[Music] well I want to welcome you to our conference on the end time scenario and uh we are going to be pursuing the word of God and one of the things we always want to do under those uh circumstances is to go with the benefit of the Holy Spirit so let's solicit his attendance tonight let's bow our hearts father we thank you for who you are and we thank you for providing this opportunity to explore your word we seek father your holy spirit to guide us give us discernment that uh we might be effective for you that we each might grow in grace and the knowledge of our savior we ask this Father that we might be more pleasing in your sight as we commit this weekend and ourselves into your hands in the name of Yeshua our coming king the Lord Jesus Christ indeed amen so we are in the first session and uh and I want to talk a little bit about esqueological hermeneutics esslogy is simply the study of last things and hermeneutics is your theory of interpretation and one of the places that will challenge your precision and and and logic is in the esqueological hermeneutic area so we'll be talking a little bit about that and then we'll talk I'll give you a preview of the sessions that we'll have here and uh one of the things is a foundational piece of material called Daniel 70 weeks we'll be talking a lot about that but I want to cover just the front end of that uh in this first session here and there was a confidential briefing that Jesus gave his insider disciples four of them Peter James and John and Andrew and uh and he points them in that briefing to Daniel chapter 9 and you'll see why that's going to be so foundational in your understanding of the scripture as we go we'll talk about its scope and role of those last four verses of Daniel 9 and we're going to focus this evening just on the 69 weeks so this is not end time stuff this is past tense but it's so profound that I felt it's it's an important place to springboard from and so we'll be re for most of you that may be a review and if so that's fine but u I want to emphasize something about esqueological hermeneutics we're not here to sell any particular viewpoint our goal is to equip you to be what we call a self feeder so you'll have the background and perception to come to your own conclusions so we're not here we're going to enter into a lot of controversial areas and I usually point out we we don't play favorites we'll have something here to offend everyone somehow so we'll be unabashedly going into some pretty turbulent waters here and uh so we're looking for people that students who can think critically for themselves and to have sufficient knowledge to navigate on your own that's really our goal here in the institute and so your secret to avoid heresy is to rely on what they call the whole council of God you avoid one verse theology what you what you need to do whatever view you have needs to fit into the fabric of the total picture and that's your ch that's what makes it so challenging and that's why so many pastors are reluctant to get into esquetology because it really taxes their grasp of the scripture as a totality and so we avoid we avoid one verse theology one of the trademarks that we've used for more than 40 years is Acts 17:11 and it speaks of the people that were in Aberea these were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and search the scriptures daily to prove whether those things be so now uh this is this has been our trademark as I say for over 40 years and the Thessalonians were persuaded by argument but and the Bereans believed but they and they spiritually apprehended but they searched like they were stalking game that's what the Greek term actually implies there and uh so the uh the first step is really the tougher of the two for many of those years I always thought the real point of this this this uh verse was to search the scriptures daily and I in recent years have realized what's even a bigger challenge is to approach the word with openness of mind we all tend to bring to it our own presuppositions be on your guard there so there's two you receive the word with all openness of mind and yet you search the scriptures today to prove whether those things be so way I usually qu summarize this verse this is where Luke tells you don't believe anything Chuck Mister tells you i'll I'll say what I can to guide you but the point is don't rely on me rely on the word and that's that's I want to underscore that as we go here and so so that's Acts 17:11 but the other aspect that undergirds our approach to the scripture is what we call 6640 that's the name of our radio broadcast it's been in this country for I think 13 or 14 years and uh so we speak of the 66 books of the Bible and even though they were penned by over 40 different guys who didn't even know each other for the most part and this all occurred over a period of 2,000 years the staggering there's two discoveries that changed my life at a very early stage the first was the discovery that these 66 books even though they're pinned by 40 different guys over uh almost 2,000 years it's an integrated message i get so tired of some of these announcers on television say you can't prove the Bible but they go to say something positive you can prove the Bible if you know how and the first step is to understand the integrity of the package because it's staggering and you in your own studies I want you to confirm that every word every number every letter is there by deliberate design that's meaningless until you discover it for yourself and once you do it changes your entire attitude about the word of God and so uh the first step in what we call our epistemology is simply the study of knowledge its scope and limits so our epistemological approach here first establish the integrity of the design you can do that as you study the Bible you'll discover that every detail in Genesis is there for a deliberate reason that isn't realized until the the New Testament and so forth those are things you need to discover and so that's we have in our possession and what's sitting in your lap if you brought your Bible is a integrated message