How to Have a Basic Understanding of Biblical Prophecy

A few months ago, I gave a series of sermons on the eight major covenants of salvation history. We talked about how those covenants give us the framework for salvation prophecy. The major focal points of all prophecy are in two events. The first coming of Jesus Christ and the second coming of Jesus Christ. That's the focal point of salvation prophecy, because one is how God saves humanity through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And second is how He comes back to get rid of the God in this world and establish God's kingdom on this earth and restore humanity back to our original purpose. So those are the two focal points of biblical prophecy. Then, last month, I gave a sermon where I talked about how we went through how there are two major principles of biblical prophecy we went through. We went through how all prophetic roads lead to Jerusalem. So whenever you study prophecy, eventually it ends up in Jerusalem. But once again, that's only logical when you start with the realization that the two great prophetic events happen in Jerusalem.

Right? It comes the first time to Jerusalem, and then the second time to Jerusalem. So that means if that's the two events of salvation history that everything is built on, then all prophecy, all prophetic roads lead to Jerusalem. So we need to be watching the Middle East. Now, what I'm going to be doing, because I realized after I gave that sermon last month, just conversations I had with numerous people that said, you know, we need some more understanding of how Bible prophecy fits together, how this works.

So what we're going to be going through is some more, probably once a month here for about six months, we're going to be going through some very core, very basic concepts of how to interpret prophecy. In fact, at the doctor's class this week, we went through basic interpretation of Scripture, just general Scripture. And I'm going to be giving that as the Bible study today. Yesterday, I was preparing another one of the minor prophets, because that's what we've been going through.

And I thought, no, I'm going to actually take what we covered in that doctor's class and give it to, you know, because there'll be a lot more people here, because we need to understand there are certain rules to interpretation. And then some will say, well, I mean, the question is naturally, well, who makes up the rules? Right? If we don't understand where rules of interpretation come from, we literally can make the Bible say whatever we want it to say.

Now, everybody will come up with their own personal idea, which is basically what's happening in the Protestant world today. And it's why mainstream Christianity's dying. One of the reasons you see so much immorality in our culture today is because it used to be conservative Protestants kept that from happening. The conservative Protestant movement is dying. In fact, it's practically dead in England. The head of the Anglican Church announced three weeks ago that within twenty-five years the Anglican Church will not even exist. There's not enough people left in it to ensure its survival. So with that, you know, and it's part of the problem is the seeds of Protestantism itself.

The concept of Protestantism was every person was their own priest. Therefore, every person could create their own interpretation. Or eventually, everybody creates their own interpretation. Eventually, it will self-destruct. So we're going to talk about how, if you look at the history of Sabbath keepers, there are some very core, basic, different deviations of that within different groups. But there is a core of sort of way of looking at Scripture that comes from, that you will find in almost all Sabbath-keeping groups.

So we'll take a look at that this afternoon. But I wanted today to talk some more about prophecy. So let's look at some of the premises that we have already laid. And then we're going to build on something else today. We've laid a premise that salvation history, if salvation history is contained in the covenants to two great events that are prophesied and carried out in the covenants of the first and second coming to Jesus Christ.

All prophetic roads lead to Jerusalem. They may go off to different places, but eventually they end up there. Why? Because that's the center of what God's doing.

We then went through last time the beasts, using, or the beasts of the end time, using Daniel 2 as our template. It's our template that determines where we end up. It's where you start to determine how you interpret all things. And as I said, if I don't use Daniel 2 as my starting point, I have no idea, if you remember what we went through in that sermon, we have no idea what Revelation 13 means. So we can make up whatever we want. Revelation 13, people used to think it was communist Russia, and then communist Russia collapsed. In the Seventh-day Adventist world, they believe it's America. And there are many people that believe that Revelation 13 is America, the United States. If you look at and start with Daniel 2, and you lay on top of that Daniel 7, or lay on top of that Revelation 13, you end up with an understanding that the great end time Beast power will be some kind of revival, some kind of reconnection of the Roman Empire.

And that it will be led by a person that is called the Beast, and he will be supported by a person called the False Prophets. We laid that foundation. It helps us understand an awful lot.

