August 24, 2025 • 49 mins
The destructive nature of futurism and its eschatological interpretations creates harmful consequences ranging from personal anxiety to political deception.
• Futurist prophetic predictions have a 100% failure rate despite being proclaimed throughout church history
• Scripture clearly states false prophets deserve death according to Deuteronomy 18
• End-times teaching creates unnecessary anxiety by telling people to "be ready" for events that already occurred
• The rapture concept misinterprets passages like 1 Thessalonians 4 and Luke 17
• Believing in imminent end times causes poor life decisions and diminishes motivation to address world problems
• Futurism leads to loss of hope when promised relief doesn't materialize
• Christian Zionism has caused support for violence through misunderstanding of biblical Israel
• Political deception occurs when Christians support modern Israel based on misapplied scriptures
• Futurist theology makes light of the apostles' mission which was already accomplished
• Christians are waiting for what they already have – the established kingdom of God
Blog Post: https://wakinguptograce.com/061-ten-reasons-futurism-is-destructive/
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello and welcome to the Waking Up To Grace podcast,
where we celebrate and explorethe finished work of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Tune in to the Waking Up ToGrace podcast on every major
platform.
You can also listen to ourepisodes and read our full
transcripts atwakinguptogracecom.
And now here's Lenny.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome back to the Waking Up to Grace podcast
everyone.
In today's message I'm going togive you 10 reasons.
Futurism is destructive.
Futurism is a Christianeschatological view that sees
portions of John's Revelationand other apocalyptic sections
of the Bible as future end-timeevents.
Futurism is premillennialfuture end time events.
(00:48):
Futurism is pre-millennial.
Pre-millennialism thinkingtells us that Christ will return
to earth, bind Satan and reignfor a literal thousand years on
earth with Jerusalem as hiscapital.
According to thisunderstanding, christ returns
before the thousand yearsmentioned in Revelation, chapter
20.
Futurist beliefs also have aclose association with
dispensationalism and Zionism.
Much of the futurist beliefrests on the assumption that God
(01:11):
has never given Israel all theland promised through Abraham
and that the completefulfillment of this promise is
still in our future.
These views ignore theprophesied final judgment that
fell on first century Israel.
These views ignore theprophesied final judgment that
fell on first century Israel.
They imagine that a templeneeds to be rebuilt and that the
Jewish people who dwell inIsrael today are God's holy
(01:31):
people, even despite there beingno context to support the
concept in scripture.
The Christian Zionists of ourgeneration lead our country as
we speak and will support thefabricated nation Israel that
was created in 1948 and wellestablished by the 1960s.
In whatever they do, they don'tsupport any truly holy motive,
(01:54):
but stand with the wickedgovernment of Israel and all
their war crimes.
Make no mistake there's noconnection with today's
so-called holy land in ancientIsrael, religiously or
ethnically.
They have no temple, nor dothey offer any required animal
sacrifices.
They have no Levite lineage tooperate a temple and never will.
(02:15):
According to gene testing, theyhave no ethnic DNA.
In other words, there are noreal Jews.
They don't keep the Law ofMoses.
Instead, they go by rabbinictradition in their Talmud and,
of course, as Christians.
How do you call a person holywho rejects Christ?
(02:36):
The full preterist doctrine isthe only source of teaching that
proclaims Christ as returningin the first century, when he
proclaimed that he would.
Futurism is the most populartheological view today.
If you're uncertain whether ornot you hold to futurist views,
you probably do.
Apparently, futurist views makeup about 99% of Christianity.
Today we're going to break downthe dangers of following the
(03:00):
calf path of the 99% and why youmight want to consider
rethinking what you believeabout the return of Christ.
10 Reasons Futurism isDestructive From my vantage
point.
Futurism is destructive in manyways.
Let's kick off our 10 reasons.
Futurism is destructive.
With reason number one Futuristprophetic predictions are
always wrong.
(03:21):
If you're a teacher or youngadult, it's possible that you've
not experienced a falseprediction of the end times and
return of Christ until morerecently.
There are certainly a lot ofpeople parodying the phrase
we're living in the end timescoming from mainstream theology,
but is this the first time thata large number of people
believed the end of the worldwas coming?
Is this the first time that thereturn of Christ was said to be
(03:45):
coming soon?
If we go simply by odds, howmuch of a chance do we have that
today's so-called prophets arecorrect about the end of the
age?
I would actually love to see astatistical probability done on
this To get an idea of the trueodds.
We might first count up all thetimes that the event has been
proclaimed after the firstcentury apostles.
(04:05):
We could then factor in howmany times it's been true.
The number of false claims herewould be quite large as we go
back in time, but the number oftimes it's been correct remain
at a whopping zero To anyonepaying attention.
Proclaiming the return ofChrist as coming soon has made
Christians look a lot like theboy who cried wolf or Chicken
(04:26):
Little, crying out that the skyis falling and, like all things,
it's become a way of bringingin large amounts of revenue for
many.
We even have politiciansplaying the game.
You know, there's gotta be somegood money being passed around
when politicians are suddenlyfollowing the narrative the way
I see it the odds are completelyagainst this event actually
(04:47):
occurring, you might say.
But anything is possible withthe Lord and you'd be right.
But the Lord already told usthat he was coming in the first
century.
In Matthew 24, yeshua saysTruly I say to you, this
generation will not pass awayuntil all these things take
place.
So do we think we're going tooutwit the greatest prophet of
(05:10):
all time, or do we just supposehe fibbed a little bit to make
his audience feel better?
Sadly, that's actually beingsaid by people who are
considered great leaders inChristianity.
I'm honestly too embarrassedfor them to put their names on
it.
But if you dig around a littleyou'll find it said more than
once.
But, all probability aside, ourBibles teach us that the return
(05:31):
of Christ is not going tohappen in our generation.
It couldn't be more clear.
When Yeshua said thisgeneration will not pass away,
he's referring to the generationthey were living in at that
time.
This alone completely rules outthe possibility of our
generation having thisexperience.
But, as we've covered in mylast several messages, there's
(05:52):
much more evidence than justthat Case in point.
If you follow the end times,fear mongering or simply long
for the rapture that you'rebeing promised by today's
theology.
You're going to end updisappointed.
It's not going to happen.
Whatever happens in our future,we can count on the fact that
it's not written in the book ofRevelation.
(06:13):
That letter was written to sevenchurches that existed in the
first century and it applied tothem directly.
Let's read the introduction tobe sure.
In the Revelation of John,chapter 1, we read Blessed is
the one who reads aloud thewords of this prophecy and
blessed are those who hear andwho keep what is written in it.
For the time is near.
John to the seven churches thatare in Asia grace to you and
(06:37):
peace from him who is and wasand who is to come, and from the
seven spirits who are beforehis throne.
In his letter, john addresseseach church individually.
The seven churches wereEphesus, smyrna, pergamum,
thyatira, sardis, philadelphiaand Laodicea.
Then, a few verses later, weread Behold, he's coming with
(07:00):
the clouds and every eye willsee him, even those who pierced
him and all the tribes of Christin the first century.
John's letter to seven specificchurches in that first century
further confirms this fact.
As we discussed in my lastseveral messages, coming in the
(07:23):
clouds was judgment.
As we discussed in my lastseveral messages coming in the
clouds was judgment.
The final judgment would bringlife and salvation to the
faithful and death to theunfaithful.
Who would see this judgment?
According to our Revelationpassage, every eye will see,
right.
But specifically we read eventhose who pierced him, who
pierced Christ Yeshua?
Who was responsible for hisdeath.
(07:45):
It was the Jewish leaders,right?
Would it not be the same Jewishleaders who Yeshua spoke to
when he was brought before theSanhedrin?
In Mark 14, we read, but heremained silent and made no
answer.
Again, the high priest askedhim Are you the Christ, the Son
of the Blessed?
And Jesus said I am, and youwill see the Son of man seated
(08:09):
at the right hand of power andcoming with the clouds of
heaven.
If the event did not come tofruition, how can we still trust
this writing today?
How can we see any of thesefirst century apostles, or even
Christ Yeshua, as trustworthy iftheir prophecies failed to
become reality when they weresupposed to?
And further, how can we be socomfortable with leaders today
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who declare false prophecy when,according to their own book,
they deserve death for suchbehavior?
This brings us to the second ofmy 10 reasons.
Futurism is destructive.
According to scripture, a falseprophet deserves death.
As we discussed in reasonnumber one, since the
destruction of Jerusalem in AD70, we've had more proclamations
(08:50):
of the end times coming than wecould possibly count.
How would Yahweh feel aboutthese false proclamations?
Let's see what it says inDeuteronomy 18.
But the prophet who presumes tospeak a word in my name that I
have not commanded him to speak,or who speaks in the name of
the other gods, that sameprophet shall die.
And if you say in your heart,how may we know that the Lord
(09:14):
has not spoken?
When a prophet speaks in thename of the Lord, if the word
does not come to pass or cometrue, that is a word that the
Lord has not spoken.
This prophet has spoken itpresumptuously.
You don't need to be afraid ofhim.
Do you think today's churchleaders ever stop to consider
this?
What's changed about our Lord'sview on false prophets?
(09:35):
Are we to believe that underthe new covenant age of grace,
that Yahweh is now pleased bysuch behavior?
Well, the reality is thatprophecy ended in the first
century with the destruction ofJerusalem in AD 70.
In Luke 21, yeshua says Forthese are days of vengeance to
(10:06):
fulfill all that is written.
There is never to be anyprophecy after this historical
event.
What we see going on in ourgeneration is nothing more than
a passed down tradition.
We have most of Christianitycalling preterists heretics
while they embrace the falseprophets of our day, and the
circus willetics while theyembrace the false prophets of
our day.
And the circus will continueuntil we stop accepting the
(10:28):
doctrines of error that we'vebeen handed down through the
many years.
Christ will be coming soon foryou and your grandchildren.
Nothing will ever change if wedon't wake up and realize that
he showed up exactly when hesaid he would.
Moving on to number three of myten reasons, futurism is
destructive.
You give people anxiety whenyou tell them to be ready for
(10:50):
the end times.
When it comes to anticipating afuture judgment of Christ,
there tends to be differingemotional responses.
You have one camp believingthey'll float away into the
heavenly realms before anythingbad happens.
These will encourage you thatall is good.
There is nothing to fear atall.
Then we have the fear-mongeringlegalists telling everyone to be
(11:11):
prepared for the return ofChrist.
What do they mean by this?
It's usually not referring toour Luke 21 passage.
Then let those who are in Judeaflee to the mountains and let
those who are inside the citydepart and let not those who are
out in the country enter it.
They tend to not tell you toprepare in this way, because it
would cause many to wake up andscratch their heads.
(11:33):
I know here in Illinois it'shard to find a mountain to flee
to.
