Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today, I want to challenge you to think seriously about the glorious promise of Christ's return to the earth. Any Christian worth his salt has an anticipation, no matter what he has going on in his life, he has an anticipation for the return of Jesus Christ to claim him. But before we get into this too far, what I would like to do is invite you this week to an Evangelical Mormon Conversation.

I'm excited about this. An Evangelical Mormon Conversation. It's going to be at the Civic Auditorium in Idaho Falls on June 8th from 7 to 9 p.m. The two speakers, one Mormon and one an Evangelical Christian pastor, will be discussing their respective faiths. Dr. Brad Wilcox is a professor at BYU, and he's also published in the LDS field.

He will be in dialogue, in conversation with Dr. Stephen Crane, who is Evangelical Pastor of Eagle Christian Church. Now, I have heard Dr. Crane speak before. I like him very much. I'm familiar with him a little bit, but not with Dr. Wilcox. So I'm looking forward to seeing these two discuss their respective faiths.

That's going to be June 8th between 7 and 9 p.m. at the Civic Auditorium. Invite your friends. If you're a Mormon, invite your Christian friend. If you're a Christian, invite your Mormon friends and neighbors, because it's going to be a very enlightening and illumining evening. I'm looking forward to it.

Well, back to our topic. That is the return, the promise of Christ's return to the earth. All of our lives, we hear preachers and pastors tell us Jesus is coming again. The end is near. The rapture's coming.

Are you ready? Perhaps you've heard these exhortations, and how many sermons, too, have you heard to such effect? Even if you run as fast as you can in the opposite direction, when you hear someone begin to talk like this, someone somewhere has introduced you to the notion that Christ will one day return to the earth. Why is this important to your Christian faith? Let me ask you.

Now, most people focus on when this is supposed to happen, which has led to endless debate about whether Christ is supposed to return before the millennium or after the millennium, or whether we might not maybe be now living in the millennium. Now, what I have discovered is that those who first ask and answer this question, why is Christ returning? These people are best able to answer the when of his return. If you cannot answer why is Christ returning, then all of your seeking after when he will return is like a dog chasing its tail. Why is Christ returning?

Christ is returning to claim his kingdom in its fullness. Christ is returning to claim his people and his kingdom in its fullness. Revelation 11, 15 says, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever. The apostle Paul also vividly describes this when he says, the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. At that time, he goes on to say, he will punish those who do not know God and he will be glorified in his holy people.

That's the upshot really of the entire book of Revelation. Christ is returning to claim his kingdom in its fullness. That is his people, his church, and his world, who he will transform the sinful fallen world that we now know into a glorious and perfect world, where there will be no need for a sun and moon to illumine the skies, because as Revelation says, the glory of the Lord will illumine that world. Oh, what a glorious day that will be. It's the entire upshot of the book of Revelation.

There is a dramatic determinative scene in Revelation 5, where the apostle John is told to turn and see the lion of the tribe of Judah, who alone is able to take the scroll and open its seals. The scroll. What is the seven-sealed scroll? In the ancient world, a testament or will of bequest was sealed with seven distinct seals from seven distinct witnesses, and only the one who would inherit the contents of the will and testament could open the seven seals. Who is worthy to open the will and testament given by God himself?

Oh, John turns to see the lamb of God, the same one as the lion of Judah. It is this one who was worthy to take the inheritance contained in the scroll, because he had purchased it with his own life, given in sacrifice for his people. Now he is ready to take possession of his inheritance, that is, his kingdom. Christ is returning to claim his kingdom in its fullness.

That is the purpose, dear people, for Christ's return, not to thrill you with when and where he's going to rapture you, or who the Antichrist is going to be, or when the seven-year tribulation is going to be, or whether the rapture is going to be before, in the middle, or after the tribulation, and all of these things we focus on as obsessed Christians with prophecy. The obsession with Christian prophecy is no more than a Christian form of mediumship, no more than a Christian form of astrology. It's a pagan notion.

Pagans have always eagerly anticipated seeing into the future, seeing into prophecy, knowing what's going to happen so that they can, in some measure, then manipulate and control it for themselves. Christians do this constantly with their premillennial dispensational view of prophecy. The purpose, however, for Christ's return is to claim his kingdom in its fullness. Christ opens the first seal and out comes a rider with a crown on a white charger bent on conquest. This is none other than Christ himself who sets out here to begin his conquest.

Later, he reappears in chapter 19 to complete that conquest in a last cataclysmic battle before the consummation of all things. How does he reappear, dear listener? He reappears, of course, on a white charger with crowns as the king of kings and lord of lords. Christ is returning to claim his kingdom in its fullness, dear listener, not to pamper you, not to tantalize you, not to entertain you with last day's prophecy, with which you can compare with headlines in the newspaper, for example. No, Christ is returning not to entertain you, but to claim his kingdom in its fullness.

