Mark 13:1–37 | The Jesus Way

Well, it's great to have you here today. We're in this series called The Jesus Way. And today, I am so glad you're here. If you're online, give online a big welcome. Come on, make some noise in here. Wherever you are around the globe, it's good to have you with us here today. My bride and I returned about a week ago last night from Greece. We went to Greece. Yeah, we went to Athens, and then after Athens we went to Crete, and we went to Neapolis, and we went to... Philippi, and we went to Ephesus, and we went to Thessaloniki, which is modern-day, that's modern-day Thessaloniki, ancient-day Thessalonica. We saw some amazing ruins, and it was awesome to witness where Paul walked on his missionary journeys. On the island of Crete, we didn't get around to the safe harbor where they kind of held up for a couple of days before they got blown off course. And then the story goes, he's shipwrecked on Malta, but we got to see a lot. It was great. It was great to be with my bride, to wake up in the morning, have drool on my pillow and feel no guilt over it. It's just awesome. And that was my drool, not her drool, just for the record. But it was awesome time away. And on the way back, the flight was great. How many of you just don't really like flying? Anybody in here, a couple of you don't like flying. Flying can be a little bit unnerving, but I've flown a lot in private planes and then commercial planes a lot. And I found myself thinking, wow, this thing was an event-free flight all the way from Athens back to New Jersey, and then we made the connection. But as we were coming to setting down in New Jersey, at about 1,000 feet off the runway, the bottom fell out from the Dreamliner. And we went straight down. Probably a couple hundred feet. And everyone on the plane was like, and you saw people grabbing their armrests and everything and people next to them putting claws into them. There's probably bloody people on the flight because of that. It was pretty hair-raising. But, you know, you can rest assured that once the, you know, it doesn't have any loft under the wings at that point, but it'll get it again. You can be assured of that. And boom, we came down, caught some air, and then we were good. Some things in life are unexpected. Fair enough? And it's those unexpected things that can wig us out. And then as we open the Word, as we're going to do today, there are some things that we can expect that are coming our way, and we want to talk about them. The question is, how are we going to prepare for the end times? How do we prepare for those moments that are moving toward what is commonly called the tribulation, or seven years of great affliction here on earth? When the abomination of desolation, the Antichrist himself, will rise up out of an obscure, reconstituted Roman Empire, and he will begin to rule with an iron fist at about three and a half years through the tribulation. And there's a lot of questions around it. And today we're jumping into a passage of Scripture that is going to help clarify and bring some question marks to the forefront. But we're going to know... We're going to know this. We need to live ready. And these are days that we're living in today that I truly believe are near the end. There's voices calling for an urgency to be alert to the coming of Jesus Christ like never before in recent, even the past couple of years. There's a lot of movement with regard to end times prophecy. And so we land in a passage of Scripture today, Mark chapter 13. That is incredible. Now, the expanded version of Mark 13 is a sister passage, and that is Matthew 24, where the gospel according to Matthew is laid out in a lot more technicolor. But here we've got a pretty concise overview of what we see as end times prophecies. So what I want to do today is something very different. I'm going to read the whole chapter through. and we're going to have it up on the screen, and I want you to really pay attention to the text as I read along. But this is what I need you to know beforehand. The Jesus way isn't easy, and preparations for the end happens best in heart, soul, and mind. The abundant life in Christ is inside out, and I want you to have a perspective today that no matter what you hear, no matter what kind of certain kinds of tension or strife you may feel in your heart for a moment, and I think I'm going to assuage those concerns today, you're going to have a sense where, whoa, I've got to live ready. Here, heart, soul, mind. I've got to surrender these up to God, not living in the here and now, but living with a real vertical view of Christ's coming that is imminent, I believe. So we find in Mark 13, These words follow along as I read. And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, look, teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings. And Jesus said to him, hey, do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. And as he sat on the Mount of Olives, so they walked out of Jerusalem short distance through the Garden of Gethsemane up to the Mount of Olives, just a little perch where Jesus will return. He's on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple. And Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, hey, tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished? So they asked him in private that. And Jesus began to say to them, see that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name saying, I'm he. And they will lead many astray. And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place. But the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places. There will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pangs. But be on your guard, for they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake to bear witness before