Greetings, friends, and welcome to another broadcast of the Victory Hour. This radio broadcast is brought to you by the Lord's People at Clavel Assembly in Foster, Rhode Island. You can hear this edition of the Victory Hour every Saturday at 1590 WARV, five to six o'clock. We have a sermon edition. which is a sermon from the pulpit of Clayville Assembly, which is different from the Saturday broadcast. And that's every Sunday. five to six o'clock. So this edition, I just speak to the audience, directly to the audience of the radio, on Saturdays, five to six o'clock, and then the sermon edition of the Victory Hour from Claiborne Assembly, Claiborne Assembly's pulpit, every Sunday, five to six o'clock, take advantage of these ministries. And I'm explicit with you that it's on WAIV. Obviously, if you're listening to me on WAIV, you know that, and you think, well, what's he gonna tell us that for? That's because I'm doing something special with this recording of the Victory Hour, just like I did last week. Last week's edition of the Victory Hour on Saturday and today's edition of the Victory Hour on Saturday, I am putting together as a two-part package to give to people to enlighten them and get them thinking about the parousia, the coming of Christ, as it is described in the Scriptures. And I have devoted these two broadcasts for the purpose of helping people to see and to understand that there is a depth to the coming of Christ that they have not considered before. And we have to answer the objections of the skeptics, the agnostics, the atheists, the Muslims, and the Mormons who say, well, obviously, Jesus and his disciples thought that he would return in the first century within their own lifetime, and it didn't happen. So the agnostics, the atheists, the Mormons, and those involved with Islam, they attacked the Christian faith, saying, everybody knows, that's what they believed. Bertrand Russell made the same argument. Obviously, Jesus was supposed to come back in the first century, and he never did. C.S. Lewis said, Matthew 24, Verse 34, this generation will not pass till all these things come to pass. He said, obviously, Jesus was wrong about that. And his disciples got that same delusion of a first century return of Christ, and they got that delusion from their master. That's C.S. Lewis. I'm not going to stand for it as a minister of Christ. I want to defend the integrity of the words of Jesus Christ and the apostles who wrote under inspiration of the Holy Ghost. And so we need a new eschatological reformation. That's my point. Look, I still believe In the resurrection, I still believe in the judgment of God of all men. I still believe it is only those that receive the Lord Jesus Christ by God's grace through faith that will receive eternal life forever in eternal bliss. and the others will be judged and damned by the Lord God according to His holy wrath. I believe all that. However, we cannot ignore what the Bible is saying because it upsets the apple cart of the doctrines we've inherited from other men. Now, last week I told you about, well, last week or the previous CD, if you're listening to this on CD, the previous CD, We talked about the subject matter of the last days being in the first century, and that Jesus had, and his disciples also had predicted that he would come in their lifetime. Now, that's what we spent the last week talking about, and I can just give you a summary of that real quick. You want me to do that? It's actually a good overview because I can, in short order, put it all together And it really does come across quite shockingly. You can't escape it. For instance, we started with Matthew 24 in verse 34, where Jesus said, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. He's saying everything he had been talking about there in Matthew 24, leading up to verse 34, would have to come to pass in the first century. Now, most people say, well, obviously that didn't come to pass. So therefore, Jesus was wrong. That was the conclusion of C.S. Lewis. But what Christians usually do is they start twisting the scripture and the narrative to make it unmean what it plainly means. You can play all the games you want with the phrase this generation, but you're playing games and you know it. Compare it to the balance of the revelation of the New Testament. For instance, Matthew 10, 23. Jesus said, ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, speaking to his disciples, till the Son of Man be come. Is it true or not? Matthew 16, 28. He said to those standing before him, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. Well, was Jesus right or wasn't he? People say, well, it didn't happen. Why? Because you can't see how it happened. But Jesus said it would happen, and I believe it did happen, and I believe it's utterly explainable. Romans 13, 12, the night is far spent, the day is at hand. These are all passages that show imminency. Jesus taught and his disciples taught that he would return in their generation in the first century, very soon from when they made the statements. And this is everywhere. Again, Romans 13, 12, the night is far spent, the day is at hand. First Corinthians 7, 29, the time is short. 