Between Now And Forever

Transcription

1 A Biblical Understanding of Heaven and Hell Midweek Seminar Between Now And Forever Pastor Chris Lawson June 3, 2009 God I thank You that we go to a church that preaches the unfettered Gospel and allows us the freedom to answer tough questions, to dive and dig in Your text, and to come out with a fresh understanding of the Gospel of Jesus. Lord, I ask that my words would be Your words, that I would be clear tonight, and accurately represent that which You would have us to know. God we love You. Thank you for this day. It is in Jesus name we pray, amen. T he lyrics read: Life was filled with guns and war And all of us got trampled on the floor. I wish we d all been ready. The children died, the days grew cold, A piece of bread could buy a bag of gold. I wish we d all been ready. There s no time to change your mind; The Son has come and you ve been left behind. A man and wife asleep in bed, She hears a noise and turns her head - he s gone. I wish we d all been ready. Two men walking up a hill, One disappears and one s left standing still. I wish we d all been ready. The Father spoke; the demons died, How could you have been so blind? I hope we ll all be ready, You ve been left behind. 1 1 Norman, Larry. I Wish We d All Been Ready. Beechwood Publishing Corp. and J.C.Love Publishing Co. (BMI), These are the lyrics of the famous and infamous D.C. Talk recording of the late Larry Norman s song, I Wish We d All Been Ready. This song depicts a major stream of eschatological thinking among Evangelical theologians and pastors. The idea essentially suggests that in the twinkle of an eye Jesus will return, at which point he will dramatically and instantaneously gather up His church. In a second, the world will be forever changed. B ut what will these events look like? Who will experience these events? When will these events take place? It is these questions, among many others, that have been the source of much consternation and debate in Evangelical circles for years. Before we move forward, let us be clear about a few assumptions. Here are a few assumptions and truths that we hold in common: Jesus was sent by God as his final restorative effort toward humanity.

2 Jesus life, death and resurrection is the pivotal period in human history. Jesus substitutionary death is our promise of eternal atonement before God. Jesus will return, but no one knows when this historyaltering event will take place. At the end of this age, Jesus will judge the repentant and unrepentant, and sort the quick and the dead to either Heaven or Hell. O n Sunday we established working assumptions: By examining Jesus view of Hell and His teachings about it in the usage of the word Gehenna we find that Hell is awful, but is, more importantly, a physical place. Hell is worse than any of our own human conceptions. Hell is eternal and, those in Hell get their wish for independence, because the lie and lure of Satan s apple was independence. He said to Adam and Eve in that garden, God did not really say that you must not eat of this tree, meaning, God knows if you eat of this tree you will be like Him and thus will no longer need Him. So, he continues, Eat of this tree and you will get independence. And in the end those in Hell get their wish, an eternal existence without God and without His common grace in their life. A s a church, we hold the Scriptures of God in high esteem. I personally believe in verbal plenary inspiration of the Scriptures, that every word, not just the overarching ideas or concepts, is meaningfully chosen under and through the inspiration of God. Verbal denotes that the Bible in its original languages, from first to last autograph, is an exact record of the mind and will of God as He intended it to be. By Plenary denotes that the entire text of the Bible is equally from God, but not necessarily equally-important. Inspiration I would reckon from 2 Timothy 3:16 which says, all Scripture is God-breathed. So, for me, Scripture is inspired by God as He intended it. Every word, entire text, equally inspired and God-breathed. Why does this matter? Because I believe the Bible is truthful and accurate on every topic for which it speaks. Thus, the first and last place I look for clarity on theological division is the Bible, because it is the authority on theological issues. And I hold to the Reformation adage, The best tool for interpreting Scripture is Scripture itself. Tonight, we will effort together to answer this question: What happens between now and forever? If now, is now, and forever is Heaven or Hell, tonight is about between. Many words that are thrown around when talking about this between age. It seems important to begin by defining the events and terms often used Some Essential Definitions I am defining these terms in a broad stroke. We will specifically define them as they relate to particular views and stances on the return of Jesus. The Church Age The Church Age is the age that was instituted by the first coming of Jesus, and will be brought to an end when Jesus returns. We live in the in the Church Age now. When I use the phrase, The Return of Jesus, I mean when Jesus will return physically and visibly at some point in history. The Millennium The Millennium is the thousand-year reign of Jesus. The Tribulation The Tribulation is an event referred to in Matthew 24:21, which in the King James reads, For then shall be a great tribulation... The NIV reads, For then there will be a great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now and never to be equaled again. Other passages as well suggest that there will be a tribulation period. The Judgment The Judgment explains that the quick and the dead will stand before Jesus and be judged as guilty or innocent. Heaven and Hell The places of eternal glory or eternal torment. Essential Questions How should we, as the Church, wait for Christ s return? Will the return of Jesus be physical or spiritual? Can Jesus return at any time? What signs precede Jesus return? The first of these are much simpler than the last two. How should we, as the Church, wait for Christ s return? We should wait eagerly, but also eagerly do the thing He has called us to do. John, the author of the Book of Revelation, ends his book with, Amen. Come, Lord Jesus (Revelation 22:20), and Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians, 2

