The Great Tribulation Already Happened

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02:27

In Matthew 16, Jesus chastised the Pharisees who could interpret the appearance of the sky but failed to interpret the signs of the time in which they lived.

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Who are the Pharisees of our day? This strong hold of sort of whiteness and white identity and pristineness is really part of what keeps us from making progress.

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We need to do better. The Church, rich in theological scholarship, has lingered in academic sanctuaries and ivory towers, failing to translate its lofty doctrines into a tangible and practical cultural apologetic.

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At the Worldview Youth Academy, we bridge this critical gap. Here, theological depth is not an end in itself but a means to engage with contemporary cultural issues for the glory of God and the expansion of his kingdom.

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Our mission is to cultivate thinkers who can articulate and apply Christian truths within contemporary societal challenges.

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So embrace this call to worship God with all your heart, all your soul and with all your mind.

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We will do better as this next generation tears down the idols of our modern culture and works to build a brighter future toward Christendom 2 .0.

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Non -rocker boaters must stop. I don't want to rock the boat. I want to sink it.

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Are you going to bark all day, little doggy, or are you going to bite? We're being delusional. Delusional?

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Yeah. Delusional is OK in your worldview. I'm an animal. You don't chastise chickens for being delusional. You don't chastise pigs for being delusional.

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So you calling me delusional using your worldview is perfectly OK. It doesn't really hurt. She hung up on me.

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What? Desperate times call for faithful men and not for careful men.

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The careful men come later and write the biographies of the faithful men lauding them for their courage.

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Go into all the world and make disciples. Not go into the world and make buddies. Not to make brosives. Right. Don't go into the world and make homies.

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Right. Disciples. I got a bit of a jiggle neck. That's a joke,

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Pastor. When we have the real message of truth, we cannot let somebody say they're speaking truth when they're not.

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From the fig tree, learn its lesson. As soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.

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So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near at the very gates.

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Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

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Heaven and earth will pass away. But my words will not pass away. That's Matthew 24, 32 through 35.

05:57

Welcome back, everybody. This is the Gospel Heard Around the World, Apologia Radio. Excited for today's episode.

06:03

Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Jeff. They call me the Ninja. That's Luke the Bear. What up? That's Agriconover. Yo. Director of Communications for End Abortion.

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07:15

The gospel is going out from here and it is changing the world in so many profound ways. And so we're grateful to be a part of this ministry with all of you.

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Exciting show we have today. We're talking more. This is the third episode over the last month or so that we've done on the

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Great Tribulation. I want to say four. Is it four? This is part four. You did two on your own. We did one last week.

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And this is four. We like to talk about this one. I honestly lost count. Well, it's important. Look, we did so many because what we try to argue from the beginning is that there is a lead up to the

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Olivet Discourse and the Great Tribulation. It matters. And it matters a great deal. The Great Tribulation passage, the

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Olivet Discourse, you find in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21.

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Yeah, there you go. Those passages, the Olivet Discourse, you can read those in the synoptics, see them together, and you have some different terminologies.

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In Matthew, it uses a very Jewish language that maybe Jews are familiar with because they've been under the hearing of the

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Torah and the Word of God through the Old Testament. But Luke will use more Gentile language or even to say this is exactly what it means.

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So that passage in the Olivet Discourse, a highly debated passage, of course, is important to unpack biblically.

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And of course, we would all want to say that we need to do that. But biblically, in terms of tota Scriptura, all of the

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Bible, it doesn't just sort of drop into the Bible as this sort of just quick one -off discourse.

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It actually has a lead -up to it. And that lead -up actually begins in the Old Testament. And Matthew is carrying that lead -up all the way into the climax.

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And so what we argued is in order to understand the Olivet Discourse in its biblical context and its biblical history, what

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God put it there for, we have to understand the promises made by God from the Old Testament leading up to it.

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And there's so many amazing things we did not even begin to unpack it comprehensively. But we did sort of the major thematic issue and the

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Kingdom of God issue, and then we did the issues related to the prophecies in the Old Testament, the expectation of Mashiach that he was going to come with salvation and judgment, judgment upon the covenant breakers.

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And that's promised in the Old Testament. We're not going to rehash all that today. But we hadn't even actually gotten into Matthew 24 yet or the

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Olivet Discourse because we were sort of trying to get us there biblically first to say what context does this belong in?

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Why is it existing here? Why is it such an important part of the story? How does this fulfill the expectation?

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And so now today we're going to do, we're probably going to hang out mostly in Matthew 24. We'll probably do a few back and forths between the other synoptics on this issue.

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But today's, the title of today's, what are we doing today? How do we do it? The title of today's episode, already creating a little controversy in the comments.

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Oh yeah, it doesn't even ask the question. It just makes a statement. It's done. Yeah, the Great Tribulation already happened.

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So you can see I'm trying to make a lot of friends here. So the Great Tribulation already happened. Now - Not has

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Christ returned bodily. No, no, no. That's not what we're talking about here. No, the

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Great Tribulation - Specific question. And that's the problem is not understanding this in this biblical context. If you understand who the

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Great Tribulation passage is, who it's given to, the context surrounding it, where the threats are going, then you understand that saying the

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Great Tribulation already happened is not saying that the final resurrection has happened, the second coming has happened.

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You're not saying that at all. What we're saying is that the judgment coming of Mashiach that was anticipated in the

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Old and New Testaments that has come upon the covenant breaking Jews, that promise was fulfilled.

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But the entire narrative of Scripture in terms of what God is going to do to sum all these things up and bring together a resurrection of the dead and to bring final judgment and all of that, that's a larger part of the story that's not connected here is what we're arguing.

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And so the Great Tribulation happened. I want to argue that if we say as Christians that it didn't happen, then we're going to run into the same sort of problem that we have with C .S.

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Lewis. Uh -oh. We love C .S. Lewis, right? Everyone loves C .S. Lewis. The chronic what?

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Most people. The chronic what? The Chronicles of Narnia. Chronic whaticles. It's the chronic what?

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Remember that? The SNL skit? That was the best. Oh, I've never seen that. You've never seen the SNL skit?

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I've never seen the SNL skit. I'd be tempted to play it, actually. But we might get copyright strike.

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Unless we make commentary on it. I can watch it on my own time. We can make commentary. SNL did a skit on the Chronicles of Narnia, where they're going to go watch it.

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That's when it came out. They're going to go watch it. It's pretty funny. Okay. And so Chronicles of Narnia, C .S. Lewis, you know, many fine books at your local bookstores.

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He has an essay. And it's The World's Last Night. And C .S.

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Lewis, obviously a professing Christian, C .S. Lewis, an apologist also in many ways. Instrumental in many apologists' thinking.

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Yeah. But if we say that the Great Tribulation, what Jesus discusses in the Olivet Discourse, has not happened, then it does create a tremendous difficulty for Christians in that it is abundantly clear that Jesus promised this tribulation upon this generation.

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And the generation that he's talking to, the near demonstrative, is a generation in front of him.

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He uses the terminology this generation in Matthew 11. I'll just go ahead and read it to you right here.

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You already know this. It's the same book, guys. Matthew 24 is where we're going to be today mostly.

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But in Matthew chapter 11, 16 through 17, Jesus says, Now that expression exists really in other

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Gospels. It's said in other places as well. It's said in the Gospels this generation. And we understand when it is said who he's talking to.

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He's talking to the generation in front of him. The generation alive at the time. This generation. The near demonstrative.

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Not that generation. Jesus promises the destruction of the temple in that generation.

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And it actually occurred before they all died. The text that I read to everybody today at the beginning of the episode is actually near the end of the

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Great Tribulation passage. I'll read it to you one more time and then we're going to get into what C .S. Lewis said to talk about the problem.