system 66 separate books spent by 40 different guys over thousands of years in which every detail in there is by deliberate design once you discover that you're confronted with a second discovery that deres from that and that is the origin of this message system that's in your lap had to initiate from outside the dimensionality of time because it writes with incredible precision history before it happens in a way that is supernatural and uh if God has a technology to create us in the first place he certainly has a technology to get message to us the challenge is how does he authenticate the message how does he let us know that it's really from him and not some kind of contrivance or a fraud and he does that by demonstrating an attribute that he alone has he alone is outside time and sees the end from the beginning and takes advantage of that and so we establish the integrity of design as you go through that design you discover that every page points to a person called the Messiah the word Christ is a title not a not a second name jesus the Messiah Yeshua Hamashiach I think and uh so you establish the identity of this person and he's on every page of the Bible literally once you discover who he is then he closes the loop well I'll show you that how do you know he's because the scriptures were translated into Greek three centuries before his ministry so I'm going to lean on the Old Testament Greek here if you will those Old Testament passages have over 300 specific specifications that were fulfilled during his ministry and as you go through those they're profoundly u that he would be of David's family he'd be born of a virgin he'd be born in Bethlehem he would sojourn in Egypt he would live in Galilee in Nazareth in fact it'd be announced by an Elijahike herald that would occasion the massacre of Bethlehem's children he would proclaim a jubilee in the world each one of these are taken out of the Old Testament and uh his mission would include the Gentiles that's not that's that was in Isaiah all all through Isaiah his ministry would be one of healing he would teach through parables he'd be disbelieved and rejected by his rulers that was all predicted all through the Old Testament in fact just focusing on the last week of his ministry alone he'd make a triumphal entry into Jerusalem as uh he'd be betrayed by a friend for 30 pieces of silver smitten like a shepherd would be given vinegar and gall they'd cast lots for his garments his side would be pierced not a bone would be broken that's a specification all through the Torah and elsewhere would die among malifactors his dying words were foretold he would be buried by a rich man he would rise from the dead on the third day and by the way I found seven places in the Old Testament that that it's alluded to incidentally and uh his resurrection would be followed by the destruction of Jerusalem so on it goes on and on and uh so these are so the point is you establish the integrity of the design which establishes the identity of Jesus Christ and once you know his identity he then of course authenticates the rest and that's not clo that's not um because they're 666 by $440 that's not self- reinforcement that's that's a legitimate closing of the loop if you will and so okay so we talked about 6640 that's why it's the name of our we tend to overuse that work over the years so it's become our our rubric on the radio broadcast as you probably know but the other thing I want to put in front of us is the need for precision there are many people that have a very loose uh approximation of the Bible rather than being recognizing its precision and so I want to deal with that a little bit in Matthew 22 there's a very one of my favorite events occurred the Pharisees were gathered together and Jesus asked them "What think ye of Christ whose son is he?" See the the the Pharisees the Sadducees and the Herodians had been hammering him with with questions so he finally says "Let me ask you a question." Oh okay what thinking of Christ whose son is he and they of course knew their Old Testament they said "He's a son of David." That's no problem there then Jesus said unto him "How then doth David in spirit call him Lord saying and then he quotes the first verse of Psalm 110 jesus quotes the Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy foottool." Now the question is Jesus says to them "If David call him Lord how is he his son?" Now when you when you're arguing with attorneys you better have your homework done and he's taking on these attorneys you call him the son of David how can David call him Lord if he's a son they couldn't answer him they're totally befuddled i love this i love the next verse and uh see the son of David is clearly 2 Samuel there all through the Old Testament that's clearly an identity and uh Proverbs 30:4 who ascended into heaven or descended who hath gathered the wind in his fists who hath bound the waters in a garment who hath established all the ends of the earth what is his name and here's the interesting and what is his son's name if thou can't tell see that that's what they're really drawing on here in effect well moving on here i love the last verse of the Matthew 22 it closes with this verse no man was able to answer him a word neither dared any man from that day forth ask him any more questions so he sent them with their tail between their legs as we might say right what you and I miss unless we've done our homework why were they so confused and I want you to notice what his entire argument hangs on jesus is quoting the first verse of Psalm 110 the Lord said unto my Lord sit down at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy foottool on the slide here I've put it in Hebrew for you okay now something else you need to understand all languages flow towards Jerusalem all language all nations that are east of Jerusalem go from right to left not only Hebrew but Aramaic and Sanskrit and you name it all nations that are west of Jerusalem go left to right english Latin cerillic Greek all left to right so recognize when I show you Hebrew you're going the normal direction is from right to left