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going into a particular segment that I think I did it maybe the first year I was here, but it's very apropos, if you will, has a strong nexus to what we've been teaching about, specifically about the pre-tribulation rapture. One thing that, and we're gonna go to the Olivet Discourse, Matthew chapter 24, to get us going for the next half an hour or so. And one of the things with this particular passage unfortunately, it is very often misused. There are many prophecy teachers that are split over what Matthew chapter 24 is referring to, good teachers. Most things that we probably would agree on, this is one particular passage that has caused some serious controversy, if you will, and here's why. What is the next Of course, from our perspective, what is the next major event on God's prophetic calendar? The rapture of the church. Now, the ones that disagree with what we're going to be teaching today believe the exact same thing in a pre-tribulation rapture. Those that oppose a pre-tribulation rapture are not even in view right now. So there's a schism or a division doctrinally between those that believe Matthew chapter 24 is talking about the pre-tribulation rapture, and those of us, on the other hand, that believe Matthew 24 is specific to talking about the next major event after the seven-year tribulation period, which is what? The coming of? The coming of? The coming of Christ at his second advent. All right, so his first advent we all know happened when? At what we celebrate Christmas on, which is coming up. That was his first advent. The rapture, which is totally different than the second coming, the rapture as we've been going through the last several weeks is specific to what group of people? Well, it's the Church Age Saints. It has nothing to do with the Old Testament. It has nothing to do with the future prophetic calendar starting in Daniel 9.27, which deals with the Tribulation, the Millennium, and all the other different events that are coming. So many, unfortunately, in my strong opinion, and I've written a book on this, Tribulation to Triumph, Dr. Tommy Ice, who many of you know maybe from VCY, wrote a companion book on this as well. Many other prophecy teachers hold to the position I'm going to be teaching this morning. Then there's those that are adamant that the things talked about in Matthew chapter 24 are 100% about the next major event, which is the rapture of the church. Again, I totally oppose that view. And if you've been with us the last four or five weeks that we've been going through this, here's the reason why. How many signs have to occur before Jesus comes back at the rapture? Zero, none, nada, none. Matthew chapter 24 is actually a companion passage to Revelation chapter 6, the seal judgments. And we'll see some of the other things and some of the other judgments as we move further down as we study Matthew chapter 24. So I've given you a basic outline that I'm going to be following. And let me see, I think I got to put a chart or two on the back. All right. We'll get to the slide on this, but go to where the two pictures are in the back page. What we're going to see then is that Matthew chapter 24 and then of course Mark 13 and Luke 21 are the companion passages to the Olivet Discourse when Jesus is talking to the disciples, the Jewish disciples before the church age began about the signs that will precede his second coming. And we'll see that as we start going through the passage. So the reason I gave you that chart is to prove a point. These signs have nothing whatsoever to do with the rapture of the church. They have everything to do with what is going to be taking place during the seven years or Daniel's 70th week before the second coming. Again, we did a complete lesson on this. The rapture, okay, think for a moment, the rapture versus the second coming. The rapture is not the second coming, it is not the second advent. Does Jesus come to the earth physically at the rapture? No, he comes in the clouds, he comes in the air and the dead in Christ rise first and we which are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds, in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4, 13 to 18. What we're gonna see in Matthew chapter 24 are multiple signs that Jesus is telling his Jewish disciples about that will mark the tribulation period. So now the biggest problem and why this passage is so often misused is because of me and you were brought up with the entire Bible. We know Genesis through Revelation. The disciples did not know Genesis through Revelation. They knew basically the Old Testament and they knew some of the content of things that would be in the New Testament, but did they have a physical copy of the New Testament in their hand? They did not. In fact, sorry, I've spilled enough things up here today. And here's kind of a tricky little question. When? Did the complete canon of Scripture get put into one book? What year? Approximately what year or what era? We're talking 300 AD, actually, when everything was finally put together and they settled on things. You say, 300? Now, the canon was done by 100 AD. but you had scholars and writers and people going between, and we'll just put it out there, the Catholic Church and others that were in disagreement, and it's like, well, do we include, and he went through what were known as the pseudepigraphical books or the apocryphal