The Jewish Final Solution to the World's Problem - The Jewishness of the 4 Gospels

[0:00] Please turn to the book of Malachi, and this morning we'll be in chapter 3 of Malachi, verses 1-6.

[0:18] Verse 1-6.

[0:48] But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap.

[1:02] He will sit as a smelter and purify of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver.

[1:17] So that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old, as in former years.

[1:36] Then I will draw near to you for judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.

[2:07] For I, the Lord, do not change. Therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.

[2:18] Gary, stay there if you would please, and read chapter 4. There is more. Malachi chapter 4. What? All of chapter 4? Yes. There is more.

[2:35] So go down to Malachi chapter 4. Malachi chapter 4. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is, oh, pardon me.

[2:53] Somehow, he confused me. I am in 2 Timothy chapter 4. That isn't even close. Isn't even close.

[3:04] Somehow I got to the New Testament. That's where I put my bulletin. My bulletin was in 2 Timothy 4. Okay.

[3:18] Confusion. But all Scripture is good. Malachi chapter 4.

[3:31] And, I don't know, I was in Micah. Okay. Malachi chapter 4.

[3:43] Malachi chapter 5. Malachi chapter 5. For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff.

[3:57] And the day that is coming will set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave me neither root nor branch.

[4:10] But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.

[4:27] You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day which I am preparing, says the Lord of hosts.

[4:41] Remember the law of Moses, my servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel.

[4:54] Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.

[5:05] He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.

[5:20] Thank you, Gary, and you serve the purpose of realizing that life has a way of just throwing little curves your way once in a while, unexpectedly.

[5:35] But we're glad that you survived. We began a series a number of months ago, I guess about 12 or 14 sessions, that are devoted to the whole scope of the plan of human redemption from the very beginning until the conclusion, the ultimate wrap-up that will occur in the book of the Revelation.

[6:00] And that's the direction in which we are going. But we began all the way back in Genesis, and we pointed out to you a number of different times how strategic is this particular group of people whom God called, beginning with one man, the man Abraham.

[6:19] Through you and your seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed. This is a covenant promise that God gave to Abraham and to all of his seed after him.

[6:31] Abraham, of course, is the father of the Jewish nation. He is also the father of much of the Arab nations because out of the loins of Abraham came not only Isaac, but Ishmael as well.

[6:49] So the connection between the Jew and the Arab goes back all the way thousands of years into the book of Genesis. And today they are still fighting and brawling over territory and over issues in the Mideast.

[7:05] And we hear about it and read about it almost every day in the news. This has been going on for a long time. There is a huge cosmic conflict that is taking place.

[7:18] And Israel is one, in many ways, is the strategic player. Tragedy of it is, much of Israel doesn't even realize that.

[7:29] All these folk are doing is just trying to survive. But many of them, yes, it's true, they regard themselves as the chosen people. But if you saw Fiddler on the Roof, sometimes the average Jew probably feels like Tevye the milkman.

[7:45] We appreciate you being your chosen people, but once in a while, could you choose somebody else? Because they've really paid a heavy price for being that chosen people. And we will get into that eventually as well, how the Jew has been on the receiving end of so much persecution worldwide, and how that as the time draws near the end, it will only be greatly intensified.

[8:09] We are, I believe, approaching a time that represents that wrap-up. Could be wrong, but it seems like so many of the signs are in place in a way that they have not been for a long time.

[8:21] So what we've been trying to do is show you the very strategic, involved nature of the seed of Abraham and how God is committed to using them to bring about His ultimate purpose.

[8:35] And we will see, as I mentioned, how that is culminated in the book of the Revelation and also in the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 and 25.

[8:46] That all lies ahead. So far, we've got about a dozen messages underway. And I think there's a stack of them back there. And if you're interested in taking them, they are all free.

[8:58] Most places have a donation or they try to sell their messages. I know most of the radio preachers say, you know, whatever gift you send, a gift of any amount, we'll send you this or send you that.

[9:11] Well, we're just trying to give these away. So we want you to feel perfectly free and at liberty to take them and distribute them to anybody who is interested and willing to receive them.

[9:24] This is very critical content that we are dealing with. And I'm reminded because it's going to be somewhat unorthodox. And I want to warn you about that up front.

[9:35] But those of you who've been here for a while probably are wondering, so what else is new? There's a lot around here that's unorthodox. But what we are doing is engaging in a continual quest for truth.

[9:48] We know we certainly don't have all of it, but we do want to obtain as much as we possibly can. And I remember being struck by a question that Bill Fay asked one time, and he is one of my favorite people.

