77. When Do The Last Days Really Begin? Part 2 (End-Times Series Part 28)

Hello everyone and welcome back to the broadcast where we prod the sheep and beat the wolf. This is episode 77 when do the end times really begin part 2

Introduction as You will remember from part 1 a great noise exploded from the upper room in Jerusalem Within those walls a hurricane like wind came rushing in a torch like flames settled upon the crown of each of the disciples heads

So much so that a crowd began forming in order to make sense of all of the confusion Now amid this pandemonium all of the elect believers and the one group meaning everyone whom

God had chosen for salvation Began hearing Peter preach in their own native tongue causing wonder to come upon everyone in the crowd

For those whom God chose and poured out his spirit This was an exhilarating affair watching the plague of Babel dissolve right before their very eyes

And yet there were men and women who were standing there that day who were not elect

There were some whom God did not pour out his spirit upon and for whom this dramatic display

Was nothing more than patent absurdity They even began hurling the accusation that the recipients of the spirit must be inebriated from drinking too liberally of the spirits this was a terrible mischaracterization and Suggesting that the

Holy Spirit's work was on the same level of foul inebriation was likely a Blasphemy against the

Holy Spirit that Jesus had previously warned about in the Gospels now against that backdrop

Peter began preaching from a text and Joel a text that fit perfectly with the Situation at hand and precisely addressed both of these groups

Last week we saw the situation and we saw how God was bringing the Old Covenant period of the temple priesthood sacrificial system kosher laws clean and unclean statutes all of that to an abrupt and decisive halt and He ended that transitional era by bringing about the final epic of human history where his son the true and the better Adam Would recapture everything that the first Adam lost

Because of this that old kingdom of types and shadows needed to go away because our

Lord Jesus is not going to allow any rival factions to become a distraction from his purposes and with that Joel declares that they're going to be dramatic signs in the heavens and on the earth and among the people of God that showcase

Precisely when these last days began and according to Joel The last days were not some future event in human history, but the final moments of the

Mosaic era when that glorious epoch of time faded into the history books and When that happened there would be undeniable signs proving that it was happening and we saw some of those last week

Some of those signs applied to the believers To the ones who experienced the outpouring of the Spirit of God who were speaking in tongues prophesying had visions and dream dreams

Those signs are going to confirm that the old boat was sinking and that they were

Thankfully by the grace of God alone on the New Covenant raft Today, we're gonna look at the final five remaining signs the ones that are not signs for believers but they're signs of judgment for those who've rejected

Christ and We're gonna understand how all of this proves that the last days that Peter Luke and Joel were speaking about Have already occurred now a little disclaimer

I'm not saying that there is no eschatological future events that are still future for us

There's been some consternation on the internet about full preterism, which is not what I am all

I'm simply trying to say is the passage before us in Acts chapter 2 17 through 21 is

In the past and from that position we will move forward The text and it shall come to pass in the last day saith

God That I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams and on my servants and on my handmaidens,

I will pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy and I will shoe wonders in the heavens above and signs in the earth beneath blood and fire and vapors of smoke the

Sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and notable day of the Lord comes and It shall come to pass that whosoever calls upon the name of the

Lord shall be saved acts 2 17 through 21 a note about earthly signs and heavenly wonders for many acts 2 19

Guarantees that the events described here concern things that have not come to pass

They will tell you that first century skies over the top of Jerusalem was not filled with any significant wonders

The earth during those 40 years was not full of various Perturbations and signs and that blood fire and smoke have no historical referent

They'll even tell you that the Sun and the moon did not go dark and stop causing their light because they say

That these things have not yet happened and because they've not yet happened We cannot be living in the last days as anyone who said so is full of malarkey according to our dis be friends

Well, the only reply that one need to give to such an assertion as that would be Hold my beer because here we go proof number six.

