1 00:00:04,690 --> 00:00:10,449 Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a 2 00:00:10,449 --> 00:00:15,310 moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. 3 00:00:15,449 --> 00:00:22,109 And today, what are some of the differences that we can observe between the perspective 4 00:00:22,109 --> 00:00:32,350 on end times of post-millennialism and the current popular view in most churches, which 5 00:00:32,350 --> 00:00:38,189 has the technical name dispensational premillennialism, but that's a mouthful, 6 00:00:38,270 --> 00:00:44,850 isn't it? If these terms are a bit foreign to you, post-millennialism or dispensational 7 00:00:44,850 --> 00:00:52,289 premillennialism, or maybe you are thoroughly familiar with them, either way, bear with me 8 00:00:52,289 --> 00:00:59,390 as I explain them. And I also invite you to join us where we explain in even greater detail, 9 00:00:59,390 --> 00:01:06,370 we've been having a lot of fun doing it too, our midweek book study on Thursday evening where 10 00:01:06,370 --> 00:01:12,510 we're discussing some of these contrasts, especially we want to bring forward to you 11 00:01:12,510 --> 00:01:21,870 a position that has not been very well represented in the past few decades when it comes to eschatology, 12 00:01:21,870 --> 00:01:29,469 when it comes to last things, and that is post-millennialism. When it comes to end times 13 00:01:29,469 --> 00:01:37,269 prophecy, I find that so many Christians are unaware of any other understanding of what the 14 00:01:37,269 --> 00:01:43,409 Bible teaches than what they've been taught in their contemporary churches, and it really does 15 00:01:43,409 --> 00:01:49,849 make a difference in how we live. For example, making a difference in how you live, just for an example, 16 00:01:49,849 --> 00:01:55,049 does it make a difference when you plan for time and expenses if the house you're going to build 17 00:01:55,049 --> 00:02:02,489 will be there for a hundred years or only ten? Or does it make a difference in how you will prepare 18 00:02:02,489 --> 00:02:10,050 physically and spiritually if you will have to fight an enemy in a long, protected war, or if there will 19 00:02:10,050 --> 00:02:18,490 be an escape hatch through which you can exit? Huh? By analogy, I submit to you, we can say that the 20 00:02:18,490 --> 00:02:25,610 Christian, by his view of end times, will live differently than someone else who holds a different 21 00:02:25,610 --> 00:02:34,949 view than his. And make no mistake about it, dear listener, God will hold all of us accountable for how 22 00:02:34,949 --> 00:02:42,289 we have lived and used our time and resources on behalf of his kingdom. In fact, our Lord tells us 23 00:02:42,289 --> 00:02:51,150 via parable that even his second coming will involve our stewardship of what we've been given. In 24 00:02:51,150 --> 00:02:58,650 speaking of his own return, our Lord says in Matthew 25, for it will be like a man going on a journey 25 00:02:58,650 --> 00:03:04,590 who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another 26 00:03:04,590 --> 00:03:11,830 two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. And of course, the parable 27 00:03:11,830 --> 00:03:17,810 goes on. After settling accounts with the servants, we see finally our Lord says, for to everyone who has 28 00:03:17,810 --> 00:03:24,490 will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will 29 00:03:24,490 --> 00:03:30,710 be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into utter darkness. In that place there will be weeping 30 00:03:30,710 --> 00:03:39,310 and gnashing of teeth. Pretty serious business. It makes a difference in how we live and how the church 31 00:03:39,310 --> 00:03:45,129 ministers in the world. If we think we'll only be here a few more years at best until the rapture, 32 00:03:45,550 --> 00:03:53,289 or if we think that the church may well be here not only for the 2,000 years it already has been, but 33 00:03:53,289 --> 00:04:01,629 for maybe another 2,000 or 20,000 years. Well, that, in a nutshell, is the difference between how the 34 00:04:01,629 --> 00:04:07,270 church has always viewed Christ's return and how the modern church has viewed Christ's return. The 35 00:04:07,270 --> 00:04:14,550 difference between post-millennialism and the popular view today, dispensational pre-millennialism. 