Christianity Clarified Volume 70

[0:00] Christianity Clarified, Volume 70, Track 1, The Kingdom is Postponed. An effort is made to explain how important the Kingdom of Heaven coming to Earth really is.

[0:13] It is sometimes referred to as utopia, Edenic, the times of refreshing, or the restoration of all things. It will literally restore our planet Earth, that has been ruined by sin and corruption, back to its unfallen state of creation.

[0:31] It will continue in that mode for 1,000 years due to its establishment and the reign over it by Jesus Christ at His second coming to Earth. Also, recall that 40 days after His resurrection, Acts chapter 1 tells us the apostles asked Jesus if He was then going to establish His Kingdom.

[0:54] He told them it was not for them to know the times or seasons which the Father had put in His own power, but they, the apostles, would be endowed with a special power not many days hence.

[1:07] It was clear He was referencing Pentecost, an important annual Jewish feast just ten days away, recorded in Acts chapter 2. Still, as they had been so consistently taught by John the Baptist, the twelve apostles, and Jesus Himself, their chief interest was the Kingdom and its being restored to Israel.

[1:31] After all, that was the one thing, the goal of which would be to restore the entire Earth and government under the righteous reign of Christ Himself with peace and prosperity throughout.

[1:44] So, understandably, their chief interest was what about the Kingdom? They were soon to learn the Kingdom was not on, the Kingdom was not off, the Kingdom was postponed.

[2:02] Its postponement will be called the secret of the Kingdom. Remember, if you will, there are two things that must occur before the Kingdom of Heaven can be established on Earth.

[2:13] The first is, Jesus the Redeemer must secure the redemption of the Earth from its ruination and domination by Satan, who is identified as the God of this age in 2 Corinthians chapter 4.

[2:26] That redemption is precisely what Jesus accomplished in His substitutionary death on the cross, whereby He redeemed the entirety of humanity and planet Earth from its corruption.

[2:40] When He cried out, Tetelestai! It is finished, meaning, The transaction is done. He then bowed His head and died.

[2:51] The first requirement for the Kingdom to come was complete. The second and final is for the nation Israel to embrace Jesus as Redeemer and Messiah.

[3:03] They rejected Him when He came 2,000 years ago. But when He comes again, it will be because they, as a remnant of Israel, will plead for His return, and Jesus will be coming again.

[3:17] His future second coming is just as certain as was His past first coming. Jesus is coming again, and this time He will not be in a good mood, as Satan and the Antichrist will discover.

[3:39] Christianity Clarified, Volume 70, Track 2, The Kingdom is Present, Not. Shortly before He was crucified, in John chapter 14, Jesus told His apostles He would be leaving them by going to His Father, but He would come again and receive them to Himself, so that where He was they would be also.

[4:00] But after the first century had closed in 100 A.D., and the second was well underway, Jesus still had not come back as promised. In His prolonged absence, they sought for an explanation.

[4:12] They found the solution promoted by an intellectual named Origen. He would be known as the father of the allegory. An allegorical interpretation of Scripture says, what a passage says and seems to mean is not the real meaning at all.

[4:30] The real meaning lies beneath the surface of what is stated. One must look further than what it seems to say on the surface to what it really means below the surface.

[4:42] Therein must lay the real meaning of what Jesus meant when He said He would come again. When He ascended before them in Acts chapter 1, it would only be ten more days until Pentecost when the Holy Spirit would come.

[4:57] Allegorically, many could easily see that as being the return of Jesus, but spiritually rather than physically. He also told them He would never leave them, but we'd be with them until the end of the age.

[5:13] But He was not with them literally, physically, like He had been for three years plus earlier. Still, He was with them in spirit.

[5:24] That must also mean the kingdom He promised to establish was also not literal, but spiritual. So, this is the kingdom right now, and Jesus is the King right now here on earth, but spiritually in the person of the Bishop of Rome called the Pope.

[5:48] The current Pope is the Vicar of Christ, the first of whom was Peter the Apostle. After Peter, the provision called Apostolic Succession was in place, and that meant the current Roman Catholic bishops and priests are, spiritually, the official successors to Peter and the original twelve apostles.

[6:09] Peter's successor has the keys to the kingdom. He and the priest possess the power to remit or retain sins of the people just like Jesus promised them in Matthew chapter 16.

[6:20] Thus, the Catholic Church is the church Jesus said He would build, and the gates of Hades would not prevail against it. Such is what an allegorical interpretation of Scripture can accomplish.

[6:35] And to be sure, it was all arrived at in good faith. It must also be admitted, had we been living back then and assessing all that was happening, we may very well have reached those same conclusions as they, and we would have been just as wrong as they.

[6:53] So, why don't we see it that way now? Only because the 1900 years that have passed since those erroneous but good faith conclusions were reached have proved to be among the greatest faulty assumptions ever embraced by mankind.

[7:09] But, mark it well, faulty assumptions, no matter how wrong or sincerely believed, have a way of being etched in stone and take on a life of their own.

[7:21] The scope and depth of their entrenchment is astounding. Implications are brewing and upcoming just ahead. Christianity Clarified, Volume 70, Track 3, Emphasizing the Emphasis, Part 1.

[7:38] The previous session revealed how the term, Kingdom of Heaven, came to be interpreted as being non-literal or purely spiritual.

[7:50] The change that they made was a quantum leap from the literal interpretation of the Kingdom that had been in place by the great majority for the first two or three hundred years after the ascension of Christ.

[8:03] But after the second and third centuries, the literal expectation of the Kingdom and its yet-being future was abandoned. Abandoned for the interpretation being purely spiritual or allegorical.

