chapter 20 and you might be wondering, well, why are we jumping to the end of the book?
Shouldn't we be starting at the beginning? Good point. That's a fair point. I'm not
going to deny that. But here's the reason we're jumping to the end is because
there's this one passage at the end of Revelation that talks about the end
times, the millennium, the thousand years and all this kind of stuff. And it's
one passage in the Bible, just not even that long of a passage, and it probably
has sparked more controversy and conversations than maybe any other
single passage in the Bible. I mean books and books and books have been
written debating this passage. So obviously we're going to solve it tonight
and we're going to figure it out, right? No, of course not. Okay, again, don't
put that on me. I can't do that for you, okay? But the reason that we are going to
jump all the way to the end here is because a person's view of the end times
and what they think about the millennium and the return of Christ and all that
kind of stuff, it greatly affects how you read the book of Revelation, right? So
we'll be reading through the book and we could come to a passage and I could say,
well, this is talking about this and if you have a totally different
understanding of the millennium, the return of Christ, the end times, you would
say, well, know what you're reading there has to do with this portion of the
timeline in which all these things are going to occur. And so basically how you
view that one situation, the return of Christ, the millennium, is going to
completely dictate how you view the rest of the book of Revelation. It's going to
completely color. Like just for instance, there's one view of eschatology. So
eschatology just means a study of the end times. Eschatah comes from eschaton,
meaning the end or finality and ology is obviously like study of something. So
eschatology, it's the study of the last things, the end times, right? So there's
one view of eschatology that literally says that Revelation 4 through
basically 20 has nothing to do with the church at all. And if that is your view,
then when you read Revelation, that's obviously going to color how you
interpret it, right? If you think that this has nothing to do with the church,
but this is just a prediction pertaining to Israel, well then that's going to
offer a different interpretation and application for you, correct? So we're
going to discuss these things, we're going to go through them, and we're going
to disagree some. But that's okay because we're just going to study the word,
we're going to have nice pleasant conversations, no one's going to throw
anything at anybody, and we're just going to talk about it, right? That's what
we're going to do. So Revelation chapter 20, beginning in verse 1, we'll read
through verse 6, it's just six verses, all right? Then I saw an angel coming down
from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit or the abyss in a
great chain, and he sees the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and
Satan, and he bound him for a thousand years and threw him into the pit and
shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any
longer until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a
little while. Then I saw thrones and seated on them were those to whom the
authority to judge was committed, and I also saw the souls of those who had been
beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had
not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their
foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a
thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand
years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one
who shares in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power,
but they will be priests of God and of Christ and they will reign with him for
a thousand years. That's our passage. Because we're going to be
discussing different views and things like that, trying to make sense of this
important passage in Revelation so that we can have a framework to actually
interpret the book of Revelation. I'm going to read you a quote, and I want it
to be kind of our whole motto for how we study the book of Revelation. Okay? You
ready for this? You can write it down or you can just try to remember it. In
essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity. Okay?
I'll read that again. In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity.
Now, let's keep that in mind. Okay? Because eschatology, would we say that is an
essential doctrine of salvation? How you view or your understanding of the end
times, is that essential for salvation in Christ? No. It's non-essential. Is it
important? Absolutely. Of course it is. But is it essential? No. Okay. Well, so it's
a non-essential, so we have liberty to disagree and still be Christians. So let's
be charitable. No one in here is going to call anyone else a heretic.
Can we just onboard with that? No matter what view of eschatology
you hold to, you can still be orthodox. They are all orthodox positions and
they all try to base their position on the Bible. Can we admit that? Right? Again,
we want to still man other people's positions. We don't want to straw man them
and just knock them down. We want to give them credit and say that they are
trying to make the best sense of Scripture and so they believe what they
believe. So, again, let's be charitable as we discuss this. Alright, now we get into
the weeds. Charitable. Charitable. Alright. I thought a long time about how do you
even start this? And so let's just do like a little timeline. So here's the
cross and then we'll say like shortly after there was a resurrection but I
don't want to draw a line because this is going to get messy if we start doing
even more lines. But let's just do like your basic timeline. Here's the cross
and let's say here's the millennium. Millennium. Seems pretty simple. It's
not. There's a lot that goes into it. But let's just say this is the millennium
and what we're talking about is the return of Christ. When is Christ going
to return? And you have this major event. Well, there are really only two options.
