(When all caps are used it is for emphasis only)

The goal of communication is understanding, not convincing. I have no desire to enter into an argument much less attempt to win one. Neither will I judge, ridicule or impugn those who feel the need to question my beliefs.

People believe what they believe and may change their beliefs after reading this response, but that is not my goal.

People also don’t know what they don’t know. When it comes to the subject of the end times many people only know what they know because they refuse to look at alternative endings. I was that person for the first twenty years of my walk with Christ.

I believed what I believed and couldn’t see anything else.

The reason was I wasn’t looking for anything else!

It is not my goal to get into a debate on eschatological issues.  If others want to add their thoughts, opinions or beliefs they will be accepted as long as they glorify Jesus and add to finding truth, not error.

We reserve the right to delete any post that we feel violates the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.

Heresy is defined by Dictionary.com as “opinion or doctrine at variance with the orthodox or accepted doctrine, especially of a church or religious system.”

Dispensationalism has only been around approximately 180 years so it would seem that those who hold to that belief COULD be called heretics.

Dispensationalism, in a nutshell, is a belief where God has two sets of standards – one for natural Israel and the other for the rest of the world. It puts the focus of God’s dealings with mankind on a natural people, instead of a spiritual people. It believes that the Christian Church is a parenthesis in God’s timetable and natural Israel is really God’s main vehicle for blessing the earth.

Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, and Paul the apostle were considered heretics in their day by self appointed religious purists who felt called to publicly castigate them. So, if I am considered a heretic by espousing a belief that they gave their lives to propagate and protect then I wear that moniker with grace and honor.

I once held dear certain beliefs concerning the last days and Israel according to the flesh. Then one day I had an epiphany. Those Christian leaders, authors, and TV personalities that I grew up in the Lord admiring kept missing the mark as it pertained to their “prophetic revelation on the last days and Israel”.

As I reflect back I cannot believe I did not see how negative their theology was, and still is.

Those who hold to the dispensational belief believe that the Holy Spirit will fail to fulfill the great commission to disciple all the nations. They would never own up to that but it is true regardless.

They see the world as getting worse under the leadership of the prince of darkness, the antichrist and his personal prophet.

If natural Israel is a nation then they must be included in that commission. To rapture the Church before the great commission is completed would be an admission that God could not fulfill the task through the blood bought saints. This obviously impugns the Holy Spirit and The Lord Jesus as well.

Jesus is called the “Desire of the Nations.” The psalmist wrote, “Ask of Me and I will give you the nations.”

Jesus said, “Go and disciple nations.” That has been reduced to hopefully getting some of the people in the nations saved.

Jesus has never been after converts. He is after disciples!

Dispensationalism teaches “an imminent return of Jesus”. This has led to a multitude of problems, one being sinners not being converted to Christ but having a false sense of security because they said the sinner’s prayer. No where in a scripture does it say you will be saved if you say the sinner’s prayer. God looks for conversions which are proved genuine by conversation and lifestyle changes.

Jesus is going to present to Himself a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle. This may take a long time to accomplish but He will accomplish it.

If dispensationalism is true His Church is divided and part of it will be raptured (blood bought saints) and the other part (natural Israel) will all be saved later.

Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are to equip the saints for the work of ministry UNTIL we ALL [UNTIL ALL THE SAINTS] come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect (completely mature) man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. [Eph 4]

 Big job! Bigger God!!!

Paul continued on with some very specific additional things that are TO BE accomplished through the ministry of these 5 grace gifts of Christ.

If dispensationalism is true then Paul is a liar.

In my 33 years as a Christian there have been numerous people declared to be the antichrist, and dates have been set for when the rapture would occur. All to no avail!

A man once wrote a book on the 88 reasons why Jesus would return in 1988. I believed him!

When 1988 came and went and Jesus didn’t come he didn’t repent for his error. Instead, he predicted several more possible dates. Still no Jesus!!!!

Come to think of it, have any of the prophetic voices that have predicted inaccurately the antichrist or the date of the rapture or Jesus’ return repented?

