Revelations

Usa, who say my wensy lot two years soon I T could not call nuf t pusy' say where yes soon tcor dandy my new too say waldy go say wensy lot tm netue g conno jacket change god, no chack charging chin or charging bossy col g coll done now the jacket called down non tackets stagical sci sgald digicasi artical m ati konda if nsy lad atifuna puna it a indentali so s to gee called command jacket called con chick or chagi uluchi, chatic colue for the chati colue G called jacket chilled. It's a charging color charting color on the charging conoe danima valley at anti fa say I fail oh my yessue manum motu and our BATCHI he wat and I'm your fancy bado wensy love Jean la mail roll care nikoda renal tic cod the jacket cordan no jackets magical shachi called sgi sha child than no chacketic co down jacketgical shot chi co sho chi didn't you me go a baner t coo musa oo si my wensy lot two years soon I T could not call n T pusy say where yes soon tcor dandy my new to say waldy go say wensylt t netue g colldano chacke che call do no chack chagochin sato grene news chattagico sci shatio taji science sati. In terms of our vision, the vision of the School Divinity is to be a center of excellence for form, biblical scholarship, devotion and teaching, impacting Africa with the Gospel of Christ and a God centered worldview. And really that that encapsulates in undergirds everything that we're about. We want to be very clear about both academic excellence and evangelistic fervor. We want to be clear about about uniting the hand, the hands and the heart. That's the vision of ACU as a whole, and it is most assuredly the vision of the School of Divinity. The other thing that's important is that we view what we do in the School of Divinity as part of ACU. That's why we chose to be School of Divinity as opposed to seminary and everybody keeps using the term seminary, seminary, seminary and when we started, that's what we talked about. But a seminary is a standalone institution. A School of Divinity is part of the broader university. So we're not separate from ACU. We're not other than ACU. We are in arm of ACU. We are intricately we are intricately involved and ingrained in the ethos of ACU. And that's important from two perspectives. Number one is important because when you talk about universities going to drift, there are a couple of things that happen that lead to that. One is you separate the university from the Church. When you look at the great universities and the Harvards of the world and Princeidons of the world, the first step in their theological moral decline is that you divorce their work from the church. You divorce it from the accountability of the church, and you divorce it from the influence of the Church. The second thing you do is you divorce the School of Divinity from the broader university. And so now all of a sudden, you have this bifurcated view of education. And we think that you know, the academic pursuits, We think things like you know, business and agriculture, the sciences or whatever is over here, and the matter of theology and theological education belongs over here, which facilitates that downward decline of the university over and against the School of Divinity or the seminary. And because they're both divorced from the Church, eventually the decline happens in both places. And that is almost universally true of early theological institutions. When you look, for example, at the Ivy leagues. The universities are completely removed from an antagonistic toward the things of God, and the seminaries or schools of divinity are completely awash with pragmatism, postmodernism and with heresy. So it's very important to us, for the sake of the university and for the sake of the School of Divinity, that we maintain that relationship and that both maintain our relationship with the Church. So ACU is a ministry of the Reform Baptist Churches of Zambia. The School of Divinity is an integral part of the ministry of ACU. Kanaati Konda if nsy lt d Atifuna Puna it A Indentali, so Sa g CAR and logic command jacket called conan chack or chagic ulus, chick, chaticallude, chaticlu g jacketchico oh no chart charging color charty color follow the charging cone Dani my valley at an anti fa say I fail oh my issue manom wat and our BATCHI he wat and I'm your fancy battle wensy love Jean pulil k Y could not cloyd CHAGATSI condan no chaets magical SHOTSI cozagi shot chios char codn chackegical SHOTSI sha chi did Jim called bana t coo musa OOI my wensy lo too yes soon at he could not call nafe t posy say where yeson tacon Dani my new too say Wali go say wensey ltdm neutu gdano chackech call don no chack, chatty, sickles hots, loom, tagics stsy gicr done no no tacketicor non not cha's magical SHOTSI cas sag ad no tagic shasius article hinati konda if nsy lad atifuna puna I a indentali so sa gr and logic command jackech card she command or chagic ulu chi chaticallude, chaticluey g god jacket chic chack, charging color, charty color follow the charging cone Danima valley at anti fa say I fail, oh my issue manom motu and a BATCHI he wat and I'm your fancy battle wensy love Jean Poli go andy could not clody ticorschackets condan no not chagets magical shatzi sagi shasior no chag codn chacketgical SHOTSI sha chi did jim collpa bana he comosa OOSI my wensy lo too yes soon at could now called dufe t posis where yes tacon dani my too say wali go say wensy lat t netu gdano chackech call dana oh she can chat ta tickles hot chile loom tagicos stsi gicr done non chacketic down not chat's magical shortis sat ad no tagic shachi's article. Ye, shall we take our seats, Thank you, Welcome to our second session and this section this session will be taken by our men's speaker, not our man speaker, but our speaker for this morning. That one is a old bocome. So be looking at the book of our preparations. So I'll ask that we stand. I'm seeing gam number two one hundred and forty in our gressuppriments. Shall we all stand and seeing him number two one hundred and forty day after how free I didn't like the preacher Come forwards, Okay, start startgain and start going sucking body to back. Stop started by sun from me like the fish. So from Sime it's not my spy, SI to the same. Let's start acting sign but again it's sign to the ball and not sid. Time forget to the back. Shall we check our seats our fast that train. Yeah, yeah, our God and our father we were in heaven. Thank you once again that he did. You were with us in the morning. We were looking at a topic that was officially in our life. Love that our Lord and Savior showed us when he died on the cross. Dowlad also want to thank you for the manner which wait before us. We were taking our snoves. But yet again of courdus to come before him. So right again wait, but you wait my fast in our lives. So that boosted to go out there preaching. Wait now load as we want to commit human servant who is before us, that he need load as he labor us to teach us your word. Open our hearts, open our ears and the eyes of the Spirit, that we make the same that which you have set forth for us. All Lord, we want to ask for the Holy Spirit to