Why I Am Not An Amillennalist by Keith Malcomson

we're coming in this uh last message tonight it's part 18 that we've dealt with the book of daniel and for 14 parts of this we've expanded gone through chapter by chapter dealing with the book of daniel then we dealt with this will be our fourth message added as an appendix on the end of the series but we've been concentrating teaching on daniel and these four messages that i've added are just things i didn't have room for our time for when we were doing the series and i didn't want to take away from the exposition of scripture but they've been very very important uh we've already asked will the antichrist be a muslim our answer was no we asked will the antichrist be the pope and again uh we said no then last week we looked will the antichrist be a jew and again our answer was no but i want to finish here on this message and my title tonight as we finish this complete series on daniel is why i am not an e-millennialist and if you don't know what that means don't worry a bit about it uh before we read the scriptures here in daniel chapter two many years ago when i first became engaged to candace and uh she maybe didn't know much about me before we got engaged but she certainly has since but when she was engaged she visited my mom's house for the first time looked up at my shelf all the books on the shelf and she saw the title of one book and it was on its side and she actually misread it what she read was why i am not a musician that's what she thought it said and she thought here's the answer because she was so musical playing so many different instruments and teaching in cork school of music she was head of the strings and social thought well i'm gonna have to settle down to this guy uh being fully convinced that he shouldn't um why i am not a musician obviously had a lot of good reasons for not playing an instrument but i'm so glad to find out the true title of that book it was why i am not a muslim so i've got nothing against uh musicians are playing instruments but i'm against a man being a muslim i'll i'll preach to you the gospel i'm glad if you play an instrument but i don't want you to be a muslim but here tonight why i am not an a millennialist i believe this is very important and i'm going to try and confine myself mostly to the book of daniel here tonight do we will overspell in the scripture but um reading first of all in daniel chapter 2 and please follow with me daniel chapter 2 verse 44 and it says there in the days of these kings shall the god of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the kingdom shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever for as much as thou saws that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and the breaking pieces the iron the brass the clay the silver and the gold the great god hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter and the dream is certain and the interpretation thereof is sure then please turn with me just to one verse in chapter 7 daniel chapter 7 and verse 13 daniel 7 and verse 13. i saw in the night vision and behold one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him and there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed will you pray with me here tonight as we come to this bible study father we praise you we worship you we thank you for this entire series over the past four months my god the people you've encouraged the friends that we have made as we have taught chapter by chapter you've brought many friends to us nor god you've made many people members of this body you've saved people you've changed people you've encouraged people you've you you've informed people nor god you've turned hearts onto you and nor god i thank you for the power of your word that even as we open it up it has the power to change lives for all eternity my god in this study tonight nor god we're not merely critiquing but we want to exalt the lord jesus christ we want to make him exalted central and precious to every single heart that listens the word of god tonight we bless you and we love you and we desirable god that every eye would see that jesus christ is lord and king in jesus name amen my message why i am not an a millennialist and our entire series was called the heavens rule and you're gonna see tonight a little we're critiquing and looking at some thoughts and testing them with scripture i promise you tonight you're also going to see that the heavens do rule the heavens too real i mean throughout history but even more so in the future when christ comes to rule upon the earth now i'm not going to deal with everything i want to deal with tonight or every scripture four years ago we taught four messages on the millennium in our series authority and submission three years ago we dealt with the millennium rewards and reigning with christ in our series storing up treasures in heaven and then one year ago i taught an entire message called the millennium just on revelation chapter 21 so i i regularly come back to the millennium i teach it i believe it's a precious teaching that we are going to reign on the earth with the person of the lord jesus christ physically literally visibly in a thousand year kingdom i believe that with all my heart and in fact in this iron generation pre-millennialism in other words christ will return physically and establish a thousand year kingdom reign upon the earth that's what pre-millennialism is after jesus comes his kingdom is going to come visibly on the earth and by far pre-millennialism is the most dominant christian prophetic view in our world today amongst genuine christians it is the dominant view but let's not be relaxed thinking that we don't need a defendant i believe we do need to defend every teaching that we hold we shouldn't become lazy thinking everyone believes this because they most certainly do not do you know it wasn't always this way it's very unique that this is the dominant view today but actually in the time of the reformation and for hundreds of years there was a different teaching that was dominant amongst the reformers the puritans great leaders and even great revivalists and i'm gonna deal with that tonight i'm speaking here tonight why i am not an a millennialist now what is an a millennialist the word a millennial means no millennium in other words no literal millennium they'll say they do believe in it but in reality for us to believe what we do here they really don't they spiritualize everything in an extraordinary manner now john calvin who affected so many lives over the past 500 years he wrote in his institutes on this teaching that i hold and that you believe and he called it a fiction and in fact he wrote in his book that it was too childish either to need or to be worth a refutation so he didn't even try to refute the teaching of the millennium a thousand year ring he said it's child's play it's ridiculous it is mere fiction and in fact as i told you before calvin did not write a commentary on the book of revelation revelation was a close book term well i want to tell you what else was a close book to him the teaching of bible prophecy for the end days now i don't have as great a mind as calvin or some of these other men i want to tell you straight out when i left high school i'd done seven gcses six of them i got f4 and f did not mean fabulous i want to tell you and i got one a which was for art so i failed my english my maths but i want to tell you when i left school god opened my mind remarkably and i've given myself to submission to the word of god to the study of scriptures and to believe nothing but what i find written in the in in the holy bible i do believe in the word of god