So I did a novel thing. I started thinking for myself and searching the Scripture myself [Acts 17], and the moment I decided to do that I started seeing other Scriptures that challenged my long held beliefs. This is the essence of being teachable.

By the way, those same leaders, authors and TV personalities continue to revise their prophetic revelation to this day – decades after they declared what the Scripture “guaranteed would happen.”

Have you ever noticed the ministers and ministries who espouse this belief never relinquish their worldly possessions to “prove” they believe what they preach. Instead, they continue to increase in what they own.

                       It is so true both in the world and in the church – BAD NEWS SELLS!

And I won’t even go into the whole Y2K debacle (farce)! The dispensationalists were in a fever pitch over Y2K.

It’s never a good plan to take current events and then try to find Bible verses to prove your pet prophetic understanding. Oh yeah, one reason given for the no show of catastrophic events of Y2K was the fervent prayer of intercessors that saved the world from Y2K.  Did prayer change the computer language? That is a very convenient cop out because it cannot be proved.

One thing that grates on my nerves is the dispensational theology that keeps unbelieving Jews in a holding pattern away from salvation until God snatches the Church off the planet so He can get back to His main plan for man, and that is natural Israel. The first Jewish converts [Christians] gave all they had, including their lives to bring the message of salvation to other Jews. They were not going to wait for a secret rapture, the unveiling of the antichrist, the return of the Lord. And because of their zeal they were martyred.

You know, natural Israel is God’s prophetic time clock – right? It is in dispensationalist eschatology.

Well, a generation is 40 years! Right? Or is it 42 years, or 70 years, or 120 years?

Do we start the date of the generation that will see Jesus return in 1948, 1967, or 1973? These are important dates to outward Israel and dispensationalists.

                                                        This is really complicated isn’t it?

I was forced to consider this important question. How could God want multitudes of Jewish people to die and go to hell by waiting until Jesus physically returned to earth to save them? He doesn’t!!!

There are Christian Zionists that actually say we are not to evangelize Jewish people because they are all going to be saved by God when the fulness of the Gentiles comes in. They raise money to support the building of a third temple in Jerusalem and to provide all the furnishings et al. That money should go to the evangelization of the Jews instead.

Paul said the mystery that was hidden for ages has now been revealed in the Church through the [NT] apostles and prophets in the Spirit, not Israel [Eph 3].

Friends, the Church is not the parenthesis, as dispensationalism teaches. The Law is! The gospel (death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and all He purchased was preached to Abram (Abraham) (Gal 3; 1 Cor 15)

Jesus said Abraham saw His day and rejoiced [John 8]. I wonder if part of what Abraham saw was Jesus putting His antagonists in their place.

Paul says a lot in Galatians 3 & he says in verse 29 only those who belong to Christ are Abraham’s descendants and heirs of the promise. Read in John 8 what Jesus said to the Jews who were contending against Him.

Abraham and Jacob both had an encounter with the cross of Jesus Christ and Isaac experienced a resurrection (Gen 13; 32; 22; Heb 11).

Christianity is NOT the child of Judaism. Christianity [faith in Christ Jesus] was God’s plan all along! An innocent animal [probably a lamb] was slain in the Garden. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and he and his house were saved [Gen 6]. We are saved by grace through faith [Eph 2].

Also, Judaism is the not the root of Christianity, Jesus Christ is. (Isa 11:10) Paul says in Romans 11 “if the root is holy so are the branches.” In context, Paul is talking about the remnant of Israel that are in Christ Jesus, not the unbelieving Jews of the first century. This has been misdiagnosed and mistreated. [See verses 1-5, 7]

Another text to read is John 15 where Jesus speaks of Himself being the vine and believers are the branches.

In Malachi 4 we read “The hearts of the fathers will be turned to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers.” In some circles this is taught that the fathers are the Jews and the children are Christians. This is used to say Christians must repent for mistreating the Jews throughout history. That is not what the verse implies. Let’s take a short journey for a moment and say that is what the verse implies. Then the Jews should be the first to repent of their historical mistreatment to Christians, not vice versa. Jews began killing Christians in the infancy of the Church. Before his conversion Paul was a religious terrorist, terrorizing Christians. So much so that even after he was saved the Christian community was wary of him.