[8:19] They came to believe the Kingdom to have begun in Acts 2 at the Jewish Feast of Pentecost. This new understanding is held to the present day, not only by Roman Catholics, but by most Protestant groups that have descended from the Catholic over years.

[8:39] Christianity Clarified considers their position to be a very sad and erroneous, faulty assumption. Rather than assuming the Kingdom was to be spiritual and began at Pentecost, Christianity Clarified sees the Kingdom as being very much physical and literal, but continuing in postponement for lack of one of two key elements.

[9:06] The first key element was in the substitutionary death of Christ that was to redeem the earth by paying for its redemption. That was accomplished at Calvary.

[9:18] The second was for Israel as a nation to embrace Jesus as their long-awaited Messiah. That they have not done, which is precisely why the Kingdom remains in postponement.

[9:34] Be assured, however, the time is coming when they will do so, even though when that time comes, Israel will consist only of a mere remnant of people compared to what it is now.

[9:47] Such will be the result of their persecution by the Antichrist during the Tribulation period, during which time two-thirds of the Jewish population will be brutally eliminated, exceeding even the murder of Jews that was carried out in the Holocaust during World War II.

[10:09] While that all lies ahead, let us now go back 2,000 years to the Apostle Peter addressing his Jewish countrymen in Acts 3.

[10:22] It is shortly after his Pentecostal message in Acts chapter 2. In 3, he spells out previously what Israel must do to fulfill that second requirement for the Kingdom of Heaven to come to earth.

[10:37] And you are urged, if you may, to avail yourself of a Bible or New Testament and get it open to Acts chapter 3. Right after Peter explains the miraculous healing of the man lame from birth, he informs Israel as to what they must do that will enable the establishment of the long-awaited Kingdom to be fulfilled.

[11:02] Folks, this is monumental breakthrough material. Please make sure you get into it just ahead. I hope to see you soon in Acts chapter 3.

[11:15] It will be to your advantage if you have immediate access to a New Testament and locate Acts chapter 3.

[11:33] The Apostle Peter is the key spokesperson for Christ as he addresses a number of his fellow Jews who are in attendance for the Feast of Pentecost. Following his stunning message in Acts 2, Peter continues his theme of Jesus being Israel's Messiah, his death and resurrection.

[11:52] He tells them just before being silenced by the Jewish authorities in chapter 3 and verse 18, The things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ should suffer, he has fulfilled.

[12:10] Repent, therefore, and return that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send Jesus, the Christ, appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient times.

[12:36] End quote. Here again are those two requirements that must be met before the kingdom of heaven on earth can be established and the first of the two was already accomplished, which was?

[12:50] It was precisely what Peter said in verse 18, that God had fulfilled his part in the suffering and death of Christ. Now, said Peter, it is time for Israel to do your part.

[13:06] Repent, therefore, and return that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send Jesus, the Christ, appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient times.

[13:30] Now, when Peter told them that, are you aware that Jesus had gone back to heaven as recorded in Acts chapter 1 only 10 to 12 days earlier?

[13:44] Was Peter saying that God would send Jesus back to earth that soon? Yes, provided the conditions were met.

[13:55] And they were, number one, that Christ should suffer and die for the sins of the world. He did that. Number one is accomplished. Number two is, for Israel, as a nation, to embrace Jesus as their Messiah, whom their leaders earlier rejected.

[14:13] Those hearing what Peter said scarcely had time to even process it when chapter 4 tells us, as Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came upon them and put them in jail.

[14:32] Thus, the persecution of Jews upon Jews was beginning to get underway and would even intensify later under Saul of Tarsus.

[14:43] Now, 1900 years later, Israel nationally remains in the same position of unbelief as spelled out and quite clearly in Romans chapters 9-11.

[14:56] Thus, the second requirement for the establishment of the kingdom yet remains unfulfilled. And the more you connect the dots, the more sense it all makes and the more exciting it becomes.

[15:09] I can hardly wait. Christianity Clarified Volume 70, Track 5, The Kingdom of Heaven and You, Part 1.

[15:20] No doubt there are some hearing this content while thinking to themselves, Oh, the kingdom, the kingdom, what's the big deal about something that doesn't affect me in the least?

[15:32] Oh, but it does. And not in a minor way, but very much in the major. If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you are going to be a member of the kingdom of which we have been speaking.

[15:47] You will have a glorified, resurrected body similar to the physical body that Jesus had when He came forth from His tomb. You will live throughout the entire thousand-year reign of Christ and then be ushered into the eternal state described in the last two chapters of the book of Revelation.

[16:09] That is the ultimate, ongoing, never-ending, eternal state following the final conflict between good and evil as recorded in Revelation chapters 21 and 22.

[16:22] For those who do not have a personal relationship with Christ, whereby you have already received full, free, forgiveness forever, you will not be a resident of that kingdom of which Christ will be enthroned as the King.

[16:38] You will have been residing in a place called Hades. From there, you and all other unbelievers with you will be summoned to appear before the great white throne of judgment described as follows from Revelation chapter 20, stating, quote, And I saw a great white throne, and him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them.

[17:14] And I saw the dead, the great, and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds.

[17:33] And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them, and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.

[17:47] And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

[18:01] One can only feel great sadness to realize there are likely some hearing these words right now of whom this may be true. And, not surprising, they may even find it amusing, rather than sobering as they should, or as they will, when that time comes.

[18:20] Many questions remain unanswered as to what hell will really be like. But more than enough answers are provided to know it will be the ultimate place to avoid. For certain, despite our now unanswered questions, we know it will be everything that heaven is not.