The image of a king riding forth to claim the lands in his realm. It was an everyday thing. In the ancient world, just because one inherited a land was no guarantee that all of its inhabitants would obediently submit themselves to your rule. Caesar was given Gaul to rule, but had to go there with four legions to subdue it. Alexander the Great inherited Macedonia from his father, Philip of Macedon, but he had to vanquish rebels and pretenders to the throne.

The model after which the book of Revelation is patterned, however, is not Caesar or Alexander the Great, but rather Joshua. Remember, Jesus' name, Yeshua, is Hebrew for Jesus in the Greek. So the model after which Revelation is based is the book of Exodus and Joshua, where the land had to be subdued and conquered, and that's exactly what Jesus does in conquering his kingdom. In Revelation, it is the king Yeshua, that is Jesus, who leads his people out of Egypt, of the lost and fallen world, out of the house of bondage and slavery to sin, pictured in Revelation as the city of Babylon.

In a distinct reference to the Exodus, God himself is calling to you, O Christian, come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues, as Revelation says. Christ is returning to claim his kingdom in its fullness, dear listener, not to tantalize you with who the Antichrist is or who the whore of Babylon might be, or when exactly the rapture will be, or when the thousand-year millennium will begin, all these kinds of things that prophecy pastors try and tantalize you with. Christ is returning, rather, to claim his kingdom in its fullness when he comes.

And he does this, subduing the world to himself and conquering it. And how does he do it? Dear listener, how does he do it? Does he try to do it like Islam does with the sword? By battling and subduing people and forcing people to convert?

By what means does he do it? With tanks and guns and armies, shrewd strategies, wealth and power? No, he does it by word and sacrament, does he not? Revelation also says they overcame him, that is the devil, by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. By word and sacrament.

The blood of the lamb, indeed, symbolized by the cup in the Lord's supper. Word and sacrament is how we conquer, not by the sword, as Islam pretends to conquer. They do not really conquer. It is the Christian who conquers, by blood of the lamb, by word and sacrament. Here, O Christian, is your charge.

It is not to sit around and wait for a secret rapture, but rather fight the good fight of the gospel, overcoming the world, the flesh and the devil, by the blood of the lamb and the word of your testimony. This book, the book of Revelation, is for you, not a generation somewhere in the future waiting for the tribulation, waiting for the rapture, waiting for the antichrist, blah, blah, blah. Christ is returning to claim his kingdom in its fullness, not to entertain you with Revelation, Red Heifer, or rapture sermons.

Were Christians to put down their book of fiction, supposedly based on the Bible, and actually read the Bible, the utter clarity of some of these things would be apparent. Many well-meaning people have already been left behind in their Christian lives, where their obsession with the antichrist, the rebuilding of the temple, the rapture, the heifers, the barcodes on their hands and foreheads, or perhaps a chip under their heads, foreheads, and their hands, right? There is a real difference in our day between what God intended the study of prophecy to produce in us, and what many churches and pastors incite in their people.

I submit to you, many of the things that are incited in Christians these days is not of God. It is rather pagan notions of prophecy and fulfillment. For example, the biblical understanding of prophecy is the consummation of salvation. That is, Christ will be glorified in his holy people and marvel that among all those that believe, as Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 1 and 10. But the pre-tribulation rapture teachers, those who inculcate dispensational premillennialism, rather urge you to seek your fulfillment in the flesh.

That is, who is the antichrist? The rebuilding of the temple, which is a blasphemy, the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, ostensibly by Israel and the resettled Jews, that is a blasphemy in God's sight. Just read the book of Hebrews if you will understand this. So there is a worldly sense, a fleshly sense, a pagan sense to the idea of premillennial dispensationalism and the fulfillment of prophecy there. We were meant to have strength to overcome.

Romans 13, Paul says, the hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber because our salvation is nearer now than we first believed. The night is nearly over. The day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Exhortation is always with strength to overcome.

Under dispensational premillennialism, that is, the red heifer rapture teachers, you have passivity waiting for the rapture. People throw up their hands and say, oh, God's in control. Rapture's coming anyway. We'll be out of here pretty soon. Instead of passivity and waiting for the rapture, we are encouraged to act, to overcome by the blood of the lamb.

We have the strength now to overcome. Also, the Bible inculcates with an obsession with Christ and his kingdom. We are to love our Lord, to look forward to his return, to eagerly anticipate, look to the skies, anticipating that one day they will split open and the Lord will descend in great power with the sound of a trumpet and claim his kingdom in its fullness. The parables of the kingdom do this for us, don't they? The pearl of great price, the parable of the 10 virgins and the talents.

