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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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Today, what is the end times eschatology known as post-millennialism? Most Christians are unaware

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that there are four major views on what we call the millennium, that word millennium taken from

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the Latin mile, meaning a thousand, the millennium, that is the 1,000 years when Christ will rule and

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reign in peace and prosperity. All agree that the portion of the Bible which teaches this truth

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is found in Revelation chapter 20. And that scripture says, then I saw an angel coming down

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from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized

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the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years and

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threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations

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any longer until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be released for a little while.

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Then I saw thrones and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed.

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Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God

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and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads

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or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead

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did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and

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holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection. Over such, the second death has no power, but they

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will be priests of God and of Christ and they will reign with him for a thousand years. Unquote.

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From Revelation 20, the text that tells us about the millennium. This is the only place in the Bible

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where this 1,000 year period is mentioned specifically. Consequently, it's important to understand from the

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outset and that gives me opportunity to introduce to you our 2023 to through 24 midweek Bible study

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on this very topic. Did you know that there is more than one view on end times prophecy than the one

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most likely popular in your church? The one I will teach in our upcoming midweek study is one with a

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long history in church doctrine. It's ancient, biblical, and true, I submit to you. Our midweek Bible study

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this year will be on Thursday evening at 7 p.m. at Leo's Place in Idaho Falls, and our first meeting

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will be on October 26, October 26, Thursday night at 7 p.m. at Leo's Place. We look forward to seeing

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you there, but in order to give you an idea of what we will teach over the course of this time, let me

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give you a brief comparison and contrast between the major features of the two views. First of all, one of

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the most important things to keep in mind when we think of Revelation 20, which we've just read for

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you is the number 1,000. Most teachers in the modern evangelical church today, most likely in your

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church and then those within the sound of my broadcast voice today, most churches think that

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Revelation is talking about a literal 1,000 years and that it can only come after Jesus comes again

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following the Great Tribulation and the Battle of Armageddon. Of course, how can it be anything else?

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Well, I've been taught since I was a child, right? But what most teachers fail to take into account

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is that the kind of writing Revelation is, that is, its genre, is apocalyptic. That's the kind of

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writing it is, and every genre has its own unique style and form and nomenclature. If I begin a piece

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with, once upon a time in a land far away, and I end it with, and they lived happily ever after,

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you know I'm spinning a fairy tale. That is its genre. If I put a date at the top of a piece of

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paper, along with the name and address of a person, and begin with Dear John, and then conclude with

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Sincerely, Your Friend Bob, you know I'm writing a personal letter. That is its genre. Every genre of

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writing has its own rules and style. In fact, you cannot reasonably hope to understand what's being

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written without knowing and understanding the genre of the writing. As an example, I like to use the

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phrase, you send me to the moon. You send me to the moon. See what it means in the context of each

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genre. How about a letter between an astronaut and a NASA executive? It literally means that the NASA

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executive is sending the astronaut to the moon. Or, a Greek petitioner of prophecy,

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of ancient prophecy, and the oracle at Delphi centuries ago. Indeed, the oracle at Delphi was

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known to bring down the moon. So, indeed, the petitioner who paid for his prophecy could be sent

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to the moon. Or perhaps I say, you send me to the moon to my wife. A love poem from a husband to a wife,

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you send me to the... The very same phrase means something different in each context. If you do not

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understand the genre of a writing, you'll get it wrong. Revelation, where the millennium is revealed,

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is one of a genre called apocalyptic. And if we do not heed the rules of apocalyptic and its style

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and its form, we'll get it wrong. And one of those rules is that apocalyptic uses numbers symbolically,

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not literally. Apocalyptic uses numbers symbolically, not literally. And revelation is of the genre of

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apocalyptic. In fact, the number 1,000 is used almost always symbolically in the whole Bible and not

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literally. For example, in Psalm chapter 50, for every beast of the forest is mine, the psalmist says,

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the cattle on a thousand hills. Is that a literal number? Does that mean the thousand and first hill

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the Lord doesn't have? No, it's symbolic, isn't it? Or from Job chapter 9. Job complains when he is in

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dialogue with God. He says, if one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand

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times. Oh, is that literal or is that symbolic? Maybe on the thousand and first time, you could get the

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best of God in argument. No, no, no, no. That's a symbolic number. Or in 2 Peter 3.8, famously,

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Peter says, but do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand

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years and a thousand years as one day, unquote, right? Symbolic. A good example of this also from

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Revelation is the symbolic use of 10 days in Revelation 2.10, where that verse says, do not

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fear what you're about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison

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that you may be tested and for 10 days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death and I will give

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you the crown of life, unquote. Those 10 days of suffering are symbolic, not literal. They are

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symbolic of a brief time of persecution, howsoever intense it might be. It's not a literal 10 days. In fact,

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it is meant 10 days to deliberately contrast with a much greater time of blessing and goodness

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represented by the thousand year millennium. A thousand is a multiple of 10 and is meant to

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communicate to John's first audience. John's first audience was meant to understand that God's time

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of blessing and peace is much greater than any persecution they might undergo temporarily. It's a

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symbolic number, not literal. In the light of these interpretive realities, we see the 1,000 years of

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Revelation 20 as symbolic of a great, vast stretch of time in which Christ reigns as king over a renewed

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creation. And as we will observe in our class on Thursday night, I invite you to it, that is a time

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when the lion will lie down with the lamb and the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as

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the waters cover the sea, as Isaiah says. Oh, dear listener, it will not happen suddenly. It will not

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happen magically when the skies are opened and Christ descends to the earth to establish his kingdom.

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No, he has already established his kingdom. In the opening chapter of Mark, he says,

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the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel or as he

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tells the Pharisees, but if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God

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has come upon you. The kingdom of God has come upon you. The kingdom of God commenced with the first

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advent of Christ and it has been growing apace since that day. The church has grown from a clutch of 11

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frightened disciples to billions of disciples in every corner of the globe. Revelation 20 gives us

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one reason why. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the

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bottomless pit and the great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil

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and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years and threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over

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him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended.

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After that, he must be released for a little while. Oh, dear listener, Satan has been bound and chained

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and thrown into the bottomless pit for this vast period of time. That's why the church has grown.

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Many of my Christian friends retort, they say, well, how can you say that? There's still so much evil

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and demonic activity and wickedness, they say. Well, you know, that's true, but the text does not tell us

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that all evil influence is or will be eliminated. No, what it does say is that Satan will not be able

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to deceive the nations any longer. That's the sense in which he's been bound. In other words,

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the nations, and that's not just individuals, dear listener, but whole nations, will see the truth

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of the gospel and the messiahship of Jesus Christ, and they will flock to him and be saved. The people

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of God will go from being a small group of ethnic Jews in a remote corner of the world who claim

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exclusive knowledge of God. All the people of God will go from that to billions of souls, as Revelation

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says, from every tribe and language and people and nation. Oh, before Satan was bound, just think of

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it. Before Satan was bound, he had the nations, except for the Jews, deceived and enslaved, and it can

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be made a case that even Israel, most of the time, was idolatrous and deceived and enslaved too. Well,

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the Old Testament church was tiny, but after Christ, the nations had their eyes opened, and over the

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centuries we've seen, the church has grown to being the largest religion in the world, if you will. Even

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our Lord remarked on this phenomenon. He said, when the disciples returned after initial foray into preaching

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the gospel and casting out demons, our Lord said, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven, unquote. I saw

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Satan fall. In other words, Satan had been dethroned from his princely sway over the hearts and minds of

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the people of the world. From here on in, there would be a difference in the reach, power, and extent

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of the kingdom of God. We think, now, I'm just trying to speak for all post-millennialists when I say this,

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and I hope they would agree, we think that the reach and power and extent of God's kingdom will go on

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until, as Isaiah says, the air shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

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If the thousand years of Revelation 20 is an indefinite period of time that may stretch for

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many millennia, and we assert that it is, well, indeed, it may go on for 20,000 years or 200,000 years

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instead of the mere 2,000 years since Christ. If that's the case, then our descendants may well

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look upon our own days as early church history. It's a matter of perspective, dear listener.

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Instead of holding the book of Revelation in one hand and newspaper headlines in the other,

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and exclaiming, certainly this means that the rapture is going to happen tomorrow, well, we say,

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well, maybe the Bible is not saying what we thought it was saying when we so badly misinterpret it, yeah.

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And we take a longer-term view that sees the Bible in the light in which the apostle John's first readers

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would have read it, and that's better. It's also very important in interpreting prophecy in the Bible,

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that is, how would that first audience have read it? And there we find the true meaning. In Revelation,

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for example, John did not just write down a bunch of hard, indecipherable stuff that would sit around for centuries

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and mystify everybody who read it until someone came along and saw locusts with beating wings and fire

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coming from their tails as helicopters with machine guns, or that when Revelation says that every eye will see him,

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that is, Christ did his return. It means we'll watch the second coming on TV. Gee, I wonder if it'll be commercial-free.

