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All right, as you guys know, we're still in the Isle of the Discourse. We're gonna be here for a little while. We talked about how we do the study. We're gonna read the whole passage, which we've done already.
We've already summarized it. Sorry about that. Now we've gone through each verse individually and explained it. And again, we use the analogy of faith, which means scripture interprets scripture. Now we're gonna start addressing the larger key points in a little bit more depth.
Tonight, we're gonna go over the timing of Matthew 24, because if we get the timing wrong, everything else is not gonna make sense. So we're gonna key in on that. And then we're gonna address the opposing viewpoints to the view that I'm espousing tonight.
All right, those are some of the topics we're gonna include. So let's get right into it. And tonight, hopefully I'm gonna be a little shorter than I was last week. I know it just seems to be running a little bit longer and I don't wanna keep this too long and put too much information out there.
So let's see how it goes. So we're gonna talk about the timing of Matthew 24, the word near, the word you, and the term this generation. It's gonna be important that we understand what those things mean.
So the timing of the events of Matthew 24 is crucial to its context and its understanding. If you dive into any period of history, you will always find prophets of all types from any number of theological traditions who claim they knew when the next time, end time event would occur.
This has been going on since the first century. Some have pointed to the rise in apostasy, lawlessness, natural disasters, signs in the heavens, an increase in rival religions in their day as unmistakable evidence that the end of all things was near for them.
They find hidden messages in biblical numbers. That's another favorite pastime that assured the faithful that the end had to be at hand. The speculative timing predictions of Matthew 24 has led many people to wrong views of end times and ultimately wrong behavior.
Rather than being optimistic in our hope of the kingdom, many have become pessimistic, apathetic, and in some cases, despairing. This is important because right doctrine leads to right living. If we think that the end is coming, it's kind of like trying to polish brass on the Titanic.
If the Titanic's going down, why work to make it better? We know that it's not going to happen. But that's not true. Scripturally, we know that the increase of the government that's on Jesus' shoulders is not gonna end and righteousness is gonna cover the earth the way the waters cover the sea.
So we should be optimistic. Any doctrine or theory about a scripture that brings you to a pessimistic view is not really what God is putting forth. So let's continue going. The small, the great, the sane, and the insane, the sacred and the profane have been quick to predict when the end might come.
For example, there's two funny people, right? Billy Graham and Barbra Streisand. Two different people on two different ends of the spiritual spectrum have at least one thing in common. They both believe that we cannot hold out much longer.
Barbra Streisand believes that the world is coming to an end. She just feels that science, technology, and the mind has surpassed the soul. There's no balance in terms of feeling and love for fellow man.
So she seems to think that the end of all things is close. And so does Billy Graham. He says, he's equally pessimistic, and he writes, if you look in any direction, whether it's technological or physiological, the world as we know it is coming to an end.
Scientists predict it, sociologists talk about it. Whether you go to the Soviet Union or anywhere in the world, they're talking about it. The world is living in a state of shock. Now, you hear that from a guy like Billy Graham, and you say, well, is God really in control?
Should we really be optimistic about the coming of the kingdom? And if you listen to him, he, no, you shouldn't. And listening to Barbra Streisand, you come to the same conclusion. Billy Graham does not want to linger here on who, what, why, how, or when of Armageddon.
He simply states that it's near. But the question is, what does Billy Graham mean by near? The book of Revelation states that the time was near for those who read the prophecy in Revelation 1 .1. Since Revelation was written during Nero's reign, prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, the prophetic events of Revelation were fulfilled during the lifetime of those who read the prophecy.
So the book of Revelation uses the word near, and Billy Graham uses the word near. When Billy Graham uses the word near, he says it's gonna soon take place. He thinks that based on what he sees, well, saw, he's passed on now, what he saw would lead people to believe that the end is right there.
But the book of Revelation uses the word near. Now, either they're both using the word in the same way, or one of them is wrong. Obviously, I think Billy Graham is wrong. I think the book of Revelation got it right.
Indeed, it is becoming increasingly persuasive argument that all New Testament books were written before 70 AD with a single generation of the death of, within a single generation of the death of Christ.
And what that means is, if John wrote the book of Revelation prior to 70 AD, he would have been alive when the temple was destroyed, which is what the apostle John wrote to us in the gospel in chapter 21.
Now, this particular quote was penned by John Ankerberg, who is actually a dispensationalist and a good apologist. And he's saying, it's a persuasive argument that the books were all written before 70 AD.
If you wanna dive deeper into it, there's a defense written by Kenneth Gentry called Before Jerusalem Fell. And he does a fantastic job of citing all the statistics and all the background knowledge in the book of Revelation to prove internal evidence and external evidence to prove that Revelation was written before AD 70.
So that's a different topic. I just wanted to put that out there for you. So why do people think it's the end? Well, who says it's the end? In the second century, there was a man named Montanus, and he predicted that Jesus would be coming back soon, and he was wrong.
In the third century, a man by the name of Novatian predicted the same thing and got the same result, no second coming of Jesus. And in the fourth into the fifth century, the Inquisition began, which led many of the saints to predict once more that the end was near because of the Inquisition and the brutality that was happening during that.
And that continued on and on and on through to the time of Martin Luther, who said, the last day is at hand. You see, there's a pattern developing here. People are looking at things that are going on in the world and say, because it's so bad, the end must be near.
More predictions were made as plagues, earthquakes, and wars continued on, but to no avail and to no second coming of Jesus. These predictions have been going on throughout history and continue on to today when people like Barbra Streisand and Billy Graham claimed that the end is near.
It even leads men like David Koresh to take the drastic actions that he did. He believed that he was in the end times and he had to do, shoot the people in that Waco, Texas compound because the end was near.
The lessons of history are recorded for all to heed. For many, however, the past is a distant memory. All that counts is the present. Sure, they were wrong, the prophecy experts warn us, but it will be different with us, okay?
And what's happening is everybody in every generation is making a prediction that the end is near. And yet every one of them has been wrong. Someone at some point in time is gonna be right because the end is going to happen.
But when we look at Matthew 24 and we look at the wording that Matthew put in there and the words that Jesus said, when he said the end was near, he meant it. And all the signs that pointed to the end happening, which was the abomination of desolation, the destruction of the temple, wars, rumors of wars, famines, false messiahs, all happened.
So if Jesus uses the word near and it doesn't happen, why would these people use the word near and think it would happen? Every generation thinks, oh, it's different with us. It's really gonna happen in our time.
But again, they've all been wrong since the first century on. Historian Mark Knoll serves us a warning. At the very least, it would be well for those in our age who predict details and dates for the end to remember how many before them have misread the signs of the times.
As children, we learn Aesop's fable of the shepherd boy and the wolf. In the end, we learn that the sheep are the ones that are harmed by the shouts of wolf by the shepherd boy. In the same way, the people of God, the sheep, are harmed by continual shouts of the end is near.
God is looking for shepherds after his own heart who will feed the flock on knowledge and understanding and not on the latest newspaper headlines. Again, we walk by faith, but not by sight. That's number one.
We should be optimistic about the kingdom coming. Jesus says the gates of hell will not prevail against it and he will build his church. And the events that Jesus was talking about in Matthew 24 had taken place or have taken place already.
The New Testament does use the near and soon coming of Jesus in judgment as a way of spurring the church onto greater works. The near judgment spoken of in scripture refers to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, not a distant future coming of Christ.
Peter wrote, the end of all things is at hand, therefore be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. So the question is, at hand for who? Obviously, for the people he was writing to.
