{"id":19215,"date":"2018-02-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-035\/"},"modified":"2022-01-12T17:16:48","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T23:16:48","slug":"the-coming-kingdom-035","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-035\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Kingdom 035"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[470],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19215","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-the-coming-kingdom","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"The Coming Kingdom 035","sermon_date":"20180214","sermon_month":"2","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":20021,"sermon_slides":20022,"sermon_mp3":20023,"sermon_id":"214181951460","series_or_event":470,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"20:1-10","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Coming Kingdom\n\n2-14-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Revelation \u00a020:1-10\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 35\n\n\u2026 but the way the Holy Spirit has structured the Bible the doctrine of the Kingdom is already well\u00a0 developed in the Old Testament; Revelation 20 just adds a few details.\u00a0 So the Holy Spirit sort of expects us to approach the Book of Revelation having read the rest of the Bible.\u00a0 Amen.\u00a0 And people get confused because they want to go to the Book of Revelation first.\u00a0 But we\u2019ve discussed the kingdom all the way through numbers 1-7 and then in number 8 it\u2019s offered to Israel; number 9 it\u2019s rejected by Israel and then number 10, 11 and 12 God today is doing an interim work, not to be confused with the kingdom.\n\nAnd the primary work that He\u2019s doing today is through the church, that\u2019s us, right?\u00a0 One of these days though, as we\u2019ve studied, the church age will be over, the body of Christ will be complete, the church will be translated to heaven in the rapture, as we\u2019ve studied, and what in the world is God going to do then?\u00a0 Well, He\u2019s going to complete His promises concerning the kingdom.\u00a0 So once the church is gone Israel moves back into the spotlight and God is going to restore His kingdom to the earth through Israel.\n\nSo that\u2019s why we\u2019ve studied number 13, Israel\u2019s discipline and restoration.\u00a0 And really numbers 14, 15 and 16 is all about how God brings His kingdom to the earth.\u00a0 So the actual coming of the kingdom, we\u2019ve sort of broken it down into four parts: how and when does the kingdom come to the earth, and once the kingdom comes to the earth what does it look like?\u00a0 So we have studied number 1, the re-offer of the kingdom; the very kingdom that was offered to Israel on a silver platter through the expression \u201crepent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,\u201d which was rejected by the Jews in Matthew 12.\u00a0 That\u2019s when they attributes His miracles to the devil; the offer is withdrawn at that point.\u00a0 But that kingdom is reoffered to Israel on a silver platter again in the tribulation period because the nation of Israel always gets it right which time?\u00a0 The second time.\n\nSo at this time in history that we\u2019re talking about here they will receive the offer of the kingdom \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0so it\u2019ll be a completely different result than what happened in the first century.\u00a0 And as that is happening, number 2, there\u2019s a transfer of earthly authority.\u00a0 Satan, who has enjoyed running this planet for the last several millennia, ever since the fall in Eden, his authority over this earth is taken away and God\u2019s authority is reasserted as God is going to govern the earth once again through a man, not the first Adam but the last Adam, Jesus Christ.\n\nSo probably the key verse in the Book of Revelation is chapter 11, verse 15, \u201cThe kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; [and He will reign forever and ever.]\u201d\u00a0 And as you look at that chart after the second advent that\u2019s what the thousand\u00a0 year kingdom is about.\u00a0 So that\u2019s the time in history where the authority of God over planet earth is finally reasserted.\u00a0 So the kingdom is reoffered, in the Book of Revelation there\u2019s a transfer of authority, earthly authority, from Satan\u2019s grasp to the devil\u2019s grasp.\n\nAnd then number 3, and this is what we looked at last time, the actual establishment of the kingdom.\u00a0 Once the kingdom comes, and by the way, we\u2019re to be praying what? \u201cThy kingdom come,\u201d once it comes what\u2019s it look like exactly?\u00a0 So you\u2019ll have, as we talked about last time, the reinstitution of the office of theocratic administrator, where God governs through a man and his bride or his wife and the two of them govern creation for God.\u00a0 That\u2019s where we fit in; at that time we\u2019ll be married to Christ so we are the wife, so we are ruling alongside of Him under His delegated authority.\u00a0 It\u2019s the same structure that God originally set up in Eden which was lost as we\u2019ve studied.\n\nAnd once the kingdom comes the covenants that God has made to Israel, every millimeter of what He\u2019s promised them through the covenants will be in total fulfillment.\u00a0 The times of the Gentiles will be over, which means the nation of Israel will be head again over the nations and not the tail as they are today.\u00a0 And all of the prophecies in the Old Testament that we\u2019ve studied that the prophets speak of, and we\u2019ve gone through many, many prophecies, all of those will be in fulfillment all over the earth.\u00a0 The land promises will be fulfilled, each tribe will get is specific allotment of land as recorded in Ezekiel 47.\u00a0 The Shekinah glory of God will reenter the millennial temple which will be functioning at that time.\u00a0 And there\u2019s going to be profound topographical changes on the earth.\u00a0 Even the Dead Sea itself is going to come back to biological life and team with life Ezekiel 47 says.\n\nThe bondage that the earth is in right now, and we looked at the passage in Romans 8 which says the earth is groaning, the whole earth is in travail waiting for its liberation.\u00a0 It\u2019s been that way ever since the fall; those chains will be removed and\u00a0 you\u2019ll have the earth functioning as God intended it.\u00a0 And one of the great things about the kingdom, and this is why Satan is working so hard in history to\u00a0 prevent this from happening, one of the great things that will happen is Satan will be bound for a thousand years.\n\nSo God, interestingly enough, does not throw Satan into the Lake of Fire right away because He\u00a0 has one final purpose for Satan at the end of that thousand year kingdom, to stir up a worldwide rebellion.