, theology is gonna be fleshed out in the reality of what
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God intended, and not what our silly, limited minds, you've grown, brother, since you've left
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Nashville, yeah, I've gotten fatter, if that's what you mean, yeah, 1 -800 -JENNY, man.
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But anyways, so, as Christians discuss these topics, we need to have good, healthy discussions and debates, and they can be vigorous debates, but the minute it brings disharmony, and the minute it brings, you know, a split, a division among the people of God, you're wrong.
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I don't care. It doesn't matter how passionately you believe, if it's not based on the doctrines of the word of God, your passion needs to be curtailed into the reality of, let's keep
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God first and foremost. Hey, Lisa, um, 1 -800 -PORT -CHOP,
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Miss Linda, will you do something with him, please? Ugh, that's good,
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Keith. I needed that. Alright, so, last night, with my awesome little drawings,
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I told you about the 3 main viewpoints about end times, okay, specifically about Matthew 24 and the book of Revelation.
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There are pre -millennialists, of which I am, which I believe that at some point, here's
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Jesus dying, at some point in the future, um, God's church is going to be raptured up.
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Remember, rapture and second coming are two completely different things, okay? Hey, Jeff, hey,
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Samuel, hey, Aisha, um, the church is going to be raptured up, to be sure, and then
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I believe that there's going to be a seven -year period of great tribulation, and then I believe
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Jesus Christ is going to come back and rule on earth for a thousand years, okay?
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So Jesus comes back before, pre -millennial, before the thousand years, okay?
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That's what pre -millennial means, that's it, okay? You have post -millennial, which believes that Jesus will come back after that thousand years, that his second coming will be, he will rule from heaven, we will rule on earth, and he'll come back after the thousand years.
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And then there's the amillennialists, um, hey Carly, Car, Car, Caroline, um, hey
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Dennis and Robin, um, you're a post -tribber, okay, okay, that's good, alright, so now listen, so an amillennialist believes that the thousand years spoken of Revelation chapter 20 is just allegorical, okay?
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It's not a literal thousand years, and what's going to happen is the world's going to continue to hear the gospel, and it's going to get better and better and better, and it's going to get more godly and more godly, and then all of a sudden, boom, here
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Jesus is, okay? Those are the three, so you have pre-, post-, and amillennial, it's that simple, okay?
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Now Samuel just said, I'm a post -tribber, okay?
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Okay, only, you know, the rapture, where the church is taken up, has nothing to do with the second coming, where the church is taken up, hey
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Rodney, um, that is only found in pre -millennial theology.
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Both post -mill and amill groups, amillennialism and post -millennialism, do not believe in the rapture, they don't believe in the great tribulation, they don't believe in, um, a futurist anti -Christ, okay, they don't adhere to any of that, in fact, they believe that those prophecies that are spoken of in both
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Matthew 24 and the book of Revelation, are for the most part, um, have already been completed, they're already done, hey
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Jim, um, and so they believe those have already passed, okay? Now, I can sit there and go, he's still my brother in Christ, um,
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I think he is, uh, being woefully ignorant, but, um, he's still my brother in Christ, okay?
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So there's no need for everybody to draw up camps and, you know, try to hack each other up, okay?
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It's just, I, I don't believe all those things, and I'm going to try to prove that to you tonight.
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I'm going to try to prove to you why I am a pre -millennial, uh, theologian, okay?
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So we left off last night, any questions so far? I'll try to watch, um, I'll try to watch down here, but I, I get focused, and I'm old, and I can't, can't focus like I used to, so, um, um, if there's not any questions so far, and, and guys, remember, at any time in here, you can write a question down, you can write a question down, and I will get to it,
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I promise, okay? Alright, so, we, we, we left off last night in verse 21, okay?
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Now, I'm going to go back just for the sake of clarity, and I'm going to start again in verse 15, okay?
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So let me set the tone and the pace for maybe those of you who weren't here last night as we review for everyone else.
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Jesus, in Matthew 23, is really mean to the Pharisees and Scribes.
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It's called the Woes Chapter. We call it that, Jesus didn't call it that, because remember, there were no chapters in Jesus' times.
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Hey, Brother Johnny, um, um, so, um, in Matthew 23, he enters physically the temple complex for the last time.
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Um, he's about to be arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, of course, go to Calvary, and then be resurrected and rise, rise again and then ascend.
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So Matthew 23, he cuts loose, he's, basically, he's,
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I have had enough. For three and a half years, I've tried to convince you people, and you're not going to be convinced.
