WWUTT 1710 Q&A Overturning Roe, Books on Demons, Why Study End Times

WWUTT Podcast iconWWUTT Podcast

10 views

Responding to questions from listeners about good books on angels and demons, Rick Warren's bloviating nonsense, and why we should study eschatology. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!

0 comments

00:00
If Roe vs. Wade is overturned today, what do we do next? What's a good extra -biblical book on demons?
00:09
And why do we need to study end -time stuff anyway? The answers to these questions when we understand the text.
00:25
This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.
00:40
Thank you, Becky, who is not with me this week. She had a migraine yesterday, so we sent
00:46
Becky to bed. And by we, I mean me and the kids, and also our friend
00:52
Sonya, who came and cooked a wonderful dinner for us last night. So Sonya cleaned up, told
00:58
Becky to go to bed, I got the kids to bed, and then after they were in bed, I came back down here to my office where I am responding to questions that are sent to us by the listeners.
01:08
And you can send your questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. I'll read some emails here in just a moment.
01:16
But first, today could be the day that we're going to hear the
01:22
Supreme Court decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, and the
01:29
Supreme Court expected to side with Dobbs in that case, which will overturn Roe v.
01:35
Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, previous Supreme Court decisions that uphold the right to abortion on demand.
01:43
Now, what is Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health? You've probably heard about this case. You're going to hear a
01:49
Supreme Court opinion on it today, perhaps. What is this? Well, in 2018, Mississippi passed the
01:56
Gestational Age Act, which prohibits abortions after 15 weeks, except for in cases of medical emergency or severe fetal abnormality.
02:06
So this wasn't a total ban on abortion. Nonetheless, when the
02:12
Supreme Court rules on this, they're going to say that the states have the right to determine abortion laws for that state, and Roe v.
02:21
Wade is not going to be a federal decision that therefore dictates for all 50 states what they have to do with regard to defending the lives of unborn children.
02:33
So when the Supreme Court rules on Dobbs v. Casey and sides with Dobbs, that's what we're expecting to happen because of the leak that had taken place a couple of months ago.
02:43
The leak that was released early that revealed that the conservatives of the
02:49
Supreme Court were going to side with Dobbs, which would undo Roe v. Wade. So that's what we're expecting the decision to be today.
02:57
And when the Supreme Court releases that opinion, it will overturn Roe v. Wade. It doesn't mean that abortion ends.
03:04
It means it gets handed back to the states. Now, some states have in place what are called trigger laws.
03:10
And the moment that Roe v. Wade is overturned, the trigger laws go into effect.
03:17
Now, some trigger laws protect abortion at every single phase of pregnancy, like in New York state, for example.
03:26
So if Roe v. Wade gets overturned, well, you can still have an abortion in the state of New York.
03:32
The murder of unborn children will continue there from conception to the moment of birth.
03:40
Like every single stage of pregnancy, a woman could get an abortion in the state of New York.
03:45
But then there are other states where there are trigger laws that ban abortion. So the moment
03:51
Roe v. Wade is overturned, the trigger laws in those conservative states will go into effect and abortion will be outlawed in that state.
03:59
But Christians, we're still going to have to work in our respective states to protect the lives of unborn children.
04:05
And even if we accomplish that, even if in your own state, you manage to make the murder of unborn children illegal, praise
04:13
God, if that happens to be the case in your state. But there is still a need for the gospel. Just because we've accomplished that doesn't mean we've saved souls.
04:21
We've saved lives. But the souls still need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Abortion is such a culture of death in the
04:30
United States of America because people love the flesh. They love sexual immorality.
04:35
And then the sacrifice of their sexual immorality has been the has been millions of unborn children over 60 million unborn children since Roe v.
04:44
Wade was passed in 1973 have been sacrificed on the altar of convenience because of people who had pleasure in unrighteousness.
04:53
They sacrifice children to their sex gods. We need to be preaching the gospel, telling the people to turn from sin.
05:01
And those who have had an abortion, they are guilty of murder. Men who have driven women that they got pregnant down to the abortion clinic.
05:10
They are complicit in murder, abortion doctors that have committed thousands, some of them tens of thousands of murders.
