{"id":19234,"date":"2018-10-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-24T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-054\/"},"modified":"2018-10-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-24T05:00:00","slug":"the-coming-kingdom-054","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-054\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Kingdom 054"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[55],"series_event":[470],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19234","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-2-samuel","series_event-the-coming-kingdom","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"The Coming Kingdom 054","sermon_date":"20181024","sermon_month":"10","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":6151,"sermon_slides":6152,"sermon_mp3":6153,"sermon_id":"1024181829573","series_or_event":470,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":55,"chapter_and_verse":"7:12-16","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Coming Kingdom\n\n10-24-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2 Samuel 12-16\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 54\n\nLet\u2019s take our Bibles if we could and open them to 2 Samuel chapter 7, verses 12-16.\u00a0 And we are chapter 17 of the book that I wrote on the kingdom.\u00a0\u00a0 As you know, the first part of this series was what does the Bible say about the kingdom, Genesis to Revelation?\u00a0 And we saw that the kingdom is very well developed, offered to Israel, rejected by Israel and consequently in a state, not of cancellation but postponement.\u00a0 And from there we started looking at what are the problems with kingdom now theology?\u00a0 A lot of people out there today and really throughout church history are arguing that we\u2019re in the kingdom now.\u00a0 And the basic problem with that is you have to change the Old Testament definition of kingdom, as we\u2019ve talked about.\n\nAnd from there we moved into part three which are the passages people use to say we are currently in the kingdom.\u00a0 And we have completed (believe it or not) passages from Christ\u2019s ministry.\u00a0 So that\u2019s a lot of passages we looked at.\u00a0 This slide and this slide, when you actually spend time and study those passages in depth you see that none of them teach the present manifestation of the kingdom.\u00a0\u00a0 So we\u2019re now moving away from passages in Christ\u2019s ministry to what I think is the real battleground today related to kingdom now theology, passage from the Book of Acts, particularly Acts 2.\u00a0 Acts 2 is the main passage people go to now to argue that Jesus is on David\u2019s throne and reigning from that position as king over the church.\n\nSo before we look at Acts 2 in depth what I would like to do, and I have a whole chapter on this, chapter 17 deals with this issue; chapter 18 deals with the Acts 2 issue, but kind of as a precursor even before getting to Acts 2 we want to ask ourselves, is Jesus now reigning from David\u2019s throne?\u00a0 And I was sort of happy that the Lord had us in Revelation 3:21 last Sunday because that message and then what we\u2019re doing here Wednesday night go together well, very well together.\n\nSo is Jesus reigning on David\u2019s throne?\u00a0 And I have basically six responses; we\u2019ll only get through (if we\u2019re fortunate) two of the six tonight but number 1, David\u2019s throne is earthly.\u00a0 Number 2, a Davidic heavenly throne changes the original promise grossly.\u00a0 Number 3, no New Testament passage places Jesus on David\u2019s throne today.\u00a0 Number 4, the Davidic throne is only going to come into existence after the times of the Gentiles are over.\u00a0 Number 5, the present Davidic throne misunderstands the mystery nature of the church.\u00a0 And number 6, the present Davidic throne misunderstands the parenthetical nature of the church.\u00a0 I know that\u2019s a lot and I just kind of went through those just to show you where we\u2019re headed.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be explaining each one as we go.\n\nBut starting off with the first one, the first thing we need to understand about David\u2019s throne is that every time the Old Testament and the New Testament mentions David\u2019s throne it\u2019s always what we would call a literal, earthly throne.\u00a0 In other words, it\u2019s never heavenly, it\u2019s always earthly!\u00a0 Another way of saying it is it\u2019s never celestial, (because that\u2019s what people are saying, Jesus is reigning on this celestial throne), it\u2019s always terrestrial.\u00a0 Terrestrial means earthly; celestial means heavenly.\n\nSo let\u2019s look at some verses that show you the way David\u2019s throne is always portrayed, and it\u2019s sort of necessary to understand these verses in order to grasp how people are radically perverting the idea of David\u2019s throne and making it heavenly.\n\nSo what does the Bible actually say about David\u2019s throne?\u00a0 David\u2019s throne is mentioned many times in the Bible.\u00a0 For example, I had you open up to 2 Samuel 7 but here\u2019s 2 Samuel 3:10, this is one of the first references to David\u2019s throne in the whole Bible.\u00a0 This deals with the eclipse of Saul\u2019s reign.\u00a0 Remember Saul was the first king of Israel over the United Kingdom, he reigned for forty years.\u00a0 He was replaced by David, David was replaced by Solomon.\u00a0 So as the kingdom is being transferred from Saul to David you find this verse relative to David\u2019s throne.\n\n2 Samuel 3:10, it says, \u201cto transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and to establish the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan even to Beersheba.\u201d\u00a0 Now when you look at a map of the nation of Israel you\u2019re going to see that Dan and Beersheba are literal places, they represent the outer edges of Israel.\u00a0 So from Dan to Beersheba is kind of a euphemism or a cultural sort of idiom for saying the totality of Israel in that day.\n\nSo Dan and Beersheba were actually literal geographic places. So was Judah, the tribe of Judah, so was the tribe of Dan,\u00a0 So was the United Kingdom of Israel.\u00a0 And right in that context you see there, I don\u2019t have it underlined but you see the expression, \u201cthe throne of David.\u201d\u00a0 So the biblical under\u00adstanding of \u201cthe throne of David\u201d it\u2019s just as literal as Israel, Judah, Dan, Beersheba.\u00a0 It\u2019s a terrestrial earthly throne.\n\nAnd then notice 1 Kings 2:11-12, it says, \u201c\u201cThe days that David reigned over Israel\u00a0were\u00a0forty years:\u00a0seven years he reigned in Hebron<\/u> and thirty-three years he reigned in Jerusalem<\/u>.