In anticipation of six 30-minute segments of End Times Primer Video we’re releasing soon, I wanted to give the 20 min. audio version first. All of this is explained in more detail in the video to come:
Transcript of “The End Times Primer (in 20 min)”
Auto transcribed from Microsoft’s Slack.
0:01This is a primer on understanding the end times, we’re not going to delve into it into revelation for instance.
0:07But just some tips and some points as you study revelation or other books that teach about end times.
0:14First thing to think about is well, why even study it.
0:16What’s the point of it?
0:17Something I think that hits me on this is revelation one verse one, it says that this is a revelation of Jesus Christ.
0:26So you can see that it’s not a revelation of the anti Christ, but it’s a revelation of Jesus Christ at the beginning of revelation.
0:31And the end of revelation says, the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus.
0:35So the ultimate point is to get a better vision of Jesus also in revelation one verse 20 out of all the things that we see this vision of Jesus out of all these different things.
0:45One is really explained to us what it means.
0:48And it says the seven lamps stands are the seven churches as well as the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.
0:56But the point is the church, the revelation of the church within a revelation of Jesus.
1:03So if the true church, the true Jesus bringing the true church, I think gives us a proper setting for understanding and times in terms of maybe some bad starting points for end times.
1:16And we’ll talk about a good starting point, some bad starting points.
1:20There are different end times viewpoints.
1:22One is futurism and this started with, it was popularized, let’s say that way by a Jesuit priest in the 16 hundreds.
1:34And so it talks about all this future state of Israel, future, this future.
1:38That that’s a pretty popular viewpoint these days to have a starting point.
1:42As a Jesuit priest is not a great starting point, doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
1:46But let’s talk about what the Bible starting point is.
1:48There’s another viewpoint called Pres, it believes that revelations mostly if not all fulfilled in 70 ad when Jerusalem’s temple was destroyed.
1:58This also was in the 16 hundreds by a Jesuit priest.
2:01Again, it doesn’t mean it’s totally wrong, but it does mean if that is your only starting point and people are repeating it to you.
2:07That’s a bad starting point.
2:09Some other people, I think this is a better starting point, but still not the best.
2:13And they’ll start with Revelation 20 and Revelation 20 is where you hear about the millennium.
2:17It’s the only place in the entire Bible you hear about the millennium.
2:19So if you’ve ever heard, are you a post Millenium or are you premium are you, you know, all these different millennial viewpoints that all comes from Revelation 20.
2:28That is better than a, like a Jesuit priest.
2:30But it’s still not.
2:31it’s, it’s, it’s a little cryptic, I think, let’s start with the plainest teachings of scripture and then move to Revelation 20.
2:37So where would that be found?
2:39Well, I think that’s found in Daniel.
2:42Here’s why if you go to Matthew 24, which is a very famous and, and important piece of understanding.
2:49End times, Jesus has these prophecies about the temple being destroyed and about his return and all these different things.
2:55A lot of people are familiar with Matthew 24 and right in that in Matthew 24, though, I think that’s a much better starting point if you’re going to start from Matthew 24.
3:04But even there, Jesus actually says he’s building upon Daniel.
3:08He says that very plainly.
3:10He says he talks about the abomination that causes desolation.
3:13He says just as the prophet Daniel spoke of.
3:16So you can see Jesus is building on what Daniel predicted.
3:19Similarly, if you look at how Daniel ends his prophecies.
3:25So if you go to Daniel 10 through 12, that’s the last vision that Daniel has in the book of Daniel, he ends with a sealed scroll, he sees other things.
3:34He sees one like the son of man with eyes of fire, his bronze legs.
3:39He Daniel falls down as a dead man and these kind of things are happening.
3:43Well, then you say you open up revelation one and you should have a little deja vu and it’s on purpose I believe because in Revelation one, you see one like the son of man, eyes of fire, Brons legs, John falls down this time like a dead man and he’s brought up to his feet.
3:57And then you have, you have a sealed scroll picking up where Daniel left off.
4:01And revelation begins with un with removing the seals of the scroll.
4:06So you can see Matthew 24 is good for end times, but it’s predicated on Daniel.
