Heidelcast Special: Crisis In Israel
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Transcript
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[MUSIC]
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The Bible tells us in the end times that Israel would be scattered and
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regathered, this has happened.
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You want to talk about signs of the times, the super sign of the last days,
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and really the sign that sets the prophetic clock ticking is the
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regathering of the nation Israel into their homeland.
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This is a Bible cast special, Israel in crisis.
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The opinions expressed in this program are those of the host and
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do not necessarily reflect the views of this nation, its management or
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its advertised listener discretion is advised.
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Ladies and gentlemen, the story you all about to hear is true.
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The names have been changed to protect the innocent and now Scott Clark.
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It’s the title cast,
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podcast devoted to recovering reform theology piety, and practice.
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We’re talking about practice, not a game, not a game, not a game.
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We’re talking about practice.
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I’m a pastor and a church historian.
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This is a special episode for Friday, October 13th, 2023.
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This episode of the Hidal Cast is brought to you by Heidelberg Reformation
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Association.
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We exist to recover the reform confession and to help others discover.
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We are at Heidelberg ReformationAssociation.org.
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Email Heidelcast@heidellog.net and send us a message and
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we may use it in a future episode.
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Leave your name and message.
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I’ll get back to you.
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Call our text, the Heidelberg anytime at 760-618-1563,
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that’s 760-618-1563.
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Leave your message or send a voice memo to Heidelcast@heidelblog.net.
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And we may use it in a future episode.
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Don’t forget to subscribe to Apple Podcasts or in any podcast app.
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Give us a five star rating in your pod app so that others can find the Heidelcast
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legal review and we may read it on the show.
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Guess what?
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I got a fever and the only persmission is more cowbell.
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Thank you for the cowbell.
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We really need more cowbell.
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As I’m recording this, it’s Wednesday, October 11th and it is 3.42.
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In the afternoon, year of our Lord 2023, the state of Israel has suffered what is being
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called the most serious attack in its history.
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300,000 reserves are being called up.
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She’s facing the possibility of a two-front war, one front being in the south at the border
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with Gaza and the other in the north at the border of Lebanon and that would be with Hezbollah.
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According to dispensational premolenialists like Greg Lorry, whom you heard in the intro,
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this episode, what’s happening now in Israel today is you’re listing this, is a fulfillment
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of prophecy.
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Is he right?
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Oh, this is what we’ll be considering in today’s episode of The Heidelcast.
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And the short answer is yes and no, yes, but not in the way that the dispensational
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premolenialists think.
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In fact, in his Olivet Discourse, our Lord warned us that in the time between his ascension,
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his bodily ascension is going up in Devon and his bodily return, that time would be marked
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by, as he said, wars and rumors of wars, Matthew 24, 6, and we are certainly living
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through that.
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But we are not the first to live through that and that’s important and something that it’s
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easy for us to forget in the moment.
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So the answer to the question is also no, we’re not living in a special time.
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We are living in the world as Jesus said it would be, as Paul said it would be, as the
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Apostle John said it would be until Jesus returns.
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We live in a fallen world that desperately needs to turn to Jesus for salvation.
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Now, Christian, I understand that social media and the old media are trying to keep you in
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a fevered state in order to keep you clicking and to keep you watching.
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But you need to know this, they are more concerned about clicks and eyeballs than they are about
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truth.
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The reality is, and I hope this encourages you, if you’ve been reading Scripture carefully,
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faithfully, and with the Church of all times and all places, then you have already seen
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this film and you know the ending.
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We’ve been living in the last days since Jesus ascended.
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I know that’s what Greg Laurie said, but this is what God’s words and I’m going to go through
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these passages with you in just a second.
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Christ is coming again once, noisily and visibly to consummate his kingdom, to deliver
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his people, all of them Jew and Gentile alike, everyone who’s united to Jesus Christ by grace
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alone through faith alone in Christ alone and to judge his enemies.
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This is the Hidal Cast, the Hidal Cast at any time at 760-618-1563.
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So let’s start with the caveat.
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If you’re new to the Hidal Cast, I want you to know that we love Israel, we love Jewish
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Christians, we love the lost, and we love peace.
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We’re praying also for Palestinian Christians who’ve been suffering under Islamist oppression
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and violence for a long time. It’s not easy to be a Christian, a Palestinian Christian,
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especially not an evangelical Palestinian Christian.
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We understand that something very terrible has happened in Israel, that this is a terrible
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attack causing Israel to call up 300,000 reserves.