them. And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all the nations. And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speaks, but the Holy Spirit." And brother will deliver brother over to death. This is heavy, guys. And the father, his child, and children will rise against his parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. Verse 14. But when you see the abomination of desolation, let me just say here, this is not an event. This is a man. This is the Antichrist. When you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not be, let the reader understand. So he's going to desecrate the very temple of God. So he is in Israel, in Jerusalem, and now this man, this Antichrist, has taken a position that is a clear sign that one of the most horrible times on earth is about to be ushered in. And then those who are in Judea, they will flee to the mountains. Verse 15, let the one who is on the rooftop not go down nor enter his house to take anything out. And let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. And alas, for women who are pregnant, for those who are nursing infants in those days, pray that it may not happen in winter. For in those days there will be such tribulation. One of two times that word is used in this text. As has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now and never will be. And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days. And then if anyone says to you, look, here's the Christ, or look, there he is, do not believe it, for false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, the elect. But be on guard. I've told you all these things beforehand. But in those days after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. And the stars will be falling from heaven. And the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds. From the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens. From the fig tree learn its lesson. As soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven nor the Son of God, but only the Father. Be on guard. Keep awake, for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know when the master of the house will come. in the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows or in the morning, lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you, I say to all, stay awake. There are three dominant theological views of this passage of Scripture. And this morning I want to run you through a set of charts that give real full representation to each of these views on a few key events that are cited in Mark 13. So I want to speak to you about the preterist view. I want to speak to you about the future's view, and I want to speak to you about a dual fulfillment view or the now and not yet view. Now, the preterist view is a view that is derived from the Latin word praetor, which means early or past. So it means something that's happened in the past. So you might get this. The preterists look at Mark 13 and they say and they conclude, oh... This all happened in A.D. 70. In A.D. 70, there was a great sacking of Israel in Jerusalem. The temple was defiled, and so a lot of people said this has all been fulfilled. The futurist view has a futurist view. It hasn't even had a dual fulfillment. Many theologians, and I'll give you who they all are, have a dual fulfillment perspective. And this is not the first time we see this in Scripture. So they have good biblical basis for saying this is both now and not yet. So let's go through some core ideas. I've already given you an overview of the preterist view, futurist view, and dual now-not-yet view. You see there, I'm going to state it again, fulfilled in AD 70. Futurist is most of Mark 13 refers to future end times events without respect to what happened in AD 70. And the dual now and not yet view really blends AD 70 and a far or final return of fulfillments. It's kind of a two-layer prophecy, one historical and one ultimately going to happen but has not happened yet. So I want to tackle a few of these categories. First, I want to tackle the abomination of desolation that is found in verse 14. The preterists see this as referring to Roman armies or pagan desecration of the temple in AD 70, and that did happen. However, that's a problem, and I'm going to tell you that I really believe that the preterist view, although held by a lot of good people, I think it's very limiting and has some very specious lines of argumentation that really lack stability. One is that the abomination of desolation is a man. It's not a series of events. It is a man, a distinguishable man. The abomination of desolation or the Antichrist as we know him, I believe will be incredibly smooth talking because I can't get into all of it right now, but he will strike a peace deal with Israel that will be so globally embraced that Israel and all the nations will say, we have peace. so he is as i've said in the past about him he is going to be handsome he's going to be persuasive he's going to have powerful speech and it is easy for us to try to forecast who that might be but that's not what we should be focused on just know this the abomination of desolation is not a series of events like the sacking of israel in jerusalem was in 80 70 it's a singular person who's going to rise up strongly against Israel. The futurist view refers to a future antichrist who desecrates the temple, and that's a view that is held by many. The dual view is initially fulfilled in AD 70, can't look past that, but foreshadows a final desecration right before Christ's return. I want to hit a couple other categories quickly. One is this generation. Well, what is this generation out of verse 40? There's a lot of discussion about this. A lot of it says the budding of the fig tree really jives with Israel getting its statehood in 48. But yet a