4:11Revelation, of course, is an end time book, but revelation is really part two of Daniel.
4:17So in all these things, I think all signs point to Daniel.
4:20So we should start with Daniel if we’re going to get a proper understanding of end times.
4:24So if you go to Daniel, what you have is 12 chapters in Daniel.
4:27Half of the book is just the historical record of the Jews.
4:30In what’s called the Babylonian captivity.
4:32There were 70 years that the Jews were kicked out of their land and they were in Babylon.
4:38That’s when Daniel is writing.
4:40But you also have prophetic elements.
4:42You have visions and dreams in the book of Daniel.
4:46Daniel two and Daniel seven, you have this panorama of world events that are about to unfold and how especially they will affect God’s people.
4:54So he talks about this, this kingdom that we’re in is the first kingdom in this dream, for instance.
5:00And that’s says, then there’s going to be two kingdoms come together that are going to defeat Babylon, that’s the Meto Persia kingdom.
5:09And then there’s going to be another kingdom that’s going to divide into four parts.
5:13That was Greece that defeated Meto Persia.
5:16And then there’s going to be a kingdom unlike all the others.
5:18And that would be Rome so far.
5:20I don’t think anyone would disagree.
5:21That’s pretty clear in Daniel, these predictions.
5:24Then he says on top of these kingdoms, in the midst of that Roman kingdom, there’s going to be another kingdom set up, that’s going to be God’s kingdom and it’s going to destroy them all.
5:31And ultimately, it’s going to be the kingdom that wins.
5:34That’s of course, the kingdom of Jesus when he comes, when he came and as well as it to this day.
5:40But then if you look at the rest of Daniel, so that’s in Daniel two and Daniel seven, it gives his panorama view.
5:44If you look at the rest of Daniel, you get a lot more elaboration on all of these kingdoms except the Kingdom of Rome.
5:52Even though it says the Kingdom of Rome, this fourth kingdom is going to be unlike all the other kingdoms, you don’t really hear much about it and the rest of Daniel.
5:59So again, if you see Daniel as the only book, then that’s a problem.
6:02But if you see Daniel as part one, and Revelation is part two, which I believe the Lord wants us to see, then we can understand that revelation is going to pick up.
6:09It’s going to pick up with the Roman Kingdom.
6:12And and it’s going to talk about again, picking up where Daniel left off, it’s going to talk about world events and how it impacts the church.
6:19So I think Daniel is a good starting point for end times that brings us to Daniel nine.
6:25This is the chapter that talks about God’s kingdom.
6:29God’s kingdom.
6:30It starts, it says the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem is the starting point of when God’s Kingdom is going to come and that was started when Cyrus came.
6:40It actually says the decree will come basically after the Babylon gets out of their exile, the 70 years, then God’s people have another 70 times seven years.
6:53It’s 490 years to wait.
6:56And it says from that starting point of when to wait for this 490 year period until Messiah the prince comes.
7:04That’s Jesus hint starts with Cyrus.
7:07So you’re going to wait 490 years, starting with Cyrus’s decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.
7:14We know in Isaiah 44 45 that was predicted even before Cyrus was born.
7:19And then you get from Daniel, you get from Ezra, you from chronicles you see that this all happens with Cyrus, right?
7:27When they’re done with the Babylonian captivity.
7:29So the Jews were in Babylon for 70 years.
7:31Cyrus starts his decree and then you have 490 years until Messiah is going to come so far, so good.
7:39But here’s the kicker, it says in that last seven year period, it’s called a week of a week or a week of years in the last seven year period, Messiah is going to come.
7:50But then in the middle of the week, so just think about seven years in the middle of seven years is 3.5 years.
7:56In the middle of that week, you’re going to have an end.
8:00There’s going to be an end offering.
8:03He will be cut off in the midst of his people, all these things.
8:08Well, anyone reading that is gonna say, yeah, that sounds a lot like Jesus and when he came on the cross, guess what his ministry was?
8:163.5 years, you get that from the gospel of John.
8:18So in the exact timing of Daniel prediction, so Jesus came, was anointed the Messiah, the prince at his baptism 3.5, which was exactly the start of that.
