[Music] hey friends welcome back to the maranatha global bible study on the book of revelation dalton thomas and i have been tag teaming working through the book of revelation together this is now session 10. in last week's session we began working through revelation chapters two and three and we're going to continue that this week now a little bit of review uh essentially what we discussed is that in what i refer to as the son of man's messages to the seven churches often just referred to as the seven letters uh to the seven churches essentially these letters if we are sticking to the text they are directed towards they are most applicable they are primarily relevant to the seven churches that were present in asia minor they're named after the seven cities that they were located in at the end at the close of the first century the beginning of the second century this is the time when the book of revelation was given to the apostle john okay so seven pastoral letters from jesus to seven specific churches at a specific location on the earth in modern day turkey at the close of the first century that is the first and most primary application of these letters jesus was addressing specific situations cultures difficulties etc etc in those churches at the time okay however at the close of each of the seven letters you have this statement all of the seven letters have this statement to he who has an ear to hear he who has an ear to hear let him hear what the spirit says to the seven churches okay so this is what i referred to as the universalization of each one of the letters which is to say that all seven of the letters have relevance and application not only and exclusively to the seven churches at the close of the first century but also to anyone who is paying attention to anyone who has an ear to hear which is to say this is applicable to individuals and churches down throughout church history okay and that includes us today now on the other hand we also discussed the fact that because the focus of the book of revelation is indeed the revelation of jesus christ the coming of jesus christ at the end of this current age the transition from this age into the age to come into the millennium which ultimately transitions into the what's called the new heavens and the new earth or the eternal state right because the day of the lord the coming of jesus the revealing of jesus is the definitive event that separates this age from the age to come that is the primary focus of the book of revelation and in that sense the book of revelation is principally concerned with the seven years leading up to uh the return of jesus and that transitionary uh that that transitionary event uh of his coming so in that sense okay again the seven letters have relevance to the churches at the close of the first century they also have relevance universally but there's also a specific and special application for those that are alive at that final period of history of which you and i very well may be part of in fact that final seven years could be upon us very soon for all we know it could be quite a ways off again we don't know the timing many events in the earth right now feel as though it's moving in that direction quite rapidly so what we're going to do in this session is we're not going to work line by line verse through verse through every single one of the pastoral letters to the seven churches rather we're going to look at three primary issues that are emphasized by jesus i'm going to say three primary errors that the churches were wrestling or struggling with that he seeks to correct and i think interestingly these are three significant errors that the church has always wrestled with and interestingly we are wrestling with these three errors today in the church and i believe that we'll continue to wrestle with these particular errors in a profound way in the days ahead specifically in that final seven year period leading up to the return of jesus so we're going to look at three issues and then we're going to touch on one other passage if we can squeeze it in in time that is it's just a verse that's very often misunderstood or misapplied in the church today as it applies to the issue of the rapture if we have enough time we'll get to that so the first error that we're going to look at i'm going to refer to it as the error of phariseeism the error of the pharisees or phariseeism it's a kind of general way of saying it but essentially this is being zealous for good doctrine and good practice okay that's a good thing and in fact the lord actually praises them for having zeal for correct doctrine for right practice but not having not having it balanced with love and that sounds very simplistic but this is a trap that any one of us can very easily fall into so we're going to look at revelation chapter 2 verses 2 through 4 and this is in the letter to the church in ephesus which is the first church which by the way the church of ephesus was sort of like the uh the papa church the the father church of all of the others it was the it was sort of the leading church and some of that had to do with where it was located on the roman roads and this type of thing but it was really a heart of ancient missionary activity and sending and so forth the church at ephesus so the lord says beginning in verse two he says i know your deeds and your toil and your perseverance and that you cannot tolerate evil men he actually says evil men you will not tolerate evil men within the church and you put to test those who call themselves apostles and they are not do we have people in the church today who call themselves apostles and are not i would say that we absolutely do and it's not for what it's worth for all of those that are sitting back going yeah the nar the new apostolic reformation i would suggest that there are those who set themselves up as apostles they may not give themselves that title but they present themselves as apostles and they are not in movements far beyond simply the new apostolic reformation okay i'm just going to leave it there i'm not going to elaborate in great detail and jesus says and you have found them to be false they're not apostles now what's interesting here is he praises them for testing those who claim to have authority for testing apostles or you could even say testing prophets he doesn't mention that here but he says that's a good thing you will