\u201d\u00a0 Now David \u00a0is replaced by Solomon.\u00a0 \u201cAnd\u00a0Solomon sat on the throne of David<\/u> his father, and his kingdom was firmly established.\u201d\u00a0 So after David left David\u2019s throne Solomon (his successor) sat on that throne.\u00a0 So once again you see David\u2019s throne is just as terrestrial as the expression Israel, Hebron, Jerusalem, David himself, and Solomon that followed. \u00a0So there\u2019s very little doubt and ambiguity that when\u00a0 you start talking about David\u2019s throne it\u2019s always on the earth.\n\nNotice Jeremiah 13:13, it says, \u201cthen say to them, \u2018Thus says the\u00a0Lord, \u2018Behold I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land<\/u>\u2014the kings<\/u>\u201d plural because David was followed by multiple kings, you have Saul forty years, David forty years, Solomon forty years and after Solomon left the throne the kingdom is divided into the northern and southern kingdoms and you have a whole bunch of kings occupying David\u2019s throne.\u00a0 And in fact, we have a whole book in the Bible in it called 1 and 2 Kings.\u00a0 Why is it called that?\u00a0 Because there\u2019s an awful lot of kings after David left, particularly in the north and the south.\u00a0 David\u2019s throne would still be in the south in Jerusalem.\u00a0 And then the prophet Jeremiah comes along and predicts that that southern kingdom is going to go into captivity and he explains why.\u00a0 He says, , \u201cthen say to them, \u2018Thus says the\u00a0Lord, \u2018Behold I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land<\/u>\u2014the kings<\/u> that sit for David on his throne<\/u>, the priests<\/u>, the prophets<\/u> and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem<\/u>\u2014with\u00a0drunkenness!\u2019\u201d\u00a0 In other words, judgment is coming.\n\nSo again you see the expression \u201cthe kings,\u201d all literal kings, they\u2019re sitting on David\u2019s throne so David\u2019s throne is just as literal as the kings that the Book of Kings talks about and there\u2019s a lot of them, Rehoboam, Jeroboam, Uzziah, you can go on and on describing them.\u00a0 And then you have priests mentioned there, prophets, and Jerusalem.\u00a0 Well, are priests literal?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Are prophets literal?\u00a0 Yes, we\u2019ve got one of the writing to us right here\u2014Jeremiah.\u00a0 Is Jerusalem a literal city?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Is \u201cthis land\u201d literal?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Well then David\u2019s throne, mentioned right in the midst there, has to be just as literal and terrestrial as everything else.\n\nNow you might be listening to this saying this is obvious but you have to understand this back\u00adground to see the perversion of what is happening today in theological circles as people are suddenly transporting David\u2019s throne into the heavens.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I\u2019m laying down this foundation.\u00a0 Unless you see this foundation you won\u2019t understand the perversion that\u2019s going on with kingdom now theology because one of the tenants of kingdom now theology is Jesus is now reigning on David\u2019s throne from heaven.\n\nAnd then we have Jeremiah 22 verse 2 and verse 4, and Jeremiah continues and it says this: \u201cand say, \u2018Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who sits on David\u2019s throne, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates. [4] \u201cFor if you men will indeed perform this thing, then kings will enter the gates of this house, sitting in David\u2019s place on his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, even the king<\/em> himself and his servants and his people.\u201d\n\nSo there again\u00a0 you see the expression \u201cDavid\u2019s throne\u201d right in the midst of king, Judah, servants, people, gates.\u00a0\u00a0 You know, the Bible says Yahweh loves the gates of Zion. [Psalm\u00a0 87:2, \u201cThe LORD loves the gates of Zion More than all the other dwelling places of Jacob.\u201d]\u00a0 Those were always understood as literal gates.\u00a0 Men, kings, house, David, chariots, horses, servants, people, were all those things normal literal things?\u00a0 Of course they were.\u00a0 So why would David\u2019s throne be any different, because David\u2019s throne is mentioned right there in the mix with everything else.\n\nAnd then we come to the verse I had you open up to and this is what is called the Davidic Covenant.\u00a0 This is a covenant that God made with David and his household.\u00a0 In fact, it was David that wanted to build a house for the Lord and God did not allow him to do that because David was a man of war so the privilege of building the house would go to Solomon.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t the word Solomon sound a little bit like Shalom, which in Hebrew means peace.\u00a0 So the privilege of building the temple went to Solomon who was not a man of war.\n\nBut in this chapter David says to God I want to build You a house.\u00a0 And God says no, you can\u2019t build Me a house because\u00a0 you\u2019re a man of war, not a man of peace; I\u2019m going to build you a house.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t that be something?\u00a0 God, I want to build\u00a0 you a house and God says no David, I\u2019m going to build you a house.\u00a0 And He gives to David what is called the Davidic Covenant which is basically a covenant that there\u2019s coming from David\u2019s lineage an eternal dynasty including an eternal throne.\n\nAnd notice what this passage says, [2 Samuel 7:12-13] \u201cWhen your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers I will raise up your descendants after you who will come forth from you, I will establish his kingdom.\u00a0 [13] He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.\u201d\u00a0 [14] I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, [15] but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you.\u00a0 [16] Your house\u201d and here\u2019s the key line, \u201cYour house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.\u201d\u00a0 [17 In accordance with all these words and all this vision, so Nathan\u201d Nathan is the prophet that God is using to deliver this message to David, \u201cso Nathan spoke to David.\u201d\n\nNow as you go through this there\u2019s not the foggiest hint that it\u2019s speaking of heaven.\u00a0 Everybody interprets this as earthly.\u00a0 One of \u201cyour descendants\u201d that would be a biological descendant of David, of course we know the one who will fulfill this is who?