Daniel in Exile Part 18

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Sunday school from April 23rd, 2023

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Ezekiel Part 19

Ezekiel Part 19

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Okay, you guys should be able to hear me now. There we go. Let's pray. We'll get started. Lord Jesus, again, as we open your word, we ask your
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Holy Spirit to help us to understand what you have revealed so that we may rightly believe, confess, and do. So today, we are rapidly approaching the end of the book of Daniel, but we have a controversial bit that we have to work our way through.
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And when we get to scriptures like our Daniel passage that talk about times, times, and half of times, and years, and things like this, here's the problem with eschatological texts, or apocalyptic texts.
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And that is that the numbers are symbolic. And if you take the numbers dead -on literally, then you open yourself up to the ridicule of liberal scholars and people like this who will basically say, well, it didn't really happen in the time that he said it was gonna happen, so therefore,
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Jesus can't be the Messiah. Right? And of course, they always talk like that because they're so excited about the idea of Jesus not being the
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Messiah and not having to bend the knee to Christ. So as we work our way through this next bit, we'll learn a little,
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I'm gonna continue to use the help of Dr. Steinman and his commentary to kind of walk you through how do we look at apocalyptic texts that pertain to the end of the world, like the book of Revelation, the book of Daniel, and one of the contentions
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I made very early on as we got into the book of Daniel is that you cannot understand the book of Revelation until you are properly trained in how to understand apocalyptic texts from the book of Daniel.
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And Daniel, God teaches us how to understand and interpret these texts. So let me reread this last chapter, and then we'll kind of dive into our topics for today.
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At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince, who has charge of your people, and there shall be a time of trouble such as never has been since there was a nation until that time, but at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.
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And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
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And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.
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But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.
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Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold two others stood, one on this bank of the stream and one on that bank of the stream.
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And someone said to the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the stream, how long shall it be till the end of these wonders?
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And I heard the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the stream, he raised his right hand and his left hand towards heaven and swore by him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time.
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And that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end, all these things would be finished.
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I heard but I did not understand. And then I said, oh my Lord, what shall be the outcome of these things?
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He said, go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.
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Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined, but the wicked shall act wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand.
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And from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1290 days.
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Blessed is he who waits and arrives at 1 ,335 days, but go your way till the end and you shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days.
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And everyone goes, okay, what just happened there, right? You'll note that's kind of the nature of apocalyptic texts is that you sit there and you have to puzzle over them.
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You have to kind of rack your brain as to what's going on and kind of think it through and sort things out.
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So note here, and I made this point last week and I'll just kind of highlight it by way of looking at the cross -reference.
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Daniel shut up the words, seal the book until the time of the end, okay?
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Seal it up until the time of the end. Well, then we get to the book of Revelation. In fact, let me see here, did
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I go here? There we, let me just go here, Revelation chapter five. Listen to what
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Revelation five says. So then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne, a scroll written within and on the back sealed with seven seals.
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And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?
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No one in heaven or earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it.
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And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, weep no more.
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Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.
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And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
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And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
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And they sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.
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And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God and they shall reign on the earth. And then
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I looked and I heard around the throne the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.
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And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.
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And the four living creatures said amen and the elders fell down and they worshiped.
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And you'll note in the chapters that follow this then in the book of Revelation, you have the breaking of all of these seals.
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The scroll in question is the scroll that God said had to be sealed up until the time of the end.
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And you'll note we have been in the end times since Christ's ascension and the only way to understand what is written here in this portion of Daniel is through a proper understanding, a
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Christ -centered approach to understanding the mysteries that are kind of hidden in plain sight in this text.
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And that's the point. So the breaking of the seals then in the book of Revelation corresponds then to this idea of ever -increasing understanding of what is written here in Daniel as we get closer and closer to the return of Christ.
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But then you have to deal with that thorny issue. A time, a times, and half a time.
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What on earth is that all about, right? So let's employ the skills of Dr.
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Steinman and see if he can help us with what is going on here.
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So these are not literal numbers of days, these 1290 days, nor is the time, time, and half a time thing something literal, okay?
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You have to understand this. So critical scholars, when we talk about critical scholars, you have to understand that Satan has been waging all -out warfare against biblical
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Christianity from day one. And so if I were to tell you, are there any great
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Christian theologians coming out of Harvard Seminary today? Now Marilyn, you did the face palm thing.
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You don't put your stock in biblical scholars from Harvard Seminary?
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No. No. Right, but you'll remember Harvard was begun as what?
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A Christian seminary for the purpose of producing pastors who would serve the fledgling congregations in the
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Americas, right? That was, and what happened to Harvard? Yeah, it's, yeah.
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It's fallen. Fallen to what? Liberal and critical scholarship. And you'll note that many, many, this is the story of many, many seminaries.
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And so, you know, it's one of these things where as Christians, have you noticed it's probably not a good idea to spend a lot of money on like really elaborate buildings and things like this because the devil's gonna come in and just take those institutions away because the devil does that.