The sky will be filled with wonders Since encountering the

Jewish historian Josephus I continue to be amazed and shocked that so few modern

Christians know of him or have considered the very incredible things that he has said

Josephus was a Pharisee and a statesman living after the ascension of Jesus Who witnessed the entire war that brought down the

Jewish temple to a smoldering rubble? He had a front -row eyewitness seat to these events and what he records about these events should at a minimum

Cause a few of our eyebrows to stand on end for instance Concerning wonders in the sky

Josephus who was no friend of Christianity. No friend of Jesus not a believer at all record several incredible events worth noting

First Josephus describes a comet that hangs foreboding Lee over the city of Jerusalem just before the war broke out

Jewish Wars book 6 chapter 5 section 3 from now on by the way I'm not going to be listing the references because they're substantial you can find them on our blog

But to continue that train of thought Josephus describes a comet in that book and at times in fact, especially in those times comments signaled political instability

They symbolized the changing of power dynamics within an empire Which is why some theorized that Nero as his power and sanity were crumbling around him in the year 68

AD Ended his own life after spotting Haley's comment in the Italian sky Josephus records that this great sign in the heavens hung over Jerusalem as an omen of judgment against her.

This is what he says thus were the miserable people persuaded by these deceivers the false

Messiah's that were in the city at that time and Such as bellied God himself while they did not attend nor give credit to the signs that were so evident and Did so plainly foretell their future desolation but like men

Infatuated without either eyes to see or minds to consider. They did not regard the denunciations that God made to them thus

There was a star Resembling a sword which stood over the city and a comet that continued an entire year

Josephus tells us of terrifying signs that were Flashing in the sky over the city signaling to any discerning person who was living in Jerusalem that day that they were doomed

Now it's hard to imagine a sword shaped Visage that were hanging over an ancient city in the months that were leading up to a war like this comet that Josephus is describing

But he was an eyewitness to these events and this testimony proves that the kind of wonders Required to prove our hypothesis were present in the skies during those years

Another sign that haunted the skies of Jerusalem in the months leading up to their downfall was that the sky

Should have been filled with nighttime darkness and yet there is a moment when a strange and a very unnatural light came out of nowhere and Shown upon the temple and upon the altar with noonday intensity

And while many in Jerusalem took this event as a positive sign from God that the

Jews were going to be victorious and overthrowing Rome Josephus reminds us that when this happened he understood it to be judgment was coming upon the people

Like a spotlight that was shining down from a helicopter above Chasing a fleeing criminal.

This light was no good news to the people who had become God's enemies. This is what he tells us thus

Also before the Jews rebellion and before those commotions which preceded the war when the people were come in great crowds to the

Feast of Unleavened Bread on the eighth day of the month of Nisan and at the ninth hour of the night

So great a light shone around the altar in the Holy House that it appeared to be bright

Daytime and this lasted for a half an hour this light seemed to be a good sign to the unskillful but was so interpreted by the sacred scribes as to Portend those events that followed immediately after it.

He's saying that the wise Understood that these events signaled their doom Now again this kind of sign

Qualifies as the kind of event that we would need in order to confirm our thesis that that these events that Joel is describing that Peter is preaching happened in the first century and in case you're wondering these events are not recorded in Scripture because The Canon had already been closed at that point now some will attest to you that the

New Testament books such as Revelation And some others were written after Jerusalem's fall in 80 70, but in recent scholarship

It's there's been convincing proof that these books all of them The entire New Testament was written before the

Jewish War began and you can look at if you want Ken Gentry's book before Jerusalem fell

It's a great book that provides excellent scholarship on this point. My point in that is that the

New Testament doesn't record these events as eyewitness testimony because they have not yet happened the

New Testament for Prophesies it in Acts chapter 2 and in Matthew 24 and other places so that the

New Testament describes it before it happens Josephus on the other hand tells us about it as it's happening

He is our eyewitness on the ground who saw these events happen and he watched them in real time and we ought to give him some level of credibility and Allow these events to be able to show us that what the

Bible prophesied actually did come true now Before moving along to the following proof

I want to leave you with another cosmological wonder that Josephus tells us about and I'm just gonna use his words

This is what he says besides these signs a few days after that feast on the 20th day of the month a

Certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared in the sky. I suppose the account of it

Josephus says would seem to be a fable were it not related by those that saw it and Were not the events that followed it of so considerable in nature as to deserve such signals for Before the

Sun set chariots and troops of soldiers in their army Were seen running about the clouds and Surrounding the city the

Jewish Wars book 6 chapter 5 paragraph 3 Now while we dare not speculate what

Josephus and his contemporaries saw that evening it is clear that they saw something terrifying Something that made them hold their bated breath and freeze with paralyzing bewilderment

Josephus who's looking up at the sky felt like writing about this would entirely damage his credibility as a historian

If it did not happen But he said it did and he said eyewitnesses even saw it so that it's not a fable in Josephus his mind again

Those who were discerning during those days understood that Jerusalem was being attacked by God And it was being surrounded on all sides

Now the irony here could not be more clear There are so many evangelicals today who've never heard about the events that Josephus describes they or they believe that they're fantastical

Legend or they've never heard about him because they're uninterested entirely in in Josephus But Joel declares that there's gonna be wonders in the sky and in the heavens above Jerusalem and there were

Peter warned the men of Jerusalem that these events were coming upon them soon Even detailing the exact sequence of the signs and in their hardness of heart.

