Dispensationalism and the Rapture

Transcript

GRM 1261
1/16/2022
Dispensationalism and the Rapture
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

I want to recommend a couple of books to you, one of which you probably already are familiar with, the other you may be as well. This first is “Dispensationalism,” revised and expanded, by Charles Ryrie, this book goes back to I think the 1960’s, but it’s been revised and updated in the 90’s. I think, even if you’ve read it before, I encourage you to read it again. It is a good summary of dispensationalism, which is the approach to the scripture that we follow here at Indian Hills. If you haven’t, stop by Sound Words and pick up a copy. A second one is, “Forsaking Israel,” edited by Larry Pettegrew, a faculty from Raleigh’s Seminary. It’s a little more advanced than Ryrie’s book, you don’t have to read it from front to back, you can pick chapters. Let me just read you one statement that I think is important, and it might be a good chapter for you to start with. It’s chapter 7, you can remember that, but he says, “Dispensational pre-millennialism may not be a popular today as it was during the 20th century.” Then he goes on, “Some young men and women originally discipled in circles that are friendly to dispensational pre-millennialism, may have too quickly have abandoned it in their ministry preparation.” He later comments, “Significantly there has never been, nor ever will be a theologically liberal dispensationalist, nor for that matter a liberal pre-tribulational pre-millennialist, which is basically a dispensationalist. It is impossible because of dispensationalist intense devotion to the grammatical, historical interpretation of scripture.”

And I think that’s foundational, and that’s what I want to talk with you a little bit about. Starting this morning, I don’t know whether we’ll get done this morning, we’ll just see. But I want to talk about the rapture of the church. I want to talk about dispensational pre-millennialism. Something we do often at the beginning of a new year, the end of the old year, the beginning of a new year. I want to focus on that with you today, because its what we are about as a church. There is a move away from it and it’s a rapid move. See the change just in the years that I’ve been pastor here, which have been many years. But when you look at the history of the church for 2,000 years, it’s a relatively small period. We are departing I think, from the literal, grammatical interpretation of scripture consistently. And that departure begins by, well, we’ll interpret the bible literally but the prophetic portions, we’re open to. But I think if you’re going to be consistent, you need to be literal, historical, grammatical in the future things as well as the past things.

Much of the bible was prophetic, writing about future events when it was written. A number of those have been fulfilled. All those that had to do with the first coming of Jesus Christ, His rejection and crucifixion and resurrection, they form a major portion of the Old Testament prophecies. But somehow Christians make a break and say, well, prophecy yet to be fulfilled, will be fulfilled in a not literal way, in a spiritual way. We don’t deny it, but we understand that God intended to be other than literally. I think we have a consistency that’s required. And Old Testament prophecies, New Testament prophecies that have been fulfilled, have been fulfilled literally. There’s no argument about those, among those who are bible-believing Christians. The death and resurrection of Christ, Isaiah 53. He was born in Bethlehem, Micah 5. And that little town, five miles out of Jerusalem, it didn’t mean just a little town, any little town could have fulfilled that, no, it had to be the little town of Bethlehem.

Now, I don’t try to understand, but I don’t follow why for some reason we think that we have the right to change when it comes to future, yet unfulfilled prophecy. So, we are going to talk about the literal interpretation of prophecy and foundation for it is all prophecy that has been fulfilled, has been fulfilled literally. There’s no argument, Christ was born at Bethlehem, as the prophet Micah said He would be born. He suffered and died as Isaiah 53 talked about. There wasn’t, well, He would undergo difficulties, but the end result was He would establish the Kingdom. And somehow in there, people who claimed to be bible-believing Christians, interpret the bible literally up and through the first coming of Christ, and then they just go to seed. Well now, future prophecy will be fulfilled not literally. Like every prophecy that has been fulfilled has been fulfilled. So, I think it’s important that we understand that all prophecy that has been fulfilled has been fulfilled literally. We’re not going to take the time to look at all of that, but as you go back and any bible-believing Christian would agree to that. They agree on the crucifixion of Christ, His death, His resurrection. But then they make a break and say, prophecy from that point on is not literally true. There won’t be a literal, earthly kingdom, for example in a-millennialism, which dominates much of what is called evangelical Christianity, that believe that you have to have the death and burial and resurrection of Christ as the payment in full for sin. You must believe in Him. Then the rest of it. No, we can’t just disregard the parts of the bible we don’t agree. Oh, we wouldn’t disregard it. But there are so many different positions on this. Yes and we begin to depart from interpreting the bible literally, historically, and giving it it’s historical meaning, it’s grammatical meaning. And that allows for figures of speech and all the different aspects. But we want to be careful we don’t depart. Even figures of speech are presenting a literal truth.