8:29It went from Cyrus to then you count 490 years.
8:34Well, actually that was the 483 years because we have seven more years to come.
8:38483 years.
8:39Then Messiah comes just like it.
8:41Daniel, what happened in the middle of that week?
8:43So 3.5 years later or in the middle of that week of years, and Daniel nine predicts all of this.
8:48he’s gonna be cut off sin and sacrifice is gonna end.
8:53Amen.
8:54That’s exactly what happened when Christ died on the cross.
8:57So then, but then in the rest of Daniel nine, you see that, wait, there’s another 3.5 year period for God’s people this whole 70 weeks period.
9:07Well, guess what?
9:08In the Book of Acts, which is Jesus begin, continues his ministry.
9:11It says in acts 11, he’s ministering and who, who is the ministry to the first three or four?
9:18I would say probably exactly 3.5 years if our theory is right was to the Jewish people.
9:24That was that, that’s go all goes back to Daniel nine, that 70 week period.
9:28That’s 70 weeks of years.
9:29So four or 90 years is all for God’s people to be restored, to come back to him.
9:34But then you have this cryptic thing in Daniel nine that says, but the temple is also going to be destroyed.
9:38And you say, wait, what, why is the temple gonna be destroyed?
9:41I thought there’s a restoration for God’s people.
9:43And when was the temple destroyed?
9:45Well, for that flip to Matthew 24 actually even start before that, you go to the whole sections.
9:51Matthew 21 through Matthew 25.
9:52If you’re in a real good context of it, this is Jesus basically his final days on earth.
9:57And that time he says some really clear things.
10:00He says this to the Jews.
10:02You have rejected Messiah and it says, you keep rejecting the prophets and, and sadly, he says, he weeps over this.
10:09He says, within this generation, you’ll receive full penalty for all the rejection you’ve done.
10:18So within this generation, this is going to happen, you’ll be judged, the blood will be on your hands for killing me.
10:24Ultimately.
10:25And then, and that’s in Matthew 23 then Matthew 24 he says, the temple will be destroyed within this generation.
10:31It’s the same words, in fact, it says in Matthew 23 your house is left to you desolate, what is your house?
10:38It’s a very cryptic.
10:39It’s a very sad thing because usually Jesus calls the temple, my father’s house in the beginning of his ministry.
10:44Later, he calls it my house house.
10:46He purges the temple, I believe in Matthew 21 and he calls it my house.
10:49You you’ve done this to my house.
10:51And then he said, well, you clear you, you clearly don’t want God to be here.
10:54God has left the building in a very powerful way.
10:57And so Jesus says, in Matthew 23, your house.
11:00Now this is your house because you have rejected God has left, you has been desolate, it’s going to happen within this generation.
11:06Then you flip to Matthew 24 and then he starts talking in a much clearer language about exactly what that means.
11:11He says this is talking about the temple, it will be destroyed within this generation.
11:15Here are all the signs about this.
11:17But the disciples also ask, well, when will you, you’re coming back be that’s a different thing.
11:23They thought it was all together.
11:24Well, the temple or the temple will be destroyed.
11:26But then Christ comes back and the Messiah kingdom.
11:28Well, not quite, I mean, yes, he comes back in judgment over the temple of destruction.
11:33That’s true.
11:33But the end of the world, he actually says in Matthew 24 and 25, if you look at those together, Matthew 24, he says, yes, there will be tribulation.
11:39Yes, the temple will be destroyed and there will be all these signs.
11:41You’ll know it’s destroyed.
11:42It will happen in this generation that happened literally in 70 ad which is exactly a biblical generation.
11:48It’s 40 years later.
11:49That’s exactly when it happened just as was predicted in Daniel nine, just as was predicted in Matthew 23 Matthew 24.
11:56And it happened by the way, Daniel nine.
11:57It says God’s people will destroy the temple.
11:59And you could say it says the, yeah, the people of the prince to come will destroy the temple.
12:04People who have gotten that weird, a weird view that, that’s anti Christ and anti-christ will come with armies and destroy the temple.
12:11No, read Matthew 22.
12:12Jesus says God’s people.
12:14He actually says the Romans will be God’s people destroying the temple.
