The End Times Scenario - Session 1 - Chuck Missler

[Music]

Well, I want to welcome you to our

conference on the end time scenario and

uh we are going to be pursuing the word

of God and one of the things we always

want to do under those uh circumstances

is to go with the benefit of the Holy

Spirit. So let's solicit his attendance

tonight. Let's bow our hearts. Father,

we thank you for who you are and we

thank you for providing this opportunity

to explore your word. We seek father

your holy spirit to guide us. Give us

discernment that uh we might be

effective for you that we each might

grow in grace and the knowledge of our

savior. We ask this, Father, that we

might be more pleasing in your sight as

we commit this weekend and ourselves

into your hands in the name of Yeshua,

our coming king, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Indeed. Amen.

So, we are in the first session and uh

and I want to talk a little bit about

esqueological hermeneutics. Esslogy is

simply the study of last things and

hermeneutics is your theory of

interpretation.

And one of the places that will

challenge your precision and and and

logic is in the esqueological

hermeneutic area. So we'll be talking a

little bit about that and then we'll

talk I'll give you a preview of the

sessions that we'll have here and uh one

of the things is a foundational piece of

material called Daniel 70 weeks. We'll

be talking a lot about that but I want

to cover just the front end of that uh

in this first session here. And there

was a confidential briefing that Jesus

gave his insider disciples, four of

them, Peter, James, and John, and

Andrew. And uh and he points them in

that briefing to Daniel chapter 9. And

you'll see why that's going to be so

foundational in your understanding of

the scripture as we go. We'll talk about

its scope and role of those last four

verses of Daniel 9. And we're going to

focus this evening just on the 69 weeks.

So this is not end time stuff. This is

past tense but it's so profound that I

felt it's it's an important place to

springboard from and so we'll be re for

most of you that may be a review and if

so that's fine but u I want to emphasize

something about esqueological

hermeneutics. We're not here to sell any

particular viewpoint. Our goal is to

equip you to be what we call a self

feeder so you'll have the background and

perception to come to your own

conclusions. So, we're not here. We're

going to enter into a lot of

controversial areas. And I usually point

out we we don't play favorites. We'll

have something here to offend everyone

somehow. So, we'll be unabashedly going

into some pretty turbulent waters here.

And uh so, we're looking for people that

students who can think critically for

themselves and to have sufficient

knowledge to navigate on your own.

That's really our goal here in the

institute. And so your secret to avoid

heresy is to rely on what they call the

whole council of God. You avoid one

verse theology. What you what you need

to do whatever view you have needs to

fit into the fabric of the total

picture. And that's your ch that's what

makes it so challenging and that's why

so many pastors are reluctant to get

into esquetology because it really taxes

their grasp of the scripture as a

totality. And so we avoid we avoid one

verse theology. One of the trademarks

that we've used for more than 40 years

is Acts 17:11

and it speaks of the people that were in

Aberea. These were more noble than those

in Thessalonica in that they received

the word with all readiness of mind and

search the scriptures daily to prove

whether those things be so. Now, uh this

is this has been our trademark as I say

for over 40 years. And the Thessalonians

were persuaded by argument but and the

Bereans believed but they and they

spiritually apprehended but they

searched like they were stalking game.

That's what the Greek term actually

implies there. And uh so the uh

the first step is really the tougher of

the two. For many of those years I

always thought the real point of this

this this uh verse was to search the

scriptures daily. And I in recent years

have realized what's even a bigger

challenge is to approach the word with

openness of mind. We all tend to bring

to it our own presuppositions. Be on

your guard there. So there's two. You

receive the word with all openness of

mind. And yet you search the scriptures

today to prove whether those things be

so. Way I usually qu summarize this

verse. This is where Luke tells you

don't believe anything Chuck Mister

tells you. I'll I'll say what I can to

guide you, but the point is don't rely

on me. Rely on the word. And that's

that's I want to underscore that as we

go here. And so so that's Acts 17:11.

But the other aspect that undergirds our

approach to the scripture is what we

call 6640. That's the name of our radio

broadcast. It's been in this country for

I think 13 or 14 years. And uh so we

speak of the 66 books of the Bible. And

even though they were penned by over 40

different guys who didn't even know each

other for the most part. And this all

occurred over a period of 2,000 years.

The staggering, there's two discoveries

that changed my life at a very early

stage. The first was the discovery that

these 66 books, even though they're

pinned by 40 different guys over uh

almost 2,000 years. It's an integrated

message.

I get so tired of some of these

announcers on television say you can't

prove the Bible, but they go to say

something positive. You can prove the

Bible if you know how. And the first

step is to understand the integrity of

the package because it's staggering. And

you in your own studies, I want you to

confirm that every word, every number,

every letter is there by deliberate

design. That's meaningless until you

discover it for yourself. And once you

do, it changes your entire attitude

about the word of God. And so uh the

first step in what we call our

epistemology is simply the study of

knowledge its scope and limits. So our

epistemological approach here first

establish the integrity of the design.

You can do that as you study the Bible.

You'll discover that every detail in

Genesis is there for a deliberate reason

that isn't realized until the the New

Testament and so forth. Those are things

you need to discover. And so that's we

have in our possession. And what's

sitting in your lap if you brought your

Bible is a integrated message system 66

separate books spent by 40 different

guys over thousands of years in which

every detail in there is by deliberate

design. Once you discover that, you're

confronted with a second discovery that

deres from that. And that is the origin

of this message system that's in your

lap had to initiate from outside the

dimensionality of time because it writes

with incredible precision

history before it happens in a way that

is supernatural.