\u00a0 But what you have to understand is that worldwide rebellion can\u2019t happen until God lets Satan out of solitary confinement, which he\u2019ll be in throughout the kingdom age.\n\nSo it\u2019s going to be just a wonderful time in history.\u00a0 The disciples asked, \u201cLord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?\u00a0 [Acts 1:6, \u201cSo when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, \u2018Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?\u2019\u201d]\u00a0 And the answer, no, I\u2019m not going to restore at this time, first coming, but I will restore it at the second coming.\n\nSo we\u2019ve studied the reoffer of the kingdom to Israel, the transfer of earthly authority, number 3, the establishment of the kingdom on the earth, what it looks like, and there\u2019s just one little point left to consider which we\u2019re going to look at tonight.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I had you open up to Revelation 20, that\u2019s the duration of the kingdom.\u00a0 Exactly how long is this going to last?\n\nSo Revelation 20:1-10, we\u2019re going to read the verses here in just a second, as I mentioned a little earlier what you have to understand is that\u2019s just the end of the matter.\u00a0 The whole doctrine of the kingdom has been very well developed in the Old Testament and even the New Testament.\u00a0 Revelation 20 just adds one little detail and the detail that it adds is the length of the kingdom.\n\nAnd as we study this this is where we learn that the two resurrection, the resurrection for the just at the beginning of the millennium and the resurrection for the unjust at the end of the millennium are separated by a thousand\u00a0 years.\u00a0 And even the rebellion that takes place at the end, that\u2019s already been hinted at in Zechariah 14:16-18.\n\n[Zechariah 14:16-18, \u201cThen it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. [17] And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them. [18] If the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, then no rain will fall<\/em> on them; it will be the plague with which the LORD smites the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.\u201d]\n\nRevelation 20 just adds a little bit more clarity to that.\u00a0 But this whole doctrine of the kingdom has already been established.\u00a0 Revelation 20,\u00a0 you have to sort of look at it as just the end of the matter.\u00a0 So that\u2019s why when you define the kingdom, you look at Revelation 20 last, not first, the way most Christians to.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why this study has gone on in the order that it\u2019s gone in.\u00a0 So let\u2019s look at this, Revelation 20:1-10, and notice the repetition of the phrase \u201ca thousand years.\u201d\u00a0 As I read this count up how many times it says a thousand years.\u00a0 It repeats it over and over again; it\u2019s almost like God wants us to know it\u2019s going to be a thousand years, amen!\n\nRevelation 20:1, \u201cThen I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. [2] And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;\u201d that\u2019s one! \u00a0[3] \u201cand he threw him into the abyss, and shut it<\/em> and sealed it<\/em> over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed;\u201d that\u2019s two!\u00a0 \u201cafter these things he must be released for a short time.\u00a0 [4] Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw<\/em> the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s three! \u00a0[5] \u201cThe rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed.\u201d\u00a0 That takes us to our fourth.\n\n\u201cThis is the first resurrection. [6] Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s five.\u00a0 \u00a0[7]\u00a0 \u201cWhen the thousand years\u201d that\u2019s six, \u201cWhen the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, [8] and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. [9] And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire\u201d a real quick commentary here, see how fast this rebellion is stopped.\u00a0 The rebellion doesn\u2019t happen until God allows it and then once it does happen God shuts it down almost immediately.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201c\u2026fire came down from heaven and devoured them. [10] And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.\u201d\n\nSo how many times did it say a \u201cthousand years\u201d there?\u00a0 I think it was six; six times!\u00a0 So what the Lord wants us to understand is that the kingdom is going to last a thousand years.\u00a0 You guys agree with me on that?\u00a0 But what you discover amongst theologians is this becomes one of the great battlegrounds of Scripture because so many theologians have bought into the idea that we\u2019re now in the kingdom.\u00a0 So what they do, and this is either called amillennialism or postmillennialism, and they say Jesus started a spiritual kingdom in the first century and that continues on right up to the second coming.\u00a0 And the problem with that is between us and the first advent of Christ is two thousand years.\u00a0 So what you have to do with this number one thousand is you have to de-literalize it to make their system work.\u00a0 You have to stretch it out like an accordion.\n\nAnd I just use this quote here from\u2026 there\u2019s many people I could quote, this is Kenneth Gentry who believes that, and notice what he has to do with the thousand year kingdom.\u00a0 He says, quote: \u201cThe proper understanding of the thousand year time frame in Revelation 20 is that it is representative\u201d see, it all sounds so spiritual, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 \u201cof a long and glorious era and is not limited to a literal 365,000 days.\u00a0 The figure\u201d thousand that is, \u201crepresents a perfect cube of 10, which is the number of quantitative \u00a0perfection.\u201d\u00a0 [Kenneth L. Gentry, He Shall Have Dominion: A Post Millennial Eschatology (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian economics, 1992), page 335.<\/em>]\n\nAnd this is so typical; what he is saying is that the number one thousand is not the issue; what\u2019s important is it means ten cubes which means perfection and we all know that ten is the number of perfection.\u00a0 And when I read that I thought that was strange because I thought seven was the number of perfection.\n\nBut what type of hermeneutic, which is your method of interpretation, what type of hermeneutic is he using here?\u00a0 Not the literal approach; he\u2019s using the allegorical approach.\u00a0 We\u2019ve reached our conclusions because we\u2019ve applied the consistent literal grammatical historical method of interpretation but he\u2019s moved into allegorization.