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Revelation – Preterism Refuted, Futurism Defended Pt 1 Studies in Revelation By David Downs Bible Text: Revelation 1:1-3 Preached on: Sunday, March 14, 2010 Cornerstone Baptist Church 3370 Snow Hill Road Chuluota, FL 32766 Website: www.cornerstoneorlando.org Online Sermons: www.sermonaudio.com/cornerstone And the text is verses one through three of chapter one. But when we get into the book of Revelation, there is a lot of foundational work that has to go into understanding the book. The book of Revelation is the scariest book in the Bible and yet the most comforting book in the Bible. If you think of... Why would you say that it is the scariest book? Well, picture yourself in California during... no, let me put it more up to date. Picture yourself in Haiti under a—what was the number of that earthquake, eight something, seven or eight or something like that? 8.7. Wow. Picture yourself in Haiti in the midst of that earthquake with the repeated rumblings. Or, picture yourself in Europe during the bubonic plague, during the black plague and seeing your neighbor go through horrible, excruciating torturous death and then another neighbor and another and another and another. And you come to church and your church of, let’s say 100, dwindles to 70 and then within a few weeks it is down to 50 and within a few weeks it is down to 20 and you see people, all the people that you know dying horrible, excruciating deaths. Or picture yourself in London when the Nazi bombers fly overhead and pound that city relentlessly with one bomb after another bomb after another bomb. Some that you may be more familiar with would be operation Desert Storm. You remember that on television as the soldiers were over there and they were showing just the... it was like fireworks, just brilliant flashing lights of all of the explosions. Picture yourself over there in the midst of that. Or, to put us in the book of Revelation, picture yourself in the midst of all of those going on at the same time. So you are in the midst of the worst earthquakes that you have ever seen, tsunamis washing over like you have never seen, plagues like you can never imagine, meteor like bombs flying, pounding the earth one after the other after the other, strange demonic creatures roaming the earth slaughtering hundreds of thousands of people, the water source becomes poisoned. You go outside and the burning heat. We

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don’t know the temperature, but burning your skin as you go outside. You go outside and you begin to see your skin almost instantly bubble up and crack open. So we can see why the book of Revelation is, perhaps, the scariest book that we have ever looked at or that is in the Bible. And yet it is the most comforting book, because those who know the Lord will escape all of that. That is called the great and blessed hope of the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And because the book of Revelation, you will notice what it says down in verse three. “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.”1 There is a blessing. This is the only book in the Bible where there is a specific blessing attached to the study of it. Now, of course, studying any of the Bible will bring you great blessing. But this is the only book in the Bible where it specifically tells you, “Blessed are you who read this.” Jack MacArthur tells about an evangelist named Munhall, I think it was, and this evangelist would read through the entire book of Revelation every six weeks for years. And when Jack MacArthur asked him, “Why do you do that?” he said, “Because I don’t want to miss the blessing that God has promised to us.” So as a result that the book of Revelation can bring the greatest conviction upon the wicked, can bring the greatest comfort to the righteous. Another point. The book of Revelation is the greatest manifestation of the glory of Christ. In other words, it is the highest christology. In other words, if you want to do a study of Jesus Chris and say, “What is Jesus Christ like? I want to do a theological study of Christ. Take christology. I want to find out what Christ is like so that I can enter into worship. I can worship him the way that I should be worshipping him.” The book of Revelation is greater than any other book in the Bible. You say, “But wait a minute. The gospels are four books—Matthew, Mark, Luke, John—and they are page after page about Christ.” They are page after page about Christ in his humiliation. Revelation is page after page about Christ in his exaltation. So the book of Revelation gives us the highest Christology. We now see Christ never once in the book of Revelation in humiliation, but consistently in exaltation as almighty God, the ruling Son of God, the wrath of the Lamb being out poured. You can imagine. This book has been horribly maligned, 1 Revelation 1:3.

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misinterpreted, sadly even a guy like Martin Luther said, “There is nothing in Revelation that my spirit can relate to.” Zwingli said it is not even a book of the Bible. John Calvin never wrote a commentary on the book of Revelation. So the book of Revelation has been under great attack from about the fourth century, late third century and fourth century on. There are seminaries. I was listening to one theologian. He said the seminary that he went to was a Presbyterian seminary and when he went there over in Scotland, this was S Louis Johnson, he said he wanted to hear what the professor taught about the book of Revelation so he signed up for the book of Revelation and he went and the entire semester was spent in the first three chapters. He said, “We never got to the wrath of the lamb. We never got to the millennium, the Second Coming and the eternal state.” Why is that? Because there was a movement in the early Church, around the 300s and 400s, that was anti-Semitic and anti-millennial. What happened with these believers in the early centuries... Well, at the earliest centuries, all Christians uniformly were Premillennial. But when you get past that and you have the growth of the... what is called the Alexandrian school of theology... And I am going to be throwing out a lot of terms. I don’t want that you slow you down. I have got a lot of them defined here. We will look at this together. The Alexandrian school of theology which was heretical... Bible believing theologians consistently acknowledge that the Alexandrian school of theology was heretical, but one of the... and, of course, we are talking about Alexandria, Egypt. And so just as there is... you know, there are university towns and there is entertainment towns. You know, certain cities are known for certain things. Well, Alexandria was known for a school of theology that was very anti-Semitic, hated the Jews and all Jews believed that the millennium was literal. They believed that Jesus Christ, not Jesus... The ancient Jews believed that the Messiah was going to come to earth and establish his rule and his reign on earth for a literal 1000 years with Israel ruling and reigning in Jerusalem. That was the belief of the ancient Jews. When the early believers came to Christ, “Lord, will you at this time establish your kingdom?” That was the natural question of the Christians. And he said, “It is not for you to know times.”2 He didn’t say, “No, I am not going to establish the kingdom. The kingdom is in your heart.” He didn’t say that. He said, “I am just not going to tell you when. The time and the seasons are not for you to know.” Well, then some heavy weight theologians, Jerome and Augustine, took an Amillennial approach, an anti-chiliastic is the term, an anti-millennial view of the book of Revelation. 2 Acts 1:7.