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You are not going to, how, and it's the most chilling, in my opinion, one of the most chilling comments
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Jesus ever made. He makes it, and he says, how will you escape the damnation of hell? I mean, that's, that's just a pretty powerful, uh, pretty powerful statement.
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And for those of you that don't believe in a literal hell, that every time hell is mentioned in the New Testament, that it's just talking about a grave,
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I want you to go back and read the words of Jesus again, where he says, how will you escape the damnation of hell?
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That doesn't sound like a grave, okay? Um, and the reason why it doesn't sound that way, because it's not, okay?
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There is a hell, it's a reality, and if you don't have Jesus Christ, I'm sorry, you're going there.
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It's just that simple, and you can be a spiritual person all you want. You can be a millennial enlightenist, you can be everything you want, but the exclusivity of the name of Jesus Christ and his death, burial, and resurrection for the payment of our sins is the only way you will escape eternal damnation.
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Just the way it's going to be. Wrap your head around it if you've got to, say, oh, I don't believe that. Do whatever you've got to do, but the reality is this is fact, and you need to come to grips with that.
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Hey, Brother Andrew. Hey, buddy. That's my music minister down there, Brother Andrew Dean Cook, and he's also very smart on the computer stuff.
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All right, so, having said all that, Jesus walks out of the temple complex, he goes,
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I'm out. Later, guys, the scribes and Pharisees go off, they meet at Caiaphas' house, and they go, okay, how are we going to kill this dude, because we've had enough, and so they're over here plotting.
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Jesus walks out the temple complex, and he don't run, he don't get on a horse and try to get out of town, he doesn't hit the next boat to Margaritaville, he simply just walks out, walks up a hill, sits down on a little mountaintop, and when
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I say mountain, don't think of, like, Pike's Peak or something, you know, think of, you know, just a hill there, and he's looking down into Jerusalem, and as,
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I'm sorry, as he's walking out, the disciples are sitting there, and they know Jesus is upset, and they go, Jesus, look at this big temple complex, what are you talking about, man, you know,
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I mean, this, this is it, this is, and Jesus looks at them and goes, you see all these stones, you see these walls, see all these buildings,
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I'm going to tell you a day's coming when not one of these stones is left on top of another.
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They walk up the hill, they get on the Mount Olives, and the disciples privately come to Jesus, because they don't want to look like schmucks, they're going to be like, oh, yeah, we know what
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Jesus is talking about, but they had no idea, and in the first part of chapter 24, verse 3,
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I believe, yeah, verse 3, while he's sitting there, they come to him privately, they ask him three questions.
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Number one, tell us when these things will happen, specifically referring to Jesus just saying that the whole temple is going to come down.
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And what is the sign of your coming? That's the second question. And the third, what is the end of the age?
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So then Jesus begins a two -chapter discourse, Matthew chapter 24 and chapter 25, he talks for the next two chapters, answering these three questions.
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Now, I believe that most of what he said in chapter 24 and 25 is referring to future events, and I'm going to tell you why.
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All right? You ready? Get your pen and paper out. Let's just dissect this, and let's get going.
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You ready? Here we go. First of all, have you ever watched the news, or you can do it when we're done here, you can write on a piece of paper,
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I want you to go look up the Wailing Wall, or the Western Wall. I want you to go look up the
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Wailing Wall. It's in Jerusalem. It's standing today. You can walk up and put your hand on it. And this section of the wall is, you know, 30 feet high, let's say, or 60 feet high.
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It's sitting there. And these stones are massive. I mean, some of them are bigger than cars, you know, these huge stones.
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Well, that Wailing Wall was there at the time of Jesus. Now, why are you saying this,
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Pastor? Well, I'm saying this. Jesus just said not one of these stones would be left on top of another. If that already all happened, and that prophecy is fulfilled, did
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Jesus miss something? Did... What happened? Because he just said, not one stone, go back and read it.
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Not one stone, it says here in verse 2, not one stone will be left here on another that won't be thrown down.
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Things that make you go, hmm. So, if that happened in 70
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AD, by the way, we're sitting here in the book of Matthew. Okay, we're sitting in the book of Matthew.
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Here's Jesus about 33 AD. Thirty -seven years later, in 70
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AD, Rome did attack Jerusalem, and Rome did whoop the
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Jews and whoop Jerusalem like red -headed stepchildren, okay, all right?
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But, Jesus said no stone will be left on another, and them stones in 2020 are still there.
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You ever had a kid, you tell them to go clean up the room, and they clean up half of it, and you go, oh, well, that's good enough.
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Jesus said not one stone will be left on another. When he says not one, he means not one.