If words mean anything, then Peter must have had his contemporary readers in mind when he wrote that. That would not be, when you read what Peter said, what Peter wrote, you wouldn't think, oh, that must be happening hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years later.
If he said the end is at hand, you would take him at his word and think that to the people he wrote that to, the end was at hand and it was. Ignoring the clear time texts leads to misguided speculation like this.
The year 1988 saw an abundance of books predicting the rapture of the church since it was thought to be the final year of the terminal generation because of the resettlement of the nation of Israel in 1948.
The most notorious was Edgar C. Wiesenthal's 88 reasons why the rapture is in 1988. Upon the release of his calculations, Wiesenthal remarked, only if the Bible is in error, am I wrong? And I say that unequivocally.
There is no way biblically that I can be wrong. I say that to every preacher in town. So he's saying that the rapture was going to happen in 1988 and he can't be wrong. If he's wrong, that means the Bible is wrong.
So what happened? 1988 came and went with no rapture. When the author's intricate system of predicting the end failed, he went on undaunted like nothing happened with a new book called The Final Shout, Rapture Report, 1989.
It seems that he made a critical error because he was following the wrong calendar, according to him. He says, my mistake was that my mathematical calculations were off by one year. Since all centuries should begin with a zero year, for instance, the year 1900 started the century.
The first century AD was a year short, consisting of only 99 years. This was the one year error in my calculation. The Gregorian calendar is always one year in advance of the true year. Numbered correctly from the beginning, 1989 would only be 1 ,988 years of the 365 day calendar.
So 1989 came and went, no rapture. This is a problem that modern day people have when they're reading Matthew 24 as a future event to happen. Jesus says, no man knows the day or the hour and that he's talking about his final coming.
Right now, people are trying to predict when the events of Matthew 24 are gonna happen. And if they happened already, then these will all become false prophecies. And this actually weakens the church.
Again, like it's crying wolf and you don't want to mislead the church, you wanna edify the church. The church right now should be looking at this COVID virus, this plague as an opportunity to share the gospel.
People are very in tune to hearing some good news. And if we really believe that the gospel was good news, we'd be talking about it a lot. Why is there so much speculation and error about when the end might be or whether the end has reference to the rapture or the return of Christ to set up his millennial kingdom or the return of Christ to inaugurate the new heavens and the new earth?
While there are a number of reasons why prophetic speculations continue unabated, one reason stands above them all. Fulfilled prophecy is being interpreted as if it were unfulfilled prophecy. And that's not a good thing.
We have to see the prophecy for what it is, discern it, exegete it from the scriptures and not make future predictions about something that's happened already. This era was also made by the first century Jews.
Think about it. When Jesus came to his own, which were the Jews, those who were his own did not receive him. These unbelieving Jews did not believe Jesus was the fulfillment of centuries of prophetic pronouncements that are found in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms.
Now, Christians now are doing the same thing that Jews did in the first century. The Jews rejected Jesus as Messiah and didn't believe that he was the fulfillment of the prophecies. They were saying, no, no, that's coming in the future.
Well, now people are looking at Matthew 24 and saying, oh, no, no, that didn't happen. That's coming in the future. They're making the very same error. Many Jews today are still waiting for the Messiah.
Like their first century counterparts, they do not believe that the messianic prophecies were fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus. The messianic prophecies have been taken from their first century fulfillment context and have been projected into a distant future as unfulfilled prophecies.
In effect, present day Jews are still awaiting the first coming of the Messiah. In a similar way, many Christians take prophecies that have been fulfilled either in Old Testament events or in events following the ascension of Jesus and view them as still unfulfilled.
They then manipulate these fulfilled prophecies and apply them to contemporary events. Their speculations are wrong because they're applying fulfilled prophecies to current events. And as we'll see, they ignore the time texts that speak of a near coming of Jesus in judgment upon an apostate Judaism that rejected Jesus as Messiah in the first century.
Are they fulfilled? One of the first things a Christian must learn in interpreting the Bible is to pay attention to the time texts. Failing to recognize the proximity of a prophetic event will distort its intended meaning.
The New Testament clearly states that the end of all things was at hand for those who first read 1 Peter 4 .7. That is, the old covenant with its types and shadows was about to pass away. The book of Hebrews opens with two verses that put the timing of certain eschatological events into perspective.
And it reads, God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in his son, whom he appointed heir of all things. Notice the book of Hebrews talks about these last days spoken to us in his son.
Prior to the coming of Jesus, God spoke through dreams, prophets, written revelations and types. Through the new covenant, God has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.
Literally, it's near. So with the advent of the new covenant, which Jesus ratified in his blood, the old covenant and the old system of things was being made obsolete. So when Peter talks about the last days and Hebrews talks about the last days, they're talking about the last days of the old covenant, not the last days of all time.
Is there any question that we're living in a new covenant era and that the old covenant has passed away, been made obsolete and disappeared? If so, wouldn't the new Testament have explained to us in a way we wouldn't make a mistake?
Yes. And one of the ways Jesus did that was in the Olivet Discourse. Think about it. If the old covenant was passed away and made obsolete and disappeared, and one of the apostles, one of the disciples questions was to Jesus, when are these things gonna happen?
Well, obviously, if it still hasn't happened, they were wrong. And every century after that was wrong. Jesus didn't really give a clear answer. He gave them a cryptic answer. But if the events in Matthew 24 have been fulfilled and the disciples understood that, then Jesus gave a very clear answer and we're just misreading or misapplying the text to some future event that is not going to take place.
Hebrews goes on to tell us, God spoke in this way in these last days. The last days were in operation in the first century when God was manifested in the flesh in the person of Jesus. Those Hebrew Christians who read the letter addressed to them were being told that an important covenantal era was about to end, the era of the father and the prophets.
The proof that the last days had come was that God had spoken in his son. The last days are not way off in the distant future. The end came to an obsolete covenant in the first century. In 70 AD, the last days ended with the dissolution of the temple and the sacrificial system.
A similar pronouncement is made in 1 Peter 1 .20. For he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you. Gordon Clark comments on what Peter means by these last times.
These last days, which so many people think refers to what is still in the future at the end of this age, clearly means the time of Peter himself. 1 John 2 .18 says it like this, in his day, the last hour.
Acts 2 .17 quotes Joel as predicting the last days as in the lifetime of Peter. In these last days, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. In fact, Peter quotes that in his first sermon at Pentecost.
He quotes the prophet Joel. In the last days, God will pour out his spirit. And Peter goes on to say, this is that which the prophet Joel spoke of. Peter was in the last days. John was in the last days.
The author of Hebrew was in the last days as he wrote these things, as they wrote these things. Much of the confusion comes from the idea that a physical temple has to be rebuilt before Jesus comes back.
This is an idea, this idea is something that the New Testament knows nothing about. Many people are waiting for a third temple to be rebuilt, but the New Testament never mentions that once. In fact, the New Testament says much about a spiritual temple as a new covenant expression of the Christian's new life in Christ.
Jesus's completed redemptive work makes the need for a physical temple unnecessary and contrary to the redemptive principles of the new covenant. Why? For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
We have the temple living in our midst or they had the temple, Jesus, living in their midst. In fact, Jesus's ministry begins with the declaration that he became flesh and tabernacled among his people.
Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Lamb of God was what was sacrificed where? In the temple. He is the temple, John says, and the chief cornerstone, which means there is no longer a need for a physical temple made of stones.