not tolerate false prophets or false apostles in the church now interestingly i'll just touch on this briefly in the united states with the american elections we just saw in the church an avalanche of false prophecies of those who claimed not only that president trump would win the election but that he would be the next president for these four years that we're in as opposed to president biden who is now the president now this is irrespective of what you believe with regard to the uh whether the elections were fair or if there was fraud if there was interference any of that that's irrelevant the prophecies were that trump would win and he would become president for the next four years now obviously that ship has sailed okay the inauguration is now passed we're in february president biden is the president you actually have now what's good is you have some that apologize they've repented they've said i prophesied falsely and i want to apologize you know and that's a good thing that they are taking ownership and repenting that's a sign of a level of maturity obviously but you have others that are digging their heels in digging their heels in i was just looking at a video and i don't mean to call out someone by name um but a guy named johnny enlow and he's been an author and a pastor who is he's really been pushing post-millennialism and dominionism in this type of thing right a real vocal advocate for this triumphant sort of kingdom now teaching that's very proud prevalent particularly um in the in the charismatic church and he's still digging his heels in that president trump will become the president for the next four years um and some are even saying well actually in heaven president trump has been inaugurated he is the real president this type of thing like it's spiritual okay this is nonsense these are false prophets these are false prophecies there's no other way to say it and unfortunately within what i'll call just freewheeling independent protestant usa and not just usa all around the world unfortunately there is a tremendous lack of proper structure and accountability for either prophets or those who claim to be apostles there's really no hierarchy of any kind no structure of accountability and so people they just sort of function as these hyper-independent entrepreneurs so to speak and when they do something wrong which is a sin against god and the body of christ very few people hold them accountable i've been very grateful to men like dr michael brown who has very graciously been calling out many of these prophets and calling them to account and this type of thing because here again we see jesus actually praises the church at ephesus for testing those who claim to be apostles and again they were not and they found them to be false so something very relevant and i believe this will continue to be very relevant in the church in the days ahead leading up to the return of jesus and he says and you have perseverance you've endured for my name's sake you know you've endured difficulties and persecution because you love me for my name's sake and you have not grown weary but i have this against you that you have left your first love now there's a lot of discussion what does it mean left your first love is it love for god or is it love for each other and i think we could settle on the fact that there's an element of i mean those two things are integrally related okay but it's easy with phariseeism to say well i have zeal for god but you don't have proper love for your brothers and sisters you don't have love for fellow mankind in general and it was interesting i um i saw a tweet the other day that someone sent out and really grabbed me see he said when god reiterates when god repeats something multiple times pay attention we should pay attention and this really grabbed me i'm going to put this slide up for everyone to see john 13 34 jesus says this love one another john 15 verse 12 jesus says love one another john 15 17 jesus says love one another romans 13 verse 8 paul the apostle says love one another again in first thessalonians 4 verse 9 paul says love one another peter in first peter 1 22 says love one another john the apostle first john 3 11 love one another uh first john 3 23 love one another 4 7 4 11 2 john 2 5 love one another i mean this is one of the most consistently repeated statements in the whole new testament beloved don't forget to love one another and my reading of jesus's statement to the church in ephesus is that he goes look you've had tremendous zeal for me and that's good and you should have that but don't forget your love for one another i think that's a significant part of what he was saying and this is a present danger this is an incredible danger one of the things one of the things whenever i go to yad vashem in jerusalem the holocaust museum if you've never been there if you're able to go to israel make sure you go to the holocaust museum it's a very difficult very difficult journey the way they have it organized it's it's this kind of weaving journey through the holocaust organized sort of chronologically incredibly emotional but one of the things that always grips me and i always take some sort of devotional time is there's a display that is focused on the righteous gentiles the righteous gentiles they're referred to as the righteous gentiles and these are essentially various gentiles non-jews that risked or laid down their lives in order to save jews during the holocaust and it's amazing there's a there's sort of this cabinet and you can pull out these drawers and they have pictures of some of these different individuals and one of the things that always grabs me is to take note of the fact that among these righteous gentiles there are many muslims there's bosnians there's turks that again risk their lives there's not you know we love to talk about corey ten boom everyone's familiar with schindler and you know some of these different sort of more prominent famous people that save jews but very few people talk about these various muslim families that made tremendous sacrifices that did the right thing in order to save their fellow humans despite the fact that their different religion different ethnicity etc etc and i've looked at that you know let's say during the muslim refugee crisis where it was look hyper-politicized um overwhelmingly in the church in the in the conservative church the