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Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a

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moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith.

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And today, I want to challenge you to think seriously about the glorious promise of Christ's

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return to the earth. Any Christian worth his salt has an anticipation, no matter what he has going

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on in his life, he has an anticipation for the return of Jesus Christ to claim him. But before

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we get into this too far, what I would like to do is invite you this week to an Evangelical

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Mormon Conversation. I'm excited about this. An Evangelical Mormon Conversation. It's going to

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be at the Civic Auditorium in Idaho Falls on June 8th from 7 to 9 p.m. The two speakers, one Mormon

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and one an Evangelical Christian pastor, will be discussing their respective faiths. Dr. Brad

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Wilcox is a professor at BYU, and he's also published in the LDS field. He will be in dialogue,

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in conversation with Dr. Stephen Crane, who is Evangelical Pastor of Eagle Christian Church.

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Now, I have heard Dr. Crane speak before. I like him very much. I'm familiar with him a little bit,

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but not with Dr. Wilcox. So I'm looking forward to seeing these two discuss their respective

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faiths. That's going to be June 8th between 7 and 9 p.m. at the Civic Auditorium. Invite your

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friends. If you're a Mormon, invite your Christian friend. If you're a Christian, invite your Mormon

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friends and neighbors, because it's going to be a very enlightening and illumining evening. I'm

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looking forward to it. Well, back to our topic. That is the return, the promise of Christ's return

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to the earth. All of our lives, we hear preachers and pastors tell us Jesus is coming again. The end

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is near. The rapture's coming. Are you ready? Perhaps you've heard these exhortations, and how

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many sermons, too, have you heard to such effect? Even if you run as fast as you can in the opposite

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direction, when you hear someone begin to talk like this, someone somewhere has introduced you

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to the notion that Christ will one day return to the earth. Why is this important to your Christian

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faith? Let me ask you. Now, most people focus on when this is supposed to happen, which has led to

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endless debate about whether Christ is supposed to return before the millennium or after the

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millennium, or whether we might not maybe be now living in the millennium. Now, what I have

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discovered is that those who first ask and answer this question, why is Christ returning? These people

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are best able to answer the when of his return. If you cannot answer why is Christ returning, then all

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of your seeking after when he will return is like a dog chasing its tail. Why is Christ returning?

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Christ is returning to claim his kingdom in its fullness. Christ is returning to claim his people

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and his kingdom in its fullness. Revelation 11, 15 says, the kingdom of the world has become the

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kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever. The apostle Paul also

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vividly describes this when he says, the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven in blazing fire

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with his powerful angels. At that time, he goes on to say, he will punish those who do not know God

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and he will be glorified in his holy people. That's the upshot really of the entire book of

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Revelation. Christ is returning to claim his kingdom in its fullness. That is his people, his church,

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and his world, who he will transform the sinful fallen world that we now know into a glorious and

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perfect world, where there will be no need for a sun and moon to illumine the skies, because as

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Revelation says, the glory of the Lord will illumine that world. Oh, what a glorious day that will be.

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It's the entire upshot of the book of Revelation. There is a dramatic determinative scene in Revelation

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5, where the apostle John is told to turn and see the lion of the tribe of Judah, who alone is able

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to take the scroll and open its seals. The scroll. What is the seven-sealed scroll? In the ancient

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world, a testament or will of bequest was sealed with seven distinct seals from seven distinct

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witnesses, and only the one who would inherit the contents of the will and testament could open the

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seven seals. Who is worthy to open the will and testament given by God himself? Oh, John turns to see

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the lamb of God, the same one as the lion of Judah. It is this one who was worthy to take the inheritance

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contained in the scroll, because he had purchased it with his own life, given in sacrifice for his

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people. Now he is ready to take possession of his inheritance, that is, his kingdom. Christ is

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returning to claim his kingdom in its fullness. That is the purpose, dear people, for Christ's return,

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not to thrill you with when and where he's going to rapture you, or who the Antichrist is going to be,

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or when the seven-year tribulation is going to be, or whether the rapture is going to be before,

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in the middle, or after the tribulation, and all of these things we focus on as obsessed

