{"id":19259,"date":"2019-10-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-079\/"},"modified":"2022-06-24T10:21:18","modified_gmt":"2022-06-24T15:21:18","slug":"the-coming-kingdom-079","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-079\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Kingdom 079"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[106],"series_event":[470],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19259","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-2-peter","series_event-the-coming-kingdom","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"The Coming Kingdom 079","sermon_date":"20191030","sermon_month":"10","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":7198,"sermon_slides":7197,"sermon_mp3":7196,"sermon_id":"1030192333523275","series_or_event":470,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":106,"chapter_and_verse":"1:19","sermon_transcript":" \r\n

The Coming Kingdom 079<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Kingdom Now Theology &\u00a0 It\u2019s Rejection of Bible Prophecy<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

2 Peter 1:19<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Dr. Andy M Woods<\/strong><\/p>\r\nOpen your Bibles to 2 Peter 1:19.\u00a0 As you know, we have been doing this Bible study on the Kingdom.\u00a0 Part 1 was \u2018What does the Bible say about the Kingdom?\u2019 \u00a0That was a sort of intensive Bible study from Genesis to Revelation.\u00a0 Part 2 was \u2018Why do some believe that we are in the Kingdom now?\u2019 \u00a0That was also an intensive Bible study looking at the passages that some use to argue that we are in the Kingdom when we have been teaching here about the postponed model of the Kingdom.\r\n\r\nNow we are in Part 3:\u00a0 \u2018Why does it matter<\/u>?\u2019\u00a0 <\/strong>It is a little less focused on Bible study even though I will try to direct you to various biblical passages, but it is more focused on current trends in the Church, so I am using a lot of quotes to give you a kind of feel for what is going on out there.\u00a0 Basically, here in Part 3<\/strong>, and we will probably, Lord willing, finish this up this quarter, the premise is that once the Church sees itself as the Kingdom, the Church starts to get very confused.\u00a0 All of a sudden there is some very fertile soil in the ground for all kinds of false doctrines.\u00a0 A series of false doctrines naturally grow up in a soil that is rich with the idea that the Church is the Kingdom.\u00a0 What we are doing here in Part 3 is looking at nine such false doctrines; three of which we have covered.\u00a0 In the remainder of this series, we will be covering numbers 4-9, and Lord willing, we will try to complete number 4 tonight.\r\n\r\nAs we have studied, the first problem with the Church seeing itself as the Kingdom is that the Church loses her identity as a pilgrim.\u00a0 Our identity as a New Testament church is that we aren\u2019t at home in the world; we are currently living in a very evil age and are passing through to a better terrain.\u00a0 The church is never portrayed in the New Testament as being at home in the world.\u00a0 I have already given you this quote from Lewis Sperry Chafer indicating that the church is what we would call a pilgrim passing through.\u00a0 That entire concept is lost the moment the Church begins to see itself as the Kingdom because once the Church sees itself as the Kingdom, the Church begins to look at itself as at home in the world; we have talked about that.\r\n\r\nThe second false teaching that immediately takes hold in the Church when the Church sees itself as the Kingdom is the social gospel where the Church shifts on its shoulders, bringing to the earth, conditions that only Jesus or Yeshua can do when He comes back.\u00a0 What starts to happen is a holistic social gospel\u00a0 begins to invade the thinking of the Church.\u00a0 We have discussed this issue, and the problem is that as I continue researching this, I keep running into fresh quotes to make the point.\u00a0 Let me just share a few more quotes with you in addition to some I have already shared with you.\u00a0 Here are a few others that came across my purview this past week.\r\n\r\nHere is Tim Keller, very much a social gospel Kingdom Now type of guy:\u00a0 \u201cJesus\u2019 life, death, and resurrection was an infinitely costly rescue operation to restore justice to the oppressed and marginalized, physical wholeness to the diseased and dying, community to the isolated and lonely, and spiritual joy and connection to those alienated from God.\u00a0 To be a Christian today is to become part of that same operation, with the\u2026the joyful assurance of eventual success.\u00a0 The story of the gospel makes sense of moral obligation and our belief in the reality of justice, so Christians do restorative and redistributive justice wherever they can.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>\r\n\r\nYou can see in that quote a philosophy that says the Church is basically bringing all of these conditions to the earth, including what I think he is saying there at the end is the redistribution of wealth which is more akin to Marxism than it is Christianity.\r\n\r\nHere is another quote where he defines something he calls the new gospel.\u00a0 \u201cA generation ago evangelicals agreed on the \u2018the simple gospel\u2019:\u00a0 (1) God made you and wants to have a relationship with you, (2) but your sin separates you from God.\u00a0 (3) Jesus took the punishment your sins deserved, (4) so if you repent from sins and trust in him for your salvation, you will be forgiven, justified, and accepted freely by grace, and in dwelt with His Spirit until you die and go to heaven\u2026\u201d <\/em>[Now, if I stopped reading right there, I\u2019d say that he has it pretty much right, that is pretty much the Gospel we preach here at Sugar Land Bible Church, Amen?\u00a0 Except for number 4, we don\u2019t teach that a person has to repent of their sins to be saved.\u00a0 We believe that when a person gets saved and the Holy Spirit comes inside of them, then the Holy Spirit will start to convict people of various sins.