What is...? The Eschatology of Hope

This is truth and love comes from Ephesians chapter 4 verse 15, but speaking the truth in love. We are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head even Christ? So that's what we want to do tonight is speak truth and speak the truth in love.

Dan is with me again thankful for his commitment. I'm thankful for him helping us walk through scripture learn scripture and and help us to grow in Christ and. Thank you for watching. Thank you for your support.

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Tonight we're going to look at continue to look at the the eschatology of hope which is also known as post-millennialism. I'm enjoying this conversation that I'm having with Dan walking through the scriptures learning more about post-millennialism and.

And and how hopeful it is and optimistic it is. I was so tired of being drained. Feeling like I only had one option. Half of me was was living in the world of I don't know. I don't know What to believe, you know, I even fell into the the column of the pan millennialist, you know.

Everything will pan out just because yeah, I didn't know which direction to go. But then the only other Eschatology that I really knew of was the you know, the pessimistic Eschatology where we were looking for all these bad things to Continue to happen and get worse and am I going to go through the tribulation?

Am I not? If I do happen to be left behind am I going to be saved? Is there an opportunity to be saved? All these questions and people have different answers for all those questions, but but that eschatology was it's pessimistic and kind of leaves you without hope and you live with dread and Your eschatology does affect how you live out your life and we want to share with you what we believe is a biblical eschatology and This eschatology is one of hope and you can live in optimism.

Growing and being a part of growing God's kingdom here on this earth. It's so amazing. It's so consistent. Hey apps. Hope you're doing well. Thank you for joining me. If you have anything to add in the conversation, we'd love to hear from you that post meal that's right, that's right.

So, yeah. We believe it's the most consistent. It makes the most sense.

You as.

You interpret the Bible you want to do it in context and you want to interpret scripture with scripture. And that's what we do to come up with post millennialism. It's so fantastic. It's so consistent.

Some of the things that I feel like we should address in these videos in this conversation that we're having together Dan and I and with you is Looking at some of these things that are that are posted over and over again.

On social media, which even before we had social media, you know these theories these conversations. They were happening already. They but but now with social media, they're everywhere and you can just share them.

You know with a click of a button and you don't even have to read what it says. You know, it may have a key word or phrase in there and you're like, oh, yeah I need to let me say this too and I think I said this in a previous video.

When I looked at something else about social media I believe that Most if not all these folks that that quickly share these social media means charts. Post whatever it may be. I feel like it comes from a sincere heart.

I really do because if you if you hold to. You know, we'll just say it pre millennial dispensationalism the pre-trib rapture position. You do want to warn people that there's a you know. There's an end coming and there's a rapture coming and you want people to be saved.

And so I really believe that it comes from a sincere heart. So I'm not speaking to anyone's heart. We're speaking to scripture and what we believe is the most consistent with scripture the most consistent interpretation.

That's why I feel like it's important to Talk about truth as we look at these social media posts and be aware of what we share the first one that we're going to look at is. Someone sent it to me and they thought it was a good idea for us to talk about it.

And so I Felt like they were correct and I haven't done this live. So I'm trying to pull up. Pull up the tab here. Oh, yeah, here we go. There it is. The first one that we're going to look at is called the the end that is the end of days.

Prophesied in the first word of the Bible. It's called the bearer sheet. Passover prophecy you can find it on YouTube and I don't post this to promote it. I post this to show you that it that it's there.

This is the stuff that's on social media. This is stuff that you will see shared and and you maybe even shared it yourself but uh, we wanted to briefly discuss it. Dan and I talked about how we don't feel like it's necessary because it's.

One hour and five minutes sounds similar to one of my videos, but we don't feel like it's necessary to go through and debunk every single part of this. But there is something that we can address about this video and Dan I want to turn it over to you and Give us your thoughts on how we can View something like this on social media.

Yeah. With it this video is good to have a basic understanding of what? What they're trying to say just so that way you understand the.

I don't know.