muslim refugee crisis was just framed in purely negative ways you know this is the end of europe and so on and so forth and it did it caused a lot of problems on the other hand i looked at it and i said many of these people are legitimately fleeing tyranny dictatorships persecution from their fellow muslims at times how are we as christians to respond if muslims were willing to stand against the spirit of the age and risk their families lives and safety to save jews how am i responding to this muslim refugee crisis am i taking sides while i'm a christian and i'm you know my descendants are largely from europe and therefore europe is has a christian history and i need to be against immigration and that was sort of the party line of the refugee crisis and this type of thing or is this more of an issue of laying down our lives for those that are uh the outcast the the terrified the marginalized the desperate the poor et cetera et cetera and there's there's a tension there i'll acknowledge um but one of the things that has also gripped me is to look at the fact that throughout the holocaust the vast majority of the churches failed miserably miserably now again there were those that did what was right the corey ten boom uh the the ten boom family are shining lights in the midst of all of that but here's what's interesting and here's a point that i think we need to take note of i often teach dalton and i often teach the importance of pre-millennialism the importance of understanding that god still has a time when he will literally fulfill his promises according to his word to the jewish people he will indeed rule and reign from zion from jerusalem over the nations he will restore the kingdom to israel and understanding this in many ways embracing this correct doctrine theoretically should should lead us to treat jews properly because we understand they have this ongoing special calling and election even though the majority today are not followers of jesus there is still this ongoing special calling as paul says the day is coming when all israel all of those who remain who survive through the end of this final period of tribulation this time of jacob's trouble all those that are alive when jesus returns they will all be saved there is a prophesied future revival for the totality of the nation a a a a recognition of the fact that he is indeed yahweh god almighty the one who led them out of egypt through the desert and into the promised land okay the one that came down in fire on mount sinai that is the one that all of these crazy gentiles have been talking about for the past 2000 years right that day is coming on the other hand i've emphasized the importance of embracing correct doctrine and the reason for that is because when you study church history you see that oftentimes bad doctrine concerning the jews they are rejected they are permanently they're permanently rejected their kingdom has been taken away they've been judged for rejecting jesus all these type of things that type of doctrine replacement theology often leads to the mistreatment of the jewish people i call it the deadly logic of replacement theology the deadly logic of supersessionism the idea that the church has superseded the jews okay so i'm often emphasizing the importance of correct doctrine as it relates to the jews which will lead to treating them the right way on the other hand let me just say this when we do a survey of those various christians throughout the holocaust that did respond rightly many of them had wrong doctrine many of them had wrong doctrine the muslims that were helping jews i think all christians listening to this will acknowledge they had wrong doctrine but they did the right thing they did the loving thing and oftentimes again here with fai we're emphasizing the importance of understanding and embracing the maranatha plumb line the maranatha message understanding this these critical issues concerning the last days and the return of jesus and anytime correct doctrine is emphasized there's always room for pride embracing these things is no guarantee that we will do the right things and interestingly what often happens in times of crisis when lives are on the line when families are on the line again most recently looking at the issue of the muslim refugee crisis oftentimes people's actions do not line up with their doctrine and this is something that we need to always be aware of that unless your doctrine is undergirded with a love for god yes but also a love for people oftentimes that doctrine is largely irrelevant i won't say it's completely irrelevant but it loses it loses so many of uh so much of its value okay i mean i think another real common example in the church today is we could look at these various ministries um that are essentially heresy hunters you know they're discernment ministries their whole job is to essentially criticize other ministries now again some of them do a good job there are you know ministries that hold ministries accountable there's a lot of corruption in the church today okay the church needs accountability but oftentimes i think all of us will acknowledge that many of these ministries that become critical of other ministries they can just be incredible jerks i mean just like absolute jerks like you do not speak to another man that way um just incredibly unchrist-like incredibly unchrist-like unloving just rude you know behavior and and i look at that i go okay you know um lord have mercy on me you know lord give me eyes to see that i would not ever be such a jerk and you know to be fair i probably am at times um i probably have been a jerk like that no i mean i'm sure i have been a jerk like that um a million times okay so this is a danger for all of us we need to be aware of the importance of not just having right doctrine but having it undergirded with love and tempered with love if not i just we're lost you know like as paul says without this i'm just a clanging gong or banging symbol i'm essentially just annoying making a lot of noise okay this is just foundational it was a big issue in the first century it's been a big issue throughout church history and it will continue to be a profound issue in the church in the last days second issue i want to look at is the error of balaam and the nicolasians and these two are essentially linked together to summarize what they are it's the error of gnosticism okay now