Concerning the End Times

Good evening to all of you, and I greet you in Jesus' name.

I'm Darrell Nersera. My wife is along right there in the front row.

Um, we have five children, 31 grandchildren. Sheldon's have 11. That makes it add up, you know, okay? But they're a great family.

Okay, um, concerning this subject tonight, I, uh, there was a time it's kind of embarrassing, actually. There was a time in my life, as a minister, that if somebody would have asked me to speak about the Second Coming, I'm not sure I would have done it. And the reason is, where do you go with this? I mean, you hear things. You hear about the Second Coming. You hear about the Rapture. You hear the Tribulation, and on and on and on. You hear these things.

And how do you how do you go through all of that? Well, I'm not sure if I have it altogether because I don't, but I feel a little more comfortable now, you know, to navigate this whole thing. Uh, just so to give you a little bit of idea where I'm coming from, I do not believe that the Bible teaches the Rapture of the church as such.

Okay, and I have to explain a little bit what I what I mean by that, and I will that I'll do that in a moment, okay? I it's interesting. Probably in the days of maybe 1970s on up through, there has been almost this obsession with the Rapture, okay?

And we're not called to live that way. We're called to live as children of the day that we believe in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. And before I forget it, I'm going to suggest this: that the Second Coming of Christ is a whole lot more about Him than it is us, okay? That's how I look at that. Because the Second Coming of Christ, there's going to be an uncovering. There's going to be a manifestation, etc., of who He is and His glory.

And things are going to be settled. And I am of the persuasion that persons going to heaven bring glory to God, and persons going to hell also bring glory to God ultimately, okay? That's where I am with that.

So let's go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. I'm going to read beginning with verse 13.

And I would like for you to stand while, uh, while I read.

Brandon mentioned going to Penn View. That's a it's a whole more of a conservative holiness school, and a lot of times, um, when the preachers would preach before they would preach, they would have the people stand while they read, uh, the scriptures.

Okay. Another thing I learned keeping Jehotis Joder, his wife left us to know pretty much that that man did things right, okay? That's how Isabel was. But one of the things I learned, and I think about it sometimes, and I think I listen to it most of the time, she says, "You never you never give the scripture text, and then you begin reading." Let's say it's such and such a chapter, 1 through 10. You don't begin reading, and you come to verse 2, and then you give your comments. He says, "Don't do that. You read the entire text, and then you go back and give something, be that as it may." Okay. I'm going to begin with verse 13. "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with the shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. But of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief and a knight, for when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as to prevail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.

But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness." Okay, I'm going to stop there. Thank you. You may be seated.

Let's keep this real simple, though. I just let's do this. Go back to chapter 4, the first part. It would appear that Apostle Paul kind of had an agenda here, and he had some items on his agenda. And the first one is I mean, well, you could go back to chapter 3, but I'm going to break in at 4. And he's speaking about the whole issue of sexual purity, that type of thing.

But the thing I want to point out is that they already knew, right? They already knew the commandment of the God of God concerning this issue, but he was simply reinforcing it. Okay, we go to the next item.

Verse 9, completely different issue. It's what? Concerning brotherly love. And he says, "Ye need not that I write unto you." In other words, they already knew about brotherly love. So he was reinforcing that. Go to the next item. Verse 13. He says, "I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep." Do you notice what he doesn't say? He doesn't say to them, "I have no need to write to you concerning those which are asleep." He says, "I don't want you to be ignorant."

Now, maybe I'm over maybe I'm too simple. I don't know.

That's why he wrote it. Is that right? That's why he wrote it.

And I don't but this passage of scripture has become so exploited, you know, and it's it's this it's this trigger event that puts into motion this real complicated system of prophecy. They really use this scripture. Now, but it looks like the reason he wrote it wasn't even to talk about the coming of the Lord.

The reason was to let them know what is happening to the Christians that have already died. Evidently, some people were thinking God Jesus was going to come back in their lifetime, and lo and behold, they were starting to have funerals. People were dying, and the Lord hadn't come back. So he writes to them and says to them. Now, in the process of dealing with the why, he explained the what, okay? What was going to happen. Of course, that's when he talks about what, uh, the Lord descending, that there's going to be a change. The body will be changed, etc.