12:18Read Matthew 22 for yourself.
12:20And he says that, that, that will be God’s people because he uses all kinds of agents.
12:24He’s gonna use Rome to destroy the temple to judge the Jews for rejecting him.
12:30And so you say, but what if they don’t have their temple?
12:32Well, what did Jesus say when he perched the temple?
12:34He says, my body is the temple.
12:36They didn’t get it at the time until he resurrected.
12:38But we are now the living temple.
12:40This is on purpose.
12:41He says, anywhere he dwells is now the temple.
12:43So the actual physical building of the temple was destroyed at that time.
12:49But then his coming back.
12:51Well, what does that look like in Matthew?
12:5224 and 25 says they’re gonna 10 virgins are going to fall asleep.
12:55That’s like him coming back.
12:57A man went away for a long time and they didn’t know when he would return all the, so the temple, you know exactly what’s going to happen within a generation.
13:03All these signs, you’ll have tribulation after tribulation, tribulation all the time.
13:08Until Christ comes back.
13:10Then when Christ comes back, you will know very clearly he’s coming back.
13:13It won’t be this private crisis over here a crisis over there.
13:15Like some people say, no, he’ll come back very clearly.
13:19And when he comes back, you’ll know it but you won’t know before it happens.
13:24Otherwise people are gonna say, I have time to repent.
13:26No guy says I want you to get right right now and when I come back it’ll come like a thief in the night.
13:31So I hope that makes a little sense.
13:33The temple was destroyed in 70 ad but his coming back is different.
13:36So Matthew 24, you have to understand Jesus is answering both of those questions together.
13:40The disciples think it’s all one big event and he’s disentangling it to talk about it as different events and all again, if you start at Daniel, you’ll get all of this.
13:49The last thing I would say at times is helpful to, again, this is just to wet your appetite.
13:53Get started in revelation.
13:55The last thing is if you look at who is anti-christ?
14:00Because that’s a very big teaching and it’s, and it’s, it’s, that also starts in Daniel.
14:04Daniel chapter seven talks about anti-christ.
14:06He doesn’t, he’s not called anti-christ, but he’s called a little horn.
14:09He comes up in the time of Rome.
14:11He, he takes control of Three Kingdoms, he speaks blasphemous things.
14:15He wages war with the true saints.
14:18So you get that image in Daniel.
14:19But you have other places in scripture that anti grace is mentioned.
14:23Now, the word anti grace is only mentioned in first John and second John.
14:27OK?
14:27So the word itself is only mentioned there, but the concept who it is is given in a lot of different places.
14:34OK.
14:34One is Daniel nine, like I told you first John and second John talk about the word antichrist and there you can learn a lot.
14:42It says anti grace is one that comes from them, from the apostles but is not of them.
14:49So he’s gonna look like a leader in the church.
14:51He’s gonna come from them, but he’s not actually of them.
14:54And he says many are even and even start many right now are anti-christ.
14:58It says in John’s day when he writes that, but there’s gonna be a capital a anti Christ yet to come a culmination.
15:04And what is this?
15:05It’s a false, it’s, it’s called a false prophet.
15:07Someone who leads people away from the true church, the true Jesus.
15:11And that’s why he’s antichrist.
15:12Anti grace actually means a substitute for Christ.
15:15He’s, he’s he’s counterfeit Christ, but he’s also trying to be a substitute.
15:19He’s trying to take the place of Christ.
15:21He’s being a head on of Christ church and there’s only meant to be one head of the body.
15:26If you have multiple heads in the body, you have a monster.
15:28So Jesus alone is supposed to be the head, but anti Christ comes to supplant him as a false head on that.
15:34And first John talks about it, Daniel talks about it.
15:37But also in Second Thessalonians two is a key passage about anti-christ.
15:40And there it also mentions him as here again, people get this wrong.
15:44It says he will sit in the temple of God.
15:47And all of a sudden you say, well, oh, there must be a real a resurrected temple.
15:50Well, hold on every time.
15:52If you study that Greek word for temple, every time Paul uses that word, it is referring to the church back to what we said.
15:59Jesus says, I’ve left the building but the church, the temple now is my body and it’s transferred over to my people.
