Sunday, June 8, 2024 Eschatology Workshop Session 1

You will have to labor and not be a passive receptacle, but the title is the question are we living in the last days? A question I think that just rolls off the tongue and is asked so often. But we are going here's the plan.

We're going to have three sessions this morning, and I will be cutting it off about 15 till, 10 till, and giving us breaks so we can stretch our legs, get out of these chairs, get more coffee, go to the bathroom because we've had more coffee, those kinds of things.

And coming around after the third session is over, some volunteers are going to be prepping lunch for us, and then we're going to have lunch, and then after lunch we're going to do Q &A. Now, there's already been questions submitted to the Q &A.

I'll either be addressing those as we move through the three morning sessions, or I'll go ahead and wait to talk about them then in the afternoon session. So if you all notice up here we've got a table where there are six handouts, so you want to make sure that you have those handouts ready to go.

And yeah, we're going to get started. Let me go ahead and pray for us, and we'll begin. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the day. We thank you for your word. We thank you that you have given us your Holy Spirit, and we thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ, in whom is all our hope.

And I pray that you would greatly exalt Jesus Christ here today in our midst as we study your word. And we pray for wisdom, we pray for love, we pray for unity, and we pray for joy. We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen. As I was preparing for this particular event, it's interesting, I don't know, I ended up getting on some sort of an email list, and I got an advertisement just as I was studying for this, and the question on the top of the email was, Are we living in the end times?

How about that? Lots of people are asking that question. Just a reminder also, if you all need to get the handouts as you can, and if I was going to learn about this gentleman's understanding of Revelation, I could get it for 50 off, right?

I don't have to give the full 300, but if I act now, quickly, I could get all this study material for half off. Now, I would like to begin by underlining what I think are probably the two most important words in this question.

You're thinking about what are the two most important words in this question. You're placing private bets with yourself, non-monetary of course, about which two words are going to be the most important.

All right. We're going to wait for Mike to draw it out. All of your paper-grabbing dexterity skills of your entire life have been building up for this moment. No, no, you're fine. You're fine. You're fine.

You're fine. Okay, so here's where I think the two most important words are in this question. All those small words, how important they are. All right, so think about that. Are we living in the last days?

Because both those words become very specific very quickly. You know how narrow the word we is. That's us all right here right now. That's a very narrowing term. The, also, very narrowing. A particular set of days.

A particular set of people. A particular set of days. When we pay attention to the question and then begin to do our best to answer it with the Bible, I think we'll get some clarity. Starting off with our handouts, there's one that looks like this.

And it has some boxes with some arrows on it. It says eschatology 1 .2. Pay no mind to that. This was a handout from years ago. In a different series, but it's very useful for our opening here today. On the back, there's some other things to do.

But as you look at that handout, there are six passages. And the question that you should be thinking about is which one of these passages, which ones of these passages have already been fulfilled? If you think they've already been fulfilled, you can hit an X in the box and say, I think this has already come to pass.

God's word is true. God keeps his promises. He brings these things to pass. I think this has already done been fulfilled. This is a good exercise to consider what do we believe about the end times. What are our expectations?

How do we think these things come about? You can take a look at those. You can either do this exercise later on when you go home, or you can look over them right now. On the back side of the handout, there is just kind of a thought starter.

Where have you gained most of your familiarity with the doctrine of last things? Where do you find or view here end times teaching most? Where do you believe you have learned the most eschatology? And you can circle the best answer in each line, which matches your experience.

If you don't know, you can just leave it blank. Lines going horizontal. So the first line is books, articles, blogs, social media bumper stickers. The next one is films, documentaries, videos, cartoons, memes.

I hope it's memes. I really do. I'll be very happy with that. So on and so forth. You can take a look at each one of those lines going across horizontal and kind of think. You don't even have to mark it, but you can think at least, I wonder where I have picked up my ideas, my understanding of last things.

Hymns would be good. Joy to the world. For the younger people in the room, on that next to last line where it says DVD, VHS, cassette, you don't have to know what those things are. Just bypass it, ignore it.

It's technology that existed at one point in time. Okay, now a fun exercise in making connections. Which prophecy experts made the following statements? This is a match. We have three names over here.

