WWUTT 525 Q&A Eschatological Conspiracies Least Moore?

Well, you've heard me teach through 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5, so what is my view on the end times? What do we make of conspiracy theories concerning the weather? Who are the least of these in Matthew 25?

The answers to these questions, when we understand the text.

You are listening to When We Understand The Text, a daily verse-by-verse Bible study submitting to the full authority of the Word of God. Find our short 90-second videos when you visit our website www .wutt .com.

Now here's your host, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky.

You're welcome.

Hey, everybody, I just want you to know the world is not going to end tomorrow.

No, we're not to know.

People are getting weird about it. Did you see an article, this took place in California, where somebody was watching TV, it was one of those extended cable channels, so it wasn't like in the main networks area.

But those who were watching kind of the extended channels, suddenly their signal was interrupted. And there was this red bar across the screen that said, emergency alert. And some guy's voice on there, warning people that the earth was going to end this weekend.

What?

That's awful.

Dead serious.

So a whole bunch of kids are panicking now.

No joke, no joke. So somebody hacked into the cable network or whatever and had this warning message going.

Oh my goodness.

Said it lasted 30 or 40 seconds or something like that before finally the signal regained and the regular programming resumed. So people have gotten really strange over this whole September 23rd, 2017 prediction.

Yeah, just like the Y2K.

This is related to a certain arrangement in the constellations where stars are going to.

Be.

And it has to do with interpreting a certain prophecy in the book of Revelation this way. And so that's how they've come to this September 23rd date being the end of the world.

They forgot the other part in the Bible that says, we are not to know the day or the hour.

Of his return.

Jesus didn't even know. It's only for the father to know.

Yep.

So anyway.

And if you think that you're smart enough to figure this out, that's prideful.

I can't figure out if this is actually crazier than the whole Harold camping thing that happened. When was that, 2011, 2012? Somewhere in there. Anyway, Harold camping's prediction in March of that year that Jesus was going to return.

And of course that day came and went. There was a guy that spent like a fortune on billboards.

Oh, that guy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that wasn't Harold camping that spent all that money on the billboards. It was, yeah, somebody that was listening to him. And so they invested all this money in warning people about the rapture and it didn't happen.

I hope that wasn't his life savings.

I think it was. It was some crazy amount of money that he spent on that advertising. Anyway, I don't remember the story for sure.

People really...

I can't even remember the year now.

We're not supposed to know.

Yes.

You're supposed to be ready, but we're not supposed to know.

And how are we supposed to be ready?

By sharing the gospel.

By doing the things that Jesus told us to do so that when he comes back, he finds us as working servants doing what the master left us to do with his house, feeding his servants at the proper time, the way that he puts it in Matthew 24.

So when he comes back, he expects to find us as alert and working servants. That's what it means to be ready for his return. And then that day will not come upon us like a thief. It won't take us by surprise.

It won't be unwelcome. We will be looking forward to Christ's return. We will be rejoicing on that day. But those who were not ready will perish under the wrath and judgment of God. And I don't see that happening in these warning messages.

I tried to watch a video clip of the warning message that they did on this TV station in California. I couldn't really tell what was being said, but are people actually being told to repent and follow Christ?

And of course, then they're connecting it with this day, September 23rd. So if a person does repent and then September 23rd comes and goes, then they'll go, oh, okay, well, that wasn't real anyway.

Right.

I'll do it next time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Let me know the next time.

I'll try it again.

You think, you know, the end of the world and then I'll repent again, which isn't that isn't really repentance.

But anyway.

So, yeah, have no fear. The end of the world is not tomorrow, but we should fear the Lord. I hope so.

Yeah.

Fear the Lord. As a matter of fact, that has to do with one of the questions that I'm responding to today.

How about that?

So, yeah. Good. Good pull there.

Good segue.

All right. And I'll get to that one in just a moment. First, I want to start with this one from Paul. Paul Brooks Horne, the third in Georgia.

Wow.

And I mentioned his whole name for a reason.

Nice name.

I know. It's a cool name, first of all. But I'm going to direct you to his website here in just a little bit as well. But he asked about my eschatology.

Okay.

