Why Every Calvinist Should Be a Premillennialist - John MacArthur

now I've been telling you for a number of months that we were going to get into the subject of eschatology the doctrine of last thing as we've been working our way through doctrinal emphases in Scripture doctrinal themes and we have covered a lot of ground but we now come to the doctrines that relate to the end times and in line with that I want to try at least in the next couple of sunny nights to establish a foundation for our understanding now talking about eschatology is not without controversy there are a number of viewpoints of what the Bible means when it speaks of future events we understand that when you have a prophecy in the Bible that has not yet come to pass not everything will be clear in first Peter chapter 1 you remember Peter says that the prophets who wrote concerning Christ concerning the things to come wondered what person and what time that is to say while they understood that someone would come they understood whatever it was that had been revealed to them the timing was not clear and the precise personages were not clear we can take prophetic scripture at face value we can interpret it the way we interpret any other passage of Scripture with the same use of the normal natural means of interpreting language and we should and it will yield for us as clear an understanding of the future as the Lord wants us to have it's not nearly as difficult as some people make it if you just take scripture at face value now to fix our thinking to one great future event which seems to be the most ceil I want you to think with me about the coming kingdom of Christ known as the Millennial Kingdom because in the twentieth chapter of Revelation the opening of that chapter there is reference to the reign and rule of Jesus Christ on the earth which lasts 1,000 years in fact 1,000 is repeated six times in that brief text that leaves me with the impression that God wants us not to question the length of its duration now with regard to the coming kingdom of Christ in which Christ rules as supreme and sovereign ruler there are a number of views but let me boil them down to three views and these are good and I'll give you a simple explanation so that you understand where we're going the first view will call the post-millennial view that is to say that Christ will come after the Millennium that the return of Christ is post it is after the Millennial Kingdom Christ will return he will come in a glorious second coming to earth but not to establish his kingdom but rather after his kingdom has been established who will establish it the church the church will have an increasing influence in the world the church will become more influential more impactful more spiritually powerful the church will move out of its own environs to capture nation's leaders ideologies philosophies theories religions and bring them all into captivity to Christ in the world things will get better and better and better as the church becomes more powerful and more influential and when the church has brought about the dominating influence of Christ across the world he will then come and end everything and establish the new heaven and the new earth which is the eternal state post millennialist think things are going to get better that's a hard sell frankly they also think that there is not to be a literal thousand-year Kingdom as such but that's just metaphoric for a long time and it simply indicates whatever the duration of that period where the influence of the church dominates the world after which Christ returns there is another form of that view called aa millennialism aa millennialism and you've probably heard about that you can figure it out the Alpha primitive in the Greek language means a negative so there is the view that there is no millennium that what John is writing about in Revelation 20 is very vague may refer to nothing other than a long time in which the church flourishes on earth simply referring to that kingdom which is spiritual that is the rule of Christ over those who belong to him while on earth and there are others who believe that that refers to heaven but that refers to the experience of the saints in heaven but for certain according to amillennialists there will be no thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth when he comes everything ends immediately no Kingdom on earth ruled by Christ before he gets here and no Kingdom on earth ruled by Christ after he gets here now the truth of the matter is those are just two ways to look at the same thing postmillennialism anomaly niall ism is really the same thing I like to call amillennialism negative and post millennialism positive that's just two ways to look at the same thing it's two ways to view human history one says it's not the kingdom the other says it is the kingdom one says moving toward the coming of Christ there will be no kingdom the other says there will be a kingdom but in both cases it will be the flow of history under the influence of the church so they're really looking at the same thing one calls it a kingdom and says it will expand and expand and expand that's the positive spin the other looks at it as a spiritual Kingdom also but says it will decline and decline and decline until Jesus finally comes but in both cases they would deny the actual thousand year reign of Christ and they would deny that Christ will reign and rule on earth and literally fulfill all his promises to the nation Israel given in the Old Testament covenants whether you're an amillennial list or a post millennialist you basically say Israel forfeited all its promises forfeited all its privileges forfeited all those things that God declared in covenant that he would give to them in the future and they forfeited by their disobedience to the Mosaic Covenant by their apostasy from True Religion and by their rejection of their Messiah therefore Israel has been permanently set aside so that the only Kingdom we'll be that Kingdom that we call the church ruled by Christ either expanding to take over the world