But let me finish a little bit here in chapter 5. He says, "But of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you." He says, "How you have no I have no you have no need." For what? "Ye for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night."

So they already knew about the coming of the Lord.

Unless I'm misunderstanding this. And just let me just drop something right here. With the pre-millennial dispensationist teaching, they have separated verses 4, 13 through 18 from 5, okay? They have done that. That's not where I am tonight. Maybe you disagree with that. I'm not sure. But, uh, I I look at it as one event. And I think here's what has happened. This is quite a whiteboard. Wow. Okay, okay. I won't need it near all, but I I am not an artist. I just wish I was. And I'm not very good at penmanship either, but I can make some lines and so on, okay? So let's do this. Let me make a line here and a line here.

Okay.

This is, uh, 1 Thessalonians 4:13, okay? Do it this way. Now put, uh, 1 Thessalonians, uh, 5:3 where where talk where it talks about, um, "For one day shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them," so on, okay? Now, in between the line, I'm going to do this.

I'm going to put a square here right in here, okay? This square represents 1 Thessalonians, uh, 4:13 through 18 through the end of the chapter, okay? That's what that square represents. Okay, you see I have this square in between these lines.

I think this is one single event. This is going to happen at the Second Coming. What the pre-millennial dispensationist people have done, they have taken this square, taken it out here somewhere, and put it out here all by itself.

So when I said that I don't believe that the Bible teaches the Rapture of the church as such, that's what I mean. It is not taught as a totally as a separate event, okay? So there this this teaching is very popular. And it's interesting too I okay, you asked my wife. I mean, she would say I was kind of consumed with some of these things. And so I get really curious and try and look up where are the conservative Mennonites on this?

It's a little it's kind of surprising. And what I'm talking about, you the Eastern pilgrim, you know, hope fellowship. I'm part of Mid-Atlantic. Okay, okay. You would be surprised at how many people embrace that, okay? You know, but that's that's where I am. I think it's they take it out, and then you have the Rapture here by itself, the Rapture of the church, and then the Second Coming. So let me, uh let me, uh, enlarge on that a little bit. So, um...

Okay, I okay, I run the risk of boring someone. If you're not into this, you might get bored, but we'll we'll try and look at some things. So let me, uh let me just make two lines. Go out here somewhere, and I'll make one down here.

Um, by the way, what the name is the full name is Pre-Tribulation Pre-Millennial Dispensational, okay? Do you notice the two pre's? Each pre would stand for coming, the return of Christ, okay? The pre-trip, then the pre-millennial. Before the millennial is the Second Coming.

Before the Rapture is the I mean, be uh before the tribulation is the, uh, Rapture, okay? So let me I'll fill this in a little bit here if I can. Let's do this. Uh, and then this. You do this. And this here, uh this just goes clean to the end, okay?

Um, down here, let's do this. Let me see.

Let me bring this in like this. And then I'm going to go like this. And then I'm just going to make a straight line as straight as possible. And then I'm going to make another line here, okay?

Now, let me just start filling it in a little bit. I'm going to put the cross here. Down here, I'm going to put the cross, okay? I'll just work, uh the law here, the Old Testament, okay? Up here is what is called, uh the church age. Now, I I don't want to be too reactionary, but I no longer feel comfortable by about talking about the church age like I used to. I don't feel comfortable with that anymore. I there's something different. It it implies something, and it's not good. Okay, um let me see here. Where are we? Okay.

This would be, uh the seven-year the seven-year tribulation, okay?

Okay. Then this would be the literal thousand years. And then at the end, you have your final, uh the final state, okay? Heaven and hell and so on. Now, um down here, I'm going to put here the, um I'm going to put the thousand-year reign in parentheses here, okay? Then I'm just going to put the what this is is the tribulation here.