3 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:20). However, Paul also wrote to the Church in Thessalonica, warn those who are idle (1 Thessalonians 5:14). The awaiting of the Kingdom is both a yes and not yet experience. Yes, we should eagerly await it, but in the meantime we should get about His good work in this world. God has called us and gifted us uniquely to do His work in the world. Will the return of Jesus be physical or spiritual? I think Scripture is explicitly clear that Jesus return will not merely be spiritual, but also personal and bodily. Matthew 24:44 says, So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. Men of Galilee, they said, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven. (Acts 1:11) Meaning, you saw Him physically on the Day of Ascension, go into Heaven, and you will physically see Him come down from Heaven. You re not going to miss it. You do not have to stand around looking at the sky anticipating that the moment could happen in any second and you might miss it. No, when it happens, you will know it is happening, and you will not miss it because you were looking at the ground or tying your shoes. Jesus return will be public; it will be visible; it will be bodily. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. (1 Thessalonians 4:16) But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. (2 Peter 3:1) Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen. (Revelation 1:7) Should we eagerly await Jesus return? Absolutely, but continue to do the thing God has called you to. These last two questions that we are going to evaluate are considerable because they highlight the disagreement among the Evangelical community over the future details of Jesus return. Among the areas of disagreement are the nature of the Millennium and Jesus involvement during it, the sequence of Jesus return, when is the tribulation, and salvation for Jewish people. Each of these are equally divisive. At the heart of these disagreements are these two questions: Can Jesus return at any time? You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. (Luke 12:40) The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. (1 Peter 4:7) These passages seem to suggest that Jesus and his disciples believed that his return was imminent. Now, before I tell you how to read these Scriptures accurately, let me tell you how to read them inaccurately. Bart Ehrman, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the most famous, articulate, liberal New Testament scholars in the country today, says that Jesus was an Apocalyptic Prophet who was wrong, who came, led his disciples, believed that the world would come to an end any moment, and yet died disappointed at his own miscalculation. No, Mr. Ehrman, this is incorrect. Jesus used what was commonly used by prophetic voices in the Bible. It is called prophetic foreshortening, meaning that they see future events, but do not always take into account the time that will pass. Scripture is very clear, in 2 Peter 4, that time is a man-made construct, that the God Man may not hold to the same time assessments that we hold to, that a thousand years to us is but one day to God. So to try to place any type of timeline on Jesus own words seems to be a futile effort, for Jesus could not be wrong or He would not be God. He uses prophetic foreshortening. George Ladd says this of prophetic foreshortening, The Old Testament prophets blended the near and the distant perspectives so as to form one canvas. Meaning, It is coming; you just do not know when. Jesus is neither a liar, nor does He die a disappointed Apocalyptic Prophet. Jesus words are, Be ready. I will return. I do not know, He says in Mark, only the Father knows, but I am coming again to claim those who have put their faith in Me. This leads to the next question, If Jesus can return at any time, what signs must precede Jesus return? Scripture reports: Preaching of the Gospel to all nations (Mark 13:10) The Great Tribulation (Mark 13:7) False prophets working signs and wonders (Mark 13:22) 3

4 Signs in the heavens: the sun will go dark and the stars will fall. (Mark 13:24-25) Coming of the Man of Sin, often referred to as the Antichrist (1 John 2:18) The salvation of Israel (Romans 11:22) The question before us is, How do we reconcile the warnings to be ready with the fact that there are signs that must happen before the return of Jesus? We must reconcile that Jesus says both, I can come at any time, but also, These things must happen first. Can Jesus come at any time? Yes. But why the warnings and the signs? We could just admit that Jesus could not come back at just any time, or say, Until all of these six signs are fulfilled, Jesus cannot return. The problem with that view is that it does not take seriously the words of our Savior, Who over and over and over again says, I will return quickly. If He could not return at any time, why did He not just say, Watch the signs. When they are done, I ll be back? One possibility is that there are two returns, that there is a secret return when Jesus comes and takes up His Church into the air. In a period of time after that the signs are fulfilled, and then Jesus will return for a second time. The first time secret; the second time public. That s how the signs can be fulfilled and Jesus return could be imminent. Another consideration is that all of the signs have already been fulfilled. There is a large group of Christians who believe that all of those six signs have been fulfilled long ago, thus Jesus can