[10:03] For those of you who don't know Bill Fay, he at one time ran one of the most profitable and large prostitution rings in the entire country.

[10:14] And he was into that and pornography and making money hand over fist with it. And he came to faith in Jesus Christ and everything changed. And since then, he has devoted the last many years of his life to traveling around the country, preaching a gospel, and conducting seminars telling people how to communicate their faith in Christ.

[10:38] He is a radical, changed man, a trophy of God's grace in so many ways. And one of the questions, a very penetrating question that he has come to ask, and I offer it to you, many of you are familiar with it, and the question is this.

[10:53] If what you believe right now is not true, would you want to know it? And that's a very penetrating question. There, of course, are some hardcore cases who say, no, because I know what I believe now is true and anything else would be an error, so the question doesn't even apply to me.

[11:14] I suppose there are some people like that. They are the hard type cases. But I think most of us are pretty much persuaded that if there is something that we believe that is not true, yes, of course, I want to know it.

[11:30] And why do you want to know it? Well, wouldn't it be so that you could correct it? So that you could change your mind about it? You know what the Bible calls that? The Bible calls that repentance.

[11:41] It means when you hear information that contradicts something that you have believed, and yet you discover it to be true, you're actually big enough and committed enough to the principle of truth that you are willing to scrap what you have believed and embrace what you now know to be true.

[12:10] That's repentance. And by the way, it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with salvation, although repentance is always involved in salvation because no one can be saved without repenting.

[12:22] And it is necessary to repent for salvation because you have to change your mind about what it was that you used to believe regarding salvation and embrace this new thing, which is through faith in Jesus Christ.

[12:35] So the repentance is automatic and doesn't make any difference whether you use the word or not. That's what you do. When you change your mind, you repent. The word means literally that, change of mind. It is metanoia, and the noia in the Greek is the mind, the noose.

[12:49] It is the thinking capacity. And when we hear information, we take it in and it cycles through our brain and through our spirit and we process the information.

[13:02] We evaluate it. We weigh it. And we make a conclusion. And the conclusion is based upon our assessment of that information.

[13:13] It is true. And by the way, you understand, I assume, that the only real, valid basis for believing anything, about anything, is that you are convinced it is true.

[13:29] And whatever it is, if it is true, it is worthy of your commitment. And the reason it is, is because all truth resides in God.

[13:42] It's not coincidental that Jesus Christ is described as the way, the truth and the life. He is the embodiment of truth, the personification of truth.

[13:56] So we, as believers, are to be people who are committed to truth in whatever area or whatever venue we find it. We need to be prepared to go and walk in the way of truth.

[14:09] Now, if you don't know that a thing is true, then, of course, you shouldn't be prepared to make a commitment to it. But the least you can do is put it on hold and say, what I need is more information.

[14:24] Then I'll be able to make up my mind. I need to find out more about this. And that's often the way it is with the gospel. And it's often the way it is with what we are talking about this morning in connection with the Jewishness of the four gospels.

[14:37] Because what I'm going to share with you is completely contrary to what I believed for the first 15 or 20 years after I became a Christian.

[14:50] I did not know the things that I'm going to be sharing with you. Some of you already know them and it will be old material to you. But for those of you who haven't heard this before, I'm not asking you to just buy it wholesale, but I am asking for your kind consideration of the information that you will evaluate it and see.

[15:12] You know, like be a Berean. When Paul preached the gospel at Berea, it says that the people searched the scriptures daily to see whether those things spoken by Paul were true.

[15:26] And if they could confirm them as being true, they were ready to buy into it. So that needs to be our standard always and ever is we use the word of God and what is taught has to square with the word of God.

[15:42] So, I have some propositions to share with you. I'm sure that shocks you, doesn't it? Yes, you never heard that before. And, I'm going to try and allow time for Q&A, but I'm not making any promises because all I'll do is say I'll make an effort.

[16:01] Marie, yes, you have my permission to give me this at about 1120 or so, something like that. All right? Here we go.

[16:15] Hang on tight. It ought to be apparent from merely reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that they are not merely Jewish in their address and emphasis, but exclusively so.

[16:37] Did you hear that? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are exclusively Jewish.

[16:50] Now, we need to stop right there because I already see some furrowed brows. I'm sure that the majority opinion is Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as well as all the rest of the New Testament is Christian.

[17:09] Granted, the Old Testament, that's Jewish. Everybody knows that. But the New Testament is Christian. No, it isn't.