Now, so this would be I lean towards the all-millennial view. That doesn't mean to have it all together because I don't think anybody does. I really don't, okay? Okay, okay, okay. But I'm I'm trying to show a little bit of a difference here if I can.

This this one has more of a a spiritual kingdom emphasis, okay? And it's like they would okay, an all-millennial would teach we are in that kingdom right now. We are in technically, we are in the thousand-year reign, okay?

And we're not into this seven-year tribulation thing, but we believe in tribulation. All along, there's tribulation. Sometimes tribulation is worse than others, and it all depends on where you live. I mean, you think about if you lived in a certain part of the world where they are being severely persecuted for just being Christian, you don't think that's tribulation? The word tribulation, the Greek word thelipsis, it seems it just it just simply means under pressure, okay?

That's up here, the seven they're all mixed up with this one, okay? They have it being the judgment, kind of. But anyways, so we have this. By the way, and I'm not sure if it's a really nice thing to do or not, I will be critiquing this one pretty hard.

I consider this one the most dangerous. I just do, okay? So we have the Old Testament law, the cross of Christ, and then from that point on, we have the spiritual kingdom, okay? And at and then at the end of the day age, you have the Second Coming of Christ. And then there's a consummation, what the judgment and all of that. Um, while I'm thinking about it, this is what I'm going to do right now.

One of the differences, this and this, is at the end, they call it the general resurrection. I did not know that this was a big deal, even in our churches, okay? Up here, they would teach that there's a resurrection here, and then at the end, a resurrection of the wicked dead, okay? This is where it's just the Christian that goes up. It's just a or better safe that, uh goes up at the Rapture. The only problem is now there's there's variance inside of this. The way they talk that you have to have another resurrection because there is such a thing, according to them, as tribulation saints, okay? Now, I'll talk a little bit more about that if I think about it anyhow.

See, I'm not sure what all I'm going to be saying here tonight, okay? I have a lot of things there, but we'll look at some things. Okay, so you see the difference here. Now, here's where I want to do this right now.

I'm going to make two lines this way right here close together.

This represents John the Baptist. This line represents oh, I forgot. I'm holding a book. I was going to do something just to show you what happens. I have this book, The Confession of Faith Ministers' Manual, okay? Maybe some of you I don't know if some of you have heard of it. I have no idea how I got it. It's an old book. Um, dates are extremely important, okay? So I look at the date of this, and this was compiled by John Kaufman and John Funk in 1890. That's a long time ago.

John Funk and John Kaufman, as I understand, were your two great Mennonite leaders, I think. Um, John Kaufman, I think, is considered the first Mennonite evangelist. In fact, George R. R. Brunk I got converted under the preaching of John Kaufman.

But John Kaufman died young. I think he was in his early 50s when he passed away. But anyways, they wrote this. They compiled this. And what this book does, it gives you a lot of advice on how you can handle certain situations, weddings, marriages, you know, that kind of thing, and funerals.

And so let me see if I can find it here towards the end of the book about the general resurrection. And for as much I'll read it. "For as much as it has pleased Almighty God in His wise providence to take out of this world the soul of" then the name "of the departed, we commit the body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, and commit the soul to God who gave it looking for the general resurrection of the last day."

Now, the reason I brought this, I just it just it just intrigues me like everything, okay? I have no idea who had this book before. I was looking for names, and the only name I came to found was in the where you where there was a marriage, a wedding. And, uh, the bride's name was Nadine, and the groom's name was Evan.

Do you know anybody of those names? I have no idea when it was or anything, but I wish you had I wish I knew this book, and here's why. I don't know if you can see it or not, probably, but the man who ever had this crossed out the word general. He crossed it out, okay? That just intrigues me. That's all. Now, I think he did it for one of two reasons.

He completely changed his mind about eschatology, or he was intimidated by the pre-millennial crowd. That's what I think can happen. You know what I mean? Where he wasn't he wasn't going to take the chance of going to a grave site and talk about the where there's a lot of other preachers there maybe, and he was going to talk about the general resurrection. He probably wasn't going to take that chance. So you stay on the safe side, and you just say resurrection, okay? Okay? By the way, there's another man. Um, see, I'm not attacking people, okay? I want you to know that, but I'm just trying to make some points. That's all. Um, this man has died just recently, but we were friends down through the years.