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And so let me show you on the page where it has the views of the millennium so that you can see. The first view, the very top one, is called Premillennialism. And for our sake, we are going to be talking about pre-tribulational Premillennialism. And what Premillennialism says is this. Jesus Christ is going to return to earth pre, before the millennium. And the word “mille annum, millennium” is a thousand years, before the thousand years. Premillennialism says that Christ will return before the 1000 years. So you will notice the Premillennial chart. You have the cross in the beginning there. You have the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which formed the body of Christ. By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body. And so the Holy Spirit is essential for the body of Christ to exist. You don’t have the body of Christ in Malachi or Daniel or that kind of thing. You have the body of Christ with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. And, as a result, that forms the Church, the Church age that we live in now. You will notice Revelation one through three covers that period. Then, the next event, the immanent event is what is called the rapture or the catching away of the Church off of the earth. Then the world will be plunged into a seven year period called the tribulation period or the time of Jacob’s trouble. We know that these are exact numbers because when we get into Revelation we will talk about the exact numbers. There is the seven year tribulation period is broken into two parts in the book of Daniel, in the book of Revelation, into two parts, the first three and a half years and the last three and a half years. The first three and a half years is the tribulation. The second three and a half years is the great tribulation. And the you have the Second Coming at the end of the tribulation and you read about the tribulation. That is what chapters four through 19 cover in the book of Revelation. So as we are going through chapters four, five, six, seven, et cetera, as we go through those chapters, we are going to be talking about this tribulation period. And then there is the Second Coming of Christ where he comes to earth, his foot touches the Mount of Olives. It splits in half. He establishes his throne and, the Bible specifically tells us in Revelation 20, for 1000 years we, his saints, will reign with him on the earth. Then there will be the resurrection, the second resurrection which Revelation speaks of as the resurrection of the wicked. Daniel speaks of it as the resurrection of the unjust who will be raised to damnation. And they will then be cast into hell, the lake burning with fire and brimstone and then we will enter into eternity. I was speaking with a Presbyterian not long ago and she said to me, “You mean that heaven is only 1000 years long?” I said, “Not at all.”

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See, there is what happens is Revelation makes perfect sense if you just open it and read it. Yeah, let me show you something. Look at verse one. Verse one of chapter one. “The hidden enigma of Jesus Christ.” Is that what it says? “The mysterious puzzle of Jesus Christ.” “The you are never going to figure this out, buddy, of Jesus Christ.” No. The word for revelation is apokaluqiv (ap-ok-al’-oop-sis) where you will get the English word apocalyptic or apocalypse. apokaluqiv (ap-ok-al’-oop-sis), apocalyptic literature in the English mind sounds like catastrophe. These are apocalyptic dimensions. These are apocalyptic times. This is disaster. That is not what apocalypse means. Apocalypse means to unveil. Apocalypse means to manifest. Apocalypse means to reveal. So when you see this, it says, “The apocalypse of Jesus Christ,” he is speaking of the unveiling, the revealing, the manifestation, the understandableness. Finally now we are going to understand what it is all about. So on your notes under views of the millennium, obviously we hold to the Premillennial, pre-tribulational return of Christ. There is a view which is called non-Dispensational Premillennialism and basically what it says is this. The entire Church age is the tribulation and then Christ will return and he will start his millennium. I call non-Dispensational Premillennialists, frustrated Amillennialists. And you will see why I say that in a moment. If you think of the order this way, you have a lot of guys started out Postmillennial because of guys like Jonathan Edwards who was Postmillennial, believed that the world is getting better and better and the Church is going to be the Church triumphant. And we are going to bring in the kingdom. And then Christ will look over the banisters of heaven and say, “Wow, it looks really good down there. I think I will join them.” And then he comes and joins the party and here we are just having a great time on earth. Well, all you need is World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, war, war, war, famine, disaster, disease, AIDS, et cetera, et cetera and the Postmillennial nonsense pretty soon becomes nonsensical. It also does not fit the sound teaching of the Bible. So what does a Postmillennialist do? Heavens to Betsy, you don’t want to become a Premillennialist, so you become an Amillennialist.

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So Amillennialists are frustrated Postmillennialists. Does that make sense? In other words, a Postmillennialist sees his whole eschatology, his whole view of he end times falling apart in the face of reality, says, “Well, we don’t want to become Premillennial.” Why don’t you want to become Premillennial? “Well, that is view of the Jews.” See, all you have to do is read the history of Amillennialism and you will see it is rooted in anti-Semitism. You would be shocked at the way Church fathers spoke of the Jews. Martin Luther said that the Jews are beasts whose tongues should be ripped out of their heads through the back of their necks. That is like what? “So whatever view the Jews hold, we don’t want to hold that, so we are going to hold something else.” And you go back to Augustine and Jerome who were the heavy weights in the Roman Catholic false harlot system and so what did they believe? They believed in Amillennialism. All right, so what is Amillennialism? Look on your views of the millennium here. You will see the cross and the cross, according to them, began the millennium. The millennium began with the first coming of Christ. So we are in the millennium. Now, the reason that sounds strange to us—first of all it is strange—but we are not used to their Scripture twisting. We are not used to the way the Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Lutherans and Methodists twist Scripture to come up with this idea that we are right now in the millennium. And here is how they do it. Jesus spoke about the kingdom of God, didn’t he? Jesus spoke about the kingdom of God as having two sides to it, the internal reign of Christ over his followers and the external reign of Christ on earth. The Amillennialist says, “No, it is only the internal reign of Christ in the hearts of his followers. There is no external reign of Christ.” So we would agree the kingdom came with Christ. And when you are born again, he said, “Unless you are born again you will not see the kingdom of God.” Paul said in Colossians that God has translated us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son. So if you are born again, you are right now translated into the kingdom of his dear Son.