And uh if God has a technology to create

us in the first place, he certainly has

a technology to get message to us. The

challenge is how does he authenticate

the message? How does he let us know

that it's really from him and not some

kind of contrivance or a fraud? And he

does that by demonstrating an attribute

that he alone has. He alone is outside

time and sees the end from the beginning

and takes advantage of that. And so we

establish the integrity of design. As

you go through that design, you discover

that every page points to a person

called the Messiah. The word Christ is a

title, not a not a second name. Jesus

the Messiah, Yeshua Hamashiach, I think.

And uh so you establish the identity of

this person and he's on every page of

the Bible literally.

Once you discover who he is,

then he closes the loop. Well, I'll show

you that. How do you know he's because

the scriptures were translated into

Greek three centuries before his

ministry. So, I'm going to lean on the

Old Testament Greek here, if you will.

Those Old Testament passages have over

300 specific specifications that were

fulfilled during his ministry. And as

you go through those, they're profoundly

u that he would be of David's family.

He'd be born of a virgin. He'd be born

in Bethlehem. He would sojourn in Egypt.

He would live in Galilee in Nazareth. In

fact, it'd be announced by an Elijahike

herald that would occasion the massacre

of Bethlehem's children. He would

proclaim a jubilee in the world. Each

one of these are taken out of the Old

Testament. And uh his mission would

include the Gentiles. That's not that's

that was in Isaiah all all through

Isaiah. His ministry would be one of

healing. He would teach through

parables. He'd be disbelieved and

rejected by his rulers. That was all

predicted all through the Old Testament.

In fact, just focusing on the last week

of his ministry alone, he'd make a

triumphal entry into Jerusalem as uh

he'd be betrayed by a friend for 30

pieces of silver, smitten like a

shepherd, would be given vinegar and

gall. They'd cast lots for his garments.

His side would be pierced. Not a bone

would be broken.

That's a specification all through the

Torah and elsewhere. Would die among

malifactors. His dying words were

foretold. He would be buried by a rich

man. He would rise from the dead on the

third day. And by the way, I found seven

places in the Old Testament that that

it's alluded to incidentally. And uh his

resurrection would be followed by the

destruction of Jerusalem. So on it goes

on and on. And uh so these are so the

point is you establish the integrity of

the design which establishes the

identity of Jesus Christ. And once you

know his identity, he then of course

authenticates the rest. And that's not

clo that's not um because they're 666 by

$440. That's not self- reinforcement.

That's that's a legitimate closing of

the loop, if you will. And so,

okay, so we talked about 6640. That's

why it's the name of our we tend to

overuse that work over the years. So,

it's become our our rubric on the radio

broadcast as you probably know. But the

other thing I want to put in front of us

is the need for precision.

There are many people that have a very

loose

uh approximation of the Bible rather

than being recognizing its precision.

And so I want to deal with that a little

bit. In Matthew 22, there's a very one

of my favorite events occurred. The

Pharisees were gathered together and

Jesus asked them, "What think ye of

Christ? Whose son is he?" See, the the

the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the

Herodians had been hammering him with

with questions. So he finally says, "Let

me ask you a question." Oh, okay. What

thinking of Christ? Whose son is he? And

they of course knew their Old Testament.

They said, "He's a son of David." That's

no problem there. Then Jesus said unto

him, "How then doth David in spirit call

him Lord, saying, and then he quotes the

first verse of Psalm 110. Jesus quotes,

the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at

my right hand till I make thine enemies

thy foottool."

Now the question is Jesus says to them,

"If David call him Lord,

how is he his son?"

Now when you when you're arguing with

attorneys, you better have your homework

done and he's taking on these attorneys.

You call him the son of David. How can

David call him Lord if he's a son? They

couldn't answer him. They're totally

befuddled. I love this. I love the next

verse. And uh see the son of David is

clearly 2 Samuel there all through the

Old Testament that's clearly an

identity. And uh Proverbs 30:4 who

ascended into heaven or descended who

hath gathered the wind in his fists who

hath bound the waters in a garment who

hath established all the ends of the

earth. What is his name? And here's the

interesting. And what is his son's name

if thou can't tell? See that? That's

what they're really drawing on here in

effect. Well, moving on here. I love the

last verse of the Matthew 22. It closes

with this verse. No man was able to

answer him a word. Neither dared any man

from that day forth ask him any more

questions. So he sent them with their

tail between their legs, as we might

say. Right? What you and I miss, unless

we've done our homework, why were they

so confused? And I want you to notice

what his entire argument hangs on. Jesus

is quoting the first verse of Psalm 110.

The Lord said unto my Lord, sit down at

my right hand until I make thine enemies

thy foottool. On the slide here, I've

put it in Hebrew for you. Okay. Now,

something else you need to understand.

All languages flow towards Jerusalem.

All language, all nations that are east

of Jerusalem go from right to left. Not

only Hebrew, but Aramaic and Sanskrit

and you name it. All nations that are

west of Jerusalem go left to right.

