Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Revelation 22:20-21

Theme: Final thoughts on the Book of Revelation.

We began our journey through the Book of Revelation on 09/24/2017.

I occasionally left the book to deal with other important topics like the Christmas and Easter seasons.

I went into this sermon series kicking-and-screaming all the way.

I didn’t really want to do it.

But I’m convinced there was a conspiracy afoot, because a fair number of you were asking me, “When are you going to preach from the Book of Revelation?”

I was reluctant for two reasons.

1st, it’s a hard book to preach through, requiring a significantly higher level of study then most other New Testament books involve.

There are four major eschatological interpretations of the book, and each one of those have nuances of interpretative views.

2nd, My eschatological view is thoroughly orthodox, but outside the mainstream of what most Evangelicals in general, and Baptists in particular, believe.

Honestly?

It’s hard to preach something that you know the majority of your congregation probably doesn’t agree with.

When I came to the Lord in 1973, I learned about the pre-tribulation rapture just as I learned about all the other fundamentals of the faith.

This was basic.

This was Bible.

This was truth.

A time was coming — no one knew when — that all true believers would mysteriously vanish from the face of the Earth, because Jesus had secretly come to spirit them away in this event called the rapture.

For the first five years as a Christian, I unapologetically embraced that view.

But the more I read the Bible, the more I realized I hadn’t learned this from the Scriptures.

I learned it from other books.

In essence I has taking Hal Lindsay’s and C.I. Schofield’s word on it.

Most of my closest Christian friends believed in a pre-tribulation rapture.

Some of the finest Christians on the planet believe in it ... men such as W.A Criswell, Billy Graham, Richard DeHann, Charles Stanley, Adrian Rogers, Chuck Swindoll, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, David Jeremiah, as well as Kay Arthur, and Beth Moore.

You can understand why millions of American Christians embrace this particular view of the end-times as foundational to the Christian faith.

It’s as fundamental as is the deity or Christ, or justification by faith alone.

I don’t accept it.

I am a premillennialist, but I am a historic premillennialist.

I am not a dispensational premillennialist, and there are some pretty sharp differences.

The good news (for me anyway) is that a lot of you don’t care.

You’re essentially “panmillennialists” — you believe it’ll all just gonna “pan-out” in the end.

The bad news is that a lot of you don’t care, which means you miss a blessing by not reading the Book of Revelation.

“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.”

(Revelation 1:3, NIV)

I. WHY I AM A HISTORICAL PREMILLENNIALIST (and why you should be, too)

1. over the course of this sermon series a number of people have asked why I take the particular view of end-time events that I do — why am I a Historic Premillennialist?

a. well, that begs the question, “What is a Historic Premillennialist?”

2. it is one of four major eschatological views of end-time events

a. in your bulletin is a hand-out that lists, and explains the major end-time views

3. two main points set my position apart from dispensational Premillennialism

a. that God has only one people — the Elect — believers from throughout the ages, both Jew and Gentile, who have accepted God’s redemptive work on their behalf by faith

b. that at the end of the age, believers will go through the tribulation period — not escape it through a secret rapture of the Church

A. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF HISTORIC PREMILLENNIALISM

1. 1st, it Is a Thoroughly Orthodox Interpretation of End-time Events

a. it’s not “weird” or “outside” the mainstream of Biblical interpretation

ILLUS.

Theological giants of the past such as Baptist pastors, John Gill, and Charles H. Spurgeon believed and taught it, as have theological giants of the present like Albert Mohler, John Piper, D.A. Carson, and James M. Boice.

b.

I tell this so you know that your pastor is not an eschatological heretic!

2. 2nd, It Is Called Historic Premillennialism Because it Was the Majority View of the Early Church Through the Beginning of the 5th Century

a. it is an eschatological view that the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ will occur prior to our Lord’s one-thousand year reign on Earth, but after the great apostasy — meaning that believers will go through the tribulation period

b. so what happened?

ILLUS.

The Church’s eschatological view began to change in the early 5th century due to the influence of Augustine of Hippo, who allegorized the Second Coming, teaching that Christ rules the earth spiritually through his triumphant church.