we talked about in one of the introductory sessions we discussed the difference between the greek philosophical worldview that was so predominant throughout the middle east throughout the mediterranean basin again alexander the great swept out of europe out of macedonia and and conquered the entire middle east and with it he brought hellenism it was very much a ethnic cultural imperialistic project he didn't just bring you know dominance he brought with him greek philosophy the greeks believed that their philosophy was important for they were evangelistic with it so to speak and so by the first century again a couple hundred years after alexander the great there's this wave of hellenistic thought and on the other hand you have biblical worldview biblical philosophy a hebraic mindset and those two world views are in conflict so one of the big issues that the early church was dealing with were people who converted most often gentiles who converted to biblical faith but they were still holding on to elements of their greek philosophical worldview and one of the defining characteristics of the greek philosophical worldview is essentially that the earth the physical realm below is bad it's inferior the spiritual the immaterial realm above is superior and so essentially the goal of true spirituality is to escape the shell of the body right to escape this lower carnal physical body to become pure spirit and then ascend into these various levels of enlightenment in the afterlife this type of thing that's sort of the idea of the greek philosophical worldview the biblical worldview is that the lower realm the earth the physical realm the material realm in the beginning he created it and it's good it's good the earth is good the planet is good and he also created the heavens and they're good okay then you have the fall you have the fall in the garden you have the rebellion of some of the angels you have the fall of satan okay you have multiple falls all of which cumulatively have corrupted all of creation there are fallen principalities governing in the spiritual realm there's corruption in the spiritual realm there's corruption on the earth there's the curse on the earth there's like a lot that's wrong with current existence right but in the fullness of time in christ all things in heaven and on earth will be redeemed and thus from a biblical perspective we're looking forward to the resurrection of our bodies the renewal of all things the renewal of the planet the restoration of eden right so what you had in the first century is you had christians that had embraced biblical faith they were going to church they were teaching others but they embraced elements of greek philosophical worldview and these are often referred to as the gnostics now it's a little bit more complicated than that because just like in the church today or in any segment of the church today there's all sorts of different versions and forms of gnosticism and the greek philosophic greek philosophy has all sorts of different sort of streams and threads and ideas common within it but what i just laid out is a pretty good general overview okay so what are we dealing with here with regard to the error of balaam and the nicolasians essentially these were two different ways of framing this problem that was within the church where you had people that were endorsing licentiousness okay so the opposite of phariseeism they were essentially saying like look we're our spirits are saved our spirits are born again we are citizens in heaven we are seated uh in heavenly places this type of thing so therefore what we do in the body it really doesn't matter because we're just going to sort of escape the shell anyway we're going to discard it you know like an empty hull the main thing that matters is what's inside and so there was a a license when it comes to sloppy grace so to speak and there was a lot of immorality and a lack of holiness quite frankly and there was license for these type of things so let's look at uh some of the statements here so in revelation two verse six again this is the church in ephesus he says yet this you do have that you hate the deeds of the nicolaitans which i also hate so again the church in ephesus hated this this doctrine of gnosticism that was common in the churches in the first century and again i would argue it is widely popular in the church today particularly in the charismatic church especially among those that embrace what's often referred to as overly realized eschatology which is to say kingdom now theology um dominionism post-millennialism this idea that we are presently seated in the heavenly there's all the emphasis is on sort of these invisible spiritual realities we see it in we see it in the prosperity gospel movement we see it in the hyper-healing movement we see major threads of it quite frankly coming out of movements such as bethel church and reading massively over-realized eschatology essentially saying that all of the things that jesus died for on the cross are fully ours now yes we'll receive them in the fullness after he returns but now we have access to them we can essentially access the fullness of those things now if we only stand according to his word in this type of thing and so that applies to health ultimately in the same way it applies to prosperity if you're applying the same doctrine to the issue of wealth you know jesus died for us so that we should be inherit all things therefore we should be wealthy by his stripes we are healed past tense therefore we should be perfectly all healed now as opposed to um in the resurrection okay i agree with the idea that jesus died on the cross so that we would inherit all things that we would be fully healthy we'll be restored ultimately at the resurrection and yes at times the lord heals now i've talked about this quite a lot in the past but there's no guarantee there's no promise that we're going to be healed every time now and whenever we try to put all the emphasis on the now we end up with bad doctrine bad doctrine concerning healing prosperity and in the hyper grace movement what's often referred to as the hyper grace movement which is is kind of becoming a thing of the past in terms of its prominence and so forth but it's still very popular in the church the idea is that like yes maybe i am sinning maybe outwardly you know whatever it might be i'm looking at pornography i'm filled