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Christians with prophecy. The obsession with Christian prophecy is no more than a Christian

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form of mediumship, no more than a Christian form of astrology. It's a pagan notion. Pagans have always

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eagerly anticipated seeing into the future, seeing into prophecy, knowing what's going to happen so

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that they can, in some measure, then manipulate and control it for themselves. Christians do this

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constantly with their premillennial dispensational view of prophecy. The purpose, however, for Christ's

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return is to claim his kingdom in its fullness. Christ opens the first seal and out comes a rider

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with a crown on a white charger bent on conquest. This is none other than Christ himself who sets out

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here to begin his conquest. Later, he reappears in chapter 19 to complete that conquest in a last

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cataclysmic battle before the consummation of all things. How does he reappear, dear listener?

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He reappears, of course, on a white charger with crowns as the king of kings and lord of lords.

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Christ is returning to claim his kingdom in its fullness, dear listener, not to pamper you,

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not to tantalize you, not to entertain you with last day's prophecy, with which you can compare

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with headlines in the newspaper, for example. No, Christ is returning not to entertain you,

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but to claim his kingdom in its fullness. The image of a king riding forth to claim the lands in

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his realm. It was an everyday thing. In the ancient world, just because one inherited a land was no

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guarantee that all of its inhabitants would obediently submit themselves to your rule. Caesar

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was given Gaul to rule, but had to go there with four legions to subdue it. Alexander the Great

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inherited Macedonia from his father, Philip of Macedon, but he had to vanquish rebels and pretenders

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to the throne. The model after which the book of Revelation is patterned, however, is not Caesar or

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Alexander the Great, but rather Joshua. Remember, Jesus' name, Yeshua, is Hebrew for Jesus in the

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Greek. So the model after which Revelation is based is the book of Exodus and Joshua, where the land had

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to be subdued and conquered, and that's exactly what Jesus does in conquering his kingdom. In Revelation,

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it is the king Yeshua, that is Jesus, who leads his people out of Egypt, of the lost and fallen world,

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out of the house of bondage and slavery to sin, pictured in Revelation as the city of Babylon.

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In a distinct reference to the Exodus, God himself is calling to you, O Christian,

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come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive

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any of her plagues, as Revelation says. Christ is returning to claim his kingdom in its fullness,

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dear listener, not to tantalize you with who the Antichrist is or who the whore of Babylon might be,

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or when exactly the rapture will be, or when the thousand-year millennium will begin, all these

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kinds of things that prophecy pastors try and tantalize you with. Christ is returning, rather,

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to claim his kingdom in its fullness when he comes. And he does this, subduing the world to himself and

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conquering it. And how does he do it? Dear listener, how does he do it? Does he try to do it like Islam

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does with the sword? By battling and subduing people and forcing people to convert? By what means

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does he do it? With tanks and guns and armies, shrewd strategies, wealth and power? No, he does it by word

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and sacrament, does he not? Revelation also says they overcame him, that is the devil, by the blood of the

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lamb and by the word of their testimony. By word and sacrament. The blood of the lamb, indeed,

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symbolized by the cup in the Lord's supper. Word and sacrament is how we conquer, not by the sword,

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as Islam pretends to conquer. They do not really conquer. It is the Christian who conquers,

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by blood of the lamb, by word and sacrament. Here, O Christian, is your charge. It is not to sit

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around and wait for a secret rapture, but rather fight the good fight of the gospel, overcoming the

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world, the flesh and the devil, by the blood of the lamb and the word of your testimony.

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This book, the book of Revelation, is for you, not a generation somewhere in the future waiting for

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the tribulation, waiting for the rapture, waiting for the antichrist, blah, blah, blah. Christ is

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returning to claim his kingdom in its fullness, not to entertain you with Revelation, Red Heifer,

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or rapture sermons. Were Christians to put down their book of fiction, supposedly based on the Bible,

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and actually read the Bible, the utter clarity of some of these things would be apparent.

