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[0:00] I really appreciate you all being here this morning and braving the elements. This is decidedly different from what we enjoyed last week at this time by several degrees. We had about 30 or 35 degrees stuffed in the trunk of our vehicle, planned on bringing it back, and the state of authorities of Florida stopped us at the state line and said, you're not allowed to take that out of the state.

[0:25] So we had to leave with it. So here we are without the 30 degrees extra that we promised. Don't we wish it worked that way? But it doesn't.

[0:36] Anyhow, everybody's thinking spring and winter can't last much longer. So let's have a word of prayer. Accept our thanks, Father, for this occasion to be together.

[0:47] Thank you for the seasons of the year. And thank you for the faithfulness that you demonstrate to us even through them. And we ask now that as we engage the material and enjoy a time of fellowship and searching of the word, that you will use it to inspire and instruct and encourage each and every one of us.

[1:06] Thank you for the meal to be enjoyed shortly and for the sheer opportunity of being together with fellow believers. We commit our time to you. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[1:17] Amen. Well, we want to remind you something about the importance of prophecy and how that approximately 25% of the content of Scripture was prophetic at the time that it was given.

[1:33] And that, of course, makes it critical to all study of Scripture. That is, the subject of interpretation or hermeneutics, which simply means the art and science of interpreting the Bible.

[1:47] It is interpretation alone that provides meaning and significance. It is after you read a passage of Scripture and you ask yourself the question, so what?

[2:00] What does it mean? What are we supposed to do about this? That's where interpretation comes in. And I have likened the interpretation of Scripture as being akin to honing or sharpening a skill in that a sharp tool enables you to get the work done.

[2:21] Can you imagine somebody going out where there's a big pile of wood and all that it is is about 18-inch lengths of a tree trunk, all cut up like that.

[2:33] And you tell this person, now, what you need to do is you need to reduce these large pieces of wood to small pieces so that they'll burn when you put them in the stove.

[2:45] So here is this fellow. He overlooks this big cylinder piece of wood, has no idea how to attack it. What do you have to do? The first thing you have to do is interpret that piece of wood.

[2:59] Because if you lay it out there and just start beating on top of it, trying to reduce it to small pieces, who knows how long you're going to be there. But when you interpret the wood, you examine it.

[3:12] You analyze the wood and see how that wood is held together. Then after a while, you're going to stand it on edge, on its end, and start to split it lengthwise.

[3:25] And when you do, it's amazing the difference it makes. Because if you just lay it down and start beating on it, trying to reduce it, you're going to be there for a long, long time.

[3:36] But when you interpret and understand how the wood is put together, and you start splitting it in lengths with the grain, it makes a world of difference.

[3:47] And if you've got a sharp axe, all the better. I remember hearing a story about a fellow coming along. He saw a man out there, and he was chopping wood, and he was just laboring and sweating something profusely, trying to get that wood cut up.

[4:01] And the fellow says, looks to me like you've got a pretty dull axe there. Why don't you stop and sharpen the axe? Don't have time to sharpen the axe.

[4:12] I've got to get all this wood cut. That's the way it is when it comes to interpreting Scripture. You've got to sharpen and hone the skills of interpretation. And when you do, there are a lot of things that come into play.

[4:24] We have noted that if interpretation is critical to the study of Scripture, it is doubly so for the interpretation of prophetic Scripture.

[4:40] Why is that? That's because most of the Bible is history or doctrine that has already occurred and is verifiable.

[4:51] Prophecy is that which is yet unfulfilled and lacks verification or the validity that is given to fulfillment.

[5:02] Now granted, there are a lot of prophecies that have already been fulfilled, and that leads us to an insistence on the literal interpretation of that which is not yet fulfilled.

[5:18] Because Scripture that has been fulfilled already, and there are hundreds of them, were fulfilled literally. So we ask the question, on what basis can we possibly believe that those Scriptures that are prophetic, that are yet unfulfilled, will not be fulfilled literally in the same way?

[5:43] We think that consistency requires us to apply the same standard to unfulfilled prophecy as was applied to fulfilled prophecy, and that is that you take it literally.

[5:57] There are only two ways of interpreting Scripture, whether it is prophetic or non-prophetic, and that is you either take it literally or non-literally.

[6:11] There are no other ways, to my understanding. You have to approach it one of those two ways. And this, recognizing that that which has been fulfilled literally provides us with a logical rationale for anticipating unfulfilled prophecy to be realized in a literal way as well.

