SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/8/2015
10:43 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 of
Intro. To Rev. 20
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
20:1-10
Message
of the verses: “1 Then I saw an
angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain
in his hand. 2 And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the
devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he threw him into the abyss, and
shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any
longer, until the thousand
years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short
time. 4 Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to
them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their
testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not
worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their
forehead and on their hand; and
they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead did
not come to life until the
thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed
and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the
second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and
will reign with Him for a
thousand years. 7 When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from
his prison, 8 and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four
corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the
number of them is like the sand of the seashore. 9 And they came up on the
broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved
city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10 And the devil who
deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast
and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night
forever and ever.”
I think it best to quote a paragraph
from John MacArthur to show us why he thinks that the premillennial view is the
most accurate found in Scripture. Now
remember what I wrote yesterday and that was “when the plain sense of Scripture
makes sense, seek no other sense.” “For
the first century and a half after the close of the New Testament era, the
church was largely premillennial. Among
the church fathers of that period who believed in a literal thousand-year
earthly Millennium were Papias (a disciple of the apostle John), Irenaeus,
Justin Martyr, Tertulliam, and the author of the Epistle of Barnabas. That premillennial consensus was challenged
by the members of the Alexandrian school (most notably Origen), who advocated
an allegorical approach to interpreting Scripture. The famous church historian Eusebius also
rejected a literal, earthly Millennium, as did the noted Bible scholar
Jerome. But it was the influence of
Augustine, the greatest theologian of the early church that ensured that
amillennialism would dominate the church for centuries. Amillennialism was the view of the Reformers,
and today most scholars in the Reformed tradition are amillennialists.”
MacArthur goes on to say “At the
heart of the debate over millennial views is the issue of hermeneutics.” This word is means the literal translation of
Scripture as opposed to symbolic.
MacArthur quotes Amillennialist Floyd E. Hamilton who “candidly
acknowledges that truth: ‘Now we must
frankly admit that a literal interpretation of the Old Testament prophecies
gives us just such a picture of an earth reign of the Messiah as the Premillennialists
pictures.’” “Post millennialist Loraine
Boettner agrees with Hamilton’s ‘It is generally agreed that if the prophecies
are taken literally, they do foretell a restoration of the nation of Israel in
the land of Palestine with the Jews having a prominent place in that kingdom
and ruling over the other nations.” Now
at this time I want to just give my opinion and I repeat it is my opinion as to
why I believe that these men have a different view as what I believe the Bible
teaches. In my opinion I believe the
Bible teaches the premillennial view as being the truth. I go back to speak of the covenant that God
made with Abraham and then to David and these covenants were unconditional
covenants, covenants that God made with both these men and nothing that they
can do can stop the covenants. Let us
take a look at Genesis 15 and see the covenant that God gave to Abraham. “17 It came about when the sun had set, that
it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch
which passed between these pieces. 18 On
that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I have given
this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river
Euphrates: 19 the Kenite and the
Kenizzite and the Kadmonite 20 and the
Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim 21
and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite.’” God would then give this same covenant to
Isaac, and then to Jacob to show that what He gave to them would one day be
theirs. Later on after Israel came out
of Egypt God made unconditional covenants with them which they broke and this
was the reason why they had to leave their land, but the conditional covenant
given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is still in effect, nothing can break it. Now why do I believe that people do not
believe that Jesus Christ will return to planet earth to set up the promised
kingdom that is promised in the OT and NT, verses we looked in an earlier SD on
chapter 20? My thoughts are that Satan
is behind this, and why would I say this?
It all has to do with the Jews, and Satan hates the Jews and so if he
can get the church to believe that God is done with the Jews then they too can
begin to persecute them. In fact the
church has done some very sinful things in its history just like Israel did in
its history so what makes people of the church age think that God is going to
break His promise to the Jews because of their sin. God was mad at the Jews when they came out of
Egypt and wanted to make a covenant with Moses when Moses spoke to God and told
Him that this would not look good to the nations around them and He would be
breaking His Word. In fact God will keep
His covenant with the Jews because of His name.
I have to say that the people who say that God is done with the Jews makes
me very angry because they have fallen into a trick that comes from Satan. We will have to take one more day to finish
this introduction, but once again remember that when the plain sense of
Scripture makes sense, seek no other sense, and that applies to what we will
learn in this 20th chapter of Revelation.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: It takes
much time to understand what the Bible has to say but worth every minute spent
doing it.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to
finish this introduction in the next SD.
Answer
to yesterdays Bible question: “A tower
that reached to heaven (Genesis 11:3-9).
Today’s
Bible question: “On what occasion did
Elisha say ‘My father my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen
thereof’?”
Answer
in our next SD.
10/8/2015
12:01 PM
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