you follow me there with me okay now the word you may recognize this one y vave that's the what was typically translated Jehovah if you will the unpronouncable name of God but what they used what they right next to that is the word Adoni okay and Adoni is the Lord but this rendering of Adonai includes something very strange if you look at the left end of that it's followed by a yot see that little thing that that's a one of the 22 Hebrew letters that you and I would mistake for an apostrophe or a blemish on the paper the yud putting the yud there on Adoni makes it possessive david called him my lord and that's what they couldn't deal with because they didn't understand that he was the son of God you follow me but the point I'm getting into this I want to highlight something here jesus gives us a principle and even annunciates it for us in the in the sermon on the mount i'll come to in a minute is that his entire engagement with those attorneys hung on his use of a yud in the Hebrew so and you think well Chuck you're making something out of nothing no in Matthew 5:1 17-18 Jesus himself said "Think not that I come to destroy the Torah or the prophets i come not to destroy but to fulfill for verily I say unto you till heaven and earth pass one yacht or one tit shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled." A yacht or a tit those are Hebraism the yacht is that little mark I just showed you the tit are little hooks that distinguish some of the letters that's a Hebraism if I was saying this in English I would say not the dotting of an eye or the crossing of a tea shall pass and till all be fulfilled but understand what Jesus is teaching us here he's calling us to take the text seriously not approximate i remember once that when some of these paraphrases came out I remember Walter Martin leaning over the podium says you would paraphrase God it was he had a intimidating way of doing that it was fun but the point is um we need to understand that now you and I live in the most blessed generation ever the word of God is more available to us than it's ever been in the history of mankind you can go to the Hebrew or the Greek without knowing Hebrew or Greek you put your little cursor on any word and a menu will pop up and tell you what the word is the parts of speech even diagram the sentence if you want to and that software to do that is free of charge there are dozens of packages many of them available through the asking and uh so we live with the information appliance many of us carry five or six Bibles in our phone see the word of God is accessible to us directly you don't have to be stumbling over the King James or this or that or that because you can go with any one of those they'll point you into what the original text said and there are a few places that there's still some ambiguities but they're trivial the truth of the matter is you can get at the word of God like nobody in the past you can do in 20 minutes sitting at a computer what used to take a pastor six or eight weeks of study because you can just pop right through and and and and that's astonishing to realize it helps there so the need for precision and I talked about Matthew 22 i'm also have come to the conclusion personally that there are no synonyms there are two words that may be synonymous in that they mean almost the same thing but watch out for that almost because in the discrepancy between the two often lies a discovery and one of the tricks I want you to remember is when you find a verse that confusing or that seems to be self-contradictory in some way make a log write it down and try to capture why it is that it confuses you and you have an opportunity to do a lab course in the supernatural because what you do having written that down in ink in your little private journal make it private because it's intimate no one is ever going to see it but you so you'll be candid with yourself you take it before the throne of the universe father you told us you'd teach us all things and I'm confused about this particular verse i'm asking you in Jesus name to reveal it to me in his name I pray amen word to that effect it may not happen in the next 10 seconds but I tell you what will happen you're going to stumble into a situation that's going to make that verse seem so clear you you will have forgotten how confusing it was it may be something you read elsewhere it may be something you read in the paper it might be a a conversation you over hear in a restaurant i don't know what the Lord the Lord will do something to open that for you what I want you to do is go back to that journal and mark that down and say "Why all the paperwork Chuck?" Because the day will come when you'll be traveling through the valley of doubt and I want you to be able to go back to that journal a private journal and see the footprints of the Holy Spirit as he carried you through your growth in your knowledge of the word every time you find a contradiction every time there's a verse you and you've got a verse that makes no sense I give you another secret put Jesus right in the middle of it and see what happens you'll discover not only is it does it hold a truth it has a truth that has eluded other forms so then and the other thing you want to be careful avoid error it's amazing to me as you study uh how we all guilty of logical fallacies it's important to build some tools for critical thinking that's a whole thing well this trust of course the international trust has coinia house the publisher ka house.org and coin institute is a think tank volunteer worldwide that we want you to feel comfortable joining but I want you to be aware of how it's organized because it impacts our way way we think here and it has three avenues of study the first one we call the Berean avenue motivated by Acts 17:11 that's the study of the word of God it takes priority over everything else make no mistake you with me so far the second avenue we call the Issachar avenue after the sons of Issachar who understood the times and that's where he put the study of prophecy the study of stewardship and what's going on today in our world we've