\u00a0 Up in Antioch, and this is just a real crash course review from our Protestant Reformation study when we did that in Sunday School a few months back, but up in Antioch for the first two centuries of the church, that\u2019s the circle at the top, the church all understood the kingdom the exact way I\u2019m teaching it here.\u00a0 That\u2019s the future kingdom; they believed in literal interpretation.\u00a0 But down south there arose a rival school in Alexandria, Egypt, and they began to approach Bible prophecy allegorically.\n\nAllegorization is the idea that the literal words of the text are not what\u2019s significant; what\u2019s significant is the higher spiritual meaning.\u00a0 Now who comes up with the \u201chigher spiritual meaning\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0 The interpreter does! So Philo, we\u2019ve used him as an example of allegorist, he lived just a little before the time of Christ and he basically talked about the four rivers in Eden, the Garden of Eden, there\u2019s four rivers, the Pishon, the Gihon, the Euphrates and the Tigris, and Philo said well, those aren\u2019t really rivers. You don\u2019t have to believe those are literal rivers; those really represent four parts of the soul.\n\nAnd I won\u2019t go through all these gates but on Sunday morning I talked about Nehemiah 2 is fertile ground for allegorists because Nehemiah 2 talks about the gates in the wall around the city of Jerusalem.\u00a0 There\u2019s the fish gate, and people say that means evangelism because Jesus said I\u2019ll make\u00a0 you fishers of men.\u00a0 Then there\u2019s the water gate, that sounds like a political scandal, doesn\u2019t it, the water gate.\u00a0 They say that\u2019s the Holy Spirit because the New Testament analogizes the Holy Spirit to water.\u00a0 And they go through these various gates and they say what\u2019s important is not the gate but it\u2019s the spiritual meaning behind each gate.\u00a0 The problem is when you study Genesis 2 it doesn\u2019t give you all that; that all comes from the carnal mind.\u00a0 It just says there\u2019s four rivers.\u00a0 And Nehemiah 2 talks about a water gate because they took water in and out of the gate.\u00a0 That\u2019s all it means.\u00a0 But who wants to hear a sermon on that, it\u2019s more interesting to hear a sermon that relates to our daily lives.\n\nSo what happened in Alexandria, Egypt is allegorization took off and when Gentry basically says the thousand years is not important as the thousand\u00a0 years, what you have to see is the spiritual meaning in it, what I want you to see is he\u2019s not using the literal approach to the Bible.\u00a0 He\u2019s using allegorization.\u00a0 And in our study on the Protestant Reformation I gave you basically four problems with allegorization.\u00a0 They are, very quickly, number 1, the text is not being interpreted when you allegorize; what you\u2019re doing is you\u2019re dragging a bunch of ideas to the text which aren\u2019t found in the text.\u00a0 Milton S. Terry said you \u201cyou foist into it whatever the whim or fancy of an interpreter may desire.\u201d\u00a0 [Biblical Hermeneutics<\/em> (NY: Philips and Hunt, 1883), 224.]\u00a0 You become a spiritualizer and a saying that I like to use is this: he (or she) who spiritualizes tells spiritual lies. They always sound really good when you hear them but if there\u2019s no textual authority for it it\u2019s just someone\u2019s opinion; that\u2019s all it is.\n\nNumber 2, when you move into this approach, and that\u2019s why its popular, that\u2019s \u00a0primarily the main reason why it\u2019s popular, authority is transferred from the text to who?\u00a0 The interpreter.\u00a0 And this is the same battle that\u2019s going on with our United States Supreme Court.\u00a0 You basically have two schools of thought; you have judges that want to interpret our Constitution according the Founding Father\u2019s intentions but how do I fit all my socialist and Marxist ideas into that?\u00a0 Well, I can\u2019t do that because the Constitution is a limited document.\u00a0 So I\u2019ve got to move to calling it a what?\u00a0 A living document which means the judge reads into it whatever he wants, (or she).\u00a0 So the reason that approach is popular is because now the Constitution is no longer the authority but the mind of the judge is the authority.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 So that\u2019s why the literal method is rejected by so many people because they want to be in charge of the interpretive process.\n\nSo Jerome, an early church father says: \u201c\u2026once we start with the rule that whole passages and books of scripture say one thing when they mean another, the reader is delivered bound hand and foot to the caprice of the interpreter<\/u>.\u201d\u00a0 [Quoted by F.W. Farrar, History of interpretation<\/em> (NY: E.P. Dutton and Company, 1886), 238-39.]\u00a0 See, it\u2019s a question of authority; who do you want to be the authority in this process?\u00a0 Since this book came from God maybe we should let God speak.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 I think God\u2019s perspective is more important than our own, amen!\n\nThe third problem is there\u2019s no way to test the interpreter.\u00a0 So Gentry says the number of perfection is ten; another person comes along and says the perfect number is seven, so who\u2019s right.\u00a0\u00a0 Is the ten right or is the seven right?\u00a0 There\u2019s no way to validate that because one person\u2019s subjective interpretation is as good as the other\u2019s.\u00a0 See that?\n\nAnd then finally, number four, there\u2019s no mechanism for controlling the interpreters imagination.\u00a0 Bernard Ramm, a hermeneutics expert, he says, \u201c\u2026to state that the principal meaning of the Bible is a second-sense meaning, and that the principle method of interpretation is \u2018spiritualizing,\u2019 is to open the door to almost uncontrolled speculation and imagination<\/u>.\u201d [Protestant Biblical Interpretation<\/em>, 3d ed. (Boston: W.A. Wilde, 1956; reprint, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979), 65.\u201d]\n\nI have a lot of weird things in my head imagination wise, and believe me, you would not want to come to this church on Sunday morning and hear that.\u00a0\u00a0 Maybe some of you would, I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 What hems it in, and the reason I don\u2019t regurgitate all my carnal thoughts is because I follow the literal method of interpretation. \u00a0\u00a0I don\u2019t really see myself as the authority as a teacher: I see the Bible as the authority and my job is to try to communicate what God said and apply it and not just make things up. And so Bernard Ramm says, that \u201cFor this reason we have insisted that the control in interpretation is the literal method.\u201d\u00a0 You move away from the literal method there\u2019s no more control on human imagination.\n\nI got those four reasons from Dwight Pentecost in his book Things to Come;<\/em> why we don\u2019t follow allegorization.