Views of the Prophesied Kingdom

Transcript

GRM 1070
2/12/2012
Views of the Prophesied Kingdom
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh


I want to continue out discussion about biblical prophecy. We've talked most recently about the judgments of Scripture. Now I want to spend some time talking to you about the subject of the kingdom, and we'll be revisiting things that we've talked about numerous times before. But it's important and essential that we understand it. I'm going to refer to a paper that I've had in my file for several years, it takes an opposing view but it interests me because the person says in this paper, “I was raised in a church which not only taught dispensationalism but identified it as Scripture 'read correctly.'” That person was raised in a church which taught dispensationalism and taught that dispensationalism was the result of interpreting Scripture correctly, because it happened to be this church. He just wasn't paying close enough attention. So I want you to pay close attention so that you understand these things and the issues that are involved.

Why don't you put the chart up. This chart is not inspired, but they do present in a visual way what God unfolds in Scripture. This one is entitled The Resurrections, remember, because they lay out the key events and when resurrections occur, and judgments also occur with the resurrection. And for example here before the Millennium we had a judgment of living people before they go into the Millennium, as well as resurrected Old Testament saints and tribulation saints. And we'll be following this as we talk about different views on the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ that is talked about in Scripture. I want to talk about the prophesied kingdom in particular, we'll talk in the future about the universal kingdom of God which has always been in existence and continues today. But we're talking about the prophetically promised kingdom that is anticipated in Scripture. And there are three basic views on this kingdom. And I should have had it done so you could see it, but if you have a piece of paper you might write these down because I'm going to be referring back to them at different times. And some of you are very familiar with it and some of you may be less familiar with the views.

We're going to talk about amillennialism. Maybe I ought to say something about millennium. Millennium is from the Latin word for a thousand years. We get the term from Revelation 20, why don't you turn there since this is foundational, we've looked at this recently but maybe all of you weren't here. In Revelation 20:1, then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding they key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand, and he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years, a millennium. So a thousand years, and sometimes we use the Greek for the thousand years and we talk about chileism or chiliastic, from the Greek word for a thousand years here. But we get the Latin word millennium from a thousand years. So he is bound for a thousand years.

In verse 3 toward the end of the verse, he won't be free to deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were completed. Then the end of verse 4, there is a resurrection and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. Verse 5, the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. The end of verse 6, they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years. Verse 7, when the thousand years are completed.

That's the only place in Scripture that it talks about a thousand years. Some would say since it's in the book of Revelation, the things in the book of Revelation are highly symbolic and we oughtn't to interpret the numbers found in the book of Revelation literally. That will make a difference in where you end up.

Three basic views that we're going to talk about. Amillennialism. Amillennialism means no millennium. The “a” on the front of millennium means no, no millennium, no literal earthly thousand-year kingdom. Then we're going to talk about post-millennialism. Post means after. Post-millennialism teaches that through the work of God's people in the world, things will get better and better and then we will usher in a time of prosperity and blessing, the kingdom, the millennium. Then at the end of the millennium Christ will return. Pre-millennialism means that Christ will return before the millennium.

So let's look at this on the chart, amillennialism first. Amillenialism says there is no literal physical kingdom on earth. Rather, the kingdom is spiritual, it began with the resurrection of Christ. So right here when Christ was resurrected, He ascended to heaven and He rules spiritually through this entire period of time. We are in the kingdom now, it's a spiritual kingdom. This is the viewpoint of Roman Catholicism, the standard view of Lutherans, Presbyterians. They hold to an amillennial view of prophetic matters relating to the Scripture. This is a spiritual kingdom. When Christ returns, it will just be the end of all things, we'll move into eternity. We have nothing else we really literally know about, we will just be in eternity, whatever God has prepared for us.

The basic reason we come to different viewpoints on these matters is interpretation. This person writing this paper is defending amillennialism and so I want to quote from him. He says the amillennial position follows a very important exegetical procedure, exegetical is interpreting the Scripture, which is present in the New Testament, i.e., that the New Testament reinterprets the Old Testament. Now I strongly disagree. That method of exegesis, of interpreting, is not found in the New Testament. But people say to me, why do people who profess to be believers come to different viewpoints? Well, amillennialists believe that with the coming of Christ at this point and His subsequent death and resurrection and ascension to heaven, we now have the right to reinterpret the Old Testament. So, part of the reinterpretation is the people of God in the Old Testament were called Israel, and the people of God now are called the church. But we have the right to reinterpret and understand that what really God meant in the Old Testament is not the physical people Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but the spiritual people of God. So they talk about there is only one people of God, in the Old Testament they are called Israel and in the New Testament they are called the church. And sometimes you'll read in their writings, they will refer to the church in the Old Testament. Or in the New Testament you can talk about the church as being the new Israel.