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And last I saw as many as a thousand Israelis have been brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists,
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Palestinian terrorists. So this is a very grave evil and ought to be and should be
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denounced by every civilized person everywhere.
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So I want to be clear about that.
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And I am particularly anxious for you to understand that because people say this,
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this is a reformed podcast about reform people are not anti-Semitic.
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And I’m going to try to make that clear as we go along.
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But we don’t agree, at least I don’t agree and most of us don’t agree with
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dispensational premillennialism. And what often happens in these discussions is that people set
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it up so that unless you’re a dispensationalist, and unless you agree with their reading of
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redemptive history and their understanding of prophecy in the future, that you are anti-Semitic.
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And that’s simply not true. And in fact, I don’t think it’s too much to say that it’s a violation
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of the ninth commandment. So I am a millennial, but not anti-Semitic and at the same time.
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And I will give you resources on this attached to the post. If you look at
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hydroblog.net when this is posted on Friday, you’ll see an essay responding to the,
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I think scurrilous is not too strong a word, allegation that reformed theology, covenant theology,
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is replacement theology. It’s not true. It is engrafting theology. We believe that God has always
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had a church. He had a church before Abraham was circumcised and he had a church since Abraham
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was circumcised. He promised to Abraham that he would make Abraham the father of many nations,
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and that since the ascension of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, he’s been fulfilling
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that promise and that prophecy and engrafting Gentiles into the church. And in our understanding
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of Scripture, Ephesians 2, 14 is crucial. The dividing wall has been broken down.
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One of the things that I want to do in this episode is to read a lot of Scripture to you
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so that you can hear the context of these passages and understand them and be able to look at current
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events in light of what Scripture says in the way that Scripture intends to be interpreted. Now,
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let’s listen to Ephesians 2 beginning with verse 11. This is from the English Standard Version.
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Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles, speaking to Gentile Christians,
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in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the
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flesh by hands. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the
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commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in
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the world. Now, listen to this, but now in Christ Jesus, you who are once far off
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have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for He Himself is our peace, who has made both one
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and has broken down, listen to this verse 14, in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility,
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by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that He might create
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in Himself one new man in place of the two, making peace and might reconcile us both to God
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in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. Let me read verse 14 again.
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For He Himself is our peace, who made us, like Jewish Christians, Gentile Christians,
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both one, and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility. There are a lot of
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theologies out there that basically live by rebuilding that dividing wall, and dispensationalism
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is chief among them. When I first became reformed, one of the most important things I learned
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was the truth of Ephesians 2 14. The dividing wall has been broken down, and therefore we
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understand that God is adding to His church. He’s always had one church, there’s always been,
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and only been, one covenant of grace in multiple administrations. There was an administration under
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Adam after the fall. There was a noe-weic administration, there was an Abrahamic administration,
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and then a Mosaic, and then a Davidic, etc. Now we’re in the new covenant, it’s the new
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administration of the one covenant of grace. And there’s always been in Christ looking forward
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from the types and shadows, now looking back, if you will, from the new perspective of the new covenant,
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one people, one church where Jew and Gentile were divided before the incarnation with the
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obedience death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is His resurrection, His ascension,
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His outpouring of the Holy Spirit. There is now one people dividing wall has been broken down,
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and Gentiles are being grafted in to the church. So that’s not replacement theology. So we get
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the gravity of the situation, we understand that. We are praying for the safety of Israel as the most
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civilized state in the Middle East. An important ally to people who love freedom and
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a Republican democratic form of government everywhere, it’s easily of all the places to live in the
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Middle East. Israel would be the place that you would want to live because you have a representative
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government, you have courts, you have some measure of civil liberties. Although to be fair, it is not
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always particularly easy to be a Christian in Israel, maybe for certain understandable reasons
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for history, but that is a fact. Just tried to build a church in Israel. It’s very difficult.
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That being said, it is still a far better place, safer place for people who love liberty than
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virtually any place else in the Middle East. But there simply is no biblical reason to think
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that what Laurie says is true, that 1948, the formation of the modern state of Israel,
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is a fulfillment of prophecy. That’s a bad way of reading scripture. It’s not a biblical way of
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reading scripture. It is interpreting the Bible with the newspaper rather than interpreting the
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Bible with the Bible. I’m going to work on that in this episode. There are three or four things
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that I want to go through with you to try to help you think about this biblically and clearly,
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with the interest of setting your heart at ease. Not that you shouldn’t be praying and concerned,
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you should be. We should all be praying and concerned. I certainly am. I have friends in Israel who
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are in a certain amount of danger. I have the children of friends who are literally on the front lines.
