Check out the first episode of a NEW PODCAST EPISODE SERIES with international teacher and speaker, Gordon Ferguson, REVELATION REVEALED. A pandemic, mask mandates, earthquakes, war, environmental disasters, inflation... could these be the End Times? Is this what the book of Revelation was prophesying about 2,000 years ago? What is God's message through Revelation? In this new series, Gordon examines the symbols, reveals the overarching themes and shows how the early Christians understood it. Most important, he relates how Christians should respond to Revelation today.

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Welcome to the deeper dive podcast brought to you

by the OSI church of Christ.

The deeper dive podcast is about going deeper into God's word, learning new

insight, and taking a fresh look at the verses that impact our daily lives.

Uh, pandemic.

Mask mandates earthquakes, potential conflict in Russia,

environmental disasters, inflation.

Goodies be the in times.

Is that what the book of revelation was prophesied about 2000 years ago.

What is God's message through revelation.

Today we are starting a new episode series.

With Gordon Ferguson called revelation revealed.

For decades, Gordon has been a sought after speaker and Bible teacher.

He has authored and contributed to over dozens of books.

He has served as a teacher.

Elder and evangelists and is directed and taught at several international ministry

training academies and has a teaching ministry website@gordonferguson.org.

In this new series, Gordon examines, the symbols reveals the overarching themes

and shows how the early Christians understood the book of revelation.

Most importantly, he will help us relate to how Christians should

respond to revelation today.

So get your scuba gear and let's dive deep into God's word.

Here is Gordon Ferguson.

Hello to my friends in orange.

Theresa now we're blessed to live among you for two years back in 2013 and 2014.

And we came to love the area very quickly and certainly came to love the church.

A great deal.

We've made many friends there.

I've made several trips back then, uh, since then, And it's certainly good

to be able to share with you a number of lessons, the podcasts, we can call

them on a subject that I've studied a lot, but I feel like it's one that

is very, very relevant right now.

Marcel asked me to speak on the subject and as we talked

about it, we decided to call it.

Revelation revealed.

And that simply the title, uh, presently of a book that's gone through

several revisions, but at any rate, it is a practical exposition that

I wrote a number of years ago and have updated some from time to time.

But I want to do a lot more than simply focus on the book of revelation.

I think we need to look at a lot of other parts of the Bible using similar

language and help give us a feel for what that kind of language involves.

Why does God use it?

What does he mean by it?

Uh, we certainly right now are in a client.

Uh, of high interest in what we often call the end times, uh, the

end ages, the end of the world.

What is going on right now?

Is it near the end?

Is Jesus coming soon, many questions come to mind, but, uh, at least the

first two lessons in the podcast series we'll deal with the subject more broadly.

Uh, before we get to the book of revelation.

Now, I'm not surprised that there's a lot of interest in the topic right now,

the more unsettled our world becomes and perhaps the more unsettled our personal

life becomes, the more we want to know about all things having to do with the

second coming of Christ and the end of the world, speculation about the end times.

Certainly at an all time high, but it is nothing new.

It's been taking place since the church was in its earliest days.

For example, listen to what Paul wrote in second Thessalonians, two verses one.

Quote concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and

our being gathered to him.

We ask you brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed

by the teaching, allegedly from us, whether by a prophecy or by word of

mouth or by letter asserting that the day of the Lord has already.

End of quote.

So there were a lot of things floating around, even in the early church about

the second coming, uh, showing that they certainly misunderstood that first

Corinthians 15 deals with it as well.

When we talk about the book of rivalry, The title itself comes from

the word apokalupsis in Greek and it simply means to reveal or to uncover.

But the unique thing about this unusual book is that it reveals

God's message in a different way.

Through the use of symbols and symbolic or apocalyptic language revealing type

language, but revealing through the use of symbols, such language is common in the.

So the early Christians with a Jewish background, didn't find revelation to

be such a mysterious book as we do.

And certainly because they understood it, they were able to help their

brothers and sisters in the church with a Gentile background.

As the church got older, uh, we often speak of revelation being a

mystery or mysterious and thinking we can't understand it, but the

word mystery in the Bible from.

