Prophecy Part 3

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Well, bless you good for coming out this evening again and just gracing the place. I can hardly think of a warmer congregation in the last year or two that I've ministered to, although we've had a lot of blessings over the years with just really warm reception and good interest. [00:00:38] The only improvement I can think about has to do with these empty pews on the right here, your left. I'm not sure what's going on here, but I think maybe in the morning you have your youth sit up here, right? And then in the evening or afternoon they can disperse and no one wants to sit where the youth were or something. It's kind of what I think is happening. We really are like sheep, aren't we? Yeah, the Lord has said that about us as people. [00:01:11] We are a good bit like sheep. But you're good sheep. You're nice sheep and I've enjoyed these sessions with you. In this third session, I do want to address one of the issues that I had raised earlier as being one of the things, one of four things that really focus our differences when it comes to between the allegorical and the literal position on prophecy and so on. [00:01:50] and that has to do with Daniel's vision or specifically though I'll allude to the vision as well I do want to refer mostly to the dream of Nebuchadnezzar and you recall that story from Daniel 2 and you can be turning to that second chapter of Daniel and it will focus on the dream of Nebuchadnezzar The dream and its interpretation was revealed to Daniel after Nebuchadnezzar could not recall the dream but was troubled by it. [00:02:32] I had said that Nebuchadnezzar's image and the 70 weeks that Daniel was told would be performed on Israel and the discussion of universalism in 2nd Thessalonians and in Revelation 13 the passage in 1st Thessalonians about the taking out of the church and then Revelation 20 where it talks about the thousand year time when Satan would be bound [00:03:08] as being some of the passages that have the most to do with focusing the different positions on prophecy. So again, for want of time, I hope you can appreciate the fact that I think when I last taught this course as a course at the Bible Institute, Subtitles by the Amara.org community And while it may seem that long, it really hasn't been. About three, three and a half hours, something like that. So I simply decided over the last while and specifically finally put it together just a few days ago as to what I would share. [00:04:23] And I'd like to just make the, with the illustration from the dream and vision of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar, the kinds of problems, questions, issues that come to the fore, come to the surface, As we try to understand what the Lord was trying to tell us back then, 7th century B.C. all the way through to the revelation that John was given in about 95 A.D. [00:05:05] If you're with me now in Daniel 2, well, before we read that, it might be good just to look at this briefly and be familiar with my transparency here. I'm not an artist, and ignore the section 7 predictions of Jesus there at the top. That comes from a class I taught in the book of Matthew And in Matthew 24 I did refer to this [00:05:38] Just simply to help young people be oriented a bit On the biblical story and prediction of western civilization And it is western in this regard that the nations of Daniel's vision and Nebuchadnezzar's dream those nations were Middle Eastern which was the cradle of civilization [00:06:12] that's agreed upon even by non-biblical scholars that fertile crescent there of the Middle East was the cradle of civilization but out of that in relation to Israel you have the dominant political, cultural, ethnic group that was the Roman Empire which actually there is no real date in history [00:06:45] for the dissolution of the Roman Empire and both Christian and Muslim politicians have dreamed of the resurrection and rebuilding and the reinstitution of the Roman Empire and the most recent very serious attempt at its recreation would have been in the 1930s and early 40s under Hitler [00:07:15] Where he was wanting to basically rule the western world and maybe even beyond it But initially at least the western world, the Roman Empire And set up an empire that would last a thousand years Can you imagine where he got that? He didn't read the Bible himself and made no profession of being Christian [00:07:46] But the devil certainly had his hand in that as well And I really believe that Hitler's aspirations were a demonic pseudo-kingdom of what God intends to do in restoring what was lost in the fall. He was going to do it with the super race of even super Germans [00:08:23] by careful breeding of just the best of the Germans and raise up an Aryan race that could set up a kingdom Anabaptism that would last a thousand years I don't know how many of you have retained some connection with Pennsylvania Dutch or German How many of you talk Pennsylvania Dutch? Let's see your hands Well that's a goodly number But in some churches like in Holmes County and so on [00:08:54] Most of the hands go up But the more churches I visit outside of older Mennonite communities the fewer people can speak any of it but in the German he would talk about das tausend Jahre Reich the thousand year kingdom