or existing in the world and finally in heaven but in any case and by the way post millennialist anomalous differ as to the details of these kinds of things no sense in going into all of that except to say in both cases they say there is no actual earthly reign of Christ fulfilling all Old Testament covenant promises now against those two is the view called pre millennialism that means there will be a millennium and prior to that millennium Jesus will come he comes pre not post he comes before he will return to an increasingly wicked earth he will come in fiery judgment he will judge all the ungodly of all the earth and then establish his rule and his kingdom forever the first phase of that eternal rule will be his reign on this earth which will last as revelation 20 says six times a thousand years after which his rule will continue because it is an everlasting rule but it will continue in a new heaven and a new earth that replace this heaven and earth which will melt in an atomic implosion and make way for the new creation those are the views now we're gonna dig a little more deeply into the whole idea of the Millennial Kingdom and what the Bible says about it and as to its nature and the aspects of the kingdom that are revealed in Scripture and by the way they are many and they are wondrous to behold and we will do that but I want to approach this whole thing with you as my congregation the way I did with 3,500 passed a couple of weeks ago now when they came here I'm very much aware that many of them are millennial lists some of them are post millennial us although there are fewer and fewer of those if you read the paper and have your eyes open and your breathing and your body has any temperature at all you know things aren't getting better but some are holding on to what they have taught in the past I guess self-preservation dominates their theology at that point but there is a growing influence of amillennialism because i millennialism has been a part of reformed theology reformed theology has made a monumental comeback in this culture and thankfully so because it is biblical the Reformers had it right on most issues but they never got around to eschatology they never got around applying their formidable skills you you cannot fight the war on every front and at the great time of the Reformation they were fighting the war where the battle raged the hottest and that was over the gospel and over the nature of Christ and over salvation by grace through faith and over the authority of Scripture they were fighting the massive Roman system and being occupied on those fronts they never really got to the front of eschatology they didn't really get to the front of ecclesiology either the study of the church but those who kind of go together as we'll see in this study in some very fascinating ways so it is really one of the strange ironies of reformed theology and therefore it's a strange irony in the church today that those who love the doctrine of sovereign election most that would be reformed theologians those who love the doctrine of sovereign election supremely and who loved that doctrine most sincerely and this is gonna be a long sentence and who are most unwavering in their devotion to the glory of God the honor of Christ the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration the veracity and inerrancy of Scripture those who are usually the most fastidious in Bible interpretation yes those who are the most careful and intentionally biblical regarding all categories of doctrine those who see themselves as guardians of biblical truth those who are passionate to get it right those who are not to cannot content to be wrong at all and those who most heartily agree on the essential matters of Christian truth so that they labor with all their powers to examine in a Berean fashion every relevant text to discern the true interpretation of all matters of divine revelation are and there's the main verb in the sentence are in varying degrees of disinterest in applying their skills to the end of the story and rather content to be in a happy if not playful disagreement in regard to the vast biblical data on eschatology as if the end doesn't matter much period or another way to say it would be this how many of you have attended an amillennial prophecy conference there isn't such a thing if you don't know what you believe about the future you can't preach on it whether you are a pessimistic amillennialist or an optimistic millennialist that's a post millennialist you don't know what to do with prophetic truth because if you interpret prophetic truth in the same normal natural way you interpret all the rest of the passages of Scripture you're going to end up a pre millennialist it's inevitable and so you have to change the rules of interpretation and once you say the Bible doesn't mean what it says then we have no idea what it means certainly you have no idea what it means neither does anybody else another way to see this would be to ask this question what other category of theology what other category of theology except atheism starts with the Alpha primitive and labels itself as believing in something that doesn't exist to say you're an amillennialist is only to tell me what you don't believe and then you have to go to all of the passages of scripture that talk about the kingdom and tell me why you don't believe they mean what they say it's a strange approach does the end matter I think it matters I think it matters to God it matters to me it matters to me to understand what God has said about the end it's the whole point of everything else it's the whole point of the beginning and the middle the end is as divinely designed the beginning and God has given us massive amounts of revelation in the scripture about the future it has to matter to us in fact some say nearly one-fourth of Scripture is prophetic God filled the Bible with prophecy and much of it looking to the end did God do this but somehow mumble did he do it and somehow muddled it so hopelessly that the high ground for Bible students and the