\u00a0 So he has the cart before the horse, other than that little infraction, which isn\u2019t such a little infraction, he is focused there on the Gospel.\u00a0 But you will notice that he says this is the old Gospel, what people used to preach a generation ago.\u00a0 So what is the new Gospel]? He says, \u2026\u00a0 \u201cThere are today at least two major criticisms of this simple formulation... <\/em>[In other words, that formulation is too simplistic in his mind]\u2026\u00a0 \u201cMany say that it is too individualistic, that Christ\u2019s salvation is not so much to bring individual happiness as to bring peace, justice, and a new creation.<\/em>\u201d\r\n\r\nHe goes on and says, \u201cA second criticism is that there is no one \u2018simple gospel\u2019 because \u2018everything is contextual\u2019 and the Bible itself contains many gospel presentations that exist in tension with each other\u2026John emphasizes the individual and inward spiritual aspects of being in the kingdom of God.\u00a0 He is at pains to show that it is not basically an earthly social-political order (John 18:36).\u00a0 On the other hand, when the Synoptics\u2026\u201d [<\/em>Matthew, Mark and Luke ; \u2018syn\u2019 in Greek means \u2018same\u2019 and you recognize the word, \u2018optic\u2019 as in optometrist \u2014 optic means \u2018look.\u2019\u00a0 So Synoptics means similar look, and when someone uses the word Synoptics, they are talking about Matthew, Mark, and Luke which all follow the same basic plot structure. John\u2019s gospel doesn\u2019t follow that same plot structure, so it is called a non-synoptic]\u2026 \u201ctalk of the kingdom, they lay out the real social and behavioral changes that the gospel brings.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>So he thinks that John\u2019s Gospel is the individual Gospel and that the Synoptics is really about us bringing Kingdom conditions to earth; social justice, redistribution of wealth, etc.\u00a0\u00a0 You can see what starts to happen as the Church views itself as the Kingdom, then suddenly all of these social concerns become paramount.\r\n\r\nEssentially what happens when the Church sees itself as the Kingdom, is that it loses its status as a pilgrim, it begins to flirt heavily with the social gospel, which is what some of those quotes that I introduced you to last week and the week before and some tonight all demonstrate.\r\n\r\nThe third thing that happens when the Church begins to see itself as the Kingdom is that it begins to get involved with ecumenical and interfaith alliances.\u00a0 I have given you this quote from Clarence Larkin back in 1919 making that point [see slide on Clarence Larkin, Rightly Dividing the Word, 48.]<\/strong>\u00a0 Essentially, the problem is that there aren\u2019t enough people numerically on the earth in terms of Christians to bring in the Kingdom, so that if your goal is to bring in social change, etc., then the Church finds itself merging with groups that it may agree with on some socio-political area, but who also have vast disagreements with them on theological convictions.\r\n\r\nLast time, I showed you some examples of ECT \u2014 Evangelicals and Catholics Together.\u00a0 Let\u2019s just forget the theological divide between us and get together and fight beasts \u2014co-beligerents \u2014 and fight some kind of social evil.\u00a0 I then showed you some examples of EMT, Evangelicals and Mormons Together.\u00a0 Quotes from Jerry Falwell Jr on the Glenn Beck show, and then one more EMT \u2014 Evangelicals and Muslims Together, quotes from Rick Warren and others.\u00a0 All of that is the out working of the Church seeing itself as the Kingdom, and I think it relates to the fact that \u2018If we are really going to enact social change, we have to marginalize theological differences with other groups; we have to come together.\u2019<\/em> That was the third major change that happens to the Church when the Church sees itself as the Kingdom.\r\n\r\nEverything thus far is review, and I want to pick up here with #4:\u00a0 A fourth thing that begins to happen when the Church begins to see itself as the Kingdom, which you can sense automatically when you are walking into a Kingdom Now-oriented church.\u00a0 There is either a rejection, if not a rejection, at least a heavy marginalization of Bible Prophecy.\u00a0 Bible Prophecy, to a large extent, is not something they want to\u00a0 taught.\u00a0 First of all, is Bible Prophecy important?\u00a0 Take a look at 2 Peter 1:19, and what the apostle Peter says about Bible Prophecy, \u201cSo we have the prophetic word made more sure,\u2026\u201d [<\/em>hold that thought: made more sure than what?\u00a0 If you back up in the passage to 2 Peter 1:16-18, you will see that he is talking about eyewitness testimony.\u00a0 How he and the disciples, Peter, James and John saw eyewitness testimony of the transfigured Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration.\u00a0 In other words, Peter, James and John saw Jesus in His glorified state, and you\u2019ll find that in Matthew 17:1.\u00a0 So Peter is talking here about eyewitness testimony:\u00a0 \u2018We were eyewitnesses to these things.\u2019\u00a0 In a court of law, the most powerful testimony that can be introduced is eyewitness testimony]\u2026To reiterate, then Peter says in 2 Peter 1:19, \u201cSo we have the prophetic word made more sure,\u2026\u201d [<\/em>in other words, prophecy is even more powerful than eyewitness testimony \u2014 is his point]\u2026 \u201cto which you do well to pay attention\u2026\u201d [<\/em>he says here that you would do very well to pay attention to what the Scripture says concerning eyewitness testimony \u2014 why?\u00a0 Because it is \u2026 \u201cas to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>In other words, prophecy, in the very dark world that we are living in functions as a lamp because it is a reminder that while the Kingdom is in postponement, that the Kingdom will come one day and that God is still very much in control.\u00a0 If you cut out prophecy from the Church\u2019s diet, then the light or the lamp goes out.