I think our highest point mightbe a garbage dump turned into a
ski mountain.
That would most certainly causeconfusion and anxiety.
This instruction is not goingto be effective like the stop,
drop and roll that we learn todo when we're on fire.
We have no mountains to fleeto.
(11:54):
How do we think our Biblespeaks directly to us and
disregard this part of ourpreparation?
As we went over in my lastseveral messages, there would
also have to be a temple inJerusalem.
The desolate city would somehowhave to be restored to
holiness, fully rebuiltaccording to Yahweh's perfect
and exact specifications.
(12:14):
Then we would need anointedleaders and high priests to
operate the temple.
The high priest would berequired to have proven Levite
lineage.
The law would then bereinstituted, placing the world
back under the old covenantrules, and then Christ will come
and wipe out the non-believingJews all over again and finally
bring salvation to those whowere promised it thousands of
(12:37):
years ago.
Of course, none of this willever happen, because it already
did.
There's no future secondcoming.
In our scripture, yahweh madesure of this by wiping out the
Jewish race from existence in AD70, along with the temple,
worship and the Holy Land.
It is my belief that, no matterhow hard they try to rebuild the
(12:58):
temple in Jerusalem, it willnever happen.
I could be wrong on this, but Ibelieve this prophecy is to be
taken literally, as it remainstrue to this day.
In Babylon, the glory ofkingdoms, the splendor and pomp
of the Chaldeans will be likeSaddam and Gomorrah when God
overthrew them.
He will never be inhabited orlived in for all generations.
(13:19):
No arable pitches tent there,no shepherds will make their
flocks lie down there, but wildanimals will lie down there and
their houses will be full ofhowling creatures.
Their ostriches will dwell andtheir wild goats will dance.
Hyenas will cry in its towersand jackals in the pleasant
palaces.
Its time is close at hand andits days will not be prolonged.
(13:42):
Isaiah 13 Babylon is Jerusalemin this passage.
If they did try and build atemple in Jerusalem which I do
think Yahweh will not allow itwould never be holy in any way.
Those days are long gone, neverto return.
But I don't think most of thefear-mongering today focuses too
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much on the details ofscripture.
The institutional church hasproven that fear-mongering
brings in great revenue,especially when you combine it
with an old covenant commandlike the tithe.
To be clear, the tithe wasnever 10% of your income.
It was grain and fruits of theland that Israel inherited in
order to provide for the Levitepriests.
(14:23):
Is your pastor a Levite priest?
Is your church the Jewishtemple?
Are you under the 613commandments of the law?
Do you have shares in the landof the ancient Jews?
Then you certainly should notbe told to tithe.
This Christian belief is wrongon so many levels and has built
a church of lies and greed.
(14:43):
It is, at the least, afaithless way of generating
income.
Christian belief is wrong on somany levels and has built a
church of lies and greed.
It is, at the least, afaithless way of generating
income.
Guilt and fear are two thingsthat we see as foundational in
churchianity today.
When you hear the end timesbeing preached, it's often
accompanied by rules for how tobe right with God in order to
prepare for the rapture.
If you're not right with God,you'll be left behind.
(15:05):
As I go over regularly and indetail throughout too many of my
messages to name.
The Christian cannot be anymore right with God.
When you come to a fullunderstanding of the grace of
God, this type of legalism canbe brushed off like an annoying
fly.
But like an annoying fly, theyjust keep finding their way back
to you.
If you're afraid that you'renot right with Yahweh, please
(15:26):
spend some time in my gracemessages If you want to know
which messages are the best forthat.
I have them all categorized onmy website at
wakinguptogracecom, on my topicspage listed as grace messages.
If you need some grace-basedencouragement, it's all right
there, organized for you bytopic.
(15:46):
Even if you don't agree with meabout the rapture and fulfilled
eschatology, I want you to atleast understand just how right
you are with the Lord, thanks toChrist Yeshua and his finished
work.
No matter what happens, this isinformation that will enrich
your life as well as yourChristian walk, for by a single
offering, he has perfected forall time those who are being
sanctified.
Hebrews 10.14.
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How much more right with Godcan you get than perfection
brought to you by the blood ofChrist Yeshua?
But in regards to the conceptof floating away into eternity
without your body dying, that isnot something that is ever
promised in Scripture.
We have to make a ton ofassumptions to come to this
conclusion based on the text inour Bibles.
(16:28):
If we didn't have that idea inour heads from constant
repetition, I doubt the teachingwould be on very many people's
minds other than those with verycreative imagination.
That brings us to number fourof my ten reasons.
Futurism is destructive.
You may lose focus whilepreparing for the rapture.
So many hold to a theology thattheir body won't face a
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physical death and they'll floataway into eternity utterly
unharmed before the big end ofthe world event takes place and
the world explodes and becomes awhole new place.
As I went over in my recentepisodes, beginning with message
57, the world was never goingto end.
This conclusion can only bedrawn if we're not familiar with
the prophetic language of theancient Jews in our scripture.
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As the people teaching about afuture rapture were alive in the
first century, they would havefound that they needed to adjust
their approach slightly.
None of the first centuryChristian martyrs believed that
they would peacefully float awayto be with the Father without
suffering.
They encouraged each other thatdeath was not the end, not to
fear death, because they werepromised life.
Paul also encouraged theThessalonian church that the
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return of Christ would bringthem some relief from their
persecutors.
2 Thessalonians 1.5 says thisis evidence of the righteous
judgment of God that you may beconsidered worthy of the kingdom
of God, for which you are alsosuffering, since, indeed, god
considers it just to repay withaffliction those who afflict you
and grant relief to you who areafflicted, as well as to us.
(18:01):
When the Lord Jesus is revealedfrom heaven with his mighty
angels in flaming fireinflicting vengeance on those
who do not know God and thosewho do not obey the gospel of
our Lord Jesus, they will sufferthe punishment of eternal
destruction, away from thepresence of the Lord and from
the glory of his might.
When he comes on that day to beglorified in his saints and to
(18:24):
be marveled at among all whohave believed because our
testimony to you was believed.
If anyone deserved to beraptured, don't you think it
would be the apostles?
If they had to suffer underpersecution, why would we
receive anything different?
Having a false paradigm isn'tgoing to help us too much if
we're actually heading intochallenging times.
(18:46):
We're not promised this kind ofrelief in our generation.
Not to say that Yahweh won'tgrant us relief, but the relief
of the second coming that theThessalonian church awaited
happened thousands of years ago.
It would be relief for theThessalonian church because the
Jews who were persecuting themwould soon be wiped out by the
wrath of Yahweh.
If there was a rapture, wemissed it by a landslide.
(19:11):
Much of the idea of a rapturecomes from the concept of the
resurrection of the dead beingapplied to the living.
But, as we've been studying,this idea is not of a solid
foundation.
Let's take a peek at some ofthe passages that are used to
encourage today's Christiansthat they'll soon float away
into eternity to be with theirloved ones.
There are certainly somepassages that fit nicely into
(19:32):
the doctrine of our times 1Thessalonians 4.13 but we do not
want you to be uninformed,brothers, about those who are
asleep, that you may not grieveas others do, who have no hope
For, since we believe that Jesusdied and rose again.
Even so, through Jesus, godwill bring with him those who
have fallen asleep.
For this we declare to you by aword from the Lord, that we who
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are alive, who are left untilthe coming of the Lord will not
precede those who have fallenasleep, for the Lord himself
will descend from heaven with acry of command, with the voice
of an archangel and with thesound of the trumpet of God, and
the dead in Christ will risefirst.
Then we who are alive, who areleft, will be caught up together
(20:17):
with them in the clouds to meetthe Lord in the air, and so we
will always be with the Lord.
Therefore, encourage oneanother with these words.
This passage is certainly one ofthe strongest points for
rapture doctrines, but it's onlya strong point because of the
way it speaks to our paradigms,not the paradigms of the first
century Christians.
We first see Paul encouragingthem to have hope for those who
(20:41):
have already died.
Apparently, many were led tobelieve that there would be no
resurrection of the dead.
So Paul informs them that therewill be a resurrection of the
dead, and those who were left atthe second coming, who were not
dead, will join them in heavenwith the Father.
Why does Paul need to specifythat they will essentially float
away into heaven to be with theLord in the air?
(21:01):
The answer is actually quitesimple.
Which way is heaven?
It's up, right?
Yeah, it's up, it's above us.
The ancient Hebrews who wroteour Bibles believed the earth
was flat with a solid dome overit.
Heaven was up and Sheol, calledHades in the New Testament, was
down.
Paul was directing their mindsto an understanding that was not
(21:25):
familiar to them.
Those who were alive after thesecond coming would be headed
upward right into heaven whenthey died.
As I discussed in my lastmessage, number 60, they'd be
changed, and that change was theputting on of immortality.
In the new covenant age we nolonger die.
This temporal body dies, but wemake a spiritual transition
(21:49):
into a new body as we float offinto the heavenly realms to be
with the Lord and those whopreceded us in the faith.
A lot like the way Christ Yeshuaascended into heaven at the
beginning of the book of Acts, Iwould imagine.
Paul explains that the deadwill be there first.
Then they will ultimately jointhem in the air in the heavenly
realms.
Going down to Sheol would notbe for them, and those who were
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in Sheol would not be forgotten.
This passage has nothing to dowith Christians being left
behind, but rather explains thatno one will get left behind.
But an interesting thing weshould examine in the text here
is that Paul again speaks tothem as though some of them
would still be alive when Christreturned.
Then we who are alive, who areleft, will be caught up together
(22:33):
with them in the clouds to meetthe Lord in the air, and so we
will always be with the Lord.
Just another of many passagesthat prove a future return is
not happening and that Christcame when he said he would.
The next passage is another verypopular proof text for the
rapture, although it's reallymore of a spoof text.
In Luke 17 we read Whoeverseeks to preserve his life will
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lose it, but whoever loses hislife will keep it.
Spoof text.
In Luke 17 we read there's alot of context in this passage
to unravel, but for today let'skeep it simple.
The most convincing part aboutthis passage for proponents of
rapture doctrines is the idea ofliving people floating off to
be with the Lord, people gettingpulled up into heaven while
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still living.
Everyone goes to this passageto promote the rapture, but we
don't often hear the next versewhere they ask where the people
would be going and they said tohim where Lord.
He said to them where thecorpse is there.
The vultures will gather.
This part of the verse doesn'toften get included in the proof
texting.
They ask Yeshua where thepeople were being taken and
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Yeshua tells them they'd betaken to their death, not
raptured.
This passage is not describingwhat we call the rapture today.
We need to check up on ourteachers.
Today's rapture theology isnothing more than someone's
imagination.
Don't plan on getting raptured.
You're going to get let downand probably mislead others
along the way as well.
