Defining Postmillennialism & Why Christians Oppose It | with Dr. James White

good to be with you this afternoon it is always difficult to be assigned the afternoon slot amongst Baptists because we are genetically predisposed to fall asleep about now especially on the Lord's day but I've just discovered over the past few years pretty much any day of the week will do and so we will do our best to keep you with us if you're looking for my table that Joel was telling you about I'm looking for it too I don't know where it is here um actually we don't have one so um I just sort of Stand Back At Joe's and just schlub off of the people that stand around his table so that's how we're going to do things today um a number of years ago I had the opportunity of doing a debate in Salt Lake City I've done a number of debates in Salt Lake City until the Mormons decided that wasn't a wise thing to do anymore and they stopped doing them and I was debating a fellow who had written a book against the godmakers movies and he uh he got up you can watch this on YouTube he got up and uh he said a few nice greeting things and then he said now I'll be honest I'm not sure why I'm here now when your opponent Begins the debate saying I'm not sure why I'm here you know it's going to be an interesting and probably long evening um and and actually it was but I feel like I'm I'm in the same boat that he was I'm not really sure why I'm here uh normally when I am asked to address a particular subject it's because I have some history in uh writing on the subject teaching on the subject some level of of expertise but I'll be honest I don't think I will ever claim any level of expertise on anything eschatological uh I have an aversion to that uh that entire attitude that's one of the reasons that for many many years though I knew mentally and theologically that to separate eschatology out and make it a well a situation where I would call myself a pan millennialist it'll all pan out in the end um I knew that that wasn't wise and that wasn't proper but I'll be honest with you I I grew up uh dispensational pre-millennial and uh I I remember I'm not sure if they give these things anymore because they're probably considered racist but uh when I was in high school you had these achievement tests you had to take I remember filling in the little dots you know the little dotted thing wow I am old all the young people are going what what's he talking about I don't know anything anyway um you take these achievement tests and you get graded and all the rest of that stuff and I just remember taking I think it was the California achievement test I wasn't in California so I'm not sure why I had to take it but um I just remember I'd get done pretty early and you just had to stay there and sit there and I remember very very clearly as a senior in high school uh I remember what the cover looked like the late great planet Earth uh was what I was reading after filling out the the achievement tests and so uh my dad was a graduate of Moody Bible Institute and so uh he ex he gave me things to come by Jade white Pentecost very early on as a teenager and in fact I I've told the story I don't think you can get them anymore they're probably illegal but uh we used to have these watches that had a tritium watch face on it so it was literally Radioactive um it wasn't the type that could kill you but it was radioactive it glowed all the time and I remember to lock in at our Southern Baptist Church I was sitting there and I had a little soul Winner's New Testament and I was using my watch so it was because the lights were out and so it was like 11 30 at night and I was using my watch uh to read Matthew 24 and to explain to my fellow Southern Baptist youth uh that a generation was going to pass from the refounding of the nation of Israel um and so that that was uh 1948 so we had until 1988 we only had like eight years left you know and uh so that's that's where I was and then as soon as I went into Bible College I discovered you know there's a lot of heat that is generated by this particular subject and I already knew that amongst dispensationalists uh you have your pre-millers uh you have your pre your pre pre-trib and mid-trib and post trip and some of you are sitting there going I have no idea what you're talking about because you have been raised in a completely different uh context but I saw churches split I saw people condemned to the Flames of Hell uh over being mid-trib versus pre-trib versus post-trib and and oh clearly people who who take that perspective they don't even believe the Bible they can't be Christians and and that type of stuff and and once I got into Bible College uh Dr D.C Martin started challenging me on certain eschatological issues and I I came to realize you know there is a lot to this field that I've never been introduced before and for a long time I simply put it aside because I was tired of the anger and the fighting and the willingness to condemn people to the Flames of Hell uh for really what are difficult issues to be dealt with in scripture I had already given up my dispensationalism and I had given up my eschatology that went with it because I simply recognized that the exegesis that I was using to defend the Trinity monotheism things like that and dealing with Mormons was not the same exegesis that was being used to promote that kind of understanding