So, he says, Hi, Pastor Gabe. This question is not for the podcast. Oh, never mind. I just blew it.

You did.

He specifically asked that this not be for the podcast. That shows you how well I pay attention. Paul, I hope you don't mind because I want people to listen to your awesome guitar music. You are fantastic on the guitar, man.

So, people look up PaulBrooksHorneIII .net, which will be PaulBrooksHorneIII .net.

Okay.

Great guitar music. I listened to it for like an hour the other day while I was working. It was great. He's got some good stuff on there. So, anyway, this question is not for the podcast, but I violated that host and listener agreement.

There.

I'm curious as to what your eschatology is. I'm a few podcasts behind because of Hurricane Irma.

Wow.

And I prayed for Paul. I hope that power was recovered and everything's looking okay where he's at in Georgia, even after they had that tropical storm come through there. So, we've talked about end times as we were going through our study of 1 Thessalonians chapters 4 and 5, and I simply went through an exposition of the text.

I didn't go well beyond what Paul was expounding upon there with the Thessalonians. So, I didn't go into different viewpoints of the millennium. You've got the premillennial view, which is actually broken up into two different views.

You have the historical or classical view, and you have the dispensational view, and then there's amillennialism and postmillennialism. So, I didn't really approach an understanding of the text from any of those viewpoints, just really gave you what the text said.

Right.

So, Paul was asking what my view of the end times is. In terms of my hermeneutic, how is it that I am evaluating end times prophecy? And I told him, I don't know. And I know that's frustrating to people.

It was frustrating to members of my church when I first became a pastor.

That's very true.

Because they wanted to know what my view of the end times was, and I would tell them, well, I don't really have one. Or I would say I'm panmillennial, where it's all going to pan out in the end. You know, something like that.

They would get very frustrated over that. And some even accused me of being manipulative.

Right.

Because they're like, you believe something really controversial, and you just don't want to tell us.

Right.

And to which I replied, no matter what end times view I have, it's going to be controversial.

Amen.

This is always controversial to somebody.

That is very true.

Whenever I don't share your view, it's a big controversy. So I told Paul that I am not dispensational.

Right.

You could probably tell that in some of the ways that I was interpreting 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5, how I would say that the whole concept of a secret rapture happening, and then a seven-year period of tribulation, and then Jesus comes back again, all of that is imposed upon the text.

We do not see that in the text. So I think by hearing me say that, you could probably decipher that I'm not a dispensationalist. I appreciate the historical premillennial view, and that is the most popular view in church history.

And many of the men that I greatly respect in the Southern Baptist denomination are historical premillennialists. Dr. Al Mohler, and I believe also Mark Dever being among them. However, I would put myself somewhere in amillennialism or postmillennialism.

There are aspects of both that I like, but I would not call myself an amillennialist. So, like a person who is an amillennialist, when I've explained to them what my view of the thousand-year reign of Christ is, when Christ is going to return, all of these things, an amillennialist will say, well, you're not an amillennialist.

And then when I explain it to a postmillennialist, they'll say, well, you're not a postmillennialist. So I'm somewhere in the middle there.

He's another category.

There are things about postmillennialism that I like. But what I don't like about postmillennialism is the teaching that most of the world is going to get saved by the time Christ returns. And I simply don't see a scriptural precedent for that.

I see things being really bad by the time that Christ returns.

Well, I mean, Noah. That was just one face.

Yeah, right. Exactly. Jesus says, as it was in the days of Noah. So, which clearly there was not a majority of people that believed in God, that feared the Lord or his wrath. And so, no, I don't think that that's what we're going to see at the end of all things when Christ finally returns.

I mean, as far as the reign of Christ goes and our responsibility on earth as Christians to be sharing the gospel and a transformation that will happen as a result of the spreading of the gospel of Christ, some of those postmillennial views I like.

I just don't like the whole Christian reconstructionist view. I'm not really in that know what I'm talking about.

Sure.

For those of you who understand. But anyway, so that's where I am eschatologically. It's always frustrating whenever I can't put a label on it, but I can't. So, somewhere in between those two views is where I sit.

