Premillennialism Part 4

Introduction

Well, we are continuing the series on premillennialism. Now, I think I’ve heard about four of you try to say premillennialism and you’ve mispronounced it every time. That’s okay. It’s a hard word. But do we begin to understand what it means? The basic idea, and this is a doctrine of man. And the basic idea of the doctrine is that Christ’s return will be pre or before he sets up a millennial or thousand year literal reign in Jerusalem on earth. And so we’re asking the question through this series is it true? And I’m not only wanting to get up here and tell you why not to believe in this doctrine, I’m wanting you to understand the doctrine because we’re surrounded, we’re immersed with it. Virtually everybody who calls themselves Christian, at least a great majority, believes in this theory.

1. The Reoccupation of Palestine by the Jews

And so it’s very helpful that we understand where people are coming from, uh, and then we can explain why it’s not true. So, we’re going to look at three things. We’re going to look at the reoccupation of Palestine by the Jews with a question mark. We’re going to ask, what about the temple and animal sacrifices? Will that all come about in the future? And we’re going to talk about what about the battle of Armageddon. So, beginning with the reoccupation of Palestine by the Jews. According to dispensationalism, Palestine will be reclaimed by the Jews shortly before the second coming. During the Great Tribulation that’s in the future, they say. And in fact, uh the general consensus in this those who subscribe to this theory is that this must take place before Christ returns.

And so the first question we want to ask in examining this is regarding the land promise that was given to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. You remember that promise that was given to Abraham in Genesis twelve, and that his descendants would inherit the land of Canaan. Well, has that promise already been fulfilled? The premillennialists would say, Well, not completely, but the Bible teaches. In Joshua chapter 21, in verses 43 through 45, now this is fast forwarding from the time of Abraham, we got get all the way into the invasion and conquest of the land, and now they have staked their claim on the land. And we read, so the Lord gave Israel all the land which he had sworn to give to their fathers, and they possessed it and lived in it.

And the Lord gave them rest on every side, according to all that he had sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before them. The Lord gave all their enemies into their hand. Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed. All came to pass. So the answer to our question, has it already been fulfilled, is yes. But the pre-millennialists would say, Well, the land was promised to Abraham’s seed forever. Genesis thirteen and verse fifteen. And that is true. The passage does say that it was promised forever. But what the premillennialist says, and what a lot of Jews today think is that that means that the Jews still have a right to the land today, because the promise was forever.

But what they fail to realize is that retaining the land was conditional upon their faithfulness. Listen to what Joshua says in Joshua twenty three, fifteen and sixteen. It shall come to pass that just as all the good words which the Lord your God spoke to you have come upon you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the threats until he has destroyed you from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you. When you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded to you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and you will perish quickly from off the good land which he has given you.

So it’s conditional upon their obedience. And they disobeyed, and so they were dismissed from the land. The premierist might say, Well, what about Genesis 17 and verse 8 that the land was promised as an everlasting possession? Well, that word everlasting is an interesting word that the Hebrew word that is translated everlasting can mean age long or just long time. And so the Jews did obtain the land for a long time. But if this everlasting meant permanently, they would always have it forever. Well, what about the last two thousand years? And what about after the thousand years are over? So it can’t mean forever, just into all eternity. We understand that. And so long time is the way we understand that term. That’s what it has to mean in this context.

Now, a related question is has the return to the land already occurred? Passages like Isaiah 10 prophesy that there would be a remnant that would return to the land of promise. Well, that was stated by Isaiah during the time of the divided kingdom. That was before the return from captivity, it was before the captivity. He had the seventy years of Babylonian captivity, and after the seventy years of captivity were over, this is over 500 years before Christ. We have Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest leading about 50,000 Jews after that declaration, after that decree, rather, by Cyrus, king of Persia. And the return, the first faith happened at that time, and then several decades later we have a second return, led by Ezra. And Nehemiah came in about 445 B.C.

to rebuild the walls. So the return to the land already occurred. Therefore, no future return of the Jews to their land is prophesied. Now, what about that other, that second promise, as we normally say them land, nation, and seed. Well, the nation promise. Is the modern state of Israel the biblical nation? In 1948, it was a it was announced, it was made official. There is now a state of Israel. And I mean, this was big news. Oh, President Woodrow Wilson announced it 16 minutes after it was first made known at all. Announced it to the United States. That uh, you know, Israel is now a state, a nation. Hal Lindsay, uh, one of the famous dispensational authors, uh, he took takes that as a the rebirth of Israel and believes that within a generation or so, or believed that within a generation or so of 1948, that you should start to see the the end of everything, the great tribulation and all of that.