be in our midist that you should convict each one of us. Indeed, Lord will play part in the worship. Most specifically, that each one of us will have a task, just like the way we have sung in the song, that the course gives us strength to go out there and proclaim your word. Now, we want to ask as we start our program, that you will start with us and end with us. Or we ask for these things to have signed Jesus Christ with a Lord and savie old pray. Then I would like to invite our future to come forward so that it gets the points. Yeah, mhm mm hm, Well, good morning. See. Having your bibles with you, open them to the last book in the Bible, and before we begin, whenever I address this topic in this book, I always want to make sure that you go away with at least one important theological truth that you can hold on to. Okay, so I'll give you that up front, very important theological truth that you can hold on to. Amen. Are you ready? The Book of Revelation has no s at the end of it. There's only one revelation, not two, not many. It's the revelation. It's not revelations, it's the revelation. Six people have asked me today when they said they saw me if I was handling revelations, and they looked real funny when I said no, but there's no ass now I say that, And let me tell you a funny story. I was at a seminar where I was dealing with this book and introducing this book, and I said that, just like I always do. And then right after I said it, I said, okay, let's open to revelations. So we all do it all right, but let's open to revelation one. Let's look at the introduction here. Let's look at those first couple of verses. Here he to understanding this, and it reads the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God. And to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Amen. There's an important question that we have to ask when we deal with this book, and the question is can you understand Revelation. It's an important question, and a lot of people would answered in the negative. A lot of people would say, no, it's really not a book that you can understand. It's an intimidating book. I learned that the hard way. I didn't grow up in a Christian home, I didn't grow up in church. I'd never heard the Gospel till I went to university. Those of you who know me, you know that. And so I was a new believer. And I was in college and some teammates of mine I was playing football in the US, the American kind, not the and some teammates of mine bought me a Bible. And I was so excited. And so I got this Bible, and for some reason I got into my head that it would be a good idea to find out how it all ends. So the first thing I read in the Bible was the Revelation, and I remember thinking, if the rest of the Bible is like this, I'm sunk right. It was a bad idea. I do not recommend it to anyone. I generally tell people that doesn't really matter where you start reading the Bible. Just start reading. I had to amend that it doesn't really matter where you start reading the Bible, just start reading, as long as you don't start in Revelation. Right, you don't want to do that, But listen to this from vern Porthus. Can you understand the Book of Revelation? Yes, you can. You can summarize its message in one sentence. God rules history and will bring it to its consummation in Christ. Read it with this main point in mind and you will understand. You will not necessarily understand every detail, not do I. But it is not necessary to understand every detail in order to profit spiritually. That's an important word. You can understand this book and you can summarize it in that one phrase. God rules history and will bring it to its consummation in Christ. That's the message of Revelation. God rules history and will bring it to its consummation in Christ. We have hope because of that truth. The great irony is that the Book of Revelation scares people, when in fact, when you understand it properly, it was written to do the exact opposite. The Book of Revelation was meant to be encouraging, and I would argue that when you understand Revelation rightly, it is the most encouraging book in all of the Bible. Some of you are looking at me with that look. Same brother, I read it before, and I don't know what you're talking about, because I got confusion, I got a bunch of stuff, but encouragement was not there. Well, hopefully by the end of our time together there will be more encouragement there. Keim Riddlebarger puts it this way. In many ways, Revelation is the most practical book in the entire New Testament, since it is specifically written to Christians who live in the post Apostolic age. This means that the symbols and visions we find here are meant for us. Therefore, we must make every effort to interpret them correctly and apply them to our present context. Again, that's very important, and many Christians don't believe that. Because many Christians believe that the Book of Revelation. They believe that God gave us the Bible, gave us the New Testament, and he gave us the New Testament for all Christians in all ages and in all context, regardless of who are where you are, except one book. And we believe that the Book of Revelation is not for all Christians in all ages. The Book of Revelation is only for Christians in that latter in time age, right, Only those Christians, when all of this stuff begins to unfold, only they will be able to read, understand, and apply and benefit from the Book of Revelation. But all of the Christians between that time are just sort of, you know, we're just resigned to look at it and to read it and to try to figure out, you know, some of the things that may be coming, and maybe see a thing or two here or there. But for the most part, it won't be a blessing to us. It will only be a blessing to that last generation of Christians. Nothing could be further from the truth. A survey was taken a preaching magazine about the book that people most wanted to hear, preached or to have preached through in church, and by far the book that people said they would most want to have preached through in church was Revelation. The same magazine old preachers as to the book they would most and least like to preach through, and the book that they would least like to preach through was Revelation. Yes. So interestingly enough, most people have never heard more than a sermon or two from Revelation, right, a couple of passages that you know, we may have had sermons preach from. You know, maybe you've been at a wedding and somebody who preached I was, you know, at a wedding recently, and you know, the sermon was from Revelation right, about the marriage of the land, right, And so we'll hear things like that, But the idea that we would get sustained, prolonged, systematic exposition from Revelation, most Christians never experience that at all. What are our attitudes toward this book? There are a number of common attitudes toward this book. Number one is confusion. Right, we don't understand it. We can't understand it, right, We're confused. We stay away from it because it's so confusing. Another popular attitude is fear. Fear, we're afraid of the Book of