And when it comes to teaching in times, I teach it whenever we get to it in the text. And I will just tell you what the text says. And if there's something that's difficult to understand based on what we're reading in the Bible, then I'll go to another place in the text that explains that a little bit better.

And we're using scripture to interpret scripture the way that we should understand anything in the Bible, using the Bible to understand the Bible. So, that's the way that I go about teaching in times.

But what's your dad saying?

Pray for pre, prepare for post. That's related to pre-tribulation or post-tribulation.

Not the same.

So, yeah. Well, I mean, if you have a millennial view, your tribulation view is...

Whoa.

Sorry.

What was that?

That was your alarm?

That was my alarm.

Your view of the tribulation is kind of implied when you say what your view of the millennium is.

Oh, okay.

So, like the dispensational believes in a pre-tribulation rapture, then the seven-year tribulation, and then Christ comes back, what's called the second coming. See, that's all very confusing, and it's not in the text.

Okay.

Well, I didn't want to rabbit trail too far.

Yeah, I know.

I just thought I'd apply it.

So, then the classic premillennialist believes that Christ comes back at the end of the seven-year period of tribulation rather than the beginning. So, then they would be post-tribulation. But then the amillennial and the postmillennial don't even believe in a seven-year period of tribulation.

Oh. So...

Okay.

That's why pray for pre, prepare for post doesn't... I've said that. I've preached it before.

Right.

But because I have to speak to the mentality of those who have that understanding of the seven-year period of tribulation, but I don't personally believe there is a seven-year period of tribulation.

This comes from the Daniel 9 prophecy, and that's a whole other rabbit trail.

Okay.

So...

That's fine. We can skip that.

Thank you for your question, Paul, and I'm sorry for blowing it on the air.

Yeah.

When I wasn't supposed to read that.

But do visit his website.

It wasn't personal, though. I figured, yeah. I figured it was okay. It wasn't a personal question.

But anyway.

Yeah.

Go visit his website. Hopefully, he'll forgive me because I sent people to listen to his music. Paulbrookshornethethird .net. All right. Next question. This comes from...

Iii.

Iii.

Yes.

Not the third.

Yeah.

Right. Right.

Right.

Okay.

I see what you're saying.

Iii.

Right. Right.

Right. Paulbrookshorniii .net. All right. This next one is... Next question is from Martin. This goes with the video, God Causes Hurricanes. The what video I did a little over a week ago. So, I might want to play this first.

This will put it in context with the email that we're going to read here. In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, which devastated Southeast Texas, and with Hurricane Irma bearing down on the state of Florida, Kirk Cameron came under fire when he said that hurricanes are sent by God.

Weather is sent to cause us to respond to God in humility, awe, and repentance.

So, how about it? Is Cameron correct? Yes. And Cameron wasn't merely sharing his opinion. He taught from the Bible. Reading from Job 37, which says... He causes it to happen. Psalm 107 says that... You know, one of the things that I wish I could have done different with that video, and I didn't think of this until after it was already done and published online, but I wished I had said, Kirk Cameron stirred up a storm of controversy.

Oh.

Perfect chance at a missed pun there.

A dad joke.

I can't remember.

Man.

Somebody made this comment. It was. Yeah, it was definitely a dad joke. Somebody made this comment on Twitter. I don't remember who it was, but I should have said, the earth is experiencing growing pains.

Oh.

Because of Kirk Cameron.

Yes.

Yeah.

There were some good puns I could have made there, and I just didn't pull that one off.

But anyway.

That's okay. Some of them aren't old enough.

That's true.

Yeah.

And I never watched an episode of Growing Pains.

Really?

To this day, I don't think I've ever seen one.

How?

I know I've seen clips of...

Wasn't...

Oh, who was it? Leonardo DiCaprio. Wasn't he in that show?

Oh, I don't even remember.

Somebody said that was where Leo DiCaprio got his start, I thought.

Might have.

Anyway. I'm not sure.

See, I didn't watch the show, so I don't know. Anyway.

It's been so long.

This question came from Martin, and he says, dear brother, sister in Christ, I agree, brother slash sister. I don't know if that's to both of us, or he just didn't know if he was addressing a man or a woman.

But anyway.