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As I’m speaking to you on Wednesday, who knows what has happened between the time I recorded this,
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and it was edited and all of that, and then made available to you on, we hope, midnight Friday
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morning. I don’t know if, for example, the front will have expanded in the north, whether Hezbollah
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will have crossed in force, whether the Israeli army has gone on foot now and in tanks and APCs
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and the rest of that, invaded or responded by going on foot into Gaza. I don’t know what will
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have happened by then, but whatever happens, it’s going to be violent and ugly and very much a cause
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for prayer. Of course, our great prayer is that everybody in Israel, everybody in Palestine,
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everybody in the Middle East and everybody across the globe would turn in faith to Jesus Christ.
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No one is saved by virtue of their ethnicity. One is only saved by grace alone, through faith
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alone, in Jesus Christ alone. That is fundamental Christianity. Nothing that’s happened or will
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happen or has happened or is happening right now in the Middle East changes that basic biblical
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truth, right? Ephesians two, again, is the word of God. Just before Paul says what he says
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about the dividing wall being broken down, right? He tells us exactly how people are saved for,
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by grace, this is Ephesians two, eight in the English standard version, you have been saved
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through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works,
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so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
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prepared beforehand or in advance that we should walk in them. And there are other basic biblical
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truths that don’t change simply because world events are turbulent. Listen to Paul in Colossians
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3, 11, here that is in Christ, those who are united to Christ by grace alone through faith alone.
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Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised. barbarian,
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Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. And one more passage along those lines
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seems appropriate really just to nail this down. Again, this is the word of God. This is not
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speculation about what is happening in the newspaper and what it all means. This is Galatians 3,
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28. Again, the word of God, there is neither June or Greek, there is neither slave nor free,
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there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s,
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then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. It, as I said, in the episode that
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will come out on Sunday morning in the part of the series, the Roman series, as we’re beginning on
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Romans chapter 11, it is by grace, not by race, that is not by ethnicity. That’s again, a basic,
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biblical Christianity. All right, the next thing that you need to know is that we have been living,
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Greg Lorie says we’re living in the last days. Well, we’ve been living in the last days, that’s,
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I guess that’s true, but it’s not to do with 1948. It’s to do with the ascension of Jesus Christ,
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the incarnation of God, the Son, his obedience, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension.
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How do I know that? Well, because Acts 2, 17 says, quoting Malachi, "And in the last days,
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it shall be God declares that I will pour out my spirit," that’s the Holy Spirit, "on all flesh,
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and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions,
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and your old men shall dream dreams." According to the Apostle Peter, as he’s preaching the law in the
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gospel to the Jewish men gathered for the feast of Pentecost, they were witnessing the inauguration
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of the last days, and that was 2,000 years ago. So we have, I think a lot of American Christians have
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badly misunderstood what the Bible says about the last days. From a biblical point of view,
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from a New Testament point of view, we’ve been in the last days for 2,000 years because what
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marks the beginning of the last days is not the formation of a state in the Middle East in 1948.
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As important as that is for geopolitics, right? What changes redemptive history, what marks it,
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is the incarnation of God the Son. Here’s the problem. A lot of Christians have an
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Israeliocentric theology and not a Christocentric theology, but the New Testament is not Israeliocentric.
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It’s Christocentric. Listen to 2 Timothy 3.1, "But understand this, that in the last days,
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there will come times of difficulty." Now the Apostle Paul is warning Timothy about the nature
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of life after the ascension of Jesus Christ. We don’t know exactly when he wrote first and
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second Timothy, but obviously it was before he died, and we know he died around AD 65 at the hand
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of the Romans on the Appian highway outside the city of Rome, not very far, but outside the city
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of Rome, he was martyred. His head was separated from his shoulders because he was a Roman citizen.
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So he was talking about the last days in AD 65. It’s been the last days for a long time.
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Hebrews 1, 1 through 3. Listen again to the writer of the Hebrews, writing to Jewish Christians who
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attempted, sort of like dispensationalists, to go back to Moses, if you will. And this is what he
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says. "Long ago, at many times, and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
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talking about the Jews. But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed
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the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. And He’s going to go on to contrast.
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Jesus, as the owner of the house, and Moses, as the worker of the house. And to say to these Jewish
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Christians, “Don’t go back to Moses. Don’t go back to the types and shadows,” because
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they all point to Jesus. It would be backward to go to the types and shadows when you have
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the reality. James 5’3. Now, he’s in Jerusalem very early on, one of the earliest epistles in the
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New Testament. He’s indicting a Jewish Christian congregation for saying that they have faith,
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but not manifesting that faith by obedience, by good works. And in chapter 5 verse 3, he says,
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"Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you,
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and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure." Listen to this in the last days.