Tim LaHaye, John Hagee, and Jan Markell. And over here we've got three quotes. The first quote is, What terrible wars, both foreign and domestic, what pestilences, famines, and quaking of the earth has history recorded?

Second one, For we now see that nation arises against nation, earthquakes overwhelm countless cities, pestilence we endure without interruption. It is true we do not behold signs in the sun and moon and stars, but that these are not far off we may infer from the changes of the atmosphere.

That's the second quote. Third quote, Present world conditions are so similar to those the Bible prophesied for the last days. They, meaning Christians, conclude that a takeover of our culture by the forces of evil is inevitable, so they do nothing to resist it.

Okay. Who do you think is the first quote? About terrible wars, foreign and domestic, so on and so forth. Which one of these three do you think? Guess for Hagee? Alright. What about the second quote? About the earthquakes and pestilence and the worries about the atmosphere?

Yeah, you're... Hagee's just, you know, very quotable, right? Alright. And then the third one. Present world conditions, Christians are just giving up. Who do you think that is? Guess for Jan. Okay. Alright, so I'm being very tricky this morning.

The first quote is Tertullian from the second and third century. He was born in 155 and he died in 220. Second quote was from Pope Gregory, 6th century, 500s. In the 500s. And the third is Tim LaHaye.

The third is Tim LaHaye. So I'm being a little bit tricky. The point is, I think it's helpful to recognize that every single generation of Christians who have ever lived have written things down. And a proportion of those Christians, when they write things down, they talk about how things are so bad, we know we're the last generation.

Did you know that? Now, that's not a claim of unbelief. That's a symptom of Christians looking to their hope in Jesus Christ when things get hard. That's a symptom of faith. It is an expression of hope and trust that our Good Shepherd is going to take care of us and deliver us from our difficulties.

But every single generation has looked about and said we are unique in terms of turmoil and tribulation and problems. No other generation has had the unique mix of problems that we have had. We're on the cusp.

We're on the edge of the waterfall. We're about to go over. Now, there has been a proportion of Christians in every generation that has said that and they have talked about we are living in the last days.

Welcome to the last days. Welcome to the last generation. A fun book is by Francis Gumerlach, The Day and the Hour. And this is a fun book because you can name any set of 100s, 200s, 300s, 400s, it doesn't matter which one.

You just name it, flip there, boom. A bunch of quotes from a lot of people who are like, this is it, we're done. Also, lots of fun stuff in here about guesses about who the Antichrist is, who the beast is, who Gog and Magog are, what in the world is 666, a lot of great stuff.

For instance, did you know that in a certain point in time in Britain, if you took all the different various coins and counted the letters on each one of the coins, it totaled up to 666 letters? Well, obviously, if you use the British monetary system, you've taken the mark of the beast.

You're going to hell. Why was Ronald Reagan considered the beast? Anybody remember? Because he has three names, Ronald, Wilson, Reagan, and each one has six letters. There you go. Also, through certain numerology, some of you won't know who this is, but Henry Kissinger was discovered to be the beast and so on.

So, fun book. This is my one book recommendation just because it just talks about all the different things. Very, very interesting. You can kind of read and I think maybe find some solidarity with Christians in the past about living in tough times and where we put our attention and hope.

Now, when we come back to this list, where have you gained most of your familiarity with Doctrine of Last Things? Maybe we can just list some of those up here. Where have you gleaned most of your learning and understanding?

Where have you gotten that from? Okay, so we have the Bible. Good answer, Ms. Wylene. B-I-B-L-E. Okay, who else? Okay, so reading the Bible and so on. Anybody listen to any DVDs, read books, articles?

Anybody? Watch YouTube? YouTube is great. DIY eschatology, DIY car repair. Sometimes both of those will not work well when you try it out. My own experience, car repair. Okay, yeah, just sharing with family, so on and so forth.

Yeah. Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins. So you can pick it up through books, through novels. You can pick it up all. The idea of this list is saying, yeah, where did I get my ideas? You know, where did I get my ideas about last things?