Uh, good friends. He was a kind brother. I mean, we went to Millmont, and he walked in. He had a head of black hair, and he had a face sculpted like a police officer, okay? He would have made a great state cop, uh policeman, in my opinion, but he had a certain authority when he preached, and he but he was pre-millennial. He wouldn't have been dispensational, but nonetheless, he was pre-millennial, and he was very, very strong on the whole idea of the kingdom in the future.

And but anyways, I he said over the pulpit, he taught he talked about this book. He talked about this book. And he said in his book, he crossed it out. Now, he didn't have this book that I know of, but so that's kind of interesting. So that man crossed it out because his view of prophecy was very, very different.

Okay. Things like that just kind of interest me. That's all. And, uh, Brandon was Brandon mentioned it. I this thing gets tense, and if I have time, I don't um, I want to address a little bit the literal versus non-literal thing. That one kind of fascinates me a bit too. By the way, I'm saying right now, right now, that problem, that tension, it turns into contention, if you know what I mean. That will never, never be resolved. I'll guarantee it.

You know why? The two systems of prophecy stand in total contrast to each other. And there's something else too. They both can't be right. They might both be wrong, but they both can't be right. That is an absolute impossibility, okay? But they could be both wrong, okay? That way, I'm covering the bases, right, when I say that.

Okay, now let's come back to this. This here, this ends up being a pretty big a big situation. Before I go any farther, though, I should point out real briefly that this comes from, uh, Schofield, and he got it off of John Darby, John Darby, in the early 1800s, just to keep it real brief. He was he was an Anglican priest, and he got disillusioned with them, and he comes to this, and it was kind of this revival effort, as I understand it. Um, and he got, you know, he got enthralled with it, and Darby was nobody's dummy, and neither was Schofield.

Um, but anyways, he came up, and he puts this kind of this thing together, the dispensations. He was extremely strong on dispensations, and he had it figured out. I think there were seven of them, seven very distinct dispensations.

And see, one of the distinct dispensations was the church age, okay? Now, um, it came across the pond. I got to keep this short, okay? It came across the pond. It went into the as I understand, it went into the Midwest to a preacher whose name was Brooks, I think James Brooks, in the Midwest. I'm talking about this theory here, this teaching.

And Mr. Brooks, Reverend Brooks, would have Bible studies for men, okay? Which is that's all right. That was a nice thing to do, but he had these Bible studies, and these men would come in to this Bible study. And one day, in walks this young man, and his name was Cyrus Ingersoll Schofield, okay?

How would you like that name? Okay, okay, okay. Cyrus Ingersoll Schofield, yeah. That was his name. But anyways, uh, Schofield, um, he was smart. He and here's what he did. See, I have a Schofield Bible. I have a Schofield reference Bible.

I I I got it by default. My dad helped in a helped in a funeral, and they gave him this gift, and it was a Schofield reference Bible. Of course, he passed away quite a while ago, and I just ended up getting it, and it was no big deal to me, but I've been looking at it here of late, okay?

And what's interesting with him, what he does, I mean, he does it right. He makes sure that you are to read something before you get to the Bible, okay? He will say in the one page, it says in parentheses, "To be read." That's what it says, "To be read." He wants people to read that, and he was good at grooming the reader.

And what I mean by that is he could he and the way he said things, um, he didn't come out real harsh, but he says along this line, "Just because you were taught something doesn't mean it's right," kind of thing, okay? So, you know, you read this, and if you're vulnerable in prophecy or even Calvinism, you would you could easily fall right into that. I mean, easily.

So Schofield, I think his first printing was 1909 or 1911, in the early 1900s. And I said a little while ago that dates are important. This book that I read out of was 1890, which means that was before Schofield came onto scene, I probably, in this country and into our circles.

See, okay, uh, it came into like Moody Bible Institute, Dallas Theological Seminary. These men, these places, this was taught. And then you had people in our circles that went to some of these Bible schools, and they were influenced.