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Many well-meaning people have already been left behind in their Christian lives,

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where their obsession with the antichrist, the rebuilding of the temple, the rapture, the heifers,

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the barcodes on their hands and foreheads, or perhaps a chip under their heads, foreheads,

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and their hands, right? There is a real difference in our day between what God intended the study of

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prophecy to produce in us, and what many churches and pastors incite in their people. I submit to you,

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many of the things that are incited in Christians these days is not of God. It is rather pagan notions

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of prophecy and fulfillment. For example, the biblical understanding of prophecy is the consummation

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of salvation. That is, Christ will be glorified in his holy people and marvel that among all those

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that believe, as Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 1 and 10. But the pre-tribulation rapture teachers,

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those who inculcate dispensational premillennialism, rather urge you to seek your fulfillment in the

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flesh. That is, who is the antichrist? The rebuilding of the temple, which is a blasphemy,

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the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, ostensibly by Israel and the resettled Jews,

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that is a blasphemy in God's sight. Just read the book of Hebrews if you will understand this.

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So there is a worldly sense, a fleshly sense, a pagan sense to the idea of premillennial

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dispensationalism and the fulfillment of prophecy there. We were meant to have strength to overcome.

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Romans 13, Paul says, the hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber because our salvation

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is nearer now than we first believed. The night is nearly over. The day is almost here. So let us put

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aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Exhortation is always with strength to

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overcome. Under dispensational premillennialism, that is, the red heifer rapture teachers,

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you have passivity waiting for the rapture. People throw up their hands and say, oh,

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God's in control. Rapture's coming anyway. We'll be out of here pretty soon. Instead of passivity and

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waiting for the rapture, we are encouraged to act, to overcome by the blood of the lamb. We have the

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strength now to overcome. Also, the Bible inculcates with an obsession with Christ and his kingdom.

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We are to love our Lord, to look forward to his return, to eagerly anticipate, look to the skies,

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anticipating that one day they will split open and the Lord will descend in great power with the

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sound of a trumpet and claim his kingdom in its fullness. The parables of the kingdom do this for

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us, don't they? The pearl of great price, the parable of the 10 virgins and the talents.

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And Christ himself says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things

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will be added unto you. Instead, we have under dispensational premillennialism, excuse me,

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premillennialism. We have the Revelation Red Heifer rapture teachers telling us to be obsessed

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with the future. This is a pagan notion, being obsessed with the future. The pagans had the

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oracle at Delphi, did they not, by which they sought the future? We have our own oracles. That is the

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Revelation Red Heifer rapture preachers who tell you what the future is going to be like. We have a

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Christian form of tarot cards, the Christian form of the psychic hotline with the emphasis, the obsession

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with prophecy and the future. It is a pagan notion, a pagan understanding, and many Christians fall prey

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to it, fall trap to pagan fleshly notions of what prophecy is. Well, the Bible also inculcates faith in

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God, where Jesus says, yes, I am coming soon. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with

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God's people. Amen. We have faith in God, even as Revelation concludes for us. But the Revelation Red

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Heifer rapture teaches the premillennial dispensationalism, the focus on prophecy in

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Christianity tells you to trust in signs, pouring over books of fiction for signs, left behind in the

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on and on, in ineluctable, unstoppable press of churning out these books. Entertainment as a substitute

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for edification, that's all it is. The series Left Behind is nothing more than entertainment as a

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substitute for edification. Put these things behind you. Christ is indeed returning to claim his kingdom

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in its fullness. He's not returning to provide us with fascinating clues about the future so that we

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might be entertained instead of edified by an endless series of fictions. He is not returning in

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order to tease us with cryptic messages that thrill the world. No, he's not returning to give us prophetic

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puzzles to solve and to take up our time until we're raptured. No, Christ is returning to claim his

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kingdom in its fullness. In fact, this is a thing that has already begun, brothers and sisters,

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Christ's conquering of his kingdom as the new and final Yeshua and the exodus of his people as the

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new and final Moses began at his resurrection. Revelation 1, 17 and 18 says,

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Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last. I am the living one. I was dead and behold, I am alive

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forever and ever and I hold the keys of death in the 80s. The conquering of his kingdom began with

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Christ's conquering death. The book of Revelation is not for the future. It is not for a generation