So you see they take and say you can reinterpret the Old Testament in light of the New Testament. And they say the New Testament does that. But it does not. Remember what we said when we started our study of prophecy, we studied on the principles of interpretation. Additional revelation from God never changes earlier revelation. It can add to it, give additional revelation. It can clarify the prior revelation. It does not change it. This is a major difference. The person who writes this paper fails to grasp the significance of that. That becomes what is called spiritualizing. He does acknowledge, yes we spiritualize, but that's what we are supposed to do. It's a form of allegorizing, began with Origen.

So the amillennialists hold this is a spiritual kingdom because they reinterpret all that the Old Testament says about Israel and its future, all that the Old Testament says about a literal earthly kingdom as something not literal. Israel is not literal physical Israel, the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; it's not a literal earthly kingdom. Now with the coming of Christ we realize all of that should be reunderstood, reinterpreted, and be understood as a spiritual kingdom going on now in the hearts of men and women who are believers. And then some day Christ will return and we'll move into eternity. That's amillennialism.

Many of you came out of a background of Lutheranism where you would have been taught amillennialism. Usually these people don't get into prophecy a whole lot because it's hard to find consistency in interpretation because you've lost the moorings of what enable you to be sure in your understanding. Now note here, if we are in the kingdom now and it's a spiritual kingdom, they believe we ought to be doing things associated with the kingdom—helping the poor, doing social justice. They take those still literally out of the Old Testament and that manifests that we are in the kingdom, the spiritual kingdom, we're doing these physical things.

Another viewpoint that was popular in prior years through the 1800s particularly is called post-millennialism. Post-millennialism teaches that really the kingdom got started here with the first coming of Christ, but what will happen is that over time things will get better and better and better until through the efforts of God's people the kingdom will be brought in. Then we will have this period of time here. Christ won't return here, He will return here after the kingdom, post-kingdom. And so you have people today saying we ought to reinstitute the Mosaic Law. This becomes part of the move, whether people, even Christians get involved but they are not clear in what they are doing. We're going to change the world, we're going to get kingdom principles practiced, we're going to get judges in and political leaders who will act more consistently with biblical principles. Why? Because all of this, over time things will get better and better. But post-millennialism almost died out completely with World War I and World War II. But if you read the theologies from the 1800s, theology by Charles Hodge, Shedd, Strong, all the major theologians, they are all post-millennial. With World War I things were clearly not getting better, World War II. Loraine Boettner, for a time he was the only living post-millennialist that anybody could identify. But now we see a resurgence of it and there are commentaries written on Revelation and so on by post-millennialists, sometimes called reconstructionists, theonamists because they believe God's law ought to be reinstituted in society.

So they, too, believe we are in the kingdom but we are bringing in the fullness of the kingdom by the works of men. So they, too, are strong on social action, involvement. Why? Because this is what is ultimately going to bring in the kingdom.

Now we need to be careful because what happens here, people who are pre-millennial, and we believe that Christ will return to earth and His coming to earth will provide the foundation for the instituting of the kingdom. That's the third view. But people who are pre-millennial sometimes practice the same theology as the amillennialist. They have a doctrinal statement that says they are pre-millennial and dispensational, we'll talk about that in a moment, but they say we ought to be practicing like we are in the kingdom. So you'll hear references, we're in the kingdom, we want to do kingdom work. These people claim to be dispensational and at the same time they claim they are doing kingdom things, and we ought to be doing social justice and alleviating poverty and all of that. Are you post-mil or are you pre-mil? Now pre-millennialism believes that the kingdom will not come until Christ returns to earth and establishes it. Now it gets a little more confusing, there are breakdowns in all of these but we're doing just the highlights.

Within pre-millennialism there is covenant pre-millennialism and there is dispensational pre-millennialism. Covenant pre-millennialism, sometimes called post-tribulationalism, believes that Christ will not return at the beginning of the 70th week of Daniel for the church, but He will return at the end. So they are pre-millennial but post-tribulational. They believe the Rapture will occur after the seven-year tribulation but before the millennium. So they are pre-millennial but they don't believe that He is coming before the tribulation. We are pre-tribulational, pre-millennial. See why I told you to write it down? We believe Christ will come for the church pre-tribulation, before the tribulation and then will return to earth pre-millennial for the establishing of the kingdom. Important distinctions.