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And when we talk about critical scholars, are we talking about atheists? No, we're talking about people who claim to be believers in Jesus Christ who do not believe a word of scripture and have come up with all these academic reasons to basically say the word of God cannot be trusted.
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And over and over again, my favorite argument with these so -called Bible scholars and these liberal critics is are you, do you have better qualifications than Jesus Christ?
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You know, Jesus Christ, he rose bodily from the grave. I think we can trust him.
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And he's the one who said that Adam and Eve were real people and that God created us male and female. I always come back to, you know, when
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I brought that up with Tony Jones of the Emergent Church, all right, Tony Jones, his argument was if Jesus had been born today, he would believe in evolution.
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It's like, are you kidding me? Jesus is an eyewitness to the creation itself because he's the one who said, let there be light.
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He was not only just an eyewitness to it, he was a participant by virtue of the fact that he's the second person of the
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Trinity, right? So you'll note critical scholars are constantly attacking the church.
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And you'll note that critical scholars now zoom in on this time, times, half a times in 1260 day bit and they're sitting there going, well,
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I guess that means the Bible isn't true, okay? If you take these things literally, that's not their point, you basically open yourself up to a critical scholar gambit, okay?
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So critical scholars who view Daniel as a Maccabean era work, that's kind of an important thing.
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In the critical scholarship way of thinking, are miracles possible? No, miracles are not possible.
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So they have to move the date of Daniel back. They have to make it to be a product of the
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Maccabean era, not prior to the Maccabean era. It has to be after they return from exile in Babylon, not during exile in Babylon, because it messes up their presuppositions, okay?
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They understand the two periods as successive attempts to utter predictive prophecy about the time of the temple's desecration by Antiochus IV in 167 and its restoration in 164.
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So supposedly the original attempt was the 2 ,300 evenings and mornings totaling 1 ,150 days in 814, but when that prediction proved to be inaccurate, someone wrote a gloss attempting a second prediction of 1290, that's what they claim, okay?
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That the original copy of Daniel had 1 ,150 days, and since that didn't work out, then they went ahead and changed it to 1290.
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So when the second attempt too failed, yet a third prediction of 1 ,335 days was made.
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So what they're doing is they're taking these different days that are mentioned in Daniel chapter eight,
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Daniel chapter 12, 11, and then at the very end, chapter 12, 12, and they're basically kind of thinking that what
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Daniel is is like one of those YouTube prophets, okay, and they're basically, so Daniel predicted that Trump would become president, and when didn't win on election day, they doubled down, and then as we got closer to the time when
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Biden was gonna be inaugurated, they just changed the narrative completely and said that the election was stolen, but we prophesied correctly, and then
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Biden won't be, he won't be inaugurated, then he's inaugurated, and they've gotta change the story.
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So that's what the critical scholars are doing, they're taking these numbers, these numbers from the book of Daniel, and basically saying
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Daniel is like Kat Kerr, okay? And so, nope, got that wrong, here's another date, nope, got that one wrong, there's another one, nope, got that one wrong, okay?
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However, the critical explanation defies logic. All extant copies of Daniel, both in Hebrew and Aramaic, and in the ancient translations, the
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Greek versions, the Vulgate and the Peshitta, they all agree about the number in each of these verses, at 814, 1211, and 1212.
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If the author circulated his shorter book with the first number, and without 12, 11, and 12, how could a second attempt after subsequent history prove that first number incorrect, be added to all the extant copies of the book, and then after that number turned out to be wrong, could a third prediction be added to all copies?
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You'll note that being limited to parchment and pen makes it impossible to change copies that have been published, right?
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And Daniel couldn't go back into his YouTube history and scrub the old videos, you know?
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So the critical scholar's explanation doesn't fit the facts, and the fact is, is that we don't have a single copy that doesn't contain all of these numbers.
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The question is, what do they mean? And that's the issue. So let's see here, on the other hand, if subsequent additions in 1211 and 1212 were added before the book was circulated, why then were the first and second numbers retained when they had already been proven to be wrong?
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Also doesn't make sense. Why weren't the first and second numbers changed to agree with the third number?
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Moreover, if these numbers represented successive predictions, and at least the first two proved to be wrong, how did the book gain acceptance so rapidly as a genuine prophecy?
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And why was it not immediately rejected as a sham? You'll note that Old Testament folks legitimately thought if you get one prophecy wrong, that makes you a false prophet.
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Okay, not like today's NAR crowd. You know, in fact, little bit, I don't know if you guys know this,
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I gotta do a video on this. A video has recently come out of Bill Johnson of Bethel making it very clear that all the students who attend the
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Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, and you have to put supernatural in air quotes here because it's really not, that every single one of them, in order to graduate, in order to be qualified to graduate, must give at least three false prophecies.
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I am not making that up. That is like a legitimate quote, okay? Because if you don't give a false prophecy, according to Bill Johnson, if you don't give a false prophecy, then you're not engaging in risky enough faith.