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So, if that's already happened, you already got a huge problem. Remember, looking at reality and history, because remember, this isn't
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Bible history. This is history. It just is. There's no such thing as Bible history, okay?
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History is history. So, the reality is, Jesus said this temple's coming down, but he said it's coming down to such a degree that one stone will be not left upon another.
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Look down with me to the verse we left off with last night, verse 21, and this will be a review from what we said about verse 21, but it says this, for at that time, there will be a great tribulation, and that's what we're talking about tonight, there will be a great tribulation, the kind that hasn't taken place in the beginning of the world until now, and never will again.
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Now, we understand that the Jewish war, this is called the first war, the
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Jews fought Rome, I mean, tooth and nail, and they lost. But from 66
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AD to 73 AD was the first Jewish Roman war. The second one took place later on in 130, but we'll get to that later.
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It culminated in 135 AD, and that's when the last Sanhedrin met was in 135
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AD. That's when all of it stopped, okay? But we'll get to that later. And this is really cool stuff, guys, because you don't have to search through 42 pages of Hebrew to figure this out, all you gotta do is pick up a newspaper, man.
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We're living in times that are very exciting if you're a Christian. But anyways, we'll get to that later.
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So, a lot of bad things happened in 70 AD. A lot of bad things happened when
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Jerusalem was attacked. People were butchered, to be sure. If you lived in Judea, you ran for the hills, and we know that, and that's what it says.
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So, in that time, Jesus being very specific, he's answering their first question. It says, if you live in Judea, man, you better run for the mountains, buddy.
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If you're in the field, don't go back home to get your clothes. You see the enemy coming, man, you hear you run.
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That's what he told them, right? But then he goes on and he makes this statement. He says, the destruction will be so bad, the death toll will be so huge, the absolute chaos is going to be so bad that that is going to be a defining moment in history where nothing that bad had ever happened before in history, and nothing ever that bad happened in the future.
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Now, the problem that pre - and amillennialists have to come up with in the face of recorded history for the last 2 ,000 years, is the fact that a lot more
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Jews have been killed in individual events and wars than were killed in Jerusalem in 70
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AD. Yeah, a lot were killed, and the numbers range. Josephus has one. They all have different numbers.
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But the height of it is about a million people, and that is a far stretch.
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That is a far stretch. But let's just say it is a million people. Well, the problem with a million
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Jews killed in 70 AD is it still falls way short of what happened during the
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Holocaust in World War II. It falls even shorter, and please know your history, it falls even shorter than what
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Stalin did. Everybody talks about Hitler being the personification of evil. Stalin killed everybody.
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He didn't care. He just, he killed his own people. Man, he was just killing folk left and right.
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This is usually when I tell all you millennials to stop being idiots and stop. Have you seen those
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Che Guevara t -shirts? They have no idea who that guy, it's amazing.
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I hear people all the time, little millennials talking about how great communist Russia was. Didn't turn out real great, guys, okay?
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And people always talk about socialism so great, and I have yet to see a socialist country succeed.
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And usually some idiot will bring up Sweden and Norway. Yeah, okay, I tell you what, you get to a point where you wanna get 75 % taxes on your paycheck, you can go tell me how great
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Sweden is, okay? But I'm sorry, I'm getting off into politics. Anyways, so the reality is this, is that the greatest tribulation that has ever happened to those people has not yet happened yet.
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It has not yet happened. There's no way that this could have happened in 70
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AD, okay? Is everybody with me so far? I want you to turn with me to Revelation chapter six.
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Revelation chapter six, and we'll be here for the rest of this evening. And then we'll go back to Matthew 24 tomorrow and hope we can get through all of Revelation chapter six, but we'll see, we'll see.
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All right, so now let me explain to you Revelation chapter six. Daniel chapter nine, by the way, this abomination of desolation, we will get to it, don't think
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I'm skirting it. I've asked you to read Daniel's, write this down,
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Daniel chapter nine, ten, eleven, and twelve, read those four chapters, and then read
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Matthew 24 again, as well as the parallel passages in Mark 13 and Luke 21.
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I can't remember exactly where it is, but it's the Olivet Discourse talked about in the other
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Gospels. So once again, by the way, that's three different eyewitnesses to Jesus saying all this in Matthew 24, okay?
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Also, I'd ask you to read Revelation six, I know this is gonna be a lot, but six, chapter six through chapter 20.
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And it's gonna give you from Daniel to Revelation, because remember, it's important to study the entire word of God.
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It's gonna give you a better overview of what we're talking about tonight. So read those chapters this week, and we'll try to culminate this discussion, or this monologue so far.
