The Olivet Discourse Overview, Matthew 24:3-25:46

We are coming back to Luke 21 in a little bit but we will begin by going back to Matthew chapter 23. For three years now I have been taking us through the gospel of Matthew. Today is the 148^th hour in Matthew and we have a few more to go. We are getting close to the end of Matthew. Matthew goes 28 chapters, where starting chapter 24; but the last five chapters in Matthew are dense with significant material and lengthy the chapters. And these two chapters we are beginning today in Matthew 24 and 25 are no exception.

So what I going to do today is as I am want to do when we come into a new section of the Scripture is to do an overview, of flyover to help us understand the big picture and what some of the issues are that we need to think about and address, and try to resolve this as we think through the Scripture together in Matthew chapters 24 and 25.

This is known as the Olivet discourse because when Jesus gives this discourse to His and teaches this to his disciples it's a very private setting. It's just His 12 disciples, and He will teach them privately. He is no longer going to teach or speak publicly. The last public message that he gave was what we have studied in chapter 23, and it was not a feel good message. It was a rousing critique and condemnation of the religious leaders of Israel. It was a scathing rebuke of their hypocrisy, of their rejection of him as the Messiah, and of their failure to understand Moses and the prophets.

As He concluded that He demonstrated His compassion, his compassion for Jerusalem, for the people of Israel and the people and the citizens of Jerusalem. It is expressed in his cry in Matthew 23:37 where He said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling."

Two things I point out here: Number one, the will of God always is to save as many as can be saved. God desires that all be saved and that none should perish, but God does not force anyone to be saved. He doesn't force anyone to trust in Christ as Savior and so they have their own volition, their own responsible choice so that they can choose to accept God's gift or reject God's gift. Those in Jerusalem had demonstrated a pattern. Historically that was part of the basis for the condemnation of the religious leaders. They had willfully rejected the message. So He emphasizes the will of God, "I wanted to gather your children together, but you were not willing". And that is the problem of negative volition; people reject the gospel. But there are consequences seen all through Scripture to disobedience to God and rejection of the gospel. Even though God's mercy goes on and on eventually it reaches the end of the of its tether and consequences must come. This is what is about to be announced by Jesus in verse 38: “Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!"

The destruction of the temple at the time that the Roman armies under Titus reached the North walls of the city and entered the city and then the temple and burned the temple onto the ground, is what is meant. Your house is left to you desolate. Jesus is about to announce specifics about God's judgment that will come upon Israel because they have rejected Him, and this goes back to Leviticus chapter 26, where God outlined five different stages or cycles of discipline and judgment that God would take Israel through if she rejected him. The fifth cycle being they would be defeated militarily and be removed from the land that God had given them. But not a permanent removal, a removal that always held forth a promise that there definitely would be a return, a time would come when they were scattered among all the nations, when they would turn back to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—back to grace, reject the legalism, reject the atheism, reject the idolatry, turn back to God, and God would restore them to the land. That's important to understand. That is the backdrop for understanding what is going on in Matthew chapters 24 and 25.

And so he says that their house is left to them desolate. This is an important picture. Get this image in your mind because what we see here in the center of the picture is the old city of Jerusalem. You can see the walls here as depicted. These no longer stand, at least the upper part. The wall that is around the old city of Jerusalem today was built by Saladin in the 16th century. But you see the geography here below, the walls you see the Kidron Valley and on the near side here in the lower left corner. You see the lower slopes of the Mount of olives. The background for the first couple of verses is that Jesus will leave from the beautiful gate. He will walk down into the Kidron Valley and up the slopes of the Mount of Olives and sit down. His disciples will come to Him and then will point to these beautiful buildings.

Matthew 23:39, the last thing that is said in the chapter before the chapter break occurs. ^NASB “For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!’ This is a quote from Psalm 118:26. In what is called Jesus' triumphal entry, His entry into Jerusalem just a week before He was to go to the cross, the multitudes, and many of those in those multitudes were his followers who had traveled with Him, laid out palm branches and they sang from Psalm 118: "Hosanna to the son of David, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord". But the people of Jerusalem, the majority, were not welcoming Him as their king. The religious leaders were not welcoming Him as their king or as their Messiah.