He can come before the millennium which would be pre-millennialism. Right? On
board. Before the millennium. Or he could come after the millennialism, the
millennium which would be post. Post millennialism. So there are basically
four views but they all kind of fall within these two broad categories. Jesus
is either going to return before the millennium or he's going to return
after the millennium. So on this side you would have dispensationalism which I'm
not going to spell all that out but dispensationalism which is a form of
pre-millennialism and then you also have what's called historic pre-millennialism
which again is as you can tell a form of pre-millennialism. Right? And on this
side you would have the post-millennialists after the millennium and you
would also have what's known as a millennialism which is really a bad name
for this whole view. A millennialism should just be referred to as realized
eschatology because this ah here is from the Greek it's a negation it means no
millennium and so there's there's a view that they would say like oh our
millennials don't believe in a millennium at all which is not true they just have
a different view of the millennium they believe it's realized now and so even
that would be a form of post-millennialism because Christ is returning after.
Now here's the hard part about discussing all these different things okay? It's
that not only there are a bunch of different views it's that the views are
very nuanced even within like there are different forms of dispensationalists
there are liberal forms of post-millennialism post-millennials there are
orthodox covenantal millennials there are all sorts of different views okay and
it's hard to to speak in general terms because you don't want to paint people
with a broad brush and get it wrong right so like for instance to give you
an example I hate when people assume what I believe rather than just asking me
what I believe you know so people say oh you're Southern Baptist that must mean
you think this I'm like you could just ask me you know like oh you're Southern
Baptist you think Deakin should be running the church no no or you're
Southern Baptist you don't think the church should have elders actually I do
you could ask me like there are Southern Baptist but there are all sorts of
nuances even within Southern Baptist right and so there are dispensationalists
and there's nuances in the same with all the other views so I'm gonna speak in
generalities and if you're sitting here and you're like well I'm a
millennialist and I don't believe that that's okay I'm again speaking in general
terms because I can't go into like 30 different variations of this show I mean
unless y'all want me to but I think let's just keep it general right let's you
know not quite surface level but a little beneath that so let's just do that
and we'll be good so again try to think well how do we start this
conversation about the millennium and how do we interpret everything so I
thought well what if we just go in in terms of like order kind of right in
terms of what to expect so so if this is Christ's death and his resurrection
well the first thing that we would say in terms of the views we have to start
with premillennialism right because that's Christ is returning before the
millennium occurs and according to premillennialists they would say that
right before the millennium starts what happens anybody know according to this
view dispensationalist premillennialists what happens prior to the millennium
started the rapture yeah so and this is very specific to with dispensationalist
so we're gonna talk about them first they would say that the rapture happens
but what's important to note is it's a halfway kind of thing right so they
would say that in the rapture and so you can just rapture here they would say
that Jesus returns partway to earth he's gonna descend from heaven and kind of
come down descend to the level of basically the clouds not come all the
way to the earth but he's going to call up the church and the church will meet
Jesus in the clouds and he escorts them back to heaven so the church remains in
heaven for the duration of the millennium right we tracking so far they
remain there for the millennium Jesus is gonna have this millennium so so there's
a time of like you know tribulation here and actually before the millennium
there's tribulation we're getting run out of room or timeline but there's a
seven-year according to again dispensationalist there's a seven-year
tribulation period you'll have the beast the anti-crime Satan running around
causing all sorts of trouble but then Jesus is going to return after seven
years he's gonna come all the way back down to earth at this point he's going
to bind Satan defeat the armies of evil and then he's going to rule on earth so
on earth for a thousand years and and we'll just polls right there so everybody
tracking this is the dispensational view there's gonna be what is known as they
call it a secret rapture anybody know why they would call it a secret rapture
because Christ isn't coming all the way back down the church is basically
disappearing right like people are going about their lives and then people
disappear and so it's a secret in the sense of like it's completely unexpected
it could happen at any point you don't actually see it happen it just happens
like we could be I could be mid-sentence right now and so it'd been cool though