so we're going to address this teaching of a millennialism i'll explain what it is and i'll address it i won't deal with everything but i pulled out three specific points here in relation to the book of daniel that i believe i've got to deal with it why and you may say why did i believe in a thousand year reign when so many great men great teachers great theologians believe differently well i'm gonna show you tonight and haven't failed six of my gcses you can decide if i believe the scripture and expound it correctly or whether you need to go seek great intellectual teachers of theology i'm going to give you three points here my first point why i do not believe in a millennialism and i am not an a millennialist is number one because of its hyper spiritualization i believe this teaching takes the bible and introduces hyper spiritualization let me tell you what they do because there's a lot of tricks of the trade with email analysts they point out holes in our arguments in other words when you first meet one of these men believers christians and many of them are godly men the first thing they'll do is show you the holes in our arguments in other words they attack before presenting what they believe they begin to show holes and our arguments they'll also ask you questions at times that you don't know the answer for and if you're a young believer that that that is a terrible thing to be asked bible questions when you haven't studied everything or know the answers to everything they'll accuse you and i particularly have always taken things too literally in other words we read bible prophecy and we say that's going to happen literally as it's written and we accept that so they accuse us of taking bible prophecy and literalizing it far too much in fact one one of the authors that i'm responding to here tonight he says the literalist view is extravagant and absurd to take it literally so what i've taught you and daniel all of these months basically they say it is absurd the view that i've actually given also they point to extremes and excesses of those that teach pre-millennialism we know at the minute that there's those that teach the vaccine is the actual mark of the beast no that that that can have a realm of truth but it is not accurate so they pick these people out are those who make false claims every year and they use these as an example of those that believe in the literal interpretation of prophecy one of my family members many years ago i i um announced that he'd become a millennialist and i laughed at first i thought it was ridiculous i give new time to it but he he had such a pile of theological books all old books and he had so many questions in fact he handed me a sheet with a hundred questions a pre millennialist needs to answer that it actually um this is how they approach you with all of these arguments and with much theology big words much learning and questions and you know what this is the first means by which they try to approach you and that's why i want to deal first of all i do not believe them because they hyper spiritualize bible prophecy they accuse me that i take it too literally i deny that i believe they over spiritualize bible prophecy let me just take you one of the main books the momentous event by greer is one of the most popular it's printed by banner of truth it is everywhere it is everywhere in second hand bookshops let me tell you in this book i'll show you not only how they hyper spiritualize bible prophecy but they hyper spiritualize the teaching of the bible itself and i'm taking this out of this you see sometimes until you begin reading their material you don't know what they believe while they're attacking us we're merely barely defending ourselves but when you read them and begin to study what they believe suddenly you go i can't believe anyone holds this so in this book listen to what he says hosea did not really marry a prostitute that's what's in this book he actually says there's no way god would tell a prophet of god to marry a prostitute therefore it's spiritual it's symbolic it has some mystical meaning but it can not be literal so you see these are the men who say that we over literalize things i want to tell you they over spiritualize it anyone who would teach and i believe calvin did this as well taught that hosea that it was all symbolic it was all prophetic language well i want to tell you hosea did marry that prostitute or it makes a mockery of an entire book of the bible also in here they say ezekiel did not lie on his left side literally for 390 days or on his right side for 40 days in fact what he writes in this book we must be aware of reading this about ezekiel 2 literally now we're certainly not going to make 390 days 390 years that would be impossible i believe 390 days mean 390 days 40 days mean 40 days but you know what the emilene says said ezekiel didn't literally do that these numbers these days are spiritual they're symbolic they mean something else now they never tell us what 390 means they they just cannot do that that's utterly impossible but if you start saying ezekiel didn't really lie on his side listen from chapter two of ezekiel through to chapter four it also says that he dug through a wall that he faced jerusalem and and prophesied that he baked bread and he done all of these things as symbols in order to prophesy are we going to spiritualize the bacon of bread facing jerusalem and breaking the wall through through his house are we going to begin doing that do you see how ridiculous they do these are the men that tell us that we shouldn't take daniel literally also these same men in the same book in psalm 90 he said the 70 years that have been given to a man remember where it says 70 years are a lot of time and if you reach 80 years old well they say that's symbolic that's 70 years it doesn't mean literally it's just a symbolic general number now i want to tell you most people get their 70 years in the bible is not playing games in numbers but see what i'm saying here and i'm just laying the foundation i am not an a millennialist because they hyper spiritualize the bible and specifically they hyper spiritualize bible prophecy until it doesn't mean anything let me take you to the book of daniel here and in daniel chapter 7 we read about the ten kings who are represented as seven or sorry as ten horns they would have said seven ten horns on the fourth beast now those ten horns on the fourth base they are horns what do they represent they represent ten kings so the symbol is the horns the meaning of it is 10 kings that's what daniel 7 says but you know these men and i've got all all all of their books here um i i read them from time to time when i'm relaxing but do you know what they say in this book here's a man called sam storms one of the greatest books i read it last year on my week off um this is what a preacher does he has strange relaxing habits but i read his book on his defense of a millennialism he started as a pre-millennialist and for many years was taught under great primal analysis but he converted or changed his view as he as the years passed to be an able analyst well do you know what he writes in this book about the ten kings and i've studied him carefully he says well these ten horns or ten kings they mean they could mean twelve or they could mean 15 kings the 10 horns and the 10 kings are symbolic the 10 is an indefinite large number of kings 10 i'm telling you what they actually say 10 represents completeness 10 is the number of completeness and so between the fourth beast the roman empire and the rise of the little horn who some of them believe is the papacy or or uh the last day antichrist whoever they say