\r\n\r\nHe says in 2 Peter 1:20, \u201cBut know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one\u2019s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.\u201d\u00a0 When you study Bible study, in the Scripture, you aren\u2019t talking about someone\u2019s private interpretation about how things will end; you are dealing with how the Holy Spirit took men of God and pulled them along through what we call inspiration, and they penned God\u2019s message to lost man.\u00a0 In fact, it is very interesting in 2 Peter 2:21, see where it says \u2018men moved by the Holy Spirit.<\/em>\u2019\u00a0 That is the Greek word, \u2018pharaoh\u2019<\/em> which is used in Acts 27:15,17 of wind that fills the sails in and propels a boat.\u00a0 Just as wind propels a boat, the Holy Spirit came upon the writers of Scripture in a supernatural way, and they penned God\u2019s message; it was not some kind of private message, and part of that message was prophecy, the future.\u00a0 Peter says that we would do well to pay attention to it because it functions as a light shining in a dark place.\r\n\r\nThe Bible places a huge emphasis on prophecy; in fact, you may be startled to discover, as I was, that 27% of the Bible, over one-quarter of the Bible, was prophetic at the time it was written.\u00a0 Some of those prophecies have come to pass, but at the time it was written, 27% of the Bible is predicting the future.\u00a0 If you are in a church or around a pastor, and I have heard some of them say that they\u2019ll never teach prophecy because of various excuses, \u2018it is going to hurt church growth; it will confuse people; it is too divisive, etc<\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 You must understand that you are around a ministry that is deliberately chopping out over a quarter of the Bible.\u00a0 So Bible Prophecy is very important.\r\n\r\nHere is a quote from my professor, J Dwight Pentecost, and he writes, \u201cA short time ago, I took occasion to go through the New Testament to Mark each reference Old Testament the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and to observe the use made of that teaching about His coming.\u00a0 I was struck a new with the fact that almost without exception, when the coming of Christ is mentioned in the New Testament, it is followed by an exhortation to godliness and holy living.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>What you will discover as you go through the New Testament and see references to the return of Christ, that it is always linked in some way to daily life:\u00a0 patience, hope, prayer, something along those lines.\r\n\r\nWe are in 2 Peter, so go to 2 Peter 3:10, a prophetic statement, \u201cBut the day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.\u201d [<\/em>Wow!\u00a0 Would you say that this is a prophetic statement?]\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0..., in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intensive heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then look at 2 Peter 3:11, \u201cSince all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,\u2026\u201d \u00a0<\/em>See how that tremendous prophetic statement about the destruction of this world by fire is linked in the next verse to holy conduct and godliness?\u00a0 When you understand prophecy, you understand the things that will last and the priorities of God.\u00a0 A knowledge of the future can shape and cause us to realign our priorities in the present.\u00a0 That\u2019s how prophecy is designed to function. It was never designed to just fill our heads with information, although that isn\u2019t a bad thing; that was never the design by the Holy Spirit to be the end game.\r\n\r\nIf you go one book to the right, to 1 John 3:2,3 you will see it again: \u201cBeloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be.\u00a0 We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is<\/em>.\u201d That is the Second Coming, right?\u00a0 Then again, see the next verse, 1 John 3:3, \u201cAnd everyone [<\/em>not some, but everyone] who has this hope fixed on Him\u201d<\/em> [what hope \u2014 the hope of the return of Christ that is mentioned in the prior verse]\u2026[everyone, not just some, but everyone who has this hope fixed on Him]\u2026 \u00a0\u201cpurifies himself, just as He is pure.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>See, the return of Christ communicates accountability. We as Christians will stand before God and will be held accountable in a judgment called, The Judgement Seat of Rewards \u2014 not to determine heaven or hell, but we are either rewarded, given rewards and additional authority, based on how we spent our lives in Christ.\u00a0 If you think often of the return of Christ, you are thinking of that accountability, akin to your boss who will be away for a while, and then poke his\/her head into the office to see how you\u2019re doing.\u00a0 As you think about your boss\u2019s return, you recognize that communicates accountability, so that adjusts your work habit.\u00a0 That is what prophecy is designed to do.\u00a0 I think this is probably one of the reasons that satan is so busy trying to remove the subject from the evangelical diet \u2014 because he knows the natural stimulus that it gives to holy living.\r\n\r\nSo here is the thing that is very interesting to understand.\u00a0 If the Church is the Kingdom, the study of\u00a0 prophecy starts to wane because \u2018why would I be all that concerned about Jesus coming back to make the world a better place, when we are already making the world a better place<\/em>?\u2019\u00a0 Why would I be all that concerned about Jesus coming back to rescue me from this world if my home is in this world, and I am building His Kingdom in this world?\r\n\r\nSo, Kingdom Now Theology doesn\u2019t comport well with the study of Bible Prophecy.\u00a0 When you are in a social justice Kingdom Now environment, they\u2019re always down on prophecy, they hardly ever talk about prophecy, and I have seen scenarios in churches where they have a prophecy class for the old people in the very back somewhere, but they\u2019ll never bring up prophecy from the pulpit.