Okay, one of the foundational principles that we observe in interpreting future prophecy is a distinction between Israel and the Church. Israel is not the Church, the Church is not Israel. And you begin to blur and blend them in an unbiblical way, then you end up with whatever you decide you want to have for your theology.

Why don’t you come back to Daniel 9. We’re going to start with the second chart I have here instead of the first chart. The second chart, the 70 weeks of Daniel. In Daniel 9, this is just basically an unfolding of God’s program for the nation Israel. In Daniel 9:24, “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people.” Now note here, it’s literally seventy sevens. They put in our English translation ‘weeks’. You have in the margin of your bible, ‘units of seven, literally seventy sevens’. We could take, is it seven days, is it seven weeks, is it seven years? And its seventy, seven-year periods that we’re talking about, “have been decreed for your people and your holy city.” So, these are focused on Jerusalem, the Jews. That’s Daniel’s people, Daniel’s city. And then what will happen in those seventy weeks? You’ll finish the transgression, you’ll make an end of sin, you’ll make atonement for iniquity, you’ll bring in everlasting righteousness, you’ll seal up the vision and prophecy, you’ll anoint the most holy place. And then you have it broken down. And we have it on the chart. “You are to know and discern, that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.” So that’s a total of sixty-nine seven-year periods, weeks of years. Sixty-nine sevens, four hundred and eighty-three years, till the Messiah. And that’s basically where we come to. A week or so after that four hundred and eighty third year, Christ is crucified. The starting point is 444 BC. So you have the breakdown there from seven weeks and sixty two weeks. Now you’ll note verse 26, “after the sixty-two weeks,” but you don’t want to forget, they were after the seven weeks, the preceding verse. And you didn’t even have verses when this was written, verses were added much later. So, you had seven weeks, seven seven-year periods, and then you had sixty-two weeks, a total of sixty-nine weeks. After the sixty-two weeks, which were after the seven weeks, so after a total of sixty-nine weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing.

And the people of the prince who is to come, will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And it’s destruction is predetermined, verse 27, “he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week.” So, we had the sixty nine, then we have the seventieth. What we don’t have in here, is the church age. So, that’s important when we talk about the seventy weeks of Daniel, which we’re going to be talking about the rapture of the church, that precedes that seventh week, because you’ll note, the church begins after the sixty-ninth week. Verse 26, “after the sixty-two weeks,” which was after the seven weeks, with a total of sixty-nine weeks, “the Messiah will be cut off.” It doesn’t say in the seventieth week the Messiah will be cut off. There’s an indication here there is a break. Because the prince who will come, “the prince who is to come,” verse 26, verse 27, “he will make a covenant with the many for one week.” So, there’s an indication here there is going to be a gap. Because after the sixty-ninth week the Messiah is cut off, but you won’t have the beginning of the seventieth week until the Messiah signs a covenant with the Jewish people for one seven-year period. So, we’ve put the church age in there in a different color, because it’s not part of this sixty-nine week plus the seventieth week, this total of seventy weeks doesn’t include the church. But there is an indication there may be a gap here, because after the sixty-ninth week the Messiah is cut off and the seventieth week will begin when He makes a covenant.