So that's where we have what we look at now. There's actually something else that we've talked about in the minor prophets, and going through the minor prophets, there's a singular point I have been stressing over and over and over again. And that is that the Day of the Lord is usually not a reference. There's not only one Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord needs a type of judgment. And so when we look at the Day of the Lord that happened to Israel, usually those prophecies have two fulfillments. When we look at the Day of the Lord as it happened to Judah as we go through the minor prophets, that Day of the Lord also will talk about a greater Day of the Lord when the Messiah comes. So they suffered a Day of the Lord, but that was only a small fulfillment, a former fulfillment of a great latter fulfillment. So the Day of the Lord, many times, has former and latter fulfillments. That's important, too, because at the time of God's judgment, God may have a local judgment on a person or a people, and He'll call it the Day of the Lord. But there's a great Day of the Lord coming in the future. Keep that in mind with what we're going to go through today. Because we're going to look at another template today, and I don't think we're going to get through all of it, because I don't think I can speak for two hours and have you all sit there. We'll get through what we can, and we may have to cover more at another time. But let's start with another template, one of the probably most well-known prophecies in all the Bible. If I use Daniel 2 as my template on, okay, now we understand who the beasts are, and it's a continuity. Remember, we're looking for continuity. When we go through this afternoon, we look at how we interpret the Bible. We're always looking for continuity. How do things relate to each other? How do things in the Bible relate to each other? How does Genesis relate to Revelation? Much of Christianity, because of what happened in the second and third centuries, there's discontinuity. I mean, how many times have you seen people with a New Testament and a Psalm, and the rest of the Bible is not even in the book? Right? Why? It's not important. There's a discontinuity. There's a disconnect between the Old and New Testaments. You can rip the Old Testament out and throw it away. And that is the basis for much of modern Christian belief. We, on the other hand, look at continuity. What connects these things together? And when it comes to prophecy, it's the same thing. We're always looking for connections. We're looking, by the way, for obvious connections. Obvious connections. So let's go to Matthew 24. Matthew 24.

And as we go through this, there's two or three other subjects we'll have to cover in the future that lay these foundational frameworks for prophecy. Matthew 24.

Verse 3. Jesus said on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, tell us what these things will happen, or will be, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and at the end of the age. Tell us what's going to happen so we'll know. What are the signs? So we'll be able to say, okay, we know when You're coming.

Verse 4. And Jesus answered and said to them, here's the first statement He makes, take heed that no one deceives you. Now His first statement is that, okay, let me tell you the signs. His first statement is, this is going to get complicated, and people will deceive you about my coming. People will deceive you about my coming. It's very important that you and I be very, very careful about biblical interpretation, and it is very important that we be very, very careful about prophetic interpretation. And if you have been in our history of our, you know, our history goes back to the worldwide Church of God, the radio Church of God, you will know that throughout our history there have been people that have made some very grandiose predictions, prophetic predictions, that did not happen. We have to be very careful about what we predict. So He makes a warning. I'll put a marker here because we're going to come back to Matthew 24 throughout the sermon. But I want to go to Proverbs 29, 18, another of one of the most quoted verses in all the Bible. Anytime someone talks about prophecy, eventually they end up here. Proverbs 29. But this really ties in to what Jesus is going to tell us here in a minute. Proverbs 29 verse 18.

Where there is no revelation. Now, you'll see this translated different ways. Vision, prophetic vision. The actual meaning of the Hebrew word is, in reality, a divine vision. In other words, I can see where God is going. So where there is no divine vision, where we can't see where God is going, what happens? The people cast off restraint. But happy is He who keeps the law. Other translations, you know, happy is He who does what God wants us to do.

In other words, what He's saying here is, if we don't have a viewpoint of where God is going, we'll just run all over the place. One translation says, the people will run amok.

We'll just go all over the place, do all kinds of things, and we won't have restraints. We will believe sitting is okay. God understands, no problem, which was brought out in the Sermonette.

The choices we make about sin. We get to the place where it's okay. If we see the vision, the prophetic vision of where God's going, and we buy into that vision, and we live by that vision, and that becomes our vision that happier we because we live by what God says. We do what God says to do. So if we find ourselves running amok, and we find ourselves living without restraints, then we have to ask, have we lost our divine vision? Now, that divine vision has to do with God what it's going to do with us individually, and that's part of prophecy, but it also has the greater scope of what God is doing in the world. Now, that doesn't mean, and I have to make a stress point here, I've seen people become so wrapped up in prophecy that they believe that prophecy is the sign of spiritual superiority, their understanding of prophecy. The Apostle Paul said the exact opposite.

If I know all prophecy, and I don't have agape, I am nothing. Prophecy without the character of God is meaningless, even if you have it right. Prophecy without the character of God is meaningless, even if you have it right. Now, if we're having developed in us the character of God, though, we need this divine vision so that we know where we're supposed to go, and we know where God is taking us. 2 Peter 1. Peter here is talking about the calling that God has given to his people, and he says that they are to resist fables. Now, how are we going to know? The first comment Jesus says is, okay, I'm going to tell you about the prophecies. I'm going to give you prophecies about my return, and my first message is be careful because people are going to try to deceive you about this.

They're going to try to take you in different directions.

And that's what Peter's talking about here. He says that they didn't come to teach fables.

He said he came to teach the truth. Verse 19 says, And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns, and the morning star rises in your hearts. Knowing this verse, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation or private origin. In other words, the prophecies of the Bible were inspired by God. We must be very careful how we handle them. Where prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Let's go to chapter 3, because he continues to talk about this subject. And he's talking about all of 2 Peter. They were dealing with something that was sort of a shock to them. Now, how would you think about their experience? They knew Jesus Christ.

Christ died. He was resurrected. They saw Him. The Church started. The Church grew.