of eschatology so I already saw that there was a problem there but I just wanted to put it off I didn't want the extra fighting I didn't want the extra nastiness until uh I listened to a tape series out of uh Montville New Jersey uh Trinity ministerial Academy back there Dr Nichols uh presenting an argument for amillennialism and I went that sounds pretty good and it sounds really safe I I generally don't find most all millennialists who want to tie you to a stake and burn you if you have a different perspective and so it seemed like a sort of safe thing but I I'm going to tell you right now I was never passionate about it I I heard that one argument that you know the this age and the age to come and that's all there is and okay that that certainly seems consistent with what Jesus taught and yeah there's lots of other questions but okay let's just tick that box off and move on I'm I'm never going to be debating this issue or anything else then came apology at church you know um I've heard a number of Chuckles there that's interesting um we for a for a church with average between four and 700 people attending um depending on depending on the Sunday and whether the all the air conditioners at our rented building are actually working at four o'clock in the afternoon on Sunday in Phoenix um last Sunday last summer we did have one Sunday where the average temperature for the entire service was 96 degrees inside that was uh yeah uh you're all going yeah but at least it was dry and I hate to tell you if you've never been to Phoenix in August don't you don't want to be there in August there are mornings we'll wake up and the dew point in Phoenix will be higher than New Orleans yeah it's ugly uh so no it wasn't fun anyways uh I all of a sudden found myself at apologia and it didn't take long until we realized that having me there meant I was going to be in leadership and and they sort of fudge things a little bit uh what you do you believe Christ is going to be victorious right well yes of course okay then then you're all right they wanted more than that but they were they were good they figured out they'd get to me eventually and in fact uh Jeff Durbin was preaching through Matthew chapter 24. for a couple years I think and so he pretty well nailed a number of things down for me along along those lines and so I eventually um excuse me oops hope you in the front row don't mind that guy um you have bugs here in Phoenix in Texas you notice that it's really interesting anyway actually had to start dealing with these issues especially starting in 2018. when we started dealing with the woke church and all the issues that are related to that and of course in conversations with my fellow elders and things like that and so I started working through key text to scripture and so when I say I don't even know why I'm here it was only about a little over two years ago that I gave my sermon there at apologia on uh adopting an eschatology of Hope and uh we have folks here who are doing uh recording and uh one of the films that they produced was very helpful for me uh in uh on Earth as it is in heaven it was very very useful for me uh I have admitted openly and this of course is closed many adore across the United States for me um please I realize especially those of you that are close if you throw things I'm not sure I'm fast enough to get out of the way but I've developed this friendship with this guy named Doug Wilson and um and and that has pretty much made me absolutely anathema uh in in many many places um but uh in fact I've I've eaten Taco Time with Doug Wilson uh just he and I alone thank you very much um appreciate that um if you've never had Taco Time you've not yet lived uh in my my personal opinion and uh so Doug was very helpful and in fact I'll I'll tell you I'll tell you the a couple of things that he said that that put me over the top um I've taught church history the first class that I taught when I graduated from a seminary was church history I've been teaching it on and off throughout the years and am now professor of church history at Grace Bible theological seminar I saw someone running around with our uh one of our shirts on uh earlier not sure where you are now but anyway um and uh so church history issues were very important for me along these lines and so a there obviously have been forms of post-millennialism that have posited pretty much a straight line ascent from the time of Christ to to the end where it's just getting better and better and better and better and anybody who knows church history knows that's just not how it's gone uh church history is a a tremendous place of learning I really appreciate it by the way I'm going to lose my track of my I did a lot these days it's sort of fun it's endearing actually as they get older um look he lost his he lost his train of thought again look at that I was like that cute um that's what my grandkids do it's fun as long as the grandkids do it it's all right but uh there was a long time professor of church history at uh Covenant Seminary and I listened to all of his church history classes years and years and years ago and in each one he would uh he would conclude the class either with an upbeat quotation of scripture or with a quotation of scripture like let us learn from the mistakes of those who've gone before us and there's almost no era of church history where you