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Just let that sink in for a second here. I think I should do a video on that. Yeah, I probably should do a video. Yeah. Yeah, right, yeah.
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So I got a video I'm doing about. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, when
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I first saw it, I thought, well, that should be simple. None of them are actually capable of giving any true prophecies. So, I mean, all the people at Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry qualify.
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I mean, that's like not a high hurdle to jump. I mean, even with a broken ankle, I can step on,
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I can climb one step, you know? So that's not hard to do, okay? So coming back then, here's the other issue.
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And the other issue are the extreme literalistic interpretations espoused by dispensational premillennialism.
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And that really poses a problem for the body of Christ also, because you'll note that when you're dealing with symbolic numbers, the premillennial dispensationalists take these numbers and then make them exactly literal.
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And then you end up with the Left Behind series and really embarrassing attempts at Christian cinema.
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That's all I gotta say. Okay. Right? So the other extreme of the literalistic interpretation is espoused by the dispensationalists who also take these numbers as literal periods of time.
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They view the 3 1⁄2 times in 12 .7 as 3 1⁄2 literal years, and as the same time period as described in Revelation as 42 months, and that's in Revelation 11 and 13, and as 1260 days in Revelation 11 .3
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and 12 .6. And the 3 1⁄2 years or 42 months or 1260 days are the second half of the seven -year tribulation, just before the establishment of a thousand -year earthly kingdom of Christ.
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Then dispensationalists usually explain the slightly higher numbers of days in Daniel 11 and 12 as follows.
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The 1290 days in 12 .11 include 30 additional days compared to 1260 days or 42 months or 3 1⁄2 years.
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Are you guys, is your mind melting at this point? I just don't do math. I just, kind of stuff just bothers me.
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To clean up the aftermath from Christ's victory over his enemies. So I kid you not, in the dispensational view, the discrepancy between the 1260 days in the book of Revelation and the 1290 days in the book of Daniel, that leaves 30 days.
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And so according to them, well, it's gonna take Jesus 30 days to kind of clean things up, mop up after the battle of Armageddon.
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He's going to create the new earth in one day. And just, at least that's how I read the
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Bible. What am I missing here? Okay, so you'll note that the dispensationalists, as Ricky Ricardo would like, used to say, they have some splainin' to do, okay?
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But their explanations are quite bizarre, okay? So like I said, the extra days is to clean up the aftermath from Christ's victory over his enemies when he returns to earth.
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Then the 1 ,335 days in 12 .12 include 45 more days compared to the 1290 days in 12 .11
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of the 75 more days than the 1260 as the time Christ needs to take to set up his earthly millennial kingdom after cleaning up the aftermath of his victory.
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So 30 days to mop up, you know, and then some additional days to plan the coronation and, you know, and send out the invites and stuff like this.
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Oh. Good Lord, eisegesis, man! Okay, eisegesis is reading things into the biblical text, you know, there's, okay.
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So these dispensational interpretations then fail to recognize that the 3 1⁄2 times in 7 .25,
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12 .7 are not a literal equivalent of 3 1⁄2 years, okay?
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Instead, they represent a symbolic time period. Furthermore, their explanation, the explanations for the additional 30 days in 12 .11
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and the additional 30 plus 45 days in 12 .12 are quite fanciful and based upon conjecture.
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That's right, this is just pure conjecture. Well, I think I know what it means.
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It means that Jesus is gonna come out of his tomb, see his shadow, and winter's gonna last six more weeks here in Minnesota, okay?
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Ha ha ha! Sorry, I apologize, we're all in therapy still.
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But you get the idea, that's what conjecture is. It's just making stuff up and saying that's gotta be what it means.
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The Bible doesn't leave you to engage in conjecture. So no passage in scripture mentions such number of days needed by Christ or his followers to do any of these things.
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Dispensationalists use these rationalistic explanations to fit these passages into their false assumptions that Christ will establish an earthly millennial kingdom.
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And here's the issue. As soon as you come up with this idea that you got the return of Christ and then a literal thousand years that Christ is going to reign, we've got a big problem because are we still all, is every human being conceived still gonna be born dead in trespasses and sins?
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Yeah, okay, that is a huge problem. And so, and again,
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I would point this out, and this is probably a good time to do that, and remind you that when we talk about the millennium, there is only one passage that discusses it, and you need to pay attention to the
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Greek. So here's the one and only passage that talks about this millennium.
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So then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.
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He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
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Now, my Greek students, okay, note here, okay, the
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Greek word is chilia. Let's take a look at this, okay?
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When you look at BDAG, the lexical form of this word is chilioi, all right?
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And you're gonna note something here that when we look at that here, chilia, this is plural.
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So let me give you a very literalistic interpretation or a translation. He will be bound for a thousands years.
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Oh, okay, you'll note that the English translates the thousand as singular, but the
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Greek is plural. Now, I understand that one way to interpret this is that the thousand years is just how the
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Greeks would have said thousands of years, but the issue is that you cannot make a hard, fast thousand years.