return at any time because there is no need to wait for the signs to be fulfilled. Another option, which I think is the most likely, is to say that it is unlikely, but possible, that the signs have all been fulfilled. The Signs of The End Times Let s walk for a brief moment through these signs and look at the likelihood that they have all been fulfilled. Preaching of the Gospel to All Nations (Mark 13:10) This seems unlikely to have been fulfilled, for we know that there are cultures and nations that have not yet had God s Scriptures translated into their language, thus how has the Gospel come to them in full? I think it unlikely that the preaching of the Gospel to all nations has happened. The Great Tribulation (Mark 13:7) Has this happened? Once again, I believe this to be unlikely for a variety of reasons, one of them being that I believe the Great Tribulation will be so much worse than anything we have yet seen. Matthew 24:21 says that it will be worse than we have ever seen, and the worst that could ever happen to the end of this age. I think this 4 comes at the end of the age as the final effort by Satan to punish and draw away the children of God. There are those, however, that will argue that the Great Tribulation took place during the years of the great persecution of Christians under Nero s reign, AD, when he burnt down cities, blamed it on the Christians, and destroyed the Temple. I find that unlikely based on Matthew 24. False Prophets Working Signs and Wonders (Mark 13:22) I think this one has absolutely been fulfilled. I do not know if it is as bad as it is going to get, but this one has absolutely been fulfilled. We have had false prophets of witchcraft and demonic activity that have exhibited signs and wonders in the name of their pagan gods. This happened in the time of Moses when he confronted Pharaoh, and it continues to happen today, so there is one that I would check off the list. Signs in Heaven The particular signs are that the sun will go dark and the stars will fall out of the sky. (Mark 13:24-25). I am not always very attentive to what is going on around me, and often get distracted, but I am pretty sure that the stars are still there and that the sun has not gone dark, so I am going to say that is one has not happened. Coming of the Man of Sin (1 John 2:18) Once again this is unlikely for a variety of reasons. I do not think that the great persecutor of the church has come yet. I do think he is one man, not an antichrist spirit, who will come to persecute the Church. There have been numerous theologians that have not only predicted when the world will come to an end, but have also wrongly predicted and placed the label of Antichrist on world leaders, from Nero, to Domitian, to Hitler, to every Pope since Peter, even on the beloved Ronald Wilson Regan. (There were many who believed that Ronald Wilson Reagan was the Antichrist because each of his three names had six letters, thus his name was 666 he must be the Antichrist.) Since he has gone to be with the Lord, it is unlikely that he was the Antichrist! In the same way, there are many, many people on the Internet who are claiming that Barack Hussein Obama is the Antichrist. I do not know, but I think it is unlikely that he is the Antichrist. There are all kinds of claims on the Internet about the new Pope, and some leader in Russia just a whole list of people who are believed to be the Antichrist. It is unlikely that we have seen this man come yet. Salvation of Israel (Romans 11:22) Nothing is as divisive in the Church today as this issue. People break fellowship over this, divide churches, quit having lunch together, over the view of Israel and their salvation. Paul says that there will be a great ingathering of the Jews before the return of Jesus. I

5 believe that that has already happened, because his promise that the ingathering would happen before Jesus returns is in Romans 11:22, and in Romans 11:1-2, Paul says that he, himself, is a part of the ingathering. That means to me that the ingathering of the Jews has happened, that the Jews and the Gentiles have equal access to the Gospel of Jesus, and equal access to His redemption and salvation. They are no longer saved by the law. There are surely those among us who say, No, there is a time coming, a dispensation, when Jesus will treat the Jews differently, when He will reckon with the Gentiles and the Jews then will have access to His salvation. They will see Him in the fullness of His Messianic identity. I do not think that the case, but I am just fine with others holding that view. I do not think it is anything for us to divide fellowship over, and I will not allow it. All I care about is how the Jews are saved, not when they are saved. I am not going to die on the hill of a timeline about when the Jews are saved. I will die on the hill of Who saves them. They are saved by New Covenant blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are not saved by Old Covenant adherence. T hese six signs must be fulfilled before Jesus returns, and Jesus can return in bodily form at any time. I believe It is unlikely that these signs have all been fulfilled, but it is possible. I am still a little bit concerned about the signs in the heavens Those signs which are not fulfilled could happen in a matter of moments. Within seconds the sun could turn dark, the stars could fall from the sky, and Jesus could return. THEREFORE, Jesus could return at any time, and Christians should live accordingly. From this point forward we are going to move from a discussion of when and can to how He returns. The Millennium Oftentimes theologians and Bible students take different approaches to a Biblical theme. The most popular, but most inaccurate view of these, is to do a pericape view, or to look at what is called a pericape narrative. In this approach, a view of the overarching theme of what is going on is built by picking out particular pericapes, or sections of Scripture, and piecing them together without regard to whether or not they are in the same book or are actually referencing what they are sought to be referencing. An inaccurate conclusion is then drawn from the narrative. 