generation has already gone past if a generation is 40 years. So some have said, okay, it's more than just a generation. It could be that generation refers to a season or this period of time while Israel does have statehood in that location that maybe it refers to anyone that's kind of in that season like us that we're alive and well and we can see it happening. The preterists see the literal generation living in Jesus' day who saw Jerusalem's fall. And to be fair with preterists, although I think this is a specious argument, I think to be fair with them, the disciples probably would have seen A.D. 70 as somewhat of a fulfillment of what Jesus said to some degree. But they also heard what he said and they wrote it down. So there were some holes in this one. And it comes with this next category. Let me put up the next one. The Son of Man coming in the clouds, verses 26 and 27. When Mark 13 and Matthew 24 capture the image of Jesus Christ's return, it is a cataclysmic global understanding. The original language speaks to when he comes and returns, the whole world will see him. They will know him. They will recognize that what had been told is actually happening. This is where the preterist view gets a little bit weak in the knees because they say it's symbolic language of Christ's vindication and enthronement after judgment on Jerusalem. It's way more grand than anything we see in a preterist prediction. A future as few as literal second coming of Christ. I subscribe to that. And the dual now or not yet is both Christ's vindication in AD 70 and the literal return at the end of the age. Those are interesting talking points and high points. I've got another category for you. There's going to be cosmic signs, sun darkens, stars fall. And so the preterists see this as a metaphorical usage. When they see those words in Mark 13, they're like, oh, that's just big language for the chaos that was on the ground in Jerusalem when it was sacked and defiled. The future is, see, this is a literal cosmic disturbance, that this world is going to be an upheaval. When you look into the skies, and I mean it is chaos all around us. And then dual fulfillment is prophetic imagery that was tasted in A.D. 70, but will be fully fulfilled at the very coming of Christ. I want to touch though quickly on the category of Jesus' warnings. And he gives us these warnings several times. Look, be alert. Don't be unaware. Don't be naive. Keep your eyes open. This is where I can get a little bit passionate. We have looked at Scripture, especially one that I'm going to quickly highlight here for you, and we've discounted the need to keep our eyes open for the coming of Christ because of one little passage. Now let me reverse engineer. I'm going to keep this slide here, but let me reverse engineer starting in verse 35, then I'll go to 33. then 22 then 29 and then 27 and I wanna show you something that's very important to see in Mark 13 when we look at Mark 13 verse 35 Let me just read this to you, and you listen closely. Therefore, stay awake, Jesus said, for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in evening, in midnight, when the rooster crows, or in the morning. Stay awake. Verse 33, we go back. Be on guard. Keep awake, for you do not know when the time will come. But then you back up to verse 32, and this is a linchpin verse. But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father. And this is what a lot of modern Christ followers, especially in the West, do. We look at a verse like this, the focus of Jesus' warnings, and we go, well, Carl, we aren't going to know the day or the hour. Let's just live and let live. No, the original language, when you do not know the day or the hour, the text indicates you will not be able to name the day spot on and the time 12.02 p.m. There's super specificity in the original language here. Now how do I know that? And why do we need to keep our eyes open? We can't just take this day or the hour as unknown, therefore we ain't gonna know. No, you may not know the day nor the hour, but Jesus indicates in Mark 13, we will be able to know the signs of his coming. How do I know this? I back up to verse 29, and this is what he said, so also when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near at the very gates. Now we got a question here that I'm going to deal with today, and that is, is he talking to people in the tribulation, before the tribulation, or is he wanting us to see signs leading up to the tribulation? I would say all the above are in play. But clearly, at minimum, leading up to the tribulation, we're going to see some problems going on, and I'm going to cite some of the modern issues that lead me to believe that we are in the last days here in just a moment. I hope you can appreciate this. I'm trying to be fair with all three positions. And I just want to let the cat out of the bag right now. I don't know exactly what my eschatology is with regard to end times fully. But I have some hunches. And even this morning, I was on the phone with Jim Coakley and Dr. Michael Radelnik, and I was texting a little bit with Mark Jobe. That was early this morning. See, an extra hour of sleep lets us pastors do a lot of chatting early in the morning, man. So I just want to highlight a few things for you, though, that represent these positions well. Look at the representatives or theologians or scholars in each of these views. Look at this. N.T. Wright, alive today on the other side of the pond. He's a preterist. R.C. Sproul. Does that surprise you, Jim Coakley? He's one of our elders here. I did not know that was R.C. 