Now, the fathers are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (the first Israel) and the children are the Jews. The fathers were not Jewish. They did not have or keep the Law. They were Hebrew [semitic] men of faith and more importantly faithful men. They related to God, not according to the Law, but according to His heart. This is genuine relationship!

                      Abram is the first person in Scripture to be called a Hebrew [Gen 14].

So, what Malachi said was there must be a reconnect between the faith of the fathers and their children the Jews. That is why Jesus said in John 8 if you were really Abraham’s descendants you would believe in Me. That is why Paul said in different places the real descendants of Abraham were people who had his faith.

In fact, Judaism does not even use the OT as their main Scripture. They use the Babylonian Talmud that is made up of two sections – the Mishnah and the Gemara. Jesus combated this when He was here in the flesh! “If your righteousness does not exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees you will in NO WAY enter the Kingdom.”

Wait, the Kingdom is not here yet, is it? Then why did Jesus say, “Repent, for the Kingdom is at hand [within] reach.” Why did He say, “I confer on you a kingdom as My Father conferred one on Me.” Why did He say, “The Kingdom is within you.” Or, why did He say, “It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.”

What did Jesus mean when He said, “I will not drink the fruit of the vine again until I drink it with you in the Kingdom”? And why did new wine get poured out on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2 that caused the disciples to get drunk, but not as the people supposed?

If the Kingdom is awaiting a future entrance how could Paul say, “13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Col 1) Just because the saints are not operating fully in the full Kingdom does not mean it is not here and available.

Or why would Jesus mislead people by saying this in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs IS the Kingdom of Heaven.” Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs IS the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matt 5:3, 10)

Here is another doozie – “If saints [Bride of Christ] are not already enjoying the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and are not yet married to our Bridegroom [Jesus Christ], then aren’t we committing fornication every time we are intimate with him [spiritually speaking of course]? Just asking!

Physical Jerusalem is called in NT Scripture – Babylon, Sodom, Egypt, Mount Sinai, Hagar, bondwomen, slave. Paul said she is to “be cast out.”

As to the dogmatic assertion that Revelation was written in 95 AD there is still open debate about that.

Was John who saw the Revelation seen just before he died or did he see the Revelation shortly before he died?

This is the essence of the battle over when Revelation was written. And this from a man who never personally met John.

By the way, Revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ, not the antichrist.

Most dispensationalists focus on who is the antichrist and whose name equals 666.

What John was told to write included the following ~

1:1 “things which must soon take place”
1:3 “the time is near [at hand]”
22:6 “things which must soon take place”
22:7 “I am coming quickly”
22:10 “do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book for the time is near” [compare Daniel 9:24; 12:4]
22:12 “Behold, I am coming quickly”
22:20 “Yes, I am coming quickly”

I ask you who believe Revelation is entirely about the future. Does it make sense for Jesus to dictate a letter to His followers who were in horrendous circumstances in the first century and tell them 7x in a 22 page letter [figurative] that what He was saying to THEM was going to happen soon, the time is near, I am coming quickly, etc and then not carry out what He said but waited over 2000 years to fulfill it?

It would add insult to injury for Him to use language that those He wrote the letter to had no way to interpret because it was about nuclear bombs and Cobra helicopters.

If you think that is what happened write a letter [email] to someone totally depending on you and make the same references and see how they interpret it. What would they think of you if you created a “gotcha moment”. “You know, I was just kidding. It wasn’t really for you.”

Look at these words in verse 3 of chapter 1 – “BLESSED is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.” This word ‘blessed’ is the same word used in the beatitudes!

Where is the blessing in receiving a letter to you that has nothing to do with you, or your children, or grandchildren, or great grandchildren, or great great grandchildren, or great great great great great great great grandchildren for 50 generations.

Do YOU get the point?

