learn how to hoop first brother. Alright, I got that on the recording too. So, alright. Well, it is good. So, good to celebrate this lord's day with you guys once again. Not really feeling 100% but I'm grateful lord uh giving the strength to be here today. It's such a blessing to hear pastor Paul preach through numbers twenty-one. That was the first sermon I ever preached in my life. So, nice. Hearing that message was uh was a real blessing to my heart, you know, just because those the Bible never gets old. You know, we can hear the same message over and over and you know, we need the old old story. We need the old rugged cross and You know, that's that's the way it is. So I wanted to speak to you today. I was hoping brother Rex and some others would have been here. I didn't have the time, but I would have loved to to revise this out from to age eschatology. That's the dominant view at this church. I was going to put reformed eschatology because it is an umbrella that we believe is acceptable here at this church. If you're historic pre male, if you're post millennial, if you're a millennial, then you're reformed. You know, those things we're gonna talk about today, they go hand in hand with being confessional. So, you know, why don't I pray and then we'll get right into going through what the eschaton is and we'll go from there. Our Father and our God, we're so grateful to be a people, Lord. We're so grateful to gather, to be able to sing songs to your name and to partake of your blessed table, Lord. What a blessing to memorialize Christ and to feast on Christ and to come here and to remember your perfect work in your life, your death, your burial and resurrection. And the continuous work that you do in us, Lord, that your resurrection powers that work with you that when you raise yourself up from the dead, Lord, you raise us, quicken the dead, the elect to life so that we could cling in faith to you, Lord. And we're so grateful for that because without your mighty hand, none of us would be saved, Lord. What a great reminder today of all the blessings that we have, that we are seated in the heavenly places. And so now as we come to a lesson like this that we've been through before, although it's been about two years now, it would be good to refresh always to have our mind on our King and his kingdom. As we are kingdom citizens, Lord, help us to learn from this, that we may honor you and glorify you in all that we do, that we would bring all to the glory of God. And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, so the eschatological positions of the Reformed faith. This is a lecture, not really a sermon. I'm not gonna be yelling. Paul's like, thank you very much. You know, it's not gonna be that passionate. You know, I gotta get in, fired up, you know, type. But it's like perfect timing, so I'm sick. I don't think I can do it anyway. So I am speaking to those today who hold to the doctrines of the covenant. covenant theology and our pastor broke down 1689 federalism today and took some good shots at those who don't hold to that so that was fun but it is a form of covenant theology and it's a consistent form so it's actually going to help me start off this lecture because when we're talking about eschatology There are variances in every position. Before we get into where creation starts over here at this starting point, I wanted us to talk about This reformed eschatology, this picture, this 2A is not on here. This picture, it says reformed eschatology. We're talking about confessional, paedo, and credo Baptist views of the last things. You have to hold to a one people of God in order to be considered reformed, okay? A lot of people, like our friend Oscar Clark and brothers says, well, you are Baptist, you're not reformed. You are a particular Baptist. I have another friend who tells me the same thing, and I'm like, that's fine. Don't buy me your members only jacket for Christmas. We're still particular Baptists. We still are confessional. We still hold to a one people of God. And we have a lot of things in common with our Presbyterian brothers. And so we love our Calvinistic Baptist brothers as well. that there's two people of God. So they would not make the cut on this eschatological lecture that we're in today. And so before we get started, I kind of wanted to talk about this word right here, eschatology. I talked about it a lot last time, but I didn't really get into the beet and potatoes of it. So when the Lord said, if you want to turn with me to Psalm 2-8, my whole notes here in the New King James, so I didn't revise that out, but you can look along in whatever translation you have. So the Lord Jesus, I believe, asked of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, the Father speaking to the Son, and the ends of the earth for your possession. So Eretz in Hebrew, Efes, is land, earth, or territory ceasing or a cessation to an end. Okay, so it's very simple. The ends of the earth. This is where we get this word from. This is the Hebrew. Hebrew word, Eretz and Efes. Okay, but we see the same concept when Acts 1.8 is talking about the same end of the earth concept. It says, but to you, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. That's where we get the word, Eschatos. And the definition is last, final, utmost, extreme. And the meaning is last, finally, or to the end. So when we start talking about this eschatos, the eschaton, where do we get this doctrine of last things? It is a understanding of the kingdom, all these prophecies we have in the old covenant, where God was always in his first thought. Okay, God's always thinking in his first thought. There is no secondary or God doesn't make mistakes. There's no chance with God when God says something he means it. He doesn't suggest things. He just declares things. Okay. That's why there's declaratives imperatives. We must understand that when God declares something that's just the way it is. He's God. So when he speaks about to the ends of the earth this plan that our brothers think say, well, the kingdom of the church was You know, kind of like an afterthought or the prophets couldn't really see it was like a mountain in the way when you hear dispensation was describing, you know, this these kingdom prophecies. Okay, we're going to go through them just like we went through them last time and we're going to try to parse them out from you as best as I can. But as an amillennialist, okay, I know that I'm a passionate amillennialist. My brother Paul's a very passionate one. He's got it on the back of his bumper sticker if you see it, right? And so, but we're not divisive ones. You know, there's a big difference. You can be passionate about something. and you don't have to be divisive over it, okay? But under this umbrella, as we were just talking to Brother Jeff, that there are a distinction of different positions under the umbrella of amillennialism, okay? So when we talk about amillennialism, we're talking about the time between Christ's first and second coming, okay? We're in this time. I hear it over and over. Chileanism is what it was called in the early times, okay? Millennialism, or the kingdom age, okay, is what I prefer. A lot of my Presbyterian brothers call it that, or kingdom theology. It's one of my favorite ways to describe it, okay, because these are issues that deal with the kingdom. And so in these variations, there are classic to kingdom theology, which I would definitely consider myself. City of God, City of Man distinction as a non-millennialist. I love Augustine, Augustinian eschatology, if you want to call it that. Our brother Vox said Pauline eschatology. I'm a big fan of that book. If you want to understand what we believe, this book, The Pauline Eschatology. Do we have this book up here, Pastor Paul? Okay, I highly recommend this book. There is the Bible in the Future by Anthony Hokema, and there is my favorite, and we do have it, I think we're out of it right now, but that is A Case for Amillennialism. All right, so yes, I'm gonna promote amillennialism because I'm an amillennialist. And the majority, I think all of our elders are amillennial, I think. Both of our elders are amillennial, and both of the elders in training are both amillennial. Then there's also R2K, okay, and that's kind of a newer, that would be more of a newer way to distinguish, right? If you wanna call it that. I mean, I guess, right? So people attribute it to Escondido, to Westminster SoCal. I think that, I don't know, I mean, people aren't very charitable, so. No. It's technically two kingdoms, they're trying to do that, but it gets labeled R2K by the contentious, the autonomous, Right and they and they do have they do have Distinctives that draw them away from some people who are classical like myself who wouldn't I would not feel comfortable being called r2k because I'm about to get into that right now brother. Thank you. That's a good question So when we think of Two kingdoms and we think about the writings of Calvin or even Luther on the topic the the confessions that came out in