23rd Meeting Millennium Discussion Continued

Matthew 16:18, was part of the Millennium verses, we talked about. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Son of the Living God. Jesus then told Peter that no one but the Heavenly Father could have revealed that to you. then Jesus went on and said "Upon this rock I will build My Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." Why then would the church be raptured before the tribulation, when Satan will be the strongest? It seems for this to happen, then the Words of Jesus are in error. The church being around during the tribulation seems to fit with what Daniel chapter 7:25b The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times, and a half a time. If the whole church is raptured before the anti-christ comes, who will be left to educate the people left behind to be saints? If you look at most churches, now they are very seeker friendly, but not very strong on the teachings of God. If you don't know God before you go to church, you may not find Him from the service. These churches are counting on their small groups, Sunday School and other venues to teach about God. If these churches are raptured, who will be left to train the left behinder's into saints?? The teachers, they were counting on would have been taken with the rest of the church.

Didn't Jesus say I will be with you always, even unto the end of the age? I don't see anywhere in scripture where Jesus says He will take some with and leave some behind. We are not talking about sheep and goats here, we are talking about separating sheep from sheep.

22nd Meeting - Millennium Discussion Continued.

We are continuing our tour of Bible Prophecy, we have finally gotten to the New Testament. John 4:21 came up in this list. This is taken from the story of the woman at the well. If you are not familiar with this story, Jesus was being pursued by the Pharisees and they were trying to kill Jesus for His teachings. Jesus and His disciples fled to the area of the Samaritans, because he knew the Jews would not pursue Him in this territory. He meets this woman at the well, and starts talking to her. During their conversation, the woman asks Jesus which place is better to worship the Lord. Her people the Samaritans (worshiped on Mount Gerizim) , and the Jews worshiped in the Temple at Jerusalem. Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is here, when you will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." John 4:21 - 24. Jesus is telling this woman a lot in this passage, she knew that the Messiah was coming, the Jews and the Samaritans were both looking for the Messiah. The story of the Samaritans was foretold in Deuteronomy chapter 28. The Northern 10 Tribes were dispersed first for their unbelief, and were conqured by the
Assyrians. This dispersion was different than what the Babylonians did. After the Assyrians dispersed the Jews they put them in a land that was not their's, and they took those people, whose land it was and put them in the Northern Tribes territory. These people intermarried with the Jews that remained and combined their religious practices. This is why the Jews looked down on the Samaritans. The Jews considered them unclean, and would avoid them.

The Jews and the Samaritans knew that when the Messiah would come, He would be both High Priest and King. For this to happen worship as the Jews and Samaritans knew it would have to change. This is what Jesus was telling her when He said the Father is looking for people to worship Him in spirit and in truth.

21st Meeting - Discussion on Millennium continued.

We looked at all the Millennium Bible passages in the Bible starting with Isaiah and going through the New Testament. This gave us a better understanding of how Israel and Jesus will rule during this time. Deuteronomy Chapter 28 talks about the curses and promises that will befall Israel if they either stay true or turn away from God. This teaching will not be necessary during the Millennium. Israel will be under authority of Jesus as King of Kings, and Chief High Priest. Jesus will rule along the lines of Melchizedek who was both King and High Priest. All the nations of the world are to go to Jerusalem and worship Jesus during the feast of Tabernacles, and if they don't, Jesus would withhold rain from falling in their countries. This will be done to make all the nations of the world to understand there is only one God, and He is Lord of All. This is the reason that Israel was supposed to travel back to the Temple. The Jews were sent all over the world because of their unbelief in the Most High God. By making them have to come back to the Temple in Jerusalem, they were admitting that it was their unbelief and their refusal to do God's will that caused them to be dispersed. Now this will be the lesson for the nations.

20th Meeting - Discussion on the Prince Continued

In Chapter 45 the Prince has land given to him on which he supplies the sacrifices for the people. This is completely different from any Temple built in Israel, in any time up to now. When animal sacrifices were put in place by God, the person who committed the sin had to supply an unblemished animal to be sacrificed on their behalf. God commanded this to remind man of his need for a Savior. This pointed to Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, after Jesus became the unblemished Lamb when He Died for our sins (on the cross), Jesus paid the price for the sin that Adam brought into the world. Jesus has already paid the price of our sins so it is not necessary for Him to do it again. When the Prince supplies the sacrifices for the people, this acknowledges that Jesus has paid the price already. By providing the sacrifice, the Prince is reminding the people that He has already paid the price of their sin, this is a symbolic rendering to prove to the Jews who the Messiah is, when He lived, and is here now. Why is God choosing to do this, and why do the Jews seem to get another chance at this?? This is part of "God's ways are not our ways."
If this Prince is not Jesus, I don't know who else it would be.

The Old Testament tells us about a special time when things will stop being like they are now. The Old Testament prophets tell us that the beast of the wild be be led by a child. And the lion will lay down with the lamb (Isaiah 11:6). God will be in charge and the world will be a different place than it is now.

If you look back through the Bible, the world as we knew it changed as history changed. When God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden; their world as they knew it changed. When God judged the world by the Great Flood, their world as they knew it changed. God has shown us that this is part of His plan. If God wants to change the world again in the time of the millennium, why is this so hard to believe??

The signs are there in the Bible if you but only look for them. Jesus asked us to know and watch for the signs. This is what I have tried to do in this study.