NT Framework - Dispensationalism Takes God at His Word

We don't come to the Bible with a framework that imposes an interpretation on it. Unlike Covenant Theology which imposes a singular theme upon all passages and therefore must make those passages conform to their idea, we let God speak. Which means some passages only apply to Israel, others apply to the Church, and others apply to unbelievers.

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. 

Transcript

Intro And Big Interpretive Question

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, the full lesson from Jeremy Thomas. Here's a hint of what's to come.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

But the New Testament does not interpret the Old Testament. In other words, the New Testament doesn't tell us what the Old Testament means. The Old Testament stands on its own. If the New Testament has to come along later in history and tell us what the Old Testament meant, then how did the Old Testament people even know what it meant? They didn't have the New Testament. So they were wrong. And this is what many covenant theologians have said.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

There are two major groups of people in the Bible: Jews and Gentiles. And within the Jewish ranks and within the Gentile ranks, there are believers and unbelievers. So if we step back for a moment, we see there are three groups of people. The Jews who believe, the Gentiles who believe, and all those Jews and Gentiles who don't believe. And so when we recognize that there are these three groups of people, we also recognize that different passages in the Bible are speaking to these different groups. Sometimes God has Jewish believers in mind. Sometimes he has Gentile believers, in other words, the church, in mind. And other times he is speaking directly to all people who do not believe in him. And when we recognize these three groups, we then must also recognize that a message to one does not apply necessarily to the other groups. We don't automatically read condemnation upon unbelievers and think that it must apply to us somehow. No. We let God speak to each group of people as he desires to speak. And this helps our interpretation of the Bible. It helps us understand what God is saying and to who. And this is the point of dispensationalism. We let God speak as he intended to speak to each group of people in each period of time.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

And this week we're going to talk about dispensational theology. The reason we're doing this is because in the framework series, as you go from event to event through the Bible, where we've reached now after the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension and session of Christ is the pouring out of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, which is the origin or beginning of the church. Because the church is such a disputed item between covenant theology and dispensational theology, we're taking a moment to just look at this and ask the question: why is it that some Christians do not think that God has a future for Israel? And other Christians think that God does have a future for Israel. I mean, how could we get to such opposing opinion on the issue of Israel and the church? So rather than just say there are differences, what I'm trying to do is show why. And

Covenant Theology Versus Dispensationalism

SPEAKER_01 3:26

last time we met, we did a study of covenant theology. And I'm going to put up a slide that just basically we're concentrating now on the left column because that's what we've already taught. And today we'll, of course, look some at the right column. But in covenant theology, the interpretive principle for the whole Bible is the theological covenants of works, grace, and redemption. They're called theological covenants because they're not biblical. Some covenant theologians have frankly admitted that these are not found in the Bible, but they think they are inferred or implied. In other words, they're not explicit. You can't find it. But they say the principles are there, and therefore we can infer them. But these become the interpretive lens through which they view the entire Bible. Specifically, the second bullet point there, the covenant of grace. This covenant, they say, that God made with Adam and all of his elect, that he would save them. Okay. Adam and all his elect would be saved. This is, of course, where the idea of limited atonement comes from. The idea that Jesus Christ only died for a limited number of people that have ever been born into this world. That group they call the elect. And he did not die for people who are outside the elect. This is the source of that idea. It's the covenant of grace. And of course, again, that's not a biblical covenant. It's a theological covenant. You can see on the other side, dispensational theology, what we're emphasizing is the biblical covenant. These are stated in the Bible to be covenant. They are not just implied or inferred, they are explicit. God made a covenant with Abraham. God made a covenant with David. God made a covenant with Israel and Judah in the new covenant. So these are directly stated in the Bible. And our interpretive method is different. We're not going to look at the Bible through the lens of the covenant of grace. We look at the Bible through the lens of what's known as literal interpretation, which we'll talk about today. Back to the left side. In covenant theology, God's ultimate purpose is man's salvation. In other words, it's it's it's anthropocentric, it's man-centered. Whereas on the dispensational side, God's ultimate purpose in history is his glory. It's theocentric, it's God-centered. On the left covenant theology, the New Testament interprets the Old Testament. In other words, we have to have the New Testament to tell us what the Old Testament really meant. Whereas in dispensational theology, the Old Testament prepares us for the New Testament. It helps us understand and prepares us in the story for what follows in the New Testament. So there on the left, see, New Testament interprets Old Testament. You're reading backwards. You're reading the Bible backwards. Whereas in the dispensational view, you're reading it forward, reading the book forward. And of course, on covenant theology, if there's only one people of God, the elect, then the church is Israel, or the church has replaced Israel, or the church is the new Israel, or something along these lines. They have various nuances in some of their ideas. Well, in dispensational theology, Israel and the church are distinct. There's more than one people of God, and God has distinct purposes for Israel and the church. And so then lastly, in covenant theology, the details are allegorized. In other words, if you get into the details of prophecy, you find out that in their perspective, it's just all kind of about salvation. And the details get washed out. Details about the land, details about a future temple, details about sacrifices, it all just kind of gets washed out. The main thing that God's doing is just saving, the elect specifically. Whereas in dispensational theology, the details are of each passage are highlighted, and we think they're important. They're not washed out. So the more one sees the political, economic, land, and national promises in addition to the spiritual truths of the Bible as important, the more dispensational a person is. And the less they see those things as important, the more covenant theology there. So today I want to take some time and walk through some of the dispensational things. Remember, you can always ask questions. I'm not afraid of questions. I love questions. If you don't ask questions, it means that I don't get to think through your questions. And that means that I may not have ideas or thoughts that God would like me to have. So you can always ask questions. Questions aren't scary. It doesn't mean I'll have an answer. Or the Bible, sometimes the Bible doesn't give us an answer. Talking to some people about the rapture, and what would happen to a pregnant woman if the rap if she was a believer in she was rapture. I mean, you can speculate a lot about what might happen to that baby. Speculation that mentioned was, well, perhaps the baby is a full-grown adult going up with you in the rapture. And I said, or perhaps the the baby um will actually be born in the kingdom and the mother will get to raise it. You know, these are just speculations. We don't I don't know. The Bible doesn't have an answer, and that's the point I'm saying. We can speculate about that all day long, but we we're not gonna get an answer.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