that that Christians confessed after that were before we came to America. And so if you look at the way they said things, and the Westminster Confession was revised in 1780-something, I think, after they came to the United States. And they figured, oh, some of these relations between church and state things won't work. And so I think maybe those who get labeled with R2K maybe are impacted by that change more so than others. But I don't think there's necessarily such a huge change. It's like a whole other system. Yeah, there's definitely going to be variances. But you're right that these changes, there are things that our brothers want to be made and say, listen, we're distinct from that. And there are things where they've changed from where people who don't hold to that say, I don't want to be known as that. And so when we name these systems, sometimes we have to own what's in the system. And sometimes we don't. We can just say, I don't hold to that. So radical to kingdom, ain't got a love to do. Yeah, that's what a radical R2K. That's the pejorative. I think they might say reform. Reform. The pejorative is radical. Yeah. Yeah. I can't even get to it before Paul wants to jump on these guys. So I was going to say radical to kingdom is one way it's known, or reform to kingdom is a theological view that separates the church from the rest of society. Exposits that the church is a sacred kingdom ruled by God's law while the rest of society is a common kingdom ruled by natural law. So I think that there's nothing wrong with saying that if you're a theonomist, you're going to have a problem with that. Okay. Now, I don't have a problem with that, but I do have some problems with the application. But I'm not here to bash on other systems. I'm just going to say that I think R. Scott Clark is a good brother. There are things that I agree with him on, but there are things that I disagree with him on. And so some of this is kind of seen practically about kind of, you know, they have natural law to govern them. You know, I don't want to accuse him of anything, but I know I don't look at it that way. I say, yes, they do. It's the work of the law written on their heart, right? And they do need us to proclaim light, the pure special revelation of God. And I think our brother would agree with that. Because he was called out recently over saying that the whole thing about the transgender is in the state. I don't have a radio ministry. So one luxury of that is anytime I say something stupid, I may not get caught from week to week. I think he's a good brother, and I think he writes a lot of good stuff, and I know some people are gonna fire me for saying that, but that's the way it is. And there are other distinctions within the Amil camp. There are people who would like to be known as covenant millennialism. I think that's kind of a weird one, just because we all hold to covenant. Realized millennialism, I know that Jay Adams held to that. I kind of identify more with that. Kind of has more partial preterism. But there's also some eclectic, idealist views in there as well, with the way you look into the future. And I could have gone down all these, but we would, for time's sake, we just don't have enough time to cover all of that, right? And then there's post-millennialism, okay, another viable position in eschatology. And there is an umbrella under these, under this view of the eschatonic, under the last things, all right? So we're gonna break down post-millennialism. It believes the kingdom comes. Okay, here, first Adamant. What did Jesus tell John the Baptist? Well, God revealed to John the Baptist the kingdom of God is what? at hand, right? And so it's at hand, repent. And then Jesus went forth preaching the gospel of the kingdom. We're going to cover some of these passages here in a minute. Post-millennialism comes from this idea that as the kingdom has come, justice goes through the earth. And they believe this is by the sovereign hand of God through the spirit, that all entities, institutions will be invaded because people will be converted. And in every level of these institutions, whether it's law enforcement, colleges, government, education. I mean, and you know what? This was the dominant view. that when we had the awakening. And so when we got hospitals, you gotta learn how to appreciate history, that a lot of our forefathers in the faith were post-millennial. Now they weren't reconstructionists, some of them may have had some leanings towards that, but that system hadn't really come out then. So there's a lot of things we can look to that came out of post-millennialism in church history that are good, and a lot of things not so good. There's a lot of social gospel nonsense and woke stuff that came out of it. But you can't just pin that on post-millennialists. There's a lot of woke nonsense where there's amillennial brothers. There's bad theology all over the place. OK, we don't need eschatology to help us have bad theology. We just have bad theology because we're depraved. All right, so they believe this work is done by the sovereign spirit of God and that these entities or institutions that are invaded or people being influenced is going to be done by regenerate people. They're going to be governed by God's law and so the majority of the earth becomes overwhelmingly Christian. Okay. Yes. So this is my first kind of rule. Anybody's ever started to teach this to me. How do they view the book of Revelation? How do post-Millennials view the book of Revelation? They are predominantly partial predators. They also have a very distinct view, from the lectures I've heard, that the beast is Rome, or not Rome, excuse me, Jerusalem, and not Rome. And so it's going to be very different when you listen to a Gary DeMar or a Gentry. And I never really got with that view. Basically all fulfilled by 788. Yes. Yes. And even some of them believe part of the last two chapters are fulfilled. And so they're not full preterists. They do believe in a future resurrection. Now, Gary DeMar recently got in trouble because he started saying some full preterist stuff. Okay, but they're sound brothers in the faith. So R.C. Sproul would fit in that kind of heat. R.C., I'm gonna get into that slightly in a second. I just didn't know where that was going. You're thinking ahead of me, brother, that's good. You're on your toes. He's good on your feet, man, that's good. All right, so, Joshua, can you grab me another one of these out of the fridge? All right, thank you. So then there's reconstructionist or theonomic which would be synonymous, and it's a more modern view. Now we're talking about, you know, Cornelius Van Til's protege would be Greg Bonson. So if you read Greg Bonson's books, you're going to see theonomy. You're going to see God's law. And it's not that we own all hold to God's law. We're talking about the application of it in society, saying that the civil law and the moral are inseparable. There's going to be overlap on that. But there's also going to be brother Stephen and I were talking about any consistent. Thank you, brother. Any consistent. Reconstructionist is going to also be a presuppositional list, OK? And they're going to be a Bonsonite. All right. And I'm not saying that in a negative way. I'm saying that from this is just the way that it is. And the brothers that I've studied, I have friends in these systems. And then there's magisterial eschatology, which is a form of post-millennialism. One of Paul's favorite podcasters, Aldo Leon. I'm just clowning, Paul. It's not one of his favorite, but Aldo's a good brother. He gets a little wild at times, but he definitely is magisterial. I do believe that there are pretty sharp distinctions between them and reconstructionists. You would have R.J. Rush Dooney, the Institutes of the Christian Religion. You've got not only Rush Dooney, you've got Jeff Durbin is a Reconstructionist, James White is a Reconstructionist. So like I said, these are our brothers in the faith. We're gonna be in heaven with these brothers all eternity. And so they are doing the work of the king. Even though we disagree with several things, these things are not issues to divide over. At least they should not be. I think our Lord would be pleased if we actually didn't divide on these things. So magisterial, I believe that R.C. Sproul, when he was magisterial, when he was post-millennial, I believe he was more on the magisterial side, and they even distinguish themselves with magisterial eschatology. So it's kind of like magisterial magistrate government. you know, and so there's going to be some nuance in some of the AMEL guys that I read like Jay Adams and some of the other gentlemen that I read that were partial federalists AMEL who they look at Psalm 2 and they say, well, this is a prophecy of the messianic kingdom and the Messiah and the nations are being So I don't think any of us have a problem with that. But these brothers, their premise is this theology. And they are very dogmatic about it and very passionate about it. And many of our senators and many