\u00a0 It is related to this Kingdom Now belief system.\r\n\r\nSo Clarence Larkin back in 1919 said this; that\u2019s why I like to quote some of these sages from the past.\u00a0 He says, \u201cThe \u2018Kingdom Idea\u2019 has robbed the Church of her \u2018UPWARD LOOK,\u2019 and of the \u2018BLESSED HOPE.\u2019\u00a0 There cannot be any \u2018Imminent Coming<\/em>\u2019\u201d\u2026[Imminent means that at any moment Jesus can come back \u2014 the rapture]\u2026 \u201cto those who are seeking to \u201cSet up the Kingdom.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>In fact, if it is all about social change and social progress, Jesus coming back to set up His Kingdom is an irritation that you push away.\r\n\r\nSee John 14:1-3, this is a first reference in the Bible to what I think is the rapture of the Church and Jesus said, 1<\/sup>\u201cDo not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.\u00a0 2<\/sup>In My Father\u2019s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.\u00a0 3<\/sup>If I go and prepare a place for you\u2026 <\/em>[His ascension], \u2026I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there<\/strong> you may be also.\u00a0 4<\/sup>And you know the way where I am going.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>This promise was held out in early Christianity throughout the age of the Church that at any moment Jesus could come back and rescue us from this present evil age.\r\n\r\nIt is very interesting to study how that passage was treated in church history.\u00a0 Here is a quotation from my friend, George Gunn who is a Bible scholar and teacher at Shasta Bible College in northern California.\u00a0 He did a study of church fathers interacting with the passage that we just read.\u00a0 He says something very interesting, \u201cInterestingly, references to John 14:1-3 virtually disappear when perusing the writings of the Nicene and Post-Nicene fathers [<\/em>that would be the Church age beginning around AD 325 and forward].\u00a0 This is a bit surprising, given the abundance of material in these later writers when compared with the Ante-Nicenes\u2026\u201d <\/em>[the Ante-Nicenes were the first couple centuries of the Church; they didn\u2019t do a lot of writing because they were being persecuted.\u00a0 It is kind of hard to sit down and write a tome when Nero is trying to cut your head off. <\/em>But the post-Nicenes, AD 325 and following, are voluminous writers, yet they hardly ever mention John 14:1-3, says Gunn]\u2026 \u201cI would assume that with the rise of Augustinian amillennialism and its optimistic interpretation regarding the present arrival of the Kingdom of God, the kind of hope held out in John 14:1-3 ceased to hold relevance.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/em>\r\n\r\nWith that doctrine, in other words, and we have studied that, is when Kingdom Now Theology came to the surface in church history and beginning with Constantine, who legalized Christianity, and under Constantine, the Church went from being persecuted to being promoted.\u00a0 Christianity was then elevated to the top, official religion of Rome, and it was within that environment that Kingdom Now Theology takes off because everyone thought that the Kingdom had come.\r\n\r\nGunn says, \u201cI would assume that with the rise of Augustinian amillennialism and its optimistic interpretation regarding the present arrival of the Kingdom of God, the kind of hope held out in John 14:1-3 ceased to hold relevance.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>He is pointing out what I am trying to do:\u00a0 that when the Church looks at itself as the Kingdom, it stops focusing on prophecy and how Jesus is coming back to rescue us.\u00a0 What do we need to be rescued from?\u00a0 We now have Constantine on the throne; a Republican in the White House and all is fine.\u00a0 Then you stop looking for the any moment return of Christ.\r\n\r\nWhat is happening today, in my opinion, is that an ancient heresy, Kingdom Now Theology, is being recycled.\u00a0 That is why we get email after email here at Sugar Land Bible Church from people telling us that they can\u2019t find a church that teaches Bible Prophecy.\u00a0 I can\u2019t tell you how often we receive that kind of email here.\u00a0 They identify themselves as being from some part of the country and ask if we can direct them to a church that teaches Bible Prophecy.\u00a0 And of course, since we aren\u2019t omniscient and don\u2019t know their area that well, we tell them that, but we do have YouTube and things that you can glean from our church until the Lord directs you to a fellowship.\r\n\r\nSo we are living in a time period where the study of Bible Prophecy is being ridiculed, and you don\u2019t have to look any further for the ridicule than in Rick Warren\u2019s best selling book, The Purpose-Drive Life.\u00a0 <\/em>This is a Christian best seller that just took off.\u00a0 If you read pages 285-286 in that book, you will see what I think from within, is one of the most scathing attacks I have seen in a long time on those who want to devote themselves to Bible Prophecy.\u00a0 Notice how many straw men arguments he creates in this paragraph.\r\n\r\nRick Warren says, \u201cWhen the disciples wanted to talk about prophecy, Jesus quickly switched the conversation to evangelism<\/u><\/strong>. [ <\/em>I cant find that verse in the Bible. I think that when the disciples asked a question about Bible Prophecy, Jesus spent two chapters disclosing the future \u2014 called the Oliver Discourse].\u00a0 He wanted them to concentrate on their mission in the world.\u00a0 He said in essence, \u2018The details of my return are none of your business<\/u><\/strong>\u2026.[<\/em>I can\u2019t find that in the Bible either] \u2026What is your business is the mission I have given you.\u00a0 Focus on that!\u2019\u00a0 If you want Jesus to come back sooner, focus on fulfilling your mission, not figuring out prophecy.\u00a0 Speculating on the exact timing of Christ\u2019s return<\/u><\/strong> is futile,\u2026[<\/em>now here comes the straw men because you\u2019re being pigeon-holed if you love Bible Prophecy or you\u2019re crazy, a fanatic, a date-setter.