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'd like to challenge you with the question, are we interpreting biblical prophecy according to biblical principles or fanciful principles? We are studying at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church this year in our midweek Bible study, a comparison of millennial views, that is, views of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we talk about those millennial views, we are asking, when is it that the Lord Jesus Christ will return?

Almost all Christians believe and accept and look forward to the blessed hope of the literal return of our Lord Jesus Christ to earth, to indeed bring great blessing and power and glory and salvation to the entire world, to the entire creation. And we so look forward to that. And he promised that he would. He promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church as they indeed did storm the gates of evil, calling souls to the Lord Jesus Christ and beginning to build indeed the very kingdom which he began while he was here. And that is going on apace.

And we at New Geneva want to facilitate as best we can. But there are several views that differ on precisely when the Lord Jesus Christ will return. And there are four major views that I would like to review for you and then show you which one we think is the most biblical. And first of all, there is what is called the classic premillennial view, the premillennial return of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's called the historical premillennial view of Christ's return.

And that view indeed holds that Christ will return before he inaugurates a literal 1,000-year rule here upon the earth. That's why it's called premillennial, because he'll come before the actual literal 1,000 years of his reign here upon the earth when he brings great power and blessing and glory and salvation to the entire world. And then number two is the dispensational premillennial view. And this differs actually substantially from the historical premillennial view. And it's relatively new in the history of theology, too, centuries being a relatively brief time when we look at historical theology.

And the dispensational view was indeed hammered out in England in the early 19th century by men like John Nelson Darby or C.I. Schofield here in America. But in any case, the dispensational premillennial view has in common with the historical premillennial view that Christ will return before a literal 1,000-year reign here upon the earth. But they also include, in the dispensational premillennial view, they have incorporated the relatively new idea of a rapture, for example, or a literal seven-year great tribulation with one main Antichrist having made his appearance with a great battle of Armageddon at the end.

And they have also incorporated a relatively new idea of the establishment of a literal temple built by Israel in which the Jews will worship before they come miraculously to Christ and at which the Antichrist will stand and establish himself during the great seven-year tribulation after the rapture. All of these things I've just mentioned differ substantially from the historical premillennial view. And they differ as negatively, I would assert with you, and we'll keep establishing that as we go along.

But then there's the amillennial view, which states that we are not going through a literal 1,000-year reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, but that we are presently in the millennium right now. And the idea is that the 1,000-year reign of Christ, which is mentioned only, by the way, in Revelation chapter 20, that that millennial view is a symbolic number, symbolic of an indefinite great period of time, which could be thousands and thousands of years.

And that is the amillennial view, which also states then that Christ is reigning presently with his saints, with his church, and he is calling people then to himself and building his church until he returns again. And the post-millennial view, then finally, number four, the post-millennial view.

And that view agrees with the amillennialist in saying that the 1,000-year reign mentioned in Revelation chapter 20 is a symbolic number, and that the 1,000 years mentioned there is an indefinite extended period of time, and the post-millennialist would say, in which Christ will use his church, he will use you and me, he will use us to build a glorious time, a glorious period in which there will be peace and blessing and great power and glory and salvation brought to the earth before Christ returns, literally. So that is the post-millennial view. That is, Christ will return after the millennium. So these are the four basic views.

And what we would like to do is illuminate for you that last one, the post-millennial view, because almost all churches in America today, most likely your church, I'm not going to say that that is the case for sure, because I don't want to presume to say what your church is teaching, but we find in most evangelical churches today that the dispensational pre-millennial view has taken the field.

Almost all evangelical churches in America today teach the dispensational pre-millennial view, complete with the features of a rapture of the church, and of an antichrist appearing, and a literal seven-year great tribulation, and the building of a Jewish temple in Jerusalem, and then with a great battle of Armageddon in the last days, with perhaps other things like the mark of the beast, and so many people speculate on those things. And I have just found over the years that the speculation on these things have really discredited the entire view.