of the people in our heads of state have held to this type of theology. have labored for change in our country. So I'm very grateful to these brothers, and we all need to be grateful. We want to have unity around Christ, and like our pastor was saying, around the essentials of the faith, and not divide over adiaphora and greed, non-essential things, right? But our pride, our flesh, our depravity gets in the way. And it's just the way it is. We've got to guard against that. We need to do everything to keep the unity of the spirit of the bond of peace. Now historic pre-mill. This is from the Spurgeon Archives, because I'm not very, the greatest verse of historic pre-meal. However, Justin Martyr, an early one, they did believe, and they do believe, I knew, I have a good friend of mine who took me to a church, a Reformed Sovereign Grace Church out in Morgan Hill. William Downey is historic pre-meal, okay? Very solid brother, very solid brother. And I was a third of the New Testament Greek. You know, sharp, sharp dude. He's got to be in his 90s now. But I went there about a decade ago, started going there and sat in there afternoon potluck and hearing him preach and dude's very gifted. But his view would be much like Spurgeon, you know, he's almost like. you know, a modern Spurgeon per se, but the covenant premillennialism holds to the concept of the covenant of grace and the central soteriological purpose of God. He retains the idea of the kingdom, though he finds little support in the Old Testament prophecies since he generally assigns them to the church. So I would say yay and amen to that. I mean, we look at these kingdom prophecies and we say this kingdom is the church, this kingdom is talking about the church, right? So they don't make a distinction between the church and Israel. This is the original pre-millennialism, all right? Now where they go a little bit different from us, And I'll summarize this, they believe in this millennium age where Christ, this mutual jubilee of this Holy Sabbath, where the redeemed and the restored, the gospel's gonna go out, and that's where they would see all the Isaiah passages, Isaiah 11, and these Isaiah 65 passages, where they're gonna say this is gonna be a literal thousand years, where there's gonna be this glorious gospel, spread. So in that sense, they'd be like our post-millennial brothers. If I had to draw a chart here for post-millennial, I would draw it right down the middle of this RA. They would call that the definitive, the progressive. But they would say, there's going to be this golden age until the day of the Lord, until the second advent, where the gospel success is going to be un... Deniable it's going to this world will not be recognizable and then we are going to convert the world and we're going to hand the baton off to Christ. I know they wouldn't say it that way. It's going to be by the power of the spirit. They believe that yes. about historic pre-mill or are you talking about post-mill? Historic pre-mill would be very similar to post-mill in that area, where they believe that historic pre-mill, say in this golden thousand years, there's going to be this spread of the gospel. Post-millennialism would have that same kind of view. But they don't believe in a restitution of sacrifices in the temple. No, that's dispensational pre-millennialism. So yeah, that's more two people of God theology. But it's a good question. So historic pre-mill and post-mill are pretty close and not, I mean, different than all mill. But we certainly, all mill guys would have a lot more in common with those people than they would pre-mill dispensational. Absolutely. Absolutely. We all believe there's one people of God. We all believe. So with that is dispensational pre-mill, are they the only system that believes in two people of God? Yes. Okay. Yes. Well, and you've also got the other form of dispensationalism out of, you know, Messianic Jews, believe in two people of God as well. So, you know, but they're just dispensationalists, you know, so we didn't, again, they didn't make the cut. But those are good questions, brother. They didn't make the cut because they're not reformed. Okay, we're reformed to the hilt here. And then there's this creation positions where all again, brothers are going to differ. There's gonna be brothers in the eschatology, I think, that are gonna differ on these creation, you know, these lapsus positions, lapsarian positions, where, in my mind, there's super-lapsarianism, and then there's everything else, right? There's no need to divide over these things, because we're talking about God's logical order of decrees. Then there's infra, sub-lapsarianism, or post-lapsarianism, they're all the same. I believe that God, Created man in light of he knew the fall and decreed the fall like this. This comment I'm going to read here, but then the sub post or infra believes in the sovereignty of God as well. They just see think that God they believe that God chose man as already fallen. Whereas I believe that the logical order was it preceded that that God made his choice before there ever was an Earth, right? the doctrine of lapsus made in the fall the same as we do. Can you just real quickly tell me the difference between what you say you see and what they see? Yeah, so I'm going to read you from this right here and it says superlapsarianism tells us that God created the world knowing humans would sin in order to send his son to redeem a people for himself. Most of them would say yeah and amen to that. Knowing or decreeing? Knowing and decreeing. What this person means is knowing, because known to God in Acts 17, 15 are all of his works, right? So God knows what his hand is doing. So yeah, but that's, it's good you asked that because some people think they mean different things, right? That's right. So, saving sinners was not God's afterthought because Adam and Eve took a nosh of fruit. Saving sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ was God's eternal plan before he even created the earth. So, Supra is going to say that this is the antecedent. What logically preceded creation or the fall is going to be God's choice. And so they would say that, and they would affirm that in the pactum salutis, but I think our position's just a little more logically consistent. And of course, they would argue the same thing. That's why there's not a whole lot of formal debates on these lapsus positions, you know? It really is something where we're all reformed brothers. We need to learn how to love each other. But, you know, when you get into these debates with unbelievers, that's where you see this stuff comes out a little bit more. So in this concept, too, There's all these different covenants, and I'm not really gonna get all into this, but I'll touch on it. There's the Noahic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic, the Davidic, and so on and so forth, right? The Adamic covenant. And so I think we're kind of aware of those. We have a general understanding that God gave Adam a command. You know, you may eat freely of all these trees, but you shall not eat of this. On the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. Adam broke that command, and as a result, you know, the fall took place, right? And so God made all of these covenants and you know, we start talking about the eschaton. We're talking about two ages. Some believe there's more than two ages. Okay within the reformed umbrella. but Amillennials are gonna be very distinct in our two-age understanding. This hermeneutic and this model comes from the Greek words, duon aeon eschatos, two-age eschatology, and it focuses a lot on the already, but the not yet, the not yet being the eternal state, see that right here, okay? And so, you know, we see this several times in Matthew 12, 32, we see It says here that anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven him, but whoever speaks a word against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come, either here or in eternity. Okay, blaspheme the Spirit, you're going to hell. Why? Because the Spirit is a witness of Christ, right? And so, who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil age. according to the will of our God and Father. That was Galatians 1.4, and then there's Luke 18.29-30. So he said to them, surely I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children for the sake of the kingdom who shall not receive many times more in this present time and in the age to come, but not yet here. Eternal life. Okay. So that's how a non-millennialist would understand these passages. Now, there's going to be a distinction, okay? And I'm not going to go through every position, but the post-millennialists would say this is the Jewish, this present evil age is the Jewish age. Okay? They would say the Jewish eon. You got to listen to them. They've got some sound guys that know their stuff, that can break this stuff down. Now, I don't agree with them, but... Can you just, can you give me one verse that would say it's the Jewish age? Well, um, I can, uh, I will