(24:10):
Which brings me to reasonnumber five of my ten reasons
that futurism is destructive.
You may cause yourself andothers to make bad decisions.
If you believe that we're atthe end of the age and Christ
Yeshua is going to return soonto take you away to heaven by
means of a rapture, you mightmake poor decisions in your
life.
If you believe the world isgoing to come to an explosive
(24:33):
ending and it's prophesied tohappen there's no chance that it
won't happen.
It's God's will.
If you believe the world isgoing to come to an explosive
ending and it's prophesied tohappen there's no chance that it
won't happen, it's God's willthen what point is there in
working and maintaining yourlife on earth?
Why send your kids to school?
Why have a savings account.
Why even worry about anything?
It's all going to be over soon,right?
(24:53):
There are most certainly loadsof people who have made some
level of poor decision becausethey believe the end of the
world was coming.
On the other hand, many willalso sit on their hands and do
nothing to stop the evil in theworld because they believe it
has to take place as prophesied.
Why try and stop this evil whenit's certain to win and be the
cause of the destruction of theworld?
(25:14):
Not everyone believes in therapture theology.
Many realize that it's not inScripture, but accept a dreaded
future judgment accompanied by amassive persecution of the
saints.
That brings me to reason numbersix of my ten reasons.
Futurism is destructive.
You may lose hope and your willto take action.
(25:34):
In Paul's second letter to theThessalonians, he was giving the
church hope and encouragementto hold out to the end, to stand
firm.
Relief was coming andimmortality would come with it.
But they were suffering untilthen.
It's clear by his writing thatmany were losing hope due to
persecution and suffering.
Some were becoming idle and notworking.
(25:54):
In his letter it is clear thatthey did not believe that the
world would end because somewere proclaiming to them Christ
had already returned.
They were believing Christalready returned and they were
still alive on earth.
On top of that, paul didn'tremind them that the world would
have ended if Christ came.
Instead, he reminded them ofsigns that he taught them to be
(26:15):
looking for.
So if they heard that Christalready came and they weren't
getting that relief from theirpersecution, that would be
discouraging, wouldn't it?
We read about the promisedrelief earlier in 2
Thessalonians.
How much worse would it feel toknow that the world had to end
and you had to sufferpersecution and, most likely,
die?
That's the camp that many findthemselves in today due to
(26:43):
futurist doctrines.
There's no doubt that we canfind reasons to believe that
there will be suffering in ourfuture.
All of our future and historyare in the hands of Yahweh, but
our future is not written in thebook of Revelation.
The revelation of John ishistory.
We don't have to accept thatevil is going to have any kind
of victory, although it may fora time.
We don't have to believe thatthe world is ending soon.
In context, there's no end tothe world in scripture.
(27:05):
Making poor decisions andlosing hope and the will to take
action based on a falseparadigm are not good.
These things are certainlydestructive, aren't they?
On a false paradigm are notgood.
These things are certainlydestructive, aren't they?
But the consequences of ouractions when we believe in the
futurist doctrines could be farworse than we realize.
That brings me to reason numberseven of my ten reasons.
(27:25):
Futurism is destructive.
You might be supporting themurder of innocent people In
today's hostile politicalenvironment.
Our loving government hascaused our two political parties
to be divided on who they seeas allies in the fabricated wars
that serve the elite ingenerating more power, control
and money.
The party in power now is infull support of Israel.
(27:48):
We're told that we need tooppose Palestine.
Who are the terrorists?
I don't buy this for a minute.
Of course there have beenstaged events.
This is all part of the waythey operate.
If we question the narrative, wealways find an opposite truth
about the situation from realpeople outside of the mainstream
calf path.
(28:08):
We get lied to abouteverything.
We can deny this, but itdoesn't help anything.
The bliss of ignorance isalways temporary.
What we call the nation ofIsrael today is evil and
corrupt.
It's a political vehicle forthe elites who are pulling the
strings on all things evil.
You don't have to believe me.
(28:29):
You don't have to seek thetruth for yourself, but if you
are pro-Israel or pro-any sidein today's political affairs,
you're supporting the murder ofinnocent people.
Our government is sickening.
We need to stop believing,otherwise Yahweh is not
pro-Israel, as many mightbelieve.
There's nothing holy about theleaders of Israel today.
(28:51):
If you believe today's Israelthat began its fabrication in
1948 and was established in the60s thanks to trustworthy people
like the Rothschilds, you'rebeing deceived.
And that brings us to reasonnumber 8 of my 10 reasons.
Futurism is destructive.
You might fall for politicaldeception.
Political deception is going onall around us.
(29:13):
There's most certainly a veryreal spiritual battle going on
in our earthly realms.
Christians are being massivelydeceived by propaganda and they
have no clue.
We've fallen right into thehands of our enemies due to
complete and utter ignorance.
Don't believe it just because Isaid it, though.
Listen for yourself.
I linked to this conversationin Message 57, but I wanted to
(29:36):
play it for you guys now, incase you didn't look at my blog
post.
This is disturbing.
This conversation between TedCruz and Tucker Carlson plainly
reveals the ignorance anddestructive motives behind
futurism and its close friend,zionism.
You can certainly check out mylink to the full interview to
get an even better idea of thecontext of the conversation, and
(29:57):
I definitely recommend it.
But check out this short clip.
It's shocking.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
Okay, and the reason is twofold.
Number one as a Christiangrowing up in Sunday school, I
was taught from the Bible thosewho bless Israel will be blessed
and those who curse Israel willbe cursed.
And from my perspective, I wantto be on the blessing side of
things.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
Of those who bless the government of Israel.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Those who bless Israel is what it says.
It doesn't say the governmentof.
It says the nation of Israel.
So that's in the Bible.
As a Christian, I believe that.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
Where is that?
Speaker 3 (30:30):
I can find it to you.
I don't have the scripture offthe tip of my.
Pull out the phone and use theGoogle it's in Genesis.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
So you're quoting a Bible phrase.
You don't have context for it,you don't know where in the
Bible it is, but that's likeyour theology.
I'm confused.
What does that even mean,tucker?
I'm a Christian.
I want to know what you'retalking about.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Where does my support for Israel come from?
Number one, because biblicallywe are commanded to support
Israel.
But number two Hold on, no, no,no, hold on.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
You're a senator and now you're throwing out
theology.
And I am a Christian and I amallowed to weigh in on this.
We are commanded, asChristians, to support the
government of Israel.
We are commanded to supportIsrael.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
What does that mean?
Israel, we're told, those whobless.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Israel will be blessed.
Bless Israel will be blessed.
Hold on, define Israel.
This is important.
Are you kidding?
This is a majority Christiancountry Define Israel.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Do you not know what Israel is?
Speaker 4 (31:22):
That would be the country you'd have asked like 49
questions about.
So that's what Genesis?
That's what God is talkingabout the nation of Israel?
Yes, so is that the currentborders, the current leadership?
He's talking about thepolitical entity called Israel.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
He's talking about the nation of Israel.
Yet nations exists and he'sdiscussing a nation.
A nation was the people ofisrael is the nation.
Speaker 4 (31:37):
They're the descendants of abraham in
genesis.
Is that the same as the countryrun by benjamin netanyahu,
right?
Speaker 3 (31:42):
yes, yes, it is and, by the way, it's not run by
benjamin netanyahu as adictator.
It's, it's a democratic countrybut he's the prime minister,
right?
But just just like you know,america is the country run by
donald.
No, actually, the Americanpeople elected Donald Trump, the
same principle is there.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
This is silly.
I'm talking about the politicalentity of modern Israel.
Yes, and that is Israel.
You believe that's what God wastalking about in Genesis?
I do.
That country has existed sincewhen.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
For thousands of years Now.
There was a time when it didn'texist, and then it was
recreated, just over 70 yearsago.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
I'm saying I think most people understand that line
in Genesis to refer to theJewish people, God's chosen
people.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
That's not what it says.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
Okay, it is real, but you don't even know where in
the Bible it is so.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
I don't know if we can.
I don't remember the scripturalcitation, but okay, I keep.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
It's like Genesis 16 or something like that.
But yes, it's in the earlierpart of the book.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
But the point is you keep interrupting me before I
finish my sentence.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
No, it's just important to know what you're
talking about.
I don't know what you're, soyou're saying, as a Christian,
if I believe in Jesus, I have tosupport the modern state of
Israel?
No, I'm not saying that.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
I'm explaining for me what my vote motivation is.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Okay, so I'm just trying to understand.
You said God tells you tosupport the modern state of
Israel in the Bible, in someplace in the Bible that you
heard about, but you don't knowwhere it is.
That's your theology.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
You're going back.
Am I a sleazy feline again?
Speaker 4 (33:09):
I mean, if you accuse me of anti-Semitism.
Again I will say that, but Idon't think you will.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
Try to be a little less condescending.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
I'm trying to have a conversation.
I'm not condescending.
You're throwing this stuff outand it's my job to figure out
what you're talking about, but Idon't understand.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
But you're not letting me.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
Okay, I'm sorry.
I want to be polite.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Just to be clear, as Ted tried to imply about Tucker,
I'm not anti-Semite.
My argument is that today'sJews have no connection with the
ancient Jews and that you couldnever prove in any way that
they do.
They have no temple, nor dothey offer any required animal
sacrifices.
They have no Levite lineage tooperate a temple and they never
(33:48):
will.
It was destroyed in AD 70.
According to gene testing, theyhave no ethnic DNA.
In other words, there's no realJews.
They are not native to theland, they don't keep the law of
Moses, they go by the rabbinictradition in their Talmud and,
of course, as Christians.
How do you call a person holywho rejects Christ?
(34:09):
Paul calls the ChristianGentiles Jews at heart in Romans
2 29.
Christ Yeshua was a Jew.
The apostles were Jews.
Our ancient scripture waswritten by Jews.
We've been grafted into aJewish salvation according to
Romans 11.
The ancient Jews are ourspiritual ancestors.
(34:31):
They're family.
I love the ancient Jewish race.
I'm reading a book right now onhow to understand Romans from a
Jewish perspective.
I think the more we understandour ancient Hebrew roots, the
better we understand scripture,and I don't hate misguided
people who claim to be Jewstoday.
I just reject their religiousviews.
Today's Jews are not muchdifferent than today's
(34:54):
Christians in a lot of ways.
We're all misguided in manyareas, but the only way to
righteousness and salvation isChrist.
Jesus said to him I am the wayand the life.
No one comes to the Fatherexcept through me, john 14.
We often have to realize ifYahweh had not opened our eyes,
(35:19):
we wouldn't be much differentthan the Jews today who
blaspheme the Lord by rejectingChrist.
Speaking truth is the only wayI know of helping others.
This was the way of Christ,yeshua and his apostles.