Because well, when we get there, we'll have it.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Not until. So um the Bible doesn't give us every single answer, but what it gives us is sufficient. So if it's not there, uh we don't need it. We just don't need it. All right, dispensational theology. Let's look at what this is. Don't worry about the word dispensation right now. I know it's like a big word, don't worry about it. Um we'll we'll kind of get to that, but just don't worry about it for now. First

What Literal Interpretation Actually Means

SPEAKER_01 9:13

of all, in dispense, the first point is in dispensational theology, the literal interpretation of the Bible is paramount. This is what we are interested in, the literal interpretation of the Bible. So we want to define what we mean by literal because this has often been confusing for people. Uh, the meaning of literal can be confusing since many people think that literal means not recognizing that there are figures of speech in the Bible. However, if one does not recognize figures of speech uh in the Bible, that is known as wooden literalism. And that is not what we hold to as people who hold to literal interpretation. Uh no one that I know of in the entire world holds to wooden literal interpretation of the Bible. Everybody recognizes that all languages in the world contain figures of speech. So it is a straw man to say that, well, if you interpret the Bible literally, uh then passages that say when Jesus said things like, I am the door, that means that we think that Jesus is a piece of poplar. Uh no, we do not think that Jesus is a piece of oak or pine or whatever. And other passages, like the ones in the Psalms, which say that he owns the cattle on a thousand hills. That does not mean that we don't think he owns the cattle on the 1,001 hill. So taking it like Jesus would be a piece of wood, or he only owns the cattle on a thousand hills and not anymore or less. Those that would be wooden literalism. And that's not what is meant by literal interpretation at all. So what does it here's a good example from the Song of Solomon. In the Song of Solomon, he portrays his the beauty of his wife. Oh, how beautiful you are, my darling. And and it's, you know, if you take literally, wooden literal, this is what the lady looks like. Your neck is like the tower of David. I mean, how romantic is that, ladies. Uh, your lips, my bride, they drip honey. You see uh Winnie the Pooh there with his honey jar? Milk is under your tongue. Do you see the glass of milk right under the tongue there? Maybe not, maybe. It is there. Oh, I love, you know, your hair is like a flock of goats. It's exactly what my wife was wanting me to tell her today. Uh now that's uh if we were to interpret this description of his beautiful wife uh with a in a wooden literal sense. And that's obviously not what we mean. Uh, but that's set up as a straw man because it's easy to knock down and uh think that you've accomplished some great thing. Uh the literal interpretation means there's a literal referent. Okay, a referent is the thing the word or phrase refers to. So it's very clear. In the case where Jesus said, I am the door, uh, the referent is to the passageway, the entryway. He's saying, I am the passageway, I am the way to enter. Um, in the case where he said, God owns the cattle on a thousand heels, of course, the referent is to God owning all the cattle. Um in other words, even though there's a figure of speech being used, like a door or cattle on a thousand year heels, um, there's a literal meaning. And and that's not, it shouldn't be that complicated because we have these in our own life. My favorite one that I always use, probably worn out now, is it's raining cats and dogs. And uh, if you tell that to a little child, they may go outside very concerned to see the splattering. But uh of course, that that has a literal referent, we mean it's raining hard. And um it's not really that difficult in our own language as we grow and learn our um figures of speech to know what's being said. So when we talk about the meaning of something being literal, what we can do to help communicate what we're saying is that we can divide it into two ideas. We've got the ordinary, literal way that we speak. This is when we state something in just the normal, ordinary way. And a lot of letters or uh books in the Bible are primarily um in the ordinary literal way of speaking, uh specifically like narratives, you know, the stories in the Bible, like Jonah is basically a story. Ruth is basically a story, Esther's story. Uh but also the epistles uh where Paul is giving, you know, saying Romans or 1 Corinthians or 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 Peter's book, they're just giving detailed theological truths, but it's usually speaking in the ordinary literal sense. Not a lot of poetic things. But there's another way that the Bible in all languages speak, and that's in a figurative literal way. So this is when we state something in an unusual or colorful way. And a lot of the poetic books do this, like the Psalms. They're very poetic. And uh of course, some of the apocalyptic literature like like Daniel or Ezekiel or Revelation, where you have uh symbols that are used.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

Four beasts that represent four kingdoms in the book of Daniel, chapter seven.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

So then what we'd want to do is say, well, if these kingdoms are likened to beasts, what does that mean about these kingdoms? Well, it means they're beastly, it means they're ferocious. And of course, that's what we live in now. We have to live in these types of kingdoms. But there's another kingdom coming, it says it's like the Son of Man. So it's actually humane. It's a good kingdom. So we have to find a corollary between the symbol used and and what it's trying to communicate to us. But in both cases, ordinary literal, figurative literal, there's a literal reference, and that's why we tag the word literal onto each of those two different ways of speaking or communicating. And of course, these are the normal rules for all languages. You know, this should not be that complicated. Um, we read the Bible like we would read the newspaper, as one of my seminary professors used to say. Um, if you're reading, you know, the front page, you're probably reading a news story about some important events. But if you're reading the funnies, you know, you read them like they're the funnies. You don't take it seriously. It's supposed to be a joke, supposed to make you laugh. So we read, you know, the Bible, whether it's narrative or poetry or epistle or apocalyptic, a certain way, with these types of ideas in our mind, and we expect that.