\u00a0 Jesus, and that\u2019s why Matthew\u2019s genealogy links Jesus back to David to show that Jesus is the rightful heir to this throne. But you\u2019ll see the word \u201cdescendants,\u201d you see the words \u201cthrone of His kingdom,\u201d in other words, just as David\u2019s throne was literal the throne that the Messiah will sit on will be terrestrial, earthly and literal as well.\u00a0 [16] \u201cYour house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.\u201d\u00a0 And so God spoke these things to David.\n\nNow John Walvoord, one of the great defenders of the view that we promote at this church, dispensationalism, says this of the Davidic Covenant, which we just read.\u00a0 He says: \u201cThe covenant with David is not only given twice in its major content\u2014 namely, II Samuel 7<\/u> and\u201d then you\u2019ll find a parallel passage in \u201cI Chronicles 17<\/u>\u2014but it is also confirmed in Psalm 89<\/u>. In this and other Old Testament references there is no allusion anywhere to the idea that these promises are to be understood in a spiritualized sense as referring to the church or to a reign of God in heaven. \u201c\u00a0 See the kingdom now theologians say it\u2019s happening now over the church from heaven.\u00a0 But you see, to get that you have to rewrite what it originally says.\u00a0 That\u2019s Walvoord\u2019s point.\u00a0 \u201cRather, it is linked to the earth and to the seed of Israel, and to the land....\u201d\u00a0 That would be the land of Israel.\u00a0 \u201cThere is no indication that this kingdom extended to a spiritual entity such as the church nor that the throne in view is the throne of God in heaven rather than the throne of David on earth... Such a situation does not prevail in this present age and is not related here or elsewhere to the reign of Christ from the throne of His Father in heaven.\u201d\u00a0 [John Walvoord, \u201cIsrael in Prophecy<\/em> (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1962), 84-85, 87.]\n\nYou see, and this is why we are teaching postponement theology; we believe that this has been postponed because the literal sense of this passage is not being fulfilled today.\u00a0 You can look at Jerusalem and you can see there is no reign of David there, there is no Jesus there.\u00a0 And the throne of David, even if it existed it is unoccupied.\u00a0 Israel is an unbelieving nation.\u00a0 So to make this happening today over the church you have to rewrite this.\n\nAnd those are your choices, you can either believe kingdom now theology, which rewrites these passages, or you can say \u2018you know, God means what He says and says what He means, and didn\u2019t say something, 2 Samuel 7, to deceive the original audience who all interpret it as a literal throne on the earth, and say well, therefore it isn\u2019t happening today like that it must be in a state of abeyance or postponement.\n\nSo the Davidic Covenant, and this is a review from lessons we\u2019ve done earlier, is actually an outworking of the Abrahamic Covenant, where God promised to Abraham\u2019s descendants in Genesis 15 three things: land, seed and blessing.\u00a0 Those are your three basic promises that God gave to Israel.\u00a0 The land is amplified in the land covenant Deuteronomy 29 and 30.\u00a0 The blessing is amplified in the New Covenant, Jeremiah 31:31-34, and the seed, innumerable descendants, is amplified in the Davidic Covenant because there we learn that it\u2019s through the seed of David that this eternal dynasty is going to be ushered in.\n\nSo some people sort of look at the Davidic Covenant separate from everything else.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the right way to look at it; I think I would see the Davidic Covenant as the sub covenant of\u00a0 the whole package God gave to Abraham in what is called the Abrahamic Covenant. Now the Abrahamic Covenant was pretty literal, wasn\u2019t it?\u00a0 I mean, he was promised a tract of real estate from Egypt to Iraq and the land dimensions are pretty well articulated in Genesis 15:18-21.\n\nAnd in fact, Abraham was called to receive this land from the Ur of the Chaldeans, he was called to walk by faith and separate from the idolaters of his day and receive these promises.\u00a0 And there\u2019s the trajectory most believe Abraham made, God said to Abraham I\u2019m taking you to a land\u00a0 you\u2019ve never seen before and he was specifically called out of Ur of the Chaldeans which would be modern day Iraq, between the Euphrates and the Tigris. And is Ur of the Chaldeans a literal place that Abraham was called out of?\u00a0 Of course it was.\u00a0 So why would we think the land that he was going to enter into would be un-literal; that wouldn\u2019t make any sense, would it?\n\nThe land that he was going to enter into is very literal, Genesis 15:18-21.\u00a0 \u201cOn that day the LORD made a covenant\u201d which covenant?\u00a0 The Abrahamic Covenant, \u201cwith Abram, saying, \u2018To your descendants I have given this land,\u201d now is he talking about heaven there?\u00a0 No, it\u2019s this earth because it gives the dimensions, \u201cfrom the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates:\u201d those are literal geographic places.\u00a0 And then he begins to mention the occupiers of that land that are going to be vomited out (if you will) in the Book of Joshua, under his conquest.\n\nIt mentions the people groups that are going to be vomited out of the land under Joshua.\u00a0 So [19] \u201cthe Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite [20] and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim [21] and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite\u201d the electric light, the out of site, the termite, the mosquito bite, etc.\n\nSo were all those literal groups?\u00a0 Yes they were.\u00a0 So why would the land not be literal; that doesn\u2019t make any sense.\u00a0 My point is the Davidic Covenant, which is a part of the Abrahamic package is just as literal as the Abrahamic Covenant itself.\u00a0 That\u2019s my point.\u00a0 I mean, there is no way you could be an honest reader of the Bible, if you were stranded on a desert island and you had no theologian to swim to shore to confuse you, and you were just reading the Bible on your own\u00a0 you would interpret all of these promises as earthly and literal, wouldn\u2019t you?\u00a0 There wouldn\u2019t be any doubt in your mind.\n\nSo when Jesus shows up we have this prophecy and you see the Davidic throne, which we\u2019re focusing on here, is literal in the Old Testament and it\u2019s literal in the New Testament.\u00a0 Jesus shows up and Gabriel says, I think it is to Mary, (if I\u2019m not mistaken) \u201cHe,\u201d that\u2019s Jesus, \u201cwill be great, and He will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him\u201d what? \u201cthe throne of His father David;\u00a0 [33] and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.