English, Latin, cerillic, Greek, all

left to right. So recognize when I show

you Hebrew, you're going the normal

direction is from right to left. You

follow me there with me? Okay. Now,

the word you may recognize this one, y

vave, that's the what was typically

translated Jehovah, if you will, the

unpronouncable name of God. But what

they used, what they right next to that

is the word Adoni. Okay? And Adoni is

the Lord. But this

rendering of Adonai includes something

very strange. If you look at the left

end of that, it's followed by a yot. See

that little thing that that's a one of

the 22 Hebrew letters that you and I

would mistake for an apostrophe or a

blemish on the paper. The yud. Putting

the yud there on Adoni makes it

possessive.

David called him my lord. And that's

what they couldn't deal with because

they didn't understand that he was the

son of God. You follow me? But the point

I'm getting into this, I want to

highlight something here. Jesus gives us

a principle and even annunciates it for

us in the in the sermon on the mount.

I'll come to in a minute is that his

entire engagement with those attorneys

hung on his use of a yud in the Hebrew.

So, and you think, well, Chuck, you're

making something out of nothing. No. In

Matthew 5:1 17-18, Jesus himself said,

"Think not that I come to destroy the

Torah or the prophets. I come not to

destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I

say unto you, till heaven and earth

pass, one yacht or one tit shall in no

wise pass from the law, till all be

fulfilled." A yacht or a tit, those are

Hebraism. The yacht is that little mark

I just showed you. The tit are little

hooks that distinguish some of the

letters. That's a Hebraism. If I was

saying this in English, I would say not

the dotting of an eye or the crossing of

a tea shall pass and till all be

fulfilled. But understand what Jesus is

teaching us here. He's calling us to

take the text seriously,

not approximate. I remember once that

when some of these paraphrases came out,

I remember Walter Martin leaning over

the podium says you would paraphrase

God. It was he had a intimidating way of

doing that. It was fun. But the point is

um we need to understand that now you

and I live in the most blessed

generation ever. The word of God is more

available to us than it's ever been in

the history of mankind. You can go to

the Hebrew or the Greek without knowing

Hebrew or Greek. You put your little

cursor on any word and a menu will pop

up and tell you what the word is, the

parts of speech, even diagram the

sentence if you want to. And that

software to do that is free of charge.

There are dozens of packages, many of

them available through the asking.

And uh so we live with the information

appliance. Many of us carry five or six

Bibles in our phone. See the word of God

is accessible to us directly. You don't

have to be stumbling over the King James

or this or that or that because you can

go with any one of those. They'll point

you into what the original text said.

And there are a few places that there's

still some ambiguities, but they're

trivial. The truth of the matter is you

can get at the word of God like nobody

in the past. You can do in 20 minutes

sitting at a computer what used to take

a pastor six or eight weeks of study

because you can just pop right through

and and and and that's astonishing to

realize it helps there. So the need for

precision and I talked about Matthew 22.

I'm also have come to the conclusion

personally that there are no synonyms.

There are two words that may be

synonymous in that they mean almost the

same thing. But watch out for that

almost because in the discrepancy

between the two often lies a discovery.

And one of the tricks I want you to

remember is when you find a verse that

confusing or that seems to be

self-contradictory in some way, make a

log, write it down, and try to capture

why it is that it confuses you. And you

have an opportunity to do a lab course

in the supernatural because what you do

having written that down in ink in your

little private journal, make it private

because it's intimate. No one is ever

going to see it but you. So you'll be

candid with yourself.

You take it before the throne of the

universe. Father, you told us you'd

teach us all things. And I'm confused

about this particular verse. I'm asking

you in Jesus name to reveal it to me. In

his name I pray. Amen. Word to that

effect. It may not happen in the next 10

seconds, but I tell you what will

happen. You're going to stumble into a

situation that's going to make that

verse seem so clear you you will have

forgotten how confusing it was. It may

be something you read elsewhere. It may

be something you read in the paper. It

might be a a conversation you over hear

in a restaurant. I don't know what the

Lord the Lord will do something to

open that for you. What I want you to do

is go back to that journal and mark that

down and say, "Why all the paperwork,

Chuck?" Because the day will come when

you'll be traveling through the valley

of doubt. And I want you to be able to

go back to that journal, a private

journal, and see the footprints of the

Holy Spirit as he carried you through

your growth in your knowledge of the

word. Every time you find a

contradiction, every time there's a

verse you and you've got a verse that

makes no sense, I give you another

secret. Put Jesus right in the middle of

it and see what happens. You'll discover

not only is it does it hold a truth, it

has a truth that has eluded other forms.

So then, and the other thing you want to

be careful, avoid error.

It's amazing to me as you study uh how

we all guilty of logical fallacies. It's

important to build some tools for

critical thinking. That's a whole thing.

Well, this trust of course the

international trust has coinia house the

publisher ka house.org and coin

institute is a think tank volunteer

worldwide that we want you to feel

comfortable joining. But I want you to

be aware of how it's organized because

it impacts our way way we think here.

And it has three avenues of study. The

first one we call the Berean avenue,

motivated by Acts 17:11. That's the

study of the word of God. It takes

priority over everything else. Make no

mistake. You with me so far? The second

avenue we call the Issachar avenue after

the sons of Issachar who understood the

times. And that's where he put the study

of prophecy, the study of stewardship,

and what's going on today in our world.

We've discovered that the tools and

resources of those two avenues are

opposite to each other. In the Brian,

you know it's true. The challenge is to

understand it. In Issachar, what you're

dealing with is intelligence reports,

news clips. You know, it's biased,

sometimes deliberately. The challenge is

to understand, like Pilot said, what is

truth? You need to find out what's true.