[6:33] And we noted that Scripture is to be interpreted in the usual, ordinary, customary way that we interpret all written texts. You do not approach the Bible any different than you would the newspaper, with the exception that you can't believe everything you read in the newspaper.

[6:52] But we know the Bible has a different source, has a divine source. And that simply means that you read the Bible as you would read any other literary document with the intent of understanding the words.

[7:07] Because words mean things. Words have meaning. So, we noted that it is the literal or the customary, ordinary way.

[7:18] Special origin, which of course Scripture is, does not require an extraordinary methodology. Secondly, Scripture requires historical, cultural approach.

[7:31] And we pointed that out a little bit, how that there is a vast difference in the history and the culture in which biblical people lived as opposed to ours. You have to take that into consideration.

[7:42] We noted that interpretation requires the centrality of Christ. We looked at Revelation 19.10. And the passage says that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

[8:00] That means Jesus Christ, his word, his work, is what biblical prophecy is all about. It centers and focuses on him.

[8:11] We read in Romans 10.4 that Christ is the end of the law for everyone who believes. That means that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the law.

[8:22] He is what the law is getting at. And all through it is pointing to Christ. there is a passage that talks about the law being a schoolmaster, a teacher.

[8:38] Galatians says the law is a schoolmaster or a tutor to lead us to Christ. The law is not an end in itself. It points to its fulfillment and that is the person of Christ.

[8:51] So, when our Lord was on the road to Emmaus and he revealed himself to the apostles after his resurrection, we are told that he began with Moses and the prophets and showed them all things concerning himself.

[9:10] Why should he do that? Sounds rather egotistical, doesn't it? Not at all. Because he is what it's all about. And he, his coming, his death, burial, and resurrection, his coming again, this is the whole essence of the scripture testimony.

[9:27] And we noted that context is critical, must not be ignored. Confidence in the totality of revelation is essential.

[9:38] If you've got your Bible here, would you look at Matthew 24 and verses 29 and 30. And when I say that confidence in the totality of scripture is essential, this will give us an illustration of that.

[9:59] Matthew 24 and verse 29. One of the controversies that has been going around in the Christian community for probably the last, well, highlighted the last 50 years is of course whether the church is going to go through the great tribulation period and when Christ is coming.

[10:23] Those of us who are pre-millennial and pre-tribulation believe that the church is not going through the tribulation, that there is a rapture that is spoken of or a catching away and that is for the body of Christ before the tribulation period begins.

[10:38] But when we read here in Matthew chapter 24 and beginning with verse 29, it says, immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light.

[10:56] The stars shall fall from heaven, the powers of the heavens shall be shaken and then, then, and I think we can reasonably say that the then in verse 30 refers back to immediately after the tribulation of those days in verse 29.

[11:18] 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 the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heavens with power and great glory and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other.

[11:48] When is this going to happen? After the tribulation. Christ is coming after the tribulation. Well, if he's coming after the tribulation, then the church is going to go through the tribulation and that certainly is what the text seems to say and I'm not going to go there for time's sake but you are aware of the passages.

[12:06] If we consult the totality of scripture testimony, that is the more remote context, we will go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 where the apostle Paul talks about the rapture of the church and 1 Corinthians chapter 15 where he also talks about the rapture of the church.

[12:29] That time is unrevealed. We believe it could happen at any time. So what is this? This is clearly in Matthew 24, this is the second coming.

[12:43] This has nothing to do with the rapture or the translation of the church. Now there are many believers who believe that it does because there are some passages in this Olivet Discourse that seem to describe the rapture and as you look at the text, for instance, verse 40, talks about then.

[13:10] Shall two be in the field, the one shall be taken, the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill, one will be taken, the other left. And some read the rapture into this and say, well, this is talking about one is a believer and they're taken in the rapture and the other is not and they are left behind.

[13:26] But if you look at the context closely, you will discover that the theme does not rescue from this. The theme is judgment. This is tribulation content.

[13:37] And the one that is taken, is taken in death. There's going to be an incredible amount of carnage during this tribulation period when there are going to be not millions, but billions of people lose their lives.

[13:55] and this is coming upon this earth. It is described here. But you do not get that from the text alone and it's very confusing. But when you pull into consideration the passages from the Pauline epistles and 1 Corinthians 15 and the passage in 1 Corinthians 4, we find there a rapture that is communicated.