high ground for theologians is to recognize the muddle and abandon the perspicuity or the clarity of scripture on that subject is that what God wanted us to do to look at it and say I can't figure this out let's forget it there are whole denominations that are instructed not to teach on the end times you would assume that they are confused because the Bible is confusing and if the Bible is confusing then God Himself is confused and so working hard and it is often hard work to understand prophetic passages is needless in fact it's a it's an impossible effort since it doesn't mean what it says and you have to sort of allegorize it or spiritualize it and therefore interpretations are myriad they are as many as interpreters why bother if it doesn't mean what it says everybody's got a different view then nobody has the authority to say this is true let's just stick with things that we know are true and things that all the good theologians agree on because you see if it doesn't mean what it says it means then any suggestion is as bad as any other suggestion and I asked the question are are we supposed to be comfortable with the notion that the hard and fast and tried-and-true principles of Bible interpretation have to be set aside in prophetic texts but that is essentially what they're asking us to do some of the most formidable amillennialists and I'm talking about well-respected very erudite influential theologians say things like this and I'll quote ot Alice well-known says the Old Testament prophecies literally interpreted cannot be regarded as having been yet fulfilled or being capable of fulfillment in the present age that's true if you interpret Old Testament prophecies literally they cannot be fulfilled in this present age and he is suggesting therefore that we can't interpret them literally because somehow we've got to make them fulfilled in this age because there is no future age Floyd Hamilton in his book the basis of the millennial faith says and I quote now we must frankly admit the literal interpretation of the Old Testament prophecies gives us just such a picture of an earthly reign of the Messiah as the premillennialists pictures well that's a fate worse than death what he is saying is a literal interpretation of the Old Testament is going to lead you to a premillennial view and since we don't want to get there we can't use a literal approach anything to avoid premillennialism even if you change the rules of interpretation Lorene Buettner wrote a book called the meaning of the millennium this is what he said it is generally agreed that if the prophesies are taken literally they do foretell a restoration of the nation of Israel in the land of Palestine with the Jews having a prominent place in that kingdom and ruling over the other nations out of their own mouth what's wrong with that why do we want to run from that why do we want to change the rules of interpretation to avoid that the preconception is that we can't allow this to happen we can't have those prophecies come to pass with regard to Israel in an earthly literal Kingdom the way the Old Testament seems to be saying it's so set aside normal natural literal interpretation but let me tell you something it's normal natural literal interpretation is the only way to stop abuse of Scripture as soon as you abandon that then it's fair game for anybody's craziness if we're gonna change the rules then may I suggest this and this is what I told the pastors if we're going to change the rules then we better have a word from God there should be a footnote in the chapter saying please note here comes a prophetic text change the rules we really need a divine mandate because I think God cares that we get it right would you agree I think he cares that we get it right that's why he wrote it and I think he understands that his glory is at stake and our hope and comfort is at stake and the evidence of God's massive moving in history is at stake with regard to the future he wants us to get it right that's why he put it in the scripture and the scripture is replete with it so if we're going to change the rules of interpretation to inject into Scripture a preconceived idea or to avoid what is obvious we better be sure that we have a word from God now there are people who do this to Genesis 1 two and three they don't want to accept that the entire universe was created in six nearly 24-hour days they don't want to accept the fact that Adam and Eve were created full-grown male and female not the result of an evolutionary process but if you read Genesis one two three it's pretty clear the evening in the morning were the first day the evening in the morning were the second day the evening in the morning we're the third day day light and dark day light and dark that's 24 hour period God creates everything and for most evangelicals for most people who hold to a sound biblical view and reformed theology they would live and die that the text of Genesis 1 through 3 means exactly what it says it means because that's the only way to interpret scripture some people want to turn it into ages there's nothing in there that does that there's nothing in the text itself that does that some people try to call it poetry but it's clearly not poetry it as none of the earmarks of poetry none of the characteristics of Hebrew poetry it is narrative history and we fight sometimes tooth and nail to maintain the literal veracity of Genesis 1 through 3 why then if we are so committed to protecting the text of the beginning in its literal nature are we so fast to give up the texts of the end and their literal nature makes no sense where is the divine mandate to do that what passage is it in show it to me and by the way if we change the rules what are the new ones and who made them and by what authority now here comes the real irony this is the real Larry those who most celebrate the sovereign grace of election that's the reformed they are typically a millennial those who most celebrate the sovereign grace of election regarding the church and it's inviolable place in God's purpose from