1 Corinthians 7.31, the fashion of this world passeth away. And by the way, it's the present active indicative, literally, the fashion of this world is passing away. Philippians 4.5, the Lord is at hand. 1 Timothy 6.14, in that passage, Paul is telling Timothy to continue to be faithful, a letter sent in address personally to Timothy, and he tells Timothy to continue to be faithful, quote, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, end quote. Paul obviously assumed Timothy would remain living up until the time of the coming of Christ. Hebrews 10.25, as ye see the day approaching, The author of Hebrews is saying to his audience, to whom he was writing 2,000 years ago, he wasn't writing to you and I, he was writing to the Hebrews that were then living and could read his letter, he said to them that you see the day approaching. Hebrews 10, 37, quote, for yet a little while, and he that shall come will come and will not tarry. Now, if words have any meaning, that means the author of Hebrews is saying that Jesus is coming and it's just in a little while. Look, 2,000 years is not a little while. And then when he adds to it, and he will not tarry, that sort of seals the deal. 1 Peter 4, 7, the end of all things is at hand. That must be true. How do I know? Peter said so. 1 John 2.18, little children, it is the last time. Remember in Hebrews 1.1, God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake unto times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days. The author of Hebrews considered The century that he was living in, the days that he was living in when he wrote Hebrews, the last days, the days of Jesus Christ and his first advent constituted the last days. The last days spoken of in scripture is a reference to the last days of Old Covenant Israel. In Revelation chapter one, In verse one, well, the very first verse, right? Revelation, they say, well, that's about the coming of Christ. Okay, ultimately, that's true, but it's about the destruction of Jerusalem and the coming of Christ. And in chapter one, verse one, John wrote that he wrote everything he had written in the book of Revelation, quote, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass. In verse three of chapter one, he says, the time is at hand. Go to the end of the book, that's the very first chapter. Go to the very end of the book of Revelation, chapter 22, and in verse seven, he says, behold, I come quickly. In verse 10, for the time is at hand. Verse 12, behold, I come quickly. Verse 20, surely I come quickly. It's everywhere. Now we've got to face it, and we've got to integrate it into our eschatological schemes. Well, we shouldn't have schemes. We should extract our eschatology from the word of God. Well, on today's broadcast, I want to do two things for you. Number one, I want to talk about apocalyptic language. And number two, I want to talk about the new heavens and new earth. Now, some of you have never heard of the concept of apocalyptic language. Let's go back to Matthew 24. which is about the destruction of Jerusalem. Jesus is predicting the destruction of the temple. Not one stone will be left upon another. The disciples that asked him, they came to him privately and they asked him, when shall these things be? And what will be the sign of thy coming and the end of the age? When he said the end of the age, I know in your King James, it says the world, but the Greek word there means age. The age he's questioning, the age he's talking about is the Old Covenant age, the Mosaic order of the Old Covenant. And the reason he asks about the end of that age is here's Jesus, who's supposed to be the Messiah, talking about his coming to destroy the temple. This is the temple of God. That's the centerpiece of Old Covenant worship. And Jesus is saying it's gonna be utterly annihilated. And understanding that Jesus was the Messiah, they realized, well, yes, of course, because when Messiah comes, the whole old order of things is terminated, and the Messiah brings about a whole new order. He brings about the Messianic kingdom. The age of Moses ends, the age of Messiah begins. And that's why they asked, When shall these things be? What will be the sign of thy coming in the end of the age? They intuitively understood that Jesus is talking about the determination of the old covenant age in the beginning of the Messianic age. And as I pointed out to you last week, all throughout Matthew 24, it's very obvious Jesus was speaking to his disciples. He said that they would hear of wars and rumors of wars. Not you and I, that they would. that they would be delivered up and afflicted and many would kill them. Not you and I, that they would. He said that they would see the abomination of desolation. Not people in our future, that they would live to see it. That means the abomination of desolation must come in the first century during the lifetime of his disciples. That is the context of the narrative of this conversation. Well, of course, way over in verse 34, Jesus said, this generation will not pass till all these things be fulfilled, which only underscores what I've been saying to you. But one of the things that must come to pass is verse 29. Now think about this. Jesus said, immediately after the tribulation of those days, and that's a reference to the Romans coming in 67 to 70 AD to destroy Jerusalem. That would be the greatest tribulation that Jerusalem ever had faced and ever would face. It is the termination of their utter existence forever as an old covenant nation of God. All the genealogical records would be destroyed. No future Messiah could come along and show himself of the lineage of David. There could be no Levites and priests again. No one can prove they're from the tribe of Levi. God destroyed the capacity of Old Testament Judaism to continue in that destruction