because you imagine like if that it happened so I could be mid-sentence and
the rapture could happen and all the church true Christians could disappear
to meet Jesus in the sky and live in heaven forever so when you think about
these different views dispensational historic premillennialism post-malinialism
all-malinialism tongue twister what do you think is the most popular and wide
held view in the church today okay this one right dispensationalism by and large
I would say a majority if not the vast majority of the church holds to this view
of eschatology and it's probably the one you're most familiar with right yeah so
that's why it's our starting place so so let's let's get a little bit of
background not only is this the predominant view in the church it has
been since the 20th century okay and in premillennial eschatology it's been
around for ever since you know Jesus resurrected and ascended okay in fact
historic premillennialism has been the most wide held view throughout church
history that's different than this different than dispensationalism but
historic premillennialism has been the most wide held view throughout church
history and so an interesting fact though did you know that this view the
one that we just talked about the one that we said that the majority of the
church believes today the one that you're most familiar with did you know it
was started in the year 1830 by a man named John Darby he was a Scottsman a
preacher and a theologian and what's interesting about this is there is not a
single record of anything in all of Christian literature and Christian
church history to say that anyone ever believed this scheme so not like not
certain aspects but but this whole scheme no one believed that for the first
1830 years of the church it's pretty interesting is it not now does that make
it wrong no should it raise concern for investigation yeah I think that's fair
so here's an interesting question to consider how did this brand-new
theology that was started in 1830 become the most widely held view in the
church today and be the one that pretty much every Christian is familiar with
how did that happen well here's how it happened John Darby created it in 1830
started becoming really popular a lot of his students then go to America and
they start spreading now think back to the situation in the early 1900s in
America what was going on what had just ended not too long ago that America was
still trying to recover from Civil War right life was not easy back then right
there's another war coming that they didn't even know about at the time but
if you're living in the early 1900s in America you're trying to recover from
the Civil War people were not very educated back then either most people
were laborers they would go to school for a little bit and then they would leave
to go pursue a career that doesn't mean everybody did that some people
obviously went to college and whatnot but the vast majority of Americans were
just laborers who were widely uneducated and so here's what they did they had
their Bible but they weren't too educated they wanted to understand it what
was the Bible they were using at the time King James right it's been the most
popular Bible since the 17th century and so again you're in early America you're
you're not very educated you have a Bible and you want to know it you want to
know what God says but you're just having trouble understand it well great
solution comes out a new study Bible and if there's a new study Bible and it's
a study Bible of the KJV and that's the Bible you use and it's got notes in
there to help you understand it guess what Bible you're gonna be buying to help
you understand it that one that's exactly what happened in the year 1909 and
you're not gonna be tested on these dates but if you're just interested in a
little bit of church history it's fun to mark it down in the year 1909 arguably
the most famous study Bible of all time was printed and it changed the course of
Christian theology and church history because it became so popular in fact it
is still so popular or it was so popular and so important many people still own
this study Bible today isn't that right mr. McKinney he owns one which one is it
called the Scofield study Bible one of the most renowned and popular study
Bibles of all time Scofield was a student well I say a student he encountered
the students of Darby and adopted Darby's theology that he had created this
dispensational theology and Scofield added his thoughts to it and tried to
adapt it even more and because that was the only really King James study Bible
of the time people bought it and that thing spread like wildfire I mean it
went everywhere widely popular it wasn't even revised until about 1950 that's
how popular it was and how mainstream it was everybody owned one one of the
concerning things with the Scofield study Bible though is that it was
primarily only Scofield's thoughts and opinion in the Bible most study Bibles
today have like an editorial team where they'll all contribute and do that but
this was primarily Scofield and so again think back if you're early
America's 1900 and you're not very educated you want to understand it if
you read anything this man says and an official King James study Bible are you
gonna disagree with him no you're just gonna believe it you accept it and and
again just a pulse right a couple rabbit trails here but I'll just go on
one this is why I always caution people with study Bibles in general like I