Now Jesus is pronouncing judgment. Just to remind you of the background, starting in 21 one we have Jesus publicly presented to Israel as her messianic King. Then we see the reaction from the religious leaders as they began to interact with Him and they reject him. He is rejected by the nation but not by all of the people, and that's covered from 21:18 through 22:46. We saw that different groups of the religious leaders, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the high priest and the scribes would come and confront Jesus with various questions because they were rejecting him as their Messiah, rejecting him as the son of David, rejecting him as their Savior. And then in chapter 23 Jesus rejects the nation through seven woes that were announced on those religious leaders, and that concluded at the end of this chapter.

Now in the 19th century there was a wonderful Jewish scholar who became a believer. He was originally from Eastern Europe, was quite well educated and he wrote a massive volume called The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. His name was Alfred Edersheim, and he writes:

“Looking around on those Temple buildings—that House, it shall be left to them desolate! And He quitted its courts with these words, that they of Israel should not see Him again till, the night of their unbelief past, they would welcome His return with a better Hosanna than that which had greeted His Royal Entry three days before. And this was the ‘Farewell’ and the parting of Israel’s Messiah from Israel and its Temple. Yet a Farewell which promised a coming again; and a parting which implied a welcome in the future from a believing people to a gracious, pardoning King.”

So even though chapter 23 is the announcement of judgment and condemnation on Israel, throughout the Scripture we always see God's judgment always comes with a grace offer of deliverance and of salvation.

Arnold Fruchtenbaum, in his book Footprints of the Messiah, says of this verse, "But then He declares that they will not see him again until they say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' This is a messianic greeting. It will mean their acceptance of the Messiahship of Jesus. So Jesus will not come back to the earth until the Jews and the Jewish leaders asked him to come back. That's the point of what Jesus is saying. For just as the Jewish leaders led the nation to the rejection of the Messiah ship of Jesus, they must someday lead the nation to the acceptance of the Messiah ship of Jesus."

In light of this in introduction to the next section where we begin the Olivet discourse, Stanley Toussaint writes in his book, Behold The King, a commentary on Matthew, "All hope for a turning of Israel to God in repentance has gone at this point. There is no hope left. The King therefore has no alternative but to reject that nation for the time being with regard to its kingdom program. The clear announcement of this decision is seen in these verses of Matthew's Gospel."

And so with that we close on this announcement, the last public message to the Jews. And then Jesus shifts his location, crosses over to the Mount of Olives, and begins the longest and most significant prophetic passage of the Gospels. This Olivet Discourse is the most important teaching from Jesus about future things, and it provides a framework for understanding the book of Revelation and what will happen in the end times.

Dr. Tim LaHaye, the author of the left behind series and numerous other books, wrote, "The Olivet Discourse delivered shortly before Jesus' crucifixion is the most important single passage of prophecy and all the Bible. It is significant because it came from Jesus Himself immediately after His own people rejected him, and because it provides the master outline for end time events. Therefore it is crucial for us to understand this, and there is a lot here that we need to understand.

One thing we need to understand is that the Olivet Discourse represents Jesus last words to Israel. Israel is not the church; Israel at this stage was unrepentant. But this represents Jesus last words to Israel.

The next day, that night of the next day when Jesus sits down with his disciples in the upper room—and that discourse is given to us in John chapter 13 through John chapter 17, which is Jesus high priestly prayer—that represents Jesus first words to the church. To this point in Matthew, the term 'church' has only been used to times. No revelation whatsoever has been given about this intervening period that would come after the ascension. That is not given until the next day. So Jesus is talking here to the Jews. He is not talking to the church; He is talking to Israel. He is describing God's future plan for Israel. He is not giving one word of information in these two chapters about the church. It is exclusively related to the believer to Israel, and God's plan for Israel.

Here is a basic outline of what I want to cover this morning. First of all, we can look at the historical setting in the context because that tells us who is talking, who He is talking to, and why He is talking to them. Context is always important. In the process of interpretation we always have to understand what something meant in its original context in terms of those surrounding issues. So the historical context is covered in Matthew 24 in the first two verses, Mark 13, the first two verses, and Luke 21:5-6.