\u201d\n\nNow would you say that this promise carries the same literal understanding of everything we read in the Old Testament?\u00a0 I mean, Gabriel never changes the meaning of the prophecy, does he?\u00a0 He never says oh, by the way, all that literal earthly stuff that\u2019s been cancelled, it\u2019s actually going to be in heaven.\u00a0 So this is when the kingdom was being offered to Israel and this is what Israel could have had had they enthroned their King.\n\nAlva J. McClain of Luke 1:32-33 says, \u201c\u201cThe \u2018throne of David\u2019 here is not God\u2019s throne in heaven, nor is the \u2018house of Jacob\u2019 a reference to the Christian church.\u201d\u00a0 In Luke 1 there is no Christian church.\u00a0 The church, you don\u2019t even have a hint of a church until after midway through Matthew.\u00a0 There\u2019s no church, I mean,\u00a0 you start talking about a church and no one would even know what you\u2019re talking about, it\u2019s all Israel, Israel, Israel, Israel.\n\n\u201cThe \u2018throne of David\u2019 here is not God\u2019s throne in heaven, nor is the \u2018house of Jacob\u2019 a reference to the Christian church.\u201d\u00a0 As Godet\u201d a French interpreter, \u201crightly observed: \u2018These expressions in the mouth of the angel keep their natural and literal sense. It is, indeed, the theocratic royalty and the Israelite people, neither more nor less, that are in question here; Mary\u201d by the way, what nationality was Mary?\u00a0 Was she an American?\u00a0 She was about as Jewish as they come, right.\u00a0 Mary, as a Jew, as a Hebrew, as a physical descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the only thing she knew was Hebrew Bible and she the only thing she would have understood is a literal Davidic throne.\u00a0 If you told her well, it\u2019s really through the church in heaven that would have been a foreign concept to her.\u00a0 Mary could have understood these expressions from Gabriel in Luke 1:32-33 in no other way.\u201d\u00a0 [Alva J. McClain, The Greatness of the Kingdom: An Inductive Study of the Kingdom of God as Set Forth in the Scriptures<\/em> (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1959), 282.]\n\nAnd as\u00a0 you know of go through the mystery of Christ you start to see references that Jesus makes periodically to the Davidic throne, and you\u2019ll notice that Jesus Himself always keeps references to the Davidic throne in their literal sense.\u00a0 Notice Matthew 19:28, \u201c\u201cAnd Jesus said to them,\u00a0\u2018Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when\u00a0the Son of Man will sit on\u00a0His glorious throne<\/u>,\u201d now what throne would that be?\u00a0 David\u2019s throne that he\u2019s the heir to genealogically.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 \u201c\u2026when\u00a0the Son of Man will sit on\u00a0His glorious throne<\/u>s\u201d speaking to twelve apostles who were twelve Jews, \u201cyou also shall sit upon twelve thrones<\/u>, judging the twelve tribes of Israel<\/u>.\u2019\u201d\n\nNow where do you think their minds went when He made that statement?\u00a0 They didn\u2019t go into the New Testament, there is no New Testament.\u00a0 I think their minds went right back to Ezekiel 47 which describes the apportionments and tribal allotment of land in the millennial kingdom.\u00a0 That\u2019s a picture from Thomas Ice\u2019s prophecy chart book.\u00a0 I personally like Gabriel Morris\u2019 picture better, no offence to Thomas Ice.\u00a0 But I like Gabe\u2019s picture better, he drew out basically the same thing.\u00a0 It\u2019s right out of Ezekiel 47, it\u2019s explaining the different parts of the land that each of the twelve tribes will inherit.\u00a0 So I think when Jesus says you who have followed Me at the regeneration \u00a0of all things, i.e. the mil, are going to sit on twelve thrones governing the twelve tribes of Israel.\u00a0 And they understood Jesus is on a literal throne of David and they would each be given governing authority over each of the twelve tribes.\u00a0 \u00a0It\u2019s all very literal.\n\nJesus, in Matthew 20:21 deals with the mother of the sons of Zebedee, James and John, who wanted her two boys to get ahead in life.\u00a0 Kind of sounds like a good Jewish mother, right, wants her boys to grow up and be lawyers and doctors and work on Wall Street and all that kind of stuff.\u00a0 So she comes to Jesus and it says this: \u201cThen the mother of\u00a0the sons of Zebedee came to\u00a0Jesus with her sons,\u00a0bowing down and making a request of Him.\u00a0And He said to her,\u00a0\u2018What do you wish?\u201d\u00a0 Now this is no small wish, \u201cShe said to Him, \u2018Command that in Your kingdom\u201d what kingdom?\u00a0 He didn\u2019t say to her well stop right there, we\u2019re in the kingdom now.\u00a0 It\u2019s the kingdom that, these are all Hebrews, it\u2019s the kingdom that they all read about and anticipated was coming, and in fact thought was going to be set up right then and there as it was being offered to Israel.\u00a0 \u201c\u2018Command that in Your kingdom that these two sons of mine\u00a0may sit one on Your right and one on Your left.\u2019\u201d Wow, that\u2019s a pretty bold request.\n\nAnd then Jesus goes on and He says\u2026 it\u2019s interesting, He never corrects her about the throne, the kingdom and its earthly sense, He just corrects her on how the cross comes before the throne.\u00a0 But my point is Jesus is taking the Davidic throne and always keeping it in its Old Testament meaning.\u00a0 He never changes it.\u00a0 That\u2019s what I\u2019m getting at here.\n\nSo when is that Davidic\u00a0 throne going to be occupied?\u00a0 It will not be occupied until Matthew 25:31 which is at the beginning of the millennial kingdom, or towards the inauguration of the millennial kingdom.\u00a0 It says, \u201cBut when the Son of Man comes in His glory,\u201d now is that the rapture?\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s not the rapture, this is the second advent of Jesus at the end of the seven year tribulation period.\u00a0 \u201cBut when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on\u201d what? \u201cHis glorious throne.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, it\u2019s not until this event that you\u2019re going to see the Davidic\u00a0 throne in Jerusalem occupied over a believing Israel.\n\nSo until this event happens Jesus is not on David\u2019s throne.\u00a0 Which throne is He on?\u00a0 The Father\u2019s throne in heaven.