Well, that’s we’ve dealt with all that stuff throughout all of this. So are we to understand this modern state of Israel as the biblical nation? The answer is no. It it bears no semblance to the nation that we read about in the Bible. That nation that had a king and had a temple and had a priesthood and had the law of Moses. And we don’t see that today. In fact, many who are in that state of Israel don’t believe in God at all. They certainly cannot keep all 613 commands of the law of Moses. And so that cannot apply. It’s a far cry from the biblical nation. Furthermore, the nation promised was fulfilled back in the Old Testament. And so this begs the question what is left to be fulfilled concerning the nation of Israel?

2. What About the Temple and Animal Sacrifices

All three of the Abrahamic promises, land, nation, and seed, seed being Jesus Christ, have been fulfilled. And so what purpose would God have any longer for the nation of Israel, for the land of Israel. That purpose has been served. It has been realized in the New Testament as the Israel of God, who we are. God’s purpose has been accomplished for the nation of Israel and the land of Israel. Nothing is left to be fulfilled. Oh, but that may be simple to us, but most people who are believers do not believe what I just told you. Well, now that we’ve dealt with those questions, a related issue is what about the temple and animal sacrifices? According to dispensationalism, the temple, which now is there’s just part of it left.

And that’s just part of the, you know, the larger temple area that is left. Well, according to dispensationalism, the temple’s going to be rebuilt. In fact, it’s going to be rebuilt twice. And the first time is what they call the tribulation temple that they say will be built shortly before or during the seven years of great tribulation. They also call this the third temple because the temple’s already been destroyed and rebuilt in the past. And then when Jesus comes, they believe that that temple, the tribulation temple, is going to be destroyed, Matthew 24, and a millennial temple is going to be established or built. And this temple will be huge. It’ll be a mile wide and a mile long. It’ll be grand. Furthermore, they also believe that a sacrificial system will be instituted with priesthood, with uh many laws like the law of Moses, very mosaic type law.

So let’s kind of start to take some bites off of this. First of all, does the Bible prophesy to literal future temples? Now I did hours of study on what’s about to take me a few minutes to tell you, so please listen. I mean, you have no idea. The so-called millennial temple, and that’s not a scriptural term, is actually a symbolic temple. The main passage used is Ezekiel 40 through 48. And I don’t have the time to turn and read that, but go and look at it sometime. It is painstaking detail of measurement after measurement after measurement for this great grandiose temple in this vision. But it is not a literal temple, even though it has all those measurements. It is a symbol. How do we know that?

Well, one way is because it contains animal sacrifices. That temple was never built. And if it is something to come in the future, well, there’s no place for animal sacrifices. And we’ll talk about that in a in a moment. And there are some other topological uh impossibilities and inaccuracies, if this would be literal, that we simply can’t take the uh literally. That was loud. All right? The tribulation temple. What about the tribulation temple? The main place where they get this is from Daniel 9 and Matthew chapter 24 to talk about the abomination of desolation, you know, in the holy place, standing in the holy place and all that. Well, that means there had to be a holy place. Well, they take that future. But that’s talking about in the context of the destruction of Jerusalem that happened in AD 70.

So they’re taking something that was back here and moving it to the future. That is a common, I don’t know what you want to call it, a common practice of the premillennialists. I could also deal with 2 Thessalonians 2 right now, but I don’t have time to get into that. Verse 4 about the temple that’s mentioned there. So there’s no future temple. The church is the temple. We are the temple today. And we fulfill that idea. Furthermore, Jesus Christ has entered the holy place, which is heaven. And so the temple was it was a shadow. It was symbolic itself to teach us lessons which would be fulfilled today and have been fulfilled. Alright, now a related question. Does the Bible prophesy a future sacrificial system? Now, let me just give you an illustration.

Let’s say that you really like cars. I assume everybody here likes cars to a degree because you drive one. Let’s say you’re really into cars. What’s your favorite car? You don’t have to say it, but think it. How would you answer that? Well, your absolute top favorite car. I mean, your dream car, right? Now, in every detail. Let’s say that I told you, you know what? I have that very car for you. It’s a gift. Brand new. Never been touched. Oh. And I hand you a box about this big. And you think, are the keys in here? And you open it, and it’s a model car, just like the one you wanted. That’s what returning to an animal sacrifice system would be. You go from the real thing and go back to the model that only represents the real thing.

