Archive for the ‘End Time Events’ Category

Has Replacement Theology Bred Anti-Semitism as MacArthur Charges?

Posted: September 27, 2012 in End Time Events
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This lecture/sermon was the third in a series after MacArthur preached Why Every Self-respecting Calvinist should be a Premillennialist at the 2007 Shepherd’s conference. Here is an excerpt:

“Augustine even likened the Jewish people to Cain, the first criminal recorded in biblical history who had murdered his own brother and merited death but instead had been condemned to wander unhappily ever after.” Augustine saw the Jewish people like Cain, alive but dispossessed, a perpetual wanderer.  “The Jews,” Augustine said, “might deserve to be eradicated for their crime, rejecting Christ, but Augustine preferred that they would be preserved as wandering witnesses until the end time.”  Witnesses to what happens when you reject the truth.  Augustine did suggest, however, that they would turn to Christ at the last judgment.  The canonical legislation of the church in the thirteenth century fully institutionalized the reprobate status of the Jew and the doctrine which the church called Servitus Judae Oram(???), the perpetual servitude of the Jews.  The Jews then had to be subordinate to Christians.  They could exercise no position of authority and Christian society had to be originally protected from contamination through living, eating, or engaging in any sexual relationship with a Jew.  That was church law.

The Lateran Council, thirteenth century, the year 1215, codified this to segregate the Jews.  And in the thirteenth century, the Lateran Council segregated the Jews by requiring them to wear distinguishing dress.  In Germanic lands they wore a conical hat and what they called a Jew-badge, usually a yellow disc sewn into their clothing whose color symbolized Judas betraying Christ for gold coins.  That’s what was done to them in Latin countries.  The effects of the badge required to be worn and the conical hat were to make the Jews more visible and vulnerable to attack which reduced their ability to travel.  And so they formed ghettos, twelve hundreds.  The German Reformation a few hundred years later under Luther’s guidance led to a very unfavorable direction for the Jews, seeded hatred sewn deep, Luther did nothing to remove it.  It eventually found its full flower in the Third Reich with Hitler.  And the German Protestants showed themselves amazingly receptive to Nazi anti-Semitism, it was so ingrained for so many centuries.  You can go back to the Council of Nicaea in 325, a council which was debating the nature of Christ, came up with the right understanding of the nature of Christ.  But in the documents of the Council of Nicaea, Jews are called “that odious people.”

This attitude stuck and it stuck throughout the Middle Ages.  They were mostly resented, hated and often killed.  In the fourteenth century, Jewish books were burned.  At the end of the thirteenth century they were expelled from England by Edward I and allowed to come back 350 years later under Cromwell.  In 1144 in Norwich, England, the Jews were charged with killing their babies to drain the blood to use in the Matsos, the unleavened bread of Passover.  Of course in the sixteenth century, the time of the Reformation pervasive anti-Jewish attitudes pervaded in Europe.  Hikel(?)  Overman writing in a book, The Roots of Anti-Semitismsays, “Hatred of the Jews was not an invention of the sixteenth century, it was an inherited assumption.”  And sad to say, the Reformation didn’t change it.  Sixteen forty-eight, the Ukranian Jews were butchered and it is a strange and sad thing to say that in the last sermon that Luther preached before he died, he called for all Jews to be driven out of Germany.  He was fighting on another front, never really got around to dealing with that issue which was so ingrained in the culture.  This…this led to this Amillennial Replacement Theology and it became so ingrained.  Interesting further study that Barry Horner points out, the CRC, which is the Christian Reformed Church, Dutch Reformed Calvinism, squelched all pre-millennialism.  And interestingly enough, they…they would not tolerate anybody believing in a future kingdom for Israel.  Anybody who did was placed under investigation.  You could find that in their own history.  They actually went so far as to forbid preaching or discussing premillennialism.

Wystricks(??)says in his book, Anti-Semitism, The Longest Hatred, “The Augustinian theology reinforced the notion of the Jews as a wandering, homeless, rejected and accursed people who were incurably cardinal, blind to spiritual meaning, perfidious, faithless, and apostate, their crime being one of cosmic proportions merited permanent exile and subordination to Christianity.”  One writer, W.J. Greer writing in the most…in the momentous event, said, “The power of Augustine is best seen in the fact that he removed the ghost of premillennialism so effectively that for centuries the subject was practically ignored.”

Now this actually continues to be an issue today.  In our modern world, our tolerant world, a world that embraces everybody and everything, there is still this subjective sort of impositional pre-suppositional anti-Judaism, if not anti-Semitism, not necessarily racist but this anti-Judaism mentality.  Melanie Philips, a Jewish columnist for The London Daily Mail, wrote a really amazing article about the Anglican Church hostility toward Israel.  This is some of which she said, “The church’s hostility has nothing to do with Israel’s behavior toward the Palestinians.” And she wrote this after she went to a conference of the Anglicans discussing Israel and the Palestinians, the current situation.  This is what she wrote, “The church’s hostility has nothing to do with Israel’s behavior toward the Palestinians, this was merely an excuse.  The real reason for the growing antipathy was the ancient hatred of Jews rooted deep in Christian theology and now widespread once again, a doctrine,” she wrote, “going back to the early church fathers, suppressed after the Holocaust, has been revised under the influence of the Middle Eastern conflict.  This doctrine is called…this is a Jewish writer…Replacement Theology.  In essence it says that the Jews have been replaced by the Christians in God’s favor and so all God’s promises to the Jews, including the land of Israel, have been inherited by Christianity.”  That is Replacement theology.