If it's good enough for them,it's good enough for me.
But regarding the biblicalIsrael, yahweh wiped out the
Jewish race in AD 70.
We can't get around this.
(35:39):
Just as Ted disclosed, today'sIsrael was invented only about
70 years ago.
Christian Zionism has causedmany foreign countries to
despise Americans.
They see how America and Israeldo evil in the name of the Lord
and they get upset Rightly so.
This creates a nice opportunityfor our government to justify
(36:01):
Israel as an ally and condonemore evil in the name of the
Lord.
And the sad part is that mostChristians don't question any of
the motives.
They just figure we have todefend Israel for the same
reasons Ted mentioned, theydon't question their theology
either.
American Christians today aremost certainly responsible for
their sin of ignorance.
There is nothing holy or goodabout the ignorance here in
(36:24):
America and we ought to repentand stand against this narrative
in a big way.
By standing with Zionism,americans do much harm to the
perception of Christianityaround the world.
We're mostly clueless here inAmerica about the evil doings of
Israel, but the peopleexperiencing it are not unaware.
How many people witnessing themurder of innocent women and
(36:46):
children by Zionist militias aregoing to consider faith in
Christ when they see AmericanChristians proclaiming this as a
holy thing.
A clip from a November 2023article reads Israel's deadly
bombardment of Gaza has killednearly 15,000 people, including
10,000 women and children, inover 50 days, making it the
(37:08):
deadliest war for the besiegedPalestinian enclave till date.
Israel has rebuffed calls for aceasefire as a four-day
humanitarian truce comes to anend on November 28th.
It's unclear whether the trucewill be extended.
The devastation of Gaza and themounting death toll has
triggered worldwide protests,bringing the decades-long issue
(37:29):
to the center stage of globalpolitics.
This headline was taken from anarticle I'm linking to on my
blog post for those who arelistening.
Israel-palestine Conflict ABrief History in Maps and
Charts.
This is a super easy read andit's very informative.
The writing perfectlyhighlights the political
(37:49):
movement of Zionism and theevents that led to where it is
today.
I dare to say if you're anAmerican Christian today, you
need to know this information.
The article brings things tolight in a most simple way,
leaving a lot to ourimagination, such as Leading up
to Israel's birth in 1948, morethan 750,000 Palestinians
(38:10):
750,000 Palestinians wereethnically cleansed from their
homes by Zionist militias.
This mass exodus came to beknown as the Nakba, or
catastrophe.
A further 300,000 Palestinianswere displaced by the Six-Day
(38:32):
War in 1967.
If you lived in Palestine, whatdo you think it would have
looked like for you and yourfamily?
Just take a moment to thinkabout this.
How would you like to beethnically cleansed from your
home?
What I want you to ask yourselfis this what is holy about the
(38:53):
nation that we call Israeltoday?
And further, as a Christian,what makes you holy?
Does holiness exist outside ofChrist?
If you believe holiness existstoday apart from Christ, you
deny him as Lord and Savior.
Do you really want to do that?
(39:13):
Today's astonishingJewish-Christian connection is
the next topic.
I don't think a whole lot ofpeople spend much time studying
or thinking about theireschatology.
I know I was in that camp.
I didn't pay a whole lot ofattention to the details, it was
really just what I heard peoplesay, or a pastor's teaching.
With nearly every Christian inAmerica believing that Christ is
(39:35):
coming soon, there remains alot of gray areas as to what
he'll be doing when he getshere.
As you know now if you've beenfollowing my last several
messages, I'm what you can calla full preterist.
I believe that the return ofChrist came spiritually, as
intended in AD 70, at the finaljudgment and destruction of
Israel.
There's no longer a true Jewishethnic group, but most today
(40:00):
believe that Christ is coming inthe flesh which is nowhere in
scripture, by the way and thathe'll be living here on earth
physically for a thousand years.
What will he be doing here, wemight ask, and I think we should
ask that, because when weconsider what Zionists are
feeding us about this, it'sutterly ridiculous.
The full preterist view holdsthat the thousand years in
(40:22):
Revelation is a symbolic timeperiod that took place in the
first century.
The term a thousand years isused to describe completeness.
It's a fulfillment in theprophetic language.
The church was established inthat time period, it came to its
fullness in the first century.
It's what the futuristsbelieve.
That leaves us with a strangeworldview of Christianity and a
(40:45):
warped view of the return ofChrist.
Let's take a look at what manyJewish people believe about
their Messiah coming and thenwhat the Christian Zionists
believe about the return oftheir Messiah, and see if we can
find an odd connection in twocompletely contrary belief
systems.
In mainstream Orthodox Judaism,the rebuilding of the temple is
(41:05):
generally left to the coming ofthe Jewish Messiah and to
divine providence, but someorganizations want to realize
the construction of a thirdtemple in present times.
Meanwhile, many evangelicalChristians believe that New
Testament prophecies associatedwith the Jewish temple, such as
Matthew 24, thessalonians 2,were not completely fulfilled
(41:27):
during the destruction ofJerusalem in AD 70, and that
these prophecies refer to afuture temple.
This view is at the core ofdispensationalism, which asserts
that the Jews remain God'schosen holy people to this day.
According to dispensationalisttheologians such as Hal Lindsey
and Tim LaHaye, the third templewill be rebuilt when the
(41:48):
Antichrist, often identified asthe political leader of a
transnational alliance similarto the European Union or the
United Nations, secures a peacetreaty between the modern nation
of Israel and its neighborsfollowing a global war.
The Antichrist later uses thetemple as a venue for
proclaiming himself as God andthe long-awaited Messiah,
(42:11):
demanding worship from humanity.
So somehow, jews and Christiansboth believe their Messiah is
coming when a third temple isbuilt in the future.
And then there's the problemthat they just can't seem to
solve in order to build a thirdtemple.
Most Muslims oppose the constructing of a Third Temple due to the presence of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Today the area they tell us the temple once stood is regarded by the majority of Muslims as the third holiest site in Islam. Muslims are resolute in calling for recognition of their exclusive rights over the site and demand that it be wholly transferred to Muslim sovereignty; furthermore, some Muslims deny any association with the Mount to the former Jewish Temple which is more recently claimed to have stood at the site.
(43:00):
As you can see, there's a lotof tension going on in Israel
today.
If you want to call it Israel,our scriptures would call it a
desolate land.
Just as America should have noplace supporting the evil
movement of Zionism, christiansshould have no place concerning
themselves with trying to builda man-made temple on a desolate
land.
Thousands of innocent people,including women and children,
(43:21):
are getting murdered while wesit in our pews and cheer it all
on.
It's sickening.
So if all this isn't enough tomake you raise an eyebrow or
scratch your head or mayberethink your futurist views,
let's look at reason number nineof my ten reasons.
Futurism is destructive.
You make light of the missionthat the forefathers of our
faith, the apostles, laid downtheir lives for.
(43:44):
A lot like the United States ofAmerica, our forefathers laid
down their lives to establishsomething new and very good.
The apostles laid down theirlives for our freedom in Christ,
for the kingdom of Yahweh to beestablished, for the new
covenant age to be consummatedon earth so we could put on
immortality and obtain thepromised salvation and life of
(44:06):
Christ Yeshua that is eternal.
We've been given all thingsthanks to the work of Yahweh
through the lives of theapostles and the first century
churches, who endured what couldbe considered hell on earth to
serve the Lord faithfully,knowing that salvation was
coming, knowing that Christ wascoming to bring salvation to the
saints and to judge the wicked.
(44:26):
When we miss this point.
We misunderstand half of whatwe've been given through grace.
We misunderstand half of whatis written in our scriptures
and, most of all, we make lightof the finished work of Christ
Yeshua and the mission that theapostles were sent out to
accomplish through the Spiritthe establishment of the church.
(44:47):
The church was born onPentecost and it was consummated
40 years later, in AD 70.
Which brings us to reasonnumber 10, the final reason of
my 10 reasons.
Futurism is destructive.
You wait for what you alreadyhave.
I believe that when we go intothe spiritual realms, when these
(45:07):
temporal bodies die, we'llserve the Lord and much of our
work will likely be here onearth.
We'll be part of his divinecouncil in the new heaven that's
no longer rebelling againsthim.
We'll be like the angelsaccording to scripture, and even
above them in standing.
If you're not familiar withdivine council, you can check
out message 42 and 43.
(45:29):
Just like the divine councilbefore the new covenant age, the
divine council of the newcovenant age is assisting Yahweh
with his plans on earth.
Only now his kingdom isestablished on earth and
righteousness dwells in thesaints.
The righteousness of Christ wasmade perfect in us at the
second coming.
Yahweh works through the saintsin the earthly realms and the
(45:51):
unseen realms.
Imagine what the world willlook like when we enter into the
heavenly realms, when we enterinto the unseen.
Yahweh now dwells among us.
We read of this coming tofruition at the second coming in
various parts of scripture.
One very well-known area is therevelation of John.
As with most of revelation,people get very upset with
(46:14):
Preterists because it sounds soobvious in their mind that God
is not dwelling with us.
This simply comes frommisunderstanding of the unseen
realms.
Did you know that Yahweh dwelledamong the ancient Jews for a
time?
Yes, if we read our scriptures,we see that he did dwell among
them.
He walked among them for a timeand he also made his presence
(46:36):
through the Ark of the Covenant.
When Solomon built the firstholy temple, it was to be a
house for Yahweh to dwell amonghis people.
Did people walk around and talkto Yahweh all day long,
physically looking him in theeye?
No, they didn't.
And in the New Covenant age,the church, the body of
believers in Christ, make up atemple that was not built with
(46:58):
human hands, where our Lord nowdwells.
We're not waiting for this.
We have it and we shouldn't betaking it for granted.
Are you also aware that you area priest?
It's actually a pretty coolconcept From Peter.
We read but you are a chosenrace, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a people for his ownpossession that you may proclaim
(47:21):
the excellencies of him, whocalled you out of darkness into
his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, butnow you are God's people.
Once you had not receivedmercy, but now you have received
mercy.
That's 1 Peter, 2.9.
And then Paul writes Our worshipin our earthly bodies is holy
(47:52):
and pleasing to Yahweh.
Paul's not describing a churchbuilding here.
He's describing the Christianas a holy priest offering
sacrifices, pleasing to theLord.
What are these sacrifices?
It's our worship.
What's our worship?
What do you consider to beworship?
Today, we think of going tochurch once a week.
(48:15):
We call this a worship service.
But is this structure needed toworship our Lord as his holy
priests?
No, it's not.
Worship is anything that honorsour Lord.
We live thankfully, we seek histruth, we study his written
word, we pray.
We share our love with others.
We share what we're learningabout him with our friends and
(48:35):
loved ones.
We expose Zionism and evilpolitical movements.