This is going backwards. And that’s what all of this is doing. So does the Bible prophesy a future sacrificial system? No. Any passage that is interpreted that way is taken out of context. And again, Ezekiel 4348 is the main place where they go to take this idea. It’s full of animal sacrifices in that so-called millennial temple. We know that it has to be a misinterpretation because, number one, Christ’s sacrifice voided animal sacrifices for all time. In Hebrews 10, beginning in verse 11, every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. Now, Paul’s right there. Now the premillennialist loves that last part. Which can never take away sins. And because here’s their argument. They say, well, those sacrifices in the Old Testament, they never took away sins anyway.

And so for there to be sacrifices in the future, no big deal, because they’re not there to take away sin. We understand that the blood of Jesus takes away sin. They’ll be there as a memorial. That’s the argument made. They’ll be there for clean for cleansing our uncleanness, those type of things. But that’s not the point of this. When it says that the Old Testament animal sacrifices could never take away sins, if I understand it correctly, what it’s saying is that in and of themselves, if there had never been a sacrifice of Christ, those sacrifices would have just been dead animals. What could that have done to take away your sins? But over and over in Leviticus, you read, offer this animal, and your sins will be forgiven.

And so on. And there was the day of atonement. So atonement through animal sacrifices was made in the Old Testament. We can’t deny that. Verse 12 says, and he having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until his enemies were made a footstool for his feet. For by one offering he is perfected for all time, those who are sanctified. Let me give you a little illustration. I may have used this illustration here before. I think I did. You probably haven’t heard of a balloon note mortgage. But it’s a mortgage that you can make smaller payments as long as at that last big balloon note, the whole thing is paid off. Well, let’s say that you got a mansion.

Hey, I can afford these monthly payments. This is great. And you get to enjoy all the benefits of living in this marvelous mansion. But then the term is over and the balloon note comes due, and you say, Uh-oh. I don’t have it. Well, you’re out of the house. But a friend comes and says, you know what? I’ll pay the balloon note. That’s what Jesus Christ did. He paid the balloon note. The Jews in the Old Testament with their animal sacrifices were enjoying the blessings of God. And Jesus came and paid the final price so that those other payments that were being made through my illustration, those animal sacrifices, would not have to be made anymore. Once and for all.

According to the order of Melchizedek. And just the last verse says this. For the law appoints men as high priests who are weak. That means sinful. But the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoint the Son made perfect forever. So, do we want to go from the real thing back to the play toy car? We don’t want to do that. And God does not prophesy that that will be done.

Will Christ establish a Mosaic type law in the future? Now, this, of course, as we have already seen, animal sacrifices, priests. But they also believe, you know, there’s going to be Passover. There’s going to be the new moon and feasts and the Sabbath. And it won’t completely be the law of Moses, but it will have a lot of Mosaic laws within it in the future. And the Jews will be supreme. So you’re going to, again, have a Jew-Gentile distinction. No. No. The new covenant which we are under is without fault. In Hebrews 8 and verse 7, for if that first covenant had been faultless, talking about the law of Moses, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. So there needed to be a better law.

And that better law is the one that we are under, the law of Christ. Now, since the one that we are now under is faultless, there is no occasion sought for a third. You see? There is no improvement. There’s no reason to have another law. But the premillennialist rejects that idea. So all prophecies of a new law and of a new covenant back there in the Old Testament have to be prophetic of the covenant we are now under. For example, Jeremiah 31. Now, all this really is a moot point. Moot, that’s one of those words we don’t use. You only hear preachers use that word, probably. Because when Christ comes, there’s not going to be any time for another law to be established. There’s not going to be any time for another temple.

3. What About the Battle of Armageddon

When he comes, then comes the end. 1 Corinthians 15, verses 23 and 24. Well, that sums up the discussion about the temple and animal sacrifices and the Mosaic law in the future. Now we’re going to change gears quite dramatically for the last few minutes of this lesson. And somebody was asking me just before I got up here a few minutes before, can you explain to me the battle of Armageddon? I said, I’m going to talk about that today. So you may have wondered about this. I mean, I remember as a kid listening to Deaf Leopard in the 80s, you know, and they sang about Armageddon, and we see it on album titles and movie titles, and everybody knows that the Armageddon is, man, that’s the end of the end of the world.

You know, that’s World War III. Well, according to dispensationalism, the Battle of Armageddon will be a literal battle in Palestine with modern weaponry and helicopters and atomic bombs and all that good stuff between the Antichrist’s army and Christ and his army just before Christ’s second coming. Is this what the Bible teaches? You know how I’m going to answer those questions. Well, let’s first look at some basic facts. Armageddon, the word or Harmageddon, which is only in one verse in the Bible, and we’ll look at that in a minute, means hill of Megiddo. So Armageddon is a place. Okay? Hill of Megiddo, which was located in the Valley of Jezreel. So here’s a map. And in northern Israel, you see the Jezreel Valley, and you see Megiddo there.