It's not trivial.

And then, of course, all of that is for

what we call the tactical perspectives.

What do you have to answer the so what

question? So, what do I do about it?

I've got all these neat verses about end

times. That's great. And I've got these

intelligent reports, what's going on in

the Middle East or whatever. Great. The

question is, what do you do about that?

That's the so what question? That's the

coinos, the doing. And we believe that

the co that what we're being trained to

do is to be ambassadors for the coming

king. And we believe that the coinos

tract of activity is motivated by the

third commandment. Thou shalt not take

the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

For the Lord will not hold him guiltless

to take his name in vain. We argue

that's got nothing to do with

vocabulary, swearing as it's usually

taught. No, no, no. That has to do with

ambassadorship.

If you're going to take the name of the

king, you better be prepared to

represent him faithfully and

competently. And that's what this whole

institute is all about hopefully to

train ambassadors for Christ. Now, we

also encourage our members to balance

all three avenues together. Don't just

be a Bible verse junkie, but try to

balance it with the other with a with a

understanding where we are in in the

world. And second, and finally,

answering the so what question. And so

what do I do about it? Putting shoe

leather to your faith. Now, so we want

them to balance all three and we have

awards for levels. If you get to the

first level, all three, you get a

bronze. If you get to the second level

of all three, you get a silver medallion

and then finally a gold and so forth.

Now our our goal is not a gold

medallion. Our goal is a golden crown on

a glassy sea. That's a whole different

thing altogether. These are just trail

markers to make it fun. So that's what

we're all about. Now,

we are in a conference this weekend

we're calling the end time scenario,

excuse me. There's another kind of

conference that's strategic trends. They

are different. They're not the same

thing. I'll try to show you the

difference here. When you take the

result of both of those, you end up with

tactical perspectives. We regard the end

time scenario, what we're doing this

weekend, as an exercise in the Berean

Avenue of study. The focus here is on

what does the word of God say? The end

time scenario. We will to the periphery

of what we're doing talk a little bit

about the trends that we're impacting,

but that's not our purpose here. We'll

be glad to respond to questions. We'll

use our free time that way if you like,

but the the strategic trends is a issue

and that's a whole another conference

that focuses on on that. You see, and

it's when you've done both of those,

you're then eligible for deciding what

does that mean? That that trying to find

out what is your calling.

How many of you are saved here? Can I

see a show of hands? Praise God. How

many know what your calling is? See, we

got less than half. Some some quickly

and some. What do you mean by that? You

see, do you realize that Peter was saved

before he found his calling? Before he

had his calling. So, we need to

understand that those are different

things. But uh now when we so we're

we're in a Berean weekend today. But

there are times when we take those uh

all together

and uh we call that the the the comm the

amalgamuration amalgamation of all those

a strategic perspectives conference. We

do that several times a year on fairly

large scale if we can. And so that's

another thing. So what are we going to

do this weekend? Well, we're going to

have we have this introductory thing

tonight. Uh, tomorrow morning we're

going to hit headon what has to be the

most preposterous doctrine in

Christianity. This thing called harpato

in the Greek or rapture in the Latin.

And uh the bib we're going to talk about

the biblical basis for these ideas. And

we'll talk about some events that we

believe are pre-rapture

events that we study a lot that we

happen to suspect. We don't know for

sure, but we suspect are actually before

the rapture occurs. Then we have the

70th week and uh we're going to talk a

little bit more about that uh uh tonight

in detail about the 69 weeks of the 70.

We'll talk a little bit about that. But

the 70th week is a basic foundation. If

you understand the last four verses of

Daniel 9, the rest of the Bible will

fall into place. If you're confused

about that for some reason, you'll

discover you make a muddle of the rest

of it. And that's where Jesus pointed.

We'll talk, of course, about a thing

called Armageddon and the second coming.

How many have heard of that? I just want

to see if you're listening. Okay, good.

All right. And uh the millennium and

beyond. And then uh we've got a event

tomorrow night that's sort of an insert.

It's a extracurricular thing. We're

going to talk about transhumanism.

And uh it's something that's come. Yes,

it is in the scripture hinted at, but

it's uh coming on like gang busters. And

you'll be surprised with a little movie

that we're going to show you uh tomorrow

night. And then Sunday morning, we'll

talk about post-rapture events from the

redeemer's point of view, from from from

those that are redeemed, from their

point of view. Um, we make all make our

little charts with the abominations of

des make our little layouts of what

happens on the earth. We're going to

talk a little bit what happens after the

rapture up there. And that's an area

that's more important to you and me than

anything we're going to talk about over

the weekend. And we'll get at that after

that. Well, Jesus had a confidential

briefing for four of his disciples and

they they asked him about his return and

there were four guys there, Peter,

James, and John, which you recognize as

the inner sanctum. They're the only

three that were at the transfiguration.

They're the only three that were allowed

in at Gyrus's daughter's uh raising and

so forth. And uh Peter's joined by his

brother Andrew. So, these four guys are

treated to a confidential briefing on

the second coming. We call it the it

happened to be in the Mount of Olives at

night. It's in Matthew 24, but it's also

in Mark 13. And so, uh, uh, it's in two

of the gospels.