You can go to websites like Christian Zionism.org, and other websites and find many Anglican leaders that are pro-Palestinian, think Israel has absolutely no right to the land.  Christian anti-Judaism is strong in the U.K., very strong, much to the delight of the two million Muslims that now live there.  It’s interesting to find the quote/unquote Anglican church taking their view of Israel.  One writer, Colin Chapman, an Anglican who wroteWhose Promised Land?, question mark, says, “Israel is responsible for Hamas and Islamic Jihad.”  He is supported, by the way, by such notable scholars as N.T. Wright who says, “Israel doesn’t mean an ethnic people, but it means a worldwide family.”  To support his own view, Chapman says, “The Old Testament is not the inerrant Word of God, it is simply a very ethno-centric interpretation of Israelitish history.”

This is the charge in MacArthur’s in Why Every Calvinist Should be a Premillennialist, Part 3.

Why Every Calvinist Should be a Premillennialist, Part 2, By John MacArthur

Posted: September 24, 2012 in End Time Events
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Following the controversial message entitled “Why Every Self-Respecting Calvinist Should be a Premillennialist” at MacArthur’s Shepherd’s Conference he presented a series on lectures at his church based on that message. This is Part 2.

In this lesson MacArthur begins answering these Five Questions:

First Question, Is the Old Testament amillennial?

Second question, were the Jews of Jesus’ day amillennial?

Third question, was Jesus amillennial?

Fourth question, were the prophets amillennial?

Fifth question, were the early theologians amillennial?

Tonight we want to go back to our study of sovereign election Israel and eschatology. That’s a rather technical title but that really is what I’m trying to convey to you. A bit of a theological lecture more than anything else. So take you to school a little bit, not in the normal preaching style but maybe a little bit more like the classroom.

Certainly the nation Israel is at the center stage of history in the world. It has been for a long, long time, particularly since it was reestablished as a nation last century. But even before that, Israel was always a preoccupation for the world. That little country tucked there in the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea on the western border of the Middle East has been a focal point for world history in many, many ways since it was chosen by God to be the land of promise for His people and since it is the very place where He sent His Son to do His mighty work of redemption and salvation. Israel is still center stage in the world. They are in the newspaper every day, on the news every night. Their…their particular place in history is by all human reckoning a very tenuous one, a very fragile one. They look like at any moment they could be completely engulfed and swept into oblivion by the surrounding enemies, the massive Islamic world. But that will not happen..that will not happen. They are not now under the protection of God because they’re apostate and they’ve rejected their Messiah, but they will be preserved as an ethnic people because God does have a future plan to save a generation of them to give them the promises that He made in the Old Testament. So the history of Israel will continue to be at the center of world history, going forward, and it will even become a bigger point at the very end when the Lord returns to the earth and places His feet in Israel, in Jerusalem on the Mount and sets up His Millennial Kingdom. And from that place, rules the entire world.

Go here for the full lesson: Why Every Calvinist Should be a Premillennialist, Part 2

Why Every Calvinists Should be a Premillennialist, Part 1, by John MacArthur

Posted: September 21, 2012 in End Time Events
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I want to post MacArthur’s series of sermons following his lecture at the 2007 Shepherd’s Conference that sparked so much response. Following the controversial message entitled “Why Every Self-Respecting Calvinist Should be a Premillennialist” at MacArthur’s Shepherd’s Conference he presented a series on lectures at his church based on that message. This is Part 1.

Now I’ve been telling you for a number of months that we were going to get in to the subject of eschatology, the doctrine of last things. We’ve been working our way through doctrinal emphases in Scripture, doctrinal themes. And we have covered a lot of ground, but we now come to the doctrines that relate to the end times. And in line with that, I want to try at least in the next couple of Sunday nights to establish a foundation for our understanding.

Now talking about eschatology is not without controversy. There are a number of viewpoints of what the Bible means when it speaks of future events. We understand that when you have a prophecy in the Bible that has not yet come to pass, not everything will be clear. In 1 Peter chapter 1 you remember Peter says that the prophets who wrote concerning Christ, concerning the things to come wondered what person and what time. That is to say that while they understood that someone would come, they understood whatever it was that had been revealed to them, the timing was not clear and the precise personages were not clear. We can take prophetic Scripture at face value. We can interpret it the way we interpret any other passage of Scripture with the same use of the normal, natural means of interpreting language. And we should. And it will yield for us as clear an understanding of the future as the Lord wants us to have. It’s not nearly as difficult as some people make it if you just take Scripture at face value.

Now to affix our thinking to one great future event which seems to be the most controversial, I want you to think with me about the coming Kingdom of Christ, known as the Millennial Kingdom because in the twentieth chapter of Revelation, the opening of that chapter, there is reference to the reign and rule of Jesus Christ on the earth which lasts one thousand years. In fact, one thousand is repeated six times in that brief text. That leaves me with the impression that God wants us not to question the length of its duration.

See the rest of this sermon at Why Every Calvinists Should be a Premillennialist, Part 1

Millennial Views of McLaren, Sproul, Driscoll, and MacArthur

Posted: September 4, 2012 in End Time Events
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Postmillennialist’s View of Brian McLaren

Brian McLaren has the philosophy of the liberal postmillennialists who sees the goal of the church to impact the globe and bring in the kingdom. McLaren has contextualized the message of the gospel as well as the lifestyle of Christianity. McLaren’s gospel is social. He desires to save the planet rather the individual sinner.