that is but they say during this period these ten kings are an unspecified amount of men so when it says 10 it doesn't mean 10 kings are going to rise in the roman base it means it could be 12 or 15 or 20 or 30 or who knows in fact there's no specific boundary on it or limitation maybe it could even mean nine now these same men in their books also teach that on the third gracion beast that had four horns notable horns come up on it they say they are four literal kings and four literal generals that followed alexander do you see what they're doing in one place they take it literally in the other place they spiritualize it now that's someone i'm not the one that's being inconsistent i believe a millennialist when you really go into their teaching it becomes so radically confusing contradictory they contradict themselves con constantly and what they do with bible prophecy makes it no prophecy at all so 10 doesn't mean 10 it can mean any number of kings whatsoever and this is what they teach uh within their books now let's go to daniel 9 here i just want to show you how they over spiritualize bible prophecy and i don't i take it literally unless it's very evident that it's symbolic you see if it's ten horns those horns i don't take literally the beast i don't take literally that beats the four beasts are symbolic the horns that come up are symbolic but what do the horns mean well the horns mean kings therefore i take them as ten literal kings why because the bible teaches us same with revelation chapter 17 when it mentions the 10 kings again i don't create my own interpretation i don't say 10 is a symbol of completeness therefore it's symbolic in revelation 17 the angel goes through and interprets the entire vision yes the woman the beast the horns are all symbolic but they're all interpreted in revelation 17 and guess what they're exactly the same as we find in the book of daniel well let's go further here in this hyper spiritualization in daniel chapter 9 and verse 2 it says in the first year of his reign i daniel understood by books the number of the years where of the word of the lord came to jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolation of jerusalem now do you know what all these men teach the 70 years weren't 70 literal years so when jeremiah said you're going into captivity god's going to judge you and you'll be there for 70 years they say it wasn't literal it's symbolic the number 70 is symbolic that's what they say do you know what that would mean daniel misunderstood the text because it says that i daniel understood by books but here we'd have to say didn't understand he took jeremiah literally when he read jeremiah and the prophecy said 70 years you're going to be in babylon 70 years from from the god's judgment is going to be 70 years and babylon is going to fall well daniel when he read it he took it literally it says he understood by the books but there are those that actually say now that you cannot understood you cannot understand by books you know say that daniel was misinformed he should have made it symbolic and this is why in the teaching i so emphasized about this 70 years they were literal 70 years jeremiah's 70 years they say was not literal let me quote they were probably not to be taken with chronological precision by the fact that the 70 years of jeremiah's prophecy were not precisely 70 years these men and their books say it wasn't 70 years i taught you clearly and showed you how it was exactly 70 years there's two different prophecies concerning the 70 years and when daniel is writing here it's another 20 years until the temple will be rebuilt you know what it was 70 years from babylon um from the the rise of babylon to its destruction the fall the judgment of babylon from when daniel was carried away and listen in the book of zechariah in chapter 1 and verse 12 sakura is prophesying at the end of the 70 years when the temple is rebuilt do you know what he does he mentions the 70 years in his preaching he stirs the people and they finish the temple so all these men jeremiah believed in 70 literal years daniel believed in it sakurai believed in it i certainly believe in it but these they spend they waste an awful lot of ink in their books trying to prove how 70 years does not mean 70 years they can't give us any definite explanation in fact the best they give is the number 70 years it's 7 times 10 and it actually points um to perfection this uh multiplan of seven with ten is pointing to perfection or completeness that's the most they can do with 70. so it's a prophecy given about something that's going to happen but they turn the number into a symbolic fluid number that has no definite end but it did have a definite beginning you see jeremiah prophesied god is going to judge you you'll be carried into captivity and you'll be there 70 years it had a literal physical time and beginning and yet they symbolize it this is very dangerous and you know what very good men have believed this very good men have taught this great thinkers are taught this all i am is a flunk at high school but i want to tell you i would rather trust to the written scripture i may not have great intellect like them or great abilities like them but i believe in the inspired word of god i'm gonna read it the way it's written i'm gonna believe the text i'm gonna hold fast to it also in a little bit later in daniel 9 you you'll maybe say why did they do that with the number 70 they had to do it because of daniel's 70 weeks to come later in the same chapter they have to do that to the 70 weeks so that they can cut up the 70th week of daniel as well i got it i got some straight so as we look at the 490 years of prophecy we dealt with it again very much and you'll understand there are people who challenge this they write theologically they preach they teach against this and so i believe we need to answer them we know that later in daniel chapter 9 one of the most remarkable prophecies in the bible we have a prophecy about 49 um sevens or a period of 490 years and and they'll say that isn't literal years they'll say it's symbolic they take these 490 years they believe it's 490 just like we do and they break it down just like we do a period of of 40 years um first of all then sorry 49 years then a period of 434 years and finally a period of seven years friends listen to what they actually uh do to it in this they say that the first 49 years they'll agree it's up to nehemiah the rebuilding of the walls of jerusalem then they take another period of 434 just like us which is an entire period of 483 years and they say it's the messiah from the given of the command to the rebuilding of jerusalem to messiah they say it's 483 years now listen to what sam storm uh he's stirring up a storm here sam storms and what he actually taught in this this is one of the greatest thinker on a millennialism in this generation i i believe one of the greatest teachers listen to what he does in spiritualizing all of this first of all it takes this period of 483 years and its amazing heart goes almost exactly to christ water baptism this is what he says but he says it's not a literal number it just falls that way from the given a command cyrus he believes that cyrus all the way through the messiah is 483 years they don't believe it's literal so what do they do with the rest of it then there's seven years left over so they say that takes you up to the water baptism then you have a further seven years that is going to take place the next three and a half years is is actually taken it covers the period of christ's ministry from his water baptism until his crucifixion and in the last three and a half years what they do is take