In the previous episode I told you my origin story. This episode is a little more background before we dig into the lateness of our time. I want to give you my view of the Bible. I believe it is the true and inerrant word of God. I use the King James Version because no one argues about it and we spend too much time fighting with each other and not with the enemy. Also it's a word for word translation and that's what I want. I want to see every word that God has given me. We have a phrase about the Bible that we use at Cornerstone. EWITBIAT. Sounds like gibberish. My mom loves acrostics and she made up or introduced this phrase in an after school Bible club that she was doing. EWITBIAT stands for Every Word in the Bible is Absolutely True. So anyone at church can say, every word in the Bible is, and the congregation answers, absolutely true. God says what he says and means what he says. I take the Bible literally, but I call it plain interpretation, or I read it as it's meant by the author. I make this distinction because the Bible uses similes, comparisons, and other parts of speech, and as soon as you say you take the Bible literally, critics say, oh, so you think God is a giant chicken who gathers believers under his wings. No, that's an expression that says God loves me and is a place of shelter for me to run to. I take it plainly like I do everyday language. So say if a weatherman says, it's raining cats and dogs out. I don't run outside expecting to get a new puppy. I know he means it's pouring rain. I also think God's order is never out of order. That's another expression I use. If God has a list or an order, he puts it in the order that he wants it. Repentance and turn to God, Acts 26 20. Repent and be baptized, Acts 2 38. You repent first for salvation. Baptism comes later. It's an act of obedience. And so God's order is never out of order. This really applies to prophecy in the book of Revelation. To help us out, God even gives us an outline of the book. In Revelation 1.19, John is told to write the things he has seen. Then he says, then write the things which are. That's chapter 2 and 3, the church age. Jesus' letters to us, the church. And then, verse 19 says, and then write, the things which shall be hereafter. That's Revelation four through 22. Chapter four even starts out with after this, after what? After chapter two and three, the church age. So it gives us a chronological outline of the book of Revelation. To further help us, God numbers the events in the book for us. There's seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls. Two follows after one, it's chronological, it's in order. Many like to interpret the book of Revelation by jumping all over the place. I don't think so. Why number it then? God's order and interpreting plainly really help with prophecy. The Tribulation is a seven year period on earth where all hell breaks out. It's a literal seven years. The book of Revelation is a detailed look of the last week of Daniel 9 prophecy of the 70 weeks. God wants to be sure we understand this so he guards it by explaining it to us many different ways. It's the duration of the tribulation. The first half is the tribulation. The second half is the great tribulation. It's divided right in the middle by the abomination of desolation. But he divides this up and he talks about three and a half years, or I'll call it the time times and a half a time, or twelve hundred and sixty days, or the time times and the dividing of times. He uses three or four different ways to describe this three and a half year period to make sure that we get it, that we don't misinterpret it. So, plainly interpreted, The Tribulation is divided into half, two three-and-a-half-year sections, and it's 1260 days because the Bible uses the 360-day calendar for all of its prophecies. It's easy to remember. It's what they tell us. It's what we know. It's consistent. Sometime in the past, they added an extra five days, but that's a whole other lesson of why. Yet, with this plain reading, numbered judgments, the three and a half years are given to us, tons of teachers jump all over the place in the book of Revelation, changing the time. Like, oh, we're in the sixth trumpet right now, but we're ready for the fifth bull. I don't think so. The tribulation hasn't started yet. And when it does, it will be chronological. 4 will follow after 3, like God lists it. God's order is never out of order, and we're going to interpret God's word plainly. Lastly, I do my fair share of speculating, but I really try to interpret the Bible with the Bible. I use the Bible to try to explain itself. I will do my best to let you know the difference between what I think and what the Bible actually says. Hindsight is 20-20, but we have to imagine what future events are going to be like and how they are going to play out. But I do try to flesh it out with what God has done and how God has operated in the past. I try to use the Bible to influence how I am going to interpret the future events of the Bible. I think that's enough background for this episode. In the next episode, we will start looking at things that tell us it is later than you think.