The Book of Revelation is hardly read in secret, much less “out loud”, by modern Christians. Why is that? It scares them because they have been told it describes horrible worldwide cataclysmic events. They are told God is very mad and He isn’t going to take it any more. Well He actually was and He destroyed Jerusalem and Judaism in 70AD.

It is interesting to me that NOT ONE NT author, especially the Jewish ones, ever mention the destruction of Jerusalem and the hallowed Jewish Temple as a historical event. You remember the one that Jesus abandoned! I’ll get to that in a moment.

It’s always a good plan to rely on the Bible to sort out things that need to be sorted out. Scripture clears up the confusion because God is not confused. Sometimes we need to see what God is saying by what He did not say.

God made sure the OT writers talked about the destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple in that epoch. It seems logical to me that He would have wanted the NT writers to at least mention its demise in passing so as to keep the Jewish people’s hopes alive that their beloved temple would be rebuilt, IF He wants it rebuilt.

If they build it God will NOT come (a play on words from the movie Field Of Dreams). In this prophetic movie, Ray, played by Kevin Costner is told that if he builds a baseball field in his corn fields then his dad, who had died years earlier, would come.

By the way, God talked about Solomon’s Temple and it was only partially destroyed and was rebuilt fairly quickly. It has been nearly 2000 years since Herod’s Temple was completely destroyed and not one word of its destruction or that it will be rebuilt in the NT. HMMMMM!

Oh yeah, The NT writers [Hebrews and Revelation] speak as if the Temple is still there. Because it was when they wrote the NT!

Look at these three verses –

“The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, ‘Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.'” (Hosea 10:8)

“Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us;’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.'” (Luke 23:30)

Jesus spoke this to the daughters of Jerusalem as He was being led to Golgotha. I encourage you to read the context.

“And said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:'” (Rev 6:16)

Jesus is the one who said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who stones the prophets and kills those I send to you . . . . . Therefore, I am leaving YOUR HOUSE to you desolate.” Sounds like Ichabod [the glory has departed] to me. [Matt 23]

Jesus the Jewish man said to Jerusalem –

“I am leaving”
“Your house”
“To you”
“Desolate” (abandoned, divorced)

He said Jerusalem 2x which in Scripture is always for emphasis! This was shortly before he was betrayed, not just by Judas Iscariot but the religious elite who were always attempting to trap Him.

This same Jesus said this to His disciples concerning the Temple. The same Temple His disciples were so enamored with, “Not one stone will be left upon another.”[Matt 24]

In Matthew 23 he said, ‘These things will come upon THIS generation.” What things? He had just excoriated the scribe and Pharisees for their hypocrisy. “So upon YOU ALL the guilt of ALL the righteous blood shed on the earth [possibly the land]. He then goes into His Jerusalem, Jerusalem rejection.

He references “This generation again in the Olivet discourse [Matt 24]. “Truly I say to you, ‘this generation WILL NOT pass away UNTIL all these things take place.” He then says this for emphasis, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will NOT pass away.”

Dispensationalists cannot have it both ways. They declare a generation is 40 years when they talk about God’s prophetic time clock but put the disasters Jesus prophesied on Jerusalem to a still future date. Funny how history repudiates their lack of control. For within 1 generation of approximately 40 years hell was loosed on Jerusalem, the Temple and the Jewish people. History says huge stones were hurled by the Romans in their assault upon the city.

Here’s some additional Scripture the Lord has used to change my mind about eschatology.

“Do you not know that YOU ARE THE TEMPLE of God?” (1 Cor 3; 2 Cor 6) Written by another good Jewish man, Paul.

Peter, another good Jewish man says the saints are being built up into a “spiritual house of worship” and “WE ARE the people of God.” (1 Pet 2) This is not spiritualizing the text. God has always had a spiritual people residing in a natural body.

                               He also calls us “holy nation.” This will come up again.

Jesus said it was possible to be naturally descended from Abraham and have the devil as your father (John 8).

Jesus said Jerusalem is not where God is looking for His worshipers (John 4).