can't find the spirit of God working but you also find men that you have to confess our brothers in Christ doing things that you just go how could that have happened and you see periods of degradation and you see valleys and and that's just what church history is all about and so the idea of just a straight up line just just didn't work and so when Doug talked about the fact that no it's it's uh it's a little bit like um one of the reasons I couldn't live in Texas I'll be perfect honest with you is uh I have to have mountains around me so in Phoenix we're in a valley it is a big Valley but there are mountains around us and so you can always sort of tell where you can Orient yourself based on the mountains but I remember the first time I had grown up looking at what were called The White Tank Mountains and they're just they're just out there and I remember the first time I decided to ride my bike out there and discovered that you get to go into them a long ways there's valleys in between and there's much more to them than what you saw from a ways away and Doug's idea was look there are valleys there are places we have to go down and then go back up and and as you're going back up you look back and you can learn you can learn from the mistakes of those who came before there was a purpose there was a in other words we believe in God's Sovereign decree of election and so we need to believe that God has a sovereign decree in how the church is to experience this time and this sanctifying process and this building of the Kingdom and there are going to be times where we look back and go oh yeah okay we don't want to do that again we don't want to go that direction again and so when when he said in that film what if we're in the early church that's a truly that's a question that everyone has to ponder because every generation has always assumed we're at we're it this is it there's there's nothing after us but every generation has said the same thing I knew that I knew about all the wild crazy in fact if you if you want just what may be the most glowing example of how you don't want to do it um my daughter has a webcast and that I like to promote once in a while uh called sheelogens and her name's summer Jaeger and her friend Joy they've been doing the webcast for a while and about 2019 I believe it was right after I got back from Munster Germany I went on the program for two programs and I told the story of the Munster Rebellion now how many of you right now would be could give a 30-second accurate summary of the Munster Rebellion look at that look at that wow okay you all have an assignment sorry um oh hmm I think I'll put that one over there I don't want to drink Joe's um he's British right you know it's so uh I used to be one of the fellows at Ezra Institute until five minutes ago um so uh I I uh you have an assignment now uh you need to go look up shielogens and you need to look up the bloody streets of Munster it is without a question the most insane crazy story in all of church history without it Joel did you put your hand up halfway okay oh um uh okay all right well you all need to y'all need to go listen to it because I'm going to be I'm I've taught church history for decades and there is no story that I could tell that would leave you sitting there going no no they didn't they they what really no that is the story and the folks at Munster thought they were bringing in the kingdom of God and uh you can learn from that now not all the lessons that were learned from that were really positive one of the main reasons that John Calvin for example would never even give consideration to anything that a Baptist which they would of course call an anabaptist at the time would have said was because of Munster now is that fair no but given what happened at Munster you can understand why for literally hundreds of years almost everybody in Europe thought Baptists were nuts because they had acted that way and so what if we are in early church history what if we're still in the Primitive Church that totally disorients almost anybody you talk to today I pulled into the little RV park that uh I and some of the other speakers are staying at uh and I I talked with the fellow that was running it and we started talking a little bit about the craziness of what's going on in the world today and stuff like that and he goes yup it's exactly how God wants it and of course the thought crosses my mind is he a calvinist and then he said yep the end is right around the corner and that's exactly and okay now I've got that figured out all right all right I know where this is and I'm not gonna stand here and explain this subject and not enough not to not this afternoon but um for most people uh their eschatology in the church is is imbibed in the first few weeks of their conversion and after that it just isn't even questioned anymore and so when you say to someone yeah but what if there's still thousands of years of church history left that's impossible look at the world look at the way it is that was never really a problem for me in becoming post-millennial because one of my freakish areas of study in church history is the great mortality you've probably heard it as the Black Death you say someone studies the Black Death yes it's actually incredibly fascinating and so go back with me uh to 1347 or so all right um there's been a huge increase in the