Alright, again briefly going over the previous chapters, we went over baptism, introduction of Benjamin Keech, and I played my Groundhog's Day trick, which I enjoyed watching that over. I did not, I cut that all out before I uploaded, but I had fun with that. Yes, I did. Again, I highly recommend, I do have on the last page, and we'll go over again at the end of this some conversation and then definitely next week, some reading if you want to know more, especially what prompted them to come up with this, different ideas of their doctrine. Hercules Collins, especially on the baptism, he does a fantastic job of supporting the Baptist position and uses, like I say, the Heidelberg for most of his reference, and then refutes the points at the time. So that's definitely a great, great resource to have. And we went over the Lord's Supper, introduced you, I think this is another great book there, as a means of grace, expositing scriptures for the Lord's Supper. Of course, Babson went over the covenant symbol, outward action representing an inward action that symbolizing our union with Christ and his death, burial and resurrection. And then the Lord's Supper, which I also agree with that, that that is for us this new covenant sign of our covenant. And that's why we do it. the perpetuity of it until Christ's return. Instituted by Christ, you can see all the notes there, to be observed by his church at the end of the ages, given to us as a confirmation of faith in Christ and all the benefits of his death, spiritual nourishment and growth, and further engagement in all owed duties, a bond and a pledge of our communion with Christ and to each other. As I said, it is a memory, but it's more than a memory, and it's just beautiful for us. It is a means of grace that we should not look at lightly. So coming up to chapter 31, I'm gonna hit some more catechism questions here. Again, this is, we were joking earlier about some of the sermon titles, Mike, but these babs just came up with long titles. So chapter 31 is of the state of humanity after death and the resurrection of the dead. I'm going to abbreviate that to, you know, death and resurrection. But Keech's Catechism, starting with question 40, and the Shorter Catechism, like I say, they basically pair up. And these last two chapters, I don't have a tabulature comparison because the last two chapters in all three, Westminster, Savoy, and the Second London, are pretty much exact identical. Again, showing unity on this idea. And we will get into some different theologies, but you'll see the point of the confession authors and it's in line with Orthodox Christianity. It's in line with the Apostles Creed and it does allow for some variance. So, but question 40 reads, what benefits do believers receive from Christ at their death? Answer, the souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness and do immediately pass into glory and their bodies being still united to Christ do rest in their graves till the resurrection. 41 reads, what benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection? Answer, at the resurrection believers being raised up in glory shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment and made perfectly blessed both in soul and body in the full enjoyment of God to all eternity. Now we have question 42, but what shall be done to the wicked at their death? The souls of the wicked shall at their death be cast into the torments of hell, and their bodies lie in their graves till the resurrection and judgment of the great day. And then what shall be done to the wicked at the day of judgment? At the day of judgment the bodies of the wicked being raised out of their graves shall be sentenced together with their souls to unspeakable torments with the devil and his angels forever. So chapter 31, and we're gonna see in this, these last two chapters are small, but we are gonna have some good discussion in them, and then I'm gonna break out into just some modern understandings of what this looks like to us, where our source of hope comes in, and even the disagreements that godly men do have, that we still have this hope, this shared hope together. But we're gonna look at, there's two groups of people, we're gonna see the contrast between the believers or the righteous, thanks to Christ's righteousness, and the wicked, the unrighteous. We're going to see that there are two parts of being, that there is a body and a soul referenced, and that there are two locations, which would be paradise or hell. Okay, so I know that's kind of a very short summary, but we're going to look at these things as they unfold within the context of the confession here. And paragraph one reads, the bodies of those who have died return to dust and undergo destruction. But their souls neither die nor sleep because they have an immortal character and immediately return to God who gave them. The souls of the righteous are then made perfect in holiness and are received into paradise. There they are with Christ and behold the face of God in light and glory while they wait for the full redemption of their bodies. The souls of the wicked are thrown into hell where they remain in torment and utter darkness reserved for the judgment of the great day. The scripture recognizes no place other than these two for souls separated from their bodies." Again, we've been looking at things going on at that time and the battles within the church. So that last line is going to be specifically against a certain practice where indulgences and praying people out, etc. of a middle ground. We see in section one though that bodies undergo destruction. Decomposing. We see that bodies undergo destruction. But the souls, and I have to caveat here, when it says they have an immortal quality, when people think of immortal they automatically give it this divine reference. That's not what is being referenced here with immortal. It's a not dying but not in a divine capacity. There's no divinity in our souls. There are some denominations and religions that believe that, where we become gods. But that's not what it's speaking about. So when it talks about immortal souls, the souls with an immortal character, it's not talking about divinity. So just understand that. But it talks about the souls neither sleep nor die. This also goes against a modern, well, I'm hearing it modern. I'm sure that there were different, probably some men of God even, that said the souls sleep until Christ's return. I don't agree that scripture says that, but this idea of soul sleep, you might hear others say that. When you die, your soul is sleeping in this, you know, I'm going to Star