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But we are certainly not in the millennium. But their confusion has come by blending kingdom and millennium to mean the same thing. The kingdom of God begins in the hearts of his followers and then when Christ comes the second time he will establish his kingdom on earth which is called the millennium. They ignore the fact that Christ is going to establish his literal millennium and, as a result, the kingdom is in men’s hearts only. And as far as the Church... well, they say that began with Adam. Does that sound strange to anybody? So where did Adam go to church? Who did he fellowship with? You know, I guess Eve, you know. Who was Adam’s pastor? Oh, they had the Lord’s supper. They had baptism? No, they didn’t. So Amillennialism is an atrocious, disastrous, unbiblical twisting of Scripture in order to conform to originally the false teaching of Augustine and Jerome and to establish the rule of the Catholic Church. Bible believing Christians—it is interesting—when the Bible church movement, the fundamentalist movement started in the early, late 1800s, early 1900s and people began to study God’s Word, if you just open the Bible and read it as it is written, inevitably you will end up being a pre-tribulation Premillennialist. You can’t avoid it. So the Amillennialist says, “No, ah, there is no millennium.” Well, go to Revelation 20 with me. Again, we are just setting the whole book because the glasses that you wear when you come to the book of Revelation will color how you understand it. Revelation chapter 20 is the death blow to Amillennialism. Amillennialism says, “Ah, there is no 1000 years.” Amillennial. A, no, millennium, thousand years. Ah, there is no thousand years. All right. Revelation 20 verse one. “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for...”3 Ah, there is no millennium. “And he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till...”4 Ah, there is no millennium. 3 Revelation 20:1-2.

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“But after these things he must be released for a little while.”5 Drop down to verse four. “And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ...”6 oh, there is no millennium. Verse five. “But the rest of the dead did not live again until...”7 ah, there is no millennium. “This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him...”8 ah, there is no millennium. Verse seven. “And now...” Ah, there is no millennium. Do you see how unscriptural that nonsense is? What a strange theology to be a no theology... that is like being an A-theist. That is like, what do you believe? Well, I can’t tell you because there is no God. I don’t... there is... I can tell you what I don’t believe. I can’t tell you what I do believe. Right? And so what Amillennialism has done to the book of Revelation has made it a sealed book, has made it a sealed book. It put a seal on it. It has made it... And all you have to do is read their commentaries. When you read Premillennial commentaries, it is very lock step. It is very consistent. You have the rapture. You have the tribulation period. You have the antichrist. You have plagues and seals, trumpets and bowls and you have the Second Coming and you have the millennium and you have eternity. Those are the basic outline skeletal parts that if you begin at the beginning of Revelation and read through it, that is what you come up with. But if you say, “Well, the plain sense, I know it makes common sense, but I don’t think it

4 Revelation 20:3. 5 Ibid. 6 Revelation 20:4. 7 Revelation 20:5. 8 Revelation 20:5-6.

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makes common sense, so I am going to seek another sense,” you will always end up with nonsense. And their commentaries are disastrously ridiculous. I mean, they will say things like we are in the millennium right now. All of the events of Revelation took place according to them in the first century. So when you read Revelation, according to Amillennialism, you are not reading future, you are reading past. You are not reading prophecy, you are reading history. And yet what does John say? Look in chapter one verse three. “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this history.” Is that what it says in verse three? “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy.”9 This is a foretelling of the future. It is the Revelation of Jesus Christ. So on your views of the millennium, you will notice Premillennialism is first. That is what we believe. Amillennialism is the idea that there is no millennium even though the Bible clearly teaches that there is a millennium repeatedly and even though the Old Testament is filled with promises and prophecies of the Lord Jesus Christ coming to earth and ruling and reigning on earth for a period where the lion lays down with the lamb and a child plays in the hole of a snake. And I mean it is an amazing blessing as we get into the book of Revelation. Amillennialism and Preterism has slammed that book shut. And their interpretations are nothing more than fantasy unlimited, wild speculations. Postmillennialism, as I mentioned, the Church age is the millennium and it just gets better and better until Christ comes back. So Amillennialism and Postmillennialism are not biblical. We are going to reject those. But then there is the views of interpretation which are related to those millennial views. The first is called Preterism. The Latin word for past is preter. So Preterism. I don’t know why they use Latin words. I wish they would just say Pastism. It is a little bit easier. I don’t speak Latin. I don’t think I know anybody that does. But according to Preterism, Pastism, Revelation all took place in the first century. Nero or Titus was the antichrist. AD 70... now why do they chose AD 70? Because in AD 70 the Jewish temple was destroyed. Jesus had foretold the destruction of the Jewish temple. And so they are saying that, “Fine.” 9 Revelation 1:3.