Those who are covenant pre-millennialists believe that Christ will only return here and this is where the Rapture occurs, blend Israel and the church because this all blends together here. And so that's why they are covenant pre-millennialists. And without going into covenantalism, but they don't see the clear distinction between Israel and the church. And as we noted, not in great detail, part of the problem with putting the Rapture here, you have people who are believers, all believers being raptured to meet Christ in the air and turn around and come back down to earth with Him. Serious problem with that. We saw in the judgment of the living here, all unbelievers, Jews and Gentiles alike who are not believers, will be killed. Only believers go into the millennium. If every believers gets a glorified body in the Rapture here, who is going to populate the millennium? Where does the great number like the sand of the seashore as Revelation 20 says, come from that will rebel against Christ at the end of the millennium? Glorified saints? Who are those who are going to die in the millennium as a result of judgment, according to Isaiah 65? Glorified saints?

So there are some real problems, I think, and that's just one of them. There are others. The blending of Israel and the church again moves away from a literal interpretation of Scripture.

We are pre-tribulational pre-millenialists, sometimes called dispensationalists. And we see a clear distinction between Israel and the church. When God talks about Israel, He is always, Old Testament or New Testament, always talking about Israel—the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He sometimes makes a distinction.

Come to Romans 2 since this is one of the examples that comes out of this paper and almost everyone who is not a dispensationalist takes this passage. So I'll just use this as one example before we move to the kingdom. Verse 28, for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly. Nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. Let me read you what this paper by the amillennialist says. Paul himself writes that one is a Jew spiritually, not outwardly or literally. He references this passage in Romans. Well he doesn't say one is a Jew spiritually not outwardly or literally. He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, true, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is that which is of the heart by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise comes from God. What's the point? Being a physical Jew, a physical descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob does not mean you will inherit the promises given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You must also have a circumcised heart as a Jew. And he ought to know that because he refers just prior to this to Deuteronomy 30:6. We are way back in the Mosaic law. The Lord your God will circumcise your heart. That was always required of a Jew to benefit from the spiritual blessings promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It has nothing to being that he is not talking about physical Jews, but you understand being a physical Jew alone will not guarantee you eternal life, if we can put it in that context. Not guarantee you a place in the kingdom that the Messiah will establish. You must have a circumcised heart. That's true in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 30:6 and repeated in Jeremiah. It's true here. So that's not a reason why we have authority to call the church spiritual Israel. I mean, that's not seriously dealing with Scripture.

So we are dispensationalists, we believe in a literal interpretation of Scripture. Now what happens, terminology gets confused. It used to be when you talked about literal historical grammatical interpretation, people recognized it, whether amillennialist. I have amillennialist writings in my library that say if you take a consistent literal interpretation of Scripture, you will be a dispensationalist, you will see a distinction between Israel and the church. Now they deny it and say, we interpret the Bible literally because it was literally intended to be interpreted spiritually. It's like my saying, Alice in Wonderland, you should interpret that literally because it was literally to be interpreted as . . . What would you say? That's where we are going. We interpret the Bible literally when we say Israel is not Israel because it wasn't invented to be interpreted as Israel.

We want to talk about the kingdom that is promised here and look at the verses and see if the Scripture is clear on this. First we're going to start in Daniel 12. And as you come to Daniel 12 I want to emphasize again the importance of this, not just for an eschatological future which is very important and God has saturated His Scripture with it, but present practice. We have many churches who still claim to be dispensational, but are functioning as though they were amillennial or post-millennial or covenantal post-tribs. They are getting involved in social programs, they are getting involved in social justice, they are doing all this. Jerry Falwell did it. He claimed to be a dispensationalist. He'd talk about the Rapture of the church, he'd talk about the future of Israel. Then he starts the Moral Majority like he's going to change society through the political action and who we got in, as though the world is going to come apart because we Christians aren't getting involved. He was functioning as an amillennialist or a post-millenialist more likely, while he claimed to be a dispensationalist. Our churches keep their doctrinal statement, we're dispensational, but they are going about functioning like they were non-dispensational. So we have to understand the theological foundation for what we are doing. We talked about the believer and social action, but you see it fits in to the theological framework. At least the amillennialist is functioning consistently with his wrong theology. The post-millennialist is functioning consistently with his wrong theology. Then you get a dispensationalist in the mix who doesn't know what he is doing. He just doesn't want to look like he is not doing something.