Revelation because again we believe that it is about this scary, terrible period that is going to come where everything is going to be awful, and we're afraid of it. Another attitude toward it is marginalization. We marginalize the book. We treat it as though it's not as important as other New Testament books. Luther was one who had this attitude. Luther dismissed Revelation as unedifying for the ordinary believer, unedifying for the ordinary believer. So again, if you know so such a towering theologian as Martin Luther would have this view and attitude toward the book, it makes sense that others would as well. Another view of the book or approach the book is to sensationalize it, right, to sensationalize it. Every time time something happens in the world, people run the revelation and they start, ah, here it is right, this is it. You know. I remember when when the Gulf War broke out, you know, in ninety one, and they were like, that's that you know, you know what that is. You know, that's Babylon, right, and you know the armies of the nation that they're gathering right now, and Battle of Armageddon is getting ready to come, you know, because it has to be you know, me and man armies, and you know now at this point in history we got million man armies, and now we can have all of those numbers of people gathered up, and this is it, this is it, this is it. Satam Hussein he's the antichrist, by the way, before that World War two, this is it, this is it. Adolf Hitler, he's the Antichrist, right. And now all of a sudden you got you got war with Russia and Ukraine, and people are like, oh, this is it, this is it? Right? That great strong man in the north, he's rising up, and I mean there he is. And somebody's going to start doing some mathematics with Vladimir Putin's name and come up with sixty six six somehow, you know, and he's gonna be like, once this thing spills over into Europe, then we're gonna have it again. Every time something like this happens covid COVID. I cannot tell you how many emails I got asking me if the vaccine was the market of the beast. Excuse me, I don't have it. I have twice, but I don't have it. But again, you know, is this is it? Right? Because if you don't get it, you can't buy or sell, you can't move you get this, ah, this is it, this is it? Right? And all of a sudden you got people literally weeping because of relatives, weeping because I want them to be with me in heaven. And they went and took the mart it's just my grandmother and took the mark. And again something else will come up and everyone will run and sensationalize it again. But that's probably the most common approach to the book. And if people generally don't read it and don't believe that they can understand it, and then you have pastors out there who act like they can't understand it and latch onto it and pull stuff from here and from there and put it all together and give you charts and maps and all this kind of stuff and tell you that Adolf Hitler or Sadam Hussein or you know, Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump or whoever you know, all of a sudden you sit there and you go, who am I to refuted? Right? Why is it difficult? Though? There's a good question, why is this book so difficult for us to understand? Number One, because of the type of literature. It's apocalyptic literature, It's highly symbolic literature, apocalyptic literature would have been very familiar to our first century brethren, but it is not as familiar to us. There are some forms that there are some forms of literature that just give themselves away where you know how to listen to it. For example, if I were to stand up here and say, once upon a time, what are you getting ready to hear? Anybody? What was that? What kind of story? A fairy tale? Right? If I stand up here and I say once upon a time, you know you're about to hear a fairy tale, and you know that in a fairy tale you are going to hear things that are not normal, that are not natural. Right. You'll hear about little girls, you know, taking in a drink of liquid that makes them really really small, and you know, and you know, the queen of hearts and off with their head and all this stuff. You know this, And when you hear those things in the story, you don't say, well, well, that's that can't happen, because you know you're listening to a fairy tale and there's an interpretive lens through which you're supposed to view the story. Okay. Apocalyptic literature is like that. Unfortunately, we are unfamiliar with apocalyptic literature, So when it starts, we act like a person who's never heard a fairy tale before, who in the middle of the story says, well, okay, talk about how can how can a little girl just all of a sudden become so small that she can go down? How does that? Do you get my point? If somebody doesn't know this is a fairy tale, and they don't know the rules of a fairy tale, and they try to listen to a fairy tale like they would listen to a news story, that's going to be incredibly confusing. And so that's the first problem that we have with the Book of Revelation. We try to read the Book of Revelation without understanding apocalyptic literature, and we try to read a symbolic book literally and we end up in trouble. Or we try to read it like an allegory, right, and in an allegory, you know, everything has a corresponding part, so you know this that this means that, and this means that, and write everything in the allegory means something else. Okay, there's a difference between apocalyptic literature and allegory, and oftentimes we try to read Revelation as though it's an allegory, as though everything has to have a correspondence to something else. Second reason we find it hard to understand this book is because of its use of the Old Testament, because of its use of the Old Testament. As one writer puts it, by one count, the four hundred and four verses in Revelation divulged some five hundred allusions to the Old Testament. John alludes to nearly every book in the Old Testament canon, most of the references from Psalms, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel. In addition, there are the Five Books of Moses, the historical books of Joshua, Judges for Sawond, Samuel, for Second Kings, for Second Chronicles, Ezraeiemiah and Esther, the Wisdom literature, the prophets apart from Ruth, Ecclesiastes, and Hegei. John alludes to every book in the Old Testament, every book except three he alludes to in Revelation, far and away more Old Testament references than any New Testament book. More than half of them are from Psalms, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Now here's what's interesting. Not only are we unfamiliar with the Old Testament, generally, I can't say a man you ought to say ouch, right, I mean generally we're unfamiliar with the Old Testament. Some Christians act like they are allergic to the Old Testament. Right, So we're unfamiliar with the Old Testament. But if there are books in the Old Testament that we're less familiar with than others, they would be Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. And those are the ones he refers to more than any