Introduction to Biblical Prophecy and its Interpretation — Phil Coulson

Now good evening, it's a great pleasure to be here and I must first say that the Saints in my home assembly Back in forest in the north of Scotland. They have asked me to convey their greetings to you all.

They don't know you you don't know them. But we're one in Christ and they're praying for a good conference for us this weekend. The town I live in is actually on the same latitude as Fort McMurray In Canada, but thankfully we don't get Fort McMurray weather.

We get the the Gulf Stream changes our weather completely. So it's a very pleasant place to live and The Saints are send their greetings to you. So we're going to read two verses please to introduce our subject this evening and I would salute the wisdom of our brethren who put the Schedule together for this weekend that we have this meeting tonight.

The Purpose of Studying Biblical Prophecy

To seek to bring clarity where there might perhaps be confusion as to some of the expressions some of the Names given to prophetic things. We want to start really from a good launch pad when we get into the scriptures tomorrow so let's read first, please in the book of the Revelation and in chapter 19 Revelation chapter 19 An angel is addressing John who recorded this wonderful book and John says in verse 10 of Revelation 19.

I fell at his feet to worship him and He said unto me see thou do it not. I Am a fellow servant and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of Prophecy just concentrate.

Please your mind and seek to remember that last expression in the verse the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Now back in your Bible to 2nd Peter chapter 3 second letter of Peter and chapter 3 main part of the chapter.

Peter Describes how at the end of time this world in which we live and all to do with the created Universe is going to be dissolved. It's going to be purged by fire in preparation for the day of God, which is an expression for the eternal state when time is finished and then he says in verse 11 of 2 Peter 3.

Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved. What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation all holy behavior and godliness. Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God.

Wherein or because of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved. The element shall melt with fervent heat nevertheless we According to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness wherefore beloved.

Seeing that ye look for such things be diligent. That you may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless. Now, we trust God will bless this and Any other readings we have of his good word as we think this evening then about really how we've got to approach this whole Subject of Prophecy and the prophetic scriptures and the reason I've read these two verses is is to see that we first of all Understand that the purpose of a studying prophecy is not so that we can have a good argument.

And it's not so that we can just know more. The the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. In other words the prophetic scriptures are given to us by the Spirit of God who inspired this great book.

They're given to us so that we might more rightly understand God's purpose and God's thoughts concerning his beloved son. If we miss Christ in these studies. This weekend we've missed the point. It's so important that we see that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Remember this book from which we've read the book of the Revelation. It's not the revelation of a divine program. It's a revelation of a divine person. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ the unveiling the apocalypsis of Jesus Christ.

So we keep the Lord before us. Now dear brothers and sisters. I don't know What your spiritual horizon is. For many Christians It's enough for them to know that by the grace of God their sins are forgiven.

They're going home to heaven and When you mention the prophetic scriptures as almost a fear of them. Oh, well, it's all too difficult. I'm just an ordinary person I I can't understand all that stuff. There's there's so much disagreement and we just won't go there.

But you know if that is your spiritual horizon is a very selfish one I'm saved. I'm going to heaven surely. Surely you want to know How God intends to vindicate his beloved son here and here in the world.

We've been hearing in Thanksgiving tonight that the last this world saw of him. Was he was hanging. Scarcely recognizable as a man in the utmost agony. Public shame and here in this world that has crucified Christ God is going to exalt him.

Now that should lift your heart immediately, shouldn't it? But that that we would want to know well what the circumstances how is God going to arrange this? How's it all going to come together? You say well, yes, I would be nice brother.

We but it's all this. It's just such a difficult subject, isn't it? Well, listen, it needn't be. But before we get into it, let's just think we've said that the spirit of Prophecy the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

So we mustn't miss Christ in it all. But then when we read in 2 Peter 3 It's very clear that Peter the man of action as he is speaking about these things he's speaking about tremendous things the end of time the end of the world and.

And Then when he's spoken about all that he says now seeing them that all these things are going to be dissolved. What manner of persons ought you to be so it's very clear that that God intends that a knowledge of the prophetic program a knowledge of future events is Designed to have a profound moral effect upon the people of God for today The what the future holds Should adjust my life now.