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And what James is saying is, these are the days. This is the last epoch in the history of redemption.
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The next thing to happen, basically, is that Jesus will come again. Obviously, all the elect have to
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come to new life and true faith. We don’t know when that will take place. And so, as far as we know,
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Jesus could come at any time. And so, we’re looking forward to that. And there may be one or two
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things that have to come before Jesus comes, but that’s the next really big thing. And then,
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finally, 2 Peter 3’3. Knowing this, first of all, that scoffers will come. Again, listen to this,
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in the last days with scoffing following their own sinful desire, 2 Peter 3’3. He’s saying to
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the churches of Asia Minor, sometime, I think, in the 60s. We don’t know exactly when Peter
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was martyred and by tradition, again, by the Romans. But we do know that it’s in the period of
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the New Testament when he was writing this, and he’s writing it about their time in the 60s,
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the 80s, 60s. Those are the last days. So, it’s always been since the ascension of Jesus,
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the last days. I think that’s just basic biblical data. I’m not pulling any rabbits out of any
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hats. I’m just rehealing Scripture and giving you the original context and then, you know,
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applying it a little bit. But I’m not doing anything fancy. All right. Next, Israel,
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not all Israel is Israel. The apostle deals with that in Romans, chapter 9. The context is very
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important, and it’s the very question that we’re thinking about, and that is, what about Israel?
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Lots of people are, as you heard in the opening audio, you know, have been, are obsessed now and
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have been for decades about the, or with the formation of the state of the Israel, the modern
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state of Israel, 1948. Lots of books have been sold, Lake Great Planet Earth, John Walvard’s book.
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I don’t remember the title. Lots of titles like that. And then the whole Left Behind series,
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all of that stuff, all basically premised on a couple of things. One, that there are two different
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kinds of peoples, an earthly people and a heavenly people, if you will, and also premised on the
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notion that God has a particular plan that he has yet to fulfill for a national people.
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And so that’s why the question of who is Israel and what is Israel is so important.
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And the apostle Paul deals with that in Romans 9, 10, and 11. And the very short answer to that
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question is Israel is Paul’s shorthand way of talking about the elect. In Christ,
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it is those who are elect, who are the Israel of God. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re
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Jew or Gentile. That distinction has been done away. And we saw that in Ephesians 2. And you see that
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in Romans. And if you go back and listen to the Romans series that I’ve been doing on chapter 10,
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till chapter 9, really, and then chapter 10. And then now we’re in chapter 11, beginning this Sunday,
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you’ll see that Paul again and again reiterates what he said in Ephesians 2.
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The dividing wall has been broken down. And there is no more dividing wall. So if you’re theology,
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your eschatology, your understanding of the end times in the future requires there to be
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a distinction between Jew and Gentile. And you’re looking forward to a reconstructed temple.
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You’re looking forward to a re-institution of sacrifices. And if you think that people have a
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special status before God because of their ethnicity, you have not understood what Paul is saying in
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Romans 9, you’ve not understood Ephesians 2. And I understand I’m not judging you. I’m disagreeing
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with you, but I’m not judging you. I was there. And I remember when I became reformed and I
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said to the fellow who was first explaining the Reformed faith in me, I said, “What about Israel?”
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And he said, “The dividing wall has been broken down.” I said, “But what about Israel?” He said,
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“The dividing wall has been broken down.” I said, “What about Israel?” He said, "The dividing wall
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has been broken down." He wouldn’t talk to me about eschatology until I reckoned with Ephesians 2.14.
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And I think that’s true of you. At least it may well be. I know it’s true of many, many American
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and modern evangelical Christians. They have not reckoned with Ephesians 2, and they’re not really
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seriously reckoned with Romans 9, 10, and 11. What matters now according to the Apostle Paul
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is not whether you’re Jew or Gentile, but whether you believe, and if you believe, it is because you
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are elect. And Paul says that repeatedly in 9, Romans 9, 10, and 11. It is by grace alone,
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through faith alone, in Christ alone. Not all Israel is Israel. Not everyone who is biologically
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Israel is Israel. That’s what Paul says. And that’s a basic truth. You’ve got to grasp that. It’s not
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Paul says in Romans 9, 6, as though God’s Word has failed. The reason that only some Jews have
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trusted in Jesus as Messiah, and this is the issue that he’s dealing with here in Romans 9,
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10, and 11, why aren’t more Jews putting their trust in Jesus? Because not all Israel is Israel.