“African and African American Christians (Black theology) and Latin American Christians (liberation theology, integral missiology) have been hitting these themes with intelligence and passion for decades, but few of us listened to their spokespeople, whether it was Dr. King or Desmond Tutu, Gustavo Gutierrez or Rene Padilla. Eco-feminist theology—articulated by authors like Sallie McFague and Mary Grey….In many ways all of these voices echo what earlier Christian leaders (from Charles Finney to Walter Rauschenbusch…had been saying: the modern Western understanding of the gospel was too often truncated, shallow, thin, bland, anemic, privatized, personalized, polarized, and compromised” ( Brian McLaren. An Emergent Manifesto of Hope, Church Emerging: Or Why I Still Use the Word Postmodern but with Mixed Feeling. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007, 147-148).

Covenant postmillennialist, Loraine Boettner, provides the theological basis for postmillennialism and an example of allegoralizing the millennial passage of Isaiah 11:6 which predicts that in the future kingdom, “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb.” Here is how Boettner allegoralizes this prophecy for Israel: “A fitting example of the wolf dwelling with the lamb is seen in the change that came over the vicious persecutor Saul of Tarsus, who was a wolf ravening and destroying, but who was so transformed by the Gospel of Christ that he became a lamb. After his conversion he lost his hatred for the Christians, and became instead their humble friend, confidant, defender” (Loraine Boettner, “Postmillennialism, in theThe Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views, ed. Robert G. Clouse, Downers Grove, Il. InterVarsity Press, 1977, p. 90). Really, did Isaiah have the conversion of Saul of Tarsus in mind when he wrote to Israel in 700 B.C.?

Amillennialist’s View of R. C. Sproul

Replacement theology states that the church has replaced Israel in this age and is the New Israel to the point of saying that the two terms in the New Testament are interchangeable according to William E. Cox in his Amillennialism Today on pages 46-47.

R. C. Sproul formerly was amillennial but more recently has changed to preterism, which is sill very similar to amillennialism. This view is expounded in Sproul’s The Last Days according to Jesus. R. C. Sproul in the article, The People of God, does not believe in Replacement theology but that there has always been one people of God. In the O. T. it was Israel and in the N.T. it is the church who is the true Israel of God. His conclusion is the similar to Replacement Theology in that the church is not a separate people of God and all the OT promises to Israel must be allegorized to be fulfilled today by the church. Walvoord defines amillennialism in his introduction to Revelation 20: “The amillennial interpretation is essentially a denial that there will be a millennial reign of Christ after His second advent. It is amillennial or nonmillennial because it denies such a literal reign of Christ on earth” (The Revelation of Jesus Christ, page 284). Driscoll also sees only one people of God in his view of Covenant premillennialism.

Covenant Premillennialist’s View of Mark Driscoll

Mark Driscoll takes a mediating position. “The church is not Israel. Israel is an ethnicity, a nation, and a religious system. The church is none of these. When the Bible—Old and New Testaments—uses the term Israel, it always means a group of Jewish people, not the ‘ransomed people of God from every tribe and language and people and nation’ (Rev. 5:9), which is the church.”  I totally agree. Driscoll goes on to refute Reformed theologians’ Replacement theology and also older, dispensationalist who believe in two different peoples of God which in Driscoll’s opinion “blur the distinction between Israel and church. But that negates the statements of God breaking down the dividing wall to form one new humanity” (Eph. 2:11-16).

Basically Driscoll’s view is Covenant Premillennialism which states there “is one people of God.” So today Israel and the church are one people of God. But in the future millennium “the Old Testament prophecies of a national restoration of Israel (Ezek. 36:22-38; Acts 1:5-7) will be fulfilled by racially Jewish Christians in the millennium” (Vintage Church, p. 58). This is where I part company with Driscol. In the millennium the Israel and the church will be distinct as they are today..

Premillennialist’s View of John MacArthur

MacArthur properly connects a literal or normal hermeneutic of separating Israel and the church in regard to his millennial view.

John MacArthur made this connection between Israel and hermeneutics in his controversial lecture, “Why Every Self-Respecting Calvinists Is a Premillennialist” at his Shepherd’s Conference at Grace Community Church on March 7, 2007.

What made MacArthur’s lecture controversial were the Reformed amillennarians present and several well-known amillennarians who were invited to speak at the conference by MacArthur.

When live-blogger Tim Challies posted his initial report about MacArthur’s lecture the blogosphere went nuts with e-mails: “Did you hear what MacArthur said about Calvinism?” “Did you hear what MacArthur said about amillennialism?” “Did you hear what he said about Calvin?” Here are some of MacArthur’s comments about Israel and literal hermeneutics.

“Now all that leads us to this: if you get Israel right you will get eschatology right. If you don’t get Israel right you will never get eschatology right. Never. And you’ll migrate from one view to another just depending on the last book you read or the last lecture you heard . . . . If you get eschatology right it’s because you get Israel right. You get Israel right when you get the Old Testament covenants and promises right. You get the Old Testament covenants and promises right when you get the interpretation of Scripture right. You get interpretation of Scripture right when you’re faithful to a legitimate hermeneutic and God’s integrity is upheld. Get your hermeneutics right, you’ll get the Old Testament promises right. Get promises right, you’ll get Israel right. Get Israel right, you’ll get eschatology right. The Bible calls God the God of Israel over 200 times. The God of Israel. There are over 2,000 references to Israel in Scripture, not one of them means anything but Israel. Not one of them, including Romans 9:6 and Galatians 6:16 which is the only two passages that amillennialists go to trying to convince us that that cancels out the other 2,000. There is no difficulty in interpreting those as simply meaning Jews who were believers; the Israel of God. Israel always means Israel, never means anything but Israel. Seventy three New Testament uses of Israel always mean Israel.

