The last verses of Revelation chapter 20, this morning, and then we'll pray, we do need to finish chapter 20 today, at least, hopefully even get into chapter 21. We have, after today, one more session left, and I think we can do it. I think we can do it. That's where we are. I'll read the last verses beginning with chapter, or with verse 11, through the end of the chapter. Let's hear God's word. And I saw a great white throne, and him who sat upon it, from whose presence earthen heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead, which were in it, and death, and Hades gave up the dead, which were in them. And they were judged, every one of them, according to their deeds. And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. I can't resist. Let's go on and read a little bit of 21. And I saw a new heaven, and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is among men. And he shall dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be among them. And he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. And there shall no longer be any death, there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain. The first things have passed away, and he who sits on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. And he said, right, for these words are faithful and true, and he said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable, and murderers, and immoral persons and sorcerers, and idolaters and all liars, their part, will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Let's pray. Oh Lord, holy and awesome are you, and holy and awesome are your words to us this morning. Oh Lord, we have come to you this morning from bed, not too long ago, and the events of the day are thrust upon us. We have been taken up in the busyness of getting to church, and maybe getting the family to church. And many thoughts have gone through our minds. We thought of our own families, our situations, maybe the news of the day, and we may not have thought very much about you this morning, but we probably were not duly prepared for the solemnity and gravity of the words that we have just read. Oh Lord, we pray that you would so work in our hearts that we would be able better to consider and better to amend our lives from what we have read this morning. Cause your words to imprint their themselves upon our hearts, and grant that our fellowship this morning might be sweet, and pleasing your sight in Christ's name.
We've been talking for the last number of weeks about the millennium of chapter 20, and we have gotten more or less through, okay, there are thousands more questions that we could go into, but we've gotten more or less through the material of the millennium chapter 20 versus 1 through 10. I see Heath is back there smiling already, but I wanted to take a few moments this morning before we left the subject altogether, and try to place millennialism, I'll say, place all millennialism in particular, within the context of New Testament eschatology in general, what the New Testament teaches about are outlook on the last things. I want to take a few moments to talk about that, and maybe a few moments on some of the implications that I think are there for our views on this subject of the millennium before we go on to consider the last judgment, which is depicted for us in the last portion of chapter 20. Okay, so in millennialism in the context of New Testament eschatology and some of the implications, before I do this, a reminder, of course, I've taken the position of all millennialism, and yet we want to say once again that pre-millennialists are Christians, post-millennialists are Christians, in fact, there are even pre-millennialists and post-millennialists in the reformed can. This is a ramp, strange as it may seem, but that's true. So we're talking about brothers and sisters in Christ, this is an intramural discussion where we're not going, even though I would argue for the superiority of one over the others, because, typically speaking, this is a family quarrel, so we're not excluding anybody from the kingdom. I just want to make that plain once again. Okay, so New Testament eschatology, having sound effects from the other room, it sounds like, okay, I'm going to draw up a basic little illustration here. I'm going for those of you listening by tape, a timeline, at this point, just a horizontal line. Then I'm putting a jog, a vertical jog in it at the right side, and then up a way, and then I'm going over again, another horizontal line. So it looks like a big dog leg in a road or something. The vertical line representing, we'll listen to Jay there for last judgment, we have on the left side this age and the right side representing the age to come. Alright, that's a very basic biblical way of conceiving of the present world and the future world. A number of biblical passages that speak about this age and the age to come. Paul, in the beginning of his epistle to the Galatians, talks about Christ redeeming us from this present evil age, so this age and the age to come. Now, of course, what's happened in the New Testament? I'm putting a cross over here on the left side of the timeline, in front of the judgment, ways. Christ has come, the Messiah has come to deliver his people. What has this done? Well, in New Testament eschatology, as I see it, what we could do then is draw a line from this top vertical, top horizontal line going leftward over to the cross so that what we end up with is a sort of a box, a rectangle which extends from the cross to the judgment. And this is a sort of, what is this age, or is it the age to come? Are we living now in this age, the old age? Are we living in the age to come? What do you think? Well, in a sense, both, right? Because something so radical has happened since Christ has come, it's like the age to come has overlapped into our age, has invaded our age. And we already have the first fruits of the spirit. Let me read