I agree with the content of the video, God Causes Hurricanes, but we also have to look into the subject, weather wars, where men are able, through means of fallen angel technology, to manipulate the weather to cause havoc.

I personally have experience with weather manipulation, so I would encourage you to look into this subject. We have to be very careful not to blame our Heavenly Father for things done and caused by mankind themselves.

Much blessings in the name of truth, Jesus Yeshua. Sorry, I couldn't resist reading that email. I just couldn't resist that. So here's a verse that I have for you, Martin, Isaiah 8, 11 through 13. For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.

But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

Amen.

Becky's just sitting over here with big eyes after I read that email. But what I would like to do right here is take a moment to pray for Puerto Rico, because they do not have any power. A lot of the island is still underwater.

It is.

In fact, not just a little bit, a lot.

Their entire streets covered with water. There was a video that I saw, and before I clicked on the video, it was saying damage from Hurricane Maria.

Maria.

Yeah, I was about to say like Murrah, or something. I was marrying Maria and Irma together.

Anyway.

Murrah.

But I saw the video, it said damage from Hurricane Maria. And when I saw the image at first, I was like, well, that doesn't look that bad. But then you hit play, and you realize that what you were looking at was entire streets of water.

It was just rivers of water. And you couldn't tell that until you put the video in motion, and then you could see how bad everything was. So we want to pray and lift up Puerto Rico, and that disaster relief teams will be able to get there.

We actually have a disaster relief class nearby to us coming up in a couple of weeks. I just got a text message about this today. So we're going to put it out to our church that if there's anybody that's interested to go and learn this equipment, and then when they set teams up to go down to Florida and Puerto Rico, then anybody from our church is interested in going, then they'll be able to do that.

So let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the deliverance that you give to us each and every day. As we read in Lamentations that your mercies are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness. And Lord, we know that you are sovereign, and we know that you are in control, and we see your awesome power on display in this world every single day.

We're also reminded of how fallen this world is, subjected to futility because of the sin of mankind, because of our rebellion against God is the reason why disaster happens and the reason why we will continue to experience disaster until we are ultimately delivered from this world that we are in and these fleshly bodies that we inhabit.

And so I pray for the people of Puerto Rico that even in the midst of this devastation, there's still repentance. There are people who are turning from sin and worshiping God, knowing that you are great and mighty to save.

And that there are people with loving hands that will enter into this area and help with the cleanup and disaster relief and also bring with them the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because it is not merely enough that we lend a helping hand, we can make a person's life and situation comfortable for a little while, but their soul would still be in peril if they do not hear the gospel and turn from sin and worship Christ.

And so we pray this is an opportunity for people to hear your word and know that this world is not our final resting place. All of these things will be put to waste and come to an end, but we have hope, all those who are in Christ Jesus, knowing that you are going to usher in your perfect and peaceful kingdom in which these kinds of disasters and events will not exist anymore.

And so we long for that day. And because of the hope and promise of that day, we carry the message of the kingdom of God to a lost and dying world. Jesus said, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and let us preach that message also to the nations.

And we pray this in Jesus name.

Amen.

Amen.

All right. Next question, this one comes from Don and he says, I do not find a what video about a verse used for healing or for healing ministry. I see people use verses like Matthew 25, 31 through 46, like in Jesus name medical ministry.

I had to go to that website to look at that. I don't I don't know that I knew what that was at first. I know it mainly is about the great white throne of judgment and Jesus saying, truly, truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these of my brothers, you did it to me.

He's talking to the Jews. Do you have a link on this verse or what links do you have for this topic of healing? We actually did do a video on this. I think it was about a year ago on the topic of of the least of these.

Who are we talking about when we use that term? The least of these. Oftentimes we're referring to the sick and the poor and those who are in prison and the marginalized, the way that we would interpret Jesus reference of them in Matthew 25.

But there's something a little bit more specific there that Jesus is talking about. And that's what this video clarifies. When Christ returns in his glory, he will gather all nations before him and separate the sheep from the goats.

The sheep he will put on his right and the goats on his left. To those on his right, he will say, come and take your inheritance prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.