They remained enemies of Christ They opposed the things of God and these signs came upon them.

It's recorded in History in The same way that God poured out his spirit upon his people

He poured out his wrath upon his enemies and we have a written historical record of it

Listen, we do not need to keep kicking the eschatological can further down the future's road

To find some event that perfectly correlates to what Peter is preaching in the future. We already have that The events that Josephus described perfectly relate to the prophecy of Joel that Peter was preaching

That's proof six proof seven the earth will be filled with signs

Now I've written about the evidence for this elsewhere and and just because maybe this is your first time being on the show or maybe

The first time you're reading one of these blogs. I'll catch you up quickly in Matthew 24 Jesus predicted that there were gonna be various signs that were happening on earth in that generation following his ascension

Which would confirm to his disciples that they were living in the last days you can find that verse in Matthew 24 1 through 3 or Matthew 24 34, but as We have shown in some of the blogs and episodes from Matthew 24.

You can find them on our website Every single one of those signs happened during that 40 -year window that we are describing and if you want to reference those there's episodes and blogs that are titled number one the rise of false messiahs number two the

The wars and rumors of wars number three earthquakes and famines number four persecutions and tribulations and then number five the abomination of desolation

Ellen also the article and episode we did on the signs of the Time Jesus is warning about all of this and all of it.

We have demonstrated Conclusively happened in the first century. So Jesus himself says yeah

There's gonna be signs on earth which corroborate the prophecy of Joel now second

We've also carefully detailed the extra biblical evidence of strange signs and peculiar wonders that were happening in around Jerusalem in the moments before her destruction for instance in The moments immediately preceding the

Roman invasion of Jerusalem I mean right before the Roman armies break through the wall and get into the city where it's gonna be set on flames and utterly destroyed

Josephus tells us of Phenomenal and crazy events that were going on like for instance a heifer gave birth to a lamb

Which is biologically impossible, but Josephus records it He says at the same festival also a heifer as she was led by the high priest to be sacrificed

Brought forth a lamb in the midst of the temple Now while the historian does not pause to give commentary or opinion on this account the

Fantastical nature of it should not be overlooked this is why Josephus by the way is not given credibility as a

Historian and yet I believe he stakes his own credibility to be able to write these things he reports that a female cow gave birth to an actual lamb as it was being led to the slaughter a very strange and peculiar sign and mysterious event like this at a minimum ought to have

Inspired terror in the Jewish people so that they would have been led to repentance, but it didn't it seems that they simply pressed on and they ignored the signs that were being given to them and they

Interpreted them as God's favor on their life. They were like lambs being led dumbly and blindly to the slaughter

Now another sign that was occurring on the earth around Jerusalem's downfall was the supernatural opening of her gates

She had a massive Massive gate that could not be opened by a single person.

No, it would have taken more like 25 30 40 maybe even 50 people to open up this gate

Josephus tells us that there were discerning people in the city who understood that this was not a good thing

But some actually did believe that it was Josephus says this Moreover the eastern gate of the inner court, which is the court of the temple

Which was brass and vastly heavy and had been difficult to be shut by 20 men He says was seen to be opened of its own accord about the sixth hour of the night

Now those that kept watching the temple came here upon running to the captain of the temple and they told him about it

Who then came up thither and not without great difficulty were they able to shut the gate again?