5 It is my hope that we will now take a unified narrative approach to how we view end time Scriptures. We will ask, What does the totality and overarching view of Scripture teach about the return of Jesus and what that might look like? 1 And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. 2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. 3 He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time. 4 I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. (Revelation 20) For several hundred years the accurate interpretation of Revelation 20:1-5 has both perplexed and divided theologians and pastors, who hold four essential views of what happens in the end times: Post-tribulationism, Amillennialism, Historic Premillennialism, and Pretribulation Premillennialism. Over my last seven or eight years of examining end time realities I have held three of these views, moved through two of them, and come to a new view of what I believe. All but one of these have Biblical validity in that there are Scriptures that seem to support them. Post Tribulation I have never held this belief. It basically says that the world is getting healthier and better, and that the Gospel of Jesus is ringing forth with more power and more authority now than ever before. Ultimately the Millennium, this thousand years, will happen because the world has gotten to a point where we enter into the Millennium Age. At the end of the Millennium Age, when things are great, then Jesus will return and sort out the quick and the dead and judge those to Heaven and Hell. The problem is that there is almost no Scripture, no scholar, and nothing in our culture that would support this. I have almost stopped watching the news because it is so bad. In reality, this view becomes more popular during times of great revivals, so there were theologians during the First and Second Great Awakenings that held to this theory. After the end of the Second Great Awakening, and entering into the first and second World Wars, the Vietnam War and Korean War,, people gave

6 up on the hope that this is going to get progressively better until the millennium age comes. I know that really kind of backfires on what I said my method was going to be, but we are not going to take very seriously Post Tribulation theory because I do not get it, it is very optimistic, and I do not understand how people hold that. Amillennialism This view is held predominantly by reformed people, including many Presbyterians. It teaches that there is no future Millennium, that we live in a current day, the Millennium was purely metaphorical, and it occurred during the Church Age the age that Jesus instituted. They reckon to the verse in 2 Peter that says, With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day (2 Peter 3:8), meaning that time is a man-made construct, so the Church Age will incorporate the Millennium. At the end of the Church Age that has the Millennium as a part of it, Jesus will return, and that is it. There is no literal Tribulation; we live in it now. Christians are persecuted. There is no literal Millennium. It is just Church Age, Jesus returns, judges, and it is over. This is by far the simplest view, and there are Scriptures to support this. What they say is that Jesus could return at any time, although there are some in this group, like theologian Louis Berkhof, who say that Jesus cannot return until the signs have been fulfilled. But ultimately this theory says is that Satan is bound now, the Millennium is now, and there is no future Millennium, it is metaphorical. This is supported by Matthew 13:24 in the parable of the wheat and tares, but I am not sure how to read that, other than that it does fit Amillennial theology. I think it is a pericape narrative it is being taken out of the larger context but I do think that there are Scriptures to support it and it is a legitimate view of the end times. No literal Millennium. No literal Tribulation. They are metaphorical. They are in the Church Age. At the end of the Church Age Jesus will return and that is it. That is it. Nothing complicates it. That is it. Historic Premillennialism This view holds that the Church Age begins and at the end of it, after all the signs are fulfilled, Jesus returns, gathers up in the sky all the believers, both the dead and the living, and immediately returns to earth and reigns for a thousand years. There are verses in Isaiah 11, Psalm 72, Zechariah 14, where the description of reality does not fit the present age, but Jesus is King over all the earth, and it is not yet the new Heaven and the new earth. 6 For me this means that there will be a thousand-year reign of Jesus and His believers on earth. During that time Satan has been bound, reckoning back to Revelation 20. At the end of that thousand year physical reign of Jesus on earth, Satan will be loosed for a short time (Revelation 20), after which Jesus will destroy him and throw him and his demons into the fiery lake. He will then raise the unsaved from the dead and will judge everyone, sending each to either Heaven or Hell. This world will come to an end with the judgment of the quick and the dead. This is a legitimate view of what is going to happen and it is held by major theologians. Pretribulation Premillennialism This is by far the most popular and by far the most profitable. This says that it Jesus will return before the Millennium, but secretly; that we are in the Church Age and Jesus can return at any time. When He returns He will secretly come and call up, rapture, all of those who are believers, both the dead and the alive, and take them away to Heaven. Then the Tribulation will begin. For three and a half years the Man of Sin, the Antichrist, will reign the earth with