others. So again, unfamiliar with the Old Testament. Hard to understand this, unfamiliar with the major profits. Hard to understand this. Daniel contains the most in proportion to its length, and most of it from chapter seven. In terms of actual number of references, Isaiah ranks first again two books that we stay away from in the Old Testament because they are apocalyptic and Old Testament. You're beginning to see what I'm talking about here. There's another issue here, Apart from the type of literature and it's use of the Old Testament, there are the symbols, the symbols with which we are unfamiliar. Okay, by the way, this is not just bad news. I want you to hear this. As I explain every one of these reasons that it's hard for us to understand the book, that none of this is insurmountable. So what I want you, what I want you to hear me saying, is not you can't understand revelation. Here's why you can't understand revelation. Don't try. What I want you to hear me saying is here are some things that will help you to understand revelation. Man, we we can, we can get there. There are the symbols, the symbols with which we're unfamiliar. What kind of symbols? Colors? Colors are symbolic? Again, this is whenever I talk about the colors. You know, we talk about the feet of Jesus being like burnest bronze. Right, and I there's a there's a group, it's a it's an Islamic cult called the Nation of Islam. Also the Blackkeeper Israelites, which is another you know, popular cult now and the Nation of Islam Black Heeper is likes. You guys need to understand something, Okay, when when when y'all sold us off to the Europeans, That's what happened. I forgive you, okay, that's what happened, right, Europeans weren't running around in the interior and Africa chasing us down, and they know, they just went to the ports and y'all brought us and sold us. I'm not bitter, but what's happened is a lot of people of African descent in the West real identity crisis, and they're always trying to find some way to feel better about their black right. And so there are a lot of cults like the Nation of Islam, like Black Heberristralites, and essentially, you know, these descendants of slaves who feel like outsiders because of you know, their skin color. I know it's hard for you to imagine, right, I can't tell you the first time I came here. First time I came here, I just I just stood around and I looked, and my oldest son was with me, and we stood around and we looked, and both of us were thinking the same thing. It's black people. Everwhere This is crazy. I come from a country where black people are twelve percent of the population, right, there are so few black people that when we see each other, like in certain instances, I mean, you can see another black person over there across the street somewhere, and you go, it's just not this. You know, there's some cities where there are concentrations, but there's some parts of the United States, man where you you won't see a black person for half an hour, right, And so we just stood there like black people. And so there are these cults that rise up and you know, try to hold on to some aspect of black identity and say no, no, no, no, no, we're not marginalized, we're less than. We're actually more than. And so these cults, you know, the black Hebrew Israelites, we're the Israelites from the Old Testament. We are we we us, we are their descendants, right, the nation of Islam, you know, same thing. You know that that that that whole deal. And one of the things that they run to is revelation. And they look at here's Jesus. He like burnished bronze, but white person, you know, with burnished bronze feed Jesus' black. Well, when you understand that bronze is a symbol of judgment, right, that's that's that's step number one, Right, it's a symbol of judgment. But step number two, who is that same text says that his eyes are like fire. So if bernest bronze means that his skin is black, and eyes like fire must mean his eyes are red. You see the difficulty right when you try to take certain aspects of it and say this is literal, when the text is obviously being symbolic. So when we see colors, we need to keep that in mind. Animals, animals, right, very very symbolic when you see you know, dragon and ox and okay, lamp stands, lamp stands another symbol spirits again another place there's another word item that's used symbolically as well. The key is to look for the explanation of the symbols in the text. If it's not there, then don't go trying to conjure something up. Okay, we'll talk about that more. Beyond the symbols, there's also numbers, numbers that are important. We'll just look at those. Look at a few of those, right, the number three, the number three, the number for God again, Father's Son, Holy Spirit. It's also the number four the counterfeit, the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. And on these numbers, you have to remember that the numbers are not usually given as numbers. Sometimes the numbers are given a numbers seven of these, ten of these or whatever. But other times in the text you will find, let's say, something repeated three times, right, and you have to take that into account as well. Number four, the number four is the number four creation, the four angels on the four corners of the earth. Well, the earth doesn't have corners, right, So if we're talking about four angels at the four corners of the earth. You know, again some people will argue, well, these Christians, these Christians believe that the earth is flat. No, these four angels and the four corners of the earth, it means the totality of the earth. Right, four winds for living creatures. When you read in Revelation five to nine, a people from every tribe, language, people, and nation. Why tribe, language, people, the nation. Remember I said that the numbers aren't always given as numbers. Sometimes I hear right, there's a people from every tribe, language, people, and nation. The number four represents what the earth. That means there's a people from the totality of the earth. Okay. Revelation five thirteen praise, honor, glory, and power, Praise from the whole Earth. Revelation six's eight sword, famine, disease, wild beast. Okay, this is a judgment on the whole Earth Revelation eight five and sixteen eight Peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, earthquake right again, natural disaster on the whole Earth Revelation nine twenty one. Murder, fornication, theft Revelation ten to eleven, Peoples, Nations, languages, kings again, Revelation eighteen twenty two, Musicians, blues trumpeters. So when we see something like that, and where it's where it's intentional that you see four of something, just think that John is talking about something that is encompassing the whole world, the whole earth. The number of seven. The number seven is the number of completion, number of completion in a theological sense. Seven churches. Right in those first three chapters we see letters written to seven churches. Were there only seven churches? No, there weren't only seven churches, But these seven churches existed along a circular postal