We promote peace with others tothe best of our ability.
There are so many ways that wecan worship and they're all
pleasing to the Lord when donein truth and spirit.
I hope you guys enjoyed mymessage today.
Grace and peace to you and havea great day out there.
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Thank you for listening to the Waking Up to
Grace podcast brought to you bythe finished work of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
If you enjoyed today's episode,we would love to hear from you.
You can send encouragement ourway right from our episodes and
transcripts page.
Hello and welcome to the Waking Up To Grace podcast,
where we celebrate and explorethe finished work of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Tune in to the Waking Up ToGrace podcast on every major
platform.
You can also listen to ourepisodes and read our full
transcripts atwakinguptogracecom.
And now here's Lenny.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome back to the Waking Up to Grace podcast
everyone.
In today's message I'm going togive you 10 reasons.
Futurism is destructive.
Futurism is a Christianeschatological view that sees
portions of John's Revelationand other apocalyptic sections
of the Bible as future end-timeevents.
Futurism is premillennialfuture end time events.
(00:48):
Futurism is pre-millennial.
Pre-millennialism thinkingtells us that Christ will return
to earth, bind Satan and reignfor a literal thousand years on
earth with Jerusalem as hiscapital.
According to thisunderstanding, christ returns
before the thousand yearsmentioned in Revelation, chapter
20.
Futurist beliefs also have aclose association with
dispensationalism and Zionism.
Much of the futurist beliefrests on the assumption that God
(01:11):
has never given Israel all theland promised through Abraham
and that the completefulfillment of this promise is
still in our future.
These views ignore theprophesied final judgment that
fell on first century Israel.
These views ignore theprophesied final judgment that
fell on first century Israel.
They imagine that a templeneeds to be rebuilt and that the
Jewish people who dwell inIsrael today are God's holy
(01:31):
people, even despite there beingno context to support the
concept in scripture.
The Christian Zionists of ourgeneration lead our country as
we speak and will support thefabricated nation Israel that
was created in 1948 and wellestablished by the 1960s.
In whatever they do, they don'tsupport any truly holy motive,
(01:54):
but stand with the wickedgovernment of Israel and all
their war crimes.
Make no mistake there's noconnection with today's
so-called holy land in ancientIsrael, religiously or
ethnically.
They have no temple, nor dothey offer any required animal
sacrifices.
They have no Levite lineage tooperate a temple and never will.
(02:15):
According to gene testing, theyhave no ethnic DNA.
In other words, there are noreal Jews.
They don't keep the Law ofMoses.
Instead, they go by rabbinictradition in their Talmud and,
of course, as Christians.
How do you call a person holywho rejects Christ?
(02:36):
The full preterist doctrine isthe only source of teaching that
proclaims Christ as returningin the first century, when he
proclaimed that he would.
Futurism is the most populartheological view today.
If you're uncertain whether ornot you hold to futurist views,
you probably do.
Apparently, futurist views makeup about 99% of Christianity.
Today we're going to break downthe dangers of following the
(03:00):
calf path of the 99% and why youmight want to consider
rethinking what you believeabout the return of Christ.
10 Reasons Futurism isDestructive From my vantage
point.
Futurism is destructive in manyways.
Let's kick off our 10 reasons.
Futurism is destructive.
With reason number one Futuristprophetic predictions are
always wrong.
(03:21):
If you're a teacher or youngadult, it's possible that you've
not experienced a falseprediction of the end times and
return of Christ until morerecently.
There are certainly a lot ofpeople parodying the phrase
we're living in the end timescoming from mainstream theology,
but is this the first time thata large number of people
believed the end of the worldwas coming?
Is this the first time that thereturn of Christ was said to be
(03:45):
coming soon?
If we go simply by odds, howmuch of a chance do we have that
today's so-called prophets arecorrect about the end of the
age?
I would actually love to see astatistical probability done on
this To get an idea of the trueodds.
We might first count up all thetimes that the event has been
proclaimed after the firstcentury apostles.
(04:05):
We could then factor in howmany times it's been true.
The number of false claims herewould be quite large as we go
back in time, but the number oftimes it's been correct remain
at a whopping zero To anyonepaying attention.
Proclaiming the return ofChrist as coming soon has made
Christians look a lot like theboy who cried wolf or Chicken
(04:26):
Little, crying out that the skyis falling and, like all things,
it's become a way of bringingin large amounts of revenue for
many.
We even have politiciansplaying the game.
You know, there's gotta be somegood money being passed around
when politicians are suddenlyfollowing the narrative the way
I see it the odds are completelyagainst this event actually
(04:47):
occurring, you might say.
But anything is possible withthe Lord and you'd be right.
But the Lord already told usthat he was coming in the first
century.
In Matthew 24, yeshua saysTruly I say to you, this
generation will not pass awayuntil all these things take
place.
So do we think we're going tooutwit the greatest prophet of
(05:10):
all time, or do we just supposehe fibbed a little bit to make
his audience feel better?
Sadly, that's actually beingsaid by people who are
considered great leaders inChristianity.
I'm honestly too embarrassedfor them to put their names on
it.
But if you dig around a littleyou'll find it said more than
once.
But, all probability aside, ourBibles teach us that the return
(05:31):
of Christ is not going tohappen in our generation.
It couldn't be more clear.
When Yeshua said thisgeneration will not pass away,
he's referring to the generationthey were living in at that
time.
This alone completely rules outthe possibility of our
generation having thisexperience.
But, as we've covered in mylast several messages, there's
(05:52):
much more evidence than justthat Case in point.
If you follow the end times,fear mongering or simply long
for the rapture that you'rebeing promised by today's
theology.
You're going to end updisappointed.
It's not going to happen.
Whatever happens in our future,we can count on the fact that
it's not written in the book ofRevelation.
(06:13):
That letter was written to sevenchurches that existed in the
first century and it applied tothem directly.
Let's read the introduction tobe sure.
In the Revelation of John,chapter 1, we read Blessed is
the one who reads aloud thewords of this prophecy and
blessed are those who hear andwho keep what is written in it.
For the time is near.
John to the seven churches thatare in Asia grace to you and
(06:37):
peace from him who is and wasand who is to come, and from the
seven spirits who are beforehis throne.
In his letter, john addresseseach church individually.
The seven churches wereEphesus, smyrna, pergamum,
thyatira, sardis, philadelphiaand Laodicea.
Then, a few verses later, weread Behold, he's coming with
(07:00):
the clouds and every eye willsee him, even those who pierced
him and all the tribes of Christin the first century.
John's letter to seven specificchurches in that first century
further confirms this fact.
As we discussed in my lastseveral messages, coming in the
(07:23):
clouds was judgment.
As we discussed in my lastseveral messages coming in the
clouds was judgment.
The final judgment would bringlife and salvation to the
faithful and death to theunfaithful.
Who would see this judgment?
According to our Revelationpassage, every eye will see,
right.
But specifically we read eventhose who pierced him, who
pierced Christ Yeshua?
Who was responsible for hisdeath.
(07:45):
It was the Jewish leaders,right?
Would it not be the same Jewishleaders who Yeshua spoke to
when he was brought before theSanhedrin?
In Mark 14, we read, but heremained silent and made no
answer.
Again, the high priest askedhim Are you the Christ, the Son
of the Blessed?
And Jesus said I am, and youwill see the Son of man seated
(08:09):
at the right hand of power andcoming with the clouds of
heaven.
If the event did not come tofruition, how can we still trust
this writing today?
How can we see any of thesefirst century apostles, or even
Christ Yeshua, as trustworthy iftheir prophecies failed to
become reality when they weresupposed to?
And further, how can we be socomfortable with leaders today
(08:30):
who declare false prophecy when,according to their own book,
they deserve death for suchbehavior?
This brings us to the second ofmy 10 reasons.
Futurism is destructive.
According to scripture, a falseprophet deserves death.
As we discussed in reasonnumber one, since the
destruction of Jerusalem in AD70, we've had more proclamations
(08:50):
of the end times coming than wecould possibly count.
How would Yahweh feel aboutthese false proclamations?
Let's see what it says inDeuteronomy 18.
But the prophet who presumes tospeak a word in my name that I
have not commanded him to speak,or who speaks in the name of
the other gods, that sameprophet shall die.
And if you say in your heart,how may we know that the Lord
(09:14):
has not spoken?
When a prophet speaks in thename of the Lord, if the word
does not come to pass or cometrue, that is a word that the
Lord has not spoken.
This prophet has spoken itpresumptuously.
You don't need to be afraid ofhim.
Do you think today's churchleaders ever stop to consider
this?
What's changed about our Lord'sview on false prophets?
(09:35):
Are we to believe that underthe new covenant age of grace,
that Yahweh is now pleased bysuch behavior?
Well, the reality is thatprophecy ended in the first
century with the destruction ofJerusalem in AD 70.
In Luke 21, yeshua says Forthese are days of vengeance to
(10:06):
fulfill all that is written.
There is never to be anyprophecy after this historical
event.
What we see going on in ourgeneration is nothing more than
a passed down tradition.
We have most of Christianitycalling preterists heretics
while they embrace the falseprophets of our day, and the
circus willetics while theyembrace the false prophets of
our day.
And the circus will continueuntil we stop accepting the
(10:28):
doctrines of error that we'vebeen handed down through the
many years.
Christ will be coming soon foryou and your grandchildren.
Nothing will ever change if wedon't wake up and realize that
he showed up exactly when hesaid he would.
Moving on to number three of myten reasons, futurism is
destructive.
You give people anxiety whenyou tell them to be ready for
(10:50):
the end times.
When it comes to anticipating afuture judgment of Christ,
there tends to be differingemotional responses.
You have one camp believingthey'll float away into the
heavenly realms before anythingbad happens.
These will encourage you thatall is good.
There is nothing to fear atall.
Then we have the fear-mongeringlegalists telling everyone to be
(11:11):
prepared for the return ofChrist.
What do they mean by this?
It's usually not referring toour Luke 21 passage.
Then let those who are in Judeaflee to the mountains and let
those who are inside the citydepart and let not those who are
out in the country enter it.
They tend to not tell you toprepare in this way, because it
would cause many to wake up andscratch their heads.
(11:33):
I know here in Illinois it'shard to find a mountain to flee
to.
I think our highest point mightbe a garbage dump turned into a
ski mountain.
That would most certainly causeconfusion and anxiety.
This instruction is not goingto be effective like the stop,
drop and roll that we learn todo when we're on fire.
We have no mountains to fleeto.
(11:54):
How do we think our Biblespeaks directly to us and
disregard this part of ourpreparation?
As we went over in my lastseveral messages, there would
also have to be a temple inJerusalem.
The desolate city would somehowhave to be restored to
holiness, fully rebuiltaccording to Yahweh's perfect
and exact specifications.