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that will experience a seven-year tribulation sometime distant. No, the apostle John and the

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Lord who gave him the apocalypse fully expected that that generation would understand and apply the

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entire book to themselves. This is amply illustrated in chapter 20 where the thousand-year millennium

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is pictured to us, the thousand-year millennium. First, we must remember that almost all numbers

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in prophecy are symbolic because most modern teachers say it is a literal thousand years that

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will happen sometime in the future after Christ's return. Then after this literal thousand years in

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which Christ will reign on the earth, ostensibly with sinners and Satan and a rebuilt temple with

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animal sacrifice, an abomination in God's eyes, a stench in his nostrils. Then these pre-millennial

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dispensationalists say, then the new Jerusalem and eternal state will be ushered in. But is this what

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chapter 20 of Revelation actually teaches? Oh, remember, dear listener, almost all numbers in

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prophecy are symbolic, just like the pictures of prophecy are symbolic. Does anyone really think

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that the beasts of Revelation are literal beasts? No, they represent nations and world leaders that the

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reader is expected to identify. Does anyone really think that the vision of Christ where a sword is

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issuing from his mouth and his feet are like burnished bronze, that he has a literal sword coming

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out of his mouth or that his feet are literally bronze? No, prophecy by its very nature is filled

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with symbol. And this includes numbers. Dear listener, numbers and prophecy are symbolic. The number 1,000

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is a symbol for a vast quantity or a large indeterminate period of time, always in Scripture.

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Deuteronomy 7, 9 says as well, the Lord keeps his covenant of love for a thousand generations of those

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who love him. What a beautiful promise. The Lord keeps his covenant of love to a thousand generations

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of those who love him. But the thousand and first generation, forget about it. You're damned. Is that

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what he means? No. The thousand year generation, the thousand generations is a symbolic number, meaning

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for great numbers, great quantities, generation after generation, after generation, God is faithful.

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Or Deuteronomy 1, 11 says, may the Lord, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times,

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and bless you as he has promised. What another great promise, covenant promise that God has given to

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his people. Increase you, may he, the thousand times, and bless you as he has promised. But the thousand

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and first time, no. Forget about it. Is that right? No. Thousand, again, here is a symbolic number.

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Psalm 15, verse 10 says, every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.

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Oh, God's power is great. His ownership of the world is great, except for that thousand and first

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he doesn't own the cattle on that one, right? No. A thousand, again, is symbolic. The thousand year

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millennium of Revelation 20, as well, is a long, indeterminate time in which we now live, not

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somewhere in the future. The first resurrection of Revelation 20, as well, has already taken place

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when any person is birthed into Christ. Now, once again, we see this all through Scripture.

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Colossians 3, verse 1 says, since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts

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on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. We are seated with Christ in

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the heavenlies, even now. Ephesians 2, 4 through 6 says, God has made us alive with Christ, and God

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has raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. We are

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already ruling and reigning with Christ here on the earth in this present millennium. This is the

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thousand year millennium of Revelation chapter 20, not some literal one sometime in the future,

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dear listener. The first resurrection of Revelation 20 has already taken place. We are already priests

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of God and of Christ, reigning with him for a thousand years, as Revelation 20 says. That is for this long,

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indefinite period of time until Christ comes again in power and great glory to establish his kingdom

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in its fullness, dear listener. The Bible is very clear that Christ has already set out upon his

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conquest of his kingdom. That is why he is returning to complete that conquest, not to entertain you

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with rapture, revelation, red heifer, delectivos. No, he has already taken his will and testament,

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that is the seven-sealed scroll, and he has opened it, and it has written out, and he has begun to

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take possession of his kingdom. You, O king and priest yourself, you are already a king and priest. You

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don't have to wait for a thousand-year millennium, literal one, that is only a fancy of premillennial

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dispensational imaginations. It is a travesty to cast all of the book of Revelation into the future

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when it was meant to comfort and encourage you in your present circumstances. This is what was

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intended for the Apostle John's first-century readers, as it is for you. They were hounded and

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persecuted by emperors and councils, the Jews and the Gentiles, unlike us. Nero coated Christians with