it from the cross all the way through to ad70 so listen for a moment 483 years is 483 years the next three and a half years is actually three and a half years then the last three and a half years is 40 years now different ones of these men interpret this differently some of them say the first three and a half years actually go through the ad70 now friends i don't want to boggle your mind here tonight but all i'm doing is explaining what they do with it so a period of three and a half years can be 40 years it could be three and a half years or it could be 2 000 years a millennialist teach all of this they have different ideas different teachings some of them say that this three and a half year period is a literal three and a half year period for the first half of the week but the second half of the week suddenly becomes 40 years to take you up to ad70 so what do they do they have no standard pattern they are trying to spiritualize this to make it fit a pattern do you know what they're trying to do that the 70 weeks are fulfilled in the first century that there's no seven years future they'll say i'm being too literal then i'm trying to split it up that my teaching on the 70th week is wrong i want to tell you i have studied their teaching carefully i've looked at their different opinions and nothing could convince me that they are right what do they do with that one week in daniel 9 27 it says and you know this is the verse given about the antichrist and he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week do you know what a millennialists teach they teach that he is not the antichrist but it's the person of christ they actually teach this was fulfilled in the death of jesus christ when it says he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week it means that when jesus died on the cross he confirmed the new covenant it was the beginning of the new covenant and lesson three and a half year in that period daniel's prophecy says that he the same person will cause the sacrifice and the ablation to cease for the overspreading of abomination what they actually teach and they have different versions of this is that it brought christ's death on the cross brought an end to the blood sacrifices and finished with the old covenant it finishes with blood sacrifice now jesus died on the cross a covenant is is signed and sealed here it is the new covenant in his blood and it began now i want to tell you this is a very big change i believe it's antichrist and it's in the future he'll sign a seven year covenant that there'll be a third temple they'll they'll be the starting again of blood sacrifices you know the interesting thing a literal view of scripture is coming to pass all around us look at jerusalem at the minute we're gonna see ezekiel's war happen it's literally gonna happen the armies are getting lined up right now israel is in place as a nation the emil analyst said israel would never be restored as a nation well they were in 1948 men like me a hundred years ago were teaching israel will be restored to their nation again they're going to be in the land before all this happens the emil analyst used to mock that and laugh at it well it happened it happened and now jerusalem and israel and the jews getting restored to their nation you see they don't believe this they don't believe this is the fulfillment of prophecy but i do i absolutely do do you know what the prophecies in daniel 9 27 it says that abomination of desolation is going to get set up again jesus in matthew 24 said that when you see the abomination of desolation get set up with where it ought not to be then the great tribulation is is going to start that's what jesus said but you know what these men say they say something radically different now listen i'm going to my second point why'd i reject this teaching that men like martin lloyd jones held to calvin hell too the puritans held to and many many great writers even sam storms here godly godly man why is it i reject it because of their hyper spiritualization i cannot believe it it makes these prophecies no prophecies at all prophecies that predict nothing in particular are specific and it makes them everything in general this leaves us in the dark how could you know such a prophecy has come to pass second of all why did i not believe this teaching why'd i believe in a literal thousand-year reign of christ on the earth here's my second point their extreme misapplication i believe they apply the scriptures in an extreme unbiblical way let me prove it from the book of daniel and you tested for yourself in daniel chapter 2 where we read tonight in verse 44 it says and in the days of these kings shall the god of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and that kingdom shall not be left to other people it shall break in pieces and consume all of these kingdoms and it shall stand forever for as much as i saw us that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and in breaking pieces the iron the brass the clay the silver and the gold the great god has made known to the king nebuchadnezzar what shall come to pass here after and the dream is certain and the interpretation thereof is sure look at daniel speaking as king he said you've had a dream it's a prophecy and everything will happen exactly he said it's certain and the interpretation is absolutely sure and he gives the interpretation about it you know a millennial has so spiritualized things and so apply things you can never be sure it is so vague so broad so open-ended that you cannot be sure but daniel told nebuchadnezzar you've received a dream from god it's got a prophecy of all the kingdoms in world history it's a remarkable prophecy it's absolutely sure now you remember what we taught in daniel 2 about the four kingdoms in that statue it began with nebuchadnezzar and the babylonian empire and it went all the way through to the roman empire those are legs were the roman empire the fourth empire upon the earth they were all four kingdoms on the earth they all reigned over the nations of the world they were all physical they were all visible they were all literal kingdoms and they had certain time spans they had a beginning they had an end they had a ruler they had a government it was seen by the nations of the world all all those nations under their power knew that this was a real and a genuine kingdom they were world powers they were physical now what does the a millennialist do with this how do they actually apply it now like us they believe in these four kingdoms they believe the last was the roman empire the fourth great world empire but this is what they teach they take this prophecy in daniel chapter 2 and they apply it to the new testament and say that that kingdom that stone that mountain actually was established in the first century they teach that the stone was jesus christ that it was also the kingdom of god that came with the inauguration of the church and it brought an end to the kingdoms of this world in other words all these kingdoms from babylon down to the roman empire and then christ came and set up his kingdom on the earth you see if you don't believe in a literal thousand-year reign of christ literally physically on the earth as is taught in zechariah 14 and in revelation chapter one if you reject that and spiritualize that you've got to change daniel chapter two when you get down to the roman beast in the days of jesus you've got to spiritualize all this and say christ was a stone he brought his kingdom and you know what it hit the feet of this great statue let's read this again for as much as i saw the stone that was cut out of the mountain without hands it break in pieces the iron the