\u00a0 And that\u2019s exactly what Ken Gentry is doing; that\u2019s exactly what post millennialists do here and it\u2019s exactly what amillennialists do.\u00a0 And if they did what they did here in any other part of the Bible, like the Gospels, they would be full-fledged liberals.\u00a0 And what keeps them in the camp of orthodoxy is they change the rules once they interpret the Gospel or the Epistles; they go back to literal interpretation.\u00a0 But they\u2019re still holding onto this Augustinian Alexandrian approach in the area of prophecy.\u00a0\u00a0 They think you can just make things up.\n\nSo having said all that, if you don\u2019t think a thousand can mean a thousand you\u2019ve moved into allegorization.\u00a0 So let me give you, here\u2019s the heart of our lesson, let me give you four reasons, I think I can go through these fairly quickly, (famous last words, right) four reasons why I think a thousand should be understood as a thousand.\u00a0 So here we go.\n\nNumber 1, John uses, John the Revelator, uses indefinite concepts elsewhere.\u00a0 For example, when John wants to be understood figuratively he\u2019s very good at being obvious about that.\u00a0 For example, in the same chapter he talks about the rebellion at the end of the millennial kingdom is like the sand of the seashore.\u00a0 He just used a figure of speech there.\u00a0 What figure of speech is that?\u00a0 That\u2019s a simile.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t do that when he says a thousand six time, he doesn\u2019t say a thousand is like such and such, he just says a thousand.\u00a0 But when he\u2019s describing a rebellion at the end of the millennium he uses a simile.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 So John, when he wants to be\u00a0 understood figuratively basically knows how to be understood that way, but he doesn\u2019t do that when he gives you the number one thousand.\n\nAnd then a little earlier in the chapter he says this regarding Satan\u2019s release from the abyss, he says, \u201cafter these things he\u201d that\u2019s Satan, \u201cmust be released for a short time.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 20:3]\u00a0 The Greek there is mikros chronos<\/em>, so right in the same paragraph John says a short time.\u00a0 Now if John wanted the thousand to mean a long time don\u2019t you think John could have said a long time.\u00a0 He said a short time, would it be too hard for him to say a long time?\u00a0 But he doesn\u2019t do that, he gives you a specific number.\u00a0 In fact, the expression \u201ca long time\u201d is used in the New Testament.\u00a0 It says in Matthew 25:19, \u201cNow after a long time\u201d that\u2019s polos chronos<\/em>.\u00a0 So the New Testament knows how to say long time, it knows how to say short time.\u00a0 If a thousand just meant a long time like Kenneth Gentry says, a long and glorious era, it would have said that.\u00a0 But the Bible doesn\u2019t do that; it says specifically a concrete number.\u00a0 So John is very skilled at being figurative elsewhere but he doesn\u2019t do that with the six fold repetition of a thousand.\u00a0\u00a0 So that\u2019s my first reason why I think a thousand means a thousand.\n\nThe second reason I think a thousand means a thousand is because whenever you have the figure year, or years in the New Testament with a number, as we have it here, a thousand years, and you right down into the concordance and\u00a0 you look at every single reference to year or years with a number connected to it, it always means a literal time period.\u00a0\u00a0 And what I just said is the same logic for believing that the creation days are 24 hour days.\u00a0 See, the creation days are allegorized because everybody is trying to stuff Darwinism into Genesis 1, just like the thousand year kingdom is allegorized because everybody is trying to stuff their amillennialism or postmillennialism into Revelation 20.\u00a0 But if you look at\u2026 just forget your theology, forget postmillennialism and amillennialism and free millennialism, forget Darwin, just pretend you don\u2019t know anything about Darwin, or you never had a biology class in the public schools where they taught you that the earth was billions of years old, if you just look at this at face value it\u2019s obvious it\u2019s 24 hours.\n\nFirst of all it says this, Genesis 1:8, \u201cGod called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was\u201d what? \u201cmorning, a second day.\u201d\u00a0 Now that formula is used six times in Genesis 1, just like the expression a thousand years is used six times in Revelation 20.\u00a0 So it uses the word \u201cday\u201d which is yom<\/em>, and it says \u201cevening and morning,\u201d now how would you understand that other than an ordinary earth rotation?\u00a0 And beyond that the word yom<\/em>, which is the Hebrew word yom<\/em>, translated \u201cday\u201d is connected to a number; it says \u201csecond day.\u201d\u00a0 And you can go right on through the Old Testament, whenever yom<\/em>, day, or plural, days, is connected to a number it\u2019s always a literal day.\n\nFor example, remember Joshua was told to march around the walls of Jericho?\u00a0 He says, \u201cYou shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for\u201d how many days? \u201csix days<\/u>.\u201d\u00a0 [Joshua 6:3]\u00a0 Now nobody says was Joshua out there six billion years walking around?\u00a0 I mean, we would never interpret it that way.\u00a0 It\u2019s the same linguistic formula in Genesis 1\u00a0 yet we all feel we have the license to rewrite Genesis 1 in a way we would never do in any other part of the Bible, because we understand that when day or days is connected to a number it\u2019s always a literal time period.\u00a0 Or how about Esther\u2019s fast; Esther 4:16, \u201cGo, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day.\u201d\u00a0 Now we don\u2019t think Esther had a fast for three million years (that\u2019d be quite a fast wouldn\u2019t it) because \u201cday\u201d or \u201cdays\u201d is connected to a number.\n\nSo if that\u2019s the rule why would I go to Genesis 1 where it says over and over again, first day, second day, third day, and if that weren\u2019t clear enough it says evening and morning, it gives you two clues really. \u00a0Why would I approach Genesis 1 and say well, those days really are long periods of time, because I\u2019ve got to fit Darwin in here somehow because my biology teacher taught me that Darwin was a scientific fact.\u00a0 So if Darwin is a scientific fact then I\u2019ve got to make the Bible fit Darwin; that\u2019s the mentality.\u00a0 You say well how do you know that Andy?\u00a0 Well, I did that for\u00a0 years as a young Christian because I didn\u2019t know any better.