in 70 AD. It was the worst destruction they ever experienced. It was the worst tribulation. And Jesus says in verse 29, immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. Now people read that and they say, well, obviously you must be wrong, Pastor Gallagher, because that obviously did not happen. I mean, if these things happened, the universe would have come to an end and we wouldn't be here. I mean, if the sun is darkened and the moon doesn't give its light and the stars fall from heaven, The stars fall from heaven and the powers of the heaven are shaken. That's cataclysmic judgment, universal cataclysmic judgment on the whole universe. This is talking about the return of Jesus Christ when he destroys all the world and all the universe and makes a new heavens and a new earth. Talking about the physical world, the physical heavens and a physical earth and heavens. This is how Christianity has always understood those words. May I suggest to you, That's not how these words were intended. Remember, verse 34, Jesus said, this generation will not pass till all these things be fulfilled. You say, well, how could this have happened? in the first century. Again, I'll read verse 29. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. Now, I'm gonna read to you from Isaiah 13 10. This is how it reads. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light, the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. Now, I didn't read just then from Matthew 24, 29. I'm reading from Isaiah 13, 10. Can I read those words again? Isaiah 1310, for the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light. The sun shall be darkened in his going forth and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. You say, well, pastor, obviously Jesus is quoting Isaiah 1310. Yes, obviously. And obviously Isaiah 1310 is a prophecy about the second coming of Christ when the Lord destroys the heavens and the earth. and I would respond to you and say, no, that's utterly wrong. Yes, he's quoting Isaiah 13.10, but that is not the subject matter of Isaiah 13.10. And may I say it's not the subject matter of Matthew 24.29. In Matthew 24.29, Jesus is talking about divine wrath being poured out on his enemy, the nation of Israel, and judging and destroying Jerusalem and the whole Old Covenant order. That's the subject of Matthew 24, the destruction of Jerusalem. Well, in Isaiah 13.10, the subject matter is not the destruction of the world. Isaiah 13.10 is about the destruction of Babylon. It's about the destruction of God's enemy, Babylon, for laying their hands on God's people, Israel, even though he sent them to destroy them. Back in the days of the Babylonian captivity, they were the rod of his indignation, but then he's gonna turn around and judge them because they didn't do it out of righteousness to obey God, they did it for their own evil desires. And God's gonna call them to task for it. But here is Isaiah 1310, for the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light, the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, the moon shall not cause her light to shine. That is a description of God destroying Babylon 2,500 years ago. You say, well, that couldn't have happened 2,500 years ago because that amounts to the destruction of the universe and we're still here. It had to have happened 2,500 years ago because it was spoken by the prophet Isaiah as applying to the destruction of Babylon. So therefore, obviously, this is not literal language. We can't start disagreeing with the Bible in order to make it as literal as we want it to be because of the way we were taught at Dallas Theological Seminary or Pensacola College or name the place. We have to adopt our thinking to the language and nomenclature of scripture. We must conform to God's word, not make God's word conform to our expectations. Let me show you how this is applied to Babylon. For instance, I'll prove it to you. Verse one, I'm reading from Isaiah 13, verse one. the burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see. Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand that they may go into the gates of the nobles, I have commanded my satisfied ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness, the noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people, a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together, the Lord of hosts mustereth the hosts of the battle. See, God's gathering an army, to destroy Babylon. That's what's being described here. Verse five, they come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord. Now, wait a minute. We have the coming of the Lord to earth to destroy the Babylonians. And of course, that's not a literal coming to earth, but this is, it is apocalyptic, Oriental, Hebraic hyperbole. Now, I hope that's not too much for us to grasp as adult believers. There are modes of speech that are used as tools by those who deal in linguistics and in language and in communication. The Jews in that portion of the world, the Oriental, not the Occidental, The Occidental style of speech, which we have as Americans and Westerners, is more literal, straightforward. It is what it is. But that Oriental mode of language employs exaggeration, hyperbole. They use colorful, grand language to get a point across. And everybody understands, well, that's not meant to be taken literally. It's not that they're lying to you. It's just a mode of speech. And it's used here, okay? Well, anyway, we have the Lord, the burden of Babylon. This