Finding Author Intent Through Language

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Dispensationalists then are interested in finding the author's original intent. What did the author intend to convey? If it's Moses who wrote it, you know, the Torah, the first five books, what did Moses intend to convey? Um, if Paul wrote it, what did Paul intend to convey? If Mark wrote it, what did Mark intend to convey? We want to know what Mark meant. And we do we do this by using period-specific lexical data. That sounds complicated, but it's really not. Um we have dictionaries that are published for our time period. And the definitions in these dictionaries correspond to their usage in our modern day. We also have dictionaries from past periods of history. And if we want to investigate documents from those earlier periods of history, what do we need? We need a dictionary from that period of history that we'll know what the words were meant to convey. For example, um sometimes you'll get in the you know King James Version debate with somebody, and sometimes they'll be appealing to Genesis 1 as a re-creation. Say, Genesis 1 is a re-creation. There was a prior creation in Genesis 1 as a recreation, and at times they'll loosely base that on Genesis 1.28 in the King James Version, which says, Go, fill, multiply, and replenish the earth. Replenish. Well, if the they'll say, Well, see, if the earth has to be replenished, then that means it was filled prior to that. There was a pre-adamic race of men, and now it's being replenished. So it's a second creation, see. Well, all that's based on you know the word replenished. And you say, why would they put replenish in there? Well, in 1611, and even all the way through the King James Version published in 1900, they translated that word replenish. But originally replenish just meant to fill for the first time. And only now in our modern day does replenish mean do it again. So the words change meaning over time. And replenish in 1611 meant to just to fill something. Now, for us, it means to fill it again. So the the word replenish in our mind may convey a pre-adamic race before Genesis 1, and now a new Adamic race, but that's not the intent of the original text. So we have to study words in their lexical period, see, and understand what they meant. Um, when we when we do this, it's called etymology. You just study the word's meaning. I love etymology, I just think it's so fun. But I don't know. Probably not.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

I see other people shaking their heads who like it because they're an English profit, things like that.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

Um I I I just think it's really fun. It's it's very interesting. But a lot of people don't care. But it's just the study of a word's meaning over time. And sometimes you can break a word down into its parts, like the church, the word ecclesia, ekklesia. It means called out ones. I mean, that's what the etymology is, just the basic basic meaning. But that doesn't mean that's what it always means in every context, because words take on other meanings through time. So today, if somebody said, Well, what's the ekklesia? What does that mean? Does it mean called out ones? Well, yeah, sorta, but really just means a gathering, means an assembly. Okay, here we are. We are a gathering, we are an assembly. So that's etymology. So you have to do that, period specific. But the New Testament does not interpret the Old Testament. In other words, the New Testament doesn't tell us what the Old Testament means. The Old Testament stands on its own. If the New Testament has to come along later in history and tell us what the Old Testament meant, then how did the Old Testament people even know what it meant? They didn't have the New Testament, so they were wrong. And this is what many covenant theologians have said. The New Testament comes along, and actually they use the word correct the Jewish interpretation of the Old Testament. So, in other words, they didn't know what God wanted or meant or anything because they didn't have the New Testament to tell them. But in dispensationalism, no, no, no, no. Each passage stands on its own. It's called passage priority. If we're studying something in 1 Samuel, where is our first interest? 1 Samuel. It's not what somebody said in the Gospels about Samuel. Okay, our first interest is what Samuel said on Samuel's own ground. And we study all passages in that way. If we want to come along later and say, well, now how does this quote from you know that somewhere in the gospels of 1 Samuel, how does that relate to this? That's fine. But still, 1 Samuel stands on its own. And the New Testament doesn't tell us how to interpret it.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

It must stand on its own, just like all literature. Ultimately, this is the second big point.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

That should be a B there. Well, we're going to go to oh no, no, that's right. We're going to implications. Okay, so if that's the way we look at the Bible, this is what's primary for us. It's paramount, literal interpretation of the Bible, and we've described what that is.

God’s Glory And Five Themes

SPEAKER_01 21:57

What is the ultimate purpose of God? Well, dispensationalists are saying it's doxology. You know, we we sing a doxology every time we meet. Right? Praise God from whom all blessings flow. You know, and we go into the whole doxology. Doxology is a word that refers to the glory of God, glorification. Okay? And so what dispensational are saying is like, what is the ultimate or underlying purpose of God in all of history? You know, like what is God doing? Why this plan? And why not another plan? Well, because this plan is the one that brings God the greatest glory. So we have to, of course, understand what that means. What does it mean? The glory of God. What is the glory of God? Usually people think of a light. That's not far off base. Glory and light are, these are definitely connected concepts. So ultimately, in this view, the underlying purpose of history is God's own glory. Now, God's glory is this: it's the revealing of something, which is what light does. You shine light on something. In our modern day, what we'd say is it highlights something. You know, if you take your highlighter and you're reading a book, you know, because you're studying, you might highlight certain things because those are key items. What the glory of God means is that he's putting himself on display. He's highlighting something about himself through the events of the Bible, all of them from Genesis to Revelation. So that means that through the events of the Bible, that God is making himself known to creatures who are able to see the events and understand what's transpiring, meaning men and angels. So let's look at let's look at this, because there's five major themes that contribute primarily to the glory of God. I mean, everything does, but there's five huge themes in the Bible that I've been able to deduce over the years. The first one is the kingdom purpose. I mean, right there in Genesis, God says to the man, I want you to rule. I want you to rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and so forth. I want you to rule over this earth. You see, in creation week, it begins with, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and it says, and then in the very second verse it says, and the earth was. There's a focal point on the earth. And that's because God created us in his image to rule over this earth. It's a kingdom purpose. He didn't want us to rule over Mars, Elon Musk. Okay. As interesting as that may be, it's definitely not as interesting as what has transpired on earth. God wants us to rule over the earth. Now, what does this reveal about God? It reveals that he is a sovereign, that he is a king, and that what he has done is he's made man in his own image to be lowercase kings and to rule over this earth.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

We'll say kings and queens, right? Because he also made Eve.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

So that is the kingdom purpose, and through it we learn something about God. We learn that he's a king, we learn that he's sovereign. It teaches us wonderful lessons about that. It highlights it. That's a part of the glory of God. The second major theme that contributes to God's glory is the seed promise. Or the seed is the Messiah, so the Messiah promise.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

After man fell, God made an announcement that the seed of the woman would be in conflict with the seed of the serpent, and that the serpent would be crushed, you know, by bruised on his head, whereas the seed of the woman might be injured on his heel.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