brass the clay the silver and the gold they say this is what happened when jesus came died on the cross rose on the third day and sent the holy ghost to pentecost this was the kingdom of god coming on the earth and it was symbolically portrayed here and this was the beginning and the days of the roman empire the kingdom of god was set up in the earth and for 2 000 years it has been spreading on the earth but listen in daniel 2 verse 35 then was the iron and the clay and the brass and the silver and the gold broken to pieces together and became like the chaff and the summer threshing floors and the wind carried them away and no place was found for them do you know what this teaching actually teaches it it contradicts what is here daniel was prophesying that when this stone comes from heaven it is a fifth kingdom it is a heavenly kingdom it is a spiritual kingdom it is christ's kingdom coming on the earth do you know when it comes it is going to come and hit the feet it doesn't hit the head it doesn't hit the arms or even the legs it hits the feet the two feet of clay and iron it says in daniel 2 44 in the days of these kings i believe that means the ten toes are who are ten kings in the days of these kings shall the god of heaven set up his kingdom when you see ten kings arise on that fourth base you know god is gonna set up his physical kingdom literally upon the earth you know it's gonna happen in those days notice that this stone hits the feet not any other part of it and when it hits the feet the entire statue gets destroyed in other words those other three um um kingdoms they continue their influence the persian kingdom today continues its influence the middle persian empire the babylonian the grecian all of their influence continues in our world today but see that fourth beast the roman beast we're actually told that christ is going to set up his kingdom on the earth in the days of those 10 kings this is also revealed in daniel chapter 7 and when he sets up his kingdom you know what's going to happen there'll be no place found for them in other words if they were true when jesus set up his kingdom on the earth there was all of the influence of these kingdoms was destroyed instantly together at the same time and also at that same time there was no more place found for them now if calvin and martin lloyd jones was right and if sam storms is right let's look at this for a second the problem here is that room continued as an empire for 400 years in fact it advanced after this point after the first century it was advancing spreading becoming stronger and it continued to do that for 400 years it did find a place it expanded it's impossible that they can be right concerning what they do with daniel chapter two in the days of the toes the stone comes but that didn't happen two thousand years ago there were not ten kings on that roman beast when jesus came to set up his kingdom on the earth two thousand years ago there were not ten horns on that beast you see why they need to spiritualize these horns do you realize why they need to spiritualize all this you understand now why calvin never actually expounded the book of revelation because they can't be clear or sure about anything they just have an idea they teach it they say satan is bowing for a thousand years spiritually symbolically at the present we're in the tribulation now we're in the millennium now the devil is in the pit now all of this comes out of a confusion where they do not take the scriptures literally you see i believe there's a second great problem extreme misapplication extreme misapplication let me give you their most extreme misapplication from the book of daniel and this will shock you how great thinkers theologians doctors of divinity could believe this in daniel chapter 7 and verse nine let's read the scripture i beheld till the thrones were cast on and the ancient of days did set whose garment was white as snow and the hair of his head like the pure will his throne was like the fiery flame and his wheels as burning fire a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him thousands thousands ministered onto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the judgment was set and the books were opened do you know what i believe this is is the second coming of jesus christ the heavens are gonna rule i assure you in this world i don't care how dark it gets i don't care how hard it gets i don't care how depraved it gets in this generation my the lord jesus christ the ancient of days is coming again there's coming a day when the lord jesus christ is going to come in all of his majesty and power when the books are going to be open and judgment is set listen just after these scriptures it says in verse 12. as con sorry let me go to verse 13 and i saw in the night visions and behold one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the ancient of days and they brought him near unto me now for me and for you when you read daniel chapter 7 verse 13 we've looked at the four kingdoms of history we have seen that that roman beast there's going to come up ten horns and then a final little horn and then finally in daniel 7 is a glorious vision of the coming of the son of man on the clouds of heaven what a remarkable vision and we see that the saints the real believers in christ those who are about to be rewarded in and possess the kingdom in other words the saints on the earth really enter into their true inheritance daniel chapter 2 shows that that stone when it comes will fill the entire earth it will become the dominant after all empires all kingdoms are done away with there's coming a kingdom on this earth saints and the kingdom the stone the mountain that we see in daniel 2 is revealed in daniel 7. it is the son of man it is the saints of god possessing the kingdom and literally reigning upon the earth physically and literally the notice in daniel 7 this scripture about the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven is used by christ in matthew 24 when he's teaching about bible prophecy the term son of man is used 32 times in the book of matthew and it always relates to the lord jesus christ i believe the son of man is the lord jesus christ and when it says that he's going to come in the clouds of heaven it means literally since it's going to happen one day jesus is going to come riding on the clouds of heaven literally and when he does he's gonna instantly establish a kingdom for a thousand years on the earth but let's look at this prophecy in matthew 24 and let's look what calvin martin lloyd jones and ayman lane list how they interpreted it in matthew 24 verse 2 we know that the disciples came and asked a question of jesus christ they were showing him the temple in jerusalem in fact they were boosting on it they were saying look at it master listen to what jesus said see not all these things mean in the temple and the stones verily verily i say unto you there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down he was given a prophecy about ad70 that would happen about 40 years later he was given a prophecy when they wanted him to look at the temple they were impressed with the temple in jerusalem you know what he said not one stone is going to be left on another it happened in one generation what a warning he gives a clear prophecy about the destruction of jerusalem and in fact in matthew 24 he refers quotes from daniel's prophecy at least three times refers to it about four times so the book of daniel is fundamental to jesus teaching on prophecy bible prophecy well look what they ask him in verse three tell us this was such a shocking thing that they asked him these questions tell us