\u00a0 So Jesus keeps the Davidic throne in its same terrestrial meaning and that leads to the inauguration of the kingdom, which you can\u2019t have until you have the King sitting on David\u2019s throne.\n\nSo what am I trying to get at with this subject of David\u2019s throne?\u00a0 I\u2019m just trying to make a simple point that David\u2019s throne is earthly, Old Testament and New Testament it is earthly!\u00a0 And you have to get that foundation to appreciate the next point that I\u2019m going to make.\u00a0 And to understand the perversion that\u2019s being forced into the Bible through kingdom now theology.\n\nSo this takes us to point number two, arguing that David\u2019s throne is now celestial, not terrestrial, celestial or heavenly, not earthly, not over Israel but over the church does what to the original promise?\u00a0 It changes its original meaning. And the name or the word change is extremely important.\u00a0 And the reason it\u2019s extremely important is because of a proper understanding of progressive revelation.\n\nNow don\u2019t go to sleep on me here, this is the whole deal that I\u2019m getting at.\u00a0 Progressive revelation, progress of revelation, what in the world does that mean?\u00a0 What it means is this: as the Bible develops concepts from Genesis to Revelation it never takes an existing concept and changes it\u2026 EVER!\u00a0 The only thing it will do is it will take an existing concept and clarify it, maybe specific something or amplify something, but it never changes it because what the Bible does at the very beginning is it starts off very generically and it says, for example, that there\u2019s going to be a Messiah, who\u2019s going to come forth from the seed of the woman, who is going to crush the serpent\u2019s head.\n\nNow as\u00a0 you travel through the Bible what you get is more information on who this coming one is.\u00a0 You will learn he\u2019s going to come from the tribe of Judah. First of all He\u2019s going to be Hebrew, then He\u2019s going to come from the tribe of Judah and then He\u2019s going to come from the city of Bethlehem, and then He\u2019s going to be born of a virgin, and then He\u2019s going to be pierced and then He\u2019s going to rise from the dead, all Old Testament, Psalm 16.\n\n[Psalm 16, \u201cPreserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You. [2] I said to the LORD, \u201cYou are my Lord; I have no good besides You.\u201d\u00a0 [3] As for the saints who are in the earth, they are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.\u00a0 [4] The sorrows of those who have bartered for another god<\/em> will be multiplied; I shall not pour out their drink offerings of blood, Nor will I take their names upon my lips. [5] The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You support my lot.\u00a0 [6]\u00a0 The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.\u00a0\u00a0 [7] I will bless the LORD who has counseled me; Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.\u00a0 [8] I have set the LORD continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.\u00a0 [9] Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will dwell securely.\u00a0 [10] For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.\u00a0 [11] You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.\u201d]\n\nAnd you\u2019ll notice that all this information that keeps coming, did it ever change the original promise in Genesis 3:15? \u00a0[Genesis 3:15, \u201cAnd I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.\u201d]\u00a0 \u00a0It never did.\u00a0 It simply clarified or specified or amplified.\u00a0 If the Bible all of a sudden came along and said well guess what, the Messiah is not going to come from the seed of the woman, He\u2019s going to be dropped out of the sky with no connection to the human race at all.\u00a0 That would be a change in the original promise which would defy the doctrine of progressive revelation.\n\nAnd this is what makes your Bible very different than the Qur'an,\u00a0 because the\u00a0 Muslims will say there are certain prophecies of peace and then there are certain prophecies of war and it really depends on whether they get the upper hand in a culture, because they go from House of Peace \u00a0(I think that\u2019s what it\u2019s called, I may have the vocabulary a little wrong, but House of Peace to House of War really fast.\u00a0 And they stop quoting all the peaceful verses in the Qur\u2019an and all of a sudden they start quoting all the warlike verses because Mohammed had different strategies, depending on whether he was in Mecca or Medina, because in one of those areas he didn\u2019t have the upper hand so he wanted to cooperate with the existing population.\u00a0 But once he got the upper hand he suddenly went warlike.\n\nAnd you say well what happened to all the prophecies and promises of peace, and the Muslims have a term for it and Shahram Hadian when he was here told us about it; the term is \u201cthey have been abrogated.\u201d\u00a0 So all of a sudden the war prophecies have cancelled the peace prophecies, just like that!\u00a0 How convenient is that!\u00a0 The Bible does not work that way.\u00a0 The Bible does not abrogate prophecies and promises.\u00a0 It never comes along and says yeah, all that Old Testament stuff about an earthly throne on David\u2019s throne in Jerusalem, all cancelled. That would be an abrogation.\n\nThat concept is akin to Islam, it has nothing to do with God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 God\u2019s Word functions according to progressive revelation, meaning later revelation can explain former revelation but it can never alter it.\u00a0 And the reason it can never alter it is what would it do to God\u2019s character who made the original promise?\u00a0 It would make God a liar!\u00a0 That means everything He spoke originally was a lie.\u00a0 Now that may be fine in Islam but it doesn\u2019t work in biblical Christianity where God is bound to operate by certain moral laws that govern Himself just like He wants to govern us.\n\nIn progressive revelation, and this is very important to understand, the New Testament is never going to cancel, it\u2019s never going to change, it\u2019s never going to alter an existing Old Testament idea.\u00a0 You take the Abrahamic Covenant that we just talked about, the promises of land, seed and blessing, (in fact I had a chart a little earlier on that) what is happening in the Bible is subsequent covenants are not altering those original promises given to Abraham but they\u2019re amplifying, clarifying, explaining, adding specificity but never changing.\u00a0 See that?\n\nSo if somebody comes along and says the Davidic throne is no longer on the earth but it\u2019s in heaven what have they just done to the original promise?\u00a0 They\u2019re changed it.