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In Matthew 24, at the beginning of the episode, I read 32 through 35.

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Now I want to remind everybody that that section that I just read, it's not the first time he said this generation here.

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I just read that and that comes near the end of the Olivet Discourse description of wars, famines, stars, falling out of heaven, son of man coming on the clouds.

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That part there, he says, There is no way without intense gymnastics to get around the fact that Jesus is clearly prophesying to the generation in front of him.

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Reminder, the temple's destruction is in this conversation and it happened.

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He is talking to that generation and there's no way to get around the fact that Jesus is being a prophet there and his prophetic credentials are on the line.

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According to the Bible, Deuteronomy 13, or sorry, Deuteronomy 18, 20 through 22, how should we know the word which the

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Lord hath not spoken? When the prophet speaks in the name of the Lord and the thing follows not, nor comes to pass, that is the word which the

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Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You should not be afraid of him. The standard according to the

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Torah, God's own stipulated standard, is that if a prophet, if someone claims to be a prophet and from him, if they say, thus sayeth the

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Lord, they give you the future before it happens and it does not happen, that is how you know they're a false prophet.

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And so Jesus must hold to that standard, brothers and sisters, or he is not a prophet.

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It's a key point, I think. You made it all the time. But he is upholding

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God's standard in this. The reputation for being a prophet is on the line. Jesus not only holds this office and does so by teaching the way of God accurately, but as you've pointed out numerous times, if he was wrong about this, then everything about him has to be rejected.

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And that's why he places the onus for this actually coming to pass on the integrity of his word in verse 35.

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This is a verse we use all the time with Latter -day Saints to demonstrate that God's word will never pass away.

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Verses like this, and forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our

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God will stand forever. But heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

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So he's placing the onus here on the integrity of his word, that this will happen, as he said.

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It will not fail. I'm so glad you brought that up. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away, immediately follows.

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Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

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Amen, I say to you. You can count on this. Heaven and earth will pass away. My word here will not pass away.

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This is sure. This is going to happen. Again, I remind you very humbly that that promise there is after all of the famous verses that people use and are using today to try to say that we are about to enter the great tribulation, or it's coming soon, this is what to expect.

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It's nation rising against nation. It's famines, pestilence, earthquakes. It's persecution in the synagogues, oddly.

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And it's also the stars falling from heaven. All these things, Jesus says.

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All these things. This generation will not pass away until all these things take place. So, watch.

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You... We could do a whole episode today just reading the quotes from skeptics, critics of the

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Bible, atheists, atheist apologists, who use these very words of Jesus to demonstrate that Jesus was a false prophet or he did not know the future.

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And they use them because Christians take this passage and rather than reading it in its historical context and reading it biblically and reading it like Eusebius, the church historian, way back, as something that already took place because we put a future to us, the atheists and skeptics and critics of the

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Bible look at it and go, oh, that's supposed to happen? Well, he said it was going to happen before they all died. So clearly he was wrong.

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So he can't be the Messiah. He can't be God in the flesh. And it's used often in atheist debates with Christians.

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They'll bring up this particular text. I can't tell you how many times I've been on the street and I've had atheists try to use this verse.

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Or Mormons. Or Mormons against me. And Mormons, by the way, would use this for obvious reasons.

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Joseph Smith's a clear false prophet. He has very clear false prophecies, a number of them. And so they'll say, well,

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Jesus had false prophecies too. Absolutely astounding to me because if Jesus is a false prophet, then so is Joseph.

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Like, what is he restoring? Is he giving us back something that was truthful? Or was it a lie?

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It's desperation. And if so, should we reject his word too? Exactly. It just falls apart. It's just desperation. So, C .S.

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Lewis, a long way to get to. Very important point here. I don't want to rush past it.

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C .S. Lewis, in The World's Last Night, he says this quote, speaking on Jesus and this prophecy.

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But there is worse to come. Say what you like, we should be told. The apocalyptic beliefs of the first Christians have been proven to be false.

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It is clear from the New Testament that they all expected the second coming in their own lifetime. And worse still, they had a reason.

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And one which you will find very embarrassing. Their master had told them so. He shared and indeed created their delusion.

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He said in so many words, this generation should not pass away, pass till all these things be done.

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And he was wrong. He clearly knew no more about the end of the world than anyone else.

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And he goes on to explain more. I don't think I've ever seen that quote. There's more. It is certainly the most embarrassing verse in the

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Bible. I mean, obviously, I'd love to know what stage of his Christian walk he wrote those words, but that is just...

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Well, he goes on to explain. Let me read more. So I don't want to throw the man too much under the bus here.

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He says, yet how teasing, after he says the most embarrassing verse in the Bible, yet how teasing also that within 14 words of it should come the statement, but of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the

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Son, but the Father. The one exhibition of error and the one confession of ignorance grow side by side, that they stood thus in the mouth of Jesus himself and were not merely placed thus by the reporter, we surely need not doubt.

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Unless the reporter were perfectly honest, he would have never recorded the confession of ignorance at all. So ignorance, embarrassing, all those things.

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To be fair, you do have an interpretive choice to make in that too that a lot of partial preterists have even pointed out.

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And that is that, but of that day and hour, like is that talking about the second coming now?

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Have we switched gears and tracks from that first century judgment? Are we talking about something different? That's a choice that we have to make in terms of what we believe the verse is saying.

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But still, man, that's an intense quote from who many consider to be a hero.

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Yeah, yeah. And an incredible, incredible writer. Like if you want your kids to like start learning to love to read, give them the

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Chronicles of Narnia. Right. I read it to my kids. I remember when I read that first,

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I remember literally being in class in school. We had to read a book and I got that. And I remember the way that C .S.

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Lewis describes that whole scene where he's eating the Turkish delight. I remember just sitting there like nine years old, like smacking my lips like,

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I'm messed up, I never had no Turkish delight. And then you had it and you're like, this is actually disgusting. No, you gotta get good

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Turkish delight. It was not delightful. You gotta get some good Turkish delight. If you get a good

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Turkish delight, the whole story makes the most sense. No, but it's beautiful as far as bringing the truths of scripture into narrative story form as land and breathing and singing over the land and the land just leaping into existence.

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All those beautiful, rich metaphors. I mean, it's just second to none, really. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so much more can be said on the importance of interpreting this correctly, but let's get right into it.

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I want to say that if you are just leaping into this and you've missed the previous episodes we did on this,

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I want to just encourage you to check them out because what we try to do is we try to do this exegetically and expositionally, meaning draw out of the text what it says and exposit the sections of scripture that are related to this.

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And there are a lot of sections of scripture in the Old Testament that are related directly to the Olivet Discourse.

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And this is fulfillment. This is expectation fulfilled. So, quickly, just getting everyone at least involved in the conversation.

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Jesus has now entered Jerusalem and we walked everyone through that. He has cleansed the temple for the second time as the priest was supposed to do.

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And then he gets into conflict with the religious leaders of Jerusalem. He promises judgment upon them and it's very clear it's about them.

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And then you have Matthew 23, the passage of the seven woes. Jesus declares upon the covenant -breaking leaders of Jerusalem.

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And then he says in verse 37, There's Jesus now, again, indicting the leadership.

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Who's the not willing? It's those leading in Jerusalem. And so he indicts them. And he says this.

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Here's what's important. Your house is left to you desolate.

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Now, that's powerful because if you were with us, you know that we did talk quite a bit about the role of the priest from Leviticus coming to examine a diseased house and then returning again.