36 00:04:15,669 --> 00:04:20,829 If you think that things are getting so bad that Antichrist is about to be revealed, 37 00:04:20,829 --> 00:04:28,029 and the Great Tribulation is about to start, why work to bring about lasting change in society, huh? 38 00:04:28,430 --> 00:04:34,370 In fact, Hal Lindsey used to say that those trying to build a Christian society were only hindering 39 00:04:34,370 --> 00:04:40,970 Christ's return, which could only come about, his return could only come about when things got so bad 40 00:04:40,970 --> 00:04:45,810 that Christ had to step in at the last minute at the Battle of Armageddon and save the world, right? 41 00:04:45,810 --> 00:04:52,910 That is, in fact, the majority view in most evangelical churches today, including those 42 00:04:52,910 --> 00:04:59,649 in Southeast Idaho and, I dare say, in your church, perhaps. But we have to ask ourselves, 43 00:04:59,949 --> 00:05:08,209 if we're going to be honest, is this eschatology of defeat what the Bible really teaches? To answer 44 00:05:08,209 --> 00:05:14,990 that question, let me lay out several contrasts and comparisons between what is taught in your church 45 00:05:14,990 --> 00:05:21,110 today, most likely. I won't presume to say that's exactly what your church is teaching. But most 46 00:05:21,110 --> 00:05:27,250 churches are indeed teaching, and what the church has taught really for centuries and centuries, and 47 00:05:27,250 --> 00:05:32,089 will at some point return to teaching again, perhaps for centuries more. And this will happen when we 48 00:05:32,089 --> 00:05:42,009 finally wake up from the ungodly obsession with our end times that I call the pagan impulse for prophecy, 49 00:05:42,009 --> 00:05:53,269 prophecy. If indeed you are playing a kind of eschatology, astrology, where you have your full deck 50 00:05:53,269 --> 00:06:02,569 of Bible text tarot cards, and you lay them out in a scenario for end times prophecy, you've got your 51 00:06:02,569 --> 00:06:08,970 rapture card, you've got your great tribulation cards, you've got your antichrist card, you maybe even 52 00:06:08,970 --> 00:06:16,910 have a red heifer tarot card card, right? And you do a kind of prophetic reading for you and your 53 00:06:16,910 --> 00:06:24,009 friends. This is the kind of end times prophecy I'm afraid so many of us have got caught up in, 54 00:06:24,470 --> 00:06:31,410 and it is a pagan impulse. Not many people realize this, and maybe a little offended by me saying it, 55 00:06:31,410 --> 00:06:40,709 but it is a pagan impulse for prophecy that grips so many Christians today. And we must counter it 56 00:06:40,709 --> 00:06:47,649 with what has been taught in the church for centuries, and is taught, in fact, in the Bible. 57 00:06:48,410 --> 00:06:54,509 Well, what are some of those contrasts and comparisons? First of all, three of them I'd like 58 00:06:54,509 --> 00:07:04,209 to go over with you. Number one, there is the view of the genre of apocalyptic, the view of the genre or 59 00:07:04,209 --> 00:07:11,550 the kind of writing that apocalyptic is, that Revelation is, that Matthew 24 is, for example, 60 00:07:11,750 --> 00:07:19,930 or great swaths of the book of Daniel are apocalyptic too. This important principle, the genre 61 00:07:19,930 --> 00:07:25,009 of apocalyptic we have looked at quite carefully over the last few weeks, and so I refer you to 62 00:07:25,009 --> 00:07:31,069 those broadcasts. But for now, suffice it to say that every kind of writing has its own rules for 63 00:07:31,069 --> 00:07:37,949 being understood and interpreted. And this includes apocalyptic, which has rules like apocalyptic by its 64 00:07:37,949 --> 00:07:45,970 very nature spiritualizes the text. Apocalyptic is not meant to be read literally, contrary to many 65 00:07:45,970 --> 00:07:54,230 of your teachers. Also, numbers are always symbolic and apocalyptic. And, of course, John, the author of 66 00:07:54,230 --> 00:07:59,910 Revelation, for example, wrote his letter to be understood by the members of the seven churches of 67 00:07:59,910 --> 00:08:08,670 Asia who lived contemporary lives with his, not some prophecy fanatic in the far-flung 21st century 68 00:08:08,670 --> 00:08:16,170 who's obsessing over the rapture of red heifers and red dragons. Oh, so we have to consider the genre. 