Arnold Fruchtenbaum presents a powerful refutation to the claim that terms Israel and the church are interchangeable in the New Testament when he states that the word Israel is used seventy-three times in the New Testament in Issues in Dispensationalism on page 118 and then proceeds to list all seventy-three references in the New Testament. When you read the seventy-three references to Israel, it is obvious that the two terms are not interchangeable. All of the seventy-three listings refer to ethnic Israel.

Will the World End on December 21, 2012?

Posted: March 26, 2012 in End Time Events, LIfe of Christ
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The 2012 Phenomenon has captured the imagination of many people. Books and movies are being produced about this phenomenon. Allegedly on December 21, earth will collide with a black hole and disappear. But let not your heart be troubled James Michael Sayer has produced an Official Countdown Package complete with DVD to help you not only survive but thrive before the great end time calamity. This package is valued at $259.80 but if you order now, just for you, Sayer will send this survival kit for a mere $49. But wait, if you order now, he will send two kits for the price of one. You pay only for shipping and handling. (Just kidding about the last part).

A US News and World Report poll revealed that 66% of Americans believe the world as we know it will be destroyed in the next few years. I remember as a child being fearful of “Doomsday” or “The end of the world.” Now an entire generation is paranoid.

Jesus actually has predicted the series of events that will lead to the end of the World in Matthew 24:3 ff. This is Jesus’ last sermon in Matthew. It is Jesus message on End Time Events. Jesus’ sermon is part of the ¼ of the Bible that is prophecy.

Jesus is not talking the events that precede the Rapture but the events that precede His Second Coming to earth. Read Mt 23:37-24:3 for the Jewish setting.

The Disciples asked Jesus three questions as He walks out of Herod’s temple which had been under construction since 20 B.C.

1. When will the Temple be destroyed? Jesus answers in Luke 21 or in AD 70.

2. When is the end of the age? Jesus answers in Mt 24:4-ff.

Jesus gives signs that precede His Second Coming to Mt Olives where He gave this sermon.

1. False Christ (Mt 24:4, 5)

2. Wars (Mt 24:6, 7a)

3. Famine (Mt 24:7b)

4. Disease and Death (Mt 24:7c)

5. Persecution (Mt 24: 9)

6. Cosmic Disturbances (Mt 24:29)

John who heard these end time events expanded on them in what is called the Seal Judgments in Revelation 6.

1. The 1st Seal: The Rider on the White Horse: The False Christ (Revelation 6:1-2). This sign expands on Jesus’ sign in Matthew 24:4-5.

This is not the same as Christ on a White horse in Revelation 19. This rider is Anti-Christ imitating Jesus at the beginning of the Tribulation. The rider in Revelation 19 is Christ at the end of the Tribulation. This rider only has a bow with no arrows. He brings peace through diplomacy for only 3 ½ years. The rider in Revelation 19 has a sword and brings peace through war for 1000 years.

Satan gives false peace through imitation. I heard Stephen Davey recently say, “Only 50% of my congregation are believers.” So many church members are deceived by the Great Imitator.

2. The 2nd Seal: The Rider on the Red Horse: Wars (Rev 6:3, 4). This sign expands on Jesus’ sign in Matthew 24:6-7a.

There have always been wars. If you includes wars between nations and states there have been 3010 wars through out human history. Someone there has just been one war and we are still in it. In the Tribulation there will be a series of World Wars back to back as never before. Even in the first half a Northern Confederacy of nations led by Russia and Iran will attack Israel according to Ezekiel 38-39. God will destroy Russia and Iran. It will take seven months to bury the dead.

3. The 3rd Seal: The Rider on the Black Horse: Famine (Rev 6:5, 6). This sign expands on Jesus’ sign in Matthew 24:7b.

In the Tribulation it will cost one day’s wages for 1 loaf of wheat bread to feed one person one day, and one day’s wages for 1 loaf of barley  (which was fed to cattle) to feed one family for one day.

Inflation will go out of the roof. If you think 4 dollars a gallon of gas is bad now, just wait. If a $2 dollar loaf of bread will costs a day’s wages (or we’ll say $100) in the Tribulation that means a $4 dollar gallon of gas will cost $200 per gallon.

We don’t know what hunger is, do we. For most of us hunger is not having our bowl of ice cream before bed. Hunger in the Tribulation will not be limited to 3rd world nations. In Tribulation, everybody goes to bed hungry.

4. The 4th Seal: The Rider on the Pale Horse: Death (Rev 6:7, 8). This sign expands on Jesus’ sign in Matthew 24:7c.

That means 1. 5 billion people will die in the few years in the Tribulation. If you want a lucrative career you may want to go to school to be a funeral home director or open a casket building business.