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If he still finds a disease, it must be taken apart, stone off of stone. And so this is now

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Jesus, the priest. He's come in to examine Jerusalem. He has driven everyone out of the temple, which is what the priest is supposed to do, get everyone out of the house.

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And then he now declares its desolation. Yeah, the leprosy has spread. And he says, see, your house is left to you desolate.

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This is the climax of his indictment. Your house is left to you desolate. So the whole point is here. Look, if you get to the

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Olivet Discourse and you miss the audience, this just becomes a mishmash.

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I mean, it just becomes a playground. Let's be honest, a playground. How many books are written on the

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Great Tribulation? It's about to happen. 88 reasons Jesus is going to return in 1988. All those different things.

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It becomes a literal playground when you just take it, snatch it out, and you start getting a newspaper or watching the news and trying to find some interpretive grid to put everything into.

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That's not what's going on here. Jesus is in Jerusalem. He's about to be killed. He now indicts the

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Jewish leadership. He declares the woes. He's already cleansed the temple. And now he says, your house is left to you desolate.

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Who's the audience there of the indictment? Covenant -breaking Jews. All that leadership there. That's the audience.

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This has nothing to do with you. How are we doing that with the Word of God?

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We're going to all of a sudden have this very covenantal indictment and climax to the story

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Matthew's building on. The axe is already laid at the root. His winnowing fork is in his hand. Unquenchable fire.

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Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus saying you should not finish going through all the cities of Israel before the

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Son of Man comes. That's written to those first century Jews. All those things building up to this indictment, indictment, indictment.

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And then your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the

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Lord. Here we go. Jesus left the temple. So indictments.

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Now he's leaving the temple and was going away when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple.

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But he answered them, you see all these, do you not? Sorry, I haven't memorized it in another translation.

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So I sometimes stumble over the words here. You see all these, do you not? Truly I say to you, who's the audience?

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Who's he talking to? It's the disciples asking the question. And he says, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.

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Your house is left to you desolate. He departs the temple. And by the way, where is he going? He's sitting, he comes to the

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Mount of Olives. That's a really important point we're gonna talk about in a second here. But he says in relation to the temple and the buildings in the temple,

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Jesus says there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. That's part of the prophecy in the context.

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Now Jesus then as he departs the temple, it says he sat on the Mount of Olives and the disciples came to him.

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Now just wanna point this out. You can go research this later. It's really a beautiful thing that sometimes we just miss the layers that are going on here in terms of like, this is clearly divine at every word and every point.

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So Jesus has now indicted everyone in Jerusalem, the leadership there, the covenant breakers.

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He departs the temple and now he is sitting on the Mount of Olives. It is interesting that that is the same course that the glory of Yahweh took in the

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Old Testament. In Ezekiel, yeah. In Ezekiel before the destruction of the temple. Now I don't wanna spend too much time on that today and go through reading that.

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Just go look it up yourself. You're gonna see that the glory of Yahweh leaves the temple and then rests on the

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Mount of Olives. Before the destruction of that temple. And it is powerful that when the incarnate one comes to Jerusalem to indict them and tells them your house is left to you desolate, he then leaves the same direction.

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Now Yahweh is in flesh among us going the same direction before the destruction of the second temple.

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He departs, leaves the temple and then he rests on the Mount of Olives precisely as Yahweh did before the destruction of the first temple.

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And it's all in relation to the destruction of the temple. Same thing. And that is just powerful testimony,

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I think, to the divine nature of the scriptures. It's a great point, yeah. It's powerful. It's one of those little nuggets you just skim over.

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Yeah. You don't really realize why it's there. Never see it because we don't know our Old Testaments. So, okay.

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Jesus now sitting on the Mount of Olives. The disciples came to him. We have to think in terms of letting the text speak.

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Who's coming to Jesus? His disciples. They are the ones in front of him. They are the ones he's talking to.

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It's not about us, but it is for us. It's for us. It's definitely for us. It's just not about you.

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I just want to say real fast. It is interesting. Look, if you guys disagree with us on this, it's okay.

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We still love you. We're brothers and sisters in the Lord. I think that this is critically important to get right in terms of the defense of the

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Christian faith and it vindicates Christ as Messiah. But I said this last time. It's interesting you say,

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Hey, the Great Tribulation already happened and it proves Jesus is the Messiah. People get really upset about that.

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Like, we're taking something really good away from them. Like, no, no, no. You can't take that away from me. It needs to be my future.

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And I want to say, no, no. We're not trying to take anything away from you. And we're not even saying that the future doesn't have tribulation.

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I've got tribulation in my life right now. No, it's even that point right there. Like, I'm not even saying that we live in a nation that couldn't experience the same kind of judgment for violating covenant with God.

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I'm not even saying that. That may be coming November 6th. Yeah. So it's not even like we're saying that.

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Like, I don't believe that this is the end of history. I believe this is the result of national sin and covenant violation.

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That's why we're experiencing the things that we are as a nation right now. I think it's God executing the sanctions of His covenant on a rebellious people.

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Yeah. So that's a good point. So as we get into this, we're going to pretty quickly move through here.

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I do find it interesting that when you say that, the Great Tribulation already happened. It proves that Jesus is the

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Messiah. It vindicates Him that all those things took place on time and as planned. People will get upset and say, no, no, it needs to be a future to us.

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And I wanted to say that's interesting that we would hang on to something like that. That what we're saying is this clearly proves

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Jesus is the Messiah, that He fulfilled His promise. Yeah. We should leap at that opportunity to lay hold of that.

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Right. And we're not believing that so that we get to the end. We're saying, oh, look, it did happen just like that.

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And you understand it biblically. It's precisely on time and as planned. And so it vindicates Christ as the

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Messiah. So all that to say, that's what we want to communicate is that as you look at this passage, we're saying, hey,

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Jesus is who He claimed to be. He did it. He did precisely all these things, just like He said. So the disciples came to Him privately saying, tell us.

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Again, who is being spoken to? The disciples.

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Tell us when will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming in the end of the age?

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So note that it is not the end of the world. It is the end of the age, not the end of the world.

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That's a huge point. Tell us when will these things be? What things? What things? He just said to them.

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He just said to them. They just listened to His indictment on the Jewish leadership. Your house is left to you desolate.

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The temple is going to be taken apart, stone off of stone, not one stone standing upon another. And they said, tell us when will these things be?

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And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And Jesus, and by the way, you see the word coming there, and that's what throws people.

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Because so many people have packed this into the, quote, second coming. The final coming, yeah. And the resurrection of the dead.

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And so they see the word coming there, and they go, oh, that's second coming. No. There were comings in judgment of Yahweh many times in the

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Old Testament. Through the, even through the instruments of foreign nations, armies that were used in His hand.

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Like Assyria, you know, Isaiah, all the foreign armies that judged His people. Cast them out.

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Exiled them. And I like to read this one just because the language is, well, that's what's also being used in Matthew 24.

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In Isaiah chapter 19. It's one of my favorites to talk about when we talk about the great tribulation passage.

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Because I think it's so clear. Here we go. This is Isaiah 19, and this is against Egypt.

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So we're all in agreement that this happened. All right. Isaiah 19, verse 1. It says, an oracle concerning Egypt.

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Behold, Yahweh is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt.

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Here's a coming of Yahweh on a cloud against Egypt. And the idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence.

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And the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them. And I will stir up the Egyptians against Egyptians.

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And they will fight each against another. And each against his neighbor. City against city.

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Kingdom against kingdom. So that's Isaiah 19. And note again how it starts. Behold, Yahweh is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt.

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Now, just like Jesus says when He's brought before on trial, you will see the Son of Man coming on the cloud.

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So Yahweh on the cloud. Deeply, deeply Jewish language. Hebrew mindset.