And this is sort of a preparatory for what's going to unfold later. In the Messiah, the seed coming, right? To restore man's right to rule, because we lost that through sin and the fall. And so God, through the seed, is going to restore that right to rule. And that's why the Bible sets up you've got Adam, the first Adam, and then you've got the last Adam, right? Christ. Why is there this parallel? Because Adam was given the right to rule, he lost that right. Now Christ has come to reclaim it through his pivotal cross work and resurrection. And so what does this reveal? What does all this story about the seed reveal? Well, I mean a lot of things, but that God is very gracious. He's very gracious. He didn't have to do this. He could have just said, Oh, you guys messed up. Just send the whole thing to the lake of fire. And there's no requirement other than the fact God wanted to reveal that he is, in fact, gracious, he's benevolent, he's kind, and so he has promised a seed. The third major theme that makes a major contribution to the glory of God is God's covenant strategy. And when we say covenants, again, we're talking about the biblical covenants, the ones that are actually listed in the Bible. There's more than the Abrahamic, the Davidic, and the New. There's also the Noaic, but we're not particularly looking at this, but at the Noaic at the time. But the cut, this is God's strategy. I call it the covenant strategy. Started with Abraham, right? And God is through this strategy is going to establish his kingdom through these unconditional biblical covenants. Because if you look at these covenants, they have physical promises in them. And they also have spiritual promises in them. So a physical promise, for example, will be like the land. A physical promise would include a temple.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

These things are included in the unconditional covenant.

SPEAKER_01 28:07

They also have spiritual promises. God said to Abraham that anyone who curses you will be cursed, anyone who blesses you will be blessed. In Galatians 3, Paul comes along and says that we're being blessed through Abraham because we're justified by faith. That's a spiritual blessing. And we receive the indwelling spirit. That's also another spiritual blessing. So there are both physical and spiritual blessings in all of these unconditional covenants. And so the Abrahamic covenant promised these three major things: land seed blessing, Davidic covenant promises an eternal king, an eternal kingdom, and an eternal throne. The new covenant promised Israel and Judah his law would be written on their hearts. That's spiritual. Forgiveness of sins, that's spiritual. Indwelling spirit, that's another spiritual promise. But permanent restoration to the land, that's a physical promise. Agricultural abundance, that's another physical promise. Population growth, that's physical. Temple cities rebuilt, security in the land, those are all physical or physical and spiritual to some extent. So what does the covenant strategy of God reveal? If these are all about glorifying God, what do the covenants reveal about God? The unconditional covenants. They reveal that God is faithful, that he has integrity, that he keeps his word. And so we can expect that God will fulfill all the details of God's covenant plan for Israel just as he stated it. I mean, they are covenants, right? Covenants? I mean, we would say in our language, it's like a contract, it's like a legal document. Now, do the details matter in the legal documents? When you read a legal contract, is it poetic? Or is it technical, legal terminology that's just to be taken in the ordinary literal way? There's not, you don't put figures of speech and things like that, and certainly not allegories or things like that in context. The language is technical and detailed, and everything must be kept exactly as it is intended and written. So when God said, I'm gonna make give you a land, I'm gonna give security in the land, I'm gonna give you a new heart, Israel, and the parties are Israel and not the church, then if God has any integrity, he's going to do that.

SPEAKER_02 30:50

So the covenants reveal his faithfulness, his integrity as our God.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

And I'm glad about that. I I I am it it would be impossible, I think, for anybody to move me off this point. And I can move off some issues and shift shift a little bit on some ideas in the Bible or whatever. But this one I don't see how it's possible. Because if I were to say that now these covenants are going to be fulfilled to the church, to a different party, that's completely changing the parties that are involved in a contract.

SPEAKER_02 31:22

And so these things are made to Israel, and God will do it.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

The fourth major contributing theme to the glory of God is dispensational responsibility.

Stewardships For Israel And Church

SPEAKER_01 31:34

So I said, don't worry about this word dispensational so much. But now we talk a little bit about it. I call these God's stewardships. Now that makes a lot more sense, though. We understand a stewardship. Um there are several parables or illustrations in the New Testament where Jesus will say something like, A master went away on a journey, and he gave responsibility to a steward to watch over his house and attend to his belongings. And after being gone on a long, long journey, he returned, and then the steward had to give an account for how he had managed his past. And so this is the idea that God has given men stewardships to manage his household world, this earth, while he is away, and then when he returns, he will give, we will have to give an account for it. So Israel is given one of these stewardships in uh Exodus 19, 4 through 6. He says, if you keep these commandments, referring to the Mosaic Law, then you will become a priest to all nations and a light to the nation. So God gave them a particular stewardship responsibility, keep the law so that you become a light to the world. And it was therefore a come and see mission. As you get to the period of Solomon, the golden era of Solomon, when Israel was at the height of its power and influence in the world, and they are placed directly at the center of the earth, right there in the Middle East, where you've got up here Asia, over here you've got Europe, and down here Africa. And it's sitting right in the middle. And all the trade routes from the ancient world from between these three continents are passing right through where? Right through Israel. You know, God providentially placed them and promised that particular real estate because of its key location in the post-flood earth. And this allowed it to be a come and see mission. As people, businessmen, would pass through Israel, they would see. They would see, wow, this amazing king. And it was all because they had been obeying the Lord from the period back at the after the judges, uh, starting with the family, you know, of Jesse and Obed and these people leading up to King David. And there's an expanding loyalty to God in that culture. By the time you get to the kingdom of Solomon, I mean, they're so wealthy and so rich, there's never been another kingdom on earth that has had that much wealth. Not even the United States America.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

Gold was just like common, common, common material.