Is the, uh, uh, word, uh, that actually means to make something

clear that wasn't known before.

It meant something that couldn't be understood with human wisdom, but it

was something God was now making known.

If you'd read Ephesians three.

Where Paul uses the word mystery a number of times and explains that

God has revealed, uh, the meaning of the gospel mystery through the

apostles and prophets, uh, you'll gain, uh, the idea that the mystery.

Was something that couldn't be unknown, but is now being made known

through his apostles, some prophets.

So Ephesians three is a great passage to study about God having

something previously hidden that now he wanted to make perfect.

Clear.

And so the idea of mystery being something that we can't possibly understand

that is not by God wrote the Bible and certainly not the new Testament,

including the book of revelation.

No matter how puzzled we might feel coming to revelation initially.

And the other apocalyptic writings, God is not trying to hide the meanings from us.

He is revealing them through the use of symbols.

He wants us to understand this type of language, just as much as he

wants us to understand any other type of language that conveys his

will for our lives and his work in.

The world and so less, uh, assume the best that God wants us to understand.

And therefore jump into our study with confidence.

I want to begin by talking about apocalyptic language in the old days.

Uh, it was very commonly used, particularly in challenging times, uh,

to people going through persecution of one sort or another, and this type of

language appeals more to the imagination and the emotion than to the intellect.

And so it was designed to give encouragement and hope that God would

deal with the enemies of his people.

Most of the apocalyptic language with which the Jews were familiar was actually

written during the intertestamental period, which was a time of great upheaval

and persecution of the Jews, but it was also a time of renewed Jewish nationalism.

Beginning with the Maccabean revolt.

And you can study that out.

Some if you would like to, it's a very intriguing time, uh, of the Jewish history

prior to the coming of Christ and that 400 year period between the old Testament

ending and the new Testament beginning, uh, a few examples in the old days.

Just to give us an idea that this was common type of language,

uh, and Isaiah 13, he's giving a prophecy against Babylon.

And so we find this symbolism.

C the day of the Lord is coming accrual day with rack and fierce

anger to make the land desolate and destroy the centers within it.

The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light.

The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light.

Now, if you're not aware of how God is using that type of language, you could

jump to the idea that this is the end of the world, but it is not now it's the end

of, uh, Babylon's world in some sense, historically, but it is not the end of

the world as we normally think of it.

Uh, Isaiah goes on.

And speaks against the enemies of Israel with these words in chapter

34 and verse four, he says, all the stars in the sky will be dissolved and

the heavens rolled up like a scroll.

All the story host will fall like withered leaves from the vine,

like shriveled figs from the.

Now, when you talk about the stars in the sky being dissolved and the heavens

rolled up like a scroll, you began to think that has to be the end of the world.

Well, it certainly doesn't and isn't, uh, when you study as a 34

and its context, it's just what we call this apocalyptic type symbolic.

Language.

And Isaiah 19 is quiet, clearly talking about Egypt, but he says,

quote, a prophecy against Egypt.

See the Lord rides on a swift cloud and is coming to Egypt, the idols

of Egypt trouble before him and the hearts of the Egyptians melt with.

And so many times in the old Testament, you find a mention of God coming, but it

is not a coming like the second coming of Christ, which is going to be literally

true, but it is a coming in judgment.

And so many times you find that now, Or that use of symbolic language

and you certainly are going to find it in the new Testament as well.

Daniel is a book that I find really helpful and showing us more about

apocalyptic language because he very specifically, uh, interprets it for us.

Much easier.

And he gives us a several different chapters that deal with this.

Of course, he also gives us chapters that are just straightforward,

common use of language describing.

Uh, Daniel and his three friends, uh, the lives, then all of the

things that happen there, Daniel thrown into the fiery furnace.

All of that, you find a number of things mentioned there that are just

straightforward pros, but you also find.

This symbolic language and he explains it very clearly, far us.

Uh, many of us have studied Daniel two and what we call the kingdom study.

We learn about when the kingdom are, the church was established in acts two, but

we learn about that by going back to the book of Daniel and going through chapter

two, it's a very interesting setting here.

Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon.

At the time he had this dream of a giant statue made up of different types of.

And no one could interpret that.

But Daniel was one of the wise men serving the king.

He had been taken into captivity along with 10,000 others.

And he and several of his friends had been raised up and selected

to be wise men to serve the key.

And so Daniel was the only one that could interpret Nebuchadnezzar's.

And he was given that interpretation directly from God, of course.

And he passed it on to the key.

And so the king had dreamed about this giant statue with

different kinds of metal making it.

And so Daniel goes on to explain that the gold head represented Babylon.

And then he says after that another kingdom will arise and it had a

silver chest and arms that represented the next worldwide kingdom, which

was the meatal Persian king.

And then after that, historically, you're going to have the kingdom of

Greece and that one was represented by a bronze belly and thighs.

And we'll find more about the king of Greece, the kingdom of

Greece a little bit later, but then he goes on to the fourth key.

And that one was represented on the statue by legs of iron and

feet of clay and iron mixed.

And that represented the fourth, a tremendous kingdom of Rome.

And he tells us during the times of that fourth key.

There will be a rock cut out by human hands.

It would smash and destroy the statue, the empires of men and

other words, and become a mountain, which would fill the whole earth.

And he makes it clear that he is talking about the kingdom of God.

And so historically from the time of Daniel on you would naturally

be looking for God's new kingdom.

For this new, uh, phase of a kingdom, he had an old Testament kingdom of

physical kingdom, but he was going to establish a spiritual kingdom, which

would be as all ultimate kingdom.

And that took place in acts two.

And Jesus, of course had a phase of the kingdom going in his earthly ministry,

but then the new covenant came in, uh, with the coming of the events of acts

chapter two on the day of Pentecost when the church was established.

And so all of that is in Daniel two and many of us are familiar with

it, but the point is he takes some.

That you'd have a hard time figuring out and interprets it for us now.

He's not done with it.

He goes on a little later in chapter seven and describes

the same exact four kingdoms.

But now he's not talking about a statue.

He is talking about beasts are animals to, to pick the same four kingdoms.

And that's important because we're going to find bees.

Representing aspects of Rome in the book of revelation, which

we'll explain when we get there.

But at any rate in Daniel seven first, you find a lot of.

And then a bear and then a leopard and finally just a terrifying beast

without any animal designation.

Uh, this beast had 10 horns, but a little horn came up among them and uprooted.

Three of the first horns.

And so the vision explains the horns as key, and that will be done in revelation.

Horns will stand part Kings about, of course they will

be dealing with the Kings.

Revelations day, uh, Daniel is D dealing with different Kings because there

were different kingdoms in force during that period of time and following.

But we're talking about the same four kingdoms.

We're talking about Babylon.

We're talking about Beto Persia.

We're talking about Greece and we finally are talking about Rome and.

And Daniel seven, that really scary beast, the terrifying beast

was, uh, the empire of Rome.

And so what we find in Daniel seven is that the ancient of days.

Took the throne and took over the world, showing the coming of

God's spiritual kingdom, just as it has happened in Daniel two.

So Daniel seven describes the same thing and different symbolic terms, but

he interprets it for us now, Daniel.

Covers the same ground, except he goes into different details.

He get goes into the kingdom of Greece and more detail because it was during

that kingdom that God's people, the Jews.

That nation was undergoing a lot of persecution by Kings that were

connected with the nation of Greece.

And so in Daniel eight, it begins with a Ram having two Longhorns, one

longer than the other, uh, meet Oprah.

Then a goat with a prominent horn attack and destroyed the Ram.

The Ram was Beto Persia.

The goat was Greece at the height of Greece's power.

In this case, the goat, uh, the prominent horn was broken off and replaced by

four other horns out of those one.

Uh, came, uh, another horn that persecuted the people of God in unique ways.

And so what happened is when Alexander the great died.

Uh, then his kingdom, the Greek empire was divided into four different parts

and those parts were taken over and governed by four generals that who

had, who had served under Alexander.

The great.

And it said out of one of those horns came.