when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world what is going to be the sign well mr storms again and the a millennialist you know what they teach about matthew 24. you know i taught this chapter so many times and expounded it and explained it but you know what they believe they believe from verse 1 through to verse 31 that the entire teaching about signs remember what we've expected expanded about the 10 signs the burst pangs the beginning of birth pangs and of the end the signs of the end all of that teaching in matthew chapter 31. do you know what the abilities teach us he teaches it was fulfilled by ad70 in the first century all of that teaching in matthew 24 and in fact they teach that the destruction of the temple in a.d 70 was the abomination of desolation when the roman general with his army came and marched against the city of jerusalem they actually say this was the abomination of desolation they say that in a.d 70 when it was destroyed that was christ coming on the clouds of heaven to wreak havoc on the earth they say it was daniel chapter 7 being fulfilled literally being fulfilled that here comes christ to judge to destroy the temple to to scatter israel in fact some teachers go to an extreme level extreme application and they say this was the second coming of jesus christ and not period from jesus prophecy or his crucifixion through the ad70 they say that all the ten signs in the beginning of sorrows were fulfilled they this is what they actually teach that the great tribulation began at that point and it was complete by a.d 70. look at matthew 24 verse 30 it says and then shall the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory do you know john calvin said about this that this happened in the first century it's not seconds christ's second coming in the future but it happened in the past now i want to tell you that is extreme application that's my second reason i don't believe this it is an extreme application to begin to to teach this sort of thing that all of this was fulfilled and in fact they they they say that jesus coming in the clouds of heaven was fulfilled at that time but notice in matthew 24 what does jesus say when the abomination of desolation is set up immediately after the tribulation of those days listen closely shall the sun be darkened the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken they say all of this happened in the first century before ad70 and then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see this son of man coming in the clouds of heaven and power with great glory and he shall send his angels with a great trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to other i really don't need to say much more about this but you know what let me quote from them this has nothing directly to say about the second coming of christ that's a quote from them they teach that the tribulation of verse 29 occurred between verse 33 and verse 70. then the greek tribulation mentioned in verse 21 could maybe continue from 80 70 or sorry and it could be from ad 66 to 80 70 in a four year period the destruction of the temple in jerusalem by cyrus and his armies was the abomination of desolation was this cosmic chaos this is what they teach and in fact in this these books again they say this is the natural way to understand it i'm sorry but this is a very strange application of scripture stars fallen from heaven they say it happened in the first century but my question is one of the ten signs of the beginning of sorrows is the gospel shall be preached in all the earth then shall the end come did that happen before ad70 has the end come in ad70 what about the three warnings about deception in this prophecy it was the first warning of false prophets doing signs and wonders and deceiving many many false prophets coming deceiving many in the church did that happen in the first century no it didn't no it didn't not not at all friends i can keep going here but i want to bring you to a third and last application i haven't covered as much tonight i'm being very good to you but i hope i'm shocking you here is a teaching that was widely popular for many years and and you know what finally in this third point i want to show you how this could be my third and final point and believe me i'm just jumping over notes after note my third and final point why do i not believe this bad men teaching bad theology to good men let me repeat that and listen carefully bad men teaching bad theology to good men does that happen in the church oh yes it does martin luther was one of the greatest bible expositors of the last generation a godly man the puritans were some of the greatest preachers of church history that england ever knew the reformers set europe on fire and affected our entire world by preaching the gospel of salvation these were great men but somehow there are men of their age and they picked up their ideas from previous men that's why i said they are good men but they picked up their bad theology in this point on unbible prophecy they picked a bad theology from bad men and i'm i'm gonna prove it before i i close here i'm gonna mention the two first great teachers of a millennialism you see the church started by teaching pre-millennialism and it's easy for me to um to actually show that or teach that here here tonight one of the first teachers clearly of pre-millennialism or a literal physical reign of christ on the earth was a man called papius he was born in the year 60 in the first century he lived through to about 130 and he was a great teacher of pre-millennialism he lived in the country of turkey he once heard john the apostle who wrote revelation he heard him preach and in fact he grew up i knew many elders godly old elders all across the seven churches in turkey who had been appointed by john the apostle and who had sat under the apostles teaching well this papius knew these men and wrote on the millennium that it would be for a thousand years it would be physical literal and it would center on the city of jerusalem for the first 200 years of church history until about the year 200 pre-millennialism was dominant all across asia minor all across north africa and even all across egypt i can trace when the change actually come one one man that was affected by papius was a man a famous teacher called iranius he lived from the year 130 to 202 the year 202 he became a bishop of leon in france and in fact his teaching on on pre-millennialism spread all through france britain and even into ireland and there's many other great teachers justin martyr her julian methodius and many others they actually taught this so what went wrong what happened i believe two key men who were bad men taught a bad theology that later affected great and godly men i know it's a shocking point but i i'm just giving you history just telling you what happened in history we're we've touched on this subject but my key thing here is why i don't believe it first of all because of their extreme spiritualization of things second of all because there's extreme application they deny that christ coming to the clouds is a second coming and that matthew 24 they make it no prophecy at all they say there's no predictions no signs for you and i in matthew 24. but this third one i don't like bad men i don't believe in reading the theology of bad men i certainly don't want to receive the theology of bad men two men for you as we close origen and augustine of hippo these two men were the two greatest first teachers of a millennialism no millennial reign of christ these two men become the greatest riders that turned the tide that turned the catholic church to believe in teaching and spreading a millennialism