(12:14):
Then we would need anointedleaders and high priests to
operate the temple.
The high priest would berequired to have proven Levite
lineage.
The law would then bereinstituted, placing the world
back under the old covenantrules, and then Christ will come
and wipe out the non-believingJews all over again and finally
bring salvation to those whowere promised it thousands of
(12:37):
years ago.
Of course, none of this willever happen, because it already
did.
There's no future secondcoming.
In our scripture, yahweh madesure of this by wiping out the
Jewish race from existence in AD70, along with the temple,
worship and the Holy Land.
It is my belief that, no matterhow hard they try to rebuild the
(12:58):
temple in Jerusalem, it willnever happen.
I could be wrong on this, but Ibelieve this prophecy is to be
taken literally, as it remainstrue to this day.
In Babylon, the glory ofkingdoms, the splendor and pomp
of the Chaldeans will be likeSaddam and Gomorrah when God
overthrew them.
He will never be inhabited orlived in for all generations.
(13:19):
No arable pitches tent there,no shepherds will make their
flocks lie down there, but wildanimals will lie down there and
their houses will be full ofhowling creatures.
Their ostriches will dwell andtheir wild goats will dance.
Hyenas will cry in its towersand jackals in the pleasant
palaces.
Its time is close at hand andits days will not be prolonged.
(13:42):
Isaiah 13 Babylon is Jerusalemin this passage.
If they did try and build atemple in Jerusalem which I do
think Yahweh will not allow itwould never be holy in any way.
Those days are long gone, neverto return.
But I don't think most of thefear-mongering today focuses too
(14:02):
much on the details ofscripture.
The institutional church hasproven that fear-mongering
brings in great revenue,especially when you combine it
with an old covenant commandlike the tithe.
To be clear, the tithe wasnever 10% of your income.
It was grain and fruits of theland that Israel inherited in
order to provide for the Levitepriests.
(14:23):
Is your pastor a Levite priest?
Is your church the Jewishtemple?
Are you under the 613commandments of the law?
Do you have shares in the landof the ancient Jews?
Then you certainly should notbe told to tithe.
This Christian belief is wrongon so many levels and has built
a church of lies and greed.
(14:43):
It is, at the least, afaithless way of generating
income.
Christian belief is wrong on somany levels and has built a
church of lies and greed.
It is, at the least, afaithless way of generating
income.
Guilt and fear are two thingsthat we see as foundational in
churchianity today.
When you hear the end timesbeing preached, it's often
accompanied by rules for how tobe right with God in order to
prepare for the rapture.
If you're not right with God,you'll be left behind.
(15:05):
As I go over regularly and indetail throughout too many of my
messages to name.
The Christian cannot be anymore right with God.
When you come to a fullunderstanding of the grace of
God, this type of legalism canbe brushed off like an annoying
fly.
But like an annoying fly, theyjust keep finding their way back
to you.
If you're afraid that you'renot right with Yahweh, please
(15:26):
spend some time in my gracemessages If you want to know
which messages are the best forthat.
I have them all categorized onmy website at
wakinguptogracecom, on my topicspage listed as grace messages.
If you need some grace-basedencouragement, it's all right
there, organized for you bytopic.
(15:46):
Even if you don't agree with meabout the rapture and fulfilled
eschatology, I want you to atleast understand just how right
you are with the Lord, thanks toChrist Yeshua and his finished
work.
No matter what happens, this isinformation that will enrich
your life as well as yourChristian walk, for by a single
offering, he has perfected forall time those who are being
sanctified.
Hebrews 10.14.
(16:07):
How much more right with Godcan you get than perfection
brought to you by the blood ofChrist Yeshua?
But in regards to the conceptof floating away into eternity
without your body dying, that isnot something that is ever
promised in Scripture.
We have to make a ton ofassumptions to come to this
conclusion based on the text inour Bibles.
(16:28):
If we didn't have that idea inour heads from constant
repetition, I doubt the teachingwould be on very many people's
minds other than those with verycreative imagination.
That brings us to number fourof my ten reasons.
Futurism is destructive.
You may lose focus whilepreparing for the rapture.
So many hold to a theology thattheir body won't face a
(16:52):
physical death and they'll floataway into eternity utterly
unharmed before the big end ofthe world event takes place and
the world explodes and becomes awhole new place.
As I went over in my recentepisodes, beginning with message
57, the world was never goingto end.
This conclusion can only bedrawn if we're not familiar with
the prophetic language of theancient Jews in our scripture.
(17:16):
As the people teaching about afuture rapture were alive in the
first century, they would havefound that they needed to adjust
their approach slightly.
None of the first centuryChristian martyrs believed that
they would peacefully float awayto be with the Father without
suffering.
They encouraged each other thatdeath was not the end, not to
fear death, because they werepromised life.
Paul also encouraged theThessalonian church that the
(17:39):
return of Christ would bringthem some relief from their
persecutors.
2 Thessalonians 1.5 says thisis evidence of the righteous
judgment of God that you may beconsidered worthy of the kingdom
of God, for which you are alsosuffering, since, indeed, god
considers it just to repay withaffliction those who afflict you
and grant relief to you who areafflicted, as well as to us.
(18:01):
When the Lord Jesus is revealedfrom heaven with his mighty
angels in flaming fireinflicting vengeance on those
who do not know God and thosewho do not obey the gospel of
our Lord Jesus, they will sufferthe punishment of eternal
destruction, away from thepresence of the Lord and from
the glory of his might.
When he comes on that day to beglorified in his saints and to
(18:24):
be marveled at among all whohave believed because our
testimony to you was believed.
If anyone deserved to beraptured, don't you think it
would be the apostles?
If they had to suffer underpersecution, why would we
receive anything different?
Having a false paradigm isn'tgoing to help us too much if
we're actually heading intochallenging times.
(18:46):
We're not promised this kind ofrelief in our generation.
Not to say that Yahweh won'tgrant us relief, but the relief
of the second coming that theThessalonian church awaited
happened thousands of years ago.
It would be relief for theThessalonian church because the
Jews who were persecuting themwould soon be wiped out by the
wrath of Yahweh.
If there was a rapture, wemissed it by a landslide.
(19:11):
Much of the idea of a rapturecomes from the concept of the
resurrection of the dead beingapplied to the living.
But, as we've been studying,this idea is not of a solid
foundation.
Let's take a peek at some ofthe passages that are used to
encourage today's Christiansthat they'll soon float away
into eternity to be with theirloved ones.
There are certainly somepassages that fit nicely into
(19:32):
the doctrine of our times 1Thessalonians 4.13 but we do not
want you to be uninformed,brothers, about those who are
asleep, that you may not grieveas others do, who have no hope
For, since we believe that Jesusdied and rose again.
Even so, through Jesus, godwill bring with him those who
have fallen asleep.
For this we declare to you by aword from the Lord, that we who
(19:57):
are alive, who are left untilthe coming of the Lord will not
precede those who have fallenasleep, for the Lord himself
will descend from heaven with acry of command, with the voice
of an archangel and with thesound of the trumpet of God, and
the dead in Christ will risefirst.
Then we who are alive, who areleft, will be caught up together
(20:17):
with them in the clouds to meetthe Lord in the air, and so we
will always be with the Lord.
Therefore, encourage oneanother with these words.
This passage is certainly one ofthe strongest points for
rapture doctrines, but it's onlya strong point because of the
way it speaks to our paradigms,not the paradigms of the first
century Christians.
We first see Paul encouragingthem to have hope for those who
(20:41):
have already died.
Apparently, many were led tobelieve that there would be no
resurrection of the dead.
So Paul informs them that therewill be a resurrection of the
dead, and those who were left atthe second coming, who were not
dead, will join them in heavenwith the Father.
Why does Paul need to specifythat they will essentially float
away into heaven to be with theLord in the air?
(21:01):
The answer is actually quitesimple.
Which way is heaven?
It's up, right?
Yeah, it's up, it's above us.
The ancient Hebrews who wroteour Bibles believed the earth
was flat with a solid dome overit.
Heaven was up and Sheol, calledHades in the New Testament, was
down.
Paul was directing their mindsto an understanding that was not
(21:25):
familiar to them.
Those who were alive after thesecond coming would be headed
upward right into heaven whenthey died.
As I discussed in my lastmessage, number 60, they'd be
changed, and that change was theputting on of immortality.
In the new covenant age we nolonger die.
This temporal body dies, but wemake a spiritual transition
(21:49):
into a new body as we float offinto the heavenly realms to be
with the Lord and those whopreceded us in the faith.
A lot like the way Christ Yeshuaascended into heaven at the
beginning of the book of Acts, Iwould imagine.
Paul explains that the deadwill be there first.
Then they will ultimately jointhem in the air in the heavenly
realms.
Going down to Sheol would notbe for them, and those who were
(22:11):
in Sheol would not be forgotten.
This passage has nothing to dowith Christians being left
behind, but rather explains thatno one will get left behind.
But an interesting thing weshould examine in the text here
is that Paul again speaks tothem as though some of them
would still be alive when Christreturned.
Then we who are alive, who areleft, will be caught up together
(22:33):
with them in the clouds to meetthe Lord in the air, and so we
will always be with the Lord.
Just another of many passagesthat prove a future return is
not happening and that Christcame when he said he would.
The next passage is another verypopular proof text for the
rapture, although it's reallymore of a spoof text.
In Luke 17 we read Whoeverseeks to preserve his life will
(23:07):
lose it, but whoever loses hislife will keep it.
Spoof text.
In Luke 17 we read there's alot of context in this passage
to unravel, but for today let'skeep it simple.
The most convincing part aboutthis passage for proponents of
rapture doctrines is the idea ofliving people floating off to
be with the Lord, people gettingpulled up into heaven while
(23:27):
still living.
Everyone goes to this passageto promote the rapture, but we
don't often hear the next versewhere they ask where the people
would be going and they said tohim where Lord.
He said to them where thecorpse is there.
The vultures will gather.
This part of the verse doesn'toften get included in the proof
texting.
They ask Yeshua where thepeople were being taken and
(23:50):
Yeshua tells them they'd betaken to their death, not
raptured.
This passage is not describingwhat we call the rapture today.
We need to check up on ourteachers.
Today's rapture theology isnothing more than someone's
imagination.
Don't plan on getting raptured.
You're going to get let downand probably mislead others
along the way as well.
(24:10):
Which brings me to reasonnumber five of my ten reasons
that futurism is destructive.
You may cause yourself andothers to make bad decisions.
If you believe that we're atthe end of the age and Christ
Yeshua is going to return soonto take you away to heaven by
means of a rapture, you mightmake poor decisions in your
life.
If you believe the world isgoing to come to an explosive
(24:33):
ending and it's prophesied tohappen there's no chance that it
won't happen.