's position, that he was a preterist. Great theologian, great thinker, great mind. Got to be careful here. Kenneth Gentry, Gary DeMar, these are all big names that have written on and ascribed to the Preterist view. Remember the Preterist view, fulfilled in 70 AD. Now, they don't deny that Jesus is coming back again. They just say, don't look at all the symbolism and the prophecies of Matthew 24 or Mark 13, and don't start hanging your hat on everything that's going on, okay? So that's where they stand. In the futurist view, John Wolvard, Charles Ryrie. These are a lot of what I would call the kind of the modern day. A lot of these are Dallas Theological Seminary guys, and that's cool. But even in this list, you've got different views about will we be here in the tribulation or not. But they look at all of Mark 13 as futuristic, still to come, not fulfilled in AD 70. John Piper, mostly futurist. He does see some of the text in Mark 13 already having been fulfilled. And then in the dual now, not yet. Hey, you got guys that aren't even on this list like Watchman Nee, one of my favorite people. Scholars, pastors, disciples, spent the last 20 years of his life in China, persecuted for the faith, died in 1872. This guy was a rock star for Jesus, an incredible man of God. John Calvin, Augustine, George Ladd, Craig Bloomberg, my New Testament professor at seminary, at Denver Seminary, great mind, nerdy guy, if you're watching, prof., He knows that. But he's just a Bible nerd and just a brilliant man of God. And then D.A. Carson, a name that's known by maybe some in this room. Now, some of you may not know any of those names at all. And you're like, I'm so far behind the curve. I don't know any of these names. It doesn't matter. God knows your name. And that's the name that matters most, that God knows your name. So I want to give you another category called strengths. And I'm going to give you the strengths of each of these views just quickly. I've touched on some. It fits Jesus' prediction that the temple would fall soon, matches first century context. The future's view strength is connect strongly with global prophetic passages, primarily in Romans 1, Thessalonians chapter 4. And the dual position, now and not yet view, it honors both the historical AD 70 and eschatological aspects without forcing either extreme. Now, if we're going to give strengths, let's give weaknesses and criticisms. In the preterist view, it may minimize Christ's literal second coming language. It does. I want to add one thing that I hadn't mentioned. There is no seven-year tribulation that must occur before the coming of Jesus Christ. So the preterist view has no... Abomination of desolation, no clear man that stood up against and for the defilement of Jerusalem. And it has no seven-year tribulation events leading up to this cataclysmic event. There were skirmishes and uprisings, but nothing that we see described in prophecies today. The futurist view may ignore the obvious first century context. This is why many of us, including myself, would be in a dual now, not yet. And you might look at a dual now, not yet category and go, well, that seems kind of weird. It would seem weird if the scriptures weren't loaded with dual fulfillment or more than just dual fulfillment prophecies. Let me give you just a couple. In the abomination of desolation out of Daniel 9, verse 27, just for instance, we know it's a man, because let me read it to you. He will put an end to sacrifice and offering, and on the wing of abomination shall come one who makes desolate. This is the entry of Christ rising up. So the abomination of desolation, this fits with this very context that we're talking about today. Now, you get into some other issues like the coming of the Son of Man. It's spoken of not only prophecies about Jesus and types of Jesus, but the fact that God was going to use multiple events in history to point to repetitive experiences that will culminate in the coming of Christ. Think about the destruction and restoration of the temple. the first fulfillment of the destruction and restoration of jerusalem in the temple is 586 bc babylon destroyed solomon's temple and the second fulfillment is 80 70. so you got dual fulfillment or multiple times that this has happened the exile and return of of israel northern israel was exiled by the assyrians number of years later judah was exiled by babylon to babylon and the second fulfillment of that very thing exile and return is mirrored in 80 70 culminating in israel coming back to statehood and now we have this conflict in israel today And the abomination of desolation. A lot of you may not know this, but in the inter-testament period in about 167 B.C., we find this from the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in his work called Wars and Antiquities. It's about that thick. And it is hard to get through. And the problem with some of these Jewish historians like Flavius Josephus or another guy named Tacitus is that they were often buried. How do I say it? Flavius Josephus embellished things all the time. But we do know factually that Antiochus Epiphanes came in to the temple and desecrated the Jewish temple by erecting an idol of Zeus and sacrificing pigs on the altar. So that happened in the inter-Testament period. And so the second fulfillment of that, without even looking at present day, would have been AD 70 yet again. So see how we can get the dual fulfillment kind of angle here. We see God working over and over again. We see types of Christ in the Old Testament and then the ultimate coming of the Christ in the New Testament. So here's the bottom line. There's kind of one more issue. It kind of remains out there, and this I want to spend a little bit of time on. The word tribulation The word tribulation is used twice in Mark 13. But the references toward the tribulation are used 13 times. Now the tribulation, according to most scholars, is a time period of seven years. For which, I think you can build a phenomenal