69 00:08:16,769 --> 00:08:24,610 Number two, we'll move on. Number one, I urge you to consult our previous two radio broadcasts where 70 00:08:24,610 --> 00:08:33,190 we look in a very detailed way at the genre of apocalyptic. Well, number two, comparison and 71 00:08:33,190 --> 00:08:39,850 contrast, I'd like you to consider between post-millennialism and the popular view in most 72 00:08:39,850 --> 00:08:48,809 churches today, number two, whether the people of God have one destiny and set of promises or two 73 00:08:48,809 --> 00:08:54,750 different destinies and sets of promises. Do the people of God have one destiny and set of promises 74 00:08:54,750 --> 00:09:02,389 or two different destinies and set of promises. A little-known feature, a little-taught today, 75 00:09:02,929 --> 00:09:08,769 a little-known feature of modern end-times teaching is that, unlike what the church has always taught, 76 00:09:09,529 --> 00:09:16,370 they teach that Israel has one set of promises and a destiny, while the church has another set of 77 00:09:16,370 --> 00:09:24,149 promises and a destiny. Your church most likely teaches that the promises to Israel have yet to be 78 00:09:24,149 --> 00:09:30,549 fulfilled, and only after the church has been raptured will the prophetic clock begin to tick again 79 00:09:30,549 --> 00:09:37,389 for Israel. God will begin, under this understanding, God will then begin to deal with Israel again 80 00:09:37,389 --> 00:09:44,009 after so many years of God having His church on the earth. But with the church gone, raptured up to 81 00:09:44,009 --> 00:09:50,549 heaven, God can again start giving Israel the land and victory over her enemies on the tribulation 82 00:09:50,549 --> 00:09:56,250 temple and a place where the Son of David, that is our Lord, can reign again for a thousand years. 83 00:09:56,909 --> 00:10:02,950 After Christ returns to the earth at the Battle of Armageddon, He will set up His literal 1,000-year 84 00:10:02,950 --> 00:10:07,990 kingdom and reign from Jerusalem with this understanding. You've probably heard all this before. 85 00:10:08,529 --> 00:10:14,370 And the church has nothing to do with this arrangement, being in heaven in their eternal state, 86 00:10:14,370 --> 00:10:21,710 and her destiny is heaven, right? Israel's is earth. The church's promises are spiritual, 87 00:10:21,710 --> 00:10:29,450 while Israel's are physical. Ne'er the twain shall meet until the eternal state. Did you know that this 88 00:10:29,450 --> 00:10:35,669 is what your church teaches? Probe a little bit. Ask some questions. In your end times teaching, 89 00:10:36,149 --> 00:10:43,350 there is a radical separation between Israel and the church, a distinction never before seen in the 90 00:10:43,350 --> 00:10:50,850 history of the church and her doctrine until recently. Rather, the church has always taught since 91 00:10:50,850 --> 00:10:57,929 the days of the apostles that both Jew and Gentile are now one with the same promises and the same 92 00:10:57,929 --> 00:11:05,950 destiny that were from of old. The apostle Paul puts it this way in Ephesians chapter 2, 93 00:11:06,570 --> 00:11:12,450 therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by that which is 94 00:11:12,450 --> 00:11:18,090 called circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands. Remember that you are at that time 95 00:11:18,090 --> 00:11:24,450 separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of 96 00:11:24,450 --> 00:11:33,610 promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far 97 00:11:33,610 --> 00:11:41,590 off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both 98 00:11:41,590 --> 00:11:49,309 one. Did you hear that, dear listener? Not two people of God, but one people of God now in Christ, 99 00:11:49,509 --> 00:11:58,830 Jew and Gentile. There is, was, and always will be only one people of God, not two. But I submit to 100 00:11:58,830 --> 00:12:05,549 you, dear listener, if you indeed are going to a modern contemporary church, that by your eschatology, 101 00:12:05,549 --> 00:12:14,389 those of you who embrace the revelation, red heifer, rapture, rigmarole, you wrongly divide the people 102 00:12:14,389 --> 00:12:24,029 of God into two bodies of Christ, Israel and the church. Number three, finally we must compare and 103 00:12:24,029 --> 00:12:32,529 contrast. Number three, is redemptive history moving towards victory and dominion or defeat and utter loss? 104 00:12:32,529 --> 00:12:39,169 This is a comparison. This is a comparison and contrast between post-millennialism and 105 00:12:39,169 --> 00:12:48,450 the common teachings, the popular teachings of end times in the church today. Is redemptive history 106 00:12:48,450 --> 00:12:56,889 moving towards victory and dominion or defeat and utter loss? The popular end times teaching tells us 107 00:12:56,889 --> 00:13:03,889 that things are getting worse and worse and actually can do nothing but get worse and worse if Christ is 108 00:13:03,889 --> 00:13:10,350 to return according to their interpretation of the Bible. Well, under this understanding, in order