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Nor Paul says, are they his descendants because they are all Abraham’s children. Rather, Abraham’s
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children, he says, are reckoned through Isaac. That’s Romans 9, 7. And this means that it’s not
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the natural children who are gods, but the children of the promise. That’s Romans 9, 8.
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How was Isaac born? By the sovereign power of God. How are Christians born spiritually?
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By the sovereign power of God. Every Christian is an Isaac in his own way. Why is this so?
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Well, again, Paul says, before the twins were born, or had done anything good or bad,
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in order that God’s purpose and election might stand, not by works, but by him who calls.
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She was told the older will serve the younger. This is a just reading scripture here. Just as
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it is written, Jacob, if I loved Esau, have I hated? This is the title cast at any time at 7,
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6, 0, 6, 1, 8, 15, 63. Paul is quoting Malachi 1, verse 2. And that’s Romans 9, 11 through 13.
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How can it be? It is because God says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,
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and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion on Romans 9, 15. It does not, therefore,
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depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh. Now,
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listen to this. He’s quoting here, Exodus 9, 16. I raised you up for this very purpose,
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that I might display my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.
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And now, Exodus 9, 16 is typically translated, that I might display my power to you. And Paul,
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I think, changes that a little bit. And says to Pharaoh, I’ve made you an instrument of my glory.
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He intensifies it, verse 18. Therefore, God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy,
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and he hardens whom he wants to harden. This is the biblical doctrine of reprobation. He comes
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back to this in chapter 11. God passes over some, he leaves them in their sins. He doesn’t redeem
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everyone. It’s down to election. And so I say, it’s about grace, not about race. It’s about grace.
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It’s not about works. Is God unfair? Scripture says, well, according to the apostle Paul,
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as creatures, we have no rights before God. He’s the potter. We are the clay. But Christians are
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redeemed clay, objects of mercy, prepared in advance for glory. And so you and I, we need to
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evaluate our condition against the backdrop of God’s patience with those objects of wrath,
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prepared for destruction. I’m thinking about Romans 9, 22, and 23. These vessels prepared for
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glory are taken from Jews and Gentiles alike. That’s Romans 9, 24. This is what he promised in
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Hosea, for he’s made those who are once lo-a-me, not my people, that is Gentiles. To me, he says,
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sons of the living God, that’s Hosea, at 223 and 110, and Romans 9, 25 and 26. The reason lawless
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Gentiles have, as he says, obtained righteousness, that’s Baal’s language, and that Israel, who
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pursued it by law, is not because justification is by works, but it’s because it’s by grace,
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Romans 9, 32. They stumbled over Jesus, the rock of offense. Jesus didn’t fit their nationalist plans,
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and it doesn’t fit the plans of the nationalist, Zionist, sort of pre-millennialist eschatology,
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especially dispensational pre-millennialism. That’s what I’m really aiming at here. It’s not
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that Paul doesn’t want Jews to be saved, he very much does. Where it possible, he would give up
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his own salvation for the Jews to be saved, he says. The only way, he says, for a physical
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descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to become a true Israelite, is to be joined to the true
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Israel of God, Jesus, for there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of
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all richly, blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
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will be saved. That’s Romans 10. Has God rejected his people? No, you can’t assume who his people are.
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You have to pay attention to what Paul says. The elect are his people, and all the elect
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Jew and Gentile alike will be saved. There are believing Jews. Paul uses himself in Romans 11.1
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as an example. He is a part of the elect remnant who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
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So Paul says, "So too, at the present time, just as there was a remnant under Elijah,
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there is a remnant chosen how? By grace." And now listen to this, 11.6, "And if by grace,
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then it is no longer by works. If it were, it would no longer be grace."
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So what Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. That’s Paul’s language.
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The others were hardened. Now listen again, who obtained it? The elect did. The others were
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hardened. That’s God’s word. That’s not my opinion. I’m quoting God’s word. God’s election
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of some and his reprobation of others are twin facts of the history of redemption.
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And Paul brings those twin facts to bear on the question of who is the Israel of God?
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Time and time again he teaches. Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
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And what Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but again Romans 11.7, the elect did.
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The others were hardened. Now is God finished saving Jews? Not at all. Salvation has come to
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the Gentiles. Paul says in Romans 11.11 for a specific purpose to make Israel envious. Gentiles,
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by God’s undeserved favor, have been grafted on to the Israel of God. Israel has experienced a
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hardening, Paul says, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel
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will be saved. Romans 11.25 and 26. Maybe there’ll be a future in gathering. I don’t really see it,
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but I can see how people do see it. And that’s a possibility. God certainly couldn’t do it.
