Michigan Camp Meeting 2017

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Understanding Difficult Topics

Terry Nelson

1. Understanding and Explaining the Secret Rapture

And so let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Our dear, kind, heavenly Father, I just want to thank You so much for each 1 of us here today.

And Lord, as we're here today, we just want You to be glorified.

And so I'm asking for you to reach out and open our hearts and give us understanding on this important topic.

We love you so much in Your precious name.

Well, surely all of you have heard about the secret rapture, right?

And the question is, okay, how do you refute that?

I know that 1 time I was doing a series of meetings down in Kalamazoo, and I had a family that was coming, and they came every night for the first 4 nights.

And then I just went in and I nailed the rapture.

And I finally, after visiting with them, I finally had to ask them the question.

Well, you know, thinking that through, I wasn't too wise to do it when I did it.

And that's 1 of the things that I encourage people when they're giving Bible studies, when the question comes up, what about the rapture?

Or I don't worry about that because I'm going to be gone.

That is not what you want to start out tackling.

So, let them think what they're going to think.

What they're going to do is they're going to see as time goes on as you study the Scriptures, they're going to see the Bible is going to expose many errors that people in Christianity believe today.

And because of that, you're going to find the fact that they will be more open to the whole idea of, okay, then this isn't sound either.

Well, I got you a sheet because I want you to have something for you to take back with you.

Something that you can actually fill out and take home with you.

So the first question is, where does the idea of the secret rapture come from?

Well, you know, ultimately, I would believe you are right.

Okay, out of the Reformation, what about the Reformation?

You see, in the Reformation period, they began to look at the pope as the antichrist of Daniel 7.

And so they began to say, how do we refute that?

And so there was a couple Jesuit priests, 1 was Francisco Ribeiro, that came up with the idea of, okay, no, this was not the pope, but sometime in the future.

And so you have basically 3 views of prophecy.

Your preterist that believes everything in the Bible prophecy-wise was fulfilled in 70 A.D.

And I've visited with some preterists on that, and I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that, but it's interesting because I asked him the question, how do you explain Daniel 2, the image of Nebuchadnezzar?

And I said, well then why would you follow a doctrine that you can't substantiate fully?

Then you have the futuristic view that everything's in the future, and you get a lot of people believe that today.

Prophecy is yet to be fulfilled, it's all in the future, don't worry about it, it's gonna happen.

And then as Seventh-day Adventists, we believe in a historical view of prophecy, which means the Bible prophecy takes it from the time that it is given and expands it down to the time of the end.

And it only makes sense when you look at it that way.

But it was a real collaboration to try and take the focus off of papal Rome during the Dark Age period, during the Reformation time.

I looked up the definition of the word rapture, And the word rapture out of the Oxford Dictionary is the transporting of believers to heaven at the second coming of Jesus.

So there's nothing wrong with the idea of saying, well, you know, at some time we're going to be raptured.

The problem, and I believe soon, but the problem comes when you have this whole idea of a secret rapture where Jesus is going to come in 2 phases.

First phase is He comes and He takes those that are really, really, really, really ready, and then those that aren't quite ready, He gives them another chance to get ready, another 7 years, and then He literally comes, but in the midst of the 7 years, there's going to be the rise of the Antichrist.

Well, can you see how that would draw the attention away from papal Rome?

I'll put a couple paragraphs in here that I want to just quickly read to you.

The origin of the two-phase coming of Christ started around the year 1830.

In a Scottish church pastored by Edward Urban, a Miss Margaret MacDonald gave what was to believe at the time an inspired utterance.

She spoke of the visible, open, and glorious second coming of Christ.

But as the utterance continued, she spoke of another coming of Christ.

A secret and special coming in which those who were truly ready..." Did you catch that?

I want to submit to you, those going to heaven will be truly ready.

However, it was John Nelson Darby, a brethren preacher and diligent writer of the time in England, who was largely responsible for introducing this new teaching on a large scale.

The teaching spread to the United States in the 50's and 60's where it was to receive its biggest boost when Cyrus Ingersoll Schofield..." anybody recognize that name?

A strong believer in Darby's teaching, incorporated into the notes of his Schofield reference Bible, which was published in 1909.

Since that time, this view has been widely accepted, often by people who are completely unaware that this was not the belief held by Christians over the centuries.

Many fine Christians hold this view today who have never questioned its authority." Think that's true?

People accept the fact that they've been taught the truth.

And when they find out it's not biblical, they're amazed.

We don't want to learn something new if it means a change.