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We'll try to culminate this, and come up with a conclusion, or at least a consensus, at the end of the week.
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All right, so Revelation chapter six, verse one. Are all y 'all still receiving me?
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Someone do the blue thumbs if you're still receiving me. When y 'all aren't talking to each other,
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I get nervous, because I'm afraid that we're no longer recording.
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Yay, I see a whole bunch of little blue thumbs. All right, cool. All right, so, Revelation chapter six, verse one says this.
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Then I saw the lamb open one of the seven seals, man, I got thumbs everywhere. Then I saw the lamb open one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice of thunder, come.
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I looked, and there was a white horse. The horseman on it had a bow. A crown was given to him, and he went out to conquer and to conquer.
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It's still blue thumbs. We can't talk in church. Yeah, well, you come to Whitney, you can talk. I've had debates from the pulpit before.
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It's hilarious. I'll never forget that one guy with covalent bonding. That was hilarious. But anyways, all right, so these are known as the seven seals.
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Ooh, the seven seals. And they are followed by seven bowls, seven trumpets, okay?
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Within these 21 judgments of God, or what I believe is a description of a seven -year period known as the
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Great Tribulation. And the reason I, when you read Revelation chapter 11, you're gonna understand why
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I say seven years. Both Daniel and Revelation talk about this seven -year period or this three -and -a -half -year period.
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And I'm gonna explain all that to you. I'm already gonna do a little drawing for you again. So be ready for that third -grade artistic thing.
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Okay, so these seven seals, what are they? Okay, so the three differing viewpoints, pre, post, and amillennialism, they vary a lot on what these things are.
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I personally believe that this is defining something that is going to happen in the future, and I'm gonna try to prove that to you tonight.
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Other people say, well, no, this is purely allegorical. It doesn't literally mean that a guy's gonna come out and do it.
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And then another person says, no, it's literal, but it's already happened. It happened with the
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Romans in the time of the apostles and right after that.
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And once again, I see their arguments. I really do, but they're just devoid, once again, it's an interpretation from only the construct of the word of God.
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But the word of God is written in a historical narrative, and a historical then, and 700 years, and all this other stuff.
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So there's a reality to us looking at history. Jesus talks about the descendants and coming forth, and then the future, this is gonna happen, and the tribe of Judah, and all this other stuff.
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So to remove an articulate study of history from biblical prophecy is, at best, well, it's childish.
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At worst, it's absolute borders on stupidity. So we have this first seal, and it basically says this.
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The horseman on it had a bow and a crown was given to him, and he went out to victor and to conquer.
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Now, what's that mean? Well, over the years, people have said, well, that was Hitler. Of course, you have the
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Nostradamus fans, real geniuses there. But you have people who've said, well, it was
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Napoleon, Julius Caesar. Every generation, I guess, or every era has someone who could fit there.
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In reality, I've gotta be honest with you, they could fit. I mean, seriously,
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I mean, you look at Napoleon and what he did. Genghis Khan, look what he did. Charlemagne, look what all these guys did.
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The British Empire, I mean, my goodness, right? So it could be that.
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So we can't speculate on who that is. And I get on to pre -mill people about this.
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My fellow pre -mill, they're saying, well, that's the Antichrist, no doubt about it. Well, I believe it is the
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Antichrist, okay? I personally believe that. But to take that one verse and say, we're 100 % totally sure, just based on that one verse, you're doing the same thing that we accuse him.
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You have to be intellectually honest. Now, let's glean from it what we do know. It said, the horseman on it had a bow.
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A crown was given to him, and he went out as a victor to conquer.
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So there is some anomalies in the wording here, okay? And I won't bore you with the
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Greek, because this is a pretty good translation of the Greek, okay? But basically, it says this.
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He was given a crown. It doesn't say he won it, doesn't say he defeated anybody. It said he was given a crown.
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And it says he had a bow, but it doesn't talk about any arrows. In other places, it talks about the arrows that flyeth by day, and the terror of night.
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It talks about the arrow being the actual thing that causes damage.
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The bow here is airless. It's kind of like an unloaded gun kind of thing.
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And then it says he went out as a victor to conquer. So before he conquered, he was already walking as a victor.
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Now, some suppositions. Understand, time out, these are suppositions.
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These are conclusions, and they're wild conclusions so far. These are conclusions that I see.
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Number one is, I believe this individual is gonna have a political victory. I believe that he is going to do something that is gonna be awe -inspiring.
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And he is going to be elevated to a place of leadership and ruler by doing a political movement.
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Guys, if you could think just for a second, you could get me a no -name nobody, okay?