don't have a problem giving them to people but I always tell them you have
to keep in mind the word of God is the word of God and everything under that
the footnotes that's the thoughts of man okay and the thoughts of man are not
the word of God they need to be examined critically and they need to be you know
assessed and things like that you shouldn't just open a study Bible and
read what it says and just accept it uncritically okay you shouldn't accept
anything I say uncritically check me against the word of God because if I'm
airing against the word of God believe that not me okay don't accept anything
man says uncritically but that's exactly what happened they didn't you know
think about it critically that should accept it whatever Darby had to say and
or Scofield had to say and so that's how that became the most popular view in
America and in the church it got so bad that if you disagreed with any aspect of
this new theology that was literally started in 1830 and popularized in
1909 you could be called a heretic and you could be kicked out of the church if
you disagreed with this that's how prominent and then the way it made
itself in the mainstream culture and media to where even atheists know about
this kind of stuff today was because of a book series anybody know the book
series left behind that's right book series and then they made movies with
Kirk Cameron and then they made one with Nick Cage I think and that fell off and
they said all right one left behind is fine enough for Nick Cage so that's it
but but left behind is directly based on this theology by Darby and so that's
important to know right like this is the most popular view in the church today
but it should caution us and we should be noticing the fact that there's not a
single person in all of church history for the first 1830 years who believed
what most people in the church believe today so that's why we go back to
scripture right that's why I say let's not just take what we've always heard
let's just test it against the word of God so we're not going to be able to get
too far tonight but just some main tenets of dispensationalism and I'm
going to be you know trying to steel man this as much as I can and and I would
hope that a dispensationalist would say oh yeah that's what I believe right so
most dispensationalists one of the key tenets of dispensationalism is they
always make a very sharp distinction between Israel and the church so anything
in the Old Testament where it says this prophecy was for Israel they will not
recognize any sort of like symbolic fulfillment in the church today they'll
say that is particularly for Israel and Israel only and so when you get into
revelation and you see certain prophecies they will say primarily this has to
do with Israel and not the church most dispensationalists believe that the
rapture happens sometime before Revelation chapter 4 and that revelation
chapter 4 up to chapter 20 has to do with Israel and what's going to happen
during the time when the tribulation is focused on Israel so they make this this
sharp distinction between Israel and the church and they also have a very
specific detailed chronology of how the end times events will go this is this is
the simplest dispensational chart you'll ever see and that's because I
literally can't remember all the things to put up here so just to be honest but
Google dispensational in times chart and you'll see there's I mean there's pages
of arrows and things like this of all the kind of stuff that has to happen so
they have a very detailed understanding of that and and particularly of what the
different things mean so like for instance the tribulation they would say
that's primarily focused on Israel on the Jews that Jesus raptures the church
up and they're in heaven and the tribulation time is to prepare Israel
to receive King Jesus so that when he does appear after the tribulation they
will recognize him as the Messiah and be prepared to believe in him and welcome
him as their king and then that time starts the thousand year reign on earth
where Israel is mostly predominant I believe most dispensationalists and
again this isn't also you could be a variation but but most dispensationalists
will say that the church even remains in heaven during the millennium and that
the Jews are the ones who reign on earth with Christ as well as those who become
believers during the millennium reign again you might be a different
variation but that's what's mostly in the literature today and and during the
the millennium at the beginning Satan is bound and he's bound for the thousand
years where he's unable to deceive the nations and then after that time there's
a short letting loose of Satan there's a final defeat and then that leads to
resurrection and judgment and all that kind of stuff and the other thing to
note really about dispensational theology is they're very literal they're
always literal in their interpretation and you remember I think it was two
weeks ago we asked this like should we interpret the Bible literally and it was
kind of a trick question because the answer was yes whenever the Bible
intends to be interpreted literally because there are times when it doesn't
like when it says God has wings or God is a rock like he's not really a rock and
he doesn't really have wings but so you don't need interpret that literally but
dispensationalists when they look at revelation almost everything in it