A man like J. Otis Yoder, we kept him at our house. He died at our house. But brother, they okay. I mean, they were into this thing big time, even including I mean, the whole thing with the Jewish people. I mean, Isabel, uh, maybe I shouldn't say, okay, I'm not being nasty, but I'm just saying they were into it. That's all. And I'll let it at that, okay?

But anyways, now, so this the Schofield Bible was really influential in our circles. It really was. It really was. And this is where at least some of this at least comes from. Schofield made a huge this is what he did. He made a huge issue of this. Let me just draw a line from here to the cross.

Let me ask you something. When was Jesus when did most of Jesus' teachings occur?

Before the cross or after the cross?

Jesus Himself teaching before the cross, right? I mean, that's that's when He taught basically the law of the kingdom, okay? Schofield totally rejected that, okay? Schofield made a huge issue of the king the law of the kingdom, and he taught what is called the postponement theory, okay?

The Jews rejected the teach the kingdom, okay? So God postponed the law of the kingdom to a later time to right there, okay? That's what He did, and He was big on that. In fact, He mentions specifically I read it. He mentions specifically that Matthew 5 through 7 is neither the privilege nor the responsibility or the word duty may be the responsibility of the church, the New Testament church, okay? That's what He taught.

That's why I am very leery of the whole idea of a church age because it identifies with dispensational teaching, okay? And I think it has affected us, okay? So He so what He did, He He made law He called this pure law, okay, from here to here. That was a big issue with Him, okay? And so then it was postponed.

And so what He did, He set it up very clearly that law and grace was mutually exclusive. If you brought any sense of law into grace, that automatically negates grace. See what I'm saying? And that thing has touched an evangelical church. That's where they are.

And I'm going to suggest this that it has come into our circles too. Just a it has trickled in, perhaps inadvertently. Uh, here's what I mean.

Uh, I probably used to say it. I don't anymore, but it goes something like this. Well, you make personal salvation kind of this crisis experience, and you put it in a box. You know what I mean? You put it in a box, and we say, "I got saved. I remember I was 13 when I made my first commitment to Jesus Christ. I was under conviction.

I do remember it was a and, uh, see, right outside of Mifflinburg, and it was a Holy Men and I, uh, tent meeting. I remember that, okay? Well, you know what? It doesn't do me one bit of good for me to stand here tonight 50 years later, 55, 60 years later. I'm 72. I was 13.

For me to look way back there and say, "Because of what happened there is where I'm now tonight." You see what I'm saying? You can't you have to keep things up to date. Now, but that's what He did. He separated law and grace. And so you you postponed the kingdom teachings. Then God puts in its place Paul's gospel of grace.

Be careful when persons talk about I put a lot of emphasis on the gospel of grace or where that could lead you. So it's this whole idea that if you bring works in in any way, you negate grace.

And so here, you're saved by grace, and that Ephesians does teach that. While I'm thinking about this, let me say this. One of my favorite side-by-side verses is Acts 20. I think along about verses 34 I mean, verses 24 and 25.

And the idea was 24, I think it says, that He testifies to the gospel of grace. The very next verse, He said, "I preached among you the kingdom of God," okay? So what we have there so my conclusion this is my personal conclusion that the gospel of the kingdom gives testimony to the grace of God. They don't negate each other, you know? That that is so typical. They do not negate each other, and He was good at that. He really emphasized that. Let me give you an example concerning the issue of forgiveness. Take your Bibles. Turn to Matthew 6, and I'll show you what I mean quickly, okay?

Matthew 6.

You mean to you mean to tell me it's almost 8:30? I can't believe it. Okay, well, I'll stop pretty soon, but okay, but I'm going to give a few more things, okay? Turn to quick turn to Matthew 6. I just want to show you something. See what you think about this.

Go to the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6.

And it and, uh, in verse 13 no, 14, "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive" no, no, no, I'm sorry, 12, "and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." But go down to verses 14 and 15 right after the Lord's Prayer. It says this, "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." I mean, do you get what they see what He's saying? It is before God forgives us, it's conditioned on us forgiving other people. Is that correct? That's what it's saying.