SPEAKER_01 34:36

So it was a come and see mission the world could see. And the queen of Sheba did come, right? She came and she said, It's not even half of what I was told. Or it's more than half of what I was told. You know, this is amazing. And so that's a dispensational responsibility. And of course, after that, after the period of Solomon, toward the end of his life, he fails, he steps away, and the kingdom begins to decline. The church, we have it's different for us. Um the church is responsible to follow the law of Christ, not the law of Moses. The law of Moses was fulfilled by Christ on the cross. Hebrews 7, verse 11 and 12. The Bible happens. Hebrews 7, verse 11. If perfection was through the Levitical priesthood, because on the basis of it the people received the Mosaic law, what further need was there for another priest to arise? We have another priest now who's arisen according to a different order, right? The order of Melchizedek. He's not Levitical, he's Melchizedek. We have a Levitical and they're administering the Mosaic law. We've got the Melchizedek, and he's administering a new law, the law of Christ. He says, for when the priesthood is changed, of necessity takes place a change of law also. So we're not under the Mosaic law. Nobody, nobody in the Hebrew roots movement is under the Mosaic law, even though they want to put themselves under the law. The Seventh-day Adventists are not under the law, even though they want to put themselves under the law. Many, many, many Christians uh want to take the portions of the law and say, we're under portions of the law. No, Christ fulfilled the law. That was the Levitical priesthood. If we're under any part of the law today, who are the Levitical priests who are managing? There is nobody. We have a new priest. He is a Melchizedekian priesthood, and he's administering a new law. It's called the law of Christ in 1 Corinthians 9. It's called the Law of Christ in 1 Corinthians, uh Galatians chapter 6. It's called the law of liberty in Galatian in uh Romans 8. So we're under a different law. And Christ is our high priest and he's administering it. And our goal then is to fulfill the great commission, which is to bless the world in what is called a go and tell mission. We have believers throughout the world, and this all started in Jerusalem in the book of Acts, right? It started in Jerusalem and they began to go out, the Judea and Samaria. They were telling, going out and telling. Then they went out to the remotest parts of the earth, the Roman Empire, right? And then, you know, obviously on down to our own day, here it is here. It's in China, it's in Australia, and it's in Africa, and it's all over the world. And the reason is because it's a go and tell mission. Go out. So it's different from Israel, though, right? They had a come and see. We have a go and tell. And um, what does this all reveal? Well, that God has made us in his image, and he wants us to be brought into his plan and be a part of this unfolding plan. He thinks that he thinks so much of you that he says, I'm not just going to do everything myself. I could, I'm God. But I want you to be a part of my purposes. I want you to be a part of my purpose. And this is where we get purpose in life. We look at the whole plan of history and say, what is God doing? And then he says, I want you who believe to be a part of what I'm doing. So we can try to set up our own plans and do our own thing, but in the end, there's this overarching thing called the plan of God, and it will come to pass. He's decided that. Nothing can change the second coming of Jesus Christ. Nothing can change his coming rule and reign for a thousand years. Nothing can stop his judgment, whether you believe or don't believe, in your final destiny. Nothing can change those facts. So it makes sense that what we would want to do if we have our own plans, we'd want to fit them into his plan. And this is why James says that. He says, don't go and say, we're going to go to so-and-so city and make a lot of money. He says, instead, say it this, say this, if God permits. If God permits. In other words, if it's within his overarching plan. So we structure our plans to fit within God's plan. And that's at least the wise way to do it. The fifth

Salvation Basis, Source, Means, Content

SPEAKER_01 38:58

major theme that contributes to the glory of God is what I call the salvation partaking. In other words, if you partake of salvation, guess what happens? You get brought into this plan we were just discussing. His plan is to restore a group of fallen humans, those who believe in his son, and we get to partake then of his purposes now for us in this life, as well as be a part of his future earthly kingdom, where we will rule and reign. Now, um, that being said, I don't want to skip by the phrase where it says, so that they can partake of his purposes now. It's not just a future destiny that we have, we have that. But he has a purpose for us now, one of which is to vote in this election.

SPEAKER_02 39:49

I mean, most countries in the world, you don't get a say. You don't even have an option to cast a vote.

SPEAKER_01 39:59

We have that option. So this is part of God's purpose for us now. Wouldn't we want to restrain evil as much as we possibly could? Wouldn't we want to restrain lawlessness? I mean, if you saw a lawless act going on, would just stand by. If you saw an innocent bystander, a child, getting injured, would you just stand by?

SPEAKER_02 40:21

That would be neglect and abuse.

SPEAKER_01 40:24

You have to stand up and vote for the thing which limits evil the most, even though it's not going to be perfect. We're supposed to fight against lawlessness and unrighteousness, not just allow it to go on and watch it.

SPEAKER_02 40:39

That's neglect. That's irresponsibility.

SPEAKER_01 40:43

Now, in this idea of the salvation partaking, the nation Israel was given the law of Moses, right? What was its purpose? Well, it was a tutor. One of its purposes was a tutor to show them their sin so that they would turn to justification by faith, like Abraham, right? Who lived before the law. But justification by faith is the same before the law is after the law. So the law wasn't there to justify anybody, it was there to condemn and to show people that they needed a righteousness that could only come by faith. And so that's the purpose of the law. Now, Gentiles who did not have the law, Paul tells us in Romans 2, what about all the other Gentile nations? This was just for Israel, right? What about the other Gentiles? Well, it says Gentiles who didn't have the law had the law in their conscience, so that they knew God's righteous demands, and they still fell short of the glory of God. And this means that both Jew and Gentile fall short. Just like Romans 3.23 said, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Well, then how can we be saved? Well, there's only one way of salvation, it's both for Jews and Gentiles. And here's basically the bottom line of how it all works. Being one way of salvation for Jew and Gentile, the basis of salvation is always going to be Christ's death. He's the one that paid the penalty for our sin. And as Galatians 2.21 says, if righteousness were through the law, in other words, if you could do enough work to get righteousness with God, he says, Christ died needed.

SPEAKER_02 42:27

There's no point.

SPEAKER_01 42:30

So there's only one basis, and that's the death of Christ. He had no sin, and he took our sin upon himself, and he paid the penalty for our sin. And God accepted that penalty. And the evidence is that he rose from the dead. That's the basis. The source of salvation is always God. Who is it who saved them? God saved.

SPEAKER_02 42:52

And repeatedly the Bible says hundreds of times that God is a savior. God saved.

SPEAKER_01 42:59

The means of salvation is always faith. Genesis 15, 6. Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteous. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith. So salvation the means is always through faith. Philippian jailer asked, What must I do to be saved?

SPEAKER_02 43:28

Paul said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't say anything about confess your sins, do 500 Hail Marys.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

Go get water baptized, commit your life to Jesus Christ, say the sinner's prayer. He didn't say any of that. Walk an aisle. And if if those any of those things were necessary, why did Paul not tell that man how to get saved? Why would we even listen to anything Paul said after that if he can't even tell a man how to get saved?

SPEAKER_02 44:00

But all Paul said was just believe. And so that's all that's required. Believe in the Lord Jesus. Okay, that's too easy. Well it wasn't easy for Jesus Christ. He made it easy for us. Because he paid our penalty in full. Nothing we can do. God's righteous faith. So he did it all. We just put our confidence, our faith, our belief in him.