Incredible miracles happened to the Church. Thousands of people were being converted.

And time went on. They were persecuted. And times got tough. They didn't know it was going to be tough. If you read earlier in the New Testament, they thought Christ was coming back in their lifetime. It doesn't matter. Throw us in jail. He'll be back next week.

And so they reached the point where not only were times getting hard, but heretics had come into the Church. People who taught all kinds of false doctrine. That was shocking. They weren't prepared for that. And you see in 2 Peter, you see Jude, you see 1 and 2 and 3 John. They're sending out these letters saying, we've got to be able to tell the difference here. What is a true doctrine? What isn't?

He says in verse 1 here, he says, Beloved, I now write to you the second epistle, both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles, of the Lord and Savior. Knowing this first, the scoffers will come to the last days walking according to their own lust and saying, where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were for the beginning of creation. In other words, there's got to be people who are always going to be saying, oh, come on, He's not coming back. It's not that bad. Now, each generation of Christian has to live their lives as if Christ was coming back in their lifetime. Because even if He isn't, we have to live our lives that way.

But there are always somebody saying, look, it's not that bad. This is a pretty good place.

And once we start going down that road, we start saying the world is a good place.

And being part of it is good. Verse 10, but the day of the Lord, remember I said one of our rules here of prophetic interpretation is the day of the Lord doesn't just mean the day of the Lord at Christ's return. It means any time there's a judgment. The day of the Lord will come as a thief of the night in which the heavens will pass away and a great noise and elements will melt, with fervent heat both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what matter of person sought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? Now, two things. One, the day of the Lord here can't be when Christ comes back because the earth isn't burned up when Christ comes back. But there is a final day of the Lord. There's a final judgment called the great white throne judgment. And at the end of the great white throne judgment, the earth is the service of the earth to destroy the lake of fire. And the whole universe goes through a recreation. You can read about that in Revelation 21. And the New Jerusalem comes to earth. That is the time of judgment. So that is also a day of the Lord. So remember one of our rules, because I've seen people say, I don't understand. When Christ comes back, He stands on the Mount of Olives and He doesn't destroy all of... I mean, He doesn't destroy the earth, no. But the surface of the earth is destroyed. That's the last judgment, which is a day of the Lord. But the main point here is that because we know these things, we know what persons we ought to be in holy conduct and godliness. If you really believe, really believe Jesus Christ is coming back, you're going to live your life a certain way. If you don't believe He's going to come back, you can live in a different way. It's that simple. If you really believe God's going to judge humanity, you act a certain way. If you don't believe He's going to judge you, you act a different way. He says, so when we understand prophecy, why? So that I can say, oh, I understand prophecy.

I've been with lots of people in my lifetime who have had enormous prophetic understanding, more than I have, but lived their lives as half Christians. In which case, we have to echo what the apostle Paul says, if I understand all prophecy and I do not have a God, I have nothing.

This information is supposed to motivate us. It drives us to do something. It drives us to live holy and godly lives because we want to be part of the resurrection. We understand the reward is so great. Whatever price we pay now, it's worth it. Verse 12, he says, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, they will fire, the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. This is what we live for. So prophecy is important. Without a prophetic vision, we run without restraint. With the prophetic vision that is actually a vision that we bought into, we look to what God is offering us, and we live holy lives today. If you're not motivated by prophecy to live a holy life, then you don't have God's vision. You don't have the vision that God wants for you.

So now let's go back to Matthew 24. So he says, Okay, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to give you the template now for what's going to happen at my return. And my first thing I'm going to tell you is, take heed that no one deceives you.

The people say, you know, we don't know when he's going to come back, so all this prophecy isn't to be studied. Or they come up with all kinds of personal interpretations. Either way, we have to be very careful about it. So then he starts talking about, okay, this is what it will be like. For many will come in my name. Many will come in the name of Jesus. Many will come claiming to be His teachers. Many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that you are not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. Our nation will rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in various places. Ooh! That's pretty bad. Verse 8 gets really, really uncomfortable.

All these things are the beginning of sorrows. He says, okay, you'll know it's beginning when this chaos is covering the world. I have to admit, the world has basically lived in chaos ever since Adam and Eve left or kicked out of Eden. Okay? There's always some wars and rumors and wars and pestilences and famines. That's what people say. See, there's always been these things.

But what he's saying is it will be reaching unprecedented proportions. So it will be reaching unprecedented proportions.

People will say, ask me, is the tribulation start? My answer is no. We'll see why in a minute, because we know when the tribulation starts. There's events that happen before the start of the tribulation. Okay? I also know that Jesus says these things must happen before the really bad stuff begins. So if that's true, this hasn't happened yet at the level that he says it is. So, okay, well, what level does it have to reach?

Now, if I look at Revelation, remember last time when we started with our template of Daniel 2, we used Daniel to explain Revelation. If you don't use your templates to explain Revelation, you will twist Revelation into whatever you want it to say.

I don't know how else to do things except there has to be some continuity to Scripture.