Now, the Old Testament doesn’t tell you anything about the church age. So, there will be additional revelation given in the New Testament, but the Old Testament makes provision for it. The seventieth week, he could have signed that agreement, we don’t know how long after the sixty-ninth week. And you wouldn’t have ever guessed that it was going to be two thousand years. But it has been two thousand years. And we’re still counting. Because Christ has been crucified, He’ll be cut off, verse 26 and have nothing. And that what’s happened, He returned to heaven. For two thousand years He’s not been ruling a kingdom. So, there will be a covenant, verse 27 “with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week, he will put a stop to the sacrifice and grain offering.” So, he’s going to sign this agreement, but in the middle of the agreement, three and a half years in, he breaks it. So, we have it on the chart, that’s why it’s broken into 2 three and a half years segments. He signs an agreement with the Jews, and it’s going to be for a seven year period, but at the end of three and a half years, he then turns against the Jews and attempts to destroy them. They’ll have a three and a half year period. That’s what’s covered in the book of Revelation that we will say something about in a little bit of time.

After that seven year period, just to get the picture, you’ll have the thousand years. So, in Revelation 6-19, you cover that seven year period. Then in chapter 20, you have the thousand years. So, there’s going to be a great deal of material given in latter revelation. That’s why Daniel is told at the end of the book, in Daniel 12:9, “Go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time.” Because he said, Lord, I don’t understand. Chapter 12 talked a little bit about that seventieth week of Daniel. But Daniel didn’t get the whole picture. He got the seventy weeks, which is crucial, but it’s not until John writes the last book given, the last of the revelation from God, that we have recorded as our bible. In chapters 6-19, you’ll get the details of that seven year period. Then the climax, with the return of Christ and the establishing of the earthly kingdom. Remember when His first coming, the Jews were looking for that. The Jewish believers at least, and even the unbelieving Jews, who were expecting a kingdom. They wanted it on their terms.

But finally, in Acts 1, what do the disciples ask? Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Alright, now we understand, You had to suffer and die. Now we can have the kingdom. No, you don’t need to know. In Acts 2, we have the starting of the church. So, that’s where we have a period not revealed before in scripture. The church age, two thousand plus year period of time. How long it will be, we don’t know. Paul, in writing to the Romans, told them that now your salvation is nearer than when you first believed. But it was two thousand years away. Because Paul didn’t know for sure when it would be. And he didn’t have all the revelation. Paul is going to die thirty years about, before John writes the book of Revelation. So, Paul had a great deal of information. But the details that would be given to John, regarding this last seven year period, Paul doesn’t have all those. Now he is a recipient of direct revelation, he does receive the information regarding the rapture of the church. At the end of the church age, you see that line going up? And then the arrow coming down, we meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall always be with the Lord. But that enables the seventieth week of Daniel, that last seven year period for Israel to take place. Until that we’re in the church age. So we can’t have the events of the seventieth week of Daniel, the book of Revelation happen today, yet commentary after commentary written as though we’re in it today. We spiritualize it, it’s not physical. It’s not a literal interpretation. Well, wait a minute, why? When everything else that has been fulfilled was fulfilled literally. Wasn’t just Christ was born in a little town someplace, He was born in Bethlehem. Just like the prophet Micah said He would be. He suffered and died just like the prophet Isaiah said He would. Yes, but now future prophecy, we go back and redo. No, we don’t, we take it literally as it is.

Now we’ll go back to that first chart. In 1 Corinthians 15, this is the general overall picture, before we look at the details for the rapture. Paul writes, now Christ has been crucified, He has been raised from the dead, the church has begun in Acts 2. Paul is not even saved until Act 9. And he begins the ministry of carrying the word of God out beyond the Jews, to the Gentiles. To Greek churches, like the church at Corinth. And he writes a letter back to the church in Corinth. And so in verse 20 of chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, he says, “now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.” So, Christ’s resurrection is the guarantee of the resurrection of everybody else who’s a believer and who is going to experience resurrection. “For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all died, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, and when He has abolished all rule and authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet,” and so on.

