Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
NT Framework - Faith in the midst of Enemies
How do we live as faithful followers of Christ in the midst of corruption, evil, and the influence of the advesary in this world? Jeremy has several examples of how to do just that.
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament Framework. Today a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to go through briefly some of the contributions on a very basic level. So Babylon contributed the concept of fractional reserve banking. Fractional reserve banking means, in a nutshell you put some money in the bank let's say you put $5,000 in the bank. They take a large percentage of that and they loan it out to other people. Your money's not sitting there. They loan it out to other people and make money on that. So it inflates the perceived money supply. It makes the perceived money supply greater than it actually is. Okay, which has a lot of repercussions for business and economics and all sorts of things. But they came up with this idea. You know, basically it's a system ultimately of theft, but anyway, this is what we live in, okay. So they contributed that idea and it continued.
Speaker 2:Even when Babylon went away and Medo-Persia, the second kingdom, comes, that idea remained. They inherited it, in other words, and it's been inherited down to our own day, the second kingdom is Medo-Persia, the Persians. They were the ones who really had the dream of globalism. Have you ever heard of that idea? This was the Persians who were behind globalism and their globalism. Have you ever heard of that idea? This was the Persians who were behind globalism and their global aspirations. Now, when they were defeated by the Greeks, alexander and so forth, alexander the Great globalism didn't go away. It was inherited by the Greeks, and the Greeks also inherited fractional reserve banking, and this is what's happening. Okay, it's a building of a kingdom of man, so it's got an economic dimension right, it's got a globalist dimension. And then you have Greece, and Greece comes along, and we all know most of us probably know what Greece contributed Human rationalism, philosophy, human philosophy, rationalism, philosophy, human philosophy, rationalism. So that was their contribution. So, see, you're getting all these ideas together, okay, fraction reserve banking, globalist aspirations, humanist rationalism, autonomy. And then here comes rome, and rome is going to make a contribution. They're going to inherit all that and they're going to make a contribution. They're going to inherit all that and they're going to make a contribution. And their contribution is law and military, law and military. And all these things are now combined with Rome and continue to be combined and manifest themselves in all sorts of things that we see today in our world. They are all manifestations of these four basic things.
Speaker 2:They're all thrown together, and so this is the times of the Gentiles, and this all started in Daniel's day, and so obviously, israel was going into a period where, let's just say, of darkness, right For them. Darkness, loss of hope, because now you are enslaved to a foreign country and you're living under their rules, now, living in their system. So this is the time of the exile. Now, what do we learn then? There's a couple doctrinal things we learn.
Speaker 2:First of all, the doctrine of sanctification and specifically the idea of separation. So this is another idea under sanctification, and that is, how do we live separate lives? Because what's happening? What's happening is the Jews are going into exile. So now they're going to go, have to live in foreign cultures. So they're being taken at this time to Babylon. Right, the northern kingdom had gone to Assyria.
Speaker 2:So the question is, now that you're being thrown into another culture with a totally different value system than your Hebrew culture, how do you live in that? How do you live in the world and not become like the world? This becomes the prevailing problem in the time of the exile. But you have people who are leading the way. You have people like daniel, right, you have people like esther, these stories. So, daniel, this guy becomes one of the top government officials in the kingdom of babylon and he's able to work as a liaison for the Jewish people while they're in Babylon. So he shows us wisdom, techniques for how to live in the world but not to be engulfed by it. Isn't he an amazing example.
Speaker 2:A lot of Christians name their kids Daniel, right, because they say we love this guy. This was a guy who showed us that you don't have to retreat from the world as a Christian, that you can go right in there and you can serve right along in the president's cabinet, and you don't have to become corrupt. You can be like Daniel and you can stand firm and God will honor you if you live by faith like Daniel did. Esther's another one who put herself in a somewhat precarious situation in the times of Haman, who wanted to destroy every Jew, and she became a liaison for her people in the king's house, and God used her beauty to do that. God can use anything. This would be totally unexpected in the Bible. I would think that God would use a woman because she was super beautiful, but to be the one who delivers her people, israel, right. So she's another person who is injected in there in this time period to show how to be in the world but not become of the world.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app, and until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.