biblical case that's going to be broken into two periods. We know that the restrainer of sin, the Holy Spirit, will be lifted from this period of time. And when the Holy Spirit is lifted as a restrainer of sin, all hell will break out on earth. And there will be wars and rumors of wars and catastrophic events that will happen unlike we've ever seen in our life. Now, one of the great dangers here is to look at the tribulation and to take a lot of the training that we've had and remove our objective lenses. And most of us in this room, in fact, let me just do something with a show of hands. How many of you have been trained in a certain school of thought and you have at least a little bit of an understanding of the tribulation? Just raise your hand if you would. Where are you out there? Okay, okay. That's about half of us. The tribulation is a very real period of time. And a lot of the discussion about whether or not we're going to be spared the tribulation or we're going to go into the tribulation Halfway through the tribulation, all the way through the tribulation, a lot of times our viewpoints are grounded on kind of a tribal thought that we have, kind of the group that we were raised in, the kind of teaching that we got. And I think it's important to be like the Bereans who back away from positions that are held and go, hold it a second. What is the word saying? What can I understand? What are the good voices, humble, godly people who have a different take on any given position? So. We know that before the tribulation happens, there's going to be a lot of growing discord. And there's things that happen in the tribulation that are going to require global events and global technologies in a way that we've never had until about two years ago. We're getting close. Now before I totally freak you out today, I just want to tell you that there are a few different positions on what is called the rapture timeline. Now I'm going to go ahead with this chart and give this to you. I use the term rapture and I'm putting up air quotes here because, let me give something that I was going to share in a few minutes, I'm going to share it now. There is no word for rapture in the scriptures. There's no word. Now, there's an ingathering, and there's to be caught up, and the Lord will return. But in order for you to have a pre-tribulational view, which is the first one in the left side of that, You have to look at Scripture, and you have to see that there will come a time when God will take His children out of the earth to spare them the divine wrath of the tribulation. Now, I've got a lot to say about this, so just hang with me here. But let's go through these different positions. There are some, and there was even a professor at Moody Bible Institute in the last several years who was what's called mid-trib. Mid-trib simply means pre-wrath, meaning that things are really going to be rough for three and a half years, but when the Antichrist breaks his peace treaty that he struck with Israel, and he will, he will walk into the temple and he will defile it and it will usher in three and a half years of hell breaking loose on earth that is going to be cataclysmic. It's going to be brutal. There are some people that hold to a mid-trib rapture of the church or taking out of all of God's kids because it is considered to be pre-wrath, divine wrath. So the first three and a half years are going to be filled with trial and hardship. Some say you've got to be pre-trib because the whole seven years is divine wrath. And some, as I'm going to share with you, say... We've misunderstood divine wrath. And some say God has always been in the business of keeping his children from divine wrath even while they're living in it around them. We together here? So it's either God's kids, whoop, supernaturally, whoo, vacuum-packed out of this world into the presence of God seven years before the Lord ultimately comes and returns to this earth on the Mount of Olives. or mid-trib or pre-wrath as some call it and there's another pre-wrath view before the final day just before the bowls of wrath now this is getting a little wiggy here so let me hang with me in revelation chapter 15 and 16 you find seven bowls of wrath and the writer john on the island of patmos is writing down this incredible vision of what's going to happen at the end Now, some theologians believe that the pouring out of the bowls of wrath, meaning with each bowl that's poured out, things get a little bit worse on earth, just to put in simple terms. Some have believed, saying, there is no way God's going to have us go through those bowls of wrath. Some theologians believe God will keep us from the divine wrath of God even while they're poured out. But you'll notice here, the pre-wrath before final day, some hold a pre-wrath rapture, but that that's happening right near the end of the seven years of tribulation. And so they believe that bowls four, five, six, and seven are poured out sometimes within days or within hours. In this last view, end of tribulation, return of Christ, they would hold a simultaneous pouring out or close to of the bowls of wrath and then the coming of Jesus Christ to take his children home. Okay. No matter where you're at theologically on this, there are some voices today And I'm calling them simply modern voices of end times urgency that are speaking out. Let me give you some of those. David Jeremiah, great teacher of the word. He's on his radio show constantly, although he's a pre-trib rapturist, meaning God's kids will not go into or through the tribulation. He is preaching it up, saying, get ready. Greg Laurie, great evangelist. I wouldn't consider him to be a scholar, but he's raising the red flag saying, guys, you better get ready. Mark Hitchcock, he's a constant guest on Janet