is the Lord judging Babylon. Verse six, how ye for the day of the Lord is at hand. Now the day of the Lord is the day of God's anger and wrath poured out upon his enemies. In this instance, it's the enemy Babylon. In verse eight, and they shall be afraid, pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them. They shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth. Well, that's just like what Jesus said. Yeah, it is. The Lord coming to earth, the people like a woman in travail. It's the day of the Lord. Now he's describing the destruction of Babylon. Verse nine, behold, the day of the Lord cometh cruel, both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate. Notice, to lay the land. What land? Babylon, that's the subject matter. The subject matter is the destruction of Babylon, not the planet. Not the planet. Look at verse 15. Well, I'll tell you what, look at verse Yeah, verse 15, or verse, yeah, verse 15. Everyone that is found shall be thrust through, and everyone that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. Now, if this chapter was about the second coming of Christ, when Christ comes, nobody teaches that Jesus is gonna start stabbing people with swords at the second coming. That's not how they're destroyed. If they're destroyed, they're destroyed by fire, fire and brimstone. But this destruction is people are being thrust through. And everyone that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. Now listen to this. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes. Is that something that Jesus is doing when he comes back? Taking little children and dashing them to pieces against the rocks? Their houses shall be spoiled and their wives ravished. This is surely not a description of the second coming. Verse 17, Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them. In verse 18, their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces, and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eyes shall not spare children. This is about the Medo-Persian kingdom destroying the Babylonian kingdom, and the Medes are the instruments of God's wrath to bring judgment, the day of the Lord, upon the Babylonians. And in describing this divine wrath on the Babylonians by using the sword of the Medes, he calls it the day of the Lord and he says, the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light. The sun shall be darkened in his going forth and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil. The word world is the world of the Babylonians. It doesn't mean the literal planet Earth. Read the whole context. We're told who's doing the destroying. It's the Medes. Verse 13, therefore I will shake the heavens and the earth shall remove out of her place. Well, that's Matthew 24, 29 as well. The shaking of the heavens. Jesus is quoting Isaiah 13, which is about God's divine wrath being poured out on the Babylonians, and he's now using it in Matthew 24, this divine apocalyptic language of Isaiah, to apply it to the destruction of Jerusalem within the lifetime of his disciples, which means when the Romans came in, and destroyed that nation in a three and a half year siege. Interesting, their tribulation was three and a half years, 67 to 70 AD, when Rome destroyed Jerusalem forever. You say, oh no, Jerusalem's come back. Now, we can't get into that. That's just silly. I just don't have time for that. I'm trying to show you apocalyptic language. Let me show you a principle here that you need to have under your belt. And it's found in Numbers chapter 12. Numbers chapter 12. So we go over there. I'm going over there, I hope you do too. You wanna mark this down in your Bible. You want to remember this passage. What we have here is a divine revelation on the nature of exegesis when it comes to the prophetic word. The Lord describes for us here, through Moses, how he revealed his truth to the Old Testament prophets. Now watch this. Numbers chapter 12, starting at verse five. And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam, and both came forth. And he said, Hear now my words. If there be a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches. I'm going to stop right there. Now this is a profoundly important principle relating to hermeneutics, and hermeneutics is nothing more than how to understand what God has said in the Bible. We're being told that when God spoke to the prophets, he spoke in visions and in dreams, and in verse eight, and in dark speeches. He spoke to the prophets through visions, dreams, dark speeches, and also, according to verse eight, it's implied he did not speak to them in apparent language. But when he spoke to Moses, he spoke apparently, and mouth to mouth and not in dark speeches. So there's two different kinds of revelation. The revelation he gave to Moses and the revelation he gave to the prophets. When he gave to Moses, what he gave to Moses, he gave directly, plainly, in apparent speech. But when he revealed his truth to his holy prophets, He spoke to them in visions, and in dreams, and in dark speeches, and not apparently. Numbers chapter 12, verses six through eight. Study it, meditate upon it, think about it. Look, not too many people are gonna accuse clevel assembly of being liberal. But people associate non-literal language with liberalism. Why get that? Because you know what liberals do? They don't believe the Bible. They don't believe the inspiration of the Bible. So all the miracles they have to explain away, and all the things they don't like they explain