population you know why oh by the way I'm not sure if I can say this is it legal in Texas to question the climate uh chicanery I'm not really sure I'm not sure but uh it was much warmer in the 13th century than it is today and I had known this since Seminary I had learned that the climate stuff was a bunch of croc in seminary had I learned that because my church history Professor was good enough to point out that there's all sorts of stuff in northern England that has the name Vineyard in it the only thing that's not in northern England anymore are Vineyards because it's too cold and clearly it had been much warmer in the past and much of that area had been arable land that had been able to support crops and Vineyards and things like that and so there had been a big increase in the human population then it started cooling down again now by the way not too many people owned SUVs in this particular period of time um and there weren't that many procurements on the planet to be perfectly honest with you so in other words we had nothing to do with it at all um and that remains the case today anyway and so uh when you when you think about the black death you think about 1347 and people it starts coming from the East and over the course of pretty much 49 to 51. over half the population of Europe died in some cities it was over 70 percent imagine what that would be like look what we did for point zero one percent now go to 70 percent it changed everything you couldn't find enough workers workers could actually start going oh you want me to work your land well you know there's a lot of people that actually need my services so maybe a little more money than I used to get it changed everything the economy everything changed but think about what it was like when people were dropping dead there was one form of this disease that they thought was passed by looking at someone because it was a viral uh that would hit the lungs and would kill you in less than 24 hours so just looking at someone that had it 24 hours later you're dead and so it was I I've always said it would be really easy for Hal Lindsay to have made a killing during the Black Death can you imagine I mean every plague in the Book of Revelation you could find some type of connection to what in the world was going on at that particular point in time and it looked really dark but think of all the things that Christ still intended to do in his church after 1347. just think of the thousands millions of the elect that have been gathered in since that deep dark time that no one can you imagine 1351 let's say you were in a city you happen to have survived only one out of three people are still alive in your city can you imagine that someday Charles Spurgeon is going to be preaching in the metropolitan Tabernacle in London being one of the most hated Men by Karl Marx and others because they could see what kind of a power he had through the message that he he delivered could you have imagined the internet today being able to proclaim the gospel of Christ and his kingship over this world all around the world instantaneously you could not imagine any of those things and if someone had said to you in 1351 what Christ was still going to do in this world you would have said you you you're nuts and that's pretty much what we get today when we talk about post-millennialism too you're nuts but that's why you can't judge eschatological systems by what you're reading in the newspaper or online today and that's still a Temptation for all of us it's still a Temptation for all of us so what if we are still in the early church in some ways I hope that we are hey look if the other guys are right I'm gonna salute and I'm just looking forward to seeing Jesus okay fine but in some ways I hope we are because you know what I would love to see a bride of Christ that truly is described in the pages of the New Testament you think about those pure blameless holy United I'd like to see that I'd like my grandchildren to see that and that was the other thing that Doug said he said you never hear Christians talking about their great-grandchildren in the faith and that one hit me especially hard because I have said you've heard those of you who listen to me know I've said it many many times they're right now there are three massive maturing events in life the first ones when you get married now by the way of course I'm only using that term in a Christian way because that one that you marry is so different than you are so so different talk about the first major step in starting to suck that selfishness right out of you you have to change because that other person is different than you are you're not you haven't fallen in love with a mirror image of you that person AIDS their connecto a help mate that corresponds to you but is different that's the first thing marriage changes you then children oh my every little child there's some beautiful little children back there in the back but you know what they're pretty much just focused upon themselves and their needs and their tummy and their toys and what they want to do and what they don't want to do which is continue to be in here listening to the strange men talking up front and they you you have to take care of them they're yours you made them you've got that connection and so when that diaper explodes at two o'clock in the morning you've got to get in there