predestination before the foundation of the world to glorification in the future those who most celebrate the sovereign grace of election those who most aggressively most militantly and most capably defend the truth of scripture regarding this election being divine unilateral unconditional irrevocable by nature for the church that's for us so that whatever God chose to do he will do that whatever he began to do he will complete those who will defend that to their last breath God's irrevocable unconditional unilateral sovereign election will bring those he has chosen to the fulfillment of all that he has promised them they will die for that truth regarding the church but unashamedly abandoned that same truth for the elect nation of Israel why it's the same God same terminology scripture affirms the perpetuity of the elect church to salvation glory that all whom the Lord has chosen he brings to glory in similar language scripture affirms the perpetuity of ethnic Israel to a future salvation and a future Kingdom as a race of people and that in that salvation and in that Kingdom will be the fulfillment of all divine promises given to them in the Old Testament repeated in the New Testament and threw them to the world whether you're talking about the church as God's elect or Israel as God's elect both are God's elect and again I say his election is divine unilateral unconditional and irrevocable so I told the pastors at the conference the title of this talk is why every self-respecting Calvinist has to be a premillennialists because if you believe in divine sovereign election then you have to believe that as God will be faithful to his promises to his church he will also be faithful to his promises to his elect nation Israel now frankly it's too late for John Calvin to fix his work although he is now a premillennialists in heaven if only he could just send down one message that might be it but you know if all the people on the planet who who should be premillennialists it should be those who believe in divine sovereign election of all people our minions not Armenians that's different those who follow Arminius did not believe in election Arminius did not believe in election those who follow him do not believe in election that that is a large part of evangelical Christianity the Wesleyan movement charismatic movement Methodists etc etc many Baptists they believe God elects nobody to salvation they believe that salvation can be gained and lost you can believe and be saved and then you can forfeit your salvation now they make perfect amillennialists that's a perfect setup for them God doesn't choose you you him you can choose him and then not choose him and then choose him again and then not choose him you make the decision and so all of the promises of God are conditional on you I millennialism really seems to fit them but not us who live and breathe the rarified air of Sovereign Grace and election it makes no sense to me in the modern theological world I say leave our millennialism to the process theologians whoever heard of that would give you a theology lesson here a little bit process theology they are the theologians liberal theologians who believe that God is in process of becoming what he will be he's getting better as more and more information comes to him and as he has more and more experience in dealing with the issues in his universe Easy's getting better at being God he's improving he's definitely on the upward curve this is process theology God is just trying to find his way through the me lay of choices and decisions through the endless vicissitudes and choices that everything and everyone makes through the all the numberless issues in this massive universe that are going on he's sorting it all out as he goes now I told you a few weeks ago why people believe that because they want to get God off the hook so he's not responsible for evil he's happy to take the responsibility for allowing evil for his own glory in fact the worst evil that's ever been done on the history of the world was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and by that the worst evil he gained the greatest glory but they want to get God off the hook so they say he's really not responsible he's really not in charge of anything he's just trying to figure it out that's called process theology the other view is what's called openness theology and it's same thing it simply means God has no idea what the future is he doesn't know the future because it hasn't happened he's not predicting the future because you can't predict what hasn't happened it doesn't exist the bottom line is we're in charge we chart the course and God reacts even his promises may not be valid because he made them with inadequate information he made them in the past when he didn't know what he now knows because what was going to happen hadn't happened only now has it happened and so his promises may not be trustworthy since they were given in the past before so many things happen that he didn't know we're coming to pass so I say leave amillennialism to those kinds of people who do not believe in the sovereign unilateral irrevocable divine electing power of God leave it to the semi Pelagians and Pelagians who go in and out of salvation it makes sense for their theology Israel sin you're out Israel sinned promises canceled Israel disobeyed the law you're done Israel crucifies the Messiah that's it you forfeit everything and God gives it to somebody else namely the church and we hope the church can do better than Israel or the church will forfeit it all as well so this is a classic perfect fit for our minion theology but for those who get it for those who understand it for those who embrace God's sovereignty that he is the only one who can determine who will be saved and blessed and he is the only one who can save and bless then saying that he cancelled promises to Israel because they didn't believe is completely inconsistent how could they believe unless he caused them to believe how could he hold them responsible for not believing how can he hold any