SPEAKER_01 44:28

It's easy in that sense, but it's sometimes hard to get over our attempt to want to prove ourselves to God or say, Well, I'm a good person.

SPEAKER_02 44:38

God says there's none right there.

SPEAKER_01 44:40

No, not one. So that's his evaluation. And his evaluation is ultimate. We can make value imputations, but our value imputations are often wrong.

SPEAKER_02 44:51

Gods are absolute. He says, none of us are right. But he says, if you believe in Christ, I'll give you Christ right here. How about that? That's a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 45:03

And lastly, the content of salvation. What is it that a person is to believe? Well, that changes over time with progressive revelation. I mean, they just didn't know about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in Genesis 4. But they did know that there had to be sacrifice for man to approach God. They did know a promise that God was going to send a seed of the woman. They knew that, so they could believe that, and that would be sufficient content to believe in order to be saved. Now, yes, much later, now we know more. We know about the death and resurrection of Christ. That becomes the essential content for sacrifice. But it's always based on Christ's death. The source is always God. He's the one who saves. The means is always faith. And the content, of course, changes over time. But now is the death and resurrection of Christ. Well, what does there's this salvation partaking, what does this reveal about God? If this is really all about his glory, what does his salvation plan reveal about him? It reveals that he's loving, right? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Part of it is very cru about about the salvation is the crucial revelation that God is loving. Benevolent, which just means good.

SPEAKER_02 46:26

He's gracious. For by grace have you been saved by God. He's merciful.

SPEAKER_01 46:38

He's kind to do this. We're both Jews and Gentiles. Romans 11, wonderful end of Romans 11, a wonderful statement that the mercy shown to Jews, the mercy shown to Gentiles.

SPEAKER_02 46:51

So that he might be shown the mercy of all people.

SPEAKER_01 46:57

So those are the five uh major ways that dispensationalists claim that God contributes to his ultimate purpose, which is to glorify himself, to put himself on display, to highlight his essence, his attribute. Now

Why Israel Is Not Replaced

SPEAKER_01 47:17

let's look at the second implication of literal interpretation, and that is that there's more than one people of God in the Bible. But the Bible primarily focuses on Israel and the church, right? Israel starts in essentially Genesis 12, and they're all the way to the end of the Bible. And the church begins in Acts chapter 2, and they again will then proceed all the way to the end of the Bible. So there's two main people of God that are discussed in the Bible. Now, anyone that replaces the church with Israel, I'm sorry, replaces Israel with the church. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 47:52

Sometimes I'm a speaker. Just have to pat me on the head, throw something out.

SPEAKER_01 47:58

Anybody that says the church has replaced Israel has done away with about, I'm estimating, about 85% of the Bible. 85% of the Bible. I mean, think about how much in the Old Testament is Israel. Everything from Genesis 12 to Malachi 4. Everything. That is like a huge chunk of your Bible. Over two-thirds already. Then of course the story continues in the New Testament. The Gospels are mostly about Israel and Christ's interaction with Israel. So you've got a tremendous amount of the Bible that you've got to do away with by reinterpreting, which means that you're doing away with it. Anytime we reinterpret a passage, other than it's its intent, we're not believing the Bible.

SPEAKER_02 48:51

Believing our interpretation, right? It's not what God says, it's what we're saying, God said, which is not true.

SPEAKER_01 48:59

So like uh the book I read this year, one of the books that I mentioned uh Hitler's Hell, uh Anita Ditman, a little girl during the Holocaust, a Jewish messianic Jew, believed in Jesus, right? And there she was in Germany, and you know, they were confused. Every other Jew who was not messianic was confused by Anita and her mother, who were both messianic. They were like, why are you why are you believing in the Jesus in Jesus?

SPEAKER_02 49:30

That's who the Germans believed. Are you are you on their side? Are you like the Nazis?

SPEAKER_01 49:40

They could not understand. Because throughout church history, so much of the church has been replacement theology. They've replaced Israel with the church and God's purpose that the Jewish people themselves think that their number one persecutors are Christians. And that's what the Jews in Germany thought of the Germans. They thought, well, they're the Christians, they're the ones persecuting us. How can you believe in their same Jesus, right? And so they just said, uh, Anita and her mother, they finally concluded that they're not real believers. They meant real believers in the Bible. They don't really believe the Bible. And uh that's the point. Anybody who holds the replacement theology, you're basically having to throw out about 85% of the Bible. So the question becomes, do you really believe the Bible? No, it doesn't seem like they really believe the Bible. If I throw out 85% of something, I pretty much don't believe it. I mean, that should be understood. But so many people in the church accept this. I mean, the Presbyterian Church to a large extent, whether Orthodox or liberal, do not believe any future for Israel.

SPEAKER_02 50:50

Anglican, episcopal, Lutheran in most cases. The Catholic Church, for sure, 1.2 billion people.

SPEAKER_01 51:02

Protestantism only represents about 650 million. So that brings the world population of Christians who claim to be Christians about 1.85 billion people. And out of that, probably more than 90% do not believe 85% of the Bible. How can that be? And that's why I, you know, people are always asking me, where can I go to church? Where is a good church? Where is a the question is, where is a Bible-believing church? It's not where is there a good church? The question is, where is there a good Bible-believing church? Because most of the time they don't believe all these things that I'm telling you. They don't believe these things. They don't believe the church has a distinct purpose from Israel. They don't believe God has a future for Israel. So there's more than one people of God in the Bible. Okay, God made covenant promises to Israel, right? The Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic covenant, and the new covenant. He's gonna keep these with Israel. He's not gonna transfer these promises to the church. We may partake in some of these blessings, but we do not overtake. That's a key phrase. We can partake in the blessing of some of these covenants, but we do not overtake. Remember, earlier we said there's spiritual blessings in these, and there's physical. The physical blessings like the land, the temple, and all that, that is agricultural prosperity, security in the land, those are all for Israel only. The spiritual ones, we can partake of them, they're also for Israel, but we get to partake in them because guess what? Jesus is a Jew. And you and I are not Jews.