The second thing that we see in the Olivet Discourse is that the disciples asked Jesus two questions. In English and looks like three, but it's two because of Greek grammar. First part and the second part have two parallel phrases. And that's in Matthew 24:3, Mark 13:3, and Luke 21:7.

Third thing we see is the answer to the first question. Luke includes information in Jesus answer that neither Matthew nor Mark give. Matthew and Mark focus on the second question. Luke focuses on the first question so Luke is going to give us information that has already been fulfilled, and that was all was fulfilled in A.D. 70, the end of the Jewish revolt that took place from AD 66 to 70 when the armies of Rome invaded, breached the walls of Jerusalem, destroyed the temple and wreaked havoc in Jerusalem. That's the first question in Luke 21:20-24.

The answer to the second question comes in Matthew chapter 24:4 through 25:46, as well as the passages in Mark 13:4 through the end of the chapter and some intervening sections in Luke.

So first of all, the first part of the historical setting in the context in Matthew 24:1, 2. There we are told that Jesus went out and departed from the temple and his disciples came up to show him the buildings of the temple. He has just said that the house is going to be left desolate, going to be destroyed. They can't imagine it. This is 33 AD. Since of about 26 BC the temple has been under construction by Herod—a massive, massive renovation that isn't over yet. It's not going to be completed until 64 AD so there's still another 31 years before it's completed. But at this point it is so impressive that they can't imagine that these buildings would ever be torn down.

The inner sanctum of the temple was covered in gold. The stones were covered in gold and the story is that one of the reasons that became true is because as this caught fire and burned that the gold melted and ran down in the crevices between the rock so that the Roman soldiers were prying the rocks apart so that they could get to the gold that was running down into the cracks.

In verse two, "And He said to them, 'Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down', He's not talking about the outer retaining wall, which is what we see today in Jerusalem. That was the retaining wall that Herod built to hold up the temple mount. In 20 BC Herod started the renovation. This is on Mount Moriah, the same location where Abraham took Isaac to be sacrificed and it dropped off about 120 feet in every direction. Well if you're going to build a massive temple building on top of that you have to not only level that, you have to raise the ground so that everything is a same height. But you have to build a wall to will support the massive weight of this building and so this is what this is, the retaining wall.

It's interesting that 40 years ago this was all under ground. All of this area was completely covered. They didn't clear the stones over the last 2000 years. They were underground. They were covered by dirt so people didn't even know was there until the recent excavations. Jesus' announcement was that no stone would be left there, one upon another that would not be thrown down.

And then we see in the second thing that I want to discuss is that the disciples asked Jesus two important questions. This is covered in Matthew 24:3; Mark 13:3; and Luke 21:7. Here in Matthew 24:3 we read, "As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what {will be} the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

I've broken this down to see what the two questions are. Tell us, number one, when will these things be? That is, when will the stones be torn down, when will these the buildings be torn down? That answer is what directs us to Luke's Gospel because it is that question that Luke answers. That was what Jesus says was fulfilled in AD 70.

The second question is, what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Now in English if you have "of the end of the age". "Of the" shouldn't be there; in the Greek you have one article: what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? So the one article "the" governs both, indicating "the sign of your coming" and "end of the age" were viewed as one single event. So they're just asking two questions. Mark's Gospel tells us that it is only four of the disciples that come and talk to him privately. They were all there, but Peter, James, John and Andrew took him aside and said first, "When will these things be?" And second, "What will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled?"

So the sign question is important because in the Bible signs are unique, distinctive events, they're not going to be like anything else. That is going to be important when we start understanding the various things that Jesus says. Because when he talks about wars and rumors of wars and famines and pestilence in all these different things, those have been true of human history since the fall of Adam. You had wars and pestilence and you had famines all through the Old Testament, but these are going to be wars and famines and pestilences, and earthquakes that are unlike any that had ever occurred in human history. Because if they were like all of the others how could they be signs? That's an important question to understand. They could not be signs unless they were global cataclysms, not local catastrophes.

So of these two questions Matthew and Mark answer the second because of the purpose of their writings, and Luke answers the first as well in Luke 21:20-24. But he doesn't really give a lot of information although he gives some information on the second question; it primarily focuses on the first question so let's look at Luke.

