We're continuing today understanding Bible prophecy. We've covered actually a lot of ground, but we're laying a foundation. We plan to deal with prophetic events, the events themselves like the rapture, but we are starting with foundational things that are necessary to understand the events. and building a foundation. So we started with the covenants, and actually the covenants could be put as a part of the interpretation of prophecy as a foundational thing. And so it's just a matter of how you organize things as a teacher. But that's what we want to go to now, the interpretation of prophecy, which is a large section of the course. Interpretation of prophecy, and it's in your textbook, and you can turn to that. large section because this is foundational. Foundational. You want to understand things. You want to build upon a proper foundation, not just have some superficial understanding of things. That's the goal. And that's what we want to do. And we have 18. points here, lessons here under the interpretation of prophecy. We're going to begin where really we have to begin spiritually, and that's with the spiritual mind. Luke 8.35 says, then they went out to see what was done, the Gadarenes, the Demontiacs, eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, the hills there, Been to that place on one of the trips. We went all the way around, 306 degrees around the Sea of Galilee, seeing everything from the perspective of the water. We came over to that. There's only one place this could have happened where the pigs ran down into the sea, only one place. And so we parked at that place a little bit in the boat. You can still smell the pigs there. It's not true, of course. But we know exactly where this happened. And now, here we see what happened to him. Out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind. And that is fundamental to understanding the Bible, is to have a right mind. And a right mind comes by salvation and sanctification. Well, let's turn to 1 Corinthians 2.14. through chapter 3, verse 3, very familiar to many of you, probably most of you. But all these things are of infinite value and we continue to learn and we continue to be reminded because we forget very easily and learning at a better level as we go along. So repetition is very important. 1 Corinthians 2, 14, through chapter three, verse three. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned, natural man. But he that is spiritual judges all things, that he himself is judge of no man, judges all things. Sounds like the spiritual man does a lot of judging. Ecumenical crowd. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. So we're not judging by our own opinions, the spiritual man, but he's judging by the mind of Christ, which is found in the Word of God. So the natural man, the spiritual man, and now chapter 3, the carnal man, three kinds of people in this regard. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal. Paul is very plain-spoken. You, church and Corinth, are carnal. That's what he said. Even as unto babes in Christ, just babies. I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able." It wasn't that they were newborn babes, it's that they were still newborn babes when they should not have been. For you're yet carnal, twice he said, you are carnal. That's pretty plain spoken. For whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are you not carnal, said it again, and walk as men? And so the coronality. So we have these three kinds of people from a spiritual standpoint. The natural man, who is the unsaved person. That's every one of us before we're born again. We're natural. We're lost, we're dead in trespasses and sins. Ephesians 2, 1 through 3 describes us very powerfully there. Walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, dominated by the devil, but not even knowing it. That's the natural man. And the natural man, Paul says, cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. He doesn't have the spiritual equipment to understand the Bible. They're foolishness to him. He can't understand them. And he can't know them, know them. He can't properly understand these spiritual things because they're spiritually discerned. And he doesn't have the spiritual equipment to discern these things because he's not born again. He does not have the Spirit of God. Lost man. And then the spiritual man and the carnal man are both types of saved people. And the difference is, and the Bible says if you don't have the Spirit, you're none of His. And so if you're saved, you have the Spirit, you are sealed with the Spirit when you believe on Christ, Ephesians chapter 1 and verses 12 through 14. But you can walk in the Spirit or not walk in the Spirit when you're saved. That's God's plan. And that gives us choices, and that gives us testings, and that's a big part of what this present life is all about. Testings. All sorts of testings. And that's why the old man's still there. The old man is still there. Testings. What are we going to do? Who are we going to obey? Who are we going to believe? And so that's the difference between the spiritual man and the carnal man. Spiritual man is walking according to the Spirit. He is letting the Spirit dominate him, whereas the carnal man is saved and has the Spirit, but the Spirit is not dominating him. It's that simple. On one hand, it's very simple. On another hand, it's not. But that's it, and the Bible talks about that in many places. And so to have the right mind to interpret Bible prophecy, we've got to be born again, and then we have to be walking in the Spirit, because the carnal man can understand some things from the Bible, as opposed to the lost man, but he can only