books, and the other books that existed. And it's like, well, what truly is scripture? So it took a long time really before this finally got finalized, if you will. So, but again, did the manuscripts exist back? Everything was done by the first century, but it just took forever to get this thing put together where people could have a full copy of the entire word of God. So keep that in mind. So what we're going to be looking at now, we're going to start a course in Matthew chapter 24 verse one, and some of you, again, if you've been with me all five years, a little of this might, some of this will be repetition, but folks, this is a huge, huge issue, and it's a major issue, even among Bible-believing Christians that believe in the pre-tribulation rapture, and they try to assign things from Matthew chapter 24, which means then you gotta put Revelation chapter six as part of the, what the church age would be involved in, Folks, we are not in Daniel, or we are not in Revelation chapter five through 19 because the rapture takes place. So all the judgments that are reiterated between Matthew chapter 24 and Revelation six, we're not part of. That's part of the Jewish prophetic calendar. It's part of Daniel's 70th week from Daniel 9.27. Some of these things should start to be familiar now. We've gone through everything I just said. We've gone through in the first five lessons. So and I get it it takes time to digest all this it's a lot I've only been working at this for about four decades almost five now and So yeah, it takes some time maybe to digest it all But we try to make it as simple as possible All right, let's start Contextually what's taking place Matthew chapter 24? Jesus is with his disciples. The disciples go into the temple. So is that the first temple or the second temple? It's the second temple. First one was torn down in 586 B.C., second one was put up in 515 B.C., and the second one came down in what year? 70 A.D., when the Romans came in and destroyed it. So when Jesus is going into the second temple, who had refurbished the temple, Herod. In other words, the second temple actually was, according to historical records, was not that ornate, wasn't that beautiful. Herod was trying to get the favor of the Jewish people. He's like, the only way I can, he's like, how can I get favor with the Jewish people? How can I make them love me? He's like, that temple, man, that's kind of a rinky dink temple, doesn't look that good. I know, and Herod was a master builder. So he's like, I wanna make the most beautiful building that Jewish people have ever seen. They'll love me, they'll jump on my bandwagon, they'll support me, life will be great. Well, that's what Herod did. And he did build probably one of the greatest structures of all time, up at least until that time, in being the second temple. All right, so Jesus walks out of the temple and his disciples are with him, verse one. And Jesus went out and departed from the temple and his disciples came to show him for to show him the buildings of the temple. In other words, they're walking out of this beautiful, massive temple. It's gorgeous, it's beautiful. And the disciples say, Jesus, wow, this is amazing. Take a look at this giant, beautiful building. And he does. So back in the day, of course, and if you can look, That's actually the top of the Mount of Olives. You can see the gold dome building, which is the Dome of the Rock, where the Dome of the Rock is in that picture, which of course is a fairly modern picture. That's where the first and the second temples stood. By the way, just for reference, everything that goes down here is what's known as the city of Okay, so actually the archaeological ruins, a lot of them have been uncovered, especially up closer to where you see that little bit of a white fence line there. David's palace has been partially uncovered, but that's all archaeological things. The point is, The temple was seated right there where you see the big giant box, if you will, which is where you see the Dome of the Rock. Well, that was the temple mount for the second temple. And of course it had been rebuilt some due to demolition and wars and whatever that took place in Israel. All right, so just give you a little more reference here. When you look up at the temple mount, it slopes down. And again, this isn't the best picture in the world, but it slopes down, which is known as the Kidron Valley, right next to where the Temple Mount is. Then you go across the Kidron Valley and you start to ascend the Mount of Olives. So that gives you at least a little bit of point of reference as to what we're looking at. So a little bit closer up, what we're looking at here, again, everybody here is pretty familiar with the Dome of the Rock. The end of the Temple Mount, you can see the wall starts here. goes all the way around and it's rather large. That's the Muslim shrine, of course, the Dome of the Rock. This is what's known right here. Have you ever heard of the word Al-Aqsa? The Al-Aqsa Mosque. This is where multiple, several thousand Muslims come on Friday night, or Friday afternoon, and they pray to their god, Allah, and this is the place they meet. So again, it's right on the southern part of the Temple Mount, The Muslim shrine or the Dome of the Rock is in the middle. They do not meet in there. That's simply a shrine representing where the Muslims believe that Muhammad ascended to heaven on a