peace and prosperity. But then his true colors come out, and for the last three and a half years he will torture and execute the Christians. At the end of that seven years Jesus will return one final time and reign for a thousand years, then the world will come to an end. So there is a secret return. Historic Premillennialism and Pretribulation Premillennialism differ on some issues, but they are very, very close. O ne distinction needs to be made, between Dispensational theology and Covenantal theology. Justification and Variegated Nomism is a book that you should be aware of and never read. It is by D. A. Carson (Editor), whom I love, Peter T. O'Brien and Mark A. Seifrid (Editors). In that book Carson argues that Paul makes no distinction between Jew and Gentile when it comes to salvation, that all are saved through the blood of Jesus, and that contrary to the arguments of men like James Dunn, N. T. Wright, and others, Jesus does not treat Jews differently because of the Old Covenant. They are not justified by the law. Everyone before and after Jesus comes is justified by Him. He argues that the Covenant is consistent. I make this argument to make sure we are clear on the difference between how we see history. The Pretribulation Pre-Millennialist group is at its heart Dispensationalist, which means that God has interacted through history in dispensations, or periods of time, and differently at times. We are currently in a dispensation in that there will be another dispensation

7 wherein Jesus will deal with the Jews differently than He has dealt with the Gentiles. I do not hold this theology. I at my core hold Covenantal theology, which says that the world is divided, not by dispensations and time periods, but by covenants; that God has worked through covenants with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and finally, with Jesus; that the covenants are variegated, meaning that there are various with the same common truth. We are justified by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, not by our works. So, for me, the thing I am not willing to give up on, the thing I am willing to die on a hill about, is the fact that Jesus is the final and ultimate atonement. L et s move, as we think about those distinctions, to a few critiques. Postmillennialism We are going to cast off Postmillennialism as an illegitimate view. I do not get it. I do not understand it. I do not know how anybody holds it. Just watch the news. Things are not getting better. Amillennialism They contend that the future millennium is only mentioned once. For me, the thing I could never get past is that Revelation 20 says Jesus returns, then there is the Millennium. They say that they do not believe in a Millennium at all and that the only mention of a future Millennium is a brief one in Revelation. My response to that is, How many times does it have to be mentioned before it becomes legitimate? In my household growing up, if Dad had to mention anything a second time, that was one time too many. The first time was all it should have taken. If he had to mention something a second time, somebody was getting a beating and the belt was on its way. How many times does the Bible have to mention it before it becomes true? A future Millennium in Revelation 20 seems to be clear. Historic Premillennialism The only difference between Historic Premillennialism and Pretribulation Premillennialism is the view of the Tribulation and the view of Judaism. I think we have already dealt adequately with the Judaism issue when talking about Romans 11. A quick history lesson of this view seems in order at this point. In 1830 a young pagan girl by the name of Margaret Macdonald had an ecstatic vision. In that vision she divided the second coming of Jesus into two different appearances, a secret one and a public one. At the same time John Nelson Darby, a great Bible teacher, had divided the Bible into dispensations, or 7 periods, to help people better understand God s working in the world throughout history. He adopted Margaret s view of two Second Comings, or a split Second Coming, and then made some changes to it and incorporated it into his Dispensationalist view of the Bible as a teaching tool. Later C. I. Scofield incorporated this into the 1909 publishing of his Scofield Study Bible, wherein he rooted Dispensational theology into the footnotes of his Bible. Oftentimes when I meet Dispensationalists they can more accurately quote the footnotes of the Scofield Study Bible than they can the authoritative text of the Bible! Now, I do not blame the widespread belief in this on other than Billy Graham. Billy Graham, who gave out millions of copies of the Scofield Study Bible, was once asked, Why do you give out the Scofield Study Bible? His response was both honest and telling, Because it is free, meaning that people gave him a lot of them to give away. Honestly, if I were Billy Graham in his position, I would have done the same thing. But what it did was to pass around this view of theology, that there was a secret Second Coming of Jesus. Now let us read here for a second some verses on the Tribulation. Matthew 24, 29 Immediately after the distress of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 30 At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. It looks to me like the Tribulation is before the public coming of Jesus. I do not see in there a secret coming of Jesus. There are two complicated verses that give root to the view that is held by the Pretribulation Premillennialists, the secret Second Coming. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. (1 Thessalonians 4:17) It does not seem to be secret. The view of the secrecy of the Second Coming is based primarily on Revelation 3:10, which says, Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth. That verse, along with 1 Thessalonians, has been used to justify a secret Second Coming and a Rapture of the Church before the Tribulation.