discovered that the tools and resources of those two avenues are opposite to each other in the Brian you know it's true the challenge is to understand it in Issachar what you're dealing with is intelligence reports news clips you know it's biased sometimes deliberately the challenge is to understand like Pilot said what is truth you need to find out what's true it's not trivial and then of course all of that is for what we call the tactical perspectives what do you have to answer the so what question so what do I do about it i've got all these neat verses about end times that's great and I've got these intelligent reports what's going on in the Middle East or whatever great the question is what do you do about that that's the so what question that's the coinos the doing and we believe that the co that what we're being trained to do is to be ambassadors for the coming king and we believe that the coinos tract of activity is motivated by the third commandment thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless to take his name in vain we argue that's got nothing to do with vocabulary swearing as it's usually taught no no no that has to do with ambassadorship if you're going to take the name of the king you better be prepared to represent him faithfully and competently and that's what this whole institute is all about hopefully to train ambassadors for Christ now we also encourage our members to balance all three avenues together don't just be a Bible verse junkie but try to balance it with the other with a with a understanding where we are in in the world and second and finally answering the so what question and so what do I do about it putting shoe leather to your faith now so we want them to balance all three and we have awards for levels if you get to the first level all three you get a bronze if you get to the second level of all three you get a silver medallion and then finally a gold and so forth now our our goal is not a gold medallion our goal is a golden crown on a glassy sea that's a whole different thing altogether these are just trail markers to make it fun so that's what we're all about now we are in a conference this weekend we're calling the end time scenario excuse me there's another kind of conference that's strategic trends they are different they're not the same thing i'll try to show you the difference here when you take the result of both of those you end up with tactical perspectives we regard the end time scenario what we're doing this weekend as an exercise in the Berean Avenue of study the focus here is on what does the word of God say the end time scenario we will to the periphery of what we're doing talk a little bit about the trends that we're impacting but that's not our purpose here we'll be glad to respond to questions we'll use our free time that way if you like but the the strategic trends is a issue and that's a whole another conference that focuses on on that you see and it's when you've done both of those you're then eligible for deciding what does that mean that that trying to find out what is your calling how many of you are saved here can I see a show of hands praise God how many know what your calling is see we got less than half some some quickly and some what do you mean by that you see do you realize that Peter was saved before he found his calling before he had his calling so we need to understand that those are different things but uh now when we so we're we're in a Berean weekend today but there are times when we take those uh all together and uh we call that the the the comm the amalgamuration amalgamation of all those a strategic perspectives conference we do that several times a year on fairly large scale if we can and so that's another thing so what are we going to do this weekend well we're going to have we have this introductory thing tonight uh tomorrow morning we're going to hit headon what has to be the most preposterous doctrine in Christianity this thing called harpato in the Greek or rapture in the Latin and uh the bib we're going to talk about the biblical basis for these ideas and we'll talk about some events that we believe are pre-rapture events that we study a lot that we happen to suspect we don't know for sure but we suspect are actually before the rapture occurs then we have the 70th week and uh we're going to talk a little bit more about that uh uh tonight in detail about the 69 weeks of the 70 we'll talk a little bit about that but the 70th week is a basic foundation if you understand the last four verses of Daniel 9 the rest of the Bible will fall into place if you're confused about that for some reason you'll discover you make a muddle of the rest of it and that's where Jesus pointed we'll talk of course about a thing called Armageddon and the second coming how many have heard of that i just want to see if you're listening okay good all right and uh the millennium and beyond and then uh we've got a event tomorrow night that's sort of an insert it's a extracurricular thing we're going to talk about transhumanism and uh it's something that's come yes it is in the scripture hinted at but it's uh coming on like gang busters and you'll be surprised with a little movie that we're going to show you uh tomorrow night and then Sunday morning we'll talk about post-rapture events from the redeemer's point of view from from from those that are redeemed from their point of view um we make all make our little charts with the abominations of des make our little layouts of what happens on the earth we're going to talk a little bit what happens after the rapture up there and that's an area that's more important to you and me than anything we're going to talk about over the weekend and we'll get at that after that well Jesus had a confidential briefing for four of his disciples and they they asked him about his return and there were four guys there Peter James and John which you recognize as the inner sanctum they're the only three that were at the transfiguration they're the only three that were allowed in at Gyrus's daughter's uh raising and so forth and uh Peter's joined by his brother