It's God's will.
If you believe the world isgoing to come to an explosive
ending and it's prophesied tohappen there's no chance that it
won't happen, it's God's willthen what point is there in
working and maintaining yourlife on earth?
Why send your kids to school?
Why have a savings account.
Why even worry about anything?
It's all going to be over soon,right?
(24:53):
There are most certainly loadsof people who have made some
level of poor decision becausethey believe the end of the
world was coming.
On the other hand, many willalso sit on their hands and do
nothing to stop the evil in theworld because they believe it
has to take place as prophesied.
Why try and stop this evil whenit's certain to win and be the
cause of the destruction of theworld?
(25:14):
Not everyone believes in therapture theology.
Many realize that it's not inScripture, but accept a dreaded
future judgment accompanied by amassive persecution of the
saints.
That brings me to reason numbersix of my ten reasons.
Futurism is destructive.
You may lose hope and your willto take action.
(25:34):
In Paul's second letter to theThessalonians, he was giving the
church hope and encouragementto hold out to the end, to stand
firm.
Relief was coming andimmortality would come with it.
But they were suffering untilthen.
It's clear by his writing thatmany were losing hope due to
persecution and suffering.
Some were becoming idle and notworking.
(25:54):
In his letter it is clear thatthey did not believe that the
world would end because somewere proclaiming to them Christ
had already returned.
They were believing Christalready returned and they were
still alive on earth.
On top of that, paul didn'tremind them that the world would
have ended if Christ came.
Instead, he reminded them ofsigns that he taught them to be
(26:15):
looking for.
So if they heard that Christalready came and they weren't
getting that relief from theirpersecution, that would be
discouraging, wouldn't it?
We read about the promisedrelief earlier in 2
Thessalonians.
How much worse would it feel toknow that the world had to end
and you had to sufferpersecution and, most likely,
die?
That's the camp that many findthemselves in today due to
(26:43):
futurist doctrines.
There's no doubt that we canfind reasons to believe that
there will be suffering in ourfuture.
All of our future and historyare in the hands of Yahweh, but
our future is not written in thebook of Revelation.
The revelation of John ishistory.
We don't have to accept thatevil is going to have any kind
of victory, although it may fora time.
We don't have to believe thatthe world is ending soon.
In context, there's no end tothe world in scripture.
(27:05):
Making poor decisions andlosing hope and the will to take
action based on a falseparadigm are not good.
These things are certainlydestructive, aren't they?
On a false paradigm are notgood.
These things are certainlydestructive, aren't they?
But the consequences of ouractions when we believe in the
futurist doctrines could be farworse than we realize.
That brings me to reason numberseven of my ten reasons.
(27:25):
Futurism is destructive.
You might be supporting themurder of innocent people In
today's hostile politicalenvironment.
Our loving government hascaused our two political parties
to be divided on who they seeas allies in the fabricated wars
that serve the elite ingenerating more power, control
and money.
The party in power now is infull support of Israel.
(27:48):
We're told that we need tooppose Palestine.
Who are the terrorists?
I don't buy this for a minute.
Of course there have beenstaged events.
This is all part of the waythey operate.
If we question the narrative, wealways find an opposite truth
about the situation from realpeople outside of the mainstream
calf path.
(28:08):
We get lied to abouteverything.
We can deny this, but itdoesn't help anything.
The bliss of ignorance isalways temporary.
What we call the nation ofIsrael today is evil and
corrupt.
It's a political vehicle forthe elites who are pulling the
strings on all things evil.
You don't have to believe me.
(28:29):
You don't have to seek thetruth for yourself, but if you
are pro-Israel or pro-any sidein today's political affairs,
you're supporting the murder ofinnocent people.
Our government is sickening.
We need to stop believing,otherwise Yahweh is not
pro-Israel, as many mightbelieve.
There's nothing holy about theleaders of Israel today.
(28:51):
If you believe today's Israelthat began its fabrication in
1948 and was established in the60s thanks to trustworthy people
like the Rothschilds, you'rebeing deceived.
And that brings us to reasonnumber 8 of my 10 reasons.
Futurism is destructive.
You might fall for politicaldeception.
Political deception is going onall around us.
(29:13):
There's most certainly a veryreal spiritual battle going on
in our earthly realms.
Christians are being massivelydeceived by propaganda and they
have no clue.
We've fallen right into thehands of our enemies due to
complete and utter ignorance.
Don't believe it just because Isaid it, though.
Listen for yourself.
I linked to this conversationin Message 57, but I wanted to
(29:36):
play it for you guys now, incase you didn't look at my blog
post.
This is disturbing.
This conversation between TedCruz and Tucker Carlson plainly
reveals the ignorance anddestructive motives behind
futurism and its close friend,zionism.
You can certainly check out mylink to the full interview to
get an even better idea of thecontext of the conversation, and
(29:57):
I definitely recommend it.
But check out this short clip.
It's shocking.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
Okay, and the reason is twofold.
Number one as a Christiangrowing up in Sunday school, I
was taught from the Bible thosewho bless Israel will be blessed
and those who curse Israel willbe cursed.
And from my perspective, I wantto be on the blessing side of
things.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
Of those who bless the government of Israel.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Those who bless Israel is what it says.
It doesn't say the governmentof.
It says the nation of Israel.
So that's in the Bible.
As a Christian, I believe that.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
Where is that?
Speaker 3 (30:30):
I can find it to you.
I don't have the scripture offthe tip of my.
Pull out the phone and use theGoogle it's in Genesis.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
So you're quoting a Bible phrase.
You don't have context for it,you don't know where in the
Bible it is, but that's likeyour theology.
I'm confused.
What does that even mean,tucker?
I'm a Christian.
I want to know what you'retalking about.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Where does my support for Israel come from?
Number one, because biblicallywe are commanded to support
Israel.
But number two Hold on, no, no,no, hold on.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
You're a senator and now you're throwing out
theology.
And I am a Christian and I amallowed to weigh in on this.
We are commanded, asChristians, to support the
government of Israel.
We are commanded to supportIsrael.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
What does that mean?
Israel, we're told, those whobless.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Israel will be blessed.
Bless Israel will be blessed.
Hold on, define Israel.
This is important.
Are you kidding?
This is a majority Christiancountry Define Israel.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Do you not know what Israel is?
Speaker 4 (31:22):
That would be the country you'd have asked like 49
questions about.
So that's what Genesis?
That's what God is talkingabout the nation of Israel?
Yes, so is that the currentborders, the current leadership?
He's talking about thepolitical entity called Israel.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
He's talking about the nation of Israel.
Yet nations exists and he'sdiscussing a nation.
A nation was the people ofisrael is the nation.
Speaker 4 (31:37):
They're the descendants of abraham in
genesis.
Is that the same as the countryrun by benjamin netanyahu,
right?
Speaker 3 (31:42):
yes, yes, it is and, by the way, it's not run by
benjamin netanyahu as adictator.
It's, it's a democratic countrybut he's the prime minister,
right?
But just just like you know,america is the country run by
donald.
No, actually, the Americanpeople elected Donald Trump, the
same principle is there.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
This is silly.
I'm talking about the politicalentity of modern Israel.
Yes, and that is Israel.
You believe that's what God wastalking about in Genesis?
I do.
That country has existed sincewhen.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
For thousands of years Now.
There was a time when it didn'texist, and then it was
recreated, just over 70 yearsago.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
I'm saying I think most people understand that line
in Genesis to refer to theJewish people, God's chosen
people.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
That's not what it says.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
Okay, it is real, but you don't even know where in
the Bible it is so.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
I don't know if we can.
I don't remember the scripturalcitation, but okay, I keep.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
It's like Genesis 16 or something like that.
But yes, it's in the earlierpart of the book.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
But the point is you keep interrupting me before I
finish my sentence.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
No, it's just important to know what you're
talking about.
I don't know what you're, soyou're saying, as a Christian,
if I believe in Jesus, I have tosupport the modern state of
Israel?
No, I'm not saying that.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
I'm explaining for me what my vote motivation is.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Okay, so I'm just trying to understand.
You said God tells you tosupport the modern state of
Israel in the Bible, in someplace in the Bible that you
heard about, but you don't knowwhere it is.
That's your theology.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
You're going back.
Am I a sleazy feline again?
Speaker 4 (33:09):
I mean, if you accuse me of anti-Semitism.
Again I will say that, but Idon't think you will.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
Try to be a little less condescending.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
I'm trying to have a conversation.
I'm not condescending.
You're throwing this stuff outand it's my job to figure out
what you're talking about, but Idon't understand.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
But you're not letting me.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
Okay, I'm sorry.
I want to be polite.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Just to be clear, as Ted tried to imply about Tucker,
I'm not anti-Semite.
My argument is that today'sJews have no connection with the
ancient Jews and that you couldnever prove in any way that
they do.
They have no temple, nor dothey offer any required animal
sacrifices.
They have no Levite lineage tooperate a temple and they never
(33:48):
will.
It was destroyed in AD 70.
According to gene testing, theyhave no ethnic DNA.
In other words, there's no realJews.
They are not native to theland, they don't keep the law of
Moses, they go by the rabbinictradition in their Talmud and,
of course, as Christians.
How do you call a person holywho rejects Christ?
(34:09):
Paul calls the ChristianGentiles Jews at heart in Romans
2 29.
Christ Yeshua was a Jew.
The apostles were Jews.
Our ancient scripture waswritten by Jews.
We've been grafted into aJewish salvation according to
Romans 11.
The ancient Jews are ourspiritual ancestors.
(34:31):
They're family.
I love the ancient Jewish race.
I'm reading a book right now onhow to understand Romans from a
Jewish perspective.
I think the more we understandour ancient Hebrew roots, the
better we understand scripture,and I don't hate misguided
people who claim to be Jewstoday.
I just reject their religiousviews.
Today's Jews are not muchdifferent than today's
(34:54):
Christians in a lot of ways.
We're all misguided in manyareas, but the only way to
righteousness and salvation isChrist.
Jesus said to him I am the wayand the life.
No one comes to the Fatherexcept through me, john 14.
We often have to realize ifYahweh had not opened our eyes,
(35:19):
we wouldn't be much differentthan the Jews today who
blaspheme the Lord by rejectingChrist.
Speaking truth is the only wayI know of helping others.
This was the way of Christ,yeshua and his apostles.
If it's good enough for them,it's good enough for me.
But regarding the biblicalIsrael, yahweh wiped out the
Jewish race in AD 70.
We can't get around this.
(35:39):
Just as Ted disclosed, today'sIsrael was invented only about
70 years ago.
Christian Zionism has causedmany foreign countries to
despise Americans.
They see how America and Israeldo evil in the name of the Lord
and they get upset Rightly so.