So if Jesus Christ, the Son of God, gives us long prophecy, how long is the Olivet prophecy? All of Matthew 24 and all of Matthew 25. And many times we skip Matthew 25 as part of the Olivet prophecy. And we do that in our own peril. I'll show you why in a minute I say that.

This long prophecy is the template. This was given before Revelation. This is what interprets Revelation. Revelation is built on the top of this. Now, Revelation, as we know, is about seven seals that are broken and all these events happen. And it just seems like a jumbled mess.

But what if I take the seven seals and I lay them on top of Matthew 24? And what do we have here? False Christ. Right? Now, I know most of you know this.

But it's important that we on occasion, we haven't done this a long time, go through and lay the foundation of how we make our predictions of prophecy so that we can understand the events as they happen. It won't be so that we always can predict what will happen. It's so that we will understand them when they happen. And it also gives us a great hope and comfort where we live in constant fear. You know, the average person in the world now lives in fear. All you have to do is go on the Internet and read all the interpretations of what's happening in the world. And what's scary is they always contain a little bit of truth. Someone's seeing this happening and this happening, and they put it together and say, this is going to happen. You know, the President of the United States has a special group of soldiers, and they're going to blow up a nuclear weapon off the coast of California, and it's going to cause a suitability and wipe out the West Coast, in which case he will then declare martial law, take over the United States, become a dictator, set up a Muslim state, and become the beast. It's not going to happen. You say, how do you know this? The Bible tells me.

First of all, the beast is some kind of European power. Now, that may include the United States.

Is the United States going to fall? Yeah. Yeah. I can't tell you exactly how, but it's going to.

But it's not going to happen, am I?

So we have to look at it and say, okay, whatever. What are these templates? They keep guiding us back into, okay, I don't know exactly what's going to happen, but I don't have to worry if aliens are going to come down. There is a way to say that. The History Channel now has an entire series, ancient aliens, and how the world was built by aliens. There was a flood, and no one was saved by aliens. They even take the Bible, and they make the angels and aliens, and they make god, aliens, and all these aliens came down, and eventually the aliens are going to come back and invade us. And people actually believe this? Yeah, there are. Well, that's a totally different template. I can't even relate to that one, okay? So we go back to this one. Now, leave your mark here. Let's go to Revelation. So we get these seven seals of Revelation that make up… you know, we talk about these seven seals almost every year, Feast of Trumpets. Let's go to Revelation 6. We got the seven seals, and they open the first four seals, and they're called… it's the appearance of four horses. So you get the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Or, as I heard someone call them one time, the four horsemen of Acapulco. I think that's a rock band. That's a totally different thing. Now, I saw when the lab opened one of the seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, come and see. And I looked at behold a white horse he who sat on and had a bow, and a crown was given to him that he went out to conquer into… to… to conquering into conquer. They opened the second seal, and I heard the second living creature say, come and see another horse far he read, one ounce, and it granted to one who sat on the… on it to take peace from the earth that the people should kill one another, and it was given to him a great sword. And he opened the third seal, and I heard the third living creature say, come and see. And looked, and behold a black horse. And he sat on it and a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice of the mitzvah of the four living creatures say, a quarter… a quarter of wheat for a denarius, and three-quarters of barley for a denarius, and do not harden the oil and the wine. In other words, food becomes very expensive. And he opened the fourth seal, and I heard the living… the voice of the living creature say, come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse, and I named on him who sat on it, it was death in Hades, and they did follow him. We say, oh wow, these are horrible events. Now, if we take Revelation by itself, we could say, okay, we understand what's going to happen here. There's going to be some kind of white horse. Now, there's all kinds of interpretations of what the white horse is.

Some Christians claim that that is… means the gospel. The gospel is going to go conquer the world. I don't understand that one, but that's one of the explanations. Others say that it represents Jesus Christ, but that doesn't make sense, because Jesus Christ doesn't come back to the seventh seal. What could it mean? What happens if I take the seven seals and I lay them on top of Matthew 24? What did Jesus just say is going to happen where he comes? There will be many false Christs, many false Christs, who will deceive many. And he says they will come in my name. What does Jesus ride? The seventh trumpet of the seventh seal? A white horse.

What did Jesus say was going to happen before he came?

False Christ who claimed to be representing him. What do we have here? A white horse that conquers.

This isn't Christ. It's exactly what Christ said it would be. It is a false Christianity. Now, the only way I can really, the only way I can come up with an explanation of that, unless I'm going to read into what I want it to say, is I lay it right on top of Matthew 24.

And Jesus explains what it means. So let's see. Jesus says that before he comes, there's going to be all kinds of things. There's going to be a false Christianity, wars, rumors of wars, famine, disease epidemics, and earthquakes.

Now, what do we have here in Revelation 6? Well, these seals begin to be open, the end times begin to happen, and there is a false Christianity. Wars and rumors of wars, famine and disease.

Notice the similarity. They lay right on top of each other. But what this tells us? So we say, when has this started? I don't know. It may have already started.