understand, take the milk, the milk, not the meat. But that's the baby. You don't give a baby a steak. You can't do anything with it except slobber on it. It's just a waste of a good steak. Got to give him milk, pre-processed and everything. That's the carnal Christian. And you can remain a carnal Christian your whole Christian life. But there it is. It's absolutely fundamental. The spiritual mind is the believing testing mind. It's the believing, testing mind. There's two major passages that the man that led me to Christ taught me before I was saved and that I began my Christian life with and have always benefited greatly from, 51 years. And that's John, the two passages in John, John 8, 31 and 32. The whole issue at first was, where is the truth and how can I know the truth? Well, Jesus addressed that in these two passages in the Gospel of John. In John 8, 31 and 32, And that was my whole issue with this man was, okay, I'm trusting my heart. I'm believing this, that, and the other. Where's the truth? He kept saying, well, the Bible's the truth. This is it. The Bible's the truth. And I kept saying, well, how can I know that? Well, right here, John 8, 31 and 32, Jesus then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, if you continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed." There, that's the evidence that you are truly a disciple of Christ, that you're truly born again, that you continue in his word. It's not going to be a flash in the pan thing. No. There's evidence. There is evidence of salvation. Always is. I don't care how old you are. Here's a powerful evidence is that you will continue in His Word. Because it's not you. It's the Spirit of God keeping you. And you shall know the truth. If you continue in the Word, which is the evidence, but it is also the way of sanctification and growth in the Christian life, to continue in the Word, you shall know the truth. There's the promise. You shall know the truth. It's absolute. It's sure. And the truth shall make you free. process of liberation, spiritual growth and victory. It all comes through the Word of God in this present world, through the Word of God, by the Spirit of God. Continue, you've got to continue in the Word of God. And then John 7, 17, John 7, 17, Jesus also addressed knowing the truth. John 7, 17, if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. Jesus said, you want to test me? Well, you've got to be willing to obey, to do his will. And if you're not, it's just an intellectual exercise, then you won't know the truth. which gets a lot of people in trouble. They approach these things just intellectually, trusting their own intellect. You better not because we don't have enough intellect for this. We've got to depend on the Spirit of God, got to depend on God, and we've got to be willing to obey what God shows us. Otherwise, we stagnate right there. He shall know the doctrine. So if I'm willing to obey, if I'm ready to obey what I'm hearing from the Word of God, then I will know the doctrine. I'll know what's the right doctrine. I love that because as a new Christian, I did not know where to go to church. There are all kinds of churches with all kinds of doctrines. Which one's the right one? I didn't know, but I knew that I could find out because of these great promises. And I held on to them, and I prayed that God would help me, and I studied the Bible, and I looked at churches, and I believed that God fulfilled His promise because I fulfilled my part. I wanted to obey what God was showing me. And no matter what it was, or whether I liked it or not, like cutting my hair. That's not a problem for most of you. Some of you don't even have hair. And you wish you had long hair, but it was a problem for me because I liked my long hair. I really did. I was that arrogant. But we won't use that Greek word. And I did. God began to deal with me, and I began to gradually cut my hair. I wasn't radical about it. But I cut it, but still it was long, and certainly by this old lady's standard. One night we were knocking on doors. I was with a friend who was discipling me, and we knocked on the door. This elderly lady invited us in. My friend started talking to her about the Bible, and she said, hold on, I'm not going to listen to the Bible things with this long-haired man over here, which was me. I had a choice there. I could have launched into her and told her how much I had cut my hair, and it wasn't very long anymore. And furthermore, it's not any of your business. That would have been my response before I was saved, guarantee you. But I said, ma'am, I'm sorry. I'm going to cut my hair tomorrow so that there's no question about it. What's long is long. There's not going to be any question tomorrow. Obviously, there was still a question about it. You won't make those decisions. God shows you things. Dress? Dress is an important thing. It is very important. It is a fundamental issue. It really is. It's a language. Come to church in your shorts. Please. Here in front of Almighty God in His house. Whatever, we won't go launching off into that. launching off into that, and let the pastor do that. So, no, a matter of obedience, and then God will lead, and God's pleased with that, and He will show the truth. It's wonderful. So the spiritual mind, you've got to bring a spiritual mind to this business, and then you've got to understand the words. That's fundamental. It's not really a principle of interpretation as such. We haven't quite got to that yet. But to understand the words is certainly fundamental to understanding the Bible. If you turn to the first chapter of Isaiah, for example, you've got to understand these words. Really, before you start applying any