horse, which of course is their belief. It's not ours. All right, then again, you see where the Mount of Olives is. So if you were walking to the east, you go down into the Kidron Valley, and then you can ascend up into the Mount of Olives. Well, Jesus happens to be walking out of the temple, not the dome of the rock, and he's coming out of the temple with his disciples. They see that beautiful building and they start asking him about it. And it's like, boy, it's just beautiful. I'm gonna point out a couple other things just for fun. All right, so again, you see the big wall, that's part of the temple mount. Do you see all these what look kind of like stones here? Those are Jewish graves. Now, some of you have seen these pictures before. Those are Jewish graves. They're Orthodox Jews that buy those graves. I'll switch sides here for a moment. I can get closer to the screen. You see right here? That is the Eastern Gate. The Eastern Gate. Who said they're going to come through the Eastern Gate when he returns? That is second coming. Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus the Messiah. The Jewish people, knowing that that's from the Old Testament, purchased those graves. They spent between, back in the day when I first started to go in Israel, there were about $100,000 a grave site, 100,000. Now they're going upwards of $1 million American money. You say, well, why is that? Because the Orthodox Jews believe falsely that when Jesus the real, well, they won't call him Jesus. They believe that when the Messiah comes, and of course, they don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah. They believe that when the Messiah comes, he's going to come from the east and enter onto the Temple Mount area. Well, that part's true, but they falsely believe that if they're here, that when the Messiah passes over them, that they'll be the first ones to be resurrected. That's out of the mission of Talmud extra biblical writings. But they honestly believe it, so they're willing to spend a million bucks to get a gravesite that's close to where they believe the Messiah will come. Let's see, one other little thing here. All right, so that basically is a red box. I'm going to show you one other red box. Actually, it's a little bit low. It should be up. It must have popped down a little bit when we popped it. All right. It literally should be up this whole area along the wall. That's where that box should be. Do you know who's buried there? Who's been in my class before? Say what? Are they, are they Jews? Nope. Who are they? They're not Jews and it's Israel. Who else could it be? Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims. The Muslims believe that and they had control over this area. So the Muslims basically they buried their dead Muslim bodies right up against the wall when they had control of it. Why did they do that? Because the Messiah will absolutely not want to defile himself by crossing over those graves. I mean dead serious. So the Muslims buried their bodies there, and it's like, well, this will prevent the Messiah from ever entering the Temple Mount. Well, the one thing, they didn't really read the whole Old Testament, so they didn't get the whole picture. You see, when the end of the seven-year tribulation happens, this is, again, I'm caveating a bit, when the seven-year tribulation ends, will the second temple be there? Well, that's already gone, so will there be the third temple there? Will the third temple be on the temple mount during the seven-year tribulation? And I'm giving you a hint, okay? Bobblehead. What happens when Jesus returns? That third temple goes bye-bye, destroyed, taken out. Now we haven't gone, we're doing this on Wednesday nights, but we're not even close yet. Ezekiel 40 to 48 gives the dimensions of the land and the fourth temple where Jesus will ruin rain from. It's bigger than the entire span of Jerusalem right now. Much, much bigger. The topography is going to change. Actually, Israel itself, based on the dimensions, is actually going to pick up a land mass. God's going to pull it out of the sea or build it into the sea. I don't know how he's doing it. But it's going to be massive. The fourth temple will be bigger than all three of them combined. But that's another story. Bottom line is, The Muslims, their graves are gonna be gone. The Jewish graves are gonna be gone. Jesus is gonna come. And by the way, let's see, the first temple, do a little history here, quiz. The first temple, who was it mainly known as built by? The temple of whom? What? Solomon, very good. The second temple, not the addition, the second temple was basically known as whose temple? Starts with a Z. Zerubbabel, and then Herod of course refurbished it. The third temple basically is going to be a pagan temple. You say pagan, it's gonna be a Jewish temple. They're gonna be doing sacrifices and serving God. Well, the reason that it's not going to be an accepted temple is because they do go back to the old time Jewish system, but did they accept the Messiah? No, they reject him. So in essence, the glory of God will not enter that third temple. And by the way, did the glory of God enter the second temple? Nope, left the first temple back in Ezekiel 10 and has never returned. Will the glory of God come into the temple where a whole lot more than the glory of God's gonna come in, who's gonna rule and reign from inside the temple? Christ himself from the tribe