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And as long as he is a great orator, and as long as he has a message, guys, people will follow him blindly.
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You don't believe me? Well, there's this guy named Hitler one time who took over an entire country. Yes, he used intimidation.
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Yes, there was violence. But in mass, 90 % followed him because of what he promised.
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There was this other guy, and I want you to listen to me carefully. I'm about to say this. I do not equate Barack Obama and Hitler in any way, shape, form, or fashion, okay?
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To completely think. The only thing I am alluding to is their oration skills.
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I don't believe Barack Obama's the Antichrist, and he's not Hitler, and all that other stuff. He wasn't personally the president for me, but I'm not gonna go so far as to say he's the
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Antichrist. That's just stupid. But it's amazing that he literally was a community organizer, became a senator, and became the
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President of the United States twice. And man, that guy could preach.
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Man, that guy could speak. And I mean, I'll never forget watching his inauguration speech, probably one of the best political speeches ever given.
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Even though, once again, he and I did not see eye to eye politically, I respected his ability to deliver a message verbally.
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And I'll remember the camera pan, and people literally crying. There were people fainting because of that speech.
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Wow. Now, think about just for a second. Think, what has there been a worldwide problem that has been attempted to be solved for about 6 ,000 years now, that nobody has been able to solve for 6 ,000 years?
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Forget oil crisis, forget cow flatulence, forget all this other, a 6 ,000 year old problem that has not been able to be solved.
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That has been the bane of human existence. And that is the problem in the
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Middle East. No doubt about it. Now, I know some people would say, no, we gotta save the whales.
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Well, okay, go hug a tree. But in reality, the finances, the death toll, the absolute horrendous amount of just human misery has been wrapped up in the conflict of the
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Middle East. Whether it be Sunni or Shia, whether it be, of course, the eradication of the
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Israeli state that so many nations, so many groups, it's part of their constitution, that they would like to see
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Israel wiped off the map. What if some guy could walk in, not Jimmy Carter, in the
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Camp David Accords, President Reagan, no, no, he didn't do it either. What if a guy could walk in and somehow unite the people of the
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Middle East? Nobel Peace Prize, they would pave his sidewalk with Nobel Peace Prizes.
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I mean, just think. Now, I'm not drawing a conclusion yet, I'm asking you a question.
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That guy could take over and never have to fire a shot. He would be an
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Oprah Winfrey, Joel Osteen, a Hitler, a
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Barack Obama, a Ronald Reagan, a Winston Church, all rolled into one.
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That'd be one powerful individual, okay? But it's just supposition. We cannot say that is what the first part or the first seal is talking about yet.
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That's just intellectually dishonest. Hey, Johnny. So go to verse three. It says, when he opened the second seal,
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I heard a second creature say, come. And there another horse went out, a fiery red one, and its horseman was empowered to take peace from the earth so that people would slaughter one another and a large sword was given to him.
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Now, one of the other reasons I say that the guy on the first horse, the first seal as it was, took over politically is because you see the second horse, the subsequent horse, now coming out and taking peace from the earth.
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So if the first guy didn't do it by politics, he did it by war, it doesn't make sense.
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But if he did it through political means, if he did it through maneuvering, that definitely would be in sync with the second seal.
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Now it says, it didn't say he just went out and made war, it says he took peace from the earth, meaning that there was a peace there to take.
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Now, I think we live in the greatest country in the world. Let me rephrase. I think we live in the greatest country in the history of mankind.
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I know people cringe when I say that, I'm sorry. I believe the United States of America is the greatest country that has ever existed in the history of mankind.
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But even at its height of history, even at its height of history, man, there hasn't been peace.
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I mean, people always talk about, man, in the 1950s in America, America was the greatest place in the world.
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Well, it was, if you weren't black. If you were black, it kind of stunk. You had to have your own water fountain.
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You couldn't go in the front door of anywhere. So, get off the Brady Bunch bandwagon there, that didn't float, okay?
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Well, America's had peace for many years, the Roaring Twenties. Well, yeah, but there was this little thing called
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World War I that happened, then the Roaring Twenties, and then World War II.
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So, not a great era of peace there in the 20s, 30s, and 40s, to be sure.
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It says it would take peace from the earth. What if this guy in the first seal solved that Middle Eastern problem, and somehow everybody, for the most part, was on board?
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Dude, that would be peaceful, right? Now, the one thing
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I will tell you this, is whenever you're number one, whenever you're in the lead, whenever you are on top, there is always someone looking to knock you off.
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That has been true of human nature from time past in perfection, and it will be until the time
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Jesus Christ comes back. Now, this guy may have been very powerful, but I think the reason he went to war was he was stomping out anybody who could usurp his authority.