and and you got to do what you got to do that's just simply what life is that's how it works and you start being matured and I sort of figured that was it you know and then grandchildren and I'm going to tell you right now that's made the biggest difference in my life of any of the other two because once your babies start having babies you start getting a bigger picture than you could ever have before because you start thinking did I really invest into them the foundation that they will need to be able to raise their children and to see their grandchildren well I see great grandchildren well you delay marriage the way we're delaying it today no you won't I hope to I got married at 19 she was 18 so I've got a shot at it I would love to see great grandchildren but the point is you start seeing something bigger and where you fit into this this big picture of things and you start going man I would do anything for those grandchildren I've lived my life now what can I do to make sure that they will be able to the foundation to stand on changes you really really does and so when he asked whoever thinks about their great grandchildren and then you start you just start thinking about the Psalms and you think about the the fact that the the scriptures are full of the kind of mature thinking to where you are thinking down that direction and I'll be honest with you I was not raised with that and many of you would would say the same thing you weren't raised with it either I was literally raised hoping I'd get a chance to get married before the Rapture happened seriously I really want that I remember clearly Lord just hold off a little I'm I'm almost there please I remember thinking those things I was not thinking about build a Godly home have Godly children they to get have The Godly children and you get to be grandparents to them and no we didn't that was not the way we thought and so when we talk about defining post-millennialism again I'm like why ask me because I'm I'm here to tell you that the post-millennialism I believe in is first and foremost like everything else in my faith forced upon me by the consistency of scripture itself and here's what I mean one of the things that turned me off for years on any eschatological debate at all was how quickly they could devolve into arguments about Arcane passages that really are liable to numerous different interpretations okay I'm sorry I realize that Daniel is inspired scripture but you know what there are just some Visions in Daniel that I don't know that in this particular lifetime I could ever fully come to conclusion yeah I think we've got that one nailed down there's some difficult things in there and the vast majority I mean certainly amongst the premillennialists not quite as much amongst the eye Millennials but there's there's it's there it's so much of the argumentation was out in the weeds and it was sitting around for hours going well it could be this and therefore if you connect that together with Matthew 24 and then this one over here and then and you're jumping all over the text of scripture trying to put puzzle pieces together that never just really quite fit if you're really really honest you get to the end and you you go I think I put a couple of those pieces in and then it was like needs to go there yeah there it goes it works all right right any any honest people out there going yeah okay yeah I think I've seen that from the pulpit a few times too and uh yeah okay and you just don't feel comfortable I mean if if I had to do that with my doctrine of justification I would not be able to call that the article the standing or falling church I would not be able to say that's a dividing line that we cannot step over right and so one of the things that put it off was I realized I was starting down here in all the minutia all the arguments down here and was trying to build a system up to a conclusion and what was helpful was to listen to a number of men not just Doug Wilson Jeff Durbin but um Greg Monson uh and to come to the realization that this system starts at the top it's organized at the top it is connected with the purposes of God it is connected with a reformed understanding of what God is doing in this world it's based upon I mean if you don't believe that God's spirit can bring about Mass conversion there's no reason for you to be a post-millennialist and there's only one group of people that really believe that but it was it was seeing the Father the Son and the spirit in a trinitarianly harmonious way accomplishing their self-glorification you know I had already been teaching that if any of you have uh listen to any of the defenses I've given of particular Redemption over the over the decades well things I've really emphasized is trinitarian Harmony in the atonement the people who the father elects to save are the people that the son dies to save or the people the spirit moves in their life and brings them to spiritual regeneration there is a Unity between father son and spirit in the accomplishment of that great Redemptive Act and so I was simply using the same concept the same Harmony between father son and spirit when I start looking at the pages of scripture and of course just we I know that we're aware of these things but I and I read the second psalm now I I already knew having defended the messiahship of Jesus from scripture uh I already knew the