05:17
And they will face judgment before God if they don't repent of their sin and turn to the
05:23
Lord Jesus Christ. And by faith in Jesus, their sins will be forgiven. Even if they've killed tens of thousands of babies,
05:31
Christ will forgive their sin, cleanse them of all unrighteousness. This person with the
05:36
Holy Spirit in their heart will recognize I deserve death tens of thousands of times over because that's how many lives
05:43
I've taken. And yet God shows mercy and grace to me by the blood of the cross of Christ.
05:49
We must be preaching the gospel. It's not enough to save infant lives, though we must certainly be doing that.
05:55
But we need to see that eternal souls have the opportunity to hear the gospel of Christ.
06:03
So they turn from their sin to Jesus and are forgiven these deplorable evils that have been happening in the
06:10
United States of America. Lord God, please give the Supreme Court justices wisdom in this and give other judges in the
06:19
United States courage to defend the lives of unborn children.
06:25
Forgive us our sins. And may we be bold to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ in the midst of a crooked and depraved generation.
06:33
In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Now, I do believe that the leftists, the Democrats, are going to respond to this with outrage.
06:43
It's going to make the George Floyd riots pale by comparison. They've not been this mad since slavery was abolished.
06:53
But we should not shrink in fear at however the left responds. We must continue to stand on the truth.
07:00
The Bible says that life begins at conception and ends at natural death.
07:06
And so we need to defend these unborn lives that are made in the image of God.
07:12
That they are protected with the same constitutional rights that you and I have. They deserve those rights just as you and I receive those rights.
07:21
And so let us defend the lives of unborn children. To speak up for the mute. Defending the rights of the poor and needy as it says in Proverbs chapter 31.
07:31
And who is more poor and needy in our culture today than unborn children?
07:37
Who is in more need of protection than they? May Roe v.
07:42
Wade come to an end today. Make it so Lord. Today also means that there are eight days left in the fundraiser for the documentary cessationist.
07:52
Becky and I talked about this documentary last week. It's made by the creators of Logic on Fire. I think last week
07:58
I said it was made by the creators of Man on Fire. Not the Denzel Washington film.
08:03
The documentary about Martin Lloyd Jones. That was Logic on Fire. Calvinist, that was
08:09
Les Lanphier's baby. And Spirit and Truth. They have joined forces to tackle this important subject, cessationist, about how the miraculous apostolic sign gifts have come to an end.
08:23
And it features great Bible teachers including Phil Johnson, Jim Osmond, Justin Peters, Conrad Mbewe, Andrew Woodward, and many others.
08:36
If you go to Kickstarter and you look for cessationist, it should come up for you.
08:42
And if you're able to donate, that would be great. If you can give 20 bucks, that's all you can give, that's awesome.
08:48
If you can give a little bit more than that, even better. There's eight days left, we're over 80 % funded.
08:54
So just about $20 ,000 left to go and the project will be fully funded. If you give a lot of money, there's even like some great kickbacks you can get.
09:03
Some mugs, t -shirts, stickers, I think even a guarantee of they'll mail you a
09:09
DVD when it comes out. Anyway, you can get all that information there. Go to kickstarter .com,
09:15
look for cessationist, and give a donation if you are able. If they don't get to the full funding, like if it doesn't become fully funded in the next eight days,
09:26
I think they lose every pledge, isn't that right? They would have to start the drive over again.
09:33
That would be terrible. If they got to like $98 ,000 and didn't get it to the full $100 ,000, which is what they need to finish the project.
09:40
Anyway, yeah, go check it out, read about it. There's a trailer there that you can watch, features some of the clips that they've recorded with teachers that they've talked to.
09:50
I'm in there. I don't know why they wanted to talk to me, but I'm in there and have had some great text exchanges with David Lovey, who is one of the producers of cessationist.
10:01
I do hope it gets funded. It should be a great project. If you enjoyed the Calvinist documentary that was done, how long ago was that?
10:08
Five, six years ago? Then you should love cessationist as well. All right. Now let's get to our questions here.
10:15
And once again, you can submit questions to when we understand the text at gmail .com.
10:21
This first question comes from Julio. He says, hello, do you have a recommendation for a good book besides the
10:27
Bible that talks about demons and how Christians can help casting them?
10:34
I love your podcast. God bless you and your family. Well, thank you so much for that,
10:39
Julio. I've only read three books that have to do with angels and demons, apart from some other systematic theology books where it will show up in those books, things like that.