So the hill of Megiddo would have been in Megiddo. Now, to be fair with the premillennialists, Revelation does depict at that location a battle in which Christ defeats Satan and his army. Right before Christ establishes his thousand year reign. And I’ve already dealt with the thousand years in the first lesson. It is symbolic. It is not literal. These things from Revelation are all symbols of spiritual realities. But having said that, let’s look, because this is fun. We’re about to have some fun. So put on your seatbelt. In Revelation 16, beginning in verse 12. Now, this is exciting. The sixth angel. Now don’t worry about that. That just means there were five before it. Okay. The sixth angel poured out his bowl. Well, what was in it?

Something bad. Okay? Wrath was in it. These are bowls of wrath that these angels were pouring forth. So this angel pours out his bowl on the great river the Euphrates, which is east of the land of Israel. And that river had to be crossed anytime an invading army came in. So its water was dried up so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east, the kings who had come to battle with the Lord’s people. The Lord was helping to go ahead and let this happen because he was going to defeat the evil. And I saw, now listen to this, you kids are going to like this. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet three unclean spirits like frogs.

You little boys are saying, yes, I know if my boys were here and they’re in Tampa today, they would be saying, Oh, I love this. You know, frogs coming out of their mouths. This is cool. You girls are probably saying, ew, frogs. Well, it wasn’t frogs, but it was spirits that were like frogs. They were active. Okay, so but just picture this. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs which go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them together for the war of the great day of God the Almighty. Now, how does the premillennialist understand these the beast and the false prophet? Well, that is the Antichrist, according to premillennialism. But we dealt with that in the last lesson. It is not a symbol for the Antichrist, it is a symbol for Rome.

This is that beast that came up out of the sea in Revelation chapter 13, the first half of that chapter. And then the false prophet would be the second beast, the beast that came up out of the land at the end of Revelation 13, the one that had two horns like a lamb and spoke as the dragon. The dragon is Satan. Well, we understand that to be, if I understand it correctly, the idea of Caesar worship that was accompanying Rome. And the premillennialist sees that as the antichrist’s sidekick. This is a false prophet. This is his right hand man. Alright, so let’s kind of press on. Look at verse 16. And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Harmageddon, hill of Megiddo.

Or Armageddon instead of Harmageddon, your virgin might have. That’s the one and only verse where we have that word. And oh, what is what has happened with that one thing? It has just spread. Like wildfire. And people are so excited about oh, I’mageddon. Okay, so they’re gathered for a battle. Now, verse 19. And I saw the beast. That’s Rome. And the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against him who sat on the horse and his army. Who sat on the horse? Earlier in the chapter it talks about Jesus coming on his white horse. So you have Jesus. This is exciting. Jesus on his white horse, and you have this beast, and the kings of the earth gathered to battle. And the beast.

Now, all this anticipation, right? I mean, you’ve got Lord of the Rings in your mind. You’re just seeing just multitudes of these, just this vast army, and we’re ready for some chaos now. And the beast was seized. And with him the false prophet, who performed the signs in his presence by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast. Don’t worry about that. And those who worshiped his image, these were thrown alive into the lake of fire, which burns with brimstone. The premillennialist sees that as the Antichrist and his right hand man were thrown into hell. But we understand that the beast is Rome. We understand that the beast is Rome. And the false prophet is emperor worship. And so these were defeated by Jesus Christ.

And we’ll talk more about that and how it applies to the first century saints in a moment. Verse 21 says, and the rest were killed with the sword that came from the mouth of him who sat on the horse. Again, kids, isn’t that kind of cool? You just see this sword coming out of his mouth, and it’s slaying people. And all the birds were filled with their flesh. Now, that’s where they get the whole idea. Is this a literal physical battle? If it is, then all those things we just read have to be literal. You’ve got beasts, I mean unclean spirits that look like frogs. You’ve got a sword coming out of the mouth of Jesus while he’s on his white horse. And there are other physical things that have to be taken literally too.

Like in Revelation 19. We read there, the number of the armies of the horsemen was 200 million. I heard the number of them. So we have to take that literally. 200 million horsemen. In Revelation 14 and verse 20, we read there, and the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress up to the horses’ bridles for a distance of 200 miles. We have to take that literally.