Partial and Afternoon Show on Moody Radio. Listen to Around the Globe. Greg DeMar, Gavin Ortland, Jeff Kinley. mike sigarelli was in town here just about a week ago actually preaching and he's one of these modern voices in a younger voice who's saying get ready the end is near another guy is nick vujicic have you heard of this guy nick is a guy that was born with no arms and no legs and he's an evangelist that goes around no joking guys he has no legs and he has no arms but he preaches the gospel i had him on my radio show and he went off on this he said girl We are at the end. We got to tell people to get ready. Do people not see what's going on? Amy Yesbeck is a great author and speaker, and she's got a large following, and she's calling people to pay attention. But the most interesting voice who's given urgency to what's going on right now is my buddy Michael Radelnik, and I would say Jim Coakley. And in talking with Michael Radelnik, For the 10 years that I've known him, he has been slow, almost a no-go on warning people to get ready for the end. And that whole tune has changed in the last year. So we're on radio, live interview, and he's talking away saying, hey, listen, we got to get ready. I said, oh, I'm out here, Michael. I'm live on air. I said, you've never talked like that before. Yeah, I know I haven't. You know, he's that kind of guy. Yeah, I know I haven't, but you got to look at what's going on in the world. And he went on to expound on it a little bit. He said, you can't ignore what's happening in our world today. He said, we got to get ready. Now, the question is, why do you see this national call of urgency to be ready for the end time? Even for the tribulation. no matter if you hold a pre-trib we're out of here or a post-trib there's just a dividing of sheep and goats and we're all going to go where god ultimately we have decided to go whether with him or to an eternity separated from him well some of the global indicators that we have and i just want to give you a smattering of a few are central bank digital currencies, CBDCs, moving from pilot to early adopters in major economies. These are marking decisive steps toward a totally cashless society, and we're moving there pretty quickly. I want to talk about a formation of large-scale alliances among banks globally, financial institutions. As a matter of fact, I was alerted to this by a man out at our other campus. His name's Jake. Jake texted me and he said, hey, have you seen what's going on with Standard Coin? And I'm like, no, I know about Bitcoin, but what's going on with Standard Coin? He said, check it out and then get back to me. And I'm like, oh boy. So I went and checked it out. Guys, this happened. This went down in October. I've got a date here. This went down, this meeting of these global banks happened in the first week of October. First week of October, so this is like breaking news here. So a number of these major global banks are beginning to explore, they haven't done it yet, but they're beginning to explore what's called a joint stable coin digital asset exchange. to flattened currencies. Here's what all these banking institutions are struggling with. They're struggling with having enough reserves on hand, seeing volatile markets, and they're all wanting to join forces so that there's basically one global banking system. Now, they can each operate their little empires inside that one global system, but they want to get it together. And it's called stablecoin. Now, the rationale behind it is it's a hedge against Bitcoin and all these other trading platforms. But if you look at it a little bit closer, man, this is a thin veil for control and monopoly of monies, which will really usher in the end. Now, some of the banks, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Barclays, USB, TD Bank Group. I mean, these are big deals, guys. They haven't ushered this in yet, but they're hungry to make it happen. Another big thing that's happening is digital ID, right? So my bride and I, when we travel abroad and we come back, it's pretty amazing, but you can now land at O'Hare, go through global entry, You've already got, you've applied for it, they've got your biometrics, they've got everything that they need about you. You don't see one person. You simply walk right through these scanners, off the plane, through the scanners, and go and get your luggage. Now, this whole idea of biometric ID... Some of you might think, well, that is so far out there. I mean, biometric ID, Carl, come on, man. This is like futuristic stuff. This is like George Jetson cartoons here. No. If I were to ask you, and I asked our worship team this morning, how many countries do you think have this ID that leverages biometric stuff? And I heard a guess of eight. 30 and 40 and then somebody shot big somebody shot big and went for 200 because she could tell I wasn't impressed with the numbers that were being shot out there are a hundred and sixty countries right now globally that have the ability to track you ready for this the job you take the cars you buy the food you purchase will be in the hands of a few select people to green light or red light your ability to make life happen here on earth whoa now you add to this now now i've got some of you wigged out don't wig out there's hope on the way okay so you add to this now peter thiel So he was a co-founder of LinkedIn and PayPal, I believe. So he made gazillions of dollars, right? And then he took that money and he has bought something right now. He bought a platform that is garnering information on the world's population peter thiel does not proclaim christ as lord but you know what he's been speaking of here for the last several months over and over again and people can't get them to stop talking about it peter thiel is talking