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Satan will be bound for a thousands years, and they threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousands years were ended.
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After that, he must be released for a little while. By the way, this isn't talking about some future reality.
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This is talking about the present reality that the church has been in since Christ's death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.
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Satan's power has been diminished. In a sense, you can say he's been bound, and as we get closer and closer and closer to the return of Christ, Satan being unbound, it's gonna be hell here on Earth.
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That's the whole point of this. This isn't talking about Jesus is going to return, establish his kingdom.
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It's only gonna be for a literal 1 ,000 years, and at the end of that 1 ,000 years, for seven of those years, that Satan is gonna go crazy for the purpose of deceiving the nations.
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And then, and then, and finally then, then we've got the new heavens and the new Earth. So my big issue with premillennialism is that it doesn't recognize that when
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Jesus returns, he sets everything up once and for all, new heavens, new
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Earth. Satan cast into the lake of fire. We got nothing to worry about moving forward. Otherwise, literally, if you kind of work this out, this is only phase one of our testing.
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Because when we are raised to life again, and Christ sets up his millennial kingdom, Satan's going to be released at the end of the 1 ,000 years to basically deceive the nations, which means you can be deceived again after your resurrection.
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That ain't happening. This doesn't make any sense.
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And a very literalistic understanding of apocalyptic numbers never works, okay?
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Instead, the better way to think about it is this description of the 1 ,000 years is the period that we find ourselves in now.
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And the times, times, and half a time, that's now. We be in that.
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These are just different symbolic numerical ways of describing this time period from Christ's ascension until his visible return, where he decisively puts an end to evil forever, okay?
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So that's kind of one of my big issues about the millennial kingdom is that it makes it so that Christ doesn't decisively deal with Satan at the end but only temporarily deals with him and then decisively deals with him at a later time, which doesn't make a bit of sense.
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And then, of course, we are all born dead in trespasses and sins, so the problem of sinful humanity burying children who still have the sin of Adam, how does that work in a millennial kingdom of Christ?
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That doesn't, again, doesn't make any sense at all. So this idea then of a literal understanding of these numbers just doesn't play right.
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Not only doesn't make any biblical sense, it leaves biblical data that is clear regarding what happens at the return of Christ.
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It leaves it unfulfilled at his second coming, which is a big problem. And all the promises that we will never fall again, where are those then if we're gonna be tempted and Satan's gonna have his little heyday at the end of the millennium?
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Again, it doesn't make any sense. So, all right, let's see here. So the dispensational view is not in harmony with the context the two numbers of days given are an answer to Daniel in response to his question about the latter part of these things, that is the latter part of the end times, which include the second coming of Christ.
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It would be foreign to the context for the answer to be about periods of time before a supposed millennial kingdom, which according to premillennialists, including dispensationalists, would last for a thousand years before the end of the world at the return of Christ.
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Those periods of time would not be the latter part, but a much earlier preliminary part of the end times.
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That's kind of the point. And so, moreover, a description of those hypothetical periods of time would not furnish an answer to Daniel's question.
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Daniel conceded in 12 .8 that he did not understand the vision and in 12 .11 and 12 is intended as an explanation for Daniel of what he did not understand, the coming of Christ, who brings
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God's kingdom, had been revealed to Daniel, and so had the Antichrist and his warfare in the end times.
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But Daniel had not been told anything about an earthly millennium, as defined by dispensationalists, which they believe would be revealed some 600 years later in Revelation 20.
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Therefore, a description about the time periods leading up to the millennium would not be an answer to Daniel's question.
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So are these symbolic time periods that conclude with the second coming of Christ, or these are symbolic time periods?
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Therefore, we must adopt a different line of interpretation to arrive at a satisfying explanation. In keeping with the use of a time, times, and half a time as symbolic period, the periods of days in 12 .11
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and 12 also should be understood as symbolic. The only time period to which Daniel could have related these numbers of days is the three and a half times, since these days are an explanation in response to his request for further information about the latter part of these things.
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The things that will take place during these three and a half times, the era of the new covenant in Christ, the natural way to interpret the passage is to relate 12 .11
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and 12 to 12 .7 and 8. Both numbers of days in 12 .11 and 12 are a little longer than three and a half years.
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But it's clear that the days were meant to be related to the symbolic three and a half times, as if the times were symbolic years.
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So the discrepancy of the numbers screams at us there's the same thing and they're to be interpreted symbolically.
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Three and a half solar years consists of 1 ,278 days. Okay, unless it's a leap year.
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Okay, just saying, all right. So however, on the basis of the solely lunar calendar used in the ancient
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Near East, the calculation of three and a half years would have been 1 ,269 days or 1 ,284 days.
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There's a stretch there because when you're dealing with a lunar calendar, things move around a bit.
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Therefore, 1 ,290 days is perhaps six days longer, but probably 21 days longer than three and a half years.
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Moreover, 1 ,290 is an exact multiple of 30 and it would appear to be the total number of days in 43 months, each consisting of 30 days since 43 times 30 equals 1 ,290.