Be on your guard. I'm guilty, like many,

many scholars, of making a mistake for

years, including Luke 21 as one of

those, only to discover by looking at it

more carefully, that Luke 21 is not the

Olivet discourse. Some of the content is

identical, but it's a different audience

under different conditions making a

different prediction. So you need to be

on your guard that Luke Luke 21 is a

separate activity and uh don't fall into

that trap and our attempts to harmonize

the gospels we got carried away and most

commentators failed to make that

discernment and I've attended meetings

at the pre-trip study group and

elsewhere to highlight that and it's

amazing how many people have just

discovered that sort of thing. Matthew

24 and 25 and then Mark 13 they're

virtually identical with the exception

of one verse difference and we'll talk

about that when we get to but the 70

weeks and uh it consists of four verses

the most critical thing I want you to

take away from this weekend are these

four verses if you really understand

them everything else will fall into

place for you the first of the four is

the scope of the whole package and

that's verse 24 it's followed by a verse

which deals with 69 of these weeks of

years and um and then there is an uh

verse 26 is an interval and verse 26

lies between 25 and 27 and I'm not being

facitious here. Verse 27 is the 70th of

the 70 weeks. The thing you've got to be

alert to because it's not obvious until

you study it carefully is that verse 26

covers some things that happen after the

69 but before the 70th start.

That tells you that they're not

contiguous.

The 69 weeks are contiguous next to each

other. There is a gap, an interval. And

verse 26 talks about that. Once you

realize that, the fog lifts and it all

becomes very, very clear. And so, we'll

try to unsort some of that. Let's start

with the scope of this whole thing.

Verse 25, Daniel's in prayer and he is

um uh in captivity, but he knows the

captivity is about over. So, he goes to

prayer about it. And while he's praying,

Gabriel comes and interrupts his prayer.

It's known as the interrupted prayer of

the Old Testament. And he tells him a

very staggering few verses. Verse 24

gives you the scope of what he's talking

about. He says, "77

shabuim are determined upon thy people

and upon thy holy city." Notice that

that's not about the church. It's about

Israel. Upon thy people and the city,

what city? Jerusalem. Let's not lose

focus here. to do six things. To finish

the transgression, to make an end of

sins, to make reconciliation for

iniquity, to bring in everlasting

righteousness, to seal up the vision of

the prophecy, and to anoint the most

holy place. Wow. Ha. Have those six

things happened yet?

You could argue a few come close, but

not really. Is there an end of sins?

Pick up any newspaper, examine our own

lives, whatever. No, this is incomplete

yet. This is so comprehensive. It isn't

wrapped yet. It's going to be wrapped

up.

Of the 70s, 69 of those 77s are spelled

out in verse 25. So, we're going to take

a look at verse 25.

Gabriel says to Daniel, "Know therefore

and understand." See, this isn't

cryptic. He is supposed to understand

this. Know therefore understand that

from the going forth of the commandment

to restore and build Jerusalem unto the

Messiah the prince shall be seven weeks

and three score and two. 7 + 62 is a

total of 69.

And notice this phrase that the Holy

Spirit adds to the end of this. You see

there's actually four different decrees

in history you could get you could

stumble on except three of the four have

to do with the temple. The Holy Spirit

says here at the end, the street shall

be built again and the wall even in

troubled times. He's not talking about

the temple. He's talking about the city

of Jerusalem. Only one of the four deals

with that. It's a new is in Nehemiah

chapter 2. We know when that happened in

history. And so the point this

mathematical prophecy from the going

forth of the commandment that's yet to

happen. But when the commandment comes

forth to rebuild Jerusalem, from that

commandment unto the Messiach naged, the

Messiah, the king, the word naged first

appears of Saul as king.

The Mashiach naged shall be 7 + 62.

This is in my opinion

the most astonishing passage in the

entire Bible. I'm going to try to show

you why

the commandment to uh restore Jerusalem

is the trigger of this thing and it unto

the Messiah the king. Now if you take

the if you rec and it was we are

indebted to Sir Robert Anderson uh his

classic work in 1894 called the coming

prince. When I was a teenager, it was

out of print, but a friend happened to

have a copy and gave it to me. It

changed my life as a teen. It

subsequently got back in print and under

Cargo and others, it's any good

Christian bookstore will have a copy of

it for you called the coming prince. But

the main point that he built, he

insight, so Robert Anderson was head of

Scotland Yard, by the way, incidentally,

but he discovered by studying that God

uses in Genesis 360day years. In the

book of Revelation, he uses 300 there's

360 day years. And so he recognized the

implications of that. So if you take 69

weeks, 69* 7 times 360, you come up with

173,880

days. Okay, that's terrific. What do you

do with that? Well, the commandment to

start Jerusalem from Nehemiah 2, we

discover, was the decree of articus,

which was given on March 14th of 445 BC.

And all the background is in Sir Robert

Anderson's books if you want to dig into

this or you can get into our

commentaries. We have all that in there.

But the question is, okay, that's when

that triggers this. When did Jesus allow

himself to be presented as king?

Several times in the gospels, he they

try to take him and he won't let him. An

hour has not yet come. John 6 and

elsewhere. Then one day, he does

something weird. He not only permits it,

he sets it up. He has a donkey arranged

by a password and they go get it. and he

rides that donkey deliberately riding

the donkey as required by Zechariah 9:9

into Jerusalem. We call it the triumphal

entry. Okay? And so we know for a

variety of reasons that that was April

6th of 32 AD. And what's interesting

about that is when you look at these now

all of this, by the way, is in the Old

Testament. So it was translated into

Greek three centuries before the

ministry of Christ about two uh 285 BC

under Tommy Philadelphia in in

Alexandria. They funded the translation

of the Jewish scriptures from Hebrew

into Greek because most Jews didn't

speak Hebrew. They spoke Greek. They

they used Hebrew like a Catholic uses

Latin. Maybe for ceremonial purposes but

they wanted their word their their

scriptures in their own language which

is Greek. So they had a translation done

and we have that product. It's called

the Septuagent version. Fancy word for

70. 70 scholars were impanled to do

that. And that's a matter of secular

history. The Septuagent version was 300

years before the Christ's appearance.