The persecution of God's people in some unique ways.

And that was during that intertestamental period, but it

played a big part in the history of that time for the Jewish nation.

And so he goes into more detail there this time, the world empires, her name.

Miedo Persia.

As I said, then, uh, the goat was grease.

The horn broken off, led to the Greek kingdom being divided among,

uh, Alexander's four generals.

And one of those was called here, the master of intrigue.

And he was the one who would desecrate temple worship.

It would be an abomination.

It would be an abomination of desolation.

And that terminology is used there.

And it would be, uh, used again in the new Testament, the abomination of

desolation, except it's talking about two different historical events, just like.

The, uh, nation was desecrated.

The kingdom was violated in some various severe ways, such

as offering a pig on the altar.

Uh, back during that intertestamental time.

Uh, you had in the new Testament, what is called an abomination of

desolation, but that refers to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple

and Jerusalem by the nation of Rome.

And Ady 70.

So similar terminology.

Similar symbolic language, but used to apply to the age of Christians being

persecuted rather than the Jewish people being persecuted some hundreds

of years before I will mention, since I've raised the question of Daniel,

uh, I will mention that rather than trying to give you an exposition.

I just wanted to use some of the symbolism from it and to show

you that it's used that way.

And the God here gives the interpretation of it.

And a number of cases, I will mention a book by John Oaks, a commentary on Daniel

that he wrote a number of years ago.

It is still available from illumination publishers, IPS.

Uh, John and I are very good friends.

He asked me to write the full word for that book many years ago, which I did.

And I was very excited when I read the book.

John was a science teacher at the time.

And I didn't expect quiet the knowledge, uh, that John had the in-depth

knowledge of the book of Daniel.

It is a very good commentary.

It is in fact, on my shelf, it is my go-to commentary on the book of Daniel.

And I certainly have.

Recommended.

But my point is that when we come to the book of revelation for the Jewish

Christians, and of course the early church started with only Jews for a

number of years before Cornelius and his family got converted and later

many Gentiles, but you had that Jewish background of the early church and they

were familiar with the old Testament.

They were familiar with.

Other writings that took place during the intertestamental period, which are

not in the Bible, but they use this language, this symbolic language, uh,

in order to give people hope and, and to tell them in so many words that the

enemy would ultimately be destroyed and their cause would be exalted.

And that is the overall message of apocalyptic type language among God.

People old Testament or new now.

What I want to do is come to apocalyptic language in the new Testament will

not have time to quite get through this part today, but we will.

And our next podcast cover it in more detail, but outside

the book of revelation.

There's not a lot of symbolic language in the new Testament

except in one particular place.

And that is, and the gospel accounts, you find a rather long section in

chapter 24 of Matthew and those same.

Symbols are used, meaning the same thing.

It's actually parallel versions of it in both mark and Luke.

Now I'm glad we have three accounts because we only read Matthew 24 normally,

and you have to remember that Matthew 24 was written to mainly a Jewish background.

Audience.

And so he's going to very freely use this highly symbolic language would cause uh,

people with that background understood it.

When you get to mark, he is writing to more of a Roman audience, uh,

and these coming from a certain vantage point to the Roman minds.

And then you get to Luke and he's a gentle rider to start with the only

Gentile writer in the new Testament.

And Luke not only is a Gentile, but he is very specifically

writing to a Gentile audience.

And so he breaks things down in much more common language.

Then Matthew does, and even Martin does.

And so Matthew is very Jewish and it's apocalyptic use of language.

Then mark is less so and less in detail also because mark is a short book.

It was written for that Roman mindset of.

And so it says immediately this and immediately that, and

immediately this, uh, many, many times and mark, because he's moving

fast, he's dealing with people.

I think a lot, like we have today, people with short attention

spans when it comes to reading.

And so he went rather fast through his short book.

Luke has a much longer book and more in detail, but it's written with much

less of a Jewish feel and much more of a normal feel that the Gentiles would have.

And so when we compare the three accounts in Matthew 24 and in mark

13 and Luke 21, we're going to find.

Some answers, uh, to what might give us the wrong concept and Matthew 24.