despite the fact that it is apocalyptic despite the fact that is prophecy they
will interpret it literally so when they see 144,000 that are sealed they'll
say that's literally 144,000 could be that's a fair interpretation when they
they see certain things that are to happen they'll say that's literal there's
no they like Babylon they'll say that is literally Babylon that's a another fair
interpretation it could be might not be but it is a fair interpretation the
thousand years they'll say that is a literal one thousand year period again
it could be might not be so fair interpretation but these are where
they're basing their views they want to interpret it literally those are the
key distinctions now I want to look very quickly because we don't have a lot of
time I actually thought I was going to cover like most of the end times views
tonight so I'm an optimistic person I'm not a post-mill person but I'm an
optimistic person so yeah and just you know there's so if we're thinking like
disc and historical and a mill and post mill I told you all before like these
are the four main views and it it like throughout my Christian walk I have
held to three out of the four of these views so like you should be willing to
change your view if you're convinced by scripture like I started out here and
then I went here and then I went here and then some days I'm here and then
some days I'm back here never here but you know back and forth between these
two on any given Wednesday so you should be willing to just say I'm trying to
make the best sense of scripture and you know if that means I need to change my
view I'm willing to do that so I want to look very quickly because we won't get
into too much of this this idea of of the rapture and particularly this idea of
what's known as like a secret rapture where Christians disappear they're
culled up to meet Jesus halfway in the sky and then he escorts them back to
heaven so that the tribulation can start on earth now every in times view
believes in the rapture can we let's just get that out there now but not every
in times view means the same thing when they say the rapture so they all
believe in it they just don't believe the same thing about it so where does this
idea from a rapture come from anybody know off top of your head
Thessalonians very good yeah all right so first Thessalonians chapter 4 this is
what it says in verse 16 it says the Lord himself will descend from heaven
with a cry of command and the voice of an archangel and with the sound of the
trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first then we who are alive
who are left will be culled up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord
in the air so we will always be with the Lord that's where the idea of the
rapture comes from it's the the main rapture passage in the Bible and you
can you can see where the view comes from right Jesus will descend and we will
be culled up in the sky with him will meet him there and the word rapture it
comes from this passage kind of it actually comes from the Latin Vulgate
so Latin Vulgate was just the the main Latin Bible for a very very long time
and that phrase cull up there is actually the the Latin word rapio which is
where you can see we get the word rapture today and so you're thinking oh
where'd the word rapture come from it came from the Latin Vulgate and so
that's where we get the word rapture and the idea that we will be culled up in
the sky but then there's another idea that comes from 1 Corinthians 1552
which talks about how we'll all be changed in what do you remember the
phrasing there the the twinkling of an eye right it's so it's this it's this
immediate thing right it's something that happens very quickly we're changed
and made different in the twinkling of an eye and and so you see this idea
others will often appeal to there's a passage in Matthew 24 if you just want
to write that down you can reference it later but you know this passage in Matthew
24 it talks about how two men are going to be out in the field right one's going
to be taken one's going to be left behind two women are going to be working
and one is going to be taken and one is going to be left behind and so there's
the idea that people are just going to disappear when the rapture happens again
notice how all of these things they are basing them on scripture so even if you
disagree with them and that's okay if you do notice that they do have a
scriptural basis for it and they are seeking to ground their views in
scripture can we be charitable and admit that because it's easy when you
disagree with something to be like oh that's ridiculous right give them credit
they're basing it on scripture all right so what do we say about this well again
we just said they're basing it on scripture so good for them that's what
you should do with every view a couple quick critiques I would say and again
I'm not trying to lead you one way or the other you can come to whatever view
you want again like all of these these are orthodox positions if you are one of
these four and you believe Jesus is the Messiah and you've trusted in him for
something you're going to heaven good job like that's great you could be any
one of these four and again notice I have been three out of the four so I'm
gonna offer critiques I'm not trying to push you one way or the other I'm just
going to offer some critiques and let you evaluate as well my main critique
of really this whole scheme of dispensationalism really comes back to