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Huh? Oh, this is all patently silly stuff, but it is being propagated by Bible teachers in thousands of churches

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all across America. No, John wrote Revelation for a specific audience that needed to hear what he was

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writing in John's day. Consequently, John would expect them to know the symbols and metaphors that he used

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and the symbolic language that's part and partial of this genre of writing that is apocalyptic.

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For example, in Revelation 13, that details what happens with the beast, that there was a well-developed

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tradition at the time that John's audience was aware of that the debauched Emperor Nero died by a wound

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to the head and neck and was thought to have come back from the dead and would return to conquer Rome

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with an army from the east. And they would cross at the river Euphrates, even as Revelation 16, 12 tells us.

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And this myth was called the Nero Redidivus, Nero revived. And, wonder of wonders, the number of his

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name added up to 666. Right? Oh, this is how John's audience, and thus we, ought to understand this

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chapter. Because the beast, Nero, was persecuting this very church at the time, and we should understand

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all chapters of Revelation as those first century Christians would have understood it. It's not as

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sexy or interesting or as fantasizing, perhaps, about Klaus Schwab or Henry Kissinger or Vladimir

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Putin as the Antichrist, but at least this understanding is truer to the text. And when we begin to understand

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the millennium as John's first century audience would have understood it, that is, the seven churches of

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Asia, then we begin to see that our Lord was encouraging a suffering, persecuted church who

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wondered where God was and if his kingdom would ever dawn. And our Lord's answer to those questions is

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very clear to that persecuted church. He said, you have made them, that is, those from every tribe,

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tongue, people, and nation, a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on earth, as Revelation 5

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tells us. Or from Revelation chapter 11, then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud

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voices in heaven saying, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ,

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and he shall reign forever and ever. That was John's answer to the persecuted church of the first century

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and to us consequently. Now, I realize that this is new stuff for many modern evangelicals. We're

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accustomed to Revelation, Red Heifer, Rapture, Fire Off Future teachings, aren't we? Revelation,

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Red Heifer, Rapture, Fire Off Future teachings when it comes to Christ's return and the setting up of

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his kingdom. But the Bible is clear that the kingdom is already here, and it's growing, it's blossoming,

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it's flourishing like never before, and it has been since it started, and it will continue to grow and

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blossom and flourish until he comes again. The Bible is also quite optimistic about this future. We look

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forward to exploring that with you in our Bible study. Let me invite you to that once again. Our midweek

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Bible study is beginning October 26th, that's a Thursday evening, at 7 p.m. at Leo's Place, and we look

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forward to seeing you there, bring your family, bring friends, and we'll look at these issues and explore

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this understanding of post-millennialism in comparison with the other views, though, too. We won't neglect

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those. Well, the Bible is quite optimistic about this future that we're talking about and over the

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long run we're talking about, and we lose sight of just how far Christ's kingdom has come. If we just

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kind of myopically, excuse me, if we just myopically look at our own day and all of the so-called signs

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that the rapture is imminent, what do you think the year A.D. 999 looked like? In the year A.D. 999 at the

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dawn of the year 1000, all of Europe saw the same signs that we see, and they were just as certain that

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the world was going to end in their day. There were in times hysteria, just like today. For example, all of

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Europe was certain that Christ was going to descend on Mount Sinai, and thousands left their homes and

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made pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where they were dying from starvation and disease and savage bandits.

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The Huns invaded Europe at that time in spurts and waves. Famine swept over the continent, and plagues

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killed thousands. All the signs were there, and they matched Bible prophecy. But as the fateful day struck

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and the calendar turned to the year 1000, there was only the chirping of crickets, the sound of wind,

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and a cloudy, cold morning in the same old world as the day before. But several things that very few

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people noticed were, for example, that the Christian faith had grown to this point, that all of Europe

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now embraced Christianity and looked forward to Christ's return. Or Jesus was known, and he was loved,

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and his impact on the world was growing stronger every day. The people failed to realize that.

