Friday, October 9, 2015

PT-4 of Intro. to Rev. 20


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/9/2015 11:13 AM

My Worship Time                                                                            Focus:  PT-4 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 want to say that it is important to see what we have been looking at in the previous Spiritual Diaries in order to understand what we are going to say in this Spiritual Diary which I hope will be the last SD looking at the introduction of Revelation chapter twenty.  We have been discussing the different views of when or if the millennial kingdom which is spoken of in these ten verses will or has happened.

            John MacArthur writes “In light of the above” (what we looked at in our previous SD’s) “admissions, the question that naturally arises is ‘Why not take Old Testament prophecies of the Millennium literally?’  Those who reject a literal interpretation argue that the New Testament appears to interpret some Old Testament prophecies nonliterally.  But in most cases, the New Testament is not interpreting those prophecies, but merely applying principles found in them.  In fact, scores of Old Testament prophecies relating to Christ’s first coming were literally fulfilled.

            “There are several compelling reasons for interpreting Oldt Testament prophecies literally.

            “First, if the literral sense of a passage is rejected, who is to determine what the nonliteral or spiritual sense is, since the normal rules of interpretation do not apply?  Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., poses the dilemma:  ‘Who or what will arbitrate among the various [nonliteral] meanings suggested and decide which are to be accepted as authoritative and which are spurious?  Short of saying that every person’s fancy is his or her own rule, there does not appear to be any final court of appeal…There simply are no justifiable criteria for setting boundaries once the interpreter departs from the normal usage of language.’”

            Now I have to interject here by saying that I believe that what John MacArthur is writing here is important for us to understand and so I confess that the rest of this SD will be a quotation from his commentary.  I do have one more thing to say before continuing with his quotations and that is “Why do so many people have a problem with the book of Revelation?”  We have a book that tells us that there is a special blessing just for reading it, and yet many people shy away from it because they cannot understand it, but don’t want to study it by looking at what more intelligent or more spiritual people have to say about it, and I don’t include myself in either category, but I do have a desire to read others and then do as my former Pastor use to say and that is reading a book is like eating fish, when you come to a bone you throw it out, so that is what I do, I throw out any bones that I don’t believe go along with the Word of God when I read other commentaries.  At the end of the book of Revelation we will find that John is told by an angel not to close up this book:  “10 And he said to me, "Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near (Rev. 22:10).  Jesus also goes on to say “18 I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.”  These are all serious words that believers are to follow and yet I have heard it from many different people that the book of Revelation is something I don’t even look at. 

One more thing and that is I want to look at what  is said at the end of the book of Daniel:  “5 Then I, Daniel, looked and behold, two others were standing, one on this bank of the river and the other on that bank of the river. 6 And one said to the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, "How long will it be until the end of these wonders?" 7 I heard the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, as he raised his right hand and his left toward heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time; and as soon as they finish shattering the power of the holy people, all these events will be completed. 8 As for me, I heard but could not understand; so I said, "My lord, what will be the outcome of these events?" 9 He said, "Go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time. 10 “Many will be purged, purified and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly; and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand. 11 “From the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. 12 “How blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1,335 days! 13 “But as for you, go your way to the end; then you will enter into rest and rise again for your allotted portion at the end of the age’ (Daniel 12:5-12).  I have written in my Spiritual Diary about these verses, but what I want to say about them as we compare them with the end of Revelation is that Daniel was told to shut up His book, but John was told not to do that, but just the opposite for then angel told him it would happen soon.  It has been over 1900 years since John got that message, but we have learned that what John saw is the next things that will  happen on God’s prophetic calendar, and soon to God is probably not soon to us, but we have to do as Jesus told us and that is live like He will be returning today.  Now back to John MacArthur’s quote.

“Second, adopting a nonliteral view of the Old Testament kingdom prophecies raises some disturbing questions:  What did those prophecies mean to those to whom they were addressed?  If prophecies seemingly addressed to Israel really apply to the church (which did not exist at that time), did God give revelation that failed to reveal?  And if those prophecies were meant to apply symbolically to the church, why were they addressed to Israel?  What meaning could such prophecies have in their historical settings?  Ironically, many who spiritualize Old Testament prophecies reject the futurist interpretation of Revelation because it allegedly robs the book of its meaning for those to whom it was written.  Yet they do the very same thing with the Old Testament kingdom prophecies.

“Third, spiritualizing those prophecies leads to some glaring inconsistencies.  It is inconsistent to argue that the cursings they pronounce apply literally to Israel, while the blessings they promise apply symbolically and spiritually to the church.  An example of inconsistency in the spiritualizing method of interpreting prophecy comes from the angel Gabriel’s words to Mary in Luke 1:31-33:  ‘And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.’  If, as all conservative scholars agree, Jesus was literally conceived in Mary’s womb, literally named ‘Jesus,’ literally became great, was literally ‘the Son of the Most High,’ will He not also literally reign on David’s throne over Israel?  Can the same passage be interpreted both literally and nonliterally?  Further, both amillennialists and postmillennialists interpret some prophetic events literally, such as Christ’s second coming, the Great White Throne judgment, and the new heavens and the new earth.  Why not interpret the millennial kingdom literally?  Finally, amillennialists and postmillennialists interpret the nonprophetic portions of Scripture according to the literal, historical, grammatical, and contextual method of hermeneutics; why adopt a different method for interpreting prophecy? Such an adoption is utterly arbitrary.

“Though not an exhaustive description of the earthly kingdom, this text caps off all the biblical revelation about the Millennium by revealing four essential truths about it:  the removal of Satan, the reign of the saints, the return of Satan, and the revolt of society.”

These are the topics that we will finally be looking at as we go through this 20th chapter of Revelation, but I don’t apologize for including all the material that I have as I believe it is important to understand all the things in these introductory Spiritual Diaries for chapter twenty.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  To understand that the Lord is coming again to get all true believers and then come again physically to planet earth to set up His Promised Kingdom inspires me to continue to walk with Him and to do the things that He wants me to do which includes to tell others about what I am learning.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Keep up the battle that all believers are involved in each day, even though the specific battles may be different we all have battles to fight in the power of the Lord.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “When Elijah ascended to heaven” (2 Kings 2:11-12)

Today’s Bible question:  “There is no condemnation to them which are in whom?”

Answer next SD.  10/9/2015 12:09 PM

           

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