Well, when are the four seals completed? That's what Jesus does and tells us that Revelation does.

How do I know these things have reached their culmination point?

Well, we didn't finish chapter verse 8 here in Revelation 6. Go back to the middle of verse 8.

And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with a sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beast of the earth. Ah, the first four seals culminate in one fourth of the world dying. Has one fourth of the world died yet? No. Now, I don't know. Maybe these first four seals have started. I don't know. It doesn't say exactly when they start. You notice he just gives us trends. Okay. This is going to be happening. This is going to be happening. This is going to be happening. Okay. Well, when do we know that it's the actual the end? When do we know that we're really at that tide before you're coming? He says, oh, you'll know that when a fourth of the world dies. You can see why, though, in the Middle Ages with wars, bubonic plague, wild animals, earthquakes, a fourth of Europe died. You can see why they thought Christ was coming back. They read these scriptures and said a fourth of it, in fact, almost a third of many countries died in the Middle Ages because of bubonic plague and because of wars. And they said it must be the end time. But it doesn't say a fourth of Europe. It says a fourth of the world. That was their little world, but it's more than that. So we know that, remember, since this is the beginning of the sorrows, we know when this confusion reaches the point that the fourth of the world dies, that didn't even happen in World War II. In World War II, killed over, the estimates now are actually that the numbers are low. The amount of people that died in World War II are more than they thought. They've always said 50, 55 million. Some historians now say it may have been as high as 80 billion because so many civilians died in places like Russia and China that they didn't even have records of. But whole populations basically were disappeared. Now, it still wasn't close. It wasn't even close to a fourth of the world.

So we know that Jesus starts with this, and now we can take revelation, just like we can take parts of revelation and start building off of Daniel 2, we begin to interpret revelation by building it off of Matthew 24. So let's go back to Matthew 24. So he says, these are the beginning of sorrows.

He probably didn't want to tell them that the fourth of the world will die. It was probably just too much for them to bear. Okay, so that came later.

I want to stress now, verse 9, because he changes directions.

And verse 9, he changes directions from the world to the church.

There is more said in Matthew 24 and 25 in the Olivet Prophecy, there is more said about the church than there is about the world. They asked him, what is it going to be like? He did not just give them perspective of, okay, this is what the world's going to be like. He gave them a perspective that this is what the church was going to be like. They must have walked away from this saying, we don't even know what he's talking about. I mean, that there wasn't even a church yet.

Because you, well, he knew they meant them. They didn't understand that they weren't going to be around at the end. Now, these things happen to many of them, by the way.

But that former fulfillment is a shadow of the greater fulfillment that comes at Christ's return. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation to kill you, and you will be hated by all nations, for my name's sake.

He said, this is what's going to happen to the church. Now, this happened to many of them, remember? They actually went through this. The people he was talking to, his disciples, those 12, all of the, you know, Judas killed himself, and John seems to have survived and died of old age after being in prison. The other ones, as far as we know, were all martyred.

He says, you will be hated by all nations, for my name's sake.

And then many will be offended, and will betray one another, and will hate one another. Now, he hasn't gone back to the world yet. He's still talking about the church. There will be a proclivity as we get closer to the end, for the church to be offended by one another. And in that offense, they will turn against each other. And so people are going to become more and more offended. If we have the love of God in our hearts, we will not be offended to the point by other people that we betray our relationships. We have a covenant with God. We have covenants with each other as the children of God. But because part of it is going to be because of persecution, part of it is just the world we live in, people will betray one another. They will turn their backs on each other. And this is happening in the church, remember?

And they will hate one another. People in the church, you know. I keep thinking of Jesus saying, by this all men will know you're my disciples because you love one another. And then he had to say, you know at the end of the time that the church, many of them are going to hate each other.

And there will be many false prophets. Verse 11. And they will rise up and deceive many. And so we know there's going to be false prophets outside the church. But there will be false prophets in the church. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of any will grow cold. Lawlessness will abound in society. But we have to be really careful that lawlessness does not abound in the church. Because if lawlessness abounds in the church, you know what the product of lawlessness is? People are offended. They dislike each other. They're separate from each other. And they lose their love. Lawlessness produces lack of love. When we are, remember, when we have a prophetic vision, right? Happier they who keep the law. If we don't have a prophetic vision, we run a buck. And when you run a buck, we are offended and we hate each other.

And as we get closer to the end, this will be what we have to fight more than any.

And there will be lots of false teachers, lots of false ideas, lots of craziness come along that we're going to have to make sure that we don't become lawless, that we stop loving each other, and we become offended by each other. We're just offended by each other. Verse 13, and remember, we still talk about the church because this next statement makes no sense in context with the world, but he who adores to the end shall be saved. You know, the world isn't adoring to the end. People of God adored to the end.

He who adores to the end, he doesn't say he who gets through this without any difficulties is saved. Adores means, eh, this gets hard. He who adores to the end, who lets God guide our lives, who allows God to lead us, who submits in obedience and love, and who is unwilling to be offended, who is unwilling to hate, who is unwilling to go there.