find it for you. I don't have it in my notes. Yeah. I think you're going to have, those are going to be in the gospels. Those are going to be in the gospels. Um, I think they see the Olivet discourse that way. They start separating the Jewish age. Jewish age would be the old covenant age. And then the new covenant age would be the age to come. Okay. And so that makes a massive difference on your eschatology right there. It's like, you know, when you're going somewhere and you got directions and you missed the GPS turn, now you got to go all the way down the road. That's what that is. You missed that turn. It's going to lead you somewhere else in your theology. You know, I'm not saying that it's just the way it is, bro. You know, these different, These tensions in the church, these different understandings, they exist for God's glory. Alright, and then there's the prophecies that we see of the millennium way back when way back in the fall, I'll put enmity between you and the woman. Okay, this is talking about the crucifixion and he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. The prophecy of the gospel. It's really already first advent right so we got to understand that and then we see these same prophecies in Genesis 49 a big one with Jacob come gather together sons and I shall tell you what shall befall you in the last days you meaning your descendants your people and so when he says Judah this is in Genesis 49 8 you are whom your brother shall praise and Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's children shall bow down before you. Judah's a lion's welt from the prey. My son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down. And as a lion, who shall rouse him? Well, the question is, the answer's nobody, right? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes. and to him will be the obedience of the people. So then it goes and talks on about the donkey's vine and binding up to, you know, the cult to a vine and washing his garments with wine and the blood of grapes. Hey, this is obviously talking about our Messiah. It's talking about Christ, right? And so everybody's gonna have the same understanding of this, because we're talking about essential of the faith. Okay, everybody's going to understand that this happened in the last days. What did Jesus say in Hebrews? God, with various ways and various times, spoke to his son. Every eschatology is going to believe that to some degree of every reformed eschatology. into a different system. They're gonna say the last days we're heading into the last days. Now, we're in the last days and we've been in the last days since this right now. I'm gonna focus on that probably a little bit more but again, You know again, I wish some of these other brothers were here because I would urge him on the charity urge him on in the unity urge him on into us having a common cause and that's to bring glory to our God and if we don't do that and we end up biting devouring one another. We're not doing what God has revealed to us and has revealed will he wants us to have unity. He actually commands it so. So the prophecy of Abraham and the gospel going forth and Abraham's seed, we see that in Genesis 12. I won't go into that. We see the fulfillment in Galatians 3. It was such a blessing in Sunday school a couple weeks ago to see Rex's light bulb go off. And you were like, man, these guys are moving fast, man. They already got you on one people of God. Well, brother, God uses seeds. And I'm sure you've had a lot of conversations with him, because he certainly wasn't there. And brother, I know you're going to hear this. We're grateful you see one people of God, Rex, all right? And I hope you feel better. All right, so Galatians 3, 8, 9. Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand saying, in you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. And the end of chapter three, it says, if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. I said I wasn't gonna preach, but That verse always gives me goosebumps right there, man. That verse just gives, because if it wasn't for Christ, we wouldn't ever be Abraham C. That should give us hope that people, you know, I remember I grew up around the corner from the church, egging the church people's cars. They was like, there's no hope for that boy right there, right? There's always hope from our perspective, right? Until God turns that light off, we gotta keep hope for people. So how does this happen? How do we become Abraham's seed? All systems would understand this is through the preaching of the gospel, okay? Through the preaching of the gospel, to who? The elect. How many people of God? One. Okay, the prophecies and the fulfillments. We went over this last time. Nevertheless, this is Isaiah 9, 1 and 2. Nevertheless, the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed. when at first he lightly esteemed the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward more heavily oppressed her by way of the sea beyond the Jordan. In the Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them light has dawned." So we see this same passage quoted verbatim in Matthew 4. And here's where we start getting some differences in our eschatology, okay? As amillennialists, I am happy to say I love you brothers, but I'm very dogmatic about this passage. This light is the gospel, and the gospel points us to Christ, okay? So when it says here in Matthew 4, 12 through 17, it says, now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he departed to Galilee, Leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region of the shadow of death, light has dawned. From that time, Jesus began to preach and say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So they're going to say yay and amen to that part. But there's another part shortly after this where it talks about, or actually it's before that, Matthew 4, where it talks about the coastland shall wait for your law, right? So the way a non-millennialist is going to see that is say, well, yeah, the first use, right? We're waiting for the first use. These people are in darkness, right? So if they're in darkness, they need the first use of the law. And what's the first use of the law, brother? To show us we need the Lord Jesus Christ. To show us our sin. Galatians 3 says that this law is a tutor. It's a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. We might be justified by faith. So the overwhelming amillennialist crowd is going to say, yes, the first use of the law. Now, our theonomic brothers, And our post-mail brothers are gonna say, okay, we can agree with that, but there's also something you're missing. They're gonna say this is the second use as well. And I'm like, I don't see that there. Now we're confessional. We see the second use of the law. They're just gonna say this is God's moral and civil law. I'm gonna say, well, that doesn't fit the context. We might wanna go there for a second so you can kind of see this nuance. Just pull up Matthew 4. I should have put this in my notes, I apologize. But I kind of had this discussion in my house, Paul, you probably remember, about four years ago, when we all came over and we all defined the kingdom. Oh, yeah. We watched that Jeff Durden video. We did. So this second use of the law that these post-mo guys, this is theonomy, correct? Well, yes and no. We believe in the second use of the law. No, I do, too. But it's theonomy. Theonomy is dumbed. No, they don't. They believe that there is 2 parts. Very interesting. So I can't find the verse, but I will definitely discuss it with you afterwards about the Coastlands waiting for your law. That's the discussion that we had. That's where they would part with us. And I would say yay and amen that the magistrate needs to punish evil, and that they know what evil is. Well, you'd probably disagree again. I would say, well, I'm not precept. I believe that there are plenty of brothers who are precept who believe that the magistrate Understands through natural law what a general understanding of good and evil is therefore they know how to punish evil So there's gonna be a lot of debate around these different topic topics, right? Isaiah 42 for okay, so that makes sense. So that's where this prophecy that I just read to you is they're going to take that, I think I might be coming up on that later, so I might be getting ahead of myself, but they're gonna take that passage and they're gonna say, see, see, you're missing this. This coastline's waiting for love, this is justice going to victory. And so, that's where you're gonna see that in Matthew four, where he says, a bruised reed he will not break, and smoking flax he will not quench, till he brings forth justice to victory. He's quoting that Isaiah passage, but we're gonna say again, that's the gospel, and they're gonna say, no, it's not, right? So that's where you're going to start getting some differences in some of these eschatological positions. I'm sorry, but this is... Go ahead. This fascinated me. So, is there hermeneutic caddywampus in the sense