of us in one sense responsible for not believing we are responsible for our sin but in the end we believe because he moves on us there are two great elect people in the Bible Israel and the church and Israel is elect as the church is elect the New Testament is full of comments about the church being the elect but in the Old Testament for example Isaiah 45 for Israel mine elect I have even called thee by thy name Isaiah 65 9 mine elect shall inherit it the promises of God Isaiah 65 really the whole chapter is about Israel God's elect verse 22 my elect again shall enjoy long the work of their hands Israel repeatedly called God's elect we know what that means now why am I making case for this because when you understand God's purpose for Israel you now have the foundation for all eschatology all eschatology you get your eschatology right when you get Israel right you get Israel right when you get the Old Testament covenants and promises with Israel right you get the Old Testament covenants and promises right when you get the interpretation of Scripture right you get the interpretation of Scripture right when you're faithful to valid rules of interpretation so you interpret it right and that will allow you to understand the meaning of the covenants and the future of Israel and God's integrity is at stake over over 200 times in the Bible God is called the God of Israel over 200 times the God of Israel there are over 2,000 references to Israel in Scripture not one of them means anything but Israel so if you say the promises in the Old Testament that refer to Israel really meant the church you have no precedent for such an interpretation not one reference anywhere in Scripture and there are over 2,000 referring to Israel means anything other than Israel there are 73 references to Israel in the New Testament each of them refers to Israel and may I remind you do you have one very very important reality to deal with in case you think there's no future in Israel living Israelites what's that about you never met a hittite and amirite a hi to Jeb you cite or any other right they have long since morphed into the meal a and the mix of the races but we now have pure Israelites that in itself is an indication of God's preservation for their future seventy percent by the way of scripture is the story of Israel start-to-finish not that they were the end but they were the means to the end not that they were the only ones to be saved but they were the ones through whom God will eventually reach and even set up his son to rule over the nations so here's how to get the foundation for a good sound eschatology get election right get Israel right you got it because what that means is God does know the future God has set the future and the future involves not only the glory of his church but the fulfillment of his elect people Israel with regard to everything that he promised that nation and there are a lot of people who get the first one right they get election right and they don't get Israel right and they are lost when it comes to eschatology and I'm confident that God didn't reveal prophetic truth in so much detail to hide anything too obscure the truth but to reveal it for our blessing our motivation and his glory so my words to you are a really very simple foundational words I say this if you want to understand what the Bible says about the future get these two things right the sovereignty of God in election and the promises of that sovereign electing God to those people whom he has elected his redeemed church and Israel return the sovereignty of God in election to its rightful place returned the nation Israel to its rightful place and your eschatology will unfold in beautiful clarity and I'm really grateful that the Spirit of God is moving the way he is these days and moving in the church to reestablish the glorious high ground of the sovereignty of God in salvation now it is time to re-establish the high ground of Sovereign Grace for a future generation of ethic ethnic Israel in salvation and the Messianic earthly kingdom if you get that right your eschatology will come crystal clear I have thought about these things by the way for a long time I've been here at Grace Church well at 30-some years prior to that I thought about it a lot when I was in seminary I thought about it I guess for about 50 years I've been thinking about eschatology the time at the end and the longer I think about it and the more I study the scripture the clearer it becomes to me in fact I understand sovereign electing Grace much more clearly than I ever have in the past and I also understand God's sovereign electing purpose for Israel more clearly than I've ever understood it I have never moved away from my conviction about these two things they've been refined clarified expanded enriched through these fifty years but I was convinced when I started I had as theologians might call it my own Ordo eschaton that would be the chronological sequence of the end times I saw it in Scripture when I was young I saw it in Scripture because it was so crystal clear it's there I remember when I flew to a Kazakhstan and about a thirty five or thirty eight hour flight got off the plane seven o'clock in the morning to speak at a conference or 1600 pastors from Central Asia the first Central Asian pastors conference in history after the breakup of the Soviet Union and I went there and I spoke for a week and they finally said to me when are you gonna tell us the good part and I said well what's a good part they said what we won't know about the future we won't know about the future tell us about the future they were in a very hopeless situation having very little in life I said sure I'll take all day Friday I'll tell you the future so I just marched them through the order of the chronology of eschatology as its laid out clearly both in the old and the New Testament and I finished I had no idea what they believed 1,600 pastors and leaders from Central Asia I've never even been there and the group that led the conference came to me and afterwards with smiles on their