Jesus said God loves the world, not just natural Israel (John 3).

Speaking of natural Israel. God told Abram, before he was converted to Christ and became Abraham, that He would bless those who blessed him and would curse him who cursed him (Gen 12). This has been turned into, “I will bless those who bless natural Israel and I will curse those who curse natural Israel.”

This is a clear violation of interpreting Scripture. Dispensationalism hangs on this misrepresentation. I wonder if you are even aware this promise is not found in the NT.

There is a verse in the NT [Heb 6] where a reference to God blessing Abraham is found. It is in reference to Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son, his ONLY son, Isaac. Interesting!

The writer of Hebrews says –

Jesus is better than the Old Testament prophets
Jesus is better than angels
Jesus is better than Moses
Jesus is better than Judaism
In fact Jesus is the Mediator of a better Covenant

He asserts His priesthood is eternal like Melchizedek’s and therefore replaces the Levitical priesthood – that was to last forever. God will never sanction reestablishing the Levitical priesthood and animal sacrifices!

This sounds a lot like what Jesus said of Himself as He defended Himself to self serving Jewish zealots. “One greater than Solomon is here.” One greater than Moses is here.”

God’s revelation is progressive not digressive. Thus Peter’s admonition to “be established in present truth.” (2 Pet 1:12)

Jesus, quoting Deuteronomy 8 said, “Man shall live by every word that proceeds, not proceeded, out of the mouth of God.”

By the way, Jesus is perfect theology as He is the perfect representative of Father God, and in these LAST DAYS God is speaking through, in, and by Him, NOT the prophets of the Old Testament (Heb 1). In other words, everything ever said must be viewed in the light of the life and ministry of Jesus the Christ!

The last days did not start in 1948 when the state of Israel was established. They started in a manger 2000 years ago when “Herod and ALL Jerusalem were troubled.” [Matt 2].

Herod represents a compromised political system and Jerusalem represents not just religious compromise but out and out rebellion against the Lord and His Anointed.

“1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, 3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. 4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. 5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. 6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” (Psa 2)

The word earth is verse 2 is eretz. It is used in the phrase – the land of Israel – or Eretz Israel.

God is no respecter of people so all the lost in the earth are “heathen” and all the saved are “His people”. The heathen raging and the people imagining a vain thing are the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles in the land of Israel. The kings of the earth [land of Israel] are the Jewish and Roman leaders. The rulers, both Jewish and Roman take counsel together against the Lord God and His Anointed, the Lord Jesus Christ. They say, “let us break their [Father and Son] bonds [requirements to submit, repent and be saved]. God is laughing in heaven [He mocks their mocking]. The Lord shall have them in derision [they turned on each other and even the Jews turned on one another in the decades after Jesus ascended into heaven]. Then He shall speak to them in his wrath [70AD] and vex them in His sore displeasure [they are still lost and wandering aimlessly – even those living in the land today]. Yet, I have set MY King upon MY holy hill of Zion [the Church – Heb 12].

Mark, a good Jewish Christian, said, “The Law and the prophets were UNTIL “John” (Mark 1). He also wrote the gospel of Jesus Christ began with John.

Paul said in Galatians that the Law was given UNTIL the SEED [Christ] came. He goes on to say the Law was a tutor to bring us to Christ but once faith [in Christ] comes we no longer need a tutor. [Gal 3]

If you want a great study search the Bible for verses with the word ‘until’ in them. You will discover a lot of things that may challenge your end time belief systems.

Such as Psalm 110:1 – “The Lord (Father) says to my Lord (Son), ‘Sit at My right hand UNTIL I make (all) your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”

You’ll discover this verse many times in the NT.

In 1 Cor 15 Paul tells us when THE END will come and everyone, good or evil, will be resurrected.

“25 For He must reign UNTIL He has put all enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. 27 For “He has put all things under His feet.” Remember Psalm 110:1?

Dispensationalism teaches Christ is not reigning yet. They believe He has to come back to a glorified national Israel in order to start His rule.