that they're given the Old Testament priority over the New Testament interpretation of the Old Testament scripture? Because that seems like... Well, don't make me try to jump on people on camera, brother. I mean, on the record. So here's the thing. Is that what's going on? Is that what I'm catching? Yeah. So we will let them come We will let them come and discuss these things maybe, but Paul and I are pretty strong in what we believe about that. But again, this is me, I'm just trying to be, I can't call it ecumenical. I am, look. There's visuals, right? Yeah, they reject the New Testament priority. Well, it makes all the sense in the world. You heard it on record, right? Brother Jeff said y'all wrong, man. Hey, I can hear Steven saying, tell him he's wrong, right? That's the beauty of brotherhood, right? Is we're going to have differences. I forgot you were recording. That's why you're nodding your head. He just ratted me all the way. Look, JD's like, oh, man, dude. No, but we got to have some fun with it, right? Except when you invite a guest, man. You don't know the rules. And I tried to invite some of them, but. No, me. I'm the guest. I don't know the rules here. No, brother. We got to accommodate the guests. So don't worry about that, you know? Some cultures, if you don't belch, they get offended, dude. You can belch all over the message all you want, brother. But this brings up another question. As far as hermeneutics and the New Testament having priority over the Old Testament, is this only a reformed way of interpreting the Bible? Well, you've got to remember, brother, now let's talk about reformed. When it comes to pedo and credo, we've got a different hermeneutic, right? And we've got the same thing you're talking about, okay? Our pastor, several times I've heard Paul sit up here and say, well, these brothers see the New Testament through Old Testament lenses, right? Isn't that what you were talking about in the members class today? Yeah. So functionally, well, you said that in the members class too. So when we talk about baptism and about what we baptize, yeah. So I think the problem is, so you don't think people be listening. So the problem is, is that These differences in hermeneutics, just so I explain it, science of interpretation, how we acquire knowledge, okay? Our pastors tell us scriptures ever interpret scripture, that's the right hermeneutic, right? They would say yeah and amen to that. But our brothers are gonna have to fundamentally reject the New Testament priority hermeneutic. But the problem with that, okay, and now you made me go on record to say this, is how are you gonna understand Paul's message there on number 21? Okay, I would encourage our Postmale Brothers to go to some of my Jewish friends and ask them to explain Numbers 21 to them. And then when that Jewish person tells them they have a limitation, there's a wall, because they reject the New Testament, right? And I'm going to say, now, how are you going to explain it to them? And you watch them use a New Testament priority hermeneutics. Okay, they have to, because John 3 says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, And so the Son of Man must be lifted up, okay? And so that message, we would not know the meaning of the bronze serpent if it weren't for John 3. And that's typology. Would you truly know the doctrine of the Trinity without the New Testament? Now you're gonna take us on a rabbit trip. I'm serious, would you really know it? There are some writings that talk about trios and talk about their early understanding of some of the two Yahweh systems that go way beyond Michael Heiser. He did not learn coin math. The Old Testament itself though, I'm not talking about any extra... Yeah, so go to Psalm 45, 6, and 7, and that's where we get Hebrews 1, 8, your throne, oh God, is forever and ever. Yahweh's mentioned twice in there. Okay, go to, I think it's Amos 4.19, the Lord rained down from heaven, you know, and Sodom, from the Lord, and you're looking, you're like, well, wait a minute. Like, what's going on here, right? So you see the concept of the Trinity, let us go down. But did the Pharisees ever teach the Trinity and the Sadducees? Well, it wasn't developed, right? That's what I'm saying, so Jesus was actually in there, he took them to a spot that they didn't even understand yet, right? About the, Psalm 110, right? Yeah, about the three, the Lord said to them. Said to my Lord, and there's another one. Yes. But we have that because of the New Testament. We really can take a clear look at that, right? Right. All right. It's there. Let me, let me breeze through the rest of this cause Jeff said, Hey, don't go that long, bro. You know, you just, just cause I know. So, so don't worry about it, brother. We're going to cover these last couple of ones and then I'm going to skip over a couple of things and then we're going to conclude. All right. So Matthew four will be another one. Okay. Because Matthew four, or I quoted Matthew four, I'm sorry. Isaiah 11. The wolf also shall lie down with the lamb. The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together. And the little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze. Their young ones shall lie down together. And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole. And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain. For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as waters covers the sea. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse who shall stand as a banner to the people. For the Gentiles shall seek him and his resting place shall be glorious. Part of this is quoted as fulfilled in Paul's letter to the Romans, okay? I get very dogmatic on this, so I don't wanna be all very mean-spirited, but in Romans 15, nine through 13, it takes Deuteronomy 32, Psalm 18, 49, Deuteronomy 32, 43, Psalm 18, 49, 2 Samuel 22, 50, and Isaiah 11, six through 10, and it says this. and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy as it is written. For this reason, I will confess you among the Gentiles and sing to your name." And again, he says, rejoice, O Gentiles and his people. Okay, so he's quoting Deuteronomy 32 right here. And again, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles. Okay, so now he's quoting Psalm 1849. It says, law in him all you peoples. And again, Isaiah says, he's quoting Isaiah 11 right here. And he says, there shall be a root of Jesse, and he who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles. Remember Gentiles means nations, right? In him the Gentiles shall hope. Now look what Paul says in this salutation. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy, peace, and believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. telling us it's fulfilled in the church. We don't need to wait for some golden age for this to take place. It's this age and the age to come. That's my understanding. So again, I need to come across some good commentaries that tell me a post-meal position on this, but in the discussions, debates, and my reading, a lot of them will just say that this time of peace, Gary DeMar is one of the one post-meal guys I've studied the most, and I hear him say this golden age of time of peace. He'll quote this verse, and he'll tell it, but he won't give me anything to back it. He'll just appeal to authority, himself. And I'm like, well, so what should I do? Should I believe you, Gary, or should I believe the Apostle Paul, right? And I'm not trying to set up a straw man, but that's just the way we should interpret the Bible. The Bible tells us what the Bible means, amen? That's just the way it is, okay? So that's another one, and then we can go through all these other ones. Now, I preached on Psalm 72, one of my favorite Psalms of the Bible. Yes, Psalm 72, 11 says, yes, all kings shall shall fall before him, all nations shall serve him. Our postman brothers are going to say, see, there's their majority. And we're going to say, wait a minute, all nations, OK, yes, all kinds of people. Same way we interpret the atonement, all kinds of people. It's not all people without exception. They'll say, oh, sure, it's not all people without exception. We'll say, no, kindred, tongues, tribes, nations. That's how we understand that. They'll say, no, majority, all, means all. I'll say, hmm, we have a different hermeneutic. We have a different hermeneutic. Malachi 1.11, from the rising of the sun even to its going down, my name shall be great among the nations. Sorry for not giving historic pre-meal a lot of love, but we only really have these two systems in our church, right? And although there are differences, you have not heard me mention one thing that's heretical or worth dividing over or telling someone they can't serve here or join here, whatever. Okay, so then we've got the Isaiah passages. They just keep going on and on. Many nations shall be joined to the Lord. Okay, everyone understands he uses the time, the first and second Abbot, but it's how it plays out is where the disagreement is, okay? Something we as sinners have no control over. So God is bringing salvation to the ends of the earth through the eschaton, so as far as the eye can see. Remember we talked about J.D.' 