with anger and lust and then maybe i'm lying and whatever but that's not who i am that sort of metaphysically i'm only going to focus on what the bible says about me which is i am holy i am perfect i am as he is this type of thing and so often times repentance is majorly minimized they say when you repent you're focusing on the negative you're essentially agreeing with satan that says you're a sinner you're not a sinner anymore you're perfect you're holy and all this type of thing and it's kind of like the guy quite frankly that breaks his leg you know and the bone is sticking out of the skin and he's going no i'm healed in jesus name you know i'm i'm confessing that which is metaphysically true according to his word i'm healed you go brother the bone is sticking out of the skin right now i'm healed in jesus name i can see the snot running down your face at this moment right now it's coming down no i'm healed i'm healed in jesus name and it's sort of like this living in unreality and the same thing with the hyper grace movement i'm perfectly holy you're addicted to pornography you're in sin right now no i'm perfectly holy you know it's this complete disconnect from reality this complete disconnect from reality it was a big problem in the first century church gnosticism okay let's just call it for what it is gnosticism is incredibly popular in the church today in fact i would say it actually dominates much of not just the charismatic church but even evangelicalism overly realized eschatology is very prevalent throughout much of evangelicalism today i know it's incredibly controversial but it's true and this is why having a proper eschatology helps us to balance out what the bible says concerning our present condition and realities now versus what they will be again i'm charismatic i believe in healing now but i believe that much of what is preached in the church today is essentially metaphysical gnostic um it's just it's unbiblical it's error it is the error of the nicolaitans okay so and then to the church in pergamum in chapter 2 14-15 jesus says this he says i have a few things against you because you have there some who hold to the teaching of balaam think of that he says you have in your church they hold to the teaching of balaam then he explains he says balaam kept teaching balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of israel to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality so there it is he says you have people that say hey um it's okay to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality and then he says so you also who in the same way hold to the teaching of the nicolaitans okay so here in the church of pergamum you have jesus clearly equating the error of balaam the teaching of balaam with the error of the nicolaitan so he essentially tells us what the error of the nicolaitans is it was gnosticism it was this idea that engaging in acts of immorality doesn't matter again coming from that greek philosophical worldview it says well i'm saved on the inside i'm spiritually saved therefore what i do with my body doesn't really matter i'm gonna just discard it anyway okay and now so the question is do we have this in the churches today i would say today um pastorally speaking i'll be real frank i think some of the biggest dangers in terms of the error of the nicolaitans or the era of balaam is the idea that look i'm saved but it's okay for me to look at pornography um you know it's when you look at the statistics in terms of the number of people in the church really both men and women obviously with men it's much worse in the church even pastors you look at the statistics it's devastating okay so it's fine you know as long as that's handled properly or whatever um that's fine um it's okay you know for me to get drunk uh it's okay for you know like cussing and swearing is is just super common and then the other issue to be quite honest is smoking weed or let's just say drugs and alcohol probably in the same category especially now that weed is becoming increasingly legal and when i got saved 20 years ago like there was no way that a christian would be like yeah i think it's fine to smoke weed and i i see it like all the time now and you hear all the arguments now i want to be clear i'm not someone that says you know sort of like the pharisees that says jesus says don't get drunk therefore don't even touch the wine don't don't touch don't you know we build a fence around it so that we don't even go near it i'm not someone that believes that having a glass of wine is a big sin okay but the scriptures are clear getting drunk is you know this is just these issues are increasingly dangerous and i think there is kind of a an attitude in the church increasingly today um that just says this stuff doesn't really matter and this is a big issue jesus rebukes it he says we should hate this attitude again i'm not saying that we should embrace this hyper pharisaical attitude toward holiness there has to be wisdom like i'm a father parenting kids through this age the age that we live in right now back when i was a pot smoking little pagan teenage right this is utopia this is the utopia that i dreamed of legalize weed like this is fantastic now that i'm a parent i've got adult children and i've got teen children and i've even got younger children it's terrifying you know like weed's gonna be legal everywhere pastorally this is just a big issue it's terrifying and so when i talk to my kids i try to be realistic about it you know i'm like look there is a difference between weed and getting really drunk and cocaine and crack and all these other drugs like i have very frank conversations with them and i think we all should um i think we you know we don't want to go so far as to be rigid pharisees because i can tell you you look at the kids whose parents were pharisees and they end up becoming some of the worst they fall the hardest and on the other hand you don't want to be you know the stupid hippie that says i'm just going to get high with my kids it's all cool no there is a place for holiness okay because look biblical faith is about relationship with god it's not just about rules it's about relationship and so we have to walk these things out ourselves and be aware of the the danger that's present for all of us um in falling into the error of the nicolaitans by the way um a few of the early church fathers