Schofield would have totally rejected that. That's law. That isn't for the church. But here's what He says, okay? Turn to Ephesians, that real familiar portion of Scripture in Ephesians chapter 4. Um, just trying to show you what He what He stressed.

Ephesians chapter 4, the very last verse, "And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." He made a huge deal about that.

He rejected Matthew. He says, "The reason we forgive other people is because Christ God has already forgiven us." How would you handle that? You see what I'm saying? Okay. I mean, if you go back to Matthew, I mean, it is clear the difference.

Let me ask you this. Does one negate the other one? No. They're both true, okay? I think they're both true. So my position on this whole issue of forgiveness, with both of them in mind, is to understand tonight that we are forgiven by grace. That's true. But if I ever come into a situation where God wants me to forgive another person and I refuse, you know what that does? That negates the work the effectual working of grace in my life.

Grace just doesn't cover everything no matter how I live. So I think both are true. That's how I look at that. And I'm just trying to point out Schofield made a huge issue of that and then the implications of that and where that takes you.

And so in our circles, it has trickled and let me go back to what I got sidetracked in it. I was excuse me. Let me get a little drink of water here.

Back to what I was saying. We put salvation in a box, okay? Then it goes something like this. "As a result, we obey." You ever hear that? Do you see how subtle that thing is? "As a result, we obey." As a result of being saved by grace, as a result, we obey as if obedience has nothing to do with my salvation. It's just the result of it. That's pretty subtle.

That might come back to this more than what we think. That's just my opinion on that, but it's kind of a subtle thing. And by the way, are you noticing today? I've you know, I've seen a lot of changes in the church and in people. I mean, big changes. I'm not against all change, but obviously, but I mean, I've seen some big changes in people that you never thought would happen, but it did.

If you're brave enough maybe some of you are. I don't know. I usually don't do this. I don't know if I ever did it to go up to one of those persons. By the way, I'm talking about a person now that's inside a church somewhere, okay? And you ask them, "Are you living in disobedience?" Do you think they would say yes? I don't think so. You see what I'm saying? I don't think I don't think and that's the scary part about it.

My personal position this is my personal position. The person that's disobeying God and knows it is closer to the kingdom than the one who has lost the distinction between the two. If that happens, they're never coming back, okay? And it's not until God works in that person's life somehow and they begin to see a distinction there.

That's my personal position on that. And so obedience and that's now I'm going down that's I'm kind of going down a rabbit trail, so I just want to let it at that. I think in this well, no, I have to be careful what I say about that.

This this one is much more simple, you know, and it there's something simple about it. This one is much more sensational. You know what I mean? This one is much more dramatic. You can make colorful stories. Do you ever hear of Left Behind?

You know what I mean by Left Behind? A series of books. I think there was 12 written 12 books written, um, movies made on this one, not on this one, okay? The Left Behind series is a fictional group series of books that builds on this false rapture theology, okay?

And they have made millions of dollars. I mean millions. They really have. Okay, now let me let's do this.

This postponement theory thing. See, now in our circles in our circles, um, Mennonite preachers that are into prophecy, they don't endorse this, okay? I think we can understand. I don't think so. I think I'm right on this. Even though they would be pre-millennial, they may even teach the two comings of Christ. By the way, George R. see, I George R. Bronk I, he tacitly approved this, the two comings.

You know how I know that? Because when when George R. was against something, you knew it, okay? Okay? And there was a question there was a question and answer series and about this kind of thing about the two rapture and the second coming of Christ. Well, this is what he said. Some Christians believe this.

I'll guarantee you if he was against it, he would have let them know it. That's how he operated big time. Okay, now so a lot of our preachers would preach against the postponement theory, and we say at first blush, we may say, "That's a good thing."

Not necessarily. This man that I was talking about earlier we by the way, we were good friends down through the years, but we never got on to prophecy in personal or very, very little. If he was alive now and healthy, I probably would now more, okay?