\u00a0 And that, in and of itself should send up your antenna, discernment awareness antenna that something is not right, because God\u2019s Word doesn\u2019t work that way and we have a concept to explain this called progressive revelation.\n\nSo Robert Lightner who was one of my many mentors and he was one of the best, he\u2019s with the Lord now, said this conceding people who put David\u2019s throne in heaven currently.\u00a0 He says, \u201c\u201cSo, they have not only changed the people to include the Church,\u201d the original promise never covered the church, \u201cbut they have also changed the place where the covenant is to be fulfilled. Now it\u2019s not only on earth, but it\u2019s also in heaven. . . . The people have changed and the place has changed.\u201d\n\nAn abrupt change like that is not progressive revelation.\u00a0 It contradicts progressive revelation because the change is too radical.\u00a0 And if I can be so bold he mentions two things that get changed in kingdom now theology, people and place.\u00a0 Let me be so bold as to add a third,\u00a0 the regenerated status of Israel changes because when you study Matthew 23-25 what you\u2019re going to see when you look at those chapters chronologically is the Davidic throne cannot\u2026 CANNOT come into existence until Israel is in faith.\n\nThat\u2019s why we don\u2019t have the Davidic throne today on the earth or anywhere.\u00a0 Jesus was very clear on this, He said, \u201cJerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling!\u201d [Matthew 23:37-38]\n\nAnd then He says you\u2019re not going to see me again until you say \u201cBlessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.\u201d\u00a0 [For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, 'BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!\u2019\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 23:39]\u00a0 You\u2019re not going to see me again until you\u2019re converted.\n\nThat\u2019s at the end of Matthew 23.\u00a0 Matthew 23 is followed by Matthew 24, and Matthew 24 is followed by Matthew 25.\u00a0 Now what do you think Matthew 24 and 25 are talking about?\u00a0 The conversion of Israel whereby He\u2019s going to make good on His promise at the end of Matthew 23.\u00a0 See the chronology here.\u00a0 So what happens in Matthew 24.\u00a0 This is not church age truth at all, the church isn\u2019t even on the earth when these things happen.\u00a0 You have the seventieth week of Daniel, the desecration of the temple by the antichrist, verse 15 which is going to wake Israel up.\u00a0 You have the flight of Israel into the wilderness, Matthew 24:20, [Matthew 24:20, \u201cBut pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath.\u201d]\u00a0 You have a time of great distress, unparalleled from the beginning of the world until now, verses 21-22.\u00a0 [Matthew 24:21-22, \u201cFor then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. [22] Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.\u201d\n\nYou have the second advent, not the rapture, the second advent to rescue Israel, verses 29-30.\u00a0 [Matthew 24:30-31, \u201cBut immediately after the tribulation of those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. [30] And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory.\u201d]\n\nAnd then you have the gathering of Israel from the ends of the earth, verse 31 of Matthew 24.\u00a0 [\u201cAnd He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.\u201d\n\nAnd only after that whole sequence runs its course then you have the Davidic throne.\u00a0 The promise is made in chapter 23.\u00a0 The means by which Israel is restored is given in Matthew 24 and then you have the Davidic throne coming to the earth once Israel is in faith.\u00a0 There will not be a Davidic throne in existence anywhere until Israel is in faith.\u00a0 That\u2019s what the Bible teaches, and then the kingdom of God on this earth will start.\n\nSo the whole thing rides on Israel, doesn\u2019t it? Whether we\u2019re going to have a Davidic throne or not.\u00a0 Is Israel in faith today?\u00a0 Well, there\u2019s a few Jews that have accept Christ periodically, I spoke to one on the phone today, but they\u2019re not the majority; the majority of the nation is in unbelief.\u00a0 Paul, doesn\u2019t he say in Romans 10:21 all day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.\u00a0 [But as for Israel He says, \u2018All day long I have stretched forth my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.\u2019\u201d]\n\nDoesn\u2019t Paul say, Romans 11:25 \u201ca partial hardening\u201d that\u2019s interesting, the hardening\u2019s not total but it\u2019s partial, \u201chas happened to Israel.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0[Romans 11:25, For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery-- so that you will not be wise in your own estimation-- that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in;\u201d]\u00a0 So it\u2019s partial but it\u2019s still in place, right?\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t Paul, in Romans 11 say that \u201cthe natural branches,\u201d who would those be, Israel, have been because of their unbelief removed from the tree\u2026.temporarily. [Romans 11:21, \u201cfor if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either.\u201d]\n\nAnd who\u2019s brought in?\u00a0 I mean those weird strange looking branches that really don\u2019t belong in an olive tree, and who would that be?\u00a0 That would be you and that would be me.\u00a0 And then Paul asks this question, if God can do the agricultural miracle and bring in the wild branches into a tree how hard do you think it\u2019s going to be for God to reach out and put the natural branches back into their own tree.\u00a0 [Romans 11:24, \u201cFor if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?\u201d]\n\nAnd he\u2019s describing here through this analogy the conversion of Israel and then you\u2019re going to get the Davidic throne but until that point in time Israel is in unbelief, you\u2019re not going to have the Davidic throne.\n\nSo I put this little chart together and I just added to Lightner\u2019s list of how kingdom now theology \u00a0is changing the Davidic throne concept.\u00a0 They\u2019re changing it first of all in the area of place.\u00a0 The place of the Davidic throne is on the earth; they\u2019re saying no, it\u2019s happening now in heaven.\u00a0 That\u2019s a change; that\u2019s not progressive revelation.\u00a0 Number two, they\u2019re changing the people, the Davidic throne exists through Israel and the kingdom now folks are saying no, it\u2019s happening in the Gentile church.\u00a0 Number three, they\u2019re changing the requirement of Israel\u2019s conversion; the Old Testament, New Testament says you can\u2019t have the throne until Israel is converted.