So whether it's individually or in the family or in the assembly. Our thoughts our thinking. Our manner of life is founded on what is past that is the scriptures inspired the Word of God recorded for us by men in the past and then based on that doctrine.

We should be living also in the light of what's to come so I think if we can keep these two things in mind It will preserve us from just having a fleshly knowledge of facts about things to come. That tends well as the scripture says knowledge without love knowledge is by itself only puffs up.

So let's try and keep those things in mind. Shall we? That the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus we mustn't miss that and also that the prophetic scriptures are Intended to have a profound moral effect upon us now.

I think when we consider tomorrow God willing something of the program of divine judgment that this world is rapidly heading for. If that doesn't give us a greater thirst for souls if that doesn't give us a deeper urgency In our personal and collective witness then there's something wrong.

So let's not let this not be an academic exercise. But let's make it also a matter of prayer that God through these prophetic scriptures will touch our hearts and move Us to a deeper desire to have a greater love for Christ and a greater desire To live as those who know what it is to be saved.

Not just not just that we are saved for eternity from the penalty and the power of sin, but but also That we might have a deeper appreciation of what it is to be saved away from the wrath. That is to come.

Principles for Interpreting Prophetic Scripture

So how do we approach these scriptures. Because they are too many a minefield and The way in which we approach them is so so important now where many have perished I speak metaphorically. But where many have perished on this rock is that they they look at the thing in isolation.

It's as though they want to be an expert in prophetic things. So all the good words come out they speak about. Well, I don't even know half of them all these posh Kind of words that describe the theology of it all they want to be an expert in future events.

You can get books on it. But the thing is if you divorce these prophetic scriptures From the other scriptures you will always have a twisted view of them. I'll give you an example. We'll talk in a moment about the four principal events that they're going to come up over this weekend but if you take for example those who Say well The Lord is going to come and call the church home.

But He's going to do it in stages. They would be called partial rapturists. So in other words Depending on whether you've been watching and waiting for the Lord. Well, you'll be taken and then a little while later some others will be taken and dribs and drabs like this going home to heaven.

Now the problem isn't a prophetic one. Their problem is they don't understand what the church is. The church is the body of Christ. How can it do anything other than go to be with Christ in one? So the problem is not so much the interpretation of prophetic prophetic things.

You trace the problem back to a misunderstanding of what the church actually is and what we're going to show you tonight God willing. Is that the only way in which these scriptures can be rightly approached and understood is If we take what we call the dispensational approach and I'll explain that.

Where particularly and this is most important particularly we see that God has a particular program running for the Gentile nations. He has another program running for the nation of Israel. And he has another program running for the church.

You'll read of those three entities in the next but last verse of 1st Corinthians 10 Giving none offense neither to the Jew nor to the Gentile nor to the Church of God. Keep that in mind as Far as the world is concerned in relation to salvation.

We fall into one of two groups. We're either saved or we're lost but when it comes to the unfolding of divine purpose and Particularly as far as the kingdom of God is concerned and the unfolding of future events.

The world is in three categories the Jew the Gentile and the Church of God. We must keep those things in mind so Let's just think about the four Main events, there's lots of things associated with them.

The Rapture and the Tribulation

But the four main events will be concentrating on I suspect will be first of all the rapture what we call the rapture. Now we use these terms and often don't explain them. It's good to see youngsters here.

And we tend to forget the youngsters are growing all the time. There's always new generations coming on and the expressions that we use as more mature believers. We sometimes forget to explain them to those who are coming up.

I've used dispensation. That's one of them. And now we're thinking of the rapture now. It comes from a Latin word the thought really is of being snatched away of being caught away there's a suddenness about it a Catching away.

Some people can be Enraptured when they hear a particular piece of music and it's a thought of just being transported Into a different kind of mental environment or soul environment. So the thought of the rapture is the snatching away.

It is the it is the teaching that the church The body of Christ the spiritual body of Christ every Christian saved from Pentecost until the Lord comes to the air. That complete company whether dead or alive is going to be taken home to heaven.

I Think this audience is very much aware of that teaching but not all agree with it. Not all understand it not all accepted. But there's the first thing the rapture then as far as we're concerned in terms of Time the next thing will be the tribulation period a seven-year period.

