Secrets Unsealed

ANCHOR School of Theology

Stephen Bohr

1. Principles for the Study of Bible Prophecy- Part 1

2. Principles for the Study of Bible Prophecy- Part 2

3. Principles for the Study of Bible Prophecy- Part 3

4. Notes on Daniel 2

5. The Importance of the Historical Flow Method- Part 1

6. The Importance of the Historical Flow Method- Part 2

7. Christ is the Center of Bible Prophecy Part 1

8. Christ is the Center of Bible Prophecy Part 2

9. A Providential Election

10. The Sabbath and Redemption

11. The Son (God) and the number 666

12. Who’s Hero Is Jesus Christ?

13. What Was Literal & Local is Spiritual & Global

14. The Flood Story As An Illustration of Historical Typology

15. The Year-Day Principle

16. God’s Israel: Understood Globally and Spiritually

17. Israel and the Fig Tree Part 1

18. Israel and the Fig Tree Part 2

19. The Stoning of Steven.. The Last Straw

20. How to Interpret Biblical Symbolism Part 1

21. How to Interpret Biblical Symbolism Part 2

22. The Sanctuary Sequence in the Book of Revelation

23. Daniel’s Little Sealed Book

24. Revelation 10

25. The Importance of Literary Structure in the Study of the Millennium Part 1

26. The Importance of Literary Structure in the Study of the Millennium Part 2

27. Revelation 12-22

28. How All the Books of the Bible Meet and End in Revelation

29. Learn how to use the writings of Ellen G. White- Part 1

30. Learn how to use the writings of Ellen G. White- Part 2

What I want us to deal with at this time is the principle that states that the historical flow method is the key that must be used in order to understand properly Bible prophecy.

Now I'm not going to follow what we find in the outline.

You can read what we have in the outline under this point.

What I'm going to do is present the material that is titled The Dangers of Futurism.

And as soon as we finish this material, you're going to be able to answer all of the questions that are found in the syllabus, and so we won't follow the syllabus but we are going to cover the material that is found there in the syllabus.

And so we are going to take a look at the material that is titled The Dangers of Futurism.

At 1 of our workers meetings recently here in the conference that I work in we were discussing the signs that indicate that Jesus is soon to come and that He is even at the door.

The pastors were presenting different signs in the world that indicated that the event is imminent, and in the midst of the conversation 1 of the pastors stood up and confidently affirmed.

I'm not too concerned about what's coming or how He's coming, my only concern is who is coming.

At the time it sounded like a nice soundbite, But upon closer reflection it is a very dangerous thing not to know what's coming and how Jesus is coming.

I might say that several of the pastors said a hearty Amen to this statement, perhaps thoughtlessly.

Now some Christians believe that Jesus Christ will return before the tribulation, other Christians believe that Jesus will come in the middle of the tribulation, and others believe that Jesus will come at the end of the tribulation period.

Now at Seventh-day Adventist we believe that Jesus will come at the end of the tribulation period, we believe that God's people will go through the end time tribulation, but most Christians today do not believe that.

And you might be wondering who cares whether the coming of Jesus is pre-trib, mid-trib, or post-trib.

Isn't it only important that Jesus is going to come at some point, who cares whether it's before, during, or after the tribulation.

Well if you tune in your television on Sunday mornings you will receive a steady diet of end-time scenarios, and all of these end-time scenarios are very similar.

The predominant 1 is what we call futurism.

It is the standard view of conservative Christians such as evangelicals, Baptists, and people of a charismatic persuasion.

Although there are minor variations in details, they are in harmony when it comes to the common denominators of this view.

It actually characterizes most of the television evangelists that come across the airwaves on Sunday.

Now what is this futurist view of Bible prophecy that has been embraced by most conservative Christians.

The fundamental view of futurists is that God has 2 radically different plans, 1 for literal Israel and the other for the Christian church.

In other words God's plan for the Jews and God's plan for the church are radically different from 1 another and they are mutually exclusive.

Now I want to share with you what the scenario of futurism looks like.

Basically the entire scenario is based on their understanding of the prophecy of the 70 weeks as well as their understanding of the millennium, and we'll deal with the millennium a little bit later on.