[18:39] We know it will be utterly absence of the presence of God that many actually said they preferred while here on earth. So, a permanent, unending absence of God may not sound all that terrible now, but we may be certain it will then.

[18:56] So, where are you with all this? Upcoming, you will learn where you can be and should be. Christianity Clarified, Volume 70, Track 6, The Kingdom of Heaven and You, Part 2.

[19:14] A future, great, eternal divide is coming. And it is otherworldly. Perhaps it's because it really is otherworldly, we cannot easily imagine it, but it is real.

[19:29] Very real. Already considered is the reality that there are no dead people. Not anywhere. There are dead bodies, but no dead persons.

[19:43] While the physical body can be destroyed, the human person who indwelt that body was not destroyed with the body, but merely relocated or transferred elsewhere.

[19:54] Their immaterial spirit is still very much in existence. All who, upon their physical death, were rightly related to God, will live in a new glorified body during the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth, as described in Revelation 20.

[20:13] All who were alive and had passed on through physical death will be resurrected in that kingdom along with all the saints of God from the beginning of humanity.

[20:26] We will be with Adam and Eve and Abraham Moses David and an innumerable cast of others from past ages.

[20:38] You didn't think all those folks were gone forever, did you? They are coming back and so are you if you, as a believer in Jesus Christ, are rightly related to God through Jesus His Son.

[20:54] In fact, Jesus even mentioned this in Matthew chapter 8, saying, And I say to you, that many will come from east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom.

[21:11] But the sons of the kingdom will be cast into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth. The sons of the kingdom, who were Jews, but rejected their Messiah, Jesus, will be cast out into outer darkness, along with Gentiles who were also unbelievers.

[21:34] As unacceptable as it is to most Jews in thinking Jesus to have been their Messiah, and as foreign as it is to Gentiles in thinking Jesus really did die for their sins, still, that whole affair is what the heart of God is all about as regards people of His creation.

[21:55] He gave them physical life through their parents, and He provided spiritual life through His own Son, Jesus Christ.

[22:06] The beloved Apostle John, one of the inner three of the disciples of Jesus, said, He who has the Son has life, and he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

[22:22] It's found in 1 John 5 near the end of the New Testament. John could not have made it plainer by saying it in several ways. Your only question is, do you have the Son and does the Son have you?

[22:37] The contrast between having Him or not having Him is between dining at the table with those who have Him or spending an eternity in outer darkness with those who do not have Him.

[22:50] Your choice, choose well. Christianity Clarified, Volume 70, Track 7, The Prominent Dominant Kingdom, Part 1.

[23:03] To any serious student of Scripture, the subject of the Kingdom of Heaven, also referred to as the Kingdom of God, is in fact the prominent and dominant theme of the Bible.

[23:16] Unspoken but still inherent in the term Kingdom is the ever-present concept and necessity of the King. The terms King and Kingdom are inseparable for the presence of one infers the existence of the other.

[23:36] While Kingdom necessitates a King, it also requires a realm over which the King exercises dominion as the related word domain suggests.

[23:50] From the failure and fall of humanity represented by our original parents, the balance of Scripture from Genesis 3 to the close of the Bible in the book of Revelation, the direction and goal of everything in between, though often not obvious, is the eventual recapturing of all that was forfeited in that original failure and fall.

[24:18] The events thereof, large and small, that comprise all of human history, in its beliefs and actions and the philosophies that prompted those actions, focus upon that eventual recapture.

[24:34] Its accomplishment is synonymous with the Kingdom of Heaven becoming established on Earth, so that the will of God in Heaven will become a reality on Earth.

[24:47] That oft-recited passage, called the Lord's Prayer, is a petition for God's will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Those who attempt to tell us that such is now a present reality, only in a spiritual sense rather than literally, are not at all convincing.

[25:10] And by the way, if it were true that God's will is being done on Earth, even if just spiritually, however that is understood, one can only wonder why the majority of Christendom continues daily to pray for the Kingdom to come.

[25:31] Does anyone intelligently pray for something to be realized that is already a reality? words do mean things. All the more reasons to understand the Kingdom that will be the fulfillment of a ruined Earth undergoing a glorious restoration has not yet occurred, not spiritually and certainly not literally.

[26:00] While its eventual realization is as certain as God is God, still, from Genesis 3 and the fall to our present day, that glorious promise restoration, already bought and paid for by Christ, remains an unfulfilled promise.

[26:20] The Kingdom continues in abeyance, in the mode of postponement. That it is coming in the future is certain, but that we are not now living in that Kingdom is equally certain.

[26:38] This, in which we now live, is the postponement of the Kingdom, and that is its very secret thereof. Multiple evidences upcoming will confirm such repeatedly.

[26:54] Christianity Clarified, Volume 70, Track 9, The Prominent Dominant Kingdom, Part 3. Our previous session listed Dr. Peter's first six of sixteen propositions with which he began his monumental undertaking in the theocratic Kingdom.

[27:12] This present brief session will conclude the total of sixteen with which he began that treatment. So important is this opening introduction to the entire three volumes, we shall repeat the first six propositions in this present segment as well, so that you, the listener, can absorb the entire sixteen in one hearing.

[27:34] Repeating then, beginning with item number one and concluding with sixteen. First, the Kingdom is the object designed by the oath-bound covenant. Number two, it is the great theme, the burden of prophecy.

[27:48] Three, it is a subject which embraces a larger proportion of revelation than all other subjects combined, thus indicating the estimation in which it is held by God.

[28:02] Four, it was the leading subject of the preaching of John the Baptist, Christ, the disciples, and the apostles. Five, it was a cherished subject of preaching in the primitive Church.