About the doctrine of last things? And that's important to ask because we want to evaluate the reliability of the source. Now, that has anything to do with the love of the source, if it was a beloved family member or a trusted pastor or something that was very meaningful, or I learned these things during a tough time in my life and it helped me get through.

We're not talking about the values of those things. We're talking about where did we get all of our ideas? So that's important to think about. I want to flip the board here. I want to talk about some basic terms that we find in the Bible so we know what the Bible is talking about.

We're going to have a variety of scripture passages that sometimes are lumped all together in one big amorphous jello-like blob. And we think it all refers to the same thing. But we're supposed to study to show ourselves approved, be careful when we're reading exactly what is being said.

So we read about the last day. Notice it's singular and it is distinct. It is the last day. And usually we know we're in that territory when it talks about the resurrection of the dead. Jesus is coming back and he's going to raise the dead.

When we go to a Christian funeral and the dead body of the beloved is placed in the casket, lowered into the ground, and the earth put over the top, a seed is being planted. One day there's going to be a harvest and that body is going to be raised up.

There's going to be a resurrection of the dead. That is the last day. This is not an exhaustive list of different passages by any means. This is a sampling. A sampling of helpful passages that you can look to.

From the sheep and the goats, Matthew 25, to Jesus saying that the Son of Man will speak and the dead will come out of the graves and Jesus will judge all mankind, whether wicked or righteous, all at the same time.

Right here, right here. Both of those say that. John 6, Jesus' assurances that all that come to him, he will by no means cast out and he will raise them up at the last day. 1 Corinthians 15, we're going to read that in a moment, so we're going to come back to that.

1 Thessalonians 4, 13 -18, the comfort of Christians knowing that the dead in Christ shall rise. They're not going to miss out on Christ's victorious return. We're all going to be caught up together with him.

2 Timothy 4, 8, Paul saying, I know there's a crown reserved for me laid up for that last day. 1 John 3, 1 -3, that we know that we will be like him when he appears. We're going to see him just as he is.

And then Revelation 20, 7 -15, talking about the great white throne judgment and all the dead standing before Christ. So the Bible is very clear about there being a last day. And on the last day, there's going to be a resurrection from the dead.

Now, I promise we're going to come back to 1 Corinthians 15, which kind of put a mental bookmark there. Now, what we're going to spend a lot of our time talking about is about the latter days or last days.

In the Old Testament, very often translated latter days. New Testament, similar language, last days. Notice the plural. See the plural? Different than a day, it's days. And we first hear about the latter days in Genesis 49.

And we hear about them throughout the rest of Scripture. And we're going to spend a lot of time looking at that during our workshop this morning. But in an example, Genesis 49, Jacob saying, in the latter days, this is what's going to happen to my descendants, focusing especially upon Judah and how Shiloh comes from Judah, the one to whom it all belongs, the one to whom all the peoples owe their allegiance.

The scepter will not depart from between Shiloh's feet. And a promise about the new covenant here in Genesis 49. Isaiah 2, 1 through 4, in the latter days, all the nations will stream up to Mount Zion.

Mount Zion is going to sit on top of the other mountains. Here's a mountain of Edom. Here's a mountain of Egypt. Here's a mountain of Babylon, whatever the mountains are. But here is Mount Zion has been lifted up and sitting on top of all the other mountains of all the different nations.

All the nations flow upwards. And when they arrive in that Mount Zion and in that Jerusalem, they beat their swords and their spears into pruning hooks and plowshares. They make peace where? In that Jerusalem and that Zion.

Those latter days. Jeremiah is chock full of latter days. But this is talking about the latter days, very clearly about the new covenant in contrast to the old. Same here in chapter 33, verses 14 through 26, which takes the covenants with Noah, Abraham, Israel at Sinai, and the covenant God made with David, puts them all together, stitches them all together and lays that new mantle upon the Messiah.

It says this is what happens in the latter days, a new covenant. Daniel chapter 2, we're going to actually read this. We'll come back to that. It's a bookmark here. So we're going to have a bookmark here, 1 Corinthians 15 and a bookmark here, Daniel 2.