I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you visited me. The righteous will answer, Lord, when did we see you and do these things?

And the king will say, truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it for me. Often we think of the least of these as being the poor, right? Hungry, thirsty strangers without clothing who are sick or in prison.

But Jesus also describes them as his brothers. The least of these are specifically other Christians. Jesus has such intimacy with his followers that whatever is done to them is the same as if it were done to Christ himself.

Now that's not to say we don't show charity to anyone else. There are plenty of verses that talk about that. But Matthew 25, 40 isn't one of them. The apostle Paul wrote, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially those of the household of faith.

One of the evidences of a child of God is that they care for other children of God, particularly those considered least and those on mission for the gospel. What happens when a person doesn't care for the brothers of Christ?

Will they turn out to be goats who will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life when we understand the text. How'd that go again, babe? What was that?

I don't know.

She threw in a little goat sound effect at the end of that. Didn't want to do it again, though, apparently. Anyway, so there's your explanation of that passage in Matthew 25 when we're talking about the least of these in the context of what Jesus was addressing there.

We're talking specifically about those who are brothers and sisters in the Lord. Now we definitely can show charity and do nice things for other people, and in the process of doing that, we open doors to be able to share the gospel of Christ.

So we definitely should do that, and there's verses about that, but in terms of what Jesus was talking about there in that passage, he was talking about those who are brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Right.

Now, last question here. This is from Ranger McFriend. It's actually something he just asked on Twitter a couple of hours ago before we sat down and started working on this episode. He said, is it bad to retweet Beth Moore and said, I'm not looking for an argument.

I'm just curious. I personally don't really see her as a Sarah Young type, etc. And Sarah Young, of course, would be the author of this book right here, Jesus Calling, which I just happen to have sitting next to me.

How about that?

Because I read this all the time.

That's right.

It's my deskmate. Actually, I think I need to put out a notice in church that if you see Jesus Calling books lying around in church, please have some grace. It's probably mine while I'm doing research on this book that I'm working on.

Don't freak out.

Yeah.

Anyway.

Don't read Jesus Calling. I'm being facetious, by the way. And I pointed out to Ranger that Beth Moore is exactly like Sarah Young, claims that God is speaking to her and then she's telling everybody what God has said to her.

And so here is an example of that. The clip from this video we used in a what video entitled Visions and Voices from God. But I think I only grabbed, you know, 30 seconds or something, 30 or 40 seconds.

This is about four minutes. So I'm going to go ahead and play this whole thing and then explain why you'll probably figure it out yourself why this is not the voice or the vision of God that has come into Beth Moore's head.

I do not know why I have had the privilege to get to travel around, see one church after another, one group of believers after another, interdenominationally all over this country. But I have gotten to see something that I think is huge.

And I'll also suggest to you, I am not the only one. And tonight I'm going to do my absolute best to illustrate to you something that God showed me sitting out on that back porch. He put a picture, I've explained to you before, I'm a very visual person.

So he speaks to me very often and putting a picture in my head. And it was as if I was raised up looking down on a community as I saw the church in that particular dimension, certainly not all dimensions, not even many.

But in what we will discuss tonight, the church as Jesus sees it in a particular dimension. Before class for you online, I'll explain to you that I have asked some volunteers to come forward representing churches in a small town.

Now your own church may not be represented up here tonight. Your own church may not be by denomination on this stage, but all in the world we're doing here is giving a representative of all the rest. So what I'm going to ask you to do is that if you were appointed to be a volunteer this evening, would you make your way onto this stage?

I was going to say, where is my other Methodist? I thought maybe you were missing church today. Now mind you, of course, these would be filled with men and children, but this is a women's Bible study.

So just have a little bit of imagination with me. When God showed me this in my imagination, they were large and packed full of people. And I was looking from way up here down on all of these. And I want to explain to you in just a moment what I saw.

I want you to think back as you were in your homework this week, which I just know you're doing. I just know you are. I want you to remember that we called a place by a fictitious name. We called it less than land.

I want you to picture that you have come with me to the town or to the village of less than land. And I want to introduce you to what these churches are. What I've done in this particular class that makes this group so special, and I'm loving this about you who are online.