And it’s not just a pool of blood. This goes on for 200 miles, like just a river of blood. Kind of bizarre. Now, the valley of Jezreel, if we take the whole valley into account in which Armageddon was located, is a triangle. And from one Bible dictionary source, I read that it’s approximately 15 miles by 12 miles by 18 miles in size. Which means that we would have to fit 200 million horsemen in that area, if we consider the whole valley. Impossible. Well, the premillennial says that’s just, you know, Armageddon is just the center point. It’s just the center point. It doesn’t mean it has to all be contained there. And some say the land will actually be transformed. Okay. So for argument’s sake, let’s grant them that.

What about the blood coming up to the horses’ bridles for 200 miles? This would be impossible if it were literal. It’s revelation. We’re dealing with symbols. We’re dealing with apocalyptic language, which is not to be taken literally. So then what does it mean? If there’s not going to be a future, you know, World War III, I’m really disappointed. What does it mean? Well, start here. The valley of Jezreel, in which Armageddon is located, was a site of many famous battles. Like Gideon and his army with an innumerable host of Midianites that were defeated. Or you had the defeat of King Saul by the Philistines. In other words, this place represented great slaughter. And it was this real, it became a symbol of good versus evil. And it is used in Revelation that way of a symbol of this place of great slaughter.

And the battle itself. We know it’s not literal, so what does it have to be? It has to be a spiritual battle between good and evil, between Christ and Satan, and Christ’s followers and Satan’s followers, sharing in either the victory or the loss. And it concerns Rome, who is the beast. So, whatever this is, it can’t be future because what has happened to Rome? It’s been destroyed. And we talked about last time, Rome cannot be revived. The Bible does not prophesy that. So this has to be in the past. It’s a spiritual battle. And the message of hope was being given to these first century saints who were dying, who are being crushed and persecuted by the Empire of Rome. And they were refusing to pledge allegiance, basically, to the Emperor and to worship the Emperor, and thus they were being persecuted terribly for that.

And so the message is listen, Rome and this emperor worship is going to be defeated by Jesus Christ. That’s the message. What good would this message have done if it were talking about World War III that is still future even for us to the first century saints? It would have meant nothing to them. But to know that it had to do with Rome and this persecution, that would have been an uplifting message. An empowering one. And that’s what it was. Well, then how does it apply to us? Is there a spiritual war going on now? Between good and evil? Yes. So just like all of the books in the New Testament were written to a first century audience and had application to their specific situation, we can go in and study that and make application to ourselves today, even though we’re not living in the first century.

Conclusion

Take 1 Corinthians, for example. We’re not experiencing those exact problems, but we can certainly learn from that book. Revelation is no different. It makes it no less applicable when we say it was written to address the needs of the first century saints. Now, I’ve dealt with three things today. We talked about Palestine. Was it will it be reoccupied by the Jews? We talked about the temple and animal sacrifices. Will that be something set up in the future? And we talked about the Battle of Armageddon. Let me leave you with three brief practical points. Because preachers can never make two or four. That’s always three. Number one, we are the Israel of God. Galatians 6 and verse 16. And that is a beautiful thought. That there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile.

That we are all one. If we simply abide in the faith of Abraham, we are counted as his descendants. Galatians chapter 3 talks about. And we are not bound by a land. We are all over the world. What are we bound by? Faith in Jesus Christ. That’s what binds us. We are the Israel of God and the fulfillment of that idea from the Old Testament. It’s all shadows pointing to something that is spiritually real in the New Testament. Point number two.

We are the dwelling of God. We are living stones being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Why would there need to be some future temple? No need. We are the temple. God dwells in us. Not in this building or some building, but in us. We are the building. And so we need to behave as the temple of God. So that God will dwell in us and his spirit will dwell in us. Third and finally, we are the victors through Jesus Christ. Jesus is victorious. There’s a battle between good and evil that is going on today. And Jesus Christ is in the process of subjecting all things unto himself and of putting all of his enemies under his feet, and he’ll keep doing that until the end when the last enemy, which is death, will be put under his feet.

And we are a part of that victory. As Christ crushed Satan’s head under his feet, we symbolically also will have Satan’s head crushed underneath our feet because we share in the reign and in the rule and in the victory of our King. As we are part of his army and of his kingdom. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. We need to live victorious lives, not defeated, not downcast, but hopefully. Even in the midst of great trial and tribulation, like the first century saints were going through. If you’re not a Christian, you can become one today. And you can live a life of victory, a joyful life, a hopeful life, a meaningful life. So why don’t you come today?

Believing in the Lord, repenting of your sins, confessing his name, and being buried in the waters of baptism. If you’re already a Christian and you need the prayers of the church, we could pray for you, and we’d love to do that if you’d come now as we stand and sing the song of invitation.