The clear NT revelation is that the Old Covenant [Law, not faith] was old and fading away (dying) and being done away with (Heb 8). This is speaking of the end of this powerless religion. The Temple in Jerusalem did not have the ark of the Covenant in it which means God’s glory had not been there for a long time. When God ripped the veil separating the Holiest Place from the other parts of the Temple the entire hoax was exposed.

That ark has been missing since the Babylonian exile. There are many dispensationalists that believe it is being kept in a top secret secure location waiting for the third temple to be built so they can with great pomp and fanfare return it to its rightful place.

The only problem with this is God will never bless that box. It and all the furniture of the Tabernacle and Temple were types and shadows of a greater reality that is found in the person of Jesus Christ. [Heb 9].

Jesus said He was snatching the Kingdom from the Jews and giving it to another nation that would bring forth fruit (Matt 21; 1 Pet 2).  In order for God to restore the kingdom to outward Israel I guess He will have to snatch it from the hands of Jesus and the new nation He gave it to.

                               That is never going to happen!

Jesus said, “Where the corpse is there the eagles will be” (Matt 24). I always had a hard time understanding that verse until it dawned on me the eagle was associated with the Roman legions. Approximately 40 years after Jesus said this and a few years after Hebrews was written over 1 million Jews were slaughtered, and Jerusalem and the Temple were leveled and burned by the Roman legions. Truly, where the corpse of Judaism was there were the eagles.

External historical evidence tells us things like, the Sea of Galilee turned blood red because of the mass of dead Jewish bodies. We also learn that there were so many dead people in and around Jerusalem that their corpses were stacked as high as horses bridles. That sounds very familiar to what John saw in the Revelation of Jesus Christ and is recorded in our Scripture in 14:20.

Paul said a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly and all who are of Israel are not Israel. (Rom 9)

He also said that the Israel of God is the new creation who live according to that rule (canon). (Gal 6) He also said circumcision [being Jewish] got a person nowhere with God.

He also said we (those born again) are the true circumcision and then qualifies who the true circumcision are – “those who worship God in the Spirit and put NO confidence in the flesh (Phil 3).

Speaking of flesh. Paul also said that although we [first century saints] knew Jesus after the flesh that we no longer know Him or ANYONE that way [2 Cor 5]. He said this right before he talks about the new creation – those who are in Christ Jesus. When we connect the dots of 2 Cor 5 with Gal 6 we quickly see the new creation are the born again ones.

What Paul meant by no longer knowing Jesus or others by the flesh means in the natural. For example, in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female, we are ONE in Christ, etc. [Gal 3 – I told you Paul said a lot in Gal 3].

The one new man is not a Jewish man, he is redeemed mankind from every nation, tribe and tongue.

We know Paul was not talking about Jesus’ humanity but his ethnicity because he also said, “There is One Mediator between God and man, the MAN Christ Jesus.” [1 Tim 2]. Paul did not say the Jewish man. Christ represents all men [mankind] from every nation, tribe and tongue.

John said, “as He IS so ARE we in the world.” [1 John 4]. Did John mean we are all Jewish or all human?

All of the promises that God made to the patriarchs and to the house of (outward Israel) were fulfilled by the time Joshua went “the way of all the earth.” (Joshua 21; 23; Neh 9)

There are NO promises left to fulfill to outward fleshly Israel. To believe otherwise reduces the inheritance of the saints.

In fact, ALL the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ Jesus (2 Cor 1). In other words, ALL the promises God has ever made are in Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God slain BEFORE the foundation of the world.

Did you know that what God actually promised Abram (Abraham) concerning an inheritance of land was not physical Canaan? It was the planet (Rom 4:13).

The earth is the Lord’s . . . . And the meek shall inherit the earth. [Psa 24; Matt 5].

Psalm 37 is replete with text that proves the wicked will be removed from the planet, not the righteous.

Now to the devil being bound. What happened at the Cross? Col 2 tells us Jesus disarmed the devil and made a public spectacle of him at the Cross.