[28:15] Six, it is the foundation of a correct scriptural preaching for the gospel itself is the gospel of the Kingdom. Seven, to promote its establishment, Jesus appears, suffers, and dies, and to manifest it, He will come again.

[28:34] Eight, Jesus Christ Himself must be deeply interested in it, since it is a distinguishing blessing and honor given to Him by the Father and belongs to Him as His inheritance.

[28:49] Nine, we are invited as the most precious of privileges to inherit this Kingdom. Ten, it is the constantly presented object of faith and hope which should influence us to prayer, duty, and watchfulness.

[29:07] Eleven, it is the result of the preparatory dispensations enabling us to appreciate the means employed to attain the end. Twelve, it embraces within itself perfect, completed redemption, for in it all the promises of God will be verified and realized.

[29:30] Thirteen, it exhibits in an outward form the pleasure of the divine will in the salvation of the race and the deliverance of creation.

[29:41] Fourteen, it brings the divine utterances into unity of design, exhibits manifested unity, and vindicates the inspiration of holy writ, including that of the apocalypse.

[29:57] Number fifteen, it enforces not only the humanity of Christ, but also His divinity with the strongest reasoning. Item sixteen, it exhibits to us the majesty and glory of Jesus the Christ as theocratic king and the preeminent position of the firstborn who are co-heirs with Him.

[30:25] The preceding sixteen observations comprise the opening remarks of George Nathaniel Henry Peters from his unparalleled three volumes of the theocratic kingdom.

[30:43] Christianity Clarified Volume 70 Track 10 The Big Three of Everything The previous session listed from the pen of G.N.H. Peters the theocratic kingdom's sixteen observations derived from his first proposition in Volume One.

[31:03] Each of them spoke loudly in supporting the importance of the theocratic kingdom. Peters then went on to enlarge upon that with the content of nearly two thousand pages.

[31:15] the theocratic kingdom remains to this day without peer in the field of eschatology. Capitalizing on what Peter set forth in his emphasizing the importance of the kingdom, one might further express that importance in an even more abbreviated fashion.

[31:36] So let's think in terms of the theocratic kingdom as being one of the three most important universal concepts. Or put in another way, the kingdom is one of the three most important concepts in the entire universe.

[31:55] Number one is creation itself, without which nothing else would or could exist. And number two in importance is the ruination, redemption, and restoration of the created earth and its inhabitants.

[32:09] This is from the fall, occurring in Genesis 3, through the entire drama of ruination and redemption as related in the scriptures, beginning there in Genesis 3, through all that follows in the remainder, up and including the book of Revelation, through chapter 20.

[32:30] That records the final disposition of Satan and his followers. Chapters 21 and 22 describe the third most important concept, and it is the then established eternal state of which there will be no conclusion.

[32:51] So, there we have all of it. This issue of all of the angelic and human existence that began with creation and the fall thereof to the drama of the redemption of creation occupying nearly all of the biblical historical content from Genesis 3 through Revelation chapter 20.

[33:15] Then, the grand conclusion of the last two chapters and the beginning of the eternal state. It will be followed with nothing added, but remains and consists solely of that eternal unending state of bliss for all inhabitants.

[33:35] And, lest any be concerned about boredom or whatever else our present fallen minds may perceive to be negative or worthy of complaint or regret, neither of those, not complaining nor regretting of any kind, will even be subjects to enter our minds.

[33:56] They too, remember, will be reflecting the mind of Christ. Christ. And who is he? He is the one in the midst of all the three mentioned before.

[34:09] He is the creator. He is the redeemer. He is the eternal continuation, the alpha and omega, and he is ours, and we are his.

[34:30] Christianity clarified, volume 70, track 11, Kingdom Essence Revisited, part 1. There is no greater issue dividing Christendom than that of the nature and interpretation of the kingdom of heaven, also known as the kingdom of God.

[34:48] For the past 16 to 1800 years, this has divided Christendom. And please remember, we are using the term Christendom to include Roman Catholic and Protestant adherents.

[35:01] Christianity Clarified now emphasizes this issue for three reasons. Number one, the sheer importance thereof. Number two, many listeners or hearers to this content will still be hearing it for the first time because very few will have heard all of the audio recordings preceding this on which the subject was covered.

[35:21] And three, repetition is the mother of learning. So, without apology, those three vindicate our revisiting the issue. And as remarked earlier on Christianity Clarified, everything hinges on the method and principles of hermeneutics employed.

[35:40] Hermeneutics, recall, if you will, is the technical term for the principles of interpretation. That is the difference between what the Bible says that everyone can easily grasp and what the Bible means by what it says.

[35:56] That is an entirely different matter. Here, in the matter of meaning, is where the great divide mentioned earlier occurs. And it is so terribly unfortunate for all of Christendom, because the consequences thereof are simply incalculable.

[36:15] For the first three or four hundred years after the return of Christ to heaven, almost everyone subscribed to the literal, usual, ordinary, grammatical interpretation of Scripture.

[36:27] And apart from the obvious figurative language sometimes employed, the Scriptures were approached and interpreted from a literal, ordinary, customary, usual meaning of, it means what it says, and it says what it means.

[36:43] Such is the customary way of interpreting the meaning of all language. language. This was the way of approach the Jews had to all of the Old Testament.

[36:57] True, the poetic books like Psalms, Proverbs, and a few others of the poetic genre did utilize non-literal or figurative language that was customarily understood and accepted as such.

[37:10] And this was also the approach taken by Christians in the understanding of the New Testament as well. both the Old and New were perceived to be divine instruments intended for communication.

[37:25] Everything that was written was dependent upon the reader's understanding the meaning and message that was in the mind and intent of the writer.