of Judah, where he'll take the Davidic covenant, if you will, where the descendant of David, 2 Samuel 7, 6-16, when Jesus will walk in and be King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Zechariah chapter six, I believe verse seven and eight tells us that Jesus himself, the branch, will build that fourth temple. You say, how's he gonna build it? I think he's gonna say, here it comes, and there it is. I honestly do, because it says the branch or Messiah will build the temple. All right, very quick then. Temple Mount is literally at the edge of the right side of your screen. The Kidron Valley is basically that street that you see. Again, in Israel, there's a Catholic or Russian Orthodox, whatever, shrine to every single thing. So you come down out of the Temple Mount. This is where the Garden of Gethsemane literally is. It's still there today being commemorated. And then you come out of that and you ascend up into the Mount of Olives and of course, You see that spire, which is where they believe that Jesus actually ascended from. All right. Again, when we look at the Middle East and we look at Africa and the Asia Minor area, that little tip of the, literally the tip of that arrow is where Israel is. And all that, everything that you see in prophecy all revolves around Herushalayim, Jerusalem. A little teeny tiny dot on All right, very quick, most of you are familiar with this now. So what are we looking at? And what are we going to try to look at as we go through Matthew chapter 24? All right, so currently we live in the Church Age. What side of the cross does the Church Age start on? I don't know, what do you say, the right side? I don't know. But it is the right side. The cross takes place. The church age does not begin until after the death, bail, or resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's why two weeks ago, we went through Ephesians 3, 1-7, Colossians 1, 24-29, and Romans 16, 25 and 26, which talked about the mystery of the Jew and Gentile coming to Christ. The issue, why did we go through Daniel 9, 24-27? Because the Jewish prophetic calendar says in Daniel 9, 26, for a little review, Two events would take place. Messiah would come and be cut off or crucified and the second temple would be destroyed. The next segment in Daniel 9.27 talks about the Antichrist confirming a peace treaty with the Jewish people which starts the 70th week of Daniel or the seven year tribulation period. Except for the cross, everything on that scene involves the church age. It involves Jew and Gentile coming to Christ right now. Nothing dealing with the law. No Jewish temple. Why is the third temple going to be built? It's part of the Jewish system. Daniel 9.27. The Jews want it. It's going to happen. It's part of the Jewish prophetic calendar, not the Gentile or the church age, if you will. All right. So then what's going to take place? When we look at Matthew chapter 24, which is what I put at the bottom of the screen, that encompasses everything from the start of the seven-year tribulation all the way up through the second coming of Christ. Nothing dealing with the rapture of the church. The one passage that has caused more trouble than any other is the one in Matthew 24 that talks about two people will be out in the field, one will be taken and one will be left. Well, that has to be the rapture. No, it doesn't. No, one will be taken in judgment, and the other is left. In other words, the rapture, what do we do? At the rapture, you're taken and brought to heaven. It's a bliss thing. It's a good thing. It's a wonderful thing. In Matthew, we're talking about judgment. So if you don't subscribe to that, by the time we get through with the passage, which will not be today, by the way, It'll take several weeks to get through this, but we're just opening and setting the stage right now. All right, so what are we looking at? Matthew chapter 24, one to three, Jesus and his disciples leave the temple. This is the week of the crucifixion. What we're going to see in verse two and three, which we should get to, is Jesus is going to prophesy the destruction of the second temple. You and I already know the end, that it was destroyed in AD 70. So we know what he prophesied came to pass. And then we're gonna look at two questions the disciples asked Jesus. So let's see if we can get through that. All right, where are we at? Jesus prophesies destruction of the temple. All right, verse two, and I'm gonna skip this cause we don't want that yet. All right, Matthew 24, two. So they come out of the temple and Jesus said to them, See not all these things. Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. All right, so the first question, it's not even a question. Simply, they walk out, they're excited, they look at this beautiful, massive temple, and Jesus said, hey guys, coming down. They're like, what? Again, for those that have gone through this before with me, I like to talk about the Twin Towers at this point. Twin Towers, massive, beautiful, gigantic buildings, tons and tons and tons of steel and concrete. No way on earth could they ever fall down. And the Jewish people are looking at this temple and it's like, what are you talking about? How in the world can that be? How could that building come down? And Jesus said, it's coming down. And you looked up at the twin towers and you're standing in front of them and you can't even see the top. You're bending your