faces and said you believe exactly what we believe this isn't something for people who have been highly educated this is something for people who haven't been corrupted by education I was talking to one of our missionaries just the same week I gave this talk to the pastors and it was coming back from China and he said there's only one view in the church in China and it's the premillennial view of course because they just take what scripture says I've been teaching and preaching the Bible expositionally now for over 40 years one verse at a time I have dragged you through virtually every verse in the New Testament we still have mark to go but there are only a couple of discourses in a couple of miracles in mark that aren't in the other three Gospels so not a lot of new material I've dragged myself through all these years of the discipline of study and I've gone back after I preached that I've written commentaries now I think 26 or 27 volumes on the New Testament back through the same material again and again and again and again and again so that this understanding of eschatology has had to stand the acid test of every text in the meantime I've continued to study the Old Testament - to write all of all the footnotes for the MacArthur Study Bible through the entire Old Testament I've preached through many of the books of the Old Testament the first 11 chapters of Genesis through Daniel Zechariah the minor prophets and pieces and bits of Isaiah and others in the Old Testament and so I think it's a fair test to see whether eschatology holds up and I can only tell you I'm unwaveringly committed to the sovereign election of a future generation of Jews to salvation and the full inheritance of all the promises and covenants of God given to them in the Old Testament I'm unwaveringly committed to that now I know at this point somebody out there is gonna say oh boy he's into the Left Behind series no I'm not into rapture fiction and I'm not into wacky charts you don't see me up here with a big chart and a stick and I'm not in the newspaper exegesis where you everything that happens in the news fulfill some obscure Old Testament prophecy and I'm not in to all kinds of complex charts and I'm not into all that is traditionally known as dispensationalism 7 dispensations two kingdoms two new covenants two ways of salvation discontinuity between the Old Testament and the new not talking about that relax set all that aside I reject the wacky world of newspaper exegesis and cartoon eschatology and crazy interpretation like the locust of Revelation 9 being helicopter's etc look I I reject all of those really abusive and bizarre kinds of interpretation but frankly they're no more whacky than the interpretations of the amillennialists who want to take the entire book of Revelation and stuff it into the events of 70 AD in a few years afterwards and come up with things that are just as ridiculous and by the way dispensationalist people say well that whole premillennial view that came out of CI Scofield that came out of Jay and Darby that came out of that whole dispensational system no it didn't there's a recovery of premillennialism in the modern era and the recovery of premillennialism in the modern era came from two very unlikely sources an Anglican an Anglican by the name of William Cunningham in 1815 wrote a book called the premillennial Advent he was anything but a dispensationalists but even more interesting in England in 1827 there was a publication affirming premillennialism the coming of Christ and the establishment of his Millennial Kingdom written by a Jesuit priest reading his Bible by the name of Manuel de lacunae ideas so we can set aside the idea that somehow this is rooted in wacky dispensationalism it is not this is simply a way to understand scripture in its normal sense now I must save the good stuff till next time but I want to just end by giving you a little list of benefits of getting your eschatology right okay like all divine truth getting the future truth right is beneficial turn to Revelation chapter 1 this up to now has been more like a lecture but turn to Revelation chapter 1 and just look at verse 3 for a moment revelation 1:3 blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it for the time is near what you have here is a benediction from God blessed is he who reads and understands the Book of Revelation some of you will say I how in the world can you understand it they understood it in China without anything but a Bible and who stood at Central Asia without anything but a Bible you take it at face value oh sure it helps to know some history and some background but this is a pronounced blessing along that line I went to moody press and I said look I've written two volumes on Revelation I don't know it's 800 or 900 pages and I realized not everybody's gonna go through all of that it's just a lot of material so I said would you do me a favor let me condense that down just squeeze down to about 350 pages because if people read this and understand that they're going to be blessed by God and they said sure so they did it and we distributed that at the Shepherd's conference 350 page version of Revelation in which the full interpretation is provided there now of course you can advance to the full two volumes if you'd like but we distributed that and I arranged and I don't know when it's going to happen for you I arranged to get a copy for every family at Grace Church as a gift now the only thing that I ask is that you read it and the only reason I asked you to read it is so that you may be what blessed now understanding the future is that's a general statement that you would be blessed but look at just a couple of other things quickly first John three verse two beloved first John 3:2 now are we the children of God it has not appeared as yet what we shall be we know that when he appears second coming we shall be like him because we shall see him just as he is and everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure getting your eschatology right will bless you and getting your eschatology