for 109 00:13:10,350 --> 00:13:17,169 the Antichrist to be revealed, things must get so bad that the world cries out for a savior and the 110 00:13:17,169 --> 00:13:22,730 Antichrist is then revealed and kicks off the great tribulation, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, 111 00:13:22,730 --> 00:13:30,870 right? You know the drill. And as I indicated a moment ago, most end times teachers teach that it 112 00:13:30,870 --> 00:13:37,889 is futile or even counterproductive to Christ's return to work to build Christ's kingdom here on 113 00:13:37,889 --> 00:13:45,970 the earth. All of that only postpones the inevitable, they say. In order for Antichrist to be revealed, 114 00:13:46,169 --> 00:13:52,490 the world must descend into chaos and suffering. As one observer put it, the emphasis seems to be more 115 00:13:52,490 --> 00:14:00,149 watch the skies, Antichrist is coming rather than watch the skies, Jesus is coming. Seems to be the 116 00:14:00,149 --> 00:14:08,190 emphasis, the obsession with Antichrist, doesn't it? Well, of course, post-millennialism has always 117 00:14:08,190 --> 00:14:16,429 taught, along with our Lord's teaching, that Christ's kingdom will grow and flourish and take complete 118 00:14:16,429 --> 00:14:26,470 dominion of his creation before his return. We call it post-millennialism because we see in the scriptures 119 00:14:26,470 --> 00:14:35,289 that Christ comes after this golden age of the millennium. For example, the parable of the mustard seed 120 00:14:35,289 --> 00:14:42,389 tells us, as our Lord says, the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed 121 00:14:42,389 --> 00:14:49,669 in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it is grown, it is larger than all the garden 122 00:14:49,669 --> 00:14:57,490 plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches." Unquote. 123 00:14:58,330 --> 00:15:06,830 The simple, sweet parable of the mustard seed. Can you not see how this is already taking place, 124 00:15:06,830 --> 00:15:13,950 dear listener? Right? This is what we mean by taking dominion. The church, the kingdom of heaven grows 125 00:15:13,950 --> 00:15:22,370 and flourishes more and more and more. The church has already grown from a few crestfallen disciples 126 00:15:22,370 --> 00:15:31,809 in the upper room to 1.4 billion adherents in our world, right? We don't claim to say that all of them 127 00:15:31,809 --> 00:15:38,549 are born-again Christians, but they at least espouse the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, right? 128 00:15:39,269 --> 00:15:47,850 1.4 billion adherents in the world now who have arguably as well transformed that world and will 129 00:15:47,850 --> 00:15:56,490 continue to transform our world until, as Isaiah puts it, the wolf shall lie down with a lamb and the 130 00:15:56,490 --> 00:16:02,309 leopards shall lie down with a young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together, 131 00:16:02,549 --> 00:16:10,090 and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze. The young shall lie down together, 132 00:16:10,090 --> 00:16:17,190 and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, 133 00:16:17,830 --> 00:16:24,330 and the weaned child shall put his hand on the otter's den. They shall not hurt or destroy 134 00:16:24,330 --> 00:16:30,789 in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters 135 00:16:30,789 --> 00:16:38,750 cover the sea, unquote, from Isaiah chapter 11, verses 6 through 9. This indeed is just a brief sketch 136 00:16:38,750 --> 00:16:47,370 by the prophet Isaiah of what the world will look like in the millennium, and as well, there will be 137 00:16:47,370 --> 00:16:53,570 prosperity for God's people such that, as the prophets put it, and I love this image, 138 00:16:53,570 --> 00:17:03,230 that every man will dwell under his fig tree and his grapevine, right? That's a sign, a symbol 139 00:17:03,230 --> 00:17:09,549 of personal prosperity that will obtain as well in the millennium, and we say this kind of prosperity 140 00:17:09,549 --> 00:17:19,269 and blessing and peace and order will obtain before our Lord's return. The difference of outlook 141 00:17:19,269 --> 00:17:26,170 in all of this is no small matter, dear listener, most of those that I know who are looking for red 142 00:17:26,170 --> 00:17:32,230 heifers, red dragons, and a rapture, they cannot be bothered with transforming our culture and 143 00:17:32,230 --> 00:17:43,430 government. For example, just one example, that labor to transform our creation, our culture and 144 00:17:43,430 --> 00:17:48,990 government