And of course, I think in the second session, we're going to get into the Olivet discourse, which is Matthew 24, Luke 20 and 17, Mark 13. Very helpful. But this is talking about latter days. Acts 2, 14 through 40, one of the most important sermons ever preached, all about welcome to the latter days.

We will be investigating that as well this morning. And then Hebrews, so helpful. Hebrews starts off by saying in these last days, right? He used to talk through prophets and all the weird stuff they did.

But in these last days, he has revealed himself through his son. And look at all the glory of Christ. So all the way through Hebrews, look at the glory of Christ. You know, that was impressive, Old Covenant.

But wow, look at the glory of Christ. Wow, that was impressive, Old Covenant. But look at the glory of Christ all the way through Hebrews. And so Hebrews is very helpful to understand the significance of the last days in view of the new covenant.

So two terms, the last day, resurrection day, looking forward to that. The latter days, last days, last days of what? Big question we're going to ask this morning. And then there's something called the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord.

The day of the Lord is a massive moment of judgment and can apply to a variety of situations. It can refer to the last day, which is a day of judgment. It's a sifting. Every judgment is a sifting. Here are the wicked.

Here are the righteous. Here are the lost. Here are the saints. There's always a sifting. So the day of the Lord sometimes refers to the last day, sometimes refers to what happened in the last days, or sometimes refers to some other cataclysmic event.

The day of the Lord is a very flexible term. So Isaiah 13 .6, the day of the Lord crushes Babylon. It wasn't the end of the world for the whole world, but it was the end of the world for Babylon. The day of the Lord, Jeremiah 46 .10, for Egypt.

Not every bit of nations went down, just Egypt. But, boy, it was the day of the Lord for Egypt. The day of the Lord for Edom, Obadiah 115. The day of the Lord for Jerusalem in 586 B .C., when the Babylonians took it down, Zephaniah 114.

So the day of the Lord is a flexible term that just talks about a very impressive judgment, a story-changing judgment. The story was Babylon's the beast. Babylon's the one that you have to contend with.

After the day of the Lord, not so much. So it's a story-changing judgment, a big judgment that changes things. That's the day of the Lord. And so that is a very flexible term. And I think it's helpful to see that when we're talking about judgments, although there are similar terms, I mean, how similar is this?

We see day, day, day, similar terms. Also, there will be similar metaphors about judgment because judgment happens. And so descriptors used for judgment over here are also used over here. It does not mean that we're reading about the very same thing all the time.

All right, so what do we learn? We first learn to study the Bible. Read the context, right? Isn't that the first thing we always learn about studying the Bible? Read the context, okay? So that's what we are planning to do.

Now, let's look at 1 Corinthians 15, 1 Corinthians 15, verses 20 through 26. Now, as we read this passage, of course, happens in a significant chapter wherein Paul is defending the resurrection from the dead, that Jesus Christ himself has risen from the dead.

As we read these verses, let's do a self-evaluation as we read. As we read, are we inserting the various verses of this passage or parts of the verses in this passage into a program we already have sketched out, or are we cool with the program Paul talks about?

All right, that's the question. If we read through this, are we gonna take this element, that element, that element, and file it away into the program we already have about how things go, or are we gonna let the program already stated in the text run the show?

Okay, let's try that. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 20. But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Now, two things here. Firstfruits in the Greek is just first.

Same Greek word is used in the Old Testament to translate those passages in Leviticus all concerned about firstfruits, but it just simply means first, okay? And I'm fine with it being translated as firstfruits, just so you know, it just says first.

Secondly, falling asleep is Jesus' favorite metaphor for death. You know how easy it is for you to wake somebody up from sleep? Or let me put it another way. Do you know how easy it is for you to wake up from sleep?

Okay, that's how easy it is for Jesus to raise the dead. So he uses the euphemism, the metaphor, metaphor is a better term, of fall asleep. So he's the first of those who have fallen asleep, the firstfruits.

So verse 21, for since by man came death, that's Adam, the first one made in the image of God, by man, should be a capital M in your translation, meaning Christ in his full humanity, the image of the invisible God, the last Adam, also came the resurrection of the dead.