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t been exposed to young earth creationism and how you can explain the world that we\u2019re in as thousands rather than billions.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t been to that seminar yet, the teacher told me that the earth is billions of years old, I got saved so I tried to make the Bible fit with what I thought was science and in the process I was violating basic principles of interpretation.\n\nSo if that is true, if yom<\/em> plus day always means a 24 hour day, at the beginning of the Bible then the same rule is true at the end of the Bible.\u00a0 Year, or years plus a number, if it\u2019s a normal literal time period everywhere else then that\u2019s what it has to mean in Revelation 20.\u00a0 So that would be my second reason for taking a thousand to mean a thousand in Revelation 20.\n\nMy third reason as to why a thousand means a thousand is if\u00a0 you don\u2019t take the number literally in Revelation 20 then the door is open to rewrite every number in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 The Book of Revelation is a book of numbers; there are numbers all over the book.\u00a0 Two witnesses, Revelation 11:3.\u00a0 Seven thousand people, Revelation 11:13.\u00a0 Four angels, Revelation 7:1.\u00a0 Seven angels, Revelation 8:6.\u00a0 144,000 Jews, Revelation 7:4. 12,000 from each tribe, Revelation 7:5-8.\u00a0 Twenty-four elders, Revelation 4:4. 42 months, Revelation 11:2.\u00a0 1,260 days,\u00a0 Revelation 11:3.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Seven churches, Revelation 2 and 3.\u00a0 Ten days, Revelation 2:10.\u00a0 We could go on and on and on and on with numbers.\u00a0 And if I\u2019m not going to take the number at face value in Revelation 20 then you see how the door is opened to rewriting every number in the whole Book.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like Pandora\u2019s box is opened.\n\nAnd then my fourth reason why I think a thousand means a thousand is because while the Book of Revelation is a symbolic book not everything in the book is a symbol because when you talk the way I\u2019m talking here, about literal interpretation, people will basically laugh at you.\u00a0 They\u2019ll say how can you take the Book of Revelation literally, don\u2019t you know, you poor fundamentalist flat earther, don\u2019t you know that the Book of Revelation is a symbolic book?\u00a0 And my answer is of course the Book of Revelation is a symbolic book but here\u2019s the deal: not everything in the book is a symbol!\n\nThere are many things in the Book of Revelation that are meant to be understood literally.\u00a0 That sort of becomes obvious when you open the Book of Revelation where John says, \u201cI, John, was on the island of Patmos.\u201d\u00a0 Well what does that mean?\u00a0 Well it means John was on Patmos.\u00a0 I mean, that\u2019s a literal statement, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 There\u2019s no symbolism there.\u00a0 And Jesus, on the island of Patmos, told him to write the seven churches, the names of the seven churches are mentioned, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea.\u00a0 So obviously those are seven literal churches.\u00a0 It\u2019s a literal John on the island of Patmos.\u00a0 And so obviously you just open the book and you start reading\u00a0 you quickly see that not everything in the book is a symbol.\u00a0 Yeah, there\u2019s a lot of symbolic material in the Book of Revelation but you can\u2019t just make everything a symbol because a lot of the book is a symbol.\u00a0 See that?\n\nSo we have rules in place which we use to identify where are the symbols and we have rules in place to determine how we interpret each symbol once we discover something is a symbol.\u00a0 Now you do this anywhere else in the Bible using the literal method of interpretation.\u00a0 You take things at face value until there\u2019s an obvious figure of speech.\u00a0 At the end of John\u2019s Gospel what does John say?\u00a0 He says I suppose if I told you everything Jesus said or did the world itself could not contain the books written thereof.\u00a0\u00a0 [John 21:25, \u201cAnd there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 Now is that literal?\u00a0 We would interpret that as a hyperbole, it\u2019s a deliberate exaggeration to get a point across that Jesus did a lot of stuff.\n\nSo I\u2019m taking the book literally, the resurrection of Jesus literally happened, the miracles of Jesus literally happened and I get to that statement and the text itself makes it obvious that it\u2019s a hyperbole which is meant to be understood non-literally.\u00a0 I\u2019m doing that in the whole Bible.\n\nNow watch this: I\u2019m doing the exact same thing in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 It\u2019s just in the Book of Revelation it\u2019s a little harder because Revelation has more symbols than anywhere else in the Bible but we are following a consistent approach to the whole Bible.\u00a0 But the method of interpretation that I\u2019m using in the Book of Revelation I\u2019m employing it throughout the whole Scripture, whether it\u2019s Genesis 1-11 or the epistles or the gospels I am continuing with that approach into the Book of Revelation; it\u2019s just a little bit harder in the Book of Revelation because there\u2019s a lot more symbols to wrestle with.\n\nSo what distinguishes our system of theology from other theologies out there is not just literal interpretation (watch this very carefully) but consistent literal interpretation.\u00a0 Everybody out there at some point takes the Bible literally or else they wouldn\u2019t even be an orthodox Christian.\u00a0 The issue is not employment of literal interpretation; the issue is are you going to employ that method even in creationism and prophecy.\u00a0 That\u2019s the issue.\u00a0 Most churches by way of denominational affiliation don\u2019t do that.\u00a0 As Sugar Land Bible Church we\u2019re built on the idea that we take the whole Bible literally, literal unless there\u2019s an obvious figure of speech.\u00a0 I\u2019m using that anywhere in the Bible including prophecy, including the Book of Revelation.\n\nSo having said all that how do we identify figures of speech in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 If you look at Revelation 20:2 it says this: \u201cAnd he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;\u201d so I\u2019m reading, I take \u201ca thousand years\u201d literally, but then I read about this dragon, now do I take the dragon literally?\u00a0 Do I take the serpent literally?\u00a0 What do you think?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I should.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because the text tells me that the dragon or the serpent represents who?\u00a0 Satan.\u00a0 Now I didn\u2019t have to come up with that on my own, the text told me to.\u00a0 See that?