[17:22] No, it isn't. No, it isn't. And particularly is no, it isn't with the four Gospels. they are not Christian at all.

[17:36] They are for Christians, benefit Christians, edify Christians. We are to pick up and study the principles that are communicated in the four Gospels because they most certainly are the Word of God.

[17:53] And we approach the four Gospels in the same way that we approach the Old Testament. Why do we do that? because the four Gospels belong in the genre of the Old Testament, not the New.

[18:10] When I first contemplated that concept, it hit me like a bombshell. My first thought was, that can't be. And one reason I knew it couldn't be was because that's not what I had always believed.

[18:27] So, it was kind of like a sacred cow to me. We generally take the Old Testament and say, that's Jewish.

[18:39] We take the New Testament, including the Gospels, and say, and this is the Christian part. No, it isn't. It's all Jewish. It's all Jewish.

[18:53] It's all Jewish with a different emphasis. And the four Gospels are intensely Jewish. We'll see that as we get along. A great misunderstanding is perpetuated by the assumption that the New, being in the New Testament, everything switches from Jewish to Christian.

[19:15] This is an oft-repeated assumption that has no validity. Yes, the four Gospels do belong in our New Testament canon. Most of you open your Bible in some place in the middle or two-thirds of the way through.

[19:30] The New Testament occupies about one-third of the whole of the Bible. And you see these two sections. This is the Old Testament.

[19:41] This is the New Testament. And it's quite natural to assume that one is Hebrew or Jewish and the other is Christian. but we will see that the emphasis for both of them is Jewish.

[19:57] In fact, Gentiles and a Gentile is anyone who is not a Jew. That means 99% of the world's population.

[20:09] In fact, over 99%. I think it's 99.8% of the world is Gentile.

[20:22] And only a tiny, tiny percentage makes up those who are the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Two-tenths of one percent.

[20:35] Not one percent, but two-tenths of one percent is Jewish. And God, for reasons known only to himself, has almost always seemed to work through a definite minority.

[20:52] And they certainly are a minority. And when you consider that this book that we refer to as the Bible comprised of the Old and New Testament focuses almost in its entirety upon the Jewish people, the Jewish nation, that will open your eyes to so many things as to why certain things are in the Bible that they are and how and why they are expressed the way they are.

[21:21] And it's only with an understanding like that that you can appreciate that. The majority of the scriptures that we would say apply to that which is pretty much distinctly Christian or distinctly Gentile has to do with the epistles or the letters that were written by the apostle Paul.

[21:46] Why Paul? Simply because when God called Saul of Tarsus who later became Paul when he called him on the road to Damascus blinded him with that vision identified himself to him he specifically told him I am going to raise you up and make you the apostle or the messenger to the Gentiles.

[22:16] The Gentiles never had an apostle. They never had a messenger. They never did have. Israel had 12 of them and Jesus chose these 12 in the gospel of Matthew chapter 10 and we'll be looking at that later he chose 12 apostles I suspect it was because there were 12 tribes of Israel and it seemed like a fitting number to choose 12 apostles but they were all Jews every last one of them was Jews and they were sent to the Jewish people.

[22:47] We'll see that shortly as well. So it was this man this lone individual whom God specifically called and raised up and gave him the title the apostle to the Gentiles.

[23:02] Well now what did the Gentiles do for information and revelation from God before the apostle Paul came along? What did Gentiles do? I'll tell you what they did.

[23:13] They did without. They didn't have an apostle. They didn't have a messenger. All they had was general creation and Romans 1 makes it quite clear that there are certain things that can be known and appreciated about God based on creation.

[23:32] The things that are clearly made so that man is without excuse. But the Gentiles they didn't have an ambassador. They didn't have a messenger. They were just kind of like on their own.

[23:43] And this is why so many of them were into paganism and idolatry and every kind of worship that you can imagine because it is sown into the heart of the human being to worship to to acknowledge well someone put it this way man is incurably religious and he is he is he will find something to worship even an atheist finds something to worship and you know what it is it's his own intellect that's what he worships that's what he puts on the high peg so it is born out and born in to the heart and mind of man to worship something and it might be the sun or the moon or some other foolish thing or some idol or whatever but he'll find something to worship and that's what was going on in the

[24:50] Gentile community in fact that's what was going on with Abraham Abraham and his family were a bunch of moon worshipers and if you know anything about Islam it has its roots in moon worship Ur of the Chaldees was inundated with this concept of the moon god and Abraham was involved in that and God called him out of that to something that was so radical and so different that not hardly anyone else could appreciate it and it was the concept that there is but one god not several deities and all who believe there are several deities have simply created them out of the imaginations of their own mind and they have no objective existence at all and the Old Testament is filled with these people with these false gods Dagon Ashtaroth