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Way of speaking. But you have, in the Old Testament, many instances like this.

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Where Yahweh comes in judgment against a nation or against His own people. And in this case, note the language.

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Yahweh is riding on a swift cloud. I ask the question every time. Do we all believe, as we read this, without thinking about the

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Great Tribulation passage, do we all imagine that Yahweh literally was riding on a cloud?

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Like the Egyptians were watching. And here was Yahweh, sort of, you know, literally standing on a cloud and riding towards Him.

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I think there's probably people that do think that. Yeah. No. No, it didn't happen like that.

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This is biblical judgment language. God uses throughout the Bible, and we just have to embrace the fact,

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He uses dramatic, prophetic hyperbole. He uses a lot of symbolism. He uses a lot of earth -shattering language to describe undoing a nation or flipping it on its head.

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And in this case, we have Yahweh riding on a swift cloud. And by the way, look, in terms of, like, reading it literally, we should read the

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Bible literally where we're supposed to. Where we're supposed to. And if someone says, no, I just read the whole

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Bible literally. Okay, you do. So, you believe that the heart of the

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Egyptians literally melted within them? Literally? That's what the text says.

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Or do we not understand the language being used here to describe the terror that God is going to bring upon Egypt when

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He comes against them in judgment? So, all that to say, getting back to Matt 24, when we see the word, the sign of your coming and the end of the age, we need to say that the resurrection of the dead and the final judgment, we do not have to squeeze into this passage.

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The coming and judgment of the Lord Jesus against the covenant breakers is something that did occur on time as planned.

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We don't have to place that as the second coming and final resurrection. So, verse 4.

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And so Jesus answers their question. When will these things be? Desolation of the temple will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age, not the end of the world.

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And Jesus answered them, see that no one leads you astray. Who asked the question?

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Tell us, the disciples say. When will these things be? He says, see that no one leads you astray.

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For many will come in my name saying, I am the Messiah, and they will lead many astray. Now, just do your own study on this.

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That was reality in that day. It is very, very well known that during the period of time after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus to the destruction of the temple in 70

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AD, that generation was cursed with a number of false messianic movements.

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There was false messiahs leading people out into the wilderness, all kinds of stuff. Just go study it.

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Read some Josephus. Do your research on this. It's well known that that generation was plagued with a lot of false messiahs.

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And Jesus says this much, I'm the Christ, and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.

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See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

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All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. Now, remember the question.

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Who's asking it? Who's the audience? And Jesus is now telling them what to expect.

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And it's interesting because if you were to say this today, today, hey guys,

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I got a prophecy for you. In the next, you know, couple of years, there's going to be wars and rumors of wars.

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Thoroughly unimpressive. Thoroughly unimpressive prophecy, right? Like who's going to fail on that one?

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Because that's just sort of... Some low -hanging fruit right there. Basically 24 -7. Right, when is that not happening?

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Speaking of history, speaking of time. You know, when you have, goodness, just the last 24 years, and with our nation, how many conflicts and wars have we been involved in that we even know about?

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I mean, there's all kinds of things going on with our shady government all the time. But so, okay, my point is when

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Jesus says this to them, the disciples in front of him, wars and rumors of wars, to them that would have been a pretty, you know, eyebrow -raising claim.

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And the reason why is because the context of when this prophecy is given. Yeah, this is very important. This is coming in a time of the

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Pax Romana, the Peace of Rome, where Rome essentially enforces peace, right?

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Peace by force. Peace by force. And so you're not allowed to have conflicts, wars, and all those different things.

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These things are not allowed. Rome is Pax Romana, Peace of Rome. And so when Jesus is saying during the

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Pax Romana, there's going to be wars and rumors of wars, nation against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, that's kind of a big deal.

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That's a very, very big deal. And Jesus is saying, in that generation, this is what you can expect, wars and rumors of wars.

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And that, by the way, just do a study of history, first century Israel and Rome itself, and you can see especially, you know, if you just wanted to look at, say,

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Josephus, and let Josephus tell you the story of the war between the Romans and the Jews, he tells a bit of the history in terms of what was going on with Rome as well.

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And Rome was, like, falling apart. It was like every nation—I mean, there's one early writer that said it was like every nation was fighting against each other.

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And so it was an intense time of conflict that arose after this prophecy, wars and rumors of wars.

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And so there's no question on that. That took place, just like Jesus said. Famines and earthquakes in various places.

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I like to highlight at least the famine that took place in the siege of Jerusalem. It was so bad.

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Josephus records that people were eating dung. People were eating other people.

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One woman was recorded as cooking and eating her child and offering it to passersby.

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The famine was so bad. I like to point out that part. There were obviously other famines that took place around that time period as well.

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But earthquakes, one of the greatest earthquakes in the history of the world, took place in Pompeii, not long before the destruction of the temple.

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And Jesus says, All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. Then they will deliver you—who's the audience?

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You? Me? We're not the ones asking the question. The disciples in front of him, or his audience, that generation, they are in front of him.

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Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death. And that took place without question, first century.

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Where am I here? Sorry. They will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death. And you'll be hated by all nations for my name's sake.

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There was an intense, intense persecution of the Christians.

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It's happening. You see it in the book of Acts. It's like immediate. It's like immediate. You have, in the book of Acts, you have the disciples being to the apostles being told not to preach anymore in Jesus' name.

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They're taking beatings immediately as Acts opens up in Acts chapter 6. They're already getting beaten for the testimony of Jesus.

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You have people taking oaths not to eat anything until Paul is dead. You have Paul being lowered out of windows.

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He's on the run constantly. He says he's in danger constantly. The early Christians were persecuted intensely.

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They experienced lots of beatings and persecution. But that actually intensifies to a greater degree when

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Rome and the Jews sort of are working together in tandem. I would say it was the harlot riding the beast.

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But that's a different discussion. When Rome and the Jews are working in tandem against the Christians, that intensified the conflict, and Rome itself tried to destroy the

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Christians. Of course, you get the story of Nero. Nero was sold out on the idea of annihilating the

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Christian church. And so he took it upon himself to slaughter and murder a lot of Christians. I've told this story a number of times, but if you're new to this and you haven't heard of it,

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Nero was a disgusting, despicable, disgraceful human being. And he also was, if you see how some artists have done his…

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Very ugly. Yeah, he's a gross looking dude. He looked like a villain. They also say he was a ginger.

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I don't know if there's any correlation, but just kidding. Something about them gingers.

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Sorry, gingers. No, he was… Maybe I can pull up the image here. I'll find it in a minute.

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That was really striking. When you guys talk, I'll find the picture so I don't get too off course here.

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And forgive me for my stumbling over words today, guys. Still dealing with sleeplessness because of twins. It's chronic.

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It's chronic at this point for sure. So Nero was sold out to kill Christians. I told you about his garden parties where they would round up Christians during the day, and they would tie them to stakes in his garden, and they would wrap them in pitch and light them on fire as Roman candles to light his garden parties at night, and he would ride his chariot in the midst of burning

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Christians. Nero kicked his pregnant wife to death.

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Nero castrated, I think it was a 10 -year -old boy, and married him. Nero was disgusting, obviously.

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Nero also was responsible for the death of a number of leadership in the Christian church, including the

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Apostle Paul. And we can go on like Nero tying Christians naked to a stake, covering himself in animal skins, and literally trying to devour them while they're tied to a stake and naked, eating them and even trying to eat their genitals.

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He was a disgusting beast of a man. And so this took place, exactly as Jesus promised, that kind of persecution and that kind of tribulation.