principles of interpretation. The fundamental thing is, first of all, understand these words. You need a good Bible dictionary. Judah. What is Judah? Verse 1. Jerusalem, verse 1. The Lord. It all caps Lord. Who's that? What's that? Heavens, verse 2. Crib, verse 3. What's a crib? Zion, verse 8. Sodom and Gomorrah, verse 9. Sacrifices, verse 11. Sacrifices. Courts. When we're first saved, we don't know any of this, basically. Courts. Sabbaths, verse 13. And the Sabbath is plural here. Oaks, verse 29. And I like to study trees in the Bible and whatever, but it's all there for purpose. Gardens. And it's not a rose garden. And so we've got to understand all of this. The words, fundamentally, basically. So you need a good Bible dictionary or multiple good Bible dictionaries. The man that led me to Christ brought me a strong concordance. And there's no perfect Bible dictionary. No, not even mine. No, there won't be. But some are extremely helpful, and some will lead you astray. You've got to be careful. Strong is not perfect, but it's magnificently helpful, I believe. And I just about wore it out that first year. I can't remember if I totally wore it out or if I almost wore it out. You know, you write your biography and autobiography, and people say, well, in one place, you said you wore it out. The other place, you said you almost did. Well, that's because I don't remember what I did exactly. Exactly, but it was pretty close. You know, every day, every word, I was just, I didn't know anything. I grew up in a Baptist church, but I didn't know anything of these Bible words. And so I was just looking them up and studying them. Yeah, but you've got to do that. We give some words from Bible prophecy here in the textbook that are fundamental to understanding Bible prophecy. And it's like a little mini dictionary from Bible prophecy words that are essential to understand. And then once you get some basic understanding of them, then you're ready to go. But we never really come to the end of studying these wonderful words. They're infinite. Now, the third lesson here, but the most important is the normal literal method. When it comes to Bible prophecy, we've got to learn to interpret the prophecies by the normal literal method of Bible interpretation, which is very simple. It's the normal way we interpret language, whatever that language is. It's the normal way we interpret human language. That's how you interpret Bible prophecy. And it's been called the golden rule of Bible interpretation, the golden rule. And David Cooper, we give three quotes here that I think are very excellent when it comes to this. And the first one is by David Cooper. When the plain sense of scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense, but take every word at its primary literal meaning unless The facts of the immediate context clearly indicate otherwise. There's a lot there, but that's normal literal interpretation. And then John Phillips, who I love, his commentaries, he didn't write a commentary on every book, didn't get to of the Bible, but, and he'll be quoting C.S. Lewis and some weird things like that once in a while, but I really enjoyed, have enjoyed John Phillips, commentaries, but he said, God says what he means and means what he says. We are to read the Bible just as we read any other piece of writing. That should be we read. Not trying to force some allegorical, mystical, or figurative meaning into the plain statements. And then Charles Feinberg Unless there is some reason intrinsic within the text itself which requires a symbolical interpretation, or unless there are other scriptures which interpret a parallel prophecy in a symbolic sense, we're required to employ a natural, literal interpretation. We understand figures of speech. We use them all the time, figures of speech. And let's say I'm going to go out for a run. That means I'm going to actually run. Or we say I'm going to run down to the store. I don't know if Australians say that, but some people do. I'm going to run down to the store. What does that mean? Anything, could be walking, could be driving, could be riding your scooter, could be a push thing. It's just a metaphor, figure of speech, but we understand that in context. We're not puzzled about those things. We just immediately interpret them properly, usually by the context of what's happening, and that's true for the Bible. But God wants us to understand these things. The Bible's not supposed to be a puzzle, except in certain cases for certain kind of lost people. but primarily it's a revelation. It's intended to be understood. In contrast to that is the allegorical method of interpretation. And that is the typical view of interpreting prophecy today across Christianity. The allegorical in a symbolic kind of sense. And so the prophecies about the glorious millennial kingdom are applied to the church today. Zion is the church, and a thousand years is the church age, and the desert blossoming as a rose is the fruitfulness of the church age, and stuff like that. We give three examples, one from the Geneva Bible notes. Geneva Bible was full of notes. And in Revelation 9, 11, the angel of the bottomless pit. Now, what could that possibly mean? Well, probably an angel in a bottomless pit. But here's the note. No, it's Antichrist, the Pope, king of hypocrites and Satan's ambassador, which is why the Pope didn't like that Bible. Pretty easy to understand. King James didn't like it either, one of the motives to approve the translation of a new Bible that has been given his name. Adam Clark on Revelation 20 and verse 2, he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan. Bound him 1,000 years, what's that mean? Well, let's see. He