[37:38] Such is the essence of communication. communication. Without that connection between the sender and the receiver, communication is simply not possible.

[37:51] So, we will be reminded of the tragic consequences that always ensue from abandoning that concept in what lies ahead.

[38:03] It will be eye-opening for many of our listeners. Can't wait to share it with you. Christianity Clarified Volume 70 Track 12 Kingdom Essence Revisited Part 2 The essence and meaning of the kingdom of heaven is entirely at the mercy of the system of interpretation used to define it.

[38:27] Christianity Clarified implements the literal approach to the interpretation of all of scripture while recognizing the legitimacy of portions of the writings necessitating a figurative rather than literal meaning.

[38:42] Such is almost always made obvious in the immediate context of the passage in question. And this was the applied method for nearly all interpreters, Jewish and Christian, for the first three or four hundred years after Christ returned to heaven.

[39:00] Gradually, that began to be abandoned for two basic reasons. number one, national Israel had clearly rejected Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah.

[39:13] That was true. But what was not true was the faulty assumption that God had also clearly rejected Israel. He had not.

[39:24] He has nationally set them aside in their unbelief. But with the promise, they would again come back into His favor as revealed in the 9th, 10th, and 11th chapters of the book of Romans.

[39:39] However, some early Christians came to view Israel's temporary setting aside as permanent, believing that Israel, who once occupied the position of God's chosen people, were such no longer.

[39:56] In their place, God embraced a new entity called Gentiles, or non-Jews, former pagans, if you will, who became known as Christians due to their acceptance and faith in Christ as their Savior.

[40:13] So, Christians were in and Jews were out permanently. Eventually, the term replacement theology came into being to describe that great transaction.

[40:27] But the whole matter was based on a faulty assumption. assumption. Eventually, and in many quarters, that faulty assumption would also become the basis for anti-Semitism and the ugly persecution of the Jewish people for centuries to follow, including our present day.

[40:47] In fact, some went so far as to believe they were divinely ordained to isolate and persecute the Jews for their rejection of Christ, even to the extent of believing they were called to punish the Jews.

[41:00] But anti-Semitism was even more greatly activated by the adversary Satan himself. He it was that energized the likes of Hitler and Eichmann to brutally eliminate Jews, numbering six million plus in the Holocaust of World War II.

[41:19] Their motivation for hating Jews was not religious but mostly political, whereby Jews were blamed for all the ills of Europe so that no matter what the issue was, it was the fault of the Jews.

[41:32] Satan works the faulty assumption game better than any mere mortals could. So slice it however you will. Faulty assumptions abounded both on the part of humans, whether motivated by ignorance on the part of humans, or motivated by the evil generated by Satan himself.

[41:52] You see, there has never been a shortage of faulty assumptions. Still isn't. Christianity Clarified, Volume 70, Track 13, Kingdom Essence Revisited, Part 3.

[42:07] In operating upon the faulty assumption of many Christians, especially in the third and fourth centuries after Christ, the problem of Israel being mentioned repeatedly in regard to prophecy in the Old Testament and the new inevitably arise.

[42:23] What were they to do about all of the passages that refer to God's blessings predicted for the Jews in the future? Because the Jew is now out, remember?

[42:35] It was the Jewish rejection of Jesus as Israel's Messiah that disqualified them from receiving God's blessing in the future. That could only mean one thing.

[42:47] Call it, if you will, the switcheroo of the centuries. But there it is, right before one's very eyes. All of a sudden, Israel spelled I-S-R-A-E-L doesn't mean Israel at all, at least not any longer.

[43:06] What once did mean Israel now means instead the Christian church. Oh yes, yes, it says Israel, but allegorically, spiritually, it really means the church, as the replacement theologians tell us.

[43:24] Right here, folks, we are knee-deep in faulty assumptions. Mr. and Mrs. faulty assumption cohabited and had little faulty assumptions.

[43:35] Are we actually saying that the world at large has been operating, functioning on lies, one after another, for centuries?

[43:46] Yes! Precisely, yes! Do you ignore verified history? You do look around and see what's happening, don't you?

[43:59] Faulty assumptions are not a thing of the past. They often dominate the present. They are related to fake news, and they are alive and well on planet Earth.

[44:11] Faulty assumptions feed political positions and actions. Truth can sometimes be hard to come by. Author Mark Twain was famous for the quip, If you don't read the newspapers, you are uninformed.

[44:28] If you do read the newspapers, you are misinformed. Well, what is the body supposed to do? May I remind you, it's the entrance of thy word that gives light, found in Psalm 119.

[44:43] As believers, we have to submit everything we hear to the standards of Scripture. The Bible is our baseline unapologetically. It is our go-to source for truth and reality.

[44:55] And even then, it has to be properly interpreted and rightly divided in accord with what we are told in 2 Timothy 2.15. Now, the people back then, and the majority of Christendom today who espouse this replacement theology, are they sincere?

[45:13] Well, of course. Do they really believe they are the new replacement for Israel? Well, they sure do. Just be reminded, please, sincerity and good faith, while desirable virtues, but having them is no guarantee that a position or conviction held is true.

[45:34] Never forget, truth is never determined by who believes it, but whether it corresponds to reality. At times, that may be hard to determine, but it is always worth the pursuit and pays off in big dividends.

[45:49] It's the entrance of thy word that gives light, no matter the subject upon which it shines. Christianity Clarified, Volume 70, Track 14, Kingdom Essence Revisited, Part 4.

[46:03] The previous session revealed the basis for most of Christendom, both Catholic and Protestant, for believing they have permanently replaced Israel as God's chosen people.