And Christ himself says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Instead, we have under dispensational premillennialism, excuse me, premillennialism. We have the Revelation Red Heifer rapture teachers telling us to be obsessed with the future. This is a pagan notion, being obsessed with the future. The pagans had the oracle at Delphi, did they not, by which they sought the future?

We have our own oracles. That is the Revelation Red Heifer rapture preachers who tell you what the future is going to be like. We have a Christian form of tarot cards, the Christian form of the psychic hotline with the emphasis, the obsession with prophecy and the future. It is a pagan notion, a pagan understanding, and many Christians fall prey to it, fall trap to pagan fleshly notions of what prophecy is. Well, the Bible also inculcates faith in God, where Jesus says, yes, I am coming soon.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen. We have faith in God, even as Revelation concludes for us.

But the Revelation Red Heifer rapture teaches the premillennial dispensationalism, the focus on prophecy in Christianity tells you to trust in signs, pouring over books of fiction for signs, left behind in the on and on, in ineluctable, unstoppable press of churning out these books. Entertainment as a substitute for edification, that's all it is. The series Left Behind is nothing more than entertainment as a substitute for edification. Put these things behind you. Christ is indeed returning to claim his kingdom in its fullness.

He's not returning to provide us with fascinating clues about the future so that we might be entertained instead of edified by an endless series of fictions. He is not returning in order to tease us with cryptic messages that thrill the world. No, he's not returning to give us prophetic puzzles to solve and to take up our time until we're raptured. No, Christ is returning to claim his kingdom in its fullness. In fact, this is a thing that has already begun, brothers and sisters, Christ's conquering of his kingdom as the new and final Yeshua and the exodus of his people as the new and final Moses began at his resurrection.

Revelation 1, 17 and 18 says, Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last. I am the living one. I was dead and behold, I am alive forever and ever and I hold the keys of death in the 80s. The conquering of his kingdom began with Christ's conquering death.

The book of Revelation is not for the future. It is not for a generation that will experience a seven-year tribulation sometime distant. No, the apostle John and the Lord who gave him the apocalypse fully expected that that generation would understand and apply the entire book to themselves. This is amply illustrated in chapter 20 where the thousand-year millennium is pictured to us, the thousand-year millennium. First, we must remember that almost all numbers in prophecy are symbolic because most modern teachers say it is a literal thousand years that will happen sometime in the future after Christ's return.

Then after this literal thousand years in which Christ will reign on the earth, ostensibly with sinners and Satan and a rebuilt temple with animal sacrifice, an abomination in God's eyes, a stench in his nostrils. Then these pre-millennial dispensationalists say, then the new Jerusalem and eternal state will be ushered in. But is this what chapter 20 of Revelation actually teaches? Oh, remember, dear listener, almost all numbers in prophecy are symbolic, just like the pictures of prophecy are symbolic. Does anyone really think that the beasts of Revelation are literal beasts?

No, they represent nations and world leaders that the reader is expected to identify. Does anyone really think that the vision of Christ where a sword is issuing from his mouth and his feet are like burnished bronze, that he has a literal sword coming out of his mouth or that his feet are literally bronze? No, prophecy by its very nature is filled with symbol. And this includes numbers. Dear listener, numbers and prophecy are symbolic.

The number 1,000 is a symbol for a vast quantity or a large indeterminate period of time, always in Scripture. Deuteronomy 7, 9 says as well, the Lord keeps his covenant of love for a thousand generations of those who love him. What a beautiful promise. The Lord keeps his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him. But the thousand and first generation, forget about it.

You're damned. Is that what he means? No. The thousand year generation, the thousand generations is a symbolic number, meaning for great numbers, great quantities, generation after generation, after generation, God is faithful. Or Deuteronomy 1, 11 says, may the Lord, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times, and bless you as he has promised.

What another great promise, covenant promise that God has given to his people. Increase you, may he, the thousand times, and bless you as he has promised. But the thousand and first time, no. Forget about it. Is that right?

No. Thousand, again, here is a symbolic number. Psalm 15, verse 10 says, every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. Oh, God's power is great. His ownership of the world is great, except for that thousand and first he doesn't own the cattle on that one, right?

No. A thousand, again, is symbolic. The thousand year millennium of Revelation 20, as well, is a long, indeterminate time in which we now live, not somewhere in the future. The first resurrection of Revelation 20, as well, has already taken place when any person is birthed into Christ. Now, once again, we see this all through Scripture.

Colossians 3, verse 1 says, since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. We are seated with Christ in the heavenlies, even now. Ephesians 2, 4 through 6 says, God has made us alive with Christ, and God has raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. We are already ruling and reigning with Christ here on the earth in this present millennium. This is the thousand year millennium of Revelation chapter 20, not some literal one sometime in the future, dear listener.