This appeared to the vulgar to be a very happy prodigy as if God did thereby open them the gate of happiness

But the men of learning and the men of wisdom understood that the security of their holy house the temple

Was dissolved of its own accord and that the gate was open for the advantage of their enemies

Josephus and the men of learning in the city understood the point that these signs were pointing to That's clear

Clear evidence that God had turned against them and had left them Vulnerable to their enemies who were just camped right outside their walls

And while this seemed clear to the discerning in that day countless evangelicals today miss the fulfillment of these prophecies and don't even know about them at all in favor of a very uncertain and unbelievable futurism, which to me is

More improbable than a cow giving birth to a lamb or something like that Now perhaps the most astounding sign of a cow giving birth to a lamb is not astounding enough

Perhaps the most astounding sign happening on the ground level in Jerusalem on that day was when many men heard a mysterious voice

Announcing the removal of the divine presence from them in the temple. This is what

Josephus tells us moreover at the feast which we call Pentecost as the priest were going by night into the inner court of the temple as Their custom was to perform their sacred ministrations

They said that in the first place they felt the quaking of the earth and a great noise and after that They heard the sound of a great multitude saying let us remove hence

Now earthquakes were generally signs of divine punishment that that God was angry with a particular people and If that were not clear enough in the ancient world, which we can demonstrate that over and over and over again from various secular writers

But when the temple priests felt the earth shaking beneath their feet They also heard an additional sign of a multitude of heavenly beings saying let us remove hence

Which could mean nothing less than that that God was removing himself From the temple from the office from the building and he was leaving it to its own destruction

What we see in these passages is that the prophetic writing is on the wall and it was just about thoroughly

Dried the signs of their demise that Joel was describing was occurring before their very eyes and they ignored them to the bitter end my prayer is

That Christians who are listening to this or who are studying the works of Josephus would give this evidence an honest

Look, we're not waiting on the last days to arrive the last days for the Old Covenant people have already happened they've already come the entire temple and Sacrificial system of the

Jews was put firmly under Jesus's feet and we are living in the glorious reign of Christ as he

Recaptures the world for the glory of God This is recorded in prophetic form in the scriptures and it's recorded in historical narrative by a man named

Josephus Because of that we need to stop looking for Antichrist signs in the skies and Tremblings of the earth below and we need to get to work in the kingdom that you and I have been privileged to be a part

Of but for now, let us continue proof number eight blood fire and smoke

Now Peter quoting from Joel chapter 2 claims that the last days of the biblical Jewish era will be accompanied by a loud sound of rushing wind tongues of fire men miraculously speaking each other's languages and outpouring of the

Holy Spirit men and women prophesying young men seeing vision old men dreaming dreams a revival of the

Jewish remnant and all the signs and wonders in the heavens of on earth that we just described which

Describe the punishment that's coming on all who reject God's Son for them. There will be great bloodshed there the city will be set on fire in the billowing smoke from its ashes will go up to the heavens as a testimony of their crimes against God when

Joel prophesies blood fire and smoke these things are explicitly involved in Jerusalem's downfall and a

Positive proof that Joel's prophecy and Peter's sermon had come true of bloodshed in The months just before the

Roman siege had penetrated the city's walls Josephus describes the most awful bloodshed imaginable

The sad irony is that many Jews were not murdered by the advancing Roman legions, which would have been bad enough

But they were killed by each other in a deranged and cursed madness God had removed from them their sanity and they were

Perpetuating the most wanton and psychopathic violence upon each other when the

Romans finally entered the city the pools of Jewish blood were still puddled and splashed with coagulated tackiness and While I cannot at length go into all of the horrifying bloodshed that befell the city

Perhaps I can pull a few phrases together from the train wreck that Josephus is describing he tells us that robbers descended upon the city in the in the year before the city fell and put numerous people to death

Jewish war four six one He tells us that before the Romans even made it into the city

The city fell into a civil war where the dead bodies were simply piled up to bake and stink in the noonday

Sun book 5 chapter 1 paragraph 6 later when both sides were sufficiently weakened a group of Opportunistic idiom

Ian's which is here the greats people filled the temple courtyard with blood from 5 ,000 slayed bodies book 6 chapter 5 paragraph 3

When the Romans finally joined in the slaughter Josephus tells us that the factious Jews that remained were murdered everywhere

So much so that their blood Ran in streams down the hill from the highest part of the city all the way down to its lowest portions book 5

Chapter 13 paragraph 6 He tells us that the Holy Temple which was esteemed by all men throughout the

Empire had the blood of all sorts of dead carcasses standing in lakes in the holy courts themselves book 5 chapter 13 paragraph 1 and That the temple courtyard appeared to be like a burying ground for the dead book 5 chapter 13 paragraph 4