irenaeus let me see here i've got a couple quotes yeah irenaeus in against heresies as well as uh hippolytus or hippolytus they both state that nicholas the nicolaitans were those that followed the teachings specifically of nicholas who was one of the seven that were chosen as deacons um in the book of acts i think it's chapter six yeah in acts six so here you have these seven deacons that were that were prayed over and and sort of you know laid hands on by the apostles and nicholas went on to become an apostate and so there was sort of a movement within the church that embraced the teaching of nicholas it's gnosticism it's gnosticism and it's again common throughout the churches today okay so we're going to look at the error number three the error that was very prevalent in the church in the first century it's been prevalent throughout the church throughout history and it's increasingly common in the churches today this is the error of what i'll call gentile arrogance and ignorance which is anti-semitism again arrogance and ignorance two things okay ignorance most often for what it's worth is not a bad thing most often ignorance is something uh you know look i'm ignorant of way more things than i am knowledgeable of right like you can't help ignorance you can't help not being aware of things but as it relates to israel's special calling in election paul the apostle specifically says don't be ignorant if you do you're in tremendous danger and if you're arrogant toward the natural branches romans 11 he says you're in danger yourself of being cut off and so in the church today i'm going to say you know where does it come from i see it on youtube in particular i see it in the comments increasingly over the past few years i see it in many of the teachings there is an incredible sort of revival of all kinds of anti-semitic conspiracy theories and ideas and theories and doctrines now let me just say this in the bible there are all kinds of statements that are incredibly harsh as spoken toward israel toward the jews incredibly harsh going all the way back to moses you look at deuteronomy 32 the song of moses it is a harsh rebuke of israel but it's coming from the lips of moses right this is very much an in-house rebuke it's coming from a father who loves his children as it were in a profound way right but what happens is when gentiles then appropriate some of those terms with while missing god's ongoing special calling and love and affection for israel you end up with all of these crazy ideas but not just moses the prophets have some harsh things to say about israel john the baptist jesus some statements in the new testament but these are again in-house rebukes these are you know like what someone says brother and sister or father and son you know within a family to one another is very different than what someone can say in the grocery store and there's a lot of gentiles that don't seem to understand this they pull various statements out of the bible and then they mix them with some of these sort of ideas and doctrines and theories and conspiracy theories about the jews they want to take over the world let me just name a few of the some of the prevalent ones right now there is what i'm going to call noahide panic the noahide laws panic you see this all over youtube the jews the orthodox they're trying to enforce noahide laws onto the whole world stay away from the noahides and and this type of thing and it's sort of cast as this satanic antichrist demonic conspiracy that the jews are trying to force jewish laws onto the gentiles to enslave us that's very common you'll have people that will quote portions of the talmud not having any idea about the nature of talmudic literature or how it's written but they'll quote these various statements and they'll say the jews have all these plans they refer to gentiles as idiots and evil and we need to control them and they're like dogs and pigs and you know they'll pull these various quotes from the talmud and essentially infer that all jews today believe this okay so you've got sort of um misquoting or pulling out of context various statements out of the talmud because people don't understand the talmud records conversations between rabbis and and and different things and they were they were relating to specific things that were deal that they were dealing with at that particular time and so it's amazing how you can pull out a quote out of a conversation and not realize that it's one guy playing devil's advocate or this type of thing and then they'll say that this is you know again what all jews believe are this type of thing so you see a lot of that i consistently see statements concerning the synagogue of satan and that they'll essentially say well that's basically the modern um talmudic jews you know the orthodox jews in israel uh that's the synagogue of satan any synagogue that doesn't believe in jesus is the synagogue of satan you see this all the time again particularly in the comments on youtube um the synagogue of satan then there's other ideas that the jews in israel today they're not really the jews they're kazarian converts from the this sort of ancient uh kingdom in turkey and they can i won't get into all the history of that that has been scientifically genetically debunked widely debunked and it's easy to debunk biblically by the way to say the jews in israel today are not the real jews that's not israel they're fake jews you see this all the time and then oftentimes in much of the hebrew roots movement they say well we are the true israel we are the lost tribes of israel even though they're actually gentiles they say because we've been called to torah that's a sign that we are in fact part of the 10 lost tribes of israel and we're true israel but the israel in the land of israel they're fake israel it's very easy to debunk biblically because when the scriptures when the prophets speak of the antichrist and his armies invading the land of israel god calls them my people israel so the antichrist is going to attack israel in the land of israel that live in the land of judea in in and around jerusalem the people that live there today according to the bible are israel okay now there's much more to it it's kind of a complex issue in terms of well what about the 10 tribes and all of these things that's not the purpose of this discussion but the point is you see that all the time so