yes amillennialism was a catholic doctrine predominantly a catholic doctrine first of all let me point out this man to you called origen who are rose and alexander in the nation of egypt do you remember i've mentioned him before when we were talking about the bible translations and about the text of scripture you remember how i mentioned about westcott and hort and how they rediscovered more than 150 years ago a greek text that they said had been lost forgotten hidden unused since at least the year 450 a.d been lost for almost 1500 years and they revived this text and this corrupt text is used in all of our modern bibles not in mind thank god now i showed you the man behind that ancient text that come out of alexander and egypt was this very man origin let me remind you who he was his influencer as an interpreter of the bible was remarkable in around the year 200. this is when things changed and a millennialism become um prominent and he was a teacher of a millennialism he had a very an independent interpretation of scripture in other words he departed from those around him previous great teachers he had his own way of interpreting scripture he used his intellect his mind to come to the bible he wasn't careful to depend on the holy spirit i do not believe he was born again and yet he's affected the church for 2000 years i believe he was an apostate i believe he was a false teacher now he had an excessive devotion to allegorical senses or teaching in other words he symbolized everything in the bible and his father was thrown in prison persecuted for the faith but and was a godly godly man but this is the son he produced fathers be careful of the sons you produce they could damage the church of christ they could really damage well this origin actually was grounded and taught in plato he was saturated his thinking in it and he used it in teaching uh the bible in fact he had been a pagan greek philosopher and he brought all of that knowledge he was a brilliant man he had a photographic mind he was very intelligent highly educated but he brought all this pagan greek philosophy to the bible and began to expand it he raised up a bible school in the city of alexander and he taught there for three years you know what he taught he taught a millennialism he began to spiritualize the prophecies in the old testament and in the new testament but not only that let me tell you what else he taught he taught the perpetual virginity of mary in fact he was one of the first to ever teach that mary was always a virgin he was the first to actually teach him he grounded himself in gnostic writings and would quote from them he did not accept bible as history the old testament genesis he said that the bible wasn't for common folk like you and me because we couldn't understand it he an intelligence theologian had insight to the bible he knew how it was symbolic how to spiritualize it how to plan but you and i couldn't do that he taught soul sleep he also taught baptismal regeneration that water will save you and wash away your sins he taught universal salvation that everybody in the end will be saved eternally everyone even judas he denied the divinity of jesus christ he taught purgatory for the cleansing of sins transubstantiation also transmigration and reincarnation all of this was in his teachings origin and he gave us this false manuscript of the bible but not only that he gave us all of the seeds of catholicism and not only that he gave us the seed of a millennialism that was so destructive he also denied the temptations of jesus christ were literal he didn't believe they literally happened he denied the genesis 1 to chapter 3 um were literal he did not he didn't believe it was true history he um he taught many other things that if babies weren't baptized they would go to hell and i i could keep going on here just giving you his heresies one after another but he taught that you had to spiritualize the thousand years of revelation 21 he said you had to spiritualize these prophecies in daniel and even today he's considered a great writer a great teacher a great proponent of of the scriptures and you know what he affected men like augustine of hippo let me take you to augustine of hippo who was he if you read a story he's initially a great convert to the faith he was a terribly immoral man he lived near the end of the fourth century and he'd become one of the greatest teachers in early church history but you know what when he wrote his testimony he wrote a remarkable book how his mother had become born again she was a woman of god a woman of prayer and she prayed for her son augustine and augustine he was an immoral man ran after many women was a drunkard and delved into every sort of sin was just a pagan a rebel a vile vile man but you know what through the preaching of the gospel he got mightily converted and born again and very quickly become a great teacher he had a remarkable mind and a remarkable ability do you know he had to have 10 men stenographers men who would write down and he would just give all his teachings books he left behind much teaching remarkable teaching he just flowed like a river he didn't have enough writers to write down he didn't write himself he needed these ten men to write down all of his teachings but listen as the years passed by he began to listen to other men read books read origin and other men and he began to promote and teach certain doctrines listen what they were he was a bold proclaimer that mary was sinless and in fact other teachers taught this but he was a fundamental man he's the one that made it the dominant teaching of the catholic uh church do you notice that all these men are great thinkers gifted preachers prolific writers they were the dominant theologians of there are they impress people with their learning and their education but you know what they move men away from the simplicity of the written scripture don't you believe yourself if you think you don't have a great mind or a great education believe the word of god hold fast to it who was this augustine then he become a great leader a great church leader a great catholic one of the foremost catholics but listen he initially taught and forged a doctrine of the persecution for genuine christians he actually began to teach the state persecution of christians if you as a christian in the 4th century didn't become a catholic he taught a doctrine and created it from the bible you ought to be persecuted he also taught from the bible that the weed and tears meant tears ought to be church members they could sit in church take communion be a member of the church every week even if there are sinners fornicators liars they could stay in that church and still be christians they just leave them alone leave them in the local church he also taught that where the scripture said that um we ought to compel men to come into the kingdom of god that meant to force them we you ought to use the sword and all the other christian groups of that fourth century he said they ought to suffer if they're not going to become good catholics or join the catholic he believed in forcing men at sword point into the catholic church that they became regenerate through water baptism and in fact through the north of africa he persecuted christians in a terrible terrible way finally in the year 415 under his influence the death penalty was imposed and the roman soldiers our forces began to go into the homes of christians who refused to become catholics to burn their houses down confiscate the bible throw them in prison and have them murdered the donald tests are the christians of north africa who believed in pre-millennialism do you know what they said about