5. The 5th Seal: Persecution (Rev 6:9-11) The Response in Heaven. This sign expands on Jesus’ sign in Matthew 24:9.

Reading about the persecutions and martyrdoms in the Tribulation is like reading Fox’s Book of Martyrs. Especially in Muslim countries are believers today tortured for Christ.  These martyred saints in heaven pray an imprecatory prayer, “Avenge us.”  Instead of praying “Father forgive them” because they know their persecutors have sealed their destiny by their rejection of Christ.

6. The 6th Seal- Cosmic Disturbances (Rev 6:12-17) The Response on Earth. This sign expands on Jesus’ sign in Matthew 24:29 even though Jesus’ cosmic disturbance will takes place at the end of the Tribulation and John’s in the middle.

The believers in heaven cry “Avenge us” and the sinners on earth cry out to the mountains “Hide us” from God’s wrath. Vance Havner said, “The most expensive piece of real estate on earth will be a hole in the earth.” Remarkably, this group experiencing the wrath of God, does not cry out, “Save us.”

Will anybody get saved in the Tribulation? Thank God, according to Revelation 7 the answer is Yes! At least 144,000 Jews come to Christ who win an innumerable group of Gentles to Christ.

The week before I got saved I attended a revival each night and two thoughts haunted me each night as I finally fell asleep: Would Jesus come during the night or if I died during the night would I go to Hell. The night I got saved the preacher preached on Hell and I cried out, “Save me.” End time events are meant by God to impact us now.

The New Jerusalem or Heaven on Earth (Revelation 21-22) Part Two

Posted: January 25, 2012 in End Time Events, Sermons
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Now the angel giving John and us the guided tour takes us through the gates of pearl into the City to continue our worship and wonder at God’s greatness.

I. The New Jerusalem Described Externally (21:10-20) This is the aerial view.

II. The City is now Internally Described (21:21-22:5). Not only is God a master architect but He is also a skillful Interior Designer.

A. Streets of Gold (21:21)

What men die for and sacrifice health and family for (gold) will be asphalt in Heaven. The gold is transparent so that we can see through it but more importantly so that God’s glory can shine through it. Our eternal focus will not be on any literal material. Nothing in the City draws attention to itself. It is just a means for us to worship God.

This is no argument against the literalness of the City. My gold wedding ring which is never ending until broken by some outside force symbolizes my commitment to my wife till death us do part.

B. No Temple (21:22) or central place of worship as in the OT and NT

Now the entire City is the temple filled with God’s presence. We don’t go to worship as with other central places of worship because we are always in the presence of God to worship. The whole City has become the Holy of Holies.

The Shekinah glory that filled the Holy of Holies once a year will in eternity penetrate every corner in The New Jerusalem constantly.

C. No Need of the Sun (21:23)

Because there is no night the gates are never closed. Even Disneyland, “the happiest place on earth” closes its gates at night.  All who would disturb the city, all those who love darkness rather than light are now in the Lake of Fire (21:27).

D. River of Life (22:1-2a)

The River of Life constantly flows down from the throne of God right through main street symbolizing our never ending eternal life. This river of life is also crystal clear so we are not awestruck with this cascading waterfall as if we were standing at Niagara Falls.

The River of Life originates in the throne of God. There is no submersible pump continuously recycling the River of Life. The River of Life forever reminds us that our salvation also originated with God and is eternal.

E. Tree of Life (22:2b)

The Tree of Life spans the street of gold through which the River of life flows. The Tree of Life provides 12 different kinds of fruit each month for our enjoyment not preservation. This is perhaps is a reminder that God has given us “all things richly to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17) so that we unceasingly praise Him for all of His unspeakable gifts.

Not only does the fruit symbolize the luxuries of Heaven, but the leaves picture our eternal wellbeing. The River of Life symbolizes our eternal life while the leaves symbolize our eternal wholeness which includes physical as well as mental and emotions.

Joni Eareckson Tada, a quadriplegic, wrote of speaking to a class of mentally handicapped Christians. They thought it was great when she said she was going to get a new body. But when she added, “And you are going to get new minds,” they broke out into applause. They knew of their unique struggle; they knew of their limitations. Heaven offered for them unique healing.

Joni wrote further, “I still can hardly believe that I, with shriveled, bent fingers, atrophied muscles, gnarled knees and no feeling from the shoulders down, will one day have a new body – light, bright, clothed in righteousness, powerful and dazzling. Can you imagine the hope this gives someone like me? Or someone who is cerebral palsied, brain-injured, or who has multiple sclerosis. Imagine the hope this gives someone who is manic-depressive. No other religion, no other philosophy literally promises new bodies, new hearts, [new emotions] and new minds. Only in the gospel of Christ do hurting people find such incredible [promise] (Randy Alcorn, Heaven, p. 286).

The therapeutic leaves reminds that one day “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

F. Worship at the Throne (22:3-5)

So far in our tour of God’s City we have seen God’s glory penetrating through clear, diamond like walls that surround a transparent gold city and a crystal clear River of Life.

But now grand finale and the crescendo are reached in 22:4: “We shall see His face.” This is the text on which Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon entitled the Heaven in Heaven. This stands in contrast with John’s first statement of this subject in John 1:18, “No man has seen God at anytime.”

What Moses in his natural body was not permitted we in eternity in our resurrected and glorified bodies will be allowed.

Jesus promised, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”

This is what suffering Job longed for, “though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.”

Walvoord believes seeing of God is behold His glory: “Immediate access to the glory of God will characterize the saints in the eternal state….The fact that they shall see His face demonstrates beyond question that these are glorified saints (1 John 3:2)” (The Revelation of Jesus Christ, p. 332).