let's touch on this issue of the synagogue of satan at least okay revelation 2 verse 9 to the church of smyrna paul um jesus says this i know your tribulation and your poverty but you are rich and the blasphemy by those who who say they are jews and they're not that they are a synagogue of satan okay so he says they say they are jews but they're not jews they're a synagogue of satan again to the church of philadelphia chapter 3 verse 9 he says behold i will cause those of the synagogue of satan again who say they are jews and they are not they lie he says i'll make them come and bow down at your feet and make them know that i have loved you okay so what is the synagogue of satan what is the synagogue of satan what was jesus talking about so there are a couple possibilities now you had something that happened at the end of the first century which was as there was this political tension so to speak in the roman empire among the jews that were not followers of jesus versus the jews that went to synagogue and were followers of jesus there was this tension and they added what's called the curse of the menim this is sort of the curse directed specifically toward believers and followers of jesus it was a curse that was part of the weekly sudor the ritual the the various prayers and so forth that they recited in the synagogue there was actually a curse directed towards so obviously the christians couldn't go i mean the messianic jews and gentiles couldn't go to synagogue and curse themselves right so there was this this um tension this division that was happening so there was likely persecution um by some of the non-messianic jews directed toward the jews okay so there is that reality on the other hand there was something that culturally we need to understand okay so in the roman empire you had to go to the roman temple and participate in those rituals which included engaging in immorality with the temple prostitutes that was part of the ritual you know that was part of going to church sleeping with the temple prostitutes you had to make a sacrifice to idols and then there was also obviously the issue of taxes you really couldn't escape that taxes to uh caesar but there was sort of this acknowledgement of caesar which was done ritualistically through the temple sacrifices so in acts 15 when they go you know they have the council and they go like what should we make the gentiles do and they go look we one thing's clear we can't have them engaging in the temple ritual so therefore we need them to join themselves to a synagogue why because according to roman law if you were part of one of the accepted religions there was an exemption if you were part of judaism if you were part of one of these established ancient religions they had laws that says you don't have to participate in this pagan sacrifice and these immorality you don't have to you're not legally obligated okay so this was kind of a way that gentiles could avoid participating in things that were immoral for them okay so they would join themselves to a synagogue there were many gentiles that joined synagogues and much of it was to avoid participating in these pagan temple rituals okay so that's essentially probably what was happening here and then what you had just to add further to this is you had gentiles proselytes that would have actually formed their own synagogues they were not jews they said they're jews but they're not and what is likely possible here is that you had essentially synagogues again gentiles who form synagogues who say they're jews that are not do we have that today i would argue yes you know and look i want to be clear i i don't have universal problems with the hebrew roots movement but there are elements of it that are incredibly increasingly anti-semitic anti-semitic ideas coming out of the hebrew roots movement and much of the hebrew roots movement for what it's worth are not jewish you know some of them maybe later do the dna swab and find out they're five percent jewish or you know this type of thing but not raised jewish raised gentile raise pagan raised in the church whatever it might be and then embrace torah and embrace uh you know a torah observant lifestyle and this type of thing and you know there's a whole issue there but then later become very anti-semitic so it seems as though some of these and these were not messianic that's what's interesting gentiles were persecuting the the messianic synagogues or the churches so to speak they were actually persecuting the christians they were trying to out them okay so this is um in all likelihood what we're dealing with again it could have been that they were actual ethnic jews that were persecuting the christians and i'm sure there was plenty of that and again jesus rebukes them um but i just want to make the point here that does not mean that every jew today is part of the synagogue of satan the fact that people use that term today to refer to anyone simply because they don't believe in jesus to call them followers of satan while ignoring paul's warnings don't be arrogant toward the natural branches that have been cut off don't look down on them and mock them don't you know that the day is coming when they will all be saved because if you have that arrogant attitude you a gentile a wild branch that's been grafted in you're in danger of being cut off and so there's so much more that we could say here about anti-semitism in the church in the in the congregations um in the hebrew roots movement we see elements it's amazing they borrow ideas from the even the black israelite movement that's exploding throughout the african-american community here in the united states it's it's essentially a cult it's kind of like you know the nation of islam except rather than islam it's a it's just it's a cult and incredible anti-semitism and they're drawing ideas from that and this type of thing it was a problem in the churches in the first century it's a huge problem today and let me just mention this dr michael brown just released a new book and off the top my head i can't remember what it's called but i think it's like anti-semitism in the church or something like this and he deals with all of these issues i'm going to call it the new anti-semitism a lot of these new ideas that are springing up that are becoming very popular get the book i think it's an incredibly relevant book in light of what we just discussed