Divided equally into two the whole period the tribulation period. But the second half according to Jeremiah chapter 30 is is the time of Jacob's trouble. It is the great tribulation a huge amount of Different opinions and thoughts.

We're not going to go into all of them. We're going to follow The advice I was given as a younger man. You'll have heard it. I'm sure was that the the bank teller Isn't taught how to recognize every forgery.

But the bank teller is schooled in just exactly what the true thing is like if we know the true thing. Well enough, we will always spot the forgery. So we won't take too much time going into all the erroneous doctrines.

We'd rather spend the time teaching the truth. But if we know the true thing, we'll understand where the other thing has gone wrong. But anyway, we'll have to think about that the tribulation period. There are those who say well It's already passed.

There's those who say we're in it. There's those who say it's still future. Then the tribulation period as far as the Bible is concerned that that tribulation period is terminated. By the coming out from heaven of the Lord Jesus in power and great glory to return to the earth not to the air where he comes for the rapture, but to the earth and he's going to come to establish and inaugurate a Thousand-year literal kingdom upon earth.

No, that's what we believe the Bible teaches. But let's just think about one of some of the problems of those who see things otherwise. Probably the most common thing you'll come across. And it's rife.

Be very careful when you're watching otherwise attractive YouTube clips and people who profess to be Kind of future event gurus. Make sure you're well established in your Bibles first. In fact, if you're watching stuff like that, make sure you run it by your overseers.

So that they can check and see for you whether or not what you're watching is a good thing. And a lot of the books that are out at the moment Incorrect and a lot of them now are what we would call a millennial.

Now millennial millennium thousand years. In a Greek language if you put the little letter a the alpha letter if you put that in front of a word you make it negative. So millennial a millennial means no millennium and there are many who feel particularly if they're in The what we would call the established Church like back home we have the Church of England Church of Scotland all this kind of thing and Reformed theology as it's known.

Is a millennial it doesn't accept that there's going to be a literal 1 ,000 year period of rule on earth of the Lord Jesus. We will need to examine our Bibles and see if there is and I'm delighted to see my dear brother.

Mr. Higgins here. Sorry nice to see you again. And I think it's in our brothers Bible reading that we're going to be looking at Revelation 20. Six times over in that chapter we are told specifically about 1 ,000 years 1 ,000 years.

Literal Interpretation and the Millennium

So that then begs the question. Well when we read a term like that, do we take it literally? What is our approach this is where most division comes in do we Take literally what the Bible says. Or as a lot of people do do they The word really is allegorize.

They they say that it just means something else it's. It's a biblical narrative, but it doesn't really mean what it says. It actually means something else and This is what it means. And so you take six people who've got that view and you'll get eight different opinions.

Because as soon as you start to allegorize the Bible you can make it mean what you want. You say no, it doesn't mean that at all. No, it means something else and and these allegories get more and more fanciful more and more twisted so How do we as Christians?

Look at our Bibles. We should we should look at them as Being literally what God intended us to understand we accept. We've got a translation. And we accept also that there are many parts of Scripture which are symbolic.

But for example when we come to this book of the Revelation We will find that there isn't one symbol that is used that is not explained. It's either explained in the context in which we read of it or Or it has already been used as a symbol somewhere else in our Bibles it's.

It's a fascinating thing that so many Christians perhaps newly saved or Newly interested in their Bibles. They want to get to grips with revelation. But it's the last book in our Bible for a reason. And if you read the other books.

You will find that there isn't a symbol in the book of Revelation that isn't used somewhere else in your Bible already. So along with the principle of literal interpretation. Understanding that there are certain things which are symbols.

We also learn that the book of Revelation doesn't stand by itself it is in harmony with the rest of the Bible and. And everything to do with the prophetic scriptures. Must be in harmony with everything else that the Bible teaches.

So if for example the person who says well, okay, I believe in a rapture, but it's mid-tribulation and It's about the fact that those who are taken they're watching they're waiting it's it's about our own effort.

Then what they're doing is they're confounding what is really a work of grace. With something to do with works. They don't understand the rest of their Bible. They're just looking at the thing in isolation.

Okay, so it's literal interpretation. It's recognizing that all these things have to be and will be if rightly understood. They will be in absolute harmony with everything else that the Bible teaches.