All right, Daniel 12. Remember where we are in Daniel 12. At the end of Daniel 11 we had the antichrist's action, the little horn, the willful king as he is titled in Daniel 11. He comes to visible power right here in the middle of the 70th week of Daniel. Daniel 12 opens up, now at that time Michael the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as has never occurred since there was a nation until that time. So we noted Revelation 12, there is war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels. That occurs right here in the middle of the 70th week of Daniel.

Then we are told, Daniel 12:2, many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life. But the others who will be resurrected later are raised to disgrace and everlasting contempt. And then the promise of blessing, verse 3, to those who are raised to everlasting life. Now you'll note what does not happen here. These resurrections, we're not told how they all fall into place. That is later revelation. Even in John 5 Jesus just talks about a resurrection of the righteous and a resurrection to condemnation, as we've seen. But He doesn't unfold the timeline of it. You need the rest of the New Testament, and particularly the book of Revelation that puts these things in order. What the book of Revelation does is lay out the chronology of some of the events that were just prophesied. But it doesn't change anything about what was meant when it was prophesied earlier. There is going to be a resurrection to life, eternal life; there is going to be a resurrection to disgrace and contempt. Now it's in the New Testament that we find out, those resurrections are spread out here for the church, here for Old Testament and tribulation saints, and then here for the resurrection to contempt and disgrace. But it doesn't change anything in the prior revelation, it just gives added clarity, added information. It does not reinterpret it. It's exactly as it says. There is going to be a resurrection to everlasting life and a resurrection to disgrace and everlasting contempt. They must happen at the same time. Well if this is all the revelation we had, we could misunderstand and think that would be so. But God gives additional revelation. But that doesn't mean there isn't a resurrection to everlasting life and a resurrection to disgrace and contempt. What we get is additional information as to when these events occur.

We're here to jump down to verse 11. From the time the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1290 days. How blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1335 days. We don't have time to go back because we've done this earlier. This is a seven-year period. It's divided into two segments of, we have 360 days being a prophetic year. Now we're going to go here from the time the sacrifice is abolished. Remember in Daniel he talks about the abomination which makes desolate, Daniel 9, is set up. Jesus referred to it in Matthew 24, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet. That happens as we have noted in the middle of the tribulation here. So we have 1260 days left until the return of Christ. And those 1260 days are mentioned by days in Revelation 12 and 13. We take those days literally. Here he says from the time the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up there will be 1290 days. That's an extra 30 days. And how blessed is he who keeps waiting until 1335 days. Altogether that's 75 days past the return of Christ. What is going on here? Well, for example, what do we have? Well, we have the judgment of Israel that we talked about, living Israel. We have the judgment of the nations alive at the return of Christ. So what happens is during this 75 days these events along with others in preparing the earth for the institution of the kingdom so whoever passes through and makes it to the end of those 75 days is blessed. Why? He's going into the kingdom. By the time you get to the 1335 days, 1260 + 75, all unbelievers will have been destroyed. And the preparations necessary for the establishing of the kingdom will have been made so there is blessing pronounced upon them.

We think God just throws out days here just for something to do. Then you find them coming up. This many days is a multiple of this, and when you take this figure multiplied by this it just means this. And we say, where did you ever get that? You wouldn't get it from the simplicity of just reading your Bible and taking it for what it says.

Okay, the kingdom. We're going to read the descriptions again of the kingdom. And I've limited it basically to Isaiah. So start in Isaiah 2. These are not by any means all there are. I try to most often use the same references so you get so familiar with the foundational references, but you get any of the books from Sound Words on the kingdom, the millennium and they will give you many more references to the millennium in the Old Testament. Some of you have done this work on your own.