's epistemology? Our eyes got limitations, right? I learned that today in reading the catechism, right? I could barely see anymore, right? So we have limitations, okay? We're here for a season, God has us, and then Lord willing, it'll be the next generation that will preach the gospel. He's using the church and the Great Commission as the means to make disciples of all nations. That's how he opens the eyes of the blind, it's through the hand of God, It's how do the nations have life? Well, it's through the light of the world, the gospel light. And just like that song, we've got to sing that here. The light of the world is Jesus. That's how the gospel goes out, right? He said, I am the light of the world. You who follows me will never walk in darkness, but have the light of life, all right? The preaching of the crucified Christ. Okay, so that kind of brings us close to the close here. The binding of Satan has to take place. believe it. He went in the strongman's house. He went into the strongman's house to bind the strongman. There goes down my side. I'm not careful. Yeah. Curse me. He's spoken in existence. Bind her loose. Yes, and that's actually a good point Paul. We do not believe that Satan is bound and loose by the spoken of a word of man. It's actually talking about church discipline. Whenever you bind on earth will be bind in heaven. A lot of people get goofy with these verses, right? Really goofy and I really am so grateful to be in a church that doesn't accept that kind of goofiness. And yes, I bought in hook, line, and sinker was taught at this church. And I love this church and I believe everyone here has the same sentiment. And these doctrines that are different, I think a lot of our Post Mill brothers have the same sentiment, okay? They know that this is a sound church, okay? Are you going, is it your interpretation that was recorded in Revelation 20 so that he will not deceive the nations and that it's restricted? Yes. And he's still doing his work, but he's restricted as far as the gospel. Yeah, bide like a boundary, right? Chains from Home Depot are not going to hold Satan in, right? Okay, it's imagery from God has bound him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer. It's a in a clause It's that so he would not deceive the nations until the thousand years are expired and the final rebellion We're about to conclude with that. So yes, so very similar to what happened when God gave Satan permission to go after Job you can do this, but you can't do that Martin Luther said he's the devil, but he's God's devil Yeah, he shorted the chain on the cross, but now the gospel goes out to the Gentile nation. Before that, it was kind of stopped in Canaan. You know a good passage that you can see this in, brother, and I'll text it to you later, but it's in Ephesians 2, when he said, remember you who were once Gentiles in the flesh, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of promise. Ephesians 2.11 forward. You know it. Having no hope and without God in the world, but now right? Okay You know it brother, you know it so that that's that's the binding right there without even mentioning it, right? And so we've got John 12 and I get up want to dance. I really want to get up and dance when I read this now is the judgment of this world now the ruler of this world will be cast out and And if I'm lifted up from the earth, it will draw all peoples to myself. And so all kinds of people are, we don't even need to get into that, but we know what that means, right? Hebrews 2.14, and as much as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, that through death, he might destroy him who had the power of death. That is the devil, okay? Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. Period. 1 John 3, 7, and 8. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous just as he is righteous. He who sins is of the devil. For the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Hey, that's our God. This is not man's doing. This is Jesus' doing. Jesus destroyed the works of the devil. And if you look at a Christian's life, you know that. You know that. We're not perfect, but we're not what we once were. And that's the work of God, destroying the enemy's work in our lives, okay? That's salvation. He came to save his people from their sins, from the power and from the penalty of their sins in these last days, in this times of the Gentiles, or the times of the nations. These are the times of the Gentiles. We're not looking for some rapture. It's a time for the nations right now, okay? God is bringing in the nations as we speak, all right? And so I can keep going about these last days and Joel, about how he said he shall beat their swords in the plowshares and their spears in the pruning hooks. Well, just go to the US military, go to these other militaries in the world, Europe, you see people who look very different, who thousands of years ago, they would have been killing each other. You look in churches, just look in our church, look around you on Sunday, and you'll see that those swordsmen beat into plowshares and those spears into pruning hooks. It's the work of God. It's the work of God in redemption. It's in the kingdom age that this takes place. We don't need to get into federalism or classic or Westminsterian. My brother's very passionate about that, and I'm like, yeah and amen. So it doesn't make me even blink, you know, at a sound message like that. And it shouldn't make you blink. These differences, when we hear them, the enemy wants to make our differences bigger. And he's a master at doing that. And he's a master at exciting our flesh and making us think evil of each other. But all those passages that you read this morning, man, dude, those were heavy reminders of why we need to come here and not get the wrong idea about worship. It's about God. The gospel has converted us. And then when we love God and love your neighbor as you love yourself, That's the effect of the gospel, okay? And we can't forget that and bite and devour one another. I can't, I can't under emphasize that. And so it talks about, you know, the new covenant in Jeremiah about, you know, you guys know that, okay, that's here. Okay. It was spoken back there, came to fruition here and it's playing out. Okay. So God causes his elect to have life. John 5, most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death into life. Most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear will live. Okay, it's regeneration. Well, if you want to call the first resurrection the resurrection of the spirit, yeah, brother. Come on, you know your doctrine, dawg. Why you asking me this stuff, man? Yeah, I like to walk people into traps, dude. Were you in combat sports, bro? Just so you can, I can read that you're trying to ask for clarification. It is what it is. But yeah, no brother. Clarification of where this church is on some of these issues as well. Yeah, well you got blessed as holy as he who takes part in the first resurrection and so death has no power, right? But then we look at the gospels, we see the same resurrection power that God rose Jesus from the dead is the same that quickened us in the spirit so that we could believe in Christ, okay? That's what we're talking about. You know, brother, you got it, brother. You got it, it's regeneration. And so sanctification, that God enlightens the eyes of our understanding, Ephesians 1.18. We need that every Sunday. That's why I pray, Lord, enlighten our eyes. Come to the same text 50 times, and your head will be as dumb as that doorknob, just like mine. It's something the Spirit does, right? That's why sanctification is monogistic. It's not a checkbox thing. If we could sanctify ourselves, we wouldn't need Jesus to do it, right? So we gotta remember that. Lord, sanctify them by your truth. Why would Jesus pray that? Because we could do it ourselves, right? No. Yeah, no. So that leads us to what is our mission? Well, we know our mission is to worship God and all that we do and to bring him glory and everything, okay? To gather on the Lord's day. This kingdom age is about worship. He makes his enemies his footstool. We were once his enemies and now we're his footstool, his worshipers, okay? And so it's about taking our mission and preaching the gospel of Christ and making disciples, okay? You men, most of you men in this room, you're middle-aged like me, disciple these young men. Well, you're closer to me than the rest of these guys, right? Disciple these young men. I would love to see this room filled with these young men. I invited some of them today, I'm like, hey man, what you doing coming afternoon? Huh, okay, next week, right? Disciple these young men because there's great work going on with this church and we want to see Them partakers of the means and a lot of them already are a lot of these young men have done a lot more And I'm very grateful for what God is doing