You see for them the 70 weeks are to be understood as 490 years as Seventh-day Adventists believe, but they believe that the 70 weeks begin in the days of Nehemiah, when Nehemiah went to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem in the year 445 BC.

As Adventists we believe that the 70 weeks begin in 457 BC, but they believe that the 70 weeks begin in 445 BC.

Now they believe that the first 69 weeks, the first 483 years flow consecutively without interruption, and they end according to them in the year 33 with the first coming of Jesus.

Now we know that it's the year 31 but they begin later and they end 2 years later than what Adventists believe.

Now they teach that when Jesus came He offered the Jews His literal kingdom and the Jewish nation rejected the kingdom that Jesus offered them, and therefore Jesus had to go to a plan B.

Because the Jewish nation rejected the Messiah none of the events of the 70th week could be fulfilled, because Jesus came at the beginning, at the end rather of the 69th week, and so because the Jews rejected Jesus the 70th week could not be fulfilled.

You see what they do is they separate week number 70 from the previous 69 weeks.

Basically they say that the first 69 weeks flowed and ended with the coming of Jesus in the year 33, but then the 70th week could not be fulfilled immediately after because the Jews rejected Jesus Christ.

So what God did was to suspend His plan for the literal Jewish nation, in other words He put it on hold.

Week number 70 was never fulfilled consecutively with the first 69 weeks, And so they say that during the last 20 centuries God has been dealing with the Gentiles or with the church, what they call the church age or the period of the times of the Gentiles.

The plan for the Jews has been put on hold and for 20 centuries plus God has been dealing with the church, and week number 70 has never been fulfilled yet.

It is severed or separated from the first 69.

Now they believe that when the Jewish state was reestablished in 1948 that this was a very significant event.

In fact they believe that this is the most significant event that indicates that the coming of Jesus, that the rapture is imminent, the reestablishment of the nation of Israel in 1948.

They say this is the catalytic event that is going to indicate that Jesus is coming very very soon.

And then of course in the 1967 war when the Jews recovered certain portions of territory they said this is further evidence that the coming of Jesus in the rapture is very imminent and is going to happen very soon.

So they believe that the plan for the Jews was suspended at the end of week number 69, the 70th week was never fulfilled immediately after the 69, for 20 centuries plus God has suspended His plan for the literal Jewish nation and now He is engrafting the Gentiles which is known as the church age or the times of the Gentiles.

Now they believe that when the times of the Gentiles come to an end, when the church age comes to an end, the prophetic clock for Israel will begin to tick again, and the 70th week will begin to be fulfilled with an interval of over 2, 000 years between the first 69 and the 70th week.

They believe that the event that will mark the beginning of the last week or the last 7 years of Daniel 9 is what they call the rapture of the church.

According to them the times of the Gentiles will come to an end, the church age will come to an end when the church is raptured to heaven invisibly.

People will suddenly vanish, drivers will disappear, pilots will vanish, and there will be chaos and disorder everywhere.

Believers will be caught up to heaven, and those who are not ready along with the literal Jews will be left behind.

Now 1 of the great proponents of this is called Hal Lindsey and he calls the rapture the great snatch.

He also wrote a book titled Vanished into Thin Air.

In other words people are going to disappear everywhere on planet earth in the rapture, they will be taken to heaven with Jesus, and then they believe that the Holy Spirit will be withdrawn from the earth, and the events From Revelation 4 verse 1 to Revelation 19 will begin to be fulfilled.

They believe that Revelation 4 verse 1 where God says to John, come up hither, that that expression come up hither is referring to the rapture that John symbolizes the church and it's talking about the rapture of the church.

And so they believe that from Revelation 4 verse 1 all the way through Revelation chapter 19 it deals exclusively with the Jews after the rapture of the church.

Now they believe that during the last 7 years of the prophecy of the 70 weeks, during this last week of the 70 week prophecy, at the beginning a personal Antichrist, an individual will rise to power and he will rule over a 10 nation Roman Federation which they understand to be the 10 horns of Daniel 7 and the 10 horns that we find in Revelation chapter 12 and Revelation chapter 13.

And so they believe that this Antichrist will rise to power and during the first 1260 days of his dominion things will go quite well for the Jews.