away, and every time God seems a little too mean in a way they don't like, they explain it away with some sort of phony baloney excuse, and they're very willing to allegorize the Bible into nothingness. I'm not talking about doing that. I'm talking about receiving metaphoric, hyperbolic, apocalyptic language because of the precedent set in Scripture and using such language. Jesus directly quoted Isaiah 13, who used that apocalyptic language in a symbolic way and was never understood by anybody to be speaking in a literal manner. I'll give you another example. Say Isaiah 34. We'll go back to Isaiah. Now, in Isaiah chapter 34, here we have God's judgment on Edom, or Idumia, same thing. And God's judgment on Edom is long overdue, and the time is fulfilled, and the Lord is to bring judgment upon them. And this prophetic word is about his destroying Idumia. We know that because in Isaiah 34, verse 5 and 6, he says, For my sword shall be bathed in heaven, behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse to judgment. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood. It is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, and the fat of the kidneys of rams, for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Basra, now that's in Idummia, and a great slaughter in the land of Idummia. This chapter is about God's divine wrath and judgment upon the Edomites because of how they treated the children of Israel. Now in describing his wrath being poured out upon the Edomites, which again happened thousands of years ago, this is how the Lord describes it. Verse four, I just read to you verse five. He did a sentence before. And all the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, and their hosts shall fall down. As a leaf falleth from the vine, even as the falling fig from the fig tree, And then he continues, for my sword shall be bathed in heaven. Behold, it shall come down upon Idumea. This is not a chapter dealing with the second coming of Christ, where he's destroying the literal cosmos and the literal earth. That's not what's being described here. The context is God's divine wrath being poured out on Idumea. He goes on to describe his wrath against Idumea. Verse eight, for it is the day of the Lord's vengeance. The Day of the Lord doesn't refer specifically to the second coming of Christ. The Day of the Lord is a generic term, but it's a specific term that communicates God's wrath that he is to bring about upon his enemies, a particular enemy at a particular time. There are many days of the Lord in Scripture. So here it's directed towards the destruction of the Edomites, the Edomite nation. Verse eight, for it is the day of a Lord's vengeance and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. The Edomites, you know, when Israel left Egypt, the Edomites did not treat their brethren very kindly, and in fact they harmed and they killed the weak, the old, the aged, the women. They have blood on their hands of the children of Israel. God's calling them to task. It is the day of the Lord's vengeance He's gonna bring upon them recompense for their controversial actions with his people from Zion. All right, he goes on to describe the next sentence, continues to describe the wrath he's gonna pour out on the Edomites. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched, night nor day. The smoke thereof shall go up forever. From generation to generation, it shall lie waste. None shall pass through it forever and ever. I don't know of a single Bible exegete who says when God destroyed Idumaea, he turned their rivers into burning pitch and the dust became fiery brimstone. and that the smoke literally went up forever. So that if you had satellite imagery, you could still see the smoke coming from. No, nobody believes that. We understand this to be apocalyptic, metaphoric, Oriental, Hebraic hyperbole. It's a literary device, well-known to people who read stuff. But look, I get, I understand. Don't, you know, I get excited talking about this. trying to take an anvil and hammer you over the head with this. I get excited when I talk, but hey, I had the same problem you had. I missed all this before too. My tendency was to take that language that I saw in the New Testament literally as well, until I became more conversant with the prophets and paid attention. I mean, it's not like I never read Isaiah before, but it just, it almost like goes in one ear and out the other. Look, we do this to ourselves. And whatever we learn, we have to learn at some point in time. The point is that we need to learn it. And you know that this is not talking about the second coming of Christ at the end of time, because he said, this is about the destruction of Idummia. You say, well, maybe he changed subjects and all of a sudden he morphed into describing the judgment at the end of the world with his fire and brimstone and burning pitch. No, because look what he says after this. He just finished talking about the streams being turned to pitch, the dust to brimstone, and the smoke going up forever. Next sentence, but the comorant, and the Bittern, these are animals like a pelican and whatever, the Cormorant and the Bittern shall possess it. I doom you. The owl also and the raven shall dwell in it. Well, wait a minute now. If it's been completely consumed by fire and brimstone, how are these animals gonna dwell in that land? and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness. Look at verse 13, and the thorns shall come up in her palaces, nestles