Wars, there's this carbonite hibernation until you're awoken thing. Yes, it's hard for me not to think of my sci-fi stuff when I hear these ideas that go contrary to scripture in my head. Alright, but the souls return to God, and that's just another weird understanding. You're thinking, okay, yes, for the righteous they go to God, but God is the creator of everything, so their understanding here in this writing is that all the souls go to Him, where they are then either in the presence of the Savior, face-to-face in His glory, or in this torment. Talking about the souls here. Whereas when the souls return to God, the righteous are made perfect with Christ beholding the face of God, waiting for full redemption, and the wicked are then thrown into hell and tormented until the great judgment. And in their last line, there are no other places than this. And of course, this is reference to the practice of purgatory. I say my supervisor finally retired. We had his retirement ceremony, but I'm sure even today he probably prayed for John Wayne still to get out of purgatory so he can finally be in heaven. And there is no scripture reference to any other place. And we can get into a whole, I say rabbit trail on that, but there are two places. One for the righteous and one for the wicked. So there is no intermediate work your way out kind of an idea. And there are other religions, not just the Catholic, but there are other religions that have a type of this. We can even go to the Eastern mystic religions where they have their different understandings of afterlife. So we'll look at some scriptures here. Genesis 319. By the sweat of your face you shall be cried, till you return to the ground, for out of it you are taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Luke 23, 43. And he said to him, try, try, true, I say, To you today, you will be with me in paradise. So this is a comforting scripture as well. We talked about that in reference to baptism linked to salvation. And again, just a side note, I don't believe some that put the comma after today. So just saying, truly I say to you today, like right now I'm speaking to you, that you will be with me in paradise. I think that's ridiculous. It kind of makes our Savior look like he doesn't know how to speak, and I don't agree with that understanding of the scripture anyways. But I digress. 2 Corinthians 5, 6, and 8. So we are always a good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. Yes, we are a good courage and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. Yeah, I love Paul. He's always got that interesting way of saying things. But again, we've seen this understanding there that there is this one to two ideas, a body and a soul. But the first reference there about going back to dust and now Hebrews 12 23. Going to the idea of what happens with the righteous, and here's Luke 16, 23 to 24. And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to me. this is some people call it a parable I'm not reading it that way, and I'd have to talk to somebody or look at the languages when I'm actually able to do it more. But Jesus in referencing this is not the same as his other parables. This is more like an actual event. So how we want to look at that, even if it is a parable, does not mean that these things are not actually happening. And in light of other scripture, we do see this. That there is, again, this idea of soul sleep is, to me, foreign to scripture. that even in this state, so this is before the crucifixion and resurrection and ascension of our Lord, that there is this chasm, this two ideas of a place for righteous and a place for unrighteous, and this torment. I hear some other scriptures that support the first paragraph. And just for history, again, the purgatory It's easy to collect money if you are swindling people. And again, we already discussed, we're not attacking specifically, but there were, even in evangelism today, there are people trying to fleece believers, all right, and using their faith to their advantage. So yes, I don't know where my mother's at. Well, if you pay this extra money, we can make sure that she's out of this place of torment for the next year, she's supposed to be there, and then we can make sure she gets into this paradise. So yes, it gives comfort, false comfort, but it's also a way of fleecing. So, um, and there there are others that will use again because they believe this, they will use scripture to come up with a formulation of why they do believe it. But let's be realistic. This is what was the reason behind coming up with these things. Paragraph two. At the last day, those saints who are found alive will not sleep, but will be changed, and the dead will be raised with the very same bodies. I'm sorry. All the dead will be raised with the very same bodies, not different ones, though they will have different qualities. Their bodies will be united again to the souls forever. So at the last days, those saints who are found alive will not sleep, but will be changed, and the dead will be raised with the very same bodies, not different ones, though will have different qualities. So what they're getting here is, in the last day, the living saints will be changed. And I'm using again, I'm speaking as what they, their thought process going into this, and then we'll discuss the variances after we read both the chapters though. But so all those who are alive, all the righteous who are alive will be changed, and all the dead will be raised up with the very same bodies that are in the graves. So we're seeing living saints will be changed, all the dead will be resurrected and reunited with their same bodies, so the souls that were not sleeping but were actually either enjoying the glory of God and beholding His face, waiting for redemption, or experiencing torment until this reunification with their body. And it's the same body, and we're going to see some scriptures on this though, but it's the same body. And this is just a concept that, of course, where the Gnostics and the Ascetics and stuff, that the spirit is good, but the flesh is bad. So we don't see that in scripture, and it's always been a case of resurrection. That's why even arguing with Christ, those who didn't believe in the resurrection, and Paul warns against that. If there's no resurrection, you know, where's your hope? So this body, let's look at some scriptures that support it, and if there's anything Um, we need to discuss on this more before we get into the final points on it. But in this reunification of body is now imperishable as well. So again, it is now a reunited with your same body, though different qualities and it is imperishable. So at that point it will be a eternal body. 1st Corinthians 15 51 52. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all see, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. So here's that idea, imperishable and changed, but it's still our bodies. And we have that example, what we see with Christ when his, you know, reach out and touch me. So it's a physical body, but it's a different, it's the same body, but it has different qualities. And I love Job here, Job 19, 26, and 27. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God. And this is an Old Testament writing. It's one of the earlier writings even. After my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God. Back to Paul, 1st Corinthians 15, 42 and 43. What is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. What is sown in dishonor is raised in glory. What is sown in weakness is raised in power. So we're seeing this idea of the different quality of the body, the same body with different qualities. And how does that look? Well, it's the power of Christ, the power of God who raises that this is possible. Anything on that before we get into paragraph three? Okay, paragraph three reads, the bodies of the unjust will be raised by the power of Christ to dishonor. By his spirit, the bodies of the just will be raised to honor and will be made like Christ's own glorious body. Okay, so again, the unjust raised to dishonor and the just raised to honor and made like Christ's own glorious body. So again, there's this difference between the wicked and the righteous, but it's all by the power of Christ. Those are being raised to dishonor and by the spirit of Christ being raised to honor. I got some asterisks on these next three ones here, and one of them is actually not referenced. Like I say, I love the modern confession. I love the language in it, but they do take out some of the references that are in the original, and they add some different ones, which are all good, but I try to combine them all that fit to this, because even, we saw that before in some of the, I think it was catechism questions, like, I think they mistook what scripture they were trying to reference here, and they meant, you know, Ezekiel instead of Ecclesiastes, for example. So reading them like that doesn't make any sense in context of this, but this one does. So just some ideas of editing. But, you know, the two that we're gonna read right now are in both the confessions, and then I added one that's only in the older confession. Acts 24, 15. Having a hope in God, which these men themselves accepted, that there will be a resurrection of both Okay, so again, this hope in God, and we see this resurrection of both the just and the unjust. And this is important because we're gonna get into some ideas, even that Christians believe, that are not in line with scripture on this. John 5, 28, 29. Do not worry about this. For an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. So again we see that, the good and evil, the righteous and the wicked, this resurrection. And Daniel 12, this is in the 17th century, the original confession, and the other Westminster and the Savoy, but the modern one doesn't have this one in it. Daniel 12 too reads, and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. So it reads the same as you see the New Testament scriptures there. Again, I just think it was an oversight from the founder's organization, this one, because they have, this is the fourth one that supports it, and it is, again, in all of them. This is Philippians 3, 21. Who will transform our lowly God to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself? Now I asterisk these other three because it's the only three locations in scripture where the righteous and the wicked are referenced at the same time. Okay, but again our focus, hopefully those who are reading scripture and studying it and looking forward to God and his return are We want to have this glorified body. We're looking forward to our Savior. So this isn't good hope for those who are not believers. But just to point out to those three references. And there are other places though where it references the resurrection of the wicked and references the resurrection of the just. Those three just happen to them both. So again, I don't know why the modern one doesn't have it, but all the rest are in there as well. So any questions on that? And again, if you think of questions as we go over this judgment part, and then when we look at some of the different understandings, we can hit it up again. Okay, so chapter 32 is of the last judgment. And I'm just asking a question here just because, like I say, and we will get into this afterwards, but how many judgments are there? All right. And the confession is going to argue for a single, and I'm just bringing that up again the way that they see it. And we can have discussions afterward because I will do some comparison. And there is some disagreement among Christianity on some of these points. But paragraph one of the last judgment. God is appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ, to whom all power and judgment is given by the Father. And that day the apostate angels will be judged. So also all people who have lived on the earth will appear before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account for their thoughts, words, and deeds, and to receive a reckoning according to what they have done in the body, whether good or evil. Okay, so in this we're reading that God is appointed a day. And the world is going to be judged by Jesus Christ, whom God appointed. For this purpose of judging, he's got all the power. The apostate angels are going to be judged, and all people who ever lived. And notice, they're being judged by thoughts, words, and deeds. All people who ever lived are going to be judged by their thoughts, words, and deeds. All receive a reckoning according to the actions, whether good or evil. And this is just an important understanding here, because again, when I get done with these few paragraphs here and get into some discussion, Some people say that the born-again believers don't get judged by their actions. We're under Christ. OK, we'll get into that a little bit. But everybody is still judged by your thoughts, words, and deeds. That's why we are admonished to protect ourselves, to think on the godly things, to obey in this capacity. If there's no judgment against those, then what's the point? So just throwing that out there before we discuss on it. But everybody's going to be judged by Christ. according to our thoughts, words, and needs. So