And by extension, believers are as living stones being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Those in Christ are the true temple of God.
Paul tells us that in First Corinthians and Second Corinthians and Ephesians. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. So the new covenant brings with it not a physical temple, it brings a spiritual temple, yet we are physical bodies.
So it's not a physical building. The church is the body of Christ. We are the temple of the living God. Now, if you remember several weeks ago, we talked about the tabernacle in the wilderness. In fact, pastor talked about this on Sunday.
The tabernacle was where? Located in the center of all the people. And again, God was illustrating something to his people that he wanted to dwell in their midst. Jesus comes, he dwells within our midst.
Now he leaves and he says, I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit, a comforter to dwell within you. So we still have Christ in us, the hope of glory. God dwells among his people. There's no longer any need for a physical temple, nor any mention of a physical temple being rebuilt in the New Testament.
Okay, let's talk about when Jesus uses the term this generation. The new covenant brings with it the new temple of Christ and his believers, which would replace the physical temple of the old covenant system because it had become an abomination.
It would be left to them desolate and replaced by a covenant built on better promises and a sacrifice that would be made once for all. There's no longer a need to make sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice.
Jesus was sufficient. This might be difficult to determine except that Jesus told his disciples that their generation would see the events leading up to and including the judgment on Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple.
Each time Jesus uses the phrase this generation, he always uses it as a reference to the generation to whom he is speaking. There are no exceptions when you go through Matthew, Mark, and Luke when Jesus uses the term this generation.
Only in Matthew 24 do people take this and apply it to a future generation. Every other time he uses that term, it's clear that he's talking to the people whom he was addressing. This interpretive restriction on the meaning of this generation also applies to an evil and adulterous generation.
Jesus calls them an unbelieving and perverted generation, an unbelieving generation. Even when Jesus uses the phrase evil and adulterous generation, he's referring to that first century generation, not some undesignated future generation as the Jews post-Pentecost and beyond made clear.
They specifically say this in Acts 2 and Philippians 2 .15. It'll be a little bit clearer when we see this. Remember, the Pharisees say to Jesus, we wanna see a sign. Jesus answered, an evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign.
By Jesus saying that, that statement identified their generation as an evil and adulterous generation since they're the ones asking for a sign. They knew that he was addressing them. That's why they wanted to kill him.
Furthermore, Jesus then gives them the sign, the sign of Jonah the prophet. And when was the sign of Jonah the prophet fulfilled? It was fulfilled in their day. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
This is Jesus prophesying about his death, burial, and resurrection. He gave them the sign of Jonah to that evil and adulterous generation. They were that generation. Furthermore, the meaning of this generation throughout Matthew 12, verses 41 and 42, is used by Jesus to point out how their generation will be judged by the people of Nineveh and the queen of the south because someone greater than Jonah and Solomon is here.
When Jesus says is here, he was speaking about himself in that day since only those people living in Jesus' day could actually see the sign of Jonah, which was the resurrection of Jesus. He's identifying the generation who asked for that sign as the evil and adulterous generation upon who Nineveh and the queen of the south were gonna judge.
I think it's clear. Here's a list of every occurrence of generation and this generation in the gospels, and we can go through Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In each case, these verses describe events that apply to that first century generation.
And notice how many times Jesus uses the word you in the parallel passes in Luke 21. They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my namesake.
Now, did that happen? Absolutely. We have scripture that tells us that it happened. It happened to Paul. It happened to Peter. They were handed over. They were stoned, beaten, thrown in prison. Now, that's where we get the story with the Philippian jailer.
I mean, all these things happen. It happened to them, which Jesus says was you, meaning them. Luke 21, Matthew 24, Mark 13 are all parallel passages in that they describe the same set of events in the same period of time.
They all use the same language that indicates a fulfillment within the first century AD. Dispensationalists like Thomas Ice and Tim LaHaye, they write lots of books about this. They claim that Matthew 24, 34 should be read this way.
The generation that sees these things will not pass away till all is fulfilled. Now, notice that they substitute the for the near demonstrative this, which changes the focus of the passage from a specific generation, this generation, to any generation except the generation to whom Jesus was speaking.
That's ironic, huh? This always refers to something that is near, either in time or distance. The word this is what's called a near demonstrative. The use of you throughout Matthew 24 refers to the audience to whom Jesus was speaking, not some nonspecific future audience.
If Jesus wanted to designate a future audience in Matthew 24, 34, he would say this, that generation will not pass away until those things take place. Instead, Jesus says this generation. It's the difference between this generation and that generation.
When Jesus is addressing the people in front of him and says this generation won't pass away, he's talking about that generation. If he was talking and wanted to tell him about a future generation, he would have said that generation to come won't pass away until all these things take place.
Furthermore, Jesus would have used the term they instead of you. Instead of you will be put in jails, you would be flogged, he would have said they will be, they will be, pointing to a different set of people rather than the ones that were right in front of him.
Even with all the previous evidence, there are still those who try their best to circumvent what is obvious to the first readers of Matthew 24 and well-studied commentators and scholars. Consider the following comments on Matthew 24 by Henry Morris, a dispensationalist and a founding father of the modern six-day creationist movement found in his creationist-themed Defenders Study Bible which was published in 1995.
He says this, the word this is the demonstrative adjective and could be better translated that generation. That is the generation which sees all these signs, probably starting with World War I, shall not have completely passed away until all these things take place.
So what he's saying is that the events that Jesus spoke about haven't taken place. But Jesus was not talking about this generation, he was talking about that generation, a future generation, which sees all these signs.
And then he identifies what signs he's talking about, probably starting with World War I. Now we know World War I came and went, no second coming of Jesus. Then things started heating up for World War II.
Again, people predicted these are the end times, Jesus must be coming back, World War II comes and goes, still no sign of Jesus. This happens every single century when wars, famines, earthquakes take place, which are gonna take place until the end.
Mars describes the use of this as a demonstrative adjective. However, it's better designated as a near demonstrative adjective, identifying what generation will see the signs in the lead up to the destruction of the temple that took place when, 70 AD.
This refers to what is near in time or space, for example, this day, as opposed to that day. If I told you this day, this is gonna happen, as opposed to that day, when I say that day, that implies a future day.
This day means something soon. In Greek and English, the near demonstrative this is contrasted with the distant demonstrative that. So what is this? Matthew 24, 33 tells us what the audience, what audience Jesus had in view.
So you too, when you see these things, recognize that he is near right at the door. Now it's obvious and without any need for debate that the first you refers to those who ask the questions that led to Jesus's extended remarks.
Jesus identifies those who will see these things by using the term you. Who does Jesus say will see all these things? Certainly not a future audience. He says, so you too, when you see all these things.
The first you is obviously Jesus's present audience as is the second you. No one reading Matthew 24, 33 could conceive that either use of you by Jesus refers to an audience different from the audience to whom he was addressing.
It seems like common sense, right? If Jesus had a future generation in mind, he could have eliminated all confusion by saying, even so, they too, when they see these things, they will recognize that he is near right at the door.
Truly I say to you, that generation will not pass away until all these things take place. And that's not what the scripture reads, but that's what it should read if Jesus was pointing to a time in the distant future, not something that was right at hand.
The use of this confirms that the only generation in view is the one in Jesus's day. As Greek grammar books point out, the near demonstrative of this is always used in the New Testament to describe what is near in terms of time, place, or distance.