The the nuts and bolts of what they're actually doing so what they do is they go into the book of Isaiah into Chapter 46 verses 9 through 10 and pull out something where it says that God speaks the end from the beginning.

Then he talks about all these things. He said it in the beginning and so they latch on to that phrase in the beginning and they go back to Genesis and go back to Genesis then I look at the first word of The Bible and they take the first word of the Bible which is Bereshit and they put it into Paleo Hebrew, which is sitting up there on the On the the screen up there and then they they instead of exegeting that the text itself In the way that we would think where you look at what the Bible is actually saying.

They look at the individual letters and the pictures there in order to draw out some sort of meaning and it's kind of deceptive because. What they do is they they take that first letter. And they say that it's a tent.

They say who is in the tent and then they look at that little chicken looking guy with the hat on I don't know. That's what I think it looks. It's it's a son and they they put the Hebrew letters together the first one Being bait and then race which is a Bar, which means son.

They say well the son was in the tent. Then they go to the third one. They say what do they say? They ask whose son is it? They find out that the son is the son of the Creator. They find that he's coming to either destroy Or to be destroyed or both by that little tooth looking letter in there.

They they go on to the rest of them saying that there's going to be a new beginning and all it's going to be as You see that last letter. Looks like a cross now at that point. There's not much Wrong with it.

Basically what they're rehearsing is the overarching narrative of the Bible that Jesus is coming to the world. He's coming into the world to to crush the head of the serpent. He's going to be crushed himself.

Or bruised we would say on the cross and he's going to purchase for a people for himself as Far as that goes is fine. And that's kind of why it's deceptive. Because the first little bit of this whole thing talks about something that is true.

But then they start asking other questions. When is this gonna happen? Where is this gonna happen? When is the end of all things going to take place? So they say it's gonna happen on Mount Moriah which ends up being Calvary.

That's even not so much of a big deal. Except then they start multiplying the numerical values of the different letters in order to pinpoint a date. When Jesus is supposed to return when all of this is supposed to come together and it's all based on a 7 ,000 year idea of The six days of creation that on the seventh he rested so there'd be six thousand years and then the seventh year or the 7 ,000 year 7 ,000 years would be a the fullness of time.

They try to pinpoint the point where Jesus says he's gonna come back. And here's the thing. When we are told to look to the Word of God. We're not told to look at the shape of the letters and to derive meaning from them.

We're told to listen to what God has told us in those words and to listen to them. It says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. We don't dissect the shapes of the letters. We look at what it says that in the beginning.

When everything started God our maker our creator Created the heavens and the earth. That's what we're supposed to learn we're not supposed to pull Secret knowledge out of it. It's almost like the the Gnostics of old who had The secret knowledge is extra light that they were trying to get a hold of and that's not what we're trying to do here.

In fact, I told Robert a couple weeks ago. I'm gonna tell you all this with this very same logic. That they were going with with the pictures and the letters I can prove to you. That fire engines are supposed to be red.

Now if you think about a fire engine a fire engine has eight wheels and four people in it. Eight plus four is twelve. Twelve twelve inches and a foot a foot. It's also a ruler. Queen Elizabeth was a ruler.

Queen Elizabeth was also a ship. Ships sail in the ocean. There are fish in the ocean fish have fins. The fins fought the Russians and the Russians are red therefore. Fire engines should be red. It's that same logic the first letter looks like a tent.

So who goes in it? Well, the second one kind of looks like a man. So it must be the Sun who's in the tent. The third one looks like an ox. So it's there's some work gonna be done. There's gnashing of teeth.

So there's crushing going on. That's that's not what we're here to do. It's not what we're looking at. We don't need to look at the shapes of letters, in fact, I did my own little thing. The first one to me looks like a car.

The car then goes after the chicken. Which I think would be Bojangles, which I don't have up here. I wish I did. After you get done with Bojangles run next door get some Pizza Hut. The only one I know of run over to Mount Pleasant, North Carolina, there's a Whataburger there.

After that, you're gonna be taking a nap. There you go, then you need to repent because You can read into the letters whatever it is that you want to the point was not to make any more fun of anything.