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But I'm going to go one step further, okay? I believe this individual, whomever he is,
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I believe he has a mission. And I don't think that mission is to bring peace to the earth.
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I believe this person is going to be the embodiment of Satan himself, and he is going to try to complete, for the first time, or I'm sorry, for the last time, he is going to try to complete what he has tried to do since word go, and that is destroy the people of God.
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His hatred knows no bounds, and anything that God loves, he hates.
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And so I believe that war is going to be focused on Israel, and we'll talk more about that later.
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Let's do the third seal, all right? So you have this individual who came to great political power.
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He had great ability to unite and solve millennia of war in the
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Middle East. And I'm just speculating it's the Middle East. I mean, he could solve the whole
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Boy Scout, can girls come in problem. But if the world's going to follow him, I think it's going to have to be a little bit of bigger problem than that.
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So he comes in, he takes over politically, and then peace is left from the earth.
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And then the third seal comes, and it says, I heard a third living creature say, come. And I looked, and there was a black horse.
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The horseman had a set of scales in his hand, and then heard something like a voice in the four living creatures say, a quart of wheat for Daenerys, and three quarts of barley for Daenerys, but do not harm the olive oil and wine.
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Okay, there's going to be an economic collapse, okay?
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I mean, obviously. In other words, if you went down to your local
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Kroger, or Publix, or wherever you people are watching. If you went down to your local Kroger, and you make $10 an hour, and you worked eight hours, a loaf of bread is going to cost you $80.
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That's what it's basically saying, okay? So basically, there's going to be an economic collapse, and where a loaf of bread is going to cost a day's wages.
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Now, people say, well, that's common after war. It is, economic collapse in the battleground states.
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And even if, once again, I point to World War II, even in the midst of World War II, that generation had to ration, okay?
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But it never got to the point, in the United States, it never got to the point of where it was a day's wages for a loaf of bread.
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Now, however, in Germany, there's a famous picture, and I cannot remember the title of it now. There's a famous picture in post -war
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Germany, where he has actually a wheelbarrow full of Reichsmarks going to the store.
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That's true, but I want you to read that verse again, because it says it's going to cost a day's wages for a quart of wheat and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, a denarius was a day's wage.
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But then it says this, but do not touch, do not harm the olive oil and the wine.
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Now, both of those were considered luxurious items.
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So the economic hardship hit the lower classes of people, but the upper classes, they were still doing okay.
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Once again, supposition, but that's how would I pull out of that, that the basic necessities of life, wheat and barley.
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And guys, barley bread, if you've ever had barley bread, if you can't get wheat and you have to eat barley, well, you're in tough times.
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I remember Gwen and I were so desperate for money one time, we had a garden, we had zucchini, and she got a package of these god awful corn tortilla things.
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They were nasty, and we had zucchini quesadillas. I think we had cheese,
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I think we were just frying corn quesadillas with zucchini in them. So that's what barley was, barley was the zucchini quesadillas.
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But it says, don't harm the olive oil and the wine. Okay, pastor, now you've gone through three seals.
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You said you were gonna prove how these events are still in the future and how they're not allegorical.
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Okay, so let's keep going. It says the fourth seal, man, is it really 815?
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God damn it, chapter six, but it's okay, that's what God made tomorrow night.
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I hope y 'all aren't getting bored by this. But anyways, the fourth seal, when he opened the fourth seal,
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I heard a voice in the fourth living creature say, come. And I looked and there was a pale green horse, the horseman on it was named
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Death, and Hades followed after him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine, and plague, and by the wild animals of the earth.
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All right, so here we go. Now the fourth seal comes, and I need to write myself a note to make sure
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I tell you all this before I leave tonight, allegor, all right.
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All right, so there was a fourth seal. Now the fourth seal here, let's just cut through everything.
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It says basically the end result of the fourth seal is that a fourth of the population of the earth would die, and there's by various means it would die.
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By the plague, the famine, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. In other words, culmination of the first three seals was now taking its effect in death, okay?
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Well, pastor, that happens in war. That happened in Jerusalem in 70 AD, and it did, not just in Jerusalem, but as Jerusalem.
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Remember, Israel at that state, Jonathan wants to argue with you. He is wearing his thinking face.
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Oh, that's so cute. I love him so much. So, yes, it didn't just happen to Jerusalem.
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At that point, Israel was basically a city state. Jerusalem was what was left of Judea and, you know, the surrounding countryside, basically still.
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And so when Jerusalem fell, yes, Judea, Jews in general, suffered massively, to be sure, but did a fourth of the world actually die?