I think. But anyways, it was interesting what he did in his sermon on prophecy. And by the way, I'm not I'm just trying to make a point. That's all, okay? What he did was he brought the postponement theory up. See, I kind of wonder, why did he even do that? Probably most people he was preaching to didn't even know what it was anyhow, but he brought it up. He explained it a bit about the Jewish people, you know, rejecting it and so on. And then he did this, and he was rather vociferous, pretty strong. He says, "I hope everyone here rejects that." He was talking about the postponement theory, and in fact, you know, whoa, what was that all about?

This is my opinion, okay? Notice what I'm saying? Okay, not supposed to preach opinion, but okay. Concerning this, I think I think I know in part why he denounced it because the the the postponement theory flows right out of the system of prophecy that he otherwise embraced, okay? That's a problem. So evidently for him, the best way to solve the problem was to denounce it.

That doesn't solve anything. It just exposed it. And furthermore, boy, I'm not he was a good friend of mine, okay? If if he was alive, I would talk to him. I would now. I wouldn't before, but I would now, okay?

Furthermore, it was interesting what he did. He was really big on the concept of the king and the kingdom. There's subjects in a kingdom, and you have a king over the kingdom. So he was big on this, and he he made an issue that Jesus Christ was never called the king of the church. He was called the head of the church. He made an issue of that, okay? And so he denounced the postponement theory, but at the other end, he actually accepted it. You see what I mean? If you embrace the whole idea of the kingdom, the restoration of nation of Israel and so on, if you embrace all of that, of necessity, you have to embrace this because they go together.

And so he was highly inconsistent in denouncing this but embracing this. So at least the person that rejects this part and rejects the postponement theory, at least their position is consistent. Conversely, a person that embraces the thousand-year reign, the kingdom restored kingdom, and embraces the postponement theory, at least they're consistent.

And so our Mennonite, as I see it, our Mennonite brethren, good men that denounce the postponement theory, know they have a problem, okay? And so my point is this. When you come down to this one, you never have to solve the problem, and it's real simple because the problem never exists in the first place. So when you when you so, you know, see, I don't know if you see my point or not there. Okay.

Uh, see, where should I go now?

Um, let's talk. Let's just well, let's just follow on to here a little bit, okay? Okay, you have this you have the church age, okay? And I and I think I pointed out the danger of the dispensation of the church age. It makes an overemphasis. It abuses grace, okay?

In the Anabaptist theology tradition, we would say there's a coming together of grace and law, okay? You can't separate the two. Okay, now here is where they teach the first derapture, okay? Okay, where Jesus Christ comes down. He does not come to the earth, okay? He comes down, and they use 1 Thessalonians here, chapter 4.

The church is raptured. They make a big issue of the rapture, okay? And of course, they get their resurrected bodies, their glorified body, and then they go right back up to heaven, okay, for seven years. Okay, this is the seven-year tribulation, okay? You see what I'm saying? The church is raptured. They go to heaven.

I think they teach the marriage supper of the Lamb happens then, and so they're in heaven for seven years, okay? And then after the tribulation, Jesus comes back again, puts his feet on the temple mount in Jerusalem, okay?

And there's a battle of Armageddon, and then he sets up the reign of a thousand years. Now there's a problem. What do you do with the ones that are left behind? See, this this this one doesn't teach it.

I don't think anybody's left behind. I don't. I don't think there's such a thing as anybody being left behind as such the way they teach it, okay? I just don't, okay? Anyways, so you miss the rapture. Then what? Okay, the Christian goes up to heaven seven years. Then the Christians come back with Christ to rule a thousand years, and then you have the final end.

Satan is bound for a thousand years, and then he's let loose again, I think, okay? And then there's I don't know how it works out, okay? But in the end, of course, God is victorious. Christ is victorious. So did you know I'll just stop pretty soon, I promise, okay?

I think I can. Did you know that you can buy rapture kits? Did you know that? You can buy rapture kits, and it goes something like this. Let's assume tonight you're a couple. Okay, the husband is saved and the wife isn't.