So, that anticipation, and this chart just lays out the overall picture that Christ is the first fruits of the resurrection. And verse 23 of 1 Corinthians 15, “each in his own order: Christ the first fruits.” So, the picture is in the Jewish, they would take the first fruits and that was the guarantee of the rest of the harvest. Well, Christ’s resurrection is the guarantee that we too will experience resurrection. Not only us, but Old Testament saints as well. So, Christ is the first fruits of the resurrection.

Then there is the order, “after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end.” And so, in the first stage is we get glorified bodies, the church. In 1 Corinthians 15, as he goes on to talk about in verse 50 and following. “I tell you a mystery.” Now, this is something, a mystery in the bible is something that has not been revealed before. It’s not something now, difficult or confusing, it is something that has not been revealed before. So, “I want to tell you a mystery,” verse 51 of chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, “we will not all sleep,” referring to the death of a believer, we’re talking about believers’ deaths here, “we will all be changed,” we won’t all died, but we’ll all be changed. It will happen in a moment, in an atom of time. Quicker than you can blink your eyes. “At the last trumpet, the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.” And he’s talking about the rapture here. The rapture of the church. Because if not, then you have every person who’s a believer in Jesus Christ, getting a glorified body. Well, in the resurrection, we neither marry nor given in marriage, Jesus said during His earthly ministry.

So, we have the thousand years following the second stage of His coming to earth. But if the first stage and the second stage are blended all together, and that’s what non-dispensationalists do, you can be post-tribulational pre-millennial, or you can be a-millennial, or you can be post-millennial. We’re pre-millennial. We’re pre-tribulational, pre-millennial, we believe Christ is coming for us before the tribulation. That’s the first stage. It’s in the air, we’re caught up to meet Christ in the air. Well, everybody then gets glorified bodies. Well, then what about the thousand years? And the rebellion with a number like the sand of the sea, they can’t be counted in Revelation 20, who rebel against Christ at the end of the thousand years. Oh, well, there must be some. There aren’t any if it’s a post-tribulation rapture, after the tribulation, it means everybody gets a glorified body. If everybody gets a glorified body, then we won’t marry or give any in marriage. We’re not having children any more. Oh, well, then who rebels against Christ? Well, then we must make this a spiritual picture of what is going on today, that we have been made new in Christ today. And you begin to just wash out a literal interpretation of scripture, instead of saying, well, that just won’t work. If everybody is raptured at the beginning of the thousand years, Old Testament saints, New Testament saints, church saints, we all get glorified bodies, we come back and we start the kingdom, who’s going to rebel against Christ? Well, we’ll work that out. We come up with ideas and then we go backwards. We’re not taking future prophecy literally, maybe we don’t take all the Old Testament literally and that’s why it’s a progression downhill, that you abandoned the literal interpretation of future things. Then you’ve established principles of interpreting the bible in a nonliteral way, now we’ll just back that up more and more and more, pretty soon we have people going to church, they don’t believe you have to believe in Christ to be saved. So, it’s important that we take this literally.

The church is raptured at the first stage. That’s before the seven years begins. The seven years doesn’t begin with the rapture of the church. We’re going to talk about the rapture of the church, I’m not going to talk about it now, but we’ll give the reason for it in a moment.

The first stage of the coming of Christ, we could say is the rapture of the church. That’s where Old Testament saints are glorified. Come over to 1 Thessalonians 4. Some people say, the word ‘rapture’ doesn’t appear in the bible, and they are right. Because when the bible was written, the New Testament was written in Greek. So, the English word ‘rapture’, doesn’t appear. But there is a Greek word in 1 Thessalonians 4, that when you translate it… What happened is they translated the bible into Latin. And the Latin word is rapture, basically, so we just carried that over into English, we anglicized the word. 1 Thessalonians 4:13, we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Christ died and rose again...” That’s a believer, one who is a believer in the church age, who believes in the death and resurrection of Christ. “Even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord.” So this is God speaking to Paul and through Paul. We say it “by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not proceed those who have fallen asleep,” won’t go before those. So, here’s the order, “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice from the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds and meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” Any separation you have with a loved one who died, who is a believer in Jesus Christ, is temporary. It’s just like they’ve gone away, gone on vacation, then they’ll be back. Well, there may be tears, but they are not hopeless tears, we’ll see you next time. We’ll see you shortly.