I've been hearing, ever since Hal Lindsey in the 1970s, speculation on things like, who is the antichrist? They've been identified so many times, and come and gone. Or the mark of the beast. There's been the mark of the beast that has been speculated upon from time immemorial, right? Whether it is indeed a mark in the hand and the forehead, whether it be a chip under the skin, right?

Or perhaps a barcode, a set of barcodes on the forehead and the hands. And so many of these things, once again, have come and gone. Or whatever the modern events might be. So these things have been for me, at least, and this is just my own personal perspective on this. I have seen so many amateur prophecy experts who are obsessed with all of these kinds of details.

And what I have seen is a kind of amateur prophecy, a kind of a tarot card reading by a prophetic astrologer, where random Bible texts are laid out like tarot cards predicting the future. And you pull out a tarot card, if you will, about the rapture. Oh, and you put that card on the table and say, this is coming in the future. Why the rapture is almost here? Because other things are transpiring, right?

So you pull out another tarot card of the great tribulation. And you say, oh, the literal seven-year tribulation is about to be here because so many of the elements are there. We see it. It's bound to happen. And then you pull out another tarot card text, if you will, on the Antichrist.

And oh, he is about to be identified. Hillary Clinton's name adds up when you lay it out numerically to 666 or whatever else it might be. I have just seen so many prophetic speculators, prophetic astrologers, if you will, who use Bible texts as a kind of tarot card reading in which the future is predicted. And it has become a hobby that almost every evangelical has become an expert at. But which, in the end, when you lay out their tarot cards and the future that they have outlined comes to naught.

So that has been very exasperating to me. And as I ask myself, what is, then, how do we actually interpret biblical prophecy? One of the questions that we have to ask ourselves is, does our interpretation of Scripture arise organically from the text? Or have we superimposed a preconceived system on the text, as our prophetic astrologers do with their kind of tarot card system, as happens in dispensational premillennialism? There is, for example, a false dichotomy, a false division between literal and symbolic interpretations of so much prophetic literature.

I know that the dispensational premillennialist prides himself on interpreting Scripture literally. But when you actually look at the text of Revelation, for example, you see that there is so much symbol and so much that is not quite literal, like, for example, just a few examples we can take from the book of Revelation, for example. The soiled garments of the Christians in Sardis. They're not literal soiled garments. They are indeed pictures of sinful behavior.

Or the promise that Christians will become pillars in the temple. Not literal pillars, of course, of course. We would say that's silly to say, but rather that they will be staunch stalwart members of the Christian church that Christ is building. Or we think of Christ's offer to sell gold or white garments. And I said, these are all spiritual realities.

We indeed do spiritualize the text. Revelation is meant to be spiritualized. So there is a false dichotomy oftentimes between literal and symbolic. We also must ask, then we must ask a question, as one of my favorite commentators has always done on prophetic literature. What is our interpretation?

Shall our interpretation be biblical or shall it be speculative, like our prophetic astrologers do with their tarot card texts? Should our interpretation be biblical or should it be speculative? Dear listener, we must always assert as well, this important point, biblical symbolism is not a code. The tarot cards are always meant to be a prophetic code of the future, meant to tantalize and to titillate, and of course, to make money on behalf of the astrologer. I'm not saying that every person obsessed with biblical prophecy is trying to make money from it.

But there is a kind of gee whiz, golly, and thrill to this, right? No, biblical prophecy is not a code. It is a set of patterns and associations that we come to in the text. Symbols are meant to call forth associations with the meanings of symbols, dear listener. We have, then, an introduction to apocalyptic that we're going to be doing at New Geneva, and we've already begun, and I would like to invite you to it.

We probe some of these ideas, dear listener, and we do so with a great deal of fun, though, too. Boy, it's been fun already. We are meeting and we're studying the book Paradise Restored, and that is the title, Paradise Restored. It's a study of post-millennialism, that is, how indeed will Christ bring to full fruition in this side of his return? How will he bring about a glorious kingdom that has restored paradise, as the author of this book, David Chilton, asserts?