Andrew so these four guys are treated to a confidential briefing on the second coming we call it the it happened to be in the Mount of Olives at night it's in Matthew 24 but it's also in Mark 13 and so uh uh it's in two of the gospels be on your guard i'm guilty like many many scholars of making a mistake for years including Luke 21 as one of those only to discover by looking at it more carefully that Luke 21 is not the Olivet discourse some of the content is identical but it's a different audience under different conditions making a different prediction so you need to be on your guard that Luke Luke 21 is a separate activity and uh don't fall into that trap and our attempts to harmonize the gospels we got carried away and most commentators failed to make that discernment and I've attended meetings at the pre-trip study group and elsewhere to highlight that and it's amazing how many people have just discovered that sort of thing matthew 24 and 25 and then Mark 13 they're virtually identical with the exception of one verse difference and we'll talk about that when we get to but the 70 weeks and uh it consists of four verses the most critical thing I want you to take away from this weekend are these four verses if you really understand them everything else will fall into place for you the first of the four is the scope of the whole package and that's verse 24 it's followed by a verse which deals with 69 of these weeks of years and um and then there is an uh verse 26 is an interval and verse 26 lies between 25 and 27 and I'm not being facitious here verse 27 is the 70th of the 70 weeks the thing you've got to be alert to because it's not obvious until you study it carefully is that verse 26 covers some things that happen after the 69 but before the 70th start that tells you that they're not contiguous the 69 weeks are contiguous next to each other there is a gap an interval and verse 26 talks about that once you realize that the fog lifts and it all becomes very very clear and so we'll try to unsort some of that let's start with the scope of this whole thing verse 25 Daniel's in prayer and he is um uh in captivity but he knows the captivity is about over so he goes to prayer about it and while he's praying Gabriel comes and interrupts his prayer it's known as the interrupted prayer of the Old Testament and he tells him a very staggering few verses verse 24 gives you the scope of what he's talking about he says "77 shabuim are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city." Notice that that's not about the church it's about Israel upon thy people and the city what city jerusalem let's not lose focus here to do six things to finish the transgression to make an end of sins to make reconciliation for iniquity to bring in everlasting righteousness to seal up the vision of the prophecy and to anoint the most holy place wow ha have those six things happened yet you could argue a few come close but not really is there an end of sins pick up any newspaper examine our own lives whatever no this is incomplete yet this is so comprehensive it isn't wrapped yet it's going to be wrapped up of the 70s 69 of those 77s are spelled out in verse 25 so we're going to take a look at verse 25 gabriel says to Daniel "Know therefore and understand." See this isn't cryptic he is supposed to understand this know therefore understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the prince shall be seven weeks and three score and two 7 + 62 is a total of 69 and notice this phrase that the Holy Spirit adds to the end of this you see there's actually four different decrees in history you could get you could stumble on except three of the four have to do with the temple the Holy Spirit says here at the end the street shall be built again and the wall even in troubled times he's not talking about the temple he's talking about the city of Jerusalem only one of the four deals with that it's a new is in Nehemiah chapter 2 we know when that happened in history and so the point this mathematical prophecy from the going forth of the commandment that's yet to happen but when the commandment comes forth to rebuild Jerusalem from that commandment unto the Messiach naged the Messiah the king the word naged first appears of Saul as king the Mashiach naged shall be 7 + 62 this is in my opinion the most astonishing passage in the entire Bible i'm going to try to show you why the commandment to uh restore Jerusalem is the trigger of this thing and it unto the Messiah the king now if you take the if you rec and it was we are indebted to Sir Robert Anderson uh his classic work in 1894 called the coming prince when I was a teenager it was out of print but a friend happened to have a copy and gave it to me it changed my life as a teen it subsequently got back in print and under Cargo and others it's any good Christian bookstore will have a copy of it for you called the coming prince but the main point that he built he insight so Robert Anderson was head of Scotland Yard by the way incidentally but he discovered by studying that God uses in Genesis 360day years in the book of Revelation he uses 300 there's 360 day years and so he recognized the implications of that so if you take 69 weeks 69* 7 times 360 you come up with 173,880 days okay that's terrific what do you do with that well the commandment to start Jerusalem from Nehemiah 2 we discover was the decree of articus which was given on March 14th of 445 BC and all the background is in Sir Robert Anderson's books if you want to dig into this or you can get into our commentaries we have all that in there but the question is okay that's when that triggers this when did Jesus allow himself to be presented as king several times in the gospels he they try to take him and he won't let him an hour has not yet come john 6 and elsewhere then one day he does something weird he not only permits it he sets it up he has a donkey arranged by a password and they go get it and he rides that donkey deliberately riding the donkey as required by Zechariah 9:9 into Jerusalem we call it the triumphal entry okay and so we know for a variety of reasons that