And so we will start though with Matthew 24, and I want to read

quite a long section from it.

Now, the setting of this.

Is that Jesus was in the temple area with the apostles.

Uh, he noticed this widow who gave.

The last two coins she had and he called attention to her and said

she has out given them all because she gave her very last bit of money.

Whereas all the rich people were giving out of their riches and they

had plenty left after they gave, and he says she has get out and given them.

She made a true sacrifice in other words, uh, whereas they just gave an offering.

And so let's pick up in Matthew 24, it says Jesus left the temple and was walking

away what his disciples came up to him and called his attention to its buildings.

Do you see all these things?

He said.

Truly, I tell you not one stone here will be left on another.

Every one will be thrown down.

As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of olives, the disciples came

to him, privately, tell us, they said, when will this happen?

What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?

The old version says the end of the world.

Jesus answered.

Watch out that no one deceives you for many will come in my name claiming I

am the Messiah and will deceive many.

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you

are not alarmed, such things must happen, but the end is still to come.

Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

All these are the beginning of birth bangs.

Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you

will be hated by all nations because of.

At that time, many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other.

And many false prophets will appear and deceive many people because

of the increase of wickedness.

The love of most will grow.

Cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world

as a testimony to all nations.

And then the end will come.

Now, most of you think this is talking about the end of the world, the second

coming of Christ in the end of the week.

Now let's go back to the context.

Jesus has just praised this woman who gave the last of the money that she had.

He was praising.

And all the rich folks were there giving their money as well.

And they gave much more money and actuality, although they didn't

make near the sacrifice that she did well, the disciples were a

little disturbed by the comparison.

And so they showed Jesus, the buildings look at this temple, how majestic it is.

Lord.

You've got to realize this was built by rich people.

Not poor widows.

This was built by rich people that gave a lot of money.

In other words, they were basically re uh, chastising Jesus for putting

down the rich people, because in their mind, they owed the existence

of the temple to the rich folks.

Jesus said, yeah, you're impressed with all these things, but he said,

there's not going to be one stone.

It's all going to be torn down.

And so the things that men delight in it's going to be torn down.

And so they say, well, wait a minute, when will this happen?

What will be the sign of your coming?

And the end of the age, ours, the king James says, I think the end of the world.

Now, when you read this.

Unless you've studied this type of language.

And especially, unless you have studied both Mark's account and Luke's account,

you will come to the conclusion that it is the second coming of Christ.

And then when we get into some of the other symbolic language down

toward the end of the chapter, or at least further into the chapter,

uh, you will definitely think.

And so let's pick up where we left off in verse 15.

He says, so when you see standing in the holy place, the abomination that causes

desolation spoken off through the prophet, then you'll let the reader understand.

Then let those who were in Judea flee to the mountains.

Let no one on the house top, go down to take anything out of the house.

Let no one in the field, go back to get their cloak, how dreadful it will be in

those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers, pray that your flight will not

take place in winter, our own a second.

Far, there will be great distress on equal from the beginning of the world

until now, and never to be equal again, if those days had not been cut short, no

one would survive for, uh, would survive.

But for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened at that time.

If anyone says to you, look here the Messiah, or there he is, do not

believe it for false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform.

These a great miracles and wonders to deceive.

If possible, even the elect.

See, I have told you ahead of time.

So, if anyone tells you there, he is out in the wilderness, but not go out

or here he is in the inner rooms, do not believe it far as lightening comes from

the east is visible even in the west.

So it will be the coming of the son of man, wherever the

carcass is, the vultures will be.

Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened.

The moon will not give its light.

The stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.

That reminds us of the, uh, phrases that we saw in AZA.

Talking about the downfall of nations of that day.

Then he says in verse 30 will appear the sign of the son of man and Evan.

Then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the son

of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call and they will gather

his elect from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other.

Now learn this lesson from the fig tree, as soon as its twigs get

tender and its leaves come out, you know, that summer is near even.

So when you see all these things, you know, that it is

near right at the door, truly.

This generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.

Now that's pretty confusing, right?