This creates a nice opportunityfor our government to justify
(36:01):
Israel as an ally and condonemore evil in the name of the
Lord.
And the sad part is that mostChristians don't question any of
the motives.
They just figure we have todefend Israel for the same
reasons Ted mentioned, theydon't question their theology
either.
American Christians today aremost certainly responsible for
their sin of ignorance.
There is nothing holy or goodabout the ignorance here in
(36:24):
America and we ought to repentand stand against this narrative
in a big way.
By standing with Zionism,americans do much harm to the
perception of Christianityaround the world.
We're mostly clueless here inAmerica about the evil doings of
Israel, but the peopleexperiencing it are not unaware.
How many people witnessing themurder of innocent women and
(36:46):
children by Zionist militias aregoing to consider faith in
Christ when they see AmericanChristians proclaiming this as a
holy thing.
A clip from a November 2023article reads Israel's deadly
bombardment of Gaza has killednearly 15,000 people, including
10,000 women and children, inover 50 days, making it the
(37:08):
deadliest war for the besiegedPalestinian enclave till date.
Israel has rebuffed calls for aceasefire as a four-day
humanitarian truce comes to anend on November 28th.
It's unclear whether the trucewill be extended.
The devastation of Gaza and themounting death toll has
triggered worldwide protests,bringing the decades-long issue
(37:29):
to the center stage of globalpolitics.
This headline was taken from anarticle I'm linking to on my
blog post for those who arelistening.
Israel-palestine Conflict ABrief History in Maps and
Charts.
This is a super easy read andit's very informative.
The writing perfectlyhighlights the political
(37:49):
movement of Zionism and theevents that led to where it is
today.
I dare to say if you're anAmerican Christian today, you
need to know this information.
The article brings things tolight in a most simple way,
leaving a lot to ourimagination, such as Leading up
to Israel's birth in 1948, morethan 750,000 Palestinians
(38:10):
750,000 Palestinians wereethnically cleansed from their
homes by Zionist militias.
This mass exodus came to beknown as the Nakba, or
catastrophe.
A further 300,000 Palestinianswere displaced by the Six-Day
(38:32):
War in 1967.
If you lived in Palestine, whatdo you think it would have
looked like for you and yourfamily?
Just take a moment to thinkabout this.
How would you like to beethnically cleansed from your
home?
What I want you to ask yourselfis this what is holy about the
(38:53):
nation that we call Israeltoday?
And further, as a Christian,what makes you holy?
Does holiness exist outside ofChrist?
If you believe holiness existstoday apart from Christ, you
deny him as Lord and Savior.
Do you really want to do that?
(39:13):
Today's astonishingJewish-Christian connection is
the next topic.
I don't think a whole lot ofpeople spend much time studying
or thinking about theireschatology.
I know I was in that camp.
I didn't pay a whole lot ofattention to the details, it was
really just what I heard peoplesay, or a pastor's teaching.
With nearly every Christian inAmerica believing that Christ is
(39:35):
coming soon, there remains alot of gray areas as to what
he'll be doing when he getshere.
As you know now if you've beenfollowing my last several
messages, I'm what you can calla full preterist.
I believe that the return ofChrist came spiritually, as
intended in AD 70, at the finaljudgment and destruction of
Israel.
There's no longer a true Jewishethnic group, but most today
(40:00):
believe that Christ is coming inthe flesh which is nowhere in
scripture, by the way and thathe'll be living here on earth
physically for a thousand years.
What will he be doing here, wemight ask, and I think we should
ask that, because when weconsider what Zionists are
feeding us about this, it'sutterly ridiculous.
The full preterist view holdsthat the thousand years in
(40:22):
Revelation is a symbolic timeperiod that took place in the
first century.
The term a thousand years isused to describe completeness.
It's a fulfillment in theprophetic language.
The church was established inthat time period, it came to its
fullness in the first century.
It's what the futuristsbelieve.
That leaves us with a strangeworldview of Christianity and a
(40:45):
warped view of the return ofChrist.
Let's take a look at what manyJewish people believe about
their Messiah coming and thenwhat the Christian Zionists
believe about the return oftheir Messiah, and see if we can
find an odd connection in twocompletely contrary belief
systems.
In mainstream Orthodox Judaism,the rebuilding of the temple is
(41:05):
generally left to the coming ofthe Jewish Messiah and to
divine providence, but someorganizations want to realize
the construction of a thirdtemple in present times.
Meanwhile, many evangelicalChristians believe that New
Testament prophecies associatedwith the Jewish temple, such as
Matthew 24, thessalonians 2,were not completely fulfilled
(41:27):
during the destruction ofJerusalem in AD 70, and that
these prophecies refer to afuture temple.
This view is at the core ofdispensationalism, which asserts
that the Jews remain God'schosen holy people to this day.
According to dispensationalisttheologians such as Hal Lindsey
and Tim LaHaye, the third templewill be rebuilt when the
(41:48):
Antichrist, often identified asthe political leader of a
transnational alliance similarto the European Union or the
United Nations, secures a peacetreaty between the modern nation
of Israel and its neighborsfollowing a global war.
The Antichrist later uses thetemple as a venue for
proclaiming himself as God andthe long-awaited Messiah,
(42:11):
demanding worship from humanity.
So somehow, jews and Christiansboth believe their Messiah is
coming when a third temple isbuilt in the future.
And then there's the problemthat they just can't seem to
solve in order to build a thirdtemple.
Most Muslims oppose the constructing of a Third Temple due to the presence of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Today the area they tell us the temple once stood is regarded by the majority of Muslims as the third holiest site in Islam. Muslims are resolute in calling for recognition of their exclusive rights over the site and demand that it be wholly transferred to Muslim sovereignty; furthermore, some Muslims deny any association with the Mount to the former Jewish Temple which is more recently claimed to have stood at the site.
(43:00):
As you can see, there's a lotof tension going on in Israel
today.
If you want to call it Israel,our scriptures would call it a
desolate land.
Just as America should have noplace supporting the evil
movement of Zionism, christiansshould have no place concerning
themselves with trying to builda man-made temple on a desolate
land.
Thousands of innocent people,including women and children,
(43:21):
are getting murdered while wesit in our pews and cheer it all
on.
It's sickening.
So if all this isn't enough tomake you raise an eyebrow or
scratch your head or mayberethink your futurist views,
let's look at reason number nineof my ten reasons.
Futurism is destructive.
You make light of the missionthat the forefathers of our
faith, the apostles, laid downtheir lives for.
(43:44):
A lot like the United States ofAmerica, our forefathers laid
down their lives to establishsomething new and very good.
The apostles laid down theirlives for our freedom in Christ,
for the kingdom of Yahweh to beestablished, for the new
covenant age to be consummatedon earth so we could put on
immortality and obtain thepromised salvation and life of
(44:06):
Christ Yeshua that is eternal.
We've been given all thingsthanks to the work of Yahweh
through the lives of theapostles and the first century
churches, who endured what couldbe considered hell on earth to
serve the Lord faithfully,knowing that salvation was
coming, knowing that Christ wascoming to bring salvation to the
saints and to judge the wicked.
(44:26):
When we miss this point.
We misunderstand half of whatwe've been given through grace.
We misunderstand half of whatis written in our scriptures
and, most of all, we make lightof the finished work of Christ
Yeshua and the mission that theapostles were sent out to
accomplish through the Spiritthe establishment of the church.
(44:47):
The church was born onPentecost and it was consummated
40 years later, in AD 70.
Which brings us to reasonnumber 10, the final reason of
my 10 reasons.
Futurism is destructive.
You wait for what you alreadyhave.
I believe that when we go intothe spiritual realms, when these
(45:07):
temporal bodies die, we'llserve the Lord and much of our
work will likely be here onearth.
We'll be part of his divinecouncil in the new heaven that's
no longer rebelling againsthim.
We'll be like the angelsaccording to scripture, and even
above them in standing.
If you're not familiar withdivine council, you can check
out message 42 and 43.
(45:29):
Just like the divine councilbefore the new covenant age, the
divine council of the newcovenant age is assisting Yahweh
with his plans on earth.
Only now his kingdom isestablished on earth and
righteousness dwells in thesaints.
The righteousness of Christ wasmade perfect in us at the
second coming.
Yahweh works through the saintsin the earthly realms and the
(45:51):
unseen realms.
Imagine what the world willlook like when we enter into the
heavenly realms, when we enterinto the unseen.
Yahweh now dwells among us.
We read of this coming tofruition at the second coming in
various parts of scripture.
One very well-known area is therevelation of John.
As with most of revelation,people get very upset with
(46:14):
Preterists because it sounds soobvious in their mind that God
is not dwelling with us.
This simply comes frommisunderstanding of the unseen
realms.
Did you know that Yahweh dwelledamong the ancient Jews for a
time?
Yes, if we read our scriptures,we see that he did dwell among
them.
He walked among them for a timeand he also made his presence
(46:36):
through the Ark of the Covenant.
When Solomon built the firstholy temple, it was to be a
house for Yahweh to dwell amonghis people.
Did people walk around and talkto Yahweh all day long,
physically looking him in theeye?
No, they didn't.
And in the New Covenant age,the church, the body of
believers in Christ, make up atemple that was not built with
(46:58):
human hands, where our Lord nowdwells.
We're not waiting for this.
We have it and we shouldn't betaking it for granted.
Are you also aware that you area priest?
It's actually a pretty coolconcept From Peter.
We read but you are a chosenrace, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a people for his ownpossession that you may proclaim
(47:21):
the excellencies of him, whocalled you out of darkness into
his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, butnow you are God's people.
Once you had not receivedmercy, but now you have received
mercy.
That's 1 Peter, 2.9.
And then Paul writes Our worshipin our earthly bodies is holy
(47:52):
and pleasing to Yahweh.
Paul's not describing a churchbuilding here.
He's describing the Christianas a holy priest offering
sacrifices, pleasing to theLord.
What are these sacrifices?
It's our worship.
What's our worship?
What do you consider to beworship?
Today, we think of going tochurch once a week.
(48:15):
We call this a worship service.
But is this structure needed toworship our Lord as his holy
priests?
No, it's not.
Worship is anything that honorsour Lord.
We live thankfully, we seek histruth, we study his written
word, we pray.
We share our love with others.
We share what we're learningabout him with our friends and
(48:35):
loved ones.
We expose Zionism and evilpolitical movements.
We promote peace with others tothe best of our ability.
There are so many ways that wecan worship and they're all
pleasing to the Lord when donein truth and spirit.
I hope you guys enjoyed mymessage today.
Grace and peace to you and havea great day out there.
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Thank you for listening to the Waking Up to
Grace podcast brought to you bythe finished work of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
If you enjoyed today's episode,we would love to hear from you.
You can send encouragement ourway right from our episodes and
transcripts page.
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