8 Is this passage in Revelation 3:10 a promise to remove from the Tribulation? This part of Revelation addresses specifically the church in Philadelphia. It does not address all churches in Asia Minor, because just a few verses earlier, in Revelation 2:10, in a letter addressed to the Church at Smyrna, it says that they will have tribulation for ten days and be faithful unto death. This promise, that they will be rescued from Tribulation, does not seem to be universal, or even to all the churches in Asia minor, but a promise to a particular church, in a particular area, in a particular age. There are similar promises that are given. In addition to the fact that I think this is a pericape narrative, a portion of text taken out of context when they used Revelation 3:10 to justify it, I also think the Greek here is misused. In Greek, the hour of trial is translated from tes mellouses erchesthai. Every time in the New Testament that a verb is joined to the present infinitive case, like it is here, it is the expression of an imminent coming, meaning it will happen now. Every other place that a verb is joined to the present infinitive, the hour of trial, it always happens in that age. Here they want to argue that it does not, that it is a two thousandyear promise that is denied to the Church in Philadelphia, but delivered on today. That does not make sense to me. The people who read the Scriptures this way say they are literalists, but then they read this passage with non-literalist eyes. How is that possible? W here do I stand? I stand firmly on the fence. I spent a large portion of my own eschatological study holding tightly to Amillennialism. My problem is that I do not find any Scriptural merits for the Millennium not being a physical reign of Jesus following His return. I believe the Millennium is literal, and Jesus will return and institute it on earth. That is what Revelation 20 points to, and how many times does God have to say something for it to be true? I hold firmly to Amillennialism, though I cannot get past that issue. But probably more firmly, if I were going to throw my ball in a direction, to Historic Premillennialism. Here is why. I find no merit in Scripture for a Pretribulation Rapture. As much as I would like to hold the view that says I am rescued from the greatest persecution of Christians, I do not think it is true. If you hold to that view, continue to cling to it, because that is a nice story, that the Church is Raptured from the persecution of the great evil one. I think we will live through it. I think the end of the world will go like this. We live in the Church Age. The Tribulation is to come. We may be in it now; it may be yet to come. But at the end of the time of suffering and persecution for the Gospel, I think that Jesus will return. He will call up those who have repented and placed faith in Him, the quick and the dead, to the air, and will immediately return to the earth to establish His Millennial reign. For a thousand years Jesus will reign with His faithful. During this time Satan has been bound. At the end of that thousand years, Satan will be let go for a brief moment, just long enough for Jesus to defeat him and to cast him into Hell forever. At that point, both the saved and the unsaved will stand before the judgment seat. Those who are unsaved will be told by Jesus, Depart from Me, I know you not, (Matthew 7:23), and they will go to an existence that we cannot imagine eternity in Hell. But for those who are judged, who have the mark of Jesus on their hearts, who have been sealed by the Blood of the Lamb, judgment will not be something scary. We will stand there and Jesus will say, My Beloved, Come and enjoy my paradise! I believe that is how the world comes to an end. I find no merit in Scripture for a secret Second Coming. I also have difficulty seeing that Jesus gives the Jews a second chance. However, let me admit that I totally believe that God is sovereign, and if God wants to give the Jews a third, and a fourth, and a fifth chance, He wants to be merciful and gracious to them until the end of all eternity, He is God and I am Chris. I am going to spend the remainder of my days resting in the assurance of my own salvation and preaching the unfettered Gospel to those who do not yet know the truth, in hope that they will also get the same grace and the same freedom that I have in Jesus. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! 2200 Reynolda Road Winston-Salem, NC ReynoldaChurch.org Phone:

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