route. Right, seven churches along this circular postal rock. This is a letter to all the churches, to the complete church, to the total church. Seven spirits, seven spirits, golden lamps, seven golden lamp stands, seven stars, seven seals, seven horns, seven eyes, seven angels, seven trumpets, seven crowns, seven heads, seven plagues, seven bowls, seven hills, seven kings. Again, this is a number of completion. So it's ironic. You know when we talk about you know, the seven hills. Wait a minute, Wait a minute, Rome. Rome is the city that was built on seven hills. That must be a reference to Rome. No, the number refers to completion. Okay, it's not an allegory. It's different than that this is apocalyptic. Seven thousand killed because of an earthquake. Does it mean that literally seven thousand people were killed because of the earthquake. No, it means that the destruction brought by the earthquake was complete. Seven beattitudes, Chapter one, verse three, Chapter fourteen, verse fifteen, Chapter sixteen, verse fifteen, Chapter nineteen, verse nine, Chapter twenty, verse six, Chapter twenty two, verse seven, and then again in verse fourteen seven beatitudes. And again remember New Testament letters, and this is a New Testament letter. New Testament letters weren't treated the way we treat letters. Right. We take a New Testament letter and we may spend six months or six years preaching through the letter. Right, New Testament letters arrived, and you treated it like a letter. You read the whole thing in one city. And when you read the whole thing in one city, there are a lot of these things that jump out at you that don't jump out at you otherwise, Okay, like these seven beatitudes. Number ten. The number ten is also a number of completion, okay, but instead of divine completion, it's just sort of numeric completion. For example, these ten tribes. The number twelve. The number twelve was the number of the people of God. Okay. The people of God in the Old Testament are represented by twelve tribes. The people of God in the New Testament are represented by twelve disciples. So the number twelve is the number of the people of God. So there's a reference to twelve tribes. There's a reference to the twelve apostles. There's a reference to twelve stars above the woman's head. The New Jerusalem has twelve foundations, on which are the names of the twelve apostles. The tree of life bears how many kinds of fruit? Well, by the way, the twenty four elders around the throne? What is that twelve plus twelve? Twelve Old Testament representatives twelve New Testament representatives. Okay, so the total representatives of the people of God. The number of one hundred and forty four thousand are Jehovah's witness friends. They love this. One hundred and forty four thousand literal one hundred and forty four thousand, right, one hundred and forty four thousand. That's twelve times twelve times ten times ten times ten. So that's two twelves and three tens. The number twelve means something, the number ten means something, and the number three means something. It's also just a really huge number. So one hundred and forty four thousand people twelve times twelve times a thousand. Now, again, we live in the era of you know, trillion dollar debts, so we're used to using giant numbers like that. But trust me, in the first century the thousand was a lot, hey man, it was a huge number. So twelve times twelve times a thousand, that's not literal. Numbers in Revelation are usually not literal unless it's obvious. So again, twelve times twelve towns of thousand, especially when one hundred and forty four thousand in Chapter seven are used right after the idea of a great multitude that no one could number. Right, you got a great multitude that no one can number, and then you got a number. Is that a contradiction or does one hundred and forty four thousand represent the same reality? Okay, all Rightpproaches to the book. Approaches to the book. There are several approaches to the book. One is a predist approach, literally that which has gone past. According to this view, everything recorded in Revelation was fulfilled in the first century at the time that John wrote the book. That's the preaderist view. There's also a partial predatorist view, recognizing that that's very problematic. But the preadorist view is that these are things that happened in the past and only in the past. There's the historicist view. The apocalypse, according to the continuous historical approach, presents a concise outline of the Church's development from the day of Pentecost to the consummation. Okay, so the historicist sees this as a an outline of the history of the church. So their question from a historicist would always be where do you think we are right now? Right? If this is a map from beginning to end, futurist view futurist view. It's a couple of futureist view. The most common futurists view is the dispensational view, but there's also a coupinancial futurist view. The futurist approach is that most of the book beginning in four to one, belongs to the future. Proponents here stress the prophecies in the book that they say will be fulfilled before, during, and after Jesus return to the earth. Okay, their big question is when will it begin. The problem is that all but the first three chapters of Revelation then become irrelevant to every generation of Christs except one. Then there's the idealist view. The idealist view interprets a Relation as a book of principles that contrast the victorious Christ and the people with a defeated Satan and his underlings. The Apocalypse is not a history of events that have occurred in the past or a prophecy of events that will happen in the future. It is a book that fills God's people with comfort and motivation to endure to the end. Idealists stress the principles in the book so that its message is applicable to Christians in every generation, so their question would be why should we have hope. The problem here is that it doesn't seem to take the prophecy literally or seriously. So the last view is sort of an eclectic or modified idealist view. Eclectic or modified idealist view the same as the idealist but with the added dimension of the depiction of the consummation of all things at the end of the age. Okay, scatological positions. Scatological positions. The escaton is the end of the age, right, So there is the pre millennial or futurist or historicist view. This view is that the millennium is ahead of us, the millennium is coming, and that Christ is going to usher in this millennial reign and kingdom. There's an amillennial view, the amillennial view held by predists and idealists. Listen to this again from vern porths if revelation is clear, why do so many people have trouble with it? And why is it so controversial? We have trouble because we approach it from the wrong end. Suppose I start by asking what do the bear's feet in Revelation thirteen two stand for? I'll start with the detail and ignore the big picture. I am asking for trouble. God is at the center of revelation. We must start with him and with the contrast between him and these sanctanic