Paul, using the analogy of a conquered king and or general in that day, writes that Jesus disarmed or stripped off all the armament the devil had. Victorious armies would strip, and bind with chains the conquered ruler or general and parade them around in public to shame them.  Is the devil chained [restrained]? Absolutely!

If not then why did Jesus teach on binding and loosing and especially binding the strong man and plundering his house? [Matt 16; Matt 18; Matt 12; Mark 3; Luke 11]

As to the 1000 years. What about the cattle on a thousand hills that God owns? Or the real question is what about that 1001 hill? Does God not own all the hills?

Or what about God’s love extends to a thousand generations of those who love him. What happens if we go past 1000? Do we start over or it is over for those generations? In Revelation Jesus said people would be thrown in jail for 10 days. Was it a literal 10 days?

Revelation 1:1 gives us a clue. In the KJV we find the text saying, ” The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John.”

Jesus sent and “signified it” by His angel . . . .  Revelation is a book of prophetic signs. Signs point to a greater reality, they are not the reality. We have to rely on Scripture to explain Scripture, not current events. A handle of the OT, especially Ezekiel and Daniel will help tremendously.

In parting, John said he and his readers were in the last hour and that the antichrist and many antichrists had already come – in the first century [1 John 2].

The last hour of what? The end of the world? Obviously not! We are still here!

The end of the Jewish world? Now we are getting somewhere!

To stretch out an hour into 2000 years takes some incredible gymnastics. History may go on for a long time from today. Again, search the Bible for “until” verses.

Maybe Jerusalem was about to be destroyed. Well not maybe, but literally!

We know from external historical evidence that after Jesus ascended into heaven men came claiming to be the Messiah.

Adam Clark Commentary

“1. Josephus says, (War, b. ii. c. 13), that there were many who, pretending to Divine inspiration, deceived the people, leading out numbers of them to the desert, pretending that God would there show them the signs of liberty, meaning redemption from the Roman power: and that an Egyptian false prophet led 30,000 men into the desert, who were almost all cut off by Felix. See Acts 21:38. It was a just judgment for God to deliver up that people into the hands of false Christs who had rejected the true one. Soon after our Lord‘s crucifixion, Simon Magus appeared, and persuaded the people of Samaria that he was the great power of God, Acts 8:9, Acts 8:10; and boasted among the Jews that he was the son of God.

2. Of the same stamp and character was also Dositheus, the Samaritan, who pretended that he was the Christ foretold by Moses.

3. About twelve years after the death of our Lord, when Cuspius Fadus was procurator of Judea, arose an impostor of the name of Theudas, who said he was a prophet, and persuaded a great multitude to follow him with their best effects to the river Jordan, which he promised to divide for their passage; and saying these things, says Josephus, he deceived many: almost the very words of our Lord.

4. A few years afterwards, under the reign of Nero, while Felix was procurator of Judea, impostors of this stamp were so frequent that some were taken and killed almost every day. Josephus. Ant. b. xx. c. 4. and 7.”

By the way, Emperor Nero’s name equaled 666! He died around 68AD. Could John in Revelation have been alluding to him? Maybe!

People can disagree with me! That is their right! It doesn’t trouble me.

People can call me names! I’m not sure that is their right! It doesn’t hurt me.

But what people don’t have the right to do is determine what I believe because I do think for myself. I have the anointing of the Holy Spirit that teaches me all things. And I am constantly searching the Scriptures, not the newspapers, “Christian” TV or paperback prophetic books written by pop theologians, to see if these things be so.

I also constantly exhort my listeners and readers to be like the Bereans. [Acts 17]

So, if you are intellectually honest and have a teachable spirit, you will at least consider what I have written and do your own study. Don’t rely on current events, paperback prophetic authors who have gotten very little right over their careers and have not repented of their misguided date setting and character assassination by calling some people like multiple popes, Ronald Wilson Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, Henry Kissinger, and a long list of others the antichrist.

Go to the Bible and ask the Teacher to teach you.

Stay Hungry And Thirsty For God My Friends!
Dr. Kevin M. Drury, D.Min