the fact that it was started in 1830 it's concerning to me that no one
throughout church history up to that point had thought of these things and
put them together and articulated them and believed them especially when you
consider the people who were predominant in church history think about Luther and
Augustine you think about even the early church fathers I mean you think about
Athanasius and Christos and some of these guys like no one was believing this
for the first 1830 years of the church that's always dangerous that's my main
critique of N.T. Wright as well by the way like I'm I'm gonna show my cards on
that I'm not an N.T. Wright fan I think he's wrong on pretty much everything but
he tries to be novel all the time and it's dangerous to be novel especially
when it comes to theology because that tends to lead towards heresy not saying
this is heresy at all it's again we've shown where they base it in scripture
but what I am saying is you should be wary of novel things in theology okay the
other thing that I think needs to be taken into account here if you'll flip
in your Bibles you have them open to Revelation flip back to chapter one
okay I want you to see something Revelation chapter one this is the very
beginning of the book and and again keep in mind the idea here as you're
turning is that Jesus is not going to return fully to earth at this time he's
going to return partway the church will disappear and then meet him in the sky
where he'll escort them back to heaven and they'll be okay Revelation chapter
one verse seven the Bible says this behold he is coming with the clouds and
every eye will see him even those who pierced him and all the tribes of the
earth will well on account of him even so amen or let it be even so let it be
now what do you think is is is the reason I bring up that verse in
particular yeah because it says that when Jesus returns he says behold I'm
coming he's coming with the clouds and it says what every eye will see him so
that kind of at least offers a critique I'm not and it disproves it because
obviously there are smart dispensations like oh I've never seen that verse like
no they can account for it but I'm saying it is at least all for a critique
that says if Jesus isn't coming all the way back if he's just stopping in the
clouds and the church is getting called up to meet him there it seems like not
every eye is going to see him right so every eye will see him and the nations
understand the significance because did you see it said that they're going to
wail on account of him in other words the unbelievers at the time of Christ's
return who deny him and make fun of Christians and say we're ridiculous for
believing as in Jesus as the Messiah as God in the flesh he's gonna appear and
they're gonna know in that moment oh no we were wrong we were wrong for making
fun of them and rejecting the gospel and now he has come and it is too late the
nations are gonna wail when Jesus returns because they're gonna see him
they're gonna know not because they're gonna see a bunch of clothes laying on
the ground and wonder what is going on here I have no idea okay the other thing
to to remember remember in 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 it says that
when Jesus returns he's gonna return with a cry of command with the voice of an
archangel and the sound of the trumpet of God that's kind of hard to keep secret
is it not I mean if he's gonna return with all this fanfare and noise it
seems like it's gonna be hard to wonder what's going on here that he's gonna be
visible and it is gonna be something noticed by all people another little
critique I would offer there is I do think it tends to shift the New Testament
hope because what a dispensationalist is looking forward to next and
I don't mean like oh they're hanging all their hopes on this but but they
anticipate the next cosmic event to be the rapture of the church again that's
fair that's within their right and they base it on scripture but but I think
that shifts the New Testament hope because you never see Paul or John or
Peter or Luke or the author of Hebrews ever saying and wait for the rapture
they're always pointing people to the return of Christ right he's coming he's
coming soon wait for his return soon he's gonna appear soon he's gonna make
all things right this is the hope that he's coming with and we're gonna be
raised to new life we're gonna have these glorified bodies it seems like all
their hope is in Jesus's visible bodily return to earth not looking forward to
the rapture in fact the book of Revelation literally ends with Jesus
saying surely I'm coming soon and John responds I love reading Revelation
because John has these responses like we just read where he's like hey they're
gonna well even so let it be well John responds to Jesus and he says amen come
Lord Jesus so notice that none of the biblical New Testament writers are ever
saying Lord take us away from this place get us out of here God rapture us now
let us be away from this place it's always Jesus come and be with us come and
make things right that's in his prayer Jesus said your will be done on earth as
it is in heaven right your kingdom come so the the Christians in the New
Testament are never writing saying get us out of this place they're saying
Jesus empower us to make this place look more like your kingdom and more like
your will is being done on this earth so so I think it does tend to shift the