This is in the Learning New Testament Greek textbook. It says the demonstrative are of two kinds, near, this and these, and distant, that and those. The near demonstratives, as the name denotes, points to something or something near in close proximity.
They appear as the singular word this, and it's plural these. The distant demonstratives, as their name suggests, appear as that or those. So again, Jesus is using the words this and these, so it's a near demonstrative.
It's something that's going to happen soon. If he wanted to talk about something in the future, he would have used that or those. We can follow the way Matthew uses the near demonstrative this throughout his gospel to see that he has his present audience in view and not one in the distant future.
So in verse 690, he says, this way, 611, this day, this fellow, this news, this city, this place, this man, this people, this rock, this desolate place, this little child, this mountain, this stone, this image, this gospel, this generation, this woman, this night.
In every single one of those, Jesus is speaking, or Matthew is writing about something right in front of them. The only time people misuse the word this, because if I said this fellow, you would know I was talking about somebody standing right in front of me, except when people see this generation.
They think that this is some far off generation that was not present in the first century. And all it does, it's a contradiction to the term this. It's normal general use is as a near demonstrative. If we see it as a near demonstrative, we're gonna understand Matthew 24 much clearly and I think much more truthful.
In each of these cases, this refers to what's near. So let me ask you. If Jesus tells the disciples that these things will happen to this generation, and that the time is near, and that they would be hated and put to death, and that there would be wars, famines, false messiahs, that the temple would be destroyed, that Israel would fall, and that they would see the prophecy of Daniel fulfilled, and that this generation would not pass away until all these things take place, and then it all happens, why would anyone seek to push this off to a future date or generation of people and not see it as fulfilled?
It doesn't make any sense, honestly. Once you see that all of the things that Jesus predicted happened, then you understand that this was a fulfillment of something that was predicted, prophesied in the Old Testament, and is the end of the old covenant.
These things tie in perfectly and it's gonna change the way we live because right doctrine leads to right living. We're not gonna be pessimistic. We're not gonna look at the signs of the times and say, oh my goodness, the end is here.
We're not gonna cower. We're gonna be bold, okay? Is this a new interpretation of Matthew 24? No, this is not new or innovative at all. In fact, Clement, who was a disciple of John in the year 150 to 215, he says, Jesus confidently set forth plainly, as I said before, sufferings, places, appointed times, matters, limits, accordingly, therefore, prophesying concerning the temple.
He, meaning Jesus, said, see ye these buildings, verily I say to you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, which shall not be taken away. And this generation shall not pass until the destruction begin.
And in like manner, he spoke in plain words the things that were straightway to happen, which we can now see with our eyes in order that the accomplishment might be among those to whom the word was spoken.
So this is Clement of Alexandria saying Matthew 24 is a fulfilled event. That's in the second century he's saying that. John Chrysostom in the fourth century, but of wars in Jerusalem is he speaking, for it is not surely of those without and everywhere in the world, for what did they care for these?
And besides, he would thus say nothing new if he were speaking of the calamities of the world at large, which are happening always. For before this were wars and tumults and fightings, but he, meaning Jesus, speaks of the Jewish wars coming upon them at no great distance.
For henceforth, the Roman arms were a matter of anxiety. Since then, these things also were sufficient to confound them, for he foretells them all. He's talking about when Rome surrounded the temple, okay, surrounded Jerusalem, and as a fulfillment of Matthew 24.
This is John Chrysostom, fourth century. Then we have Eusebius. He was actually before John Chrysostom. And rather than read this whole thing in red, it says, these things took place in this manner in the second year of the reign of Vespasian in accordance with the prophecies of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Okay, so here's another early church father saying that Matthew 24 was fulfilled in the time of that generation. John Lightfoot, who is a Hebrew scholar and an excellent exegete, in fact, Pastor uses his commentary on the book of John as he's preaching through it.
And Lightfoot says, hence it appears plain enough that the foregoing verses, Matthew 24, one through 34, are not to be understood of the last judgment, but as we said, of the destruction of Jerusalem.
There were some among the disciples, particularly John, who lived to see these things come to pass with Matthew 24 and John 22. And there were some rabbis alive at the time when Christ spoke these things that lived until the city was destroyed.
So again, John Lightfoot is saying that these events happened during the time of the first century. Some more, Jonathan Edwards. I'm sure some of you guys heard of him, right? He says, it is evident when Christ speaks of his coming, his being revealed, his coming in his kingdom or his kingdom's coming, he has respect to his appearing in those great works of power and justice and grace, which should be in the destruction of Jerusalem, 70 AD, and other extraordinary providences which should attend it.
Again, he's looking at the prophecies in Matthew 24, Jesus's predictions as being fulfilled. Thomas Newton. It is to me a wonder how any man could refer to part of the foregoing discourse to the destruction of Jerusalem and part to the end of the world or any other distant event when it is said so positively here in the conclusion, all these things shall be fulfilled in this generation.
Thomas Newton thinks it's a foregone conclusion. These things took place already. John Gill, another Reformed Baptist pastor who has an excellent commentary. He says, this is a full and clear proof that not anything that is said before verse 34 relates to the second coming of Christ, the day of judgment and the end of the world, but that all belongs to the coming of the son of man in the destruction of Jerusalem to the end of the Jewish state.
He's looking at Matthew 24 and saying it's fulfilled. Henry Cowles, I don't know him too well. Some interpreters have construed the words this generation to mean this sort of people. In other words, the Jews or the wicked seeking to set aside its only legitimate sense, the men living at that time.
Such resting of Christ's words cannot be reprobated too severely. These are strong words from strong exegetes. John Brodius, this generation as in Matthew 23, 36, the word generation cannot have any other meaning here than the obvious one.
The attempts to establish for the sense of race or nation have failed. There are some examples in which it might have such a meaning, but none in which must for in every case the recognized meaning will answer.
So another sense is not admissible. So when Jesus says this generation, he means this generation, the people in front of him. Robert Bracter and Eugene Nida, Nida is one of the authors of the low Nida lexicon.
He says the obvious meaning of the words this generation is the people contemporary with Jesus. Nothing can be gained by trying to take the word in any sense other than its normal one. William Lane, now we're getting into more contemporary commentators.
William Lane is 1974. The significance of the temporal reference has been debated, but in Mark this generation clearly designates the contemporaries of Jesus. And there's no consideration from the context which lends support to any other proposal.
Jesus solemnly affirms that the generation contemporary with his disciples will witness the fulfillment of his prophetic word, culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem and the dismantling of the temple.
Even closer to us is D .A. Carson. He says this generation can only with the greatest difficulty be made to mean anything other than the generation living when Jesus spoke. Now D .A. Carson is a reformed exegete, a reformed theologian, and his commentary on Matthew is widely known as the best commentary on the market right now on the Gospel of Matthew.
And he is saying that it has to mean the generation in which Jesus was addressing. F .F. Bruce, 1983. He says the phrase this generation is found too often on Jesus' lips in the literal sense for us to suppose that it suddenly takes on a different meaning in the saying that we are now examining.
Moreover, if the generation of the end time had been intended, that generation would have been a more natural way of referring to it than this generation. R .T. France, who again did an excellent exposition of the Olivet Discourse, Matthew 24.
He says this generation has been frequently used in this Gospel for Jesus' contemporaries, especially in a context of God's impending judgment. It may safely be concluded that if it had not been for the embarrassment caused by supposing that Jesus was here talking about his parousia, no one would have thought of suggesting any other meaning for this generation, such as the Jewish race or human beings in general, or all generations of Judaism that reject him, or even this kind, meaning scribes or Pharisees or Sadducees, such broad senses, even if they were lexically possible, would offer no help in response to the disciples' question, when?