Because some people really do believe these things. Yeah, yeah, but The serious point that we want to make here is that we do not look at things In a way that we've not been told to. There is nowhere in the Bible that tells us to look at the numerical value of the letters.

There's nowhere in the Bible that tells us to look at the shape of the letters. In fact, there's a many warnings against Looking at a wives tales and myths and legends as opposed to the clear revealed Word of God.

And that's what's important that as we look at the Bible. We're not looking to seek Secret knowledge, but that we allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us the clear words that are on the page. Some of them may be harder than others some of them you may need a pastor to help you walk through but none of them are going to require you to try to seek a Special knowledge about the shape of letters or anything like that.

And so that's kind of why we wanted to bring this up of this evening. To make sure that we're looking at the Word of God as.

The.

Communicated message of God. From him inerrantly through his written word to us that has been preserved for us as we go through our lives together.

Yeah, and The most important person that we can look at in Scripture, of course is Jesus himself. And you have him traveling on the road to Emmaus and he's he's teaching them about himself from the Old Testament.

You know, he's just looking at the Old Testament and then you look at the Other parts of his teaching where he says have you not heard and he's just quoting the Old Testament. He's quoting the words from the Old Testament.

That's and you have all the other authors of the New Testament. That that quote that's what they do. They quote the Old Testament the words of the Old Testament like like Dan said, there's no example.

There's absolutely no teaching telling us to or command teaching us to interpret this way and there's not even any example of Interpreting the scripture this way. So it's not a method like Dan said it leans toward Gnosticism a Secret knowledge and the Bible warns against that.

Then the only place in the Bible that would even Remotely hint towards something like this I would think would be Where it talks about the the mark of the beast is going to be the number of a man. Right.

So that's the only place that's even remotely close to something, you know, something like this, but that's it. No, no other place. Um, and the the word that you used to describe the the picture graphs there.

What was the big? $1 ,000 word that they call it starts with a P.

Paleo Hebrew.

Hebrew and and then the the numerology part for my understanding the word that they use it starts with a G.

Jamaat.

Jamaatria or something. I think I saw that word when I was look looking into this kind of thing. I'm pretty sure this I probably butchered the pronunciation. But I think that's what they call it that look and looking into numerology.

So that that's basically it. We're not taught to interpret the Bible that way. We're not we're not given any examples to interpret that way. But you know, this is a free society. You can watch the video and get your own opinion of what's going on.

They even set a date just like so many others before them. They set a date there in the video and We'll see. We don't we of course, we don't believe that that's what the scripture teaches, but there they have a date set.

When they when they've got to set that date. They had two options of starting points 30 AD and 33 AD and of course they picked the earlier date. So if they're wrong, like you give themselves a second chance exactly.

The the next thing that we're going to look at Has a relationship to this this math that they were doing because they they have to use this. I mean it's part of scripture. They have to use this part of the math.

The next thing that we're going to look at is is using some of that math.

And.

It is another thing that.

That.

Okay, good, I'm Hoping I'm not messing anything up, but I think I'm doing okay so far. Another thing that's been going around on social media. It's probably not going around anymore. Because well, you'll see one.

Every so often you're gonna hear an argument you're gonna hear date setting based on Generation.

Have I.

Hope you don't mind, but I'm going to add something else to the screen. Hope it's okay with you. I'm gonna pop it up here because we're on different formats. Hap says a lot of it is just mysticism and Kabbalah a lot of Christian Christian scientists tend to lean towards that type of stuff.

Yeah, exactly. But this This generation idea it's going to come up with with date setting it's going to come up with Warning about the future looking at the the times, you know, just trying to figure out when when things are going on.

The.

What was the famous book by Hank Hanegraaff?

Or was it him by Hank Hanegraaff? No, who was it? No, leave Hank out of this. He's got.

Yeah, I apologize Hank. He'll never watch this Late great planet Earth. Yep. How Lindsay how Lindsay? Yeah, you you've got him and of course, he's looking at this idea of a generation and Hap says oops.