[14:19] And then we note that the recognition of the progress of Revelation from Genesis to Revelation has to be taken into consideration. We do not have the Bible just drop down on us in one fell swoop.

[14:32] It is a gradual revelation that took place over an extensive period of time. And that has to be figured into the mix. Jesus said before he left his apostles, said, I have many things to reveal unto you.

[14:48] But you cannot bear them now. Then he goes on to say, Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth and he will show you things to come. So Christ informed them even before he left.

[15:02] There are a lot of things you need to know and a lot of things I'm going to reveal to you. But not now. You can't handle it now. It will be later. That's just one brief instance that reveals progressive revelation.

[15:13] And then the last point that we considered is that we must admit to only one interpretation of a given passage. Although the applications of it may be several.

[15:27] There is only one accurate interpretation of each passage of Scripture. It isn't yours. It isn't mine. It isn't particular church denominations.

[15:40] The meaning of each and every passage of Scripture is the meaning that the writer originally intended to convey.

[15:53] And that meaning which the recipients of that information whether it was a Pauline epistle or whether it was an Old Testament document how did they understand?

[16:04] What did they take it to mean? That is absolutely key. God does not speak out of both sides of his mouth. It is not a fruitful thing for a group of people to get together read a passage of Scripture and each one gives their interpretation.

[16:24] And amazingly enough what often happens is which one is right? Well they're all right. Because this is what it says to you this is what it says to you this is what I get out of it this is what it says to me.

[16:40] Now those are all fine for application. If you want to say well this reminds me of or there is a parallel or it is akin to that's fine.

[16:52] And if there is a principle there principles are to be claimed. But we cannot come to a passage of Scripture interpreted in a way that makes us feel good about it and then declare that to be the accurate interpretation.

[17:09] the accurate interpretation is the message that the writer intended to communicate. Isn't that the way it is when you write?

[17:20] When you write someone a letter don't you fill it with meaning and names and places and dates and you have some kind of correspondence or message that you are communicating to that person.

[17:31] And what you intend to say is the meaning of that. Now sometimes we do not say things all that clearly and there is an occasion for what we call reading between the lines.

[17:44] But that has to be done with extreme care and taking the whole context into consideration. So it's very very important. I have here in my hands now the very first Bible that I ever owned.

[17:59] and it has a sentimental attachment to me because when Her Majesty and I were married December the 8th 1956 spent a few days on our honeymoon and came home to our little apartment and I was still on army leave came home to our little apartment in Olympia Washington and we decided to go downtown and open a joint checking account as newlyweds and we did at the National Bank of Commerce there in Olympia and as soon as we got our checks and deposited some money in the checking account we went around a corner to a local bookstore and with the very first check that we wrote from our joint checking account we bought this Bible and I thought it was such a cool Bible because it had a zipper in it well later it became a nuisance it was just a fad it wasn't such a good thing after all in fact

[18:59] I ended up taking it off but this Bible served me as a new believer for several years and then I became acquainted with other translations and so on but I just want to point out something to you about literal interpretation and taking things as they are intended by the writer I didn't have a clue about this when I read these things and I've got several of the Psalms underlined but it did not even occur to me at the time and yet as I look at it now here in the Psalms and this is the King James Version you of course will not have this in yours probably don't at least and you are aware of course that all of the notations and footnotes that are in the Bible whether they are in the column in the middle whether they're at the bottom whether they're at the top wherever they are those are all human editions they of course are not part of the text the original writer did not write those in there but translators and people who printed the Bible over a period of years later they added these things and I'm looking now in my Bible at

[20:15] Psalm 44 and up at the top across across the top of the page there is the phrase the church complaineth to God of present evils really and you look in this passage for the church and you do not find the church all you find is King David and the people that David is talking about and they are his people they are Jews they are the nation of Israel well how and why then do they say the church complaineth to God of present evils this has come about as a result of what has come to be known today as the replacement theology idea that because the nation of Israel had a