or the thousand year reign actually Reich would be best translated kingdom the thousand year kingdom [00:09:24] that he was going to set up Well, it lasted from 1933 to 1945, 12 whole years. It was quite a bit short of his dream or vision or desire and intention. But here I'd like for you just to look at this briefly and get a handle on it somewhat. And my using of dates here are not dates that I pulled out of my own research, [00:09:56] but these are historically although in a few cases by a few years you have historians differ as to what the dates are but for the most part these dates are very well established historical fact and at the most would vary only a few years in the minds of historians who have done more research on that than I have and most literalist Bible-believing students of prophecy would do what I have done here [00:10:34] so I'm not doing it on my own either. You know, this late in human history, it really is hard to be original. Did you know that? We are at a distinct disadvantage. I like the way one person put it. He himself was well educated, so he did this in kind of making fun about our dilemma. He said, when you think that you have thought an original thought, if you keep it for just a few years at the most, you will discover it was thunk before. [00:11:08] Thunk is not a word, but literally it was thought before and someone has spoken to it before you. So it's very hard to be original. So much of what I know, besides what I know intuitively, all of what I know, I have learned from someone. And from scripture and history, the four animals, creatures, in the visions of Daniel in chapter 7, apart from the dream that was revealed to him in chapter 2, [00:11:48] I have discovered a few Bible scholars over the years who question, none of them who say no way, but who question whether we should mesh these like this. My personal opinion is that they mesh perfectly. I really think that this is a more detailed, Daniel's vision, is a more detailed duplication, replication of what was revealed here of the basic kingdoms of the world in relation to Israel. [00:12:41] Now, in this time period, there were other kingdoms. China existed, the Far Eastern people existed, India existed, and then you had peoples of smaller groups, even in America, who existed as well. So we're not talking about them, but we are talking about, and the Bible talks about, nations that rubbed elbows with Israel and were involved in the life and times of Israel. [00:13:19] And what we have here is a, this is simply a simple image of the head of gold. You can tell I'm not an artist and I haven't mastered how you do these things on computers and I made this before I even had a computer. I had decided some years ago that I was raised Amish and all these years I've been a pastor and a preacher and a teacher and didn't have a computer. I can live and die without one, but about ten years ago I decided probably I better get one, and so I did, and so now I'm part of that tribe of people who do their mail mostly by computer and stuff like that. [00:14:09] And it is a wonderful invention, but it has me mystified as to how these little chips can hold all that information. But here you have this image with the head of gold, the breast and arms of silver, the mid part of the body of brass, the legs of iron, and the feet of iron and clay. and you have the vision explained by Daniel [00:14:42] that clearly says without any controversy that the head of gold is Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon and then you have the Medo-Persian Empire who takes over the Babylonian rule that's the silver and then the Greeks under Alexander the Great come into the picture and remember this was done a long time [00:15:12] the Greeks came on the scene in 330 and Daniel prophesied back here in the 7th century BC that's why the liberals used to say there had to be a pseudo Daniel Because what was prophesied back here in the 7th century B.C. started being just copied, filled out Actually, again, you have some historians dating Rome from 68 B.C. and some as late then as about 28 [00:15:53] I just went kind of in between and made it 30, but somewhere around there You had the birth of the Roman rule. It did vary and it depends on when you give them credit for having taken over the kingdoms ruled by Greece. And that kingdom was divided into four kingdoms and that is told in the story of the animal called the leopard, that vision that Daniel had. [00:16:26] And those details, like when Alexander the Great was dying, he gave the information, he gave the will, verbally, that his four generals should divide the kingdom between them, rather than to fuss over and fight about who should be the ruler after him. and so you had a four, a quartered Grecian world for a good period of time here and then Rome comes on the scene [00:16:57] and Rome, actually at the time of our Anabaptist movements beginnings in the 16th century they were still talking about the Roman Empire and some would say, some historians would say I want to say that the total disintegration of the Roman Empire has never really happened. It's simply been divided into smaller segments and in the end time would come together again and wind up with about ten kings or ten leaders out of which will come one leader that appears to be the Antichrist and