That’s the way it is with the rapture of the church. You’ll note, it includes those who are living and those who have died. Now, if you’re going to do Old Testament saints here, then everything else yet future has to be spiritualized. Has to be made non-literal and taken non-literally. Why? Well, because if you take it literally, you have to have an earthly kingdom. You have to have people born, you have to have people who at the end of that thousand years, a number like the sand of the seashore, who turn and rebel against Christ. Well, wait a minute, that couldn’t be those who have been glorified. That’s the final step in our salvation, glorification in His presence. This includes the living and the dead in verses 16 and 17. But it only includes the living and the dead from the church. Those who have believed in Christ, the dead in Christ will rise first. Then the others.

Now, after the seven year period, you’re going to have the resurrection of Old Testament saints. And you have that on the chart. As well as tribulation saints. So, the church ends up being a unique entity. It’s not part of the seventy weeks of Daniel, not part of the first sixty-nine weeks, because it didn’t begin until after the death of Christ, His burial, His resurrection. Then on the day of Pentecost, which is fifty days after Passover, we have the beginning of the church. Well, then I take it, we’re going to have the church removed. So, that order of events is crucial. Unbelievers, they upon death are consigned to the sufferings of hell, but they will be resurrected at the end of the thousand year period. So, we have those who have died as believers, like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and so on, resurrected. They get their resurrected bodies at the end of the seven years, along with those who are saved during that seven year period. Then after the thousand years, you have unbelievers resurrected, and they are sentenced to an eternal hell. So, that’s the order. We say, that fits. But most “believers” don’t hold that. And that’s where I read you this statement of the one writer who says dispensationalism has declined as we have moved into the new century. Because… Well, I used to say, everybody move in, we got to get more people in. Where are they? Well, they are going to other churches, well, that’s fine, except are we seeing any increase in numbers? Perhaps we’ve seen some who have just fallen by the way. They may just got caught up at the enthusiasm of, it’s the in thing to be at a bible-believing church and they don’t attend anymore. But Hebrews 10 says, don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together, because you have a ministry to one another that must go on. And God’s intention is you meet together. So, there’s all kind of things going on. But we do see it decline as far as I’ve been able to observe it in what we would call dispensational understanding of scripture, which is we interpret the bible literally. Which is just historically, grammatically in its context. That goes right through the book of Revelation. That’s what we’re going to start.

Alright, now we’re ready to look at the Greek word for rapture is ‘harpazo’. The way we would transliterate, carry it over into English, and naturally wouldn’t look the same if you wrote it out with Greek. If you could pronounce it, it would be harpazo. So, we just transliterate it over into English. So, it’s true, we don’t have the word rapture, because that comes from when they translated the New Testament from Greek into Latin. Then they took the Latin word and went on and we have rapture. So, somebody says the word rapture doesn’t appear in the bible, just list a couple of Greek words and say, where does that appear in the bible? Well, it doesn’t. Some words we’ve carried over, baptizo, oh, baptize, I got that. Well, we just carried over a Greek word and anglicized it, made it more conformed to our English. That’s what we did, only we used the Latin translation of the New Testament. But harpazo is the word. Let me look at a couple of references with you, of the word harpazo, the Greek word.