and brambles in the fortress thereof, and it shall be an habitation of dragons and a court for owls. The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island. Okay, wait a minute now. So if this is about the second coming of Christ when he makes a new heavens and new earth, then after it's all destroyed, rather than having paradise there, we're going to have owls and wild beasts and thorns and thistles in our eternal state in heaven? No, you see, and by the way, and certainly this can't mean that they would be dwelling there if the place turned to burning pitch and the smoke is going up forever. That means it's eternally on fire, and all these animals must be wearing suits of asbestos. It isn't meant to be taken literally, and this happens time and time and time again in the Old Testament prophets. Go read Psalm 18. I don't have time for it. Go read Psalm 18 and read the introduction to Psalm 18. That Psalm is a Psalm about the defense of David and the wrath that God would pour out on King Saul. When you read Psalm 18, please do it. You won't need my help. Just read it. Read the introduction before the first verse to see what the Psalm's about. The same kind of language as you describing God's wrath on Saul, none of it was literal. When God talks about the stars falling from heaven and the earth turning to burning pitch and the heavens being shaken and the earth being turned upside down and all this language, every time that's talked about in the Old Testament prophets, it's hyperbole, never meant to be taken literally. Then when they're quoted verbatim in the New Testament, we think because of our unfamiliarity with the Hebrew prophets, we think we're supposed to take that literally. If we're to take the stars falling from heaven and the sun not giving us light literally, we're talking about the destruction of the heavens and earth. But that leads me to my other subject, which I don't have that much time for. The heavens and the earth. The Bible talks about the new heavens and the new earth. That also, I'm not saying every time you see the word heaven and every time you see the word earth, you don't take it literally. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying the concept of the new heavens and the new earth, is a metaphoric concept that is a representation of Israel under the New Covenant. In other words, the old heavens and earth represent Old Covenant Israel. The new heavens and earth represents New Covenant Israel. The old heavens and earth represents Old Jerusalem. God, because of their sin in murdering the prophets and finally of murdering Christ, God would judge that old covenant nation. God would judge Jerusalem who killed the prophets. He would destroy her. And that is, in God's mind, the destruction of the old heavens and earth. On its ashes, he will create the new heavens and earth, which is Israel under the new and better covenant. He's going to destroy old Jerusalem and create the new Jerusalem, which we are in Christ. Now, if this seems far-fetched, this kind of metaphor, again, it comes straight from the Bible. Let me give you some examples. Like right in the very beginning of Isaiah. See, we keep going to Isaiah. Isaiah is chock full of this stuff. There's no way I can scratch the surface in an hour's tape to talk to you about it. Well, let me do what I can do. Isaiah 1, verse 1. The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. Let me stop there. The prophet says, hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth. Now, is Isaiah speaking to the literal heavens and earth? That's who he addressed. After all, the Bible, God says what he means, it means what he says. We learned a literal hermeneutic when we went to Dallas Theological Seminary. Well, maybe you did, but maybe you were short-changed when you paid the money for going to Dallas Theological Seminary. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth. Isaiah is not speaking to the trees, the rocks, the mountains, and the grass, and the oceans, and the stars, and the sun, the moon. but they are metaphoric representations of Israel. This is the Hebrew prophet speaking to the Hebrew nation. He addresses them as the heavens and the earth. It's just very simple. Isaiah 1, 1-2. If you jump over to Deuteronomy 32, you'll see the same thing in the Song of Moses. He addresses the heavens and the earth. Well, obviously Moses was speaking to the children of Israel. not to the planets of the heavens, the planets in the solar system and in the universe and then to earth. No, he is addressing his covenant people, Israel. Go to Isaiah 51. Now in Isaiah 51, I have to do this kind of quickly to get what I can in, but Isaiah 51, verse 15. But I am the Lord thy God, Now when he says, I am the Lord thy God, obviously he is speaking to the children of Israel, Hebrew prophet to the Hebrew people, I am the Lord thy God, so he's speaking to Israel, that divided the sea. So he says, Hebrew prophet says to the Hebrew people, I am the Lord your God and I divided the sea. Huh, what does he mean by that? What sea did he divide? Well, obviously the Red Sea in the Exodus. that divided the sea, whose waves roared, the Lord of hosts is his name." So the Lord is bringing up their exodus, they're leaving Egyptian bondage, and where are they going when they leave Egyptian bondage? They're going to receive the law at Sinai, and then to, well, they should until they sin, then they would take the land of Canaan with that covenant in hand and possess the land and