in that, well, I didn't do anything bad, but what was your thought process? So this is why we are admonished to protect ourselves even on that. All right, and saying stupid things. I'm very good at saying stupid things. Like, I wish I could have taken that back, and that, and that, and it's too late. All right, Act 1731. Because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in Russia by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. See, obviously, we can look at this and know what he's speaking about. God is appointed this day. The man whom he has appointed is Christ Jesus, and given assurance of this by raising him from the dead. So again, this is just in the Acts of the Apostles is what we're reading here, the Acts. So this is a great historical... You know, I love history, but one of my favorite areas of New Testament, in addition to the Gospels, though, is the Book of Acts. We get to see the letters that are written, but in Acts, we get to follow this building of the church. So I love watching it and seeing how things formed in that early, the first century church there. John 5, 22 and 27. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son and His. And He has given no authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. And Jude, verse six. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper gloves, he has kept an eternal chains under whom he darkens, and so the judgment of his grace be. So we don't get into a whole lot of angeology, which I'm happy about. That's unnecessary. But we still see that it is recorded in scripture that there are those, the apostate angels, and there will be an accounting for as well. Second Corinthians 5.10. And this is a letter written to saints. So those who say that there is, you know, it's a different kind of judgment that we're only being judged to see what kind of rewards we get. Paul's even saying we're going to see what was done in our body, whether good or evil. So there is still this attesting, accounting for what we're done. We're responsible still, not in a, salvation manner or understanding, but there is still this, look, this is what's required of you, and it is gonna be judged. Not, again, in a damning or a loss of salvation way. So I think that's why people try to steer away from that. I don't wanna think on this, because then you're talking about a work salvation. No, that's not it. It's Christ and Christ alone. But we're admonished to live a particular way, and there is a reckoning for that. And scripture says there is a reckoning for our thoughts, our words, and our deeds. Ecclesiastes 12, 14. I love the verse here and also where Paul speaking in Romans about that God will judge the secrets of the hearts of men. So even those things that you're not showing everybody that we're still, there's still an accountability for again even our thoughts. Romans 14, 10 and 12. And here's some other scriptures supporting that. I know a lot of people shy away from this type of study, but it should give us great hope, but it should also encourage us to live our lives worthy of being called gods. We should be happy to be sanctified more and more to the image of our Savior. Like I say, some people just need to be polished a little bit. Some of us need that rough grit sandpaper to get going. But it's all for our good. And paragraph two, God's purpose for appointing this day is to manifest the glory of his mercy in the eternal salvation of the elect and of his justice in the eternal damnation of the reprobate who are wicked and disobedient. For at that time, the righteous will go into everlasting life and receive fullness of joy and glory with everlasting rewards in the presence of the Lord. But the wicked who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ will be thrown into everlasting torments and punished with everlasting destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. We'll read the scriptures in a second, but just, I've heard that hell is being, you know, absent of the presence of God. That's not what this is saying. One, that's not true, and that's not what this is saying. Away from the presence of the Lord. Specifically talking about living with Christ, living with the Lord. This is not talking about God, and this is, there's some other writings, I think Renahan does a great job on one of the, excerpts or essays there. But it's talking about the presence of the Lord. We're with Christ, the redeemed are with Christ, beholding the glory of the Father. Those in hell are away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. But there is still, God is omnipresent, there is still Yes. Okay. We can get into a whole side topic on that, which maybe next week would be a good one. But you're not, it's not out of the presence of the Lord. You can't go anywhere to try the presence of God. Because speaking specifically of, you see that we're with, they didn't obey Jesus Christ. So before that we're with Christ enjoying the fullness of his glory. This is not saying that you're out of God's presence. All right. And obviously there's a wrath, there is this torment. That's, that's impossible. But we see that the purpose of this day is to show God's mercy and salvation and show God's justice in damnation of the reprobate. A righteous and everlasting life, fullness of joy and glory, everlasting rewards in the presence of our Lord, and the wicked thrown into everlasting torment, punished with everlasting destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power. On this, I'm gonna stop before we get into the scriptures there because I don't remember if I put it down further Yeah, I did not put it down further. I tried to be very diplomatic in what I wanted to discuss for this week and the time allowed and such. But there are some things that I think are being influenced more and more in Christian thought, and one of them is annihilationism. And that's just that there is no eternal punishment. This is a great thing. If you know that you have a rebellious family member that is looking forward to going to hell because they don't care anything about God, well, thinking about them being eternally tormented is heartbreaking. But if you have this idea, well no, they're just going to be destroyed and there is no eternal torment. This is where annihilationism comes in. It's not an eternal punishment, it's just destroyed, they just cease to be. And scripture is not okay with that. I know, I've read their scripture support. They're taking some of it out of context and they're ignoring a whole lot of the other stuff. All right, so there is this everlasting destruction. Again, we can get into a