\u00a0 And they\u2019re saying no, the Davidic throne exists now which means they\u2019re saying God changed His mind about whether Israel is converted or not.\u00a0 And they try to sell you this as progressive revelation.\u00a0 That is not the progress of rev, that is an alteration in what God originally said. And that\u2019s the problem with Kingdom now theology.\n\nSo let me introduce you to some people who do this kind of thing and I want you to notice how suspicious their vocabulary is.\u00a0 One of the big guys that\u2019s been doing this for years, I think he\u2019s dead now, (so now he knows better, right) George Eldon Ladd, of Fuller Seminary, who taught the doctrine of already\/not yet.\u00a0 There is an already form of the kingdom with Jesus reigning on David\u2019s throne now is what he\u2019s saying.\u00a0 So watch how tricky these guys are.\u00a0 It\u2019s like\u00a0 you shake a guy\u2019s hand and then you finish shaking his hand and\u00a0 you realize two of your fingers are missing.\u00a0 I mean, \u201cslippery when wet\u201d are these guys.\u00a0 Now watch this:\n\n\u201cThe new redemptive events\u201d and they\u2019ve got to give you the German word to show how smart they are, \u201cin the course of Heilsgeschichte<\/em> have compelled Peter\u201d now Peter is preaching in Acts 2, Act is the battleground.\u00a0 That fancy German word means salvation history.\u00a0 \u201cThe new redemptive events in the course of salvation history have comjpelled Peter to\u201d what\u2019s the next word, \u201creinterpret the Old Testament<\/u>.\u201d\u00a0 Not explain the Old Testament, not clarify the Old Testament, but downright change it like abrogation.\u00a0 \u201cBecause of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, Peter\u201d look at this, \u201ctransfers the messianic Davidic throne from Jerusalem to God\u2019s right hand in heaven<\/u>.\u201d Notice the word \u201ctransfers,\u201d this is how they interpret Acts 2.\u00a0 \u201cJesus has now been enthroned as the Davidic Messiah on the throne of David, and is awaiting the final consummation of his messianic reign. . . . This involves\u201d watch this, \u201ca rather radical reinterpretation of Old Testament prophecies<\/u>,\u201d I agree, it\u2019s very radical, \u201cbut no more so than the entire reinterpretation<\/u> of God\u2019s redemptive plan by the early church.\u201d\n\nIn other words, it\u2019s no big deal, all the apostles did this, they all showed up, cancelled the Old Testament and gave you a New Testament meaning of a heavenly kingdom of Jesus reigning on David\u2019s throne now and therefore everything that God said to Israel is a big fat what?\u00a0 Lie!\u00a0 That\u2019s what he means by \u201cradical reinterpretation of Old Testament prophecies.\u201d\u00a0 I guess people say why would you write a 400 page book about this, because it\u2019s got to bother me a little bit to devote that much energy to something.\u00a0 And I guess what really gets under my skin about all of this stuff at the end of the day is the assault this wages on God\u2019s character.\u00a0 That\u2019s what bothers me about it.\n\n\u201cIn fact, it is an essential part of this reinterpretation<\/u>\u201d notice how he keeps using this word, \u201cdemanded by the events of redemptive history\u2026. Jesus is enthroned as the Messiah\u2026.He must reign until all his enemies are made a stool for his feet.\u201d\u00a0 [George Eldon Ladd A Theology of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), 336\u201337.]\n\nSo He\u2019s still leaving room for a future kingdom but he gets the whole thing, not from the Old Testament, he gets it from Romans 11.\u00a0 And he doesn\u2019t even have Israel as the center of his kingdom.\u00a0 So he gets to call himself a premillennialist but because of his already\/not yet view he\u2019s changing what the promises said.\u00a0 He\u2019s building his doctrine of kingdom from the completely wrong place of the Bible.\n\nThe only thing Paul is doing in Romans 11 is he is summarizing everything that\u2019s already given in the Old Testament.\u00a0 I was listening to an amillennialist on the\u2026 I shouldn\u2019t do this, on the internet not too long ago and the guy was going on and on about how everybody gets their view of the kingdom from Revelation 20.\u00a0 And I\u2019m screaming at the computer, I don\u2019t get my view of the kingdom from Revelation 20.\u00a0 Revelation 20 just is a summation of everything that\u2019s in the Old Testament.\u00a0 Everything in Revelation 20 is already revealed in the Old Testament.\u00a0 The only thing Revelation 20 really tells you that the Old Testament doesn\u2019t tell you is it\u2019s going to last a thousand years.\u00a0 Other than that the whole package is laid out through the covenants.\n\nI am not a reader of the Bible that believes the New Testament changes the Old Testament because I\u2019m a believer in the progress of revelation which says subsequent revelation will amplify, clarify, give details but never alter.\u00a0 The Davidic throne in heaven, I\u2019m sorry, is an alteration and an abrogation of what God originally said.\n\nGeorge Murray, amillennialist, says, \u201cThe Davidic Covenant, of which much has been said, was to the effect that his seed would sit upon his throne and had its natural fulfillment in the reign of King Solomon. Its eternal aspects include the Lord Jesus Christ of the seed of David; and in the book of Acts, Peter insists that Christ\u2019s resurrection and ascension fulfilled God\u2019s promise to David that his seed would sit upon his throne (Acts 2:30). Why insist, then, on a literal fulfillment of a promise which the Scriptures certify to have had a spiritual fulfillment?\u201d\u00a0 [George Murray, Millennial Studies<\/em> (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1948), 44.]\n\nSee how he\u2019s going to Peter in Acts 2 again, just like George Ladd did?\u00a0\u00a0 And that\u2019s why we\u2019re going to be looking at Acts 2 in detail, not tonight but down the road.\u00a0 So they\u2019re so confident that Peter has showed up\u2026.\u00a0 By the way, was Peter a Jew?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Who was he talking to in Acts 2?\u00a0 Jews.\u00a0 What do you think they would have thought if Peter had said all the promises are cancelled, let me give you the new package?\u00a0 They would have thought he was crazy.\n\nSo they\u2019re so confident that Peter has changed or abrogated the prophecies and promises of the Davidic Covenant that it\u2019s foolish to insist that they are ever going to be fulfilled in their literal sense.