\n\nSo that\u2019s what I\u2019m saying is you take everything in the Book of Revelation at face value whenever you have the opportunity to do it, UNLESS the text itself tells you otherwise.\u00a0 You\u2019re already doing that in John\u2019s Gospel, Romans, anywhere else you are in the Bible.\u00a0 And you just continue with that process into the Book of Revelation, it\u2019s just in Revelation it\u2019s a little harder because there\u2019s more symbols to deal with but it\u2019s the same method of interpretation.\n\nThis chart is a very good one because it communicates that language is meant to be understood only two ways.\u00a0 Language is either meant to be understood in a literal sense, we call that denotative speech, or it\u2019s meant to be understood in a figurative sense and we call that connotative speech.\u00a0 All language ever spoken in the history of humanity has those two categories.\u00a0 So it\u2019s obvious as to when one is being employed over the other or else communication could never take place.\u00a0 And this includes the Bible because the Bible is written in language.\n\nSo this morning I wake up and it\u2019s Valentine\u2019s Day and my wife says how did you sleep last night?\u00a0 And I say I slept great, I slept in till 8:00 a.m. and I slept like a log.\u00a0 So when I say to her 8:00 a.m. she doesn\u2019t say hmm, that\u2019s an interesting symbol, what does that mean?\u00a0 I speak language, my wife speaks language, we\u2019re both inherent language speaking and listening beings.\u00a0 When I say 8:00 a.m. she knows I\u2019m speaking in which way of these two?\u00a0 Denotatively, see that?\u00a0 But then in the same sentence I said, \u201cI slept like<\/em> a log,\u201d and the word like communicates to her that I just used a simile, right, so she knows in that juncture I\u2019m speaking connotatively.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 And there\u2019s no great confusion there.\u00a0 The danger is always interpreting somebody figuratively when they want to be understood literally or literally when they want to be understood figuratively.\u00a0 And that can happen at times, communication can break down because one time\u2026 as you get older, you guys all appreciate this, know this, you can walk into a room and forget why you went into the room. Has that ever happened to anybody?\n\nSo one day I filled up my cup with coffee, I put it in the microwave, I forgot to set the thing so the microwave kept running and the coffee started boiling over.\u00a0 And by this time I had gone into the office, my wife was in the kitchen, and she says to me, \u201cHoney, your cup is running over.\u201d\u00a0 [laughter]\u00a0 And I said, \u201cyeah, you know, my cup is running over, I\u2019m blessed in this world and God has been really good to me.\u201d\u00a0 And she says \u201cNO, your cup is running over!\u201d\u00a0 So there\u2019s a case where she was wanting to be understood denotatively and I was misinterpreting her connotatively.\n\nSo there can be these language breakdowns.\u00a0 But you see, if we couldn\u2019t navigate our way through these things we couldn\u2019t talk to each other.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 So in the Bible, which is written in linguistic form God decided to record His revelation to man in linguistic form, the rules of language apply.\u00a0 So God is either communicating at\u00a0 us denotatively or He\u2019s communicating to us connotatively and generally speaking, nine times out of ten, maybe even higher than that, ninety-nine out of one hundred, we can pretty much figure out which is in play and which isn\u2019t.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t as hard as everybody makes it out to be is what I\u2019m getting at.\u00a0 If it was that hard then communication in general would be impossible.\n\nSo here\u2019s how it works in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 You\u2019re going through the Book of Revelation and you\u2019re generally taking the text at face value until you see a clue telling you to do otherwise.\u00a0 So you\u2019ll see these little clues, like \u201cspiritually,\u201d chapter 11, verse 8.\u00a0 [Revelation 11:8, \u201cAnd their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 A sign appeared, chapter 12, verse 1.\u00a0 [Revelation 12:1, \u201cA great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars;\u201d]\n\nSometimes you\u2019ll see the word \u201clike\u201d or \u201cas\u201d meaning it\u2019s a simile.\u00a0 Sometimes the language in the Book of Revelation comes right out of the Old Testament which has already defined the figure for us.\u00a0 For example, it talks about four beasts, Revelation 13:2, the four beasts, it talks about a lion, a bear, a leopard, we don\u2019t take those as literal animals because Daniel 7 has already told us, and you know this from our studies in the Book of Daniel, that each of those animals represents a Gentile kingdom.\u00a0 [Revelation 13:2, \u201cAnd the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.\u201d]\n\nSometimes the context, and generally this is how it works, nine times out of ten the context you\u2019re working in will tell you if it\u2019s denotative or connotative.\u00a0 So in Revelation 17 there\u2019s a prostitute and we don\u2019t interpret the prostitute literally because the end of the chapter says \u201cthe woman that you saw is a\u201d what? \u201ca city,\u201d so there it\u2019s obvious that the prostitute is not being used denotatively but being used connotatively.\u00a0 [Revelation 17:18, \u201cThe woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.\u201d]\n\nAnd sometimes if\u00a0 you took it literally it would just be absurd. For example, Revelation 12:1 talks about a woman clothed with the sun and the moon and the twelve stars.\u00a0 [Revelation 12:1, \u201cA great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars;\u201d]\u00a0 And obviously that can\u2019t be literal because if she was clothed with the sun, s-u-n, she would burn to death.\n\nSo you see what I\u2019m saying here is generally you try to take the text for what it says in its ordinary sense, unless you\u2019ve got one of these clues at work and then you know that John is trying to communicate something, not denotatively but connotatively; not plainly but figuratively.\u00a0 Do you see that?\u00a0 You\u2019re already doing that everywhere else in the Bible, it\u2019s just Revelation is a little bit more difficult because there\u2019s more symbols to deal with.\n\nNow once you identify something as a symbol there are three rules to use to define what the symbol means.\u00a0 The first rule is context; the context would usually identify a symbol for you so you don\u2019t have to use your sanctified imagination.\u00a0 So Revelation 12:3 talks about a serpent and a dragon; we know that\u2019s not literal because verse 9 calls the serpent or the dragon the devil.