just one passage. We could probably look at a number of them. Let's look at one passage Ephesians 1, 23, Ephesians 1, 20 to 23. We're right in the middle of a long sentence by Paul, but I think you'll pick up on it. Paul writes which he brought about in Christ when he raised him, when he raised Christ from the dead, and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, so we're talking about the time of the resurrection of Christ when he raised him from the dead, and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion. And every name that is named, not only in this age, but in the one to come. They still have a sort of this age and age to come basic structure there, but something has happened to this age, hasn't it? And he has put all things in subjection under his feet, Christ's feet, and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. All things have even now, since the resurrection, since the resurrection of Christ, all things have now been put under his feet as Messiah. So the kingdom has begun. This period is Christ's kingdom. He has been thrown with his father in heaven, all things under his feet. So there is a sort of, you might call it an overlap of the ages. Most of you have probably heard the expression already and not yet. Well, that sort of depicts what we're talking about. The new age, so to speak, has dawned, but it's not here in its fullness. Okay, that's a very basic overview of New Testament anthropology. And to me, that's basically omelennialism. That's a very simple picture of the omelennial view. Now, what I mean by that, that if you're pre-millennial, you can't have this basic structure in your mind, or if you're post-millennial, you can't. Now, you can, but I think that this is pure and simple omelennialism. And omelennialism is sort of just in its essence. Now, what are some of the implications of this? One thing is, there's a certain order to things in this age after Christ has been raised and been seated at the right hand of God the Father. That means that there could be ways of missing this understanding. One could either, one could either tend to minimize the kingdom of Christ, the present kingdom of Christ, one could minimize that and say, well, things are just sort of more or less like they were before Christ came. You know, what has changed? What has changed? Not a whole lot. Is Christ really on the throne? Or maybe he's only on the throne in a certain sort of spiritualized sense that doesn't mean a whole lot? That would be to minimize the present rule of Christ. One could, let's say, overstate. Could one, is it possible to overstate the significance of this? Well, in this sense, I think it is. That is, one could expect that more of the age to come now infiltrates this age than really has. That is, one can begin, one can begin to expect too much out of this age. Expect that things will become too much better. Expect that Christianity will do such and such and such and such. That would, which may not be realistic. Let's talk about that order than a little bit. There is, I'm arguing a certain order here. Let's go to, you have to turn here, but second Corinthians 4, 16-18.
Oh, well, I may not have given a definition today of monelonialism, but well, yes, it's sort of the overlap of the ages. Was that it? That this, that the age to come has invaded this age, has overlapped this age so that something radical has happened since Christ has come. The Messiah has been seated upon his father, David's throne, and upon his father, his heavenly father's throne. And we can talk about the second person of the Trinity reigning from everlasting to everlasting, but he was not reigning as the son of man, as the incarnate son of man, as the promised Messiah of old, but now he is. So it's some fairly radical things have happened. That means that there is a certain order that we need to pay attention to in the New Testament. I think this comes out in a number of passages. I'm going to read one here, a second Corinthians 4, 16-18. Paul says, therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. You see a kind of a contrast there, you see a kind of an order. What's happening in our redemption, according to Paul here? Is everything happening at the same pace, put it that way? You're a redeemed person. How are you being redeemed? How are you being saved? Inwardly. Inwardly. Right. Now you're inward redemption, affected by the Spirit. Of course has implications for your body, your human body, but you're really not going to last any longer than the average pagan. You might a little bit because maybe you don't smoke quite as much, maybe you don't drink quite as much, maybe you don't run in front of trains quite as often. But generally speaking, you're not going to last much longer. Your body is the body of death, and it's wasting away, Paul says. It's decaying, but your inner man, your inner person, is being renewed day by day. We see that there's a certain order now at work in redemption. The Spirit is, the inner person is being renewed, the outer body, though the outer man is wasting away. We'll remind of that all too clearly, this last week, those of us in this church, with the departing of a dear friend. Let's go then to Romans 8, 18 to 25, Romans 8. An implication of that, just in passing, is we can't expect the resurrection body in this age, can we? We can't expect the resurrection body. We long for it. We long for that resurrection body, but we can't expect that before Christ returns. Romans 8, 18 to 25, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us, present time and glory, contrasted. For the anxious longing of the creation, not just our bodies, but listen for the aspect of the creation here. The longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God, for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it in hope. That the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now, and not only this, but also we ourselves