If you haven't studied it, it's pretty confusing because you

start off with Jesus or the.

Asking Jesus about his coming and the end of the age.

So you think that's the end of the world.

And then he goes on down and talks about the gospel being preached and all of

the things that are going to take place.

He talks about the abomination of desolation and goes back to

Daniel for that terminology.

And then he says, don't let anyone go in to the house to collect anything.

He talks about taking a flight and.

That's not a plane flight, obviously, but, uh, taking flight out of

Jerusalem and he says, pray, it won't be on the winter, uh, time or in

the winter time or on a Sabbath day.

And so he talks about all of this occurring, but then he adds in the stars,

falling from the sky and the heavenly body shaken and all of that, and the

sign of the son of man and heaven.

And then he uses terminology.

That does sound like the end of time, but certain parts of

this can't be the end of the.

I mean when Jesus comes, nobody is going to run back into the

house to grab it, grab his cloak.

There's not going to be any flight, uh, out of Jerusalem.

So whatever he's talking about here, he is not talking about the end of the world.

As we know of it.

Even the question of the apostles.

Uh, what about the sign of your coming and the end of the age?

They didn't even think at that point that Jesus was going to die.

When he talked about dying and being resurrected from the dead, they had not

a clue of what he was talking about.

They didn't have the concept that they later would have about the second coming

of Christ and the end of the world.

As we actually know, it will occur literally.

Uh, they couldn't have been asking a question about that.

They had very little understanding of even Jesus' death and resurrection and the idea

of, uh, taking flight out of Jerusalem.

And praying it wouldn't be in the winter on a Sabbath day that couldn't

refer to the second coming of Christ.

When that happens, it's done.

I mean, the rest of the passage that deal with that very directly

make it clear that that is done.

And so this is just symbolic language.

So what is he talking about when he talks about the coming of

Christ and the end of the age?

What is he talking about?

He's talking about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in a D 70.

That's what he's talking about.

The entire section that we have read in spite of the questions

that we misunderstand, they were asking about simple.

When is this temple going to be destroyed and one stone not left on the other.

That's what Jesus just got through saying.

And so all he is talking about is.

The end of the Jewish age, which is marked by the destruction of Jerusalem

and the destruction of the temple.

That was the final, last straw ending the old covenant, the Jewish age, but he

says in verse 30 floor for truly, I tell you, this generation will certainly not

pass away until all these things have.

All on him.

And he spoke this at about eight 30.

The destruction of Jerusalem happened a generation away, 40 years away in a

D 70 at the hands of the Roman army.

And in our next podcast, we will get into the other.

We will get into Mark's account and then Luke's account.

And we'll even add another section that covers the same exact Def,

uh, description, uh, and Luke 17.

And I think it will be clear by the end of this.

That we're not talking about the end of the world as we know it.

And as other passages, like first Corinthians 15, describe it.

Uh, we're talking about the end of the Jewish age and Jesus coming

in judgment against Jerusalem and destroying the temple.

And all of that through the hands of the Roman army.

And so we will deal with this more in detail.

Hopefully we have gotten your appetite whetted to deal in, uh, this, uh,

dig into this rather more deeply.

Uh, I have an article on my website that I'll refer to.

The deals with Matthew 24 and the parallels.

But I think it's important for us to understand that even in the new

Testament, prior to revelation, we have some apocalyptic or symbolic language.

And if we can get some help with that, then when we approach revelation,

it will be a lot less mysterious and we'll have some preparation.

For what is to come there so less in podcast one here, and we will be

back next week with podcast number two and deal with mark and Luke.

And we will understand from them much better what Matthew 24 is.

I actually say, so God bless you.

I'll sign off.

We'll talk more next week.

Thank you Gordon.

And thanks for listening to deeper dive by the OSI church of Christ.

To conclude our revelation revealed series.

We will have a Q and a with Gordon about the book of revelation.

If you would like to submit your question, please email

us@osichurchofchristatgmail.com or message us on social media.

If you want to get connected to us or want to donate to the program, go to

our website O C church of christ.com or through social media at the O C church.

Join us next time for our next deeper dive.