[46:16] Their rationale, at least in part, is based on the idea that since Israel rejected Jesus as God's Messiah, God in turn has also rejected Israel, a kind of tit-for-tat reality.

[46:33] But while you can charge Israel with fickleness, please don't try to lay that charge upon the Almighty. God, many years ago, committed Himself as Israel's God permanently, and Israel as His people, with that same permanence.

[46:53] In other words, God, by way of an inviolate covenant, has locked Himself in to the fulfilling of His word. This goes all the way back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their multitude of descendants.

[47:08] So even though we are in strong disagreement with their majority conclusion that is held today by Catholics and most Protestants that have resulted in replacement theology, yet honesty and sympathy compel us to admit, had we been where they were, when they were, seeing what they did, we most likely would have joined them in their faulty assumption.

[47:38] After all, the evidence at hand back then certainly did look that way. But be reminded, the available evidence nearly always appears likely and logical, and that's precisely why faulty assumptions are so quickly, easily made.

[47:57] couple that with another faulty assumption that seemed to confirm the one just revealed, and that is faulty assumption number two, was easily arrived at by the prolonged absence of Jesus after His having promised to return.

[48:14] After a couple of hundred years had passed since Jesus left, as pictured there in Acts chapter 1, and He still hadn't shown up, many logically concluded, you know, He actually had come already.

[48:30] He came in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost in the person of the Spirit. They just had not realized it, but He did, so they assumed. And that was when He also began building His church and giving the keys of the kingdom to Peter, so they assumed.

[48:47] Jesus also told His twelve apostles in Luke 12, 32, they would be chosen to be given the kingdom when Peter would be given the keys. An apostolic succession would begin with Peter having become the first pope, and the original twelve apostles would be succeeded by the bishops and priests of the church, and added to that the kingdom of God had begun, and they were then living in it.

[49:14] So they assumed. Of course, there was nothing literal about the kingdom, because the rule and reign of the pope would be spiritual rather than literal.

[49:27] You may be sure it all seemed to make very good sense. Faulty assumptions always do. That's why they are so quickly and easily made.

[49:38] They even appear quite obvious. Christianity Clarified Volume 70, Track 15, The Kingdom Essence Revisited, Part 5.

[49:49] The Kingdom of Heaven, also called the Kingdom of God, is so very critical to grasping the meaning and scope of the entire plan and program of God.

[50:01] So to illustrate the confusion that surrounds it, let's just relate the most basic misunderstanding of it right now, and it is this. When the Bible, especially in the four Gospels, uses the term Kingdom of Heaven, it does not at all mean simply as the dwelling place of God or the place where believers go upon our physical death as in absent from the body and present with the Lord.

[50:27] The distinction ought to be obvious by merely listening to what is commonly called the Lord's Prayer. It contains the lines, Clearly, it identifies Heaven as being where God is, and it also identifies Earth as being the place for which we are praying God's Heaven to come.

[51:00] Admittedly, it is somewhat confusing because when using the term Kingdom of Heaven, we automatically think of the sphere or location of God's dwelling place in Heaven.

[51:12] But if we listen carefully to the content of the prayer rather than just repeating it and mouthing the words automatically as is usually done, the difference will be revealed. The prayer is for God's kingdom, which He exercises in Heaven, to come to Earth so that God's will may be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

[51:38] Does that clarify the issue somewhat? We surely hope so, because clarification is what Christianity Clarified is all about. This is precisely what John the Baptist meant when he preached in all four of the Gospels, telling his Jewish audiences to repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

[52:00] Jesus and His Apostles would be proclaiming the very same message. They were all telling their Jewish audiences they needed to repent of their sin and morally, spiritually prepare themselves to receive their Messiah, the Anointed One, from God.

[52:18] And then one day, as John was preaching that very message, Jesus of Nazareth appeared on the scene. And John told the audience, Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

[52:36] If you check the genealogy of Jesus, recorded both in Matthew chapter 1 and Luke chapter 3, Jesus is clearly identified as a direct son of David who ruled Israel a thousand years earlier.

[52:50] It was Jesus alone who inherited the royal throne rights of Israel. And upon Israel's acceptance of Jesus as their Messiah, He will establish His throne and take His rightful place as Israel's king.

[53:09] But they did not accept Him. The kingdom He came to establish was not realized. Instead, Israel's refusal to accept Christ as Messiah resulted in the entire matter entering a period of postponement until such time as Israel will eventually say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

[53:32] We all await the second coming of Christ that just may be sooner than we think. Christianity Clarified Volume 70, Track 16, The Kingdom, The Kingdom, The Kingdom, Part 1.

[53:47] Considerable effort is put forth in this current portion of Christianity Clarified. Listeners and or readers will recognize the subject of the kingdom keeps surfacing on Christianity Clarified and for good reason.

[54:04] It is absolutely key to grasping the big picture. Sad to say, most people, even including many Christians, are so occupied with their own little picture, they fail to give little or no thought to the existence of the big picture.

[54:24] Still, it is the big picture alone that allows us to make sense even of our little pictures. Continue coming with us on this key critical content and you will have a grasp of both the little and big pictures not understood or enjoyed by most.

[54:44] On previous sessions, we revealed the necessity of allowing the Bible to be its own interpreter. The subject of the kingdom and its importance demonstrate how critical it is to allow the Bible to fully speak its mind on a given subject before reaching conclusions about that subject.

[55:06] Early Christians of the second and third centuries did not yet even have a completed canon of scripture. That is, they did not have the entire contents of the Bible to consider when drawing conclusions about a number of issues.