That's David Chilton, C-H-I-L-T-O-N, and his book is Paradise Restored, and the subtitle is A Biblical Theology of Dominion. That is, that the Lord Jesus Christ is taking dominion of all of creation right now, and he's doing it through the church, and we can see the progress of it for the past 2,000 years, dear listener. Even as the church has grown and flourished to over 1.4 billion adherents, is what Mr. Barrett, who is a chronicler of church figures, he estimates that there are indeed 1.4 billion Christian adherents, that is, followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, associated with the church in one way, shape, or form.

Doesn't mean they're all born-again Christians, but it does mean at least they profess to be followers of Jesus Christ. So we see the flourishing of the church bringing so many blessings and benefits over the past 2,000 years, and that's going to continue. That's going to keep going and growing until there is indeed a flourishing, a paradise that is restored, even as Christ works through us. Well, that is just a thumbnail sketch, but it is based upon the proper interpretation of prophecy, dear listener. That's the important thing to note.

It is based upon a biblical interpretation of prophecy, not a speculative tarot card type reading of prophecy. No, we must, first of all, when we interpret a prophetic text, we must keep in mind its genre, that is, its kind of writing. Now, every genre has its own rules and style for composition. The definition of apocalypse, for example, and revelation is of the genre, that is, the type or kind of writing called apocalypse. So is the book of Daniel, almost half of the book of Daniel, from chapters 7 through 12, is considered to be apocalyptic.

Much of Ezekiel is apocalyptic. We can say the same thing for Zechariah. Our Lord's Olivet Discourse in Matthew chapter 24 is also considered to be apocalyptic and an apocalypse. That is, the book of Revelation or Ezekiel or Daniel, like we just mentioned. Apocalypse is defined as, and here's my definition of apocalypse, a record of divine disclosures made known through the agency of angels, dreams, and visions, employing vivid and sometimes bizarre images for historical realities meant to comfort and encourage saints in or under distress and oppression.

That's a very important distinction, several important distinctions to make, dear listener, because these bizarre and vivid images and symbols that we see in Revelation are not prophetic tarot cards that your average amateur believer can just lay out and say, here's what's going to happen next. No. These visions and symbols are images for historical realities that are designed to comfort and encourage that first audience, the saints who were under distress and oppression, not meant to titillate some prophetic astrologer with his prophetic tarot cards 2,000 years later. No, no, no, no, no, no.

Very important to understanding and interpreting biblical prophecy properly. And there are some standard features of the genre of apocalyptic that I'd like to go over here with you. And first of all, then, 10 different rules, features, if you will, for interpreting the genre of apocalyptic. First of all, apocalyptic, by its very nature, reveals spiritual realities through the text. The text was not meant to be interpreted literally.

No. The genre of apocalyptic, by its very nature, spiritualizes the text. We just did that, didn't we? I just pointed that out for you. In Revelation chapter 3, we have to the Church of Laodicea, he offers to sell them gold or white garments or eye salve, and these are all spiritual realities, symbols that point to spiritual realities, spiritual insight by eye salve, righteousness by white garments, or gold as to precious truths of the gospel.

These are all meant to be spiritual things that the text communicates to us. Revelation 19 verse 8 is another one. It was granted to her, Revelation 19 verse 8 says, and that is the church. The her, there is the church. It was granted to her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

You see how the very nature of that symbol of white linen, bright and pure, is interpreted by Revelation by John himself as the righteous deeds of the saints. This is true throughout apocalyptic. Do not let your teachers say that Revelation should be interpreted literally. No. Apocalyptic, by its very nature, reveals spiritual realities.

The text was not meant to be interpreted literally. Apocalyptic spiritualizes the text by its very nature. Well then, number two, rule number two, apocalyptic mostly uses numbers symbolically, not literally. Your literalist teachers get this very, very wrong. Because apocalyptic, by its very nature, uses numbers symbolically, as Psalm 50 verse 10 says, right?