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And my apologies, there's math there. I know that's evil, but we move on. So this is further indication that the number is indeed symbolic since not all months are 30 days long.
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Instead, the calculation is the same that would be used later in Revelation to equate 42 months with 1 ,260 days.
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The divine man tells Daniel what event will begin the symbolic period of the 1 ,290 days.
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It starts from the time the continual offering is removed and a detested thing of desolation is set up.
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This is a reference to the desecration of the temple by Antiochus IV in 167
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BC, prophesied earlier in the same vision with similar language in 1131.
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Thus, Daniel is told that the time from the desolation by Antiochus to the latter part of these things, 12 verse eight, the end of the
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New Testament era at the return of Christ is longer than the 1 ,260 days or three and a half times which represent the duration of the activity of the eschatological king, the
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Antichrist, beginning with the birth of Jesus and ending with his parousia. Now, here's the point that he's trying to make.
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So you've got 1 ,260 days as one number but you also have 1 ,290.
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So the 1 ,290 begins with Antiochus Epiphanies but the 1 ,260 days begins with the ascension of the
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Antichrist to oppose the church which doesn't happen until when? Christ's ascension.
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So the disparity, the longer number deals with the fact that Antiochus comes before Christ and then the time of the
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Antichrist when he begins to attack the church happens at Christ's ascension. So the shorter number then applies to the time of the church whereas the longer number kinda kicks off and anticipates the
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Antichrist by the type and shadow of Antiochus' desolation of the temple.
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Does that make sense? That's why one is longer than the other. All right, coming back here, okay.
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So, beginning with the birth, okay. So thus, both the 1 ,290 days and the 1 ,260 days or three and a half times end at the same time at the return of Christ.
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However, the 1 ,290 days begins earlier before the birth of Jesus and the church age. The second number, the 1 ,335 days then relates directly to Daniel as the divine man suggests in the next verse.
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Why the 1 ,335 days? Because that's not talking about Antiochus. Now we gotta go back.
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This is actually a reference to Daniel when he's writing these things. Does that make sense? So all of these numbers have their terminus when
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Christ returns. The longest number then refers to the fact that it's referring back to when
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Daniel lived. The middle number, the 1 ,290, goes to Antiochus IV.
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The shortest, the lowest of the numbers then relates to Christ's ascension.
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Does that make sense? Now you can see how they're all related to each other, which I think has great explanatory power and you have exegetical reasons within the text itself to say that that's the right way to start these numbers in each of their respective periods, okay.
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So the second number, we got that. It symbolizes the time from Daniel's own life to the latter part of these things, to the return of Christ.
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It is 45 days and one and a half months longer than the 1 ,290 days. In turn, the 1 ,290 days were 30 days longer than the 1 ,260 days or the three and a half times.
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The implication is that the period of time from Daniel's own life to the desecration by Antiochus, one and a half symbolic months, will be longer than the time from Antiochus to the coming of the
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Messiah, one symbolic month. Subsequent history confirms that this predictive prophecy was accurate and that this is the correct interpretation of the number of days.
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Elderly Daniel received this final vision in 536 BC. If he lived to 530
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BC, then it would be another 363 years until Antiochus desecrated the temple in 167, a shorter period of time, another 165 years, would transpire from the time of Antiochus until the birth of Christ in about 2
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BC. Moreover, both of those periods of years are much shorter than the time between the birth of Christ and his return, which at the end of this writing has been about 2 ,010 years.
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So when this commentary was published, it was 2 ,010 years. We're well beyond that at this point. How much longer will it be until the end of the 1 ,260 symbolic days or three and a half times?
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Only God knows. I'm banking on next Thursday. I'm really hoping next
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Thursday, okay? Therefore, the symbolic period in Daniel, 12, 7, 11, 12, can be diagrammed as in figure 16.
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So again, the 1 ,335 days, that's from the time of Daniel's vision until Christ's return.
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The 1 ,290 days, that's from Antiochus' desecration of the temple until Christ's return.
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The 1 ,260 days, that is from Jesus' birth, resurrection, ascension, until his return.
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And now, it's like, that just is so simple, right? And this avoids the critical scholars, and they're, well, you guys just got it wrong, and Daniel got it wrong, so he had to try again, and then he got that wrong and had to try again, just like those
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Trump prophets, right? So you get the idea, and this makes perfect sense.
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No eisegesis needed, just pay attention to what each of these days is being referred back to in the text, and it tells you how to interpret it.
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This is a great way to do it, okay? So the divine man pronounces, then, a benediction.
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Blessed is the one who waits and reaches 1 ,335 days.
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The PIL, article who waits, could also be translated who longs for, who hopes for.
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That's kind of an interesting thing about this particular word in the Hebrew here. It's not merely who arrives, it's not this idea who arrives at the 35 days, it's the one who longs for, who waits for, who really, oh, can't wait, okay?
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Since the verb can refer to waiting in faith and hope for God, who will fulfill all of his promises.