having the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is not, that is seen as not hope for why, there is one also hope for what he sees, but if we hope for what we do not see with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. So Paul says, it's not only our bodies, but it's creation itself that is longing for this day, right? Creation itself will be renewed. Now, did you see when is this going to happen? When is creation is groaning right now? When will that groaning be over, when he returns? And what event associated with his return is specifically mentioned here? I don't know if you caught it, but it's our adoption as sons, the what? Redemption of our bodies, the resurrection, right? There's a congruence, isn't there? The redemption when our bodies are renewed, the whole creation is renewed. That's what creation is waiting for. We already have, Paul says, the first recruits of the spirit, we have that, that's the effect. We can see it, we can understand it, we can long for it, but the creation will receive the freedom of the sons of God when our bodies are redeemed at the resurrection. This happens at the same time. Now, one thing here, one thing this points out to me is, you know, many of us long to see this earth, this creation, glorify God as it was intended to do. And we look at it not happening now, we get discouraged and we think, this could promote us thinking of a more or less of a pre-millennial or even a post-millennial millennium in which things are going to get so much better on this earth. Well, it will seem like the promises of God are finally fulfilled on earth. And I would say that is a very biblical hope. That's a very biblical, godly sentiment to think that this creation has got to glorify God as it was intended. But when I look at Paul, I see the question answered of when this is going to happen and what it's really going to be like. And that is, it's not going to happen before the resurrection. They see on the millennial charts to expect that this renewal of creation is going to come before the resurrection. That's out of order. The renewal comes along with the redemption of our bodies. It's the age to come. It's not wrong to want to long for that. But I think this is the New Testament perspective because it also, Paul, also emphasizes that when this happens, creation will be freed from its subjection to futility. Right? Creation's under a curse, just like we are. And it will be freed to the glorious nature of the sins of God. Now, again, both in the pre-millennial and the some version of the post-millennial millennium, there is still sin and there's still death. And that's why I don't see that as fitting with what Paul's talking about here. Paul's talking about the perfect. And when the perfect comes, he says in 1 Corinthians 13, he longs for the perfect. And this is what it is. The creation will be set free from its groaning and from its futility to achieve the glory of the sins of God. So, again, we can expect too little or we can expect too much from this age. But I think what Paul is talking about this whole time, we have the first fruits and we can long, but it's going to be fulfilled here in the consummation. Paul, I don't see Paul looking for another intermediate step. Another intermediate step that would be better than what things are today, but still not as good as they're going to be. He's looking for the ultimate here. One more passage on this. That's 2 Peter 3, 3 Peter 3, 13. Again, we're coming right in the middle of an argument by the Apostle, but I think you'll pick it up quickly. He's just been talking about the coming day of God on which, because of which, the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements melt with intense heat, but according to his promise, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. We're looking for a new heavens and a new earth. In other words, that's the hope that Peter is looking for. Again, not another transitional, intermediate, gradational improvement, but he's looking for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. That's the position we're in now, I think. We have the first fruits of the spirit, but we're longing for the full redemption of even our bodies of the new creation. We're looking for the reunion of heaven and earth when the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven and heaven and earth are again united and the curse is lifted.
That's an interesting way of putting it, too. Richard points out in a book by Nigel Lee on the covenantal Sabbath. He points out that the seventh day in creation, Genesis, does not come to a close. There's no ending as mentioned for the seventh day, and you can see that ending, the beginning of the end, happening at the cross, beginning of the end of the seventh day, sort of like this, I suppose. And the beginning of the eighth day, happening then, too, the eighth day of eternity, the day of the Lord. That would again be a one way of seeing the picturing, the overlapping of the ages, the age to come, overlaps with this age because of the coming of Christ. Now, if this is the case, what are some of the implications? Well, as I see it, and you may not agree with this, but this will be further griss for your meal. I think this has tremendous benefit for our whole world and life view, how we approach the Christian life and the Christian involvement in society and so forth. Let's just talk about sanctification for a minute. We could have an under, what I would call an under-realized view, or an over-realized view, or the right view. That is, and I'm not pointing at anybody in particular here, but you could say, well, we could be sort of satisfied by saying there's carnal Christianity. That is, you can be a Christian fully saved, go to heaven, eternally secure, and still your life could look just like a pagan's life. That's not something that any Christian I know encourages, mind you. But there is this