then a religious leader, the false prophet. [00:17:45] But here are the questions. You have these kingdoms, and even if you allow for the disintegration of the Roman Empire in 1453, and some historians would say that was its demise. that's when the Roman Empire ceased to be a Roman Empire and that was simply at the time when what we now know is Istanbul, Turkey or was then known as Constantinople [00:18:17] that fell to the Muslims in 1453 well 1453 to 1456 it was a drawn out siege and battle that finally culminated in 56 but even if you take that as the end of the Roman era you still have that happening within about 500 and about 600 a little less than 600 years [00:18:47] from now but long since with as early a start as after world war one you have the dream born in western politicians' minds of having a unified Europe. And they now have their unified currency and are fast working toward a singular government for western Europe. [00:19:20] There is opposition to it in some cases, but that is definitely in the works. And persons no less than our own President Reagan and the first President Bush, both of them have actually said, and these are not quotes now, but they have said that they think the only real cure for political unrest and war is a world government. [00:19:58] A singular government and it would have its seat in Europe and it would be primarily the old Roman Empire with much of America adding its recent additions of eastern people, far eastern people But even the Latino influx into America has its roots in Europe, Spain, Portugal, and so on. [00:20:30] And so we would have Europeans dominating the American scene, Canada, Mexico, and South America. So the whole American Western scene is also predominantly European. And so if it becomes a world government, then other nations, far eastern and so on, may or may not become a part of it, probably will though, out of necessity or pressure. [00:21:04] But the point is that the Roman Empire relates to and is involved with and alongside the Israeli world. And Israel ceased to be a nation, well actually they fell to Roman governance there before the time of Christ, just slightly. But they ceased to be a nation very literally in A.D. 70 [00:21:36] And then were reborn as a nation in 1948 Now one of my first and most influential instructors in prophecy was the late Not Emmanuel, Elam Peachy, brother to Emmanuel Peachy From the Big Valley in Pennsylvania and he was a walking encyclopedia on scripture relating to prophecy [00:22:06] but he said he remembers very well as a young married man in the 1939-40 era he was teaching Sunday school and they were talking, they were studying the book of Daniel just studying texts from the Bible And he made the comment in his class that he believes that in his lifetime he will see Israel restored as a nation. [00:22:42] And he said one of the older brothers in the class laughed out loud and said in the class, What have you been eating or drinking or reading that makes you think such a wild idea? And went on to say that God is finished with national Israel, that the church is Israel now, and there's some truth to that, we are the spiritual Israel, we've been grafted in, but that's said in Romans 9 and 10 and 11, right? [00:23:15] We've been grafted in, but it's also said there that if God could graft us in, why couldn't he have the original branch come back to life and goes on to say he's going to do it? And someday all Israel will be saved, he said. Well, anyway, we'll not have time to go into all of that. But I want to make the point that what we read here in Daniel 2, and then comes through in more detail in Daniel 7, is a biblical prophecy of the successive nations in relation to Israel. [00:23:56] And the question is this, as I stated here, when did or when will, and the question needs to be phrased both ways, when did the stone smite this image at the feet and destroyed it entirely? It became chaff, as it were, and the stone became a mountain that covered the earth. [00:24:29] When did that happen? Or has it not yet happened? When will it happen? That's the real question. And that's a basic issue. Does the stone depict Christ's first advent or his second advent? Well, go with me now to Daniel 2, and we won't have time to just go through all this chapter. [00:25:02] But let's pick it up where he tells the interpretation to the king, starting at verse 36, Daniel 2, verse 36, where Daniel speaking now says, This is the dream, and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. Thou, O king, art a king of kings, for the God of heaven has given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. [00:25:39] And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven, has he given into thine hand, and has made thee ruler over them all. You are this head of gold. Is there anything hard to understand there? No question. He is saying, Babylon, under Nebuchadnezzar, is the head of gold. [00:26:15] After you shall rise another kingdom, inferior to thee, and then another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over the earth, over all the earth. and the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron for as much as iron breaks in pieces and subdues all things and as iron that breaks all things shall it break in pieces and bruise [00:26:50] and whereas you saw the