Change in lifestyle, change in habits, change in theology.

So we take and decide that we want to fight against it.

So the question is, how do you define the rapture?

2. The 2300 Day Prophecy

Our dear, kind, heavenly Father, we want to say thank You so much for each 1 that is here today.

And Lord, as we're here, we're asking for the Holy Spirit to come and be our teacher.

I was teaching this class in a church 1 time when a lady said to me out of frustration, why do I have to know this anyways?

You see, if you don't know why you believe it, you will eventually lose it.

And that's the same with all of our truths.

If you don't believe all of the truth of the Bible and understand why you have made a decision to believe it, you eventually will be persuaded to do something different.

And so that's why this class, I feel, is very important, because I believe as Adventists, we used to be known as the people of the book.

But I've got to tell you, we're not known as that anymore.

But the reality is, is many people don't study their Bible anymore.

Many people just show up and they listen.

It's almost like punching in the time clock.

So I believe this topic is very important.

I want to draw it out on a board as we go, but I think you need some background as to why.

And so I very quickly want to go through Daniel chapter 8.

I'm not going to do an exhaustive study on Daniel chapter 8.

I normally take a whole session and do on Daniel chapter 8.

When I do evangelism, I take Daniel chapter by chapter, and then Revelation chapter by chapter, and it's amazing how they tie together.

And I'll take a whole night on Daniel Chapter 8.

But I can't afford to do that because we need to get through the 2, 300 days.

But I think you need to see the background as to what this is all about.

And I want to share with you a theory out there that just goes along with the whole idea of the rapture, because remember, that's 1 of the reasons we flopped our subjects, is because we want to understand the whole issue of the 7 years of tribulation, where did they get it, what is the cause of it, and all of that.

And I just want to highlight some things for you.

If you look at verse 3, it says, I lifted my eyes...

I lifted mine eyes and saw, and behold, there stood before a river a ram.

And I saw the ram pushing westward and northward and southward so that no beast could stand before Him.

Neither was there any that could deliver out of His hand.

But He did according to His will and became what?

Great." Now I want you to remember that word, Great.

Verse 5, and as I was considering, behold, a he-goat..." Some translations say a rough goat.

"...came from the west on the face of the whole earth and touched not the ground, and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.

And he came to the ram which had 2 horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power.

And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with kohler..." That word means hatred against him.

"...and smote the ram and break his 2 horns.

And there was no power in the ram to stand before him.

But he cast him down to the ground and stamped upon him, but there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.

Therefore, the he-goat waxed..." How much?

And for it came up 4 notable horns toward the 4 winds of heaven.

And out of 1 of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great." So the little horn waxed What?

Toward the south and toward the east and toward the pleasant land.

And it waxed great even to the host of heaven.

And it cast down some of the hosts and of the stars to the ground and stamped upon them.

Yea, He magnified Himself even to..." Who?

"...magnified himself even to the prince of the hosts.

Now, if you look at your Bible, what do you notice about that word sacrifice?

It means it was not in the original language, but was rather supplied by the translators.

Now, sometimes they always do it to try and give you a better explanation.

I think in this case, it would have been better off left out.

Because when you think of daily sacrifice, what do you think of?

The sanctuary and these sin offerings and all of that.

But when you look at this, He's magnifying this little horn is magnifying Himself even to the prince of the hosts, which is who?

3. The 1000 Years of Peace

Our dear, kind Heavenly Father, thank You so much for each 1 that is here this afternoon.

And Lord, as we're here, we want to learn.

And so, Lord, they don't want to hear from me.

So I'm asking for the Holy Spirit to come and teach us about this important topic.

Why is that an important topic to understand?

Because there's so much misunderstanding.

Some people think Jesus is going to come and stand on this earth and walk around this earth for a thousand years.

Some people think it's going to be a thousand years utopia or a thousand years of peace.

And so we need to know what does the Bible teach about this thousand years, and how can you do it in a simplified form that helps people to understand.

Now once again as you can see I like graphs and I like participation and I like things that we can take home with us and so you've got a graph in your hand I'd like us to fill it out together.

And as you fill it out together, you will have something that before your very eyes will open up that I believe will become very, very clear.

And I'd like to invite you to take your Bibles and go with me to Revelation 19.

And Revelation 19 is an overview of the closing scenes of this earth.

And I want to quickly start with verse 7.

And I'm not going to go through this conclusively, but I just want to set a stage for you.

And in verse 7, it says, "'Let us be glad and rejoice and honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.

And he said unto me, Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

And he saith unto me, These are the true saints of God.