So when the disciples asked Jesus when these things are gonna happen, he says these things are gonna happen to you, you're gonna see wars, rumors of wars, you're gonna see famine, false messiahs, Christ, you're gonna see the Roman army surrounding the Temple in Jerusalem, and when you see those things, run to the hills, which is exactly what the early disciples did.
It happened in their generation. Okay, and finally, I think these are the last two. Paul Copan, who's a modern-day apologist who wrote some good stuff, he says in these passages, the coming, the Greek verb is ekomai, I come, is expected within Jesus' own adulterous and sinful generation.
Something dramatic would apparently take place in the near future, the people who Jesus was talking to. And Grant Osborne, who actually put out a new series of commentaries, he's a good exegete, he says this generation in the Gospels always means the people of Jesus' own time, not, as some have proposed, the generation of the last days in history, the Jewish people, the human race in general, or the sinful people.
So again, he's affirming that when Jesus was addressing the crowd in front of him, his disciples, when he said this generation, it meant the people that were directly in front of him alive in that generation.
Okay, so I told you we're gonna be a little bit shorter, so we're gonna do a quick overview recap. First, the timing of Matthew 24 is crucial because wrong timing leads to wrong and wild speculation. It leads to pessimism, it leads to despair, it leads us not to be optimistic about the kingdom, it leads us to be pessimistic about the kingdom.
Many people today use the word near to mean the end is near, but ironically, they reject Jesus' use of the word near, meaning near. People throughout all centuries have speculated that the end was near, and none of them have been right.
When you look at what Jesus said and see how it lines up with the destruction of the temple and the end of the old covenant, when Jesus said near, he meant near. When the book of Revelation said near, and it would happen soon, it was near and would happen soon.
Makes sense. Fulfilled prophecy today is being interpreted as if it were unfulfilled prophecy, right? This is the same, excuse me, the same mistake that the Jews made with the Messiah. They still think that the prophecies of the Messiah are future.
Meanwhile, we look back and we see that the prophecies of Messiah have been fulfilled in Christ, it was a past event. If we take the same hermeneutic and we use scripture to interpret scripture, we'll look at Matthew 24, we'll see that those things are fulfilled, and we could say that that happened in the past.
The scripture writers wrote that they were in the last days. Peter said it, Paul said it, the author of Hebrews said it, John said it. They were in the last days. John says, my fellow partakers in the tribulation, meaning the last days.
So they were talking about what? Not the last days of the entire earth or the universe. They were talking about the last days of the old covenant. We finally see that the old temple is replaced by a new temple, which is the people of God.
We see that the new covenant has been inaugurated, which means that the old temple was being, the old covenant was being made obsolete and fading away. This generation meant the generation that Jesus was speaking to.
He gave the sign of Jonah to this evil and adulterous generation. So again, Jesus identifies an evil and adulterous generation as one asking for a sign. He says, you know what? I'm gonna give you a sign.
Who did he give that sign to? This evil and adulterous generation, not a future generation. The term this is a near demonstrative as opposed to using the word that, which is a far off, a furthering, a future demonstrative.
Believing that the prophecies of Matthew 24 have been fulfilled is not a new view. This has been a view that Clement, who was a disciple of Polycarp, who, I'm sorry. Clement was a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of John.
This was Eusebius. They have early church fathers that talk about this and exegetes throughout all time since the first century have held this view. All right, so now the end is near for this presentation.
That's a pun. Jerry's supposed to laugh out loud. All right, let me get out of here now. Let me bring this back. Hey, Eric, do you know how to get my screen back here? How I can become the host? Did I put you to sleep, Eric?
Oh, wait, wait, stop share. Here it is.
Okay. So let me unmute. Can you hear me, Jerry? I can hear you. Okay. Any questions, thoughts? I did have one thought and it's more personal, but maybe somebody can relate. I was thinking back when I first became a Christian and thinking about why I viewed scripture as being specifically written to me.
Not that I'm not saying it wasn't specifically for me to learn from and direct me in my ways and everything, but I had this idea that everything that was written was being written to me. And I can see where that led me to look at some of these things in a wrong view, such as Matthew 24, because when I was taught and started to learn scripture, it was taught in such a way as this is speaking directly to you.
When in actuality, it's for us, it edifies us, but it wasn't written directly to us. It was written to the people of the time. And I think that possibly, and again, I'm speaking for myself, leads to a misunderstanding of scripture because we're constantly trying to say, well, how does this relate to me?
Which yes, we should in some ways, but not to the degree where everything all of a sudden is written to our time.
You know, that's a great point because a lot of times, we're told to take promises out of the Bible, hold on to your promise. But if that promise wasn't made to you, you're holding on to someone else's promise.
Yeah. We talked about last night, we saw somebody who used Jeremiah, I forget which it is. I know the plans that the Lord has for me, plans to prosper me, not to harm you, or promise you a hope and a future.
And I was explaining to my kids that was written to the Jews who were in exile. And it would be another 70 years before God's plan for them would unfold. So now we take that, or modern day people take that and say, oh, God is for me, not against me.
And they take it out of the context. The people who heard that, that he was writing that to, were gonna be in captivity for another 70 years. They needed to know that in the midst of that captivity, that God was still in their midst, working in and through them.
But it wasn't a situation where, oh, we're gonna live on a beach and we're gonna have all wonderful, nice things. They needed to know that God was still in the midst. The same way we need to know in the midst of this coronavirus and the things that are going on in this country, that God is still active and working in and through us to build his kingdom.
Right? So we need to not hold onto the promise in the wrong sense, but glean from that promise and recognize that God, there were times of despair throughout the whole Old Testament. There were times of despair once the new covenant started, right?
And we can, but God will build his, Jesus will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So, thank you, brother. Um, Joe, what happened here? Hold on. I'm trying to unmute you.
Hold on, Joe. Hey, Joe, your mic's not working.
Your mic's not working. There you go. Am I on now? Yes, you are. Okay. All right. A lot to take in. It was very good again. Okay. The one question I do have, and it's maybe just a misunderstanding or I just don't understand it at all.
The reference to Jonah, the sign of Jonah. Right. How does that fit in?
How does that tie in? Okay, so Jesus, Jesus, the Pharisees are asking Jesus for a sign to prove that he's the Messiah, right? Jesus tells them an evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, right?
He's identifying the Pharisees as that evil and adulterous generation. And he says, and now I'm gonna give a sign to this evil and adulterous generation, the sign of Jonah. The sign of Jonah is, you know how Jonah was in the belly of the gray fish for three days, three nights, and it was spit out on dry land?
Okay. Okay, the reference was made three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, Jesus. Right, exactly.
So to the Pharisees who were standing there, Jesus was gonna clearly be crucified, buried, and then rise again. Right. That was the sign. And he gave that sign to who? The evil, this evil and adulterous generation.
My point in putting that in there is when Jesus says this generation, okay, he means the generation to whom he's addressing, not a future generation, years and years and years away. Okay. Follow? So when the Pharisees say, we wanna see a sign, Jesus says, this evil and adulterous generation, you know, demands a sign.
An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but I'm gonna give it to you anyway. So he's identifying them as that evil and adulterous generation.
When you mean that, does that mean the Ninevites? Or? No, no, no, no, no, no. It has nothing to do with that, so I'm missing it. Yeah, no, no, no.