MacArthur similarly writes: “The saints in the New Jerusalem will also see God’s face. Being perfectly holy and righteous, they will be able to endure the heavenly level of the glorious light from God’s presence without being consumed—something impossible for humans on earth (Exodus 33:20) (Because the Time is Near, p. 327).

“Viewing the glory of God is a limited privilege in the here and now but barriers will disappear when the redeemed enter the bride-city” (Robert Thomas, Revelation 8-22, p. 487).

“This seeing of God ‘face to face’ has been called the beatific vision, meaning ‘the vision that makes us blessed or happy’. To look at God changes us and makes us like him: ‘We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is’ (1 John 3:2). This vision of God will be the consummation of our knowing God and will give us full delight and joy all eternity: ‘in your presence there is fulness of joy, in your right hand are pleasures for evermore’” (Ps. 16:11) (Grudem, p. 190).

Now we have access to God’s presence through prayer but then we will talk with Him face to face in His unfiltered and spectacular glory.

The New Jerusalem or Heaven on Earth (Revelation 21-22) Part One

Posted: January 24, 2012 in End Time Events, Sermons
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When a Sunday school teacher quizzed her fifth-graders about how one gets to heaven, she got all correct answers: One doesn’t get there by being good, giving away money, or being a nice person. “Well, then,” she asked, “how does one get heaven?” Before any of the regular students could answer, a boy who was visiting the class that week shouted out, “You gotta be dead!” (David Jeremiah. What You Always Wanted to Know about Heaven, 100).

The visitor was correct. “It is appointed to man to die.” If you are a believer when you die or are raptured, the last two chapters of God’s Word describes Heaven your future eternal home.

John ends his prophecy of end time events in the book of Revelation with two chapters devoted to Heaven. God reveals to John that there will be a New Heaven, a New Earth and a New Jerusalem. The New Heaven is the really the first and second heaven with the curse removed and the New Earth is our planet that has been renovated with fire (2 Peter 3:7). The New Jerusalem is the third Heaven, where God dwells now, but in eternity will be on earth in the New Jerusalem according to 21:2-3.

So literally, Heaven will be on earth in the New Jerusalem. An angel gives John a guided tour. The guided tour begins from a distance from an aerial view where the architecture of the City is described. Then the angel proceeds inside to admire the interior decorations of the New Jerusalem.

The point of the tour is not for us to be awestruck with the beauty of the City. The New Jerusalem is a literal city with symbolic meanings so we will be awestruck with God and His Lamb.

I. The New Jerusalem Described Externally (21:10-20) This is the aerial view.

A. The City is brilliantly illuminated with all the outward manifestation of all of God’s attributes i.e., His glory (21:11).

The City is crystal clear so nothing blocks God’s glory. The City is not the center of attention but God and Christ who light it up.

The City reminds us of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:14 and 16: “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” God lets His light shine for eternity for His glory.

B. A Great and High Wall (21:12).

When the walls of Jerusalem were down in the OT, God’s people were vulnerable to attack and thus God’s name was in reproach (Nehemiah 2:17). The enemy would taunt God’s people, “Can’t your god keep the walls up around His city?” This reproach on God fired Nehemiah to rebuild the walls.

When we see these massive walls around the New Jerusalem we will want to sing with great Reformation warrior for justification by faith, Martin Luther, “A mighty fortress is our God a bulwark never failing.”

C. Twelve Gates guarded by angels (21:12-13). Robert Thomas says these are large gate towers of which smaller gates were a part. On these gates are the names of the 12 Tribes of Israel who represent the Old Testament people of God.

The Old Testament people of God will be living in the New Jerusalem protected in this gated community with angels as security guards. These OT believers would remember that one angel in the OT killed 185,000 Assyrians in one night and was not even winded at the end.

We will be forever reminded of our eternal security in Christ.

D. Twelve Foundations (21:14) are visible unlike most foundations and bear the names of the 12 apostles who represent the New Testament people of God or the Church. Israel has not replaced the Church in this age nor the age to come.

Also in Ephesians 2:20, Paul says that the church is “built upon the foundation of the apostles.”

Those massive foundations will not let us forget that we are in Heaven because our lives are founded on the Word of God.

E. The City is 1400 miles square (21:15-16).

This is the city Abraham looked for according to Hebrews 11:8-10. If this city were to land on America instead of Jerusalem, the New Jerusalem would cover the USA from Canada to Mexico and from the Appalachian mountains to California. That is 2 million square miles of land area just on the bottom floor.

Randy Alcorn in his book on Heaven estimated if there are 12 feet between each floor there could be 600,000 floors which equal 1.2 billion square miles. There be will room enough for all the believers of all the ages and all the babies who have died or been aborted since Roe vs Wade in 1973 which is about 1 million each year.

The city is an eternal object lesson of the greatness of God’s grace.

F. Walls of Jasper are 216 feet thick (21:17-18).

John will now return and give additional information about the previously mentioned sections of the city. It is as though, John could not tell us everything at once about the glorious city. It would overload our circuit and blow all our fuses.

The wall is measured by an angel. A. T. Robertson interprets this phrase, “Though measured by an angel, a human standard was employed” (Word Pictures in the New Testament, VI, 474). The New Jerusalem is not a state of mind.

J. Oswald Sanders denies the literalness of John’s description: “Gates of pearl and streets of gold are plainly figurative and should be so interpreted. So, to the question, Is heaven a place? The answer is, Yes and no. It is not a place in the material since in which, say, Jerusalem is a place while heaven is not an actual city, it is like a city.”