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Now there was a point after the Jews and the Romans were together at a point, in terms of their hatred and persecution for Christians, where now the beast turned on the woman, where Rome turned on the

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Jews, obviously, and then laid siege to the temple, and there was a three -and -a -half -year war of the

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Romans versus the Jews. That all took place. It should also be mentioned that 666 spells out his name.

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Yeah, throw that out there to whet your appetite. In terms of the number of the beast, it's the number of a man.

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666 Hebrew cryptogram spells Neron, Caesar. But that's just to whet your appetite.

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If you want to get more on that, read Dr. Kenneth Gentry's book. I think The Beast of Revelation it's called.

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And it'll really bless you. A lot of great historical information in there and just great work through the text in Revelation 13.

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So here we go. Let's go on. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you'll be hated by all nations for my name's sake.

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You, you, you, you, you. All consistent. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.

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That apostasy is mentioned in the New Testament itself. I mean, what's taking place in the book of Hebrews?

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It's addressing specifically the issue of apostasy, people falling away. You literally have people named in the

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New Testament who have fallen away and are now put outside of the church and people who are the

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Apostles are warning you about that apostasy falling away did take place within the that first century church it's addressed specifically in the

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New Testament itself as you're getting towards the destruction of Jerusalem and many false prophets will arise and lead many astray you don't need to go far outside of the

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New Testament to see that that's testified to in the New Testament itself and external non -biblical sources you'll see exactly the same thing that took place

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I don't want to spend too much time on those points because this is too easy to demonstrate and because lawlessness will be increased the love of many will grow cold but that one who endures to the end will be saved and this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed through the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come and this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come somebody says up there you go booyah it's over there's no way that this passage could be passed in fulfillment it cannot be a preterist outlook or view because Jesus says this gospel of the kingdom we will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come so how can you say that this took place was the gospel in North America was the gospel in Australia was the gospel in Canada so there's no way this can be passed in fulfillment and I want to say well the

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Bible itself says that this took place I believe we're talking about the inhabited world yeah the known world that's how they described it so did you pull some verses up for that I was just though the one verse that jumps out is

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Colossians 123 read that because this is before the destruction of the temple this is after the prophecy of Jesus and this is what's written by the

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Apostle Paul if indeed you continue in the faith stable and steadfast not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven try that again let's let's read that again for everyone who is in the back not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which

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I Paul became a minister okay so here's Paul using that language that the gospel has been preached to every creature under heaven before the destruction of the temple and maybe the problem is it's our

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Western mindset and our Western way of thinking and talking at times that we don't understand but we know we but we do understand

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I'm saying that wrong we do understand hyperbole we do understand general expressions generally speaking the known world and those sorts of things so when

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Jesus is talking here he's not speaking in terms of totality in certain terms of every single geographical location of the earth or every single individual yeah ever by the way it did go across the entire

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Roman Empire the known world at the time so I was gonna say at that point quickly we actually saw in Frankfurt last year in Germany there's

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Roman ruins there in Frankfurt and that was believed to have been the extent of the Roman Empire and so they believe the gospel would have gone through to that that would have been what we're talking about right as far as a

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Frankfurt Germany so I want to say to a person that says this can't be something that has already been fulfilled because of that passage

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I want to say the New Testament itself says it already happened inspiration under inspiration the

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Apostle Paul says every creature under heaven but there's more in Romans Paul says something exactly like it in Romans chapter 1 he says verse 8 first I thank my

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God through Jesus Christ for all of you because your faith is proclaimed in all the world all right

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I think we're good on that one so when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the

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Prophet Daniel standing in the holy place let the reader understand I like how that's in there let the reader understand what

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I'm talking about cuz it's probably very it's very Jewish stuff Daniel who's yeah you know who is he writing to yeah exactly standing in the holy place let the reader understand then let those who were in Judea flee to the mountains now

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I want to point something out as we let scripture explain scripture here that when

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Matthew says this when you see the so when you see who's he talking to that generation those people when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the

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Prophet Daniel standing in the holy place let the reader understand then let those who were in Judea flee to the mountains can

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I point out please as we get to the scripture that explains this that this is a local judgment yeah mountains

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Judea it's very important to point that out where Jesus said that the gospel would go forth you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem Judea Samaria to the ends of the earth so I want to point out that this is a judgment that can be escaped you can flee

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Judea yeah and oh boy did they ever yeah so I before we get to explain how this interpretation of the passage has been long held by many to be something as past and fulfillment and it vindicates

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Jesus Messiah I'm gonna get to that in terms of church history but in Luke 21 here's

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Luke's rendering of it that's what Luke says same thing he says but when you see

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Jerusalem surrounded by armies then know that its desolation has come near then let those who were in Judea flee to the mountains so synoptic see them together

50:25

Matthew very Jewish in context says when you see the abomination that causes desolation now

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Luke is written primarily to non -jews non -jewish it's Greek and non -jewish audience

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I mean Matthew's in Greek too but my point is is that it's more of a Greek mindset it understanding to the

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Greeks not maybe people not even having access to Daniel Matthew's got access he's

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Jewish and mindset very Jewish focus gospel when you see the abomination that causes desolation Luke interprets that for the audience and says it like this when you see

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Jerusalem surrounded by armies then know that its desolation is near has come near then let those who were in Judea flee to the mountains so what does all that mean okay you disciples when you see this

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Jerusalem surrounded by armies flee and this is what Jesus says watch let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what's in his house and let the one who's in the field not turn back to take his cloak and alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days pray that your flight may not be in the winter or on the

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Sabbath now Jesus is telling people listen when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies flee get out don't go back to take care of business don't go back to grab something when you see them surrounding you flee to the mountains now it is a powerful story when you read that when the

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Romans came and sacked the city they surrounded Jerusalem then all of a sudden they turned back around and head back and that's because there was word that there was like things falling apart in Rome and like it was a it was a very destructive time a lot of conflict and so they turned back around and after laying siege to the city and it is a matter of record in history that the

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Christians who were inside Jerusalem at that time after the siege and then they left they literally fled just like Jesus told them to do to a town called

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Pella and then the Romans turned back around laid siege to the city again and that was where we have the three and a half year war the

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Romans versus the Jews the only people to escape the destruction of Jerusalem were the

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Christians because they were worn by Jesus they were tipped off the Olivet discourse isn't it interesting that those

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Christians interpreted Jesus as speaking to them because he was and he warned them of what to see and then when to flee

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Judea and they did exactly that so apparently those early Christians actually did think that that great tribulation passage was related to them now

53:05

I'm gonna read you a passage go ahead just a mild note about that too Jesus says your house is going to be left to you desolate yeah and then the description is given of the abomination that causes it to be desolate yeah yeah yeah the abomination of desolate which is a quotation from Daniel not to get into that whole issue but it's important the scripture itself

53:26

I think it's Daniel 9 27 right yeah I got it here and on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator yeah so this is where this is coming from right desolations are decreed

53:45

Luke describes it as foreign armies the days of vengeance right there is an instrument and Yahweh's hand that he's going to use to leave desolation right he's using it and judging his people yeah exactly

54:00

I'll say and again that term abomination desolation meant something to write the readers who's he's talking to those

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Jews that knew their scriptures they understood what that meant right and boy do

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I love Daniel 9 it is such an amazing prophecy so complex and so many details

54:20

Christ coming being cut off bringing everlasting righteousness making atonement for iniquity putting an end to sin he's gonna die and then the temple's gonna be destroyed that's what

54:33

Daniel 9 says the Messiah comes he accomplishes all this stuff for redemption he is cut off and dies a violent death and then the temple is destroyed and then what do you see exactly in the the book of Matthew precisely that line