whole topic on that, but you will hear others, and there are godly men that are teaching this, this annihilationism, and it's very unbiblical. And it's not, oh, you guys are just cheering for the bad guys. No, we're not rooting for anybody to be punished. Okay? That's not what it is at all, but we're trying to be faithful to God's word, and it does not tell you that. And that should also be an admonishment to us, and what we've been discussing this past couple days especially, you know somebody who's not saved. You don't want to see this happen to them, so your motivation is now more to, you can't win them, but you want to make sure that you are sharing every opportunity of this love of God. Repent and believe. You can be saved. Because we don't want that on anybody. No, we're not cheering for the heathen to be tormented forever and that's our motivation. That's not it at all. But the idea of annihilationism as happy as that sounds, that goes right along there with purgatory. Well, I don't have to worry about a family member being lost because I can pray them and John Wayne out of purgatory. Let's look at some scriptures here. Romans 9, 22 to 23. to show his wrath, and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory. And you're showing a reason for this appointed day, to show his mercy, and to show his justice, and the punishment of the wicked. Matthew 25, 34. In the community of the saints, he goes on his way. Come. And now Matthew 25, 46. And this is not one of the apostles saying this now, this is the words of our Savior. So again, I constantly, I know you heard me say that before, that those who try to throw out all of Paul's writings, well, you have a hard time when you're looking at the words of Christ and trying to justify not looking at those as being truthful. Mark 9, 48, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. This is going against that idea of it is eternal. Someone said, well, it said vessels of destruction. When you destroy something, it ceases to be. I don't know, that's figurative. We say something got destroyed and it still exists, so I'm not buying that one, especially when, again, the words of our Savior, and elsewhere, this is, Scripture says, eternal punishment. Here's some other Scriptures. Yes, we do have some Pauline epistles in there, but you also see a lot of it is from the Gospels here. And don't get excited, but the final paragraph of the final chapter. Paragraph 3 reads, Christ desires that we be firmly convinced that a day of judgment will come, both to deter everyone from sin and to comfort the godly more fully in their adversity. For this reason, he has determined to keep the day secret, to encourage people to shake off any fleshly security and always to be watchful, because they do not know the hour when the Lord will come. And so they may always be prepared to say, come Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen. Alright, so the day of judgment is coming. And the confession says that Christ desires our conviction and assurance of this fact to deter us from sin and to comfort us. Okay, again, these are hopeful chapters, and we could exposit, or I could go over to, I'm glad you sent that text though, brother, but yes, I got Waldron's book here, his exposition, awesome. He goes into a lot more, this last two chapters, he actually dives into it a lot because of a lot of the modern arguments against this and ideas that are contrary to scripture. we should have hope. A Christian, a believer, somebody who is living for God and desiring to live, even though it's not perfectly, we have this desire to live. This is encouraging and hopeful for us, that we are looking for this. Come Lord Jesus, come quickly. All right, the day is kept secret to encourage that. I like to say the shaking off of fleshly security. And we get that. I'm giving to my retirement fund right now. I get that. If you're smart, that is the wise thing to do. You are working. Give to your retirement fund. But that is not where my security comes in. Believe me, I'm hoping that I don't have to worry about when I reach that age to see if it's still there or not, because I want to be in the presence of our Lord. However, comma space. That's a fleshless security or anything else. What we're putting our hope in, that's not what we should be doing. Not saying to forsake being responsible in this life, but we are looking forward to the return of our Lord. And being watchful of His return. I love, it's in 1 John, but it talks about so you won't be ashamed at His coming. And again, I've gone over that before, doing something stupid, letting something slip, or just acting ungodly, and now you're face-to-face with your Savior. That's not a position I want to be in. I would love it to be at one of the most awesome moments when we're being holy in fellowship, and He appears like, yes! Probably not how it's going to be for me, but that's my desire instead of being in this fear. And it's not that we have a fear of what's going to happen, but we want to do right by our Savior. That should be our attitude. We want to do right by our Lord. And I just love that though. Come Lord Jesus, come quickly. So we'll read some scriptures and we'll get into some conversation here. Mark 13, 35 to 37. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know when the master of the house will come, on the evening or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning, lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you, I say to all. Stay awake. Revelation 2220. He who testifies to these things says, surely I am coming soon. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. And here's some other scripture references supporting that final paragraph. All right, so we're going to spend the rest of our time here. I'm going to give some observations. I want to give a very brief summary. There's no way we could do justice to all of these points of view. We're not going to exhaust everything there is to discuss on this, but at least to get you seeing what has historically been looked at as orthodox, what we're at today, and you study the scriptures on your own. What we will say is the Apostles' Creed has a bare minimum of what we're looking at. Right now Christ is sitting at the right hand of God the Father, where he will come to judge, he will come to judge the righteous and the wicked, and we believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. These points we have to agree on. Okay, that's a bare minimum. But observations from the confession, and of course I can look at it and see a little bit more, but I'm just going to give a blanket of what we