centrality of the second psalm but then when you think about what it says and you listen to what they're what is being said why the Nations rage and the people's uh meditate on a vain thing the kings of the Earth take their stand the rulers take counsel together against Yahweh and against his anointed saying let us tear their feathers apart and Cast Away their cords from us sounds like Authority prophetically being announced in regards to this Yahweh and his anointed and the kings of the earth rebelling and he who sits in the heavens laughs the Lord mocks them then he speaks them in his anger and terrifies them in his Fury saying but as for me I have installed my king upon Zion my Holy Mountain I will surely tell of the decree of Yahweh he said to me you are my son today I've begotten you not there's nothing you can't get around the fact that the New Testament writers see this having fulfillment in really more than one way in the ministry deathbrand resurrection of Jesus Christ but as for me I have installed my king upon Zion my Holy Mountain I will surely tell the decree of Yahweh he said to me you are my son today I have begotten you ask of me and I will surely give the Nations as your inheritance and the ends of the Earth as your possession now we do need to understand something I think this is important maybe we'll get into it in the Q a tonight I think it's awesome to see this large group here today in fact I tweeted uh just a few hours ago I took a picture from the back uh don't worry it's from the back so they all they can't see you so when you go back to your churches they won't be able to recognize you and some of you guys are going to start going oh my goodness my wife is right oh wow take my advice take the advice of one who waited too long shave it off Bic Works real well it's no problem um but here where we have a really good turnout and it's very exciting and it's great to see all of you and and where we're actually willing to be I'm actually at a post-millennial theonomic conference you know okay um I'm admitting my where I am um still can we think for just a moment about where we are the only reason for any of us to be in here I would be stunned if any of you in here held the view of scripture that I had to fight against all the way through seminar because the only Seminary that existed in Phoenix Arizona when I needed to go to Seminary was called Fuller Theological Seminary so I was Fuller's token Fundamentalist and I had to fight all the way through something tells me that what joins us all together is we all have a very very high View of this book we recognize this is God speaking I bet you everybody in here knows the terms even if you don't know Greek it's God breathed do you know how small a percentage of the people who call themselves Christians actually believe that I I wish I I wish I could tell you that there was a much larger number of people who take seriously the claims of scripture about itself but the reality is we are a small group we're a small group and even amongst the people who truly believe this is the word of God and that it needs to be our guide it's God's law word we have great divisions between us as to how we understand these things and so I think we need to be realistic sometimes I'm afraid social media creates an echo chamber for all of us and we talk so much with just the small number of people agree with us that we have an over inflated idea of how many of us there are we have a huge task in front of us and not understanding that is not going to help us accomplish that task we can look at Psalm 2 and we know that God laughs in heaven when we when we see the insanity the immoral Insanity of our day we know that God's rulership over his creation is not threatened by the insane secularists who are bringing about their own destruction we recognize that but here's the question when we look at verse 8 ask of me and I will surely give the Nations as their inheritance the ends of the Earth is your possession you do realize that all the quote unquote mainstream denominations they read from the same book we do and they will read this over and over again but since they've been taught that this is merely a poem written about the king of Israel and that even when this person wrote this about the king of Israel they were just this was just meant to Puff him up so it's just one person puffing up the king of Israel about 700 years 800 years for Christ when that's what you're taught that's all this is then you're not going to be looking for some type of cosmic meaning in it you're not going to be even asking yourself the question ask of me and I will surely give the Nations as your name well that's just some some Israelite King you and I recognize since we read the New Testament and actually believe it's all the word of God since we hold Jesus's view of scripture then we realize this is the father saying to the son ask of me and I'll surely give you the Nations as your inheritance and so the question is will the sun ask and if the answer is yes then you need to be a post-millennialist and the ends of the Earth is your possession you shall break them with a rod of iron you shall shatter them like a Potter's vessel oh where have I heard that oh revelation you cannot even begin it is amazing to me you cannot start to have any idea of what John is doing in the Revelation if you don't know your