10:51
But three books that are focused on that particular topic. One of them I read just as a research project, and that was
10:58
Michael Heiser's book on demons. I don't recommend that book. He relies heavily on extra biblical sources, not as much on what the
11:06
Bible says. And he takes those extra biblical sources and reads them into the
11:11
Bible like we understand the Bible based on that extracurricular citation, which is the wrong way to go about that.
11:19
So I don't recommend Heiser's books. They're like the number one most recommended books when it comes to learning about angels and demons.
11:27
He gets a lot of stuff wrong. So avoid Michael Heiser. It won't help you in rightly understanding angels and demons from a biblical perspective.
11:37
It'll lead you into all kinds of myths rather than in the truth. Another book that I read, and this is the one that I have enjoyed the most.
11:46
It's a book entitled God, Satan and Angels, and it was written by John MacArthur.
11:51
It's a small book. I picked it up at a thrift store.
11:56
I think it was the very first book of John MacArthur's that I ever bought. I had his books gifted to me.
12:04
I had John MacArthur books, but they were books that people gave to me. God, Satan and Angels, I think, was the first one
12:11
I ever bought. And I found it at a thrift store, picked it up. It's just, I don't know,
12:16
I don't think it was 200 pages. Pretty simple little book and filled with biblical citations on what we need to understand about spiritual principalities and the like.
12:28
I don't think that book is in print. I think you have to find a used copy of it in order to pick it up.
12:34
I don't think that's one of the ones you can, at least I'm not familiar with any updated versions of that, but look for it if you can.
12:42
On eBay, Amazon might have it. You know how some people give away used books or they'll sell used books pretty cheap.
12:49
I take that back. They tend to mark them up. When they're rare books, they get really expensive.
12:56
Anyway, just look around, poke around on the Internet. Perhaps you'll be able to find it.
13:01
Maybe you could even contact Grace to you and they might send you a PDF of it or something like that. I don't know. And then the third book that I've read on Angels and Demons.
13:11
Well, it wasn't even a it wasn't a nonfiction book. It was a fiction book.
13:17
It was Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness. I can't remember if I read Piercing the Darkness, too.
13:23
I think I only read This Present Darkness. But of course, that one was big back in the 80s. It was like Christian horror fiction.
13:29
When you're reading about spiritual warfare, the stuff that's going on around us, we can't see it. But there's angels and demons with swords and they're fighting each other and all this.
13:37
And that's not really what's going on. That's how we picture in our minds spiritual warfare.
13:43
But that's not really what spiritual warfare is like. Did you read your Bible and pray today?
13:48
Then you've done spiritual warfare. Were you tempted by something, but you took that thought captive and you didn't give into it?
13:55
You've done spiritual warfare. Have you prayed about the Supreme Court's decision that they're going to be releasing later today concerning Dobbs versus Jackson?
14:05
If you've prayed about that, you've done spiritual warfare today. That's what spiritual warfare is like.
14:13
It's not these angels and demons that are fighting all around us. It's what we do when we submit to Christ and his word.
14:21
And we desire to grow in holiness and godliness day by day, putting off the desires of the flesh and having a mind that is being renewed to be like the knowledge of our creator, as it says in Colossians 3 or in Romans 12 .2.
14:38
Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
14:44
That's spiritual warfare. When we submit ourselves to Christ, we turn away from sin and desire to walk in righteousness.
14:51
We are fighting against those principalities in the heavenly places, heavenly places
14:57
I use loosely, like the spiritual forces of darkness that are attempting to wage war against our souls.
15:05
But we have nothing to fear of the power of those principalities, because if we are in Christ, we are secure in his hand, as it says in John 10, and nothing will snatch us out of his hand.
15:19
We will not lose our salvation if we are in Christ's hands. He will hold us near.
15:25
He will hold us dear. We are safe and secure from all alarms as we sing in the old hymn, leaning on the everlasting arms.
15:36
Now, Julio, in your question, you said, what can I read about demons and how
15:42
Christians can help casting them? It sounds like you're asking for how do
15:47
I learn how to do an exorcism? Well, let me read to you something here that Jesus said in Luke chapter 11.
15:53
I'm going to begin reading in verse 24. Jesus said, when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest and not finding any, it says,
16:05
I will return to my house from which I came. When it comes, it finds it swept and put in order.
16:13
Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there.
16:19
And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Now, it happened that while Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast at which you nursed.