see there, that Christ physically returns once. I argue that's what the authors of the Confessions see and that's what they write in their paragraphs or their chapters here. We see a resurrection of both righteous and the wicked. And we see a judgment of both the righteous and the wicked. These are the three points that I do not think can be disputed and agree with the Confession. I say that because there are a lot of people now that try to put even annihilationism, the confession is okay with annihilationism. Not if you read what we just read right there. There is no way that is compatible with what the Framers said. Now that doesn't mean you have to agree with what they said, but you cannot say that it's compatible with that. That being said, I'm going to go over some eschatology views, the eschatological views of Christianity. And again, this is not going to be an exhaustive study on this, okay? Eschatology, that's the Greek word, eschatos, which means last or final. Eschatology is just a study of the last things or the final things. And yes, it's slang for let's start an argument. I've been placed before. Did you hear that heretic over there? He said this, while the seven other guys were sitting to your left, think the same thing, brothers. You're in a whole room full of heretics right now, if that's what you believe. That word is thrown out a lot, so I say this jokingly, but there is a lot of division, and some people do get very militant on this thing. Do you believe Christ is physically returning? Yes. Do you believe in resurrection of the body? Yes. Do you believe in life everlasting? Yes. We can fellowship. How you think that looks is not going to be the same for everybody. Even what we're going to look at right here, even different people in these same schools of thought don't agree with everything. All right. There's my observations from the confession, though. I say Christ physically returns once, resurrection of both righteous and wicked, and the judgment of both righteous and the wicked. There's going to be some crazy stuff here. This one I think you can read pretty good. I'm only going to focus on three views though. Premillennial, and by this I mean historic. I will make a little note to dispensational millennialism. And I also have a preterist on here. But premillennial, historic premillennial, amillennial, and postmillennial. And then these other four words here. Preterist means that everything prophetic has already happened. Okay, there is some blending here, but just for sake of a quick understanding. Preterist means all this prophecy has already happened. It's already taken place in the past. The John's entire letter and revelation has already taken place, all right? I don't believe that, and I think it's wrong. And so I would say, and that's why I'm not gonna discuss it, but those who are full preterists are unbiblical. So I won't give any more thought to that. If you mean I believe that some of these things in prophecy already happened, which they call partial preterism, Okay, that's not what I'm talking about. Preterists believe everything already happened. And the only points of view that ever thought that were amillennial and postmillennial. And right now that seems to be the preference of most people in those schools. Alright, so that's why I say I fall in the amill camp but I don't agree with preterism at all and I think that it's borderline heretical because Christ is returning. What we just read in the scripture says he's going to return. There's going to be judgment. All right. All these things that are still prophesied in the book of Revelation elsewhere have not happened yet. Then we have historicist, which just means that all these prophecies are unfolding. They have unfolded and they are unfolding and continue to unfold. That's where I line up most, and I think most people honestly do. Yes, this happened. OK, we can see what happened in 70 AD with the temple. Some of this stuff was fulfilled. But there is still some stuff that we see unfolding in our time, and we see some stuff that we are looking to. Futurist, and so again, you'll see that all three of the main views, all three, pre-mill, on-mill, and post-mill, have a historicist understanding. There are some that do. Futurist, post-mill doesn't, but both pre-mill and on-mill do. And futurist just means that all of it is still to happen, that all the prophecies we read have not happened yet. I can't see that either, just looking at things lining up, understanding history. If you're a history buff, you see a lot more of scripture that's already unfolded. If you don't like history, you might not see it as easily. It doesn't mean that when it's shown to you, you won't believe it, but you don't see it as easily. And an idealist is, it's all symbolic, allegory, that some of it's happening. And again, you could probably fall into all of these camps, and still have an understanding, but as long as you're in crisis, physically returning, there's a resurrection of the body and eternal life. We can still discuss these things friendly. So I hope that I did a good job on that. The Preterist, Historicist, Futurist, and Idealist. And now the really fun part. This graph's not going to be too too easy to see, but you get the point. It's just that I grabbed a quick reference there. And I'll start at the bottom, though, with the amil. On your book, though, I put realized millennium. Amil, if you look at the actual breakdown of the word, means no millennium. All right. And so we're often accused, I say we because I do believe in the amillennial position, though different than some of my other amillennial brothers. It does not mean no millennium, it just means realize that we are living in the millennium right now. And that's what this is showing at the bottom. So from Christ, death, burial, resurrection, ascension until his return. is the millennium. I hate that they put symbolic millennium up here. No, we believe it's real, just like the thousand, you know, the cattle on a thousand hills is not, that's only the thousand and then God doesn't have the rest of the hills in his possession. We just don't believe that's the exact number. I say we because I, like I said, I study this a lot and that is the camp that I fall into. But it began at the resurrection of Christ, the first resurrection, and it concludes at the second coming, the second advent, At that time, the transformation of the living, the resurrection of the dead, and the judgment of all takes place. All of that falls within orthodox Christianity, falls within a biblical understanding, whether you agree with it or not, and you can