The first resurrection of Revelation 20 has already taken place. We are already priests of God and of Christ, reigning with him for a thousand years, as Revelation 20 says. That is for this long, indefinite period of time until Christ comes again in power and great glory to establish his kingdom in its fullness, dear listener. The Bible is very clear that Christ has already set out upon his conquest of his kingdom. That is why he is returning to complete that conquest, not to entertain you with rapture, revelation, red heifer, delectivos.

No, he has already taken his will and testament, that is the seven-sealed scroll, and he has opened it, and it has written out, and he has begun to take possession of his kingdom. You, O king and priest yourself, you are already a king and priest. You don't have to wait for a thousand-year millennium, literal one, that is only a fancy of premillennial dispensational imaginations. It is a travesty to cast all of the book of Revelation into the future when it was meant to comfort and encourage you in your present circumstances. This is what was intended for the Apostle John's first-century readers, as it is for you.

They were hounded and persecuted by emperors and councils, the Jews and the Gentiles, unlike us. Nero coated Christians with pitch and used them as torches in his garden. He covered them in bloody animal skins, and he turned hungry dogs loose to kill and eat them. This was all foreshadowed in the book of Revelation. Peter was crucified upside down.

Paul was beheaded in Rome, even as Muslims are beheading Christians now. Each of the apostles died a martyr's death, as well as countless Christians through the ages, even as our brothers and sisters are being persecuted now. Revelation is a great comfort to them now, not some generation in the future. The Christians being persecuted, being beheaded and burned and crucified by ISIS, even now, today, these take great comfort from the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is unfolding now.

ISIS is a beast, just as much a beast of the book of Revelation, as was Egypt, Rahab of the sea, as was Babylon, Leviathan of the land. These are all beasts that have transpired and occurred all through history, not some beast of the future, not a antichrist of the future. There have been many antichrists, as John has said. The book of Revelation is for us now, not some future generation after we're raptured. Fictional, imagination-filled rapture, by the way.

It is these who overcome, our brothers and sisters, those who are persecuted even today. They overcome not with sword, not with gun, not out of the barrel of a gun, even as Mao said political power derives. No, our power comes from the blood of the lamb. We overcome by the blood of the lamb, as Revelation says, and the word of their testimony. It is these, word and sacrament.

Those of us who conquer via this means, it is we who take great comfort from the promises of Revelation too, not some generation in the future. That is, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple, and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger, never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them nor any scorching heat, for the lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

This is the promise to the saint, dear brothers and sisters, those who suffer now under persecution. The book of Revelation is for us now, not for some prophecy reading, headline scanning, seeking after Revelation red heifer rapture teachings. No, do not cast Revelation into the future. Dear listener, it was meant for us today. Christ is conquering even now, and he's using you as a Christian to do so.

Wake up to these things, dear listener, and seize the moments while you have them now. Be faithful in your generation. Do not let this time pass you by, but seize the moment and be a living Christian now in your culture and in your society and, yea, in your political realm as well as your personal realm, as well as in your marriage, as well as in your church. Call people to faith in Christ in every venue that you possibly can. Do not cast Revelation into the future.

Christ is conquering now, not with a sword and shield, not with bombs and buildings, but rather by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. That is, by word and sacrament, by word in the preaching and teaching of the word, in the practicing and displaying of the sacraments. Do you know that in a Muslim country, you could be killed for being baptized? We're pretty safe here, aren't we? We can be baptized as many times as we want, though the Bible says where there was only one baptism.

But if you were to be baptized even once in a Muslim land and it was displayed, it was done in the open, it was an open sacrament that you were by your baptism. Well, then, you could be killed by the local imam. He could have a fatwa against you for either practicing baptism or the Lord's Supper, if it got around. These things are not tolerated in a place like Saudi Arabia, for example, but by word and sacrament, we make testimony to the living Christ. This is how we conquer, and this is how we conquer now, not in some future millennium, not in some future seven-year tribulation after the church has ostensibly been raptured.

No, we do this now. Christ is conquering now, and he's returning to complete that conquering. The book of Revelation eloquently teaches us this, and it should eloquently teach you the very same thing, dear listener. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. We meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard.

I would urge you to come and join us. We're preaching through the Book of Romans right now, and you will hear messages like this and also an unfolding of the text from the Book of Romans. We meet on Sundays, once again, for this at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us at 523-0196. For feedback or further information, you can check out our websites, newgenevaopc.org, or you can also check out our catalog of past radio messages at omnispotestas.org.

That's O-M-N-I-S dash P-O-T-E-S-T-A-S dot org, omnispotestas.org. And once more, call us for feedback or further information, 523-0196.