Okay. Jonah happened years and years and years before Jesus. All right? Obviously, yeah. Right, happened years before Jesus. So now the Pharisees are there. They know the story of Jonah. Jonah's one of the prophets.
They've read his writings. They know that he was in the belly of the fish for three days, three nights, and was spit out on dry land. Okay. Right, they know that. That was miraculous. Yeah. Jesus says, I'm gonna give you the sign of Jonah.
Now, they probably didn't know what that meant until his death, burial, and resurrection. He was in the heart of the earth three days, okay, and then rises from the dead. So the sign of the prophet Jonah was his resurrection from the dead, which he did in their generation.
Oh, okay. So he's identifying them as the generation to whom he was speaking to, not some future generation two, three, 4 ,000 years away. Okay. That make sense?
It does now. It does now. Okay, all right. Okay, thank you, Anthony. Oh, yeah, yeah, no problem, Joe. Hold on, let's see.
Where is, is Ms. Trish there? Yes, can you hear me? I can hear you, and I see a nice little picture of you and John up there.
I know, but I want to get live. I can't do it. That's a nice picture. Anthony. You don't want to see me now live?
I, whatever way you want.
I don't know how to do it, though. It must be that I can't do it on here. I don't know. But anyway, everything was good, and John said tonight, he said, okay, what are you doing on again? I said, this generation, he said, again?
Again? Well, we took, well, listen, it's all throughout Matthew 24, but I wanted to interlace it with the term you, this generation, the sign of the prophet Jonah. There's a lot of things that connect that whole thing, and then I wanted to show how people from every generation from the first century on have always looked at the signs and said, oh, this is the end, this is the end.
Yes. The end of the world. Every generation, it's the end of the world. It's the end of the world. Jesus is coming back, and he's near. It's gonna happen soon, and then it never happens. Right, right.
No, that's true. Right, so we need to go to the scripture, and scripture says Jesus is ruling and reigning until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet. Yes. Now, how are Jesus' enemies made a footstool of his feet?
They're made a footstool for his feet when the gospel is proclaimed and people come to know the Lord. Exactly. So if you want Jesus to come back, the goal is not to be apathetic and lazy and wait to get raptured out.
The goal is to be proactive, be bringing the kingdom on earth as it is now, sharing the gospel, bringing everything under the lordship of Christ, okay, and taking dominion of the world. Yep. Right? We should be, first of all, we should be the most joyful people on the planet knowing that we have eternal life.
Yep. We should be the boldest people on the earth knowing that we can't fail in that sense. We should be, because we're children of God, we should be seeking to do great things on the earth, to leave it better than we found it.
Yeah. We should be the best employees if we're working for somebody. We should be identified as, my goodness, these are a different kind of people, and we should live in such a way that somebody says, why are you living like this?
Right. Right, and then it's an opportunity, 1 Peter 3, 15, always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that lies within you, because we have this hope. We have this hope. Yeah. But when you start looking at the things that are going on in the world, Yeah.
And you start saying, oh, he's coming back soon, it does, and it starts putting you on a pessimistic view, you're not gonna go out and do these things.
Yes, like John was saying, what pastor was saying about the guy that he knew, and he said, oh, we're not gonna put that much money into the church because Jesus is coming soon. Yeah. Just waiting.
Right. Yeah, we can't be waiting, because Jesus is waiting, right? He's waiting until his enemies have made a footstool for his feet. Exactly, yep. So he's waiting for us. Right, exactly. We have to be active, and living the way we're supposed to, and actively advancing the kingdom.
Excellent, thank you, Anthony. Oh, thank you, no problem. Let's see, Mr. Bob. How you doing, Anthony? It was a good study tonight. Okay, a little shorter than the other one, right?
I really can't add anything to it, because you did a great job, and you really explained it very well. Okay, good, good, I'm glad.
I'm glad. All right, pal, let me talk to, how you doing, Gene? Oh, wait, he's, Gene?
I guess, oh, yeah. Sorry, sorry about that. I didn't realize I had to unmute myself. I thought you were doing it. No problem. How are you, my friend?
I'm doing good, how about you? Doing well, thank you. Excellent, did you have any comments, questions?
Well, once again, very thorough, very clear. Always appreciate your teaching, and the gift that God has given you. I mean, I have probably a ton of questions that would take us far afield from here, that might be better served that you and I maybe talk, like how this relates to Romans chapter 11, and Israel being saved and stuff like that.
I just had certain questions that I'm not clear on, but your teaching was very clear, and very informative, and much appreciated for all your efforts.
Oh, my pleasure. Well, listen, once this plague passes, maybe we can get together for breakfast or something. We'll go through these things. Sounds good, sounds good. Thanks for joining in, God bless.
You got it, yep. Let's see, Ms. Michelle, you just have to unmute yourself, there you go.
Thanks, it was excellent, Anthony. Thank you so much for everything. Our question is, can you explain when it reads, well, when you say, Jesus is waiting for his enemies to be a footstool for his feet.
I know it's figurative. Yes.
Can you explain it, please? Well, I think it's a reference to the, you know, the Ark of the Covenant that's in the Holy of Holies? Yes. Okay, the gold Ark that contains the manna, the Aaron's staff, and the 10 commandments, and you have the two cherubim that are facing each other.
That's called the mercy seat, okay? That's where God would speak to the high priest. So the mercy seat is what Jesus would sit on. His blood would be covered on the top of the mercy seat. It's figuratively his throne.
So if he's sitting on that, everything under his feet would be brought under his dominion. So figuratively, we're bringing everything under the dominion of Christ, okay? He's waiting for his enemies to be made a footstool for his feet, such that the gospel has been proclaimed.
It's going to do what it's supposed to do in their hearts. It's either gonna soften their heart and save them, or it's gonna harden their heart against him. But the gospel needs to be proclaimed. So he's waiting until the church grows the way it's supposed to.
We're supposed to take part in what's called the cultural mandate, right? We're supposed to be fruitful, multiply, guard the garden, expand the garden, love our neighbor. We're supposed to plant water, increase, build the kingdom.
So as the kingdom grows, okay, more of his enemies are being made a footstool for his feet. Make sense? Yes, thank you. Oh, you're welcome. Hi, Kiana.
Hello. How you doing? I'm good, how are you? Good, good, good, good. I just have one thing, and I kind of know the answer, just to verify. All of that, even though he wasn't talking to us specifically, I'm assuming he was just mentioning it to give us the principle of when he would come back for the second time, but I'm just kind of confused as to why it was being mentioned towards us.
Well, he wrote, Matthew wrote the gospel for our edification, right? It's telling the story of Jesus. Now, there were certain things Jesus did for certain people. John chapter nine, for instance, it was the man who was born blind, right?
And the Pharisees and the teachers are like, well, what sin did him or his parents commit that he was born like this, right? And Jesus comes along and says, it was for the glory of God that he was born blind because I'm gonna heal him, right?
Now, does that apply to every single person? Were all of us born blind? No, but we can glean from that story many, many theological truths, okay? We can understand that sickness or physical disabilities, okay, are not out of God's hands, they are in God's hands.
You may be born blind for God's glory so that he gives you sight and Jesus would get the glory for that. And it also tells us that you're not born blind because you've committed some heinous sin. I mean, that's what the book of Job is all about.
They kept saying, what did you do to tick God off to the point where your children are taken away, your animals are taken away, everything is taken away from you? And Job's like, I didn't do anything.