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Now, I mean, think about that for a second. Did a quarter percent of the population of the world die at the siege of Jerusalem in 70
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AD? I'll give you a few seconds to think, but I'm going to give you a hint. No way. Didn't happen.
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Not even close. Not even close, guys. Now, here's what some people say.
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They say, well, yeah, but what it's talking about is a fourth of the population of Jerusalem. Well, the problem with that is, once again, it doesn't match up to history because more than a fourth of the population in Jerusalem died.
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So you can't have it both ways. You can't have it both ways. Let's look at this purely from the paradigm of scripture, but let's look and let's view world history in this.
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Now, has there been a time where a fourth of the world's population died? And, of course, the first thing people always say to me is, oh, the bubonic plague in Europe.
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Well, it wasn't just one plague. It came and went several times over several hundred years, and so I just want to be clear about that.
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And the case can be made that London, France, and other places in Europe did suffer easily a quarter of the population dead from the plague.
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Some accounts even say more. But we're not talking about Jerusalem. We're not talking about London.
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We're not talking about Paris. It says a fourth of the earth.
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Doesn't say a fourth of the world. It says a fourth of the earth died.
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I'm just reading it. And here's where, usually, the amillennialists start wiggling in their seats a little bit.
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And then here's the argument I always hear. Well, pastor, and I'll close with this tonight.
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Well, pastor, this is allegorical. It's not literal. And I say, oh,
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I didn't know that. What are you basing that on? They say, well, scripture is allegorical.
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It's not legitimate. I mean, I'm sorry. I'm putting words in my mouth. It's not literal.
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I didn't mean to say legitimate. It's not literal. Okay. So Jesus stayed in the grave 30 days, and three days is just symbolic for that?
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Well, no, that was literal. Okay. Well, prophecy is allegorical.
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It's not literal. So it literally is not going to happen. Oh, no, it will happen, but its description is allegorical.
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So once again, when Jesus said he would be in the belly of the whale for three days, that was allegorical.
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I agree with you. When he said, like Jonah, I'm going to be in there for three days and then
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I'm coming out. But just because it was allegorical does not mean that it's not representing an absolute truth.
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Do I actually believe that a guy on a horse is going to come galloping out of heaven with a sword and go, and kill?
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No. And here's the funny thing. Well, if it's all allegorical, but it's talking about a specific truth,
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I can agree with some of that. Well, pastor, so is it purely literal? You pre -millennialists always take scripture literally.
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Well, yes, I do. As a matter of fact, I do until told otherwise.
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Okay. Well, pastor, you can't have it both ways. Ah, but yes, I can. You see, because Jesus used to tell these stories that were called parables, okay?
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They were called parables. They were used to illustrate a point. Didn't mean the point wasn't real.
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So if you're asking me, can scripture be both literal and figurative?
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My answer to you is, well, of course it can, because it is. No rational, common sense, reasonable
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Christian in the world believes that Jesus is specifically talking about 10 literal virgins, okay?
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He's not literally talking about seed and soil being the effects of God's word on dirt, okay?
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That we understand in the context of what he's saying, we understand that he's not really concerned about dirt and where seed's gonna fall.
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What he is talking about, and he explains it, it's the word of God and the different types of soil representations of different people.
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But now here's the point I'm trying to make to you. Does that make the closing truth of the point that he's trying to make any less valuable and any less poignant to those it's directed to?
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Well, the answer is no. Just because it's allegorical does not mean that this shouldn't give you a moment of pause to go, holy mackerel,
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I hope I'm not there. So, is it allegorical? Yes. Does it mean that the point is somehow illegitimate?
46:30
No. Well, Brother Jeff, so then you're saying a fourth of the world could die. I'm sorry, over a fourth of the earth to kill by famine, sword, and plague.
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So that could mean, and I'm saying to you yes, in all intellectuality, in all intellectual reality, and in good harmonetics at this point, yeah, it could mean,
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I don't know, something other than a fourth of mankind. Yeah, it could, I admit that, absolutely.
47:05
What though? You see, when you start making everything an allegory because it doesn't fit your vein of theology, you start having problems.
47:17
You start having big problems. Let's define what we know, and all we know is at this point, is that John is seeing a vision given to him by Jesus Christ, and he's seeing some pretty horrible things.
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But my point is this, there is no way with the evidence that I've given you tonight, the stones and the wailing wall,
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I want everyone to go look up on your little Internet machines, go look up the wailing wall in Jerusalem, okay?
47:45
That's part of the Herodian wall, okay? And it's still standing, so Jesus must have missed that, or allegorically, he meant everything else except that.