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Those who believe in God and wait for his promises, particularly Christ's promise to return and deliver all his saints, are blessed.
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If you're not sure on that, see, like 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 10. To wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead,
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Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. Titus 2, 13, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great
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God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Hebrews 9, 28, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
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And you'll note, then, that if you kind of go with that way of thinking about it, okay, this declares a blessing, then, to every
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Christian of every generation, all the way up until the return of Christ, okay? You're not blessed if you arrive at that day itself.
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We'll all arrive there one way or another. You'll either be alive when Jesus comes back, or Jesus will make you alive when he comes back.
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So, nowadays, people, they keep using this term, unalived. Okay, this person was unalived, okay, it's just crazy.
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So, I guess we can just come up with our own Christian version of it, Jesus will re -alive us, okay?
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Social media's a weird place, you know? If I were a fish and you caught me, you know, never mind.
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Does anyone know what I'm talking about? If I were a fish and you caught me, you know, I'd say, look at that fish.
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Never mind, you guys don't know it yet. You'll know it next week, because it's like a song that's like raging all over the internet.
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Once you get that song in your ears, you will not be able to get it out for a week.
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My apologies. So, all right, but the idea, then, is that we are eagerly waiting to be re -alived, right?
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That's what we're eagerly awaiting for, and as a result of it, I think that's a better way of translating that Hebrew text, that Hebrew word, because, in fact, let me do this.
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Hang on a second here, let me switch over to my, yeah, all right, so let me just kind of explain here.
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Okay, blessed is he who waits and arrives. So, again, here, because this is a
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P -A -L of mechachach, you know, again, eagerly waits and arrives at the 1 ,335 days.
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That's all of us. We're eagerly waiting for Christ's return, the mechachach. Anyway, you get the idea. All right, coming back here, okay?
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So, this blessing that applies, especially those who are living at the end of time, because they, along with all the dead in Christ, will see the consummation of the long -awaited eschatological kingdom as Jesus' parousia.
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So, the command given to Daniel at the beginning of the divine man's clarification of the time of the end, the lech, is repeated, here, go.
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Moreover, Daniel is told that he will rest, see the second textual note, a synonym for the sleep of death.
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Daniel will not live to see most of the events he prophesied, however, Daniel is also given a promise that he will be among those who will participate in the resurrection to eternal life on the last day.
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I like the way it says it, here. Go your way till the end, and you shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days.
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You're gonna die, Daniel, but you're gonna stand. You're gonna stand in your allotted place. If that doesn't scream resurrection or being re -alived,
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I don't know what else does, and that's kind of the point, is that when Christ returns, and we all stand before Jesus, we're gonna see
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Daniel, all right? And he's gonna see us. He'll go, who are those Kongsvigar folks?
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Anyway, right? But the point is, we're gonna see Daniel, we're gonna see David, we're gonna see
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Adam, Eve, we're gonna see Noah, we're gonna, all of us have our place in Christ that we will stand and we will see him with our own eyes at the end of days.
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And I am so looking forward to this, right? So you'll note here, when you kind of get this right, you don't come up with these really bizarre interpretations that leave you just in complete anxiety.
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Instead, these things end up comforting us, okay? So that is our study of the book of Daniel.
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And now I think I should back up and take a look at questions to see how they are coming out.
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Okay, is there a limit to the false prophecy requirement for Bethel? No, Jody, in fact, the more false prophecies you give, the more riskier your faith is, and they think that's a good thing, you know?
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Which is bizarre when you think about it, just so crazy. All right? So Lily says, so with many generations of believers who couldn't even read or write, nevermind do maths, how were they expected to crack this code if it was meant as a maths problem?
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Lily, I like the fact that you're giving us the UK version of the word maths, it's because it's maths, plural, right?
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The answer to your question, Lily, is actually kind of wrapped up in one of the things we might have mentioned last week, is that one of the prophecies that are mentioned in this greater prophecy that we've been reading is that there would be a greater understanding and clarity about what this prophecy means as we get closer and closer to the end of the world and the return of Christ.
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The prophecy itself anticipates that generations of Christians would kind of rack their brains and scratch their heads, not really understanding this, and as we get closer and closer to the return of Christ, there would be increasing clarity as to what this prophecy meant, so that the generation of Christians who would then go through kind of Satan's final season and experience the last and cataclysmic battle, that this prophecy would be a bulwark for them, a place of hope.
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So back in the Middle Ages, people who didn't read, and the only gospel that they could understand was looking at the stained glass windows, which was their function, by the way, they would have never worked out the maths on this, and this prophecy anticipates that.
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It legitimately anticipates that because it's not until we get closer to the end when the book itself is unsealed and its proper understanding is then given and distributed to the saints in the last days.
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So that's part of this prophecy. So hopefully, Lily, that answers your question, but the book of Daniel anticipated your question because God knows how to do maths, and so the answer to the question is that this book legitimately stays confusing until we get closer and closer to Christ's return, and I would note the fact that in our day and age right now working through this, it's pretty simple stuff.