become God's nation. The Lord is talking about His making them a nation proper. He's gonna take them out of Egyptian bondage. They'd never become a nation proper. They had no land, they had no covenant status with God. I mean, they were in covenant, but they didn't have the covenant delivered to them. So they would go to Sinai, get the covenant, God would give them the land and make them a nation, and they would be his nation. He's bringing that up, okay? He says, I am the Lord thy God that divided the sea, whose waves roared, the Lord of hosts is his name, and I have put my words in thy mouth. What does he mean by that? Well, he led them across the Red Sea, divided the sea, then he gave them his law, and he put the law in their mouths. They were to recite it to each other. They were to talk about the law and to remember the law and to think upon the law when they rose up, when they laid down, when they walked by the way, right? He put the law in their mouth. And I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, Now, why did he do all this? Why did he deliver them from Egyptian bondage, apart the Red Sea, give them the law and put the law in their mouth and give them the land? Why did he make them his nation? He tells us why. That I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth. Now, newsflash, God did not create the physical heavens and earth when he made Israel a nation. The earth already existed, okay, before the exodus and the giving of the law. Obviously, God does not mean that he's creating the literal heavens and earth, but what he's saying is, when I made my people a nation, when I blessed them and made them my own, delivered them from Egyptian bondage, gave them the terms of the covenant, the Mosaic law, and formed them in the land, when I made them a nation and my people proper." What I was doing is I was creating the heavens and the earth. He says, I did all this that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth and say unto Zion, thou art my people. The children of Israel are referred to by God, metaphorically, as the heavens and earth. And when he made the nation, he describes it as the creation of the heavens and earth. Now that's the original creation, metaphorically. That's the creation of the heavens and earth. One day, the heavens and earth has to be destroyed. And what's he do when he destroys the old heavens and earth? He creates a new heavens and earth. That new heavens and earth, he destroys Jerusalem. He destroys old covenant Israel. He does it in 70 AD, he does it in the generation that Jesus said he would, just like we've been talking about. You say, well, then God's breaking his promise to Abraham and he's giving up on the Jewish people and he's not, no, no, no, no. He is not breaking his promise to Abraham, he's keeping it. But he's going to purge from their midst the unbelievers. He's gonna purge them with fire and with the spirit of judgment. in the first century, in 70 AD, at the parousia, that's the word used in Matthew 24, at the parousia of the coming of the Lord in judgment upon Jerusalem. And once he destroys the old heavens and earth of old covenant Israel, he creates the new heavens and earth, which is Israel now under the new covenant. Remember, the so-called church, the body of Christ, the ecclesia, the assembly of Christ, was at first made up of all Jews. Eventually, the Gentiles would be grafted in to the Commonwealth of Israel. The Jews didn't join a Gentile church. The Gentiles joined the promises God made to Abraham and the nation of Israel. That's Ephesians 2. So God called out his people, and his people, they were all Jews, right? The apostles were Jews, okay? The New Testament was written by Jewish people, right? Maybe with the exception of Luke, right? God's covenant nation. He would not break his promise to Abraham. He was going to fulfill it, so he would purge out from that olive tree, that cultivated olive tree, the dead branches that walk in unbelief. Yes, he'd cut them off, 70 AD, and he'd destroy the whole old covenant order because now he's going to establish his messianic kingdom, which he did 2,000 years ago. We're born again into that kingdom. The kingdom doesn't come by observation like the dispensationalists say. If someone says low here or low there, go check it out. Don't go. The kingdom of God doesn't come by observation. The kingdom of God is within you. It's a spiritual kingdom. You say, oh, that's not as good. It's not as real. No, the physical is not as good and not as real as the spiritual, which is everlasting. God is a spirit and God is eternal. This focus and fixation we have on the flesh is out of place as Christians. Now, so I've shown you from Isaiah 1, I mentioned Deuteronomy 32, and I've shown you Isaiah 51. Look, the heavens and the earth are metaphoric representations of God's covenant people, Israel. Well, I don't have time to get into all this, but if you go to Isaiah 65, boy oh boy, I'll tell you Isaiah 64, 65, and 66 is about the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century, the termination of the old covenant earth, old covenant nation, the old heavens and earth, and the creation of the new heavens and earth. And it's very obvious in Isaiah 65 that new heavens and earth is a metaphoric representation of the ecclesia, the church, the body of Christ, which is nothing more than Israel under the new covenant, seeing that Jesus came to destroy the old covenant and establish the new. to establish his kingdom. That's why he came