[25:50] Astarte the Baals spelled B-A-A-L some pronounce it Baal some pronounce it Baal these were fertility cults and fertility gods and goddesses and it really gets quite absurd but it shows you that man is capable of going in some really bizarre ways if he doesn't have an element of truth to really connect with and mankind didn't and when God raised up Abraham he told him that it is going to be through you and your seed that all nations of the earth are going to be blessed well that has been borne out in numerous ways but of course the principle way is that it is through Abraham Isaac and Jacob that the direct line will provide Yeshua HaMashiach Jesus the

[26:52] Messiah and he will be born a Jew to a Jewish mother his father will be God his mother will be Mary a Jew his adopted father will be Joseph also a Jew born in the land of the Jews among the Jews and for the Jews and we read in John chapter one that he came Christ he came unto his own and his own was not the world was not the globe his own his kinsmen his relatives the Jewish people he came unto his own and his own received him not we know what their ultimate rejection of him looked like so in these four gospels and we've by the way let me just back up a little bit we have traced briefly and I mean very briefly and I apologize for not being more thorough but I don't want this series to go on for five years like when we went through

[28:05] John's gospel but we've traced very briefly starting all the way back with Abraham somewhat of the Jewish nation's history and the last time we left off in this series of studies we were in the intertestamental period you may recall and that is the period of 400 years between the closing of the Old Testament which in our canon is the book of Malachi and the beginning of what is referred to as the New Testament the Gospel of Matthew there are four centuries in between those and no one was receiving any revelation from God and no scripture was being written it was just like the heavens were closed for 400 years but there were some tremendous things that were happening in the country of Israel during that time and there were various empires that came to the fore and they existed for a while and then they met their demise or were conquered by another empire and we saw it started out with the

[29:06] Babylonians and the expulsion of the Jews from Israel carried into captivity in Babylon and while they were in Babylon lo and behold here came the Medes and the Persians and the Medes and the Persians attacked and defeated the Babylonians and that's during the period in your Bible in the book of Esther when that took place and then it wasn't long after the Medes and the Persians that a dynamic young man came on the scene who was a military genius way beyond his years his name was Alexander the Great he was a Greek and he conquered the whole Mediterranean world at that time died at the tender age of 32 real shaker and mover in the world succeeded in Hellenizing much of the Mediterranean world spreading the Greek language and the Greek culture etc and following on his heels in the demise of the Greeks the Romans came to power and these were the people who were in the driver's seat when

[30:08] Jesus was born and Herod was the king in Judea and the only reason that Herod was the king of Judea is because the Caesar of Rome put him on the throne and delegated responsibility to Herod to carry out Rome's policies in this foreign land and this is who was on the throne and who was in power when Jesus was born Israel was an occupied nation they were a conquered people and there were thousands of Roman soldiers that were billeted there in Israel to keep the peace and they of course were involved with the actual carrying out of the physical crucifixion of Christ Roman soldiers had a death squad and their specialty was crucifying people and they are the ones who carried out the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus all of this took place in and around and focuses upon the nation of Israel no other nation and as you read about those who conquered them and you talk about the

[31:13] Babylonians the focus is still on the Jew and if you read the book of Daniel you'll see how that's played out and it's the Jew who is the pinpoint of it all as you move on to the Medes and the Persians it's still how it affects the Jew and the Jewish people in that particular time frame and as with the Greeks it is still focusing on the Jew even though the Greeks are in charge now it's the Romans and the focus is still on the Jew you can't get the focus off the Jew because God has made them central to everything and the striking thing about it is many Jews today don't even recognize that they don't know that they don't understand that and one reason they don't is because the average Jew knows very little about his own Old Testament he just goes primarily on tradition and family culture etc ethnicity so alright there does seem to be a planned break of 400 years between the close of the

[32:17] Old Testament and the New perhaps it is logical then to see the old as Jewish and the new as Christian I can understand how people do that but it is a misnomer and it is a mistake what we have you see the New Testament is nothing more than a continuation of the story that's what it is it just so happens that there is 400 years break in between so the tendency is to create a mental break in our mind and treat it as if it is something entirely just a continuation and the passage that Gary read this morning from Malachi chapter 3 and chapter 4 these were written by Malachi 400 to 500 years before Jesus was born and Malachi says I'm going to send my messenger before your face and he will proclaim the ways of the