New Testament hope a little bit to hoping for a rapture in the removal of
the church rather than the return of Christ and him being the the conqueror
for the church and so that's just one thing the other little critique very
quickly we'll get through this that'd be fun is that the Latin word for rapture
that that we get the word from there it does mean to like to remove or get
called up but but it's actually interesting if you look at the Greek
word which is more important than Latin word can we agree on that right the
Greek word is more important in the Latin because the Bible was written in
Greek it was inspired in Greek so Greek is way more important than English or
Latin so the Greek word there it's an interesting word and I think Joseph has
done some work on this as well for 1st Thessalonians 4 didn't you do something
with this? Okay, misremembering, that's fine. Well you'll get there. We're still
training him okay we're training him but but the Greek word the word in Greek
there it was used to describe what would happen when a king or a dignitary was
coming to a town and what would happen is that people from this town would
actually leave and they would go out and meet that king about halfway to when he
was getting to the town they wanted to meet him there to welcome him that they
were excited and then interestingly the word is used to describe not only that
but what they would do then is they would return and they would escort the
king back to their city so it wasn't they go out to meet the king and then they
just stay there or they go somewhere else they go to meet the king for the
purpose of being the ones to escort him back to the city that's the word that's
used here in Greek that the church is being called up to meet Jesus there but
they're also returning to the earth is escorting Jesus to the earth well he's
going to show himself to be the Messiah and the king and then one final thing and
we'll end with this and again we'll just pick up next week just keep on going
but the other thing to keep in mind here and this is really interesting study
for you to do we mentioned that passage from Matthew Matthew 24 if you want to
write it down where you know you've got the two people and one of them
disappears and one's left behind right well that needs to be interpreted in
light of the other parables that go with it like the one from Matthew chapter 13
if you want to write that down the famous parable of the weeds right you know
this one a man a master of a house goes out and he's planting some wheat in his
field and as he and his laborers go in his enemy comes and what does the enemy
do he sows weeds in the midst of his wheat and when it finally starts to grow
up they go and look and the servants are kind of cheeky and they're like hey I
can't afford good good wheat these days I mean did you not plant some good seed
and he's like no no I did this is an enemy and he has sown this these weeds to
be against us right and they're like well what do you want us to do you want us
to go and pick all at pick out all the the weeds and he's like no you might mess
up you might get some wheat he's like let them both grow into the end right
they're both going to exist into the end and he says and then what we're going to
do is we're gonna when we can tell the distinction between the wheat and the
weeds we're going to gather the weeds first and we're going to throw them into
the fire and then when Jesus interprets this parable he says this how it's going
to be at the end but there's gonna be believers and unbelievers are gonna
exist into the end and then the Son of Man is gonna send his angels and he's
gonna snatch people who's getting snatched it's not the Christians it's
the weeds those are the people who are snatched according to Jesus in this
parable the angels are gonna come they're gonna gather the unbelievers and
then they're thrown into the lake of fire where there's weeping and gnashing of
tea so when you think about that and then you read this other parable where
one's disappearing in one stain well the last time we read that in Matthew the
ones who were disappearing who are being taken weren't the Christians were they
the ones who were left behind were the Christians and the ones being taken for
the unbelievers who were going to be escorted away to final judgment and in
the lake of fire so there's just a couple things to think about when it comes
to this idea of dispensationalism and really the rapture that's the only thing
we touched on tonight all right so I I didn't touch on any of the other aspects
of dispensationalism really and we'll get into more stuff next week because
because what we want to do is we're in Revelation 20 and we want to see okay
what's the order of events when we have to start here because according to
dispensationalism and premillennialism it's a rapture but the next thing we
read in Revelation 20 is that Satan is bound right after this time period
starts Satan is bound for the duration of the millennium seems pretty simple
right come back next week and well I had to talk about it so I know that's a lot
of information but I hope you see the importance of not just accepting what
you've always been told or what's popular or what's going around but
examining it with scripture trying to make the best sense of scripture and
also kind of knowing the history of where these things started and originated
okay all right Michael Stevenson how about closing some prayer
you