You with me so far? Okay. Now if you go

from 445 BC to 32 AD, that's 172,740

days. March 14th April 624. And if you

go through the rigors of the leap years,

that's complicated. That's another 116.

I want you to notice the margin of error

of Gabriel. It's zero. He specked the

exact day. Now, what's going to shock

you though is Jesus held him accountable

for that. And we'll move this. In Luke

19, we have perhaps the most detailed

account of the triumphal entry. And as

Jesus came near, he beheld the city.

What did he do? He wept over it, saying,

"If thou known even thou at least in

this thy day the things which belong

unto thy peace, but now they are hid

from thine eyes."

In other words, they were to recognize

that day because Gabriel gave it to

them.

But because they didn't recognize it, he

pronounces that from now on they're

hidden from them. Wow. Forever? No. Paul

will tell us no until from Romans 11:25,

until the fullness of the Gentiles

become in. But uh this thy day is a very

specific day, but now they are hidden

from thine eyes. And so not forever. And

so Romans 11:25,

now we the most exciting

element of the end time scenario is

before our very eyes because that

blindness is beginning to re be relieved

in Israel.

10 years ago, if you were a Jewish

believer and planning to move to Israel,

you you were warned by your friends,

don't let anybody know. If you're

Jewish, that's fine. If you're Gentile,

it's fine. But if you're a Jewish

believer, they're out for you. It was

something you kept underground. Not

anymore. There are 350 Messianic

fellowships in Israel today. Small ones,

but they're there, open. Boy, that's a

change. That blindness is beginning to

be relieved for a lot of interesting

reasons.

Well, Jesus continues here in Luke 19.

He says, "For the day shall come upon

thee." Jesus speaking to them, "For the

day shall come upon thee, thine enemy

shall cast a trench about thee, compass

thee around and keep thee in on every

side, and they shall lay thee even with

the ground, and thy children within

thee, and they shall not leave in thee

one stone upon another."

This is a triumphal entry.

38 years after he said that Taspian had

the 5th, 10th, 12th, and 15th Roman

legions lay siege to the city of

Jerusalem. In the 143 days, 600,000 Jews

were killed. And more than that,

historians estimate that over a million

and a half men, women, and children died

because of the plagues and all the rest

of it.

The the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. To

this day, if you're in a Jewish wedding,

they take the gabblets they're using and

crush them

step on the they break the glass. That's

their gesture to commemorate the fall of

Jerusalem in 70 AD. They do that still

to this day. The question I want to ask

you is why was Jerusalem destroyed in 70

AD? If you had that on a test question,

there's a lot of good answers you could

give. But I want you to be conscious of

what Jesus how he would answer that

because he said here, "They will not

leave in thee one stone upon another

because thou kneest not the time of thy

visitation."

Jesus ascribes the destruction of

Jerusalem in 70 AD to the fact that they

didn't um know the day he presented

himself as king. And that's a that to me

is chilling. Jesus held him accountable

for that. Thou knowest not the time of

thy visitation.

So he held him accountable for that.

Okay. So that's the 69 weeks I've

included because that's not prophecy.

That's history. But it's so profound.

It's a cornerstone of our understanding

of the scripture. And uh we're going to

move on to verse 26, which is where we

are today. It still isn't prophecy in a

sense because we're in that one. We're

all interested to move on. What happens

next? And we will of course tomorrow

morning. But uh after the three score in

two weeks shall Messiah be cut off but

not for himself. And the people of the

princes shall come shall destroy the

city and the sanctuary and the end

thereof shall be with a flood and unto

the end of the war. Desolations are

determined. And so cut off. Karat that's

executed. The Messiah is going to be

executed. It's in the Old Testament.

It's here in Psalm 22. It's detailed in

such detail. There are articles in the

American Medical Association Journal

explaining the cause of death from the

details that are in Psalm 22

and but he does this not for himself.

See cut means to cut off, kill,

exterminate, execute but not for

himself. Who did he do it for?

You and me.

The people of the princes shall come

shall destroy the city and the

sanctuary. The city was destroyed in 70

AD and the sanctuary. So, we know this

interval is at least 38 years long. See,

it started at the at the 69 weeks

terminating. The 70th hasn't started

yet. It won't for at least 38 years. In

fact, we now know it at it won't start

for about 2000. Okay?

So, you see we have the within that

interval we have the cross. It's not

part of the 69. It's after the 69. It's

after the trial entry. And we have the

uh temple uh destroyed. that happens in

a 38 window. We we know though the 70

week hasn't started yet. You with me so

far? You see how foundational this is to

understanding the scenario here. And uh

this interval is also implied all

through the scripture. And those verses

are in your notes. You can check it out

in your leisure. And this interval is

implied

24 times in the Bible. And I find that

fascinating because 24 the 24 elders are

the redeemed in Revelation. And the 24

speaks of the readings and uh it's

actually if you go through the whole

scripture you find 24 places that this

interval is is implied. And uh so

and one of the things we discover is

that the scripture seems to use Israel

and the church mutually exclusively. But

that's a principle you have to this

interval is defined in Luke 19:42 and

until 11:25. So that's where it's it's

pinned down for you if you will. And

this interval is the period of the

church.

