Saturday March 2 For Youtube William Bell Judgment of the Nations

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to the All Things Fulfill broadcast right here on the NOW Network. I'm William Bell. It's a delight to be with you. If this is your first time, be sure and make a note to tune in every Saturday from 6.30 until 7 p.m. Central Time, 7.30 to 8 p.m. Eastern Time. And we also want to encourage you to check out our website at allthingsfulfill.com as well as our YouTube channel which is youtube.com forward slash allthingsfulfill. And if you would like to learn more, we would encourage you to get in touch with this and we'll leave you some information if you want to engage in some live studies. Now today, we have begun or at least we're continuing on our series of studies where we're talking about the objections that some people have made regarding the coming of Christ in 70 A.D. in the first century. And so today, we're going to look at their objection concerning the day of the Lord. And let's take a look and see or let's get in front of you the statement that they generally make. And it says, if you believe basically that Christ has come, this ignores the day of the Lord passages in which God is depicted as judging the nations because that clearly didn't happen in the first century. So because of people's futurist paradigms, they think that the nations were not judged in the first century. And so what we're going to do is we're going to point out the fact that the nations were in fact judged. And according to the Bible and the view that we present to you, we will show you how that aligns with the view that Christ returned in the first century. Now, I'm well aware that there are people who disagree with the concepts that we hold and it doesn't matter whether they are what we would call a premillennialist who believes that Christ will come back at some time, a rapture will occur and then there would be a thousand years reign. And then at the end of that reign, then people are going to, the second coming is going to occur. And then that's going to be the final judgment. There are others who believe that you're currently in the thousand years reign. They seem to have a problem with making it figurative, but it can't be a literal one thousand years if it's been going on since the day of Pentecost or at least the ministry of Christ, wherever they started all the way up till now, because that is over a literal thousand years. So they can't have a literal thousand years either. And then you have those who believe that it is a shorter period of time. And we're going to talk about that when we get to that objection that deals with millennium. So that will be one of the upcoming lessons in this series of studies, but let's get to the fact of the day of the Lord and whether the day of the Lord involves judgment. Now, the passages that we are given would be Joel chapters two and three, Zechariah chapter 14, and Matthew 25, 31 through 46. All of those passages refer to judgment of the nations. You have Zechariah 14, where he talks about the judgment of the nations. You have Joel chapter two, particularly three and one, where he says that, you know, the nations would be judged in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And then you have the text in where it says that Christ would come in the glory of his father with his holy angels. And then he would sit upon the throne of his glory and all nations will be gathered before him. So they're saying that there's no way that if you hold to a view that occurred in 70 AD, that you can reconcile those passages. Well, if you want to make up your own arguments and keep your traditions and assumptions, then yeah, it will be impossible for you to understand that. But if you are a person who is willing to study the word of God and allow the word of God to teach you, be a Berean in your mind and spirit, then I assure you, you will see exactly how simple this is. Now to say that if you believe that Christ came in 70 AD, you reject the passages relating to the day of the Lord and Lord judging the nations is incorrect. That does not follow. And here are the reasons why, because the view that Christ came back in 70 AD is based on a interpretive principle. We call it hermeneutics, the science of interpretation. It's based on a principle that all Bible prophecy was fulfilled, number one, in the first century. Number two, in connection with the fall of the temple in Jerusalem that was existing at the time. And number three is according to the law and the prophets. Now this is very, very important when we talk about the law and the prophets, because this is where our eschatology comes from. This is where our end times teaching comes from. It's from the law and the prophets. And I'm going to give you some scriptures on that in a moment. Now, if that is the case, what that's telling us then is that the law and the prophets had to teach that these things would take place in the first century. That's our number one point. Number two, the law and the prophets would have to teach that it was going to happen when the temple that was in Jerusalem failed. And number three, the law and the prophets would have to teach these events are found in the law and the prophets. And therefore, whenever the law and the prophets are fulfilled, these events would be fulfilled. So let's examine some of the passages that we want to get before you. Let's start out with showing that all Bible prophecy is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. Now, why is this important? It's because there are some who will say that, okay, the law and the prophets were fulfilled at the cross when Jesus died on the cross, and that would be in 30 A.D. Okay. If that's when the law and the prophets were fulfilled, then that would mean that since the law and the prophets prophesy the second coming of Christ, the judgment, the resurrection of the dead, the end of the world and the coming of the new creation, the new heavens and new earth. Since all of that is prophesied in the old covenant, it would mean that it's fulfilled at the time of the cross, or let's say on the day of Pentecost. And there are those who actually believe that that is the case. But see what they would have to do to be consistent is to say that their entire eschatological scheme, their entire end times program is fulfilled at the cross. And at one time, we had a gentleman who did that very thing. And there are probably still some people out there who are doing it. I just debated the guy who, in essence, at least takes that in part, but he understands he can't hold that view all the way through because he