neck up trying to see it. Next thing you know, what happens? Twin towers are down. Next thing you know, the second temple is down. Huh. So we look at this beautiful, massive temple. And this is, of course, artist's rendition of it. But this is the way they believe it looked back in the day. Beautiful. I mean, just ornate. Inherit a course is the one that refurbished, if you will, that second temple and made it the beautiful structure that it is. But this is a prophecy. Now let's go back here to Daniel 9.26. Daniel, and we've already gone through this passage a couple of weeks ago, and after three score and two weeks, or after 62 weeks, and then if you look at the previous verse, it talks about another seven weeks. So we're looking at after the first 69 weeks of Daniel's 70th prophecy, What's going to happen? Messiah will be cut off. Was Jesus cut off? Was he crucified? It happened exactly as Daniel prophesied. What else did he prophesy 500 years before it happened? Well, he was crucified, but not for himself and the people, which we now know are the Romans, of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. So it prophesied the destruction of what? The second temple. Did that happen? Yeah, it happened 570 years after Daniel prophesied it, but we have Jesus prophesied it, Matthew prophesied regarding this, and it took place, just as Jesus said in verse two. All right, so this beautiful gigantic temple is going to come down. All right, so basically, we know that this happened. How do we know? Because history tells us. Josephus, first century historian, wrote about the destruction of the Second Temple. When the Romans came in, it was a horrible slaughter. Romans came in and the priests actually, according to Josephus, gathered around, if you're just pretending this was the altar, the priests would have gathered around in front of it trying to protect it from being torn from being destroyed, from being torn down. They were butchered by the Romans. As you can see, artist's rendition, throwing over the side of the temple walls, everything was torn down. Why did the Romans destroy that temple? Two reasons. One is, did you ever hear of the fire in Rome? Nero And of course, he read different historical accounts, but according to some, Nero lost his mind, burned Rome down. That's a theory. Others say it, you know, others caused that tragedy in Rome. But what happens when you lose your city? Well, what do you need? Show me the money. So Titus's dad, Vespasian says, hey, buddy, you know, those Jews are a pain in the neck. I want you to go there and wipe them out. They're just they're nothing but a problem. He says, we got a second problem, though, that's even bigger. Our city's destroyed and we need a ton of money to get this thing back built again. So I want you to go to that temple in Jerusalem. That thing has got tons and tons of gold and precious metals and all sorts of great stuff. Go to Jerusalem, tear that bugger down and get every possible thing you can and bring it back to Rome. Did that happen? It did. So Titus being a good son, along with Domitian, by the way, was his brother, Titus heads over. and does exactly that. Jesus said, not one stone will be left upon another that will not be cast down. Why did they have to tear that thing apart stone by stone? To get all the precious metals and things off of the stones. So that's what happened. So that beautiful building gets destroyed. And what happens? Well, if you go to Israel today, and this is a recent, not that long ago, maybe 10 years ago, I took it. Okay, you see this big pile of boulders right there? I don't know if you could see over there. See this big giant pile of boulders right here. All right. At the base of that is what's known as a Herodian street built by Herod. When the Romans came in and destroyed the second temple, they pushed those giant boulders over the side and you see one of the piles that happens to be left there. By the way, this entire thing that you're looking at right now was under earth. It had been dug up, and I don't know how many years ago, but the archaeologists began to dig the things out, and you see what there is today. You see, like, you can see two people standing there. Again, not super clear, but those were basically, back in the day, they were like stores. So across from the temple could have been those that were selling things to sacrificial animals and stuff like that. So again, the red box here shows those are first century stones that were literally thrown over the side that were part of the original second temple. So is there any other documentation on this? Well, glad you asked. If you go to Rome There's this particular structure that's called the Arch of Titus, built in AD 80, shortly after the 70 AD destruction. On the inside of that structure has multiple, let's just call them frescoes. If you look at this, this is on the inside of the Arch of Titus. If you come underneath the arch and look up, you can see this. Do you see anything that looks familiar up there that might be in a temple? Like the seven branch candelabra, which is one of the items the Romans took from the temple and took to where? Rome. So that's a documentation. Again, that sits on the inside when you're standing underneath it and you look up, you will see this particular rendition. Here's another one that just basically points out the one object that of course you'll be familiar with, which is