feet and toes part of potter's clay and part of iron the kingdom shall be divided But there shall be in it of the strength of iron For as much as you saw the iron mixed with miry clay And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay So the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken [00:27:22] And whereas you saw iron mixed with clay or miry clay They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men but they shall not cleave to one another even as iron is not mixed with clay. Let me just say that very clearly the history of Western Europe fits this description. where Europe was from about the 9th century [00:27:56] right on up through to the French Revolution made up of lots of different governments and they were often fighting with each other trying hard to gain some dominance And in the minds of the more powerful politicians of Europe for that half a millennium, about a fourth of a millennium, 500 years [00:28:27] up to about the 18th century you had dreams of reestablishing the Roman world, the Roman Empire. That is clear history, but they could never get it together. It was like, yeah, you had iron kingdoms, kingdoms with a lot of power, but they couldn't get them all together. There was clay in the mix. [00:28:59] And iron and clay don't cleave. You conform it so you have in the image what Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream and what is described by Daniel You have feet and toes of iron and clay And then verse 44 In the days of these kings Let me stop right there Kings is plural [00:29:31] But at the time of Christ's first event How many emperors were there in the Roman Empire? One One emperor They would not have stood for two Even up to the 4th century When Diocletian died in 311 and he was a fierce persecutor of Christians and Jews from about 295 to 311 when he died. [00:30:06] When he died, there were two young men that were groomed to be emperors and you had Roman senators and Roman generals in the army behind two different men. One of them was Constantine, the other was a cousin of his. And they did not allow the kingdom to be divided as late as 311. [00:30:38] And that is 311 years after the birth of Christ, the first advent. And 280 years, round figures, 278 years after Pentecost. The Roman Empire still did not allow but one emperor. And so what they actually did, instead of doing like they did in Florida back in 2000, count and recount, and still argue about it, [00:31:11] what they did back then is the Senate decided that the two emperors should have a battle between them. A day and a place for them to meet. They were not so much to fight each other as each of the armies at a given signal by trumpet would make the effort at killing the other emperor, emperor elect, or the aspira, aspiring emperor. [00:31:51] And as soon as one of the emperors is killed, the trumpet will blow again, the battle is over, and all of the soldiers now become the servants of the surviving emperor. That's how Constantine came to power. He had only one emperor. I think it's important that we note that simply for the interpretation of this dream within the context of history. verse 44 again [00:32:23] In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the kingdom shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever And for as much as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands And that it broke in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, the gold [00:32:59] The great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter And the dream is certain and the interpretation thereof is sure And then you have Nebuchadnezzar's response of worship. The fact that this man, Daniel, a slave from the captivity of Israel, [00:33:31] could not only recall and tell him his dream, but could give the interpretation of it, made Nebuchadnezzar fall on his face and began to worship Daniel as apparently a demigod in his mind and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odors to him and Daniel of course deflected that and pointed him toward worshiping God instead of him [00:34:05] Now let's come back and ask the questions again that have relation to this. Those who have an amillennial view, those who are more allegorical and figurative in their application of biblical prophecy, They would say that this dream, this vision, dream by Nebuchadnezzar interpreted by Daniel, of course by the Lord through Daniel, the stone is Christ and it had to do with his coming the first time. [00:34:49] But you have some real problems Rome was a young, vibrant, powerful kingdom It had no vestiges of iron and clay It was a long time before the iron and clay But the basic question is, is the striking of the image by the stone that destroys the nations of the world [00:35:28] the first advent of Christ or the second? And it just now comes to mind, and I did not check the reference, but in the book of Revelation I think you will recall that at one point the announcement is made by an angel now the kingdoms of this world and that was done in 95 AD [00:35:59] but speaking of future events because the revelation is about events to come after 95 AD And there it said, now the kingdoms of this world have become, what? The kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. If the smiting of this image by the stone not made with hands [00:36:30] was the first advent of Christ, then it was extremely gradual, All. Not cataclysmic at all. Because it was a good three, four hundred years afterward before you could begin to think in terms of iron and clay. And it was at least a hundred years afterward that it was prophesied that in the future sometime the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. [00:37:08] So consequently, the early church fathers, and then in the time of the Reformation, some of the Protestants, a few of the Anabaptists, there were a few Anabaptists who picked up on this, Anabaptists who from their literal, their kind of simple literal biblicism, they picked up on the idea that there will be a literal millennium. [00:37:41] But most Anabaptists, for the reasons I gave this afternoon, where they were reacting to the Munsterite rebellion and all of that, which they were not true Anabaptists, they were not in mainline Anabaptism. They were Anabaptists in this that they were re-baptized, but they were not mainline Anabaptists at all, and would never have ascribed to the Schleitheim Confession of Faith, because they weren't even nonresistant. [00:38:17] They took over Munster by force and then the Catholic militia surrounded the city and starved them out And on a given announced day they went in and killed every man, woman and child in the city of Munster And it was a misguided kind of millennialism Because the leader had said that the Lord told him in a vision that he was returning in six weeks and that Munster would be the site of the New Jerusalem. [00:38:52] A crackpot idea. It was not biblical at all. But our Anabaptist forefathers were not that concerned about eschatology and prophetic positions and they were schooled. Those who were educated as priests, and many of them were, priests and monks like Michael Sattler, They were schooled in Catholic eschatology, which was amillennial. And Menno Simons, Michael Sattler, many of those men were amillennial. [00:39:25] And rejected millennialism as an aberration. But someone like Hans Huth, who himself was not that well educated, Not at least in history and theology From his studies of the Bible He became Achilleus, a millenarian He was a premillennialist And preached as effectively, if not more effectively [00:39:57] Than any other first generation Anabaptist It is quite well documented That he may have baptized as many as 10,000 converts in 22 months of ministry. Now that's baptizing a lot of people on the profession of their faith, mostly as adults and young adults, in the preaching and clandestine meetings. And he had only about 22 months in which he could do that, [00:40:28] and then he was arrested and racked on the rack, thrown back into his cell unconscious, and in his struggles apparently in his unconscious state he upset the lantern that was in his cell and it lit fire to the damp cot straw tick on which he was lying and smoldered and he suffocated in the smoke of that [00:40:59] and died in the cell then both from his injuries, his body was probably in shock from having so many joints out of place from being racked on the rack but he was a very effective evangelist and he was a millenarian, he was a millennialist in our terms, pre-millennial and he was first generation Anabaptist. He's kind of my favorite for that reason but I'll leave it at that. [00:41:32] Now let's focus on the question, because let's face it, if we can be quite clearly convinced, and then convincing, when we speak to others, that this stone striking the image is yet future, and doesn't mesh with the first advent, Then the whole question, not of all the interpretations and applications, but the whole question of whether or not there is a literal kingdom in the future [00:42:13] or whether the church age is the allegorical kingdom of a thousand years, an indefinite period, will be resolved. Here are the questions, you might want to take them down Very logical, right questions of whatever persuasion we are Or if we're just a seeker As to what is the actual interpretation of this issue [00:42:44] Or the resolution of it These four, these five questions Let me give you five questions The first question is What or who is the stone? And most Bible scholars, I think all what we would call Bible-believing Christians who are not theologically liberal would say without a question, the stone is Christ and his kingdom [00:43:15] Second question, when does the stone strike the image? And I have focused on that mostly up to now Now, when does the stone strike the image? At the time of Christ's first coming? And I've already raised a number of the problems with that. Or is it yet future? The third question that needs answering is Does that verse 44 in Daniel 2 [00:43:50] Let's just go back and note that again so that we are focused on that I shouldn't have closed my Bible here on that In Daniel 2 verse 44 44 you have this question or this observation made as I referred to it in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed now does verse 44 preclude any succeeding kingdoms [00:44:33] it seems to me the answer is obvious by preclude we mean it cancels out the possibility in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the kingdom shall not be left to others, other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all the kingdoms and it shall