about end times and the power of the coming antichrist like there's no tomorrow elon musk says We've let the dog out of the cage when it comes to AI. It's out. And so there's going to be this global race to see who's going to have the information. Do we have the energy to generate all that we need for AI I mean, the amount of energy being consumed in Texas alone just to run artificial intelligence, according to my AI expert, is ready for this. One fifth of the energy grid in Texas is for AI servers. Takes a lot of energy. So you got a lot of these things coming together. Not least of which is a growing anti-Semitism in an anti-Judeo-Christian ethic in America. No matter what kind of peace treaties we're seeing being struck, here's what I need you to know. There will be no peace. I'm not prophesying, I'm just telling you right now because the prophets have spoken. There will be no peace until the Prince of Peace comes to the Mount of Olives. when he sets his foot there and the earth splits and the king of glory will come in and the end will come so i just want to say a few more words about this chart and tribulation and answer a question well carl where where are you at on this whole thing let me first say that there's it's important to note that We have a lot of good people that have a lot of different views about where we're going to be during the tribulation. I want to say that. Really, really good minds. But nonetheless, I think it's very important that we be ready today. Anyone else with me on this? I mean, if you get nothing else out of the parable of the ten virgins, or the ten bridesmaids out of Matthew 25, that when God was coming, as the parable goes, the groom is coming, that ten bridesmaids, all dressed up, ready to go. But they weren't all ready to go. Five had oil in their lamps. That means they had the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. I believe that's what that parable teaches. And five did not. So the five that did not are scrambling. They're going, hey, where can I get some oil for my lamp? I've got to get some oil for my lamp. And Jesus says, but it will be too late. So if you've never yet surrendered your heart to Jesus Christ and made him the Lord of your life, do it today because one day the Lord will come and it will be too late. You can play games with your materialism. You can play games with your aspirations. You can play games with your relationships, but don't play games with God, friend. He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. I've tried to be really fair with all these different views. And I asked Michael Rydelnik this morning, he's a pre-trib guy, and I said, would you be upset with God if you had to go through the tribulation? He goes, of course not. So there's some pre-trib rapture dilemmas And there are some post-trib rapture dilemmas. So let me give you a couple of post-trib rapture dilemmas. One is in Daniel 9, the 70 weeks. Most post-tribbers say that that was fulfilled at the coming of Christ, but it does truly deal with Israel. And how in the world do you make those two things jive? There's a problem there, some challenges. So there's a lot of knowing, there's a lot of unknowing. But when it comes to the pre-trib rapture dilemmas, I want to give you just a few, and I want to say them very humbly and very sincerely. The pre-trib rapture view has been held for a whopping 200 years. That's as old as it is. Every one of our brothers and sisters in Christ, for 1800 years after Christ, believed that we would go through the tribulation there was no second thought about that i also want to state a couple other things that are very important that are fair with the text the rapture is found nowhere as a statement anywhere in the scriptures to be caught up together with god to be in gathered the separation of the sheep and the goats as we find in matthew 25 yes But here's what I want to propose for you. As much as the prophecies and the telling of the end times by Jesus in Mark 13 and in Matthew 24 could appear to some like those are pre-trib issues and that God's kids will be spared that, And when you see the bridesmaids, some pre-tribbers would say that's the church of Jesus Christ being raptured out and the five others are left behind. Those passages in Matthew 24-25 and Mark 13 and Thessalonians chapter 4 and Revelation 1 could just as easily be, in my estimation, judgment passages. Meaning that after seven years of tribulation, when the king of kings comes, he will separate out the sheep from the goats. Those that know Jesus and follow him versus those that have known of Jesus but have not surrendered their life to him. The sheep will be gathered up into the arms of God. And the goats will go away to eternity separated from God where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. It's a serious biz. Now I want to say that the other two things that are often spoken of is that God promises that his children will not suffer divine wrath, and here's where I want to give you hope. That is true. But it is equally true that God does not have to rapture people from a situation to save them from divine wrath. If you look at scripture, all you have to look at is the life of Noah or the life of Lot. Two incidences where these men and those they loved were spared divine wrath while divine wrath was going on all around them. Okay? So the question is, can God spare his children from divine wrath even if we were to go through the tribulation? And the answer is yes. Yes. He can. I think the biggest unanswerable issue for the rapture before the tribulation is one that even Michael Ray Delnick, when I was talking with him this morning, he said, yeah, this is the biggest problem. So let's just woodchop this for a minute. Let's just say we hold to a pre-tribulational