opponents. If instead we try the right way to puzzle out the details, it is as if we try to use a knife by grasping it from the blade instead of the handle, or the wrong way, or there we are starting at the wrong end. Revelation is a picture book, not a puzzle book. Don't try to puzzle it out. Don't become preoccupied by isolated details. Rather, become engrossed in the story. Praise the Lord, cheer for the Saints to test the beast, and long for final victory. Porteous writes from a millennial perspective, amillennial doesn't mean that there is no millennial reign of Christ. Pre millennials are arguing for a literal, one thousand year reign of Christ somewhere in the future. The amillennial position is that the millennial reign of Christ is actually now. We are in the millennial reign of Christ now, right now. The pre millennial view has Christ coming, returning, defeating Evil, having a thousand year reign, and then all of a sudden, things pick up again at the end, before this big final battle and all is done. The millennial view is that from Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, he has been reigning and continues to reign in and through his bride the church. This is the millennial reign of Christ, and when the end of the age comes, it will just be the end. Amen, it will just be the end. There's also a post millennial view. The post millennial view is similar to the amillennial view, but the omillennial view argues that things will wax and wane, sometimes better, sometimes worse, but they will wax and wane and that will be the state of affairs. The post millennial view is that things will get progressively better as the millennium is ushered in. Okay, what about an outline. Let me give you this. Let me give you an outline before we have some questions. Okay, Now, there are many different approaches to outlining this book, but simple essentially, what you have in Revelation is seven repetitions of a narrative. It's interesting when you read Revelation, it's like all this terrible stuff happens, You come to a crescendo and then boom, there's judgment. We're done, and then wait here we go again. After a while you're like, okay, what's left to destroy? Okay? But when you realize that this is seven cycles again, the number of seven is the number of what completion. Okay, all right. Chapters one through three introduction letters to the seven Churches. Okay. While the recipients of these letters were real churches at the time, John wrote, the number seven probably means that it was meant to represent the totality of the church. Okay. So a series of visions follows seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bulls, possibly seven thunders which come between the trumpets and the bulls. Each series of seven seems to follow God's purpose to their historical consummation and the day of judgment. Each time you see this consummation in the Day of Judgment. Chapters four through five. So, yeah, the first three chapters, and you have chapters four and five. These chapters picture the throne of God, the scroll, the lion Lamb who was able to open it, who affirms the sovereignty of Christ, which is the theme of the book. So four and five you get that set up. Chapter six and seven you have seven Seals of Judgment, which flow as a consequence of the opening of the book by the Lamb. Each seal represents issues and circumstances common to every age. No detail of particular wars or rulers are mentioned. Then from eight two to eleven nineteen, so all the way eight through eleven, these chapters unfold the sounding of the trumpets, the last of which announces the coming of the Kingdom of God and Christ, the last Judgment, and the opening of the Temple of God. These parallel the judgments announced in the seven seals. Then chapter twelve through fourteen, this begins a new cycle of visions. Male child the Christ, who is pursued by the dragon the Devil. It's the narrative of the great antithesis between the City of God and the cities of the world. The devil enlists in his help the two beasts in the conflict. However, the elect are saved and the city of Babylon falls. In fourteen eight God's enemies are overcome again. You see how there's consummation each time. Then chapters fifteen and sixteen, seven angels now appear with seven bulls. Again. You see these sevens right, So each one of these is a picture of God's complete judgment. They contain judgment, plagues, last great earthquake, in which the cities of this world and Babylon have destroyed. Then you have chapters seventeen through nineteen that's the destruction of Babylon, the Beast, and the false Prophet. Then you have chapters twenty through twenty two. God's dealing with the dragon and his final judgment in the Lake of Burning Sulfur, the final city of God, the new Heavens, New Earth, New Jerusalem, and which eternal fellowship with God is enjoyed. So here's the question, what then do we take away from the book? If we don't, you know, take away the way to look to read the newspaper and look for, you know, who the Antichrist is. Here's what we take seven things. One the glory of the Triune God, the glory of the triant God. The Book of a Revelation is about the glory of the Triune God. When you read it the way that I'm proposing, it is not only incredibly encouraging, but it's incredibly worshipful. This is a worshipful book, and it's ironic because we worship and glorify God because of his justice and judgment, which is something that we're not used to talking about. Right, No, no, no, we worship God. We glorify God because of his mercy, because of his grace, because yeah, yeah that's true, that's true, but God's justice is praiseworthy. Secondly, the reverence and reliability of the whole Bible. The reverence and reliability of the whole Bible, everything from Genesis to maps. It's relevant, right, It's relevant, all of it. Third the sovereignty of God, the sovereignty of God. What better picture can you paint of sovereignty than telling someone what's going to happen in the end. The only way you can do that is if you're a sovereign amen, I mean as a father. You know, I've learned that when I tell my children things, I've learned to be real careful and say things like, you know, Lord willing right, because my children may not remember to take a bath, or to brush your teeth, or to make their bed, but they will remember every promise I have ever made to them without fail. But Daddy, you said, and I have to remind them, Yes I did, But I'm not sovereign, which means that sometimes things can get in the way and prevent me from doing that which I intend to do. God, however, is sovereign, so he can tell you exactly how this thing is going to end up, and nothing can get in the way or thwart his plans. For the reality of suffering, the reality of suffering. Revelation makes it clear that suffering is real and that believers suffer the reality of suffering fit the inevitability and severity of God's judgment. The inevitability and severity of God's judgment. Not only will God eventually judge, but his judgment will be severe. Six the certainty of Christ's return, The certainty of Christ's