But our mission is to make disciples to preach Christ and to be salt and light when I sat down with this brother right here Six years ago almost we sat down at lunch. I said so what's the vision for the church? He said to make disciples And I got goosebumps. I was like Voila! This is where I want to be. No innovative, let's get 20,000 programs. Let's get snow, real snow when Christmas comes, right? Let's not get innovative. Let's do what our Lord told us to do. Huh? Sword, sword swallowing. Get swords, sword swallowing. You gonna let a snake bite you too? Paul was talking about that. I almost said something to him in there. I was like, that boy was a snake handler. Well, Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. They won't be burdensome to you, right? It's an act of worship. Everything we do should be an act of worship. And when we're in sin, we're obviously not worshiping, right? We're confessing. Confessing, okay? What a glorious, gracious God we are. We don't make void the law. We establish the law by faith, by faith. We're to bear one another's burdens. We're to use the confessions, first, second, and third use of the law. These are acts of worship. And these are acts of worship that fall under the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. All these eschatological systems can say yay and amen to that, okay? Christ is reigning and he is putting his enemies under his feet until that final rebellion comes. It's 1 Corinthians 15. says it, that death will be the final enemy, right? And that's when we get the resurrection, the new body that God has promised us. And the older I get, I'm feeling it, brother. That body can barely get out the bed and barely get out the car. So when this final rebellion comes, we don't know, but we have our marching orders. And there's so much more I could have said, but we're out of time. And you know, may the Lord help us. You know, I love that movie 300, right? That's one of my favorite movies. I watch that movie with my kids and I get up and I start reciting the movie and get all pumped. They'd be like, you know, let the movie play, right? So we, a matter of fact, we're probably gonna watch it this evening, boy. But you know, when Leonidas was like, he said that to the, about the Spartan armies, right? And how they got so pumped, they were like, we're with you, Sire, for Sparta, for freedom, to the death, right? I love that part. But it's only by the grace of God. We can't just say that in the flesh. We're gonna end up like Peter, probably, right? Remember that, to the grace of God, we're with him to the death, right? because there is no other way. It's only the way of our Savior. It's only, like Bodie says, the way is as narrow as his shoulders, right? And so may the Lord help us to take up the sword of the Spirit and the shield and the helmet of salvation by faith, all right, and go to battle. So let's pray. Father, we're grateful for your eschaton. We're grateful that this is your hand moving human history to come to pass and to a close. We don't know when that close is, but help us to be mindful and redeeming of our time. Help us to worship you and what we do, Lord. Even when we rest, Lord, we can worship you and rest, Lord. We can get on that bed and say thank you for this warm bed. Thank you for a roof over my head. And like the Proverbs said, open your eyes and you'll be satisfied with bread. Help us, Lord, by opening our eyes and cause us to be satisfied in the bread that came down from heaven. As we live these lives, these feeble, fleeting lives, as we live them out before you, Lord, help us to be satisfied in what you have done and what you are doing. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you so much, John. Praise the Lord. All right. I'm going to leave it open. Go ahead. Yeah, when's the rapture? It's just the resurrection, bro. That's all it is. OK, so reformed eschatology. So what about the fact that I think, as far as that picture shows, that was believed before the Reformation. I mean, isn't that just a Justinian? That's because if you have the first 300 years of the church, you have like Justin Martyr, Apostle William, Chilean, who I think the general consensus of the church was pre-millennialism, that Christ would return before the start of the millennium. Then Augustine comes along, I think better exegesis, looking at the whole Council of God's Word, and he says, no, technically all millennialism is a view of post-millennialism. Christ comes after the millennium, because we're in the millennium now. I don't want to poop on I felt like to bring, and you're absolutely right. The dominant view of the church was historic pre-mail in the beginning. For like three or four years. Yeah. They had some very poor views though too. Like as I read some of their stuff, I didn't want to write it on here because I'm thinking, well, what if we get somebody that's historic pre-mail, they listen to this, they're going to think we're just taking a dump on them. Yeah. But yeah, no, I do believe progressive revelation and sound exegesis that Augustine looked at the scriptures and expounded the word. And I think, Or Augustine or Augustine. Augustine, Augustine. OK, Augustinianism. And we have not only Calvinism, but I can't stand when MacArthur says this. Oh, well, the Reformers never looked at eschatology. They didn't have time for that. Well, sure they did. So did Augustine, right? And these things are way before this rapture theology. No, this precedes doctrine theology even. So I mean, this is very foundational to our doctrine open assurance. And so the point I just wanted to make was because if you have historic freedom that was dominant for 300 years, well, then you have this two-way gestatology, this vision of post-Millennialism or all-Millennialism, which we now call it, from about late 300s all the way dominant until like 19, the early part of the 20th century, when dispensationalism rose. And the view of post-Millennialism that is like of the Puritans. but it never just totally did away with all millennialism. Right, it didn't. You're right. This is the dominant view of believers for 2,000 years almost. It is. I share this with my Calvary Chapel buddy a lot, and he just won't listen to me. I got other buddies, same thing, and I'm just like, listen, this doesn't make me better than you. But I believe you're wrong. Okay. You believe I'm wrong. All right. Let's go out and live out our faith into the glory of God, right? But there are two people of God that's different. That is different. I think that there's a complete difference between Pre-millennialist or now the way you just taught me what a historical pre-millennialist is, when you get into two people of God, that changes the whole game. It changes the whole Bible. It changes the way you look at the way things are happening around the world, who you support, who you believe you need to preach the gospel to, how you view those people when you go over to Israel to take a tour. I mean, it changes the whole game, and these people, regardless, if they're not in Christ, they're in Satan, and they need the gospel. They don't need anything else. And so, two people of God, I would say, this to me is a deal-breaker versus post-millennial guys or pre-millennial guys, the way you're describing it. Dispensational, where two people of God, I think it's much more serious than people of God. It is. I got you, bro. and want to be baptized again. You've already been baptized. But you're doing it because of something special you think about Israel. It's like sacrilege, almost. It's just magic. It is weird. It's joining yourself to end that crisis. Worshiping a golden Catholic is being created in the church. Well, no, I'm not denying that. I mean, I actually have a very passionate view. I love my Dispensational Brothers, but I do believe that A lot of that stuff is a retreatist doctrine that really helped a lot of the problems that we have today. Look how much goofiness that we have with women pastors and all this stuff. You know, six day creation. I get it. I'm a six day creationist. But if you look at the Scopes Monkey Trial and you look at some of the hermeneutics that took place between the church and the German rationalists, you're going to see a lot of very illogical thinking. And where they're just like, we just need to head for the hills and hide over here, keep what we have. And a lot of our brothers that are, you know, the charismatic movement, they are very much dispensational. But dispensationalists, they go, they plant churches throughout the world. I mean, they do. They do mission work. They're our brothers, man. They're wrong about a lot of this stuff. They still see two people. They do, man. And MacArthur, in his defense, I remember listening to him speak, and Larry King told him, that he was okay because he was Jewish and MacArthur said, no, you're not. So he's not, he's not John Hagee. John Hagee will say there's one gospel for the Jews, one gospel for Gentiles. It's like, thank God, right? It's not like a dual covenant. I think