Millard Erickson says the New Jerusalem is both a state of mind and a literal city. To which Wayne Grudem responds: “Something either is a place or it is not a place” (Systematic Theology, 1159). Jesus promised his discourage disciples in John 14:3, “I go to prepare place.” End of argument.

The walls like the city are crystal clear so again they will not filter the glory of God.

G. The Twelve Foundations are twelve different jewels which allow the glory of God to shine through like a giant prism of beauty (21:19-20).

While the wall is crystal clear each of the 12 foundations is a different color such as deep blue, bright green, red and white, deep red, gold, pale-green, sea-green, yellow-green, violet, and purple. The glory of God shines through these foundations like a spectacular prism reflecting the glory of God for all to behold.

H. The Gates are Pearls (21:21).

These pearls are not the size of peas strung together to make a necklace. These pearls are as big as large tower gates in a wall nearly as thick as a football field.

Pearls speak of beauty out of pain. The little oyster receives an irritation or a wound, and around this offending article that may be has penetrated and hurt it, the oyster layers over it and over it, again and again until it builds a pearl (Stephen Davey’s sermon).

As we go in and out of the City we will be prompted over and over again of the gigantic sufferings of Christ. “Those pearls, hung eternally at the access routes to glory will remind us forever of One who hung upon a tree (John Phillips, Exploring Revelation, 254).

These last two chapters are the climax to the Revelation of Jesus Christ so we are not surprised that Christ will be fully unveiled in the New Jerusalem.

In my next post we continue on our guided tour of the interior of the New Jerusalem.

 

        

The Future Arab Spring in Prophecy

Posted: September 15, 2011 in End Time Events, News
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The news media has recently spoken much of the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring is the Arab rebellion or the Arab revolution in the Arab world against dictators. The Arab Spring started in Tunisia in December of 2010, spread to Egypt and is now raging in Libyan.

Because of the Arab Spring, Tunisian President Zine Ei Abidine Ben had to flee to Saudia in January and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had to resign in February. Muammar al-Gaddafi in Libyan will be next.

The slogan of the revolutionaries is, “The people want to bring down the regime.”

The amazing prophecy of Daniel predicts a similar Arab Spring against the Anti-Christ during the Tribulation Period. Daniel provides the details of Jesus’ end time forecast of “wars and rumors of war” (Matthew 24:6). There will be four great warring confederations of nations in the future “time of Jacob’s trouble.”

The Anti-Christ will lead the Western or European Union. The EU has 27 nations today. In the future the EU or a similar union will have 10. Daniel describes this ten member alliance twice in Daniel 2 and 7.

A Northern Confederation, including Russia, will swoop down on Israel according to Ezekiel 38-39 and God will destroy these nations. But a future Arab Spring will erupt against The Dictator in the Tribulation Period.

The Eastern Confederation (Daniel 11:44-45), Japan, China, and India, will also assemble against Anti-Christ.

This Southern Arab alliance, Egypt is one of the nations Daniel mentions, will rebel against Anti-Christ, as Daniel 11:40-43 predicts, and Anti-Christ will defeat this uprising.

Prophecy has been defined as history prewritten. The future Arab Spring is certain and the present Arab Spring may be the precursor.

Will the World End in December 21, 2012?

Posted: September 6, 2011 in End Time Events, News
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2012

The Mayan calendar allegedly predicts the world will end on December 21, 2012 with catastrophic, apocalyptic events. Journalist Lawrence Joseph forecasted widespread catastrophe in Apocalypse 2012: A Scientific Investigation Into Civilization’s End.

Books like 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl and Mel Gibson’s 2006 film, Apocalpyto, about Mayan civilization, also have stirred interest.

These dooms day prophecies have not just stirred interest they has terrorized a lot of people.

NASA’s Ask an Astrobiologist Web site, for example, has received thousands of questions regarding the 2012 doomsday predictions—some of them disturbing, according to David Morrison, senior scientist with the NASA Astrobiology Institute.

“A lot of [the submitters] are people who are genuinely frightened,” Morrison said.

“I’ve had two teenagers who were considering killing themselves, because they didn’t want to be around when the world ends,” he said. “Two women in the last two weeks said they were contemplating killing their children and themselves so they wouldn’t have to suffer through the end of the world.”

In 2009, the movie 2012 was released about the end of the world.

Roland Emmerich directed 2012, another disaster flick in which he yet again destroys earth. Plugged In says this about 2012:

Emmerich has, in his most popular films, destroyed the world in many colorful ways: through aliens (Independence Day) through climate change (The Day After Tomorrow) through Japanese monsters (Godzilla) and, now, because an ancient Mayan calendar told him to. In terms of sheer body count, Emmerich makes Jason Vorhees look like a pacifistic boy scout.

Wikipedia, calls these end of the world predictions the 2012 phenomenon.

Did we not learn anything from Y2K and Harold Camping’s prediction about the rapture on May 21, 2011? I mean we are still here! Apparently the only person raptured was Camping who has been missing since May 22.

The world will not end for at least another 1007 years. Biblical eschatology teaches that the next event on God’s Coming Events is the rapture which is followed by seven years of Tribulation which is then followed by the 1000 year reign of Christ. Then comes the end of the world as we know it. All conservative Bible teachers hold to a rapture. Some have the rapture happening before the Tribulation Period, others believe the rapture occurs 1/2 through the Tribulation, some 3/4 through the Tribulation and some at the end. Even Amillennialists, who do not believe in a literal Tribulation and Millennium, believe the rapture will occur just before eternity.