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A Preterist is going to say, “I understand the problem with saying that Revelation is history so I have got to turn it into a prophecy which means I have to date Revelation early, before AD 70.” Make sense? Because if Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70 and if Revelation is a prophecy, it has to be before AD 70 so they can prophesy this event. Well, we know from a lot of things, just to make them kind of succinct, the churches that are listed in the seven churches of Revelation were not even planted, not all of them, in AD 70. So they... Smyrna and some others were planted later. But we will talk about the dating here in a moment. Preterism. Revelation took place in the first century. Nero was the antichrist. Nero or Titus depending on... You know, there is different views because it is not tied to reality. AD 70 is the Second Coming, that what they will say is that Jesus returned in the destruction of the temple. That was the Second Coming, that when the temple was being destroyed Jesus was coming in judgment the way he comes in the end of Revelation. Do you see what they are trying to say? Now this view, you can see on your notes, is dependent upon two things. Number one, it is dependent upon an abnormal, a non normal method of interpretation. Some of you have the book Grasping God’s Word. And that has a great ... that is awesome. Chapter after chapter after chapter on how to interpret Scripture in a normal, literal, grammatical, historical method of interpretation. Words mean what they mean and there are figures of speech and symbols and that kind of thing. The problem is when you get to chapter 17 and he gets to eschatology. He basically says, “Now ignore everything I just told you.” Because they have taken the book of Revelation and they have said, “Well, all of the rules of interpretation don’t count because Revelation,” according to them, “is an apocalyptic genre of literature.” Well, we can understand you interpret poems different than you interpret the financial page. But with either one, you use a normal, literal, grammatical, historical method of interpretation. Whether it is a poem, a letter, a narrative a legal document. There are rules of interpretation. And part of those normal rules of interpretation are figures of speech. If I say to you, “Man, it was raining cats and dogs a couple of days ago,” do I mean literal cats and dogs were falling out of the sky? Now that is what Preterists, Amillennialists will mock Premillennialists as saying. “Oh, so you think cats and dogs are falling out of the sky.” Well, we are saying. “No. What we believe is that a figure of speech was being used. That figure of speech which was being used, was being used in order to emphasize the literal, not to eliminate the literal.”

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If I say, “It is raining cats and dogs outside,” I don’t mean that is code language for we need to go eat hot dogs and cats... what is a code cat? I don’t know. I will have to think of that one. Yeah. So now I am going to take... and, well, it is not really raining. What I mean is we should all go somewhere and have hotdogs. No. We don’t believe literal cats and dogs are falling out of the sky. But we also don’t mean that it is not raining. Figures of speech are used to emphasize and clarify the literal. Notice what it says in Revelation one. It says in verse one, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show...”10 Underline the word “show,” not to hide from. “...which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and...”11 Underline this next word. “...signified it.” The word “signified” can be understood more easily if you break it down like this. S I G N, sign. I, fied. Sign-ified. In other words, he gave it to him using signs and symbols. The signs and the symbols were given not to hide the message, but to make what is being said more clear. “That woman’s husband is a monster.” Am I saying, number one, she doesn’t have a husband? Am I saying she is literally married to Godzilla? No, but I am saying, “That woman’s husband is a monster.” Monster is to highlight and clarify instantly in your mind with one word, with one picture what I am talking about. “Oh, that woman’s husband is a Hitler.” You say one word, boom, and a whole bunch of things are clear to you, right? The figures of speech are used to clarify. Christians are to be doves. Boom. Clear. Christians are lambs. Christians are warriors. See, all of those different figures of speech are used to clarify, not hide anything. One word can take what... you know, the old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

10 Revelation 1:1. 11 Ibid.

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A figure of speech is worth 1000 words. It is a way of saying something and making it really clear and drawing your emotions into it, too. “That pastor is a wolf.” Pretty clear, right? I don’t mean there is no such thing as that pastor and I don’t mean that he is literally a wolf, but using that figure of speech instantly tells you what I mean. I don’t have to even go further. So God sign-ified, signified his message in order for it to be more revealing because it is a revelation. It is an unveiling. It is a... now we will step out from behind the veil onto center stage. You hear the rumbling behind the veil. But when the veil parts and they step out on to the stage... “Oh, oh yeah. Ok. Now I get it.” It all becomes clear. Preterism does the exact opposite. Preterism takes the truths of the Word of God, specifically in Revelation, and sticks them in a bag. I mean, it just wraps duct tape around your eyes. You can’t see anything. And this is the reality of what is being taught in modern Presbyterian seminaries, not so far away from here. The... they use an abnormal, an abnormal method of interpretation. In other words, to all of the sudden call Revelation an apocalyptic genre where all of the rules of interpretation go right out the window, you can’t use the normal method of interpretation anymore. You now have to use a brand new one. And I just thought, wow. I went to a meeting one time they had where they were trying, I guess... I don’t know what, exactly what they were trying to do at a local seminary. They were trying to talk about prophecy or something. And it just became one slam after the other after the other after the other after the other against Premillennialism. I thought, ok, I know you don’t believe in Premillennialism and your arguments against it are utterly meaningless and weightless, so give me something that you do believe so I can interact with you. It was just shocking. And so that is why when you go and you get commentaries that are written by men who are not Premillennial Dispensational Premillennialists and you read their commentaries on Revelation, they have got the French Revolution in there. They have got Obama in there. They have got, you know, popes or... they have got the Muslims. They have got a time where Mohammed comes into the boo of Revelation. And it is just fantasy unlimited, because there are no lines in the road, you see.

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If it doesn’t mean what it says it means and the figures of speech are not clear and revealing, then what do they mean? Oh, does he have now a new secret decoder ring to tell me what they mean? We all use figures of speech all the time and when I say, “That guy is a Jekyll and Hyde,” you know what I am talking about, right? Like, wow. He has got kind of two personalities. One way to one person, another way to another person, a Jekyll and Hyde. And so that whole thing... Now I don’t have to go get a code book to explain what Jekyll and Hyde will et cetera, et cetera mean. So let me give you a couple of examples of how the Bible itself clarifies its own symbols. Look at chapter one and look at verse 16. “He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.”12 Oh, it is hopeless. Why bother even reading Revelation? “He had in His right hand seven stars.”13 Who knows what the seven stars mean? It is all up for grabs. Well, hold it. Wait a second. Look down at verse 20. “The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.”14 Not real hard, is it? You will find this time and time and time again. When we come to Revelation it will either in Revelation itself do that and tell you, boom, that is what it means. Or there will be another Old Testament book that gives prophecies and those prophecies will use those figures of speech and you will be able to see what they mean. Look at... wow, there is too many of them. Goodness. I am just trying to make this succinct.