notion that people can be completely saved, Christians, and so forth. I think that runs the risk of being under-realized, under-estimating what has happened in Christ. On the other hand, you could go over to perfectionism, as a sort of example, down through the history of Christianity, there were various groups, promoting an idea of perfection. That is, in this life, the Christian can find a complete sanctification, and no longer be aware of any sin, no longer commit sins. Well, this, I would say, tends to be the over-realized eschatology. The New Testament does not lead us to believe that this can happen, short of heaven. What does it leave us with, though? I mean, it leaves us with a certain tension, you can say. This is always our goal. Let's not give up this. You shall be perfect for I am perfect. And yet, we know that because this has not come yet, we are still in here. We are not going to see this yet. But something has happened, so we cannot be satisfied with this. So we are somewhere in the middle. That is what I see as the one implication that is consistent with the omelennial view. Am I saying, if you are not omelennial, you cannot believe this, you can have to be this or this? No, not saying that. But to me, this is why omelennialism sort of makes sense of the rest of the New Testament outlook on things. Ed? It comes because he is carnal, and yet he is also spiritual, and so within the person, he has his team over-laping, the over-laping of the plot of line and the line. Right. And the person that you said about the creation itself, that's really the end of this whole argument about how he wrestles with this day by day. Right, right. Good point. Ed is just relating this to the rest of Roman's aid and what Paul is talking about with his own groaning and struggle within himself as a Christian. That he continues to sin. There is that struggle, and yet there is, he has been renewed more than conquerors in him, and all who have the spirit of God are sons of God and are led by the spirit of God. So there is this over-lap, even this is one way of picturing it, over-laping in our own lives in sanctification. There is an over-lap, there is a tension. The old man is dead and dying, we're to mortify the old man, but yet the old man is still there, and that goes along with our outer body wasting away and our inner man being renewed. One other aspect then. I think it has implications for Christianity and culture. You could, let's say, have a sort of under-realized, minimalized view of what's happened in Christ, and Christians can tend to say, well, world is going to hell in a hand basket. Why polish the brass on a sinking ship? Why be involved in society out there? Let's only be concerned about the things of the church. If you have to make a living somehow good, go get a job, but your real focus in this world is to save souls and build up the soul, the world is going to hell. I would say that would be an under-appreciation of what Christ has done. But on the other hand, you can have an overly optimistic view of things. That is the world is, you could say, going to heaven. The world is becoming Christianized. That is the world is eventually all going to become Christian, and therefore you could even tend to blur the distinctions between the church and the world, the church and society. Or at least have that as your goal in mind. Well, I think both of those are wrong. We have to adopt something in the middle. There is a come to Richard II. There is again this tension. The world may be going to hell, but Christ is on the throne. And we should be involved in the world, working to make the world better, working as, and this particularly is, I mean, this is Calvinism. Abraham Kuiper is famous saying that there is not a square inch of this world over which Christ does not say that is mine. This world is not belong to the devil, belongs to Jesus Christ. So it is legitimate, every bit legitimate for us to do what we can to claim the creation for Christ. But we do not expect perfection in this world before Christ comes. We can make the mistake of expecting that that is going to happen. We are going to have struggles, we are going to have defeats. But even if we are living in a time of great defeat, we do not lose hope. Again, it is this tension. We do not withdraw from society. But we do not make the mistake of identifying Christianity with society. We work towards this goal, just like we work towards perfection, even though we know it is not going to happen before Christ comes. And we know that there is a priority. We have the first fruits of the spirit, and we wait for the adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Now, for me, that gives all kinds of room for Christians to work in society. There is a mandate. But it does not make the mistake of saying this world has got to be Christianized before Christ will come. It does not make the mistake of confusing the church and the world. It means that there will be times in history where we will have an ebb and a flow. Sometimes the world will look more and more and more Christian in some societies. But at other times, it will look less and less and less Christian. We are in that tension until Christ comes back. Okay. Richard. For more people, adopt the Christ-transformed culture model. And yet, the people who seem to embrace that to those are not the, well, they are either in post-molitude, or in the middle term, which is a free moment of this potential. Yeah. More of it. Yeah. Yeah. Richard is pointing to Niebuhr's famous classifications of Christ and culture. And the one that Christ-transforming culture is generally more identified with the reformed view. And yet Richard points out that it seems more consistent with post-molitude. And we also, we see a lot of pre-molitude today in recent years, really getting out and being involved in society. This is indeed, I think, a very, very interesting phenomenon. You