When we talk about the year 1000, for example, the 1000 year nature of the millennium. Millennium comes from the Latin word for mile, meaning 1000. So when we talk about the church's view of the millennium, we're looking at that 1000 year period that only chapter 20 of Revelation articulates for us. So it's very important to get that 1000 year number that 1000 year period very clearly defined. And we must always consider that apocalyptic by its very nature uses numbers symbolically.

The number 1000, for example, is almost always used in a symbolic fashion. Psalm 50 verse 10 says, for every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a 1000 hills. Oh, no, is that a literal number? The 1000 and first hill, however, the cattle do not belong to God? No, it's symbolic.

Or from Job chapter 9, where Job, in his complaint before God, when he lays out his complaint before God says, if one wished to contend with him, that is with God, one could not answer him once in a thousand times. Now that is a symbolic number two, is it not? Is it maybe that the thousand and first argument? We could get over on God? No, of course not.

Or famously from 2 Peter 3 and 8. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, Peter tells us, that with the Lord, one day is as 1000 years and 1000 years as one day. Once again, the number 1000 being symbolic. And the number 1000 is indeed symbolic in Revelation chapter 20, verses 1 through 6. And I'll just read you a couple of verses from that.

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. Once again, that is a symbolic, spiritualized number, if you will. And it compares, for example, with the number 10, which is used also in Revelation, a much smaller number, right? 10, indeed.

1000 is a multiple of 10, a much greater multiple of 10, isn't it? And it's meant to compare. For instance, in Revelation 2.10, where indeed our Lord, he assures the saints there, do not fear what you're about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested. And for 10 days, you will have tribulation.

For 10 days, you will have tribulation. That is obviously a symbolic number. The number 10, a short, brief period of time compared to the vast number 1000. And that is indeed meant to be so. Our Lord is comparing and saying that your period of tribulation will be much briefer than the period of great blessing and glory and power and salvation that will transpire during the 1000-year period.

So you see, numbers are symbolic in prophetic literature, in apocalyptic literature. Well, rule number three, apocalyptic uses vivid, imaginative, sometimes bizarre metaphors to portray contemporary, that is near or soon to be fulfilled, historical realities, not far-off future events. This is a very important principle, dear listener, and you must get this one thoroughly understood before you go on. Because letters, prophecies, almost all apocalyptic literature was written for the generation to whom it was addressed, the generation in which it was written. And that's true of the book of Revelation.

That was true of the book of Daniel. That was true of the book of Ezekiel, too. In all of those apocalyptic sections, they were meant for the first audience, and they were meant to comfort and encourage the saints who were in or under distress and oppression. And that was true in the book of Revelation. So that must be constantly maintained.

How does the book of Revelation begin, for example? The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants, that is, the saints that lived in John's time, to show his servants the things that must soon take place. Not in some far-off future period in the year 2001, huh? Right? He made it known by sending his angels to his servant, John, who bore witness to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. The time is near. John wrote that to the people of his first audience that lived during his time, right? Soon take place. The time is near.

Not 2,000 years later, dear listener. So, we will continue then to pursue this introduction to apocalyptic. We have seven more rules to properly interpret prophecy, and I hope to go over those with you then again next week. But I would also like to invite you, once again, to our Bible study on this, to our midweek Bible study, which occurs on Thursday night at 7 p.m., and we are doing this at Leo's Place, just a really fun place to gather. We have a room all to ourselves.

We eat pizza and talk, and we have fun. Our families are there. Individuals are there. We invite you to join us, and it's just an open period of time in which we'll do some study, but also leave time for questions and for comments. And if you disagree with us, hey, come and present your case.

We'll be glad to entertain it and to listen to it. But indeed, we will be presenting a view that's not often heard, and that is the post-millennial view of Christ's return. And we hope to at least interest you in it and present it and put it out there for your consideration, dear listener. New Geneva as a church, and that's our midweek Bible study, but New Geneva as a church meets on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. We encourage you to join us for worship, to visit us, and we'd be glad to have you.

That's 10 a.m., our worship service, on Sunday at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us for more information or comment, 208-523-0196. 208-523-0196.