12 Revelation 1:16. 13 Ibid. 14 Revelation 1:20.

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A lot of them will come, too, as we get into them. Look at chapter 12 and look at verse four. “His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.”15 You see, if you pull a passage out of its context, it is going to be hopeless. Then drop down to verse nine. “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old.”16 Well, who is the serpent of old? Well, it is “...the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”17 So in verse four the tail of the dragon grabs a third of the stars and they are cast to the earth. In verse nine the dragon is identified and obviously the stars are the angels that went with him. So as we get into Revelation this is... I don’t want you at all to think, “Oh, this is such an enigmatic puzzle. It is just... I am never going to get to the bottom of this.” This is the revelation of Jesus Christ. And, by they way, you will notice the first verse says, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ.”18 The title in your Bible is probably the “The Revelation of Jesus Christ.”19 There is an unfortunate title some years back in the old King James. It was called “The Revelation of Saint John the Divine.” I don’t know if any of you still have an old King James that might say that, “The Revelation of Saint John the Divine.” Well, first of all, that reflects Roman Catholic theology. All Christians are saints. To walk up to John and say, “Saint John the divine,” he would look at you cross eyed. Like, what are you talking about? He would be so... what do you mean saint? You are a saint, too. Or Saint Dave, Saint Bob, Saint Bill. We can just call each other brothers, you know. And the divine, he is certainly not God. Modern terminology divine kind of... what does that mean in modern terminology, kind of like real beautiful or something or... but it is... in other words, it is not there. There is an interesting title in the Majority Text. It is called... in other words, the majority of Greek manuscripts have the title this way. “The Revelation of John the Theologian.” And that is an interesting title. “The Revelation of John the Theologian.”

15 Revelation 12:4. 16 Revelation 12:9. 17 Ibid. 18 Revelation 1:1. 19 Ibid.

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Well, but it is, of course, he is the human author and so we know John the apostle was a theologian and he was speaking about God. But it is really the revealing of Jesus Christ. So let me go back to Preterism so we can wrap that part up on your views of the millennium. The Preterist view which is the darling of Amillennialism, is dependent upon two things. It is dependent upon a non-normal, non-literal method of hermeneutics, of interpreting Scripture. In other words, it is dependent upon your imagination. So now, for example, the allegorical method of interpretation... Now there is nothing wrong with using allegories. The Bible uses allegories in order to make certain truths clearer. Using allegories is different than using the allegorical method of interpretation. The allegorical method of interpretation says this. When you read Revelation or the parables of Christ or the teachings of Christ that is not what matters. In fact, the Roman Catholic Church in the Dark Ages—it is called the Dark Ages because they turned the light out, the light of the gospel—they said the literal meaning of the text is dung that has to be scraped away. And you have got to get to the deeper layers of meaning which, of course, they are the only ones who have the magic decoder ring and the, you know, lucky charms box that you can now understand what those words mean. And so they would say things like, for example, the good Samaritan. You all know that story. As the guy was traveling, a Jew was traveling, he gets way laid, jumped on, beat up and the Jewish Levite and the Jewish priest, they all go by and, “Hurry, I am on my way to go to church. You know, don’t bother me.” I want to learn how to be good so I can’t stop and help this guy.” But the Samaritan goes over, helps him, pours in oil and wine to cleanse the wounds, puts him on his donkey, takes him down to the inn and pays for the inn keeper to take care of him. The allegorical method of interpretation had secret meanings for all of that. The donkey was like a soul winner or something. And the oil and the wine was like the Holy Spirit and something else and then they would take him to the inn which was... I don’t know what that would be. I guess, the Church or something... I mean it is hopeless. It is really whatever you want it to mean. And if you are in a position of authority in the Church, then you can say it in a real stained glass voice. “Yes, the oil and the wine, that represents...” No, it doesn’t. Or if you are charismatic, “Yes, Lord. Oh, the oil and the wine means this.” So we don’t want to do that with the book of Revelation. We just want to read it as it is written and Preterism says, “Ok, I am going to use this abnormal method of interpretation

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because a normal,” and they will say this. All you have to do is read their writings. Read the writings of the Preterists. Read the writings of the Amillennialists. I would recommend go to the library and get them. Check them out and scan through them, because buying them will be a waste of your money. It is a tangled nest. There is no sense, no rhyme, no reason. Each commentary has a wildly different understanding of the book of Revelation. And they will even tell you in their writings, “Yes, if we interpreted this book with a normal, literal method of interpretation the way Premillennialists interpret it, well, yes, it would teach Premillennialism. But we don’t want to go there, so we are going to throw that entire method of interpreting the Bible out the window and now we are going to come up with what Augustine said, what the Catholics said, what so and so said and what so and so said.” To the point where they don’t even write commentaries on Revelation. They go to these seminaries and they usually don’t even have a seminary course on Revelation. And yet Revelation is the bookend to the Bible. You have got Genesis at the beginning and Revelation at the end. Genesis you have the introduction of sin. Revelation you have the end of sin. In Genesis you have the paradise lost. In Revelation you have the paradise regained. In Genesis you have the first tears. In Revelation all tears will be wiped away from their eyes. In Genesis you have the first sin, in Revelation the end of sin. In Genesis the introduction and the growth of Satan’s domination and rule, in Revelation the absolute utter end of Satan’s domination and rule. In other words, if you didn’t have the book of Revelation you end up with Jude which is like apostasy. So that is how it all ends? It is like, ok. I mean, talk about being pessimistic. No. Scripture does say the last days will end in apostasy, but then there is more, right? You have the apostasy and then you have the rapture. And then you have God dealing with the problem of evil. Without the book of Revelation you don’t have the problem of evil finally dealt with. So you need the book of Revelation and you can just see how Satan wants to steal that from you by thinking that it is hopeless, these figures, these symbols, oh, what is the use? I thought to be well. You know, I started reading Revelation, but I couldn’t understand it. Well, notice what it says, verse one. “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his [slaves].”20 If you are not a slave of Jesus Christ, no wonder Revelation doesn’t make any sense to you. An unsaved person starts reading this and they read about stars and meteors and