there's been corrections with dispensation. I mean, they've had to make some corrections. A lot of corrections. Only the Pauline epistles are only for Gentiles. He got that from the Schofield reference Bible and Ryrie for a long time when I was coming out of dispensationalism It was really just I praise God for just diligent study. I didn't have logos. I didn't have commentaries That's why you understood it, but I kept reading it. That's my point. You read the Bible and you can't see dispensationalism You can't. They have to force it on them. He was talking to Jewish guys over here. Oh, the servant on the mount? They'll call you a legalist for trying to obey the law of God. That's scary, dude. And it's like Ryrie, John Wolvert, E.W. Bullinger. I have all these guys commentators and I've read them and studied them. And I like what you had said last Sunday, brother, when you said, I read MacArthur and I see the stuff on what not to believe, right? He really does help you when he shows you these covenantal passages and how he interprets them. You're like, okay, now I know what not to believe. And now I know where I'm making an error, right? So, but with our Postmill brothers, I'll tell you, if this church wasn't here and I had to go to a Postmill church, I can be comfortable to a degree. I would probably have to, like, grit my teeth on some things, just like some of them do. But for the most part, if it's like a magisterial, like a Aldo, like my brother Steven, he makes it almost impossible to disagree with, because he's such a gracious brother, you know, and he's probably going to hear this, but I think that there's different levels of it. They're such militant. Yeah, it's still on. There's such militant passions we get in our flesh where we do get divisive and I've had to catch myself. I like to have fun with it because at the end of the day, you know there's really God is the one who's sovereign over our understanding. and we need Him to help us to see things, right? So, you know, that's what my prayer is, that the Lord would help us to have unity, to be passionate about what we believe, but not without railroading each other and loving each other, you know, as He has commanded us, as He has loved us, so. Any other questions? So for the historic pre-mill, that is like a literal, you know, like return of Christ, right? For a thousand years on this earth? Yes. Yeah. Okay. I think some actually are still, and that could be a figurative number. but it's still Christ comes back. Christ comes back for, yeah. And then that's the, um, it's a homage that we pay to Christ while the gospel goes out still. And there's no sacrifices. There's no animal sacrifices, no temple. It's it's all church. It's all the gospel. Okay. And so I don't see that. I just don't see that at all. When did that develop? Do you have any idea? Uh, Early it's because I'm thinking early developed early on the church was primarily it's the start was Jewish and they anticipated a different They anticipated the Messiah was going to come back rule that this might just be an extension of that It just had to wait. I have my own theory that I think the Talmudic understanding that came later The Talmudic came way later, right But I don't think those thoughts weren't way later, because remember how the disciples, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel, right? They had this. Right there on the spot, bro. And so, but you just quoted the beginning of Acts, where you at this time were speaking, and he said, it's none of your business. But then he went and told him what to do, which was preach the gospel. Yes. To preach the gospel. That's the kingdom. Yeah. Yeah. And to be my witness to that. That's the time, to the ends of the earth. That's the kingdom. That's the kingdom. And so you know what's so strange is these bad hermeneutics that I believe developed in the intertestamental period, we all don't know the Bible to say. I'm not gonna sit here and, brother, there's been people I've talked to my whole Christian walk, almost 18 years now, and I've talked to people who know as much as you or Paul or JD and whatnot. I don't look down on them people, but God has us, like Pastor Paul was saying, in different places, right? We're all hamsters on that turning wheel. You know, and some are moving it fast, some are just huffing and puffing, but God is sovereign over even that, right? And so, you know, I think it was the same way back then. I got you, brother. It was the same way back then. Some people were more astute on their study, their academia, and their devotion to God and the scriptures and their understanding. God used those means and enlightened people. Some people he didn't. And so to see our Lord correcting the disciples over and over and over and over tells me something. Yes. Tells me something that there was bad doctrine. And then in the testamental period, it was bad doctrine. The old covenant, it was bad doctrine. And today, there's a whole lot of bad doctrine, right? And we need the Lord to give us good, enlightened understanding. Okay, so in the dispensational system where you have, you know, people dividing over a Patriot and Post-Trump, Yeah. But I do want to ask, like, from an amillennial perspective, like, what would the take be on the stuff like in Matthew 24, the passages about, you know, two men will be in the field, one will be taken, the other one will be left. Judgment. I mean, you're going to have a variation. You're going to have some people who have cut it off at, I think, verse 36. And you're going to have people who say the whole chapter is 70 AD. But wherever you fall, the two men, you always see the wicked are taken away first in judgment, right? and the righteous are left on lands. It's not a rapture, but it's not just because I say it's not a rapture. I think that you have to sit down and imply that you have to, you have to isogeet that onto the text, right? If you just simply exegete the text and draw out what's there, it's literally telling you there's a judgment, right? You know, because if you don't isogeet those texts when people say, oh, see, this is all going to happen in the future. And I'm like, so we're going to go back to parapets in the future. Don't go back on the rooftop to get your clothes, right? So I said, don't they have washers and dryers in Israel? They were like, yeah. I was like, so they're gonna lose power? And then the light bulb goes off and like, what are you talking about? I said, what are you talking about? Brother, I'm asking you to explain this text to me, right? Do we take a first century context or not, right? And so when you have a first century context and an audience relevance hermeneutic, You're gonna say the Bible is written, not to us, we're not the original audience, but for us, right? It wasn't written to first make the church, right? And that's where the dispensationalist goes wrong. The minute they lose that, then the people grinding the mill could be the rapture, it could be me, it could be you. You know, me and Greg, for years, I just say, walking through, who's the you? Who's the them? Break down these second person pronouns. Break down the demonstrative pronouns. And he kept putting himself in there. And I said, brother, when did you get these letters, right? So it took years, years and years, where he'd just be like, you're not listening. I said, I'm asking you to tell me what it means. God brings some people out. Man, sanctification can be a painful process because we're sinners and we're stubborn. Be patient with people, man. Amen. Because God is patient with us. Amen. All right, so. And by the way, that passage in Matthew 24, there's a lot of great men of God who break that off in different pieces, right? Oh, yeah, man. This is 70 AD. This is not 70 AD. I mean, that's a tough one. Man, I'm gonna tell you, I love Kim Riddlebarger. Even when I've disagreed with him, he's so pastoral. I've met him several times and I've disagreed with him on stuff and then I've come back a year later and I've been like, okay, now I see what he's talking about. But I couldn't at that time because I was so bulldog and shit, he's wrong. Then I come back and I'm like, that does sound right, right? You know, and so. You guys are brilliant. If you're bold and you're saying he's wrong, man, that's impressive. Well, he's a really gracious dude, man. When he was doing his ministry, he's retired now, but I think, I don't know if his son's in ministry, but I met him and his son. They were so charitable to me and my wife, and invited us to come hang out, they have afternoon service like us, sit down, have lunch with us, brother, talk with us, let's talk theology. Isn't he the one that wrote the e-book you referenced earlier? Yeah. Yes, Case for All Malignants, yes. Kim, really gracious guy. Follow him on, On Instagram, he's a really good dude, man. I really am grateful for all the years he's poured in to the Saints, you know, so... Yeah, great Lord's Day, gentlemen, once again. Very thankful for you brothers, man. Yeah, such a small crowd, too.