[21:15] Messiah Jesus Christ sent to them as their redeemer deliverer but they rejected him and because of that rejection God has rejected them permanently and he has transferred everything that once was pertaining to Israel to the church and that's how they get the church in the Psalms and it is found in many other places too someone said isn't it interesting how that in replacement theology they take all of the blessings that God has promised to the nation of Israel through Abraham Isaac and Jacob take all of the blessings that God has promised and transfer them to the church but they take all of the cursings and give them to Israel that's a pretty neat job and that's exactly what they have done and this of course has resulted in things like the gross anti-semitism that we see today and it has resulted in a great spiritualization of the scriptures now I want you to come over to another passage if you will that will explain what

[22:32] I'm talking about with spiritualization and I want you to get a handle on it very important Isaiah chapter 35 this is one of the more obvious passages and it is one which the non-literalists in their interpretation insist upon it is Isaiah chapter 35 and we believe that this passage is prophetic it has not yet occurred and the reason that we believe that is because we cannot find any occasion of historical fulfillment of it verse one of chapter 35 and bear in mind this was written approximately 700 years before Christ was born the verse says the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose well if you have been to

[23:42] Israel you will realize that there are a number of places over there that are rather verdant in agriculture and crop growing and so on but for the most part the desert remains desert they have reclaimed some of it through irrigation and a great deal of effort but for the most part the Sinai desert remains the Sinai desert the Negev is still a desert it is very inhospitable temperature averages in the Dead Sea area about 130 degrees in the shade and you can't find any shade so it's pretty warm there and this passage speaks I think of a very literal situation the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose it's speaking of lushness abundance productivity it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it the excellency of

[24:45] Carmel and Sharon they shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God this is speaking of an extraordinary time now do we take this literally or do we take it figuratively or spiritually those who insist on allegorizing this say we look at it and we say well now the wilderness and the solitary place this is a lonely desolate kind of place but they're going to be changed they're going to be radically administered to so as to bring about an exact different kind of change that will be the opposite and I think that this wilderness is a wilderness and the allegorist or the spiritualist would say no this is in reference to the church and the wilderness is the spiritual barrenness of the individual they are the wilderness and they are the desert this is a picture of an unregenerate man who does not have a connection with God and doesn't have a relationship with Christ but when he comes into that then he is radically changed and he is able to rejoice and we look at a passage like that and say it says that how do you get that out of it and they say that's because you need to look beyond what seems to be the obvious and the literal and find the deeper hidden meaning surely you don't think that the God of heaven is going to communicate information that is so plain and obvious on the surface he is an infinite inexhaustible mysterious person and he conveys his meaning and the messages that he wants you to know in hidden ways and symbols and secret and you've got to have the skill involved that is necessary to get into that and pry that out what do you say to that there are a number of major flaws with that kind of thinking but the greatest one is this when you spiritualize a text of scripture when you say I see what it says but it doesn't mean that you immediately open the door to a very active imagination you have removed the text from any kind of stability predictability assurance you have put it in an area of obscurity and this is exactly how people come to the conclusion well it means this to me it means this to you it means that to someone but what does it mean it means what the writer intended it to mean and I realize this sounds rather elemental it sounds kind of simplistic it sounds rather juvenile but the wilderness is the wilderness and the desert is the desert and the rose that is going to blossom is a rose it isn't new regenerated life implanted in the heart of an individual it is what it seems to be that is a literal interpretation of the scripture and then we look at it and we say well when did this ever happen we say never has happened that's why

[28:46] it's prophecy it is going to happen all of this in the Isaiah text here is future and it has to do with what is going to occur when Christ returns and establishes that kingdom there are going to be millennial Edenic kind of arrangements provided that our first parents enjoyed and forfeited and the earth is going to be restored to that the earth is going to be reconstituted remade regenerated and this will be the result even that which is now a desert and unproductive worthless if you will is going to be lush and profitable and productive when the Messiah comes and establishes his kingdom this is what this passage is all about as well as the other passages in Isaiah so when you allegorize a scripture you open the door for conjecture imagination and purely speculative meanings that do not allow for any possible certainty and you've got you've got a text that is in a state of flux you can't pin anything down it means whatever anybody wants it to mean and that's exactly where some are with the scriptures

[30:07] I want to remind you that the bible we have is not a book of riddles or conundrums it was never given to perplex or confound us but to enlighten to reveal and to comfort us God never intended us to stand in awe with complete mystery before us this is a book of revealment not a book of concealment he wants us to understand what it is he is saying and I'd like you to turn to another passage if you will please in Matthew chapter 19 Matthew 19 very familiar passage especially to dispensationalists and we'll just have to jump in for time's sake here I want to have some