Luke's context is important. In Luke 21:8-19 he sets up his answer for verses 20 and 24. Let me just point out a couple of things about Luke, how this is structured because he starts with what's going to happen, long-term end of times prophecy, but then he read regresses; he backs up.

Sometimes when you turn on a TV show and it starts in the middle of the episode and you are a little confused sometimes, and you think, what's going on? How did that happen? How they get there? Then all of a sudden something comes on the screen and says, 24 hours earlier, and then you're taken back to the beginning of the story, but you start in the middle and then you backup. That's what Jesus is doing here. It should not be difficult for us to understand that.

So in verses in verses 8 through 19 of Luke Jesus begins to give the answer, and He talks in verses eight through eleven about the period during the first part of the tribulation, and that it is parallel to what we find in both Matthew and Mark. He talks about these events: wars and commotions, nations rising against nation, earthquakes, famines, pestilences, fearful sights and great signs, and those are within the seven-year Tribulation. That's the period from 8 to 11.

Notice he they ask him in verse seven, "At what time will it be that these things are about to take place?" And He says, "Take heed that you not be deceived." That's how the other Gospels begin as well. He says, "Many will come in my name, saying, I am he. The time is drawing near." But when you hear wars and commotions, not normal wars, these are the signs. He talks then about nation rising against nation, and great earthquakes in verse 11, famines and pestilences and fearful sights. But then in verse 12 He shifts.

Notice what happens in verse twelve: “But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake." He says, but before all of that happens, they will lay their hands on you now.

Who is he talking to? He is talking to the disciples. He is not talking to the Jews; He is not talking to church age believers. And the reason I say that is because this section, verses 12 through 19, are bracketed by this statement "before all these things," and the first sentence in verse 20, "but when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies know that the desolation is near". That "surrounded by armies: is what happened in AD 67. The Jewish revolt started in 66 the armies of this patient surrounded Jerusalem. In Nero died, This Vespasian was going to become the next Emperor. He had to leave. They relax the siege. Titus pulled back to Caesarea and at that point there were huge numbers of Christian Jewish believers in Jesus as Messiah who pulled out of Jerusalem because of the warning that comes in verses 20 to 21.

They crossed the Jordan River and went over what is now modern Jordan to a town called Pella, and this is the foundation for a lot of hostility that developed afterwards for Jews toward Christians because they were viewed as having deserted the cause and turned traitor, and they left. They didn't stay and fight.

But Jesus had warned them in this passage in verses 20 and 21 to leave. When they saw this happen, that isn't talking about a future event that's talking about a historical event in AD 70. Verses 12 through 19 describe what the apostles will experience in their lives. They will be persecuted and delivered up to synagogues and prisons. This is what happens in the book of acts to Paul and Peter. And he says will be to be an occasion for their testimony. They will be arrested up to be taken before kings and princes and to heads of the synagogues, and not to plan what they're going to say because Jesus said they will be given special revelation on how to answer. This doesn't apply to anybody after the apostolic period. Revelation ceased by the close of the canon. There is no more special revelation because there is no more group to adjudicate whether it's biblical or not or true or not, like there was in the Old Testament. This is directed only to the apostles, according to the context, and is and is and portrays their experience is seen in the book of acts.

So then the third division here in Luke's account is in verses 20 to 24, which describes these events that began in AD 66. ^NASB “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city; because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people …"

That sounds similar to what Jesus will say about those who are living in Jerusalem when they see the abomination of desolation, but notice the abomination of desolation isn't mentioned here. It's talking about big Jerusalem being surrounded by her armies and then He says these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. That is the fifth cycle of discipline from Leviticus 26. "Those are nursing babies in those days" is very similar to Matthew, but there is no mention of the abomination of desolation as the sign for fleeing Jerusalem.

And then we come to verse 24, which is important. Jesus says, "and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations". That's not what happens in the future. In the future when you have the surrounding of Jerusalem by the armies of the Antichrist, they will indeed invade Jerusalem and two thirds of those in Jerusalem will be slaughtered one third will survive. The Lord Jesus Christ comes back and He rescues them. They are not taken into the world as captives. So Matthew 24 is talking about the future event. Luke 21 is talking about the past event that was fulfilled in AD 70. "… and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles [after this] until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled."