We will adore. Then, verse 14, at this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. So the gospel will be preached, and then the end will come. But he says the church will be persecuted. Let's go back to Revelation 6, and lay this on top of Matthew 24. Jesus says the trends in the world before his coming, the first four seals are the trends in the world before his coming.

Now, verse 9, he opened the fifth seal. So we know the first four seals are also called the first horsemen of the apocalypse, and they match the trends that Jesus gives in Matthew 24.

He opened the fifth seal, and I saw under the altar the souls of those who have been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried out with a loud voice, saying, How long will the Holy Lord, holy and true, will you judge and avenge your blood on those who dwell on the earth? Then a white robe was given to each of them, and it was said that they should rest a little longer. Now, I'm not going to get into the explanation of this. You know, they're resting. They're dead. This is an allegory.

We'll talk about this afternoon the difference between literal translation or interpretation in allegories. And we have to be very careful how we interpret allegories.

Then a white robe was given to them, and it was said that they should rest a little longer until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, were completed. So there's persecution on the church is one of the seals. It's the fifth seal. The fifth seal is open, and there is persecution on the church.

And because of the state of the church, this persecution causes people in the church to hate each other, to betray each other, and to live lawlessly.

We have to be aware of that, because if we're not prepared, that's exactly what we will do, and that persecution is going to come.

Now, we say, oh wow, I'm depressed now. Okay? Isn't there a rapture? No, there's no rapture.

I don't know what to do. I literally can't get through everything I want to get through here.

But I have to keep laying this on top, okay, so that we can see how we build the conclusions we do. We said, well, we know there's no rapture. I gave a sermon probably a year ago on why we don't believe in the rapture. But what do we believe in? Okay, we all go get killed. Boy, that's a great future. Okay? Have a happy Sabbath.

This is what gives us... Now, we have a very... I say we, I mean, we're not the only ones that see it this way, but the people who see it this way are almost always Sabbath keepers. There are some Protestants who do, but mainly it's Sabbath keepers. And there's a small minority of people who have a very specific explanation of Revelation, chapter 12. So, I'll tell you what we'll do. I'm trying to decide whether to go through Revelation 12 or just go ahead and finish. I'll tell you what. Let's leave Revelation 12. And let's take... because I don't... I want to end a little early because we have the Bible study. Let's... we'll come back to Revelation 12 because we're going to have to go through the church. In fact, we have to go through Israel and the church.

Prophecies concerning Israel, the church. Revelation 12 is about the church.

So, I just... today is just the tenth one of Matthew 24. Let me stick with that so we don't get... because there's too much material to cover. So, let's go back to Matthew 24. Besides, you'll come back. Matthew 24.

Verse 15 talks about the abomination of desolation. That's a whole other subject. Now, I haven't given a sermon or the abomination of desolation in over five years. So, probably as we go through all this prophecy, we'll have to go through the abomination of desolation. But we've got to lay a lot of other groundwork first. I mean, I know for some of you are saying, wow, why is he going through this simple stuff? Because we've got to go back and relay the whole groundwork. That's why we go through the doctrine classes. Because we have to lay the groundwork of what we believe. And part of the problem is, we've known this for a long time, and we've become complacent with it. We've become complacent with it. We know it. But do we? Do we know how we get there? Because if you don't know how you get to your conclusion, someone will come along with a clever argument and make you doubt how you got to your conclusion.

Okay? They'll make you doubt how you got to your conclusion.

So let's go. He talks about the abomination of desolation. So we'll talk about that. So that's another sermon that we'll do in this series. Now, they're not going to be, they're going to be all once a month. All once a month, we're going to do this series on prophecy. But verse 21 is very important because we talk about the tribulation, the great tribulation.

Okay. How long is the tribulation? We have that question. And when does it begin? Verse 21 says, For then there will be great tribulation, such has not been since the beginning of the world, until this time, no never shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh should be saved. But for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened. Now, when does the tribulation start? After the first five seals of Revelation, it starts after one-fourth of the world dies.

You've heard me say this before. When the tribulation starts, you look back at the four horsemen of the apocalypse and say, Boy, were those the good old days. Okay?

It starts after it because remember, this is where Jesus says, okay, this and now the tribulation really starts. When does it start? After all these events He's talked about, which included wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, pestilences, a false Christ that come along, false teachers. It includes very bad times in the church where people betray each other and hate each other. And it includes persecution of the church. Now, by the way, the church isn't wiped out. When we get to Revelation 12, when we go through that, when we go through the prophecies about the church, you'll see the church is not wiped out. Okay? It's not totally destroyed during the tribulation.

So now the tribulation begins.

When we go through the church, we'll understand how long it's going to be.

Now this is where, so once again, there is a definite time period for this, which, by the way, will tell us something else. Is the beast power ruling today?