So by man came death, by man came the resurrection of the dead. Verse 22, for as in Adam all die, all who are in Adam die. Chris has his shirt on, statistics, five out of five people die. Very good. As all in Adam die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

Now not all are in Christ, some are outside of Christ, but there is the hope of eternal life for all who are in Christ. But each one in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at his coming.

Now we're talking about the resurrection, so what day we're talking about? The last day. We're not talking about the last days, we're talking about the last day. So that's what we're looking at. So then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power, any kind of designations of empires and kingdoms and so on are all going to be collapsed into this one authority he hands to God the Father.

Verse 25, for he, meaning Jesus Christ, must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet. Quote from Psalm 110. The Lord said to my Lord, sit here at my right hand until I make all your enemies a footstool for your feet.

Psalm 110. So Jesus must reign till he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. That's the program. Here's the program. There will be a day when everybody is raised up from the dead, those who are in Christ unto everlasting life.

Good news. What happens in the meantime? In the meantime, Jesus Christ reigns. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, he says in Matthew 28. He has been given a name which is above every name.

He is King of kings. He is Lord of lords. We can't go through the book of Acts very far without saying Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord. Everywhere we look, Jesus is ascended. He is King. He has all authority.

Now, Hebrews 2 tells us, quoting from Psalm 8, that not all have been submitted to him. Not all have been subjected to his authority yet. But that's the program. Look at the program. All his enemies will be put under his feet and the last enemy is death.

And death is undone by what? The resurrection. That's the program. So, Jesus reigns until all of his enemies are put under his feet. The last enemy thereof is death. So, he's reigning and then when he finishes everything up, he's going to give it to his father and the father is going to say, well done.

That's the program. So, that's talking about the last day. That's what we have to look forward to. In the meantime, Jesus Christ is King. Now, let's think about the latter days, last days. The distinction here is, and at this point, you should be taking note of this handout.

It has all these pluses on them and different passages. Once again, this is not an exhaustive list of passages that refer to the latter days or the last days. This is not an exhaustive list. It's just a representative list.

And passages of scripture that you probably have turned to in the past in your study of the last days. So, as you look through there, there's two things. On one side, what would be a good summary of what the Bible says about the last days?

Well, one way is that the Messiah makes all things new by judgment and salvation of the nations. And you can see how often that theme shows up in these passages and how intense is the double plus means it's mentioned more than once.

Triple plus, it's all throughout. The way to say it, that's more of a systematic theology way of saying it. The Messiah makes all things new by judgment and salvation by judgment and salvation of the nations.

A more biblical theological way of saying it, more elements straight up from the Bible is on the other side of the page. From Mount Zion in Jerusalem, a new heaven and earth, the Davidic king reigns over God's gathered people.

And you can... The work begins when you read it for yourself. Don't take my word for it, please. Go read the Bible. Go look. What does it say? And one of the things that we're going to be talking about is when you read the New Testament and a lot of those passages are on this handout, so I brought it up.

When you read the New Testament and you're looking at this passage, James says, James 5, you're heaping up treasures for yourself in the last days. He's saying, his readers, you, you're heaping up treasures for yourselves in these last days, James says to his audience.

Hebrews, I think it's Paul preaching, Luke writing, saying, he has spoken to us in these last days in the image of his son. Peter says, in these last days. He's talking to people right in front of him.

John is very strong. He says, this is the last hour. And how do we know that? Because Antichrist is coming and many Antichrists have now come. They went out from us because they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out so that it would be shown that they were all not of us.

He's talking about himself, himself, his church community, and the things happening right there in front of him. Okay? Revelation 1, 3 and 20, and 22, we have John saying, these things are shortly to take place.

They're just right about to happen. And he writes to churches and says, he says to them in chapter 1, I'm in the tribulation. He says to the churches in Asia Minor, you're in the tribulation. We have Paul saying in 1 Corinthians 10, we upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

1 Corinthians 10. So, a big question that we have to ask is, are they being unclear? Are they being very poetic? Are they wrong? Are they on point? Like, I want to know. When I absorbed my eschatology growing up, I was like, oh yeah.

We just always are in the end times. Last days. Always, always, always in the last days. Why is that? Well, because the last days haven't come yet. We're just, we're on the cusp of them. We're always right there.