said, in what this binding of Satan consists, who can tell? Well, why not? It explains it. But he says, who can tell what it means? This is a key passage. You want to know how people interpret scripture, look at this verse and see how they interpret it. And he said, it's not likely that in the number of 1,000 years this will be taken literally. Really? Well, why? It's not obvious to me. And then Jameson Fawcett Brown, which has a lot of good help in certain places, but he didn't have a clue about Bible prophecy. He said thousands symbolize, here's his interpretation. It's complicated. Thousands symbolizes that the world is perfectly leavened and pervaded by the divine. Really? It's hard to see that. Since 1,000 is 10, 1,000 is 10, the number of the world raised to the third power, that doesn't even fit. That would be like, anyway, it wouldn't be 1,000 exactly. Three being the number of God. Well, you can go anywhere and make anything say anything with that kind of interpretation. And that's what they do. The history of it, It's very important to understand that the apostles in the New Testament interpreted prophecy literally, and there's no doubt about that, and nobody denies that. Nobody. Acts 3, 19 through 21, just two examples. Acts 3, 19 through 21. interpreted the prophecies literally. Acts 3, 19-21, Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. So Peter's looking to the future, to the coming of Christ for the fulfillment of these prophecies, not in the church age. in the future, in the literal fulfillment. And then Romans 11, 25 through 27, which is a very fundamental passage. And by the way, when the Bible is clear on something like this, don't be swayed by any stupid argument. It's clear. That's it. That settles it. I don't want your argument. If it causes me in some way to not interpret the Bible clearly like this and understand it, I don't need your interpretation, so-called. Romans, just stand on the Word of God. The winds of doctrine are blowing, folks. Blowing and blowing. And you don't have to be blown about. You don't have to be. Stand on the Word of God. Just stand on it. This is clear to me. If somebody comes along with a different interpretation, I have no time for it. No time for it. You're not going to sway me away from this. As a brand new Christian, I studied these things. And to me, the thing that I benefited the most from Bible college study was to learn this normal literal interpretation. It was like a key that just turned everything on and made everything make sense. And the prophecies came alive. What do they mean? Mean what they say. Well, I like that. I like that. And so I studied that out, came to the conclusion that my teachers were right, that there is a pre-tribulational rapture. I didn't just accept it, I studied it out, looked at the scriptures they were giving me, seemed very clear, and I've never been worried about it since. I have looked back at it, but it keeps coming back to these same simple things, and I just stand there and let the world go crazy. Stand there. Let independent Baptists go crazy. Stand there. It'll help you. But here in Romans 11, 25-27 is the conclusion to this great passage. Romans 9-11. What about Israel? And here's Paul's conclusion. For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery. Mystery. Things hidden in the Old Testament time and revealed in the New. lest ye should be wise in your own conceits that blight... And so we better be careful because you can be wise in your own conceits. That blindness in part has happened to Israel. Yeah, I can see that. That's exactly where Israel is today. Until the fullness of the Gentiles become end. So Israel is not always going to be blind and Israel is still Israel. Israel is still Israel. but in a blind condition, but won't always be blind until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, the end, the completion of the church age and God's plan for the church. Church is a special body. Church is the New Testament church today, but also in eternity and from an eternal perspective, the church is a special spiritual body of people that have been born again and called all the nations in this age. And so all Israel shall be saved. As it is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them when I take away their sins. And so he quotes the new covenant, which we've studied, and says it's going to be fulfilled after the church age. Words could not be plainer. And it's simple, I can understand it, and it's wonderful. So you just stand, it just allows you to stand and be solid in your Christian life in the midst of all the confusion. Where did this allegorical interpretation come from? Well, it came from, and so we give quotes here from John Walford and Dean Alford, who was Church of England, And Philip Schaff, who's Lutheran, historian, Philip Schaff, and Philip Schaff did not interpret scripture literally, but he gives the true history of the thing. So here, Philip Schaff, the most striking point in the eschatology of the anti-Nicene Age, which is before 325 AD, the first 300 years of church history, is the prominent Hellenism. which means millennium, which means thousand years, which means believing in the literal thousand years, not three times, 10 times a third power and all that. I'm glad it doesn't mean that. I'm not real good at math. That is the belief of a visible reign of Christ in glory on earth with the risen saints for a thousand years. He said for the first 300 years, that's what all, that's all the churches believed. There, Philip Schaff, he did, he personally didn't interpret scripture literally, but he's giving a true, a right view of church history. Dean Offord, Church of England, he said