So this gives us a little graphic to understand the timeframe here. Here's our timeline: the cross in AD 33, the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70. Then the intervening period is the present church age, then in the future will be the Tribulation, midpoint of which is the abomination of desolation, and then the second coming of Christ.

Luke 21:20 -24 describes the days of vengeance. Israel is judged, and that concluded in AD 70. Then verse 24 talks about the times of the Gentiles. Israel is scattered among the Gentiles and Israel continues under the dominion of Gentile powers. That actually started in 586 BC when Babylon and the third invasion of Israel under Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem, slaughtered the people, destroyed the temple and burned it to the ground. So the times of the gentle Gentile started in 586 BC and they continue till today. Even though we have a new Israeli state they are still under the dominion of the Gentiles.

Take note of what our president did this last week and abstaining from that horrendous resolution at the UN. The UN is the UN and Gentile powers are still dictating to Israel and Jerusalem what they can and cannot do. By the way, according to that resolution everything in East Jerusalem is occupied territory and Israel has no right to it. If you don't know it, East Jerusalem means the old city. That not only means the Western Wall, the temple mount, the Jewish quarter in the old city, it means the Church of the holy sepulcher, it means all the Christian holy sites. Everything in the old city by UN decree is occupied territory.

This cannot stand. Only on apostate anti-God, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel country or president would allow a resolution like that to go by. And people who are anti-Israel and anti-Semitic will bring the judgment of God upon a nation, and we should thank God that he is going out of office. But it shows that we are in the times of the Gentiles and are still trying to control Jerusalem.

Then in Luke 21:25-28, the key here is "look up for your redemption draws near", and Israel will be redeemed.

Now we get this flowchart in Daniel of the times of the Gentiles. In Daniel chapter 2, there is this image with the head of gold, the torso and arms of silver, waste area of brass legs of iron, and then the lower legs and feet of a mixture of iron and clay. These represent the dominion over Jerusalem by the Babylonian empire from 605 to 539 BC, of the Medo-Persian Empire from 539 BC to 331 BC (the silver area), the two arms representing the two powers that came together the Medes and Persians, the brass, representing Greece from 331 to 146 BC, the iron representing Rome from 146 BC until AD 1453, when Constantinople fell to Islam, and then the lower area is the iron which represents elements of the old Roman Empire, and clay, new elements in the revived Roman Empire that is yet future. That's the Empire or the power of the Antichrist

The four beasts in Daniel seven represent the same thing. The lion, Babylon; the bear, Medo-Persia; the leopard represents Greece—the four heads representing the division of Alexander's empire into four divisions; and then the beast that cannot be described by Daniel is represented there, and that's the Roman empire that is then revived in the future. That summarizes Luke's answer to the first question: when will this take place? It will take place when you see Jerusalem surrounded by the armies.

Now we come to the fourth question and that is seen in back in Matthew chapter 24. What will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?

Notice: What is the sign of your coming? Not the sign of the Rapture! In the next few lessons we will see a distinction between the rapture and the second coming. Jesus comes in the air for His church in the rapture, Jesus returns to heaven with His church. In the second coming Jesus comes with His church to the earth and stays on the earth to establish His kingdom. That's just simple summary.

He answers this question by giving the signs. The reason Jesus comes at the second coming is to establish His kingdom. Remember as we've studied in Matthew, Jesus came to offer His kingdom. John the Baptist announced this. He said, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand". Jesus took up that same message, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand". That's the gospel of the kingdom. He sent out his disciples to go to the house of Israel and the house of Judah, and they were to offer the kingdom—"Repent for the kingdom of heaven was at hand"—but the people rejected the offer of the kingdom. They rejected the King; they crucified the King. The King goes to heaven to await the giving of the kingdom to Himself. This will occur, according to Daniel chapter 7, when the Ancient of Days gives Him the kingdom. And then he returns to the earth at the second coming to establish his kingdom.