Starting in Acts 8:39, here Philip is doing the baptism here, and he baptizes the Ethiopian eunuch. So, verse 39, “When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away.” He was harpazo’d, he was raptured away. So, that’s the word we have in Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 4, it’s the same word we have here, Philip, he was snatched away, he was raptured away. If we would take the English word that came from the Latin word, it was raptured away. He was carried away. It means to carry away. It’s not difficult. Come over to 2 Corinthians 12:2, Paul says, “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago - whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows - such a man was ‘raptured’ up to the third heaven.” Caught up, harpazo. He was snatched up to the third heaven. Paul says, I don’t know whether this actually happened to me, I was transported bodily to heaven, or it was a vision God gave me. I don’t know. I know that the truth of what was revealed to me on that occasion. So, there you have the man, verse 4, was caught up, verse 2, the man was caught up, verse 4, he was caught up. There’s our word again, comes from the verb harpazo, he was caught up, he was raptured, he was snatched away, he was caught away. Revelation 12, this is the only other one we’ll look at. Revelation 12:5, “she gave birth to a Son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up,” there’s our word. It was caught up to heaven. Was harpazo’d, was raptured to heaven. That’s the point that’s made. Christ was caught up to the Father. After His resurrection, he met with the disciples in Acts 1, and then He’s caught up, raptured away is the idea .

So, that’s the same word that’s used in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, “we who are alive and remain, will be caught up,” harpazo, or the Latin translation, we brought the English word over as raptured. “Caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” But you note, if we’re going to do this with believer and unbeliever alike, then we’re going to have to spiritualize the thousand year millennium, because it has all kind of people rebelling against Christ at the end of the millennium in Revelation 20. And that means then, we’ll just spiritualize the rest of it all, and we’re just enjoying God’s presence. Wait a minute, who says we’re going to do that with scripture? We’re going to take it as it is.

There are a number of other passages. We looked at 1 Corinthians 15:51-58, that talked about the rapture of the church. John 14, the first three verses, I think anticipate the rapture, because Jesus says, in My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again” and get you to be with Me. Well, wait a minute, that’s a hint, a preview of what’s going to happen at the rapture. That’s not Christ’s coming to establish His kingdom on the earth and you’ll rule and reign with Me. You’ll be caught up to meet Me in the air and go to my Father’s house. So, that would be John 14:1-3. And then Philippians 3:20-21, similar kind of idea, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” So, that will happen to us at the rapture of the church. He’ll transform the body of our humble state, into the body conforming with the body of His glory. That’s a resurrection, glorified body. That does not marry, that does not have children. That is a unique and special privilege and honor. But there will be children born in the thousand year earthly kingdom.

Now, I realize the majority of Christians probably just spiritualize that away, and say, I don’t get into that. I don’t know, just let it all work out whenever. Well, wait a minute, who am I to tell God what is important in His word, and what is not. Well, I don’t worry about those things. Well, maybe you ought to start and worry about am I saved to begin with. If I really come to understand salvation by faith through grace, something is wrong here. This idea, well, you know, I don’t get into future things, they are just so confusing. There are so many ideas. That’s true of the whole bible. I mean, I could list commentary and we could just spend weeks and months and years going through commentaries that basically are undermining scripture. I say, we are responsible to understand everything from Genesis 1 through the last chapter of the book of Revelation 22. And we’re to handle it carefully and accurately. God just didn’t speak because He didn’t have anything else to do. He spoke so that we would know, understand and believe the truth.

Alright, there is a book that was done many years ago, in the 1950’s I believe, but it’s still worth reading. You can pick that up. But in the appendix of that, he has fifty reasons for the pre-tribulation rapture of the church. Fifty reasons. I’ve narrowed it down to seven. Because seven is a number of perfection. Besides, we don’t have time to do all fifty. But it’s worth working through those and finding out, yes there are many more reasons, so I just want to focus on what are the reasons.