[55:22] We may be reasonably certain that information about the kingdom was likely among those issues lacking. It is nothing less than the totality of scripture content be available in order to have all the pertinent input before drawing any conclusions about any subject in the Bible.

[55:45] In the case of such a critical subject as the kingdom, that need is even magnified. Following our own advice, we must consult the Old Testament prophets with which the Jews of the first century A.D. were very familiar.

[56:03] Jesus repeatedly consulted and quoted the prophets during his three years of earthly ministry. So when he and John the Baptist referred to the kingdom of heaven being at hand or near, their audiences were well aware of what they were talking about.

[56:21] This is precisely why no formal explanation was ever given to the audiences they addressed. Those comprising the audience knew precisely what was meant in reference to the kingdom of heaven and all that entailed.

[56:36] Sad to say, many today, 2,000 years later, continue to misunderstand the kingdom and its importance. As a result, Christians are all over the map regarding its meaning and importance.

[56:53] Ignoring all that the Bible says about it is how the replacement theology came into being that has been adopted by the majority of Christendom, both Roman Catholic and Protestants.

[57:08] And we've only begun to plow this ground. We will turn up some amazing things that will allow more and more dots to be connected.

[57:19] You'll see. Christianity Clarified, Volume 70, Track 17, The Kingdom, The Kingdom, The Kingdom, Part 2. The angel Gabriel made the startling announcement to an obscure peasant girl named Mary that she would be the birth mother of the long-awaited Messiah.

[57:42] Long-awaited? How long? 4,000 years had passed since God in the Garden of Eden promised that He would send a Messiah, a Savior, a Deliverer, who would cancel the curse imposed upon humanity, through the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve.

[58:02] That promise had been embedded in the national psyche of the nation of Israel for four millennia. The concept was instilled into the Israelites and described as the hope of Israel in the hearts and minds of believing Jews.

[58:21] So that when the Messiah comes, He will be God's Redeemer for the world in general and for Israel in particular.

[58:32] You would have to search Israel far and wide in that first century to find a Jew who had no idea of what a coming promised Messiah would be and do. Still, one would not have been surprised if after 4,000 years and no such Messiah even arrived.

[58:51] Well, maybe we misunderstood. Maybe the promise meant something else. Maybe God changed His mind, God forbid. But then, one day, that appeared to be just another day, an unusual 30-year-old man appeared.

[59:10] He was a priest born of the tribe of Levi. He began declaring the most electrifying message the Jews had ever heard. No doubt it included, Repent, O Israel, and prepare yourselves to witness God making good on His promise of 4,000 years ago.

[59:30] So, God's kingdom is right at hand, right around the corner. Israel must prepare itself morally and spiritually so as to be ready to receive her Messiah.

[59:43] And then, one day, soon after John began his ministry, who showed up but Jesus of Nazareth, second cousin of John.

[59:54] He it is, said John. Behold Him, the Lamb of God, who will take away the sin of the world. The audience was understandably stunned. Was this true?

[60:07] Is this Jesus of Nazareth, the seed or offspring of our first Mother Eve, 4,000 years removed? Can it be? What could this carpenter's son do to convince anyone He was indeed that one, that He was the Messiah, the seed of the woman?

[60:23] Miracles! Miracles! Miracles! They became the very calling card and credentials of Jesus. Yes, sir! He was the one. Never had they seen the likes of this man.

[60:36] He gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, healing to the lepers, even cast out demons from people who'd been possessed for years. He healed everyone of everything. And His words! Why?

[60:47] We never heard anyone speak as this man speaks. And when challenged as to how He was able to do the many miracles He did, He replied, If I by the finger of God cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

[61:02] What? What is Jesus saying? He is the King? The Messiah? That would become the burning question for Israel 2,000 years ago and remain such to this very day.

[61:14] Was He? Is He? Or is He not? The one who should come as spoken of by Moses and the prophet. Everything was riding on it. Still is. Christianity Clarified, Volume 70, Track 18.

[61:29] The Kingdom, The Kingdom, The Kingdom. Part 3. McLean's volume, The Greatness of the Kingdom, reveals the importance of the principle cited earlier about the Bible being its own interpreter.

[61:41] On page 276, he states as items 1 through 6, quote, The absence of any formal definition of the kingdom in its initial announcement indicates that the Jewish hearers were expected to know exactly what kingdom was meant.

[62:00] Item 2. Our Lord never intimated that His conception of the kingdom differed in any respect or degree from that presented by the Old Testament prophets.

[62:12] And, The terms kingdom of heaven and son of man used by Christ in preaching the kingdom acquire their significance solely in relation to the Old Testament prophetic concept.

[62:27] Item 4. Our Lord constantly appealed to the Old Testament prophets in support of His regal claims and His message of the kingdom. 5.

[62:38] The gospel records always connect the kingdom proclaimed by our Lord with the kingdom of Old Testament prophecy. And 6. The events attending the appearance of the messianic kingdom indicate a literal identity between the kingdom preached in the gospels and that of Old Testament prophecy.

[63:00] And lastly, Item 7. In our Lord's message of the kingdom and His evidential works there appear all the essential aspects of the Old Testament prophetical kingdoms.

[63:16] End quote. All of McCain's observations are very astute and undeniable. This coincides with the question the apostles asked Jesus in Acts chapter 1.

[63:31] Lord, is it at this time you will restore the kingdom to Israel? To Israel? Did you get that? To Israel? That question of concern on their part related to the fact that Israel had not had a king to continue the Davidic dynasty since King Zedekiah was captured by the Babylonians when they invaded Israel and destroyed Solomon's original temple in 586 B.C.