This is all about what is going to take place on the earth geo-physically, cosmically, as there is this enormous intrusion into planet Earth by the glory of God in the person of the Messiah to bring full judgment to rebellious mankind and then to establish His kingdom. That is what Matthew 24 and 25 is all about: what the signs are of that coming and what the judgments will be when He comes. That's mostly Matthew chapter 25.

Now there are three things we have to understand in order to interpret this passage, and I think the foremost is that this is addressed to Israel, to Jews, so that they can be prepared for the coming of Messiah of their King to Israel. Lou Barbieri, also one of my professors at Dallas seminary, in the commentary he wrote in the Bible knowledge commentary set, in Matthew 24:1-3, writes: "They [the signs that are given here] have nothing to do with the church." Everything said in Matthew 24 and 25 have nothing to do with the church, which Jesus said He would build. The church is not present in any sense in chapters 24 and 25.

If we are going to believe in literal historical grammatical interpretation, then we can't change gears and make things allegorical or representational when we come to Matthew 24 and 25, which people do—even among dispensationalists, as we will see. There is a great deal of disagreement over just exactly what's going on here. But we have to remember that if we believe in literal historical grammatical interpretation then we use those principles consistently throughout all of Scripture. So there are three basic issues we will have to address.

First of all, which parts, if any, refer to the present church age? Some of you have heard that the signs from verses 3 down through verse 12 are all related to trends in the church age. I do not agree with that. I don't think anything mentioned between verse four and verse 12 refers to anything in the church age. There are parallels to the first series of seal judgments for the most part. So first question we have to answer: which parts of any refer to the present church age. Second, later on in verses 40 to 42 there is this mention that there are two men in the field, one will be taken, the other left. Some people think the one that is taken is referring to the Rapture. I don't think that's it but there are a lot of human dispensationalists who believe that. Dave Hunt believe that. There was a famous song, I wish we'd all been ready, that came out in the early 70s as part of the Jesus revival, and there was a huge popular emphasis on dispensationalism and the pre-Trib rapture at that time. This song take took that as the Rapture. Verse 41 two women will be grinding at the mill, "one will be taken, the other left". But the context suggests that the one taken is taken in judgment.

The third significant issue is understanding the three parables at the end of Matthew, and the judgment of the sheep and the goats. Actually that should be four parables because I'd left out the parable of the fig tree. The parable of the fig tree tells us to be ready when we see the leaves coming, and that's the focal point of these three following parables, the parable of the faithful servant and the evil servant. It ends with a statement of judgment. The unfaithful servant, the evil servant, will be cut in two and his portion will be appointed with the hypocrites. The term hypocrite is consistently used of the unsaved Pharisees. So this is talking about the judgment of Israel's religious leaders, and that's what that parable relates to. In Matthew 25:1-13 is a parable of the of the 10 virgins, and that also ends with the judgment on the five who weren't ready.

The religious leaders aren't ready and verses 45 to 51 of chapter 24, the five virgins aren't ready in 25:1-13, and then you have the parable of the talents and the one servant who doesn't invest his talents. He is not ready and he is judged at the end of that. Each one ends with judgment, and then there's the final statement of the judgment of the sheep and the goats at the end of Matthew.

Now sadly, there are a number of people within the free grace movement who try to see the church in all of this, and they're just dead wrong. I have to say that because I know a lot of you get newsletters from GES and you read stuff from the Free Grace Alliance, but you need to be warned: they have screwed this up consistently for the last 40 years, and anybody who holds her consistent literal interpretation has raised these objections again and again with Wilkin, with Jody Dillow and with the number of others. It's not that their theology is wrong, it is that their exegesis stinks, and they're not being contextual or consistent with their hermeneutics.

The last part of this answers these particular questions so will come back next time and will begin to get into this and to be reminded of God's grace. And even though we won't be going through the Tribulation, even though we will not see any of this, nevertheless, this is been recorded for our edification and for our spiritual benefit, and we are reminded that there is a way to escape all this judgment and that is the free grace gospel that Jesus said that all we have to do is to believe on him. As He said to Martha, do you believe this on the resurrection and the life? He who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; but whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe that? It's a free gift. All you have to do is accept it and you will have eternal life.

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