[31:07] Q&A Jesus had just answered the question of the rich young ruler about what must I do to inherit eternal life and so on and then in verse 26 he says with men this is impossible but with God all things are possible and Peter verse 27 Peter answered and said to him behold we and I think the context makes it quite clear that Peter is talking about himself and his fellow apostles he says we have left everything and followed you Peter and his brother Andrew was Peter Peter and Andrew yeah Peter and Andrew were they brothers James and John were well anyway the four of them were involved in fishing we all know the story about they left their boats they left their nets and everything

[32:09] Matthew left his tax collection business and and they all threw their lot in with Jesus of Nazareth believing that he was the promised Messiah and and Peter says we have left everything and followed you what then will there be for us Jesus said to them truly I say to you that you who have followed me in the regeneration now this is the time that we were just talking about in Isaiah when everything is made new and restored to the millennium reign so in the regeneration when the son of man will sit on his glorious throne you also you twelve shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel has that ever happened our response would be no it has never happened the spiritualizer says oh yes it has already happened the twelve tribes are you guessed it the church and this is a spiritual reign and Christ is ruling and reigning in heaven over the church which of course means this is also the regeneration we are living in it this is the millennium but it isn't a physical millennium it is spiritual what does that mean what does a spiritual throne look like what is a spiritual reign is it not difficult for you to believe that Christ is ruling and reigning and that his will is being done on this earth it is very difficult for me to believe that and yet this is exactly what you do when you spiritualize the text now let me tell you something

[34:27] I don't know if you are aware of this or not but you need to know this what I am telling you about this not being Israel this is the church you need to understand this position is the majority position of Christendom did you know that now many times people who kind of travel in dispensational or even acts to dispensational premillennial pre-tribulation tend to think that well everybody knows that this is Israel no everybody doesn't our position is a minority position now if you come over to Acts chapter one we find a further reference to this very issue that took place at the ascension of our

[35:29] Lord this is he's been with them as Acts opens up Christ has been resurrected and been on earth with the apostles after his resurrection for forty days and we read that in verse four gathering them together the twelve he commanded he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the father had promised now we know that that waiting is going to last ten days and it will be fulfilled on the day of Pentecost they they don't know that and they don't know how long it's going to be and Jesus didn't tell them it's going to be just ten days but he told them to wait until they were endued with power and then he said John baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit in other words a different kind of baptism than what

[36:32] John administered not many days from now and we know it will turn out to be ten days and so when they had come together they were asking him saying Lord is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel now that's a very legitimate question why are they asking it for this reason when Christ came and presented himself as the Messiah to Israel and a number of people believed on him including the twelve who signed on with him it was always against the backdrop that this was the Messiah and he is going to bring in the kingdom he's going to bring God's kingdom in heaven to earth and that will be a fulfillment of thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven but he didn't do that he went to the cross and he died is that any way to bring in the kingdom to die on the cross as a criminal and they were all downcast and discouraged and confused and everything else because if he was the

[37:56] Messiah that is unthinkable but then after the resurrection oh my they were tremendously encouraged and heartened when they saw the Lord alive again and I think they probably assumed now he's going to establish the kingdom we thought he was going to before but there was the death burial and resurrection now that is history now would be the logical time so they ask a very logical question are you going to at this time establish the kingdom why didn't Jesus simply come back and say fellows I need to explain something to you you've got it all wrong you've been thinking in terms of a literal physical earthly kingdom that's not what I had in mind at all what I had in mind was a spiritual kingdom I'm going back to heaven and

[38:56] I'm going to rule and reign from there and by the way what I told you guys about the 12 tribes and you sitting on the 12 tribes I'm sorry but that's all canceled and that privilege who belong to Israel I'm sorry but because the nation rejected me you're just kind of out of it so so long why did he do that but he didn't he didn't deny that there was going to be a kingdom he didn't say you've got it all wrong there isn't going to be any kingdoms not going to be any 12 tribes all he said was the time still isn't right the times and the seasons that the father had put in his own hand the time still isn't right he's not saying there isn't going to be such a time now if you spiritualize that and say well Christ is ruling and reigning now in Jerusalem and Christ is ruling and reigning in the heart of every individual well