that was April 6th of 32 AD and what's interesting about that is when you look at these now all of this by the way is in the Old Testament so it was translated into Greek three centuries before the ministry of Christ about two uh 285 BC under Tommy Philadelphia in in Alexandria they funded the translation of the Jewish scriptures from Hebrew into Greek because most Jews didn't speak Hebrew they spoke Greek they they used Hebrew like a Catholic uses Latin maybe for ceremonial purposes but they wanted their word their their scriptures in their own language which is Greek so they had a translation done and we have that product it's called the Septuagent version fancy word for 70 70 scholars were impanled to do that and that's a matter of secular history the Septuagent version was 300 years before the Christ's appearance you with me so far okay now if you go from 445 BC to 32 AD that's 172,740 days march 14th April 624 and if you go through the rigors of the leap years that's complicated that's another 116 i want you to notice the margin of error of Gabriel it's zero he specked the exact day now what's going to shock you though is Jesus held him accountable for that and we'll move this in Luke 19 we have perhaps the most detailed account of the triumphal entry and as Jesus came near he beheld the city what did he do he wept over it saying "If thou known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes." In other words they were to recognize that day because Gabriel gave it to them but because they didn't recognize it he pronounces that from now on they're hidden from them wow forever no paul will tell us no until from Romans 11:25 until the fullness of the Gentiles become in but uh this thy day is a very specific day but now they are hidden from thine eyes and so not forever and so Romans 11:25 now we the most exciting element of the end time scenario is before our very eyes because that blindness is beginning to re be relieved in Israel 10 years ago if you were a Jewish believer and planning to move to Israel you you were warned by your friends don't let anybody know if you're Jewish that's fine if you're Gentile it's fine but if you're a Jewish believer they're out for you it was something you kept underground not anymore there are 350 Messianic fellowships in Israel today small ones but they're there open boy that's a change that blindness is beginning to be relieved for a lot of interesting reasons well Jesus continues here in Luke 19 he says "For the day shall come upon thee." Jesus speaking to them "For the day shall come upon thee thine enemy shall cast a trench about thee compass thee around and keep thee in on every side and they shall lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another." This is a triumphal entry 38 years after he said that Taspian had the 5th 10th 12th and 15th Roman legions lay siege to the city of Jerusalem in the 143 days 600,000 Jews were killed and more than that historians estimate that over a million and a half men women and children died because of the plagues and all the rest of it the the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD to this day if you're in a Jewish wedding they take the gabblets they're using and crush them step on the they break the glass that's their gesture to commemorate the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD they do that still to this day the question I want to ask you is why was Jerusalem destroyed in 70 AD if you had that on a test question there's a lot of good answers you could give but I want you to be conscious of what Jesus how he would answer that because he said here "They will not leave in thee one stone upon another because thou kneest not the time of thy visitation." Jesus ascribes the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD to the fact that they didn't um know the day he presented himself as king and that's a that to me is chilling jesus held him accountable for that thou knowest not the time of thy visitation so he held him accountable for that okay so that's the 69 weeks I've included because that's not prophecy that's history but it's so profound it's a cornerstone of our understanding of the scripture and uh we're going to move on to verse 26 which is where we are today it still isn't prophecy in a sense because we're in that one we're all interested to move on what happens next and we will of course tomorrow morning but uh after the three score in two weeks shall Messiah be cut off but not for himself and the people of the princes shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with a flood and unto the end of the war desolations are determined and so cut off karat that's executed the Messiah is going to be executed it's in the Old Testament it's here in Psalm 22 it's detailed in such detail there are articles in the American Medical Association Journal explaining the cause of death from the details that are in Psalm 22 and but he does this not for himself see cut means to cut off kill exterminate execute but not for himself who did he do it for you and me the people of the princes shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary the city was destroyed in 70 AD and the sanctuary so we know this interval is at least 38 years long see it started at the at the 69 weeks terminating the 70th hasn't started yet it won't for at least 38 years in fact we now know it at it won't start for about 2000 okay so you see we have the within that interval we have the cross it's not part of the 69 it's after the 69 it's after the trial entry and we have the uh temple uh destroyed that happens in a 38 window we we know though the 70 week hasn't started yet you with me so far you see how foundational this is to understanding the scenario here and uh this interval is also implied all through the scripture and those verses are in your notes you can check it out in your leisure and this interval is implied 24 times in the Bible and I find that fascinating because 24 the 24 elders are the redeemed in Revelation and the 24 speaks of the readings and uh it's actually if you go through the whole scripture you find 24 places that