\u00a0 I have been at this church since 2010.\u00a0 Has anyone ever heard me give a specific date for the Lord\u2019s return?\u00a0 I remind people that it is imminent, it can happen at any time, but we never give a date because the Bible doesn\u2019t give us a date.\u00a0 So I don\u2019t think I fit his caricature here of being a date setter because I am interested in studying and teaching Bible Prophecy]\u2026 \u00a0\u201cbecause Jesus said, \u2018No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.\u2019\u00a0 Since Jesus said He didn\u2019t know the day or hour, why should you try to figure it out?\u00a0 What we do know for sure is this:\u00a0 Jesus will not return until everyone God wants to hear the Good News has heard it.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>He is confusing there the preaching of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists after the rapture with what the Church is doing.\u00a0 There are a lot of mission organizations who will tell you that they have to get the Gospel out or Jesus can\u2019t come back.\u00a0 That isn\u2019t what the Bible says.\u00a0 The Bible says that we are in the age of the Church, we are to do our best, be faithful and try to fulfill the Great Commission.\u00a0 But what the Church leaves undone, will be completed by the 144,000 Jewish evangelists. That is what Matthew 24:14 is talking about when it says that the Gospel will be preached unto the whole world, and then the end will come.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t a church-age passage; it is a post-rapture tribulation passage.\u00a0 You don\u2019t see him making that distinction here.\r\n\r\nRick Warren goes on, \u201cJesus said, \u2018The good News about God\u2019s kingdom will be preached in all the world, to every nation.\u00a0 Then the end will come.\u2019 [<\/em>that is the verse I just spoke of].\u00a0 If you want Jesus to come back sooner, focus on fulfilling your mission, not figuring out prophecy.\u201d\u2026 [<\/em>What he is doing here in logic is called the either or fallacy.\u00a0 In other words, it is what DA Carson called the fallacy of the excluded middle.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t either or it is both and.\u00a0 He is saying that if you are into prophecy, you don\u2019t care about daily life.\u00a0 If you care about daily life, you aren\u2019t into prophecy]\u2026I have shown you, have I not, at least two verses, that demonstrate that the more you think about prophecy, the more it helps you in daily life.\u00a0 So he is giving his readers here a logical fallacy:\u00a0 it\u2019s called the either or fallacy].\u00a0 He goes on saying, \u201cIt is easy to get distracted<\/u><\/strong> and sidetracked\u201d\u2026 [<\/em>people into prophecy are distracted]\u2026 \u201c from your mission because Satan<\/u><\/strong> would rather have you do anything besides sharing your faith\u201d\u2026 <\/em>[gosh, one of the incentives I have for sharing my faith is Bible Prophecy because I don\u2019t want people left behind for the horrors of the Great Tribulation period]\u2026\u00a0 \u201cHe will let you do all kinds of good things as long as you don\u2019t take anyone to heaven with you.\u00a0 But the moment you become serious about your mission<\/u><\/strong>, expect the Devil to throw all kinds of diversions at you.\u00a0 When that happens, remember the words of Jesus: \u2018Anyone who lets himself be distracted from the work I plan for him is not fit for the Kingdom of God<\/u><\/strong>.\u201d<\/em>\r\n\r\nSo if you\u2019re into prophecy, you are distracted, not serious about your mission, influenced by satan, and you aren\u2019t fit for the Kingdom of God \u2014 this is a runaway best seller.\r\n\r\nJohn Piper says this concerning Bible Prophecy:\u00a0 \u201cFor two generations, perhaps, we have failed to study prophecy with anything like the rigor that it deserves.\u00a0 We have been so afraid of being viewed as one of those Zionist, right-wing, antichrist-sniffing, culture-denying\u2026\u201d<\/em> [if you are into prophecy, you arent into saving the culture is the critique here.\u00a0 On the culture denying, hear this interesting fact:\u00a0 you\u2019ve heard of the moral majority? Jerry Falwell started the moral majority in the late 1970s, early 1980s, and it is largely responsible for the election of Ronald Reagan.\u00a0 Most people don\u2019t know this, but who gave Jerry Falwell the idea for the moral majority?\u00a0 It was Tim LaHaye of the Left Behind<\/u><\/strong> series who planted the seed into Falwell\u2019s mind to start the moral majority.\u00a0 I bring that up because it demonstrates that just because you are into Bible Prophecy doesn\u2019t mean that you don\u2019t care about culture.\u00a0 You will notice that prophecy people are called culture-denying.\u00a0 Now that word, \u2018denying\u2019<\/em> is intentionally selected, and it kind of sounds like holocaust-denying, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 The global warming people do this a lot:\u00a0 you\u2019re climate denying; they\u2019re trying to make a link between your beliefs and being a holocaust denier.\u00a0 Words mean things.] \u2026 \u201calarmist leftovers from the Schofield prophecy conference era\u201d\u2026<\/em>[I\u2019m not totally convinced that he spelled Scofield right, but who is complaining] \u2026\u201dthat we give hardly any energy to putting the prophetic pieces together\u2014at least not in public.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>\r\n\r\nSo what you see here is derision; that\u2019s what Rick Warren did in pages 285-286:\u00a0 derision and ridicule cast upon people studying Bible Prophecy.\u00a0 Why are they doing this?\u00a0 They\u2019re into building the Kingdom on the earth, so they\u2019re trying to discredit, discard, reject and marginalize the systematic study of Bible Prophecy.