47:57
Here's another point, no time in 70 AD was it the worst time for the nation of Israel, the
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Jews, or any other as compared to the rest of human history. The first four seals that we've talked about here, you would have to stretch ad nauseum, you would have to stretch to say that Titus and Vespasian, the two
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Roman generals that went down, later emperors, went down and destroyed
48:30
Jerusalem in 70 AD, to say that they did it without violence?
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No, yes, there was peace taken from the earth in Jerusalem.
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But is that the whole earth? Verse three, that it was a day's wages for bread?
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Yeah, they didn't have any bread, they were actually eating rats, and sometimes each other.
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But then it says, don't hurt the oil and the wine. There was no one living in luxury in the siege of Jerusalem, that I can promise you.
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And then the fourth seal, a fourth of mankind, a fourth of the world, was not killed in 70
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AD. So, they have a live stream, you can see it in real time.
49:24
The Wailing Wall, okay, yeah, that's cool, I did not know that. You can go there right now,
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I'm gonna hang up here in just a second, you can go look up Wailing Wall, 2020, whatever today's date is.
49:37
I've gotten so old, I can't read the little dates anymore on my watches. I have to have huge watches like this now, so I can actually see the time,
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I'm old. But anyways, guys, I hope you're enjoying this. Please give me some feedback.
49:50
Please ask any questions, and I will look at the comments later.
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But please ask questions, please give feedback, tell me what direction you wanna go in.
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And we're probably gonna still be here for another good solid week. Well, that's not true, a good four or five more days.
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And once again, people, listen to me. If you're not a pre -millennialist, if you're an amillennialist, it doesn't matter, guys.
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At the end of the day, theologically, it's irrelevant to what the doctrines of the word of God is.
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And if you don't know doctrines yet, I caution new Christians. They wanna, when
50:34
I'm riding on airplanes, and most of the time when I say, yeah, I'm a pastor, I'm going here to do this pastor's conference, or flying here to do this revival.
50:46
Inevitably, it's either two things. They'll actually go, and they'll put their headphones on, and they'll turn their back, and they don't want anything to do with me.
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The other people, if they're interested, and they wanna ask me a question, they usually say something like this. Can I ask you a question?
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Sure, and I'll lay odds on it. They're gonna say, what's the antichrist? What's this beast?
51:06
What's the locust thing? What's, you know, they're always asking about eschatology. So it's a reality that we need to understand that as a new
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Christian, if you don't understand the doctrines of God's word, that's where your study really needs to be focused on.
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Who you are in Christ, and the promises of God is found in his word. And what, cuz remember, and once again, take the book of Ephesians, my favorite book in all of scripture.
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The treatise that's found in the first chapter in the book of Ephesians, meaning we'll just say verses one through 14.
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If you memorize those 14 verses, you're gonna do well, okay? Cuz man, if you understand those 14 verses, you're gonna do well.
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But anyways, the first three chapters of the book of Ephesians is talking about the doctrines of God.
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And then the last three chapters of Ephesians are talking about our duty, what to do with those doctrines.
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Duty, doctrines, what to do, that's a sermon in there somewhere. But anyways, I love y 'all very, very much.
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And thank you, Johnny, I appreciate that word. And thank you, Snuffy, and I love eschatology.
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I've done a lot of studying in it, and still an infinite amount to go. Absolutely, and here's another reality, okay?
52:25
Let me just have total disclosure here. I've been studying this for about 25 years now, and I'm here to tell you,
52:32
I still have a bunch of questions, a bunch of questions. I believe eschatology is meant, there's
52:42
Keith being Keith. See, man, Keith, you need to come up here and get a job.
52:48
And Miss Linda, don't beat me up for saying that. See, there he is, Keith being Keith. I guarantee if you push that button right there under Keith's name,
52:58
I guarantee it'll take you exactly to what we were talking about. Hey, Lisa. My pleasure,
53:04
Mike. So anyways, I love y 'all, I'll see y 'all tomorrow night. Hopefully, I'm gonna try to get a bike ride in tomorrow.
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Put my cheeky poo on the back of my motorcycle and take her for a spin.
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But I will be here at 7 .30 Central Time tomorrow night. We will continue our studies in eschatology, and specifically
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Matthew 24, the Olivet Discourse, and Revelation 6 through 15. Love y 'all very, hold on, have a great rest, thank you, sis.
53:36
CB doesn't understand, don't trust
53:41
Keith. This is a great study. So anyway, my pleasure, guys. Okay, love you guys, talk to y 'all later, bye.