Nope. I mean, elements of it may be there, but no, it's not. How do you know that? Because when we go through the tribulation, when we discuss the tribulation of the prophecies that describe the tribulation, it's only a certain length of time. It's only a certain length of time. It hasn't started yet. You will know when it has started. And it's not because a nuclear weapon is going to go off on the coast of California so that the president can create a Muslim state. It's not going to happen that way. We'll be able to go through eventually. We'll actually go through this series. We'll go through the whole history of the Muslim world and where they play in prophecy because they have a part in prophecy. And we'll go through that too. But remember, they're not the beast. The Muslims are not the beast. The beast comes out of Europe. So now the tribulation begins, and unless those days were short, no flesh would be saved.

By the way, that prophecy, verse 22, could not have even been remotely fulfilled until the 1960s, because it wasn't until the 1960s that there was enough man-made weapons, both nuclear and biological, to destroy everyone on the earth. So that could not have happened. Just like last time, I showed that until Israel was Israel, until the Jews went back to Israel, there were certain prophecies that can't take place. Here are this one. This could not take place until the last generation of people. Now, during my lifetime, it's the only time we just could have taken place. Verse 23, that if anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ, or there, do not believe it. For false Christ and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive impossible even the elect. False Christ. Remember last time we went through the great false prophet who will do great signs and wonders to deceive the whole world. Great miracles. See how this is, once again, this revelation is laid on top of this template.

He says, See, I have told you beforehand. Therefore, if they say to you, look, he is in the desert. Do not go there. Or he is in the inner ruins. Do not believe it.

Verse 27, Whereas the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of man be. For wherever the carcass is, the eagles will be gathered together. There's going to be judgment. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then the signs of the Son of man will appear in heaven. Then all the tribes of the earth will board, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. Now, you can take the six and seven seals, and the seven seals have the seven trumpets and the seven bowls, and you can lay that on top of what we just said. And it describes those events. See, now between Daniel 2 and Matthew 24, we have a way to explain all the what seems like all the strange imagery of a revelation.

Terry is a way to explain it, because we found the continuity that ties it through all of Scripture.

That ties it through all of Scripture. I will make... I'll just take a few minutes. I'm going to talk about the tribulation just for a minute. We wonder, okay, the tribulation.

In Daniel 12, I won't go there, but in Daniel 12, verses 1 through 7, it talks about that before the return of the Messiah or coming of the Messiah, there will be great, terrible times, like no other time on the earth. Very similar in wording in some ways to what Jesus says here. And it says it will last for time, times, and half a time. So, wow, that helps us, right? What in the world is a time, times, and half a time?

We talked about this tribulation. How long is it? Does that mean an indefinite amount of time? Is that some kind of code? Is that an allegory? What in the world does that mean?

Well, let's look at two places of revelation that help us now define that. Revelation 13.

Revelation 13.

Now, we talked about this beast last month. This is right on top of Daniel 2 and on top of Daniel 7. This is a revised Roman Empire that has a political leader known as the beast and a religious leader known as the false prophet. And it says in verse 5, and we read this two months ago, so we know what the context of this is, and he was given a mouth, speaking great things, the blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for 42 months. This beast has power for only 42 months. That's it. The beast power of the end time, which, by the way, tries to create a world government, but it doesn't work. They can't do it. They fail miserably. They never create a world government. They try. They try to create a world economy, which seems to actually sort of work for a short period of time.

But they only last 42 months. Now, was the beast power going to be around for 100 years, or 10 years, or 5 years? How about 42 months? That's all the longer they last. Now, Revelation 11.

When we go through the abomination of desolation, all roads lead to Jerusalem. We'll see that the abomination of desolation has to do with events that happen in Jerusalem. Abomination of desolation has to do with events that happen in Jerusalem. And we'll be able to show that because we have two templates to build off of for the abomination of desolation. We have a lot of information we can build off for that one.

But verse 1 says, I was given a read, John says, like a measuring rod, and the angel stood saying, Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar of those who worship there. But leave out the temple, out the court which is outside the temple. Do not measure it. For as they give it to the Gentiles, and they will tread the holy city underfoot for how long? Ah! How long is Jerusalem to be occupied during this great time of revelation of the seven seals? 42 months. So the beast power raised for 42 months.

The Jerusalem is occupied for 42 months. Verse 3, And I will give power to my two witnesses, so the two witnesses come along, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth. Guess how long? 1,260 days is? 42 months.

Okay. The beast only lasts 42 months, which is comforting to know. You know, people say, Oh, the beast power is going to come along, and they're going to stick little computers in our kids' brains, and our grandkids will all grow up and be robots. No, he doesn't last that long. He doesn't last that long. 42 months. Because it's a long time if you happen to be persecuted, but he lasts 42 months. How long is Jerusalem the holy city occupied? 42 months. How long do the two witnesses prophesy? 42 months. What is 42 months? It's three and a half years. It's a time, one year, times, two years, and a half a time, half a year. When we go through the church, we'll find time and time and half a time is actually used another time. I mean, it appears in another prophecy. But understand, now we can take what I mentioned in Daniel 12, I've got to get Daniel 12, and I can start laying it on top of each other. Ah, the tribulation lasts 42 months, three and a half years. So we now know we can all stack this on top so that when we go back to Matthew 24, Christ returns, we go to Revelation 19 and 20. Guess what happens? Christ returns. All the events are details of what He laid down.