[63:59] That meant Israel had not governed itself with their own king and kingdom for over 500 years. All during those centuries Israel had been invaded or ruled over by the Babylonians, the Medes and the Persians, the Greeks, and then by the Romans.

[64:17] All of Israel, including the twelve apostles with Jesus just before his ascension to heaven had longed for the throne of Israel to be reestablished with their own direct descendant of David to sit upon it.

[64:31] None other, of course, than Jesus of Nazareth. That meant Israel would then no longer be the tail of the nations as they had been for centuries, but would take their rightful place as the head and not the tail as mentioned by Moses in Deuteronomy 28.

[64:51] Such was precisely what the twelve had in mind, and then they would rule over the twelve tribes of Israel as Jesus had told them in Matthew 19.

[65:02] And the reign would not be limited to Israel, but will extend to every corner of the earth under the absolute supremacy of Christ himself. Such would be, and still is, the eventual reality of Christ upon his second coming.

[65:20] Christianity Clarified, Volume 70, Track 19, The Kingdom, The Kingdom, The Kingdom, Part 4. An ongoing effort has been made to explain how Jews and Gentiles from the first century forward have labored and continue to labor under one faulty assumption after another.

[65:40] And, as noted earlier, had we, of Christianity Clarified, lived when they did and witnessed what they did, we also would likely have joined them in their erroneous assumptions.

[65:55] Why? Because back then they appeared to be very logical. Folks, please be reminded that such is what makes faulty assumptions so easy to make.

[66:10] The assessment of what was taking place and the interpretation thereof that looked so obvious. But, what appeared obvious to those living back then today appear ludicrous.

[66:24] Why? How? Because what has happened since those events occurred now provide proof positive they were wrong.

[66:35] Sincerely wrong, no doubt, but wrong nonetheless. Looking back on something has often proved to be far more accurate than looking at something because things are not always as they seem and only the test of time allows for a more accurate assessment than that which was made earlier.

[67:01] So, what are we now supposed to do? We are supposed to acknowledge that many of those before us made faulty assumptions that gave them wrong conclusions.

[67:15] Then, we forgive them for having done so and chalk it up to, after all, we too are only human and we all make faulty assumptions.

[67:27] But, what if the faulty assumptions were, you know, etched in stone as it were? What if those conclusions made from faulty assumptions found their way into doctrinal statements of faith?

[67:44] Statements we have held forth to the public for perhaps hundreds of years. Then what? Well, then you swallow hard, get red in the face, and publicly apologize.

[67:59] Or, you take the alternate route, dig in your heels, stick to your guns, and insist. But this is what we've always believed, and it would betray our heritage to abandon what our forefathers believed and handed down to us.

[68:17] Well, that can be done if one is willing to sacrifice truth in favor of a cherished heritage.

[68:27] change. But then another question arises. What would the position be of those who originally arrived at their wrong conclusions that they based on their faulty assumptions back then?

[68:42] Would they be thankful that their descendants had the fortitude to go with the correction? Or would they be disappointed that they did not dig in their heels and stay the course? Because that's what we've always believed.

[68:54] well, I guess it's all purely hypothetical, some would say, but just asking. Christianity Clarified, Volume 70, Track 20, The Kingdom, The Kingdom, The Kingdom, Part 5.

[69:14] As has been noted previously, few differences exist among the public in regard to what the Bible says. One may merely read it to determine what it says, but to determine what it means by what it says in an entirely different manner.

[69:31] And therein, a great divide exists among Christians, particularly within the scope of prophecy. With the majority of Scripture, most Christians interpret the Bible with a literal approach allowing the Scripture's text to mean exactly what it says in a normal, straightforward way, as is the meaning of literature in general.

[69:52] But the divide occurs in the interpretation of what the Bible records in the area of prophecy. Only a minority of Christians interpret prophecy in the same literal and straightforward manner as the remainder of Scripture.

[70:09] The majority, again consisting of Roman Catholic and most Protestants, employ a non-literal approach to the interpretation of prophetic passages of Scripture.

[70:23] And as to what possible rationale is used to justify this glowing irregularity, the following is invoked. Israel is seen to have been removed from their former favored nation status given them by God.

[70:41] Because they nationally rejected Jesus as their Messiah, God has in turn rejected them. Gentiles, that is, non-Jews, who accepted Jesus as the Son of God, then became the new chosen people, and remain as such to the present day.

[71:02] Further consequences occurred with all of the blessings and benefits predicted for bestowment upon the Jews to have been withdrawn from them and transferred to what became the Christian Church.

[71:16] As regards God's predicted punishment of the Jews, that is, to be imposed upon them in the future, well, the punishments are seen to remain with them and upon the Jews, and apparently the Christian Church recipients are not at all concerned about the glaring inconsistency.

[71:36] Most wonder and amazement of what appears to be the proverbial example of changing horses in the middle of the stream. And when one reads prophetic portions of Scripture, we are reminded that even though the ancient text says Israel, it actually means the Christian Church.

[71:55] And such was adopted by early Christians that would become the Roman Catholic Church, who continue to see themselves as the divine replacement of Israel. And then when Martin Luther broke from the Catholic Church in 1517, he brought that doctrinal position and conclusion with him, and it then became part of Lutheran theology, and still is.

[72:19] Later, when King Henry VIII also left Rome in the 1500s and started the Anglican Church of England, also known as the Episcopal Church, he too carried over that concept of replacement theology.

[72:34] Then, following other eventual Protestant denominations coming from the Church of England, they did the same, and that is how replacement theology became the doctrinal position of most Protestants, along with their Roman Catholic forebears.

[72:51] And this is how so many got where they are today.