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And maybe that’s what that means. But what we know with absolute certainty is that all the elect
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will be saved. And it is by grace and not by race. Again, you need to say that to yourself.
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It is by grace and not by race. Christians are, and this is a radical thing that you maybe have
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never heard. Christians are the Israel of God in Christ. And I want to think with you for a minute
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here about Galatians 616. It’s such an important passage. And people, it seems to me they don’t
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seem to be quite aware of it. Galatians 616, we’ll start with verse 15. "For neither circumcision
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counts for anything." No, not by race, but by grace, nor on circumcision. So there’s no virtue
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in circumcision any longer, no spiritual virtue, and no spiritual virtue in being uncircumcised.
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But listen to this, a new creation. Now listen to verse 16. "And as for all who walk by this rule,
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peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God." And so if you say, "Well,
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these are all of God," that means people who are physically, biologically, genetically Jewish.
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I don’t know. That’s not what he means. Anyway, he’s already torn down, if you will,
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rhetorically, theologically, the dividing wall. You can’t rebuild that and then use that to
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change the sense of Galatians 616. When he says, “And the Israel of God,” this is another way of
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saying the same thing. In other words, everybody who is united to Christ by grace alone, through faith
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alone, is the Israel of God. How do I know that? Well, because I’ve read Romans 4. Again, listen to
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what Paul says in Romans 4, beginning at verse 1. "What then shall we say was gained by Abraham,
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our forefather according to the flesh?" Now listen, Romans 4. "For if Abraham was justified by works,
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he has something about which to boast, but not before God. For what does Scripture say? Abraham
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believed God, and it was imputed, credited, counted to him as righteousness." Different ways of
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translating that verb. "Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but his do,
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and to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted
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as righteousness." Justice David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts
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righteousness apart from works." Now go down to verse 9. "Is this blessing then only for the
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circumcised or also for the uncircumcised?" Now listen, "For we say that faith was credited to
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Abraham as righteousness. How then was it credited to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised?
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It was not after, but before he was circumcised. That means Abraham was a Gentile. He received the
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sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.
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While he was still a Gentile. Remember, Abraham was a pagan. They were moon worshiping pagans
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in Ur of the Chaldis, basically southern Iraq. And God sovereignly called that pagan and made a
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nation out of him. And he said he was going to include into him all the nations. And that’s exactly
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what Paul says here. "The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being
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circumcised." So Abraham is the first Gentile Christian. "So that righteousness would be counted
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to them as well." Romans 4-12. "And to make him the father of the circumcised, who are not merely
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circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was
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circumcised." Abraham is your father. If you are united to Christ by grace alone, through faith alone.
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It’s not by race. That is not by ethnicity, not by biology, but by grace. Everybody who is in Christ
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is the Israel of God. Everyone who is in Christ is the Israel of God. Listen to 1 Peter 2 9-10.
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Where the Apostle Peter uses the same sort of language to describe the mostly Gentile
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congregations of Asia Minor to whom he wrote. Listen, once you were not a people,
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you can put that in Hebrew. Once you were low on me, not my people outside, but now you are the
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people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So they have a new
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name, Ami, my people. The dividing wall has been broken down. Hebrews 8-10. According to the writer
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to the Hebrews, those who call on the name of Christ are the house of Israel. Everyone who is
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trusted in Christ is an heir of the promises of the new covenant. One last consideration before we
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finish with this episode. I want to think with you about Revelation chapter 20, because that’s
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one of the basic premises on which people like Laurie talk about prophecy, end times, last things,
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and all of that. And I just have a very simple message here for just a minute or two about
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Revelation chapter 20. Maybe you’ve never heard this before. Maybe this is the first time that
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somebody’s told you this. But the thousand years described in the Revelation are figurative.
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How do I know that? Because just about everything after 3-22 is figurative. In other words, we know
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where the churches were in Asia Minor, to whom the seven churches of the Revelation. Those are
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not figurative. We know where they are. We know where they were. And we know those towns,
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we know their circumstances. They’ve been fine works written on them. And they’re not figurative.
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Now I’m not saying there’s no figurative language, but those churches are not figurative. I think
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it’s bizarre that people think that the churches are figurative, but Revelation chapter 20 is literal.
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No, that’s exactly backwards. Look at Colin Hamer, his volume back in the 80s, H-E-M-E-R
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letters to the seven churches. I found that extremely helpful, but there have been a lot of
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good works on that. And look at the context of even chapter 20.