16:35
But Jesus said to her, on the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.
16:45
So how can you avoid these schemes of Satan, the torments of the demons that would come against us?
16:53
How do we fight against those things? We know the word of God and we keep it. We hear
16:59
God's word and we do what it says. Let's say that you are successful at doing an exorcism.
17:06
I've never done one. I don't even know how to teach you to do one, but let's say you're successful at doing it.
17:12
If the person you've cast a demon out of does not come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that person is just going to be tormented again.
17:19
And the state of that person is going to be worse than if you would never cast out the demon at all, based on what we're reading here from Christ in Luke chapter 11.
17:28
So the only way that we can fend off Satan and his minions is to know the word of God, to believe in it, to worship
17:38
Christ, to do what he has said. And when we do that, we draw near to God and the devil flees from us.
17:46
As it says in James chapter 4, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
17:52
Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. So that's how we avoid the possession of demons,
18:01
I suppose. And I do believe that possession still happens today. People do become demon possessed.
18:07
I do believe that. But the only way that a person can be saved from that kind of torment by Satan or any of his demons is to come to the
18:17
Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit will come into a person's heart. When they put faith in Jesus Christ, the
18:23
Holy Spirit comes into the heart and ransacks the place, will drive off everything that Satan is attempting to do with that person.
18:31
By the power of the spirit that is within us, Satan has no hold on us.
18:36
He has no claim on us. We are Christ's. And again, nothing can snatch us out of his hand.
18:45
I hope that's helpful to you, Julio. I recommend reading some passages. Go to James 4.
18:51
Start with that today. Go to James 4 and read that and then check out that book from John MacArthur if you're able to find a copy.
18:59
Let's go on to this next question. This is from Chris. He says, Pastor Gabe and Becky. I'll pass this on to Becky since she's not here.
19:05
I just can't get over Rick Warren's hubris. Yeah, if you didn't listen to last week's episode, we played the bloviating speech that Rick Warren gave from the floor of the
19:16
Southern Baptist Convention in Anaheim last week. Anyway, Chris goes on. I do not follow the man because I know how terribly corrupt his teaching is.
19:25
Purpose driven. Anything from him is nothing more than pragmatic self -help drivel.
19:31
You're absolutely right about that, Chris. He goes on to say Rick sounds like a Southern Baptist Donald Trump boasting of himself, touting statistics that pump his ego.
19:40
One notable word he consistently used. I, I did. I built.
19:46
I have. I made. So much self aggrandizing dog vomit.
19:52
Nothing about what Christ has done. How does he know every one of those people he claims to have baptized continue in the faith they said they professed?
20:02
He's clearly a pragmatist who only cares about numbers. Same as Steven Furtick. He doesn't truly care about souls.
20:09
What a sick, sick man. May he be brought low and granted repentance because it is evident that his soul is in danger because of his false idea of the gospel.
20:21
Thank you for sharing that, Chris. Indeed, it's true. And we've warned about Rick Warren for years. One of the first teachers that I was warning about when
20:30
I had any kind of internet platform at all, one of the first teachers I was warning about was Rick Warren. The purpose driven stuff has been incredibly damaging to so many churches.
20:40
And unfortunately, I've been a part of peddling it in the past. I've repented of that.
20:45
The Lord has forgiven me. But I've been a part of churches and ministries that were handing out copies of the purpose driven life.
20:53
The first line in that book. And you'll hear Rick say this all the time. Anytime he opens his mouth to talk about the purpose driven life, he'll say something about the first line in that book.
21:01
The first few words in the book are these. It's not about you. But if you were to take that line out of the book, you would not get that impression from the rest of the book.
21:11
The rest of the book is self -help drivel. That's exactly what it is. There's nothing in there about turning from sin or attempting to convict a person over the wickedness and evil that they have done in rebellion against God.
21:25
That's not in the book. There's a very simple, fluffy prayer.
21:30
Like if you say, Jesus, I believe in you and I receive you. That's the extent of the prayer in the purpose driven life.
21:35
And if you just pray that, then you have been welcomed into the family of God. But if there's no understanding of your sin, of the judgment of God that you deserve because you've sinned against God, then you don't know that you need a savior.
21:48
You can pray that prayer, but you have no idea what Jesus has saved you from. Maybe you just think he saved you from a religionless, meaningless life.