\r\n\r\nHaving said all of that, take a look at 2 Peter 3:3-4, where Peter says, \u201c1<\/sup>Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers<\/u><\/strong> will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, 4<\/sup>and saying, \u2018Where is the promise of His coming? [<\/em>in other words, these mockers will come; they won\u2019t attack the Trinity or the virgin birth, or the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible; now we know that they do all that, but Peter doesn\u2019t draw our attention to those attacks.\u00a0 He says specifically they will say this:\u00a0 \u2018Where is the promise of His coming?\u2019 <\/em>\u00a0They\u2019re declaring war on the doctrine of a literal interpretation of Bible Prophecy, and a literal return of Jesus just as literal as when He was here on the earth in His first coming]\u2026\u00a0 \u201cFor ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation<\/u><\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>\r\n\r\nSo this is a prophecy that Peter makes about mockers in the last days.\u00a0\u00a0 Thus, people who mock prophecy are actually fulfilling it.\u00a0 Interesting?\u00a0 I have to be honest, and it is wonderful to keep learning things from the Lord.\u00a0 For years, I have misinterpreted this:\u00a0 for most of my Christian life, I thought it meant attacks against the things of God coming from the unsaved, secular world.\u00a0 But if you look at the language here, it talks about creation.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that something a Christian would understand?\u00a0 It speaks about the fathers falling asleep; I would understand that as the apostles or maybe going back further in the Bible, the patriarchs.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that Christian language?\u00a0 So I think that what this is saying is that people from inside Christianity, not the secularist, but people from within Christianity will start to denigrate the doctrine of the Second Coming.\u00a0 I think that it is largely being fulfilled in our time period, it won\u2019t get any better as long as the Church keeps flirting with the idea that it is the Kingdom.\r\n\r\nAnother mocker, Brian McLaren of the Emergent Church, says, \u201cThe book of Revelation is an example of popular literary genre of ancient Judaism, known today as Jewish apocalyptic.\u00a0 Trying to read it without understanding its genre would be like watching Star Trek or some other science fiction show thinking is was a historical documentary\u2026instead of being a book about the distant future,<\/em>\u2026\u201d [I think that is the right understanding of the Book; that is how we teach it, it is a futuristic prophecy that is coming upon the earth]\u2026 \u201cit becomes a way of talking about the challenges of the immediate present.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>\r\n\r\nThis is basically what they\u2019re teaching in the seminaries.\u00a0 I took a class in seminary on Apocalyptic Literature where they were trying to argue that the Book of Revelation is no different than the non-canoncical apocalyptic books such as the Book of Enoch, etc., that we don\u2019t accept as canonical.\u00a0 Just as those books are a jumbled mess that no one can make sense of, the Book of Revelation is the same thing.\u00a0 This is the reason why people aren\u2019t proclaiming Bible Prophecy from the pulpit \u2014 they\u2019re taught in their seminaries that you cannot understand it.\r\n\r\nThe problem is that at the beginning of the Book of Revelation 1:3, God promises a blessing to the one who reads and heeds.\u00a0 Now, why would God say that and also say, \u2018Oh, by the way, you can\u2019t understand it\u201d? <\/em>\u00a0Of course, you can understand it; that\u2019s the title of the Book.\u00a0 Revelation comes from the Greek noun, Apokalupsis<\/em>, which means unveiling; disclosure.\u00a0 This idea that is is non-decipherable is not what the book even means.\u00a0 So, Bible Prophecy is something that God wants understood.\u00a0 Granted, in the Book of Revelation, it is a little more difficult because there are more symbols to navigate, but as we\u2019ve been working through Revelation on Sunday mornings, I have shown you ways that all of these symbols can be identified as symbols, then interpreted.\u00a0 But people are saying that you can\u2019t understand it and if you claim you understand it, you\u2019re called arrogant.\u00a0 Here is one particular pastor, Mark Dever, and he goes so far as to say that if you post- on your website your eschatological position as a Church \u2014 on our website you will see that our eschatological position is posted as pre-pre- pre-tribulational.\u00a0 We believe that the rapture will occur before the Tribulation period, and we are premillennial. He says that if you post that on your website that it is a sin because it is disrupting; it is causing division.\r\n\r\nSo he writes, \u201cI think that millennial views need not be among those doctrines that divide us\u2026I am suggesting that what you believe about the millennium\u2014how you interpret these thousand years\u2014is not something that it is necessary for us to agree upon in order to have a congregation together.\u00a0 The Lord Jesus Christ prayed in John 17:21 that we Christians might be one. [<\/em>Let me stop right there: that prayer has already been answered.\u00a0 When Jesus said, \u2018I pray that they be one,\u2019<\/em> the prayer was answered on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2.\u00a0 This is Christ\u2019s prayer; not a command that all Christians have to get unified.\u00a0 The prayer got answered on the day of Pentecost; it is called the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit where if someone believes in Christ, the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:13, identifies them with Christ\u2019s body.\u00a0 Almost nobody who quotes that verse today will tell you that.\u00a0 They\u2019ll turn it into an ecumenical appeal of oneness, and you know it is a false oneness when they tell you to play down certain parts of the Bible.