used to hear it said, and I think it's generally been true, that folks on the pre-molitude, at least the dispensational side, tended to be separatists with regard to society, tended to pull away. That's why you have all these media people talking about how surprising it is and how different it is and how, of course, how awful it is, that Christians are now involved in politics. What a shocking thing, and it's never been done before. Well, of course, it shows their historical short-sightedness, because Christians have always, at least in this country, been involved in government, from the very first. But a certain segment of Christianity generally has not, until recently. And here's the thing Richard's getting in. I think it should be a goad to us, that here we have a lot of the more pre-molineless types actually getting involved in culture these days, and I think putting us to shame. It's easy to stand back and criticize, say, wow, we don't agree with Christian coalition, or we don't agree with this or that group. But they're out there doing something, and it kind of gets me personally that we as Calvinists think that we've got the theology, we've got the theology to undergird this sort of thing, but where are we? Most of us are just sitting back throwing rocks at things we don't like. So, I think that there is a theology here for us to be involved in society, but it shouldn't. There's always a temptation. Even if you have the right view on things, there's always a temptation to go one way or the other, to identify the Christian cause with what's happening in the world. And, on the other hand, to dismiss everything and separate from it. Andy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It could. Yeah. Well, Andy's bringing up, Jesus says, my kingdom is not of this world. That, that, that sounds more like the world is going to hell camp. Don't identify my kingdom with this world. And I would say, yeah, that's part of the, that's part of the not yet, not the already. I mean, that's the, we should not identify this world and, and it's kingdom and it's power, it's glory, it's wealth, it's significance with the church, with, with Christ kingdom. And that's, that's definitely the case and that's definitely a mistake that Christians can make. And it, it, it means to me that he was, his kingdom is not the kingdom that the Jews were expecting, which was geopolitical entity. And, yeah, whereas our hope is in missionary zeal or political activism, I think you have to say, oh, well, I think you have to say both. But I, I would agree that I think there is a priority. There is a priority to mission and the work of that's more specifically the church. Why do I think that? Well, because, because Paul says our inner man is being renewed, our outer man is, is wasting away, we have the first fruits of the spirit. There is a priority of the church's work, the work of evangelism and mission and building up the church. The mistake, I think, is, is then to stop there and, and to ignore the fact that even that has all kinds of implications for the rest of the world because we're made, we're God's creation in his creation. And as we're being renewed, the church is being renewed, that has to have effects on society. Sometimes that effect, those effects will be effectual and make society look more Christian. Sometimes it will only strengthen the opposition. And sometimes it will, sometimes it will weaken the church because the church forgets about the distinctions. I'll say Anne first. It can be both. Anne's making the point that we, this doesn't have to mean political fighting and so forth just by interacting with neighbors, friends, people you meet. Good point. That's not the definition necessarily of making a difference in the world, carrying signs and marching and protests and so forth. But it's our interaction with people. We all have our networks of people we know and interact with. I think Ed was next. And one of the dangers is that we would ever judge the success of the Christian in terms of accomplishing what God is going to accomplish with the risk at the day of judgment. And so we get off track when we say that our focus is in how much we're going to accomplish for the kingdom, I believe. I think we ought to be about that work. But the way you ought to be about the work is the way the tribal members success. It never meant to be successful in the process of conversion or that he's done, it meant to be successful in bearing through this Christian when the fruits of the spirit are much more in the way of the internal things. And then we think about what I want to tell him, so I think we're building more frustration if you believe that you are going to convert the world during this period of time. The jobs that convert ourselves to struggle with our own sin and by doing the right thing and then become the kind of person that God wants us to become. Yeah, that's a good point. Ed's pointing out the way God and his word measure success is not, of course, like the world does and we can't count it necessarily in numbers or the outward effects. But he looks for fruit, bearing fruit and the bearing of the fruit of the spirit will mean that it spills out into the world around us and cause change. But it's not like we normally think of measuring success in numbers and such. So I think Sharers. The price of success is earthly change in the world because it's like trained in the world, you know, almost overnight. The problem with that is it tends to be short-lived for life and it tends to have come, you know, what really counts is from the ground up, people changing, there's culture changing. One of the things that people are discovering now is every time we work politically from the top down, it's really from the bottom of it's culture and it's really scary. The person who lasts here is the last, you know, working from the top down doesn't count the last of impacts that working from the inner man, the love rate of neighbors that count in the impact of the past. Yeah, good point. And Sharers is saying that it seems in the recent resurgence of Christian involvement in politics, we it's easy to forget that the real change comes from within, it comes from the bottom up. So to speak, rather than from the top down, the top down changes politically maybe very short-lived and we want to have the inner renewal, that's the culture actually changes, then the politics may follow more naturally, not that we can't do both together to some extent, but that's a very good point. Yeah, I think Robert was. Yeah.