20 Revelation 1:1.

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dragons and locusts and I don’t know what it is talking about. Scary, but I don’t know what it is talking about. Well, that is because it is not written for you. You may get an intellectual grasp on some of the things we are saying, but reading their liberal commentaries is heart breaking. They will say John didn’t write it. In fact, one of the first Amillennialists, in order to support his Amillennialism, a guy named Dionysus said John didn’t write it. Therefore we don’t have to believe it. See, if you can take away the apostolic authorship of Revelation, then the obvious Premillennialism is now gone. Of course, you have all the other Old Testament passages to deal with. You have the other New Testament passages and the Oliver discourse and on and on. But his thinking was, well, when he was asked, “Well, why do you say John didn’t write it? Why are you saying John the apostle did not write Revelation?” He said, “Because it has Premillennialism in it.” That was his reason for rejecting the apostolic authorship of Revelation. You see how people will go to great lengths to defend their false views of eschatology. Whereas you are going to see, as we get into this step by step, all of this is introductory to the book. And I just figured verses one through three are the best introduction. But I did want you to see and understand that there are views that have been held by well known theologians and sheerly by the weight of those well know theologians people have bought into that view. “Well, what view did Jonathan Edwards hold?” Postmillennialism. “Well, I am a Postmillennialist.” Well, that is now how you do theology. Jonathan Edwards was fantastically awesome on 99 percent of what he did and taught. But he was a man and he was dead wrong on the millennial issue. “Well, what view did, you know, Luther and Calvin and Augustine have?” Oh, they were Amillennial. “Well, then I am an Amillennialist.” Well, that is not how you do theology. That is not how you open the Bible and say, “By the way, what does John MacArthur believe about this? What does Phil Johnson believe about this? What does...”

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You don’t do that. I used to do that when I was a new Christian. I didn’t even know how to study the Bible. I just thought, well, what does Jimmy Swaggart say about that. So... he was my hero for a bit of years. So you get where I came from. The second problem is the early date. It relies upon an early date, pre AD 70 before the fall of Jerusalem and before the destruction of the temple. It relies on that date. The problem is, that early date has to be supported by both external evidence and internal evidence. External evidence is this. When you go back in Church history, what did the earliest guys who knew the disciples of the disciples say? What did they say who wrote it? And 100 percent of them said John the apostle wrote it in 95 to 97 AD under the reign of Domitian, not under the reign of Nero which was in the 60s. So the early date as far as external evidence goes, the support for it is basically non existent. The argument from inside the text, called internal evidence, as to the dating of the book is this. They say, “Well, it had to be written before the temple was destroyed because John talks about a temple in the book of Revelation.” Well, John is talking about the rebuilt temple during the tribulation period. He is not talking about the temple that existed before hand. A number of reasons for that we don’t have time to get into. A book that I would really recommend that you get is called End Time Controversy. And it has got chapters by John Macarthur and others guys. But the editors who compiled all the different authors are Tim Lehay and Thomas Ice. End Time Controversy. And it is the death blow to Preterism. I don’t know exactly how many pages, probably around 400 pages and very well worth reading, utterly shreds. It gives detailed listing of all of the early Church writers, all of the early Church fathers where they held and where they stood on different things. Interestingly, the late date of 95 to 96 which puts the writing of Revelation after the destruction of Jerusalem, so if it is a prophecy as he says in verse three, “ Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy,”21 if Revelation is a prophecy foretelling the future, it can’t be foretelling the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem that happened in 70 AD if it was written in 95 AD. Is that pretty clear? If it is written after the event it is not prophesying that event. And so the late date was universally held, universally held for the first 18 centuries. And it wasn’t until the 19th 21 Revelation 1:3.

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century that some godless liberals who were trying to undermine prophecy in Scripture and they changed the date. Now only for that century did it gain any weight and now for the 20th and 21st century the weight of conservative biblical scholarship dates the book 95 to 97 AD, around 96 AD. We know because John discipled a man named Polycarp and Polycarp knew other men and they all said it was written at a certain time. The internal evidence, for example, again, that is external evidence, the guys who lived in that time. The internal evidence for the late date of the book, again, is so exhaustive, is so overwhelming. I just want to throw out a couple of points. As I mentioned earlier, the Church situation when you read chapter two and chapter three and you look at the churches and the state of decay, if the book was written pre 70 and John had been exiled to Patmos under Nero instead of under Domitian, it would have taken some time for John to have been know. You know, they didn’t have internet and quick phone calls. I mean, he starts preaching. It is going to take a few years. When he got there in the 60s that means that he would have to have been arrested and sent to the isle of Patmos under Nero in the mid 60s. The state of the churches, they had just been planted. Paul had just planted the Church at Ephesus and yet you look at the state of those churches. There is not enough time for them to have that kind of degeneration. Does that make sense? It takes time for apostasy to worm its way in under the teaching of Timothy, Titus and et cetera with those churches. A lot of other reasons, but we will just suffice that. All right, the second vie of interpretation is called Historicism or what I call Historyism. Historyism says that the book of Revelation did not take place in the first century. The book of Revelation is actually telling the entire history of the Church from the first century until now. So there were, as I mentioned, Muslims and popes that were antichrists and the French Revolution and the further you get into it you have the discovery of America and that is all new revelation, you know. The Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses use some of this. For example, in Revelation it talks about 1260 days which is about three and a half years. The Seventh Day Adventists take that 1260 days and turn it into 1260 years. Do you see a problem with that? Turning days into years. And then William Miller, the founder of the Seventh Day Adventists and then later Ellen White simply took their date and back dated 1260 years to some certain event that happened at that time.