rapture of the church kind of an approach so that means everyone who is above the age of accountability understanding abstract concepts so 10 11 12 years old who knows jesus christ in an instant in a twinkling of an eye they're going to disappear Well, some obvious questions you wrestle with is, what about the 1.6 billion children that have not reached the age of accountability? What's God doing with them? So their mom and dad leave, or one of their parents leaves, and they're gone, and they're left behind. And by the way, what about a 10-year-old boy named Tim? And Tim has to go at 10 years of age into the tribulation to And then he becomes a tribulation saint where he surrenders his life to Jesus. Does that mean that all tribulation saints that go through the great tribulation, that they're somehow treated differently than the church before the tribulation? So they have the misfortune of surrendering their life to Jesus at a time that's going to cost them great pain and suffering? And I've heard some say, well, the children of born-again parents will be raptured with their parents. That's such a specious thing, because what if one of the parents is saved and the other one isn't? Does half the kid go? And what would the world say if all these Christians just evaporate from the earth? That's one thing, but another 1.6 billion children disappear. And what about the new test or the tribulation saints that come to Jesus? Oh, there's so many questions. A couple I want to clear up. Carl, forget the tribulation and who's here and who's not. But if people are in the great tribulation and they want to follow Jesus... What happens when they take the mark of the beast? The mark of the beast is simply a symbol or some way of identifying you that you've saluted. The Antichrist. Here's what I need you to know. You cannot accidentally take the mark of the beast. Just because you have a digital ID doesn't mean... I've taken the mark. I've taken the mark. I've got biometrics on me. No. To take the mark of the beast will be a very objective decision that people make. To claim to salute the very man who will betray God in the most severe way, the Antichrist himself. You can't accidentally get screwed up in the tribulation. Okay? Come on. Laugh with me, somebody. I can't accidentally do this. And then another question is, how in the world would we endure the persecution of tribulation? You know, I just... Just want to say a couple quick things about this, just briefly. It's important for us to note that there are good theologians who believe that the persecution minus divine wrath is something that many Christians in this world today are going through. We're the great experiment here in America. Do you know that what's happening in Nigeria right now is trials and tribulations? Do you know that we have brothers and sisters that are being beheaded, displaced, murdered, stabbed, swords run through them because they claim the name of Jesus? It's happening right now as we speak. The vast majority of Christ followers, including the first 12 disciples, 11 of which were all murdered for their faith, went through persecution. They went through a certain level of tribulation. Tribulation is not a foreign thing for the vast majority of the Christian world. And so, Carl, where are we at on this thing? I don't know. But I do know a few things that I want to give you today. I want to give you some turning points to think about. And here they are. Number one, live watchfully. Watchfully. We are called to live with our eyes opened up. You guys with me here? We are called to live watchfully. We are not going to be oblivious to the things that are going on around us. I think we should be knowledgeable about how many countries have digital ID. All right, what's it look like going forward? What's really happening in AI? This is why I bring on one of the leading experts on AI on my radio show all the time because we got to talk about these things. Secondly, endure faithfully. Endure now faithfully. Begin to take little stands for Jesus. I'm not talking about becoming an angry Christian. Don't be that guy. Those guys are jerks. Angry Christians have never led anyone to Jesus. They're just buttheads. Can't believe I said it. Now it's on tape. Don't be a Beavis or his brother. Don't do it. Don't be a mean Christian. Endure faithfully. be a good guy be a good gal be filled with the spirit let your life overflow but begin to stand up for Jesus in the marketplace even if it costs you a little something how much did it cost Jesus when he gave his life for you third this is very important embrace community Now is the time to not be a weekend warrior, coming to church, listening, going out, and making your life. We need each other. We need each other now. In the spirit of the parable of the bridesmaids, why in the world would we wait until it's too late to go, I've got to find my tribe? We need our tribe now. Fourth thing, trust sovereignty. Trust that God has this thing in you in his hands. He loves you. He cares for you. He promised that if the world hated him, how much more so will they hate us? But he's sovereign. He'll carry his children through the fire. He did it before, and as the song says, he'll do it again. great carl you ruined my bears game today that was going to be really fun well i gave you some lunchtime discussion anyway i do want to caution you be careful whether it's listening to me or anyone else, that you take what a pastor says lock, stock, and barrel, especially eschatological or end times opinions that people have, and building your whole construct of your life around it. It could be selling you a bill of goods that's leaving you ill-prepared for what's coming. But our God is sovereign. I want you to bow your heads. Let's sing this over them right here.