He tells us that the people were in such bitter hunger and madness that they were eating from the trash heaps and they were

Drinking not water, but they were drinking from the pools of blood Left by the slaughter of their own countrymen book 5 chapter 10 paragraph 2

Josephus tells us that the Romans themselves looked on with horror upon this scene and they wished that the

Jews would relent from their Madness so that the glorious temple could be spared This is what

Josephus tells us Indeed, there were none of the Roman soldiers who did not look with a sacred horror upon that Holy house the temple and adored it and wished that the robbers would repent before their miseries became incurable

Josephus is telling us that the Romans loved the temple enough to try to save it whereas the Jews were continuing to press forward in their madness and When Joel and Peter predicted these things that the bloodshed was going to be one of the signs of the

Mosaic period What could fit that scene more clearly than what we've just heard where a city is filled with?

Corpses who are and men who are under the curse of God being slaughtered for their crimes Filling the city with their dead bodies and with their streams of pools of blood

Flowing in every corner of the city from the mass executions and the bloodshed therein What could better fit that picture than that?

the horror that befell that city and That went on within its gates is unlike anything that I've ever read in history

It is an astounding fact that the war in Jerusalem was awful and Grizzly and it perfectly fulfills everything that the

Prophet Joel and Peter was saying shouldn't we at least consider it a viable candidate for the bloodshed that Joel is describing

That's the first thing blood. What about fire and smoke? Well after setting one city after another on fire in both

Galilee and Judea Not even sparing the infants and the elderly from the flames the Romans brought their fire to the city gates of Jerusalem But not before the

Jews could weaponize the flames against one another again There are too many references for us to quote here, but I'm gonna summarize a few events as I did before for instance

Before the Romans could even light one match in the city both parties Participating in this intercivil war that was happening.

We're setting fire to each other's food supplies Guaranteeing that mass hunger and famine were gonna happen throughout the

Roman campaign This led to cannibalism and other horrors now just to be clear here

While the Romans were camped outside of the city of Jerusalem There was a battle for supremacy on which faction was gonna have power over the city

And they believed that whoever won that battle was gonna win the battle against the Romans It is astounding that they're setting fire to their food supply and because of that women it is recorded are

Roasting their infant babies out of out of some sort of insane hunger

Almost guaranteeing that the Romans are gonna win the war it is it is astounding what is happening inside the city and amid the

Civil War skirmishes a Band of robbers set fire to some buildings in the city, which foolishly aided the

Roman invasion again When Rome finally gained entry to the city they set fire to the suburbs, which is recorded in book 5 chapter 6 paragraph 2 they set fire to the

Tower of Antonia, which was a prominent military outpost in the city and They finally set fire to the temple in Jerusalem the holiest of all places that one of the great wonders of the ancient world

Which Josephus tells us is described in book 6 chapter 2 paragraph 9 He even recounts that while this was happening some of the injured

Jews when they saw that the temple was in flames They cut off their gangrenous limbs so that they could keep on fighting

Supposing that the temple was being set on fire as a sign from God that they were going to be victorious

From there Rome systematically slaughtered the remaining fighting men within the city

This is what Josephus tells us yet was the misery itself more terrible than this disorder for one would have thought that the hill itself on which the temple stood was seething hot as full of fire on every part that the blood was larger in quantity than the fire and Those that were slain more in number than those that slew them

For the ground did nowhere appear visible For the dead bodies that lay on it were covering it and The soldiers went over the heaps of those bodies as they were running after the men who were fleeing them

It's book 6 chapter 5 paragraph 1 One final offer of peace was offered by Titus.

He's the Emperor's son He's the Roman general who's leading this campaign against the Jews and he offers them one final plea of peace that Josephus repeatedly tells us and he was he was actually in the service of Titus.

So he knew him on a first -name basis Josephus tells us that Titus did not want to carry out this occupation any further

He did not want to make this the continual slaughter of the Jews happen and he did not want to burn down the temple

He says it over and over and over again in his book the Jewish war But in their madness the few remaining

Jews that were still left standing rejected his appeal Causing the future

Emperor and general to go after them with decisive fury Leaving almost no survivors

Josephus tells us this so he that's Titus gave orders to the soldiers both to burn and to plunder the city on The next day they set fire to the repository of the archives to Arca to the council house and to the place called off loss

At which time the fire proceeded as far as the palace of Queen Helena Which was in the middle of Acre the lanes were also burnt down and were also those houses that were full of the dead bodies of such as were destroyed by the

Famine the Jews at that time in order to keep the stench in the city down were housing

We're filling houses empty houses full of dead bodies just piling them up The Romans were so offended by this that they set those houses on fire

It is an unbelievable Phenomenon that's going on here in the city blood filled to their ankles

Fire all over the city smoke going up to heaven all of this proves That the prophecy of Joel did not and we're not waiting for that to happen in the future.