right will purify you you have this hope as a purifying hope we'll see more about how that works turn to 1st Corinthians 15 first Corinthians 15 well this is such a great chapter verse 51 I tell you a mystery we shall not all sleep we shall all be changed in a moment the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet the trumpet will sound the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed that's the rapture we're gonna study the rapture for this perishable must put on the imperishable this mortal must put on immortality and then he goes on to talk about the fact that in that moment in that event death is swallowed up in victory death where is your victory death where is your sting the sting of death is sin the power of sin is the law thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ so here we are living in the view of our eschatological triumph in Christ the glory of the rapture the last Trump rising from the grave made imperishable and immortal and then the effect of it is in verse 58 therefore my beloved brethren be steadfast immovable and you can stop right there you know D are you watching this media all this panic about global warming and all this panic about the end of the world and asteroids crashing into the earth that's for people who don't know this that the way history ends is with Jesus coming and taking us away and so we stand steadfast immovable I don't know about you but I really can't get too worked up about greenhouse gases they don't faze me I have they can try to terrify me with all this stuff I am unmoved I know where history is going turn to 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 first Thessalonians chapter 4 another rapture passage great 1 verse 16 the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel the trumpet of God the dead in Christ shall rise first we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the lord in the air thus shall we always be with the Lord here's the application therefore do what comfort one another you have nothing to fear nothing to worry about the Lord's coming back blessing purity stability comfort turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 9 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 9 we have as our ambition whether at home or absent that is whether in heaven or here to be pleasing to him to be pleasing to him well we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that's part of the coming eschatology there is a rapture and there's a bemis sea judgment we know that and at that judgment will be recompense for the deeds done in the body whether they are good or foul us meaning useless we know that so our ambition is when we get to that place to be rewarded because we are pleasing to him if you look at acts 3:19 Peter says repent therefore in return that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing that's the Millennium may come from the presence of the Lord that he may send Jesus the Christ appointed for you whom heaven must receive till the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient time so having your eschatology in place may lead you to repentance all of these are benefits of getting it right when Frederick the Great called his chaplain in and he said I want proof of the truthfulness of the Bible and I want it briefly the chaplain replied sir I can give you proof of the truthfulness of the Bible in one word Israel do you understand the massive apologetic power of the existence of Israel as an ethnic people in their own land staggering how do you explain that as one prominent millennialist said when asked what is the biblical significance of the existence of Jews in their land and he said it has no significance at all really it is the single most inexplicable story in human history that this small group of beleaguered people attacked and assaulted by everybody around them for centuries still exists as a pure ethnic race now if you want to get the future right you got to get Israel right and you got to get God's sovereign electing purpose right all right that's the introduction now next time I'm going to take you through a series of about five questions that we're going to ask and see how this plays out on the pages of Scripture okay and you've been great tonight this is more like a theological lecture I don't do this to you very often but I hope you feel like it was helpful and anchored you in this great and import truth and what's at stake here not just the future of Israel but our confidence in the Word of God all right father we thank you for a great evening together wonderful testimonies great fellowship and how how good it is to think deeply and broadly about the glory of your word may we be faithful to take it to interpret it as you intended for us to so that it can yield to us the wonderful rich blessings that you have promised we want the word to bless to make us pure to stabilize us to comfort us to give us a passion for evangelism we want the word to cause us to live lives pleasing to you we know that word about the future has that power may it be powerful in our lives we pray in Christ's name Amen you've been listening to Pastor Bible teacher and author John MacArthur and we trust that you've been encouraged John is featured speaker on Grace to you a daily half-hour teaching program available on Christian radio streamed audio and podcasts for more information about the ministry of grace to you or a catalog of all of John's print and audio resources visit www.sceeto.com for permission to copy or distribute our made in writing to grace to you copyright 2006 john macarthur all rights reserved

Channel: GoodTreeMinistries

Views: 40,713

Rating: 4.5767636 out of 5

Keywords: Why, Every, Calvinist, Should, Be, Premillennialist, John, MacArthur, eschatology, viewpoints, controversy, Bible, future, events, prophecy, Christ, second, coming, 1000, year, reign, postmillennialism, amillennialism, prederists, Origen, Augustine, Charles, Spurgeon

Id: XzWV6LsBNvw

Length: 61min 1sec (3661 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 02 2011