[33:22] Lord you remember what we just read in Malachi 3 and 4 and he says also I will send I will send Elijah the prophet well what does that mean where was Elijah when Malachi wrote that Elijah was gone he was off the scene I can't say that he was dead because he was one who was taken up in a chariot of fire and removed from earth to heaven and I don't know much about that except that's what the scriptures tell us but he's saying that he would send Elijah and a striking thing about it is when you get into the gospels particularly into Matthew which we'll look at later who is it that turns out to be Elijah it's John the Baptist but John the Baptist is not Elijah and he's not Elijah reincarnated like some of the Jews might have believed John the Baptist was one who came in the power and authority of

[34:26] Elijah and that's why Jesus made this startling statement when the disciples asked him the disciples asked Jesus well what what is this business about it isn't isn't doesn't the end time have to be really near now they were telling Jesus this 2000 years ago they were saying to Jesus doesn't the end time have to be really near and shouldn't we be looking for Elijah because the prophet Malachi said that in the last days I will send Elijah before him and Jesus made this statement like a thunderclap he said John John the Baptist is Elijah if you will accept it wow but there was a big condition if you will accept it

[35:33] John the Baptist is Elijah did the Jewish nation accept that no they cut off his head they didn't come close to accepting it and connection in connection with that this whole program that the apostles were anticipating and said to Jesus this must be near the end time because we were looking for Elijah where is Elijah and they were thinking that Jesus was going to establish that kingdom and Elijah would be on the scene to be the forerunner and Jesus said hey Elijah has already come and they did to him what they wished and all that meant was this whole kingdom program that is focused upon and centered upon and will be carried out through the auspices of the nation of Israel that whole program is put on an indefinite hold right there and it has gone no further so let me hasten on with this the birth and appearance of our

[36:37] Lord is prominent in the four gospels and he is definitely a new testament personage at least in the minds of many this is what most have always been taught and I can tell you as one who knows from experience unlearning something that you have always believed is a lot tougher than learning something new because we are reluctant to let go of something that we have cherished and held on to for so many years and one reason we are is because it's damaging to the ego you mean you mean to tell me I've been wrong all this time that is a bitter pill to swallow but you know what I've had to swallow so many of those you get used to it after a while and if you can comfort yourself with you've come to an element of truth that you didn't have before and that's what you need to go with and let me just leave you with this because my sweetie has given me the let me leave you with this the most tragic thing that anyone can do is hear truth be exposed to truth and turn your back on it that's the most dangerous thing anyone can do about anything we owe the truth and embracing and we ought not to settle for anything less than what we discover to be true and

[38:16] I'm sorry I didn't even get into Matthew today did I but we will we will all right well okay Q&A I'm quitting anybody question or comment okay Joe up here has a question here comes the mic Joe we are of Adam broken broken sinful people right and you said on occasions before that our minds are thinking is also broken as part of our bodies and minds how then is it possible then that we're going to be able to determine the truth to repent if we don't if we're in this state if we're in this Adam state how does it how are we possibly how can we do that that's a really my answer to that is we can't we can't really rely solely upon ourselves to be able to come to truth and this in part involves the ministry of the

[39:29] Holy Spirit I think this is why Paul said Paul said I am not ashamed in Romans 1 16 I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ in other words I'm not embarrassed by it I'm not put off by it I'm not ashamed to proclaim it and the reason I'm not is because this gospel which is good news the gospel of Jesus Christ is the very power of God and it is able to overcome the faulty thinking of a warped mind and frankly we all have warped minds we all have warped minds and we all have a limited perspective because how many times have you come to wrong conclusions about different things oh my I'm embarrassed I couldn't begin to name them and you know the reason that we so easily reach wrong conclusions is first of all we have a diminished or an inadequate perspective we just aren't able to appreciate sometimes what we're looking at or what we're hearing and we're not able to put it all together and this is why this is why information becomes so critical information you've got to have information to process and as

[41:02] I've often said when the gospel is preached by an evangelist or a missionary or a co-worker all they're doing is giving people information that's all it is and people hear the information and they act on it they process it and they reach a conclusion and that's the only thing that will overcome this warped thinking that we are all cursed with and how many times how many times have our absolutely brilliant scientists been embarrassed over new discoveries that caused them to scrap something that was in vogue for the last 50 years now they know it's not true and that happens all the time it's because we're ever in a process of learning science is all about discovery and learning new things and we're all in this process of learning and developing and maturing and the more you learn the more you have to learn with so learn all you can education is a wonderful thing but like everything else it can be abused too someone else question or comment