So we've thought there's going to be a rapture there's going to be a tribulation period. There's the second advent into the world of the Lord Jesus. Coming in power and great glory followed by a literal 1 ,000 year reign followed by the closing up of the events of time and Then the day of God the eternal state.

We have terms like Pre-trib, rapture. Mid-trib, post-trib. I don't know there's a plethora of these kind of terms. I don't particularly like them. I think it devalues the Word of God when we use expressions like that, but we understand where people are coming from.

Dispensationalism and God’s Distinct Programs

So how do we decide when it seems Qualified Students of the Word of God come out with all these different opinions. Well chiefly we come back to this view that unless we distinguish carefully Between God's purpose for the church God's purpose for the Jew and God's purpose for the nations of men the Gentiles.

We're going to come unstuck. That leads us on then to what is generally known as dispensational teaching. Again a lot of the modern and well-funded Evangelical websites will will rubbish this view today.

Oh Dispensationalism how quaint. Well, well, what does it actually mean? Well, let me just turn you to a verse, please Ephesians chapter 1 and in verse 9 of Ephesians chapter 1 Paul says that God has made known unto us the mystery of his will.

Mystery meaning something previously hidden now revealed. So something which God deliberately kept hidden in former days says Paul. He's now made clear the mystery of his will something about his will which wasn't known in previous days and He's made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself.

This is all of God that verse 10 in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are on earth even in him in the dispensation of the fullness of times.

Now really what Paul is saying here is that God has these different strands of his purpose working broadly one to do with the Gentile one to do with the Jew one to do with the church and There is a future age.

It's called a dispensation for reasons. We'll explain in a moment. There is a future age in which he's going to bring all these three things together and When all these three strands are brought together It is with the purpose well a twofold purpose really one is to magnify Christ and set him in his rightful place and The other according to Ephesians chapter 1 is all going to be for the praise of God's glory.

So God is working toward a goal. He's working toward the fullness of the times the various successions of Times and ages that God has set in train and when they are full that is not just that they've elapsed.

But where the purpose of them has been met as well. That when all these things have brought together, we've got this glorious millennial age a Dispensation the word in the Greek language is made up of two words and It might not help us immediately when we understand what they mean, but one of them really means Comes from a root meaning the law the rule.

And the other is house. Oikonomos the the rule of the house the running of the house. That's the idea behind the word dispensation. Now, let's think of it practically if the Lord spares My wife Rachel and myself until this time next year We will have been scary thought 50 years married.

So I hope they strike a medal for her. So we look back over 50 years nearly of marriage and When we were first married We lived out in a little house out in the country. We could just say more or less any time of the day or night, whatever just let's go for a walk.

Let's do this. Let's do that. It was just so easy. There was just the two of us we haven't got two pennies to rub together, but that didn't seem to matter you at least you haven't got to decide what to spend it on and So you could do this you could do that very free form of life.

Then one day in I don't know when it was 1975 I suppose something like this. My wife said to me as I came home from work. She said oh I was at the doctor's today. Oh, yeah, what's the problem? She's not a problem.

She's gonna have a baby. Oh Great stuff. So we were like those naive young couples who said well, it's a little baby comes along. Little six or seven pound scrap. It's not going to change the way we live.

You know, it'll just fit in with us. If there's anyone here like that dream on. Because Suddenly we were presented with this little six-pound scrap and boy did it change things? Well, that was our daughter Sarah was born and Suddenly There's no room in the car for anything it was full of pram and Cases and bags and you couldn't just go out.

It was like a mammoth Logistics thing, you know just to get everything ready and then you just be ready to go and oh, hang on I mean, I've just got to change the baby and all this kind of stuff. I can see the mum's understand it all.

What's happened? What's happened? Well, we were the same people but now To use the word properly. There's been a crisis that is there's been a dramatic event has intruded and Suddenly the law of the house has changed same home same people.

But now because of the arrival of the little one the the arrangements the working of the house has to change we've moved from one dispensation into another and then it wasn't. Well, we did move house in that time and then maybe three years later or so.