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I think that's a sign from God that he's not, that Christ's return isn't that far off, okay? Because as we work our way through this with the good resources that we have and the good biblical scholarship that we have now, this is pretty simple now, you know, just saying.
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So, all right, so Diane says, "'I heard them say that those unsaved "'who survived the tribulation would be tested "'at the end of the millennium, possibly deceived then.
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"'It was all speculation.'" So Diane, here's the thing. It's not speculation. It's based on a misinterpretation of Revelation 20, verses one to seven, that there's still a coming millennial kingdom of Christ where he will literally reign on earth for a literal 1 ,000 years, and during that 1 ,000 years,
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Satan will be bound, and then he'll be released for the purpose of deceiving the nations.
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Well, if that's the case, then this isn't the last of the last days. We're nowhere close to the last days.
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I mean, if Jesus were to show up next week and there was a rapture, excuse me while my eyes roll down the sidewalk here, and there was a rapture, we're still 1 ,000 years off from the last days, and I would note we're 1 ,000 years plus 30 days of cleanup and 45 days to prepare for the coronation.
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So, okay, so it's not, if Jesus shows up next week, then, you know, we still have 1 ,000 years plus another good night.
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Yeah, you get the idea. 75, you know, to kind of work it all out. I mean, after all, I mean, how long has it been since Elizabeth died before they're gonna coronate
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King Charles? I mean, it's gonna take Jesus some time to work some stuff out, you know. Somebody's gotta order the flowers.
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Somebody's gotta grow them after a world that's been destroyed, right? No, it doesn't make any sense, okay?
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So, okay, so Sylvester Family says, what is the resource? It says, Dr. Steinman's Concordia Commentary.
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So this is the Concordia Commentary from CPH on the Book of Daniel, and it's,
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I kid you not, I have, I don't even wanna talk about how many commentaries
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I own. Let's just say that I may have been collecting commentaries for the past few decades, and I have probably more than I need.
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But all of that being said, I find, of all the commentaries that I have, Steinman's is the best when it comes to the
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Book of Daniel. There's nothing that even comes close. So, but yeah, that's what
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I've been working here. Okay, so you can also find it on Amazon, that's correct.
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Will the Bible study be uploaded online to watch again? Eric, oh, of course, yes. So the answer is yes, this will be posted.
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In fact, I would note, we're not streaming on YouTube right now, are we? No, okay, so generally, and I have to say it this way, because it's not a hard and fast rule.
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Generally, the Bible studies will find their way onto our YouTube channel within 24 hours.
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Okay, I say that because sometimes they show up earlier. But this is a good reason to subscribe to the
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Kongs of Inger Lutheran Church YouTube channel, don't you know? And hit the, ring the bell so you get the notifications.
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But, you know, what? I know I grew up in Southern California, and it's not a native way to talk.
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I get it, just don't shake your eyes at me, Clevin. So, the
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Bennetts asked, so Pastor, to understand Revelation, we need to know and understand Daniel and Ezekiel. I would say, in order to understand
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Revelation or Ezekiel, you have to learn Daniel. The reason why is something that I explained at the very beginning of our study, but I'll redo it again, and I'll show you why and how it works.
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When we look at the book of Matthew, chapter 13.
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Hang on a second, I gotta spell it correctly, otherwise it's just gonna beep at me. All right, Matthew 13. In Matthew 13, this is the first chapter in the book of Matthew where Jesus speaks in parables.
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Up to this point, from Matthew chapter five all the way through 12, Jesus has spoken plainly, okay?
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Very, very directly and spoken plainly. And he has been met with increasing hostility to the point where Jesus says, fine,
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I'm gonna talk in parables. And contrary to what every seeker -driven pastor says,
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Jesus speaks in parables so people will not understand him. Okay, I remember during the rage of 15, maybe 18 years ago now, when everybody was doing purpose -driven church stuff, and you had guys setting up, for real, setting up churches in movie theaters, okay?
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And nothing wrong with setting up a church in a movie theater. You can do a church anywhere. You can do it in catacombs, you can do it in someone's house, but here's the issue.
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Everything was set up in these churches for the purpose of basically making the church attractional to the world.
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And so what they started doing about 18 years ago is every summer in these churches, because what happens here in the
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United States in the summertime, everybody goes to the lake, right? That's what they do here.
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They go on vacation, they're gone, and so attendance goes down. And so these seeker -driven guys said this.
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We are going to use our summer months to preach through popular blockbuster movies.
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You're gonna do what? Yes, so next week we're gonna talk about Star Wars, A New Hope.
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The week after that, we're doing Terminator. And the week after that, we're doing Spider -Man. And the idea was to make the church relevant, right?
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And so I got into a little bit of a squabble with one of these guys. In fact, I did this in person to his face.
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I said, why are you preaching through movies? Your job as a pastor is to preach the word. His exact words.
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Jesus was the greatest communicator who ever lived, and he knew how to really compel an audience by telling stories, because that's the reason why he told parables, was to make his teaching more understandable and more compelling.