Isaiah 2, and you see whether you are going to take this as you would have understood it when Isaiah gave it, or you are going to read something else into it. This is the word which Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. We're in Isaiah 2:2. Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains and will be raised above the hills. They say, is a mountain a literal mountain here? Well clearly it is a figure of speech used to refer to a kingdom in the Old Testament. Literal interpretation doesn't mean there is no place for figures of speech, poetic language or that. But even that we interpret literally. A mountain has to have a particular reference. We'll see at least one reference where it is identified as a kingdom, Christ's kingdom. Here the mountain of the house of the Lord, the kingdom for God and Israel will be established as the chief of the mountains. It will rule over all other kingdoms, all other peoples. All the nations will stream to it. As we see there are other nations or other kingdoms here in the small sense if I can under this one ruling kingdom, the kingdom of Christ. And many peoples will say, come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, Mt Zion, which will be the capital of the world, Jerusalem. To the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us concerning His ways, that we may walk in His paths. For the law will go forth from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Now are we going to come and say, when we get to the New Testament we'll have authority to reinterpret that. Zion is no longer Zion, we're talking about spiritual Zion; and not literal Jerusalem, but spiritual Jerusalem; and these are spiritual pictures. No, it's literal. God means what He says.

He will judge between the nations, render decisions for many peoples. They will hammer their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation. Never again will they learn war. This is inscribed on the United Nations building. But they are not dispensational. Let me warn you, don't do this today. You have to read the other prophet who says, beat your plowshares into swords because there are worse days coming before better. The tribulation is coming.

So you spiritualize this and now . . . Amazes me, I see bumper stickers on people's bumpers. Nebraskans for Peace. I'd like to beep my horn and ask them to pull over. What does that mean? You know, some kind of idea that we're going to bring peace. We have this, talking about peace and we ought to have peace in the world. You understand when this is, this is when Christ reigns. Read the context. We pull a verse out of it and people say, doesn't the Bible say that we're not going to lift up sword against nation and never again will they learn war? Don't you think we ought to be doing that? No, not now. I mean, you ignore the fact, that happens when Christ reigns. He is the Prince of Peace, He will bring peace.

Come over to Isaiah 9. And there are more passages in Isaiah as well, I don't want to give you the idea that these are all the ones in Isaiah. And here you are going to see an example of where the first coming of Christ and the Second Coming of Christ are together in the same passage. And we'll see some others on this. This is the way the Old Testament prophets saw, they talk about the first coming of Christ, they talk about the Second Coming of Christ. Do you know why? This period of time from the events around the first coming of Christ and His suffering, death, resurrection, ascension and coming of the Spirit, this period of time here until the Rapture was not seen in the Old Testament. That's additional revelation given in the New Testament. Paul said it was not revealed fully until it was given to him. Now none of that changes what was said earlier. What we're going to see is everything up to this point was fulfilled literally. He refers to Isaiah 53 in his paper. Somehow in the context of spiritual interpretation. But Isaiah 53 talks about the literal suffering of the Messiah, does it not? His literal death, His literal burial in the tomb of a rich man. I mean, that's literal. Now all of a sudden everything after that gets spiritualized. No.

So let me read this. Isaiah 9, there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. At earlier times he treated the land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali, these are areas of the tribes of Israel, with contempt. But later on he shall make it glorious by way of the sea on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light, those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. That's reference to Christ in the New Testament. He came into Galilee, much of His ministry was carried on in Galilee. The fullness of the light of the presence of the Messiah of Israel, God in the flesh was there. But New Testament does not reference the rest of this as fulfilled. You shall multiply the nation, you shall increase their gladness. They will be glad in your presence as with the gladness of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. They break the yoke of burden, the rod of their oppressor. A child will be born to us, a son will be given to us. The government will rest.

Wait a minute, do you see what happened? Israel, it was fulfilled literally with the coming of the Messiah and His presence in Galilee, but Israel refused to receive Him, they refused to believe in Him. So their land was left to them desolate, Christ said. But that was fulfilled literally. The rest of it will be fulfilled literally, but now, between verses 2-3, we have an over 2,000-year gap. Still to be fulfilled literally. This idea that we jump around and get different meaning.

A child will be born to us, a son will be given to us. The government will rest upon his shoulders, his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. That's true, that's who He is, that's who He was when He walked the earth. But verse 7 hasn't been fulfilled, there will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace. We say, well, we spiritualize that. He's ruling in the hearts of men today, there is peace in their hearts. Well, go on. He will be on the throne of David. Is that not specific enough? Read the Davidic Covenant in 2 Samuel 7 which elaborates this, where God guarantees that the physical descendant of David will sit on the physical throne of David. And over his kingdom to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness, from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. You and I won't accomplish it, it will be accomplished by the physical return of Christ in glory to establish His kingdom on the earth. If we don't, we read this, we spiritualize it and say, our responsibility here since we are in the kingdom and Christ is ruling from heaven, we should be establishing justice and righteousness on the earth. We say, wait a minute, we're just pulling verses out and running with them. It's not what it says, it says what He will do when He establishes His kingdom on the earth.