The rapture is imminent, i.e., no signs have to be fulfilled for the Lord to return. Every other view of the Rapture has the preceding signs of the Tribulation Period taking place prior to the rapture. You cannot believe in signs before the Rapture and also the any moment return of Christ. In 1 Thessalonians 4:18, after discussing the rapture, which he believed come occur in his lifetime, Paul commanded us to “comfort one another with these words.” There is not much comfort if you have to endure part or all of “the great day of His wrath” (Revelation 6:17).

Doomsday predictions have been and still are wrong. See Ten Failed Doomsday Predictions.  What is true is the return of Christ and the sequel of events that follow. If you know Christ as Savior, His soon return is the blessed hope (Titus 2:13). If you don’t know Christ you will be “Left Behind.”

So what is the remedy for doomsday fear?

Jim Rawles, founder of SurvivalBlog.com says, “We stress being prepared.” Survivalblog.com is an online clearinghouse for surviving what he calls TEOTWAWKI, survivalist shorthand for “the end of the world as we know it. The end of the world might come as an economic collapse, a giant solar flare, or a nuclear attack.”

I agree we need to be prepared, but prepared for the coming of Christ. Again, the world is not going to end in an economic collapse, a giant solar flare or a nuclear attack. Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God believe also in me….I go to prepare a place for you and if  I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also” (John 14:1-3). Have you believed in Jesus? Have you received Him as your Savior? Then let not your heart be troubled because He will return and receive you unto Himself before any of the endtime tragedies begin or the world comes to an end.

I Hope You Purchased the “I Survived the Judgment Day” T-Shirt for $20.40

Posted: May 21, 2011 in End Time Events
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If you are into “Been there, done that, and got the t-shirt” I hope you purchased “I Survived the Judgment Day in 2011″t-shirt for $20.40 rather than the “Rapture Ready” t-shirt for $19.20.

The 6:00 deadline in New Zealand has come and gone with no world-wide earthquake and no rapture.

World Magazine reports: “We know the end will begin in New Zealand and will follow the sun and roll on from there,” said Garcia, a 39-year-old father of six. “That’s why God raised up all the technology and the satellites so everyone can see it happen at the same time.”

The Internet was alive with reaction in the hours past 6 p.m. Saturday in New Zealand.

“Harold Camping’s 21st May Doomsday prediction fails; No earthquake in New Zealand,” read one posting on Twitter.

Are you ready for Doomsday on May 21? I asked our waitress on Tuesday. My wife and I overheard our waitress and another waitress discussing the May 21 prediction as they watched one of the 5000 billboard (this one on wheels) roll by the Ruby Tuesday. In her conversation, she said, “There is a part of me that does not believe Saturday is the day of the rapture, but there is also a part of me worried.” I later had an opportunity to witness to her and set the record straight about date-setting.

This is not the first time Harold Camping has set a date. Back in 1994 he predicted in his book 1994 that Christ would return in September. Of course, Camping later said it was simply a miscalculation. This time he was confident. Here is his response in an interview with New York News & Feature:

The interviewer asked: “If six o’clock rolls around and there are no major earthquakes, are you going to start to get worried?
Camping replied: “It’s going to happen. It’s going to happen. I don’t even think about those kind of issues. The Bible is not — God is not playing games. I don’t even want to think about that question at all. It is going to happen.”

He is correct that the Bible is not playing games. But Camping is playing games with the Bible. His prediction is based on irrational interpretations of dates in the Bible.  First, he claims that the flood occurred in 4990 B.C. and because Genesis 7:10-11 says “it came to pass after seven days the waters of the flood were upon the earth” Camping connects this verse to 2 Peter 3:8, which says “that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years.” From Camping’s website, he concludes:

Therefore, with the correct understanding that the seven days referred to in Genesis 7:4 can be understood as 7,000 years, we learn that when God told Noah there were seven days to escape worldwide destruction, He was also telling the world there would be exactly 7,000 years (one day is as 1,000 years) to escape the wrath of God that would come when He destroys the world on Judgment Day. Because the Holy Infinite God is all-knowing, He knows the end from the beginning. He knew how sinful the world would become.

There is no rhythm or reason to such hermeneutical hopscotch. Answers in Genesis puts the date of Noah’s Flood at 2304 B.C. How is Camping so certain on this date? Even if Camping had the flood date correct there is no justification for connecting it 2 Peter 3:8.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:17, the apostle Paul wrote one of the greatest statements on the coming of Christ. In his statement, Paul sets no dates. Paul set no dates because he did not know when Christ would return. Theologians refer to the doctrine of the imminent return of Christ i.e., the coming of Christ can occur any moment. There are no signs to be fulfilled. Paul thought the Lord could return in his life: “Then we (Paul included himself in this group anticipating the coming of Christ) who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul did say that Christ would come “as a thief in the night.” Again, no dates. No May 21st at 6:00 p.m.

We are to love His appearing as Paul testified just before his death (2 Timothy 4:8). If you know Christ as your Savior you can be at peace if Jesus comes today, or tomorrow or next year. Just as God sent Christ at His first coming “in the fullness of time” (Galatians 4:4), God will send His Son the next time and no date-setter will know the day nor hour.

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