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Just going back to 1917. Then I saw an angel standing in the sun with a loud voice. He
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called to all the birds. Are these literal birds? This is what I’m going to do. I’m just going to
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ask you to think about. No, this is a figure of speech. Come gather for the great supper of God
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to do what? To eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of
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horses and the writers. Listen, that’s figurative language. And most people recognize that’s figurative
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language. And I saw the beast is that literal or figurative? Well, everybody, even the pre-millennialists
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think that’s figurative. With their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on a horse.
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Who’s sitting on a horse? Christ and his army. Is Christ literally sitting on a horse? No, it’s a
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figure of speech. And the beast, again, figure of speech was captured. And with it, the false prophet
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who in his presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast.
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Everybody knows that pre-millennialists understand that that’s a figure of speech,
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because they’re always trying to figure out, well, what’s the mark of the beast? Have I taken the
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mark of the beast accidentally? No, you haven’t. Look at this, verse 21. And the rest was slain
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by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse. Well, that’s Christ on
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the horse and the sword is his word. These are figures of speech. Now, chapter 20. Then I saw an
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angel. This is a vision. Remember, the Apostle John is given a vision. And it’s essentially the
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same story told seven different times from seven different perspectives again and again. So it’s
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impossible to say, well, where are we in the revelation? I remember asking that question sometime in the
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I don’t know, I suppose mid to late seventies, maybe when I began to become reformed. I think I
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remember asking somebody, well, where are we in the revelation? The assumption is that the revelation
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is a linear roadmap and we can sort of map over history, you know, on top of the revelation and
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figure out where we are. That’s exactly wrong. The revelation was written to churches in Asia
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Minor about 80 93 to explain to them to answer the question, Hey, Jesus one Jesus was ascended.
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He’s conquered. Why are we being put to death? Why are we being harassed? Why are we? Why are we in
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such difficulty all the time for being Christians? We thought he won. And John is writing to say,
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yes, you he did win. But his victory has yet to be consummated. And this is the nature of existence.
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Between the ascension of Christ and the return of Christ. So in chapter 20, John sees in his vision,
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an angel from heaven holding in his hand, the key to the bottomless pit again is this literal
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bottom is no, it’s a figure of speech and a great chain, a literal chain or a figurative chain,
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well, figurative chain, of course, even on a pre millennial reading, it’s a figurative chain.
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And he sees the dragon again, a literal dragon or figurative drag. I’m going to keep doing this
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because it you’ll see why sees the dragon. That’s a figure of speech. I think even on pre millennial
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readings, you’re right. We’re not now talking about literal dragons. Okay, and by the way, dragon is
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just a Greek word for for serpent. And John says that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan
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and bound him for 1000 years. That’s a figure of speech. There’s not a literal chain on certain
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and Satan isn’t literally a serpent. Took the form of a serpent, but he’s not literally a
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serpent. He’s an angel that went bad, that fell and threw him into the pit. Is it a literal pit?
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No, it’s not a it’s a figurative and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not
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deceive the nations any longer until the 1000 years were ended. So figure it, figure it, figure it,
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figure it, figure it, and then 1000 years bang. That’s literal. Really? If you’re bound and determined
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to read the Bible that way, there isn’t much I can do to help you. But you have to explain,
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if you expect to be taken seriously, you have to explain to me how it is that it’s figured and
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figured and figured. If I’ve showed you all these figures, you agreed with me. Probably, I assume,
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I think that fairly, right? These are figures and then suddenly you’re going to
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slam on the brakes and say, well, no, this is literal in the most figurative book in the Bible
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in a figurative chapter in a figurative book of the Bible that you’re going to insist to me
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that when 1000 years pop up in verse three, that’s literal. I don’t find that compelling.
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And so you can say, well, you don’t believe the Bible. Well, clearly you can tell that I do. We
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might disagree about what the Bible means to say, but you can clearly hear that I believe the Bible,
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every syllable is the inspired and fallible and errant word of God. And this is why I’m not a
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pre-millennialist and why Greg Laurie and all those like it. I’m not speaking on him. He’s wrong,
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and so is Tim Lahay and all those cats, John Walvard and all the rest of them. They’re all
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fundamentally wrong because they are reading scripture the way it means to be read. Verse four,
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then I saw thrones to get literal thrones or figurative thrones seated on them were those
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to whom the authority to judge was committed. I also saw the souls of those who’d been beheaded
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for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God and those who had not worshipped the beast
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or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life
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and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. Again, literal or figurative. He’s talking about
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the period between the ascension of Christ and his return. It’s a figure of speech. The rest of
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the dead. Did John literally see souls? Can you see souls disembodied souls? Literally? No,
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you cannot. It doesn’t make any sense. We’re supposed to read this as a vision. This is apocalyptic
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literature. We’re supposed to read it the way it’s meant to be read.