54:45

Messiah comes makes atonement dies for the sins of his people rises again from the dead ascends and then it says that the story goes into the destruction of the temple exactly like Daniel 9 says hmm

54:57

I love in the midst of this I mean to cut you off but as the old age is being judged as that apostate generation is being judged in the midst of that you have this salvific deliverance of the elect right for the sake of the elect these days will be cut short

55:16

I even think that principle is universal in the fact that even though destruction might be decreed for a nation right other places in the prophet talk about a remnant will return right those that God is protecting aka his faithful people his chosen ones he is able to deliver them even from these judgments so that's an encouragement to us today even though our nation could experience a time of convulsion

55:41

I mean it already is morally and spiritually speaking but if God decides in his justice to decree desolation he has the power to deliver his people and to save us really so it's encouraging to know for us that just what you always say this is twofold this is salvation and judgment right it's judgment for the covenant breakers and salvation for the remnant for the faithful for the elect exactly that's powerful thought man so wanted to point everyone to this passage from church history and Eusebius so this is going way way way back in church history and this is from you guys can read this yourselves just google search this and you'll find it

56:31

Eusebius is church history this is in book 3 chapter 5 and verse 3 so book 3 chapter 5 and section 3 verse 3 it says here we go speaking of this part of the history where the

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Christians escaped it says but the people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation vouchsafed to approved men there before the war he's talking about the war between the

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Romans and the Jews the destruction of Jerusalem to leave the city and to dwell in a certain town of Perea called

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Pella and when those that believed in Christ had come there from Jerusalem then as if the royal city of the

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Jews in the whole land of Judea were entirely destitute of holy men the judgment of God at length overtook those who had committed such outrages against Christ and his apostles and totally destroyed that generation of impious men now

57:31

Joseph sorry Eusebius has a number of things to say that are straight preteristic preterism pass and fulfillment related to the

57:39

Olivet discourse he actually explains in kind of bullet point form a lot of the things that took place in Jerusalem in that generation he even records some of the signs that Josephus was talking about that happened in the heavens like you know the comet that hung over Jerusalem for like a year that was like shaped like a sword they're really strange happenings that took place in the gym in the temple like there's the there's the story of of the temple doors blowing open and all the testimony of witnesses that they heard a voice coming out of the temple let us remove hence let us leave this interesting but us leave do you think they really said hence let us yeah that's

58:24

I have I have I have it right I have it remember memorizing Josephus's thing let us remove hence

58:30

King James English let us let it far as like let us leave now or let us yeah and so but that you know there's all kinds of really crazy strange happenings that took place in that generation with the temple there's all kinds of stories about the the the tongue that was supposed to turn white and that didn't and you have the stories of the temple doors blowing out and this loud voice coming out of the temple like I'm leaving now let us leave now the sword hanging over the city the earthquakes that took place some crazy stuff

58:59

Eusebius mentions a number of those things but I just wanted to point out that in book 3 chapter 5 verse 3 he mentions that the

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Christians fled Jerusalem because of a divine revelation what revelation was that that told the

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Christians to get out of Jerusalem and to flee it was here in the Olivet discourse so my point is is

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Jesus is talking to that generation to those disciples and apparently those early Christians understood Jesus was talking about them

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Jesus says when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies flee get out of there don't go back to get your coat get out of the city as quickly as you can and they did the

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Christians did and they survived because they listened to Jesus warning them he loves his people and they were saved from it so some of this we're going to skip because it's obvious and easy to demonstrate

59:47

I want to really get to the harder points for people then if anyone says to you look here is the

59:54

Christ or there he is do not believe it for false Christ and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray if possible even the elect see

01:00:03

I have told you beforehand so if they say to you look he's in the wilderness do not go out if they say look he's in the inner rooms do not believe it for as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the

01:00:13

West so will be the coming of the Son of Man wherever the corpse is that there the vultures will gather there's some great discussion on this passage in terms of the proper interpretation here of the language is it eagle is it vulture but I want to just get to this point as a lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the

01:00:36

West so will be the coming of the Son of Man and people struggle with that because they say well is that like Jesus is coming it's gonna look like that well if we read our

01:00:47

Bibles and we understand how God speaks in his word about judgment we'll notice that God uses this kind of terminology many times in Scripture lightning is is is used in in the

01:01:04

Old Testament a number of times of course in the context of even judgment I'll just give you just a couple to work with here you can look it up yourself

01:01:10

Zechariah 9 14 then the Lord will appear over them and his arrow will go forth like lightning the

01:01:17

Lord God will sound the trumpet and will march forth in the whirlwinds of the south this is the way that Scripture talks this is how prophets of God speak concerning judgment and and let's see here there's a number of here

01:01:31

I can do let's do let's see here this the context of the language here

01:01:42

Psalm 135 7 he it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses so 97 for his lightnings light up the world the earth sees and trembles

01:01:54

Job 38 35 can you send forth lightnings that they may go and say to you here we are let's see you to do some 20 77 18 the crash of your thunder was in the world when your lightnings lighted up the world the earth trembled and shook so this the language of Scripture is used at times literally it's used at times symbolically it's used at times when we talk about the judgment of God God will paint a portrait a poetic judgment portrait related to destruction you're gonna see that actually very vividly in just a moment here now

01:02:30

I think that it is interesting and Gentry I think was the one that pointed this out to me that it is it is it is interesting gosh my mouth is not working

01:02:39

I gotta get more sleep wherever the corpse is there the vultures will gather in terms of the interpretation sorry translation of the word vulture is an eagle it is interesting that if it actually could be translated properly as eagle which many will do that the emblem or the insignia of the

01:02:59

Roman armies was the eagle and is that what Jesus is saying here is it actually even as far as directional the judgment will be coming like this as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the

01:03:14

West so will be the coming of the Son of Man is it is it possible in terms of the context here that Jesus is talking about the judgment that's gonna fall upon Jerusalem when they surround the city then flee is it possible he's even describing the direction of the judgment because that is by the way where Rome came from that direction from the east to the west and so is it possible that Jesus is describing the direction of the

01:03:39

Roman armies towards Jerusalem and the Eagles feasting on the the carcass of Jerusalem the corpse of Jerusalem is gonna be there and the

01:03:49

Eagles are gonna be there gathered around it the Eagles are gathering around the carcass of Jerusalem is that possible and somebody says when you're hearing that you mean to the

01:03:58

Roman armies the judgment of God yeah that's like that's that's totally common threadbare for the

01:04:05

God of the Bible he read Isaiah 10 yeah what does he say in Isaiah 10 Assyria yeah that's what

01:04:11

I keep thinking of is Isaiah 10 for Syria is is in his hand to judge his people he literally says he's he's the one drawing it is

01:04:19

Syria is in my hand the rod of my anger a Syria is I'm gonna use him to punish the people of God and so when you somebody says really the

01:04:27

Roman armies well by the way guys just back up two pages he literally gives the parable about the king inviting people to the wedding feast right and then he's enraged and he sends his armies the king's armies to destroy their city it's clearly

01:04:41

Jesus talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and he's referring to the Roman armies as the king's armies as God's armies so it of course makes perfect sense do you mind because Luke's gospel the synoptic account of this real quickly maybe we could read that verse 24 of Luke 17 for as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other so will be the

01:05:04

Son of Man in his day but first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation just as it was in the days of Noah so will it be in the days of the

01:05:14

Son of Man they were eating and drinking and marrying and being given a marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all likewise just as it was in the days of lot they were eating and drinking buying and selling and planting and building but on the day when lot went out from Sodom fire and sulfur rain from heaven and destroyed them all so will it be on the day when the