Old Testament and we live in a day of a lot of people are very canonically challenged and they view the Old Testament as only secondarily inspired in the first place and so you don't have that Old Testament context including those words and you can make Revelations say everything that's been made to say over the past number of years so now o Kings show Insight take warning of judges of the earth serve Yahweh with fear and rejoice with trembling kiss the sun lest he become angry and you perish in the way for his wrath May soon be kindled how blessed are all who take refuge in him this is a Messianic psalm and you can't escape it and since it is then you have to allow it to mean what it means so now o Kings show Insight take warning o judges of the earth Kings judges of the earth we are talking about those who have Authority and Power they are to serve Yahweh with fear and rejoice with trembling and they are to kiss the sun lest he become angry and you perish in the way for his wrath May soon be kindled how blessed are all who take refuge in him I think that's the background to one of the most startling phrases in all of scripture in Revelation chapter six when people call upon the mountains to fall upon them to hide them from what the wrath of he who sits upon the throne and the lamb the Wrath of the Lamb may be the most startling phrase in all of the pages of scripture but there comes a time when the meek and gentle lamb must Express his Wrath because he is the one who has been ordained to be the righteous judge of all the Earth so Kings and judges who's going to Proclaim this message to them you see you start at the top this is Father and Son this is fulfillment language this is prophecy this is up here in the trinity it's not down here in the weeds where we're going well maybe Daniel meant this or maybe he did no this is up here this is this organizes everything else it puts everything else into a proper perspective and so from my perspective I start up here and move downward that's not how I was taught to do eschatology as a young person and that's why I went through most of my life just sort of pushing it off and and I was having to deal with it but I just couldn't deal with it consistently now as I commented do you think we would have filled this room up with this many people in 2019 I don't think so I think many people in this room will testify that it's the event since 2020 that have made all of us sit back and go oh in fact I hope he doesn't mind I say this but I have a dear friend in Germany and up until up through 2019 I would visit them uh pretty much each year for a number of years because I flew all the time and since then I haven't been able to do that and probably will never get a chance to do it again in the future but that's a whole other subject anyway I preached that sermon two years ago and my friend in Germany saw the title and his response was great now I'm gonna have to think this through and that's how it's been for a lot of us huh great I'm gonna have to think this through because all that neutrality that we thought we had hey I already knew about the myth of neutrality I've listened to Greg Monson goodness I I it's not like we were is there anything um but I I will say I will tell you this I am thankful for this how many of you have ever heard the debates that Greg bonson did on homosexuality you know he wrote us he was ahead of the curve on that he wrote a little book on the subject and he did two debates on homosexuality you know how he got to do those debates he was already scheduled to debate that weekend in Omaha Nebraska on the subject of Roman Catholicism and the reason he got to do the homosexuality debates is he called me and I took his place in Omaha Nebraska and debated Jerry matatix up there well he did debates on homosexuality so there's my one Greg Monson story um helped him out in in that particular way and at least he trusted me enough to take his his place to do that uh but I knew about the myth of neutrality I I read Schaefer and van till and all those stuff all those things back then and so I knew it I just hadn't applied it all the way across but we lived most of us lived in the situation thinking that we and the state could just simply get along we now realize Christ or chaos is not just a neat tagline on a Twitter post we are seeing the chaos we are seeing the destructiveness that comes from embracing a secular world view when you're living in God's world they don't fit and the results are catastrophic but now most of us are sitting around going well what then does that mean are we just waiting for an escape ship to come get us let me close with this because I actually understand time [Applause] [Music] I'm always the guy that gets the conferences back on schedule that's that's been my job when we think about this subject and we think about what the future is going to hold where we're going to stand we read those last words in Psalm 2. he's going to rule the mother out of iron break them like The Potter's vessel may I warn us about one thing post-millennialism becomes poisonous if it is not birthed in Grace if we as individuals do not recognize our absolute debtorship to God's grace not only in saving us but in Opening Our Eyes to his greater purposes and seeing the interconnectedness of the Divine decree of God and the work of the Trinity and all of these things if we