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t have to guess as to who the serpent or the dragon is because the context tells me what the symbol means.\u00a0 [Revelation 12:3, \u201cThen another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems.\u201d\u00a0 Revelation 12:9, \u201cAnd the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.\u201d]\n\nSo many people find a symbol and they want to use their own sanctified imagination to figure out what it means but what you\u2019ll discover is the Bible is its best interpreter.\u00a0 And in the Book of Revelation if the context is not defining the symbol for you your best method is to go into the Old Testament because the Book of Revelation has 404 verses in it; 278 of those 404 verses allude in some way to the Old Testament.\u00a0 And if you want to discover who the woman is clothed with the sun and the moon and the twelve stars, you just go to Joseph\u2019s dream in Genesis 37:9-10 and that imagery is used to describe the nation of Israel.\n\n[Revelation 12:1, \u201cA great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars;\u201d Genesis 37:9-10, \u201cThen he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. \u2018Listen,\u2019 he said, \u2018I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.\u2019\u00a0 [10] When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, \u2018What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?\u2019]\n\nSo the woman clothed with the sun and the moon and the twelve stars is Israel.\u00a0 And then the third rule you follow is you just say well John is trying to use language of comparison, which would be what?\u00a0 A simile. So in Revelation 8:8, for example, he says, \u201cThe second angel sounded, and something like<\/u>\u201d that\u2019s your clue, \u201ca great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea; and a third of the sea became blood.\u201d\u00a0 So when he says \u201clike\u201d what figure of speech is he using there?\u00a0 A simile.\n\nOne of the things to understand about John is John is a first century man with a first century vocabulary trying to describe things happening in the 21st<\/sup> century and beyond.\u00a0 So he\u2019s seeing a giant mountain on fire falling into the sea, the sea turns blood red.\u00a0 What is that?\u00a0 Is that a nuclear bomb?\u00a0 Well, let\u2019s say it is nuclear bomb, why doesn\u2019t John just say it\u2019s a nuclear bomb?\u00a0 Well, he can\u2019t do that, he doesn\u2019t have the vocabulary for it.\u00a0 So what does he do instead?\u00a0 He uses a simile, he says it\u2019s \u201clike.\u201d\u00a0 And John was just told to write down what he saw and so he\u2019s struggling to describe what he saw in this vision, and so he uses these similes constantly.\u00a0 He\u2019s using language from his own time period to describe 21st<\/sup> century or beyond realities. See that?\n\nWhat if you took Benjamin Franklin from colonial America and you put him in Hobby Airport and he sees someone talking on a cell phone or he sees someone surfing the internet or he sees a giant airline take off and land.\u00a0 How would he describe that?\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t because he has no vocabulary for it from this time.\u00a0 So he would say it\u2019s like this, it\u2019s like that.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what John is doing here in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 So you have rules for determining when a symbol is in play and once you discover something is a symbol you have these three rules for determin\u00ading what it means.\u00a0 Look at the context, look at the Old Testament, and factor in the fact that John is using language of comparison.\u00a0 See that?\n\nSo when it says \u201ca thousand years\u201d (six times) did you see any of these clues come up?\u00a0 It didn\u2019t say spiritually, a sign like or as, anything; it just said \u201ca thousand years.\u201d\u00a0 So if there is no textual clue telling you a thousand years means something other than a thousand\u00a0 years then Revelation 20 is indicating that the kingdom is going to last how long?\u00a0 A thousand years!\n\nSo why do I say \u201ca thousand years\u201d means \u201ca thousand years\u201d?\u00a0 Number 1, John knows how to use indefinite concepts elsewhere which he does not do when he talks about \u201ca thousand years.\u201d\u00a0 Number 2, every time you have a number with the word \u201cyear\u201d or \u201cyears\u201d it\u2019s always literal so why would it be any different here in Revelation 20?\u00a0 Number 3, if you don\u2019t want to take \u201ca thousand years\u201d literally here what do you do with every other number in the Book of Revelation?\u00a0\u00a0 You have to allegorize it. Number 4, while Revelation is a symbolic book not everything in the book is a symbol, unless you have a textual clue telling you it\u2019s a symbol.\u00a0 Are you with me on that?\n\nSo I very strongly agree with what Robert Thomas, who is now with the Lord, said in his two volume set on the Book of Revelation, which I believe is the best commentary set ever on the Book of Revelation in the history of Christianity.\u00a0 If you\u2019re down to your last shekel and you want to know what commentary to buy get Bob Thomas\u2019s two volume set on The Book of Revelation.\u00a0 It is unbelievable; it\u2019s a Greek commentary but he translates the Greek phrases so if\u00a0 you\u2019re not familiar with Greek you can\u00a0 use it as well.\u00a0 And you will just drown in information.\u00a0 And he comes from our school of thought, the literal method, and he says in this commentary no number in Revelation is verifiably a symbolic number.\u00a0 What he\u2019s saying is every single number in the Book of Revelation, a symbolic book, every single number is literal.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because these clues that we went through earlier are never applied to any number in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 So seven years means seven years; seven churches means seven churches, two witnesses means what? Two witnesses.\u00a0 A hundred and forty-four thousand Jews means what?\u00a0 A hundred and forty-four thousand Jews.\u00a0 Twenty-four elders means what?\u00a0 Twenty-four elders.\u00a0 So\u00a0 a thousand years means what? \u00a0A thousand\u00a0 years,\n\nNow I\u2019ve got five minutes left and I\u2019m interpreting the clock literally, I want to give you this one last curve ball that will be thrown at\u00a0 you when you talk about a literal interpretation of a thousand\u00a0 years.\u00a0 Almost all the amillennialists and postmillennialists use this little trick.\u00a0 They will go over to Psalm 50:10, which says, \u201cFor every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.\u201d\u00a0 And they\u2019ll say do you think a thousand is literal?\u00a0 And if you say yes, they\u2019ll say well doesn\u2019t God own the cattle on the thousand and first hill?