those who live next to the apostles, And the whole church, church using that in a, well, he's using it in a universal sense, but in a general sense, for 300 years, there's the same thing, anti-Nicene before the Nicene Council, understood them in the plain literal sense. There you go. And that's just true history. No one can deny it. George Ladd, Fuller Seminary, He'll confuse you. You want to be confused? Read George Ladd. Please don't. He doesn't interpret Scripture literally. He's led a lot of people astray in that. But he, when he's looking at history, says there's no one before Augustine whose extent writings offer a different interpretation of Revelation 20 than that of a future earthly kingdom consonant with the natural interpretation of the language. Those are powerful statements because they come from people that don't and no longer believe that. But that's enough for me. When did this literal interpretation start? With the apostles, period. We can just stop right there. Whatever's happened in between, that's no authority whatsoever. The church fathers, so-called, they're no authority whatsoever. Zero. And none of the... No Christian after the apostles has any authority any way whatsoever. We go right back to the beginning. Every generation, we have to go right back to the foundation, which is the New Testament Scriptures themselves. So the allegorical interpretation, where did it come from? Well, it was established in Alexandria, Egypt, a hotbed of heresies. Whatever comes from Egypt, Well, all the way through the Bible, nothing good said about Egypt. When Abraham went down to Egypt, he was backslidden out of the will of God. Egypt is used as a figure of the world, going to Egypt. And that's where this allegorical spiritualizing method of interpretation came from. And two major figures, we can look back and see, two major figures in regard to that, and that is Origen. That's pronounced Origen. And Chief Heretic. My Chief Heretic. But he was one of the fathers of this allegorical method of interpretation. Lewis Burke, another historian, says, Through the combined influence of Origen and Augustine and of the Christianizing of the empire in the time of Constantine the Great, the Achilleistic, literal millennial, view of the kingdom was gradually eclipsed by the representation of the kingdom as a present reality. Present reality. So those things were taken that are prophetic things pertaining to Israel in the future and applied to the church, so-called the church. And that began, especially with Origen. Origen said, the scriptures have little use to those who understand them literally. Wow, that is upside down. He was an upside down man, walked on his hands. origin, full of heresies, loaded with heresies. He mixed the truth of the Bible with pagan philosophy. He did not believe the scriptures are wholly inspired by God. He believed the Holy Spirit was the first creature made by God, creature. Jesus is not fully God. Jesus had an origin, baptismal regeneration. Purgatory, the pre-existence of the human soul. Universalism, he believed even that the devil will eventually be saved. Good news for the devil, but it's a lie. Celibacy, he believed more holy than marriage. He was one of the inventors of that that led to the whole monastic system. So origin, but then Augustine. I was checking online. That's pronounced properly in two different ways. Augustine or Augustine. Not that it matters that much. And I wonder how Augustine pronounced it. We don't know. Just those guys on YouTube tell you how they pronounce it. Oh, Augustine did Great damage, great damage. He is not my teacher in any way whatsoever. I don't want anything to do with this guy. I'm sure he said things that were right. Every heretic says things that are right. I want nothing to do with this guy, which is one major reason why I'm not a Calvinist. Augustine really is the father of sovereign election. Calvin himself said that. He said, my guru is Augustine. Really? Okay, that tells me I won't want anything to do with Augustine. These things are not real complicated. Yeah, Augustine. He taught that the millennium is to be interpreted spiritually as fulfilled in the Christian church. And he wrote the city of God, and he applied these great prophecies to the church, so-called, you know, the church. And he became one of the four doctors of the Catholic church. Right there, that tells you you don't want anything to do with this guy. If Rome says he's great, then he's wrong. It's pretty simple. Absolutely. One of the doctors of the Catholic Church, that unholy apostate mess. But they took that method of interpretation. The Roman Catholic Church always interpreted prophecies allegorically, which destroys the authority of the prophecies. And then the Protestant denominations, when they came out of Rome, And a true New Testament Christian never came out of Rome, because we never were in Rome. There were always true New Testament Christians called by different names and terribly persecuted. But those Protestants came out of Rome, beginning with the Lutherans, and the Anglicans, Presbyterians and Methodists, and they brought some errors out of Rome with them, such as infant baptism, and they brought allegorical interpretation of prophecy, which is why when you look at the most prominent commentaries, whether it's Matthew, Henry, or Barnes, or James and Fawcett Brown, whatever, they are Protestants and they're interpreting prophecy allegorically. And they just don't have a clue when it comes to prophecy. I get a lot out of Martin Luther in a lot of ways, but he didn't have a clue when it came to interpreting prophecy because they brought this error out of the Roman Catholic Church.