I'm righteous. I've always been faithful to God. And he says, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Now, does that have application to us? Sure. Does that teach us theological truths that we can apply to our situation?
Absolutely. I mean, I can look now in my life right now, especially with the plague going on, I can say, you know what? The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. He has a reason, a purpose and a plan in the midst of this to strengthen his church, right?
We know that those who are called by God, all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. So even in the midst of this, this is for the church's benefit.
This is not to hurt the church, right? This is designed to strengthen the church. We may not understand how, we may not understand why, we may understand why. I think, you know, the church at large has not done a good job in walking righteously.
I think we have one foot in the world, one foot in the church and God is shaking things up and saying, you cannot live like this. You cannot live like this. Why are abortion clinics not surrounded by Christians protesting, you know, the pro-choice position or I shouldn't say protesting, out there proclaiming the gospel, trying to save babies and talk people out of killing their own children.
Why do churches allow this to happen right in their backyard? Shouldn't that disgust us? You know, we read about Molech and how they would heat up the arms of the statue to red hot and then the people would put their babies on top of the red hot arms to kill them and in order to drown out the sounds of the crying baby, they would be playing music and banging drums so that you wouldn't hear the screams of the baby, right?
If we knew something like that was happening, wouldn't we stop it? We should, but it happens every single day at abortion clinics all across Long Island and no one is there trying to stop it. We have to be more vocal.
We have to stand up and stand for life, but we're not. We're allowing it to happen. We're allowing, you know, same sex marriage. We're allowing so many different things to happen. Now that stuff has even crept into the church.
So people are now affirming this lifestyle, which God calls an abomination. You know, we can't affirm that. Now it doesn't mean that we have to hate people who, you know, who are gay. We have to love them.
We have to reach out to them, but we have to reach out to them in such a way so that they know that we truly care about them and then we also share the truth with them so that they too can see what we see.
And when we do that, God uses the means to affect the ends.
Was there like a certain point in time where like sin became, started becoming more accepted in the church or was it just a gradual thing like throughout all of time? Because I feel like there was a certain like point in time where things like that wouldn't have been accepted like at all.
Like there would have been no toleration of that. And now like you said, it's having like gay pastors and things like that. So like where was like this crossover?
Well, I think sin has been there since Adam fell. The heart of mankind has always been wicked. There have been times when society has grown in maturity and holding Christian values. And then again, it starts to seep in and then it goes down.
I think there are peaks and valleys. There are peaks and valleys throughout all history. I think for the most part, from the time of Adam to now, we've gotten much better as a society in the world. That doesn't mean that everything that we're doing is good, but compared to the Middle Ages and the Dark Ages, and then compare that to the first 1 ,000 years of world history, we're doing better.
We're doing better. And I think, again, as Jesus builds his church and the church grows, things are going to get better over time. So that's what we have to fix our eyes on. Not the things that are seen, but the things that are unseen.
If we get busy and start doing what we're called to do, building the church, discipling the nations, things are gonna change. And then we don't have to constantly say, oh, the end is near, the end is near.
Just stick your head in the sand and hope he raptures you out of here.
Anthony. Anthony. Yes. Can I just say something to Kiana? You can. I think what she's saying is like, now it's just so accepted. It's in our faces, the sin. And so it's just like, deal with it. We're supposed to just deal with it and not say anything and not fight back.
Right. We're supposed to just, we're hateful if we say anything against what they're doing. It's my body, my choice. Same with the homosexuals. You're not allowed to speak up. You're not allowed to say anything in truth because they don't wanna hear it.
But that shouldn't stop us from saying it. They're gonna hate us. They hated Jesus. Right, yeah. Absolutely. But our job is to speak truth in love. Exactly.
Of course. And I think that it's, again, it's a progression. A little leaven spoils the whole lump, right? Yes, yes. So what happened? The church was doing good in the early 1900s during, let's say, the Puritan times when they came over here.
They were living more righteously than we live now. And then a little compromise, you starve. A little more, a little more, a little more. Like most people, they don't realize. Do you ever hear of the YMCA?
Yeah. Do you know what the YMCA stands for? Nobody does. It's a Young Men's Christian Association. Yeah, no, I knew that. Right, yeah, I'm talking to everybody. Oh, oh. That's okay. So the Young Men's Christian Association started off as an excellent organization that was going to disciple young men, that was gonna help them learn life skills and build friendships and stuff like that.
And it worked for a while until the government got involved and said, well, you can't discriminate against and you can't solely talk about Jesus. You gotta talk about all the different religions, stuff like that.
And now it's nothing of what it used to be. Right. So people start with good intentions. All the Ivy League schools were all founded on biblical principles. They were all founded on, there's a monument outside of Harvard built on the foundation of Jesus Christ.
How that, they don't even adhere to that anymore is beyond me. But again, it's a little leaven spoils the whole lump. So again, if the church was doing its job and we were living righteously, we would affect the people around us.
So really there's no one we can blame but ourselves. We have to get to work.
Yeah, I definitely understand. But Ms. Trish definitely said what was on my mind. Sometimes I have a hard time getting it out of my mind. But like she said, like how Christians are supposed to be loving and not do things in a hateful way, but we're seen as hateful to the world.
I feel like the more I, I don't know, speak of what I believe, it's seen as hateful and that's the opposite of what I'm trying to show. Like I'm trying to show love. But if I say that being gay is wrong, then it's hateful and religion is not an excuse, but that's not like what I'm trying to.
So then sometimes that kind of leads to me just wanting to be quiet because I'm just like, I don't wanna hurt anyone's feelings. Like that's not what I'm here for. But I'm not gonna not believe what I believe because I'm trying to please you either.
Yeah, listen, you have to be shrewd as a serpent and innocent as a dove, right? You know, maybe this is an opportunity if you're in a crowd of people to befriend some of those people who hold views opposite than you, you know, spend time with them, let them get to know you.
And then it might be an opportunity for you to share your faith. Now you don't have to bring up homosexuality right away. You could talk about lying, stealing, lusting with your eyes, hating somebody with your heart, blaspheming God's name.
You know, God isn't gonna come and just wipe out all the homosexuals. He's gonna wipe out sinners of which we all are. So the moment we start saying, I'm here and you're here, you know, then we're starting to elevate ourselves above everyone else.
What we have to do is say, I'm down here. I'm the chief of sinners. I recognize my sinful state. Take homosexuality off the table. Everyone is lied. Everyone is stolen. Everyone's used God's name in vain.
Everyone's committed murder in their heart, right? No one puts God first in every single area of their lives, but that's what we're called to do, right? Then maybe you can direct them to the scriptures.
You know, God's word is gonna do a work in their heart, which is gonna help. Thank you. Oh, you're welcome, Kiana.
Thanks for hanging in. Wiz, hi, Ro. Hi, how you doing? I'm doing good. How about you? Well, you know, Anthony, I have some issues. Yeah, okay. I was, I just think differently and I don't wanna be, I don't wanna interrupt anything, you know?
Okay. I just have a couple when I believe that scripture, it says that it's God breathed and it's for all of us to interpret for ourselves. I believe that. God speaks to me through his word. It also says that it sets out to do what it, you know, what it, the Lord sends it out to accomplish what it's supposed to do.
And so, you know, I think that's one of the things and it says no matter how many promises that God's made, they are yes in Christ. And so in him, the amen is spoken by us to the glory of God. So I'm not saying, I'm not saying I'm a name it and claim it person, because that I don't, do not believe that that's pushing God, that's ruling over God.