I mean a lot of Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah. Yep. He's using this generation doing the math and coming up with a date and he was looking at Israel becoming a nation again as kind of a starting point and Then he what is what then does he look at generation to help him figure out a timeline?

He.

Yeah, Smith also did. He he looks he looks at a generation to set a timeline because he believes that. Well in Matthew 24, it says that this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

So what they they do is they put? these events into the future and When they believe that that starting point when Israel becomes a nation again that the time clock starts ticking again for them to To have those prophecies fulfilled.

So they believe that that when Israel became a nation that within the time within the lifetime of the generation that saw that happen That all of the things that were prophesied will then take place. There's going to be a time of great tribulation there's going to be a time of Antichrist coming to the earth at the end of it.

You're going to see Christ return and set up his earthly millennial kingdom. So they latch on to that that phrase This generation and they they throw everything into the future. Because they don't see they don't see the language previous to verse 34 as being something that That can be taken as Having already happened in the past.

Yeah.

I'm trying to text my son to ask him to turn down his music a little bit. He's in there having a good time. Absolutely, and so what's going on here is the same thing similar thing to what Chuck Smith as Happy said and How Lindsay as he does or did with his book and so he took the nation of Israel, you know becoming a nation again in 1948 and then he his idea of a generation was 40 years and Then he predicted that if I'm correct the rapture Was going to happen around 1988.

Somewhere around that time frame because the generation according to his calculations was going to be 40 years and of course the rapture didn't happen in 1988. So what was his. What was his comeback for that you?

Can you recollect I?

Do not remember. Okay.

If I'm not mistaken, he did have a response. The his calculations were wrong, I think. Maybe it was because he the year. Something about the timeline the beginning of the timeline between BC and AD and there was some kind of year off using a different calendar.

Anyway, he pushed it of course forward and then it didn't happen again, and of course there was silence and then there was a.

I.

Think we've talked about it before there was even a book called 88 reasons why. Or there was the raptures in 1988, you know something like that. And so that it's they use this generation. They they calculate from from their opinion a generation being 40 years.

Their starting point was Israel. Of course it didn't get it didn't happen and.

So.

But this idea generation as Dan talked about is in Matthew chapter 24 verse 34 this Generation will not pass until all these things happen. So it's got to be in a formula. It's got to be in the calculation and what we have up here on the screen is just another one of those calculations.

And.

Like I said, I don't think it's going around too much anymore. They've got their chart up here. They've got their timeline. They've got Israel becomes a nation 1948 but Of course they have to do this they change their understanding of generation from 40 to 80.

They say that there's from 1948. There's gonna be 73 years and then the rapture happens and then there's going to be that that seven-year tribulation period. The have says Isaiah that's supposed to be Isaiah 66 8.

You got the seven-year tribulation period and that takes us to 2028 full generation past see Psalm 90 10. That's what he says. Hap says it's all really Revolved around Israel becoming a nation one day.

Yeah, that's that's the kickoff point. That's the starting point point for this this math this formulas calculation.

So.

What's what's the big deal about this chart? What's the problem with this chart? Well, if it will let me go back the description says So May 14th 2021 came and went so the prediction was and I'm going to take this off the screen so that I don't Show anybody's name that I shouldn't.

The.

The time came and went because Israel become a nation May 14th 1948 and then the the date that we're looking for the 73 years later, I guess was May 14th 2021 and It has come and gone. So that's why you won't see this chart these these measurements this calculation Spreading around Facebook anymore because it's another calculation that has come and gone.

So Dan, how do we understand if? This is how they see Matthew 24 34. How should we um, let me before before I ask you to do that. And I just did a Google search. You know, I'm not promoting these websites.

I'm just going to give you credit for Where I look Got questions or you know, this is just a Google search. Their answer was 30 years for a generation. Bible study tools calm. They said pre-flood Was a generation was around 100 years post-flood 30 to 40 Bible gateway.

Calm assumed 40 years. But it could be 30 to 40 based on.

Those.