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pitch and used them as torches in his garden. He covered them in bloody animal skins, and he turned

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hungry dogs loose to kill and eat them. This was all foreshadowed in the book of Revelation. Peter was

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crucified upside down. Paul was beheaded in Rome, even as Muslims are beheading Christians now. Each of the

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apostles died a martyr's death, as well as countless Christians through the ages, even as our brothers

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and sisters are being persecuted now. Revelation is a great comfort to them now, not some generation

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in the future. The Christians being persecuted, being beheaded and burned and crucified by ISIS, even now,

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today, these take great comfort from the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is unfolding now.

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ISIS is a beast, just as much a beast of the book of Revelation, as was Egypt, Rahab of the sea, as was

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Babylon, Leviathan of the land. These are all beasts that have transpired and occurred all through

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history, not some beast of the future, not a antichrist of the future. There have been many antichrists,

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as John has said. The book of Revelation is for us now, not some future generation after we're

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raptured. Fictional, imagination-filled rapture, by the way. It is these who overcome, our brothers and

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sisters, those who are persecuted even today. They overcome not with sword, not with gun, not out of

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the barrel of a gun, even as Mao said political power derives. No, our power comes from the blood of the

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lamb. We overcome by the blood of the lamb, as Revelation says, and the word of their testimony.

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It is these, word and sacrament. Those of us who conquer via this means, it is we who take great

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comfort from the promises of Revelation too, not some generation in the future. That is, they are

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before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple, and he who sits on the throne

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will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger, never again will they thirst. The sun will

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not beat upon them nor any scorching heat, for the lamb at the center of the throne will be their

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shepherd. He will lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their

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eyes. This is the promise to the saint, dear brothers and sisters, those who suffer now under persecution.

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The book of Revelation is for us now, not for some prophecy reading, headline scanning, seeking after

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Revelation red heifer rapture teachings. No, do not cast Revelation into the future. Dear listener, it was meant

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for us today. Christ is conquering even now, and he's using you as a Christian to do so. Wake up to

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these things, dear listener, and seize the moments while you have them now. Be faithful in your generation.

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Do not let this time pass you by, but seize the moment and be a living Christian now in your culture

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and in your society and, yea, in your political realm as well as your personal realm, as well as in

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your marriage, as well as in your church. Call people to faith in Christ in every venue that you

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possibly can. Do not cast Revelation into the future. Christ is conquering now, not with a sword

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and shield, not with bombs and buildings, but rather by the blood of the lamb and the word of their

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testimony. That is, by word and sacrament, by word in the preaching and teaching of the word, in the

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practicing and displaying of the sacraments. Do you know that in a Muslim country, you could be killed

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for being baptized? We're pretty safe here, aren't we? We can be baptized as many times as we want,

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though the Bible says where there was only one baptism. But if you were to be baptized even once

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in a Muslim land and it was displayed, it was done in the open, it was an open sacrament that you were

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by your baptism. Well, then, you could be killed by the local imam. He could have a fatwa against you

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for either practicing baptism or the Lord's Supper, if it got around. These things are not tolerated in a

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place like Saudi Arabia, for example, but by word and sacrament, we make testimony to the living Christ.

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This is how we conquer, and this is how we conquer now, not in some future millennium, not in some future

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seven-year tribulation after the church has ostensibly been raptured. No, we do this now.

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Christ is conquering now, and he's returning to complete that conquering. The book of Revelation

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eloquently teaches us this, and it should eloquently teach you the very same thing, dear listener.

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This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. We meet for holy worship

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on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. I would urge you to

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come and join us. We're preaching through the Book of Romans right now, and you will hear messages

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like this and also an unfolding of the text from the Book of Romans. We meet on Sundays, once again,

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for this at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us at

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523-0196. For feedback or further information, you can check out our websites,

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newgenevaopc.org, or you can also check out our catalog of past radio messages at

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omnispotestas.org. That's O-M-N-I-S dash P-O-T-E-S-T-A-S dot org, omnispotestas.org.

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And once more, call us for feedback or further information, 523-0196.