for our times now finally i'm going to touch on this statement we're going to go a little bit over in time but i think it's very relevant i will keep you from the hour of testing okay so revelation 3 verse 10. because you have kept the word of my perseverance i will keep you from the hour of testing that hour which is about to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth so again this was to the church of philadelphia jesus said because you have kept the word of my perseverance i will keep you from or through the hour of testing now it's interesting how people understand this is often contingent on where they stand with regard to the rapture so pre-tribbers will often appeal to this as a proof text for the pre-tribulational rapture the idea that we will be raptured the church will be raptured previous to the tribulation pre-tribulational right seven years before the return of jesus the classic pre-wrath guys i think we'll interpret this rightly um as not supporting a pre-tribulational perspective and the post-tribulational guys the guys that believe that will be raptured at the very end of the final seven years would also interpret this i think more rightly now let's look at an important statement because i think this is a good statement that really again we're just touching on this we're going to come back to the issue of the rapture and i know many watching this are pre-trib and i say this with all uh respect there are great theologians and men of god and women that hold to the pre-tribulational rapture i don't i hold to what i would call a hybrid between the pre-wrath and the post-trib perspective i i think the pre-wrath and the post-trib have some correct ideas but i think the most accurate perspective is neither the classic pre-wrath nor the classic pre-trib we'll get into that some more later but that's essentially what i hold to but a good passage i think that really debunks the pre-tribulational understanding of revelation 3 10 is the words of jesus in john 17 verses 14 through 15 and then verse 20. jesus is praying again this is just before he goes to the cross and he says i have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world they're not of the world therefore the world hates them even as i'm not of the world he's praying to the father i do not ask that you take them out of the world but to keep them from the evil one notice the statement there is to keep them from the evil one not out of the world but to keep them from the evil one despite being in the world of which he is the god of this world the evil one is the god of this world and they're essentially living in his backyard he goes i don't ask that you would take them out of his backyard but rather you would preserve them while living at the mouth of the beast so to speak i do not ask on behalf of these alone okay verse 20. i do not ask on behalf of these alone at his time for the mid acts dispensationalist guys that would you know they they break up the new testament they're like well this portion of the gospel is not for christians today and you know it's just jesus says i'm not asking on behalf of these alone but for those also who believe in me through their word in other words for any believers down through history my prayer is not that you would take them out of the world you would preserve them you would keep them from the evil one and that's the way that we should understand revelation 3 10. the statement is not saying i'm going to rapture you and remove you out of the world rather i'm going to keep you from the hour of trial that's coming so there was a tremendous persecution that was coming upon the earth at that time and the lord promised to keep them they were not raptured right the church in philadelphia was not raptured in the first century there was no rapture and that's the first application of the letter is to the churches in the close of the first century right like this is just um so what about the church in the last days is this a statement about the pre-tribulational rapture no it's the same thing that jesus said here in john 17 it's it's that he would preserve us now there's a principle that post-tribbers hold to which is called the goshen principle this is the idea that while israel was in goshen in the land of egypt despite the fact that the plagues were poured out on the land of egypt god made a distinction between goshen and the rest of the land and he preserved israel through the midst of the plagues so post-tribbers would often appeal to this principle they would say look we're going to go through all kinds of horrible stuff in the last days the world will but he'll preserve us he'll keep us through this he'll keep us in other words we won't be lost it's not about rapturing us out of the world okay that's the post-tribulational perspective now the pre-wrathers will their main argument is emphasize a distinction between the persecution of satan the tribulation and the wrath of god and to say yeah we'll be raptured before the wrath of god and again i agree with that principle as well but i also agree with the goshen principle i think sometimes the pre-wrath argument concerning the distinction between the persecution of satan and the or gay the wrath of god i think sometimes that's overplayed a little bit if i'm to be honest i think that we have to acknowledge the goshen principle as well that that will be active throughout the tribulation but ultimately ultimately what matters is that we're preserved from the wrath of god in terms of those that are cast into the lake of fire in this world we're going to have all kinds of difficulties and regardless as to how you classify it well that's the persecution of satan the wrath you know all these type of things when all is said and done we who are his followers will be standing before him with our hands raising just and faithful and holy and righteous and true are you oh god we'll be worshiping him with all of our hearts filled with joy indescribable sorrow and sighing will flee away gladness and joy will overtake us and we will look upon him with our eyes so i'm going to end it right there i'm not sure if dalton is going to continue or expand upon revelation 2 and 3 the 7 letters or not i'm not sure right where we're going to go next week but for this week our time is up so thank you for being with us i look forward to seeing you next time until then god bless and maranatha