Come over to Isaiah 11. Another passage where you get the first coming of Christ and the Second Coming of Christ. And people read this and they go to the New Testament and say, we should spiritualize this because this passage is referred to Christ and yet the kingdom is not here. So this must be a spiritual thing. Isaiah 11 begins, then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. Literally, right? Christ was the literal descendant of David. That's part of the purpose of the genealogies that begin Matthew, that begin Luke. It's important to not be the descendant of David, he's not qualified to sit on the Davidic throne. He is the shoot. It's a literal stem from Jesse. A branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, fear of the Lord. That was true, true of Christ at His first coming. He is who He is. But then you go down to read, with righteousness he will judge the poor, decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. We read about that in Revelation 19 where He comes at Armageddon, with a sword coming out of His mouth He slays the wicked. There is a future to it, that hasn't happened yet.

The righteous shall be the belt about His loins, faithfulness about His waist. The wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will like down with the young goat. The calf and the young lion and the fatling together. The little boy will lead them. We pull out a verse like that and say, that's what we need today, humility. Also the cow and the bear will graze, their young will lie down. The lion will eat straw like the ox. You won't have to be afraid of the lion. Do you know why? He won't be eating meat, you won't be dinner. Straw will be dinner.

The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, the weaned child will put his head on the viper's dean. Do you try that today? Well, this is just talking about the fact the Lord brings peace to our hearts and the tranquility and the violence and that's what we want to bring to the world.

They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, His kingdom. For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Have you watched the news today? This week? This isn't happening. So they say, the first part of it here is that one from Jesse came and the Spirit of the Lord rested upon Him, descended upon Him like a dove. And that Spirit. . . So all the rest of this must have been fulfilled as well. Therefore, it must be being fulfilled spiritually. No, we have additional revelation. This is going to fit in here, then we are going to have the seven years of suffering that the Scriptures prophesy will happen before He returns. Then we have the kingdom. But you'll note, none of this changes the literal meaning of what happened. Verse 1, Christ was literally a physical descendant of David. You don't spiritualize that. And the Spirit of the Lord rested upon Him. You don't spiritualize that. The problem is you don't want to accept later revelation that doesn't change prior revelation but clarifies and fills in for us.

Come to Isaiah 35. I'm emphasizing this, maybe I shouldn't have read the paper again, because he says that amillennialists are more literal than dispensationalists in interpreting Scripture this way. Look at Isaiah 35. The wilderness and the desert will be glad and the Arabah will rejoice and blossom like the crocus. We have the desert blossoming, like the rose you are familiar with as the King James has it, but it is crocus. It will blossom profusely. Remember Romans 8, the whole creation groans in anticipation of the unveiling of the sons of God when the curse will be lifted. Back here when we return in glory with Christ and Old Testament saints are resurrected and then the kingdom is here and the curse is lifted from creation.

The end of verse 2, they will see the glory of the Lord and the majesty of our God. I mean, His glory will be displayed in its fullness. That's not happening now. Down to verse 5, then the eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the deaf will be unstopped, the lame will leap like a deer, the tongue of the mute shall shout for joy for waters will break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert or the Arabah. I mean, why did Christ heal? Remember we read Matthew 8. In His healing He was demonstrating fulfilling prophecy. He did not heal all the blind and all the deaf and all the lame, but He healed some to demonstrate I am the one who can fulfill the promises given regarding the coming of the Messiah and the establishing of the kingdom if you will but turn from your sin and believe in Me. When He comes and establishes His kingdom there won't be any sickness, any illness. All these things will be removed. And it goes on. Verse 8, the highway of holiness. Verse 9, no lion, no vicious beast. The redeemed will walk there.

Come to Isaiah 65. I create a new heavens and a new earth and the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. Be glad and rejoice forever in what I create, behold I create Jerusalem for rejoicing. What gives us the right to reinterpret the Word of God and say Jerusalem is not Jerusalem. There is a promised blessing for the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, verse 19, be glad in my people. There will no longer be heard in her or the voice of weeping or the sound of crying, no longer an infant who lives but a few days, an old man who does not live out his days. The youth will die at the age of 100, one who does not reach the age of 100 will be accursed. People will live long life like the life of a tree, they will wear out the word of their hands, verse 22. In other words you'll make something and you'll die before you've used it, it will be worn out. Not thrown away because it got replaced by the newest, but it will wear out and you won't. Down in verse 25, the wolf and the lamb will graze together, the lion will eat straw like the ox. The dust will be the serpent's food. They will do no evil or harm in all my holy kingdom. Do you see that happening? No.