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All right. I don’t to get too complicated. I am just trying to show you that Revelation has been under attack. Revelation has been confused and has been bombed. It has been misinterpreted unnecessarily. The third view is Idealism which I just call Principalism. John MacArthur calls it Idiotism. And basically what Idealism says is this. Revelation is a myth, but it is an Aesop’s fable myth. It is a myth that has a point to it. So according to Idealism when you read Revelation forget about trying to apply it and understand the interpretation of it. What you wan to get is the big point of the struggle, the cosmic struggle between good and evil. It is just an ongoing struggle between good and evil. So all of these views have robbed Revelation from the Church. According to the Amillennial Preterism it puts it all... shoves it all back into the first century before 70 AD and therefore we are not looking for the rapture. We are not looking for the Second Coming. We are not looking for an antichrist or a world religious system or the reestablishment of Israel, the Jews in Israel even though all of that is happening. We are not looking for that. It is all done. Historicism, Historyism, Principalism or Idealism. The last view is Futurism. Revelation, when it is interpreted in a normal hermeneutic is a chronological prophecy of the coming tribulation and the Second Coming on into eternity. It is chronological. One of the ways that you will really confuse the book of Revelation is if you try to make it recapitulation where you have the seals. Then you go back and then you have the trumpets. Then you go back and you have the bowls. And you have all these things on top of each other. That is not how it is written. And the way that it is written you couldn’t have those things happening at the same time. They follow each other. But you will notice that the Bible says this. Verse one. “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place.”22 The word for “shortly” is where we get our English word “tachometer,” tacu (takh-oo’) which means rapidity, speed. Jack MacArthur put it this way. He said, “History, the mill wheel of God’s history grinds slowly. But there will come a time when he will slip it into high gear.”

22 Revelation 1:1.

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And all of the book of Revelation takes place within about seven years. So as we have taken 2000 years to get to this point, you will then have the antichrist, the [?], the rapture of the antichrist and the signing of the covenant with Israel and the rebuilding of the temple and on and on. It will just happen rapidly. Revelation, when it is interpreted with a normal hermeneutic, the way you would interpret anything, the way you would interpret anything. You pick it up and you read it. When you read in the newspaper, “Sunrise is at six o'clock, sun down is at seven, eight, whatever, o'clock,” we don’t mean the sun rises and the sun goes down. But we understand that. That is the visual appearance. So we don’t think, “Oh, I have got to call that weatherman. He is wrong again. Don’t you know that the sun doesn’t come up? The earth rotates.” It is like, yeah, I know that. That is called a figure of speech. We need those. They make things understandable. You use a normal, hermeneutic, which takes into consideration figures of speech. My concern with Preterism and Amillennialism is that they don’t take into consideration figures of speech. They take the figure of speech and make them code language without having a real meaning behind them. Whereas, no, these figures have real meaning. “The seven lampstands are the seven churches.”23 The seven stars are the seven angels. This is very clear, stated there. As John MacArthur said, “This is the history of the end of the world. It is the history of the end of the cosmos.” And we are living in terrifying days. We are living in a day with the rapid rise of AIDS, with a drug epidemic that is not just nationwide, it is worldwide, with no leadership in government. Nobody knows what to do. Everyone is fighting each other. They can’t resolve problems. They can’t bring about world peace. There is no leadership in the churches. Everyone is running after the latest wind of doctrine. There are no standards of righteousness. There is no leadership in the schools. And one preacher said, “They can’t even keep the kids in the schools from killing each other and rioting and getting drunk and fornicating.” I was talking to someone the other day and they said they went to a school where there was a bar on campus.

23 Revelation 1:20.

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I thought, oh, that is what you need. That is it. Give them coed dorm rooms. That is brilliant. And give them a bar right on campus. They can just go in. I remember when I was at... taking some courses at USF over in Tampa. This is in the 70s. I went into the bookstore of the college and there is pornography in the bookstore of a secular college. That is brilliant. Just give these young guys whose hormones are raging that kind of filth to destroy their life. That is not leadership. That is wetting your finger and saying, “What do you guys want to do? Ok, we will do that.” That is not what a leader does. A leader figures out what God says is the right thing to do and then heads the whole church in that direction. He says... we are probably not going to have time to go to your notes, but let me just give you a couple of them anyway. Number one on your notes. Revelation was written to reveal. 1a, Revelation reveals. Symbols and figure are there to make things clear, not to make things cloudy. 1b, Revelation was given for Christ’s slaves. If you don’t understand it or you are demonstrating that you don’t understand it by writing commentaries that turn the book of Revelation into a garbled mess that nobody wants to study, then that tells me that you are probably not a slave of Christ, because your eyes are so blind to the simple truths in the book of Revelation. I think that is the state in most of these seminaries. They are being led by unregenerate men and the professors are unregenerate false teachers and they are robbing the Church of the blessed hope. 1c on your notes. Revelation reveals that Christ’s coming is immanent. Notice what it says. “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His [slaves]—things which must [rapidly] take place.”24 When they come, they are going to hit rapid fire. You are not going to have time to catch your bearings. “You mean there was another earthquake? There was another tsunami? There was another plague? There was another war?” All of this happening, day after day after day rapid fire. Then he says, “ And He sent and signified it,”25 he put it into signs. He used symbols, “...by his angel to His [slave] John.”26

24 Revelation 1:1. 25 Ibid. 26 Ibid.

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Don’t call him saint John the divine. Just call him slave John. That is a good biblical name for a Christian, slave Dave. Dave the slave. I like that. Feel free and call me that any time. What an honor to be Christ’s slave. Wow. There is no greater honor. King of the ruling in the Taj Mahal would be a demotion by infinity compared to being a slave of Christ. And he says, “...who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it...”27 Why? Because the rapture is immanent. The time is near. Let me give you a couple of Scriptures that say the same thing. Look over in chapter two of Revelation. And he says in verse five: I want to show you how many time and how frequently the blessed hope is presented to us as at the doorstep, immanent. It could happen before the end of this sermon. In chapter two verse five: “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly.”28 There it is. “[I am going to] come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place.”29 Look at chapter two verse 16. “Repent.” Notice the recurring theme to all the churches, a them that is almost non existent in most churches today. The very message they need to hear, the message of Jesus Christ if he were to walk in to most churches today would be, let’s see, “Repent.” Let’s see, “First Baptist, repent. First Presbyterian, repent. First Methodist, repent. First Nazarene, repent.” Whatever it is, fill in the name, repent. That is what God would say. The Lord Jesus says it repeatedly to the churches here. He says, verse 16, “Repent or else...” See, “Repent or else...”