this interval is is implied and uh so and one of the things we discover is that the scripture seems to use Israel and the church mutually exclusively but that's a principle you have to this interval is defined in Luke 19:42 and until 11:25 so that's where it's it's pinned down for you if you will and this interval is the period of the church it's an era that was kept secret in the Old Testament and that's Paul's opportunity in Ephesians the epistle to the Ephesians celebrates that he was given the privilege of discovering something that was hidden in the Old Testament and that's why he's so overwhelmed with this whole the mystical church the the mystery of the church and it was born at Pentecost and it it's the prerequisites to happening was the atonement the resurrection and the ascension had to occur before Acts chapter 2 and that's the birth of the church and it's and once you understand the seven feasts of Moses and you understand the feast of Shot you see it was predicted in that feast and maybe much more than most people realize i think it also includes some other prophecies about the church that's another subject we can talk about on Sunday the church's mystery character the concept of the body of Christ in Ephesians 3 is indw the fact that it indwells every believer that's a concept that Paul taught by Galio himself blew his mind that the Holy Spirit was given without repentance you're sealed by the Holy Spirit wow he understood what that meant and and and sometimes you don't understand his answers because we don't understand the question he's responding to and the the issue of the bride of Christ we'll talk more about that on Sunday morning and we're going to deal with uh first thing tomorrow morning the harpato the rapture what is all that about and the fact there's one new man and so forth and the uh and the fact that in the scripture you find Jews and Gentiles separated there is an interval in which they're neither Jew nor Gentile you're a church there's three categories jew Gentile and the church what you discover is after the church it goes back the other way in Revelation there are Jews and there are Gentiles so that's when you realize the church ain't there it's only there in chapters two and three why what's that a lot about we'll talk about that more so the book of Revelation is key here because it's the only book of the Bible that has the audacity the hutzbah if I may to say "Read me i'm special." Not the book of the Bible says "Read me i'm better than the rest." No no only one revelation says "Read me i give you a special blessing." And he does he does and uh it's all one I remember as a teenager I heard a lecture once and it be and the guy that the expert that was there we became good friends and I used to drive him to his speaking commitments and got tutored that way but the whole idea of the book of revelation is in code and every code is explained somewhere else in the Bible and if you study the book of revelation properly it'll take you to virtually every other book in the Bible to unravel those codes are used consistently if you're in a the seminary you say that's the principle of expositional constancy that's just giving a fancy label to the fact that the Holy Spirit uses idioms consistently the rock or the stone that builders rejected is the rock that found in 1 Corinthians 10:4 and they're used consistently throughout the scripture that's when you realize the real author isn't the penman it's the Holy Spirit now the most relevant parts of this book the book of Revelation the most important chapters are chapters two and three the rest of it is future we'll watch it from the but chapters two and three affect us every day in ways that will astonish you and we'll touch on that on Sunday we'll touch on it along the way but we'll bore into that Sunday morning and so they go to Ephesus Smyrna Pergamus Dotyus Sardis Philadelphia and Leosia seven churches why those seven why did Jesus pick those seven to write to most of these you never heard of unless you except in this chapter ephesus you heard about of course and a few of these you may have but most of these you wonder why them and the answer is because they have at least four levels of interpretation it turns out that when you understand each of those letter each letter has a specific theme and in that vein these seven letters lay out in advance the history of the church if they were in any other order it wouldn't be true and so Ephesus is the apostolic church the first century church followed by the persecuted church smyrna is a is a synonym for myrr an embombing ointment for burial and Pergamus is a biggamy is married to two people monogamy one person pergamus is a misguided marriage a perverted marriage that's where the church marries the church what Satan couldn't accomplish by persecuting he accomplished by having the church marry the world and that leads you into that era which is very descriptive of the third century and so on and then we get to the medieval church and I'm being generous here some people say well that's the Vatican no it's much more than that but that's the flavor of it and then we have Sardis the denominational church now the Thotyra letter is shredded by Protestant commentators they love fire it's the longest of the letter and they really take into the Vatican because it really is clearly uh fits well if that's the case if thot represent the Vatican then Sardis represents the Reformation sardis is one of two letters that has nothing good said about it you have a name only but you're dead is the the theme there whoa whoa and I think most of us recognize those denominations that derive from the reformation today have lost a certain vitality and then of course we get to Philadelphia and everybody of course is the Philadelphia church i mean that's the good guys they they really do well so we're obviously Philadelphiaians and Joe Fol the pastor of Calvary Chapel Philadelphia is a good friend and we have a lot of fun with that one and uh but then we have of course Leodysia and everybody that studies this it's really clear when you get into these that we