Robert is pointing to the, simply the necessity of keeping our covenant obligations which pertain to all of life and God's law, God's command that pertains to all of life and that we need to be faithful in those things, you know, means to be involved in all aspects of life. So I think that's that is, that is true too. We live, of course, not in a, not in Israelite, theocracy, so things are quite different in that way, different in what we can realistically anticipate will happen and yet faithfulness requires us to be involved in all walks of life and so forth. John? I think the danger is in making political power in Israel and seeing that as a means of changing the culture and selecting the gospel as a means of really changing the culture. And I think that one thing that's somewhat symptomatic of that is that the focus is all on politics in Christian circles. There's not a lot of the variation about redeeming the arts and redeeming business and redeeming the media. In other words, all of it creation. Yeah. There's so much focus on that. Yeah, that's a good point too, John's pointing out that the tendency in recent efforts to focus on politics, sometimes tragically to the exclusion of the spiritual, but also the exclusion of other aspects of the arts. And economics and law and whatever else you mentioned. Media. Media, the media, right? Mm-hmm. Good. Good. Okay, Richard, one more and then we'll have to go on.
So then the last 40 years, we've seen the greatest explosion of angels in the history of the world. And in the last 40 years, we've seen greatest wars in all of them, quickly and in the beginning of the world. And something done compute there. And I would maintain a figure that what is that said is probably the answer, that the focus, the methodology and the focus that they have been towards success, that has been towards the renewal of the Church and the transmission of the people. And that we've also lost in that period of time the whole concept of common growth, which is what we're talking about in terms of our political endeavors and our reaction and culture. And that's more than just getting your soul safe, but I'm trying to think of the way one of my professors put it, I can't, but I think the essence of this was, we preach simply the gospel, but the gospel is not a simple gospel. That is, the gospel has all kinds of implications, and Richard is pointing out that the last 40 years or so has seen the greatest explosion of evangelism world has ever seen, at least in terms of numbers and world covering globe. And yet we've also seen, at least in the West, we've seen the greatest decline in morals, the fastest decline. And this does not compute, and that's, I mean, that's of the very poignant thing to say. And part of the reason may be that much of evangelism is preaching a truncated gospel, a gospel that just concentrates on saving the soul. And well, I mean, you could say just how you live after you become a Christian, after you pray the prayer, well, I mean, if you get into Godliness, well, that's icing on the cake, that's great, but the main thing is that you're going to be in heaven, but that's not the gospel, the gospel that saves the soul transforms the whole life, and it's not consistent with the gospel to maintain that one simply believes and is saved, saved, and that's it, and it does not transform the life. And there needs to be instruction on the church and the life of the church and the moral life of the individual. So that's a very good point. There could be also, partly in this, again, the success of the gospel sometimes means the increased hostility of what's not out there, and then that ends up infecting the church as well, and breaking down what's good in the church. That's a great point. Okay, one more on this, and then we should go on. And the size of the church there is then has a low consumption of the whole world's high rate of the world. So, you know, in the size of the church, and the virtue of the whole world, you know, is that you can't give back to the law of the God, when the church has a healthy, over less information as we honor God, you know. Good point. Yeah, Sheriff's points out something I didn't know, but from 1818-50, the U.S. had the greatest alcohol use and the great, and things were really in decline morally, and then Christians and maybe others, probably most of the Christians, began really writing books on morality, and things did change. So we do see it times in history when there is an ebb and a flow, and we can make a difference, and the nation can be blessed by God through what we do as Christians involved in society. Okay, well, good. I hope this has been helpful. It helps to tie things in for me, and show that your millennial view is not disconnected from how you view the rest of the Christian life, and the meaning of being a Christian in this world. I think there is a real consistency there, but let's go on to the end of chapter 20. And this is, of course, the longest description of the great judgment, the last judgment that we have in Revelation. It's not awfully long itself, but verses 11-15, where John sees a great white throne, and him who sat upon it. The only thing he says about the presence of that one is that from the presence of him, this is awesome to conceive of, but having an earth, fleeing