don't recognize and Source ourselves fully in Grace it can become something that's ugly any of God's truth can be made ugly if we don't recognize that we ourselves could have been like any one of those multi-haired colored people screaming and screeching in state houses for Trans rights today you are not better than any one of those people if the spirit of God had not arrested you if God in his grace had not chosen to change your heart to take out that Heart of Stone and give you a heart of Flesh you'd be screaming just as loud as all the rest of them and so we can never ever allow our insight into God's purposes to become something that makes us proud harsh and lack Grace just as reformed theology should make us grace-based people this understanding of God's purposes likewise must make us a people that begin every sentence begin Every Day begin every discussion of eschatology with a recognition of our thankfulness and our dependence upon him without that it becomes a cold hard brittle theological system and I don't want that I want something that is warm and gracious and loving because that's the God of this book that's who's revealed to us God is love and we need to be loving in everything that we say about him as well thank you let's pray together our Grace Heavenly Father we do pray that in this time in this place you would encourage your people to look forward in light of what you've revealed in your word that you would help us to have true faith father if indeed there are very difficult times coming and you have allowed your church to experience tremendous persecution in the past if that time is coming Lord we want to be the ones who not only stand firm but we leave a testimony monuments to those in the future to your grace and your truth because we know that Christ has been enthroned in the heavens we know that he is the righteous judge and that there is no power on this Earth and can possibly move him from his seat of authority we thank you for giving us the freedom to speak on these things at this time Lord we pray that you would continue to protect our freedoms we desire that from you but Lord whatever your purpose brings into our lives may we be a people who honor the name of Jesus Christ and all that we say and do it's in his name that we pray amen thank you whoa whoa whoa you're going to want to hear this our next two conferences are coming up quick we've got first our fall conference this is November 11th and 12th that's a full day Saturday and a holdover for the Lord's Day November 12th uh who's speaking at this conference well we've got Jared Longshore and Chris Wiley and yours truly Pastor Joel webben what's the title the title is the household and the war for the cosmos now I know you're thinking wait a second you can't use that title Joel that's the title for Chris Wiley's book well I can use it because he's gonna be there speaking and he gave me his permission we're going to be talking about the household is the basic building block for pushing back the kingdom of darkness in this world we're going to be talking about biblical patriarchy we're going to be talking about marriage and parenting how to keep your kids how to shape and form them like straight arrows like sharp arrows that do damage to the kingdom of darkness training our children in the fear and ammunition of the Lord a full day on Saturday November 11th and then holding Jared Longshore over for the Lord's Day November 12th to preach at my church Covenant Bible Church in Central Texas you can register at the early bird rate which will not last long but you can register at the early bird rate today by going to rightresponseconference.com again that's right responseconference.com now our second conference is our spring conference this is Friday Saturday and Sunday March 1st 2nd and 3rd the title for this conference blueprints for chrysidum 2.0 blueprints for chrysidum 2.0 we don't want to revert back to Christendom 1.0 although it would certainly be a whole lot better than the clown world that we're currently living in but we recognize despite the phenomenal features of a prior Christendom there were certain bugs that we'd like to see worked out out so we're not going back we are pushing forward to Christendom 2.0 we believe that the blueprints are seven doctrines for ruling the world righteously what are these seven doctrines well it's reformed confessionalism it's covenant theology it's biblical patriarchy it's presuppositionalism and kyberianism and general equity theonomy and hopeful eschatology post-millennialism who's going to be teaching us on these doctrines Voldemort he who must not be named Pastor Douglas Wilson himself you also got Mr bright Hearth Mr King's Hall Mr haunted Cosmos Pastor Brian sovay and we also have Dr Joseph Boot and of course yours truly Pastor Joel webben we'll be doing seven primary lectures as well as two 90-minute panels with all the speakers together and will likely add a couple more speakers along the way again that's March 1st 2nd and 3rd Friday Saturday and Sunday it's blueprints for chrysidum 2.0 we've got the early bird rate going right now but it will run out quickly so go to write responseconference.com write responseconference.com to register today

Channel: Right Response Ministries

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Length: 54min 42sec (3282 seconds)

Published: Thu May 25 2023