are clearly in the Leadyian church today and in that model there Jesus is outside knocking to get in he's not even in the church if any man open the door and up I will come in that little verse verse 20 is used by so many evangelists and it is a useful evangelistic verse except if you look at where it is in context it's really the final indictment because there isn't a promise to the church as a whole if an individual there makes an exception he'll re he'll receive them heavy stuff so we need to understand those churches now we notice something interesting about the first three that most commentators don't catch each one of these has a promise to the overcomer but in the first three it's a postcript it's added at the end of the letter outside the body of the letter and uh in the last four the promises are in the body of the letter which is different there's a structural difference for some reason the Holy Spirit separates these into two groups why well we notice something else about the last four each of the last four has an explicit uh reference to the second coming of Christ oo so the last four represent conditions that endure to the end in fact Thyotyra has a promise that if they don't change they're going to go into the great tribulation which itself answers a big doctrinal question if they don't get their act together they're going to go into Well what does that mean if they do get their act together they won't go into the tribulation you follow me the logic is pretty straightforward one of the last four is promised that they will not even see the time of the great tribulation and uh so um so now the Sardis and Leadyia are problematic what happens to them we're not sure i think the first three have a place in history but the last four endure to the end that seems to be as you get into the letters that seems to be the possibility well getting back to u the interval here after three score two weeks shall the Messiah be cut off but not for himself and the people of the prince that shall come the prince that shall come is one of 33 titles of the Antichrist in the Old Testament we'll be getting that into that tomorrow a bit obviously but that's one of 33 titles and what has misguided so many people he says the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary well the the prince that shall the people of the prince come they were the Roman Roman legions and because of the Roman legions that destroyed the temple everybody ran to their uh drawing board and started writing books that obviously the the people of the prince come are the Romans Roman legions and it's on that thread that we have this concept of a European uh group that come into Armageddon and so forth it's not in the text you won't find that in the summary of that in Daniel 11 elsewhere that's a contrivance i've been guilty of it too i've been taught by the same guys for years and many of my early materials made that same mistake because I didn't do my homework and I'm indebted to Wally Shabbat for pointing away because it's all in Josephus the people of the prince that shall come what were the what were the people that destroyed the sec the the Yes they were the Roman legions but the Roman legions weren't Roman they were conscripts if you go through the record you discover it was the 10th legion that destroyed the temple and the 10th legion consists of four cohorts that were Assyrians assyrians the Romans conscripted young men in in into their into their legions and so the fact that they were Roman legionnaires doesn't mean they were Western Europeans they were Assyrians and that happens to concur with Micah and Isaiah and we'll talk about that tomorrow some more anyway the princess shall come as one of 33 titles and we'll talk more about that tomorrow the people uh are that's a whole another story well then of course we get to the 70th week and uh the u this is foundational to both the Old Testament and the New Testament esquetology you will not understand either one unless you really develop a command of the last four verses of Daniel 9 so if you haven't done it yet I encourage you to do it and if you've done it already I suggest you review your notes and we're going to make that whole issue the 70th week the key topic on the third session this is the first session tomorrow morning we'll have session two and we'll talk about the rapture let's get that out of the way it's the most preposterous doctrine of of uh Christianity and I'm remember I'm reminded by Richard Feman who's probably the one of the great guys in qu in in in quantum physics and one of the things one of my favorite quotes of Richard Fayman is this of all the theories of science the most ridiculous is quantum theory the only thing that it's got going for it it happens to be unquestionably correct and of course he's got his tongue in his cheek there because it's very true quantum theory is really bizarre well I see a parallel with in terms of the rapture the rapture has got to be one of the strangest concepts in evangelical Christianity and it's very divisive a lot of people have problems with it a lot of people really get carried away with it we'll try to tomorrow get at the biblical basis of that view and try to deal with it then and we'll probably discover some surprises and so uh so we're going to deal with this uh in our session tomorrow and so Father we thank you for this weekend we thank you for the time together we thank you for the fellowship that we have in Jesus Christ and father we do espouse Augustine's admonition that in the essentials unity but in the non-essentials liberty but in all things agape we do pray father that through your holy spirit you would illuminate your word and guide us that in all these things we will be able to more clearly focus on your calling that we might each of us understand precisely what it is that you're calling us to that we might be ever more responsive to your word that we might be more pleasing in your sight as we do indeed commit ourselves without any reservations whatsoever into your hands in the name of Yeshua our coming king indeed the Lord Jesus Christ amen [Music]