away, and no place being found for them. I mean, it's mind-boggling from the very first sentence. How can you conceive of this? Whatever it means, we're left with a scene of the dead in his presence. The dead are brought to his presence. It's the dead great and small standing before the throne, and then we see books being opened. And one book, so you have the books and the book. You have to keep those in mind. The books are opened and the dead are judged from what is written in the books according to their deeds, so the books, whatever they are, they contain the deeds of the dead. Because it's the unrighteous dead that are focused on here, some interpreters question even whether the righteous dead are in the picture at this point. People are actually differing on that. Certainly the focus here is on the judgment of the unbelieving dead who are judged by their works according to what was written in the books. There is, of course, also the book. And we read that in, verse 15, if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. The book of life is, of course, something we've seen many times already in Revelation. I believe the first time it's mentioned is in chapter 3, verse 5, one of the letters to the churches. Jesus said, I will not blot out your name from the book of life. The book of life is known. And then I've argued that the book, the scroll in chapter 5, that only the lamb is qualified to open to break the seals of, is the book of life. I could be wrong on that. A lot of interpreters take a different view on that. But it makes sense to me that it is the lamb's book, because later on in Revelation 13-8, and 17-8, the book of life is called the Lamb's book of life. Only the lamb can open the book of life. He only can break the seals that keep it closed. And when he does, and when it finally is open, what we're seeing now is the book of life finally, being open and its contents being made public. And what does it contain? Evidently not the deeds, but the names, the names of those who belong to the lamb. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, it was thrown into the lake of fire. There are many things that that emphasizes God's election of his people before the foundation of the world, that they are secure, that we are not...well, we may undergo a kind of judgment according to our works, but that's not the ultimate for us. The ultimate is that we will not be judged for those works, but Christ has been judged for them, and His blood has paid for them. And because Jesus told His disciples in Luke 10, don't rejoice because the spirits were subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven. And we rejoice because of that. Who ends up being judged here and who loses out? Well, it is, of course, those who are not written in the Lamb's book of life. It's also death and hateys themselves. And once again, we've witnessed the introduction of these enemies of God throughout Revelation, and we've pointed this out before. We see in reverse order their destruction. We have death and hateys. We have the devil. We have the beast and false prophet and Babylon. And a reverse order Babylon is put to judgment, and her smoke of her burning goes up forever and ever. And then the beast and the false prophet at the end of chapter 19 are thrown into the lake of fire. The end of chapter 20 or middle of chapter 20. The serpent is thrown into the lake of fire, and now death and hateys themselves are thrown into the lake of fire. What does this mean? Again, a hard concept. What is death? A thing, an entity, almost like a person, is hateys a person? Well, they're all almost personified. And remember from the very beginning, Jesus said in chapter 1, I have the keys of death and hateys. And then in chapter 6, one of the four horsemen was death followed by hateys. And they went out to kill. But right after that we have a picture of the slain under the altar of God. Protected. Their death is not followed by hateys. Their death is followed by heaven, the presence of God. So off throughout the book we've had that Jesus is Lord of death and hateys. But now we see that he finally destroys them, their cast into the lake of fire. This fits, of course, with what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, that he must reign until all his enemies are put under his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. Finally, that great curse is made of none effect. The curse is lifted, the curse is conquered, the curse of death. And God's people enjoy his presence forever more. And that leads straight into chapter 21. And the new heaven and the new earth for the former things that passed away. And when John sees the Holy City new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And then this glorious pronouncement, I mean there are many glorious pronouncements in the book of Revelation, none more comforting and none more wonderful than this. Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men and he shall dwell among them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be among them. And later on it says, and verse 7, and I will be his God and he will be my son. It doesn't get any better than that. That is the essence of the covenant throughout scripture that God would be our God and we would be his people, but he would take us to be his people. Well, we can go into more of that next week, afraid we're out of time. Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this awesome reality which You have made known to us. If only in a little part we still rejoice that You have given us the first fruits of the Spirit, the down payment. And at that points us to the blessed reality that is yet to come, O Lord, do Your work in us more and more day by day that we would truly know that our inner person is being renewed day by day. Renew and confirm us in this hope and may our worship of You this morning be pleasing in Your sight and Christ's name. Amen.