[42:17] Gary in the back there boy I wish this was one of those good old three hour sessions well I guess I keep asking questions anyway I know that you mentioned that sewn into the fabric of humanity is really the desire to worship something and as you read through the Old Testament you start wondering is war sewn into the fabric of humans as well because as you read through there it seems like it's a natural thing that springtime is coming let's get everybody ready and go to war and even if they don't know for sure who they'll fight each other they'll have war on another part of the clan your thoughts well it is also not only is the idea of worshiping something in the heart and mind of all men but so is the principle of domination power and there is a thirst for power that people have whether it's military power or political power or economic power or whatever it is a principle engine that drives humanity and it is a quest for domination and for control this too is part of our fallen being and it keeps us from being content with who and what we are we want to dominate and we want to control and by the way

[43:47] I don't want to get too far afield here but this is something I've been looking at lately and it just fascinates me and I'm convinced that there is something there and that is this whole thing about Islam and radical movement like ISIS and all the rest if you know anything about Islam and the Koran you will know that there is a definite parallel between the ultimate goal of Islam and the ultimate goal of Christianity there is a lot of similarity the goal of Islam is to institute a worldwide caliphate that is a worldwide Islamic government and power that will have no rivals everyone will be Muslim and those who will not submit to Islam will be executed principally by beheading that's their favorite method and that is the goal and you know the goal of

[44:59] Christianity is the worldwide domination by Jesus Christ as the prince of the whole earth his government established in Israel all nations will be subservient to him that is the goal that is the establishment of the kingdom of God that is the answer to the prayer in what's called the Lord's prayer thy kingdom come why do we want the kingdom to come so that the will of God will be done on earth as it is in heaven that's where everything is going that's where we're moving to right now that is this is in process this is exactly what we're studying on Sunday morning we're moving in that direction the realization of that kingdom and man has this concept this this drive to dominate and control and to have power and it can be a good thing or it can be a bad thing it can be a good thing in that it motivates people to be better than they could be to stretch themselves to strive for accomplishment and it can be a noble thing and a great thing it can also be a very heinous thing it depends on whether your name is

[46:24] Hitler or Reagan take a choice they were both men of power weren't they so was Lincoln so was Washington but they're driven their power their drive for power is to be used in a right way you can have a quest for power so that you can accomplish great things that will benefit many people or you can have a drive for power so that you can satisfy yourself with your accomplishments and it's an ego trip and that's all it is so it all depends on what is behind that anyway what I was going to make it it's time to turn you loose unless there's one more question anybody else okay Dave Campbell up here question could you touch on again

[47:28] I know you've gone over this in the past how it came about that the Bible did get divided where it was with the Old and New Testament I'm sorry how the Bible got divided where it did with the New and the Old Testament how the body the Bible the Bible got divided where it did oh well between the new and the old well that's that's that's a good question I'd really like to explain it can I put it on hold until next week because it'll take a few minutes to do it justice otherwise all I'll do is create a whole bunch more questions so we'll do that next maybe we can start with a Q&A next week maybe we'll just have the whole session Q&A anyway so and by the way if you have questions that you would like to ask but maybe you're a little timid or backward about asking them that's okay that's okay just feel free to write out your question and you don't have to sign it or anything just write out your question drop it in the offering box and that'll give me time to look at it and you'll get a better answer anyway than you probably would here so these are just

[48:39] I tell you fascinating things that we've got I really get excited when I realize what's in store for you here because this is really critical stuff that is upcoming and I want you all to get in on it so all right we'll have to dismiss our time is gone so you've been very kind and attentive and I appreciate it would you stand please father we're grateful for what we're able to learn and it makes us very much aware of how much we just don't know but we want to know and we trust that everyone here will be able to sincerely utter a prayer Lord if there's anything that I believe that isn't right I really do want to know and I don't have any idea how you can reveal that to me but I just want you to know that I am open because

[49:40] I want the truth and I'm not willing to settle for anything less would you make that your prayer this morning whether it's regarding salvation or the issues we're talking about and if you are committed to just following the truth wherever it leads you I can't think of anything that would honor God or please God more than that thank you father for this time to share together thank you for these precious principles that we are able to investigate and we are so aware of our own inadequacy and our own lack of understanding that we want you to compensate for it and we want you to provide for us that which we know we do not have and we look to you for it thank you for this meeting and this time of fellowship together in Christ's name Amen