And I don't believe that, but I'm just saying that I've had his promises that were yay and amen to me and they've worked in my life. So I believe all scripture is God breathed and it's for us to interpret.
If God is speaking to us about it, it does apply, you know, not all of it does, but I believe that we have to look at it. Lord, what are you saying to me? As I, as we read it, that's my opinion. So I'm just saying, so I'm just having a problem, but you know, I came from another way of learning.
It's just new and different, very different. Yeah, no, no,.
I understand. I mean, look, I'm sure you and I both know people who have grabbed onto promises that were not for them. No. And they're holding onto something that, you know, that's not gonna help them.
It could actually discourage them. So when I read the scriptures, I look at Romans eight and that's a great encouragement to me because it says, all things work together for good for those who love God.
So if I'm fired from my job, is that a good thing? No. But is God working it for my good? Yes. He has a purpose and a plan in the midst of whatever that is for my benefit. I may not be able to see it.
Okay. I can't see the big picture, the way he sees it. I'm looking at one small tiny piece of it and saying this hurts, but I trust the God who's made promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Moses, Adam, and those promises were all yes and amen in Christ.
So I look at the New Testament and say, yeah, no matter what happens to me,.
God is for me, not against me. Exactly. I believe that. I believe that. And I feel like it limits God in a way where his word is not extending because history took place. It's not extending to us and the future because God's word is yesterday, today, and forever to me.
And so I have a problem with putting that in that kind of category. Right.
But Ro, you would tell Jews that Jesus is the Messiah, right? Absolutely. But what if they said, well, we believe the Old Testament prophecies haven't been fulfilled yet. We believe it's future.
Yep. But it wasn't revelation to them yet. Not revelation to them yet. It's true that Jesus is Messiah, but they're not there yet. They're not there in their head.
Right. That's my point. If they decided to throw it off to a future date and you're looking and you're showing them the scriptures, look, Jesus is the fulfillment of these scriptures. He comes on the scene.
He dies according to the scriptures. He's buried. He raises, comes back to life according to the scriptures. This is the Christ, right? That's the same thing I'm saying. When you look at Matthew 24 and you see all the things that Jesus said and they all come true, how could you now say that wasn't the fulfillment of it?
That's my point. So I used, Jews who reject the Messiah in a parallel way to show like they're putting those prophecies off to the future. Some point in time in the future, when the Messiah will come, we look and say, no, that's a past event.
The new covenant is now. We're in it now. The old covenant is gone. But I still believe in my heart that there are future things like Of course.
Of course. He's going to come back finally. There's gonna be one last time when he comes back. Of course. All I'm saying is Matthew 24 is not it. That was done.
I understand what you're saying. I get it. I understand what you're saying. So I appreciate you putting up with me. Oh, bro. Kid, you're kidding me? I love you. Work this out and see how it It's nice to meet you.
Thank you all for listening. Send Pete my love too, by the way. Thank you so much. You're welcome.
Hey, Emily, you out there? Hi, I'm here. Hi, Em. How are you? Good, good. Did you have any questions, concerns?
No, I just wanted to make a comment. First of all, I did a great job, as always. Thank you. Just how you stressed the this and the that generation. It shows how important it is to not look over those little words in scripture.
Because it's easy to just read it, but then when you stop and you look at each word, it really changes the context of it. So I just wanted to point out that.
No, that's a really good point. And sometimes we read over those things so quickly, we don't even give them a second thought. And you're right, they are pertinent. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thanks for hanging in, Em.
Yeah, of course. You're welcome. Let's see. You got anything there, Mike?
All right. No, no, there was, of course, another great study. I looked up enemies of a footstool and I have it here. And I think for Michelle, I think she was looking for a more simplistic answer. And if I could just read it, it's real short.
It just says, God declares to him to sit and that he will make their enemies his footstool. It is God who will bring his enemies to submission to himself and to the king. Thus, the footstool has the image of ruling or domain over a group of people.
And then this is really where it hits home. Thus, the enemies of God, excuse me. Thus, the enemies of God will have to bow before the king. Excellent. Yep, absolutely. When I read this, I mean, I sort of knew, I got the gist, but I couldn't explain it.
But when you look it up like this, it's really, I don't know if that helps.
No, no, that's terrific. When you're talking about submission and bending the knee, everybody's gonna stand before God one day, Jesus, and bend the knee. It's just a matter of time. Are you gonna do it now in this life while you can?
Or are you gonna do it after you die because you have to? Everybody's gonna be brought into submission. And that's what I meant by the creation mandate. Adam was commanded to take dominion over the world.
And you used an excellent word, submission. When we take dominion, it's getting everything to submit to God and bring everything under the rule and reign of Christ. So submission is a good word. And that's what we have to do.
We have to come to God on his terms, not our own. And so many times people think that they can come to God however they want. Now they can come to God however they are because we're all sinners, but you have to come to him on his terms.
It's unconditional surrender. This isn't a bargaining agreement. You don't go to God and say, well, if you give me this, I'll give you that. It's like, no. Jesus says, I'm buying you. You were bought with a price.
You are not your own. Now you're under my rulership, my dominion, and everything I command you to do, you have to do. But everything that he commands you to do, you want to do because you understand this is the loving king, the God of the universe, who sacrificed his son in your place for his glory and your benefit.
So it becomes the desire of your heart. But that's great. That's a good definition. I would recommend, write this down, Psalm 2. Read Psalm 2 tonight or tomorrow, and you'll see one of the things it talks about, God the Father, God the Son, and the Spirit, and the people raging against him and his eventual rulership over them they're going to submit.
But good looking up that definition. Well, great, great job again. Okay, you got it. You up there, Eric? Hey, Eric, you up there?
You got to unmute your thing. I can't do it. Hello? I clicked the microphone, then I had to pop up a window. There you go. There you go. Did you have anything to add? Yes, I do, actually. I don't have any questions, but I just have some stuff.
Go ahead, please. So when Peter was talking and he said the end of all things is at hand, he was speaking to the Jewish people, and the end of all things did happen in 70 AD. Their nation, their entire way of life, worshiping at the temple, it was all done, it was gone.
So it was the end of all things. It didn't necessarily have to mean like the world was going to blow up or something. Right. And then I just thought of, when you were bringing up all the people that predicted the end, Harold Camping, because that happened fairly recently.
Yeah. You had to change his date, too. And then that other guy you were bringing up, Edgar Wiesenthaler. Wiesenthaler. Yeah. Apparently he was more perfect than the Bible, but yet he made a mistake. I don't know why anybody went to the Bible for the second year when he changed it.
And the people who claim that the word this is that, I mean, do they have any reason they say the Greek should be that way?
Or do they just say it? They're speculating because they believe that Jesus is talking about the final coming of the Son of Man. I think it comes from a misunderstanding of Daniel chapter seven, when it says, we're gonna watch the Son of Man coming to the Ancient of Days.
Again, that's an ascension, not a descension. So when they hear Jesus saying, you're gonna see the coming of the Son of Man, they immediately think it's his coming from heaven to earth. From Daniel's perspective, it's from the perspective of heaven, seeing the Son of Man coming to the Ancient of Days.
He's coming up. So if they don't understand that or misinterpret that, they're gonna see it as Jesus coming down. And according to them, he didn't physically come down in 70 AD. And we would say, right, he didn't physically, but he came in judgment.
Spiritually, he was there and definitely, brought judgment upon Jerusalem.