21:56
And so now I believe in Jesus and I have religion and I have meaning. Well, you don't have salvation and you don't have
22:02
God. You need to be saved from the wrath and judgment of God that is burning against you because of your rebellion against God.
22:11
He is holy. You are not. You can't get to God. Even your best deeds are as filthy rags before a holy
22:19
God. Isaiah 64 6. So what is the holiness that we need in order to get back into a right relationship with God?
22:29
It's Jesus Christ. Jesus is our access to God. He is our fellowship with God.
22:35
He is our salvation from the judgment of God. And we go from being the objects of his wrath to the objects of his love and mercy.
22:42
When we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, when we understand he died on the cross for our sins as an atoning sacrifice, he rose again from the grave for our justification so that by faith in him, we will not perish, but we will have everlasting life.
23:01
Not a message you're going to hear from Rick Warren. He wants to be as unoffensive as possible, even to the point that he's going to tell a
23:09
Muslim that we worship the same God as the Muslims worship. And yes, Rick Warren has said that.
23:15
I said that on social media recently, that Warren has said that and somebody fired back at me and quoted something.
23:23
I think they even cited an article where Warren said, no, I never said that. The Christian God is not the same as the
23:30
Muslim God. But then I could show him an article where Rick Warren said exactly that. This is part of the whole pragmatic thing, where he's going to tell whatever audience he needs to tell them to please that audience.
23:44
So if a group of Christians are offended by the fact that Rick Warren has said that Muslims worship the same God as Christians do, well,
23:51
Rick Warren is going to assure those Christians, no, that's not what I really believe. And you misunderstood me because that's not what I said.
23:56
But then he's going to go back to that Muslim group and he's going to say, we worship the same God. So we need to be working together in these causes, these things that we do in the world.
24:04
He has a very social gospel that he pushes, not the true gospel of the
24:09
Bible. So anyway, all coming back to the fact that I've warned people about Rick Warren for years, and it was just extremely disappointing to see how received he was at the
24:22
Southern Baptist Convention. I guess, you know, I guess there was part of me in my mind that was like, see, we've been warning about Rick Warren for 20 years.
24:31
Surely enough people in the Southern Baptist Convention know this by now. Nope. But the people applauded him because Rick Warren was just feeding them exactly what they wanted.
24:41
They believe the same way that he believes. That's why they applauded him. That's why Stephen Furtick exists in the
24:47
Southern Baptist Convention. It's why Ed Young Jr is there. It's why David Hughes, Church by the
24:54
Glades and all the nonsense that he does has never preached the gospel either. A lot of these mega churches, most of the really big
25:02
Southern Baptist churches are not preaching the gospel. They are peddling this pragmatism.
25:09
They're entertaining goats and unbelievers rather than preaching the gospel of Christ, teaching the word of God, growing the church in righteousness and godliness and Christ likeness.
25:21
That's not what the majority of these big Southern Baptist churches are doing. It's not what the majority of Southern Baptist churches are doing.
25:28
So everybody applauded Rick Warren in the bloviating speech that he gave because they like it.
25:34
That's what we want. But we need to understand what the scripture says.
25:39
I'm going to come back to James four, just as I recommended to you, Julio, let me come to James four here where it says in verse four, you adulterous is, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?
25:53
Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world sets himself as an enemy of God. Or do you think that the scripture speaks to no purpose?
26:02
He jealously desires the spirit which he has made to dwell in us, but he gives a greater grace.
26:10
Therefore, it says God opposed the proud, but he gives grace to the humble be subject.
26:18
Therefore, to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.
26:26
Cleanse your hands, you sinners and purify your hearts. You double minded be miserable and mourn and cry.
26:34
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the
26:40
Lord and he will exalt you. And that's what
26:46
Rick Warren needs to do. But it's what we all need to do. We all need to check our own pride.
26:52
We need to humble ourselves before God. And at the proper time, he will exalt us.
26:57
Thank you for your comments, Chris. Let me get to one more here. This is from Robert. He says, God bless you,
27:04
Hughes family. Congratulations on God blessing you with another family member. I know
27:10
I'm late, he says, but I never email. So here's my genuine personal congrats. Thank you so much,
27:15
Robert. And if there are any new listeners that have come in in just the last few months, we had a baby in September of last year.
27:22
So he's coming up on 10 months old now, nine months old as of June 1st.