It's an era that was kept secret in the

Old Testament. And that's Paul's

opportunity in Ephesians. The epistle to

the Ephesians celebrates that he was

given the privilege of discovering

something that was hidden in the Old

Testament. And that's why he's so

overwhelmed with this whole the mystical

church, the the mystery of the church.

And it was born at Pentecost. And it

it's the prerequisites to happening was

the atonement, the resurrection, and the

ascension had to occur before Acts

chapter 2. And that's the birth of the

church. And it's and once you understand

the seven feasts of Moses and you

understand the feast of Shot, you see it

was predicted in that feast and maybe

much more than most people realize. I

think it also includes some other

prophecies about the church. That's

another subject we can talk about on

Sunday. The church's mystery character,

the concept of the body of Christ in

Ephesians 3 is indw the fact that it

indwells every believer. That's a

concept that Paul taught by Galio

himself blew his mind. That the Holy

Spirit was given without repentance.

You're sealed by the Holy Spirit. Wow.

He understood what that meant. And and

and sometimes you don't understand his

answers because we don't understand the

question he's responding to. And the the

issue of the bride of Christ, we'll talk

more about that on Sunday morning. And

we're going to deal with uh first thing

tomorrow morning the harpato, the

rapture. What is all that about? And the

fact there's one new man and so forth.

And the uh and the fact that in the

scripture you find Jews and Gentiles

separated.

There is an interval in which they're

neither Jew nor Gentile. You're a

church. There's three categories. Jew,

Gentile, and the church. What you

discover is after the church, it goes

back the other way. In Revelation, there

are Jews and there are Gentiles. So

that's when you realize the church ain't

there. It's only there in chapters two

and three. Why? What's that a lot about?

We'll talk about that more. So the book

of Revelation is key here because it's

the only book of the Bible that has the

audacity, the hutzbah, if I may, to say,

"Read me. I'm special." Not the book of

the Bible says, "Read me. I'm better

than the rest." No. No. Only one.

Revelation says, "Read me. I give you a

special blessing." And he does. He does.

And uh it's all one I remember as a

teenager I heard a lecture once and it

be and the guy that the expert that was

there we became good friends and I used

to drive him to his speaking commitments

and got tutored that way. But the whole

idea of the book of revelation is in

code

and every code is explained somewhere

else in the Bible and if you study the

book of revelation properly it'll take

you to virtually every other book in the

Bible to unravel those codes are used

consistently.

If you're in a the seminary, you say

that's the principle of expositional

constancy. That's just giving a fancy

label to the fact that the Holy Spirit

uses idioms consistently. The rock or

the stone that builders rejected is the

rock that found in 1 Corinthians 10:4.

And they're used consistently throughout

the scripture. That's when you realize

the real author isn't the penman. It's

the Holy Spirit.

Now, the most relevant parts of this

book, the book of Revelation, the most

important chapters are chapters two and

three. The rest of it is future. We'll

watch it from the but chapters two and

three affect us every day in ways that

will astonish you. And we'll touch on

that on Sunday. We'll touch on it along

the way, but we'll bore into that Sunday

morning. And so they go to Ephesus,

Smyrna, Pergamus, Dotyus, Sardis,

Philadelphia, and Leosia. Seven

churches. Why those seven? Why did Jesus

pick those seven to write to? Most of

these you never heard of unless you

except in this chapter. Ephesus you

heard about, of course, and a few of

these you may have, but most of these

you wonder why them. And the answer is

because they have at least four levels

of interpretation. It turns out that

when you understand each of those

letter, each letter has a specific

theme. And in that vein, these seven

letters lay out in advance the history

of the church. If they were in any other

order, it wouldn't be true.

And so Ephesus is the apostolic church,

the first century church, followed by

the persecuted church. Smyrna is a is a

synonym for myrr, an embombing ointment

for burial. And Pergamus is a

biggamy is married to two people.

Monogamy one person. Pergamus is a

misguided marriage, a perverted

marriage. That's where the church

marries the church. What Satan couldn't

accomplish by persecuting, he

accomplished by having the church marry

the world. And that leads you into that

era, which is very descriptive of the

third century and so on. And then we get

to the medieval church. And I'm being

generous here. Some people say, well,

that's the Vatican. No, it's much more

than that, but that's the flavor of it.

And then we have Sardis, the

denominational church. Now, the Thotyra

letter is shredded by Protestant

commentators. They love fire. It's the

longest of the letter and they really

take into the Vatican because it really

is clearly uh fits. Well, if that's the

case, if thot represent the Vatican,

then Sardis represents the Reformation.

Sardis is one of two letters that has

nothing good said about it. You have a

name only, but you're dead is the the

theme there. Whoa.

Whoa.

And I think most of us recognize those

denominations that derive from the

reformation today have lost a certain

vitality.

And then of course we get to

Philadelphia and everybody of course is

the Philadelphia church. I mean that's

the good guys. They they really do well.