01:05:30

Son of Man is revealed on that day let the one who is on the housetop with his goods in the house not come down to take them away and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back remember lots wife whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it but whoever loses life will keep it

01:05:46

I tell you in that night there will be two in one bed one will be taken the other left there'll be two women grinding together one will be taken the other left and they said to him where Lord he said to them where the corpses there the vultures will gather so it's really interesting to read these side by side because again similar language this generation he'll be rejected by this generation and so on and one important thing to point out that I found fascinating early on when

01:06:10

I began to question like my paradigm and my tradition is that you'll see

01:06:15

Matthew has a specific line he's working through in terms of like look for this look for this look for this and then sort of culmination but Luke and Mark sort of it's just it's it's mishmashed it's like yes necessarily in order right it like Luke will put something else before the other so clearly it's not even necessarily linear timeline it's just sort of put together it differently and it's yeah it's constructed for their audience that they're writing to right right and so when someone tries to say like my point in saying that people probably wonder what and what in the world point

01:06:46

I was just trying to make there my point is when people have tried to break this into sections to say well like this was that for that generation but this is gonna be future to us

01:06:53

Luke just mixes it completely up and so you can't say that it's it's what this part was for Jerusalem the first century and this part is future because that's not how that works in terms of the synoptic just read them side by side you'll see that Luke just has them in different locations and so that was just an important point for those of you guys that really want to dig in deep to it but it says this immediately verse 29 after the tribulation of those days the

01:07:14

Sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken now this really trips people up because we're reading this with Western eyes and with a

01:07:29

Western understanding and we're not reading it biblically and so what do we have is we literally have people that think that oh the stars are gonna fall from heaven guys if one star got that close to us we'd burn up right the stars are gonna fall from the heavens we know what the nature of stars are today and that's just not a possibility

01:07:55

I mean that star stars cannot fall from the heavens upon the earth our son is a star but besides also that's just not the language of Scripture that's just not how it works

01:08:05

Jesus is literally quoting from Isaiah and the question I have often had

01:08:10

I've asked like do we even know that because I certainly didn't when I got into this do we even know that he was just quoting from Isaiah so here's the here's the text in Isaiah chapter 13 so you guys can mark it down go read this later if you'd like in Isaiah chapter 13 this is an oracle concerning Babylon so this is clearly something that took place in the past it is judgment upon Babylon in in just these next few chapters essentially you've got judgment against Babylon judgment against Egypt and God uses this kind of language this prophetic dramatic prophetic hyperbole he uses this dramatic judgment language to describe the undoing of their world he's gonna destroy them like I've said before this is like the the equivalent of like prophetic trash talk right like I'm gonna drop the world on your head sucker like something like that like this is this is like how you talk trash we need martial arts right

01:09:03

I'm gonna drop the world on your head sucker it's modern -day

01:09:09

Jesus language or if someone said something even today like you'd say I'm gonna take your legs off right like I'm gonna take that guy's legs off or someone says something even like I'm gonna eat that guy's lunch like we're like that's you could literally gonna like going in the fridge and take his lunch like that's not what you mean words for me we all talk

01:09:26

I'm gonna mop the floor with them I'm gonna yeah I'm a clean house with them yeah we all understand that kind of language and God uses it at times in the

01:09:35

Old Testament to describe undoing their life in their world so in Isaiah 13 this is a specific judgment against Babylon and look what

01:09:44

God says to a pagan nation all right in verse 9 behold the day of the

01:09:50

Lord comes cruel with a wrath and fierce anger to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it for the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light the

01:10:04

Sun will be dark at its rising and the moon will not shed its light I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity this is about an oracle against Babylon it's specific to Babylon and look how

01:10:19

God speaks and maybe that's the problem is that we're reading Matthew and the Olivet Discourse and Luke and Mark of course we're reading all of a discourse we're reading it without biblical eyes and so we see

01:10:30

Jesus saying that the Sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken and the first thing we do is we look up and we're like okay when's that gonna take place but that's not what

01:10:42

God meant when he said it in Isaiah 13 in an oracle against Babylon that's not what was intended to communicate literally look up and watch these stars fall from heaven or the

01:10:56

Sun be darkened so what is interesting about this and this is the powerful point I think to be made here is here you have the

01:11:02

Jewish Messiah who was supposed to bring salvation and judgment judgment upon the covenant breakers he's just told the leadership of Jerusalem your house has left you desolate whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa to you

01:11:13

I think that's seven I think I got it right that's a lot of woes seven woes to them he says the temple's gonna be destroyed he's telling them what's gonna happen in terms of his his judgment and now he takes a well -known to the

01:11:26

Jews section of an oracle against Babylon a pagan nation and now he's using it in the context of the destruction of Jerusalem so what was used by Yahweh against pagans understood in terms of the undoing of their world now

01:11:41

Jesus is using that exact language from Isaiah the prophet Isaiah and he's doing it in the context of the covenant breaking

01:11:48

Jews so it would have testified a lot to the Jews to go wait a minute that's what God said to pagans you're talking about that in the context of Jerusalem now and how about that language of God shaking everything too so there's this language again

01:12:03

Jesus says birth pains right these are the beginning of birth pain so there's a new creation coming right this is

01:12:08

I'm gonna upend this world this old aeon and there's gonna be a new creation right the old creation is gonna pass away the new has come but I think about Hebrews 12 26 at that time his voice shook the earth but now he has promised yet once more

01:12:23

I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens this phrase yet once more indicates the removal of things that are shaken that is things that have been made in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken so this comes right on the heels of the author of Hebrews saying in verse 25 don't refuse him who's speaking for if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven yeah so this idea of God shaking everything again this is written before the destruction of the

01:12:57

Jewish temple again God is shaking things so that what is unshakable may remain right there's two mountains or there's two covenants right you haven't come to the mountain that's burning and smoking where the

01:13:10

Ten Commandments were given you've come to this heavenly Jerusalem now this new creation of which you are a part and so that is what will remain it's the kingdom that cannot be shaken that was taken away from the covenant breakers and given to this new covenant people of God to be faithful but that language clearly is being used in Hebrews and it's not being used in a literal form right because the message is don't go back yeah to the

01:13:36

Old Covenant yeah right there's nothing to go back to this is about to be completely undone it's about to be destroyed right shaking the heavens and the earth referring to the destruction of that old order right it's referring to that old order that Old Covenant aeon that that age that's all about to be shaken and destroyed but the language being used is shaking the heavens and the earth and the writer of Hebrews literally interprets it for you this is what it means yeah this is what

01:14:02

I mean by shaking the heavens and the earth like literally God's gonna come and shake the earth no it's talking about the undoing of their world

01:14:07

God spoke like this I think we should probably stop here we're gonna have to do another episode cuz there's so much more to say and you gotta go yeah and and and I think

01:14:15

I think that's probably enough for people to sort of get ready now now listen really important we're not finished yet we have more to do and I think it gets more and more interesting here but note again we stopped at verse 29 powers of the heavens will be shaken we stopped at verse 29 we still have more to go but note again verse 34 so we're in 29 and 34

01:14:42

Jesus says truly I say to you this generation will not pass away until all these things take place who's still alive this generation near demonstrative it's to those disciples tell us when will these things be

01:14:57

Jesus is talking to you to them he's used the terminology this generation before it is in Matthew chapter 11 what shall

01:15:03

I liken this generation to and so it's understood this is who we're talking about and Jesus says all these things everything we've already been talking about up to this point and there's more to come

01:15:13

Jesus says will take place in this generation before they all die that's what Jesus says and what we're arguing is that actually these things occurred biblically on time as planned and it vindicates