27:28
And when we get to July 1st, he's 10 months old. Hard to believe how fast this kid is growing.
27:33
But yes, we are certainly blessed by God by this little bundle of joy. All the kids love him.
27:40
I mean, it's just like it's like we've never been a family of less than seven. It's always felt that way.
27:47
Every time we've added a new kid, it feels like our family's always been this big. You can't ever remember what it was like when we were one less than this.
27:55
So Zeke comes along and he just becomes he's just right in there with us. The family has always been seven people.
28:05
We love the blessings that God has bestowed upon our family. And we thank you, Robert. So he goes on to say, thank you for all the wisdom and knowledge you've helped me sort through for all the years
28:15
I've heard of you through podcasts and YouTube videos. May you always be blessed. Respectfully, he goes on.
28:22
Why do I see such passionate debate about eschatology, eschatology being the study of end times or the study of last things?
28:32
If we're told to obey his word for our maturation, John 14, 21, and preach the gospel to the lost,
28:40
Matthew 28, 19, before Jesus returns, Matthew 26, 64. I understand that we should immerse ourselves in God's word to know all that we can because we'll never get the full depth of it this side of heaven, and it'll bless us regardless.
28:55
But shouldn't God be one to worry about the end times? Matthew 13, 32.
29:00
I love that you're throwing in all these references. Some of them I know off the top of my head, but not all of them.
29:06
So I appreciate that, Robert. But that section of Matthew 13, Jesus is giving parables about the kingdom of heaven.
29:13
I'm not really sure what the reference to Matthew 13, 32, unless you got a number wrong in there. I don't know what that's connected with anyway.
29:21
So going on, he goes on to say, shouldn't we trust him for a pre, post, amil, dispe future?
29:29
Coming from a place of complete humility to learn, I haven't looked into the subject specifically too much myself besides reading the
29:36
Bible every year. I understand revelation is the main course for this among a few passages, chapters in the
29:43
Old Testament, New Testament prophets that Jesus spoke of, but I'm not seeing the severe emphasis some put on what camp of eschatology people are in.
29:54
Please help me understand if it's more important than I'm casually making it out to be. I love you and may God bless you always.
30:00
I appreciate that, Robert. So basically your question is, why are people so passionate about the end times?
30:07
And why do they want to fit into a certain camp? Why do they want to be pre -mil or post -mil or dispensational or amil?
30:15
Why all these different views? And why do we argue about them? Well, I think there's some argument that can be good as long as we're not fighting about it, as long as we're not becoming divided over it.
30:25
The passages that I regularly refer to when it comes to how we discuss our end times views,
30:32
I reference first Thessalonians 418 and first Thessalonians 511, because in both of those verses,
30:39
Paul basically says the same thing in first Thessalonians 418. After talking about the return of Christ, he says, therefore comfort one another with these words.
30:48
And in first Thessalonians 511, after talking about the judgment that comes when Christ returns, he says, therefore comfort one another and build one another up just as you are doing.
31:00
So we're going to have our different end times views, but we should not let those end times views cause division between us as brothers and sisters in the
31:10
Lord. I think that we are doing a disservice to one another in the church when we do that. I even have a problem with churches that put in their statement of faith that you have to have this end times view to become a member at that church.
31:25
I really struggle with that because it's divisive. It's saying that a person who has any other view about events that haven't even happened yet, then they cannot be a member.
31:36
We're not going to recognize them as part of the body of Christ because they have a different view of the the order of events that will take place when
31:46
Christ returns than we have. I really struggle with that. I understand a little bit more when a church wants to say that the elders all have to have the same end times view because maybe the church has decided this is the perspective we're going to teach.
32:01
So all of the elders have to have to teach this. I get that a little bit more, but I'm not even in favor of that, really.
32:10
I think that you should learn all the views, learn all of the major viewpoints concerning the end times, dispensationalism, historical premillennialism, postmillennialism, amillennialism, learn all the viewpoints, learn what they all believe and how they interpret some of those events in scripture.
32:28
Because again, we're learning about future things that have yet to come to pass. And because they haven't happened yet and because the you know, the apocalyptic literature there can be filled with all kinds of symbols and typology and things like that.
32:45
Well, these things are confusing and we disagree on how to interpret the the prophecy that we read about.
32:52
So it's best to learn all the views. That way you don't represent somebody else or you don't misrepresent somebody else's view and you learn how to encourage one another in those things.