[39:58] I would hope that there is a sense in which that's true if Jesus Christ is your savior he ought to be the lord of your life ruling and reigning in your heart but that is a far cry from establishing the kingdom of heaven on earth and when we take it in its customary ordinary logical usual sense we get a very literal meaning that will have a very literal fulfillment now Q&A that you might have anyone feel free anybody and this subject by the way this subject of the kingdom is the most thoroughly pervasive issue of all of scripture this is the center piece it is the kingdom and when you use the word kingdom you automatically imply king that's why

[41:11] Christ prophet priest and king that's why Christ is the central figure the central character on the stage of all redemption and this kingdom restored realized the time of refreshing that's spoken of by Peter in Acts 3 is the centerpiece it is the earth restored to what it is supposed to be apart from man's sin and the curse that followed it it is to be it is the remaking of the earth into what it is supposed to be that's the goal that's the objective and the one who is going to realize that is the king the person of Jesus Christ the church is but an added entity that is not a strict part of that kingdom as we see it in scripture that means we have to keep

[42:19] Israel the nation of Israel the promises to Israel etc separate from the church and the church is a spiritual entity it is the body of Christ and Israel is a physical entity and they are promised a land and God's going to make good on that any other thoughts or comments anyone aspect H Do the replacement theology believe that this happened, these scriptures were fulfilled at the time of Christ when miracles were performed?

[43:10] Probably some of them do. Yeah, probably some of them do. But you have to be careful with that because if you do, you're slipping back into literalism because this was very literally fulfilled.

[43:24] And we are saying that, you see, when Christ came, he did those things. Why did he do them?

[43:35] He had to. And the reason he had to was because if he comes and offers himself as the Messiah, the King of Israel, who is eventually going to bring in the kingdom of God to earth, these people have every right to ask him, why should we believe you?

[43:56] What makes you so special? How do we know what you're saying is true? What did he do? He brought kingdom conditions with him everywhere he went.

[44:09] That is because in the kingdom, when this world is made into what it's supposed to be, there aren't going to be lame people and blind people, crippled people.

[44:21] So Christ healed the sick. He raised the dead. It was commonly known that every time Jesus attended a funeral, he always ruined it.

[44:32] The corpse got up and walked away. And those are kingdom conditions. They were his badge of authentication. They were his verification that he was who he said he was. And they had every right to expect him to do what he did.

[44:47] And he did. He even exercised power over the elements when he calmed the sea. And we have here an individual of extraordinary capability.

[45:03] He is God incarnate in the flesh. Other comments or questions? Lamar. The apostles have their job there in the kingdom.

[45:20] And I keep wondering all the time here in this huge kingdom. Is that where everybody is going to be? That can't be because you've got all the rest of the land outside of it.

[45:33] But what are, we'll say for instance, what are the saints going to be doing? Or what is their position? I cannot answer that with the clarity that I would like.

[45:46] I simply do not know. The distinction is made, particularly among dispensationalists, that it is Israel that has promised the kingdom. And actually it's going to engulf the entire world.

[46:00] This is going to be worldwide. It isn't going to be just there in Israel. It's going to be the whole planet. And exactly what role the church is going to play in that, I do not know.

[46:11] But I, for one, do not insist on maintaining the separation and distinction between the church, redeemed, glorified believers, and the Jews who will be ruling and reigning during that time.

[46:25] I don't make the distinction that many of my dispensational friends do. And one of the reasons I don't is because we are assured in Scripture that we will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

[46:46] And to me, that simply says wherever He is, that's where we're going to be. And if He's here on earth, that's where we're going to be. If He is in heaven, that's where we're going to be.

[46:57] We're going to be where He is. And make no mistake about it, God is committed very much to the physical. And He is going to right the wrongs that have occurred on this planet, and He's going to literally refurbish and reestablish the planet.

[47:13] So how separate the distinction will be during that time, I am not sure. But I can promise you this. Nobody is going to feel shortchanged.

[47:25] Nobody is going to feel like, well, so-and-so got a better deal. It's not going to be that way at all. Anything else?

[47:35] Well, enjoy your meal. Thank you for your kind attention. In our next session, I think we have sufficiently covered the subject of the interpretation of prophecy.

[47:50] And in our next session, we're going to jump right in to the very principal focal point, I think, of prophecy. And that relates to the 70th week of Daniel, and we'll be explaining that.

[48:04]  And you'll see how key that is to the whole prophetic plan. Enjoy your meal.