He was the preeminent theologian of his day, and his writings would influence the Church for 1,200 years.

Augustine began as a Premillennialist, but came to reject that belief because he thought a literal kingdom was too carnal.

He was the first theologian to adopt and teach what we now call Amillennialism.

This remains the official teaching of the Catholic Church, virtually all mainline Protestants, and most Reformed — or Calvinistic — believers.

3. 3rd It Is Now the Minority View among Evangelicals in General, and among Baptists in Particular

a. the majority view is now Dispensational Premillennialism which teaches a pre- tribulation rapture of the Church

ILLUS.

Among all Baptists, 75% consider themselves Premillennialists, with the majority of them being Dispensational Premillennialists (even though they may not know it).

A lot of it is due to the influence of the Left Behind book series.

Written by Tim LaHaye, and Jerry Jenkins, there were 12 novels in the collection, published between 1995-2007.

Total sales for the series reached an astonishing 90 million books.

For an earlier generation, Hal Lindsay’s best selling book, The Late Great Planet Earth (which was virtually required reading among Christians in the 1970's and 80's), was hugely popular, and influential on the eschatological views of Americans.

It was the No. 1 best-selling non-fiction book of the decade of the 1970s.

The still popular Scofield Reference Bible, first published in 1909, and whose notes on Dispensationalism are considered, by some, as “inspired” as is the biblical text.

The Criswell Study Bible, MacArthur Study Bible and Ryrie Study Bible all support dispensationalism in their study notes.

It’s impossible to minimize the influence that these works have had on the end-times views of three or four generations of American Christians.

ILLUS.

It is a view so firmly entrenched in the American Church that the official doctrinal position of the Assemblies of God denomination.

You cannot be ordained within the Assemblies of God unless you are a Dispensational Premillennialist.

b.

Dispensational Premillennialism is a relatively new adaptation of traditional Premillennialism

1) it is a theological system first developed in the mid-19th century, and it’s primary author was John Nelson Darby of England

a) it became an extremely popular view in Britain among the Plymouth Brethren

b) this new premillennialism came to the United States following the Civil War, and by the turn of the 20th century was flourishing among Evangelicals, Fundamentalists, and Baptists

2) Dispensational theology teaches that there are two distinct peoples of God: Israel and the Church and God is dealing with each separately

a) because Israel rejected Jesus as Messiah, God turned to “Plan B” which is the Church ... for 2,000 years God has worked in the world through His Church essentially “shelving” Israel

b) before God can resume with “Plan A” and deals with Israel again, the Church must be removed before proceeding with His final plans for Israel

c) this led to dispensationalism’s most controversial and distinctive doctrine — the secret, at any-moment, pre-tribulational Rapture ("catching away") of the church

ILLUS.

Actually, if you go back 125 years, my view of Premillennialism would have been considered the normative view, and Dispensational Premillennialism — which is the majority view among Baptists today — would have been considered unorthodox!

B. THE CASE FOR HISTORIC PREMILLENNIALISM

1. 1st, It Provides a Straightforward Understanding of the End Times Events

a. historic premillennialism teaches that, at some point at the end of the Church age, the Antichrist — whom Revelation simply refers to as “the Beast” — will rise to power on earth, and the seven-year tribulation will begin

b. at the end of the tribulation, Christ returns, believers are resurrected and raptured to meet Jesus in the sky, and then Jesus and His church return to earth to rule for a thousand years

c. at the end of the thousand years the lost are raised to face judgement, and the faithful spend eternity on a new earth, under a new heaven ruled from a New Jerusalem

1) pretty simple!

d. there is no secret rapture of the Church

2. 2nd, It Accurately Reflects the “One People of God” Theme Found Throughout the Entire Bible

a. one of the major issues I have with Dispensational Premillennialism is its stark separation of Israel from the Church as two distinct peoples of God Whom He treats differently

1) from Genesis to Revelation, we see a picture of a God who is on mission to rescue sinners from every tribe, tongue, and nation

a) God accomplishes this through the perfect life, sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ

2) under the new covenant, Gentiles have been grafted into spiritual Israel, and, through Christ, God has created His Elect People

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.

His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.

17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.