stand forever So the question is logically asked, could there be another kingdom after the stone strikes? [00:45:14] If the answer is no, how do you explain the most powerful nation in all of human history emerged just a bit over 200 years ago? on these shores 1,775 years after the Christ event. [00:45:45] You get the problem? You see the problem there? The fourth question, which is a longer one, but I think it needs to be articulated. The fourth question is that if the first three kingdoms are successive after Babylon, which makes four kingdoms, gets us to the Roman kingdom. If those are successive, is it consistent to see the kingdom of the stone as concurrent with the fourth kingdom? [00:46:25] It's an expansion of the question three, the previous one. But here's the question. You had Babylon, and then you had Medo-Persia, and then you had Greece, and then you had Rome. But you didn't have Babylon and Medo-Persia. And then Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece. Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome [00:46:56] One kingdom followed another And now is it logical, consistent to think that the kingdom of the stone, the church as the allegorical interpretation would make it the kingdom of the church runs concurrent for now nearly 2,000 years with the kingdom of the stone [00:47:30] or the kingdom of the stone runs concurrent with other kingdoms and the most powerful kingdom in human history Quite easily you could make the case that America, the U.S., has become the most powerful kingdom in human history. And even if that shouldn't be the case, if you would argue that issue, the point still is that you have very powerful kingdoms in the fragments of the Roman world. [00:48:08] and we are part of that. In the fragmentation of the Roman world, you have extremely powerful kingdoms that are running concurrent with the kingdom of the stone. And then I have a last question. Now, let me give you the fifth question, but the sixth one just came to mind. At 73 you're still not too old to learn, but this just popped in and I'll come back to it. [00:48:41] The fifth question is, is the destruction or the end of the fourth kingdom, the smiting of the feet, is that a cataclysmic destruction? or is it so gradual that you can have it happening over 2,000 years and you still don't have a dominance of the kingdom of the stone over the kingdoms of the world? [00:49:17] Very logical question, I think. and I've seen people squirming under that one and not knowing what to say but now I have another question and it just popped into my mind I think it was the Holy Spirit because I'm not smart enough for this but this popped into my mind how would you reconcile the smiting of this kingdom, this image as being the first advent of Christ [00:49:48] with Jesus' own teaching in Matthew 7 that there are two paths, two ways that are before man. The one is a wide way that leads to destruction. The other is a narrow way. And the Greek words there for the numbers are this. Most go the broad way, few go the narrow [00:50:23] How can the kingdom of the stone be the kingdom of the church When Jesus said those in the narrow way will be the few And those in the broad way will be the many And yet it says here, Daniel interpreted this saying, that in the days of those kings, God will set up a kingdom that will destroy all the other kingdoms and basically rule the world. [00:51:03] We haven't done it in 2,000 years. You follow the questions that I'm raising there and the points that I'm making in regard to that and I would like now with only about 10 minutes to go I think to just have the to give you a quick overview of the events of the end time taken from Daniel and Revelation [00:51:36] Revelation, where you have seven specifics mentioned between the two revelations, Daniel and Revelation, with Revelation giving more detail than Daniel on most issues. But you have the concept of global government, you have the concept of global religion, and a controlled economics, the mark of the beast. [00:52:08] Now I'm not sure what that's going to be, but not until the last decade, ten years. Have we had the technology and even serious conversation about having a chip placed in every person so that no one could hide? [00:52:45] And you could have your credit card with a cashless society. And of a chip, and they have miniaturized those to the point where even now, they could inject a chip in saline solution through a fairly good sized needle and place it under the skin of your forehead or the top of your hand. It's chilling. [00:53:19] It's chilling. The mark of the beast, a controlled economics, and great tribulation also foretold by Jesus in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 as a parallel passage. Great tribulation such as never was before, nor ever shall be again. Then you have deliverance for God's people depicted both in Daniel and Revelation, also talked about by Paul in Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians 15. [00:53:54] You have Armageddon or the last great war articulated in both Daniel and Revelation, mostly in Revelation. and then you have the resurrection and judgment again clearly articulated in both major books of apocalyptic literature then in the eternal ages you have the new heavens, the new earth, the new Jerusalem [00:54:28] and