The first reason, and we won’t get through all seven this time. But that’s alright. We’ll pick up the next time. And we’ll work through these. The first one is the focus of the seventy weeks of Daniel. Daniel 9:24, we looked at this a little bit ago. Daniel 9:24, “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city.” So, the seventy weeks of Daniel, and that’s seventy seven-year periods, they are weeks of years, not weeks of days. So, it’s seventy sevens, literally. And after the sixty-ninth seven, four hundred and eighty three years. Well, we can pretty well work that out, we come to the crucifixion of Christ, about the last week of His life, culminates in the crucifixion. It’s after that four hundred and eighty-third year. You could pick up Elva J. McClain’s little booklet on the seventy weeks of Daniel at Sound Words, it will walk you through and shows how, yes, it’s after those sixty-nine weeks that Christ is crucified. The church did not come into existence until after the sixty-ninth week was completed. Because after the sixty-ninth week Christ is executed. It’s not until the antichrist signs the agreement with Israel that the seventieth week begins. So, there’s the indication of a pause there, a break. But we’re not told that it’s two thousand years. So, the disciples in Acts 1 didn’t know. Okay, now we understand, You had to suffer and die, we had overlooked that. You know, we were expecting the kingdom. But now we understand as Christ explained to them, after His resurrection, how He had to suffer. The Old Testament prophesied His death. Oh, now it’s so clear. Okay, now we can have the kingdom. Jesus says, it’s not for you to know when the kingdom is going to begin. They are expecting the kingdom, but it’s not now. You’ll receive the Holy Spirit not many days from now. And you’ll be witnesses to Me. And that witness will include the Gentile world. In fact it will ultimately focus on the Gentile world. Where we are today. We’re not going to take a poll, but we could ask how many of you are Jewish. Well, we’re primarily a Gentile church. My wife, she gets classified as a Jew. But by in large, the Jews are few. This is a day of Gentile salvation. Some Jews, Paul was saved, he was a Jew. But by in large, it’s a Gentile work today.

Revelation 6 -19, are about this seventieth week of Daniel. So, we have at the focus of the seventy weeks of Daniel, are on Israel, Jerusalem. We get to Revelation 6… Revelation 1,2 and 3 are about the church. Then 4 and 5, we’re in heaven where the church is. Then 6 - 19 of Revelation, we’re back to earth and the coming of Christ and the establishing of the earthly kingdom.

Come to Romans 11. Romans 9, 10 and 11, Paul is talking about the Jews. Because you know, my focus, I come to church at Rome and the church of Rome is a Gentile church, has Jews in it, but it’s primarily a Gentile church in a Gentile region. What about the Jews? Chapters 9, 10 and 11 of Romans are about that. In Romans 11:25, “I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery.” Here’s a mystery at what? It’s new information from God. It will not be understood apart from the revelation that God gives. So, you won’t find this in the Old Testament. So, when you’re reading a commentary and they tell you about the church in the Old Testament, you say, wait a minute, the church is a mystery when we come to the New Testament. “I don’t want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery - so that you will not be wise in your own estimation - that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved.” So, there’s a salvation for the nation Israel in accordance with what God prophesied and promised in the Old Testament. But it won’t happen until this time where God has placed Israel under judgment. That’s what Christ is talking about in Acts 1. And the church begins in Acts 2. And for two thousand years we’ve had the church. We’ve had a few Jews be saved, I mean relatively few compared to the number of Gentiles that comprise the church. All Israel will be saved, but it's after the fullness of the Gentiles. So, again you see what we did on the chart, it’s the rapture, the focus of the seventy weeks of Daniel, that’s why the church is called a mystery.