to this earth. John the Baptist said he preached the kingdom was at hand. Jesus preached the kingdom was at hand. Schofield and the dispensationalists say, well, he had to postpone it. That makes Jesus and John the Baptist false prophets, and according to Moses, they would be worthy of death. Therefore, I utterly reject dispensational theology. I have to, as a Bible believer. Now, when you read Isaiah 64 to 65, I don't have time to get into it all, but let me show you a couple of things. In the end of 64, verses nine through 12, read it, it's obviously about the destruction of Jerusalem. Verse 10, thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. He's talking about the destruction of Jerusalem. And by the way, Isaiah wrote before Jerusalem was ever destroyed. You can't say it's the destruction from the Babylonian captivity, no. That's not when this has taken place. I'll show you that. Verse 11, our holy and our beautiful house where our fathers praised thee is burned up with fire and all our pleasant things are laid waste. That's the destruction of the temple. Now you say, but he speaks in the past tense. Oftentimes the prophets gave prophetic words about the future using past tense language because they're communicating the visions that they saw. You say, Well, I don't have time to get into all that, but look at the next sentence, verse one of chapter 65. I am sought of them that ask not for me. I am found of them that sought me not. I said, behold me, behold me unto a nation that was not called by my name. The apostle uses that verse to talk about the calling of the Gentiles, it being fulfilled in the calling of the Gentiles. This is placing it in our day, in the first century destruction of Jerusalem. In verse 8 he says, Thus saith the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it, so will I do for my servants' sake, that I may not destroy them all. So Jerusalem would be destroyed, but he would preserve a remnant, and that would be the Jewish remnant that believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when Jesus said, when you see the armies surround Jerusalem, when you see the abomination of desolation, don't go back, don't go back and get your coat or anything, you flee and live. And that's what those Jewish believers did. And those that stayed behind and did not take the counsel of Jesus would die horrible and miserable deaths in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. And in verse 14, well, verse 15, and ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen, for the Lord God shall slay thee and call his servants by another name. That is a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD and the calling out of the body of Christ, the Christians. See, I just don't have time to develop all this. In verse 13 and 14, someone could say, well, maybe this passage is about the destruction of Jerusalem at the time of the Babylonian captivity. No, look at verse 13. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, my servant shall eat, but ye shall be hungry. Behold, my servant shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty. Behold, my servant shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed. You've got the obedient servants, which he'll bless, the disobedient servants, which he will judge and destroy. And when he does destroy them, the righteous will rejoice." Well, hey, in the Babylonian captivity, Jeremiah and the ref did not rejoice in the destruction of the Holy Land. There's no rejoicing in the destruction of Jerusalem. the days of the Babylonian captivity. But there is rejoicing of the destruction of mystery Babylon Jerusalem in the first century, the centerpiece of anti-Christian activity and the murder of Christians. And verse 17, For behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come to mind. He talks about the destruction of Jerusalem and attaches it to the creation of a new heavens and a new earth. The former heavens and earth will not be remembered. You know what, if you read the rest of the chapter, he goes on to say, after he creates this new heavens and new earth, which is not the eternal state after the millennium, and I say that because read verses 19 to the end. He goes on to describe about the new heavens and new earth, there'll be no more weeping and crying, but there'll be death. Women will give birth, people will be building houses, sinners will exist. Do you believe that sinners exist in the eternal state? Do you believe women will still be given birth? You know, Jesus said there's no marriage and given in marriage in heaven. If that's true, then, and if Isaiah 65 is about the new heavens and new earth, which obviously it is, read 17 to the end, There's childbirth. How are these women given birth? There's no marriage. So is this just one continual orgy? Is that the eternal state? No! Now look, I'm out of time. I'm trying to open your minds to the reality of prophetic language. There's a lot to learn. And I hope that in what I've done so far, I've given you an overview to at least raise some questions and to further your hunger and thirst for study. And yeah, sometimes you have to go back to the drawing board. Yes, I call for a new Reformation, a Reformation that deals with eschatology and end time things. I think it's due. I think it's due. Well, look, my time is up. Remember our website, clayvilleassembly.com. This is Jim Gallagher reminding you in the words of our blessed Lord and Savior, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.