a candelabra. All right, so did Daniel's prophecy about the destruction of the temple come true? Absolutely. Did what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 24, verse two, did that come to fulfillment? Absolutely, all right. So there's the documentation on the destruction of the second temple. All right, I don't wanna get too much into this, but what sits on the temple mount now is what's known as, and we went through this a little bit with the pictures, the Islamic shrine known as the Dome of the Rock, which was built in AD 691. Now, folks, I don't mean to be unkind to my Muslim friends, and I love the Muslim people. I hate their religion, but I love the Muslim people, the Islamic folks. Here's a little tough question for them to have to answer. When did Islam begin? When did Islam begin? Yeah, we're talking around 600 AD is when it started because Muhammad comes on the scene and that's literally when the concept of Islam began. Now that will drive them absolutely crazy, telling you that they've always existed, that the Temple Mount was always a Muslim Temple Mount, or whatever they wanna call it. They won't call it a Temple Mount, because they don't believe the temple ever existed there, but it did. By the way, and this, I'm really getting off track here, but if you go back to, let's just flip one slide here. All right. So the second, our contention is where you see the Dome of the Rock, That's where the second temple stood. This is the Kidron Valley, right here. Make sure I'm right. Nope, wrong side. Where am I going? South side, east side. Yeah, this is the Kidron Valley, I'm sorry. All right, so you see the Al-Aqsa Mosque, you see the Dome of the Rock, Kidron Valley, what would be up here? Mount of Olives. So what the Muslims did, They came in through the southern walls. Those were Solomon's stables. They went underneath the structure of the temple where Solomon's stables were, and they took hundreds of dump trucks of first and second temple artifacts out of there. You say, well, how do you know that? Because I got pictures of it. I didn't put it in this presentation, but there's pictures of it, hundreds of dump trucks of stuff that they pulled out from underneath the temple mount. And in their infinite wisdom, they said, well, we need to hide these things because we can't have anybody find them. So they drive no more than a few miles down the road in the Kidron Valley and dump everything in a pile. And archeologists have uncovered thousands of first and second century artifacts from that pile. It's like, come on guys, think a little bit. Anyway, well, I'm glad they didn't think because now we have all the artifacts. By the way, that southern wall, which is right under the Al-Aqsa Mosque, started to cave in from all the stuff they took out. So the antiquities people and the Jewish antiquities, they had to rebuild the wall because it was literally caving in from all the artifacts that they pulled out of there. All right, let's move on. So again, very quickly, Dome of the Rock, beautiful building. I've been there multiple times. I've never been able to get in because They don't like Gentile Americans touching their Dome of the Rock. You can look at the outside, take pictures, but you can't go in and see this. All right, I'm getting off track again, but do you know what we're looking at here? So this is the top of the Dome of the Rock. You're looking down. What is that beautiful, ornate thing sitting underneath the Dome of the Rock? All right, that is the top of Mount Moriah. That is the top of Mount Moriah sitting right underneath that gold dome structure. What does that tell us? Who bought Mount Moriah in 1000 BC? King David. threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Now, if you, there is, and I'm not going to swear by this, if you will, or testify to it, I don't mean swear in a bad way, but testify to it. It is believed by Jewish rabbis, it is believed, and Jimmy DeYoung was a strong proponent of this, that not only is it the top of Mount Moriah, not only is it the place where We have the offering of the sun, but what else happened? Well, they believe, specifically the Jewish people believe that that is the quote unquote, and I heard somebody say it, the foundation stone, where Adam and Eve were created. And you say, well, that means that the Garden of Eden had to be there. Yes, it does. So that raises a bunch of different questions, which I'm not gonna get into right now. But the bottom line is we know beyond a shadow of a doubt That is the place where David bought, that the temple would be built, and where the Ark of the Covenant would have been right on to the top of that particular place. Many of you have sent me links to videos, by the way, I've seen probably every one there is to see, of those who deny that the Temple Mount is where the first and the second temple stood. You can't deny the top of Mount Moriah, it's there. Well, but they say it's in the city of David and it's here. Okay, if you wanna buy it, you can buy it, I ain't buying it. Archeologically, it just does not fit the picture and it does not fit the biblical narrative. It's got to be exactly where the Dome of the Rock stands today. Again, if you disagree with that, we're fine, we'll agree to disagree, but that is an important place. Okay, so we have the Dome of the Rock, that big gold dome building built in 691, the Al-Aqsa Mosque with the pewter dome was