\u00a0 That is what he is doing here:\u00a0 playing down the prophetic stuff because the prophetic stuff causes division in his mind, and it is a violation of John 17\u2013not telling his readers that John 17 has already been answered]\u2026\u00a0 \u201cOf course all true Christians are one is that we have his Spirit<\/em>, we share his Spirit, we desire to live out that unity.\u00a0 But that unity is supposed to be evident as a testimony to the world around us.\u00a0 Therefore, I conclude that we should end our cooperations together with other Christians \u2026only with the greatest of care, lest we rend the body of Christ for whose unity he\u2019s prayed and given himself.\u00a0 Therefore, I conclude that it is sin\u2026\u201d [<\/em>What did the prophet Isaiah say in chapter 5 in the last days they\u2019re going to call evil good and good evil, right?\u00a0 That is what he is doing here; he is calling something good, the proclamation of prophecy, that is something that\u2019s sinful]\u2026 \u201cto divide the Body of Christ \u2014to divide the body that he prayed would be united...\u201d [<\/em>Now, he doesn\u2019t tell you that prayer already got answered, does he]?\u2026 \u00a0\u201cTherefore, for us to conclude that we must agree upon a certain view of alcohol,\u2026\u201d <\/em>[Wow, I didn\u2019t know that prophecy could be compared to alcohol] \u2026 \u201cor a certain view of schooling, or a certain view of meat sacrificed to idols,\u2026\u201d [<\/em>Then he throws into the mix a certain view of the millennium, so a certain view of the millennium is no different than meat sacrificed to idols eating it and alcohol.\u00a0 That\u2019s amazing.\u00a0 In fact, I really didn\u2019t read this quote very carefully when I got up here.\u00a0 The more I read it, the more I want to stop and dissect it, so I wont do that] \u201c\u2026or a certain view of the millennium in order to have fellowship together is, I think, not only unnecessary for the Body of Christ, but it is therefore both unwarranted and therefore, condemned by scripture.\u00a0 So if you\u2019re a pastor and you\u2019re listening to me, you understand me correctly if you think I\u2019m saying you\u2019re in sin if you lead your congregation to have a statement of faith that requires a particular millennial view.\u00a0 I do not understand why that has to be a matter of uniformity in order to have Christian unity in a local congregation.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>\r\n\r\nHere\u2019s the deal, folks:\u00a0 we don\u2019t set out to come out with a statement of faith to figure out how can we be unified with everybody out there on the spiritual spectrum.\u00a0 We come out with a statement of faith because we think that\u2019s what God said in His Book.\u00a0 Whether other people agree or disagree with it, is God\u2019s business.\u00a0 And that, basically, is how the Protestant Reformation took off.\u00a0 Luther, Calvin and all these guys that went back to the authority of Scripture and the great SOLAS, never sat around thinking about \u2018Gosh, what is going to bridge the gap between us and Rome?<\/em>\u2019\u00a0 What they said is, \u2018Let\u2019s stand on what the text says and whatever division of lack thereof occurs, is God\u2019s business<\/em>.\u00a0 He \u00a0wants us to backwards\u2014figure out what\u2019s going to bring unity and then develop your statement of faith around that.\r\n\r\nCompare Mark Dever\u2019s statement to Justin Martyr who wrote this about AD 160 when the doctrine of pre-millennialism, or what is called chiliasm, was still in ascendancy.\u00a0 Justin Martyr said, \u201cBut I and every other completely orthodox Christian feel certain<\/em> [I love that word, \u2018certain\u2019 \u2014 we\u2019re certain of this] \u2026 \u201cthat there will be a resurrection of the flesh, followed by a thousand years in the rebuilt, embellished, and enlarged city of Jerusalem as was announced by the prophets Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the others<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Justin Martyr was saying \u2018We\u2019re certain this is going to happen<\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 That is premillennialism, at that time called chiliasm, because the Greek word for thousand is chilia<\/em>, so the early church fathers called themselves chiliasts.\u00a0 They said, \u2018We\u2019re certain this is going to happen, and then they said, \u2018This is a test to determine if you\u2019re even an orthodox Christian.\u2019<\/em>\u00a0 What everyone is telling me today is \u2018Well, don\u2019t make that stuff a test of orthodoxy; that is a non-essential\u2019 <\/em>\u2014 is what they keep saying to me.\u00a0 So they\u2019re trying to make a canon within a canon.\u00a0 Here is the Bible, and we will be certain of this little circle here, but don\u2019t go outside that circle, those are non-core issues; those are non-essentials. I can\u2019t tell you how many times I have heard that in my Christian life, and it is so refreshing to read Justin Martyr, who in AD 160, said that this is a test for orthodoxy.\u00a0 In other words, if you don\u2019t believe in this future Kingdom, you aren\u2019t an orthodox Christian.\r\n\r\nDarrell Bock, who I have mentioned several times has the same mindset.\u00a0 He believes that Jesus is currently reigning on David\u2019s throne \u2014 that\u2019s what you call progressive dispensationalism \u2014 the already not yet form of the Kingdom.\u00a0 Charles Ryrie offers the following critique of progressive dispensationalism in terms of how they are marginalizing key eschatological subjects. Ryrie says the progressive dispensationalists are \u201c\u2026ignoring the great prophecy of the seventy weeks in Daniel 9:24-27.\u201d\u2026 [<\/em>You know that prophecy; we spent a lot of time in Daniel 9:24-27]\u2026\u00a0 \u201cNowhere in the progressives\u2019 writings to date have I found any discussion of the passage, only very brief and occasional citations of the reference itself\u2026While not denying the pre-tribulation Rapture or the literal tribulation period, revisionists\u2026\u201d <\/em>[another word for them is the progressive dispensationalists]\u2026 \u201cdo not give much attention to these aspects of eschatology.