Her brother came along similar kind of idea then as the kids start school. And as they then go from junior school to high school and all this kind there's this constant evolution within the home and Dispensations blend one into the other you might be fortunate enough To get a brief spell.

Where your children are grown up. They leave home. And you might just get a brief spell to yourself before the grandkids arrive. I Don't think we had that but anyway, maybe. So now when I'm home It's great the grandkids come they do everything.

Our oldest granddaughter is just coming up 21 and We've got five other grandkids from I know 15 or 16 down to 7 or something like that and his lordship can sit back and whichever grandchild comes through.

Coffee will be lovely. Thank you. And I'm not quite, you know, I've passed the stage now where grandad knows everything and can do everything that's gone. Now we're at the stage where grandad knows nothing and can do nothing.

The great these these these are the part of the whole cycle of life. My point is is not to be flippant though. My point is just to show you that the same people are involved, but the running of the house now.

Very different from the running of the house nearly 50 years ago the law of the house the oikonomos. The dispensations so you see as God unfolds his purpose over time. It's not so much that you measure these things by dates on a calendar.

This is the start of that dispensation this is the end of that one, but it's rather the the moving the blending of one into another as God Unfolds his purpose through the course of time. He doesn't do it all at once.

It's a progressive revelation. We've seen that from Ephesians chapter 1 the mystery of his will wasn't made known in the Old Testament days. But it has been in the New Testament days. So when we're thinking of dispensationalism.

What we're saying is it's an approach to our Bibles where we recognize that God has one purpose. But he has many strands to it and the broadest of those strands is that he has a purpose for the Jew a purpose for the Gentile and A purpose for the church.

In fact, that's the way your Bible is constructed. Your Bible divides it almost into three like that the Bible as we sit here tonight is for round figures 6 ,000 years old. It covers a 6 ,000 year period so far.

Israel, the Gentiles, and the Church in Biblical History

The Old Testament is covers 4 ,000 years. The New Testament so far for round figures 2 ,000 and in your Old Testament 4 ,000 years the first half of it Is all in Genesis 1 to 11. So when you come to the call of Abraham at the end of chapter 11 and From Abraham, of course God is going to bring forth a nation.

He's going to bring forth the Hebrew nation. When you come to the call of Abraham at the end of Genesis chapter 11 on the timeline of human history. You're nearer to Calvary than you are to the Garden of Eden.

God has taken 2 ,000 years of Old Testament history. He's compacted them into 11 chapters of our Bible. That's his dealings with mankind in general. Which under judgment became the nations of the earth in Genesis chapter 10.

In other words God's dealing with a Gentile From chapter 12. The close of chapter 11 of Genesis right the way through to I would suggest acts chapter 7 another 2 ,000 years and This time God's dealing with a nation of Israel how it came about how it began.

How he fulfilled his promise to the nation. He sent them their Messiah. Having sent the Messiah who demonstrated particularly in Matthew's account the Matthew's gospel. He demonstrated through his teaching he demonstrated through his miracles that he was indeed the Messiah of the Old Testament and instead of the response of the nation Being the response of Nathanael in John chapter 1 rabbi thou art the The son of God thou art the the the king of Israel.

You're the Messiah. Instead of that being their response They took him and they crucified him and even though they had crucified the Lord of life and glory. We have these intriguing chapters at the beginning of the book of the Acts.

Where Peter is preaching to the nation ye men of Israel and He's preaching to them that if they would Genuinely repent of the crucifixion of Christ that the times of refreshing. An expression about the Millennium the times of refreshing would come in.

Up until that point the church was still in mystery. The church is not the subject of prophecy. There was nothing in Old Testament scripture That would have prevented its hypothetical. But there is nothing in Old Testament scripture that would have prevented the Millennium commencing in Acts chapter 2 or 3 if the nation had genuinely repented of crucifying Christ.

But they rejected Peter's preaching. Finally when Stephen in Acts chapter 7 stood before the nation and recounted their history from the very beginning. The God of the glory appeared unto our father Abraham in Mesopotamia.

He took them right the way through their history. Which of the prophets have you not stoned he said. Well, they stoned him to death. God said that's enough and from that point onwards and here's again a very important thing to understand.

God did not then shut down His program for Israel so much in the so-called evangelical world. Teaches so many strands of it teach. That God has rejected Israel now and he's transferred all the promises.