In fact he's going to sign a peace treaty with the Jews and he will favor them, he will rebuild the Jewish temple and the sacrificial system will be reestablished and all will appear to be well.

But lo and behold what the Jews don't realize is that this individual, this nice person during these 3 and a half years is the Antichrist, but he's hidden his identity.

At the beginning of the final 42 months, because they separate the 1260 days from the 42 months, they take the 42 months to be the last 3 and a half years of the 70-week prophecy.

So after the 42 literal months, or at the beginning rather of the 42 months, the ruler of the 10 nation federation who is the Antichrist will unveil himself and will reveal his true colors.

Lo and behold he is the predicted Antichrist of Scripture.

He will be a blasphemous individual, he will blaspheme Christ and he will persecute the Jews.

He will sit in a literal Jerusalem temple that has been rebuilt and will have a literal image built of himself and he will command everyone to bow down and worship the literal image, and whoever doesn't worship will be killed.

He will put a tattoo on the forehead or on the right hand of individuals who do not worship the beast or his image.

They teach that during this time a hundred and forty-four thousand converted Jews will become Billy Graham's and will preach against the Antichrist and launch a merciless persecution against the Jews.

This will be the time of Jacob's trouble.

They believe that during this time literal Moses and Elijah will resurrect, and then they will be killed for witnessing against the Antichrist.

At the end of the 42 months or the last week of Daniel 9 the Antichrist will come to his ignominious end.

Jesus will come gloriously, literally, and visibly from heaven with those that He took to heaven 7 years before, and He will destroy the Antichrist, and He will deliver literal Israel from the time of Jacob's trouble.

Then Jesus will establish on earth his literal kingdom for a thousand years, the millennium, and people will live here in their mortal state, and Jesus will rule them with a rod of iron.

So is the futurist scenario that is being fed to millions of people every Sunday morning on television, and it is believed as gospel truth by conservative Christians all over the world.

Now let's ask as Seventh-day Adventists what implications does this interpretation of prophecy have for us?

I have several things that we're going to take a look at, it has severe implications for Seventh-day Adventist theology, Seventh-day Adventist mission, and the very existence of the Seventh-day Adventist church.

So let's take a look at a few things that happen with Adventist interpretation when we adopt, or if we should adopt the futurist scenario.

Point number 1, if the fulfillment of Revelation 4 through 19 is future with literal Israel After the church is gone from earth what relevance do the 3 angels messages have today?

None, because if Revelation 4 through 19 is going to be fulfilled in the future with the literal Jews after the church has gone to heaven the 3 angels messages apply to that time not to this time.

So what the devil is telling people, and I've had people tell me this in Revelation seminars, they say well we don't worry about Revelation 14 that happens after the rapture, And so what has happened the devil has muted the very central message of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Ellen White has expressed the importance of the 3 angels messages.

The first is in volume 6 of the Testimonies pages 17 and 18.

She says the 3 angels of Revelation 14 are represented as flying in the midst of heaven, symbolizing the work of those who proclaim the first, second, and third angels messages.

The evidence is of the abiding ever-living truth of these grand messages that mean so much to the church, that have awakened such intense opposition from the religious world, are not extinct.

Satan, now listen carefully to this, Satan is constantly seeking to cast a shadow about these messages, so that the people of God shall not clearly discern 3 things.

Their import, what is meant by the word import?

Their time, that is when they're fulfilled, and what?

The devil is trying to cast a shadow over them.

And she continues saying, but they live and are to exert their power upon our religious experience while time shall last.

In another statement that we find in early writings page 256 this is a significant statement.

Ellen White says that most Adventists are going to forsake the 3 angels messages, but there will be no decrease in the people that are in God's ranks because multitudes will come into the Adventist church.

Many who embraced the third message had not had an experience in the former 2 messages.

This is talking about 1844, See the Millerites proclaimed the first 2 and there were people who were being converted that had not had the experience in the first 2.

Satan understood this and his evil eye was upon them to overthrow them.

But the third angel was pointing them to the most holy place, and those who had had an experience in the past messages were pointing them the way to the heavenly sanctuary, because we're going to notice that the third angel's message is closely related with the most holy place of the sanctuary.

Series

ANCHOR School of Theology

5. The Importance of the Historical Flow Method- Part 1

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

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ANCHOR School of Theology

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