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To which I said, you are aware, sir, that Matthew 13, Jesus says the reason he's speaking in parables is so that no one will get it.
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Okay? And of course, we'll just have to agree to disagree. That's the person who says that, says they've already lost the argument, okay?
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That all that being said, when you take a look at how Matthew 13 works, Matthew 13,
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I think Daniel works the same way. And the reason I say that is if you go back through the series, go back through the lessons, when we get to the apocalyptic part of Daniel, we not only get apocalyptic symbolic language, but God himself gives us the interpretation, and Daniel is the primer to learn how to read apocalyptic texts.
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There's just no way around it. So the same idea is in play. So in Matthew 13, that same day,
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Jesus went out of the house, sat beside the sea, great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat, sat down, the whole crowd stood on the beach, and he told them many things in parables, saying, a sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path.
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Birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on the rocky ground where they did not have much soil. Immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth.
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But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.
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Other seeds fell on the good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some 60, some 30. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
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Uh, what? And by the way, ears here, that means that the guy who was sowing, he sowed corn, okay?
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It's a pastor joke, just roll with it, okay? So, here's the thing.
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The disciples come to Jesus, and I hate to say this, every time I read this, I hear
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Seinfeld's voice. Why are you speaking to them in parables? Right, you know,
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Seinfeld, you know? What's the deal here, you know, right? And Jesus says, it's not you, it's me.
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Anyway, so, so why are you speaking to them in parables?
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And here's his answer. To you, to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
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For to the one who has, more will be given, and the one will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
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This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
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Indeed, in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, that says, you will indeed hear, but never understand, you will indeed see, but never perceive, for this people's heart has grown dull, with their ears they can barely hear, their eyes have been closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.
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And I've pointed this out before, no, to you it has been given, and you as a reader of this text, the fourth wall is broken, and you're included with the disciples in then the explanation of what the parables mean.
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And now Jesus gives them his divine interpretation of the parable, and thus gives them a way to understand, not just this parable, but all of them.
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So they hear then the parable of the sower, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, the evil one comes, snatches away what has been sown in his heart, this is what was sown along the path, as for what was sown on the rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word, and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the world, immediately he falls away, as for what was sown among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, they choke out the word, and it proves unfruitful, as for what was sown on the good soil, this is the one who hears the word, and understands it, he indeed bears fruit, yields in one case a hundredfold, another 60, and another 30.
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So Jesus gives a parable, they ask why, he then gives them an explanation of the parable, and in so doing, he gives us the interpretive key to understand how to unlock parables, right?
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And so then he puts another parable before them, and another, okay, and Jesus then explains one of these parables, he left the crowds, went into the house, his disciples came, can explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field,
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Jesus gives another explanation, and you'll note that by the end of all of this, okay, when
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Jesus, this is back and forth, he gives a parable, explains a parable, gives another parable, they still don't quite get it, he then explains it to them, and by the end of this chapter,
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Jesus tells a few more parables, and he says, have you understood all these things? And they said to him, yes. So by the end of the chapter, they get it.
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At the beginning, they don't, and then by the end, they don't, and here's the thing, when you read the book of Daniel, Daniel does the same thing with these apocalyptic visions that Matthew 13 does with parables, okay?
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And that was something we pointed out along the way. So here's the deal, you now have gone through eschatology 101 and taught the basics of how to understand an apocalyptic text by the study of Daniel.
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Take what you've learned, apply it to Ezekiel, apply it to the book of Revelation, you now have these skills, and you'll note that these texts come alive when you let
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Daniel teach you how to read the others. So the answer to your question then, Jen, is that Ezekiel is not a primer,
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Ezekiel's a tough text, but you have the skills from Daniel now to start to crack it open, you legitimately do, okay?
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All right, let's see here. Okay, Rachel said that my joke about yours was corny. I gotta admit, that was pretty good.
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Okay. All right, let's see here.
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So Pastor, and this is a Revelation meeting, okay, so a popcorn event, funny. Okay, yeah, my brother says
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God didn't make his word hard to understand, and we don't need a Greek degree, or no, Hebrew or Greek to understand
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God's word. He meets you where you are. I would note your brother's missing something, and that is this, is that scripture is painfully clear in the pastoral epistles.
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A pastor is one who must study and show himself approved as a workman who need not blush with embarrassment, who can rightly handle the word of truth, okay?
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So yes, God meets you where you're at, however, pastors are not allowed to stay at the lay level.
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They are required by God to study the Hebrew and the Greek and to rightly handle God's word, and then make it accessible to everybody who hasn't studied
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Greek and Hebrew. That's our jobs, and so because a pastor has to study and show himself approved, and pastors are the ones tasked by God to preach and to teach, then that means pastors are required to know these things.
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In fact, a pastor who hasn't studied Greek and Hebrew, don't listen to him. He doesn't know what he's talking about, so.
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All right, this is where I have to jump off because I have to head over to, I have to hobble over to Emmanuel, so all right.