got to get his end time program in somewhere. But he knows those prophecies are in the Old Testament. A gentleman by the name of C.H. Dodd, in the past held that all eschatological prophecies, all end time prophecies were fulfilled at the time of the cross. And that just didn't work. There was another gentleman by the name of Albert Schweitzer, who held that contrary to what C.H. Dodd said, that all Bible prophecy would be fulfilled at some point in the future. And so separating it from the cross. Now, the difficulty or the problem with the two of them was that they both had opposite ends of the same subject. And the problem with them was how they were applying it and the timeframe. But let's move on from there. So let's look at a couple of scriptures. In the 24th chapter of the book of Acts, Acts chapter 24 and the verse is verses are 13 through 15. Paul was on trial and the Jews who wanted to have him killed made an accusation against him by saying that he was teaching things contrary to the law of Moses, to the law and the prophets. In other words, they said he had a new gospel, this gospel that he was teaching about Jesus Christ being raised from the dead and that was going to come in their generation was a false gospel. It was not what was taught in the law and the prophets that was their charge against him. But here's what Paul said in Acts 24, beginning at verse 13, he says, nor can they prove the things of which they now accuse me. So it's one thing to make the accusation, but it's another thing altogether to prove the accusation. And Paul said they could not prove what they were saying. They could not prove that he had deviated or took a detour or went around the law and the prophets to get to his doctrine on Jesus Christ and his coming. But here's his response. He said, but this, I confess to you that according to the way which they call a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers. Now watch this, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets. So Paul said, even though they're charging me with heresy, he says, I believe all things which are written in the law and in the prophets. Now of what did that consist? The next verse will tell us and notice that it doesn't point back to the cross to say that's when all things written in the law and the prophets were fulfilled. Paul actually places it in the future to the time that he spoke in Acts chapter 24, as recorded here. But he said it was not in the remote future, the far distant future, as in thousands of years away, as many people believe today. So in verse 15, he says, I have hope in God. So this was his hope number one. And that means that it wasn't yet fulfilled. So the cross wasn't the time of the fulfilling of the hope. I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept. So these very Jews who were accusing Paul had the same hope in terms of looking forward to a hope that was yet unfulfilled. Now they had some different ideas about what it was. But in terms of it being fulfilled at some time in the future, they had that same hope based on the law and the prophets. And then he says that there will be now for the English reader, it appears to just be generic. But that is not correct. When you look the word in the Greek or the verse in the Greek, it will actually say there is about to be and you can get some translations or you can go to Bible Hub and pull this up and look at the interlinear for this verse. And it will tell you exactly what it's saying, because the word here is the word mellow, M-E-L-L-O. And that word means to be about to do something, to be on the verge of doing something. It's right on the cusp. And so what Paul was actually saying was that he had hope in God, which they themselves also accepted that there was about to be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust. Now we didn't write this, those of us who are preterists, we didn't write this text. It was written by Luke recording the words of Paul in the first century. And he wrote that the resurrection of the just and the unjust was about to occur. And that doesn't mean 2000 years away. Now, since they're saying we deny the day of the Lord and the judgment text, this is the day of the Lord, because it's the time of the resurrection. It's the time when God would raise the dead ones. But let's go further. In the same chapter, in verse 25, the text says, now, as he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment, and of course, he's speaking to Felix at this time. The Bible says, as he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come. Now, once again, you have the text, not accurately or precisely translated. To come is just generic. It seems like it's out there in the future. And you have no clue as to when it might occur. And that's what the futurists believe. And that's what they teach. And that's why they say, we don't accept these passages dealing with the day of the Lord. But this is the day of the Lord. But notice what he says, particularly, again, when you look it up in the Greek, use the same source before or any source that you can find, the interlinear or the Greek, where to show both English and Greek. Notice, the text actually says, now, as he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment about to come, just like he spoke of the resurrection that was about to occur, same word is used, mellow. He speaks of the judgment about to come. But that's not all. If we go to the 26th chapter of the book of Acts, Paul is going to tell us that he exclusively used the law and the prophets to teach his end time views. But watch what he says about it. In Acts, the 26th chapter, verses 22 and 23, he says, therefore, having obtained help from God, to this day I stand, witnessing both too small and great, saying no other things. In other words, Paul didn't have a gospel that was based on some prophecies in the Old Testament, in the law and the prophets, and then some new ones in the New Testament. That's what a lot of these futurists think. They think that there are some new prophecies in the New Testament. That's not what Paul said. Listen up very carefully. He said, therefore, having obtained help from God, to this day I stand, witnessing both too small and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said were about to come. The word mellow is used here as well. Same word. I don't know why the translators didn't translate it accurately, but you can get some literal translations and read it in English, even if you don't go to Bible Hub and look it up. But most of you, I believe, are familiar with Bible Hub, and therefore you can go there and look it up. And so, what was