All the beasts in Revelation are details of what are laid down in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7.

And now we have a continuity of Scripture, a continuity of Scripture.

Let's go back now and finish in Matthew 24. Are you with me? I don't know.

Look, I don't know whether I get the bovine look.

I don't sure if you're with me or you're just all sort of asleep. You know, you know, how cows are, they just stare. This is the bovine.

We'll need a break. But we're going to talk about, it won't be as complicated this afternoon, we're going to talk about the rules of biblical interpretation. How do we arrive at the doctrines that we do? You know, we don't arrive at doctrines, by the way, in the United Church of God. We don't arrive at doctrines without being very, very serious about it. You know, there isn't a doctrine that we have that you can't go online. We have study papers, sometimes a hundred pages on a subject. You know, we have an entire Bible commentary we've written that's online on the Old Testament.

We have spent many years being very, very serious about our development of doctrine.

More than anything else, we've done. We've been very serious about the development of doctrine. I don't say we have everything right. The moment you say you have everything right, you're in for a bad time. Okay? We don't have everything right, but we're very serious about it. And we spent a lot of time in it. And every doctor we arrive to is decided by not one person, but numerous people. And you cannot change a major doctrine in the United Church of God without three quarters of the entire ministry agreeing. And I don't mean just pastors. You have to have the church elders agree, too. There's been some people say, well, United Church of God is... I don't know where this got started. They're going to give up the Sabbath.

We're going to get three quarters of all the ministry of this church to give up the Sabbath.

Can't happen. The church can be torn apart, but, you know, someone tried to do that, but it can't happen. It's going to happen. If it can happen, anything can happen. What I mean is it would take an actual destruction of the church for that to happen. The church would have to be destroyed for that to happen. Verse 42. This is all part of the Olivet prophecy.

Would you go home tonight? And I thought about giving a whole sermon on just Matthew 25 as a whole. Maybe I'll do that as part of this series, because Matthew 25 is three parables that we tend to read separate. All three of them are so well known that you could quote them. Everyone here can quote those three parables. But what's interesting is they were all given at the same time as a prophecy about the church at the end time.

When you read them together as part of the Olivet prophecy, they paint a picture that the church is pretty much in trouble at the end time. Not everybody is, by the way, but there's lots of people in the church in trouble spiritually.

Matthew 24, 42, this is all part of the Olivet prophecy. It says, "'Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.'" He says, "'I've only given you overviews.'" He says, "'You won't know all the exact things.

You won't know the exact events. You will have an overview, and in that overview you must watch.

But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore, you also be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not expect.' Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master made rule over his household to give them food in due season? Blessed is the servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing." Blessed is the person who is doing God's will, who's letting God actively be involved in their lives. And we'll say, well, I'll do that someday. You know, I know I'll get my life cleaned up someday. Someday is too late. That's the warning that Jesus gives as part of the Olivet prophecy.

And when you read Revelation, it scares you. Well, yeah, that's the details of this prophecy.

That's what's laid on top of this. Because blessed is the servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. And this is the promise that God makes to those who are living his way when he comes back.

I will say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. God says, I will give you everything, right? I will give you the kingdom. But if that evil servant says in his heart, my master is delaying his coming. You know, all this stuff isn't going to happen for a long time. And, you know, there's more fun things to do right now. There's more important things to do right now. That'll come in the future, and I'll get ready for it. I'll see the signs coming. I've actually known lots of young people who left the church and said, I'll come back at the end time. I've actually heard that. I'll come back with it. You know, I won't have some fun. I'll come back when the times get bad, but you won't be prepared when the times get bad. And he begins to beat his fellow servants. Notice what happens. They begin to beat their fellow Grecian. They are offended. They're betrayed. They're angry with each other. Stab each other in the back. They hate each other. Jesus already said that. He says, this is what happens. And they begin to eat and drink with the drunkards. In other words, they begin to live lawless lifestyles.

They begin to be lawless, which He already said would happen.

The master of that servant will come in a day when He is not looking for him, and in an hour that He's not aware of, we'll cut him in two. At a point, He'll have His portion with the hypocrites. He'll be weeping and ashing His teeth. That's eternal judgment. That is the lake of fire. Understand something. Unlike the world, this is our day of salvation. And Jesus Christ and all of that prophecy says, if we do not heed these words, we are in danger of the lake of fire.

And He didn't say that because He wanted just all of us to live in fear. He said it because He wanted all of us to be serious about this. To be serious about our calling. To be serious about God and our lives. To not live one foot in the world and one foot in God's way because you can't live that way. Eventually, you will have to choose one or the other.