It has already happened in the past proof number nine the

Sun and the moon will go dark in Addition to the proofs that we've seen

Joel also prophesized that the Sun and the moon will refuse to give their light when these events occur and for the dispensational pre -millennial is to apply rigid literalism in the most obnoxious and inconsistent ways this

Cannot be a sign of something that happened in the past it must be a physical Sun and moon that goes completely dark sometime in the future and they apply that sort of rigid rigid literalism in Such inconsistent ways because the plank in their own eye

Perhaps stopping them from being able to see the true meaning of this text must be clearly Metaphorical when you have to pluck out your eye and throw it in the fire that must be metaphorical

But this Sun and this moon must be literal It's an inconsistent hermeneutic to say the least but what do

I mean? Well, it's well known in the Old Testament that the Sun and the moon and the stars Going dark and doing other such unnatural things is a common

Old Testament phenomenon. It is either apocalyptic imagery that has an underlying meaning or The Sun if you're a rigid literalist the

Sun has actually and physically gone dark even vanishing on multiple occasions which is scientifically impossible and Yet even more than that.

I don't want to just appeal to science or to general revelation. There are special revelation

Considerations there are biblical things that we can consider for why the Old Testament uses such phenomenal language

When you study the issue when you go back into the Old Testament prophets, you're gonna notice that God Created the

Sun moon and stars to rule over the sky which looked down upon the rule of man. That's Genesis 116 and Whenever you read of instances of the

Sun Standing in still in the sky, which is the Canaanites are being put away Or when you read about the

Sun or the moon hiding refusing to give their light turning to blood falling from the sky or other such in fantastic phenomenon

We're not reading of literal historical accounts But of apocalyptic imagery describing the downfall of nations

Think about it when man's reign on earth is compromised the rulers of the heavens

The Dominion of the Sun the moon and the stars become agitated Giving human characteristics to the the pain that these celestial bodies are feeling

For instance when Babylon receives God's omen of judgment when the greatest nation on earth is compromised

The Bible says in Isaiah that the heavens react with terror Says in the book of Isaiah for the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light

The Sun will be dark when it rises and the moon will not shed its light

Isaiah 13 10 Against another nation called Edom and Isaiah 34 for God says something similar when that nation is deposed

The heavens respond with fury this is what it says and all of the hosts of heaven will wear away and the sky will be rolled up like a scroll and all of their hosts will wither away as the leaf withers from the vine or as one withers from the fig tree

Isaiah 34 4 in A similar way concerning the downfall of the ten northern tribes of Israel the

Sun and the moon react with trembling It says and it will come about in that day declares the

Lord that I will make the Sun go down at noon and make the Earth dark in broad daylight

Amos 8 verse 9 In each of these three examples and there are so many more that I could share with you

There is no recorded occasion where the Sun is ceasing to give its light even more than that when

Edom Ceased to be a sovereign nation just before the New Testament era because of the Roman invasions

The physical sky did not roll up and wear away the the cosmos as we

Understand it did not roll up and fade like a fig on a fig tree. It just did not

There's nothing whatsoever that makes us believe that the entire sky rolled up at the downfall of Edom, which was politically kind of a small local event

But God is using instead of actual physical language that's gonna happen in the physical cosmos.

He's using political Apocalyptic imagery that Edom is under the judgment of God so much so that the rulers in the heavens are shaking about it

That's what he's saying. These are apocalyptic images to describe the downfall of nations

They're not physical events that happen in space and time. We know that because the universe still exists

It's not been rolled up like a scroll These events that are being described in Joel chapter 2 and Peter in the book of Acts what they're getting at is that these are

Apocalyptic signs that always accompanying the downfall of nations that are under the judgment of God.