he teaching? That the Christ would suffer, that he would be the first to rise from the dead, and would proclaim light to the Jews, or the Judeans, and to the Gentiles. So, what he's saying is, the message regarding Christ, according to the law and the prophets, was about to occur in that first century generation. That's what he's saying. And that's the understanding, the belief, and the teaching that we have regarding the day of the Lord. All right, let me give you another text that is dealing with the same thing. In 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 1, the Bible says, Christ was about to judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. So, that's the appearing. That would be the coming of the Lord. It's the judgment. It's the coming of the kingdom, and showing us, therefore, that he was about to judge the living and the dead at his appearing and at his kingdom. And so, he says, I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is about to judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. So, there was judgment, resurrection, the coming of the Lord, and the coming of the kingdom about to occur in 2 Timothy 4 and verse 1. So, that word mellow is used in all of those passages to indicate that nearness. Now, something else that we said concerning the day of the Lord, and that was, it would be fulfilled when all Bible prophecy is said to be fulfilled. Now, Jesus spoke in Matthew 24, or it's recorded in Matthew 24 in his Olivet Discourse, where we have parallels in Mark 13 and in Luke chapter 21. And in Luke's version of it, he said, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who in the countries enter her. Why? For these are the days. These are the days, not sometime in the future of our generation. But Jesus is saying, when you see these Roman armies surrounding Jerusalem, that was in the first century, that would happen in their lifetime. When you see that, then know that Jerusalem's desolation and destruction is near. And that's when he told them, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those from the midst of her depart, and let not those who in the countries enter her. Why? For these are the days of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled. So, all things written would be fulfilled. That's Jesus connecting that with the fall of the temple that occurred in 70 AD. And this is why we teach that, because that's what the Bible says. You can read it for yourself in Luke 21, 20 through 22. Then in verse 31 and 32, we've already told you about the kingdom coming from 2 Timothy 4. But he says, so likewise you, when you see all these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God has drawn near. Assuredly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Matthew says, assuredly I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. So Jesus placed them within that first century generation, and he placed it in connection with the fall of the temple. Now here's something else he said in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 18. He says, do not think that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. Assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle will in no wise pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Now what did he mean by till heaven and earth pass? Some people believe that that's a reference to the physical heaven and earth, to the material heaven and earth in which we live, but that's not the case. Heaven and earth was the temple for Israel because the most holy place was the place where God's throne was, and it was from there that he commanded the people, communicated with them, and that's where the high priest had to go in order to be in the presence of God on behalf of the people. The holy place was considered the earthly sanctuary, and thus heaven and earth. Now when you go to Hebrews chapter 9 and read verse 1, it will tell you that the first tabernacle had ordinances of a divine sanctuary and also an earthly sanctuary, and he explains it in verses 1 through 6 where they go into the first part, the earthly, and then the high priest once a year goes alone into the most holy place which was considered the heavenly part of the tabernacle, and that's the heaven and earth. So that text is parallel to Luke chapter 21 verses 20 through 22 that talked about the temple being destroyed, and here's what Jesus said. He said, assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass, till the temple falls, not one jot or tittle would pass from the law till all of it was fulfilled. So you can't have it fulfilled at the cross. It has to be in connection with the fall of the temple. He didn't come to destroy it. He came to fulfill it, and that's how we connect those dots. Now we're going to have to pick up on this study on next week because we just simply do not have the time to cover it all, but hopefully that lays enough of a foundation. We're talking about the day of the Lord. We're going to bring Joel chapter 2 and 3, Zechariah chapter 14, Matthew 25, 31 through 46, and a couple of other New Testament passages that talk about the day of the Lord when we come back on next week. Before we go, I'd like to encourage you to pick up a copy of our book called, Will Planet Earth Be Destroyed?, and this book has really enlightened a lot of people on the end of the world, and I know that currently we're in times where people believe that the end of the world is imminent because there are many wars that are going on and others that are rumored to be happening. Of course, we have all this high-tech weaponry and artillery, etc. It's so much devastation that's going on, and so people think we're at the time of the end and what's going to happen to us, etc., but this book will at least give you some truth and encouragement regarding the end of the world. It also goes into a detailed study of 2 Peter chapter 3, pretty much verse by verse, so you can understand that chapter as well. Now, the cost of the book is only $15, and that's plus shipping, and so we'll make sure that there's a link for you to get it, but you can go to our website which is allthingsfulfilled.com forward slash shop, allthingsfulfilled.com forward slash shop, and then you can select the book at that link. The last thing that I'd like to encourage you to do is join our newsletter which is absolutely free. It's no cost to you, and it's just allthingsfulfilled.com forward slash subscribe, allthingsfulfilled.com forward slash subscribe. Well, that's all the time that we have. I'm William Bell. You have a very pleasant evening, and we look forward to seeing you in our next broadcast. Thanks for watching.