27 Revelation 1:2-3. 28 Revelation 2:5. 29 Ibid.

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Boy, that is not Joel Olsteen preaching. “Repent, or else...” That is a good teacher. “... I will come to you quickly... I will come to you quickly.”30 The Lord’s return. Look at chapter three and look at verse 11. “Behold, I am coming quickly!”31 Understand the nearness might be a problem for you, might say, “What do you mean his coming is near? It has been 2000 years.” What he is saying is his coming is near meaning the next event on God’s prophetic calendar. Near means next. There is nothing else that has to happen. The coming of the Lord is near. Look at chapter 22 of Revelation and verse seven. “Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”32 Has he warned us that he is coming quickly? Look at verse 12. “And behold, I am coming quickly.”33 Look down in verse 20. “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming quickly.’”34 Is Christ coming slowly or quickly? His return is near. Let me give you a couple of other verses that say the same thing. Go back to the book of Philippians.

30 Revelation 1:16. 31 Revelation 3:11. 32 Revelation 22:7. 33 Revelation 22:12. 34 Revelation 22:20.

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Go to Philippians—Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians—and chapter four. This is in verse five, 4:5. “Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.”35 Look over in the book of James—Hebrews, James, Peter—James chapter five and look at verse seven. “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.”36 The Lord’s coming is quickly. It is near. It is at hand. But be patient for it, because when you are going through Revelation, you are going to be like me. It is like, Lord, maranatha. Right now. I want you to come right now. Come, Lord Jesus. And you are going to begin to get impatient. It is like how come you ain’t come yet? It is almost 12 and he hasn’t come yet. “See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”37 It is the next event. It is immanent. It is hanging over your head like the sword of Damocles. At any moment that thread could break and the Lord could come back. Verse nine. “Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!”38 I mean, that is an amazing thought. If you were to look out your front window, the judge is standing at your door. And he any second could knock, any second could kick that door open, any moment could come back. That is the picture of immanency that Amillennialism and Postmillennialism rob from the Church. They steal the blessed hope from the Church. They are eschatological thieves. They are taking away a major motivation that we have for living the Christian life. All of these great promises. “The Judge is standing at the door.”39

35 Philippians 4:5. 36 James 5:7. 37 James 5:7-8. 38 James 5:9. 39 Ibid.

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What does that mean? It means he is standing at the door. He is near. He is right here. He is about to come back. Be ready. Be sober. Establish your hearts. Look back in Romans chapter 13. We saw this back in chapter... and the immanent return of Christ is all through the Bible. This is not some strange doctrine. The immanent return of Christ is the stumbling stone over which the Amillennialist stumbles and knocks his chin and knocks his teeth out. What do you do with the immanent return of Christ if you say, “No, he has got to... this has got to happen and that has got to happen and something else has got to happen and then another thing is going to happen,” especially post tribulationism. But look at 13:11. “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer [see that? nearer] than when we first believed. The day is far spent, the day...”40 The day of the Lord, the day of the Lord’s return which includes the rapture is where? Oh, it is a long way off. “All things continue as they were from the beginning...”41 Isn’t that what the scoffers and mockers said in the book of 2 Peter chapter three? “All things continue as they were.”42 You know, “Where is the promise of his coming?”43 Well, I am promising you he is coming. Well, where is it? You watch. You just watch and it is going to happen. He says in 13:12, “The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore...”44 In light of the immanent return of Christ, “let us [cast] off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light.”45 Go back to Matthew chapter 24, Matthew chapter 24.

40 Romans 13:11-12. 41 2 Peter 3:4. 42 Ibid. 43 Ibid. 44 Romans 13:12. 45 Ibid.

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And there are those who don’t want to concern themselves with the immanent return of Christ. And he says in verse 36, Matthew 24 verse 36.

But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.46

And understand when it talks of the coming of the Son of Man that is speaking in a general term including the rapture, the tribulation and the Second Coming, just... we have... we speak of it all the time in a general sense, the Lord’s return. “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood,”47 just as in the days before the tribulation period, to use an analogy, in the days before the massive outpouring of the bowls of God’s wrath... Was that not a bowl of God’s wrath, so to speak, as the flood came? “.,.the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken...”48 And, of course, the taken here relates back to the end of verse 39, taken away in judgment. It is speaking of the Second Coming at the end of the tribulation.

...one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.49

Do you see that?

But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.50

Now Jesus, as I said, it is speaking of the Second Coming here which necessitates the rapture spoken of as a mystery in 1 Corinthians 15 and expounded in 1 Thessalonians. But then he goes on to use a parable to make it clearer.

46 Matthew 24:37-38. 47 Ibid. 48 Matthew 24:39-40. 49 Matthew 24:40-42. 50 Matthew 24:43-44.

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“Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes...”51 Do you see that?

...when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’52

“The boss is away. He is not going to be back for hours. He is not going to be back for a long time.”

...’My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him...53

That is the easy believism guy.

51 Matthew 24:45-46. 52 Matthew 24:45-48. 53 Matthew 24:48-50.