And he said unto me, Seeth thou do it not?

For I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren, and have the testimony of Jesus.

Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is..." What?

"...and I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse..." Now, white means what?

And He that sat upon Him was called Faithful and True.

And in righteousness He does judge and make war.

His eyes were as flames of fire, and on His head were many crowns.

And He had a name written that no man knew, but He Himself.

And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and His name is called?

The Word of God." John says, "...in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." That's right, amen.

Verse 14, "...and the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses." Who's all that?

"...in clothed in fine linen, white and clean, and out of his mouth, " verse 15, "...goeth forth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations and he should rule them with a rod of iron.

And he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of the Almighty God.

And he had on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

And I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather yourself together unto the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of captains and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great." And it comes down, jump down to verse 20, "...and a beast was taken in with him, the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, which had deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image.

These both were cast alive into a lake of fire." What do we know that as?

Now, I want you to see, what ground have we covered?

That's 1 of those like, where's that found?

We started second coming, Jesus coming on a white horse, His army's coming with Him, they come down, and then you see all of a sudden the scene change, and there's this great feast of other birds, right?

And then you come down to the very end and you see a time in which they're cast into the lake of fire which we know as hellfire.

So this is an overview basically of Revelation 20, 21, and 22.

Now, we want to take a look at Revelation 20 because as you look at Revelation 20, you need to understand that it helps us to know the 3 phases of judgment.

We know The first phase has to do with what we call the investigative judgment.

Now, you're not going to find those words in the Bible like that.

But what do you call it when Jesus is standing before the Father, going over the records, and seeing what proof there is as to whether or not you're a child of God or not.

He's in the first phase of judgment right now.

The key is how much longer is He going to be there?

We learned yesterday when we went through the 2, 300 years that started in 1844, He's been going some 173 years.

We don't know, and I'm not about to try and set a date.

I'm just simply saying to you, I believe it's near.

And so it's very important for us to understand because Jesus was spending 3 1⁄2 years with His disciples physically, right?

In Matthew 24, What's his number 1 concern for his disciples about when he leaves?

He says, take heed that no man deceive you.

And I'll tell you what, there's so many things out there that you can believe.

And I've got to tell you, even in the Adventist church, you have to be solid on knowing what the Bible teaches and stand upon the promises of the Bible regardless of whether it's popular or not.

I believe the Seventh-day Adventist Church is the remnant church of Bible prophecy.

But I will tell you, there's trouble brewing.

You've got to know why you believe what you believe.

Don't just accept it because some preacher says so.

4. The Mark of the Beast

Our dear, kind Heavenly Father, I want to thank You so much for each 1 that is here.

And as we're here, we just pray that You will take and lead us, guide us, direct us, and that Lord, Your Holy Spirit will teach us that we'll understand this topic.

We love You so much in Your precious name, Amen.

If I can't keep up with you, I'm going to pray for me.

What I want to ask is what is the mark of the beast?

I had a person that I'd baptized that began to give Bible studies.

And he was giving Bible studies to his nephew.

And as he was giving Bible studies to his nephew, his nephew said to him 1 day, he says, Uncle Tom, what is this whole issue with the mark of the beast?

Now when I teach people to do Bible studies, I teach them you keep the topics in order and you don't get out of order because they're a foundation.

They begin to build to where when you get to the topics, then they'll be understandable.

Well, you know, family and pressure and all of that, and he finally urged and coaxed and finally he said, well, Alright.

And he said, oh, Uncle Tom, that isn't right.

Most of the world goes to church on Sunday.

And he came back and he talked to me and I said, well, you know the Cardinal rule.

And I said, that's exactly what happens if you don't have the foundation.

You can say to somebody that the mark of the beast is Sunday worship.

As you begin to think about this whole situation, I think it's important for us to understand a couple of items.

Because if we don't, many people will simply say, oh, you're nuts.

So I want us to understand today, how could we explain the issue of the mark of the beast?

Because the majority of Christianity today will tell you it doesn't really matter when I go to church.

And The thing that I want us to understand is I believe that it does make a difference as to what we do.

So, I'm going to move very quickly through this, but I'd like to take you and your Bibles to Daniel 7.

And in Daniel 7, Daniel receives a vision.

This comes about 13-14 years before the overthrow of the Babylonian kingdom.

I'm going to start with verse 1 and I'm going to read right down through it.

I want you to begin to stop and think of what he sees.

In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed.

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Understanding Difficult Topics

5. The United States in Bible Prophecy

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