Come over to Ephesians. We just did the book of Ephesians together. Ephesians 3, “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles - if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me.” Now, there’s a stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me. And in verse 3, “that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery.” That’s what the stewardship of the grace given to Paul, there was made known to me the mystery. “As I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ.” What does it mean to be a mystery? “Which in other generations,” verse 5 of Ephesians 3, “was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit.” And the mystery is basically is, “that the Gentiles,” verse 6, “are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which is given to me,” the least of all the saints. “To bring,” verse 9, “to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things.” So, this is not new. Sometimes those who are criticizing dispensational approach to handling scripture say, oh, God had made a mistake, it’s not working out, I have to do something different. No, it’s hidden in God. So, this is not something new to God, it’s new for us. It’s been in the plan of God from before the creation of the world, when Christ was crucified in the plan of God. So, in verse 9, “to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies.” Even the Angels, those who rule and authorities in the heavenlies, even the Angels have come to understand and in a fuller, more complete way. Because, remember there was no salvation provided for Angels who sinned. Lucifer and all the Angels that joined him in their rebellion, are consigned to an eternal hell, period. There is no salvation provided for Angels. Christ did not become an Angel, that’s in the book of Hebrews. So, even the Angels of heaven, Gabriel and all the others, even the unfallen are beholding God. Amazing! He’s provided salvation with the death of His Son. And it’s not just for chosen nation, it’s for the nations. And “this was in accordance,” verse 11, “with eternal purpose,” the purpose of the ages, “which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So, that emphasis, the mystery of the church, God’s faithfulness and His plan. And the rebellion of Israel culminating in the crucifixion of Christ was a great disaster for Israel and yet it was a great accomplishment because God used that culminating act of rebellion of the nation Israel to provide a Savior for the world. And you and I are here today, saved by God’s grace through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And after all is done, God will complete His program with Israel, because He’s always true to His word. Going back to the covenant He made with Abraham. And Abraham’s descendants through Isaac, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, there is promised redemption. So, that will be, but for now He’s focusing on primarily the Gentile world.

So, verse 8 Paul said, “grace was given (to me) to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ.” He preached to Jews, but primarily to the Gentiles. It’s the church at Ephesus, the church at Corinth and so on. He would go and he would tell the Jews, and there are Jews that were saved of course, but it’s primarily a Gentile work of God’s salvation that’s accomplished today.

I think we will draw to a close there. We’ve just gotten started, but the others will move more quickly because we won’t have all the background information to do. It’s simple, take the bible literally, historically, grammatically. It doesn’t mean there are not figures of speech. It doesn’t mean there are not metaphors and everything else that go on in scripture, but all is in the context of a literal interpretation. There’s a literal thousand year kingdom coming. Just as Christ had to literally die on the cross to pay the penalty for sins, be raised from the dead, He will literally rule and reign on this earth for a thousand years. There will literally be a number you cannot number, that when given a choice between Christ and the Devil, at the thousand years of perfect reign, will choose the Devil, rebel against Christ. That will result in a literal judgment and destruction of all the wicked by their sentencing to hell. Then we move into eternity and that is what the kingdom is to be, perfect righteousness, perfect holiness for all eternity. It comes back to, have you ever believed, truly believed? Not have you grownup in this church, not if you learned bible verses. Have you ever truly believed in Jesus Christ as the one who loved you and died for you? For you personally. And you’re here because He loved me and died. I’m here because my parents drag me. I’m here because my husband comes or my wife comes or this or that. The bottom line is, do you understand Christ died for us according to the scriptures, He was buried, He was raised from the dead the third day? Have you understood your hopeless, lost condition and placed you faith in Him? When you do, you’re identified with Christ, in His death, burial and resurrection. That’s why you’re baptized, physically, not to produce salvation, because salvation is a spiritual matter. But you are baptized because you’re giving testimony that you now belong to Christ. And if you belong to Christ, you belong to the church that He has established. And He has made clear, Hebrews 10, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together as a habit of some, cause you have to minister to one another. And the ministry to one another takes place when the church gathers together. So, we are here because God has appointed us to study His word, to learn and to grow.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the riches of Your word. Lord, we just scratch the surface, and yet we are amazed at the truth that You have revealed to us, Your children. Thank you, for Your Spirit who indwells each and every believer who opens the eyes of our understanding. To know and to grasp these truths. To take them to heart. To count them precious. And to have a life shaped and brought into conformity to the One who is our Savior, Jesus Christ. We give You thanks that He loved us, He died for us and we have hope for time and eternity, because our faith is in Him. And it is in His name we pray. Amen.