SPEAKER_02 52:47

We are Gentiles who get in on the tailcoats of a Jew. By the grace of God.

SPEAKER_01 52:58

But we do not overtake those promises. If God is faithful, if he has integrity and he made a covenant with Israel, he must fulfill it with Israel. He cannot just switch the parties and say, Oh, I don't like you anymore, even though I made these promises to you because you crucify my son, therefore I'm gonna give all these things to another people. Covenants don't work that way. Contracts don't work that way.

SPEAKER_02 53:21

God is faithful and he will do it. He's gonna rescue them, he's gonna restore them to their land and this kingdom, and the Messiah is gonna sit on David's throne, and God will be shown to be faithful.

SPEAKER_01 53:41

Now he also has promises for the church. He's gonna rapture the church. This is a promise for us. This is a great promise, right? I'm like, Lord, come today. It's a mess out there, right? But he's so patient, so he's waiting. So whenever I'm ready, he will rapture the church, he will take us to the Father's house, John 14, 1 through 3. If it were not so, I would have told you, he said. I go to prepare a place for you, right?

SPEAKER_02 54:05

In my father's house are many mansions, King James, right? Spacious dwelling place. Plenty of space. I like it. You like space? There's plenty of space. I go to prepare a place. And if I go, I will return to the where I am.

SPEAKER_01 54:25

You may be aware. That's the rapture. He's gonna come and he's gonna take us there to the Father's house. And then we're gonna return with him when he comes back at the second coming to reign with him in the kingdom. And that's then we'll have fulfilled what God originally set out to do in his kingdom purpose with Adam.

SPEAKER_02 54:43

We'll rule and reign with the second.

SPEAKER_01 54:47

So these are all uh things that are derived from literal interpretation of the Bible. Now,

Promises For Israel And The Rapture

SPEAKER_01 54:54

that said, what we can do real briefly is turn to Matthew chapter 2. Or do y'all want to stop? We can stop. It's okay, but we can go on. But what I want to show you, and I'll just speak, and you just nod and say, Yes, I want to go home, or no, I want to stay. Um, and then I can put you all on a chart and send you back a spirituality evaluation. Just for all good fun, right? Matthew chapter two. Now, when the New Testament authors who are Jewish, except perhaps Luke, um, when these guys wrote their books under inspiration by the Spirit, they they tend to like to quote the Old Testament. You know, there's a few books that don't have a lot of quotes, but most books have you know quotes from the Old Testament. Matthew chapter 2 is kind of a famous uh chapter about the baby Jesus and Herod and Herod's attempt to destroy the baby Jesus by slaughtering all the boys in and around Bethlehem, right? It's famous for the question about how do the New Testament authors who are Jewish primarily, how do they quote the Old Testament? And this helps us understand what literal interpretation is because again, what are we interested in literal interpretation? We're interested in the author's original intent. We want to know what they meant. It doesn't really matter what Jeremy Thomas thinks, and it really honestly doesn't matter what you think of a text means. It matters what it actually does mean, what the author intended us to understand. So that's always what we're trying to understand. And we have to study archaeology, we have to study culture, we have to study lexicons from the time period, we have to do all this to unearth what the meaning is. And that's why I stand up here and I don't say this is just my interpretation. Um, just my interpretation would be just I just read a verse and I've never investigated it, and I say, I think this is what it means. That would just be my idea. That doesn't mean that's just an interpretation. But when you go to all this study, the background and everything, and draw out from the meaning out of the text, that's not someone's just interpretation. If there are disputes, they should tell you there are two views, and I tend toward this one because of whatever. But um, here's where we find the New Testament authors who are Jewish and steeped in the Old Testament, quoting the Old Testament, and there are four quotations of the Old Testament in this chapter. So the

Matthew 2 And Old Testament Quotations

SPEAKER_01 57:13

first category is what everybody in Christianity basically understands already. It's called direct fulfillment. It's very simple. So look in chapter 2, verse 5, Matthew 2, verse 5. The um the wise men have come and they they want to know where the Messiah is going to be born, and they're they're here in Jerusalem and say, Where is he be born? They want to go to him. And verse 5, they said to him, in Bethlehem of Judea. Why was he born in Bethlehem of Judea? Because this is what was written by the prophet. And then he quotes Micah 5.2. And you Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah, for out of you shall come forth a ruler who shall shepherd my people Israel. So the birthplace of the Messiah was to be Bethlehem, according to Micah 5.2. And when Matthew quoted this scene, he said that was directly fulfilled in the birth of Jesus. So that's just a direct fulfillment. It's very, very easy, right? It's not complicated at all. Bethlehem does not mean Sodom and Gomorrah. Bethlehem does not mean Babylon. I mean, there's no tricks here, right? It's just straightforward. So everybody understands this. Now the second one is called in this chapter, it's called typical fulfillment, and it's in chapter 2, verse 15. So when they were there in Bethlehem, and the angel appeared to them and told Joseph, hey, you've got to get out of here. I want you to flee to Egypt in verse 13. Take the baby and go and the mother and go to Egypt and remain there until I tell you, because Herod's going to try to kill the child. So verse 14, Joseph got up, he took the child and his mother while it was still night and left for Egypt. He remained there until the death of Herod. And then it says, This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet. And then it quotes Hosea 11:1.

SPEAKER_02 59:20

Out of Egypt I called my son. Hosea 11.1. And all Christians go, I mean, really, most myself included, it may be periods. What is Hosea 11?