The rapture happens, and what happens at the rapture is it's almost like a silent rapture. There's various there's variants with that too. I've in some cases, I think they believe that trump will sound, but it's only the believer that will hear it, okay?

Okay, okay, okay, but anyways, it's like we're sitting here tonight, and let's say half of you are ready to go and the other half aren't, and half of you are just gone. You're just gone. I mean, the person sitting beside you that isn't ready to go looks over and sees a pile of clothes, but you're gone. See, that's what that's kind of the idea with the rapture. You're just you're just gone.

And after a while, you hear the fire whistle. Then you have these see, see, this is where this is where left behind had a lot of fun with this teaching. I mean, you I mean, you can go on and on, and they did, okay? They really made a big deal, and it was it was it was thrilling, okay? Now so there's a husband and wife. The husband's ready to go. The wife isn't. What the husband is supposed to do by the way, I'm not making this up. I mean, you can go look it up. Dr. David Reagan, I don't know if you ever heard of him. That guy is considered an expert in prophecy, an expert.

He is, and he's into this.

So the husband orders a rapture kit. Now, okay, the rapture didn't happen yet, but you're supposed to order the rapture kit. Then you're he's supposed to find a place where it's a pretty good chance that the wife would find the rapture kit after the rapture. You see what I'm saying? Okay, so the husband buys a rapture kit. He kind of thinks maybe it's in the pantry somewhere.

Um, he has to put it someplace where it can be hidden from the authorities, and at the same time, a good chance his wife will stumble onto it if the rapture happens. So the rapture happens. She's left behind, and by the way, in the first three and a half years, a lot of some of them teach that it kind of enters to somewhat of a normalcy, okay? See, that's a whole other thing to Antichrist. I don't buy into any of that. I don't think there's going to be a seven-year great tribulation. The Bible nowhere teaches it. But anyways, and on this rapture kit, see, you can I am not computer-literate hardly at all, so I don't know what I'm talking about right here, okay?

But I sure do know that you can put a whole lot of information on something very small. Is that right? You know what I mean? What are they called? USBs or something? I don't know what you know, you can put it on, and the wife after the rapture finds it.

She takes it to her computer, and she listens to it, and the first thing that she is told on this, they tell her what has just happened, that the rapture has happened, okay? Then they would go on to tell her things about what you're headed for. You're headed for this terrible time, this tribulation, and they will tell her that whatever you do, don't take to mark of the beast because if you take to mark of the beast, you'll probably lose your life or you'll starve to death, okay?

They also, if I understand it correctly, say that you can get saved in the tribulation, but it's going to be awfully rough. That's what they say.

That one really surprised me. I didn't I didn't know there was such a thing, a rapture kit. That's unbelievable, isn't it? It just is, but that comes here, okay? Um, okay, I'll tell you, um, I think the Antichrist let me just say a couple of things about that. I'm not sure if you're into this at all. Daniel 70th week. See, what I what I could have done here, what I should have done here is just make some marks down here like, you know, like this and put 69 in here, and then here for the tribulation, put one week, okay? One, okay, seven years, 69, a total of 70 weeks. 69 plus one is 70. They call that what is 77s, 490.

So what they will teach based on what they say based on Daniel 9:27 is 483 years have been fulfilled. There's one year in the future. See, it's still the future for us. I mean, it goes way back here, okay? So they would insist that, you know, if you if you bring it into weeks, that two follows one, three follows two, four follows three, and you come up towards 70, 68 follows 70. I mean, 67 and 69 follows 68, then all of a sudden 70 doesn't follow 69.

So that's what they call Daniel's 70th week, and so the whole thing of the seven-year tribulation is built on that.

I don't believe any of it. I don't think Daniel 9:27 is about the Antichrist, but they desperately need that to be Antichrist. I mean, they really need it. I'm kind of see, I need time to explain some things, and I can't, but just you see what I'm saying here? They they go back there, and they build they build on a pronoun of all things, not even a noun, on a pronoun. If you look at 9:20, go home and look at it.