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The great Athanasius, who lived in the 4th century, he put it this way, the transformation that Christ was

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bringing, he articulated it when he said, and I quote him extensively because he has good observations,

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and he lived in the 4th century. He says, he it is who won victory from his demon foes and trophies from

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the idolaters, even before his bodily resurrection. Namely, all the heathen, who from every region

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have adjured the tradition of their fathers and the false worship of idols, and are now placing their

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hope in Christ and transferring their allegiance to him. The thing is happening before our very eyes,

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Athanasius would say. The thing is happening before our very eyes here in Egypt. Now, Athanasius

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was from a town in North Africa, thereby Egypt, and thereby another prophecy is fulfilled, he says,

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for at no time have the Egyptians ceased from their false worship, save when the Lord of all,

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riding as on a cloud, came down here in the body, and brought the error of idols to nothing,

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and won over everybody to himself, and through himself to the Father. He it is who was crucified

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with the sun and moon as witnesses, and by his death, salvation has come to all men, and all creation

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has been redeemed. Unquote. From Athanasius, in his work on the incarnation, all, yes, Athanasius saw

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the world beginning to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are certain that the world prophesied by

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all of the Old Testament and New Testament will be brought to bear on this side of Christ's return.

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That is, as Isaiah 11 puts it, Isaiah 11 says about that world that we, post-millennials,

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assert will come before Christ's return. That is, the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard

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shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together,

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and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down

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together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of

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the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy

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in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover

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the sea. The wolf and the lamb shall graze together, the lion shall eat straw like the axe, and dust shall

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be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, says the Lord." Unquote from

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Isaiah 11 and Isaiah 65. What this has the net effect of doing is giving us a long-range vision

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for future and labor towards building a far more righteous and holy community and culture around us

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and the church in order to transform that world. That's what we post-millennialists believe and teach.

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Whether you realize it or not, dear listener, our forebearers have done precisely this, and it's why

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we have things like running water, or you can hear me on a broadcast over the airwaves, and airplanes fly

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over us all over the world, cell phones we have in our pockets, and arguably the best form of government

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to date. That is a republic formed by a written constitution. Oh, dear listener, these kinds of

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things do not come about by throwing up our hands and saying things like, oh, the world's getting worse

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and worse. Look at it. All there is to do is save a few souls and wait for the rapture. Surely it's imminent,

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right? Oh, dear listener, the church has had that kind of mental and spiritual attitude for almost 200 years now,

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and it's why we've got what we've got. That is a sick, wicked, dying world that's on the edge of nuclear

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destruction with a war in the Ukraine. No, dear listener, as goes the church, so goes the nation.

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As goes the church, so goes the world. The church has retreated over the last 200 years with

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dispensationalism and premillennialism. The church has retreated into her cocoon and taken the advice

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of one of my favorite radio pastors. He was one of my favorite radio pastors, though he was wrong in

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this point. That was J. Vernon McGee. You remember he used to say from time to time, we should never soil

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the garments of the gospel by getting involved in politics and culture. Oh, that was a council of

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retreat. That was a council of defeat, and he was just plain wrong on that, but it's because of his

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eschatology that he held it. Our eschatology does indeed inform and help to shape how we behave in the

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present world, and he was just plain wrong on that. No, as our Lord tells us, all authority in heaven and on

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earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the

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name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have

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commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Yes, dear listener, we can go forth

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boldly and aggressively in making disciples of all nations, not just scattered individuals here and

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there, but discipling all nations and baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the

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Holy Spirit. We are commanded to go. We are assured that the gates of hell, as we aggressively assault

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them, the gates of hell will not prevail against us, and we will triumph, and there will be a day of

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victory and completion when all the things prophesied about the kingdom of God will come to full

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fruition this side of Christ's return. Come and join us as we study these things. We will be exploring

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them, as I said a little earlier. We will be exploring these themes and much, much more, and we'll

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begin our study Thursday evening, October 26th at 7 p.m. at Leo's Place. Come and join us. We'll be using

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the book Paradise Restored by David Chilton as a resource, and we will constantly be grounding it

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in the Bible as well. We've always had fun in the past at our midweek Bible study. We buy pizza and we

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drink Coke and we share with one another. We have fun doing it, so we look forward to seeing you and

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perhaps a friend or your family. But just come. Come and join us for our midweek Bible study on Thursday

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evening, October 26th, and all Thursday evenings after that at 7 p.m. at Leo's Place. New Geneva

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meets for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard.

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Come and join us and call us for more information at 208-523-0196. That's area code 208-523-0196.