He made to them to the church. No, that's wrong. It's 100 wrong. All the promises God made in his covenant to Abraham Repeated oftentimes all those promises that he made unconditionally in the Old Testament He will fulfill.

We have a God who cannot lie. That means That though Israel has been set aside for the time being there must be a future for the nation. Because promises God made to them haven't yet been fulfilled therefore they must be going to be fulfilled in a future day and.

So much of the divergence in understanding prophetic truth comes from The failure to recognize that God does have a literal and definite future for Israel in mind. That means that from setting them aside To taking up his dealings with them again.

Between the two lies the church age in which we are living. So through the dispensations of time through the ordering of the house God has moved from His dealings with the Gentile Specifically now to dealing with the Jew those 2 ,000 years it was all kinds of Great dynasties.

You think of the Chinese dynasties you think of the great? Civilizations that they've been in other parts of the world into over that 2 ,000 year period. The Bible doesn't mention them. It only mentions the Gentile powers like a Syria and Babylon and it only mentions them.

Because they had a bearing on Israel's well-being. So The Bible is not just a history book about how the nations of the earth developed. All the time God's eye is on that nation through that 2 ,000 year period and as other nations are brought to bear upon it.

So they're mentioned. But Israel's in view. Now the prophetic scriptures. Have Israel and the Gentile nations in view. The church was not prophesied about. There's no direct prophecy concerning the church in the Old Testament scriptures the church Was in mystery, especially the truth of Jew and Gentile being blessed together.

Formed into one body on equal ground. Ephesians chapter 3 these things weren't known, but there's other things that were known. So It was known for example in the Old Testament that that the Lord would establish a kingdom here upon earth.

But wonderfully wonderfully the period of time between his first advent when he came to Bethlehem and His second advent still future when he comes to establish his kingdom the gap between them wasn't known about.

Think about a godly man like Isaiah. Isaiah's a scratching away with a quill or whatever he used to write and. So he's writing about the coming of the Lord Jesus and He Records the fact that well, let's turn to it and just see I'll show you one or two things like it in the end.

Electrify's in the book of Isaiah. Turn to Isaiah in chapter 9, please. Some of you have had long journeys and it's warm in the hall. You get a little bit naughty don't you. So that's when we turn to the particular references and.

Look at this very familiar verse verse 6 of Isaiah 9. And you just imagine that dear man of God writing this now. He's writing writing brains what what he's writing is inspired by the Spirit of God. Here he is for unto us a child is born.

Unto us a son is given. For Isaiah writing 700 and something BC. It's prophetic, isn't it? He's looking way down the line seven centuries. Unto us a child is born unto us a son is given. That's the first advent of the Lord.

Jesus, isn't it? That's Bethlehem and the government shall be upon his shoulder. That's his second advent. That's when he comes to the earth to establish his kingdom. Isaiah's quill hasn't paused. He has moved effortlessly from the first coming of Christ to the second coming of Christ.

And he doesn't realize there's a gap there. There's a very similar thing in chapter 11 verse 1 there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse. Prophecy concerning the first advent of Christ and a branch shall grow out of his roots is about the second advent of Christ.

And you know, of course from Luke chapter 4 that there was a day when the Lord Jesus stood up in the synagogue in Nazareth and he read the scriptures and Isaiah 61 was the portion for the day and he goes down through Isaiah 61 the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to The poor and so on and he goes down and you know that at least as far as our translation is concerned he stopped right in the middle of the sentence to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and The Lord stopped there and he closed the book and gave it again to the minister sat down and so on.

Because the Lord Jesus knew. What his audience didn't know? The Lord Jesus knew that he had come to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and that the day of the vengeance of our God is still future.

This may be ten or a dozen such instances in in Isaiah's prophecy. Where he goes from the first advent of Christ to the second advent of Christ and the dear man knows nothing about it at all. He doesn't know it now fast forward and come to those disciples Who are sitting with the Lord Jesus that they're spending three years of their life walking with the Savior.

They don't know it either. Just because the Gospels are in the New Testament part of your Bible. Don't read the church into it all when the Lord Jesus was here. We're still on Old Testament ground. Remember when it comes to the two.