\u00a0 That\u2019s what George Murray is saying, even more radical than what, or very similar to what George Ladd, formerly of Fuller Seminary, is saying.\n\nAnd this actually led to a feud between John Walvoord, then at Dallas Seminary, and George Ladd, they went back and forth for I think the decade of the late 60\u2019s early 70\u2019s on this.\u00a0 And here\u2019s the tragic thing about it, is in Walvoord\u2019s own school today Ladd\u2019s sentiment is the reigning sentiment, maybe not as radical as Ladd but the already\/not yet view of the kingdom that Ladd taught is the reigning sentiment.\u00a0 Now there are some exceptions there, God always has a remnant.\u00a0 But his sentiment is the reigning sentiment and it\u2019s very sad to me to watch Walvoord go out and defend this idea of a literal kingdom against Ladd, only to have the next generation come along and virtually adopt 75% if not more of what Ladd said.\n\nDwight Pentecost, one of the good guys, responds to Murray and he says this?\u00a0 \u201cThe amillennialist is bound to argue for a conditional covenant\u201d they either argue that it\u2019s conditional and cancelled and it\u2019s not conditional because the covenants are unconditional, we\u2019ve gone through all that, so they either argue it\u2019s conditional and when that argument doesn\u2019t work they say it was fulfilled already in the days of Joshua or Solomon.\u00a0 And if that argument doesn\u2019t work they say well it\u2019s just fulfilled now in a spiritual sense.\u00a0 So if argument one doesn\u2019t work I\u2019ll use argument two.\u00a0 If argument two doesn\u2019t work I\u2019ll use argument three.\n\nSo Dwight Pentecost says, \u201cThe amillennialist is bound to argue for a conditional covenant and a spiritualized fulfillment, so that the throne on which Christ is now seated at the right hand of the father becomes the \u2018throne\u2019 of the covenant, the household of faith becomes the \u2018house\u2019 of the covenant, and the church becomes the \u2018kingdom\u2019 of the covenant\u2026. \u00a0This makes the church the \u2018seed\u2019 and the \u2018kingdom\u2019 promised in the covenant.\u201d\u00a0 What Pentecost is saying here is they just changed the whole language of the Davidic Covenant.\u00a0 And look at this last sentence, \u201cThe kingdom becomes heavenly, not earthly\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Then he says this, \u201cOnly by extensive allegorization can such a view be held<\/u>.\u00a0 <\/em>[J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come, <\/em>Page 103]\n\nWhat he\u2019s getting at is these folks are not following the doctrine of progressive revelation; that\u2019s what he\u2019s saying.\u00a0 They\u2019re not following the doctrine that the New Testament clarifies but never changes.\u00a0 These are abrupt outright changes very similar to the doctrine of abrogation that you find in pagan religions like Islam.\n\nAnd you might recall this quote that I used on Sunday from Lewis Sperry Chafer, who says:\u00a0 \u201cSimilarly, the earthly kingdom that according to the Scriptures had its origin in the covenant made to David, which is mundane and literal in its original form and equally as mundane and literal in uncounted references to it in all subsequent Scriptures which trace it on to its consummation,\u201d now we looked at those Scriptures today, didn\u2019t we?\u00a0 I kept saying here\u2019s a reference to the Davidic Covenant, notice it\u2019s literal, we went through a plethora or Old Testament Scriptures, a plethora of New Testament Scriptures.\u00a0 And Chafer is criticizing those who are making it sound as if it\u2019s being fulfilled today and he says this: \u201cOnly by theological legerdemain<\/u>,\u201d I didn\u2019t even know what that word meant, you know, these guys that wrote in 1947 used like real vocabulary words that we don\u2019t use today because we\u2019re so busy with social media saying LOL and ROF and all these little things we don\u2019t even know how to spell any more.\n\nAll this technology, I think, has made us very stupid, to be honest with you.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know how to speak, we don\u2019t know how to write, we don\u2019t know how to spell.\u00a0 In fact, I said to my daughter, she needed to look something up, I said well go look that up in the dictionary and she was looking at me like I was from outer space.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 Dictionary, what is that, because she\u2019s used to getting on Google and just putting in a word that she doesn\u2019t know and you get Wikipedia and all this other stuff.\u00a0 I mean, the whole concept of looking up things in a dictionary is a lost concept today. \u00a0We were in the airport, Bush airport and we were getting ready, I think in August, to fly back home and there\u2019s a pay phone there, did you know that, it\u2019s off to the side and no one really uses it and I\u2019m looking for my 12 year old and all of a sudden I saw her next to this pay phone staring at it, [laughter] and she did not know what the heck that thing was because we\u2019re\u00a0 used to pulling out our little [can't understand word] and there we go.\u00a0 So technology has really changed.\u00a0 And I was trying to explain to her that well, there was once a time when you had to put in a dime to make a call to someone and she says to me, well why did you do that?\u00a0 [Laughter]\n\nAnyway, I had to look up legerdemain and it means trickery or deception.\u00a0 And then he goes on and he says, \u201c (trickery, deception) metamorphosed into a spiritual monstrosity<\/u> in which an absent King seated on His Father\u2019s throne in heaven is accepted in lieu of the theocratic monarch of David\u2019s line seated on David\u2019s throne in Jerusalem.\u201d\u00a0 [vol. 5, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1993), 315]\n\nIn other words, if you make the Davidic throne, which is earthly, something that\u2019s happening now, in the words of Lewis Sperry Chafer, the founder of Dallas Seminary, that is trickery and a spiritual monstrosity because you\u2019re changing what it originally says.\u00a0 And just when I get ready to speak about Darrell Bock we\u2019re flat out of time.\u00a0 So we\u2019ll talk about him and his progressive dispensationalism the next time I\u2019m with you, because he\u2019s trying to argue the same thing; he\u2019s trying to say the Davidic throne and the heavenly throne of Jesus at the right hand of the Father are one and the same.\u00a0 He\u2019s doing the same thing that Ladd did but he has a slightly different technique that he uses called complimentary hermeneutics which I\u2019ll expose you to the next time I\u2019m with you.","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