This is cosmological and celestial perturbations that signal the end of a particular people or nation

More simply put when God destroys a government or a people for her covenantal crimes

He describes it poetically as shaking in the heavens as the earth and the

Sun and the moon Trembling or hiding because they're afraid of the fury of the father

That is what is being described here. So in Acts 2 Peter is quoting Joel saying that God's fury was now squarely aimed at the people of Judah If you'll remember the ten tribes of Israel had already been destroyed in the past That's recorded in Amos chapter 8 now the last two remaining tribes from the original 12 who had continually played the harlot with the nation's is

Now as an act of utter treachery Crucifying their God who visited them in the flesh and because of that All of the signs in heaven and earth the blood the fire the smoke and the trembling balls of celestial fire were all

Consequences of their rebellion and the fury of God is now aimed squarely right at them

The fury of his wrath the fury of his bow would soon be drunk with their blood proof number 10

Those who endure to the end will be saved Peter concludes his quotation of Joel with the tenth and final sign that the last days were gonna happen in the first century now to the crowds that were standing in front of him half of them had the

Holy Spirit poured out on them in a Dramatic display and then the other half were left standing there mocking him with a mangled hatred for God to that group

He declares and it shall come to pass That whosoever calls upon the name of the

Lord shall be saved This of course is not talking about a future people who call upon the name of the

Lord This is that people that is standing right there and they're gonna be saved not not from hell

Which in some ways that's true, but they're gonna be saved from the judgment from the destruction that is gonna happen within 40 years

This is not ultimate salvation language. This is saved from the judgment of God that is gonna happen to Jerusalem And he's talking to that people and this of course also

Echoes what Jesus said in his own words in the Olivet discourse where he said that the ones who endure to the end of all

Of this tribulation and suffering are gonna be saved Matthew 24 13 through 14 That's the point that Peter is driving towards through all of this that that he's calling

Upon the wicked generation that is standing in front of him mocking the gift of God He's calling them to repent of their crimes and to repent for their for the most heinous crime that ever been committed in human history was when they said we have no king but Caesar and they crucified their

God and Like two verses later after he finished reading the quotation from the book of Joel.

This is what he says to the people He says this man Jesus That was delivered over by the predetermined plan and the foreknowledge of God is

The one that you nailed to the cross by the hands of you godless men who put him to death

Peter's saying you're the ones who are gonna inherit all of this the blood the smoke the fire the signs in the skies and the destruction all of it is gonna come upon you because of what you've done if you do not repent and everyone who repents it from that generation from that 40 -year window were given the right to become members of The kingdom of God Some of them repented and they were killed and they never got to see the new era of human history that God was inaugurating

Some of them like John lived to see the the kingdom make its advance into the

Roman Empire and praise God for that But that kingdom has been going for the last 2 ,000 years in this era

God has once again taking over the rule of the earth and he's ruling from his throne in heaven

Until all of the world is filled with the glory of God as the water covers the sea For all who stand in rebellion to that King the

King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. There would be untold suffering unquenchable fire and utter destruction in that generation physically and Then for all time there will be untold suffering unquenchable fire in hell and utter destruction

For all who reject this King not just in that generation but in beyond that generation was just a picture of the suffering that would happen in hell and It's proof positive that the last days that Joel is describing

Have already been completed Conclusion these last days the final moments of the

Jewish temple era Were recorded with precise and exact detail in the scriptures and in the secondary accounts like we have from Josephus We do not need to go on looking into the future for these events to begin instead

We need to put our hand to the plow We need to get to work And we need to thank

God that he has chosen us to be alive during the glorious reign of his one and only

Son let that bring hope to your heart and encouragement even all the way down to your bones as you serve the

Lord faithfully in this generation and As you hand the baton off to the next generation until next time

God bless you Thank you so much for listening to another episode of the podcast as we have said before these

Eschatological episodes are incredibly dense and of all themes that run all throughout the Bible My advice is to listen to them a few times as you grab hold of everything that is being said

So that you can have full confidence that you are not waiting on a world -ending calamity

But you are instead in Christ's world restoring kingdom If you're blessed by that and you're blessed by the show and you like the content that we're putting out there then smash the like button

Leave us a five -star review share it on Twitter and on Facebook. Text it to a friend navigate over to www .theshepherds

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Project and to this show goes right back into helping us get the gospel truth out to more people

Because let's face it the world does not have the truth of God until next time be blessed