01:15:27

Christ as Mashiach that's the point is it makes much of Jesus and his prophetic ministry heaven and earth to pass away my words will not pass away

01:15:36

Jesus is staking his prophetic ministry on it and guaranteeing that this is going to happen and by the way brothers and sisters it did within that generation all these things took place within that generation the covenant -breaking

01:15:49

Jews were judged by God in such a catastrophic unbelievably bad way it was horrific horrific how bad that judgment was and it all took place before that generation all passed away and so praise

01:16:04

God for Jesus as Messiah so I know that we had planned to get all through all this today but best laid plans so let's point everybody real quick we have some amazing people that we work with some sponsors that we love

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01:17:58

Luke yeah before I mentioned those I just want to say in regard to the conversation day I you know

01:18:04

I've been monitoring the the chat a lot and it's just crazy it's like all these people come in here and they're not even listening to what we're saying they just want to they just want to throw down over eschatology and I just want to say this guys what we're saying to you literally the majority of the church about 200 years ago so what you're arguing for is new in history of the church and I would just say please actually listen to what we're saying and look into this and not just come ready to fight but if you are ready to fight you should have carry a blade that's good

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Christmas is coming very very quickly I think we're goodness well 8 10 very close you're in the

01:18:57

German household it is Chris I don't know yet it's Christmas season very soon yes our starts

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November 1st but uh we just started we start a new partnership I'm very excited about you can see the sweet whiskey and cigar tray here from rooted pines homestead if you see if they put our logo on there they got some amazing gifts

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I talked to Josh as the owner and very cool I'm watching the comments now just waiting for it yeah

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I mean they got more than this they got he actually sent me I'll bring some more stuff and they they make these uh handmade wood stuff they got a bunch of tinctures and stuff his wife makes and he started us he started a business from with his family and they started doing all this stuff at home and really amazing products and anyways we're excited to work with them at least for the next two months as Christmas is coming up so you go to rooted pines pines home homestead if I could talk calm and put apology in the coupon code to get 10 % off for coming no no love

01:19:54

Matt ship said look at Jeff just zoning out I'm like I'm like I'm not listening but I am trying to hang on and then like right after that it says

01:20:02

Jeff looks does look so tired guys that's cuz

01:20:07

I don't even know I can't I just I'm living it now is nothing I can do about it and I'm doing my best to live life and do ministry and do these things with no sleep and exhaustion and they're watching me closely they're like he's not listening zoning this is me trying to what

01:20:26

I was doing there Matt is while he was talking I'm very interested in what he has to say but I was sneaking in a little mental nap right there so your eyes were glassed over apology of studios calm we got you've been putting up a ton of gear

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I got some of it on now we got new hats we got the sweet pre -sip coffee please look at this we got a brand new track just came in today actually it's not even on the store yet but it's a the good news of God how you like that Spanish so we now have we got to two tracks thing in Spanish and working on some more man that's so exciting gospel going out to the nation yes it's amazing and then of course heritage defense org if you're homeschooling buy yourself a

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Christmas present and that's a subscription to heritage defense to make sure your kids are protected protected good heritage defense org put apology in the coupon code and to get your first month free

01:21:22

I'll just answer this quickly because it'd be good to attach to the in the episode here make sure they say the name right

01:21:27

McKenna K said Jeff what do you think happens when Jesus comes back next

01:21:33

I would say great question that's answered by the Apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians 15 he says that right now

01:21:39

Christ must reign so he's reigning now until all enemies are under his feet as a footstool for his feet and then finally death is destroyed and so according to the

01:21:48

Apostle Paul's inspired timeline of history Jesus ruling and reigning now that's a that's a

01:21:53

Davidic throne that's the kingdom of God he's putting every enemy under his feet Psalm 110 1 and then finally after that's done death is defeated so when

01:22:02

Jesus returns for that destruction of death it is for the final resurrection after he has complete victory over the world and pastor

01:22:11

Luke is right in America early on in the in the setting up of this great experiment post millennialism was just understood it was everywhere and it was a it was a dominant position and so what we're saying in many ways is something very historical for people can hold understand that some of the great giants of the faith held to what we believe about eschatology generally in terms of post -millennialism some of the greatest are on our side on that so Jonathan Edwards believed in post -millennialism and like Doug says

01:22:44

I rest my case so hope that helps hey guys thank you guys for watching so much please be in prayer for end abortion now we have so many things happening over the next couple months we have bills coming into states across the country bills of abolition we have to find a way to defeat all these ballot measures we're working really hard we've thought of some good strategies to beat the ballot measures where they're going to try to give constitutional rights in the state to kill your child from fertilization through nine months and so those are very difficult challenges to overcome please pray for us and please also give at end abortion now calm we need your help we have the states happening across the country with bills of abolition it takes a lot to get this work done and we need your prayers we need your hands and your feet if we're going to these states be with us at the

01:23:33

Capitol help us in these states we need you to stand with us and if you can please give financially because it is a massive fight and it is not easy to do financially especially when you have a small organization like ours that's

01:23:44

God is doing a lot of damage through organizations like ours and other churches like ours but in comparison to what we have to work against we know of one organization that helped to fund the ballot measure situation in Arizona a 30 -second commercial they put 15 million dollars into a 30 -second commercial that's the kind of stuff we have to fight against and so we do need help financially and so if you would go to end abortion now calm tens of thousands of lives have been saved literally from the churches that have been raised up and trained and equipped to go save lives and we're getting bills of equal protection across the country so we need you to stand with us and abortion now calm we'll be grateful for all of it and if you don't mind

01:24:23

I'm having a complete brain collapse right now because of no sleep oh oh yes please everyone forget to mention that okay we need to mention that yeah

01:24:33

April 24th the 26th ReformCon Tucson Arizona and you can get your tickets are now available get the early bird tickets now

01:24:40

Doug Wilson Tucson James White Andrew Sandlin DAS DAS boot Joe boot who by the way oh my goodness how crazy is this who would have even imagined if you would have said this to us

01:24:53

I mean yeah stop playing no I thought it was fake you're telling tales out of the schoolyard Russell Brand you know professes faith in Christ now so praise the

01:25:01

Lord for that pray for that man he's been saying some really really interesting cool stuff but he and at one point he quotes mission of God you read

01:25:10

Joe boots he quotes it in one thing yeah and then in the next one when he's talking to Tucker Carlson he brings it along we've got it on his lap it's reading mission of God by leaving you dr.

01:25:20

Joseph boots to Tucker Carlson he's done it twice now in the last two weeks who'd have thought yeah who'd have thought but Joe boots will also be at the conference we're working together with the

01:25:32

Ezra Institute ReformCon ReformCon 2020 what what was it before 22 yeah 22 was amazing it was awesome it's a totally different experience in terms of Christian conferences we wanted to be like that so the

01:25:48

Ezra Institute actually wanted to team up with us on this next one ReformCon 2025 get your tickets you have to get your tickets there's limited space it's gonna be a great time it's gonna be awesome we try to do these conferences in a very different way than is normal for Christian conferences it is it is fun engaging entertainment even it's just awesome so ReformCon dot o -r -g that's where you go to get your tickets get them soon come and hang out with us shake our hands we'd love to shake your hands and no after show today guys my brain is it's not working now that's the best

01:26:23

I had so I have to like rest up before the next counseling session so I actually am here recharge yeah

01:26:28

I need a little recharge hope you guys don't mind oh but by the way next Monday ask me anything next Monday ask me anything it's one o 'clock

01:26:35

Arizona time we're gonna do an all Calvinism ask me anything so if you have all access hop on there it'll be a private stream with me you guys can ask questions we get to hang out a bit and that's ask me anything sign up for all access and get it 1 p .m.