16:04So this anti Christ is going to in Second Thessalonians two going to rise up within the people of God.
16:09And how can I say, you know, maybe that seems a little of a stretch.
16:13I hope not too much because I don’t think it is, but I could even add something else in second Thessalonians two that he is called anti grace.
16:20It is called the Son of Perdition, is a name for him.
16:24or some, some translation I think say man of where is that found elsewhere in the scripture?
16:29If you look, there’s only one other place that’s found.
16:31It’s in John 17, Jesus is praying and he says the Son of perdition is going away just as it predicted of heaven.
16:37That’s Judas Asia.
16:39So now we see Judas Esa is a type for antichrist.
16:43OK.
16:43So he is a, he’s a figure he prefigures antichrist.
16:48And so that makes a little more sense of what we’re saying.
16:50Anti Christ is going to rise up as a false leader in the church, just like Judas.
16:55He looks like an apostle.
16:57He’s gonna be sitting in God’s temple at the church.
17:00He’s going to and first John, he’s going to anti Christ literally means he’s gonna be AAA substitute Christ.
17:06He’s going to come as the head.
17:08All these things go together.
17:11See, I mean, there’s some other things in revelation to talk about anti Chris, but the main gist is anti Christ is going to oh something else.
17:17The second two it says, and it’s already at work.
17:20It’s already beginning.
17:21This very anti Christ thing is beginning, but it’s going to culminate much more later.
17:25That’s what first John says.
17:26It says there’s many antichrist right now, but it’s going to culminate more later.
17:30When you look at it all together, I can’t think of a better, a better fulfillment than the office of the pope.
17:38The Roman, the church, the office of the Pope.
17:41this would be an office.
17:43I’m not even, I don’t even think it’s a man and some people say, is it this Pope is this Pope.
17:46That’s not what I’m talking about.
17:47I’m saying when you have the office, which is literally called Anti Christos in the Greek.
17:51It’s Vicar of Christ means anti crystals.
17:53You can look that up.
17:54I’m not making this up.
17:55It’s not conspiracy theory.
17:56Look at the Roman Catholic site itself.
17:57Vicar of Christ means anti crystals because he sets himself as the head of the church.
18:03He is a false head.
18:04He is a counterfeit head.
18:07And all and then starts fitting the place he had power over over political power for a long period.
18:13There was killings of true Christians that happened.
18:16I’m very saddened by that.
18:18A lot of things like that, that happened that all prefigure what antichrist is, who antichrist would be, makes sense that it’s culminates in the office of the Pope.
18:27But hear me out, that doesn’t mean, oh, Roman Catholics are the bad guys and everyone else off the hook.
18:31No antichrist is already at work.
18:34And the time of Jesus and the time of the New Testament, he, he is at work.
18:37I believe in the fullest sense of like an actual office that calls itself the head of the church, but it’s happening all the time and everywhere, whenever you put a human as a head in the only, only the position that Jesus preserve is reserved for Jesus, that is anti-christ.
18:54And so back to what we said at the beginning, true end times will give you a actual revelation of Jesus Christ who is the only head of the church.
19:01Yes, he uses leaders, by the way, I’m not anti leadership by any stretch.
19:05He uses leaders, but those leaders are only good in as much as they point to Jesus, they point to his word as ultimate authority and, and they bring him to be revealed in him to be the central figure.
19:17When we do that, we get it right.
19:18But I think end times studies and revelation is a warning against false, the false Jesus and a false church that happens in many different stages.
19:28And I hope all you see all this together makes a good, I hope it makes good sense of saying, oh, that makes sense how Daniel.
19:35Matthew, Daniel is the beginning.
19:36Matthew 24 gives the middle of the temple destruction.
19:39But then also points to Jesus coming back and then revelation is the picking up from all that and says, here’s what’s gonna happen to my people throughout church history.
19:46And I believe it shows stuff about what they would go through in Rome and the Roman Catholic church and counterfeit stuff here and Islam and all sorts of things I think are prefigured in revelation.
19:54That’s a different teaching for a different time.
19:56But, but it’s all for the point of getting focus on the true Jesus and the true church.
fmi360 