built in 705 AD. Why do we care about that? Well folks, and again, we don't, we're never trying to be unkind to another group, but we gotta be realistic. That's why we need to be biblically literate and historically literate. The Muslim religion, the Islamic religion didn't start until about 600 A.D., a little bit after that, when Muhammad comes on the scene. It is not an eternal religion. It is not an eternal faith. It is something that started in the A.D. time of life. When did Christianity, well, strike that. When did God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when did that begin? What year? Approximately what year? 4000 B.C. 4,000 BC, not 680. That's a huge difference, folks. And it's like, well, no, that's a 4,500 year problem that they can't answer. And there's no documentation on anything. All right, so again, The Al-Aqsa Mosque, which you see the pewter dome, that as well, I've been able to peek inside that. It's a huge, giant area. It would be like this church bar, I don't know how many times over. There's no chairs in there, of course. The Muslim people go in, they use the mats and so forth. So their seating is very cheap. They don't have to buy pews or chairs. They just bring in little rug mats and they bow themselves before their God, Allah. All right, well, I see I'm out of time, so I'm gonna end with this concept, and then we'll get to the questions that the disciples asked Jesus next week. All right, so based on the historical biblical narrative, and we've talked about this many a time in church, why is there not a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount today? Well, the reason being is because God made it clear there ain't gonna be one. The third temple will be built according to Daniel 9.27 when the Antichrist confirms a covenant or a peace treaty with the Jewish people, then the third temple can be built and not a second before. So those that think that, well, can the temple be built during the church age? No. I have 2000 years of history to prove that point. No, it's not going up. because God made it clear that for me and you, Christian, no, you not, Christian, that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you. So where's the Holy Spirit, folks? I mean, he's omnipresent, but where does he dwell? With the church age, he's in every single one of us. 1 Corinthians 6, oops, 1 Corinthians 6, 19. What? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own. For you were bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. All right, so, and we're not gonna go here, I'm just gonna flip the slide. Next week when we come back, the disciples are going to be asking Jesus the two pertinent questions that are going to pinpoint that they're not talking about the rapture, but they're talking, if you will, about his second coming. So as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came in privately saying, Tell us, when will these things be? In other words, they were asking, when's the temple gonna be destroyed? He doesn't answer that question. Second part, when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of thy coming? What were the Jewish people looking for? The kingdom. What's gonna be the signs of your coming? And the last part that we'll look at, and of the end of the age or the end of the world. Jesus then is going to give them multiple signs Basically, tribulation signs that point to the rapture or his second coming. Second coming. Rapture wasn't even known about yet. The church age hadn't even started yet. So everything he's going to talk about is to the Jewish people about a Jewish issue about the 70th week of Daniel and what's going to happen during that 70th week of Daniel to set the stage for the second coming of Christ to the earth, not to the clouds, but to the earth. All right, stay tuned. And again, if you disagree, that's fine, but give it a hearing anyway. Father, thanks for your love for us. Thank you for the word of God, which is, it's clear, it's concise, it's accurate. And Father, as you've told all of us, and we all need to do this, 2 Timothy 2.15, we all need to study to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen, workwomen that need not to be ashamed, rightly handling, rightly dividing the word of truth. So Father, I pray as we go through this material, I know there's a couple of different views on this, but Father, I pray that you give every single one of us discernment, give us insight, and then Father, that we would come to a conclusion that matches up with the word of God. So Father, bless us as we continue this study, watch over us now as we take a break, and pray that you can bring us back at six o'clock for those who are able to study Genesis, the beginning of all the things in this creation. So Father, we commit this time to you. Thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen. Have a good afternoon.
Olivet Discourse - NOT Rapture
Series God's Prophetic Calendar
Dr. Schmidt begins an examination of the Olivet Discourse, which is specific to judgments during the seven-year Tribulation that prepare the survivors of the Tribulation period for the second advent of Jesus Christ to the earth to inaugurate His earthly kingdom.
Sermon ID | 114241632335953 |
Duration | 43:30 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday School |
Bible Text | Daniel 9:24-27; Matthew 24:1-2 |
Language | English |
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