\u00a0 Blaising and Bock\u2026\u201d<\/em>[the progenitors of the already not yet view of the Kingdom] \u2026 \u201cdo not take obvious opportunities to mention the Rapture, and in one place (discussing 1 Thessalonians 5) they say only that the rapture \u2018would appear to be pre-tribulational.\u2019\u00a0 They decry (as do many of us normative dispensationalists) the sensationalism of some interpreters of prophecy. \u00a0But abuse of a doctrine is no reason for playing down the truth of that doctrine.\u201d\u00a0 Rather, it ought to make us more zealous to present it accurately and in a balanced fashion.\u00a0 Furthermore, there exists already in the writings of progressives a thrust towards positioning the Revelation <\/em>[watch this, now]\u2026 \u201cas a book that is \u2018difficult\u2019 to interpret.\u00a0 Playing up the imagery in the book, as some revisionists do, seems to play down a plain interpretation of it.\u00a0 The locusts in chapter 9 and Babylon [<\/em>that we are studying on Sundays] in chapters 17 and 18 are examples of such \u2018literal\/symbolic difficulty\u2019 in interpreting the book.\u201d \u00a0<\/em>So, history is repeating itself, see that?\u00a0 The Book is too difficult to understand.\r\n\r\nHere is a quote from David L Turner, a progressive dispensationalist, and this is in scholarly writings and I throw this at you just to demonstrate what passes for scholarship today.\u00a0 What he is doing is playing down the ability to interpret Revelation 21 and 22, the eternal state and the the New Jerusalem, literally.\u00a0 He says, \u201cPerhaps the absence of oysters large enough to produce such pearls [Now around the gate of the city is a pearl, right?] in the absence of sufficient gold to pave such as city (do you just literally 1380 miles squared and high) is viewed as sufficient reason not to take these images as fully literal!\u2026The preceding discussion serves to warn against a \u2018hyper-literal\u2019 approach to apocalyptic imagery\u2026\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 What he is saying here is you can\u2019t take those pearls in Revelation 21 and 22 literally because there is not enough oysters to produce pearls of that size.\u00a0 And then he says all that stuff about the city streets being made of pure gold \u2014 you can\u2019t take that literally because there isn\u2019t enough gold on planet earth to pave those streets.\u00a0 As if God can\u2019t speak things into existence when He wants to.\u00a0 That is called ex nihilo<\/em> creation, something out of nothing.\u00a0 The whole statement here is ridiculous if you understand God can create something out of nothing, but what is happening is that he is casting an attitude of derision onto people who want to interpret that section of the Bible as literally as possible.\u00a0 He is basically calling us hyper-literalists.\u00a0 We aren\u2019t hyper-literalists.\u00a0 A hyper-literalist who does not accept any figures of speech in the Bible.\u00a0 Jesus is the door, the light, the bread of life.\u00a0 All of that is obviously metaphorical language.\u00a0 A hyper-literalist would reject that category as metaphor.\u00a0 What we are is literal whenever possible.\u00a0 That is how you understand any part of the Bible, and it is also how you also understand Revelation 21 and 22.\r\n\r\nSo the wonderful prophecy of the seventy weeks of Daniel where Jesus showed up in Jerusalem on the exact day, remember we studied that?\u00a0 The wonderful defense of Harold Hoehner of that position.\u00a0 Here is what the NET Bible, when you enroll at Dallas seminary, is the first thing that shows up in the mail.\u00a0 The NET Study Bible that the progressive dispensationalists have created. \u201c The NET Bible, by contrast, denies such an interpretation even so far as to say that the details of the text\u2026\u201d [<\/em>that is Hoehner\u2019s work showing Daniel 9:25 predicts the exact day that Jesus would ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to be the Messiah] \u2026\u201cmake a messianic interpretation of the passage difficult, if not impossible<\/u><\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>\r\n\r\nSo with a single statement, they do not even acknowledge in the NET Bible the work of Harold Hoehner, even though he hired most of those guys.\u00a0 He sent them to Europe to be educated, brought them back, hired them.\u00a0 When they got ascendancy, they took a key prophecy and acted like nobody ever thought about it or did anything with it in terms of it being a messianic prophecy in terms of scholarship.\u00a0 In fact, that view is impossible anyway, and they never acknowledged any scholarship that preceded them.\u00a0 The reality of the situation is that book right there in the bottom right hand corner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ<\/u><\/strong>, and I hope that is in your library because that\u2019s a classic.\u00a0 That book was part of Harold Hoehner\u2019s dissertation at Cambridge. \u00a0Harold Hoehner had two doctorates:\u00a0 one from Dallas Seminary and one from Cambridge.\u00a0 In that particular dissertation, he defended as part of his dissertation, the idea that Jesus had to show up in Jerusalem according to Daniel\u2019s prophecy on an exact day.\u00a0 He got all those highfalutin<\/u> \u00a0European scholars to sign off on his dissertation.\u00a0 So when I quote Harold Hoehner here, I\u2019m not quoting Jack Van Impe or Benny Hinn, or someone like that.\u00a0 I am quoting the real guy; now, not only does the NET Bible say that Hoehner\u2019s interpretation is impossible, but it doesn\u2019t even acknowledge that Hoehner\u2019s scholarship even exists.\u00a0 This is just more of many examples I can cite of how the study of prophecy always takes a hit in an environment where you\u2019ve got people trying to advocate the idea that we\u2019re currently in the Kingdom.\r\n\r\nWe will pick this up next time, but you get the drift of what I\u2019m saying?\u00a0 I am trying to reveal a trend in the Church that is happening negatively in the area of Bible Prophecy because of the ascendancy of Kingdom Now Theology.","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