SPEAKER_01 59:34

What is Hosea about? I don't know. Because we never studied that. We only studied the New Testament. We don't do the Old Testament. Um, in Bible church, we do, of course, but most no idea what this is about or anything. If you go to Hosea 11:1, you find out this is not a prophecy at all. It's a statement about history, it's a statement that God took Israel out of Egypt way back in the book of Exodus. And that's what Hosea is talking about. And you say, well, how can something that's not even a prophecy be fulfilled, Matthew? I mean, that's so weird.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:13

Like, what do you what do you mean that this was fulfilled in Jesus' escape to Egypt and coming out of Egypt? What what that's not a prophecy. But he said, yet he says it's fulfilled.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:27

Well, it's a what we call typical fulfillment in Jewish thought. So a type is discovered and a correspondence with a later antity. In other words, Israel is the type, and the Messiah, who was born there in Bethlehem, is the antity to Israel. And just as Israel went down to Egypt, right? So guess what? The Messiah went down to Egypt. And just as Israel came up out of Egypt, so the Messiah came out of Israel. In other words, Israel was a type, and Messiah is an anti-type.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:01

And as Israel goes, so the Messiah goes. And therefore Jesus fulfills the pattern of Israel. It's called typical fulfillment. And I would say this is the literal meaning. This is the literal reference. This is what it's talking about.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:19

The Old Testament laid down the fact that as Israel goes, so the Messiah goes, and that will prove that in fact the Messiah is who he is. The Messiah of Israel. Because he follows the same pattern of Israel and he fulfills Israel's pattern. It's kind of beautiful. But difficult, right? If you're just reading this, it's difficult to understand why he's quoting Hosea 11:1. You have to do a lot of work there. The third type is applicational fulfillment. This is all going to come, this makes sense because we're going to go to the day of Pentecost and there's this big quote from Joel. Okay, it's a huge deal. And that's why we're doing that. Okay. The third is applicational fulfillment.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:56

This one's in verse 18. Verse 18.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:01

This is when Herod got really angry, right? Because he'd been tricked by the Magi who went another way and so forth. They didn't come back and tell him where the baby was. And so he was now going to slay every male child in Bethlehem and all its vicinity from two years old and under, according to the time he determined by the Magi. So all the little, I mean, can you imagine this happened? Let's just say it happened here in Spokane. And Biden decided he was going to slay all the baby boys in this region because there was a threat to his president. That's what this is like. Then what had been, then it says, then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled. And you read again of something that happened in history that's not a prophecy. Not a prophecy. Jeremiah 31, verse 15, a voice was heard in Ramah, weeping in great mourning. Rachel was weeping for her children, and she refused to be comforted because they were no more. Now that story in Jeremiah 31, 15 is a story about Jewish mothers watching their sons during the Babylonian exile be stripped naked, beaten, chained, and march out of the land of Israel on their way to Babylon as slaves. And so, yes, the mothers were doing what as they saw this? They were weeping for their husbands and their sons who were being marched off, as anyone would. And you say, that's not a prophecy of what happened here in Matthew 2, you know, the baby boys around Bethlehem. That's not a prophecy of that at all. It's just this historical recounting, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:46

What happened back in the days of Jeremiah. But so why does Matthew quote it and say it was fulfilled? Because something similar happened when the baby boys got killed at Bethlehem and the mothers were weeping.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:06

So the boys didn't get killed in Jeremiah, they were marched off. But here they got killed. But in both cases, what? The mothers were weeping. Because of one point of similarity, he takes a historical account where mothers wept and he applies it to a new situation. The weeping of the mothers in and around Bethlehem. So it's what we call applicational fulfillment. It's not really that complicated. Pastors do this all the time. We take a passage in the Bible and we say, it could be for Israel or whatever, and then we say, hey, this applies to the situation in our lives. So let's apply this to our lives. Why? Well, because this is a great promise from the Psalms or whatever. We can use it. The last one is summary fulfillment. At the very end of this chapter, verse 23, the very last one. Another dream that was given to warn Joseph. After being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee, and he came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This is where Jesus grew up, right? This was to fulfill. There it is again, fulfill what was spoken through the prophets, and then it says, He shall be called a Nazarene. Now, if you look that one, that one, there's no rev, you don't have a reference in your Bible that says in Isaiah or Ezekiel or Jeremiah, it said he would be a Nazarene. You don't have any of that because this phrase is not in the Old Testament. But Matthew says, hey, the prophets, plural, they predicted this.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:41

And so you say, but wait, it's not in the prophets. So where did you get that? It's a summary fulfillment. A summary.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:50

Now you have to know again a bit more in order to know what he means by the phrase, he shall be called a Nazareth. So Jesus would be called a Nazareth. He did grow up in Nazareth, we know. What did they say later about this? Come and see the Messiah. You know, they said, Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:11

This was considered a despised place. Was the Messiah despised? In fact, it predicts in the Old Testament that he would be despised. He hated that he'd be rejected rejected. Did all the prophets prophesy that he'd be despised and rejected? So in that sense, in that way, all the prophets are predicted. It's called the summary fulfillment.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:40

So these are the four ways. So that means that if we're going to understand the sections of the New Testament where they quote the Old Testament, it just keeps going on. Chapter 3, verse 3. I mean, it just goes on and on in Matthew. There's just quote after quote from the Old Testament. Then we have to understand these four ways, right? That the New Testament authors are quoting the Old Testament and ask ourselves, which one are they using here? That will tell us the literal meaning and the real intent of the Bible so that we know what it means.

Four Fulfillment Categories And Acts 2

SPEAKER_01 1:07:13

This is going to help us immensely next week when we get to Acts 2 in the tongues events. Because Peter's going to quote Joel. He's going to quote something from Joel that has to do with the second coming of Jesus Christ and has to do with all these signs and things that will happen in the sky above and the earth beneath. And yet Joel never even mentions tongues. The question becomes well, why, Peter, are you saying this is what Joel said when Joel didn't talk about tongues, but he talked about all these other phenomena? Does that mean Joel's been fulfilled? Because if it has been fulfilled, guess what, folks? Second coming already happened. If it happened in a fulfilled literally, direct fulfillment, then I mean there is no more future second coming. The second coming is just the Holy Spirit coming on the day of Pentecost. And you see how all the details get washed out for the second coming and just re-explained by people as, oh, it's the coming of the Spirit. That's what was meant by the second coming. But Jesus said what? In the previous chapter, he said, the angel said, As you have seen him go at the ascension, so he will return in exactly the same way. And I don't think the Holy Spirit came back in exactly the same way that Jesus had departed. I know he didn't. So we have to have these as tools to help us understand these texts. And I've taken too long. But next week we will do that. Okay. Let's have a word. And maybe you could go through, you know, Acts 2, 17, 18, 19, 20, and try to figure out which of these four categories it fits. Okay? Correct, typical, application, or summary.

Closing And Listener Call To Rate

SPEAKER_00 1:08:55

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 Spoke and 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.