In the wilderness that said, you know this generation will not Make it into the promised land so you can do some calculations there to see What a generation might be. And then Bible sprout calm 20. They give a range of 20 to 100 years.

And of course they get that from the context that we just talked about whether it's pre-flood or post-flood. Different calculations, so that's kind of the range of options for what a generation is. So If we want to understand scripture interpret scripture with scripture.

How do we understand Matthew 24 34. And it's and Jesus speaking of a generation I.

Think the folks who said is about 30 to 40 years are probably fairly close. I don't know that the Bible puts a definite date on it. But we do see the nation that was in or the generation that was in the the the wilderness.

They were there for 40 years or around 40 years. I think that's a somewhere between 40 and 80 years is a good way of thinking about it. I think the The real key to interpreting this text in Matthew 30 or 24 34 is The word this.

The word this. Generation when he's saying this generation is he speaking of a generation that he's been describing earlier. Or is he describing the generation that he is himself a part of. I Believe that he's speaking of the generation that he himself is a part of.

We look back into well, if you go back into chapter 23 as well, but If you look at chapter 24 in verse 1 Says Jesus came out from the temple and he was going away when his disciples came up to him pointed to the temple buildings.

They pointed out to him and said hey, you know, look at all these things. Says do you not see all these things truly? I say to you not one stone will be left upon another which has not been torn down.

So he's talking about the destruction of the temple. He goes on his disciples say tell us when will these things happen the destruction of the temple? And what will the sign of your coming be and of the end of the age?

So he's got a couple questions there, you know, when will these things happen. These things being the the destruction of the temple and then one will be the sign of your coming of the end of the age. I Think those are gonna be the same thing the sign of his coming in the end of the age.

I.

May backtrack on that in a second, but.

What.

He goes on describing in the next few verses is perilous times Things that are going to happen. It uses very apocalyptic language. I mean this day. It sounds like utter destruction even in to the point.

In verse 29 it says. But immediately after the tribulation of those days The destruction of the temple I believe In 70 AD The Sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from the sky and the powers of Heavens will be shaken.

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and we will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds. Lost my place. So in all tribes earth of mourning they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds Of the sky with great power and glory.

That sounds like the world is completely over and done with. Right. It sounds like.

Stars falling moon turning to blood. I was gonna say it's not. It's not just apocalyptic, but it's cosmic language.

Yeah, it sounds like everything is completely destroyed. And if we did not have some other place in the Bible that told us or had that same language We should think that Everything is going to be destroyed.

But that's not what we see. I would have spoken of Babylon and I believe Egypt as well. That these same things are gonna take place when in talking about the destruction of those nations when the judgment of God.

For their sin came upon them. These same things were said of them that the moon would turn to blood that the Sun would be darkened that the stars would fall from the sky. All that same language is used.

So what what that language is it's it's a metaphorical sign that Excuse me that The Sun will go down on that nation for good.

The moon.

The night we turn to blood the stars fall from the sky. Then goes on and talks about the fig tree to give further No explanation saying you're gonna see a whole bunch of stuff happen this. It's gonna get real bad When you see these things happen.

You know, it's about time that that the nation of Israel is going to be judged. And Then he tells them this generation the one that I'm talking to. This generation is going to witness the fall and destruction of the temple in Jerusalem The passing away of the Old Covenant age and they're gonna see the Son of Man coming in judgment Upon the nation of Israel in that metaphorical language of the Sun being darkened the moon turning to blood And things like that.

So the way I understand it is is. Right about there. He. And maybe even a little bit further on he's speaking of the.

The.

Destruction of the temple in Jerusalem the end of the people of Israel as a national entity. Not that they you know can't make another nation of Israel. Clearly they did in 1948. But that that was as far as what God is doing.

It says in verse 31. He will send forth his angels and a great trumpet and they will gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of the sky to the other. At the time of the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem There was a a great gathering of the Saints of the church was exploding at that time through persecution.