him they said augustine wages war with kisses that he teaches and promotes unity by war they spoke about him free they said of augustine that he spoke frequently about love and grace and unity and truth and yet he militantly supported the persecution of real christians see he augustine used to meet with them and debate theology and he began to lose he lost against them and so he moved from oregon doctrine to contending with the sword i could tell you an awful lot more about augustine but you know what he became the greatest teacher of church history on a millennialism he wrote a book near the end of his life called the city of god about a thousand pages long and he took all the prophecies of daniel in revelation of zechariah he spiritualized them and he said at the end of the roman empire that the kingdom of god has come on the earth he was a really millennialist and he said now we're spreading that's why he believed that as the catholic church they are going to reign rule put down all power that they should have dominant authority over governments and principalities do you see what actually happened friends you you and i'm only touching on this tonight but i've given you my three reasons my three clear reasons and i could give you many more as we go on but they over spiritualize they have an extreme spiritualization of scripture they then apply the scripture in a remarkable extreme fashion but you know what great men who are a millennialist today if you trace back they got their theology their bad theology from very bad men i'm only touching on this tonight i'm cutting to the chase i'm gonna finish here tonight but i want to tell you and remind you what it says in daniel chapter 12 and verse 4 it says but thou o daniel shut up the words and seal the book even until the time of the end what did the angel say to daniel in the very last chapter of daniel daniel the prophecies the visions the things you've been writing down of all that i've given you i want you to shut up the words i want you to conceal it close it up protect it for a future time when it's going to be needed you see often when it says about shutting division up it means it's for a time it's for an era in the future he was told that he was to seal the book or to put a genuine mark of us authenticity on it it's genuine it is real to put a seal on it says don't you add anything don't take away from it and let me just add this don't spiritualize prophecies that are literal and things that are come don't say that they're past put shut up the book seal it for a time when is the book of daniel to be shut up the words in daniel from chapter 12 all the way back to chapter one there's many prophecies there they are shut up for a certain time it is a book sealed up until the end of time the very end of time when is that time well he was told at the end many shall run to and through and knowledge shall be increased i know we always apply this to planes trains and automobiles we apply this to the internet to g5 if you dare have it and to microchips in our world but let me tell you that's not what this prophecy is about it's saying concerning the prophecy of daniel this book is going to open up remarkably in the last hour and in fact many shall run to and fro they're going to push forward they're going to create a great stir or froff upon the sea they're going to pursue with diligence with effort with toil with labor there's going to be an increasing rise of energy exerted in understanding the book of daniel as the end gets closer i want to tell you for the past 200 years that's been increasing and i believe it's reaching the very apex of this it also says a knowledge shall be increased what's it talking about the book of daniel it's not taught about knowledge in our world and that's a very uh wonderful application but it's talking about knowledge of the book of daniel being greatly increased multi-plan being heaped up high or inside to it or understanding of it becoming remarkable friends i believe the book of daniel is a remarkable book it's a book for this day it's going to become very precious to you aren't you glad that the maccabeans took daniel's prophecy literally and put courage in them they made a stand against the abomination of desolation in the temple they stood and rules up against antiochus and refused to compromise with his global religion only a people who take daniel literally are gonna know how to act in this hour i fully believe it and as we close remember what jesus himself said in luke chapter 10 verse 21 he said i thank thee you father lord of heaven and earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent would you have revealed them unto babes even so father for so it seemed good in my sight as i close and as we pray here tonight together we have closed with the entire series of daniel and again we're only touching it lightly there's so much more to say on it we've dipped into it but i can tell you the book of daniel is for this hour for the church of this age it's for every age for the church of every generation but i assure you more so than ever before it's for our day our time and this hour and i believe there's got to be an opening of this book it wasn't fulfilled 2 000 years ago this book is going to become the most amazing book and the church is going to know how to respond today because of what it says and you know what these things have been hidden from theologians like augustine calvin martin lloyd jones but they've been opened up and revealed to babes just like i was as a kid i believe the lord does that you can fail all your school exams but you can learn from the holy spirit and the written scriptures will you pray with me as we close father we thank you for this wonderful book of daniel the prophecies it's challenge sir surely the heavens do rule my god we are looking for your kingdom to come on the earth we know that jesus is going to reign literally physically and visibly on the on the earth the kingdoms of this world the nations of this world the tribes and peoples of this world are going to worship you they're going to submit to you they're going to bow down and acknowledge your reign all eyes are gonna see you coming on the clouds all nations are gonna wail when you come on on the clouds of heaven that didn't happen in the first century lord god matthew 24 never happened then but we see the signs we see everything being set in place israel is in her place russia is in her place iran is in its place the nations of the world are in their place turkey is in its place the the church is experiencing apostasy but oh god there's coming a last move of the spirit of god and father we pray make us ready for this last hour of church history lord god surely the the heavens do rain they've rained all through history they rain right now and they're gonna rain one last time when the heavens come down and rule upon the earth lord jesus maranatha we are looking for your coming our redemption draws now we see all the signs around us we see it all lining up and my god our hearts are excited we are those that read the signs and understand them and where our eyes are upon the lord jesus christ father i pray for my friends protect them from false teachings from air from heresies from the influence of bad theology from bad men from over spiritualizing and missing the blessing of god hide your word in our hearts tonight in jesus name amen amen

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Keywords: Revival, Character Of God, Free Sermons, Video Sermons, Jesus Christ, What Is The Gospel, SermonIndex, What Is The Truth, Keith Malcomson

Id: B2DlJkNSH5s

Length: 80min 59sec (4859 seconds)

Published: Mon May 17 2021