\u00a0 And so they\u2019ll use this to try to convince you that if a thousand is symbolic in Psalm 50:10 it\u2019s obviously symbolic in Revelation 20.\u00a0 Do you see that?\n\nBut let me give you the answer to this.\u00a0 This, Psalm 50:10 is what you call Hebrew poetry.\u00a0 The Jews did not rhyme sounds the way we do in our poetry; they did not do that, they rhymed ideas.\u00a0 And they have a deliberate structure called parallelism where the two lines, \u201cevery beast of the forest is Mine\u201d is rephrased in the second clause, \u201cthe cattle on a thousand hills.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s called parallelism.\u00a0 And there\u2019s all kinds of different ways that those two lines relate to each other.\u00a0 There\u2019s something called antithetical parallelism where the second line says something different than in the first line.\u00a0 And we can go on and on describing the different kinds of parallelism.\n\nThis is what you call synonymous Hebrew parallelism where the second line repeats what\u2019s in the first line but in different words.\u00a0 So if this is synonymous Hebrew parallelism, which it is, then obviously a thousand\u00a0 here is not literal because God owns not the cattle on a thousand hills, He owns all the cattle; He owns the cattle on a thousand and first hill.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 Because I have to interpret both lines together, because that\u2019s how Hebrew parallelism functions.\u00a0\u00a0 You with me on that?\n\nSo what I\u2019m trying to say is there is a contextual basis for interpreting \u201ca thousand\u201d here non-literally, the advent or the manifestation of Hebrew parallelism.\u00a0 I mean we all\u00a0 understand a thousand years is not literal.\u00a0 And having said all that is there any Hebrew parallelism in Revelation 20?\u00a0 There\u2019s none!\u00a0 The Hebrew parallelism is there in Psalm 50 but it\u2019s not there in Revelation 20.\u00a0 So when people say a thousand is non-literal in Psalm 50 therefore it\u2019s got to be non-literal in Revelation 20 they\u2019re making an apples and oranges argument.\n\nOne more fast thing, I can do this in 30 seconds: here is the amillennialist and postmillennialist problem: it says in Revelation 20, \u201cthey came to life.\u201d\u00a0 We understand that as the resurrection of the dead.\u00a0 Do you know what they mean by that?\u00a0 \u00a0Since the kingdom started in the first century, and this is all allegorical, they think \u201ccame to life\u201d is regeneration, not a physical resurrection, it\u2019s folks getting saved.\u00a0 That\u2019s what they will tell you it means.\u00a0 The problem with that is there\u2019s a resurrection at the end of the thousand\u00a0 years, the resurrection of the damned.\u00a0\u00a0 And guess what?\u00a0 They take that literally.\u00a0 They\u2019ve got a big problem because it\u2019s the same verb, they \u201ccame to life.\u201d\u00a0 z\u014d\u0113,\u00a0 So if z\u014d\u0113 \u00a0is literal at the beginning of the thousand years or if it\u2019s literal at the end of the thousand years then it has to be literal where? At the beginning of the thousand\u00a0 years.\n\nAnd this is how you can recognize false doctrine; you have to switch your method of interpre\u00adtation right in the middle of a sentence to get their system to work.\u00a0 They want \u201ccame to life\u201d to be regeneration at the beginning of the millennial kingdom but they take the same verb literally for the resurrection of the damned at the end of the kingdom.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have any real problem with this because I take both resurrections literally because I\u2019m consistent in my approach.\u00a0 Do you see that?\u00a0 They are inconsistent in their approach.\n\nBeyond that, it says, \u201cThe rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed.\u00a0 This is the first resurrection.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 20:5]\u00a0 Now they say that\u2019s regeneration, folks getting saved.\u00a0 The problem is the Greek word is anastasis<\/em> and do a study on anastasis<\/em> in the Greek New Testament and it Never (with a capital N) Never means regeneration anywhere it\u2019s used.\u00a0 It is ALWAYS referring to a physical resurrection.\u00a0 And if John wanted to communicate regeneration there\u2019s a whole different Greek word he could have used; it\u2019s \u00a0palin<\/em>enesia<\/em>, palin<\/em> means again, genesia<\/em> you recognize the Book of Genesis, the Book of Beginnings; it literally means beginning again.\u00a0 That\u2019s what happens when a person is spiritually regenerated, born again, they\u2019re beginning again.\u00a0 John doesn\u2019t use that word.\n\nIf he wanted to say regeneration he could have said that; he doesn\u2019t us it, he uses anastasis<\/em>, which always means physical resurrection.\u00a0 So the kingdom now people have a big problem with their interpretation.\u00a0 They want the first resurrection to be regeneration; the problem is this last resurrection they take literally and it\u2019s the same verb used to describe both.\u00a0 And the first resurrection is described with the word anastasis<\/em> and not paliggenesia.<\/em>\u00a0 So their whole system collapses.\n\nSo how is the kingdom going to come to the earth?\u00a0 It\u2019s going to be reoffered because the nation of Israel in the tribulation period; as that is happening the earth is being transferred from Satan\u2019s authority to God\u2019s authority, then the kingdom will be established on the earth and John, apparently he thinks it\u2019s a big deal for us to understand that the kingdom is going to last how long?\u00a0 A thousand years.\u00a0 A thousand years meaning a thousand years!\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that sad we have to spend a whole hour explaining why a thousand means a thousand.\u00a0 But that\u2019s kind of the time period that we\u2019re living in, where people allegorize things out of the Bible. So just take it at face value, a thousand means a thousand.\n\nBut, we\u2019re not done\u00a0 yet; we\u2019re done for tonight but we\u2019re not done with the study because following the thousand year kingdom there\u2019s going to be a what?\u00a0 Eternal state, so you\u2019ve got to look at the thousand year kingdom as the porch, the eternal state is the house.\u00a0 So we have this temporary time period called the thousand year kingdom; it\u2019s a vital time period as we\u2019ve explained but it\u2019s not the end of the story.\u00a0 It\u2019s just the porch leading into the house.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to start studying the house next week, what happens after the thousand year kingdom, where the thousand year kingdom will merge into the eternal state.\u00a0 We will look at the specifics of that.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t