So we're obviously Philadelphiaians. And

Joe Fol, the pastor of Calvary Chapel

Philadelphia is a good friend and we

have a lot of fun with that one. And uh

but then we have of course Leodysia and

everybody that studies this it's really

clear when you get into these that we

are clearly in the Leadyian church

today. And in that model there Jesus is

outside knocking to get in. He's not

even in the church. If any man open the

door and up I will come in. That little

verse, verse 20, is used by so many

evangelists

and it is a useful evangelistic verse

except if you look at where it is in

context, it's really the final

indictment because there isn't a promise

to the church as a whole. If an

individual there makes an exception,

he'll re he'll receive them. Heavy

stuff. So, we need to understand those

churches. Now, we notice something

interesting about the first three that

most commentators don't catch. Each one

of these has a promise to the overcomer.

But in the first three, it's a

postcript. It's added at the end of the

letter, outside the body of the letter.

And uh in the last four, the promises

are in the body of the letter, which is

different. There's a structural

difference. For some reason, the Holy

Spirit separates these into two groups.

Why? Well, we notice something else

about the last four. Each of the last

four has an explicit uh reference to the

second coming of Christ. Oo. So the last

four represent conditions that endure to

the end. In fact, Thyotyra has a promise

that if they don't change, they're going

to go into the great tribulation, which

itself answers a big doctrinal question.

If they don't get their act together,

they're going to go into Well, what does

that mean? If they do get their act

together, they won't go into the

tribulation. You follow me? The logic is

pretty straightforward.

One of the last four is promised that

they will not even see the time of the

great tribulation.

And uh so um so now the Sardis and

Leadyia are problematic. What happens to

them? We're not sure. I think the first

three have a place in history, but the

last four endure to the end. That seems

to be as you get into the letters, that

seems to be the possibility. Well,

getting back to u the interval here.

After three score, two weeks shall the

Messiah be cut off but not for himself.

And the people of the prince that shall

come. The prince that shall come is one

of 33 titles of the Antichrist in the

Old Testament. We'll be getting that

into that tomorrow a bit obviously, but

that's one of 33 titles. And what has

misguided so many people? He says the

people of the prince that shall come

shall destroy the city and the

sanctuary. Well, the the prince that

shall the people of the prince come,

they were the Roman Roman legions. And

because of the Roman legions that

destroyed the temple,

everybody ran to their

uh drawing board and started writing

books that obviously the the people of

the prince come are the Romans, Roman

legions. And it's on that thread that we

have this concept of a European

uh group that come into Armageddon and

so forth. It's not in the text. You

won't find that in the summary of that

in Daniel 11 elsewhere. That's a

contrivance. I've been guilty of it,

too. I've been taught by the same guys

for years. And many of my early

materials made that same mistake because

I didn't do my homework. And I'm

indebted to Wally Shabbat for pointing

away because it's all in Josephus.

The people of the prince that shall

come. What were the what were the people

that destroyed the sec the the

Yes, they were the Roman legions, but

the Roman legions weren't Roman. They

were conscripts.

If you go through the record, you

discover it was the 10th legion that

destroyed the temple. And the 10th

legion consists of four cohorts that

were Assyrians.

Assyrians. The Romans conscripted young

men in in into their into their legions.

And so the fact that they were Roman

legionnaires doesn't mean they were

Western Europeans. They were Assyrians.

And that happens to concur with Micah

and Isaiah. And we'll talk about that

tomorrow some more. Anyway, the princess

shall come as one of 33 titles and we'll

talk more about that tomorrow. The

people uh are that's a whole another

story. Well, then of course we get to

the 70th week and uh the u this is

foundational to both the Old Testament

and the New Testament esquetology. You

will not understand either one unless

you really develop a command of the last

four verses of Daniel 9. So, if you

haven't done it yet, I encourage you to

do it. And if you've done it already, I

suggest you review your notes and we're

going to make that whole issue the 70th

week the key topic on the third session.

This is the first session. Tomorrow

morning we'll have session two and we'll

talk about the rapture. Let's get that

out of the way. It's the most

preposterous doctrine of of uh

Christianity. And I'm remember I'm

reminded by Richard Feman who's probably

the one of the great guys in qu in in in

quantum physics. And one of the things,

one of my favorite quotes of Richard

Fayman is this, of all the theories of

science, the most ridiculous is quantum

theory. The only thing that it's got

going for it, it happens to be

unquestionably correct. And of course,

he's got his tongue in his cheek there

because it's very true. Quantum theory

is really bizarre. Well, I see a

parallel with in terms of the rapture.

The rapture has got to be one of the

strangest concepts in evangelical

Christianity. And it's very divisive. A

lot of people have problems with it. A

lot of people really get carried away

with it. We'll try to tomorrow get at

the biblical basis of that view and try

to deal with it then. And we'll probably

discover some surprises. And so uh so

we're going to deal with this uh in our

session tomorrow. And so

Father, we thank you for this weekend.

We thank you for the time together. We

thank you for the fellowship that we

have in Jesus Christ. And father we do

espouse Augustine's admonition

that in the essentials unity but in the

non-essentials liberty but in all things

agape.

We do pray father that through your holy

spirit you would illuminate your word

and guide us that in all these things we

will be able to more clearly focus on

your calling that we might each of us

understand precisely what it is that

you're calling us to that we might be

ever more responsive to your word that

we might be more pleasing in your sight

as we do indeed commit ourselves

without any reservations whatsoever into

your hands in the name of Yeshua, our

coming king indeed, the Lord Jesus

Christ. Amen.

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