Why is that? Because the Bible says so. Look, it says to you, it says to you, you are in the last days. Actually, it doesn't say it to me. It says to the church in Corinth. It says to the church in Thessalonica.

It says to the church in Ephesus. It says it to these churches in the New Testament. I would encourage you to read it for yourselves. John writing to the churches in Ephesus in 1 John. You, alright? Question is, were they right?

Or, were they being super poetic? But what are they saying? Are they saying, are they saying, everybody's about to get raised from the dead? Jesus is going to come back and raise all the dead. That's just about to happen.

If that's the case, then it stretches all manner of cajolity to read the Bible and read these apostles and say, Paul says to Tim, sin for Timothy. Come to me quickly. What did he mean? Does he mean 2 ,000 years?

We're not, in those passages that I just talked about, like Thessalonians, Corinthians, 1 John and so on, they're not using apocalyptic metaphors, poetic language, which is totally legitimate. It's totally fine to do that.

They are talking about just plain up. You are struggling. You're having a bad time. Things are difficult for you. But guess what? We are living in the last days. Last days of what? The end of the space-time continuum?

Last days of planet Earth before it blows up? What did they mean? That is the main thing that we're trying to determine. There is a momentum in Scripture. It begins in Genesis 1. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.

There's an origin point, God made man, and then there's a spreading out point. There is movement. There is a direction. There is hope. There is progress. Straight out of the box in the Bible. And there is hope on the horizon for those who had sinned.

The seed of the woman will come and crush the head of the serpent. Be on the lookout for that seed. Things are moving. Things are progressing. Time indicators are given all throughout the Scriptures. What are the last days or the latter days?

Last days or latter days of what? Every single New Testament author says, we're in the last days. They were. They and their audience were in the last. Where did they get that language from? Here's my idea.

It's not just my idea. But it's an idea that kind of has fallen out of use over the years. Is that Jesus set the calendar. He said what was going to happen and when. So we're just going to go with his timetable.

If everyone's cool with that. And he was expositing stuff like Daniel and Isaiah and Jeremiah because, of course, he's the light of the world. Thus, he's the light of the word. He's the one who explains it best.

How often do we find Jesus saying to people, no, no, no. You have you not read or you should know this. Actually, what it means is that Jesus is always explaining things. He's always brightening up the word saying, hey, this is what it actually means.

So we have been given a gift. We have been given a gift in the Olivet discourse. You know how the Old Testament says a word is established by two or three witnesses. Well, Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 20 all say the same thing.

Isn't that great? And it's Jesus teaching, pastoring his disciples and being oh so kind and loving to them and helping them. And we get to read all three of those side by side. And we get such clarity from that.

So let's begin where things are the brightest, the clearest, straight from Jesus himself. And then use that to see what these other things mean. That's my suggestion. All right. But again, I hope you will read it for yourself.

As promised, we're going to read Daniel 2 because what we're getting at here is that it is the last days of something. An order is coming to an end. And the end that is coming is not the end of planet Earth.

It's going to blow apart or the sun is going to go supernova or something like that. But the end that we're talking about is the end that Jesus talks about in Matthew 24. It's the end that Hebrews chapter 8 talks about.

Hebrews chapter 8 says that the old covenant is obsolete and is ready to pass away. Hebrews 8 .13 is ready to pass away. We're on the cusp of the end of what? The old covenant. Every book of the New Testament was written before AD 70.

And there's loads of evidence for that. And all of them are saying it's about to end. It's about to end. It's about to end. What's about to end? The old covenant that you don't need no more. Do you need sacrifices on the altar anymore?

Do you need the high priest anymore? Do you need the ceremonial washings anymore? Do you need that religious calendar anymore? Do you need any of that anymore? Do you need those dietary laws anymore? Not anymore.

Why? Because Christ has come. What's the point of it continuing? So that's the big idea that we're going to work through. But calendars and timing is important. So look at Daniel chapter 2. In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar has had a dream.

He didn't remember what it was. He wanted his magi to tell him what it was. They didn't know. Daniel, by the wisdom of God, saw what the vision was, and he explains it. And you have the statue of the world empires.