Come to Daniel 2 and we'll end on this note. Daniel 2, the kingdoms of the earth. We were here early on in our study. Just remind you in Daniel 2 God gives Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, a vision, he sees the kingdoms of the world that are yet coming. God gives Daniel the understanding and interpretation of this vision. Verse 37, you oh king are the king of kings, you, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power and the strength, the glory. You rule over all, verse 38. You are the head of gold. That is a literal physical earthly kingdom ruled by a physical king. No doubt about what it means.

After you, verse 39, will arise another kingdom inferior to you. ____________ another kingdom. What's going to replace Babylon? Not something spiritual. Medo-Persia. And a third kingdom of bronze which will rule over all the earth. These are physical kingdoms. That's Greece. Then the fourth kingdom strong as iron, Rome. Then there are feet and toes in verse 41. Now it sounds like we are going right on. And then in the days, verse 44, of those kings. What kings? The toes, the ten toes and we know there are ten, Daniel 7 gives additional information on this. The God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. Some say, we'll just take it literally, come all the way through here. And we had Rome when Christ came and so the ten toes must refer to something like maybe ten Roman empires or something like that. There are various views. And then the kingdom of Christ was established. But you see what they've done, all these up to here were literal physical earthly kingdoms, now they are replaced by a spiritual kingdom up here.

But that's not what verse 44 says. In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. That kingdom will not be left for another people, it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms but it will endure forever. The end of verse 35 used the picture of this kingdom of Christ as a great mountain filling the whole earth, representing a kingdom and it is interpreted for us. So that kind of figure of speech is interpreted within the confines of Old Testament prophecies so we know when it talks about a mountain, it's talking about a kingdom.

What happens? There is additional revelation and we find out between Rome and its revival down here in a ten-nation confederacy with ten kinds in this seven-year period there is a gap of 2,000 years. Then we will have the literal ten toes and something about them revealed in Daniel 7 and then in Revelation 13 where we've been. Then we have Christ coming in the days of those kings. And we have the kingdom. You see there is nothing reinterpreted, it's interpreted literally. But there is additional revelation given and we find out between the fourth kingdom and the feet and toes there are about 2,000 years, the church age. Well therefore we should not interpret the Old Testament literally. Why not? God's later revelation didn't change anything. Babylon was Babylon, Medo-Persia was Medo-Persia, Greece was Greece, Rome was Rome, the ten toes will be the ten toes. The book of Revelation makes that clear, in Revelation 17 it will talk about the ten kings who give their authority to the beast, the little horn, the willful king, the prince that is to come. And then we'll have the return of Christ in Revelation 19 that puts an end to all those kingdoms. And His kingdom is established, Revelation 20, and He rules over all.

So we just take all that has been given literally, all that is added literally and we get it unfolded more clearly. The book of Revelation is not meant to confuse things. This guy thinks you keep going back, it keeps repeating itself and then you go back and it repeats, and you go back and it repeats. No. You take it chronologically unfolding and that puts an order, literally all the things that have been prophesied. So why are we dispensational? Why do we believe in pre-tribulational return of Christ? Why do we believe in a clear distinction between Israel and the church? Because we interpret the bible literally, consistently literally, normally. That doesn't mean we don't recognize figures of speech, doesn't mean we don't see poetry. But we interpret that, it's clear when we're dealing with that and we interpret even that literally. A mountain can't mean just anything. We talk about the mountains of our lives and the things we have to get over. That's not what he's talking about. It grows to a great kingdom, it's a mountain. So we interpret the Bible literally. We'll talk more next time.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your Word given with the intention that we understand it, the clarity of the Scriptures. Thank you, Lord, that you have spoken with the intention and requirement that we listen, understand and obey. Thank you for the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives as believers that enables us to understand with clarity the beautiful truths of your Word. Lord, we want to live faithfully for you in these days as we anticipate and look forward to the return of the One who is our Lord and Savior, the Messiah of Israel, the One who will establish His kingdom and rule over all. We pray in His name, amen.