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Text to the title cast at any time at 7606181563. This is the title cast.
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Title cast. Blessed and holy is the one revelation 20 verse six is the one who shares in the first
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resurrection over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ,
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and they will reign with him for a thousand years. And when the thousand years are ended,
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Satan will be released from his prison. He’s literally in a prison. Well, he’s also going about
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like a lion seeking whom he made devour. You see, so you have to understand this in the way
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it’s intended to be read and will come out to deceive the nation. This is one of the things that
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we, a millennialists expect to happen. Things will get ugly at the end before Jesus comes.
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Now remember in the middle of the 14th century, when a third of the world died of the plague,
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people said, well, this is the end of the world. Well, it clearly wasn’t. So I had to be careful
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about interpreting prophecy and say, well, this is it. We’re living in the middle of the 13th century.
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It was a long time ago. And here we are. And then he goes on to say, gog and maygog,
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together there for battle, their number is like that of the sand of the sea. And they marched up
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over the broad plane of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city.
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But fire came down from heaven and consumed them. And the devil who had deceived them was
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thrown into the lake of fire. And so forget literal lake or figurative lake of fire and
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sulfur. Well, it’s figurative where the beast and the false prophet were again, the beast,
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figurative false prophet, a figure of something, someone, and they will be tormented day and night
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forever and ever. And I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it and from his presence,
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earth and sky fled away. I can’t figure of speech. And no place was found for them. And I saw the
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dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And the books were opened. Does God literally have
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books? No, he does not. And this is a figure of speech. Then another book was opened, which is the
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book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had
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done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them.
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And they were judged each one of them according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were
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thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was
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not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. And then chapter 21
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New Heavens and the New Earth. These are truths, absolute truths. But these are figures,
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you know, a figurative way of illustrating spiritual truths, spiritual realities. When I say
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spiritual, I don’t mean not real. I mean really real, but real in the way that they’re meant to be
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understood. Christ is coming. Christ has conquered. Christ has won. Behold, the dwelling place of
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God is with man. He will dwell with them. And they will be his people. And God himself will be with
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them as their God by the way that’s borrowed from Genesis 17 and from Jeremiah as he adapts
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the Abrahamic promise. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more.
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Neither shall there be mourning or crying or pain anymore for the former things have passed away.
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And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new. Write this down.
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For these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, 'It is done. I am the Alpha and the
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Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life
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without payment, the one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God,
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and he will be my son.’ But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers,
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the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the
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lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. Christ has come. Christ has
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been raised. Christ has ascended. Christ rules. He’s coming again. Fear not. The story you’ve just heard
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was true. Only the names were changed to protect the episode.
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That’s it for this special episode of the Hidalcast. Join us next time for another
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00:47:04,800 --> 00:47:10,480
thrilling episode as we return to our series in the Book of Romans, Sin, Salvation, and Service,
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the threefold truth of Romans. Don’t miss an episode, subscribe on Apple Podcasts,
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or in any podcast app. Email Hidalcast@hidalblog.net.
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00:47:23,040 --> 00:47:30,960
Call or text the Hidal Code anytime at 760-618-1563.7616-1563, or send a voice memo to
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Hidalcast@hidalblog.net. Send or leave a message, and we may use it in a future episode.
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Remember, the Hidalcast may be cheap, but it isn’t free. When the coin in the car
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for clinks, the cost of bandwidth shrinks.
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Thank you, and good night for all of us at NBC News. Nothing is over until we decide it is.
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We’re a little late tonight, Paul. Well, gracious say good night. Good night to all of you.
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Good night, Mrs. Callipette. Well, heavy. Ladies and gentlemen,
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help us with less building. This is an teaser podcasting.
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Students tomorrow. Same back time. Same back time.
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Just as we that heat.
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Trim and I were quickly on our way.
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This is July 95 KBHL Lincoln, Nebraska. KBHL is owned and operated by Sound
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Experiences Broadcasting Company, Inc. with studios at 2820 North 48th and University Place,
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Lincoln, and Transmitter. I atop the Anderson Building 12th and Old Lincoln Center. KBHL
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operates with a power of 3,000 watts, effective radiated power in full dimensional stereo.
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And now KBHL leaves the air to return tomorrow morning. Thank you for listening. Good night.
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[Music]
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[BLANK_AUDIO]
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