return. He's coming, He's coming, Saints, it is certain because the sovereign God has told us. And finally, the consummation of redemptive history. God is going to bring everything to a close, and everything will be right, and everything will be good, and everything will be just again. From Kim Riddlebarger. The Book of Revelation clearly reminds us that God is sovereign over all human history, and that he will do as he said he will do, turn human sin and suffering into good. Thus, the redemptive story takes us from creation to the fall, to redemption to a new creation. God not only will save his people, he will save all of creation. That's not a book to be scared of. That's a book to rejoice it. Aymen, all right, we have time for a few questions. Don't ask me who the Antichrist is? M back corner, back corner. To do millennial positions affect the church's effectiveness? To what extent do millennial positions affect the church's effectiveness? They don't necessarily affect the church's effectiveness. Uh, And I will say that because for the most part, millennial positions are treated as secondary even tertiary in churches. There are very few churches whose whose millennial position is something that's out there in the front. Having said that, of course, there are always going to be exceptions, and so there are always going to be churches who who who emphasize those things more and who and who are involved in certain things as opposed to other things. I'll give you an example from if you look at the dispensational premillennial approach as opposed to the millennial or post millennial approach, there can be a tendency toward h in the in the premillennial dispensational approach toward evangelism over culture building. Right, why rearrange the the chairs on the deck of the Titanic. Everything's sinking, right, this world is doomed. Let's just go rescue people. Whereas if you have someone from an optimistic millennial perspective or from a post millennial perspective that they're saying, no, no, no, we're building something. Culture does matter. Okay, So from that standpoint, you do see some distinctions, but that's not one necessarily being effective in another. Not These guys may be more effective in one area because of their emphasis, whereas these guys are more effective in another area because of their emphasis. Right, Yes, sir, so I really appreciated the instruction. That's thank you. So I've always tell to an optimistic am millinary position for the last thirty years. Yes, and there's been a resurgence among our form Baptists brothers in the US's reference to post mail. Yes, so I'm willing to call myself an a post guy. Yeah, but not the post mill guide full on. Yeah. So there's some things I like about it, but there's some things I can't swallow. Yes, So I'm happy with an optimistic omili position. But I'm wondering if you could speak to maybe why you think that guys like James White and others are moving this post still position of not embracing it altogether, and what should think about this. Yeah, yeah, it's a great question, and I would put myself in that same camp. I've always called myself an optimistic you know, I'm a linear holding to an optimistic on alineal position and real The differences are more technical, right, and it comes down to that idea of the EBB and the flow versus progressive victory leading to right. It's that And I think what some people find attractive, especially like right now in the US context, is that a lot of the people who are doing a great job at culture building, a lot of people who are doing a great job at standing against the tide, right, a lot of people who are who are building institutions right. These are the post mill guys, right, and it's sort of flowing out of their post millennial view. And so there are a lot of optimistic millennial guys who've been rubbing shoulders, you know, with the guys in Idaho, for example, you know, and kind of going, wow, they're really doing some transformational stuff. And so I think it stems from that as opposed to because it's again the theological differences there are are are are really small and and technical. So I think it has more to do with relationships and preferences and and and inclinations toward certain practices. Yeah, but I do find that, you know, the Optimistic a millennial camp is pretty small and not very vocal, but the post mail camp is you know, also small but very vocal. So I find that, you know, most of people that I'm interacting with are you know, developing friendships with they're from that perspective. You know. Also you know, just to to to put another point on it, coming here to work with a CU, my dispensational premillennial friends don't understand establishing a university, a classical Christian liberal arts university, Bible college, yes, right, because people are going to hell start a Bible college trained preachers. But why are you training people in agriculture and education and what you know, why are you doing that? My postmill and Optimistic are male friends. They go, yes, yes, right, because because they see the need. And I think as there's also a short sightedness because you know, our our dispensational friends who you know who pooh pooh culture building, They only had the luxury of doing that because the people who went before them and built culture, right, the freest, most prosperous, most Christianized people's and nations in the world are are are there as a result of this optimistic millennial and post millennial view that actually built cultures and built nations on biblical foundations and the fruitive that is blessed the whole work. So yeah, my question has to do with the numbers, yes, because yes, I've always been uncomfortable with all that. I wonder what's the what's the basis, what's the authority that we use for those kinds of associations? The way do we go to get the authority of up? You know? Yeah, and here's where I reached up to. Daniel was with us, so we had doctor Cayumba here with us as well. But just like you know, thousand years from now, when people study our culture, right, they're going to find literature that is fairy tale literature, and they able to understand fairy tale literature because of finding fairy tale literature and seeing the similarities in fairy tale literature. And that's what we do when it comes to biblical backgrounds, right, This literature is not just limited to the Bible. These are common forms of literature. And so when you do literary analysis, when you do biblical backgrounds, when you do historical backgrounds, that you find that this is a this is a common form of literature. Any chis some of these are. Any chance that some of what are wrong for excremition, any chance that we may find some of those any child is always a chance that you can find something being wrong. But these things are commonly used throughout the Old Testament, So I mean they're there and they're common. Yeah. And also when you read, when you read the book, it's not just that you go, okay, this number is going to be a reference to that. If you just read the book and see the numbers right the way