the removal of all the effects of the curse When my hair started graying and they went fast, I would meet people who hadn't seen me from the time I had dark hair until I had light hair. And I would meet people and they would, you know, we'd kind of re-get acquainted and so on. But invariably, many of them would say, [00:55:01] What happened to your hair? I heard that so often I finally said I really need a smart alecky answer and so I came up with this one what happened to your hair? I'd say I've gone to powdering them and then they would just kind of look at me and they knew that wasn't true but someday I'm going to have hair that are even whiter than these [00:55:32] Did you know that? We're going to be like Jesus and when John saw Jesus, what was the color of his hair? White. White as snow. Bright white. So this is pretty close. But that's not what I'm really excited about. I'm excited about this. I'm going to get a new body that will never grow old. I met a husband and wife pastoral team. [00:56:06] Well, she's not ordained, but pastors' wives are part of the team, believe me. But, or at least ought to be. And I met them again just recently. And she's older than I. He's about my age, but she's a bit older than he. And they both were not doing very well. He had rolled their car and was kind of beat up. and she had I think a knee replaced or something and I said Gladys how in the world are you I knew she was kind of full of fun and everything oh she said Walter I'm falling apart one piece at a time and then it just hit me and I said well Gladys you know what the worse the worse off we get in this life the bigger will be the change when we hit the next dimension and she said that's a good thought I'm going to latch on to it [00:56:59] You know, the worse we get in this life, the bigger will be the transformation when we get into the next life. And that's what we can look forward to. And that's what's prophesied for us. Not only new environment in the heavens and the earth and the new Jerusalem. I don't know who all is going to have quarters there. But in any case, you have the new heavens, the new earth, the new Jerusalem [00:57:30] But the effects of the curse will all be gone In the cosmos itself And in our bodies And in our spirits And in our souls We will be perfect like Jesus Now that is an awesome future to look forward to. A few other things, just kind of quick-like, and now I'm really out of time. [00:58:07] Give me about four minutes more, can we do that? Won't charge for it at all. The end-time signs, I'd like to whet your appetite to go to Matthew 24 and just look at them. You have end time signs. These are the words of Jesus himself. He talks about religious signs where there are false prophets, false Christs, and signs and wonders done by false prophets. [00:58:41] Paul talked about it in 2 Thessalonians 2 as well. Then you have national and political signs where there are wars and famines and pestilence and tribulations Even apart from the great tribulation which is the judgments of God upon the earth But you have lots of things happening in the end times and even the public media. Occasionally you'll hear them pondering why all these tragedies. [00:59:22] But they've only begun. Then there are the cosmological signs having to do with the cosmos, the earth. Earthquakes. Well, we have better communication and better detection of earthquakes than we've ever had before. However, in the records of earthquakes, since records have been kept, there has been a marked increase in both the frequency of and the intensity of earthquakes. [00:59:56] And that's not just by Bible scholars who are kind of wild eyed But this is hard science and factual record keeping Famines and pestilence Did you hear just recently about the ants in Texas? Did you hear about them? Little ants about the size of fleas and they haven't found anything that effectively stops them and kills them [01:00:28] and they're giving them fits down there and they're multiplying so fast that it's scary. But that's just a small thing by comparison. Solar and lunar effects. The moon turning to blood, looking like blood and the sun being darkened and not giving its light and then the sign of global evangelism and the covenantal sign taken also from Romans 9 through 11 the budding of the fig tree the restoration of Israel spoken of also in Ezekiel 37 can you see how there are really so many things we could talk about we actually could have an all night meeting and not get finished [01:01:22] But my brother reminded me one time when, and he's as punctual as my father, and he was usher for years, he's a bit older than I, he was usher at our church for years, and he was very supportive and still is of my ministry, but he thought I really should honor my father a bit more by being a little more punctual with my preaching. And I said, well, Paul preached one night the whole night. He said, yes, but when someone went to sleep and fell out the window and died, he could raise him to life. [01:01:59] But until you can raise people to life, you ought to stop on time. And I've not had the experience of raising anyone to life, so I will stop soon. But I do want to give opportunity in these last few minutes, if you have a pressing question that you would like to ask, God wants to give you the opportunity to do that.