say, yes, I can see how you can come to that point. It also lines up with the confession. The joke is Amill is pessimistic and Postmill is optimistic, but they're the same thing. Whereas Postmill believes pretty much the same thing, from the first resurrection of Christ and his ascension, or sometime after the millennium starts, and it will be concluded at the second coming of Christ. Alright, and again that kingdom reign is in the church, and Christ reigning and sitting on the throne of God. Again, at that time, transformation of the believers, resurrection and judgment. And then, this is historic pre-mill. Again, I'm being very specific in historic pre-mill. Believes, okay, Christ, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and he will return. All right, so this is the era we're in right now, like I said, where Amel believes that this is the millennium and then Christ returns. The premillennium is Christ will return, the second advent, Christ returns and then establishes his physical millennium on earth. At the end of that time is the last judgment. OK? And even in this camp, like I say, is everybody transformed when he returns? Is it just the righteous? When does the resurrection happen for those who died in that time? There are still lots of hurdles in every one of these understandings. I can't answer a lot of questions that come up with some of the scriptures here, but you have problems in this one and this one. I'm finding more and more problems. James White just recently embraced post-millennialism. James White. I blame Jeff Durbin for that. The only reason I really don't like the post-millennial understanding is because they lean more to what's called reconstructionist and theonomy. The entire law of the Old Testament is how we're supposed to be living now. That's how they're going to help usher in Christ's return. That's arrogant to me, and I don't like that understanding. I'm not doing justice saying that. They don't all believe that militantly, but that is an understanding. Okay, and so again, premillennial, I have to be very specific, historic premillennialism. What I mean by that is in the latter part of the 19th century, dispensational millennialism started coming out. And I do have some points on that in point E under section 16 there. The dispensational millennialists They're not in line with Reformed or Covenant theology. There are some that say that they are. They can jump hurdles to try to make it sound like that. But the biggest distinction is that they promote two people of God, and they promote at least two ways of salvation. Some of them have more than that. There's nine dispensations that men were able to be saved differently under these different dispensations. That's unbiblical. I read the scripture where they got that, because I used to read all the left-behind books. They were great fiction. I've enjoyed them a lot. People started making me study scripture, actually. It doesn't line up with God's Word. I can take a brother at all three of these and be like, yes, I disagree with you. I see how you get to these points. But two people of God and things of this nature go against what I see clearly in scripture. There's one people of God, there's one way to salvation, that's through Christ Jesus. I can't deny those things. So if you deny those things, I can't embrace your understanding of what scripture says there. All right, and then they promote two separate second advents. So the first second coming, partial second coming, and then the full second coming. So this is where the rapture, even in that understanding, pre-tribulation rapture, mid-tribulation rapture, post-tribulation rapture. So I don't want to get into all that because I said there's all different understandings of what that looks like as well. But Amill, Postmill, and Premill, historic Premill, are three orthodox views of eschatology. They all three are in line with the confession. I say that, I think mine lines up better with it, but that's just because I'm one, biased, and two, like I say, I've read a lot of books on this that help my bias, I guess. But to be fair, we did a class on Ezekiel. We were in Ezekiel for a year. And then we did a class on Revelation. And that's where I started seeing some comparisons. But had a brother who'd been a longtime Christian visit the church, visit my class, like, no, I need to show you where you're wrong. And this dispensation guide, and this, I'm like, I really appreciate what you're saying, but I used to believe all that stuff. I don't anymore because of this scripture. And it got argumentative. I'm not going to argue about this. Do you believe Christ is physically returning? Do you believe in the resurrection? Do you believe in eternal life? Life everlasting? We can fellowship. And how that looks, we can joke, we can play fun, we can have some good conversation. Well, what do you think this scripture means? Well, I think it means this. Well, I don't see how you can think it means this, because I think it means this. Okay, but we're having a friendly discourse. There are some great books out there that do compare all four views. I say all four views because they do include the dispensational because there are some godly brothers. I believe John MacArthur is not full on Jack Van Impe dispensational, but he leans dispensational in it. All right, and so like I say, James White never told anybody what he was. Then he finally had one of his podcasts where he said, I'm Aumil, and here's the books I read. And then all of a sudden, he's like, thanks to Jeff Durbin Postmill. So even a scholar like that is reading scripture and coming with a different understanding. But his views have still been orthodox and scriptural. So any questions or comments, something you want to add, or you'd like some further further dialogue on this. I can recommend some other books, which I do have some book recommendations. We'll get to that in a second. But on this, the eschatology. And some people, like Bodhi Bakkam, made the joke that when you ask congregations what book they want to have preached on the most, and you ask preachers what book they don't want to preach on the most, it's the same answer. It's the book of Revelation. None of these, I'm just clarifying in my mind, none of these are saying that you're sick. I feel like I've heard that you have a chance to become saved later on, or is that a totally different thing? There are believers who believe that. Some say at that point it's not. There's like years of, you're like, oh. Like seven years of? Yeah, I've heard of something where it's like, that's almost to me like a second chance. It's