must be abandoned to the world. It will come under the judgment of the great 145 00:17:48,990 --> 00:17:54,809 tribulation very soon anyway, right? And all we can do is save as many souls as possible and wait 146 00:17:54,809 --> 00:18:01,509 expectantly for the rapture. As J. Vernon McGee used to put it, I love J. Vernon McGee, what a great 147 00:18:01,509 --> 00:18:07,369 gospel preacher, but he was wrong on this. He used to say all the time, we must not soil the garments of 148 00:18:07,369 --> 00:18:16,809 the gospel with politics and culture. He was a dispensational premillennialist. He was one of the 149 00:18:16,809 --> 00:18:25,029 big exponents of the theology of end times that we hear today in most churches. We must not soil the 150 00:18:25,029 --> 00:18:33,250 garments of the gospel with politics and culture. No, just the opposite, dear listener. We must purify 151 00:18:33,250 --> 00:18:41,690 government, politics, and culture with the gospel, not let the gospel get soiled. But to say 152 00:18:41,690 --> 00:18:49,170 these things is to go against the very grain of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation that we 153 00:18:49,170 --> 00:18:54,769 shouldn't soil the garments of the gospel with politics and culture. It goes against the grain of 154 00:18:54,769 --> 00:19:02,109 the Bible. Our prime directive in the garden still stands, dear listener, and that goes, and God blessed 155 00:19:02,109 --> 00:19:08,730 them. That is Adam and Eve. And God said to them in Genesis 1, 28, God said to them, be fruitful and 156 00:19:08,730 --> 00:19:16,430 multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds 157 00:19:16,430 --> 00:19:23,869 of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth, unquote. And David reinforces this 158 00:19:23,869 --> 00:19:30,470 dominion that we are to take, the dominion mandate. He reinforces it in Psalm 8 when he says, 159 00:19:30,470 --> 00:19:36,930 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in 160 00:19:36,930 --> 00:19:44,269 place, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have 161 00:19:44,269 --> 00:19:51,569 made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given 162 00:19:51,569 --> 00:19:58,930 him dominion over the works of your hands and you have put all things under his feet, unquote. 163 00:20:00,029 --> 00:20:07,670 Oh, on top of this, our Lord has gifted us to take dominion, dear listener, each one of us according 164 00:20:07,670 --> 00:20:14,970 to our God-given capacity. That's the point of Jesus' parable of the talents. We have all been given a 165 00:20:14,970 --> 00:20:23,509 measure of giftedness, you, me, all of us. One five, one two, one a single talent, as our Lord sketches. 166 00:20:24,089 --> 00:20:32,309 But we are expected to make good on it and prosper beyond what we've been given. Recall what our Lord 167 00:20:32,309 --> 00:20:39,390 said to the wicked and slothful servant. He says, You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather 168 00:20:39,390 --> 00:20:46,430 where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. And at my coming, 169 00:20:46,650 --> 00:20:55,410 I should have received what was my own with interest. Yes, that's a parable, a metaphor for 170 00:20:55,410 --> 00:21:02,869 how we are expected to take dominion, dear listener, and make things prosper beyond what we've been given. 171 00:21:02,869 --> 00:21:11,769 Listen, we are obliged to be post-millennialists, I submit to you. We are obliged to be post-millennialists. 172 00:21:12,450 --> 00:21:19,470 In fact, Jesus reassures us that our labors will be successful, too, and that we will overcome all 173 00:21:19,470 --> 00:21:27,410 obstacles in his strength in the long run. He says to Peter, after all, You are Peter, and on this rock 174 00:21:27,410 --> 00:21:33,910 I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, unquote. We are to be 175 00:21:33,910 --> 00:21:42,029 aggressive. We are to be offensive in the sense of offense versus defense. We are to be offensive and 176 00:21:42,029 --> 00:21:50,970 take ground, take dominion over our Lord's creation, and we are reassured as we assault the gates of hell 177 00:21:50,970 --> 00:22:00,170 that they shall not prevail against us. That is why we preach the gospel and we save souls. Not only is 178 00:22:00,170 --> 00:22:08,710 life imparted, which extends into eternity, right, at the new birth, but rather this new spiritual life 179 00:22:08,710 --> 00:22:17,930 transforms the world around us, here and now, too. People give their lives to not only worship 180 00:22:17,930 --> 00:22:26,130 and evangelize, but also we give our lives building schools or hospitals, for example. That's a Christian 181 00:22:26,130 --> 00:22:32,150 idea from history. We looked at that in our church history class last year, that the whole idea, the 182 00:22:32,150 --> 00:22:41,369 whole concept of schools for children or hospitals for the sick, that's all a Christian idea developed in 183 00:22:41,369 --> 00:22:48,190 the early centuries and the middle ages. People give our lives now, spiritually as well as physically, 184 00:22:48,190 --> 00:22:54,630 to not only worship and evangelize, but to build schools or hospitals, or maybe discovering better 185 00:22:54,630 --> 00:23:02,950 ways to farm or investigate nature. Did you know that Christians shaped Western science? Yes, the objective, 186 00:23:02,950 --> 00:23:11,670 effective idea of science in the West, developed in the West, was developed by Christians, or even 187 00:23:11,670 --> 00:23:20,069 studying biblical ways to govern ourselves. That's also a Christian idea. Biblical ways to govern 188 00:23:20,069 --> 00:23:29,490 ourselves. In fact, our founding fathers called the study of government the divine science. We talk about 189 00:23:29,490 --> 00:23:35,750 dirty politics today. Well, the founding fathers didn't see it that way. They approached it as a 190 00:23:35,750 --> 00:23:40,289 government, the study of government, which they put their minds to and gave us the American 191 00:23:40,289 --> 00:23:48,329 Constitution. They called the study of government the divine science. So, dear listener, take heed to what I 192 00:23:48,329 --> 00:23:58,130 say. Our Lord will continue to take dominion of his creation with or without you. His kingdom will grow 193 00:23:58,130 --> 00:24:06,269 apace. With each generation, the world will add souls to the glorious heavenly choir above, and they will 194 00:24:06,269 --> 00:24:13,869 also bring blessing and glory to God here on earth, too, in increasing measure. This is called taking 195 00:24:13,869 --> 00:24:21,670 dominion. And you can either pitch in and use your gifts to build the kingdom of God with his strength 196 00:24:21,670 --> 00:24:29,289 imparted to you. You won't do this on your own strength, but you will work with his strength imparted 197 00:24:29,289 --> 00:24:36,490 to you, or else you'll sit on the sidelines waiting for the rapture and looking for the Antichrist. And if 198 00:24:36,490 --> 00:24:43,829 this is your course of action, it's really a course of inaction, then it is you who will truly be left 199 00:24:43,829 --> 00:24:54,150 behind. Do not be left behind. Pitch in with your love and your labor and help us take dominion of our Lord's 200 00:24:54,150 --> 00:25:02,089 inheritance in creation. We, as Christians, should not be looking for Christ's return by interpreting Scripture, by 201 00:25:02,089 --> 00:25:10,049 reading daily headlines, but we should be fulfilling Scripture by making daily headlines in what we do and 202 00:25:10,049 --> 00:25:17,269 achieve. That is our commission, after all, isn't it? Right? Our Lord told us, all authority in heaven and on 203 00:25:17,269 --> 00:25:26,049 earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. Nations, dear listener, not 204 00:25:26,049 --> 00:25:32,710 just individuals, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching 205 00:25:32,710 --> 00:25:39,569 them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end 206 00:25:39,569 --> 00:25:47,230 of the age. He will be with us, dear listener, to the end of the age as we take dominion. Join us in 207 00:25:47,230 --> 00:25:54,950 our midweek Bible study. I invite you to do so. It is at Leo's Place on Thursday evening at 7 p.m. 208 00:25:54,990 --> 00:26:01,049 It's a great time of fellowship, and we study and we unpack these things, and I invite you to it. And 209 00:26:01,049 --> 00:26:09,769 each lesson is a distinct one, and you can catch up fast. And we just enjoy talking about the different 210 00:26:09,769 --> 00:26:15,930 perspectives, but also introducing you to a few things that you may have heard before. So we invite 211 00:26:15,930 --> 00:26:24,769 you to our midweek Bible study, 7 o'clock on Thursday evenings at Leo's Place. And New Geneva also meets for 212 00:26:24,769 --> 00:26:32,869 holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us 213 00:26:32,869 --> 00:26:49,609 for more information at area code 208-523-0196. Information, feedback, call us at area code 208-523-0196. 214 00:26:49,609 --> 00:26:50,609 Thank you. 215 00:26:50,609 --> 00:26:51,609 Thank you.