33:03
I believe this says this. Oh, yeah. Well, I believe it says that now I tend to take a more amillennial view of revelation and prophecy concerning the end times.
33:12
But there are things that I learn from historical premillennialists and dispensationalists and postmillennialists.
33:19
So just because I lean more toward the amillennial camp, that doesn't mean that I don't have anything to learn from those other guys.
33:27
I've listened to some of John MacArthur sermons on the book of Revelation. I've read his entire commentary on Revelation, but I've listened to a few sermons of his as well.
33:36
He's a dispensationalist and I'm not. But I still want to I want to know what a dispensationalist thinks about some of those things that are going on in Revelation so that we know how to engage one another.
33:46
We know how to encourage one another. And may it not lead to fighting and division, but how we can build one another up with our words, not tear each other down.
33:57
We encourage one another in these things. We're all looking forward to the return of Christ when he will destroy evil and bring us into his perfect imperishable kingdom forever.
34:07
We're looking forward to that together. We may disagree on the order of events, but these things are important for us to study.
34:16
And Robert, I would discourage you from taking the view of just let God work it out. We don't need to study these things.
34:23
We just need to focus on holiness and preaching the gospel and these other things. No, studying about the return of Christ is just as important as those other things, because you have to be telling people that you're teaching the gospel to that Jesus is coming back again to judge the living and the dead.
34:38
And when they ask you, well, what will that look like? Are you going to say to them, well, let God sort that out.
34:45
Then it doesn't sound like you really know, doesn't sound like you're confident in in what those things will be like when
34:52
Jesus returns. So it is important for us to study those things. As it says in Colossians chapter three, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
35:04
And we are taught to pray in Matthew chapter six, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
35:11
What does God's will look like in heaven? Well, we get a picture of it in the book of Revelation. And those things that might be mysterious to us now that we don't fully understand, because there are things in Revelation that I don't fully understand.
35:24
But those things will be made clear to us when we get to the other side, even with regards to holiness and sanctification and your justification and and our future glorification.
35:36
All of those things that we can read about in the Bible, Robert, you will not come to a full understanding of this side of heaven until we join
35:44
Christ forever in glory. But you're still going to study those things, right? And the same is true with regards to the end times.
35:51
We're not fully going to know everything about what Christ return is going to be like until we get to that day.
35:57
And we're all going to be together on that day. That's one of the points that Paul is making in first Thessalonians chapter four.
36:03
The dead in Christ will rise first, and then we who are left will be caught up together with them.
36:08
And so we will always be with the Lord. Every single Christian who has ever lived or is living at the time that Christ returns will get to participate together on that day of Christ coming.
36:23
And so we look forward to that together, and we encourage one another with these words. And I hope that this was encouraging to you.
36:30
Thank you for your email, Robert. Any other emails that you have to send to us, you can email when we understand the text at gmail .com.
36:38
God willing, we'll be back next week. This is episode 1710 in the books. Let's finish with prayer.
36:45
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the kindness that you show to us. And with the kindness that you give us every day, may we show this kindness to others.
36:54
We are treating our brothers and sisters in the Lord with kindness, even though there are certain doctrinal issues we might disagree on.
37:02
Yet we take those differences, things that we don't quite understand in scripture. We learn how to encourage one another.
37:08
It drives us to go back to our Bibles and read more. And then we engage with the scriptures all the more.
37:14
That we may grow one another in the knowledge of your word. And in so doing, we become more
37:20
Christ -like in the process. Help us to not just be readers of the word and hearers of the word, but we do what it says.
37:28
And when we know the word of Christ and we keep it and we follow it, we are staying away from the schemes of Satan.
37:35
We're drawing near to God. And the promise, as is given to us in James 4, is that you will draw near to us.
37:42
So be near to us, Lord Jesus. Deliver us out of the wicked schemes of this crooked and depraved generation.
37:51
But while we are here, give us the boldness and the strength to go out with the gospel of Christ so that others may hear the truth of what
37:58
Jesus has done by his death on the cross and resurrection from the grave so that they might believe in him and so be saved.
38:05
And then we look forward together to the return of Christ when he will judge the wicked and save the righteous.
38:13
And we will forever be with the Lord. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, we pray in his name.
38:20
Amen. This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great
38:25
Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.
38:33
Find a good, gospel -teaching, Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend, and join us again