not like a, I feel like it's a one and final judgment. And we were warned beforehand, so we don't really have an excuse. Like I say, in historic pre-meal, there are still conversations that men who hold to that have a slightly different understanding of too. And there are some scripts. I'm just saying, I don't know. I don't know what to do with this. Like even me when I was getting out of dispensational to that, well, what happens with those who die during this time? You know, when there's a resurrection, whether you want to talk about, like, say, my problem is when people are like, what's the first resurrection? I can say that's Christ. But that doesn't answer the questions. For a pre-meal, yes. Well, what happens to those who died during this time? Don't have an answer. That's the reality of it, is none of these points have an exact answer that they can all agree on that fits up scripturally with everything. And that's why I don't like that people get so militant and argumentative over it. Yeah. I agree though. I'm like, yeah, that doesn't make sense. So, so yeah, so you get that second chance, you don't like, yeah, say to me, and it's like, well, that's not fair. Well, why would you say that's not fair? If you believe that, you know, God has held off all this time anyways, why not? So I can't argue with that. But whether I believe with it or not, there are godly men who, you know, some do agree with that. Some don't. As long as again, it's Christ physically returning, resurrection of the body, everlasting life. How that looks, how that plays out. And even like I say, when I'm studying some of it, when I did the, for Advent. Okay, looking at the dragon. I see a lot of that imagery. And John, you will see that even in his gospel and his letters. He loves the Pentateuch. He loves Moses' writings. He pulls from Moses' writings a lot. Was that the way that the Lord showed him these visions? Because it was something he identified with? Or is it something different? Or is it both? So. and I promise when we are face to face with our Lord, I'm not going to be like, hey, who is right over here? Come on, tell me. And I know he's going to say the bottom one, but that might just be my bias. And I repent of this, but even seeing there's, especially because of memes, I hate the internet for that. But I say every new bad guy is the Antichrist and every new technology is, you know, this fulfillment and revelation. And it's like, but you can go back in history again. I love history and see all these other things. We're probably believers in 400 AD. We're like, Oh no, this is this. All right. I think it's one of them, it's not 666, it's 616. 616, yes. Yes, there are some like, well, this lines up with this Roman emperor. Okay, it does. And even on that, the Antichrist, which we looked at the Confession saying that the Pope was the Antichrist. A, Antichrist I'll agree with. B, Antichrist? No, especially if you believe in the future events still to come. If you believe in that idealistic idea where it's just constantly repeating, well, why can't it be both? That we're going to see constant Antichrist and then we are going to see a man of tradition final. No, when I was raising my kids back in the Barney days, I was swamped. He was so full of love. The messed up thing, and I put that up there at the very top, which I just ran over though, but Revelation 20 is the cause for so much division. That millennial, where do you get anything referencing the millennium? one verse and one chapter of one book of the Bible, and people are building their entire theologies around this, and their hope around that, and being right in that. That's not where our hope is. We read where our hope is in all these other, that's why I love the confession, where they direct it. They're not directing it at these things that people are arguing over now. They're directing it at our hope in His return, and our final state with Him, and our being and beholding the face of God forever. This is where the hope is, so. And live that way now. I think even when we look at the title of Revelation, it's not the revelation of things that are to come, it's the revelation of Jesus Christ. So we need to remember what the purpose of the book is to tell us about Christ. Sometimes people are making good money off of The Left Behind, The Left Behind Part 2, You leave Kurt Cameron alone, bro. But I did see a YouTube video that was kind of sad. They played a joke on a person. They agreed to invite a person to a coffee shop, and she was a Christian. She went to the bathroom, and then people in the coffee shop who left and just left the coffee in places, and then when she came back, she freaked out. It was funny. I saw it in seminary. I don't know if they made it holy, but it was sad at the same time. Yeah, I've seen somebody was selling a rapture chair. You can see the imprint there. Like, my brother's a Christian. You know, he disappeared, so we think he was raptured or whatever. We're selling his chair now. I'm like, again, joking tongue-in-cheek, but that's why I said, that's why I repent, because I see these things, and yes, I joke at it, because I used to think these things and now I think they're ridiculous. But there are some brothers and sisters that they really hold to this. And I don't want to diminish that relationship that I have with them or can have with them. Because through studying, I came to a different understanding. And again, I'm not saying I'm going to go the route of the post mill, but I may change again. I'm finding more answers either supporting or something. I'm having a harder time answering this as definitively as I used to because other scriptures. So do you believe in Christ's physical return? Do you believe in the resurrection of the body? Do you believe in life everlasting? That's where I'm going to fall on every time. That's why I say I'm an annihilationist. I disagree with you on that. Or I don't believe that it's only the righteous that are being resurrected and judged. I don't see that. Or it's only spiritual. There is no physical body. I can't agree with you on that. Scripture says, and that's why I love the Apostles' Creed being simple, and even in the Confession there, you notice that they don't mention millennium in any of those paragraphs that I read. That's in the original language or in the modern. They don't mention it at all. And the only reference in Revelation that they use, he who testifies to these things says, surely I am coming soon. Amen, come Lord Jesus. It's the only reference that they use from Revelation in the scriptures here. Any other questions on this or comment?