they're used, Like when you hear tribe, kindred tongue nation and you go, oh, wait a minute, it's talking about the whole and then you hear it again, right, and he's talking about the whole earth, and then you hit this again and he's talking about So part of this is just reading the book carefully and seeing how the book uses the numbers because it's consistent. Yes, back in the mind, thank you for myself. The editions quite clear. I've been a problem. I mean between too a minium and post lunch and minium. It's very difficult at times there events take me in then turn, so I don't know where to Yeah, yeah, yeah, And as I said, there's very little difference between those positions. Those positions are kissing cousins, as we say in the South in the US. But here's what I always tell people. I'm post mill where I live, right. In other words, I have an optimistic millennialist, and I believe that things will sometimes be better and sometimes be worse. I don't believe that that we're going to see this absolute progressive right victorians right march. I don't believe that, but I live like that where I am right, I'm gonna That's where the optimistic part comes from. Okay, I'm I believe we are currently in the millennial right of Christ. He is ruling and reigning right now through his church right and and and and wherever I live, my goal is to advance that. My desire is that that the king might have the fullness of the reward for which he died. So I I want to live in hope, right, recognizing that I'll get knocked down sometimes, right, Just a question for a fully in the mean and him before the Uh, what we need? What what does he fighting? That's the ruler? It is and that's it. No. That again, according to the dispensational prim millennial view, yes it would be a literal thousand years. But rarely in the Book of Revelation are numbers literal, and that number one thousand, that the number one thousand is a reference to a very big number of people or a very long period of time, not literal. Revelation Chapter six, verse two speaks about the white hostler. There's a little controversy on the ride of the white horses. Some people believe it's first I was believed with the person. I was believe it's a Roman emperor, the ruling emperors. So I wanted to find out watching. I reject that view, reject, I reject that. I reject that view. How many horses are there? Huh? How many? Four? Four? What's for a reference to the totality of creation, God's judgment on all the earth? That I don't ask questions like who's this, who's that? If the writer of revelation wants me to know who somebody is, he'll tell me. Otherwise it's a symbolic representation. Right, So when we see Christ in revelation, there's no guessing, there's no guessing, right yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, fire in his eyes and a sword on his thigh. Right, dude, wrecking stuff right, not lowly, he's just making mild with the lamb on his shoulders. He's a warrior king. He was coming back to exact judgment. Right, when when when the when the writer of revelation wants to say, this is Jesus. Nobody's sitting around going this. No, we know, yeah, we know. So I thought, like my question the church and some part because they believe the SA whether we Yeah, that's not it'sogy that has nothing to do with eschatology. Yeah. So with regards to that example, coming back to the millennial position, now there are people who that has rained already and there is no need is because general of the church. So that question is being asked from a dispensational perspective. Yes, yes, so there's your answer. Right. Remember I said for the dispensationalist. They will define effectiveness one way, and you just defined effectiveness as a dispensationalist, right, and then you impugned another view based on your prejudice toward evangelism as opposed to your building. Whereas my point was that just like people over here can say, no, evangelism is that area where we're supposed to be effective, period, full stop, and people over here will say culture building is that area where we're supposed to be effective, full stop. Both of them can point fingers at one another and say, well, look at how ineffective that other group is. Where they're both being effective in different areas, right, But if you're a dispensationalist, then absolutely you're going to look at a mill or postmail people and say they're they're ineffective. But what that what that is is that you prejudicing them based on your presupposition of what effectiveness is, based on your eschatological view. And the other thing is in both instances, in both instances, there's there's straw Manning. Right. You know what straw Manning is, Right, You don't argue against the strongest form of your opponent's position, You create the weakest form of your opponent's position and argue against that. Right, you build a straw man. Right. And so the people who who put emphasis on evangelism and looking at these people saying they don't do evangelism, well they do. They don't empacize the same way as you do. And if people over here are looking at these people say they don't do culture, but what they do just they don't evercize the same way that that you do. Right. They put the emphastis on a difference labor. Right, Thank you very much, buddy. I'd like to know what's your position? Yeah, someone hold really of course? Yeah? Uh? Also divided life, Yeah yeah. I don't know of a church that's unified on its eschatological view that you know, you'll have people who will be for example, we're talking about reform churches here. There are reform guys who are historic pre mill, and there are historic. There are guys who are a mil and there are guys who are postmill. But that's why our confession to sixteen eighty nine does not mark out an escatological position, just the basic sketch of the escaton. Christ is going to return at the end of the age consummation of all things, and I think that the Framers were wise in doing that, because that's nothing to divide over a bicycle. The church theologically absolutely enough, absolutely absolutely no, no, no, absolutely no. Yeah, all right, our time is gone. Thank you. Well, we praise God for the beautiful rebus. I know that Liberation is a book that is challenging to us, as believe us. But I think it's clear today that since it's in the Bible and God wanted us to know beforehand, I think we should embrace it and we need preach it. We've come to the end of our morning sessions and I would ask that we'll close with a way of prayer from Reverend Youreda Needa. Could you kindly close for us. Thank you for the free teaching on the regolation. How you are sure that things are happening according to you, So blessed be your yes, the name of your son, and prayer that well. Thank you. You are free to go for lunch, but just remember that we are coming back again in the afternoon to do another seminar and need to be on dating, so please feel free to come. Thank you. Hinnati konda efe nsy lad Atifuna call for Chagic County Gee called the jacket called Jack. It's a chargic colog chatic color follow the che tragic, No darn Himma Valley