Which is why he gave them ample warning that those Jews those Christians in Jerusalem when they saw the signs of these things coming they should flee and they should pray that their flight is not in winter Because it would be terrible or on a Sabbath day As they wouldn't be able to gather the provisions to leave know when they see the armies Gathering run.

And from what we understand from from extra biblical sources Very few if any Christians were caught up in the destruction of Jerusalem. And in the siege they heeded the warnings and they fled. So far from Pointing to a Future Time period.

I believe this is speaking of things that have already come to pass.

Absolutely. So so what Dan was describing was if you're in Matthew chapter 24 verse 34 He says Truly I say to you this generation will not pass away until all these things and that's what Dan was Discussing with us.

All these things will have to take place. They will pass. Or they will come to come to pass while this generation still exists while they still live and. And what Dan was doing is interpreting Scripture with Scripture and that's what I want to encourage you to do.

It is interpret Scripture with Scripture. You you will see how consistent this end times theology is this eschatology is. When when you understand or when you read it this way you let the Bible interpret itself.

Look look in other places in Bible where this type of language is used. I'm gonna read off a list of verses and and I'll put them in the comments after the video.

But.

If you're interested in Letting the Bible explain itself the Bible interpret itself. I would challenge you to look up these verses. Isaiah 13 10. Isaiah 24 23. Ezekiel 32 7. Amos 8 9. Joel 2 10 and 2 15 and 2 31.

Micah 1. Isaiah 19 verse 1. That's a starting point. Look at those verses see if you see similar language and Maybe it would help you to understand and interpret what Jesus is trying to tell his audience there.

The reason why I wore this shirt and you may or may not be able to read it, but I Think Gary DeMar has a great quote. He says every time this generation is used it is always Referring to the generation to whom Jesus is speaking.

If just like Dan was doing if you if you go back to chapter 23 and and I wrote down these verses as well. If you look at if you look at Matthew 1116 Matthew 1241 and this is just in Matthew Matthew 1241 Matthew 1242 Matthew 1245 Matthew 23 36 and then of course Matthew 24 34.

That's where you see This generation and every time uses Jesus uses that word this generation He's referring to the the generation to whom he's speaking and that's called reading the Bible in context.

It would be a mistake. It would be opposed to a good Bible interpretation to Understand this generation one way and Then once you get to Matthew 24 34 Completely take it out of the context that it was in to mean a generation thousands of years from now.

Now I would I would caution Just because something means something in one place doesn't mean that it always means that same thing everywhere. That's true. So so the reason why we say in this instance It means the same thing all the way through is that you have clear contextual evidence.

That.

This generation means the people that Jesus is speaking to. So when you come through the entire book of Matthew and you come to this point at Matthew 24 34 You have absolutely no context clues. No, anything in the text that gives any idea that it would be anything other than what he'd been saying throughout the rest of the book.

Now if there had been some sort of context clue or he was talking about something else or it was in a different sort of vein of thought or idea or context or Argumentation we might be able to make a case for something different.

But there's none of that. All of it is consistent right through the book of Matthew. So while it a word or phrase may not have the same meaning everywhere through Scripture There will be context clues to tell you how we should understand that word in any given instance.

Exactly and I appreciate that explanation and I hope I hope that helps you as Someone who's joining us. I hope that will help you in your personal study as you become a Student of God's Word and you grow in Christ because that is very very helpful information.

So here's the last question on this particular topic for you Dan. We discussed the number the possible number of generation how long a generation might be. So. After we've looked at the context of Matthew 24 34 Doesn't really matter how long a generation is.

Do we.

It's almost irrelevant now, right.

It it matters that we keep it within a lifespan. Yeah, I mean if you stretch it the Bible says.

That.

The the years of a man will be 70 years or if by strength 80. So even if you wanted to lengthen out to that to that point or Even if you take the language of the new heavens in the new earth that Someone will be a hundred years old and considered young if they die.

Push it out to 150 200 years old. It's still not 2 ,000 or 2 ,000 plus. So it doesn't really matter. Too much, but we do want to keep it within a reasonable Span of life. For a single individual that would be something that we would.